Literature / Virtus Draconis

Virtus Draconis (also available in Spanish)

Virtus Draconis is the first of a planned contemporary furry fantasy series written by Puerto Rican author Edi Álvarez in 2023. It is also the author’s debut novel and is published through Amazon in English and Spanish.

The conservative princess of the kingdom of Shaddai, Meredith Staunton, threatens to plunge the world into war over her disagreements with societal progress outside of her kingdom. Her first target is Anthropia, a country of peaceful beastmen. At Meredith’s side stands her general, the alligator regent, Gunter, who also harbors his own doubts and regrets over her decision… and how he’s handled parenting her.

Meanwhile, as word spreads in Anthropia, Claude Virtus, a dragon who is also a mercenary’s apprentice, is sent to his first tour of active duty alongside his brother, the wolfman Mordred Constantine. By the order of their Uncle (both in name and title), Bai-Feng, their mission is as follows: Investigate the princess’s movements, send word to other nations and stop her. Easy, right?

During their first skirmish, Claude saves an endangered healer, Anna, but is promptly poisoned with a deadly, incurable venom by the enemy. What begins as a mad dash for medical attention turns into a dark, horrific venture into forbidden magic to cure Claude… and how brutal a blood price can be in the long run.

The novel takes a different approach to characterization and storytelling: more than half the cast is neurodivergent to some degree, with Claude and Gunter being all but confirmed to be autistic by the narrative as well as Word of God. Part of the purpose of the book is to give mental health as well as autism proper representation. Disorders range from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression to more complex conditions like bipolar disorder. Thus, the novel is marketed explicitly as an “autistic novel”, with a mental health counselor being brought on as a consultant. The novel also goes to painstaking lengths to avoid clichés and stereotypes of these conditions as well as standard fantasy tropes, instead giving them new interpretations or angles.

Two more sequels are planned. Now has a character sheet; do feel free to contribute.

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This work provides examples of :

