History Literature / HereticalEdge

** A throwaway line indicates that both George Washington and Jesus Christ were some form of Alter. WordOfGod is that Jesus was a Seosten, but we don't know for sure what Washington was.

* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: Flick's seventeenth birthday is... [[{{Understatement}} unpleasant]], to say the least. This is [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] because she's sent home to spend her birthday with her dad, leaving her much more vulnerable [[spoiler: to the ancient [[TheNecromancer necromancer]] that wants to enslave her]] than she would be at school. Her eighteenth birthday promises to be [[SerialEscalation even worse]] [[spoiler: because the deal he made with her mother to leave her alone will expire when she becomes an adult]].

* InheritanceMurder: [[spoiler: Avalon Sinclaire is the closest living relative to Hieronymus Bosch. TheMole who's been trying to murder her since she was born (and ''did'' murder her birth mother) is Bosch's ''next'' closest relative who wants to becomes the closest so he can access Bosch's Blood Vault.]]

** [[spoiler: Haiden and Sariel Moon.]] He's a Heretic, she's an angel, and they were HappilyMarried with [[UntoUsASonAndDaughterAreBorn twin children]].

* LoopholeAbuse: [[spoiler: When Joselyn Chambers abandoned her family, it was as part of a magical deal to keep the kidnapper away from her child, Felicity. Unfortunately, it only applies as long as Felicity is her ''child.'' As soon as Flick hits eighteen, the magic will no longer protect her.]]

** Magitek appears to be the norm in the bigger universe, judging from the [[spoiler: Seosten]] tech seen after [[spoiler: Charmeine banished Flick.]]

* {{Mon}}: An advanced spell allows Heretics to transform a block of wood into a magical animal that they control and [[AnimalEyeSpy see through]]. Gaia's animal is known to be a cat. Nicholas Petan can also cast it. [[spoiler: So can Joselyn. Her animal is a monkey.]]

* MysteriousBacker: [[spoiler: Joselyn Atherby]] has a hidden set of friends and allies who are powerful enough to cast spells that affect multiple planets, undo Crossroads-style memory wipes, and may have been responsible for making the person behind the spoiler tag powerful enough to fight the most powerful Heretics around in their twenties. They were also so hidden that not even the individual's spouse ([[spoiler:Deveron Adams]]) knew about them until they revealed themselves. [[spoiler: Then they became ''his'' [[MysteriousBacker Mysterious Backers]].]]

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. There is a Gabriel Ruthers and a Gabriel Prosser, two men with ''very'' different motivations and worldviews.

--> [[spoiler: '''Deveron''']]: That’s how a lot of Heretics work. I mean, we live a really long time and we’re away from each other on missions a lot. Having more than one partner is—well, it’s not any kind of rule or anything, and plenty do stay monogamous. But it’s definitely not weird for Heretics to have multiple partners. Besides, our lifespans differ so much. We could live hundreds of years, or die early on. Between each person getting different powers and the… dangers out there, two people that get married could die three hundred years apart, or even more. So, you might have two boyfriends that you split time between. It doesn’t mean that you love one any less than the other. It just means… everyone needs companionship.

* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Common among the teachers at Crossroads. For example, Professor Virginia Dare is the very same Virginia Dare who was born in Roanoke in 1587. Headmistress Gaia Sinclaire has been alive since the Middle Ages, and [[spoiler: Flick and Ammon's mother]] was born around 1901.

* SexSlave: As a combination of [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape]] and [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slavery]], is of course treated dead seriously. And it's definitely present, although usually handled rather obliquely and without directly talking about it. For example, a djinni makes it clear she suffered through it without explicitly saying so by mentioning how many of her former masters made great use of her ability to change her appearance.

** Then Tristan Moon comes along and gets in on the game. Flick considers him the most attractive guy she's ever seen, blushes easily when he flirts with her, and is very impressed by his ability to easily make friends with pretty much anybody. For his part, Tristan himself is definitely interested in Flick. [[spoiler: After all, she and Shiori were the first human girls Tristan met since he was seven at the age of twelve, right when he was hitting puberty. So when he meets up with them again at seventeen (after time travel shenanigans, so for them it was only a few weeks and they're all the same age), it makes perfect sense that he'd crush on them]]. He even picked Flick as his "anchor" to keep himself on earth. [[spoiler: [[ShipSinking Sunk]] by Tabbris, who does not want to feel Flick being attracted to someone she is related to.]]

