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'''''The Heralds of Valdemar''''' is a [[Fantasy]] novel series written by [[Mercedes Lackey]]. The series is linked by its setting rather than focusing on a core group of characters; it covers roughly 3,000 years of history, all told. It is written mostly in the form of trilogies that ''do'' focus on a particular character, although there are a handful of independent novels as well.
The majority of the series revolves around [[The Kingdom]] of Valdemar and its protectors, the eponymous Heralds of Valdemar. Heralds are [[Heroes]] of one stripe or another [[Call to Adventure|called]] to defend Valdemar from the current [[Big Bad]]. Sometimes they have to go on [[The Quest]] for the [[MacGuffin]] that will save Valdemar, other times they have to root out [[The Mole]] or discover whatever [[Applied Phlebotinum]] solution they need to save the day. Almost always, it's a [[Coming of Age Story]] as well.
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An important aspect of the Heralds of Valdemar is their Companions. Companions are, in essence, [[Cool Horse|Cool Horses]] with [[Intellectual Animal|human-level intelligence]] and telepathy. They deliver the [[Call to Adventure]] to new Heralds by instinctively seeking out and recruiting youngsters with latent [[Psychic Powers|Gifts]] and good hearts, and always find the one person for whom they were meant [[Because Destiny Says So]]. This usually happens at just the right time to get the newly Chosen trained just before the kingdom needs them.
'''
* ''The Mage Wars'': The prehistory of the Valdemar 'verse, including the eponymous war between Great Mages [[Big Good|Urtho]] and [[Big Bad|Ma'ar]] that resulted in the [[The End of the World as We Know It|Cataclysm]] and its [[After the End|aftermath]], and the exile of the Kaled'a'in. Features the mighty Black Gryphon, Skandranon.
* ''The Last Herald-Mage'': Details the [[Trauma Conga Line|tragic life]] and ultimate [[Heroic Sacrifice]] of Vanyel Ashkevron, the most powerful Herald-Mage Valdemar has ever known. Features one of the first, if not the first, openly gay yet unambiguously heroic protagonists in fantasy literature.
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* ''The Valdemar Companion: A Guide to Mercedes Lackey's World of Valdemar'' -- Nearly everything you wanted to know about Valdemar, plus a Valdemar novelette.
{{
== Tropes A to M ==
* [[Abdicate the Throne]]: Elspeth, from the position of Heir, to take on the mantle of the first Herald-Mage since Vanyel's time.
* [[Achievements in Ignorance]]: Valdemaran mages pull off a lot of this in and following the ''Mage Winds'' trilogy, simply because they're too new at magic to know what ought to be impossible. This also leads directly to the use of [[Sufficiently Analyzed Magic]], when the artificers start getting involved. Firesong especially is not amused, but ultimately has to admit that it works, and works ''well''.
* [[Action Bomb]]: A mage using the Final Strike technique effectively becomes one of these.
* [[Action Girl]]: Most female Heralds. Jeri, Elspeth, Tarma, and Kerowyn are excellent examples.
* [[After the End]], of a sort: An event in the distant past called the Cataclysm [[World Sundering|violently reshaped]] large sections of the planet, and is generally responsible for most of history since it occurred. (Later books in the series explain just what the Cataclysm was and how it came about.)
* [[Alien Non-Interference Clause]]:
** Kal'enel and whatever god(dess) is behind the Companions hold to a rule that humans are to solve their own problems wherever possible, and divine intervention is to be restricted to situations where they can't succeed on their own; for this reason, the Companions aren't allowed to get their hooves into humans' relationship problems unless they're asked for help. The gods are not above breaking this rule if they think it necessary, however.
** Vkandis Sunlord averts this trope; he's a very activist god and not above purging his priesthood or
* [[The Alliance]]: Between Valdemar and several neighboring kingdoms.
* [[Amplified Animal Aptitude]]: Bondbirds and Shin'a'in warsteeds are not ''quite'' [[Intellectual Animal|Intellectual Animals]], but are notably smarter than normal birds and horses thanks to extensive magically-augmented breeding programs.
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* [[Anti-Villain]]: Grand Duke Tremaine, as decent a man as could survive in the [[Deadly Decadent Court|Imperial court]].
* [[Ascended Demon]]: Attempted in ''The Oathbound'', when {{spoiler|Thalhkarsh is [[Brought Down to Normal]] and captured by priests}}. There are no indications that the project succeeded, as she isn't mentioned again in any other book.
* [[Asexuality]]: Tarma, and the other Shin'a'in Swordsworn, due to religious vows. The Shin'a'in Goddess is both merciful and practical, however -- rather than force her adherents to torture themselves, she simply puts in a mental block preventing them from feeling any sexual desire for anything in the first place. But hey, they ''are'' all volunteers. In Tarma's case, it's necessary at first to keep her from being emotionally crippled due to her [[Rape as Backstory|rape]].
* [[Automaton Horses]]: Mainly averted (see [[Shown Their Work]]), but justified with the Companions, who use node magic to augment their endurance and can therefore run much faster and for much longer than any ordinary horse. They do still need to rest and eat eventually, although they are also much more capable of taking care of their own needs than ordinary horses.