• Acquired Poison Immunity: It's implied that once Claude is cured by Mystic Anna’s blood, he is immune to the black blood poison he was injected with.
• Action Girl: Anna and Lala.
• Affably Evil: Ruhiel.
• Alliterative Name: Brandl Bustamante. This is never mentioned in the work itself, however.
• Ambiguously Bi: Gunter.
• The Apprentice: Claude is an apprentice mercenary to Bai-Feng. He tragically graduates from this position with Bai-Feng’s murder.
• Arc Words:
  • “Do you understand how the divine works?” The librarian’s warning to Anna.
  • “I don’t like debts.” Said by Anna when discussing why she’s helping Claude even though they only just met.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Gunter’s martial artist squad sticks with him, rather than the Queen after Meredith's coronation.
• The Atoner: Gunter only seeks to try to undo what he's indirectly responsible for.
• Berserk Button:
  • Suicide is a hot-button issue for Bai-Feng, who express incredulity and disgust whenever it's brought up.
  • Gunter finds bullying and abuse to be abhorrent and will use corporal punishment if necessary to fight it.
• Best Served Cold: This is Claude’s mindset after Mordred’s Heroic Sacrifice, as well as Bai-Feng’s death. It brings him no comfort.
• Big Bad: Meredith Staunton has a serious grudge against the world over her country's outdated way of life being all but erased and forgotten in the face of what she thinks is harmful progress.
• Big Eater: Bai-Feng likes his food.
• Bittersweet Ending: Meredith is defeated and the war is over (with an astronomical body count thanks to her magic missile), but Mordred and Bai-Feng are dead and Claude and Gunter are all alone. While Claude has Anna for company now, it’s unknown whether Gunter has someone waiting for him.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Discussed more than once by the characters, as some, like Claude, don’t believe in this and would rather try to do the right thing even when it’s not feasible.
• Blood Magic: One of many types of magics in the setting. Unlike other examples of the trope, however, blood magic is shown to be perfectly benevolent, as blood is considered a holy substance. It’s people that have perverted and corrupted blood magic. There’s a good reason that the Apostle and Pilgrim system is forbidden, as the ritual is man-made and therefore dangerous.
• Blood Knight: Bai-Feng loves his scraps.
• Book Ends: The novel begins and ends with Claude reading an interracial romance book.
• Break Them by Talking: Brandl pulls this on Ruhiel. It works for a while.
• Brutal Honesty:
  • Mordred, Claude and Bai-Feng share this trait. The difference, however, is that Mordred is a total Jerkass when being honest. Bai-Feng at least restrains himself and Claude is Innocently Insensitive at best.
  • Gunter doesn't mince his words either. He's much more timid about this though, when not on the job.
• Casanova Wannabe: A late chapter has some discussion about Mordred being this- mostly in a mocking tone.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: When storming the Casus Belli, Lala and Claude engage in playful banter to calm their nerves. Lala has the gall to say that she’s finally not bored.
• Chekhov's Gun: Anna’s blood. It’s the catalyst that grants the pilgrim the Hand of God.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Claude has mild shades of this, being the Manchild that he is.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Mordred to Claude.
• Cynicism Catalyst: A villainous example: Meredith loses all faith in the world after Gunter leaves her. She never realizes that it's her own fault.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The ritual Anna undergoes is shown to be particularly brutal on the participant, bordering on life threatening. It's implied that it rearranges your bones and organs around while you're conscious. Ironically, it's one of the few ways to meet the kind-hearted, regretful Adonai, who then tests you to ascertain whether you're worthy of being a Mystic.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Claude has a lot of baggage to sort through: his parents were murdered by mutant yetis, he was ostracized by the city he used to live in, and grew up with a mildly dysfunctional (but still loving) family.
• Deconstruction: Everyone has some sort of mental hangup. Claude and Gunter are heavily implied to be autistic, Anna becomes bipolar and prone to violence, especially after becoming Mystic Excelsis, Lala seems to be depressed or cynical, Bai-Feng is a bloodthirsty warrior with impulse control issues when in battle, and Meredith is, well, Meredith. Mordred and Brandl are the only characters who seem to be relatively stable, though the former does keep up a stoic facade because he’s secretly The Resenter, while Brandl is akin to being the Warrior Therapist who specializes in Awesomeness by Analysis.
• Double Standard: Played for laughs when Anna invites herself into the entourage: she thinks it’s because she’s a woman. They think it’s because she’s too dangerous to keep around.
• The Dreaded: Ruhiel to his men.
• Duel to the Death: Twice: Claude VS Ruhiel, and then Claude and Gunter VS Meredith during the finale.
• Establishing Character Moment: Ruhiel’s first act when introduced is to ask the soldiers to kill the moles because they’re not trustworthy.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Gunter is tersely disapproving of Meredith using forbidden magic to banish a mook's soul to Hell. It’s implied that this is not the first time she’s done this.
  • Two of the Angels immediately mutiny when Meredith reveals her plan to use a magic missile to slaughter an entire city. It sadly doesn’t take.
  • There are certain lines Claude won’t cross: for all his weirdo mannerisms and beliefs, he has a strong moral code.
• Evil Reactionary: Meredith is incensed at the world's constant evolution and adapting to societal changes. While what exactly she is pissed off about is unclear in the narrative, the subtext strongly implies that Shaddhai is a conservative nation. What being conservative means within the context of the story isn't fully addressed, but the allegory that an established order is being pushed aside or otherwise forgotten in favor of more progressive policies is there.
• Exact Words: A saddened Claude says to Ruhiel, “God Save Us from the Queen!”, word for word. This is almost exactly what happens later, as Meredith dies to the Hand of God.
