Fate By Blades is a war epic set on the planet of Aelithia. The world is torn by war as individuals rise to power. Backstabbing, betrayal and epic battles dominate this World of Badass.
The Series exists with the same universe as The 15 Keys, the plotlines of the two mixing to create a whole story.
A second installment has been announced entitled 2nd Fate By Blades. A game adaptation for the first book is also in the works, though it will differ greatly from the book storyline. A game adaptation is also in the works, made by the people behind Forsaken Chronicle.
The story
can be found on DeviantArt and Elfwood.
See also: The Adept and The 15 Keys
Fate by Blades contains examples of:
- All Your Powers Combined: The Figure in White can wield spectral version of 14 of the 15 Blades, with the full power of each blade behind them.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different:
- You know all those characters who survived the events of Fate By Blades? Don't expect to see any of them in the sequel.
- Well, Salseus Firth comes back to antagonise new Protagonist Alfa Beowulf.
- And the Figure in White is heavily implied to be Kona, so he might count. Also, the Hooded Figure comes back.
- Animal Motif:
- Mitchu is nicknamed the Steel Lion. His eldest son, Kirrin, adopts this motif as his own and wears armour with a lion motif.
- Zac Wolfsblood wears armour with a wolf motif.
- Ax-Crazy:
- Salseus. He openly laughs when he kills people, often exclaims "More" when he's finished killing people and seems to go insane when Alfa has mortally wounded him and wont kill him.
- "Alfa...please...give me more! MORE! I need...more...more pain...more! MOOOOOOOOOORRRRE!!!!"
- Anyone Can Die:
- Essentially, if a character does not have an extensive back story, he's going to die.
- Averted with Kona, who dies, comes back to life and kicks ungodly amounts of ass.
- Ascended Extra: Kona Higube is mentioned early in the story, but only comes to the fore when his father dies.
- Back from the Dead: Kona dies, and resurrects due to his demonic heritage moments later before kicking some ass.
- Badass Bookworm: Arado, Zaknafein and Ezra qualify, Ezra being king of this.
- Big Bad: Lathander De'Mos, in the sequel.
- Surprisingly, Kona Higube turns out to be the big bad in 3rd Fate By Blades.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Katelyn Redraven becomes this after Ax-Crazy Salseus decides to try and turn Alfa into a Fallen Hero.
- Deal with the Devil: This happens a lot in the story. The "Devil" is depicted as a figure who wears a hooded robe that conceals his entire personage. Many characters make deals with this entity, but not so many turn out well.
- Gilliam makes a deal with this figure to help his rebellion, so long as he doesn't sleep with anyone other than whomever the robed figure specifies. Gilliam betrays the "Devil" and his whole rebellion falls apart.
- Lucas makes a deal to gain a beautiful maiden to tempt Kona to serve him. He gets one from the figure, on the condition that she sleeps with no one other than Kona. To ensure she doesn't, Lucas assigns badass Karl Valian, as he can Ignore the Fanservice.
- Kona's ancestor made one and got the sword that Kona wields.
- Deus ex Machina: Fail to uphold your end of a Deal with the Devil and you'll be facing this as your life goes to hell.
- Deus Sex Machina: The "Devil" gets claim over every soul with demon blood. To ensure he gets the most for his money, he trades his demonic "daughters" in exchange for phenomenal cosmic powers so that there are plenty of people running around with demon blood.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
- Arado, a mere mortal, defeats the Demon empowered Ezra.
- A ressurected Samu defeats the Demon Prince Salseus.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Ezra taunts the Hooded Figure. His life doesn't end well.
- Expy: Not just in the traditional sense, but there are a lot of historical expies here.
- Face–Heel Turn:
- Lucas is believed to have pulled this, but some could see it as a Heel–Face Turn. Kona later joins Lucas after Samu dies, so if Lucas is the closest thing to a Big Bad the story has, then Kona probably pulled an epic Face Heel Turn.