* TakeMeInstead: [[spoiler: The reason Flick's mother abandoned her. Her kidnapper wanted ''Flick'' but Joselyn was able to convince him to take her instead.]]
* [[TellMeAboutMyFather Tell Me About My Mother]]: Flick has absolutely no desire to learn or think about her MissingMom in any capacity [[spoiler: until she finds out that Sheriff Chambers graduated from Crossroads in 19'''22'''. Then Flick finds herself very interested in her mother's past.]]

* {{Transhuman}}: Heretics gain their powers by [[spoiler: overwriting their genetics with those of the Strangers they kill]]. It's debatable if they can even be called human anymore. That said, most are [[ProHumanTranshuman Pro-Human Transhumans]] who still consider themselves baseline to the point where they will react violently to the notion that they're not.

* {{Tykebomb}}: Narrowly [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the backstory. This is what Fossor had planned for [[spoiler: seven year old Felicity Chambers]]. Fortunately for her, he was convinced to leave her alone. [[spoiler: At least until she turns eighteen.]]

* UntoUsASonAndDaughterAreBorn: There are three sets of fraternal boy and girl twins in this story. Tristan and Vanessa Moon, Merakuel ([[spoiler:who grew up to become Fossor]]) and his sister Rahanvael ([[spoiler:who died millennia ago]]), and [[spoiler: Flick's half siblings Wyatt Rendell and Abigail Fellows]].

* WhamEpisode: Arc 5, [[https://ceruleanscrawling.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/visitations-5-01/ Visitations]]. [[spoiler: Just for starters, Flick meets Ammon. Things only go downhill from there. It ends with a [[TheReveal Reveal]] that turn Flick's world upside down.]]

* WhatMeasureIsANonhuman: None at all, according to ([[spoiler:most of]]) the Crossroads Heretics. Barely anything, according to ([[spoiler:again, most of]]) the Eden's Garden Heretics. Exactly the same as humans, according to the story itself.

* WhoDunnit?: [[spoiler: A teacher is murdered within a week of the beginning of the school year. Also, someone in the school is trying to get Avalon killed, and is willing to get help from Eden's Garden to do it.]]

** Fossor had every intention of kidnapping a seven year old child for the purpose of raising her to be his {{Tykebomb}} servant. He was only talked out of it when presented with a deal that would immediately give him a different servant ''and'' allow him to take the child anyway once she reaches adulthood.

** To no one's surprise, Ruthers' (and his allies) hatred of Strangers extends to Alter infants and toddlers. [[spoiler: They're perfectly willing to murder human babies as well.]]

** [[spoiler: Haiden and Sariel Moon]] were both flung literally worlds away from their twin children, one of whom was also sucked into the same dimensional portal that took them. They haven't been seen in a decade.
** Sands and Scout's mother was abducted by a Stranger while on an outing with ten year old Scout (who still went by Sarah at the time). The "bad man" then attempted to use her likeness and voice to lure Sarah out and take her as well. [[spoiler: Thankfully, Mrs. Mason's Alter friend was there and hid Sarah so the Nocen couldn't find her.]]

** Sands describes the Heretics of Eden's Garden this way as well, which is also bullshit.
** The closest we have to races that are AlwaysChaoticEvil in this series are the Seosten and the Fomorians, although they're closer to being always [[LawfulEvil Lawful]] and NeutralEvil, respectively. Even then, the first Seosten we meet is a good natured renegade, and the first Fomorian we meet references one of his people who betrayed their species to rescue humans in the past.

* ArchEnemy: There is nobody Flick hates more than [[spoiler: Fossor, who doesn't reciprocate. Just the opposite actually, he's quite fond of Flick.]]

** The Moons. Both children are up-and-coming Heretics punching way outside their weight class, Haiden has been rampaging around Seosten space for almost a decade, and Sariel may well be the best spy in the galaxy. [[spoiler: And then there's Tabbris, who has been stumping three thousand year old commandos for years before turning ten.]]

