Fanfic / Stargazer

"Every end crawls from the same pit, rising from the schism to swallow matter, Light and life. It cannot be stopped, but here, it can be slowed."

— Osiris

Stargazer is a discontinued crossover fanfic between Destiny and the Inheritance Cycle written by Keltoi. It is the first story in the Sagittarius series, a vaguely interconnected set of Destiny crossover fics that follow three members of a disbanded Guardian Fireteam — the titular Fireteam Sagittarius.

Stargazer follows the team's Warlock: Ikharos Torstil. During a search for a missing Golden Age colony ship in a foreign star system, Ikharos and his Ghost Xiān find themselves stranded on an alien world after their jumpship is mysteriously shot down. Finding that the planet is home to descendants of a lost Golden Age colony that has since regressed to a medieval society, Ikharos embarks on an adventure across the continent of Alagaesia where he soon uncovers a dark conspiracy behind the Fall of the Dragon Riders.

The fic was received its last update on February 11, 2022 before it was discontinued by the author. On September 15, 2022, Keltoi began posting a rewritten version of the story titled No stars in sight.

The story can be read on FanFiction.net, Archive of Our Own, and SpaceBattles.com.

Not to be mistaken for the 1980 pinball game Star Gazer.

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Stargazer contains the following tropes:

• Abstract Eater: Much like how the Hive feed off death through the Sword Logic, the Harmony feed off strife and pain. Ikharos and Formora discover that Nezarec has been using Shades to orchestrate numerous major conflicts throughout Alagaesia's history in an attempt to become powerful enough to take down Oryx.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: In this story, Nezarec was the last surviving prince of the Harmony when there is nothing in canon to suggest that these two have any sort of connection.
• Adaptation Name Change: The Cabal species are renamed Uluru with the word "Cabal" instead referring to their multispecies empire as a whole.
• Adaptational Badass: In the books, Durza was a mere servant of Galbatorix. Here, Durza is one of the true masterminds behind the Fall of the Dragon Riders, being the one who manipulated Galbatorix into turning against the other Dragon Riders under Nezarec's orders.
• Adaptational Heroism: In the Inheritance Cycle books, Formora was a villainous member of the Forsworn and a traitor to the Dragon Riders who (along with her brother) was responsible for permanently crippling Oromis and Glaedr. Here, she was Forced into Evil by Galbatorix using his knowledge of her true name, and deeply regrets everything she did while under his thrall. After breaking free from his control and going into a Self-Imposed Exile, she becomes a straight-up hero again when given the chance and joins Ikharos in his quest to Save the World from Nezarec and the Strife Cult.
• Adaptational Species Change:
  • In canon, it is unknown what species Nezarec is. Here, he is revealed to be a member of the Harmony race.
  • Likewise, Midha, Consort of Stars is a Harmony in this fic when their species is unknown in canon.
• Adaptational Sympathy: In canon, Formora and Kialandí joined the Forsworn and helped Galbatorix overthrow the Dragon Riders out of their own free will. Here, both were Forced into Evil by Galbatorix, who used their true names to control them.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • In Inheritance Cycle, the Grey Folk were Benevolent Precursors who sacrificed themselves to create the Ancient Language that made magic easier to control. Here, they are gradually revealed to be Abusive Precursors. Not only are they still alive, but they are responsible for creating the Shades and corrupted Galbatorix into his Face–Heel Turn.
  • In Destiny, the Harmony worshipped the Light and had their species uplifted by the Traveler before Oryx came along and killed them all. Here, they survived the destruction of their homeworld and adopted the Hive's Sword Logic, eventually becoming a Darkness-worshipping cult that feeds off pain and seek to replace the Hive as the Darkness' top agents.
• Affectionate Nickname: As they grow closer, Ikharos starts calling Formora "Mora".
• Alien Blood: The Harmony have blood that is colored silver like their skin.
• Alliterative Name: The name of the Imperial Land Tank fielded by the Soulrazers late in the story is the Amarz Amalz.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The Harmony have silver skin.
