Notes

magocracy
abusive precursors: the original empire; lucius in lost bretonia is even worse
not what it looks like: andreas wayland is introduced as an enemy, but in reality he's a team beneficator
eureka moment: mirror and burning down undead
brought down to badass: meg is also an engineer by trade, which comes in handy; same with her enormous ability to be a human calculator
requires secondary powers: being a good magician also requires being good at math
magic gesture: subverted
mad scientist: meg does advanced math to fight nausea
power at price: one can develop Brand (magic tumor) for all-powerful void magic done on raw instinct; think WFRP chaos taint, thou
brain and heart: Meg (mad scientist) and belle (charmer)
charmer: belle
refuge in audacity: belle pushes it with peasants and then with blanchet
one person industiral revolution: heavily downplayed
prematurely grey hair: they become super-useful (and super-problematic) for kath once in the lost bretonia
forbidden magic: meg had a license for it, vincent took it for granted
precious puppy: as a chekhov skill; vincent trained first aid on various young pets he was taking care for in his youth
nature hero: vincent
this is gonna suck: vince is the only person who realises the extent of work needed to help the villagers
everyone was kung fu fighting: vincent's way of heron
royal we: kath does it by accident, which further works on the villagers
attack of 50 feet whatever: the river dragon turns out to be a severely overgrown triton, 8-10 meters long, when they are normally in size of a span of a hand
mundane utility: first hex vince learned was water-proofing
czechow:
** kath i jej pochodzenie z królewskiego rodu
** it takes a while, but lucius' compact house is eventually useful, since it was protected by a MUSICAL password
speaks fluent animal:
** there are spells directly for this
** [liliam speaks fluent dragon - except dragons are extinct in arboria; she then uses one of the translational spells to give dragons ability to speak human]
andronicles lion: the sea triton is a sentient being that's simply ill and literally pleads for help when it manages to speak through liliam; after being helped, the triton doesn't think too much and fights with the xenovyrn send after the group, buying them time (and not standing a chance)
monster is a mommy: triton, although she needs outside help to lay her eggs and they are infertile
corruption: piętno, which is more like a severe radiation sickness than some sort of evil force; affected people, rather than turning evil, simply suffer horrible health issues, along with mental illnesses and development issues for children and newborn
no good deed goes unpunished: invoked verbatim, when vincent comments on their helping the village and then the triton, ending up with nothing but trouble as a result
i've read a book about it: vincent has 24 years of theoretical knowledge about magic drilled into him, but close to no practice, as his source got activated mere weeks before the plot kicks in - he barely makes it through the practical examination and only with the spells needed to pass said exam




what you are in the dark:
** kath's reaction to fighting a xenovyrn is to stand and fight, or else all their effort was in vain
** vincent later stops himself in the last moment, when he realises he's about to beat the shit out of a centuries old man - a nasty man, but still an elderly and frail man
big creepy crawlies: xenovyrn is an overgrown scolopender
non-malicious monster: the tryton is simply sick, rather than dangerous
diabolous ex machina: vincent catches a marshland blood fever
cliffhanger: how the first tome ends
darkest hour: and it continues for the first 30 or so pages of tome 2



from bad to worse: opening of tome 2
how did we get here: tome 2 opens with brief summary of the mage riding on the xenovyrn catching up with them, defeating their group and taking them hostage, while vincent was too sick to help
wasteland elder: widow solange, who takes great care of the group
a trick to distract a child: solange, who insists that lily should sleep in her house, because she's frail and after tough journey - what she really means is keeping the girl from watching vincent's agony
