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The cover of the first and eponymous book
Bazil Broketail is a series of fantasy novels released in the 1990s by author Christopher Rowley. They center upon the titular character, a wingless soldier dragon and his squire (dragonboy) Relkin. Both of them serve in the Argonathi military fighting a long-standing war against the Masters of Padmasa, evil wizards who seek to conquer their entire world, Ryetelth, and the monsters they command. The benevolent witch Lessis of Valmes is a major supporting character, fighting the enemy on the magical side, as is her apprentice Lagdalen of the Tarcho. In a series which spans seven books, they all go on many hardships and adventures combating repeated invasions from Padmasa.

    Books in the series 
  • Bazil Broketail (1992)
  • A Sword for a Dragon (1993)
  • Dragons of War (1994)
  • Battledragon (1996)
  • A Dragon At Worlds' End (1997)
  • Dragons of Argonath (1998)
  • Dragon Ultimate (1999)
    • The Wizard and the Floating City (1996), set in the same universe but only tangentially related to the series overall

Examples:

  • Action Girl: Quite a few. Each dragoness serving in the legions of Argonath counts as one, and they also have a women's brigade. When it comes to humans, Lessis of Valmes, Ribela of Defwode, Lagdalen Tarcho and Eilsa Ranardaughter are the most prominent examples, being skilled fighters either with mundane weapons or magic at their disposal.
  • Aerith and Bob: Played with. Nearly all characters have entirely fictional names, but some of them were surely borrowed from the real world. Only Tomas and Manuel seem to play this trope one-hundred-percent straight, though. In other cases, Rowley tweaks the names a bit so they would appear a little otherworldly — therefore, we have characters with names such as Jak (for real-world Jack) or Endi (ditto for Andy).
  • Affectionate Nickname: It is quite common among dragons of Argonath to have those, usually given by them by their own dragonboys, friends, other members of their unit or other people they know. For example, Relkin calls Bazil "Baz" (though he is the only one who uses that nickname), while Nesessitas is known as "Nessi" among soldiers who serve with her.
  • Alcohol-Induced Idiocy:
    • When an expeditionary force consisting of Argonathi legions and their Czardhan and Kassim allies arrives at the besieged Og Bogon capital of Koubha, one of the Czardhan knights, Hervaze of Gensch, gets drunk and comes up with the bright idea to challenge Bazil to a Duel to the Death, intending to keep his head as a trophy. Never mind that Bazil is a soldier of an allied army, nor that he's currently unarmed. Hervaze gets knocked off his horse for his trouble, though not without seriously injuring the dragon.
    • After ingesting some liquid courage, a street thug in Marneri named Kuvsly thinks it is a good idea to call Bazil an "overgrown lizard" to his face. The first time he says it, Bazil just gives him a Death Glare. When he proves stupid enough to ignore the warning and is about to say that again, he doesn't get to finish the sentence.
      Kuvsly: Forget about it, you overgrown— [cue Tail Slap]
  • All Crimes Are Equal: Most crimes in Padmasa are punishable by death. By the gates of its capitol, at least some corpses are always hanging from gibbets.
  • All Trolls Are Different: Trolls are artificial creatures made by the Masters of Padmasa as heavy infantry, fighting the Argonathi dragon soldiers. Most of them are fairly unintelligent, though a few breeds are bright enough for using swords instead of axes. All stand around eight to nine feet tall, with an extreme resistance to magic, and have a mutual hatred with dragons. They have a vaguely humanoid frame, but with clearly inhuman features. They are also very resistant to magic, with spells cast on them not working at all or only weakly.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: The monsters created by the Masters of Padmasa (imps and trolls being the most common) invariably are completely malicious, with no redeeming features (nor even much personality). It was by design, given their only purpose is to kill and repress the enemies of the Masters.
  • Amazon Brigade:
    • The Argonath legions have a women's brigade. Also, the witches have many warriors who fight the Enemy with both magic and normal weapons.
    • Lessis leads around a hundred captive women used for bearing imps in a revolt against Tummuz Orgmeen.
  • Anti-Magic: One of Argonathi dragons' traits is their great resistance to magic, allowing them to No-Sell powerful spells that easily subdue humans. It also has its drawbacks, though — after Bazil drinks a healing potion meant to regrow the tip of his tail, it does not work quite as intended, regenerating at a bent angle, earning him his "broketail" nickname. Trolls are very resistant to magic as well, though not to such extent as dragons.
  • Anyone Can Die: People do. A lot. Of the unit that Bazil and Relkin serve in, the 109th Dragon Squadron of Marneri (for your info, a dragon squadron consists of ten dragons, ten dragonboys and a commanding officer), Bazil and Chektor are the only surviving members of its original roster. The unit is then replenished multiple times in the series as with each and every book more soldiers — dragons and humans alike — keep dying and getting replaced with newcomers. While most casualties are Red Shirts, there are also characters who get some proper development before getting killed in action — hammering home that nobody is safe on war.
  • "Arabian Nights" Days: Ourdh is an ancient empire to the south of the Argonath. While they do have pseudo-Islamic stereotypes (extreme patriarchy, concealing female clothing that's mandated, religious fanatics), they're polytheist and have pagan Mesopotamian/Egyptian motifs as well (ziggurat temples feature heavily for instance).
  • Armored Dragon: Though dragons are pretty tough to begin with, those in the Argonath legions also wear armor like helmets or breastplates and use shields for more protection. They also use regular weapons — mainly swords — in battle.
  • Artificial Intelligence: The Dooms are basically a fantasy version. Essentially giant rocks containing a mind created by the Masters of Padmasa, evil sorcerers who want rulership over the world, they govern cities for their creators. They are malevolent as their creators too, loathing all biological beings.
  • Artistic License – Biology:
    • Apparently, Bazil spent ninety days sitting in his egg after the expected hatching time before somebody got tired of waiting and just broke the eggshell for him. In reality, he would've died before reaching even a half of that period. Since embryos of oviparous animals quite obviously cannot be fed by their mother once the egg has been laid, they get nutrients necessary for their proper growth from yolk material within said egg. By the day of hatching, that material is all but spent, so at this point the infant has to break out of the eggshell in order to start normal life and get food via traditional way. If Bazil simply refused to leave his egg due to being too lazy to hatch on his own, he would've essentially died of starvation after few days, two weeks tops.
    • Dragons are very clearly carnivorous predators by nature, but those serving in Argonathi legions are fed with rations that mainly consist of vegetarian dishes like oatmeal and noodles. They are also spiced with akh, but it's definitely not made of meat either. This means, by all logic and laws of nature, that dragons should be severely malnourished regardless of the amount of food they ate. This is because the digestive system of carnivores is — plainly and simply — not adapted to digest plant-based food. If they ate it, it would just go straight through their bodies without providing them with any nutrients (at best) or give them food poisoning (at worst). However, dragons of Argonath seem to have no trouble with this, aside from their constant complaints that there isn't enough akh in their meal.
    • During the voyage to Eigo in book four, we learn that dragons are immune to sea sickness, since their ears' labyrinth is different than humans'. They apparently retain balance thanks to movement of small cilias inside while lacking a fluid that our labyrinth holds and which is shaken by movement of a vessel, "disorienting the whole system". This is absolutely not how motion sickness works. In reality, its main cause is a dissonance between signals you receive from your labyrinth (which tells you that you are on the move) and your other sensory organs, mainly eyes (which tell you that you are not moving). Which is why the best course of action when you're seasick is to stay on the deck and watch the landscape (which you can see moving), while the worst thing you can do is to stay in your cabin (where nothing moves, thus aggravating the symptoms). So even if you replace liquid with some unspecified cilias, that does not change anything — dragons would still be seasick as hell. To dispel any further doubts — no, the fact that Argonathi dragons are naturally aquatic animals does not magically give them an immunity to sea sickness, just like the fact that we humans are naturally land animals does not make us immune to getting sick when we're, for example, trying to read in a car. That is because sea sickness does not stem from some malicious properties of the sea, but the fact that you travel on it by a ship — something which moves independently from your own body and the sea itself, thus causing said dissonance.
