Codex Alera: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''There's something broken inside your skull, [Tavi]. You do all your thinking sideways.''|'''Antillar "Max" Maximus''', '''''Princeps' Fury'''''}}

 

 

Yeah, it is about as awesome as it sounds.

Shortly before Tavi was born, the only son and heir of the aging First Lord of Alera was [[Succession Crisis|killed in battle]], causing the various high nobility to scramble and plot to position themselves to take power when the First Lord dies (or, in some cases, to move that event forward slightly). Chief among them are Aquitainus [[The Chessmaster|Attis]], the High Lord of Aquitaine, and [[Complete Monster|Kalarus]], the High Lord of Kalare. As Alera falls into civil strife, the various non-human enemies of Alera prepare to take advantage of these divisions while a far more dangerous threat lurks in the shadows...

 

 

The sixth and final book in the series, ''First Lord's Fury'', was released in November 2009.

** Varg, who holds the rank of Warmaster amongst his Range (Nation) and killed a Vord-controlled Cane (with superior strength and resistance to pain) singlehandedly and unarmed.

** Kitai is technically the Marat Ambassador due to some quick thinking (and quicker lying) on Tavi's part.

* [[Another Dimension]]: [[Word of God|According to Jim Butcher]], Carna is another dimension that has wormholes pop up in other dimensions and suck beings in. This is why there are so many different species of intelligent being (humans, Icemen, Canim, Marat, Vord) on the planet, as well as why some descendants of extinct Earth animals (Megatherium and Terror Birds) are roaming around. The most well known tear leading to Carna from the "real world" appears intermittently in [[The Bermuda Triangle]].

* [[Annoying Arrows]]: Averted, arrows are just as much a threat to flesh as the more powerful fury attacks. The Vord generally shrug them off, [[Justified Trope|but they also shrug off fury attacks because of their armored hides]].

** The Knights Pisces. The Knights Pisces are dubbed such when Tavi notes they're the "fish" (barely competent recruits) of the Knights available. After [[Took a Level In Badass|taking several collective levels in badass]], and seeing how badly "[[Everythings Worse With Sharks|a bunch of fish]]" can hurt someone, the embrace the name and use it for the rest of the series.

** The Battlecrows, from the same book, sort of. Instead of taking their name from an insult, they take it from the burnt and blackened standard that Tavi carries into battle after it's struck by lightning.

* [[Attack Attack Attack]]: The Vord specialize in this, {{spoiler|at least while under a Queen's control.}} Though they can demonstrate considerable subtlety, they usually do not bother if they have an overwhelming numerical advantage, which they usually do.

* [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny]]: Wind furies have very short attention spans unless under the control of an exceptionally talented crafter, which can make long-distance flight problematic.

** Comes up pretty often given the number of Chessmasters in play, but the precedent is set early in the first book when Amara realizes that Gaius Sextus had designed his own son's tomb as a shelter against enemy furies, weapons stockpile, and site for healing. Hidden in plain sight!

** When Fidelias enters a seemingly empty tent he turns to the empty air and makes a verbal greeting. Lady Aquitaine, hiding under a veil, reveals herself and asks how he knew that she was there, but Fidelias is actually very surprised to see her. Apparently he greets the empty tent every time he walks in ''just in case'' there is somebody invisible hiding in there.

* [[Cry for The Devil]]: You will probably wind up feeling sorry against your will for {{spoiler|Invidia and the Vord Queen}} in the last book, even though they are, respectively, a [[Complete Monster]] and the [[Big Bad]].

{{quote| '''Isana:''' I ''do'' feel sorry for you, dear. I have good reason to hate you, yet you've served yourself a fate worse than any I would ever have imagined, much less wished upon you. Of course you're afraid.}}

** [[Making a Splash|Watercrafting]] (Knights Aqua): [[The Empath|Empathy]], underwater breathing, [[Shapeshifting|changing appearance]], long-range water-based communication, and, most importantly, [[Healing Hands|healing]]. There are't any actual ''Knights'' Aqua because their [[The Medic|medical skills]] are so valuable elsewhere. Without some metalcrafting, though, they tend to be [[Unhappy Medium|Unhappy Mediums]], since as we all know, [[A Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Read]].

