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Cerberon: Difference between revisions
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* [[Affably Evil]]: This seems to be the standard mode of conduct for [[Obviously Evil]] characters in the book. Aladavan is clearly evil, but he's genuinely friendly, well-mannered, and a generous host. Oethelzeiren also acts this way, but he's probably neither truly affable nor truly evil, just polite and the most powerful asshole in the world.
** All the dragons are extremely polite, and it's very clear that polite isn't necessarily nice.
* [[Alien Non
* [[The Alleged Steed]]: Thedrik's mule. Old, half blind, unreliable, and cranky. He still chooses her over a good horse when given the chance.
* [[Always Chaotic Evil]]: Averted with hackals, which can vary from [[Complete Monster]] to civilized [[Beast Man]], depending on their tribe, clan, and individual disposition. This doesn't stop most people from considering all of them [[Always Chaotic Evil]] maneating monsters anyway.
* [[And the Adventure Continues...]]: At the end of the novel, Cerberon is reunited with some of his children and he plans to teach them all magic while chaperoning a dragon on the Grand Tour of Europe.
** Another example exists with Thedrik. He plans to hunt down the vampires infesting his [[Corrupt Church]].
* [[Apocalypse Wow]]: The complete destruction of Loethess and everything around it is described in detail from multiple perspectives, from a mage in the center of the city paralyzed with [[Oh Crap]], to a family nearby hoping they'll survive, to a distant overview by a pair of people being carried away by a flying dragon.
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** Thedrik takes care to regularly rest his old mule while pursuing Aladavan, she balks at the smell of death, and often bucks or otherwise misbehaves for him. She refuses to move anymore once she reaches her point of exhaustion, and requires magical healing to recover.
** Cerberon observes that a pair of horses galloping past them will be killed by their riders if they keep their pace.
** Aladavan's horses were uncontrollably spooked by Darkram's [[Enemy to All Living Things|evil aura]], so he killed and reanimated them, turning them into [[Everything's Deader
* [[Badass Boast]]: When Aladavan does it, it's equal parts warning and picking a fight. Example:
{{quote| "Be on your way if you wish to live. The sword in my hand was taken from your Wizard Royal Elect, Timneal Kravat, whose body lies three miles behind me with his Nine Fangs. I slew them all alone. You saw their airboat fly by, the coward priest of your ridiculous cult fled from me in terror."}}
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* [[Boobs of Steel]]: Junapur has large breasts and she's a skilled fighter.
* [[Bring My Red Jacket]]: Aladavan is wearing a red jacket when he's nearly disemboweled by a skraad. He comments on this fact and is amazed that his white trousers didn't get bloody.
* [[Can't Argue
** Can't Argue With Dragons: Dragons have ruled the world for millions of years, and won't let you forget they're literally the top of the food chain.
{{quote| '''Cerberon''': As polite as the Marquis has been, I still can't help feeling like we're being marched off to slaughter.<br />
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* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Aladavan always has something up his sleeve to get himself out of just about any situation, and he can quickly improvise a solution with whatever he happens to have on hand. Aladavan's wagon is packed full of useful things, including a folding table, a collection of magic wands, treasure chests, a library, and a spare wagon with a trunk full of emergency supplies.
* [[Crystal Ball]]: Called scryballs, these are used to view other locations, communicate with other scryballs like a telephone, or to spy through uncovered scry balls. Aladavan keeps a miniature scry ball on a chain around his neck, which he keeps under his shirt when he's not using it. He's able to easily spy on and track Thedrik because his sword has a small scryball on the pommel, which Thedrik never covers. Scryblocks are employed to prevent people from using scryballs to spy on them, and to protect against mental eavesdropping.
* [[Cursed
* [[Cute Monster Girl]]: Junapur is described as quite beautiful despite her various nonhuman traits.
* [[The Dandy]]: George definitely plays the part of a dandy when he can idly mooch off a wealthy widow, but when he has to travel, he's practical enough to wear his older, worn dragoon uniform (battle dress), to prevent his better clothes from becoming dirty or damaged.
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* [[Don't Fear the Reaper]]: Edu, the goddess of death, is described as loving and merciful in her duty to provide rest and comfort after death. She's in charge of keeping the dead from bothering the living, but doesn't seem very proactive in this regard, considering all the zombies, ghouls, vampires and ghosts hanging around, although she does promptly respond to her priests' calls to take them away.
* [[Dragon Rider]]: Averted, unless you want to count Robert and Agnes riding on the back of Prince Aeronweyir, who's a dragon. They're only playing, since the Prince is fond of children. It's still awesome.