• Ascended Extra:
  • The House of Scar never appears in the Destiny games and is merely mentioned by Variks as being extinct. Here, they play a significant role as one of the major factions in the story and several of their members are POV characters.
  • In canon, Formora is a Forsworn who is already dead prior to the beginning of Inheritance Cycle. Here, she gets Spared by the Adaptation and eventually becomes one of the main protagonists alongside Ikharos.
  • Around the time that this fic was written, Nezarec was an almost unknown character in the Destiny games and was only mentioned in two lore entires. Here, he's upgraded to full Big Bad status.
  • In canon, the Harmony are one of the races mentioned in the Books of Sorrow. Here, they are the primary villainous faction of the story.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Da'aurc when asked for his strategy after the Cabal land on Alagaesia.
  Valus Ca'adun: Shall we wait for their offensive, or press our own?
  Primus Da'aurc: ATTACK! ALWAYS ATTACK! ALWAYS EXPAND!
• Atomic F-Bomb: At the end of Chapter 49, Ikharos kicks over a stool and angrily screams "FUCK!" when Obleker shows him a holographic recording revealing that the Hive are on Kepler, having stowed away aboard one of the crashed Cabal warships.
• Badass Boast:
  • Ikharos gives one to a group of Urgals in Chapter 4.
    Ikharos: I have faced the Witches of the Hive. Their will was eons old, sharpened upon the graves of a thousand dead worlds. I have battled with the telepathic waves of Psion Flayers, who were trained since birth in mental combat. Do you truly think you can succeed where they failed?
  • After their victory in the Battle under Farthen Dûr, Ikharos and the Scars celebrate with an Eliksni tradition where each warrior takes a turn to introduce themselves and boast about their warrior accomplishments through song. Several examples of this trope promptly ensue.
  • Ikharos does this during his negotiations with Primus Invoctol in response to the latter threatening to take him as a hostage.
    Ikharos: Take a moment to realize who you're talking to. I crushed the garrison of Ceunon. I killed the Hive Broodqueen. I singlehandedly slew two Harmony when your soldiers couldn't put a scratch into them. You invited us here under the pretext of peace. Break that and I'll break you.
• Benevolent Alien Invasion: Discussed in Chapter 64 by Invoctol, who believes that the Cabal invasion of Ceunon was this trope. Ikharos disagrees.
  Invoctol: We did not strike. We welcomed the city into the arms of the Cabal Empire.
  Ikharos: After massacring every soldier within.
  Invoctol: The cost of uplifting a primitive civilization. Had you not interfered, those humans would have enjoyed new medicines, greater educations, the means by which to live in relative luxury — not to spend their days groveling in filth.
  Ikharos: They didn't ask you to.
  Invoctol: No, perhaps not. But it is my duty to give it to them, regardless of any barbaric notions of independence.
• Big Bad: Nezarec is a malevolent deity responsible for trapping Kepler-186f in a time bubble and creating the Shades. Defeating him is the end goal for the heroes as the only way Scipio will lift its orbital blockade is if Nezarec is neutralized. Ikharos and Formora discover that he is an Ascendant Harmony using a version of the Hive's Sword Logic to feed off the misery caused by Galbatorix, whose Face–Heel Turn was orchestrated by him.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Although Nezarec is the overarching villain, there are also several other major antagonists who pose their own separate threats to the heroes.
  • On the Cabal side, we have Primuses Da'aurc and Invoctol, the leaders of two Cabal Legions that establish a presence on Kepler after their ships crash land there during a space battle. While Invoctol is more concerned with finding a way to send out a distress call, Da'aurc is deadset on claiming the planet for the Cabal Empire.
  • On the Hive side, there's Kirrnaka-Hul, a Hive brood leader who aspires to fill in the Evil Power Vacuum left after Oryx's death by exterminating the Harmony and taking Nezarec's power for his own.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Krinok, the Ether-Thief fits this trope to a T. After his Ketch gets stranded on Kepler-186f, he conquers the Southern Isles and outlines plans to begin mass production of Fallen war machines to Take Over the World. This might make him seem like a threat if his "empire" didn't consist of a single underpopulated House operating out of a crashed Ketch. The fact that he prioritizes human jewelry over Ether (y'know, the literal lifeblood of his race) should tell you everything you need to know about his House's prospects for long-term survival. When the Harmony finally emerge from hiding, they make short work of Krinok's empire and drag the would-be conqueror away to be sacrificed for one of their rituals.