** Fossor is an extremely powerful Necromancer who had [[TakeOverTheWorld conquered his homeworld]] and driven at least one race to the brink of extinction. Seems to hold a particular dislike for Heretics, which makes sense since they tried to curse him off earth centuries ago. [[LoopholeAbuse It didn't take]]. [[spoiler: He's also a deeply personal enemy to Flick because he abducted her mother, fathered Ammon, and intends make Flick his slave as soon as possible.]]

** But the best case for BigGood has to belong to [[spoiler: Joselyn's mysterious allies, a secretive group dedicated to combating Seostenic influence on earth. They supported Joselyn's revolution to break the major Heretic organizations of their genocidal xenophobia, and they're still out there working behind the scenes. Known members include Gabriel Prosser, Guenivere (who was the real Lancelot), and the ArchangelMichael.]]

*** France, Australia, most of the Middles East, and Central America are protected by other Heretic organizations that Crossroads and Eden's Garden maintain diplomatic relations with.

* DangerSense: Heretics have a built in Stranger Sense for when they encounter most nonhumans. Crossroads Heretics get a kind of mental alarm that goes off at various intensities. Garden Heretics experience a surge of hunger and adrenaline, as if anticipating a hunt. [[spoiler: They function differently because of the separate ways they're made Heretics. Crossroads Heretics get a mental alert because they get their powers from a hangman demon's mind. Garden Heretics get a physical reaction because their powers are obtained by eating fruit grown from the same demon's blood.]] The downside is that a Stranger sensed by the ability is instantly alerted to it.

* TheDreaded: Fossor, both in general and to [[spoiler: Felicity Chambers]] personally. The mere thought of him is usually enough to make her shudder. [[spoiler: After all, he's been planning to kidnap her since she was seven years old.]] The pre-Crossroads Heretics attempted to permanently banish him from earth rather than deal with him, and a centuries old Heretic pales upon hearing his description.

** Furthermore, Garden Heretics often make a point of deriding how Crossroads "coddles" or "babysits" it's students, indicating that their training ([[HarmfulToMinors which recruits kids ages 11-13 rather than 16-17]]) is harsher and more effective. [[spoiler: Whether or not it's more effective is up for debate, but it's definitely harsher. Fifty percent of Garden recruits die before graduation]]. Garden Heretics actually make this a point of pride.

* ArchnemesisDad: The father of one Hannah Owens was a [[AbusiveParents violently abusive alcoholic]]. Now he's a vampire. Their idea of a family reunion is trying to kill each other roughly once a year. [[spoiler: By the way, Hannah Owens is Avalon Sinclaire's birth name.]]

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Avalon Sinclaire, the daughter of Headmistress Sinclaire, used to be a student at Eden's Garden. [[spoiler: Born Hannah Owens, [[DeathByChildBirth her mother died giving birth to her]] and her father was a [[AbusiveParents violently abusive alcoholic]]. She was almost killed by a stranger when she was eleven and was taken to Eden's Garden to save her life. She was happy until an EntitledBastard who had helped her out in the past began sexually harassing and eventually assaulted her, and she killed him in self defense. She was then adopted by Gaia Sinclaire, but now has to deal with Crossroads people that hate Eden's Garden giving her shit for having spent time there and the brother of the guy she killed is gunning for her. Oh, and her father was turned into a vampire and her goal in life is to make herself a SelfMadeOrphan.]]

** Reathma is Asenath's half-sister, a {{Dhampyr}} born of Jiao and a human man. She has enhanced reflexes, senses, and hand-eye coordination. [[spoiler: She's also Shiori Porter, making her a Heretic as well.]]
** [[spoiler: Vanessa Moon and her twin brother Tristan have a [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Seostenic]] mother. As a result, Vanessa has perfect PhotographicMemory and Tristan is an inhumanely talented gymnast.]]
** Technically, [[spoiler: all Heretics are HalfHumanHybrids because in order to become a Heretic you have to imbue yourself with Alter DNA. Crossroads and Eden's Garden Heretics are human-Reaper hybrids, and there are other kinds of Heretics made from other Alters. Furthermore, human-made vampires also fall under this definition. They're human-Akharu hybrids.]]