• Family of Choice: A critical trope in the series. In this particular instance, family is a big deal to Claude Virtus, and he loathes it when people try to tell him what family is or means. He lost his original family as a child due to circumstances beyond his control, and was lost and hopeless for a time before being taken in by Bai-Feng Lei. The impact being adopted left in him is notable in the present, as Claude and Mordred both consider him the Honorary Uncle. Claude values both of his families equally, as he is seen reverently paying homage to his actual family at the beginning of the book, and is later howling his heart out with grief when Bai-Feng is killed. Family is family, after all- no matter where it comes from.
• Fantastic Nuke: Meredith fires Justice, a soul-powered missile, on the village of Prelid in order to destroy the protagonists, unaware that they are already on their way to meet her head-on aboard the Cassus Belli. Said missile, equal in firepower to a nuke, is fueled by the forcefully extracted souls of the ship's crew, and fired by the sacrifice of her warlocks. The end result is tragic and takes Mordred's life, ensuring that there is no peaceful end to the affair.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Shaddhai resembles the present day United States culturally, while Anthropia is strongly reminiscent of Latino countries such as Puerto Rico.
• Five-Man Band: During the conclusion of the Prelid arc:
  • The Leader: Claude
  • The Lancer: Gunter
  • The Big Guy: Brandl
  • The Heart: Anna
  • The Smart Girl: Lala
• Foreshadowing: A scene early in the book has the macabre description of Meredith sending a soldier’s soul to Hell, with Gunter denouncing the event as an affront to the divine. Meredith later does something similar, but to a much grander scale. She primes a magic missile (that turns out to be a magic nuke) with the forcefully-extracted souls of the Cassus Belli’s crew and propels it with the souls of her warlocks. The whole thing plays out very graphically and viscerally and is described as forbidden, blasphemous magic.
• The Fundamentalist: Never spelled outright, but implied for Meredith and maybe the rest of the Angels. Gunter’s case is unclear.
• Heel–Face Turn: Gunter, no longer willing to abide Meredith’s more despicable crimes, decides to join the heroes, knowing full well that he will probably not be trusted nor welcomed.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Mordred uses a longsword as a weapon, alongside his firearm.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Anna suffers a crisis after she nearly murders a drunkard that called her several unflattering things and she was unable to control the rage. This is one of the times her bipolarism is in full display, with her emotions running the gamut from frightened to desperate.
  • Realizing that he’s just killed a child in self-defense without a care in the world, Claude goes into a severe panic attack, not understanding what is happening to him or why. He can’t understand his emotions at this time, and it takes a very patient, experienced Mordred to calm him down with an actual technique for managing panic attacks. The subtext implies that this has happened before.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Painfully deconstructed: When discussing how to board the Casus Belli, it’s mentioned that someone has to stay behind to coordinate evacuation efforts. Mordred volunteers, arguing that out of everyone else in the party, they’ll just be The Load (everyone else has some sort of special power or skill, while he’s basically the Badass Normal of the group). Claude immediately protests that he can’t do this without them. Their response is an Armor-Piercing Question that renders Claude unable to make any other convincing arguments, with Gunter sadly declaring that it’s time to go. This last, selfless moment leads to his death by magic bombing.
  Mordred: So it’s okay for them to die? You’re volunteering them? Can you really make that choice?
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Ruhiel is killed by his own lightning once Claude removes his lightning rod helmet.
• Hollywood Autism: Claude and Gunter are aversions of this trope, as the author is on the spectrum.
  • Claude is on the more severe end of the spectrum, with his penchant for being Innocently Insensitive, difficulty handling sarcasm (he gets it, but struggles with expressing it himself), general social immaturity and childishness and a tendency to run his mouth. He also enjoys repeating facts and speeches to himself mentally. However, he is surprisingly well-adjusted (thanks to Bai-Feng's complex tutelage, no doubt) for someone so traumatized: he is a Nice Guy, unfailingly polite, and good in a fight. His symptoms are far more obvious as a child, if his words are any indication: he was very shy and was bullied relentlessly.
  • Gunter is more high-functioning than Claude, with symptoms highly reminiscent of what was once considered Asperger's syndrome: he, too, is an awkward, serious person who struggles to truly connect with people, stumbles with his words when he's trying to make a point, and is hyper-focused and knowledgeable about one specific thing (that being martial arts). He is also emotionally stunted, as he struggles with expressing his feelings. Gunter also has the attention span of a mouse and an unusual fixation for clothes of all things. Lastly, he is sexually repressed, like many autistics, as he finds himself at one point wondering if he can even attain a relationship after everything he's done.
• Honorary Uncle: Bai-Feng to Claude and Mordred. It’s a lot more profound for the latter, which causes some The Resenter issues later.
• I Choose to Stay: Mordred chooses to stay behind at Prelid to coordinate the evacuation, which seals his fate later.
• Improbable Weapon User: Lala summons her shadow to fight for her by singing.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Claude and Gunter commiserate during the end of the Prelid arc over their fight against Meredith, complaining that being a hero isn't all it's cracked up to be.
• It's All About Me: Meredith doesn’t stop once to consider the ramifications of her actions on her kingdom and subjects, instead subjecting them to a blanket “things will be better under my rule, I promise” policy. Throughout the story, support for Meredith from Shaddhai drops considerably.