* [[Background Magic Field]]: Composed of [[Life Energy]] and used to power all [[Functional Magic]].
* [[Badass]]: Plenty to go around, but Alberich is the supreme example, whether he's in his prime or a [[Badass Grandpa]].
* [[Battle Couple]]: It's easier to list who is not.
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* [[Big Bad]]: Ma'ar, in the background or foreground of just about all of the novels through ''Mage Winds''. After he's finally disposed of, the series lacks a clear major villain, substituting [[The Empire]] and [[The End of the World as We Know It]].
* [[Big Good]]:
** Urtho, in ''The Black Gryphon''. An interesting example because he [[The Chains of Commanding|didn't want to be a leader]], but was forced into it because he was the only one who would (or ''could'') stand up to Ma'ar. In ''Mage Storms'', we learn that the historical view of Urtho varies among the Shin'a'in, the gryphons, and others.
** Solaris, in ''Mage Storms''. As the first genuine High Priest of Vkandis in centuries, she has some pretty awesome powers but is only shown to exercise them once.
* [[Binding Ancient Treaty]]: Established between Valdemar and Rethwellen at the end of ''Oathbreakers'', then somehow forgotten by Valdemar by the time of ''By the Sword'', when Valdemar needs Rethwellen's help fighting Hardorn. Kero, whose grandmother Kethry was vital in the events that forged the agreement, provides a gentle reminder of its existence.
* [[Bishonen]]: Vanyel and Firesong in particular. Especially Firesong, who is described as though he stepped right out of a medieval fantasy anime.
* [[Black Magic]]: [[Blood Magic]] and demon summoning. However, [[Blood Magic]] is not considered evil when it's only the caster's own blood (or [[Life Energy]]) involved, and/or the sacrifice is voluntary.
* [[Blood Magic]]: One of the most potent forms of magic, this is based on the principles of [[Cast
* [[Blue Eyes]]: All Companions have blue eyes, caused by channeling [[Place of Power|node-energy]], which bleaches hair and eyes to white and blue, respectively.
* [[Bluffing the Murderer]]:
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** Another one is used by Karal in ''Storm Warning'' to catch the mole responsible for {{spoiler|Ulrich's}} death, by presenting himself as an easy target for assassination.
* [[Boarding School of Horrors]]: Lavan attends a day school of this in ''Brightly Burning''.
* [[Bolt of Divine Retribution]]: Vkandis does this to reestablish his true priesthood in a truly unmistakable way - see [[Smite Me,
* [[Bond Creatures]]: The Companions, most prominently; also the bondbirds of the Tayledras. The Firecats of Karse may answer to this trope too. They're more independent-minded than their cousins the Companions, but still ultimately attached to one person.
* [[A Boy and His X]]: Heralds could be described as "people with [[Psychic Powers]] and their [[Non-Human Sidekick|Non Human Sidekicks]]". The bondbirds of the Tayledras occasionally play this role, particularly in ''Owl Knight''.
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* [[The Cassandra]]: Talia is [[The Empath]] and has a one hundred percent flawless record at reading people. If anyone had taken her suspicions about [[Evil Chancellor|Lord Orthallen]] seriously in ''Arrow's Fall'', it would have averted a lot of tragedy. To his credit, Orthallen sows rumors about her reliability and tries to alienate her from her friends precisely to keep her off-balance and disbelieved.
** She's also only thirteen years old at this point and fresh off the back of the turnip cart, with powers that are only incompletely understood and that her instructors are largely ignorant of the exact potential of and so don't have any reason to put major stock in. Really, it would have been a miracle if they ''had'' taken her seriously.
* [[Cast
* [[Catgirl]]: Nyara, also a [[Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter|Mad Wizard's Beautiful Daughter]], is this because her father magically experimented on her with the changes he intended to work on himself.
* [[Celestial Paragons and Archangels]]: The Grove-Born Companions are essentially archangels in horse form. The Firecats and the Avatars of Kal'enel also qualify.
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* [[Changeling Fantasy]]: Of a sort. Heraldic Trainees plucked away by their Companions from massively abusive childhoods usually find their "real" home and family in the Heraldic Circle.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]:
** The Oathbreaking ceremony is mentioned in passing early in the first part of ''Oathbreakers'', and unsurprisingly is a key part of the novel's resolution. Any piece of lore that Jadrek mentions also inevitably pays off at some point over the course of the story, most notably the legend of the Sword that Sings.
** Urtho's personal portal into the High King's palace in ''The Black Gryphon''. In a similar vein, the [[Anti-Magic]] box he has Skandranon "bomb" Ma'ar's forces with. The latter also serves to [[Foreshadowing|establish]] the explosive potency of magic nullification.
** Karal's power is to be a "Channel", a very rare ability that can't even be trained. It's established right away in ''Storm Warning'', which is good because he ends up using this ability at the climax of each and every novel in that series.
* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: Several characters Talia meets in ''Arrow's Flight'', particularly the trader Evan, play a part in advancing the plot in later books.
* [[The Chessmaster]]: The gods, collectively, are the setting's ultimate chessmasters, manipulating the entire history of Velgarth from the Cataclysm onward to ensure that {{spoiler|humanity can prevent a repeat performance when the Mage Storms hit}}.