** [[Playing With Fire|Firecrafting]] (Knights Ignus): [[Stuff Blowing Up|Very big booms]]. It also grants [[Emotion Control|the ability to inspire fear or passion]], and manifest fire furies can be an outright nightmare. Knights Ignus are the Legions' cannons, and battle plans always need some way of neutralizing them lest everyone get burnt to a crisp.

* [[Emotion Bomb]]:

** A less utilized, but very effective, application of firecrafting. Not only can it cause panic in your enemies and break a charge, it can inspire heroism in your own troops.

* [[Everyone Is a Super]]

* [[Lava Adds Awesome]]: Twice.

* [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good]]

** In ''Cursor's Fury'', Invidia suggests that Amara use [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique|forceful methods]] to get information out of Rook. Amara instead determines Rook's driving motivation for being loyal to Kalare (her daughter) and promises to rescue her daughter because it is the right thing to do. When Rook breaks down crying and agrees to help, Invidia is described as looking on the scene with a confused expression like someone watching a "silent play performed by lunatics."

* [[Evil Sorcerer]]: The Canim Ritualists are generally considered to be this, though only some of them are as bad as they are made out to be: the blood they need for their rituals can as easily be taken from already-dead corpses as from live sacrifices. In fact, the old school of ritualists do not believe in using anyone's blood but their ''own''; Marok, in ''First Lord's Fury,'' demonstrates how decent this type can be. However, [[The Starscream|Sarl]] and later Khral embrace the trope thoroughly. Unfortunately, the Old School ritualists are badly outnumbered by the rest.

* [[Expecting Someone Taller]]: Amara uses the standard line to subtly insult Pirellus of the Black Blade, Knight Commander of Garrison. When she first encounters Pirellus he is completely naked, having just been roused from a bath, and she mentions that she thought he would be taller after looking him up and down, during which she lets her gaze linger "significantly."

* [[Extranormal Institute]]: The Academy is a school for teenaged youths in a world where everyone has magic abilities, so between math and history class there are classes on magical theory and actual training to use magic.

* [[Eye Scream]]: Turns out, a sufficiently powerful watercrafter can regrow her ''own'' eyes after they have been clawed out.

* [[Famed in Story]]: Aldrick ex Gladius often serves as [[The Dragon]] for whichever character is currently in control, and not as a clear antagonist on his own, but he is legendary throughout Alera for his famed skill with the sword. His duel with Araris Valerian, ''also'' legendary because of his skill, is still being talked about ''fifteen years later''. To hear Araris tell it:

{{quote| '''Araris:''': [Aldrick had] more than a hundred duels to his credit. He used to hire out as a champion, before he took up service with [Septimus]. That one got a lot of attention. We went for about ten hours, all the way around Garden Lane and Craft Lane both. Must have been fifty or sixty thousand people that came down to see it.}}

* [[Feel No Pain]]: An aspect of metalcrafting.

* [[First Kiss]]: Notably initiated by Kitai

** When the Windwolves, mercenaries in service to the Aquitaines, save the lives of Bernard and members of his legion, Bernard insists that they address him by his first name instead of title.

** High Lady Placidus Aria is the only member of the Aleran nobility to insist that other characters address her by her first name, indicating that she is friendly and approachable.

* [[The Good the Bad And The Evil]]: At first, the three main heirs to the throne: Tavi is the good, Aquitaine is the bad, and Kalarus is the evil. Later on, you have Tavi as the good, Aquitaine as the bad, and the Vord as the evil.

* [[Gratuitous Latin]]: Used extensively, with good reason: [[Word of God]] is that the Alerans are descended from one of the Lost Roman Legions.

* [[Guys Smash Girls Shoot]]: Inverted with Bernard and Amara, the most long-term [[Battle Couple]]. Though Bernard has an earthcrafters strength and carries a [[An Axe to Grind|battle axe]], he is primarily an archer, while Amara is a swordswoman.

** In a rather twisted way, {{spoiler|the Vord Queen}}.

** {{spoiler|Gaius Desiderius Tavarus}}

** While regular horses exist, a prefered secondary beast is the Gargant. The descriptions in the books are a little vague, but [[Word of God]] finally came out and said that Gargants are descendents of Megatherium, the Giant-Ground Sloth, but with gigantic tusks and having the same disposition and ecological niche as Indian Elephants, but omnivorous.