** Shiori Porter, one of Flick's classmates, [[spoiler: is the younger sister of the half-human, half-Akharu (in other words, vampire) Asenath.]]

* AdultsAreUseless: Thoroughly Averted. The staff at Crossroads Academy is typically very competent. [[spoiler: Too bad that competence is being hampered by a mole.]]

* PortalDoor: After falling asleep on the school bus, Flick wakes up to find herself alone in a grassy field with a mysterious door. She opens the door to find something other than what should be there.

** Gabriel Prosser was a literate slave who lived in late eighteenth century Virginia and attempted to lead a SlaveRevolt in 1800, but was caught and executed in RealLife. In this universe, his life was inadvertently saved when a Hangman Demon attacked his execution and wound up bleeding on him, transforming him into a Heretic the same way Hieronymus Bosch was. Due to having the direct human-to-Heretic upgrade as opposed to the diluted version Crossroads and Eden's Garden gets, he's naturally much more powerful than most Heretics. He subsequently refused to join either organization and has apparently spent the time since WalkingTheEarth. Eden's Garden's Vigilant Sons tribe regards him as something of FolkHero who will allow them to win the "inevitable" war with Crossroads.

** There is also Eden's Garden, another school (closer to a boot camp, really) which is much more... friendly to Strangers than Crossroads Academy is. Most Crossroads Heretics view it as an EvilCounterpart, but the truth is a [[OneSideOfTheStory bit more complicated,]] [[spoiler: starting with the fact that it's arguably the GoodCounterpart to Crossroads.]]

*** [[spoiler: Said friend was Sariel, and she so much hide Sarah as fling herself, Larissa, and the Nocen into different dimensions, sacrificing her own chance to get back to her family in the process.]]

** But the best case for BigGood has to belong to [[spoiler: Joselyn's mysterious allies, a secretive group dedicated to combating Seostenic influence on earth. They supported Joselyn's revolution to break the major Heretic organizations of their genocidal xenophobia, and they're still out there working behind the scenes. The only known member is Gabriel Prosser.]]

** Deveron Adams, the "mentor" of Flick's team was a star student in his first year at Crossroads. But something happened to him over the summer that killed his motivation and turned him into a Jerkass slacker.

** Vanessa Moon hasn't seen her parents or brother since she was seven. [[spoiler: She's also never met her ancestor, Nicholas Petan.]] [[spoiler: Or her younger half-sister, Tabbris.]]

** The angels aren't any better.

** Then Tristan Moon comes along and gets in on the game. Flick considers him the most attractive guy she's ever seen, blushes easily when he flirts with her, and is very impressed by his ability to easily make friends with pretty much anybody. For his part, Tristan himself is definitely interested in Flick. [[spoiler: After all, she and Shiori were the first human girls Tristan met since he was seven at the age of twelve, right when he was hitting puberty. So when he meets up with them again at seventeen (after time travel shenanigans, so for them it was only a few weeks and they're all the same age), it makes perfect sense that he'd crush on them]]. He even picked Flick as his "anchor" to keep himself on earth.

** [[spoiler: And then Sands and Jokai start dating.]]

* InsultFriendlyFire: Scout has nothing but venom for the Seosten. Unbeknownst to her, an allied Seosten is present and overhears almost of her bile.

* Jesus and George Washington are famous among Heretics as Heretics, if Sands' comments are anything to go by.

** A throwaway line indicates that both George Washington and Jesus Christ were some form of Alter. WoG is that Jesus was a Seosten, but we don't know for sure what Washington was.

** It's not yet clear what Ammon's father is, but his mother is definitely human. [[spoiler: It's also not clear how many of his abilities are natural and how many are the result of his mother being a Heretic.]]

** A throwaway line indicates that both George Washington and Jesus Christ were some form of Alter, most likely Heretics.

** Arc 27: The Seosten finally move blatantly, and we find out why they can't just possess Flick. [[spoiler: They can. She's not immune. But she is already take. Sariel's daughter Tabby/Tabbris beat them all to the punch and is just hiding out inside of Flick.]]

