The War Gods: Difference between revisions

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The War Gods Series by [[David Weber]], aka the ''[[Bahzell]]'' series. [[Heroic Fantasy]] focusing on Bahzell, Son of the Prince of Hurgrum, member of the Horsestealer Hradani. Set in a world some 1,200 years after the fall of the Empire of Ottovar, the largest empire ever known by the races of man. The Empire fell due to a conspiracy of Dark Wizards who allied themselves with cults of dark gods and caused a multigeneration war that ended in a stalemate. All but one of the White Wizards died or went insane by casting the Strafing across the former empire in order to give a chance for refugee fleets to get more people out of the few ports they still controlled. Now the refugees who escaped to Norfressa have rebuilt and expanded across much of the continent.

The Dark Wizards used many tools, but their shock troops were mind-controlled Hradani. The other races of man never forgot it, even if it wasn't the fault of the Hradani. Some Hradani escaped as well to form their scattered clans, but the Hradani did not forgive the other races for how they were left to dry, and especially how their pleas to the Gods were ignored. A thousand years after the fall the Gods have come back to the Hradani, but many Hradani, especially Bahzell, the chosen of Tomanak, the God of War and Justice, don't want anything to do with them. Too bad the dark gods don't care what they think...

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* [[After the End]]: The Wizard Wars a thousand years ago destroyed the empire of Ottovar, a [[Magitek]] empire that was much higher technology than the refugees have even a thousand years later would indicate. Advanced enough there were [[Time Travel]] experiments...

* [[Amazon Brigade]]: The Sothoii War Maids. Not all War Maids are soldiers despite the name but their towns are required to provide military levees when called upon so they are all given some degree of combat training upon joining.

* [[Anti-Magic]]: Hradani in the Rage are nearly immune to magic. Only Wencit has been seen able to consistently use magic to restrain them.

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** Kaeritha gets the climactic boss fight at the end of ''Wind Rider's Oath''. She's going in vs. an entire temple full of dozens of guards, with the boss fight at the end being a ''divine avatar''. She single-handedly runs the table vs. the entire bunch, ending with the simultaneous defeat of her two final opponents -- who are fighting as a hive mind controlled by one brain -- by using one hand to nail the one in front of her with a running lunge ''while at the same time skewering the one directly behind her with a no-look behind-the-back thrust''.

* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Brandark. Deadly with a sword and capable of keeping up with Bahzell, but when they returned to Bahzell's home city most of the luggage was taken up by books he had bought. Completely self-educated (back home in Navahk, book-learning was considered to be only for wimps), but usually the best-educated person in the room.

* [[Berserk Button]]: Telling a Hradani you're a Wizard needs to be done very carefully else you'll be dead within seconds.

* [[Bond Creatures]]: Coursers.

* [[Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage]]: The King of the Sothoii has the power to force marriages in cases of nobles who don't have a male heir. It's seen as a last resort, admittedly hard on only-daughters, but worth it in order to insure that the Kingdom isn't destabilized by having important lands and titles fall into dispute.

* [[Can't Argue with Elves]]: Half-Elves have that cultural posturing, but averted by actual elves who are mostly depressed.

* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]: Dame Kaeritha Seldansdaughter, Champion of Tomanak, is introduced in book two, is the co-protagonist of book three... and is gone by book four without a single word of explanation.

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* [[Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life]]: Brandark. After being (gently) let down by the Goddess of Music he is told that another of the Gods of Light has a plan for him, but which one has yet to be revealed, leaving Brandark at loose ends.

* [[Dual-Wielding]]: A key component of the War Maid fighting style. Also Kaeritha

* [[Dying Moment of Awesome]]: {{spoiler|Vaijon sacrifices himself to take down a Devil single-handed in hand-hand combat.}} To put that into perspective, it took the unique fusion of powers between Bahzell and his [[Sapient Steed|Courser co-champion]] Walsharno to take down the other two, the first with an [[Cast ~~From~~ Hit Points|enhanced]] bow-shot.

* [[Dying Moment of Awesome]]: {{spoiler|Vaijon sacrifices himself to take down a Devil single-handed in hand-hand combat.}} To put that into perspective, it took the unique fusion of powers between Bahzell and his [[Sapient Steed|Courser co-champion]] Walsharno to take down the other two, the first with an [[Cast from Hit Points|enhanced]] bow-shot.

* [[Elves vs. Dwarves]]: Pro-Dwarves. Elves are nice enough, but are suffering PTSD from the Fall 1,000 years ago. Half-Elves are racist Jerks ruling over humans in their lands via the right of their blood. Dwarves instead joined the Empire of the Axe, have representation and are considered the economic heart of the Empire, and have had some successful interbreeding with the humans.

** Although to be fair, it's not like Half-Elves are ''inherently'' jerks. Just Purple Lords. It's implied that there are plenty of half-elves who live outside Bortalik who are probably perfectly nice people.