** The Canims' mounts, the Taurga. Descriptions are vague, but they give the impression of being massive, predatory camel-analogues, especially in disposition.

* [[Huge Holographic Head]]: The most powerful watercrafters can create life-size, full-color images of themselves in water to communicate at a distance. In the last book, {{spoiler|Tavi and the Vord Queen}} figure out that if you do not bother to make it two-way, you can project copies of the image in ''every body of water in the country''.

* [[Humanity Is Infectious]]: {{spoiler|The Vord Queen.}}

* [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]: Anyone with strong woodcrafting ability becomes an incredible archer, among them being Bernard, Fidelias, and any Knight Flora. In ''Academ's Fury'', a group of Knights Flora looses a barrage of arrows that are so precise they can fly between a ''legionaire's'' ear and his shield, or beneath a rising sword arm as the soldier in question strikes out. In ''Captain's Fury'', a woodcrafter named Iris the Hawk is so accurate that she can put arrows into men's heads or throats from four hundred yards, while on the rolling deck of a moving ship. By comparison, the classic English longbow could ''potentially'' reach those ranges in ideal conditions, but with only inaccurate, arching barrage fire.

* [[I Never Told You My Name|I Never Told You My Job]]: Beritte, who fancies herself as something of a seductress, accidentally gives away that she was eavesdropping when she refers to Fidelias as a gem merchant, which was the cover story he had just relayed to Bernard.

{{quote| '''Crassus:''' "Apparently, they never realized how bad a bunch of fish could hurt them."}}

* [[Interspecies Romance]]: Tavi, a human, and Kitai, a Marat. Of course, the Marat are pretty much humans that are taller, have higher body heat and are less "civilized," so it is easy to overlook. They can also {{spoiler|interbreed with humans}}, though mutual longstanding hostility between them means no one knows this is possible.

* [[It Can Think]]: The Vord, when commanded by a queen. This is especially evident the first time they show up as a major threat, when they have not yet built up a truly absurd numerical advantage and fight a guerilla war instead.

* [[It Has Been an Honor]]: Amara and Aria {{spoiler|as dawn arrives on the first day of the final stand in Calderon.}}

** Inverted--It's what ''he'' does--when Tavi and Nasaug discuss Varg and why he is imprisoned in the Aleran capital. Nasaug states that Varg is imprisoned unjustly since he did not act dishonorably, and when Tavi asks what makes Nasaug think that, he simply replies that, "He is Varg."

** The Vord seem to have some sort of genetic imperative to destroy all other living species on the planet. {{spoiler|In the end, the Queen tells Tavi that it was never personal; she was just doing what a Vord Queen is supposed to do.}}

** As of ''Princeps' Fury'', High Lord Antillus Raucus has spent huge chunks of his life locked in constant battle with the Icemen. He is obviously emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted by the constant strain, but he gamely carries on with it, because "it's what one did".

* [[Jackie Robinson Story]]: {{spoiler|Isana}} becomes the first female steadholder at the end of ''Furies of Calderon.'' Tavi becomes the first non-crafter to be, well, everything.

* [[Kansas City Shuffle]]: Tavi figures out that the best way of combating an enemy who can read minds is to make sure nobody but him knows all of what is going on, so he uses plans that rely on complicated sets of sealed orders issued to many different people. {{spoiler|And in return, they do not tell him about the fact that they are sending backup.}}

* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: The Vord. They are fast, come in [[Zerg Rush|huge numbers]], are almost impossible to kill, and if directed by a Queen, are smart. The Vord Queen also qualifies, seeing as [[Immune to Bullets|balest bolts bounce off her skin]], she can craft better than any Aleran, is faster than any windcrafter and stronger than the Canim. It takes the efforts of Tavi, Kitai, {{spoiler|and two great furies}} to put her out of commission.

* [[Living Lie Detector]]: Pretty much all watercrafters with at least Knight-level skill.

* [[Locked Into Strangeness]]: Gaius Sextus's hair goes solid white after his collapse during the second book. He still looks 40-something otherwise.

* [[Luxury Prison Suite]]: The Grey Tower, which is the most escape-proof prison in Alera. The cell on the top floor is the ''entire'' floor and includes dining areas, luxury furniture and plenty of books. Max points out that anybody who ends up in ''that'' cell is there for politics, and the bars are simply for show.