* [[Child Soldier]]: Some Herald trainees are young enough to qualify, but Kerowyn is probably the best (and most literal) example, taking up the apparently hopeless quest to rescue her brother's betrothed from captivity only to be aided by Tarma and Kethry.
* [[Chronic Hero Syndrome]]: [[Deconstruction|Deconstructed]] with Need, which forces [[Chronic Hero Syndrome]] upon its bearers with no regard for any sense of proportion or self-preservation, {{spoiler|before she wakes up in the ''Mage Winds'' trilogy.}} Played straight by Heralds, for whom it's more or less contractually obligated. It shows up among the Healers, too, especially during plague situations.
* [[Circuit Judge]]: One of the primary everyday functions of the Heralds.
* [[Clingy MacGuffin]]:
** Need. Even Kerowyn, who refuses to allow Need to have the kind of hold over her that it did over her grandmother, isn't entirely sure she could get rid of it if she really needed to, and -- considering the pain she went through the one time she almost lost it -- generally isn't willing to find out.
** A short story in ''Oathblood'' has Tarma and Kethry getting a cursed coin that requires serious action to get rid of.
* [[Closet Key]]: Tylendel, for Vanyel. Firesong seems to be this for An'desha, but it is ultimately subverted as [[If It's You It's Okay]].
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* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: The main philosophy of both Alberich and Kerowyn -- forget grace, beauty, and dignity; just attack for maximum damage with whatever you've got on hand.
* [[Coming of Age Story]]: Many of the series' heroes are teenagers at their first appearance, and the stories follow their growth into adulthood as much as their progress on [[The Quest]].
* [[Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like]]:
** Alberich is sentenced to be burned to death for saving a village from bandits. Why? Because he learned that the village would need to be saved through ForeSight, which marked him as a witch in the eyes of the Karsite priesthood.
** Alberich himself does this afterwards because he's been "rescued" by his sworn enemy, which earns him the undying(ish) hatred of his countrymen. He gets over it later.
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* [[The Dark Side]]: [[Blood Magic]] is dangerously addictive to those who practice it thanks to [[Evil Feels Good]], and it stains your soul, marking you indelibly with its taint. It's also a good way to get [[Drunk on the Dark Side]].
* [[Deadly Decadent Court]]: The court of the Eastern Emperor, to the point where "master assassin" is considered a respectable entry on a prospective Emperor's resume, and one of the main characters reflects that being cursed to be unable to lie is the single most horrific fate that could ever possibly befall an Imperial nobleman.
* [[Deadly Prank]]: Some unaffiliated students pull one on Talia -- as attempted murder. "[[Pre-Mortem One-Liner|Give our love to Talamir]]" indeed.
* [[Death World]]: The Pelagirs are not a nice place to wander without native protection. Leftover magebuilt living weapons and other critters from a magical war two thousand years back, check. Flora/
* [[Defector From Decadence]]: Admittedly Herald Alberich did not defect so much as get shanghaied but the end result remained thus. He protests it, too, once he recovers from his <s>mad dash for freedom</s> journey. He even considers - for a few moments anyways - {{spoiler|having his bond between himself and his Companion severed.}} He doesn't go through with it, {{spoiler|mostly because of the mention that it would leave both of them ''badly'' damaged}} but it seems a close thing, even so.
* [[Defrosting Ice Queen]]: Kerowyn, who is not so much cold as very narrowly focused. Played arrow-straight in ''The Black Gryphon'', with Winterhart. [[Played for Laughs]] in ''Oathbreakers'' with the bard Leslac, who thinks he can pull this on Tarma. He's badly wrong.
* [[Derailing Love Interests]]: Skif in the Mage Winds trilogy.
* [[Deus Angst Machina]]: Winterhart's backstory in ''The Black Gryphon'', thoroughly justified by the [[Crapsack World]] setting at the time. Amberdrake, too, although he deals with it differently. Vanyel's upbringing is equally angst-ridden but is mainly [[Trauma Conga Line|told in the story]].
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: [[In-Universe]] example: the bard Leslac, about Tarma and Kerowyn, frequently. While he usually gets the overall story right, he tends to be dead wrong about the fine details. The most inaccurate song he ever wrote was actually one where he was ''present'' for the events in question, but he deliberately rewrote the story to be more dramatic (The story as Tarma lived it: She was attacked by a drunk. She hit him with a broomstick. He accidentally cracked his skull on the fireplace and died. The drunk turned out to be an unpopular local noble. The story as Leslac told it: Tarma learned that the people were being oppressed by an evil overlord, so she called him out and slew him in an epic duel).
** Later on Tarma and her friends conspire to deliberately take advantage of Leslac's unwillingness to actually learn anything about the people he sings about, when Leslac's determined romantic pursuit of Tarma (who is magically ''incapable'' of feeling sexual desire, as part of her consecration to the Shin'a'in Goddess as Swordsworn) begins to annoy the crap out of her. Then it occurs to Tarma that if Leslac's so butt-ignorant about the Swordsworn that he doesn't know their vow of chastity is magically enforced, it's possible to convince him that the "female" Swordsworn are actually castrated men. Leslac being a world-class idiot, it works.
