The Wayfarer Redemption: Difference between revisions

By Sara Douglass...

 

In a [[Crapsack World|world]] of all kinds of incest, we follow our protagonists on an inspiring, at times horrifying, and at times depressingly morally gray adventure. In this case, adventure means everyone had a crappy as hell day. Our first protagonist is [[Handsome Lech|Axis SunSoar]], who is a member of a military order called the Axe Wielders, which is a part of a religion called the Way of the Plow. The leaders of such, the Brothers of the Seneschal believe that The Forbidden who live in the north are evil, nasty monsters, The Heartless at their finest. There is even a recorded history showing the tyranny and evil of the Forbidden. After a glorious revolution, the Seneschal overthrew their dark masters and sent them into dark forests and mountains...

 

The Forbidden are really decent people, but one group of them, the Icarii, have wings, and the Avar have horns. They have magic music. And that glorious revolution was a Moral Event Horizon crossing for the Seneschal, who chopped down whole forests of habitats for the Avar and all 'round every human in those "glorious" wars of the axe were bastards.

Nowadays, Axis is slowly learning his secret past, plus the fact that he is actually {{spoiler|a "Forbidden" himself, which shakes his faith irreversibly.}} After assuming leadership of his new people, he has to fight his evil half-brother [[Jerkass Woobie|Borneheld]], and uncover mysteries such as about WolfStar, a heretic Icarii combo platter of the Magnificent Bastard, Complete Monster and Mad Scientist tropes. And, of course, deal with the Big Bad, another evil half-brother. This one is called Gorgrael, and he has an absolutely ''lovely'' prophecy to go with him.

 

 

Originally from Australia these where two separate book trilogies. In America TOR meraged them into a six book saga.

* ''Battle Axe/The Wayfarer Redemption'' (1995)

* ''Enchanter'' (1996)

* ''Starman'' (1996)

* ''Sinner'' (1997)

* ''Pilgrim'' (1998)

* ''Crusader'' (1999)

 

 

* [[Action Girl]]: Azhure.

* [[Aerith and Bob]]: There's Axis, Gilbert, Judith, Jayme, and Jack ... and also Azhure, Rivkah, Faraday, Borneheld, and any of the Icarii names.

* [[Because Destiny Says So]]: This is in both trilogies.

** It's unclear how much of it is destiny and how much is manipulation in the first trilogy though.

* [[Break the Cutie]]: Poor {{spoiler|Faraday.}}

* [[Brought Down to Normal]]: {{spoiler|Axis And Azhure as well as the other gods and all Icarii Enchanters.}}

* [[Cain and Abel]]: Drago and Caelum

* [[The Chick]]: Faraday

* [[Chosen One]]: Axis then Drago.

** [[Up to Eleven]] in the second trilogy.

* [[The Dark Chick]]: StarLaughter, in addition to being [[Complete Monster|one nasty piece of work.]]

* [[The Dragon]]: Possibly Sheol to Qeteb, considering she effectively leads the Timekeepers while Qeteb is sealed, and seems to have a bit more leeway with the head Demon than the rest.

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: Azhure definitely earned hers, even if it was only for forty years.

** Dragonstar. Just... Dragonstar.

* [[Enfant Terrible]]: Played straight with {{spoiler|Gorgrael}} in the prologue, but completely subverted with {{spoiler|[[Dragon Star]]}}.

** Not to mention Urbeth and her daughters. They're some nasty pieces of work if you're on their bad side.

* [[Evil Overlord]]:Gorgrael

** But is he really any worse than many of the characters in the book? He did everything he did because he needed prayer and plowed land in order to exist, not to mention the Star Gods would have killed him had he not locked them away.

* [[Functional Magic]]: Having the ability to make thousands of army uniforms in a single night ''while you sleep'' definitely qualifies. Also, the ability to teleport across hundreds of miles ...

* [[Honor Before Reason]]

* [[Humiliation Conga]]: {{spoiler|1=Happens to WolfStar and StarLaughter. After dying they are denied entry to the Afterlife and Booed by all the stars untill they reach the end of the universe.}}

* [[In the Back]]: Borneheld crosses the [[Moral Event Horizon]] by doing this to {{spoiler|Freefall in the fist book}}.

* Jerkass: Axis has his moments, Borneheld is one of the biggest Jerkasses in the series, WolfStar takes the cake.

** Caelum gets pretty bad.

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: WolfStar and to a lesser extent StarLaughter.

* [[Mind Rape]]: Happens to anyone who happens to be outside when the TimeKeepers have their hours. Also happens to Timozel and Zenith in unrelated circumstances.

* [[Our Elves Are Different]]: The Icarii and Avar; the Icarii are impossibly beautiful mystical enchanters with angel wings and a penchant for incest, and the Avar are xenophobic forest-dwelling fair folk who hate violence but power their magic with blood sacrifice.

* [[Our Orcs Are Different]]: Skraelings.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]