Line #53 Literature/IronShadowsInTheMoon


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10	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2bc9c6244b376086d117e6a450b5274d.jpg]]
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12	->''Olivia dreamed, and through her dreams crawled a suggestion of lurking evil, like a black serpent writhing through flower gardens. Her dreams were fragmentary and colorful, exotic shards of a broken, unknown pattern, until they crystalized into a scene of horror and madness, etched against a background of cyclopean stones and pillars.''
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14	[[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Shadows_in_the_Moonlight "Iron Shadows in the Moon"]] (a.k.a. "Shadows in the Moonlight") is a Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian story by Creator/RobertEHoward. First published in April, 1934.
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16	The story begins with Olivia, a beautiful slave girl, being chased down by her cruel master, Shah Amurath, who traps her at the edge of the water, where she can not even drown, but Conan appears, the only survivor of a band of ''kozaks'' massacred by the Shah's men and intent upon revenge, who savagely kills him. At Olivia's plea, Conan takes her in a boat, and they escape to an isle, where they find a parrot screeching mysterious words and a hall of mysterious statues, depicting men who are black but not Negroes. When they sleep there, Olivia dreams of these men torturing a demigod, who finally summons his father and is murdered before the god arrives. The god appears and turns to them to stone, and -- from his gestures at the moon -- declares they shall wake only under moonlight. Olivia wakes, panicked, and convinces Conan to leave.
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18	They find pirates arriving, and Conan kills the captain, an old enemy, making himself their captain by the laws of the Red Brotherhood. They capture him and dispute the matter in the hall. Olivia sneaks in and rescues Conan, who then has to kill a prowling ape-man who had earlier thrown boulders at them. They hear a slaughter behind them, and the survivors of the band return to the ship to beg Conan to take them on. Conan sets sail, promising Olivia that she will be the 'Queen of the Blue Sea'.
19	----
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21	!!Iron Tropes in the Moon:
22	* AndTheAdventureContinues: The story ends with Conan and Olivia setting out to sea with the pirate crew.
23	* ArrangedMarriage: Olivia was enslaved for refusing this. It's why she's in the hands of [[{{Sadist}} Shah Amurath]].
24	* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: The Red Brotherhood operates this way, and Conan claims captaincy of the pirates after slaying their former captain. [[LoopholeAbuse Though there's immediately heated debate on if the rules apply to Conan.]]
25	* BadassInDistress: Conan is knocked out and tied up by the pirates after his attempt to invoke AsskickingLeadsToLeadership goes awry.
26	* TheBeautifulElite: The demigod and god. For the demigod, this overlaps with SoBeautifulItsACurse, as it seems this is the reason he was tortured, possibly raped, and ultimately murdered.
27	* BeautifulSlaveGirl: Olivia is one to a thoroughly repellent man, who it's implied tortures her instead of or in addition to raping her. Conan saves her from her owner at the start of the story, but mostly because Conan had his own score to settle.
28	* BlackSpeech: The god's line, "yagkoolan yok tha, xuthalla!"
29	* CallOnMe: In Olivia's dream, the demigod calls out to his godly father to save him from torture.
30	* ColdBloodedTorture: In Olivia's dream, this was visited on the demigod, resulting in the god cursing the torturers. Also,Olivia herself, at the hands of Shah Amurath, hence her being so desperate to get away from him.
31	* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: Olivia complains about the dangers on Conan's proposed route. When he points out that he's doing her a favor, she apologizes.
32	* CowardlyLion: Olivia. From beginning to end, she's afraid for her life, but she was able to [[spoiler:successfully rescue Conan]] when push came to shove.
33	* CripplingCastration: What the black men did to the demigod is not clearly explained, but the lines used by Howard imply quite clearly that they castrated him.
34	-->"The lithe naked form writhed beneath their cruel hands. Blood trickled down the ivory thighs to spatter on the polished floor. The screams of the victim echoed through the hall."
35	* CurseEscapeClause: Moonlight revives the titular Iron Shadows from whatever the god did to them.
36	* DamselInDistress: ZigZagged with Olivia. While she definitely needs Conan to rescue her several times, she also rescues him when the pirates knock him out and tie him up. She's also the POV character for the story, and demonstrates some admirable [[TheDeterminator determinator]] qualities.
37	* DeathOfTheOldGods: Presumably what happened to the PhysicalGod.