* [[Dirty Mind Reading]]: Talia's Empathy leads to [[Sex by Proxy]] through both her Companion Rolan and the Herald-Trainee who has the room next to hers. Consequently, when she graduates to a full-fledged Herald, she chooses the topmost room in a tower of the Herald's Collegium as her residence. She remarks to Kris after their tryst that she may have been a virgin, but she wasn't naive.
* [[Damsel in Distress]]: 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.
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* [[Eviler Than Thou]]: Ancar and Hulda, meet Mornelithe Falconsbane. Among several other examples, he takes their [[We Have Reserves]] strategy to truly epic heights.
* [[The Evil Prince]]: Ancar of Hardorn. To a lesser (or at least less competent) extent Thanel of Rethwellan, Prince-Consort of Valdemar.
* [[Excalibur in the Rust]]: In ''Oathbreakers'', the long-lost Singing Sword of Rethwellan that is used to identify the country's rightful king is discovered to be none other than a rusty, dirty old sword that Kethry picked up along the wayside. Played with in that the ''only'' thing exceptional about it is its ability to identify the king; in every other regard it's a pretty crap sword.
* [[Fantastic Honorifics]]: "Siara" is the default honorific in the Eastern Empire, when its not clear exactly what the right one would be. Other places don't have this custom, probably because outside the Eastern Empire they don't usually kill people for addressing someone important without a proper honorific.
* [[The Fagin]]: A [[Loveable Rogue]] type. Skif falls in with a group of young thieves led by an adult man (Bazie), who is unfortunately crippled; he gives them food, shelter and lessons (both educational and in how to be a good thief) in exchange for helping him out with his daily life and stealing for him.
* [[Famed in Story]]: The story of Kerowyn's first heroic exploits follows her throughout the rest of ''By the Sword'', rather to her chagrin. She follows in the footsteps of her mentors, Tarma and Kethry, whose mercenary careers are plagued by tales of their "heroic unselfish deeds". As they put it, it's tough to get paying jobs when people expect you to help them out of the goodness of your heart. Vanyel also gets quite a bit of this in ''Magic's Promise'' and especially in ''Magic's Price''.
* [[Fantastic Nuke]]: The end of the Mage Wars left two '''large''' craters, later known as Lake Evendim and the Dhorisha Plains, where the towers of Urtho and Ma'ar had been. Though distances aren't quite specified, the size they look on maps suggests the Dhorisha Plains are more than two hundred kilometers across, and possibly a '''lot''' more.
* [[Fantasy Contraception]]: Female Heralds (and presumably, other women who venture afield) employ an herbal concoction that reduces or eliminates "moon days" and also has contraceptive properties.
* [[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.
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* [[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.
* [[The First Cut Is the Deepest]]: Vanyel after losing Tylendal. His deeply romantic (and deeply in denial) mother likes to tell young women "he lost his first love tragically" -- fortunately by the time Stef comes along she seems to have accepted things.
* [[Fisher King]]: After years of misrule by Ancar, who ruined the land with magic, the people of Hardorn insist their new king go through a ceremony to become this so he won't even ''think'' about repeating the attempt.
* [[Fish Out of Water]]: Newly-Chosen Heralds almost always have to go through a dramatic adjustment phase when they arrive at the Palace for training.
* [[For Doom the Bell Tolls]]: The Death Bell, which the Companions ring when a Herald dies.
* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: Vanyel and Lavan Firestorm again, not to mention Urtho and the Cataclysm.
* [[For Halloween I Am Going as Myself]]: Specifically invoked in ''Winds of Fury'' when a bunch of mages and a [[Catgirl]] have to sneak into Hardorn. "Where do you hide a red fish?" "In a pond full of red fish." And so they disguise themselves as a travelling circus whose gimmick is 'we actually have a mage capable of casting illusions' and 'behold our dancing girl, who has the most realistic catgirl costume ever'.
* [[Freak Lab Accident]]: Vanyel has strong mage-potential but it takes a freak accident involving the backlash from a collapsing Gate to unlock his powers, transforming him into the third most powerful mage in history and granting him almost every other Gift in the book as well.
* [[Friend to All Children]]: Tarma. Kids know it too, running to her for protection even when she's usually the scariest-looking thing in the room.
* [[Florence Nightingale Effect]]: Kerowyn and Eldan in ''By the Sword''.
* [[Functional Magic]]: Has elements of almost all types.
* [[Fusion Fic]]: A rare canon (on one side, at least) example can be found in the short story "Moving Targets", written by Lackey herself for one of the Valdemar anthologies. It's a fusion of Valdemar and, oddly, ''[[Scooby-Doo]]''. It has four Herald trainees and a kyree (a wolf-like sapient species) in a green flower-painted wagon solving a [[Scooby-Doo Hoax]]. It even includes the line "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for you meddling Heralds."
* [[Genki Girl]]: Natoli, almost to the point of being a [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]] for Karal, if she weren't important to the story in many other ways.
* [[Giant Flyer]]: Gryphons.
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** Amberdrake, after Skandranon apparently fails to return from a mission (grief).
