One man against an army of witches.
Witch Bane is an independently-published stand-alone fantasy novel by Tim Marquitz.
Sebastian is whisked away at birth, just moments after his mother's death. He returns nineteen years later, a warlock trained in the arts of war. Raised in secret and fed on tales of revenge, he seeks redemption against the witches who betrayed and murdered his mother. Meanwhile, Emerald is the Princess of the Realm and pregnant with a male magic-using child by the General of the witch's armies. Fleeing before her child is sacrificed, Sebastian and his father must decide whether to ally with the child of their enemy or take what revenge they can.
It was released on December 24th, 2012.
This book contains the following tropes:
- Badass Normal: Both Darius and Victor qualify as this.
- Big Bad: Deborah is a ruthless evil scheming psychopathic queen who everyone hates, even her own family.
- Big Good: Elizabeth Bourne thinks of herself as this but is nothing more than an annoyance to the witches.
- Black-and-White Morality: A surprise for a Tim Marquitz novel as this is as close to a struggle between good and evil as he's ever written. Subverted by the ending as Victor was Evil All Along.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Darius falls under the witches' control and has to be killed.
- The Chosen One: Played with. Sebastian has all the earmarks of the Chosen One. He's the son of the previous witch's leader, the most powerful warlock alive, and raised to avenge his mother by destroying the Witch's Council. Subverted by the fact Emerald ends up being the one who actually fixes everything and Sebastian chooses to end his vendetta.
- The trope is subverted by the fact Sebastian may be a Chosen One but he's not the Chosen One as other people have their own plots against the Witch's Council.
- The Dragon: Shade served as this to Deborah.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: No one believes Sebastian has actually killed one of the most powerful witches ever.
- Elite Mooks: The Red Guard are extremely talented and magically assisted soldiers.
- Evil All Along: Victor who played them all like a fiddle.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Just about everyone wants Deborah replaced as monarch but she's very good at rooting out her enemies.
- The Good Kingdom: Mynistiria. Also qualifies as an Stealth Pun as its "Ministeria." Highlighting that the land was once simply administered by the witches.
- The High Queen: Sebastian's mother was one of these. Emerald turns into one of these when she ascends the throne.
- Hookers and Blow: How warlocks are treated by the resistance.
- Immortality Immorality: The Witches turned against warlocks and began murdering them because they found out they could become immortal using their blood.
- Killed Off for Real: Darius is killed at the hands of Victor while Brainwashed and Crazy.
- Lady Land: A Downplayed Trope example. Male magic users are hunted and exterminated but men can rise to the heights of power in the military.
- La Résistance: The Resistance believes it's this but it's actually The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized.
- Magic Knight: Sebastian is a trained warrior as well as a sorcerer. This is the case for most witches in the Red Guard and Warlocks.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Darius is killed at the hands of Victor.
- Twist Ending: Victor impregnated the Princess as part of the plans of an unseen evil force.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: Sebastian determines this and decides it is the nobler thing to let Victor go than make any more orphans. Too bad Victor is evil.
- We ARE Struggling Together: The resistance is something which Darius has nothing but contempt for and tries to pass this opinion down to his son.