magic comes back- in lost bretonia
negated moment - majority of their equipment is inoperable
didn't see that coming: the fight with the Hawks go relatively well, until they reveal they've captured Lily
you shall not kill:
** kath should have just kill majority of the soldiers
** when lily (a 11 yo girl) delcares she can kill the soldiers with transmutative spell of their drugs, amandine suggests giving them just deep sleep and explains this might sound well now, but lily will regret such cruelty when she will grow up; page 33
not what it looks like: amandine assumes that lily is shutting in under pressure... the girl just had a cold AND keeping up a charade, so nobody inspect too hard her lose WYGŁUSZACZ and ties
godzhilla threshold: kinda; lacking real magic, the servant of the grey wanderer use corruption by void to fuel their quasi magic, even if it will kill them in few years or even months
smug snake: the leader of the hawks is full of himself, right down to evil gloating about his awesome powers, despite being a humanoid abomination "thanks" to using it
power of friendship: lily points out that she can stand up the discomfort of wearing WYGŁUSZACZ cuffs, because she has her friends to support and also mutual help
power at price: the Hawks are constantly stoned to dull the pain of their Brand
troubling unchildlike behaviour: lily was trying to kill duchess d'opal while being anywhere between 7 and 10; thi earned her wearing WYGŁUSZACZ almost non-stop; that and her ability to cope with pain, clearly drilled into her by her "grandma"
the power of hate: above
damsel out of distress: amandine, lily and kath saved themselves out of oppression; and the only reason they were captured was due to lily being taken hostage
sure, let's go with that: amandine, the only non-magic party member, playing not just a sorceress, but the great wizard(ess)
crazy enough to work:
** eugene, one of the soldiers fighting with the hawks, takes lily on his shoulders and runs toward the hawks, getting the little girl in range of her fire breath
** meg blasts with ice bolt the comb of the 20th empress of the triumvirate in the high air, trying to create a huge bubble protecting against void magic and the related taint; the ice bolt is used to trick the protective mechanism there is a magic user nearby (barrier warrior, not the intended use)
** meg decides to actually torment the evil voice in her head, by going into drug-induced trance and track the bastard
weaksauce weakness: the WYGŁUSZACZ are made from tin and lea
alterra turns out to be lost for good, being neither in arboria nor bretonia
wham line: page 52; amandine learns that the oracle told the priests about their arrival, which obviously fucked them up
mundane made awesome:
** the giant fucking magnifying glass
** vince convinces lucius to his mistakes [talk the monster down] via simple math equations, proving he understands his concept and why it won't work with numbers
the dandy: pierre blanchet, who is described as always fashionable and, well, dandy; when she shows up withouw a fancy wig, Meg compares his otherwise immaculate look to that of someone rushing in night gown
spymaster: pierre blanchet, his job as intendant is a great way of collecting "gossip"
fiery redhead: meg realises what's up when kath is mentioned and, more importantly, a "beautiful woman, with magic staff, unbreakable will and fiery red hair" is given the great wizard(ess) title
heavy sleeper: more in tone of seen it all veteran than sleepyhead - both vincent and kath had noodle incidents where they've slept through stuff like a raging sea storm or in the saddle of a running horse
geo effects: Flame's army is locked by mountain ranges and passes between them, requiring a way to pierce through, or waste months to circle around
aw look, they love each other: meg has to admit to herself that she really cares about vincent and kath, and not just because they can save her and help her
this is gonna suck: meg finds a tiny splotch, not bigger than the head of a pin, of the attack of the xenovyrn on her arm
shout out:
** a perpetual medieval world with nobles ruling it over with heavy hand and being flamboyant, while creating loads of obstacles for common men? of course its named bretonnia