* [[Duel to
** Aladavan is forced to duel the son of a wizard he killed in a [[Trial
** George offers to duel Captain Mayhew to settle their differences. He tells Mayhew about the special ammunition his pistols are loaded with and lets him pick which one he wants to use. {{spoiler|Mayhew [[Take a Third Option|takes a third option]], which doesn't work out well for him.}}
* [[Elite Mooks]]: Wizard Royal Elect Tmneal Kravat has a group of half-hackal warriors called the Nine Fangs explicitly described as elite soldiers. Their eliteness seems more like an [[Informed Ability]] when Aladavan fries them with a massive ball of lightning, and decapitates the blinded and severely burned survivors who are still trying to achieve their objective despite their fatal injuries.
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* [[Giant Flyer]]: Dragons and skraad, which are basically intelligent human-sized vultures. Wyverns are also mentioned but do not appear in the novel.
* [[Giant Wall of Watery Doom]]: The Dragon Queen's ultimate attack against Signolia involves flooding the major river valley where most of the population lives. Everything in the valley, including the city of Loethess, is completely destroyed.
* [[Girl in
* [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]]: Darkram's eyes glow when he makes use of his innate (demonic) abilities.
* [[God Save Us From the Queen]]: The Dragon Queen seems to be straight example for most of the book, especially when she launches her apocolyptic attack on Loethess (and the rest of Signolia). Turns out she's actually been [[Reasonable Authority Figure|extraordinarily patient]], waiting twenty years for King Norrith to set things right before giving up and launching the aforementioned attack. She's a [[Mama Bear]], not an [[God Save Us From the Queen|Evil Queen]].
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** Cephalon later reveals to Princess Tara that she's actually the Dragon Queen's daughter.
* [[Mad Love]]: Sascia for Aladavan after his More Than Mind Control treatment of her.
* [[Magic
* [[Major Injury Underreaction]]: When it's pointed out to Merlen that his entire arm is missing, he nonchalantly says, "Oh this? I got into a little fight with Oethelzeiren. I'll be fine." In that fight, Merlen had vaporized Oethelzeiren's wings, and he has a similar underreaction: "I hardly ever used them anyway." Of course they're both recognized as two of the most [[Badass]] sorcerors in the world, so such reactions from them isn't surprising.
** Having been nearly disemboweled, and facing George threatening him with a sabre, Aladavan says, "I'm rather busy at the moment, holding my innards in."
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** Darkram thinks this is what Aladavan is trying to do to him, but it turns out to be just a [[Secret Test of Character]].
* [[Morton's Fork]]: One of Aladavan's main methods for convincing people to do what they don't want to do, often coming close to making them [[Main/Ptitlegkm 8 fljl 1 lk 8|An Offer They Can't Cefuse]]. Usually in the form of: "You may choose to do X unpleasant/morally suspect thing for me, or I'll force someone else to do it." Being the [[Magnificent Bastard]] he is, he's ready to respond with something even worse if they [[Take a Third Option]]. One exception to this was when he put Darkram through a [[Secret Test of Character]], where the Third Option was the correct choice.
** The Prince of Aeronweyir uses this too, relying heavily on [[Can't Argue
* [[Most Common Superpower]]: Junapur has four large breasts, which has an obvious effect on George.
* [[Mugging the Monster]]: Zofi's human half tries to stop a thug from robbing Prince Aeronweyir's coach, and he clubs her in the head. Her horse half comes over and stomps his head into the ground, brutally killing him.
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* [[Names to Trust Immediately]]: George Allgood made up this surname to invoke this trope after his family disowned him. He actually is a pretty good guy despite all his faults. Example: after winning some traveling money by gambling, he shares his room with the guy he won most of his money from, who also lost the most at the table. A bigger example is that he volunteered to escort a family from England to America with no ulterior motives whatsoever.
* [[Never Hurt an Innocent]]: Aladavan doesn't adhere to this philosophy. At all. He thinks anyone not participating in a fight who doesn't [[Run or Die|run right the hell away]] deserves what they get. Quote: "There are no innocents on the field of battle."
* [[Never Mess
* [[Night Vision Goggles]]: Called darkvision goggles, these are issued to the Loethess Guard's Hackal Control Squad and are used to hunt hackals in the complete darkness of their underground tunnels. They render the environment in monochrome light, looking like light is projected straight out of the goggles. Most likely magical, how they function is not described.
* [[No Antagonist]]: The main conflict of the story is the interpersonal relationships and differing goals and agendas of people who are traveling together. The only one who really qualifies as the [[Big Bad]] is King Norrith, who is not the antagonist to the protagonists.
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* [[Nothing Left to Do But Die]]: Seems to be Prince Aeronweyir's attitude before meeting George and Cerberon. After they tell him all about Earth and all that has changed since the last time he was there, he decides there's one more thing to do before dying, and goes with them back to Earth.
* [[Oblivious to Love]]: George toward Margaret for much of the story. He doesn't notice her as a potential love interest until she directly tells him she is interested in having him pursue her romantically. George still resists until he's forced to make a choice between Margaret and Junapur. Cerberon seems even less aware of it than George until they are betrothed.
