Secret City

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Secret City is the Urban Fantasy book series by Russian author Vadim Panov. It's a chronicles of the eponymous city, hidden on the territory of modern Moscow, where the last remains of great magical races, who formerly ruled the Earth, dwell. The series now consists from fifteen books (two of which, however, consist mostly of Fanfic) and still goes on.

In the world of Secret City, all sentient races, or "families", as they are called, arrived on Earth from other worlds. The strongest family took power over others, making them its vassals; such formation is called "the Great House" and named after the chief family. The Great House ruled the world for millenia, only to be eventually overthrown by a younger race (who, in turn, established its own Great House) and seek sanctuary in the place, known as the Secret City. Things repeated themselves several times; eventually the planet was seized by humans, or Chels (short for "Chelovek" - "Человек", "human" in Russian), and the outnumbered remains of all other families and Great Houses, each reduced in population to several ten thousands, hid in Secret City, which was later swallowed and surrounded by growing Moscow. Outnumbered nearly by 1:10000, Great Houses accepted the loss of the world and blended into mostly technological Chel society (using its achievements as well), but still intrigue and struggle for more power within the city.

In the City, families sorted into Great Houses by type of magic energy, which they can use. Energy is provided by the Sources - energy-generating artifacts.By now, only three (actually, at least five) families managed to keep their Sources (and thus became the Great Houses), and others have to buy energy from them. There are such Great Houses and families:

• Great House Asur. Asur were the first to arrive on Earth (nearly 200000 years ago).They used the power of light and were eventually overthrown by the second guests, Nav', and founded the Secret City to hide in. They were later completely exterminated by Navs (or were they?). Source - The Spark of Eternity.
• Great House Nav' (The Dark Court). Tall, black-haired, black-blooded, secretive Navs were second guests on Earth. Their magic relies on darkness and they possess (surprisingly) a genetic hatred for Asurs (whom they eventually purged) and Tats. All known Navs, curiously, are male. They also are very strong, very fast, powerful mages and nearly-immortal, but they are believed to be the smallest family . Nav is ruled by The Prince, aided by three Advisors and a Commissar (who is basically military/intelligence/security/etc minister). Their headquarters is the Citadel.
  • Shas'. Big-nosed Shas are the merchants and bankers of the City. They are in charge of a Trade Guild and masquerade-maintaining Utilization Service. Headquarters - Money Tower.
  • Erli. Erli monks are the best doctors in known universe, combining magic and technology in their work. HQ - Moscow Monastery.
  • Masan. They are vampires, and the deliberate Expy of Vampire: The Masquerade (they even have mostly same clan names and traits). Bloodthirsty vampires often endanger The Masquerade, so they are given under jurisdiction of Navs (because Navs are the only family immune to Masan's Blood Magic, and their blood is poisonous to vampires).
  • Os' are primitive people who dwell in the sewers, where they farm rats and mushrooms.
• Great House Lyud' (The Green House). Lyuds eventually defeated Nav' and took its place. They are blonde, mostly beautiful people, men tend to be very large and muscular. Their signature color (as well as their blood) is green, since their magic comes from the Nature. Only women of Lyud' are capable of utilizing magic, so Lyud' society is matriarchal. Men, however, compensate with great physical prowess. The territory of Lyud' is divided into several Domains, each controlled by Baron. All barons obey to the Queen, who is aided by the council of Priestess, the most powerful sorceresses (the Queen is elected from Priestesses). Their Source is the Well of Rains, and their HQ is called The Green House.
  • Chels. Human race, or rather, the extremely rare human/Chel mages, are under the rule of Lyud', because most of them can use only green energy (rumors are that somewhere exist several Chel Sources). Most Chel mages were eradicated by Inquisition after it drove other races into the Secret City. However, due to huge numbers of Chels, sometimes a mage of exceptional power is born. Chels also provide technology to the SC. A particular example is T-Grad Communications, or TGradCom, a corporation which provides communications, news, television and Internet to SC.
  • Moryanas are genetically engineered race of shapeshifter women, who can switch between human and monster forms. White Moryanas retain their mind under transformation. Black Moryanas were designed to be controlled by a MacGuffin; after it was lost, they simply fall into Unstoppable Rage. Thus, Black ones are pretty much discriminated and killing them counts as self-defense. Moryanas give birth only to other Moryanas, whoever the father was. HQ - Deceivers' Pavilion.
  • Kontsy are the showmen of the City, they own all the clubs and restaurants. They forgot their family name, so "konets" ("the end" or "The prick") is their nickname. Their man, while bald, short, fat and not as handsome, are extremely charismatic and can seduce any woman.
  • Red Hats are savage, stupid, unhygienic, permanently half-drunk midgets, ruled by the Great Fuhrer. They are at lowest social position in SC and serve as constant annoyance, source of trouble and cannon fodder. Their brains actually run on alcohol, so the more sober Red Hat is, the more dumb he is (on the opposite side of scale there is a smart, but drunken into near-death Red Hat). Their HQ is the Southern Fort.
  • Pristavniks are 8-feet-tall, somewhat slow-minded people whose business is protection of hidden treasures. Whenever a treasure is unearthed, a pristavnik takes 10% of it as the payment.
• The Great House Chood' (The Order). Red-headed, hot-blooded, utilizing the power of Fire Chood knights ruled the world after Lyuds. Only their men (and not all of them) can use magic, so they live in a patriarchal, militaristic society (greatly resembling medieval knights' Orders, hence the name). The Order is ruled by Grossmeister and divided into several lodges. Their Source is Carthagenian Amulet and their HQ is called The Castle.
  • Hvan are four-armed, extremely fast people who mostly live outside Moscow, in Siberia, where they farm the Golden Root, a plant which is a potent drug, a poison, and a component to many cures. Those Hvans who reside in SC are high-rate assassins (and actually very nice people when not at work). They somewhat resemble ninjas.
• A self-proclaimed The Great House of Tat. Tats are large and exceptionally strong, they possess a Healing Factor and are excellent spellcasters. They can't predict the future, but also mess any prophesy which touches them. Tat' once conquered half the world but lost to Lyud' due to their inability to make a compromise. Tats and Navs also share mutual genetic hatred. Their Sources are beings called Divine Lords of Tat'.