** to matrix, out of all things "wiesz czego potrzebuje płomień do skutecznego podboju? spluw. mnóstwa spluw"
** another one is about the concept of projected, true self
** a white-haired girl from a long line of royal family goes to wake up a dragon... sounds familiar?
** the compact house inspires a bretonian legend about witch's house hopping around on a chicken leg
** royal dragon used to be red; now it's black with golden accents (homm3)
an arm and leg: meg has about half a day of exposure to the taint before she decides that yep, it's better to lose arm that deal with this stuff any second longer
sacred hospitality: why widow solange helps them; she outright says there is no reason or point to threaten her, as she will do what it takes for her guests
master of own domain: way of the heron includes meditation-like exercises (fantastic tai-chi)
non-indicative name: solange's dog is named bear
didn't see this coming: nobody expected that vincent is going to get sick and in such weird fashion
didn't think this through:
** they should take a single mule just in case
** vincent eagerly gets himself arested, thinking he can escape the dungeon using magic, but he didn't account for all the attatched brutality and the sore state of the dungeon itself; then he realises his stuff is left in the
noodle incident:
** arboria went through two revolutions, a continental war and few other things (along with a republican revolt) before reaching a quasi-victorian britain level of "freedom"
** lady chamomile had a full session for "playwizard"
bland product (check w cop craft) / write around trademarks: playwizard
wax on, wax off: meg "trained" vincent, then a source-less assistant, in magic without magic gestures and formulas, dressing it up as applied math exercises and help; this way vincent never developed habit of relying on those and can do magic "straight", without all the bullshit elements; he facepalms himself after realising he didn't need those during his exam
insisted terminology: first book calls it "wieki smutku", but 2nd tome calls it simply "wieki ciemne"
first person smartass: this comes back in 2nd tome, when vincent is rendered temporarily mute, and this becomes his way of venting
decreased recruitment standards: vincent realises why the guards are so poorly trained - the priests are running a police state and needed any pair of hands they could get
bar brawl: vincent accidently starts one, when a drunkard accuses him of being a stool pidgeon for the town guards in Montreuil
thre plots, no waiting: there is meg and belle plot, vincent and co plot and then separate vincent and separate co plotline. they slowly alight back
split of the party: they are forced to do so
reasonable authority figure: captain of guards charles pavot of Montreuil, who needs a skilled herbalist and recognises vincent skill just from a simple presentation, providing him with legal papers out of combination of gratitude and simply being a reasonable guy hired for not so glamurous job
chekhov skill:
** vincent and his obsession with nature and especially herbalism
** amandine's training in history of art, as she realises various "decorations" aren't exactly decorations, especially when in lost bretonia
compensating for something: vincent and his herbalism as assistant
all teens are horny: vincent mentions he learned a potency-inducing hex as a 14 yo, not because he needed it, but because it was sex-related
mundane utility:
** minimal precise telekinesis as a skeleton key
** vincent is able to cast without magic gestures, which requires high qualifications? the duke gives him a spear, so he can do some extra damage with free hands; the duke did it as a bluff, so he could get an excuse for using his spear as a walking staff
chekhov lecture: earlier, it's mentioned that the old lord of the castle, a mage, got captured and locked up - guess who vincent finds in the dungeon when locked up
cuffs off, hand massage: vincent after dropping his cuffs, obviously - unlike typical case, he got roughtened up, too
cool old guy:
** arthur
** duke bernard de montreuil de blanche d'amethyste
grumpy old man: kinda. sorta. the duke is old-timey
stating the obvious: bernie knows a secret passage, obviously, since it's his own castle after all
exactly what it says on the tin: the spell names are INCREDIBLY to the point
invisibility achieved by convincing people you aren't there - mysia dyskrecja
right under their noses: above
prison escape: vincent entire plan; it gets modified
indy ploy: the prison escape with duke is fully improvised
revange before reason: the duke tries to kill his great-grandson first chance given and vincent has to talk some sense into him (his weakest claimant is easier to besiege than any replacement they can get - insane troll logic)
flashback: kath's 12th birthday
kath went through shit as a child, feeling guilty on every step and being a shut-in most of her life
shrinking violet: if her insecuries weren't bad on their own
nerdgasm: kath and architecture
why it has to be snakes: amandine is afraid of heigh, so of course she's dragged to the wizard tower observatory that's a fucking skyscraper
impoverished patrician: kath parents are respectively a factory clerk and a dentist; her family used to be the ruling house of arboria; and its mentioned they used to be even poorer
idle rich: artois describes this way the young noblemen of the area around narbonne
super-senses: lily and her hearing
private school for noble: kath went to one, for a year, which gives her all sorts of useless skills... or are they really that useless?