** Karal, after Ulrich's death (grief), and Alta the Firecat (grief and guilt that he couldn't save both Karal and Ulrich).
* [[Heroic RROD]]: Pushing one's magic (or [[Psychic Powers]]) too far can result in backlash; see also [[Cast
* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Several. The Final Strike technique (used most notably by Vanyel) is basically a prepackaged Heroic Sacrifice in the form of a suicide-weapon-of-last-resort for mages, using all their energy at once in a huge explosion.
* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Tarma and Kethry, one of the classic examples in fiction. Tarma of course is [[Asexuality|celibate]] by divine oath, and Kethry is more than het enough for both of them, as she demonstrates by getting [[Happily Married]] at the end of ''Oathbreakers'' and having [[Babies Ever After]]. It doesn't stop them from being subjected to [[Ho Yay]] in-universe, though.
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* [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: Talia's close bond with her equestrian instructor Keren in the ''Arrows'' trilogy. Perhaps even moreso, her equally close friendship with the elderly and mostly retired Herald Jadus in ''Arrows of the Queen''.
* [[Interspecies Romance]]:
** Skif and Nyara are only sort of an example, since Nyara was originally human before her father altered her. Later her [[Catgirl]] features are reverted until she's almost completely human in appearance. (To her initial despair, because she thought Skif was primarily attracted to her for her exotic appearance.)
** Lavan Firestorm and his Companion do have a lifebond as well as a Companion bond; this is necessary to anchor his sanity.
** There's something of a [[Deconstruction]] or [[Justified Trope|justified]] [[Averted Trope|aversion]] of this issue in the ''Mage Storms'' trilogy, where the true nature of most Companions ({{spoiler|reincarnated Heralds}}) is revealed. The Companions go to great lengths to conceal this secret to avoid exactly the situation where a Herald is forced to confront a former loved one in a ... slightly different body.
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* [[The Magic Goes Away]]: Three times in the series.
** At the end of ''The Black Gryphon'', the Cataclysm shatters magic over the entire continent and it takes years before things settle down enough that it's safe to use again.
** Following ''The Last Herald-Mage'' trilogy, Vanyel's efforts to protect Valdemar from foreign mages and to ensure that "normal" Heraldic Gifts weren't seen as inferior to magic have the unintended side-effect of causing the country as a whole to forget that magic even exists (at least in the "modern" era). This gets revoked at the beginning of ''Winds of Fury'', setting the stage for the return of the Herald-Mages.
** At the end of ''Mage Storms'', the Final Storm causes most nodes and ley lines to be drained and scattered across the land, depriving mages of most of their power. Again, it's stated that things will get back to normal eventually.
* [[Magic Knight]]: Vanyel, Elspeth, and Darkwind are the most notable examples. Most Heralds and many Tayledras tend at least a little toward this. That said, true [[Magic Knight|Magic Knights]] are rare, since keeping ''either'' martial or magical skills up to date is a full-time job, and doing both of them together pretty much precludes a social life.
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* [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]]: Averted when a young man is the center of the [[Coming of Age Story]]; played straight elsewhere. In fairness, female Heralds aren't celibate, nor are they expected to be.
* [[Masquerade]]: The Companions spend over a thousand years as partners to the Heralds without ever revealing their true natures: {{spoiler|reincarnated Heralds, or even actual divine avatars in the case of Grove-Born Companions}}. This is deemed necessary as knowing it could cause the Heralds to worship or even become dependent on them, not to mention the trauma of knowing that {{spoiler|a loved one came back in a forever-inaccessible form... or worse, ''didn't'' come back}}.
* [[May-December Romance]]:
** Stefan is 17 and Vanyel is 35 when they meet.
** Talia (19-20) marries mid-30s Dirk.
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** The High Priest ''directly'' appointed by the sun god is named "Solaris", Latin for "of the sun."
* [[Meaningful Rename]]: Contributing to the tendency of the Tayledras to have [[Meaningful Name|Meaningful Names]] is the fact that they sometimes change their names following life-changing events. For example, Darkwind was called Songwind in the backstory of ''Winds of Fate,'' but he changed it when the Heartstone was sabotaged. The ''Mage Winds'' trilogy manages to play this for a bit of humor when Starblade quips that he considered changing his name to Starshadow to reflect that he feels like a shadow of his former self... but there's already a Shadowstar and [[One Steve Limit|it would be too confusing]].
* [[Medieval Stasis]]: Rigorously enforced throughout the series, with the raw beginnings of Steam Age technology just emerging around ''Mage Storms''. Justified in the sense that most societies have [[Functional Magic]] to do the job that technology might otherwise handle, with some (like the Eastern Empire) going all the way into [[Magitek]]. Valdemar had mind-magic and healing magic, even though "true magic" had been blocked {{spoiler|by Vanyel's ghost}} until the end of ''Winds of Change.''
* [[Men Can't Keep House]]: Keisha refers to this in ''Owlsight'', when she thinks back to when the village women cleaned up Justyn's old cottage. She concedes that he kept the treatment areas clean, but the living areas .... Later, when she first sees Darian's home in the new Vale, she can't believe at first that a single male lives there because it's so clean. (Darian does not score any aversion points, since the ''hertasi'' clean the place for him.)