    • Bazil and other dragons are actually sweating a few times in the series (for example, during Bazil's battle with Golgomba in book five), which is quite impossible, even if they are endothermic. That is because sweat is secreted via pores in the skin — something the dragons definitely do not have, since their skin is (in line with typical western portrayal of a dragon) covered with scales. Scales don't have pores — in fact, one of their basic functions is to isolate the skin from external environment and prevent the loss of water.
  • Barbarian Tribe: There are two different groups like this west of Argonath. Sometimes they raid each other, and the Argonathi, to gain slaves which Padmasa buys.
    • The Teetol, a forest-dwelling people somewhat resembling Native Americans like the Iroquois.
    • The Baguti horse nomads, who wander the Gan grasslands, who seem like Mongols or similar cultures.
  • The Beastmaster: Lessis is the Mistress of Birds. Ribela is the Queen of Mice. Both have an ability to speak with these animals, whom they also gain strength from. Not only will they act as spies or messengers, but are even connected to them. For instance, Ribela is energized when her mice are fed, weakened otherwise. They also recognize them in their roles. Some mice look up at Ribela in awe on first seeing her.
  • Bestiality Is Depraved: Trolls like to have sex with farm animals, we hear early on. Relkin and Lagdalen find it disgusting, naturally.
  • Big Bad: Heruta Skash Gzug. As ruler of Padmasa, the main antagonistic faction, he plays this role until the end of the fourth book when he is killed by Bazil and Relkin. He then gets replaced with Waakzaam, basically the Satanic Archetype of the universe, practically reducing other Masters of Padmasa to his minions. In the first book, the Blunt Doom of Tummuz Orgmeen serves as this, as it is Padmasan overlord there.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Go on, try to hurt Relkin in front of Bazil or vice versa. Or any dragonboy in the presence of his dragon, for that matter. You will most likely regret it.
  • Big Eater: All dragons are this, of course, being able to ingest ridiculous amounts of food. Feeding them can be a major logistical issue as a result, although in a pinch even civilized ones will eat just about anything and forage if necessary (as Bazil does more than once). Civilized ones draw the line at human meat however.
  • Big Good: Depending on the book, this role is played either by Lessis or Ribela — both being wise and powerful witches with vast arcane knowledge and awareness of existing danger and powers at work, directing other people in battle against forces of evil.
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: The good guys are imperfect, with the usual human flaws, and some do things like assassinate troublesome rulers. However, they are fighting pure evil wizards whose goal is taking over the world with magic based on death and pain, creating monsters through forcibly impregnating women or cattle for this purpose.
  • Black Magic: The Enemy's magic is fueled with blood, death or pain. It's only used for creating monsters and inflicting harm on opponents.
  • Blood Magic: Most of the Enemy's magic, if it doesn't require killing a human or beast, involves drawing blood. The most horrific example occurs during campaining in the Ourdh Empire in book two. The Padmasan agents, aiding the Sephite rebels, sacrifice hundreds of slaves by hanging them upside down and slitting their throats, letting their blood soak the ground below, which is then used to create mud men — giant earth golems — in order to bolster the Sephite forces and provide them with a counter against dragons.
  • Born in the Saddle: The Baguti are horse-riding nomads who live in the Gan region to the west of Argonath. Most indeed learn how to ride before they can even walk. Realistically, they're all bow-legged as a result. Mostly, they live through raiding others, taking slaves they then sell to the Padmasans, herding their horses across the Gan grasslands. Given their culture, the Baguti fights as horse archers or with scimitars, and they are far less effective on foot (Lessis takes full advantage of it when planning an ambush for one band).
  • Brainwashed:
    • Thrembode controls Princess Besita of Marneri with a spell that makes her his willing slave while he takes her to Tummuz Orgmeen. Once there, the Doom starts to work its influence on her too, brainwashing Besita slowly. It's interrupted when she's rescued by Lessis and co, but later she still requires treatment to break this.
    • The Sephists are hypnotized by their god Sephis (really a demon) in book two, making them become fanatical worshipers who gladly fight and kill for him.
  • Breeding Slave: The main villains of the novels use this as their main means of producing soldiers. Human women are used to breed imps as their primary infantry unit and animals are used in a similar fashion to breed their heavy units like trolls and ogres.
  • The Bully: Helena of Roth is constantly trying to get Lagdalen into trouble while they're both Senior Novices at the Temple in Marneri, tattling about anything wrong she does no matter how minor. It's immensely satisfying to see an attempt blow up in her face.
  • Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": When an expeditionary force consisting of Argonath and its allies travels through the ancient jungle on Eigo on their way to the Kraheen empire, they come under frequent attacks from aggressive local fauna, which was quite obviously based on real-world dinosaurs and terror birds. In-universe, though, they are called "pujish" by Ardu and "kebbolds" by people of Mirchaz. Their similarity to dragons does not go without a lampshade, though dragons themselves — after initial fascination wears off — are usually offended by suggestion that they may share common ancestors with such wild and vile beasts.
    Bazil: [after being called "kebbold" one time too many] By the fire breath of the ancestors, I am not a kebbold any more than you are a monkey!
  • Call That a Formation?: This trope is both played straight and averted in the series — interestingly, usually with a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome. One of the main reasons why Argonath legions are such a Badass Army is that they are well trained and disciplined, usually making good use of formations in battle. On the other hand, when members of the opposing force attack in a disorderly mass, it almost always leads to them getting curb-stomped.
  • Call to Agriculture: The final novel ends with the main character Relkin and his dragon Bazil retiring to a life of farming after their term of military service is up. Several of his buddies in his old unit are also approaching retirement age and thinking of starting up their own farms next to Relkin's, starting a new town in the process.
  • Character Title: The first book and series overall is named for its major dragon character.
  • Charm Person: Lessis commonly uses spells to make people trust and like her, starting with her very first scene when Besita is affected by it.
  • Child Soldiers: The dragonboys are almost exclusively young orphans who join the army as teenagers. Relkin himself is only fourteen years old at the beginning of the series.
  • Common Tongue: A few.
    • All nine nations of Argonath speak one common language named Verio. Its name indicates that it most likely originated from old empire of Veronath which previously ruled over their land.
    • Furda is pretty much an international language in northern parts of Eigo continent. Which is quite convenient for Evander in his travels, of course.
    • However, the elves top them all with Intharion. All other known languages originated from it, and because of that, it is understandable for every people on Ryetelth, regardless of their native speech.
  • Compelling Voice: Witches — at least powerful ones such as Lessis — can make people answer them truthfully or obey commands through the "witch voice".
  • Cool Sword: Bazil's sword Ecator, which was given to him in the second book (aptly titled A Sword for a Dragon) in place of lost Piocar. It is enchanted and imbued with a spirit of the same name, making it basically indestructible, capable of cutting through any material and draining the life force of enemies it hits.
  • Corporal Punishment: Marneri uses "drubbing" while in the stocks as a punishment for minor crimes. Relkin only narrowly escapes this with Lagdalen's help after he gets caught stealing orchids.
  • Creating Life Is Bad: The Masters of Padmasa create new lifeforms regularly, and this is portrayed as a terrible evil. It's less the act itself though than how they do it-forcibly impregnating both women and female animals-along with the result-monsters used to wage war. Still, only they ever do it, and they're the main bad guys for most of the series.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death:
    • Thrembode recalls that a teacher in Padmasa once was devoured from the inside slowly for some unstated offense by a Thingweight. It took weeks, apparently.
    • Because they are hard to kill and can take a lot of punishment before going down, dragons are subjected to it all too often in practice. You will most likely remember some of them not because of their personality (because they didn't have a chance to show any), but because of how horribly they died. Take such Berholt, who took a direct hit from enemy catapult to his back — breaking his spine and paralyzing, but not killing him — and then got slowly beaten to death by mud men's hammers as he was lying helplessly on the ground. Bazil himself barely avoided this fate more than once (though he still had to go through the "cruel and unusual" part).