cape and dagger: the kath-amandine plotline descends into court intrigues
he cleans up nicely: artois, leader of the POPIELNICY
large ham: amandine, whenever playing the "i'm a powerful magician" spiel
action dress tear-up: kath does it when returning to the ball room to confront the inquisitor
chandalier swinging: yup, kath does that, too
hey you, haymaker: kath does this in the magic variant, trapping the unsuspecting inquisitor in a reversed Astral Protection, this time being the one side-lining him
hiding behind language barrier:
** arobriański is too far away from old-new bretonnian
** lucius used it to "code" his notes, which comes in handy for vincent when finding his old lab
evil sorcerer: the styling of the patient wanderer "mages"
it;s all my fault:
** kath has this non-stop
** amandine has massive regrets over the whole "i'm a powerful sorceress" mess she unleashed, including war and unleashing lucius; vincent talks some sense into her
dark is not evil: the royal dragon is black like obsidian
covers always lie: 2nd tome has a white, shiny dragon fighting against an evil-looking dark dragon... guess what colour is the royal dragon
a form you are comfortable with: royal dragon turns into a human in black, rimmed with gold robes (morphic resonance); he actually succeeds, since before he walks to kath, he's already tired

no taste: lucius introducet do bretania national anthem, which turned out to be in-universe ear worm from a particularly kitchy opera about the modred d'obsidiane, who got a historical villain upgrade in-universe
postneogothic: it's as hilarious as it sounds, especially given lucius megalomania vs. simple compact house
gorn/squick: lucius apprentice was apparently murdered right after their arrival to bretonia, and then put inside the compact house. as a result, the body was kept in the "right after murder" state for ''200'' years, so when vincent and bernie pick it up, it's still without rigor mortis and ''seeping fresh blood'' from its wounds
digging yourself deeper: vincent tries to explain that despite being able to cook, without treating themselves as equals and on friendly terms, he's not going to cook for bernie. instead, bernie asks did he just mentioned that he can cook page 247
prince in rags/city mouse: kinda-sorta; bernie is rather poorly adjusted to being anything lesser than a duke
pride: bernie and lucius, both to a fault; in fact, lucius research ended up in a dead-end, because he just couldn't take critique
flatmate sitcom: kinda; vincent used to have those in his youth and thus decides to apply his experience when dealing with bernie
self-made man: vincent, kath, implied with meg; zigzagged with lucius, who went from "mad scientist" in arboria to "mastercraft magician" in bretonia, but was a noble scion with particularly old-timey sensibilities
coockulander was right: lucius the mad indeed was a void mage and ended up ruling arboria for well over 150 years
nouveau riche: ironically, that's the default taste of the old-school nobility of bretonia, where they simply show off their wealth and status as a social hierarchy thing - which means ultra-kitsch and overdoing everything
world of ham: bretonia upper classes
camp straight: the fashion of the upper classes of bretonia isn't just flamboyant, it's deliberately over-the-top and splashing wealth around
deliberate value dissonance: the more or less merit-and-science driven arboria vs. birth-and-feudalism bretonnia
cool cape/badass cape: lucius cape is capable of storing extra magic units, normally that would be dangerous as all hell, since it could easily turn into radiation, but since lucius was a void mage, he could process it without any risk, while being immune to the effect itself; vincent "inherits" it
i was quite a looker: duchess blancheflor de spinel; when vincent meets her, she's an elderly woman on a wheelchair
alterhaus: for magic users, no less; blanche neige
horrible judge of character: bernie and blancheflor take vincent for good is soft
good is not soft: well, duh
throwin a gauntlet: vincent does this for a duel with bernie
evil old folks
wizard duel: implied and vince has one with bernie
chekhov gunman: bnacheflor was the mistress of solange and it's implied solange herself is at least half-active, or could be, but as a commoner, all she could hope for was herbalism training
this can't be: bretonians have hard time grasping that commoners could use magic or even exchange it as a form of scientific study - after all, common people are unfit for the mystique!
