Heralds of Valdemar: Difference between revisions

* [[Distressed Damsel]]: Happens on occasion - Dierna in ''By the Sword'' and Lady Myria in ''The Oathbound'' play it particularly straight - but in most cases the damsel in question does more than just sit around waiting for rescue. In one notable incident from the ''Oathblood'' anthology, the kidnapped girls manage to leave a scent trail for their rescuers to track them by, and then poison their kidnappers to slow them down for the rescue team to catch up, without being suspected until it was much too late.

* [[Divided We Fall]]: The Tayledras and Shin'a'in do this, as they have diametrically opposite ideologies regarding the use of magic. It takes a direct order of their Goddess to get them to start working together. Also, in ''Mage Storms'', Valdemar's nascent alliance is on extremely shaky political grounds and frequently suffers from this problem.

* [[Doomed By Canon]]: Vanyel and Lavan Firestorm, both of whom have the [[Foregone Conclusion|conclusions]] of their stories told in ''Arrows of the Queen'', the very first novel of the series.

* [[Doppelganger Replacement Love Interest]]: Inverted somewhat with Stefen, who does not resemble Tylendel all that much but is more or less confirmed to be his reincarnation, making his lifebond with Vanyel not so much a ''replacement'' lifebond as a ''re''-lifebond.

* [[Drowning My Sorrows]]: Dirk, in ''Arrow's Fall'', due to being wracked with guilt for having procrastinated on teaching one of his trainees a [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique]] which might have saved her life. She died trying to save infants from a fire while on her intern circuit. And of course, the one person who could help him resolve it, Talia, is in a [[Love Triangle]] with him and Kris. He doesn't snap out of it until he collapses completely.

* [[Dual-Wielding]]: Mastered by Alberich.

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]:

** Particularly in the ''Mage Storms'' trilogy when it seems as if [[The End of the World As We Know It]] is going to happen no matter what anyone does to stop it, and the eventual victory comes at a heavy cost for the heroes.

* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: Inflicted by Kethry on Idra's brother in ''Oathbreakers'', as punishment for the betrayal of his kingdom and the brutal rape and murder of his sister.

* [[Faux Affably Evil]]: Lord Orthallen straddles this as well, most vividly seen (or not, rather) when he was acting as Selenay's confidant.

* [[Fighting From the Inside]]: An'desha in ''Winds of Fury'', from within the body that Mornelithe Falconsbane stole from him.

* [[Filk Song]]: There are eight albums of songs written by Lackey. In the early series, the last book in each series had the song lyrics printed in the back as well as information on where to order cassette tapes of the songs.

** Lavan Firestorm performs an almost-literal version against a Karsite invasion in ''Brightly Burning'' -- sadly, it is because his Companion had died and he is [[Taking You With Me]].

* [[Royal Brat]]: Princess Elspeth, thanks to Hulda's manipulations. It's even her unofficial nickname until Talia manages to civilize her.

* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]: The Monarch must be a Herald. Heralds are all Special-Forces-qualified. However, the Heir is noted as the only Herald under orders to stay ''away'' from any danger they can reasonably avoid; when faced with a conflict between this injunction and her duty as a Herald-Mage to take the lead against the forces of evil, Elspeth is only able to resolve the conflict by abdicating her spot in the royal line of succession.

* [[Ruling Couple]]: Selenay and Daren of Valdemar. In fact, any Valdemaran royal spouse will become a co-consort provided that they are also chosen as a herald. There are several examples of this in the back story.

** Solaris is High Priest, ''not'' Priestess, of Karse. Her title is "''Son'' of the Sun." In ''Exile's Honor'', set a generation earlier, the little boy ({{spoiler|Vkandis in disguise}}) mentions to Herald Alberich his daughter who will be his Son.

** In the second part of ''By the Sword'', some ten-plus years prior to Solaris, Kerowyn notes that the High Priest leading Karse in its war against Rethwellan is purportedly a woman pretending to be a man, complete with faux mustache, styling herself "the true-born Son of the Sun."

** Bard [[Clay Aiken|Aiken]].

** In ''Mage Storms'', there's one line where an unnamed character uses a [[Catch Phrase]] from ''[[Ninja High School]]'': "The world can be saved by steam!"

* [[Sword and Sorcerer]]: Tarma and Kethry are this precisely, although it's played with a bit in that Need, their geased sword, makes Kethry a master fighter and Tarma immune to magic.

* [[Symbol Motif Clothing]]: The Tayledras will often have a motif repeated in their clothing, usually something to do with birds or feathers. Given their relationship with birds of prey, this is entirely fitting.

* [[Taking You With Me]]: The purpose of a mage's Final Strike.

* [[Talking in Your Dreams]]: Kero and Eldan in ''By The Sword''. For ten years (and she had no clue he was actually doing it).

** Subverted in ''Winds of Fate'' with Darkwind and his father. In his youth, Darkwind was close to his parents. But when the Heartstone was sabotaged, and Darkwind's mother died, his father turned against him. {{spoiler|It turns out that Darkwind's father is [[Mind Control|Mind Controlled]] by the [[Big Bad]] and is deliberately trying to drive his son away to protect him, in the only way he can. When the spell is broken, Darkwind is amazed at the change in his personality and wonders how he could have failed to notice.}}

* [[What Happened to The Mouse?]]: Heraldic arrow-code, which gets a very detailed description in the "Arrows" trilogy and is critical to the plot of the third book, has never appeared again.

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Firesong gets lambasted in the ''Mage Storms'' trilogy for his fits of jealous rage over An'desha's friendship with Karal. It turns out he was being driven crazy by the storms themselves, so all ends up forgiven.

* [[When She Smiles]]: Talia is often regarded this way, since she's serious so much of the time. During her wedding preparations, Jeri laments, "Two ''hours'' I spend on her, and in the blink of an eye ''he'' makes everything I've done look insignificant!"

* [[Wizarding School]]: There are several schools of magic, with White Winds being the most mentioned one, that has several branches since all graduating mages that reach Master or Adept level are supposed to found schools of their own. Tarma and Kethry end up starting a combination fighting/mage school towards the end of ''Oathbreakers''. In the ''Owls'' trilogy, it's mentioned that a Mage Collegium was set up so that non-Herald Mages can get training and learn to use their magic ethically.

* [[The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask]]: Many Queens (and Kings, for that matter) of Valdemar would be this, save for the Monarch's Own Herald whose job it is to act as an absolutely trustworthy [[The Confidant|confidant]]. Before Talia showed up, Selenay was on the verge of truly falling victim to the isolation of her position, and made some disastrous choices that nearly cost her life and caused her daughter to be a [[Royal Brat]]. Upon coming of age, Elspeth renounces the throne in order to avoid a similar fate.

* [[World Sundering]]: The Cataclysm

* [[World Wrecking Wave]]: The Cataclysm, which takes the form of waves of magical energy emanating from the twin foci of Ma'ar and Urtho's citadels. Where the interaction of the waves produces a "crest", massive destruction is wrought even by comparison with the original purely physical blast. In ''Mage Storms'', the Valdemaran artificers plan much of the Allies' defense against the storms on the basis of a [[Sufficiently Analyzed Magic|geometric analysis of the wave patterns]].

[[Category:Needs Wiki Magic Love]]

[[Category:Heralds Of Valdemar]]