  • The Dark Arts: The Masters of Padmasa along with their servants practice magic which involves drawing blood, inflicting pain or killing to work. It's used for creating horrific war monsters through forcibly impregnating women or cattle.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: The witches of Cunfshon Isles often wear dark clothing — black included — yet they are firmly on the side of good, if somewhat ruthless.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: When Bazil and the Purple-Green of Hook Mountain meet for the first time, they end up fighting over a wild dragoness. Bazil wins the bout quite easily (he is armed with sword, while Purple-Green fights only with his bare claws and fangs) and, taking pity on his opponent, patches up his wound with a bandage. When they meet again later in Tummuz Orgmeen arena, they refuse to fight each other and instead enter an Enemy Mine alliance, freeing other prisoners and rising against their captors. In second book, the Purple-Green agrees to join the Argonathi army, and he and Bazil soon become close friends.
  • Demihuman: The Enemy uses imps, who are somewhat human-like and born from captured women, as their main foot soldiers. Elves appear occasionally as well, along with dwarves, with stereotypical shapes. Trolls and ogres also have the same basic body plan, but are clearly inhuman.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Relkin and Bazil manage to inflict this on Waakzaam three friggin' times. Firstly, Relkin delivers a serious wound to Dominator via a crossbow bolt, forcing him to retreat from the battle. Secondly, Bazil engages Waakzaam in a sword duel and actually defeats him (he fails to deal the killing blow then however). Finally, in the climax of Dragon Ultimate, they both destroy him for good, freeing all worlds of his evil.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: The Masters of Padmasa along with their top servants are very harsh to underlings. Once the Doom of Tummuz Orgmeen had a sorcerer mutilated and made into one of the Doom's sensor slaves just for sneezing while in its presence (since they all have a huge contempt for human weaknesses).
  • Divide and Conquer: Waakzaam's first attempted strategy at destroying the Argonath involves sowing dissent between its kingdoms and provinces, hoping the empire will be fragmented as a result. This ultimately fails. Although the Marneri province Aubinas does secede from the empire, the resulting uprising is quickly suppressed, and Waakzaam himself is attacked by Bazil and Relkin, forcing him to retreat through an interdimensional gate and thus preventing him from spreading his influence in Argonath any further.
  • Does Not Like Men: Ribela of Defwode, along with many other witches, dislikes and distrusts men (which makes her backhanded compliments toward them on occasion very notable). Defwode is the most misandrist region of the Cunfshon Isles. Thrembode the New, an enemy magician, thinks of the whole area as being a hellhole for men, saying a man who strikes a woman is castrated there, and rapists hanged (however, that's in the lens of his own misogyny).
  • Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Deconstructed in book four. During a long voyage to the Eigo continent, a female sailor named Birjit develops an unhealthy interest in Swane and attempts to rape him after luring him to her quarters. He manages to escape, but she keeps stalking him and they both soon become an object of jokes. Swane himself, however, does not find the whole situation humorous at all. It eventually nearly leads to a tragedy when Birjit tries to force Swane to have sex with her by threatening him with a knife and is mortally stabbed in the resulting struggle — only timely intervention by Relkin and Jak and patching up the wound saves her from certain death. To make things worse, the misconception that rape can only be inflicted by a man on a woman is what leads their commanding officer to disbelieve their story, accuse them of ganging up on Birjit in order to rape her and almost get them punished for a crime they did not commit.
  • Dragon Rider: Mostly averted in the series. The named character is a dragon, with no wings but bipedal (and can't breathe fire either), but he has (like all war-dragons of his culture) a squire (called a "dragonboy" here) named Relkin, who is depicted on the cover of the first book as riding him. Dragonboys are not however dedicated riders, but attend the dragons (used to counter the bad guy's trolls and ogres) by doing things like camp chores, cooking and keeping their dragon's weapons and armor in fighting trim, as well as occasional fighting by standing behind their dragons under the tail and engaging any infantry who try to flank the dragon to hamstring them.
  • The Dreaded: Dragons of Argonath are widely feared by servants of Padmasa (and for good reasons, too) — especially imps, who often panic at the mere sight of them.
  • Dressing as the Enemy: To infiltrate a fortress guarding outside Tummuz Orgmeen where Thrembode has Besita, Lessis and some of the soldiers dress as Baguti, with the rest appearing like Teetol slaves. It gets them in past the guards.
  • Dwindling Party: In the first book, Captain Kepteson's command of nearly a hundred steadily dwindles to around twenty as a result of battle casualties. Only a handful of survivors return, including him.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Thingweights are creatures like huge dark clouds that live in the Void, a huge ethereal plane from which a person can travel to anywhere else... assuming they avoid the Thingweights. If caught by them then people are slowly devoured. They have some kind of tentacles as well to grasp people.
  • The Empire: Padmasa is a brutal one whose goal is world domination, constantly trying to conquer everyone else, ruled by utterly ruthless ancient sorcerers breeding monsters for this purpose, with many spies throughout other lands furthering their plan.
  • Equal-Opportunity Evil: Padmasa accepts greedy, power-hungry people who harbor a secret hatred for the rest of the world from every race and nation. In fact, there appears to be no Padmasan ethnicity - Padmasans are simply people from all over who have flocked to the Masters’ banner. Women are mostly desired as breeding slaves, but they have some along with men too if they're useful in other ways.
  • Eunuchs Are Evil: While not evil per se (aside from one who aids the Sephisti casting a spell against Emperor Banwi) Ourdh's eunuch court officials are all completely obstructive, hindering Ribela at every turn even though she's trying her best to save them, apparently just out of territorial jealousy and/or obedience toward the Emperor's petty whims.
  • Eviler than Thou: The Masters of Padmasa are the main villains for most of the series, being in charge of an evil empire which constantly threatens the homeland of our main heroes. However, when Dominator takes the scene in book six, they are instantly eclipsed by him on threat level scale. In the final book, they are basically reduced to his Unwitting Pawns.
  • Evil Makes You Monstrous: Apparently, the usage of dark magic wielded by sorcerers of Padmasa has a side effect of horribly twisting and altering your body. The Masters in particular no longer resemble human beings, looking more like Humanoid Abominations covered in horn-like tissue instead of skin and featuring glowing, yellow eyes.
  • Evil Only Has to Win Once: Lessis says this in the first book, warning officials of Marneri that the Enemy need only get one decisive victory to destroy them all, while they must stop every major attack.
  • Evil Overlord: The Masters of Padmasa are five immortal evil wizards living in their underground citadel who direct their forces to take over the world, as the books' main villains.
  • Evil Sorcerer: The Masters of Padmasa, five ancient malevolent wizards, lead the Enemy. Many other lesser wizards also serve them with the same character, practicing magic based on blood, pain and death to create monsters which they can take over the world by using in their armies.
  • Evil Wears Black: Padmasa's human soldiers wear black uniforms, along with its sorcerers.
  • Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Waakzaam the Great looks like a tall and handsome elf. Beneath that facade, he is an utterly cruel and remorseless Omnicidal Maniac.
  • Familiar: Lessis and Ribela are both bonded to animals, using them as spies, messengers or a source of power. For Lessis it's birds, Ribela has mice.
  • Fantastic Drug: Bazil is drugged by Thrembode in the first book with the fumes of Vermillion Swinebane, a fictional fungus which causes dragons to lose their minds. He gets saved by a remedy.
  • Fantastic Racism:
    • Played with regarding the humans and dragons. The latter are integrated into civilized society and both races generally get along just fine. However, there are still humans who either dislike dragons or are even openly prejudiced towards them. Sometimes it's for understandable reasons (for example, the size of dragons makes them somewhat cumbersome in towns and prone to unintentionally causing accidents), sometimes it's just out of pure hatred. Also, although formally part of Argonathian society, dragons seem like second-class citizens, since none of them hold any important positions and for the most part, they are either soldiers (and even then, they cannot be promoted and hold no ranks) or physical workers or farmers.
    • Moreover, there are other nations than Argonath in Ryetelth, and their inhabitants tend to perceive dragons as mere animals and find it hard to believe (sometimes even in the face of obvious evidence, like one of them talking) that they are actually sentient beings.
    • The dragons, on the other hand, hold a firm belief that they are a superior race and although they do not tend to rub it in humans' faces, they still like to mock the homo sapiens for their perceived inadequacies like lack of tails or preoccupation with sex (or "fertilizing the eggs", as dragons call it). This is partially a reason for their dismissive attitude towards their dragonboys (however, they sing to a different tune the moment their dragonboy is threatened).