** Played straight in the Tarma & Kethry short story "Hero", where they end up seeking shelter with a farmer who had just lost his wife for one night while on the road... and end up staying longer because they are constitutionally incapable of riding on and leaving the poor man and his young children in ''that kind'' of mess. In the man's defense he was certainly ''trying'' to keep house, but with his oldest child barely old enough to keep the younger ones from falling into the privy and a farm to run without any farmhands, he had exactly zero hours in the day for housekeeping chores and zero helping hands to do it with. The story doesn't end until they find him a housekeeper.
* [[A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read]]: Hoo boy. There's a reason most Mindspeaking Heralds won't poke around in another's thoughts without cause, and why many with untrained Gifts who haven't yet been Chosen have a miserable time.
* [[Mindlink Mates]]: Lifebonded pairings, with all the angst and drama that typically accompanies the trope. Discussed in ''Winds of Fate'' between Stefen, Skif, and Nyara, and then again at greater length throughout the "Mage Storms" trilogy when Firesong (mistakenly) believes that having a lifebond would be the end of all disagreements and misunderstandings.
* [[Mind Over Manners]]: The [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]] of all Heralds means that they basically never abuse their mind-magic. Kerowyn, meanwhile, uses hers as little as possible mostly out of the fear that the people around her would not be able to trust her if they knew she could read their minds.
* [[Mind Rape]]:
** Practically a hobby of several villains, most notably Mornelithe Falconsbane. It's established that anyone with strong [[The Empath|Empathy]] is capable of this, but since most of them become Healers or Heralds, it's extremely rare.
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* [[Monochromatic Eyes]]: The Shin'a'in Star-Eyed Goddess, as implied by her name, appears as a woman with starfield eyes. Souls chosen to serve her, called Avatars, have the same eyes.
* [[Morality Chain]]: Lavan's Companion. When she dies, everything burns.
* [[Mugging the Monster]]: Lavan Chitward was bullied at school by the older students. During one such session, [[Playing with Fire|his powers]] manifested and his tormentors paid the price.
* [[Mundane Utility]]:
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** ''Owlsight'' features an implied aversion when Keisha sees a Companion coming and panics at the thought that she'll be Chosen and expected to leave her village without its only Healer and herbalist - only for the Companion to turn towards her sister instead. Whether she was really on the verge of being Chosen or just jumping to conclusions is left deliberately unclear. However, elsewhere in the series it's stated more or less outright that some people who would otherwise make very good Heralds are specifically ''not'' Chosen because there is some other role that it is more vital for them to play; ultimately, as in so many other things, [[Because Destiny Says So]] is in full effect regarding who does or doesn't get Chosen.
* [[My Death Is Just the Beginning]]: Ma'ar, who goes so far as to declare the fact with his [[Final Speech|dying breath]].
== Tropes N to Z ==
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* [[Oddly Common Rarity]]:
** [[Mindlink Mates|Lifebonds]], supposedly very rare, are all over the earlier novels. [[Word of God]] says that Lackey realized this and backed off on them.
*** Also, lifebonds form when powerfully psychic people are under prolonged stress. While those two things are relatively rare among the general population, for obvious reasons they're pretty common among the main casts of the novels.
** Companions bespeaking Heralds who are not their Chosen is said to be exceedingly rare. However, by the time of the ''Mage Winds'' trilogy, it seems they are entirely content to engage in Mindspeech with anyone who is ''not'' a Herald.
*** Explained in-text. The reason Companions don't bespeak people other than their Heralds isn't because they're trying to hide anything (after all, everybody already knows Companions are sentient creatures), but because they normally ''can't'' Mindspeech anyone without the Herald-Companion bond. However, if the ''recipient'' has Mindspeech of their own, or the Companion is one that had full-range Mindspeech in their previous life and still possesses it (like Herald Savil/Companion Sayvil), then nothing stops them from talking as much as they please.
* [[Offered the Crown]]: Grand Duke Tremaine, for Hardorn ([[Fisher King|with conditions]]); a couple of Valdemaran monarchs wound up King or Queen after accidents befell their predecessors, King Randale, for one. Strongly implied to have happened to King Valdemar, the original monarch and namesake of [[The Kingdom]].
* [[Oh My Gods]]:
** The setting has all manner of different gods and goddesses that various characters swear by; "Lady Bright" is popular among Valdemaran characters, while Kerowyn mostly swears by Agnira and sometimes one or both of her sister goddesses as well - occasionally very colorfully, when the situation calls for extra emphasis.
** The Eastern Empire honors the "Hundred Little Gods" -- all the former Emperors and their consorts. As Tremane remarks, there aren't exactly a hundred, but it makes a nice round number to swear by.
* [[Older and Wiser]]: Tarma and Kethry in ''By the Sword''; Talia in ''The Mage Winds'', Kerowyn in and after ''The Mage Storms''. Among others.
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** The grand prize goes to Great Mages Urtho and Ma'ar of prehistory, who between their own vast powers and their [[Magitek]] WMDs managed to completely change the face of 99% of the known world in a magical Cataclysm so powerful that it echoed through ''time'' to recur 3000 years later.