* [[Officer and
* [[Oh Crap]]: Stephanus the lithomancer says this when he sees Oethelzeiren facing off against Merlen. He promptly runs away.
* [[Our Centaurs Are Different]]: The centaurs are fairly standard, except that their heads are more equine than human, their humanoid torsos are furry just like the rest of their bodies, and the females do not have breasts on their torsos. The centaurs shown in the book are socially closer to classical centaurs, mainly by being wild and uncivilized, although Aladavan describes these as wild centaurs, and Zofi says she doesn't want to join a farm herd, hinting that more civilized centaurs may also exist.
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* [[Proud Warrior Race]]: Arguably hackals, who have combat as a central part of their culture and believe [[Asskicking Equals Authority]]. Unanimously regarded as the most capable and fearsom fighters in the world, but they don't seem to value the concept of honor as deeply as the typical [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]].
* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: They might not be on a quest to save the world, but otherwise this describes the band of travelers going along with George and Cerberon.
* [[Raised
* [[Real Place Background]]: In the sections taking place in England and America, real-world locations are named and/or described as they were in the early nineteenth century.
* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]: In a subversion of the trope, the skraad have red eyes, but this is no indication of an evil nature, as they're described as [[Perfect Pacifist People]], even if their general appearance might otherwise be frightening.
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* [[Sequel Hook]]: There are several possible Sequel Hooks. First, Cerberon is set to take his new herd on the Grand Tour of Europe with Prince Aeronweyir, which promises to be an interesting and unusual adventure at the very least. Second, it's clear that Thedrik's adventure is not over and the story of his hunt for vampires could easily fill another novel. Third, we have Princess Tara/Vizenda and Darkram, who are just beginning new lives together (as friends, but a romance story could easily develop, and there's a hint that Darkram's demonic father could come back to cause some serious trouble).
* [[She Is the King]]: The Dragon Queen rules in her own right. The title of queen only indicating she is a female ultimate ruler of the dragons, not that her power is derived from a king. From what little is shown of dragon culture, they don't seem to place the same value on marital relationships as humans do.
* [[Shipper
** Aladavan does this to George and Margaret in a much more subtle but no less effective manner. He notes at the end of the novel that they were already on their way to becoming a couple, and he only provided a few nudges to ensure they got together.
** Aladavan does this to Emma and Prince Aeronweyir, mainly to get her to stop looking at him as a suitor. It works.
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* [[Spell Book]]: Aladavan has an impressive collection of these, including at least one book which contains multiple other spell books that can be used by removing the page for the book. He refers to these books to learn spells he doesn't already know or rarely needs to use.
* [[Stealth Hi Bye]]: Merlen the Conjurer likes to use this trope, intentionally appearing and disappearing when no one's looking just because he can. He even does this with other objects, such as sitting in a chair that wasn't there a moment ago, acting as though it was always there. The objects similarly disappear when they're no longer required.
* [[Superior Species]]: The dragons qualify. They've been around for millions of years and have collectively [[Seen It All]]. Of course they're smarter, stronger, live for centuries, and have more powerful magic than anyone else. They created the network of ley lines and portal gateways that permit near-instant travel over vast distances and even to other worlds. They've created entire species for specific purposes, including unicorns, hackals and half-dragons, but have a general rule not to interfere with other races, as long as they don't become a threat to them or their world. They view all the younger species condescendingly, to the point they don't think they deserve to know their given names. They don't seem to be excessively arrogant about their superiority, even as they explain exactly why they are better than you as a matter of objective fact. As explained above, [[Can't Argue
* [[Sweet Polly Oliver]]: George attempts this with Zofi when they go to America. No one is fooled, but they get away with it anyway.
* [[Technical Pacifist]]: Aladavan talks as though he is one, but he seems to prefer peace to combat only because combat requires more work, and peace requires more patience. He's not very patient.
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* [[Translator Microbes]]: Unicorns communicate primarily through telepathy, and Cerberon eventually learns that since he thinks in English, he telepathically communicates to others in English, but they can understand him since the underlying meaning and intent of the words are included.
** Aladavan creates language charms for George, Margaret, Robert and Agnes to allow them to communicate with others who don't understand English. They function very similarly to unicorn telepathy.
* [[Trial
* [[Trick Arrow]]: Magically altering arrows to deliver specific effects is Darkram's primary special ability, from capturing a target with a net, to incinerating or decapitating it. He can even manage something resembling teleportation by shooting an arrow a long distance and having it take him with it; he vanishes with the arrow and reappears where it lands. Rather than creating special arrows beforehand and selecting the appropriate one to use, he simply takes an ordinary arrow and invests it with the desired magical effect when he shoots it.
* [[Tsundere]]: Jena. After beating Thedrik into submission (it actually doesn't take much since he's mostly broken already), she tells him, "You know I can be hard, but I can also be soft." She does show her softer side to him after their hackal raid.
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