* [[Mark of Shame]]: Fade's brand. {{spoiler|It is self-inflicted.}}

* [[Master Swordsman]]: Any Knight Ferrous is this by definition. Araris Valerian, Aldrick ex Gladius, and Phrigiar Navaris are the three most significant to the story, and each of them has a deserved reputation as one of the top blades in Alera. Araris is ''probably'' the best, though Aldrick once famously dueled him to a draw, and he admits himself that it could go either way between him and Navaris.

* [[Mauve Shirt]]:

** Centurion Giraldi was introduced towards the climax of ''Furies of Calderon'' as a soldier stationed at Garrison, returns in ''Academ's Fury'' as Bernard's second-in-command and spends ''Cursor's Fury'' as Isana's companion, guard and assistant. He returns in ''First Lord's Fury'', back at Garrison where it all began.

** ''Legionare'' Schultz was introduced as a trainee in ''Cursor's Fury'' and worked his way up to Centurion of the Battlecrow Cohort, functioning as Tavi's primary battle component in the First Aleran.

* [[Meaningful Name]]

** In the epilogue {{spoiler|Gaius Desiderius Tavarus. Desiderius means "the desired one" and was chosen by Tavi and Kitai so he would never feel unwanted.}}

** In ''Cursor's Fury'', there is a character named Rook. {{spoiler|In one scene, she exchanges places with a member of the royalty for the sake of both protection and greater maneuverability. Or, to put it simply, Rook castles.}}

** When first introduced, the Placidas are noted for staying out of the turbulent politics.

* [[Mundane Utility]]: All of the different types of furies and their crafters have some form of mundane utility; wind-crafting allows for flight, earth-crafting increases strength to the point that loads in the hundreds of kilograms are no issue, water-crafters are healers, metal-crafters are smiths and have endurance that allows them to block out pain or keep going for days, wood-crafters can manipulate any form of plant life, making them excellent farmers--and archers--and firecrafters create the equivalent of both lightbulbs and refrigeration. Heck, the entire economy is so based on fury-crafting that most forms of technological development have completely stagnated.

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: {{spoiler|Gaius Tavarus Magnus, which literally means "Lord Wolverine the Great".}}

* [[Nigh Invulnerable]]: The Vord Queens are ''far'' more durable than anything made of flesh and bone (and chitin) ought to be.

* [[No One Could Survive That]]: {{spoiler|Lady Aquitaine, conspirator extraordinaire, gets shot with a poisoned crossbow bolt while [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|in disguise as a washerwoman]]. The combination of the two highly deadly poisons on the bolt plus the fact that the bolt went through her back and out through her chest reportedly kills her within minutes despite the best efforts of the healers. But her [[Never Found the Body|body was not in the morgue]] when the guy who shot her went to make sure.}} The fifth book reveals that {{spoiler|she was indeed mortally wounded, but was able to heal enough to get away... where she was found by a Vord Queen who offered to keep her alive in exchange for her loyalty.}}

* [[No One Gets Left Behind]]: When Kestus and Ivarus are fleeing from the Vord, Ivarus' horse is killed and Kestus turns around to assist him and bring him to safety on his own horse, [[Bring News Back|even though Ivarus says it is more important that he escape with the news]]. {{spoiler|Kestus himself is killed immediately after he turns back for Ivarus, leaving Ivarus to continue the journey alone}}.

* [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore]]: When the Alerans test their new {{spoiler|catapults}} against the Vord, Amara comments that, no matter what the outcome of the war is, the autocratic/feudalistic society of old Alera is gone forever because the destructive power of the High Lords is now in the hands of the freemen.