* [[Phrase Catcher]]:
** Vanyel at the beginning of ''Magic's Promise'', when everyone he meets tells him that he looks like hell. Justified in that [[Hurting Hero|he does]].
** Elspeth in ''Winds Of Fury'' gets, "We thought you were dead!" After a while her traveling companions are calling it "the standard greeting."
** Kerowyn in ''By The Sword'' cannot go out in public without people singing the song "Kerowyn's Ride" at her.
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** The ''Last Herald-Mage'' trilogy, set in Vanyel's time before magic vanished from Valdemar.
** The ''Mage Wars'' trilogy, set in the time leading up to the Cataclysm.
* [[Private Military Contractors]]: Various mercenary companies, such as the Sunhawks (''Vows and Honor'') and the Skybolts (''By the Sword''). Some are bonded and affiliated with a trade union (the Mercenaries Guild) which keeps order.
* [[Psychic Powers]]: Mind-Magic or Heraldic "Gifts", which range from the relatively benign, like FarSight or ForeSight, to the potentially devastating, like [[Playing with Fire|Firestarting]]. Gifts often vary in strength, and many Heralds have more than one. Inside Valdemar, practically anyone demonstrating these Gifts seems to end up Chosen; outside, Gifts pop up randomly from time to time, but less commonly, and only one other nation is mentioned making use of them on Valdemar's level.
* [[Puberty Superpower]]: Heralds usually gain their Companions and their Gifts in their teens.
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* [[Really Gets Around]]: Some Heralds. (It's explicit that they're not expected to be [[Chaste Hero|chaste while off-duty]]; Bard Stefen (before meeting Vanyel).
* [[Rearing Horse]]: The official crest of Valdemar.
* [[Reincarnation]]: Stefen in ''Magic's Price'' is more or less confirmed to be the reincarnation of Tylendel, and later books confirm that many Companions are reincarnated Heralds; in particular, {{spoiler|Kerowyn's Companion Sayvil}} is implied to be the reincarnation of {{spoiler|Vanyel's aunt Savil Ashkevron}}.
* [[Renowned Selective Mentor]]: Darian certainly has this reaction when he finds out Firesong k'Vala has moved to k'Valdemar Vale specifically to train him.
* [[Retcon]]:
** A minor one; the [[Magic A Is Magic A|magic system]] utilized by Kethry in ''Vows and Honor'' undergoes a major and mostly unremarked upon revision in later works. A somewhat bare justification given in-story is that some mage schools apparently ''don't know'' about [[Ley Line|Ley Lines]] and therefore don't teach their students about them. Another justification is that Kethry was dumbing down her explanation for her audience, as she didn't have time to hold an entire Magical Theory 101 session.
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** Elspeth, to the point where she gets Very Annoyed when people start mentioning Destinies. Need, naturally, approves -- while Gwena finds it irritating to the extreme. {{spoiler|But then, Gwena ''was'' the one trying to shanghai her into a Glorious Destiny, wherein Elspeth would be the first of the Herald-Mages to return to Valdemar after the last one died, several centuries ago. Interestingly, she does return to Valdemar as a Herald-Mage, albeit by a completely different path then the Companions had intended.}}
** The trope is subverted in a number of ways: strong-willed characters like Elspeth, Vanyel, and Kerowyn swear up and down that they are going to fight the winds of fate, but they all end up more or less where they're supposed to be anyway.
* [[Self-Insert Fic|Self-Insert]]:
** In an [[
** In a more typical manner, Herald-Chronicler Myste is the [[Author Avatar|author's avatar]].
* [[Sex by Proxy]]: [[Blessed with Suck]], Talia experiences this with Companion Rolan and nearby Herald-Trainees. She chooses a tower room as her Heraldic residence to ensure her own privacy.
* [[She Is the King]]:
** 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."
* [[Shown Their Work]]: Mercedes Lackey is an expert equestrian and falconer. Anything she writes about these subjects is as accurate as it gets, minus the magical trappings.
* [[Shrinking Violet]]: Talia at first, due to crippling shyness. As she becomes a full Herald, she grows out of it.
* [[Silk Hiding Steel]]: Talia. The queen's Herald/personal advisor, she is patient, kind, and can fight with both a knife and a bow. Her style of close-range fighting is inspired by Skif's life on the street, and is implied to be [[Combat Pragmatist|entirely sneaky and dirty]].
* [[Shrouded in Myth]]: Vanyel, to later generations of Valdemarans. Of course, he was indeed every bit as powerful a mage as the legends tell, if not more.
* [[Sketchy Successor]]:
** Averted in Valdemar, where one must be Chosen as a Herald, with all the [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]] that implies, in order to be eligible for the throne. It is in fact key to the origin of the Heraldic Circle: King Valdemar, concerned that one of his descendents would eventually fall into this trope, prayed to every God he could think of for a way to ensure that his successors would always be worthy people, and was answered by the appearance of three Companions who promptly Chose him, his son, and his herald.
** Played straight, meanwhile, with the King of Hardorn, who was a pretty good king and ally of Valdemar until his son Ancar killed him and took over, enslaving his people and starting wars with Valdemar and Karse.