• Bilingual Bonus: There's a flashback in Chapter 8 where Ikharos converses with a little boy in German.
• Broken Ace: Ikharos is a veteran Guardian who mentored the Young Wolf and served on the same fireteam as him. He's also performed legendary feats such as delivering the killing blow to Oryx during the Taken War. However, he's gradually revealed to be struggling with his inner demons, still grieving over the death of his partner Lennox-2 and having a falling out with the Young Wolf. He eventually admits to Formora that his fireteam was the closest thing he had to a family and it's disbandment left him feeling alone in the world.
• But What About the Astronauts?: The Harmony serving Nezarec were able to escape the Hive's genocide of their species because they were aboard their starships when Oryx destroyed their homeworld.
• The Cameo: Eramis has a cameo in "Interlude: Grief" where Ikharos fights her during a flashback showing the Five Stages of Grief he went through following Lennox's death.
• Clarke's Third Law: Formora sees the Warmind Scipio as some type of god after she uses her telepathy on the AI and discovers that its consciousness encompasses the entire world.
• Closed Circle: Ikharos learns that Kepler is surrounded by a network of orbital satellites that shoot down anyone who tries to leave the planet, leaving him trapped on a medieval planet with no means of calling for help. Scipio, the Warmind controlling the satellites, tells Ikharos that he will only be permitted to leave after he helps eliminate Nezarec. Later on, two Cabal legions and the Fallen House of Scar also find themselves in the same predicament when their ships wander too close to Kepler and are forced to crash by Scipio's satellites.
• Colony Ship: The Exodus Prime was a colony ship carrying three million passengers that left the Sol System during the Golden Age in an attempt to colonize the exoplanet Kepler-186f. After crash landing on Kepler-186f, Ikharos eventually finds the remains of the ship under one of Alagaesia's oceans.
• Color Motif: Silver for the Harmony. They have silver skin, silver blood, and wield silver spears that shoot blasts of silver-colored plasma.
• Curse: During his time in the Dreaming City, Ikharos was afflicted with a curse where he would have his dreams invaded by Dûl Incaru every three weeks.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: In canon, Durza is killed by Eragon stabbing him through the heart. Here, Ikharos instead kills him by punching him through the chest and crushing his heart with his hand.
• Don't Ask: In chapter 45, Ikharos responds with this phrase when Javek notes how Eris Morn has the same eyes as the Hive.
• Doorstopper: Stargazer comes in at over 720k words, making it longer than any book in the Inheritance Cycle (which itself is infamous for its long length).
• The Dragonslayer: Ikharos is a Guardian who has tons of experience when it comes to killing Ahamkara, having participated in the Great Hunt that drove the wish-dragons to near extinction and also being the one to kill Riven. He even includes "the Dragonslayer" as one of his titles.
• Enemy Mine:
  • The House of Scar forces Ikharos and Formora into a reluctant alliance against the Cabal, agreeing to help them liberate the human city of Ceunon in exchange for their aid in freeing the Fallen taken prisoner by the Cabal.
  • In chapter 74, Ikharos convinces the Cabal into an alliance of convenience against the Hive and Harmony.
• Eskimos Aren't Real: The Fallen don't believe twins are real. Prior to meeting the Twins in chapter 36, Alkris found the idea of identical siblings preposterous and wrote it off as an exaggerated rumor.
• Evil vs. Evil: After the Hive are revealed to have stowed away aboard the Cabal carrier that crash landed on Alagaësia, they pull an Eviler than Thou on the Cabal and quickly go on a warpath against the Harmony. It's noted that if either side manages to defeat the other, it would spell doom for all of Kepler-186f since both sides use the Sword Logic. If the Harmony win, the power they gain from killing the Hive would make Nezarec all but unstoppable. If the Hive win, they will absorb the Harmony's powers and go on to exterminate all life on the planet. It's because of this that Ikharos is determined to destroy the Hive before they can reach the Harmony.