** {{spoiler|Even more so the ending. Tavi has changed the world so that Fury Crafting ability is now based on hard work more than genetics, with a further implication that the other races would develop it. He has also managed to force the Alerans, Marat, Icemen, and Canim into an alliance because if they don't work together, they will all die when the Vord from the former Canim cross the ocean in a couple of centuries.}}

* [[No Womans Land]]: Though Alera's women do enjoy plenty of rights as freemen, the number of female Citizens is limited; up until Gaius promoted Isana to the Citizenry at the end of ''Furies of Calderon'', no woman had ever gained Citizenship without either serving in the military <ref> Difficult, as women could not normally be ''legionares'', so this requires them to serve as either healers or Knights, both of which require strong furycrafting, or the woman had to disguise herself as a man until such a point that her deeds on the battlefield proved her worhty of being a Citizen if she revealed her gender</ref>, winning a Citizenship bout (requiring strong furycrafting) or marriage into the Citizenry (strong furycrafting being nearly required as well). In short, women without Knight-level furycrafting are generally out of luck in Alera, at least until Gaius promoted Isana. This becomes an important plot point as the series progresses, as Isana's promotion is taken as an official statement by the First Lord regarding parity of genders and a sign of his power, making Isana a target for those trying to undermine Gaius' authority. It also resulted in an increase in sale prices for female slaves and caused chaos and pressure in the slave trade in general. Since Kalarus is one of the two High Lords with eyes on the First Lord's crown, and the province of Kalare is heavily dependent on slave labor, this seriously hampers his economy and pushes him into launching the brewing civil war earlier than he planned.

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]:

* [[Olympus Mons]]: Though most Alerans do not believe they truly exist, "Great Furies" embody the larger geological formations of Carna, including mountains, volcanoes and even Alera itself. These Furies can be stirred to action, held to inaction, and even (If the crafter is powerful enough) bound to a person as any smaller fury can be.

* [[One Curse Limit]]: Only one discipline collar can be fitted to a person at a time; the furycrafting involved does not take if a second one is added later. {{spoiler|Amara uses this to her advantage}}.

* [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You]]: Tavi and Varg, especially in ''Princeps' Fury''. Earlier, in ''Academ's Fury'', Varg tells Tavi that the entire reason he is helping him protect Gaius is because Varg wants to be the one to lead the army that will destroy Alera [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|with honor]], and that he does not want Alera to fall to Sarl and the Vord Queen's trickery and deception. Applies to any sets of ''gadara'' as well, and other Canim will get out of the way in order to let them challenge each other.

* [[Orifice Invasion]]: Vord Takers crawl in through your mouth, secreting a poison to numb your flesh so you do not know they are crawling into you until it is too late.

* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]]: Varg. Potentially any Cane for that matter, as their life expectancy seems to be near a millennium.

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Bernard, Giraldi, Lord and Lady Placida, Lord Ceres and Gaius Sextus.

* [[Red Baron]]: Skilled swordsmen of Alera are often given sword-based nickames which become part of their actual names.

** Aldrick ex Gladius. "ex Gladius" literally means "of the sword," and when he is introduced Fidelias explicitly states that he is known throughout Alera as "the sword."

* [[Rescue Romance]]: After Bernad pulls Amara out of the frozen, flooding Rillwater river, the two of them warm by the fire and Amara leans in to kiss Bernard. [[Subverted Trope|He pulls away]], [[Above the Influence|pointing out that she is cold and injured and it would be taking advantage to pursue the matter]]. [[Double Subverted|They get together later on anyway]].

* [[Rewarded As a Traitor Deserves]]: {{spoiler|Lady Aquitaine's ultimate fate; Amara says this trope almost word for word as she executes her.}}

* [[Running Gag]]:

** Kitai would like to point out that she wanted a ''horse''.

** Valiar Marcus, First Spear (Senior Centurion) of the First Aleran Legion. One of the few men living that was 'promoted' to the House of the Valiant (Valiar) for his service to Alera. {{spoiler|It turns out he is Fidelias in disguise}}.

* [[Shades of Conflict]]: The characters have to make some interesting ethical decisions over the course of the series. The Vord border on [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: {{spoiler|the queen in ''Academ's Fury'' cannot comprehend the idea of [[Taking You With Me]]. She has an intellectual understanding, but is entirely incapable of wrapping her mind around the idea.}}

* [[Shock Collar]]: In this case the collar does not only hurt the slave when they misbehave but also reward them with sensations of pleasure when they do well.

* [[Shout Out]]: Tavi, whose name is remarkably similar to Rikki Tikki Tavi, a mongoose that regularly overcomes greater foes with cunning and skill in the works of Rudyard Kipling.

* [[Sickening Crunch]]: When Gaius Sextus kills three cohorts of Immortals, at the ''same time'', the sound of all their necks breaking "was a rippling staccato of sound, somewhat like a saw going through wood."

