The Talan Revolt is a series of Heroic Fantasy books by John Blackport set in the royal colony of Foverre. The protagonist, Rick Rivoire, is one of the "Rainguns": an elite unit of spellcasting cavalry who often conjure their own magical mounts. While he enjoys defending his country from legitimate threats, he's troubled by changes in policy. Slave-trading and religious persecution, both rare in his childhood, become distressingly frequent; this ultimately causes Rick to foment rebellion on behalf of Tala, an outlawed goddess whose faithful are bearing the brunt of the tyranny.
Unlike many other series that take inspiration from other works of the genre, or even from tabletop fantasy gaming, this was inspired mostly by LARP. The tech level is loosely set around The Cavalier Years, played with to adjust how the existence of magic and monsters would likely affect the progress of the world's "tech tree". The metaphysics of spells and rituals depend heavily on Vancian Magic. The battles involve a lot of Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors, Sword and Gun, The Cavalry, and Anti-Cavalry.
Tropes in The Talan Revolt books:
- Adventure-Friendly World: Foverre is a prosperous colony; its standard of living has risen steadily over the last hundred years. But what with an uneasy truce with other humans to the north, a bloody stalemate with elves to the west, and the constant threat of piracy plaguing the coast, the land is rich with opportunity for people to live by the sword (or their wits).
- Armor Is Useless: Averted by Terez, whose armor lends her substantial staying power against some powerful revenants in Raingun menacing the 9-year-old Rick. Also by Medegar, both in Resolution and Balislanka.
- Back from the Dead: The world's metaphysics give all humans five "Gifts", or lives, at birth; most people avoid their final exit until their fifth death, except those who die of old age (or before/during their own birth). Since each return from non-final death requires the decedent's spirit to find some kind of holy ground, people sometimes fail to return to the living if they die in a place sufficiently remote or inaccessible (this happens most often on the open ocean). There are also opportunities for powerful clergy to meddle with this process (for good or ill) by advanced spellcasting shenanigans, though never to grant anyone another "Gift" beyond the fifth.
- Church Militant: At least some element of every church, mostly Solaron, Bellinger & the Maker. Tala has no martial arm at the start of the series, but the revolt itself eventually develops into one.
- Cosmic Chess Game: Played by each of the twelve deities, each one usually focusing on their diametric opposite.
- Death Is Cheap: Largely averted; despite the universal truth of multiple lives available to all people, death is still often a very traumatic experience. Many people carry vivid memories of past deaths by drowning, murder, disease, or whatever. In addition, those who wage war merely adapt to everyone's capacity for 5 lives by striving to kill each enemy soldier multiple times to run them out of lives. Or, the bloodthirsty may try to conquer (and hold) all nearby points of raising, to delay (or even prevent) their foes from returning to life. This trope isn't 'completely' averted, though; since the newly-risen materialize with whole bodies free of disease, maimings and scars, some people resort to suicide to effectively undo injuries or diseases, though it's often frowned upon as frivolous and sinful.
- Death of the Old Gods: Tala has replaced Faya, a goddess of healing from centuries past that was killed by Ullon, the still-kicking god of murder and deceit. Faya had a reputation of encouraging passive humility, while Talans strive to be more assertive and decisive.
- Divine Conflict: The gods are assumed to take a personal interest in how their feuds shake out in the world of mortals. At least, that's sure how it looks.
- Guns Are Worthless: Averted. Rick’s trusty pistols get him out of trouble pretty often (or at least, more often than they get him into it.)
- Healing Hands: Mostly for the Talans, but virtually every church has a substantial number of clergy who can perform as the Combat Medic, or at least, The Medic. Exceptions include clergy of the Unmaker (who loves destruction) and Grumach (who loves suffering); evil gods consider the healing of wounds to be sinful, or at least a distasteful necessity.
- Horse of a Different Color: The smokemare is insubstantial, but translucent; visible enough that some of the dumber monsters try to devour it.
- The Good Kingdom: Both "The Realm" (which founded the colony of Foverre) and "The Empire" (which founded the nearby colony of Liebgaard) superficially fit this trope. Their attitudes toward each other continually drift back and forth from peace to war and back again, leading to occasional derivative conflicts between their respective colonies across the ocean (where most of the action of this series takes place).
- Little Hero, Big War: As dedicated, capable and charismatic as Rick Rivoire can be, he's just one hero who crosses paths with many other heroes. He knows his world, and his struggle, can survive (or even prevail) without him. Far from demoralizing him, this knowledge actually keeps him going.
- Muggles Do It Better: The most powerful force in this world is not magic, not religion, but money.
- Only the Chosen May Ride: Smokemares will carry only the Raingun who conjured them: no passengers. In addition, their conjuration spell is guarded by Colonel Altiro, who commands two regiments of Rainguns (the 10th and 11th Light Cavalry). Rather than being taught, the spell to summon a smokemare is imparted to Rainguns upon graduation from Foverre's military academy through a special ritual. A Raingun's knowledge of the spell fades over time, needing to be refreshed periodically by new castings of the ritual every few years. (This is reserved for soldiers who remain Rainguns in good standing).