• Exact Words: Warmind Scipio is programmed to only care about ensuring humanity's survival on Kepler-186f and nothing else. Keyword being survival, meaning that it has no issue letting thousands of humans get slaughtered so long as humanity as a whole doesn't go extinct.
• The Exile: The fic begins with Ikharos having been exiled from the Last City for reasons unknown. Chapter 68 reveals that Lakshmi-2 had Ikharos exiled from the Last City due to his assault on the Black Garden, assassination of Oryx, hunting the Scorn Barons, and killing Riven, all of which were unauthorized missions that led to other Guardians getting permanently killed.
• Faking the Dead: Formora was able to escape Galbatorix by faking her death, which she claims took seventy years of careful planning to accomplish.
• Fantastic Measurement System:
  • The Cabal use "chrens" to measure distances. Seventeen chrens are said to be the equivalent of five human leagues.
  • The Fallen also measure distances in "rikhas". According to Ikharos, two rikhas is equivalent to one Cabal chren.
• Fantastic Racism: Ikharos harbors a deep-seated hatred of Ahamkara since his friend Lennox-2 was killed by one. Since Ahamkara refer to themselves as wish-dragons, he mistakenly assumes that the dragons of Alagaesia are Ahamkara as well and treats them with hostility. Even after the misunderstanding gets cleared up, Ikharos still isn't comfortable around dragons and sours his first meeting with Eragon by yelling at Sagira for getting too close to him.
• Faster-Than-Light Travel: The Cabal and the Fallen are the only two races in the Sol System known to use FTL technology, which even Golden Age humanity could never figure out. The Cabal in particular use something called a warp drive on their starships to make them go faster than light. In order to get to Kepler-186, a star system located well over 500 light years away from Sol, Ikharos ends up having to salvage a Cabal warp drive from a crashed warship in London.
• Five Stages of Grief: The appropriately titled "Interlude: Grief" features a series of flashbacks showing Ikharos coping with Lennox's death by going through all five stages of grief with the interlude being divided into segments focusing on each stage from denial to anger to bargaining to depression to acceptance.
• FTL Travel Sickness: Some people experience warp sickness while going faster-than-light. According to Ikharos, it's not that different from getting seasick with similar bouts of nausea and vomiting.
• Fusion Fic:
  • The world of Inheritance Cycle exists in the Destiny universe with the humans on Alagaësia being the descendants of Sol System colonists who settled the planet during the Golden Age.
  • Changelings are confirmed to be the hybrid offspring of Ahamkara.
  • The Grey Folk are Harmony who survived Oryx's crusade, and created the elves, Urgals, and dwarves through gene-splicing.
  • The ancient language used by the elves and Grey Folk is a form of paracausal language.
  • The six gods worshipped by the dwarves are actually Risen who came to Kepler after the Collapse.
  • The dragons of Alagaësia are descended from Ahamkara who were subjected to a wish that they would no longer need to feed on desire in order to be able to peacefully coexist alongside other sentient species.
  • Cuaroc is revealed by Uren to be a type of Exo Dragon.
• Gate Guardian: The entrance to Nezarec's Throne World is guarded by an Ahamkara named Qortho, who has the title of Gatekeeper.
• General Failure: Primus Da'aurc of the Worldbreakers is a ruthless military leader who makes several illogical decisions due to being blinded by his extreme ambition. This includes: ramming his fleet's only carrier into a Fallen Ketch, trying to break Scipio's orbital blockade by throwing wave after wave of gunships which all get blasted apart, refusing to authorize a Psion operation to kill an Ahamkara despite being well aware of the danger they pose, ordering his men to perform war games despite his army being depleted and low on resources, having Attack! Attack! Attack! as his solution for everything, and screaming at the top of his lungs everytime he opens his mouth. This is later justified as Da'aurc has been corrupted by a Hive cult and is deliberately trying to sabotage his own side.