* [[Spring Is Late]]: Tavi gets {{spoiler|Alera}} to bring cold air from the arctic much farther south than normal for late winter/early spring. The extra week of winter allows Tavi to craft the snow into a surface that allows ships to ''sail on land'', getting Tavi's army to the main battle earlier than expected.

* [[Spy From Weights and Measures]]: Cursors, to an extent. Lots of people think of them as just messengers, although aristocrats know better than that.

* [[Start of Darkness]]: The fifth book reveals that {{spoiler|contrary to what most people assumed, Aquitaine was ''not'' one of those who killed Princeps Septimus: quite the opposite, he was one of Septimus' closest friends and turned against the First Lord who had been unable to protect his own son, [[He Who Fights Monsters|becoming just as cruel and ruthless as those he sought revenge against.]]}}

* [[Stealth Hi Bye]]: Varg's Hunters do this repeatedly, including once emerging from a room that Tavi and company had been in (alone) only moments before. Eventually, Sha (Their leader) pulls this on Valiar Marcus so often that Marcus stops being surprised at finding him in his tent.

** In ''Cursor's Fury'', Odiana actually implies that she ''wants'' to have a discipline collar put on her by Aldrick, but ''only'' Aldrick. This is played for tragedy, not humor; in the first book she reveals that she used to be a slave, used for sex, and her watercrafter abilities let her feel the emotions of her attackers, which is what broke her. Notably, [[Even Evil Has Standards|Aldrick will not do it,]] possibly because, in the final book, we learn that he was one of the men who ''saved'' her from said slaver.

* [[Took a Level In Badass]]:

** Centurion Schultz, who starts as a [[New Meat|fish]] in ''Cursor's Fury'' and is a [[Sergeant Rock|Centurion]] by ''Captain's Fury'', mirroring the First Aleran's transformation into one of the most elite armies on Alera.

* [[Training Accident]]: Amara's test at the beginning of the series was not really to see whether she could get information; it was to see if she would stay loyal and be able to escape after Fidelias's betrayal, which Gaius saw coming.

* [[Unhappy Medium]]: Watercrafters, the strongest of whom tend to be incapacitated by sufficiently powerful emotions unless they are also good at metalcrafting.

* [[Unholy Matrimony]]: Odiana is [[Ax Crazy]]. Aldrick is an amoral mercenary. They are a cute couple.

* [[Unspoken Plan Guarantee]]: Tavi and others in the series are quite good at playing their cards close to their vests. Becomes even more true in the fifth book, when Tavi realizes that {{spoiler|the Vord are able to read the minds of their foes... and thus sets up a plan that is unspoken even to those who are carrying it out, using a whole network of sealed orders.}}

* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: Many variants on "crows" and "furies" seem to take the place of traditional oaths.

** The biggest recurring obstacle impeding Amara, Tavi and Bernard from warning Garrison of the Marat threat in ''Furies of Calderon'' was Kord and his two sons (Aric and Bittan), who kept interfering at crucial junctures in the hopes of derailing the trial of Bittan for rape. {{spoiler|It turns out Bittan ''really was innocent''; simply letting the trial go through would have made the story easier not only for the "good guys," but would have saved Kord and Bittan's lives as well.}}

** As time goes on, multiple characters (even those loyal to the First Lord) point out that Gaius could have prevented a lot of the scheming amongst the High Lords by fathering another child after the death of Septimus, or at least designating an heir from one of the nobility. It would not have solved ''everything'', {{spoiler|especially once the reader learns that some of the High Lords ''created'' the problem in the first place by assasinating Septmus}}, but it would have resolved the most public crisis of a disputed succession.

** Fidelias, who betrays the First Lord for what he views as the greater good, the long-term stability of Alera, by ensuring that there is a strong and younger First Lord in charge.

** Aquitainus Attis, who sought the throne because he believed that Gaius Sextus could no longer control the High Lords and would ultimately lead to civil war.

* [[What You Are in The Dark]]:

** When Max tells Tavi that [[You Need to Get Laid|he should buy a woman for the night]] in ''Cursor's Fury'', pointing out that nobody would know, Tavi gives the standard respnse that ''he'' would know.