silk hiding steel:
** amandine by default; she makes sure to use it for being convincing high wizard(ess)
** kath slooowly gravitates there
** bernie invokes it toward arboria as a whole (he compares it to a GRONOSTAJ glove, thou)
defeat means friendship: or at least feudal felty
power of trust: cirle?
battle mage: implied, in bretonia it takes a more... feudal style
ludicious gibs: the renegade defending lucius tower (L'Echelle de Soleil ) is reduced to flying pieces of meat after 8 experienced sorcerers cast everything they have in his direction
war for fun and profit: well, for fun, as the old sorcerers are having time of their life having access to magic once more
really 800 years old: blancheflor is old enough to be around before lucius showed up, which makes her definitely older than the rest
dungeon crawling/adventurer archeologist: what meg and vincent were doing half of the time
awesome, but impractical: lucius was a megalomaniac,which affects a lot of things this way
mad scientist: lucius saw nothing wrong in experimenting on a live vivern without any sort of anestesia, while also exposing the thing to the Void and cleansing it; EVERYONE is disgusted, including otherwise casually cruel bretonians
magitek: the early triumvirate was an industrial civilisation, meaning everything that followed was the first post-apo; also, their construction style is "industrialism"
scaled up: lucius turned himself into a dragon
reveal:
** meg spend 24 years training vincent, expecting to wake his source
** lucius managed to get to bretonia
** and scale up, so the black dragon is him
** von faustein was a seamstress
** lucius is behind an elaborate plan to keep going with his (wrongly calculated) attempt to ram one continent with another; the brown monks are his cronies; old king is his literal puppet, corrupt entirely
** all the shit about dragon
** belle used to be in a cavalry unit in her youth, then went to work on automagical weapons, then somehow ended up being, well, belle
kill and replace: lucius on the real royal dragon
dream sequence: more like a bad trip after taking laudanum, but meg is doing her best
helpful hallucinations: vince and belle show up in meg's dream; when meg is then rescued by belle in real world, she repeats her sorry from the dream for trying to do things on her own; except belle already knew that, since that hallucination turned into few pages of meg automated notes, where she was sorry for being harsh to everyone
through the eyes of madness: another take on that dream
eureka moment: meg has another when under laudanum; this time she figures out what's the problem and also what's the solution regarding lack of protection of bretonia and the role of the third oracle, along with local triumvirate;
master of own domain: meg is in her own imagination, giving her any powers she wishes, as long as she can do this; conscious dream
freudian excuse: lucius has a severe case of superiority inferiority complex and the fact he was treated with contempt only further convinced him that nope, it's the world that can't recognise his genius and blood, rather than him being, well, mad
politically incorrect villain: lucius is a classist AND sexist, while also incredibly full of himself
hoisted by his own petard:
** meg casts an Absolutna Blokada Mentalna on lucius "voice" in her head, after first getting into a trance; so much for a tempting voice
** king philipe made feuerstein commander of palace guards to spite nobility; she turned out to not only being super-competent, but also starting a revolt against the king himself
** the cultists decided that they would rather be the new ruling class than answer to lucius, especially since he suddenly started to demand far more than ever before in much shorter periods
didn't see that coming: lucius genuinely ends up having to fight with the patient wardener monks
not what it looks like: a multilayered one once meg goes to trance: she ends up looking both like a madman and, more importantly, like she's succumbing to her Piętno, meaning she's at least deranged and at worst preparing to cast particularly nasty spell, meanwhile belle assumed meg was attempting suicide; she was just sleepwalking in trance; this unfortunately burns any trust she still had, as she tells them they can't conquer nouveaux dijon or rescue the third oracle, as that's exactly what lucius needs