• Ghost City: Ceunon becomes this once the humans abandon it after the Cabal's invasion and the Eliksni who briefly take over are also forced to leave due to attacks from Shades and Exos. When Ceunon is briefly revisited in chapter 59, it's described as still being desolate and lifeless.
• Heroes of Another Story: Eragon and his dragon Saphira, the protagonists of Inheritance Cycle, occasionally appear throughout the story and cross paths with Ikharos.
• Horned Humanoid: The Harmony are an alien race with a humanoid body and two horns.
• Human Subspecies: The elves, Urgals, and dwarves are confirmed to be neohumans created through genetic engineering by the Harmony.
• I Have No Son!: For her part in helping Galbatorix rise to power, Formora was disowned by her noble house and her name was struck from their family tapestry.
• If I Wanted You Dead...:
  • Occurs in chapter 37 after Ikharos and the Eliksni came to the Varden's aid during the Battle under Farthen Dûr. Ajihad, though grateful, is still unsure whether his new allies can be trusted, leading to this exchange.
    Ajihad: How do we know you are not our foes?
    Ikharos: We haven't killed you yet. That's how.
  • In chapter 78, Uren says this while assuring Ikharos that the Oreos he's given him aren't poisoned, explaining that if he wanted to Ikharos dead, he wouldn't have saved his life earlier.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Ikharos is able to travel to another star systems hundreds of light years away from Earth by using an Awoken jumpship that he modified with a Cabal FTL drive that he salvaged from a crashed Red Legion warship.
• Imposter Forgot One Detail: At the end of chapter 46, an Ahamkara tries to pull a Shapeshifter Guilt Trip on Ikharos by transforming into Eris. While this does initially make him hesitate, when Ahamkara!Eris tells him that she wants to apologize, he cuts her off mid-sentence via a bullet to the head. He then remarks that the real Eris would never say sorry for anything before emptying his entire magazine into the corpse.
• In-Series Nickname: The Cabal on Kepler don't know Ikharos's name and instead designate him as Merida-X8.
• It's All My Fault: Ikharos blames himself for Lennox's death and cut off all ties with Jaxson because he couldn't bear looking at him while knowing that he was the reason The Heart of their fireteam was gone. The fact that the Consensus publicly blamed him for Lennox's death and exiled him over it only affirmed his feelings of guilt.
• It's Personal: Once she learns that Nezarec was behind Galbatorix's actions, killing him becomes Formora's newfound purpose in life. Nezarec is ultimately responsible for not just her enslavement at Galbatorix's hands, but also the deaths of her entire family and her dragon.
• Killed Off for Real:
  • Alkris is killed by Durza during the Battle under Farthen Dûr while trying to protect Eragon.
  • Melkris is shot by a Hive Knight at the end of Chapter 76. Formora desperately tries to save him with a healing spell, but is unsuccessful and watches as ether leaves Melkris's body.
• The Kingslayer: Ikharos receives the title "Kingkiller" from Tarrhis for slaying the Hive's God King Oryx.
• Kirk Summation: Formora gets one the first time she comes face-to-face with a living Harmony on the battlefield.
  Harmony: [in ancient language] We are the peace. We are the water. We are the song. We are the daughters and sons of Nezarec, the Song-Lord. Long may He sing.
  Formora: You are a wretch. A murderer and a brute, following an even more wretched excuse for divinity. [in ancient language] You are evil.
• Last of Her Kind: After Ikharos kills Enduriel, Formora becomes the sole surviving member of the Forsworn.
• Les Collaborateurs: The Exos that survived the Harmony's massacre of the original human colonists on Kepler serve Nezarec out of their own free will, believing that the Darkness can't be defeated and allying with it is their only hope for survival.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Due to not having followed the rest of the Fallen Houses to Sol, the House of Scar knows almost nothing about the existence of Guardians and their abilities. What little they do know comes from rumors spread by a Fallen Wolf who fled the Sol System after Skolas's death. When Ikharos is taken prisoner, he notices that the Scars are making no attempt to lure his Ghost out of hiding as would normally be the case for any Fallen that capture a Guardian in Sol.
