A story in The Rejuvenationverse by Purple Patch, Warmonger
tells of the research of several characters into the past of Cascadius, in an attempt to learn more about him. This Framing Device surrounds the narrative of the fall of New Hycarion and explores the early lives of Celestia and Luna in The Rejuvenationverse.
Warmonger contains examples of:
- Anti-Magic: The Mundance Order are able to disable magic across entire territories.
- Anti-Magical Faction: The Mundane Order, believing that magic is a fundamentally chaotic and dangerous force. They are not really benign though, or even Well Intentioned Extremists, serving Eldritch Abominations and intending to impose their brutal worldview of individual power on everyone.
- Author Avatar: Purple Patch appears as a librarian in Canterlot as part of the Framing Device.
- Badass Boast: Count Balanitus tries.Count Balanitus: Across the world, there is one name all mortals fear above all. It is Balanitus! My name! My legend!" he gave his sabre a shove against his foe's broadsword "And now you know that fate and destiny are but two sides of a worthless coin that should be given to a baker on skid row!Midnight Blade: Okay, four things. One, what in Tartarus does a baker on skid row have to do with this? Two, you do know that Balanitus is an inflammation of the foreskin? Three, not gonna' say it again, fate and destiny are the same bucking thing! And in life, a pony chooses their own. Four...I am now officially sick of your horse-apples!
- Battle Couple: Wenda Panzerfaust follows her husband, Fullemagne, into battle against trolls.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Palestride demanded his sister be given to him for his pleasures when he took over the Wolfsong. Hazelmay, her hoofmaiden, disguised herself as Fallingleaf and went instead.
- The Caligula: Dvinius, previously a historical footnote, appears directly in Flashback in all his insane (and tacky) glory.
- Catch a Falling Star: Cadance enters the story by catching Purple Patch as he falls from a high shelf.
- Concussions Get You High: Purple Patch briefly spouts nonsense after being struck with a Doorstopper.
- Dying Alone: Invoked by Cascadius when he killed his parents. He cut their hooves off so they could no longer hold each other as they died.
- Eldritch Abomination: Cascadius claims to be friends of the monstrous statuesnote worshipped in Deeprisen. Rather chillingly, he speaks as though he's one of them.
- Exact Words: Wagensroll claims that Dawnwind issued an inaccurate prophecy about Patch falling from the library shelves, as he was caught by Princess Cadance. She points out that she only said he'd fall, not that he'd hit the ground.
- Framing Device: The core of the story is events around New Hycarion's Cascadius-backed invasion of Equestria, but it's framed in modern Equestrian scholars Invoking Dreaming of Times Gone By using an experimental and precarious array of magics to try and get insight on the modern Cascadius.
- Good Parents: The opinion of Gusty about her parents. They aren't perfect, but they're still great.
- Götterdämmerung: An important part of the Mundane Order's history is the loss of their gods to the new gods empowered by magic. They're trying to restore them by gathering the Lodestones and empowering a god of vengeance to return the favour.
- Humiliation Conga: Invoked against Princess Damson for seizing control of the Wolfsong, along with her husband, via treachery. After being ousted again, she's chucked into the privies and left there until he tribe can pay the ransom.
- I Gave My Word: Cascadius' tendency to keep all his promises turns up again, when he doesn't spare a defeated foe because he promised to bleed them dry.
- La Résistance: Dvinus has one against him, the Recoloured Fellowship, and given his uselessness, it's rather effective.
- Macguffin: Cascadius' reason for seizing New Hycarion is to claim a "Lodestone", which he believes has been concealed by Dvinus. The Lodestones are pearl-like stones of great power that the Mundane Order believes are connected to their gods.
- Made a Slave: With his slaves and serfs lost to the armies, Dvinus replaces them from the nobility.
- Neck Snap: How Cascadius introduced himself to the Hycarion guards. Specifically, their commander.
- ...Or So I Heard: Dawnwind invokes this when she's explaining that you need to be careful using Speaks Fluent Animal during mating season.Dawnwind: Getting mounted by a horny owlbear is not a great way to start a morning...so I've been told...
- Our Vampires Are Different: The vampony fought by the Nightfall Guard in chapter 3 is almost boringly archetypical, to Midnight's disdain.
- Portent of Doom: Maud's faith speaks of a Warmonger, the first pony sent to Tartarus, who will rise and drown the world in bloodshed. It's Cascadius.
- Secret Underground Passage: The Recoloured Fellowship has built ones into Dvinus' cells, using them to free wrongly imprisoned ponies.
- Self-Made Orphan: The devoted of the Mundane Order slaughtered their parents, along with any others who rejected their faith. Cascadius was one of those initiates.
- Silver Has Mystic Powers: Midnight's company has silver weaponry for fighting monsters.
- Slave Mooks: New Hycarion's primary fighting force. Midnight Blade does not believe them a significant threat without years of training, and infers that Cascadius has another force, wanting New Hycarion for a different reason.
- Small Name, Big Ego: The story is not kind to characters who think they're more important than they actually are:
- Dvinus is The Caligula, convinced of his own godhood. He wears tacky and overdramatic clothing to try and emphasise this, but only succeeds at making himself appear even more ridiculous and incompetent.
- Count Balanitus is prone to Badass Boasts. He's taken down embarrassingly fast by Midnight Blade, who has enough effort spare to deconstruct the boasts while he's at it.
- The Social Darwinist: The Mundane Order. Their final test for ascension to Mastery is being locked in an airtight room with several other initiates. Only the last survivor leaves.
- Try to Fit That on a Business Card: The Potentate Magnificence, Trueborn Child of the First Heavenly Ruler Of All Living Things, the Exalted King of the Thoroughbred Race, Unquestionable Sovereign of the Known World and All Worlds Beyond, He Who Shall Lead The Pure of Blood and Pure of Mind into the Fabled Land, Master and Commander of the Brave and Perfected Cosmos Legion, Our Noble Emperor Dvinius The Forty-Ninth, Long May He Reign.
- Revealing Cover Up: Daring wouldn't have known that her research was relevant if she hadn't been threatened.
- Grumpy Old Man: Star Swirl appears, and appears disdainful of the games of a young pair of Royal Sisters, as well as their guardians.
- The Villain Knows Where You Live: Daring has received the same kind of threat as Cadance did, the words "no interference" and an impaled picture of her loved ones.
- Vagueness Is Coming: In-Universe, the prophecies around "The Warmonger" are rather, as Maud puts it, obscure. They are sufficient to draw heroes to Equestria in the ancient war, though.
- We Need a Distraction: The attack on Summersweet is just a distraction from the real attack on Eminence City.