    • The wild, winged dragons think poorly of their wingless Argonathi brethren, seeing them as weak, earth-bound worms and slaves to the humans.
    • The Golden Elves (those in Mirchaz, at least) take this trope up to eleven. They basically equate themselves to gods and view all races on Ryetelth as inferior. One of them, in conversation in Relkin, openly declares that he's as superior to him as Relkin is superior to an animal.
    • The inhuman rulers of Padmasa have a contempt for humans, especially their "weaknesses" like bodily urges and needs, harshly repressing them in their domain beyond what's absolutely necessary. All humans are for them nothing except minions or slaves.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
    • The Teetol are a tribal people who seem similar to Native Americans with their names, specifically like the Iroquois since men have their heads shaved except for top knots while having a strong honor-bound warrior culture, plus they live in lodges (however Iroquois women had much greater status).
    • Baguti are horse-riding nomads who resemble the Mongols somewhat, also being proud warriors.
    • Ourdh is an ancient empire which has strong Middle Eastern influences in customs and clothing. High male officials wear turbans, with women wearing concealing veils and head coverings. Many ziggurats are there too. Gingo-La, an Ourdhi goddess, is also described like Kali from Hinduism with her death aspect.
  • Fantasy Pantheon: Veronath, the empire which preceded Argonath, worshiped many gods. Argonathi have largely abandoned this for worship of the Goddess, though the old gods' statues are still found in isolated places. The three which the books mention are Caymo (their god of chance and wine), Asgah (god of war) and Gongo, ruler of the dead and hell.
  • Faux Affably Evil:
    • The Padmasan rulers take this trope and run with it. Although they are Obviously Evil — engaging in war crimes, widely practising slavery and treating common people (especially women) like dirt — they will act polite, pretend to be your friends and offer you riches and power if only they think you can be useful. They don't mean any of it, though, and see you only as a pawn. When Bazil is imprisoned in Tummuz Orgmeen, the Doom ruling the city has him brought before it, then claims it is his friend, offers him wealth and honors and promises to make him a general in its army. Naturally, Bazil tells it to shove off. In book four, when Relkin is captured and interrogated by Heruta himself, the latter tries to sway him to his side by acting friendly towards him and offering to make him king of Marneri. Relkin sees through his lies right away, but decides to pretend he swallowed them.
    • There are very good reasons why Waakzaam is known (among other things) as the Deceiver. When he thinks that using brute force in conquest of a new world is not a feasible option, he will come to its inhabitants with a wide smile and smooth talk, offering them his friendship and pretending to have the best intentions (usually by promising to make their world great and glorious again). In reality, he sows dissent between them, setting them against each other until they basically destroy themselves. Once they are too weak to offer any meaningful resistance, he drops the act completely and slaughters the remaining opposition. He already managed to conquer many worlds that way (like the Eleem homeworld of Orthond, which is visited in The Wizard and the Floating City side story), but when he tries it against Ryetelth and Argonath empire, it fortunately fails.
  • The Federation: The Empire of the Rose is an alliance among the city-states in Argonath along with the Cunfshon Isles nearby against the threat posed by Padmasa to the north. Each city-state has much autonomy, with the Emperor having limited power over them, and cooperate mostly in the face of a Padmasan invasion. Otherwise, they squabble and bicker constantly. The Cunfshon witches manipulate them behind the scenes to fight the threat better, including even assassinating troublesome rulers in Argonath, while Padmasan agents seek to keep them more divided.
  • Genius Loci: Every gate of Marneri is protected by a spirit against outside invaders, aided by spells cast annually which protect the walls.
  • Gladiator Games: These are very popular in Tummuz Orgmeen, with its ruler "loving the games", as does the city populace under its influence. Captive soldiers from Argonath are forced to fight there commonly for entertainment.
  • Gladiator Revolt: At the end of the first book, the characters are being held as prisoners in Tummuz Orgmeen where they're made to fight enemy soldiers. When their side wins (not without losses) against all odds, the city authorities give them the chance to join their side. After they refuse, they're ordered killed and attacked, but manage to fight out of the arena, sparking a slave revolt and eventually winning.
  • God: The Great Mother is described as having the attributes usually given to God, i.e. being creator of everything, omnibenevolent, omnipotent, omnipresent etc. Her followers don't necessarily deny that other gods exist, but insist they're lesser beings created by her. Also no images are made of her, aligning with Abrahamic prohibitions.
  • Golem: Bad guys make multiple fighting golems in the series, from material such as mud or steel.
  • Gorn: Rowley tends to describe battles in great detail, from a viewpoint of an ordinary soldier (usually Bazil or Relkin) and is not squeamish in the least when it comes to the bloodshed and dismemberment that inevitably ensues. This trope is taken up to eleven, though, in the battle of Salpalangum in book two. Basically, a numerically superior but undisciplined horde of religious fanatics openly attacks the well-trained and organized legions of Argonath (who have dragons in their ranks, you know), employing Hollywood Tactics and Call That a Formation? tropes — which leads to a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome as they are all hacked into mincemeat.
  • Greater-Scope Paragon: Sinni, the children of Fate, are mentioned throughout the series as those who oversee the entire conflict on Ryetelth (which is just a small part of a greater struggle in the multiverse known as the Sphereboard of Destiny), though they do not interfere into it directly. They make an appearance in person in the final book of the series and by then, it is also revealed that Relkin actually used to be one of them, but was reborn as a human and made into a living weapon against the Dominator.
  • Healing Potion: Bazil loses the tip of his tail to a sore loser during a bout in the first book. Its regrown with a magical potion Lessis has made up, but juts out slightly, resulting in his "broketail" nickname.
  • He-Man Woman Hater:
    • The Talionese people are the most resistant to witches' interference with their land or its monarchy, even when that's definitely for the best. It's not just because they're outsiders, but least in the soldiers' case dislike of women in power, within their country or out.
    • Heruta displays this attitude when explaining his beliefs to Relkin and Lessis. He believes that conquest is a fundamental masculine urge and that men cannot be free without being the masters of women.
  • Heroic BSoD: A typical reaction of a dragon to losing his/her squire (and vice versa) — which is not surprising, given the fact that they are the closest people they have to a family. Bazil in particular goes through this a few times in the series whenever he thinks Relkin has died.
  • Hero Killer: Puxdool the troll, champion of Tummuz Orgmeen's arena, manages to kill Nesessitas by crippling her via a lucky shot to the knee, stabbing her in the chest when she is eventually sapped of strength due to pain and blood loss and beheading her. Poor Nessi. Luckily, her death is soon avenged by Bazil.
  • Hero of Another Story: Evander is the main protagonist of The Wizard and the Floating City side story, unrelated to the main Bazil Broketail series apart from the fact that it's taking place in the same setting. ​Serena is the deuteragonist of the sotry.
  • High Priest: A number of minor characters are high priests or priestesses, along with a couple bishops, abbesses etc. Lessis herself is high-ranking in the clergy of the Great Mother, though she isn't described this way. The others head up the clergy of a particular god, religious order and or location though, fitting this trope.
  • Hive Mind: An interesting variation. Each Padmasan city is governed by a Doom — a malevolent and sentient entity, created by dark magic and sealed within an inanimate object (the one in charge of Tummuz Orgmeen, depicted in the first book, inhabited a featureless sphere made of stone and used three possessed humans as its senses). They do not control the actions of their citizens directly, but they still influence them all subtly, driving them to evil and instilling absolute loyalty in them. Tellingly, when the Doom of Tummuz Orgmeen is destroyed by Bazil, all citizens suddenly lose all allegiance to Padmasa they had, pack up their stuff and quickly leave the city en masse.
  • Hollywood Atheist: Thrembode the New, a magician who serves the Masters of Padmasa, no longer believes any gods exist, as he reasons they wouldn't have let pure evil wizards like them gain such power.
  • Horse Archer: The Baguti, a horse-riding, nomadic people, are deadly using short bows from horseback, plus scimitars. Lessis therefore sets things up so they have to dismount and attack the Argonathi on foot to nullify this.