The series is also notable for (for most of books) not having a strict division of characters into good and evil, but rather several more or less sympathetic sides, each pursuing their own goal. Usually, a quartet of Chel mercenaries - Cortes, Artyom, Yana and Inga - are portrayed as main heroes. Main characters also include: mercs' top-priority employer, Commissar Santiaga, an eccentric gentleman and the heroic Magnificent Bastard of the series, and his assistant Ortega; The Prince, leader of Nav'; police Major Andrey Kornilov, the famous fighter with the organized crime, who is informed about SC; Franz de Gir, the Captain and later the Grossmeister of Chud'; Vseslava, the Queen of Lyud', and her lover baron Mecheslav; danger-prone Red Hat uybui (gaffler) Hoof, his men Needle and Container and their Great Fuhrer Sledgehammer; Muba the Hvan, an assassin and extremely skilled combatant; Zahar Tremy, a vampire; Anna the metamorph, unique Chel who can shapeshift in virtually anyone or anything of the same mass; Larisa, a young girl who is the most powerful Chel mage (if not the most powerful mage on Earth).

The series consists of following books:

• Wars Are Started by Losers
• Commander of War
• Attack by Rules
• All Shades of Black
• There Are Heroes in Hell
• The Concubines of Hatred
• The Chrysalis of Last Hope
• The Shadow of Inquisitor
• The Chair of Wanderers
• The Rules of Blood
• The Royal Cross
• The King of the Hill
• The Day of the Dragon
• The Smell of Fear
• The Charade of Galla
• The Webbing of the Opposition

Tropes used in Secret City include:

