Lightbringer Series

The Lightbringer Series is a finished series of dark fantasy books by Brent Weeks, author of The Night Angel Trilogy. It consists of The Black Prism (2010), The Blinding Knife (2012), The Broken Eye (2014), The Blood Mirror (2016), and The Burning White (2019).

The Lightbringer Series is set in a different world than the Night Angel Trilogy, this world known as "The Seven Satrapies". The main character of the story is a young boy named Kip, an orphan from a backwater village in a war-torn country who is suddenly thrust in an increasingly dangerous series of events, upon learning that his father is actually the Prism, which is a widely famous and powerful religious leader, considered to be an Emperor of the entire world.

Like Brent Week's other series, this one introduces a cast of fascinating and unique characters and a world that, while not as dark or gritty as the Night Angel Trilogy, still paints a unique picture of a fantasy world.

Not to be confused with The Lightbringer Trilogy by Oliver Johnson - an older, entirely different, fantasy trilogy that consists of "The Forging of the Shadows", "The Nations of the Night" and "The Last Star at Dawn". Nor with the web comic Lightbringer.

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Lightbringer Series franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.

Abusive Parents: Kip's mother, of the emotional and neglectful kind.
Armor-Piercing Slap: Karris does this to Gavin the fake when she learns that he cheated on her while they where engaged and, as a result, has a bastard. Who isn't actually his but the real Gavin's. When she later finds out Dazen's (the real one's) deception, she does it again.
Becoming the Mask: Gavin
Body Horror: What happens to Drafters when his/her halo breaks.
- Worst part: They voluntarily do it to themselves. As in "replacing eyelids with blue glass" and "implanting solidified heat into the palms of their hands."
Chekhov's Gun: The gift Lina gave to Kip, specifically the case it was in.
Color-Coded Wizardry: Called Luxin. Where the different colors not only determine what kind of magic the drafter has but his/her personality as well. To a degree anyway.
The Chessmaster: The White and Gavin the fake one both have hints of this.
The Dark Side: Technically the multicolor'ed side. Basically what happens when Drafters overdose and go insane
Different As Night and Day: Gavin the fake actually spends some time lamenting over the fact when he realizes how much he has to change to successfully impersonate his brother. His mother helps.
Damsel in Distress: Karris is implied to be this before she joined the Black Guard, and later when she gets captured by Garadul's army.
- Subverted in that while several people are trying to save Karris it isn't until Ironfist causes an explosion that allows Karris to escape in the confusion, that she's freed.
Easy Amnesia: Averted in that Gavin really doesn't remember things that happened both during and before the war because he isn't actually Gavin.
Energy Absorption: Obsidian, when in perfect darkness and through an entrance to the body, can seep away luxin from a drafter when touched to the drafter's skin.
Evil Twin: Dazen, to Gavin.
- Subverted because Gavin is actually Dazen and Dazen is actually Gavin.
Fantasy Gun Control: Mix and Match Trooper. Armies use cannons, pistols, rifles and at least one blunderbuss.
- They've recently invented flintlocks and have used more primitive hand cannons in the past. Of course, some drafters just make magic bullets with extreme accuracy.
A God Am I: The Prism supposedly has unlimited ability to draft luxin of any color.
- Also, the Color Prince, Lord Omnichrome.
Face Heel Turn: Liv joins Lord Omnichrome after being persuaded that the Chromeria is corrupt.
Heel Face Turn: Subverted since Corvan isn't actually going to the other side but his leader Dazen, is impersonating their leader Gavin.
Jerkass: How people saw Gavin the real one before the war "changed" him.
Luke, I Am Your Father: Gavin claims to be this to Kip.
- Subverted because Gavin isn't really Gavin. He's Dazen.
Rape as Backstory: Kip's mother, Lina was by Kip's father. Which is where things get complicated seeing as Kip's uncle is impersonating Kip's father.
- And it looks like it's about to get much worse in book 2.
Retired Badass: Corvan Davanis. At least at first.
Secret Keeper: Gavin's mother and Corvan Danavis are this about the fact that Dazen switched places with Gavin during the Prisms' War
Tailor-Made Prison: It's Dazen's (the false one's) goal to escape one of these constructed by his brother. The prison is covered in blue luxin and the food he's given is dyed blue, which for a drafter promotes calmness and is meant to keep him sedated. There's a criss-crossing pattern of luxin in the floor that goes down several feet and blocks his drafting abilities if he tries to dig through. Dazen gets around this by slowly carving out a depression in the wall over sixteen years using his fingernails and then covering the depression with a mixture made of his hair, skin, body oils and sweat. Then he urinates on the bowl and uses light that leaked in during Dazen's (the real one's) visits so that the bowl turns yellow enough for him to see. He drafts a small amount of yellow luxin, turns it into the light needed to draft, and then seeps out the heat from the fever in his body to create a spark, which burns the bowl and manages to break through the wall. The hole leads to an obsidian-lined tunnel. Obsidian, when in perfect darkness and through an entrance in the body, seeps luxin away from a drafter so as he crawls through the tunnel, the cuts created by the sharp obsidian on his body allow it to drain away his left-over luxin. The tunnel leads to a similar green room and it turns out that there are seven rooms, one for each colour and presumably connected with their own obsidian-lined tunnels.
Trilogy Creep: Averted. The official title of the series is The Lightbringer Series, because he didn't want to be called out for calling it a trilogy if he ended up going to a fourth book.
Wham! Line: "I am Dazen Guile, and I stole your life."