Aetherial Knight is an epic fantasy novel series created by Lily The Litten.
There exist three planes of reality. The first is the Veritas, the Physical World, inhabited by humanity and its offshoots. The second is the Aether, the Celestial World, inhabited by elemental spirits. The third is the Nether, the Chthonic World, a place of corruption and evil where nothing can exist. Spirits can freely cross over between the Aether and the Veritas, and humans can pact with them to wield Elemental Powers; such humans are called Spiritbound.
Arveil, a simple fisherman's son, never thought he'd encounter a spirit. However, a trip to the capital ends up disrupted by a horde of Nether-corrupted spirits descending upon the city. Arveil tries to help the defense of the city, but it is ultimately his Childhood Friend Varias who chases off the spirits—and, in the process, is revealed to be the Aetherial Knight, the only person in the world able to control raw Aether.
Varias is swiftly brought before the king and sent off to the city of Stellaris to both a) pick up the Soulsword, the magical sword the Aetherial Knight is meant to wield, and b) hear the prophecy concerning his role in whatever's to come.
There are five books planned.
- Soulsword
- Soulflame
- Soulguard
- Soulcurse
- Soulqueen
Tropes associated with this series include:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Cario is convinced that Varias is a) a girl and b) in love with him. Varias does not return the sentiment. Not because of Cario's looks—he's actually quite handsome—but because Cario is a murderous Evil Chancellor who tried to kill his own daughter and eventually becomes one of the Harbingers of Akhlys.
- Antagonist Title: Soulqueen refers to Akhlys, the Big Bad of the series.
- The Chosen One: Varias, who is the Aetherial Knight. It doesn't take long for this to go to his head. And give him a massive complex.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Arveil. Keyla and Meriath are clearly into him, and various other characters seem interested (or at the very least, comment on his attractiveness) but he never notices. Not when it comes to girls, anyway...
- Covered in Scars: After taking a soulfire explosion to protect Varias and Meriath, Arveil ends up with burn scars across the left side of his body.
- CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Downplayed. After Varias nearly drowns, Arveil performs CPR. It's reliable in that it works. Clean and pretty...not so much. Not only is it physically exhausting for Arveil, but Varias throws up and shakes after coming to.
- Cry into Chest: After a breakdown where he admits to how stressed, insecure, and afraid he is, Varias cries into Arveil's chest while the latter hugs him.
- Elemental Powers: The basis of the magic system. Every Spiritbound has a pact with a spirit, allowing them to control the element that spirit represents. These range from the basics like Fire and Water to more exotic elements like Ice, Lightning, and Life...to the downright weird ones like Dream and Sword. Spiritbound can only pact with one spirit at a time, with the exception of the Aetherial Knight, who can have as many pacts as they'd like.
- Ham and Deadpan Duo: Varias is a Large Ham, Arveil meets his dramatic exclamations with snark.
- Hellfire: It's called soulfire here, a turquoise flame that got its name from two things. The first is that it's made of the souls of the dead. The second is that it can burn the souls of the living, which is...not a pleasant fate. When it's unleashed on Arveil, Varias has to supercharge a Healing spirit with Aether to keep him from dying, and even then, he's still horrifically scarred.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Arveil and Varias have known each other since childhood, and are each other's nearest, dearest friend. When Arveil ends up hitting it off with Keyla, Varias is described as being jealous "in a way only a man whose beloved friendship had been challenged could be". As the series goes on, however, it becomes obvious that their feelings for each other go beyond platonic, which they themselves eventually realize.
- Incompatible Orientation: After Arveil and Keyla hit it off, Varias (who has been in love with him for years) guesses this trope is in effect and becomes quite bitter towards the hypotenuse. He's wrong.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Loud and confident as Varias might be, he's plagued with self-doubt over his role as the Aetherial Knight and has an extreme fear of failure. The expectations of everyone around him, as well as the very catastrophic consequences for if he screws up, don't help either.
- Infinity +1 Element: Aether, the source of all other elements and only able to be wielded by the Aetherial Knight. Nether might also count—raw Nether can't do much on its own, but it can corrupt other spirits.
- It's All My Fault: Varias takes himself to task over Arveil being almost killed by the soulfire explosion.
- Love Epiphany: Arveil eventually realizes that, more than he loves Varias, he is in love with Varias, and has been for some time. Varias, for his part, returns the sentiment.
- Magic Knight: The Aetherial Knight should be this—they get a magical sword, the ability to control raw Aether, and can make as many spirit pacts as they'd like. Varias...is decidedly not this.
- Our Spirits Are Different: They're Elemental Embodiments from the Aether, who can pact with humans to grant them use of the spirit's abilities.
- The Poorly Chosen One: Varias is...not the best Aetherial Knight, to put it mildly. Which only contributes to his growing inferiority complex.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Varias is the Red Oni—loud, confident, dramatic, and easily taking to his role as The Chosen One on the surface. Arveil is the Blue Oni—patient, calm, quiet, and choosing to accompany Varias primarily to keep him from accidentally getting himself killed.
- Super Drowning Skills: Justified—being the son of a merchant in a landlocked city, Varias never learned how to swim. At one point, he nearly drowns and Arveil, who does know how to swim, has to rescue him.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Arveil. Tan skin, dark hair and eyes, has a few inches over Varias, and is regarded as handsome In-Universe.
- Token Religious Teammate: Keyla, a devout Aitherist like all those who grow up in Illestria.
- The Unchosen One: Arveil has no role to play in the prophecy surrounding the Aetherial Knight, and is repeatedly told to just stay behind and let Varias handle things. He does not, and ends up saving Varias's life on several occasions.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Deconstructed with Varias, who has an overwhelming amount of raw magical power, but is a terrible combatant due to never having trained for it—more skilled opponents, whether they're magic-users or not, tend to wipe the floor with him easily.