hivemind: lucius is using Umysł Roju on all branded
cassandra truth/dramatic irony: meg knows exactly what lucius is doing and planning, however, she's been drugged out of her mind and is dying from fantasy radiation sickness, so nobody takes her serious
digging yourself deeper: meg tells the general that branded individuals are part of a hivemind, which instantly makes her new revelations super-suspicious
cloak and dagger: pierre blanchet, especially when he's rescuing meg from her captivity
not what it looks like: the general is just making a big scene for her supporters, but is fully on meg side, allowing her to "escape"
body horror: what's happening to meg under brand and related radiation sickness
squick/nausea fuel:
** meg's steadily worsening condition
** vincent going through blood fever
double agent: unvoluntary one, as meg is simply hollowed by brand and that makes her a potential spy; that alone means everyone has to be extra careful
heroic willpower: meg vs. her pain when she has purpose - or at least what she insists on
awesome by analysis: meg figuring out that they are in a lair of a dragon and that lucius took a form of one; blanchet is genuinely impressed - and scared
taught by experience: how to figure out how to kill a dragon? keep engaging it - [[TheNeedsOfMany with all the loses it takes]] to save the world in the end
medieval stasis: enforced by royal dragon and third oracle, not exactly intentionally - they are just a machine and following their basic programming to maintain the status quo
gambit pileup: lucius plan
you have outlived your usefulness: the old king, and, eventually, the patient wardener priesthood; lucius is leading an army against essentially his own troops
accidentally taken for a god: well, a prophet, but meg goes from a pariah into a religious figure, not exactly intentionally (proroctwo czarnej meg)
what you are in the dark: meg is openly contemplating lucius offer as her sickenss is getting really bad, but the only thing keeping her from it is that she would disappoint belle and her trust
dramatic irony:
** when bernie and vincent were trying to contact meg, she was feverish and took it for lucius trying to get to her; belle still uses the trail to track the right place
** by the time the plot goes back to kath, readers know how dangerous the dragon is and about the whole charade... except for kath
** the reason why lucius isn't taking human form is because everyone would recognise him; kath, amandine and lily are the only people unaware; same is why he's impatient and impulsive - that's not the dragon not being programmed for that, but lucius being a dickhead
** when amandine send spies to widow solange, vincent was still there and still in stupor; solange played dumb and pretended she's taking care for a local village fool
** vincent is thrown off by the concept of amandine wanting him dead or alive... except he's unaware of a plot against him and amandine, but readers are
foreshadowing: early in the story, it's mentioned that a souldragon is just a dumb tool, following its programming and unable to correct its action without new input; take a guess how important this is, where even lucius require gambit-pile up to simply get out of the dragon's lair
spotting the thread:
** amandine sees the whole bullshit about dragon's frail state as a mere excuse, but is outvoted; when he takes human form, she INSTANTLY recognises lucius
** kath fully understands that she's a plaything for the dragon and he's trying to manipulate her, but just can't figure the motive
** she later notices that there is something off about the dragon as a magic construct, as if something was messed up in otherwise super-precise magic
unwitting pawn: where to even start... but the biggest case would be kath getting tricked by lucius
trecherous advisor: lucius as nidhogg, who pretends to be all friendly and helpful, but really just needs to bond with kath
dark is not evil: double subverted - royal dragon is black, but then it turns out it's because lucius took over
false friend: lucius as nighhog for kath
puppy love: and one-sided, too; kath used to have a crush on vincent in her pre-teens and was devastated when he became engaged with amandine