  • Because he left Earth before Crota's forces conquered the Moon, Uren doesn't know about the Hive nor the threat they pose until Ikharos explains to him that the Hive were the ones who destroyed the Harmony's civilization.
• Long-Lived: When Formora decides to adopt a Cabal War Beast puppy as a pet, Ikharos informs her that War Beasts typically live for a couple of centuries.
• Lost Colony: The entire premise of the story is that the humans in Inheritance Cycle are actually the forgotten descendants of Golden Age colonists from the Sol System that have lost all their technology and regressed to a medieval-level civilization. The humans back in the Sol System don't even realize that this colony exists since the Collapse happened before they could establish proper communications.
• Mecha-Mooks: The Dark Harmony employ corrupted Exo Troubleshooters and hacked Frames from the original Golden Age colonists as their main foot soldiers on Alagaesia.
• Mile-Long Ship:
  • The First Fleet is a Golden Age cargo ship floating abandoned in one of Saturn's rings. The vessel is utterly massive, being described as half the size of Oryx's Dreadnought.
  • When asked by Formora how large a Cabal Carrier is, Ikharos describes the ship as being the size of Teirm's inner city.
• Mole in Charge: Da'aurc, the Primus of the Worldbreakers and the overall commander of the Cabal forces invading Alagaësia, is eventually revealed to be a Hive worshipper actively working to undermine his own army.
• Mr. Exposition: Ikharos takes on this role throughout the story, explaining aspects of the Destiny universe to the Inheritance Cycle characters (and the reader).
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • Formora is given the last name Láerdhon.
  • Formora's dragon is named Ilthorvo.
• Named Weapons:
  • Formora's Rider sword is a sabre named Vaeta, which means "hope" in the ancient language.
  • Formora's brother Kialandí owned a purple longsword called Orúm. The name means "serpent" in the ancient language, so named because the sword will glitter with scales when held up to the light of a full moon. Ikharos eventually claims ownership of Orúm. After the sword gets damaged during a fight with an Aphelion, he reforges it using Rhunön's forge and an Aphelion's heart. When his work is done, he renames the sword Néhvaët, which means "nothing" in the ancient language. This is a Meaningful Name since the sword can be used to channel and launch crescent-shaped beams of Void energy.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The two Cabal legions that invade Kepler-186f are called the Worldbreakers and the Soulrazers.
• No Indoor Voice: Da'aurc is always screaming at the top of lungs whenever he opens his mouth with his lines being said in all caps.
• Not So Extinct:
  • The House of Scar is believed to be extinct by the Eliksni living in Sol after they vanished during the Whirlwind. In this fic, it turns out that they are still around, having not followed the Traveler to Sol. They turn up on Alagaesia after their Ketch is shot down by Scipio's satellites.
  • The Ahamkara are widely believed to be extinct by the Last City after most of them were killed off during the Great Hunt and Riven was slain by Fireteam Sagittarius in the Dreaming City. Ikharos invokes this trope when he hears about Alagaesia's dragons and mistakenly identifies them as Ahamkara. This later gets played straight when it's revealed there really are Ahamkara living on Kepler, most of whom have allied themselves with Nezarec.
  • Most of Alagaesia assume that the Grey Folk are extinct since no one has seen them for thousands of years. This becomes a two-for-one example when it's discovered that not only are the Grey Folk alive and well, but they are actually Harmony, an alien species that the Book of Sorrows claims is extinct after Oryx destroyed their homeworld. The Hive are determined to rectify this once they find out.
• Numbered Homeworld: The world of Inheritance Cycle is set on the exoplanet Kepler-186f.
• Off with His Head!: How Ikharos's first meeting with Formora on Vroengard went. She and Enduriel almost immediately attack him with Formora dealing the killing blow by cutting off his head. Obviously, this doesn't stick.
• Oh, Crap!: Durza's reaction in chapter 36 when he's attacked by a furious Ikharos armed with a Dawnblade.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The Cabal are famous for never fleeing from a battle no matter the odds. After going into Ikharos and Formora's minds and viewing their memories of Nezarec, Invoctol realizes the true scope of the threat the Harmony pose. This discovery shakes him to his core and after a few seconds of Stunned Silence, he says something almost unheard of for a Cabal commander.