  • Humanoid Abomination: The Masters of Padmasa were once men, but no longer have human features, instead looking very monstrous.
  • Human Sacrifice: The Enemy's magic frequently makes use of human sacrifices. For instance, Thrembode the New kills a woman and mutilates her to disrupt a protective spell cast annually upon the city of Marneri.
  • Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: Magic users in the setting who are powerful enough can conjure a Black Mirror — an interdimensional gateway that leads to ethereal void, through which they can travel to any place, in any world. While staying there is not lethal per se, it's still inhabited by scary Eldritch Abominations that are very dangerous to the travellers and will attack on sight.
  • I Ate WHAT?!: While imprisoned in Tummuz Orgmeen, Bazil and Nesessitas are fed some sort of unidentified meat. When Bazil furiously demands that their captors reveal what it is, he is told that it is from humans killed in the arena. He does not take it well.
  • I Call It "Vera": The series seems to take the military training route; humans don't name any of their weapons, but nearly every dragon soldier seems to have named their personal blade, whether or not it's enchanted.
  • Immortal Ruler: The Masters of Padmasa are five evil wizards who have lived for centuries already. Collectively they rule over Padmasa as its totalitarian overlords.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Dragons of Argonath. Unlike humans — who are often motivated by greed and thus easily swayed to the side of evil with promises of hefty reward — dragons have a simplistic worldview and feel absolutely no need to accumulate wealth and power for themselves. They also hate Padmasa with a passion for previous atrocities against their race, making them loyal allies of Argonath, easily conforming to its ideals of freedom and equality. To put the cherry on top, their resistance to magic makes them immune to spells like mind control that would easily corrupt any ordinary human. In the final book, the Sinni outright call dragons a role model for humans in a world full of Waakzaam's betrayal.
  • Informed Attribute: All over the place. While main protagonists do get proper development, Rowley tends to take shortcuts when it comes to defining other characters, talking about them rather than showing their actual actions. Sometimes this is understandable, like when we he's trying to give some sort of a characterization to a Red Shirt who perishes in battle, but can be quite jarring when a recurring character gets enough screentime to be properly developed, but they either remain flat or what we're told about them contradicts their behaviour. Two examples which arguably stand out the most are Kepabar and Nesessitas:
    • Informed Ability: The former is described as a good friend of Bazil and a squad prankster known for his jokes and funny monologues, but he shares exactly one scene with the eponymous hero prior to his death and what he has to say it not really humorous (unless someone finds him complaining about food hilarious).
    • Informed Flaw: The latter is stated to be inclined to dragonish dourness, but her later actions (saving Relkin and comforting him when he breaks out crying in despair) paint her as one of the most kind-hearted of dragons depicted in the series.
  • Inter-Service Rivalry:
    • Within the Argonathi legions, the cavalry and the dragon corps share a mutual dislike and find it very hard to cooperate. The former hate the latter because their horses are instinctively afraid of dragons — making them all the harder to control in battle and requiring a special training — while dragonboys are smug rather than helpful in that regard. The latter hate the former because cavalrymen are usually people from good families (including aristocracy) and thus consider themselves superior to lowly dragonboys, who are recruited almost exclusively among orphans.
    • The Marneri infantry and Talionese cavalry get along quite poorly in many cases, mainly due to Culture Clash, as the Talionese have a brash attitude while disliking the witches. Marneri folks on the other hand are more humble, down to earth and follow the witches more.
    • When an expedition consisting of Argonathi legions and contingents from the allied nations of Czardha and Kassim is sent to Eigo, it inevitably leads to rivalry between the three separate armies, stemming both from eagerness to prove their worth over others and cultural differences. The Argonathi dragon corps gets arguably the most flak, given the fact that it consists of reptilian beasts that foreign people consider mere animals and frequently question their combat capability. It reaches a boiling point when a drunk Czardhan knight, Hervaze of Gensch, attacks Bazil with full intent to kill him, as if he was a mindless beast from Saint George-esque stories that can be murdered with impunity, rather than a soldier in service of an allied army.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: King Sanker of Marneri might be a stubborn, spiteful old man but he's entirely logical to doubt that Besita is his child, as her mother had many affairs. It isn't clear how succession works in Marneri, though for actually medieval monarchies like this resembles that would preclude her becoming queen. Oddly though no barrier except his disapproval exists to her succession though.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Bazil is this towards Relkin. He tends to belittle him and underappreciate his services, but he still treats him as his little brother and is always there for him. It's actually a really common tendency among dragons and their dragonboys. The former may act outwardly dismissive or downright nasty towards the latter, but they are in fact very protective of them and threatening or harming the dragon's (or dragoness') boy in any way is the shortest route to pushing their Berserk Button.
  • Keystone Army: Once the Blunt Doom of Tummuz Orgmeen is destroyed, everyone under it loses the will to fight and flees the city, in despair at its loss.
  • Land of One City: Argonath includes nine city states in a federation. Marneri is the one the stories mostly focus on, since this is where the main heroes come from.
  • Light Is Not Good: Lessis works a Padmasan spell that uses sacrificing a rat and the residue of a Thingweight to create a huge flash of light which blinds the Baguti nomads helping Thrembode take Besita to the Blunt Doom. She is one of the good guys however, using it against evil and only in desperation, so it's a bit zigzagged.
  • Lizard Folk: Dragons of Argonath definitely have shades of this trope, being essentially bipedal, sentient and tool-using lizards who live within a civilized society. Just don't even think of calling them "lizards" to their faces. That won't end well. Also, they're good guys, unlike most examples.
  • Logical Weakness: Witch spells are spoken usually, so some people counter this by using earplugs, keeping them from being affected.
  • Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: The cruel despot Mach Ingbok built a huge statue of himself in his city Duggoth, sneering down over his subjects. Now his city is in ruins, with only his statute left of him, though some of his dark incluence affects people in the area still.
  • Love at First Sight: Averted with Relkin and Eilsa, who have to spend some time together and get to know each other before getting romantically involved. Played straight with Evander, who falls in love with Serena the moment he sees her and his feelings are quickly reciprocated.
  • Made a Slave: In the Kenor region Argonath is colonizing, they're frequently raided for slaves by the Teetol living near them (usually women). In turn, Teetol also sell their own women, and some are taken as slaves by Baguti horse nomads. Ourdh commonly sells women as well. Ardue are also frequently enslaved by slave traders from Merchaz. In every case the buyer is Padmasa, using them as breeding slaves, with the fact only harming them too in the end as the Padmasans will then use them to create monsters and conquer everyone with these in the long run if they can.
  • Magical Incantation: Witches' magic involves lengthy incantations usually, which must be memorized and recited perfectly to make the spell work.
  • Magical Society:
    • Argonath and Cunfshon witches have an overall organization, with individual orders within it they belong to.
    • Padmasan sorcerers are also members of a group, with ranks up to the Masters, while below them are Mesomasters.
  • Magic Knight: Magic users tend to be skilled fighters too, since spells require lengthy incantantians and rituals (at least those useful for battle) and they must often protect themselves by mundane means.
  • Magocracy: The Masters of Padmasa, five evil wizards, rule their empire and seek to conquer the entire world. Argonath nominally has muggle rulers, but the Cunfshon witches exert strong (often unofficial) influence (such as by assassinating monarchs and heirs who prove to be troublesome). They rule the Cunfshon Isles openly and officially too.
  • Make It Look Like an Accident: The Cunfshon witches have assassinated many rulers in Argonath over the centuries whom they deemed as dangerous in some way, while making it appear accidental.
  • Maker of Monsters: The Masters of Padmasa along with their servants create many monsters to fight for them.
  • Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: King Sanker of Marneri doesn't believe Besita is his daughter, since her mother had numerous affairs (which he had her executed for). He hates Besita as a result, and kept her from ever marrying because her children might become pretenders.
  • Manchild: Emperor Banwi of Ourdh is a pampered, spoiled man used to drinking or sleeping with his harem whenever he'd like. He throws petulant fits when forced to make himself a true ruler by Rybela, with many childish complaints over it now that he can't simply have his bureaucrats handle everything.