* [[Smite Me,
* [[Snake Talk]]: Most of the Gryphons. But not in any evil or sinister sense; it's due to their vocal anatomy.
* [[Spirit Advisor]]:
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* [[Squishy Wizard]]: Most mages, including Kethry except that Need makes up the difference in her case. It's mentioned that the reason for the squishiness of wizards is the time investment needed: "Fighter, mage, social life: pick two". Herald-Mages attain [[Magic Knight]] status instead by sacrificing the third one, and by getting the best and fastest possible training in both disciplines.
* [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]: Sunsinger and Shadowdancer, in the backstory.
* [[Strange Syntax Speaker]]: Herald Alberich speaks Valdemaran with Karsite word order. He was born and raised in Karse and only ended up in Valdemar after being kidnapped/rescued by a [[Intellectual Animal|Companion]], who eventually psychically fed Valdemaran vocabulary into his head... and ''only'' vocabulary.
* [[Strangled by the Red String]]: [[Justified]] and used [[In-Universe]] with lifebonds. People most certainly do fall in love [[Because Destiny Says So]], either because one or both individuals involved need someone to cling to to keep from going insane (the most common motivation) or because it's [[Omniscient Morality License|necessary to the gods' plans]] that the individuals involved marry.
* [[Street Urchin]]: Skif, Stefan, and a number of other characters.
* [[Strong Family Resemblance]]: The Ashkevron family.
* [[Sufficiently Analyzed Magic]]: Valdemaran mages and mind-mages tend to this, especially when a bunch of artificers get into the act in ''Mage Storms''.
* [[Superpowerful Genetics]]: Both mage powers and mind magic are inherited and inheritable, generally, although they can also hang around latent or spontaneously arise.
* [[Superpower Lottery]]: An incident involving the creation of a Gate left Vanyel Ashkevron with not only Adept-level mage ability but just about all [[Psychic Powers]] the Heralds knew of to one degree or another. Of course the same incident [[The Woobie|led directly to his lover's suicide]] so...
* [[Suspicious Spending]]: In one of the short stories, Tarma figures out who The Mole is by realizing that one of the guards is wearing jewelery and riding a horse that he shouldn't be able to afford (though this is only considered to be grounds for suspicion, not proof in and of itself).
* [[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.
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* [[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).
* [[Talking Weapon]]: Need, after she regains full awareness in ''Winds of Fate.''
* [[Teleportation Sickness]]: Heralds, Companions, and others with a strong 'Fetching' gift can move living things and even themselves. It apparently feels jolting, like a sudden strong leap, and is somewhat unpleasant for the target.
* [[This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman]]: Karal is a 'Channel' -- a type of mage who can safely transmit huge amounts of magical energy. His talent is absolutely critical at the climax of each book in the ''Mage Storms'' trilogy but otherwise he's the equivalent of a non-mage.
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** Talia in ''Arrows of the Queen'' develops her Empathy normally but it's not fully awakened until she's dropped into a freezing river in an assassination attempt and has to call Rolan for help. Later in the novel, the death of a Herald's [[Mindlink Mates|lifebonded partner]] unlocks her latent Mindspeech.
** Vanyel in ''The Last Herald-Mage'' has his gifts triggered when his lover/soulmate commits suicide and he takes the full backlash from the closing of the Gate that his latent power helped open.
** In ''Brightly Burning'', Lavan's Firestarter gift was starting to come through as a normal [[Puberty Superpower]], but being tortured by the older students snapped it on full-power.
* [[Trilogy Creep]]: The Collegium Chronicles trilogy has expanded to a quartet.
* [[Trrrilling Rrrs]]: Gryphons tend to speak this way, although some, like Skandranon, can manage perfect diction. They also have a touch of [[Snake Talk]].
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** 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.
** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: By the next time we see Heralds in wartime action after the 'Arrows' trilogy Kerowyn has effectively taken over as spymaster of Valdemar, and her Skybolt mercenaries have assumed many of the special-operations and long-range reconnaissance duties from the Heralds -- and not only have none of the above ever been trained in arrow-code, but Kerowyn's the sort of personality who'd find it to be frivolous and would just order her people to learn how to use regular ciphers or message-spells.
* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?]]: Played every which way but straight. Most characters with minimal or very specialized talents soon find ways to demonstrate that [[Heart Is an Awesome Power]].
* [[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.
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** Talia has an early bout with this, due to her abilities as [[The Empath]] and the fact that the Collegium critically failed when training her, leaving her completely unable to control her gift. Kris, under circumstances that amount to direct divine intervention, manages to get her Gift trained before she loses it completely, but nearly gets killed while doing so.
* [[With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility]]: One of the driving tenets behind nearly every Herald's character. Herald-Mage Vanyel and Queen's Own Herald Talia have this to a particularly high degree.
* [[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
* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: [[In-Universe]]. Vanyel discovers to his dismay, near the beginning of ''Magic's Promise'', that people fear him as a potentially one. A Herald himself goes to serve Vanyel, rather than sending a page and risking a [[Freak-Out]] that blows up the Palace (or even the entire city of Haven).
* [[World Sundering]]: The Cataclysm
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