  Primus Invoctol: This world doesn't belong to us. And it never will. We must retreat.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: The Harmony hold this attitude towards Oryx. Their collective goal as a species has been to exact their holy revenge on the Taken King for destroying their homeworld and everything they've done over the last eight thousand years was in service to this goal. When Ikharos breaks the news to Midha that he already killed Oryx, a furious Midha calls Ikharos a thief for "stealing" his people's vengeance.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The only thing that the dragons from Inheritance Cycle have in common with the dragons from Destiny is the name. On Alagaësia, dragons are large, winged sapient reptiles that breathe fire and communicate telepathically. In the Destiny universe, the term "dragon" commonly refers to the Ahamkara, an alien race of shapeshifting Jackass Genies that prey on the desires of others. The Inheritance Cycle dragons are generally benevolent and treated with reverence by the other races of Alagaësia. By sharp contrast, the Ahamkara are manipulative predators who are hated and feared throughout the Milky Way galaxy. A major source of conflict in the story is caused by Ikharos mistakenly believing that the Alagaësian dragons are the same as the Ahamkara, leading him to act overly hostile towards Saphira when he first meets her.
• Overnight Conquest: The Cabal's invasion of Ceunon. A werecat who witnessed the battle firsthand claims that Ceunon officially surrendered within one hour of the siege while the Cabal took zero casualties. It then only takes a single day for the Cabal to stomp out any pockets of resistance and establish total control over every aspect of life in the city. This is hardly unbelievable given that Ceunon is a medieval castle town while the Cabal are an alien army with access to advanced technologies like power armor, hover tanks, and drop ships.
• Pardon My Klingon: "Psekisk" is a common Eliksni expletive regularly used by both Ikharos and the Fallen throughout the story. Given his history with the Fallen and familiarity with their culture, it is Ikharos's go-to curse word for when things go wrong.
• Plasma Cannon: In addition to the plasma weapons being a stable of the Fallen's arsenal, the various Scipio warsats in orbit of Kepler-186f fire beams of charged plasma. The Harmony also carry spears which fire jets of plasma.
• Racial Remnant: The Harmony on Kepler-186f are all that is left of their species after the Hive destroyed their homeworld.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Formora's reaction to Melkris' death.
• Relationship Upgrade: Ikharos and Formora officially become an item at the end of Chapter 64 with Formora giving him his First Kiss.
• Self-Imposed Exile: Formora and Enduriel, the last two surving members of the Forsworn, lived in a self-imposed exile on Vroengard for decades in order to hide from Galbatorix.
• Shout-Out:
  • While investigating the First Fleet in chapter 2, Ikharos finds the silence of the ship unsettling and tells Xiān that it reminds him of the Golden Age quote "In space, no one can hear you scream."
  • When the Cabal arrive at Alagaesia, Da'aurc proclaims "WE COME, WE SEE, WE CONQUER!"
  • In Chapter 43, Xiān is reminded of a children's movie in which a rodent puppeteers a human by pulling his hair.
  • A flashback in Chapter 72 has Ikharos and a then-living Lennox make plans for a movie night with Xiān picking out Spirited Away.
• Shrouded in Myth: Before coming to Kepler, Ikharos had heard of Nezarec's reputation as a dark god of pain from hacked Cabal records and whispers among the Awoken. Likewise, Primus Invoctol is familiar with Nezarec due to his name being associated with silver-skinned Space Pirates that occasionally launched raids on the fringes of Cabal territory.
• Single Tear: Ikharos sees a single tear rolls down Islanzadí's cheek while listening to Arya recount the torture she endured in Gil'ead prior to her rescue.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Emperor Calus has a single cameo during a Whole Episode Flashback where he tells the Harmony survivors of Oryx's genocide to travel to the edge of the galaxy where he originally encountered the Darkness. This leads to Nezarec's Start of Darkness and ultimately converts the Harmony into the Religion of Evil that Ikharos faces in the present day.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • In canon, Formora was a member of the Forsworn who died prior to the start of Eragon's adventure. Here, she's revealed to be alive and ends up joining Ikharos on his quest to kill Nezarec.