  • Master Swordsman: ​Bazil is easily the best sword fighter in the whole series, widely known for his many victories over mighty foes like the Doom of Tummuz Orgmeen, Malacostracan Gammadion and even the Dominator. Some other named battle dragons like Alsebra or Burthong are particularly skilled with a sword as well.
  • Matriarchy: The Cunfshon Isles are clearly dominated by women (specifically witches), though the degree varies. Some regions like Defwode are quite known as misandrist. Women from other regions though don't show this misandry, respecting men (such as Lessis of Valmes).
  • Medieval Stasis: If a random date appearing in the first novel is to be believed, then Ryetelth (or at least Argonath) is currently in its twenty-second century (of whatever calendar), yet barring some advancements in certain areas like medicine, the technology used there is still on early medieval level. Interestingly, in book four we learn that this trope is actually enforced. It turns out Lessis and other witches are fully aware what scientific discoveries may lie ahead of them, but actively discourage technological advancement since they are afraid of the dangers it poses. According to Lessis, there are already seven dead worlds in the universe where the locals took that path and eventually destroyed themselves (presumably in nuclear war).
  • Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Thrembode enchanting Relkin and drugging Bazil to prevent them interfering with his plot to assassinate the king reveals it later to Lessis when she investigates after treating them.
  • The Mole: The Doom realizes after Thrembode relates a spell which Lessis cast that an agent of the witches is within the Padmasan hierarchy feeding them information on their magic, worrying it deeply.
  • Monster Knight: This is the staple of the series. The eponymous hero and his kin there are essentially wingless, bipedal dragons, integrated into human society in the Argonathi empire and serving in its legions as heavy shock troops. In battle, they wield huge longswords and are clad in plate armor. Although technically they are not knights (there are no nobles among the dragons of Argonath), each one of them does have his (or her) own squire — a dragonboy, paired with them at a young age, who cares for their dragon's weaponry and equipment, as well as the dragon himself.
  • Monstrous Humanoid: The Enemy uses monsters they create like imps, trolls and ogres which loosely resemble humans though they clearly aren't, with often beastial features.
  • Mother Goddess: Most people in Argonath and the Cunfshon Isles worship the Great Mother, a benevolent, all-powerful goddess. Lagdalen begins as a novice studying to enter her clergy, but is kicked out early on.
  • The Multiverse: The books' universe — known as the Sphereboard of Destiny — has many different worlds and planes of existence over which the battle between good vs evil is waged.
  • My Instincts Are Showing: As sentient, moral and civilized as they might be, dragons of Argonath by nature are still large, carnivorous predators who, in the wild, would perceive humans as just another source of food — and it shows from time to time, especially when they're left starving for too long. In particular, during siege of Ourdh, when dragons can't eat to their heart's content since food rations are heavily reduced due to shortages. At one point, Relkin notices, to his horror, that Bazil is hungrily staring at him as if he was a potential prey. Bazil himself is not happy in the least about current state of his mind, but he just can't help it.
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Lady Tschinn, one of the Golden Elves living in Mirchaz, is openly disgusted with how low her people have fallen and offers her aid to Relkin when he is about to fulfill his destiny, destroying the Great Game and Mirchaz along with it.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
    • Mach Ingbok, a cruel despot, was known as the Demon Lord.
    • Waakzaam, the series' Satanic Archetype, is called the Dominator of Twelve Worlds and Lord of Evil.
  • The Neidermeyer: Porteous Glaves, the newly appointed commander of the 8th Regiment in book two, is an Upper-Class Twit who bought his current position with money (a practice thoroughly despised by professional soldiers, but allowed by authorities of Argonath as a source of income) solely and only to further his political career. He spends most of the time throwing his weight around, acting as if his position of commander allows him to do whatever he wants and being generally obnoxious and arrogant to everyone around him. When the 8th Regiment is sent on campaign to Ourdh, he quickly proves to be an abysmal and incompetent leader, abusing his troops for little to no reason, showing no commanding skills whatsoever and acting queasy and cowardly when in real battle.
  • Noble Demon: The officer in charge of Padmasan operations in the Kraheen empire on the Eigo continent, general Kreegsbrok, is pretty much the only Padmasan leader who isn't portrayed as a complete bastard. His methods are purely pragmatic, which means he doesn't engage in wanton war crimes when they don't serve any purpose and he doesn't advocate unnecessary cruelty towards slaves, since they are a valuable work force. Moreover, the Kraheen rulers were vicious bastards even before his takeover, so by overthrowing them he did their subjects a favor and actually improved their lives. Even Relkin calls Kreegsbrok a man of honor (though he also accuses him of losing said honor by serving such evil masters).
  • No Woman's Land:
    • Padmasa mostly has women used as breeding slaves, with the rest clearly holding inferior status to men.
    • The Teetol and Ourdhi are very patriarchal, with their women sold regularly to outsiders (Padmasa is a main buyer).
  • Only Sane Woman: Haruma ba Shogemessar, the aunt of Ourdh emperor Banwi Shogemessar, is pretty much the only person in his court with brains. She appreciates the military aid from Argonath and always takes their advice seriously while others would rather dismiss it. She sees through Princess Zettila's agenda while Banwi trusts her blindly. She seeks aid from Ribela of Defwode the moment she suspects Banwi may be under control of an evil spell and later helps keep the emperor in line when he would rather flee from his besieged capital and leave the whole mess to others. Too bad Banwi is too much of an immature Manchild to heed her advice, and other court officials and military leaders are too jingoistic and convinced of their own superiority to even consider that the Argonathi and witches in its service may be on to something.
  • Our Dragons Are Different:
    • The series contains flightless, wingless dragons with aquatic ancestry. They are integrated into human society and fight with swords and use tools. There are also wild winged dragons, but neither type breathes fire.
    • Properly only the winged dragons are called dragons in the series. The non-flying ones are referred to as Wyverns.
    • Another note is that the Purple Green, during one particularly strenuous battle after he later joins up with Bazil's unit wishes that he had the fiery breath of his ancestors. Whether that is fact or just a dragon legend is never elaborated on.
    • They are highly resistant to magic, which is useful for withstanding enemy spells but also has the downside that healing ones don't work as well on them.
  • Our Dwarves Are Different: Dwarves do exist on Ryetelth, although they are a Dying Race to the point that most of this world's inhabitants are either entirely unaware of them, think they're extinct already or just downright dismiss them as a product of fairy tales. They appear only in book three and it appears they all live in an underground realm which seems to be built on slavery. All in all — contrary to typical, heroic portrayal of the race in fantasy — they are portrayed pretty much as a bunch of jerkasses who kidnap innocent people from the surface and force them to work like beasts of burden, making heavy use of whips while at it. Relkin is abducted by them and almost ends up as a slave himself, but fortunately, he is saved by timely intervention of Althis and Sternwal.
  • Our Elves Are Different: There are a few sub-races of elves in the series. All of them share some common traits like the standard long hair, pointed ears, willowy bodies and lack of aging, but other than that, they're all quite different.
    • First, you've got the wood elves, who sometimes appear as allies to Argonath, but are generally rather aloof and emotionally distant towards the humans. Some live in cities with more mundane lives, though they're still largely in forests. Further, they also have features more like dryads in myths, being born from trees, with their blood smelling like apples. Also by reproducing with humans it would produce an imp, a kind of monster used by the bad guys here.
    • The High Elves are given a mention somewhere in the series, but they do not appear in person and are not depicted in any way, so we may only assume that they conform to the typical image of Eldar in popular culture.
    • There are also the Golden Elves (contrary to their name, it's only their eyes that are gold), who are the eldest people on Ryetelth and established probably the first civilization, based in the city of Gelderen. Currently, however, they are a Dying Race, scattered across the world. Some of them, like Althis and Sternwal, are still out there, trying to do some good, but a significant part of their population settled in an enclave of Mirchaz, where, in isolation from the world, they degenerated from the noble and righteous people they used to be into the rotten, amoral and needlessly cruel fantastic racists they are now.
    • Both Waakzaam and Sinni look basically like overgrown elves, indicating they are progenitors of the race.