• And I Must Scream: Black Moryanas under control of Mara's bracelet.
  • Sitry, the Hierarh of Kadath, ends being fused into the walls of Kadath Castle for his cowardice.
  • Azag-Toth himself, being completely immortal, is now confined in glass coffin, without any sourse of power.
• Aliens Speaking Russian: Justified: all families have their own languages, but use Russian as the common language, as they live on that territory for centuries.
• The Antichrist: The Messenger.
• Anti-Magic:
  • "Fisherman's Net" blocks an energy inside of a mage.
  • Moryanas are immune to magic, with the only exception.
  • As are Kitano warriors... and they have no exceptions. Even immune to magic-laced weapon.
  • Navs' preferred tactic is neutralising enemy mages and crushing the enemy with sheer badassery.
  • Chel Inquisitors supress magic and cause excruciating pain to mages in a large radius.
  • Galla can negate any magic.
• Asskicking Equals Authority: In the Order... and the Southern Fort.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Over-paranoid Azag-Toth made his hierarchs Nigh Invulnerable except one small spot.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Leaders of Great Houses have a direct access to the Source, providing them with HUGE mana supply.
• Badass Army: Navs, Lyuds, Choods, Hvans and Masan have a very Badass ones.
• Badass Normal: Chel mercs, Lyud Militia, magic-impaired Choods.
• Beastess: Moryanas when in battle skin.
• Bishonen Line: Kadath. Their Hierarchs, who were once Chels, are huge, Nigh Invulnerable monstrosities, but the four most powerful look completely human. Save for their Eyes of Gold.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Lyud', Nav' and Chood' respectively.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Nav'.
• Deadpan Snarker. A plenty of.
• Dirty Communists: Played straight a lot. It is because Panov is anticommunist.
• Dirty Coward: Red Hats. Also, Viktor Krohin, but he is a more dangerous kind...
• Downer Ending: The Day of the Dragon.
• Elemental Powers: Subverted. Basic spells are mostly the same for everyone, it's the type of energy and the source of it that differ. However, when the most powerful mages operate directly the vast currents of energy, it's played straight.
  • Nav' - Darkness
  • Lyud' - Life and Nature
  • Chud' - Fire and Rage
  • Asur - Light
  • Tat' - Pure Energy
  • Hyperboreans/Kadath - Ice/Hate
  • Masans - Blood Magic (they're vampires after all!)
• Fantastic Racism
• Fiery Redhead: Chood' are this, though only men. Their women are... less active. And, of course, Inga.
• Fireballs: Called "Ball lightning"
• Foreshadowing: In fifth book, it's said that no magic is allowed near the Red Square and the Mausoleum. In the next book, it's revealed why.
• Fragile Speedster: Hvan. A subversion: while their main advantage is their superior speed, they are still inhumanly strong and can shrug off a bullet in a head, but when compared to Navs, Moryanas and Lyud men, they are, indeed, Fragile Speedsters.
• Gambit Pileup
• Gambit Roulette: One of them is the plot backbone for two subsequent books, and held together by a professional seer.
• Good Is Not Nice
• Hammerspace: Objects, usually weapons, can be "packed" into much smaller insuspicious item. For example, a SMG hidden in the watch or a grenade disguised as the false tooth.
• Healing Factor: Navs, metamorphs, Tats, Moryanas, Masans. They can even regenerate missing limbs.
• Heel Face Turn: Inga, Anna
  • Heel Face Revolving Door: Yana
  • Mook Face Turn: Sledgehammer and his Red Hats
• Hidden Elf Village
• Hired Guns: Usual practice in Secret City. Interesting, the revenge on mercenaries (rather on their employer) is prohibited, because it makes as much sence as revenge on a weapon.
• Immune to Bullets: see Healing Factor. Also, at least Hvans and Pristaviniks can shrug the headshots off.
• Invisible to Normals: Morok (illusion) grants this.
• Kill It with Fire
• Klingon Promotion: Red Hats.
• Lightning Bruiser: Nav' and Moryanas are basically the races of Lightning Bruisers, virtually able to chase down a car and rip it open like a tin can.
• Loads and Loads of Characters
• Long Lived: Nav'. They age extremely slow. It's theoretically possible, however, for Nav to die of old age, but their natural lifespan seems to be at least 6-figure. Others inhabitants of SC live for 200-250 years, with the added bonus for staying young relatively longer, than humans (who, if they are actively using magic, also can live up to two centuries).
• Magitech
• Mana Burn: Specific blades, such as "Crane's Beaks" or any Nav Steel weapon.
  • Mana Drain: "Nav's Noose"
• Man Behind the Man: Kara, Lord Noor, Marina, Yarga and Santiaga.
• The Masquerade
• Megaton Punch / Power Fist: "Blacksmith's Mallet" drastically increases the force of the blow.
• Mugging the Monster: Lot of.