• It's Personal: Claude’s rage speaks for itself when Mordred is killed by Meredith’s magic nuke. Bai-Feng’s death doesn’t help.
• Jerkass to One: Mordred is normally a civilized guy. But once Gunter joins up, he becomes an absolute asshole to them. Given that they’re partly responsible for the war, however, it’s hard to find fault in Mordred for this. He gets mildly better about it.
• Manchild: Claude is very silly by nature and playful. It’s his coping mechanism.
• Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: When Claude gets a jab at Mordred’s rather pathetic love life, Mordred fires back with a joke like this.
  Mordred: At least I don’t go out with my hands.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Obviously, Lala Doremi’s last name is composed of the musical notes do, re and mi. She’s a soprano.
  • Claude’s last name, Virtus, means virtue in Latin. Claude is a Nice Guy with a strong moral code.
• Mood Whiplash: One second there is friendly banter to calm everyone’s nerves, and the next, the magical equivalent of a tactical nuke is launched and levels an entire city and possibly more of the surrounding area.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently, Mordred was once pushed into a beehive when trying to hit on some girls and has scars on his butt from the stings. He somehow got out of a harassment lawsuit.
• Not Good with Rejection: Meredith reacts viscerally when confronted with rejection, as it bites into her insecurities and concerns and she really has no one to discuss them with.
• Nothing Personal: Brandl to Ruhiel.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Claude, Bai-Feng and Mordred have to restrain an understandably enraged Anna after she gets compared to a snake, as well as being treated like an anomaly by others on account of her being Mystic Excelsis. That the imagery invoked is Biblical in origin is poignant.
  • Ruhiel panics considerably once Claude unleashes his Hand of God for the first time, as he finds it utterly inconceivable that someone like him has it.
  • A collective one from the team once Justice is fired.
• Parental Substitute: Overlaps with Honorary Uncle: Bai-Feng became this to Claude and Mordred.
• Perfect Poison: Black Blood, which has no antidote except the blood of a Mystic. Two guesses as to what happens.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Justice is fired specifically to raze Prelid and the protagonists. Her plan is undone, as the protagonists take the fight to her. She doesn’t care.
• The Resenter: Mordred secretly resented Claude for years because the dragon was so emotionally damaged when he was adopted that he was high maintenance, so to speak. As his family dynamic changed and he became a caretaker to a mentally unusual individual that required certain care, he missed when it was just him and Bai-Feng, which caused Mordred to be mildly jealous of the attention Claude got. Bai-Feng actually apologizes for this on his deathbed, saying that he caused Mordred undue suffering for it. Therefore, Mordred seems to be commentary on the plight of caretakers today, who are frequently unprepared to deal with the situation and have little support to work through their issues.
• The Reveal:
  • Anna undergoes a Dangerous Forbidden Technique to become a Mystic so she can transfuse blood to Claude to cure him.
  • Claude is at least part Shaddhaian. His parents eloped and escaped Shaddhai and settled in a village in Anthropia. Ruhiel calls this Shaddhai’s worst kept secret and implies this is why Meredith struck Anthropia first. Said village turns out to be Prelid.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Everyone fights Meredith to the death to avenge Mordred and the city of Prelid, enraged by her descent into madness.
• Screw You, Elves!: Meredith is the last elf. She dies. Apparently, the author hates elves.
• Self-Made Orphan: A tragic example. Claude’s parents took an attack or two for him as a child from mutant yetis so he could live. This caused him to be ostracized and shunned by Prelid, as his parents were much loved. Orphaned, he was eventually taken in by a moved Bai-Feng.
• Sequel Hook: Gunter is governor of Shaddhai in the Epilogue, Claude is headed to college and things are looking up.
• The Starscream: Gunter becomes this after the Dalet arc.
• Stepford Smiler: Claude has gone through so much crap in his life, it’s no wonder he puts up a cheerful front.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Anna after becoming Excelsis. Not so much evil, but misunderstood. While it typically shows up when extremely angry, the truth is far more complex than that. Said side is really just a very righteous, just version of Anna that will deliver justice and do the right thing no matter what- for better or worse. Claude also gets his own take on the trope, but his is far more bloodthirsty and focused, akin to Dragon Ball Super's Ultra Instinct, but much more emotional.
• Tragic Keepsake: The Rosicrucian spear.
• The Unfettered: Meredith takes some rather drastic steps to ensure that her ideals are protected, up to and including mass genocide and murder.
• Tyke Bomb: Ruhiel has been raised from childhood to be a master sorcerer, with terrible damages to his psyche in return.
• Unreliable Narrator: When narrating his backstory to Anna, Claude is vague about a couple of details. He may have repressed much of his traumatized life.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Once Meredith is defeated and the party returns to land, Claude and Gunter, who are aware that I Did What I Had to Do, don’t feel like celebrating, and are instead drained.
• Warrior Therapist: Brandl is very psychological and likes to get into people's heads. When in battle, to mess with your head. Out of battle, he helps you figure yourself out.
• Wham Episode: The Prelid arc is just brutal and relentless to the group, and tests their morals and beliefs thoroughly.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Gunter blames himself for what Meredith has become, so of course he's haunted by her approval of him.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Gunter delivers one of these speeches twice: one to a soldier of his who was bullied by another, and later to Claude. The latter then turns the exact speech around to Gunter to pull him out of a funk.
• You Can't Go Home Again: For a long time, Claude felt this way about Prelid. Until he’s forced to return and confront his demons.

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