- Samu betrayed Mitchu early in the story, despite swearing an oath to put aside ambition. Why he did this isn't clear, but perhaps he did it For the Evulz.
- Kona goes a step further to literally become Demon King and come back to destroy Aelithia. Not conquer, destroy.
- Four-Star Badass: Mitchu, Lucas, Frederick, Samu and Marcus are all leaders who fight alongside their men.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: There is no clear villain in this story, just a lot of Anti-Hero characters who think they're doing the right thing.
- Although, Kona only does what duty compels him to do, so he must either be the only "Good" character in the story. Even if he joins Lucas after Samu dies.
- But then again, Kona joined Samu in the first place. Samu, due to Chronic Backstabbing Disorder betrayed Kona's father, Mitchu. Justified, as Kona didn't know that Samu was the one who betrayed his father.
- Ignore the Fanservice: Lucas gets Karl to guard a Horny Devil whom Lucas intends to marry off to Kona.
- No One Could Survive That!:
- Cato weathers a shower of bullets that killed all of his men, while he was still standing. The story lampshades this as people could scarcely believe he was alive.
- During a game scenario were shown Kona actually stands a chance against Zach's Destructix Rage, though afterwards the dialogue suggets Zach was holding back so as to not destroy the planet
- "That was just a warning Kona, never threaten Lucy again."
- Averted at one point by Kona. He DIDN'T survive getting killed by Peter, but his demonic heritage brought him back to life (And made him even more badass than before)
- Our Zombies Are Different: See Zombie Apocalypse below.
- Stalker with a Crush: Katelyn Redraven to Alfa Beowulf. Then Salseus makes her Brainwashed and Crazy in an almost Love Makes You Evil or Love Makes You Crazy fashion.
- The Plan: Ethan and Ezra are both masters of this.
- Tomeof Eldritch Lore: Gilliam's tome, which later becomes Ezra's.
- Shout-Out: Tons. To name a few:
- Cato and Karl Valian are both fictional versions of Lü Bu.
- Roland Stormcrow wields six swords at once, which is a shout out to Date Masamune as he appears in Sengoku Basara.
- Zac Wolfsblood's armour is a shout out to Game of Thrones.
- Ethan is a shout out to Zhuge Liang from Romance of the Three Kingdoms
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Arado. It also is actually described how he took said level in Badass.
- Alduis, resident Smug Snake, takes a noticeable one, going from a
Woobie to a Four-Star Badass.
- True Companions: Kona and Samu swear brotherhood. They are then inseparable until Samu is killed.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
- Lucas eventually manipulates Samu so that he gets executed, though this was probably to ensure that Kona would join him instead.
- Samu was planning on killing the Emperor, because he was Lucas's Unwitting Pawn. However, this was all part of The Plan dreamed up by Ethan to kill Samu and lure Kona into Lucas's service.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Sort of. The Felltouched spread similarly to zombies, though they display little other characteristics associate with Zombies.
The Game adaptation contains examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Madi Higube, the barely mentioned sister of Kirrin and Kona, is a confirmed playable character.
- Character Customization: Players have been confirmed to be able to create their own officers in decent depth, with every aspect conferring some kind of bonus...even their surname.
- Guest Fighter: Alyfim and Haroakuma have been confirmed to be playable characters whose movesets can also be used in Edit Characters.
- Improbable Weapon User: Samu gets this with his scythe-guitar.
- Katanas Are Just Better: At least, according to Kona they are.
- Mook Chivalry: Inverted. Mooks will attack you en masse, from multiple directions and aggresively. On higher difficulties, without the aid of strategems or your own allied AI officers they will kill you if you aren't careful.
- "Risk"-Style Map: Used in both Story and Warlord Modes.
- Superboss: The Hooded fucking Figure is confirmed as a bonus boss in Warlord Mode. Defeating him lets you use him. But that is not easy...
