Peacock King Trilogy
The Peacock King is an ongoing project done by a two-woman studio named Infernal Shenanigans, who both do writing and art for the project. Currently, it consists of the completed first trilogy (Book one A Token-Box With Which to Buy a Soul, Book two The Buzzards That Circle The Throne, and Book three The Souls That Pass Through the Void), as well as several miniseries and shorts.
The first book of the sequel White Thaumist trilogy, Awakening at Midnight is now in progress, with weekly chapter updates. A print edition of the Peacock King trilogy as well as an art book are planned.
The enigmatic Peacock King, ruler of half of the known world, seeks to possess the land itself by enslaving the spirits of the wild. Gerald, a newly initiated Poet whose magic is as real as he can write it, is also one of the Armed -- enforcers of the Law who wield guns with souls. His mission: infiltrate the Peacock King's Court and gather intelligence. Unfortunately for Gerald, things quickly go awry...
Can he outwit the Peacock King? Will he be able to save his long-lost brother, who is the King's new spirit-tamer?
In short, it is a story about stupid spies getting caught, magic sword kings, traps, men in makeup, talking guns, brawls where people get bitten, ecological activism, hardcore diary writing, world war, caffeinated politics, chess games over custody, dramatic courtroom fingerpointing, and tea.
- Beast Man - Faun, who reflects the animals of his land.
- Break the Cutie - Faun's mother.
- Cain and Abel - Ebrelle and Alestere/Elete, partly subverted.
- Dark and Troubled Past for a lot of characters, Start of Darkness for Ebrelle.
- Empathic Weapon - The Armed's Arms.
- Facial Markings - It's a fad in the Peacock King's court, what with Ebrellin-i being the king and people following the leader...
- I Call It Vera - subverted, since the Arms have names and can speak to their bearers.
- Incest Is Relative - special bloodlines make it possible.
- It Runs in The Family - the Akribastes are weird.
- Literary Work of Magic - the Poets can write things into existence
- Loads and Loads of Characters - This troper lost count roughly halfway into the third book, what with people switching names and that whole Ales thing.
- Locked Into Strangeness - The trauma of being forcefully cleaned of Nul by Diyn turned Ebrellin-i's hair completely white.
- Mind Control - Ebrellin-i uses this in spades.
- Mismatched Eyes - Ebrellin-i whose natural eye colour is covered by a thin film of Nul
- No Pronunciation Guide - Most names are hard to pronounce, lampshaded with Camdheighn and Elricht Dealag'seala, who are promptly renamed Camden and Elric Briarseal.
- Peacock Girl - Rocsui'ehellenae
- Pimped-Out Dress - Ebrellin-i. Who is described as a character that looks like a 'parade float' when he isn't naked.
- Please Spare Him, My Liege - Lyric covering his brother's ass.
- Prongs of Poseidon - The Judge.
- Punctuation Shaker - A good chunk of the cast's whole names, because they happen to also list things like genealogy and citizenry.
- Standard Royal Court - With not-so-standard drama and crazy.
- The Dandy - Ebrellin-i.
- The Gunslinger - Gerald.
- Talking Weapon - The Armed's Arms.
- Wakeup Makeup - Averted. The writers seemed to have fun writing the descriptions.
- Warrior Poet - Gerald, in a sense, since he is both an Armed and a Poet.
- Weapon of Choice - The Armed's Arms again.
- Whatever Happened To The Mouse- Hespirides
- Whip Sword - Camden.
- Wholesome Crossdresser - Lyric, though not intentionally. He just likes looking good, which includes the use of make-up.
- He also actually crossdresses by "borrowing" his older half-sister's skirt early in the second book. It's implied he looks good in it.