* [[Fantasy Gun Control]]: The series doesn't have guns, until a short novella has Wencit use magic to summon help from beyond. Bringing a pair of US Army troops in a Stryker gives people who see it ideas.

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** Humans are generally Mundane but with elements of High Men as in this setting only humans can become wizards or the psionic Magi. Humans can breed with all the other races, and their hybrids can also be Magi or Wizards. All half humans except for half-elves and half-dwarves are sterile. Word Of God suggests half-human hybrids may have a higher chance to be Magi or Wizards than normal, especially for Wild Wizardry.

** The hradani and halflings don't fit well into either the Cute or High Men.

*** The hradani can fit in Cute for certain values of cute with their fox-like ears though it conflicts with their current [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]] image. They used to be High Men but lost their status after being enslaved and used as shock troops by dark wizards in the back story and only one Wild Wizard and maybe a handful of elves even remember the fact. In many respects they qualify as Orcs. They live for about 200 years and usually start at 7 feet tall along with a higher endurance and strength than humans.

*** The halflings would fit the more traditional Cute role but are generally described as sneaking, lying cowards that no one has any use for. The only exception are the Marfang Islander Halflings who are considered brave to the point of insanity. They are descended from servants and slaves of dark wizards exposed to too much magic. Physically they are similar to Halflings in other series except that they have ivory horns on their head. Their gifts are not described.

** Also of note in the series are the Half-Elves. They would consider themselves the High Men of the setting but no one else does because they only maintain their uniqueness when breeding with full Elves or other Half-Elves. If they interbred with the far more numerous humans their Elf traits would be swamped by the far more numerous humans and as such they aren't considered a proper race. They are also considered to be Jerks, and run an Empire with the nobility only open to Half-Elves. Live to around 500.

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* [[Oblivious Mockery]]: Baroness Hanatha Bowmaster asks her daughter Leeana if she tried to ford the river, and Leeana says that no one would be stupid enough to try that with the river 20 yards out of its banks. Hanatha admits that she did, though tries to defend herself by saying the river was only 15 yards out of its banks at the time.

* [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]]: In ''[[The War Gods|Oath of Swords]]'', while the narrator is watching Bahzell busy fighting {{spoiler|Harnak}} as {{spoiler|champion of Tomanak to Harnak's champion of Sharna}}, Brandark is caught in a melee against four hradani simultaneously -- and kills three of the four before going down.

* [[Our Elves Are Better]]: The first elves were known as warlocks, who functioned something like sorcerers from [[Dungeons ~~and~~ Dragons]]. Their magic was ingrained and inheritable, but not as powerful as wizards'. The problems of natural magic-users just cropping up and the fact too many of them could get corrupted by the Dark Gods meant they'd be a long term problem, so Ottovar came up with a spell that converted their use of the natural magical field into life extension. In short, they gave up magic for immortality. As a consequence of this some of the elves have been around for the the entire rise and fall of the Empire of Ottovar and are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from their losses during the fall to explain their withdrawal from the world.

* [[Our Elves Are Better]]: The first elves were known as warlocks, who functioned something like sorcerers from [[Dungeons & Dragons]]. Their magic was ingrained and inheritable, but not as powerful as wizards'. The problems of natural magic-users just cropping up and the fact too many of them could get corrupted by the Dark Gods meant they'd be a long term problem, so Ottovar came up with a spell that converted their use of the natural magical field into life extension. In short, they gave up magic for immortality. As a consequence of this some of the elves have been around for the the entire rise and fall of the Empire of Ottovar and are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from their losses during the fall to explain their withdrawal from the world.

** The Half Elves though, are fully in the realm of [[Screw You, Elves]].

** Hradani might qualify as a form of either Dark Elves or Orcs depending on your view. Tall, pointy ears, beautiful, but very well built as opposed to slender. Before the Rage they were considered the most stable of races.

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* [[Sapient Steed]]: Coursers bond with specific riders and are counted as citizens with their intelligence. They can talk telepathically with their bonded riders and Magi. Tend to be rather on the [[Deadpan Snarker|snarky]] side.

* [[Screw You, Elves]]: Half-Elves have most of the stereotype of Elvish behavior, to the point that they run a racist state based on Elven Blood purity. They are also mocked and shunned for this, as most other countries can't stand them. They refer to themselves as the "Purple Lords".

* [[Square Race Round Class]]: Bahzell, basically an Orc Paladin.

* [[Summon to Hand]]: Bahzell's sword, after Tomanak makes him a champion. {{spoiler|Also Vaijon's in his final battle.}}

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Sir Mathian of ''The War God's Own'' (among his other less-than-sterling qualities).

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[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]

~~[[Category~~:~~The~~ War Gods]]

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