  • Subverted with Enduriel. Like Formora, he is supposed to be a Posthumous Character by the start of the Inheritance Cycle books but turns out to also be alive... only to get killed by Ikharos shortly after his introduction.
  • In canon, Nezarec is a Posthumous Character. Here, he's still alive and kicking, albeit in a dormant state inside his Throne World.
• Technicolor Blade:
  • Formora uses a sabre with a blade colored oak-brown, giving it the appearance of being made of wood.
  • Formora's twin brother Kialandí wielded a longsword with a purple blade — the same color as his dragon's scales.
• Unwitting Pawn: It's revealed that Galbatorix is ultimately a puppet to Nezarec, having been unknowingly manipulated into his Face–Heel Turn by Durza as part of Nezarec's plan to feed off the mass suffering caused by his tyrannical rule.
• The Usurper: Krinok became the Kell of House Scar by violently overthrowing the previous Kell and taking power for himself. Some of the Fallen in his house refuse to acknowledge him as a legitimate leader because of this and refer to him as the "Usurper-Kell" and "False-Kell" behind his back.
• Villain of Another Story: Galbatorix is still present in the setting but doesn't play a direct role in the main plot. Although Ikharos is aware of him, he never really goes after Galbatorix since he has bigger fish to fry like the Fallen and Cabal.
• Villainous Legacy: Although Oryx has been dead for five years by the start of the story, his actions impact the entire story. Nezarec and the Harmony are only on Kepler because Oryx destroyed their homeworld and the Harmony are ultimately driven by their desire for revenge against Oryx.
• Villainous Rescue: In chapter 50, the Cabal defeat the Imperial army attacking Carvahall and prevent the village from being burned down like in canon. Admittedly, they only did this so they could conquer Carvahall for themselves, but it's still a better fate than what the Imperials would have done.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Early in the story, we get introduced to Enduriel, another surviving Forsworn who was Formora's companion during her exile on Vroengard. He gets killed off very quickly after he and Formora make the mistake of trying to kill Ikharos and steal his gear when he comes to Vroengard.
• We Used to Be Friends: Ikharos used to be close friends with Eris Morn and personally knew each member of her fireteam back when she was still a Guardian. After Eris lost her fireteam, became Lightless, and was trapped on the Moon for many years, the trauma from that experience irrevocably changed her entire personality, causing her to shut Ikharos out of her life and treat him coldly from then on.
• Whole Episode Flashback: "Interlude: Grief" consists entirely of flashbacks from before the start of the story where Ikharos is going through the Five Stages of Grief to cope with Lennox's death.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: For some reason, time moves at a much faster rate inside Kepler's atmosphere than it does for rest of the universe. Whereas only a mere four centuries have passed for the people of the Sol System, it's been eight thousand years for anyone living on Kepler-186f. Ikharos and Formora discover that this was intentionally done by Nezarec, as it allows him to build up his powerbase at an exponentially faster rate than any of the other major factions in the universe.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • Ikharos, when he first learns about the existence of dragons on Alagaësia while reading a book on the local wildlife from Teirm's library.
    Ikharos: You've got to be fucking kidding me.
  • Ikharos in chapter 29 when he rescues a Fallen Dreg being held captive by some Shades, only to discover that the Dreg has been transformed into a Shade.
    Ikharos: You've got to be joking.
  • Ikharos says this again in Chapter 72 when he learns that the elven city Osilon was attacked by a combined force of Exos, Shades and Harmony.
  • Ikharos repeats the same line in Chapter 73 upon being told that Queen Islanzadí is going to banish him from Du Weldenvarden because she blames him for the Harmony's attacks on her people.
• You Remind Me of X:
  • In chapter 22, Ikharos tells Formora that she reminds him of a Hunter he once knew a long time ago.
  • In chapter 26, Sundrass tells Ikharos that he reminds her of her brother who was crushed to death by a Cabal Centurion.

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