god save us from the queen: what lucius suggests kath to be as a "perfect" ruler
rebellious princess: and then a rebellious queen - kath
queen incognito: kath still has her mastery of invisibility spell; she then has to invoke this trope to suppress alarm rised after she "disappeared"
not in this for your revolution: just about everyone; then there are the mercs, who simply get hired
heroic bastard: captain atrois is a bastard of some unspecified nobleman; yet one of the most loyal and competent people in kath's storyline
unnatural speed: atrois is fast on his own, when kath sneaks on him with invisibility, he is ready to fight in a blink of an eye
bling of war: bretonia being bretonia, but there are also the old sorcerers using all the old stuff charged by vincent
ancestoral weapon: and magic this time
speaking in dream: lucius ends up trapped in a dream with meg, so he babbles in arborian through it, being pissed about meg getting better out of him
fledging love: kath and atrois
battle couple: they kick some serious ass together
insufferable genius: lucius, who would never take critique
too smart by a half: since he sees himself as a genius, and worked alone, there was nobody to point out mistakes in his master plan
how to tame your dragon: uspokojenie dużej zwierzyny
taught by experience: early on, amandine needs a list of spells on her staff; three months later, she does them on instinct alone
evil twin: invoked by kath, when she realises why dragon-human-lucius looked so familiar - she saw vincent, just "wredny"
evil cannot comprehend good: lucius, in his insufferable genius style, rubs it all over kath and amandine; when they talk later about his gloating, it's clear that he crossed few moral thresholds too many to get anything even resembling trust
ambition is evil: lucius
determinator: meg vs her brand and sickness
true companions: part of the strength of the book
barrier warrior/when all you have is hammer: amandine and her increasing mastery of using the Kinetic Shield
small role, big impact: widow solange, who disappears early on in 2nd chapter, but her kindhearted resolve keeps resonating
nothing but us, birds: when approaching the army camp of Flame of Liberation, the sentries communicate, making sounds of... mockingbirds
more dakka: it proves to be effective on the logic that at least one bullet will hit the mark
meaningful name: belle
properly paranoid: von feuerstein is keeping the mages under armed guards just in case; she did same with meg as she was succumbing to brand; vincent doesn't mind either
power of trust: vincent is there to help, not to play power games and uses words that are suitable for that; unfortunately, his translator was bernie
excellent judge of characters: played with; von feuerstein believes that the third oracle is this; vincent realises that speaks more about what sort of person (big good) the general is, rather than the oracle, which after all, picked lucius in the past
sins of our fathers: kath and her origins
not what it looks like: lily isn't just a talentless kid from a rich and powerful noble house, pushed into vincent's spot
brought down to normal: unlike meg or belle, the local nobility was just a bunch of old farts with no other skills than magic and maybe some highly-guarded knowledge
incompetent mage: lucius, but he's too proud to admit it
the corruptor: lucius in general, fucking up shit royally; he tries to be one for kath (toxic fiendship), but she's too smart AND too oblivious for it
our zombies are different
kill it with fire
our dragons are different
likes spam: meg could live on nothing more than coffee and bread with yeast paste
bodyguard betrayal: von feuerstein was head of the king's guards
mordor: what nouveax dijon is now
arcadia: what it used to be
corrupt church: quite literally
true pacifist: vincent
MotherlyScientist: meg to vincent
avengers, assemble: in the end, all the arborians get together
everyone can see it: kath and artois
beyond impossible: jedyną szansą dla utraconej bretonii wydawało się przekonanie lucjusza thrope'a zwanego wielkim, współtówrcy firmy arte benare, samozwańczego arystokraty, geniusza z arborii, człowieka, który przedłużył sobie życie, przenosząc świadomość do starożytnego smoka, że tym razem popełnił dramatyczny w skutkach błąd.