  • Our Ogres Are Hungrier: Ogres are yet another type of monster bred by Padmasa for combat purposes and basically a souped-up version of a standard run-of-the-mill troll, larger and taller even than dragons (except Purple-Green), but very dumb and barely sentient. They are a part of a great army invading Argonath in book three and their intended purpose was to tear down the walls of capital cities like Marneri — hence why they were armed with hammers. However, General Lukash wastes them away on fruitless attempt at breaking through Argonathi defences at Sprian's Ridge (not that it matters in the long run, since the entire army is slaughtered in battle and it never reaches Marneri nor any other large city).
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: The slaves revolting in Tummuz Orgmeen mercilessly slaughter all their overseers and every hman or imp fighting for the Doom, since all helped enslave them.
  • Pre-Climax Climax: Minanswa has sex with Relkin before the battle against the Sephists resumes, knowing they both may die.
  • Prehensile Tail: The dragons' tails are so dexterous that they can grab even small objects (by coiling around them), basically serving as a third prehensile limb. This allows them even to wield additional weapons in battle, in the form of tail maces or tail swords.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy:
    • This is one of two main reasons why dragons readily join the legions of Argonath (the second being their hatred of Padmasa). They enjoy fighting — both in real battle and friendly competition — and take pride in their martial prowess.
    • The Teetol, an uncivilized tribal people who live near Argonath are another example, and their men engage in frequent non-lethal duels with poles over sleights. Foreigners that insult them are challenged to the same, and they love fighting generally.
    • The Baguti horse nomads are much given to fighting others, and making raids for slaves, collecting scalps or heads of their dead enemies. While fighting they often harangue other Baguti for cowardice if they retreat.
  • Puppet King:
    • Thrembode attempted to make the prince of Marneri into this, since he's a brain-damaged and easily manipulated fool, so he can be a pawn of Padmasa after becoming king. However, this is thwarted by the witches, who arrange some "accident" for him.
    • The people of Kraheen worship Ajoth Gol Dib like a messiah, Kraheen armies fight in his name, and yet he holds no real power. He is just a religious figurehead, used by Padmasa to control the locals.
  • Really Gets Around: Besita is known for having young men as lovers quite frequently, and this makes it easy for Thrembode to seduce her as just the latest.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Powerful magic users live for centuries here. This includes the evil Masters of Padmasa, along with the good witches. Lessis and Ribela, the main witch characters, are both centuries old while looking middle aged at most.
  • Religion is Magic: Witches are also worshipers of the Great Mother, and they are a branch of clergy themselves with those like Lessis having high ranks in the Temple while called "Sisters" like nuns (although they aren't sworn to remain celibate), serving in the goddess's cause against evil.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent:
    • Inverted, for the most part. Of all non-human races in the setting, dragons are actually the one which is the closest to humans, being integrated into their society, living and fighting by their side and even being the most friendly on personal level. Amusingly, members of traditionally human-aligned races (like elves or dwarves) are sometimes unfavourably compared to dragons when it comes to their relationship with humans. Even better — in distant past, humans and dragons were pretty much the best pals (until the former began to multiply to no bounds and take away the Lebensraum from the latter) who held no secrets from each other and shared their knowledge and discoveries about the world (for example, it was the dragons who discovered how to navigate at night using stars — and taught humans how to do it). In final book, Sinni openly call dragons a role model for humans in evil and treacherous world, so that seals the deal.
    • This trope is occasionally played straight In-Universe, though, with certain characters who still hold a dislike towards dragons for various reasons, ranging from their monstrous appearance (which makes people outside Argonath consider them mindless animals), to the trouble and cost of their upkeep (which makes them very unpopular among some noblemen, particularly grain magnates who would rather sell their wares on the market rather than contribute to feeding the dragon corps) to downright petty ones like their ostensibly bad smell (according to Porteous Glaves, at least). Then again, since such opinions either stem from ignorance or are shared by characters who are either jerkasses or openly evil, there is no doubt how much value they actually hold.
    • One situation where this trope is played completely straight is the dragon freeze, a natural reaction of a typical human to seeing an adult dragon (and looking them in the eyes in particular). Most people are just immobilized with fear as a consequence. Only those who meet dragons on a daily basis (like dragonboys or other soldiers in the Argonathi legions) are unaffected, though there are also some humans who seem to have an innate immunity to the dragon freeze (like king Choulaput, who looked at Bazil — the first dragon he ever saw in his entire life — and remained calm).
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Thrembode is fending off Baguti who want to rape Besita and kill him for stopping this, his men start deserting as they don't want to die too.
  • Series Continuity Error: Lots of them. Generally, Rowley seems to have a lot of trouble keeping the lore of his setting in line.
    • According to the first book, Bazil's first sword Piocar was wielded by many generations of dragons hailing from Quosh. This is retconned in book four, which states that it was forged specifically for Bazil after the whole village gathered enough money to afford it. Also, Piocar's first origin story seems to ignore the fact that family bonds play little role among dragons, so it raises questions just why a precious sword would be passed from generation to generation.
    • It never seems clear just how much integrated the dragons are with Argonath society. The first novel indicates that it is a common thing for them to walk in the streets of towns and do some mundane things like visiting an inn in order to have a drink. Later books, however, imply that it is a rare sight.
    • It is also never clearly stated what dragons' Trademark Favourite Food — an extra hot spice called akh — is actually made of. Its ingredients are supposedly fully listed in the first book, but in later novels, narration refers to other stuff that were not previously mentioned like hot peppers.
    • During the battle at Red Oak Mountain in the first book, one of the dragonboys of the 109th Dragon Squadron named Rosen Jaib is very clearly described as killed in action (his dragon Vander is even kneeling over his bled-out body). It doesn't seem to stick, though. A few chapters later, when the 109th meets up with wood elves, Rosen Jaib has a speaking line in a dialogue. Even later, after battle at Ossur Galan, he is talking to his sleeping dragon. There is no explanation for this miraculous recovery.
    • In book three, we are told that committing suicide in despair is very common among dragonboys who lost their dragons. In book four, we are told that the most frequent cause of death of a dragonboy is getting squashed by their own dragon or getting accidentally beheaded by their sword. None of those ever happen once in entire series, though (well, it kinda does — but dragon involved, Carath, was already dead at the time and his headless corpse just collapsed on his dragonboy, so it hardly counts). Although we see many squires dying, all of them are simply killed in action by enemy soldiers and there is zero mention of any of them committing suicide, even though they'd have plenty of opportunities as dragons die in battle just as often.
    • In the fourth novel, after Relkin and his fellow dragonboys are (falsely) accused of trying to gang-rape a female sailor Birjit and all face flogging, at some point he ponders how he's going to explain to his children (if he ever gets any) how he got the resulting scars on his back — a mark of shame typical for a punished convict. The catch is that Relkin's back is already scarred since he got repeatedly whipped after refusing to follow orders of dwarves who tried to enslave him (in previous book, no less). Interestingly, Rowley suddenly recalled that detail while writing the following novel, where a slaver named Katun asks Relkin where he got those scars on his back.
    • When we first meet Ecator, Lessis claims that he was created by her (or just imbued with magic) a long time ago; in the same issue, he gives his life back to her in order to heal and revitalize her and his spirit is later used to enchant the sword of the same name, given to Bazil. However, when Waakzaam meets Bazil in combat a few books later, he recognizes the spirit inhabiting the blade as his old enemy. Mind you, while Lessis is a few hundred years old, it's still little compared to Dominator who is basically as ancient as the universe itself. So there is no way he would recognize Ecator — a magical cat created by a witch who has lived for only a few centuries — as his old adversary.
    • In the penultimate novel, we suddenly learn that all dragonesses serving in legions are infertile — something which was never ever brought up or even implied in any previous book. While it thus doesn't directly contradict any specific lore, it's still strange that such important information appears only when the series is nearing to an end. In the first book, the only dragoness is mentioned to be a freemartin (infertile) but with no indication that it's universal to those in the legions.
    • In final novel, we are introduced to a sub-breed of brasshide dragons named crullo, whose notable trait is their unusal, purple-ish color of scales. Other dragons, on the other hand, call members of this sub-breed "blue", supposedly because their eyes are unable to see the color purple. Apparently, Rowley somehow managed to forget that since the very first volume, one of our protagonists was a certain dragon known as Purple-Green — and other members of his kind had literally zero trouble recognizing his color.