38	-->''"What gods?" he muttered.\
39	"The nameless, forgotten ones. Who knows? They have gone back into the still waters of the lakes, the quiet hearts of the hills, the gulfs beyond the stars. Gods are no more stable than men."''
40	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: The ancient builders of the city captured a young, ephebic demigod, subjected him to what is implied to be sexual mutilation, and finally killed him for the kicks. However, it turns out they BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu, because the demigod summoned his father before dying and the latter turned them all into statues.
41	* DistressedDude: Conan [[spoiler:is knocked out and captured by the pirates, and Olivia has to sneak into their camp at night to rescue him.]]
42	* DivineParentage: The demigod. His dad shows up very unhappy at the fate of his son.
43	* DramaticThunder: When the god arrives.
44	* DreamingOfTimesGoneBy: Olivia, sleeping in the ruins, dreams of how the Iron Shadows came to be.
45	* DrivenToSuicide: Olivia threatens this when she's cornered by Shah Amurath.
46	* DueToTheDead: The god retrieves his son's body.
47	* EnemyCivilWar: The pirates have a very heated argument about the legitimacy of Conan's AsskickingLeadsToLeadership claim.
48	* EqualOpportunityEvil: The Red Brotherhood pirates have members from many different nations in their ranks.
49	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Pirates have to honor their code. Though there is some debate on precisely when, how, and to whom the code applies.
50	* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: Laughing at torture. Both the men who became the Iron Shadows and Shah Amurath.
51	* FauxAffablyEvil: Amurath is unfailingly smiling and well-spoken, even as he threatens Olivia with torture and rape.
52	* FrazettaMan: An ape man menaces Olivia, and Conan kills it.
53	* GoldAndWhiteAreDivine: The HalfHumanHybrid, who had golden curly hair and marble-like skin.
54	* HalfHumanHybrid: The demigod. "Demi" because only his father was godly.
55	* KlingonPromotion: Conan tries to invoke this, killing the pirate chief and claiming the right to lead the crew. It backfires when the pirates start arguing about his right to do this as an outsider, [[spoiler:up to the point where they knock Conan out and capture him to await their judgement.]]
56	* LanguageOfMagic: Used by a PhysicalGod. Repeated by a parrot. It's the words the god spoke to curse his son's tormentors.
57	* LonelyTogether: Olivia argues for this with Conan, that they can just retire on this remote island. This is before they learn it's hardly an ideal summer home location.
58	* {{Lunacy}}: The statues are returned to life under the light of the full moon.
59	* MadeASlave: Olivia's BackStory, for refusing an ArrangedMarriage.
60	* PhysicalGod: In the dream, he comes to retrieve his son's body and visit a curse on those who tortured him to death.
61	* {{Precursors}}: The god must be long gone.
62	-->''"The nameless, forgotten ones. Who knows? They have gone back into the still waters of the lakes, the quiet hearts of the hills, the gulfs beyond the stars. Gods are no more stable than men."''
63	* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Conan was in a company of mercenaries called the Free Companions, before their employer lost the war he was raging. After they went pillaging and were wiped out, he was the SoleSurvivor.
64	* RandomEventsPlot: Three unrelated perils. (The Iron Shadows, the pirates, the ape-man.)
65	* RapeAsDrama: Olivia, as a sex slave, obviously went through this repeatedly with Amurath, and he intends to drag her back to it. Also, it's possible that the demigod was held as a sex slave by the black warriors, as the descriptive language Howard uses toward him is similar to the way he describes beautiful women.
66	* {{Revenge}}: Conan is the only survivor of a band of ''kozaks'' massacred by Shah Amurath and his men, and as one can probably guess, he's quite pissed about it. His vengeance upon the Shah is anything but pretty.
67	* RunOrDie: From the statues. Yes, even Conan, another instance of him not being consistently able to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punching out Cthulhu]].
68	* SexSlave: Olivia was this before she escaped at the start of the story. The demigod was likely it as well.
69	* TakenForGranite: The statues used to be people, and under the light of the full moon, will be again.
70	* TalkingAnimal: The parrot appears unintelligent but repeats the magical curse.
71	* VillainOpeningScene: It opens with Olivia's pursuit.
72	* VillainsWantMercy: Amurath and his warriors slaughtered Conan's companions to a man, yet when Conan quickly breaks his shoulder when they fight one-on-one, he cries out for quarter. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Conan doesn't oblige]].
73	* YouAreTooLate: The god can't save his son, only punish his torturers.

Context Literature / IronShadowsInTheMoon