  • A bunch of thugs try to rape a Black Moryana in her human form.
  • Skinheads who were ordered to trash and burn down a magically defended library or a bar where Hoof & company were drowning their sorrows.
  • A couple of overconfident mages trying to beat down Artyom. Twice. Cue humiliating Curb Stomp Battle.
  • Never ever try to rape a metamorph, even if you are a powerful gangster accompanied by mooks. Or just intercept her on the run, even if you are a powerful vampire. Anna probably has all her life consisting of this trope.
  • Zorich "kidnapping" Inga.
  • Everyone hitting and/or scaring Viktor Krohin.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Hvan.
• Mundane Utility / Utility Magic: There are far more mundane spells than actually combat spells.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Big, bulky characters are usually much stronger than meek ones (except the really powerful mages). Lyuds and Tats are the whole races of this. Inverted by average-built Masans and tall yet skinny Navs, but the former are vamipires and the latter are BigEaters with extreme Healing Factor, which suggests Hyperactive Metabolism.
• Naming Conventions:
  • Navish names always end with "-ga": Santiaga, Ortega, Boga, Yarga, Parga etc.
  • Lyuds have old-Slavonic-like names, with one or more Slavic roots: Vseslava ("all"+"Glory"), Mecheslav ("Sword"+"Glory"), Volepolk ("freedom"+"regiment").
  • Ghoods use glorious knight-like names: Leonard de Saint-Care, Franz de Gir, Bohdan le Sta, Nelson Bard.
  • Erli names end with "-us": Lyapsus, Dinamus.
  • Kontsy invariably have their first name end with "-ciy" (maybe "-cius" in English translations) and last name with "-ase" (pronounced "-eiz"): Murcius Chase, Pticius Hase, Incius Swase.
  • Red Hats are named, oddly, after some mundane object: Hoof, Container, Needle, Rock, Sledgehammer, Saber. Justified, as they are "savages".
  • Two surviving Divine Lords of Tat' (of five) are called Nar and Noor. Another, deseased, was called Neer. Guess that other two were Nor and Ner.
• The New Russia: on the background.
• One-Man Army: Every mage powerful enough, but Cortes' mercenaries also count.
• Portable Hole: Inga uses one to steal a Faberge Egg from the museum. It's actually called "Technical Hole" and is an artifact which creates two portals on the opposite sides of an object up to 2.5 m thick.
• Reality Warp: "Arcane of Desires" is an exceptionally powerfull forbidden ritual which grants one wish to performer.
  • Geomancy, which "Arcane of Desires" was based upon, is the art of Reality Warping through well-timed mundane actions. An epitome of Difficult but Awesome, geomancy is very hard to learn (it requires the ability to "sence the world" and find out what will alter it in the desirable way, hence the name) and its rituals take time and efforts to perform, but once it fires, it is unbeatable.
• Redshirt Army: Lyuds and Choods qualify.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Azag-Toth and Yarga.
• See-Thru Specs
• Super Serum:
  • A potion made from "kill-grass" temporarily multiplies already formidable physical capabilities of male Lyuds.
  • Golden Root is even greater one, able to induce great magical powers in Lyuds and Chels, but at price of Rapid Aging or horrendous mutations.
    • Which is kind of amusing, as the plant known in real life as "Golden Root" is the opposite: one of its main effects is greater resistance to many types of cell damage (though it is a mild psychostimulant).
• Super Speed: According to the in-universe statistics, combet mages are able to move at speeds from 68 km/h (female Lyuds) to 87 km/h (Navs). Choods and vampires are somewhere between. Even faster Hvans reach 92 km/h, yet still are outclassed by Moryanas, whose speed, while not specified, is at least 120 km/h.
• Take That: Since author is an anticommunist, the series is full of Take Thats to communism. The biggest is that Lenin is the hatred personified and the immortal Sealed Evil in a Can.
• Teleporter Accident: A weaponized version: a mage powerful and/or skilled enough can crush other mage's portal mid-teleport, grinding anything passing through to Pink Mist at best.
• Too Dumb to Live: Nearly all Red Hats. Some Chel, Lyud and Chood Red Shirts also are this.
• Unperson: Nav' authorities deliberately undergo this when they take the seat, as a sign of their sacrifice of everything personal in favor of duty before the family. Santiaga is the only exception.
• Voluntary Shapeshifter: Moryanas switch between human and monster mode. Metamorphs are limited only by their mass and imagination.
• Was Once Human: Moryanas and Kadath Hierarchs.
• Weaksauce Weakness:
  • Obsidian weapons negate Nav's Healing Factor.
  • "The Basilisk's Eye" does the same to Moryanas and paralises them.
  • "The Lamp of Oblivion" is the only way to subdue a metamorph.
• We Sell Everything: Trade Guild.