  • Sex for Services: Relkin lies to Bazil that he got a potion which can regrow his tail stub through giving a witch orchids and sexual favors. Bazil sees through it immediately, aware of Relkin's boasts.
  • Sex Slave: Minanswa was kidnapped by men her evil aunt hired and forced into prostitution in a brothel to get rid of her so she can get Minanswa's inheritance. She is later rescued by Relkin, but it appears to be a sadly common practice in Ourdh.
  • Sexy Discretion Shot: This is how sex scenes are dealt with in the books. Characters will be clearly about to have sex, and then a scene will end.
  • Shared Life Energy: Lessis is partially revived from near death in the first book by a group of rats sharing their life force with her, along with her friend Ecator sacrificing himself and a great spell from Lagdalen.
  • The Siege: Much of the second book revolves around the Argonathi soldiers defending Ourdh against the Sephisti fanatics besieging it.
  • Slave Liberation:
    • At the end of the first book, in Tummuz Orgmeen Lessis frees many female breeding slaves and leads them in a revolt, helping to defeat their masters.
    • After getting separated from their unit and lost in an ancient jungle in book five, Bazil and Relkin stumble upon the primitive people of Ardu, who are constantly raided by slavers from Mirchaz. They liberate them from slave camps, then help them establish an organized tribe and even offer them combat training in order to give them a fighting chance against slavers in the future. Later, when Relkin is abducted by slavers himself, Bazil leads the Ardu to war against Mirchaz, scoring many victories and liberating even more slaves.
  • Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil:
    • One of the things which makes it clear that the Enemy is evil stems from their widespread enslavement, especially for particularly nasty uses like birthing monsters.
    • It's also the worst aspect of the Ourdh Empire (a frequent slave seller to the Enemy), with it featuring widespread mutilation (castration of male slaves, plus tongue removal) and sex slavery.
  • Snake Talk: It's very rare, but dragons talk that way occasionally, usually when vocalizing their approval with "yesss".
  • Speaks Fluent Animal: Lessis is capable of talking with birds in their own language. Other witches also have this ability, giving them instructions to deliver messages for instance.
  • The Squadette: Non-human example. Bazil and Relkin's unit included a single dragoness twice in the series. The first one was Nesessitas a.k.a. Nessi, who was killed in the arena of Tummuz Orgmeen. The second one was Alsebra, who is still alive and kicking at the series finale.
  • Squishy Wizard: Thoroughly averted. The magic spells are usually not as impressive nor destructive as in your typical modern fantasy setting and those that are powerful often require complex rituals to perform them, and thus are not very useful in actual battle. Thus, the wizards and sorcerers in this setting do not rely on their magical powers too much and are also trained in melee combat. A prime example is Lessis of Valmes herself, who looks deceptively frail, but is in fact surprisingly strong and skilled with knives and swords.
  • Tail Slap: Dragons of Argonath do perform this, though not too often, preferring to rely on their swords. In an unusual variation of this trope, their tails are dexterous enough to wield additional weapons — sword or mace.
  • Take Over the World:
    • This is the Masters of Padmasa's goal. In fact, they're just one part of an interdimensional struggle though, with wars occurring across many worlds and planes of existence.
    • Waakzaam already managed to achieve that goal twelve times already, albeit offpage. However, by trying to conquer Ryetelth and challenging the dragon armies of Argonath — especially Bazil and Relkin — he bit off more than he could chew.
  • Tampering with Food and Drink:
    • General Hektor is poisoned along with other officers by wine Ourdhi civilians give them. A couple die and he falls into a coma, leaving General Paxion in command with a difficult time.
    • A group of dragons and dragonboys are drugged with doped beer while in Ourdh. When they fall asleep, Relkin and Bazil are kidnapped to serve as sacrifices.
  • Targeted Human Sacrifice: In the second book Relkin, Lagdalen and Bazil get kidnapped then scheduled to be sacrifices in Ourdh, as the followers of a goddess there believe that she'll protect them from the Sephites after they're offered to her. This does not work out, of course, since they soon break free.
  • Their First Time: Relkin has sex with Minanswa and loses his virginity by doing so in book two.
  • Third-Person Person: Dragons frequently switch between this and grammatically correct speech for no particular reason.
  • This Is My Human: Although outwardly dismissive of their human companions, dragons are actually very protective of them and see them as the closest persons they have to a family (and vice versa).
  • Tongue Trauma: In Ourdh it's common for slaves to have their tongues removed-"muted" as they call it.
  • Too Important to Walk: High officials in Ourdh wear platform shoes they can't walk in at all, instead getting carried everywhere on sedan chairs.
  • Trademark Favourite Food:
    • Dragons of Argonath absolutely love beer and will usually go into a cheerful song after the first round (mind you, due to their size, the first round typically means downing an entire barrel — per dragon). They like it so much that denying them beer can actually be a blow to their morale (like in Kohon, which was overtaken by religious fanatics at the time and which prohibited many things — alcoholic beverages included — rendering beer unavailable).
    • Dragons will generally eat whatever you will serve them, even oatmeal or noodles, but will only genuinely like it if you serve it with a considerable amount of akh — a chili sauce-esque extra hot spice which dragons find delicious and will eat with just about everything. Also, due to their predatory nature, they really enjoy good meat — especially horseflesh — but they are particularly fond of fish and other frutti di mare, since they are naturally aquatic predators.
  • Trading Bars for Stripes: It's mentioned that some Argonathi soldiers are convicts who join the legions in lieu of serving long sentences.
  • Try to Fit That on a Business Card: The Ourdhi Emperor has so many titles that they are actually never listed in full.
  • Underground City:
    • Tummuz Orgmeen is largely inside of a hollowed out mountain.
    • Padmasa's capitol is also mostly subterranean, with the Master's chambers deep below ground.
  • Upper-Class Twit:
    • Porteous Glaves is a rich man who buys his commission and has no military experience. Imposing uncomfortable collars on the men causes instant loathing from them. After seeing battle, he's horrified and tries to desert immediately afterward.
    • Wiliger comes from an aristocratic family and uses the influence he has to take charge of a unit he is ill-prepared to lead. He is also an emotionally unstable Jerkass who likes to throw his weight around.
    • Count Trego starts out as this, seeing women and commoners as inferior to him. He mellows out over time.
  • Vasquez Always Dies: Inverted with the two dragonesses who serve in the 109th Dragon Squadron. Nesessitas — quite feminine, kind and a caring Nice Girlis killed in the first book, while Alsebra — a slightly tomboyish and abrasive Jerk with a Heart of Goldsurvives till the end of the series.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Bazil and Relkin frequently engage in Snark-to-Snark Combat or otherwise bicker, but there is no doubt that they deeply care for each other and are pretty much like brothers.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Waakzaam, Waakzaam, Waakzaam. His original motivation was to improve the worlds created by the Great Mother and then molded by seven divine beings (including him) she created specifically for that goal. However, the inhabitants of the worlds he visited proved uncooperative, so he quickly resorted to drastic measures such as culling the local population (and by "culling" we mean "driving it to near-extinction") in order to prevent overpopulation or violently quelling the rebellion that broke out because the locals were not happy with the rulers Waakzaam installed. In time, he dropped all subtlety and became a downright evil tyrant, "improving" twelve planets by turning them into utter Crapsack Worlds.
  • Worthy Opponent: After the soldiers left from Argonath manage to beat a force of armed imps in the arena of Tummuz Orgreen while having only wooden shields and swords, they're praised for it, then offered a chance to join the Doom's army. They flatly refuse this however, and are ordered killed in a later bout instead.
  • Xenofiction: The series frequently shows Bazil's perspective on things, along with other dragons at times. It even does this occasionally with normal animals, like a bear in the first book.
  • Zerg Rush: The Sephistis' main tactic is "overwhelm them with numbers". It works fine on the demoralized, very disorganized Ourdh Imperial Army. However, facing the disciplined, well-trained Argonath legions (with dragons in their ranks to boot) it fails utterly-they're slaughtered by the thousands.

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