sticky fingers: bernard and food
badass army: flame of liberation
army of thieves and whores: meanwhile, kath's army is just a random collection of feudal levies, bunch of mercs, a whole lot of servants and a complete chaos; it's a wonder they can operate at all, dragon on their side or not
absent-minded scientist: count renard trevancel de branche d'amethyste of narbonne
opulent dress: lily originally; in bretonia, kath and lily get stuck in those as queen and her apprentice
knight in shining armour/knight in sour armour: artois
covers always spoil: a scary black dragon and a white dragon fighting together? gee, what could this mean, when you learn half-way through that the royal dragon is black and 50 pages later that it's lucius
noodle incident:
** FIRST golden age of the empire
** THIRD oracle
** republican coup
** monarchy of kath's family
** the tearing of the worlds itself
* shoo out the clowns: the book started as a comedy idea and then went to be a pastiche of a genre convention... until it stopped being to and by 2nd tome it's just its own thing
traumatic transformation: lily turns into a dragon to help protect kath, with which she bonded
chekhov gun: very early on kath and lily befriend and once in the bretania they maintain link, which plays on the whole "king and royal dragon"
tranquil fury: atrois, when realising kath got kidnapped
talk the monster down: vincent tries to do this to lucius, proving that his theory is wrong with sheer math; all he achieves is making lucius furious over anyone saying he's wrong
eye-scream: artois used his climbing daggers to climb on nidhogg eyes, blinding the dragon
the cavalry: the flying chariot is used by theresa von feuerstein, belle and meg, using hand cannons designed by belle; then the elderly mages
like a daughter to me: lily to amandine
short span: while the plot drags for months, the final confrontation is a matter of few hours; once vincent locates meg and defeats lucius, it's mere 2 days and they celebrate on 3rd
punch-clock villain: the various allies of the church, most of which got volunteered; they betray the first given chance
know when to fold: trevancel resignes from any king-making plots (and is paid a solid sum to be content)
the alliance: flame of liberation army + kath army + deserters from under the order fighting together against the order
background war: the final battle is very sparsely described
knighting: artois is made a noble after saving the life of the queen, which everyone agrees is more than enough to earn the title; in fact, meg adopts him
not what it looks like: kath ia s social klutz and seriously hates all the court eqituette, but her chewing up few differert nobles is taken for having strong character, rather than being blunt
self-solving problem: young de beryl died in battle, so the bethrolment with him is null and void
virgin queen: kath declares herself this
political animal: bernie
chekhov skill: kath's engineering skills and architecture obsession, helping with building the bridge between two continents
you need to get laid: vince evaluation of kath and artois after few months together
fancy impractical dress: kath was dressed in bunch of those, until she finally managed to convince her court that she really needs a practical "lab coat" when doing magic, or she will ruin yet another dress


StaffOfAuthority
crystal ball: or just a smartphone
early 20th century vs. tail end of reinessance
princess and frog: jesus fuck
deconstructor fleet: of the "chosen one saves the fantasy world with princesses and dragons"
affectionate parody
pet pevee trope: young chosen one; especially the whole "how easy it is to manipulate a child into performing war crimes?"
white man burden: deconstructed; the whole "enlightened" part of arboria is treated with mistrust and as open cultural colonization
lighter and softer: word of god insist on this
flipflop of god: 4th book
fantasy counter-part culture
write what you know: has a highly visual imagination, which explains a lot
write what you know/harsher in hindsight: inverted with stance on support, she joined harda horda AFTER being fucked by the publisher
all just a dream: meg's trance, in her initinal haze she takes it for reality, PRE-bretonia
old media are evil: newspapers of avalon, lampshaded as early as first book
get a hold of yourself: meg does this to vincent, verbally, about being under attack of a dragon
wanted poster: amandine sends the green ones (alive) after vincent; de beryl, being an idiot, tries to double-cross her by sending black ones (dead or alive)
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Vincent and his "special" gift
* EvilGloating: Meg uses it against Lucius during their mental duel; Lucius generally is terrible with this
* InelegantBlubbering: Meg after her trance
* ChariotPulledByCats: by a magic projection of a winged unicorn, the fancy kind
BenevolentMageRuler: Curiously, this is the reception Lucius got in Lost Bretonia, being fondly remembered as a genuinely decent guy
PowerfulAndHelpless: Meg and Belle
SexyWitch: Belle had a whole number in "Playwizard"
WellTrainedButInexperienced: Vincent, but for non-standard reasons - he never had a chance to get practical training, as he lacked an active Source. He still manages to pass the magic license exam after nothing but two weeks of cramming and within next few weeks, develops enough mastery to ''win a WizardDuel'' against an experience sorcerer, using precisely his training against his much greater experience.
* ImperfectRitual: Lucius and his "plan" is flawed on few different levels, but, unfortunately, that doesn't render the spell itself impossible to cast. The result would be an earth-shattering kaboom 2: electric boogaloo

Recessive powers
HighHopesZeroTalent
SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic
ScientificallyUnderstandableSorcery
TheTeamNormal: Vinc, Amandine