** [[spoiler: Later revelations indicate that it's not that Seosten are Always Lawful Evil but that not at least pretending to be Lawful Evil is exceptionally unsafe. Jophiel managed a brilliant piece of intelligence work by recruiting Elizabet ... and told precisely no one because admitting she considers a human her equal would get her in a great deal of trouble.]]

** There's also the Seosten, a race of angelic beings that have made it their goal to guide the development of the human race because of a prophecy stating that humanity will one day grow into a force that will destroy their race and world. It seems to be common (though not universal) among these guys to look down on humans. A lot. [[spoiler: This is exacerbated by the knowledge that humanity was created by their mortal enemies, the Fomorians.]]

** Vanessa Moon hasn't seen her parents or brother since she was seven. [[spoiler: She's also never met her ancestor, Nicholas Petan.]]

** Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and the Roman (co-)Emperor Geta are both on the Crossroads Committee

** A throwaway line indicates that both George Washington and Jesus Christ were some form of Alter.
** King Arthur is mentioned to have been one of the most powerful natural Heretics in existence. [[spoiler: So much so that Merlin was an alternate persona he created so people wouldn't think the king and the wizard were the same person.]]

** Jazz Rhodes saw many of her friends being massacred by Strangers, leading her to become a Heretic in their memory.

** Both Sir Percival of the Round Table and Blackbeard are on the Crossroads Committee.

** The Seosten are usually more beautiful than humans on average, and have a noticeably ethereal quality. Otherwise they're indistinguishable. Also capable of reproducing with humans. [[spoiler: Possibly subverted, as Seosten are capable of possessing Alters and the only ones we've seen may have been doing that.]]

** [[spoiler: It is eventually revealed that humans were intentionally designed to look like Seosten.]]

* LampshadeHanging: Flick tends to point out when she's averting certain tropes in her narration. Douglas Frey also does this in his interlude when explaining to his team why [[spoiler:he actually wants to talk to Flick about his suspicions before going to the Committee.]]

* EvilCounterpart: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]]. Eden's Garden is initially described by Sands as being the EvilCounterpart to Crossroads because they're friendly towards Strangers. It eventually becomes apparent that while Eden's Garden is worse than Crossroads in some ways, it's better in others. Whether or not this trope is [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] or PlayedStraight depends on personal interpretation, and will probably vary from tribe to tribe.

** The Eternal Eye.

* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Averted, for the most part. For Heretics, immortality seems to begin at completely random ages. Some like Nevada look like teenagers when they're much older ([[spoiler:although Nevada herself is a special case]]). Others appear to be in their late twenties or early thirties like Professor Dare, who was born in 1587. Professors Pericles and Ross actually do look old but are younger than Gaia Sinclaire and Seller, who both appear to be in their forties when they're somewhere between seven and eight hundred.

** Strangers like Asenath call nonhumans "Alters" instead. It's shorthand for "alternative from human." Evil Alters are called "Nocen," which is latin for evil or wicked.

* LampshadeHanging: Flick tends to point out when she's averting certain tropes in her narration.

* MuggleBornOfMages: This is pretty much the norm in this universe. Children born from supernatural parents (especially Heretics) are often totally ordinary human beings save for resistance or immunity to the [[WeirdnessCensor Bystander Effect]].

* SuperpowerLottery: With the exception of creatures like peridles (which only have a HealingFactor), the vast majority of Strangers/Alters have multiple powers and Heretics have no way of knowing what they'll get when they kill one beyond a list of possibilities. Thus, every time a Heretic kills a Stranger, they play a mini lottery. Unless they've killed that type of Stranger before, which improves the power they already got.

* YouAreWhatYouHate: Most Crossroads Heretics believe Strangers are AlwaysChaoticEvil at best or sub-human trash at worst. This is ironic when any objective viewpoint will quickly note that Heretics practically ''are'' Strangers. [[spoiler: Which is outright confirmed when it's revealed how humans become Heretics.]] [[BerserkButton But don't the Heretics that.]]

* OhMyGods: Heretics have a tendency to swear... oddly, by modern standards. Avalon at one point invokes Gabriel, Dare thanks the Heretical Edge itself, and more than one Crossroads Heretic has literally said "gods" instead of "God."