History Literature / MagicExLibris

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Gutenberg created Libriomancy. [[spoiler:In its current form, at least.]] Juan Ponce de Leon is a powerful Sorcerer.

* HurtingHero: [[spoiler:Isaac after having his magic locked.]]

* Big Beautiful Woman:Lena is referred to as heavy set and fat but also considered attractive by many characters.

* Big Beutiful Woman:Lena I'd referred to as heavy set and fat but also considered attractive by many characters.

Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, someone who can use magic to pull objects out of books. Or rather, he was, because after his magic went out of control during a particularly nasty case of fieldwork, he has been forbidden from using magic at all. Most of those with this talent work for ''Die Zwelf Portenære'', commonly known as The Porters, an organization founded by [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Johannes Gutenberg. You see, when he invented the printing press, he did it to promote Libriomancy, because now people could read the same book in the exact same format]]. The first thing the guy did with it was use Literature/TheBible, pull out the HolyGrail, make himself [[ImmortalityInducer immortal with it]] and then lock the book's magic so that [[{{Hypocrite}} nobody else could do the same]]. Only now he's gone missing, is apparently [[MindRape mind-raping]] Vampires and is using them to torture Porters and Vampires to death. Thanks to that, the Vampires have declared war on the Porters. Isaac only finds out about this when some [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Sanguinarii Meyerii]], commonly known as [[YourVampiresSuck Sparklers]], come to kill him. He only survives because his crush-of-sorts, the Dryad [[ActionGirl Lena Greenwood]] comes to his aid and tells him that [[AllTherapistsAreMuggles Nidhi Shah, his therapist]] and the person Lena was supposed to be bodyguarding has been kidnapped. Now it is up to Isaac, Lena and Isaac's pet [[IncendiaryExponent fire]] [[SpidersAreScary spider]] [[CoolPet Smudge]] to save the world from an all-out magical war, save Nidhi Shah before she is killed or turned and to find out just what the hell Gutenberg is up to.

* CoolPet: Smudge, the fire spider.

* RealityEnsues: In ''Unbound'', the Porters release a fake Harry Potter sequel, thinking millions of people will read it and thus give power to the artifact they wrote about to use against the BigBad. What actually happens is that people scream fake on the internet and are too busy arguing to actually finish the book.
-->'''Ponce de Leon:'''You’ve done a marvelous job of blowing up the Internet today, Johannes.

** Moly serves as the most common variety used by Libriomancers, owing to it's use in the Odyssey. Automatons also have Anti-magic capabilities.

* GargleBlaster: One of the things that libromancers do for fun is extract fictional drinks from books. Isaac once extracted and imbibed the TropeNamer. When he regained coherence two days later, he was in Ontario, dressed in a 19th century Mountie uniform. [[NoodleIncident He's still not sure how he got there or why he was wearing said outfit.]]

* LensmanArmsRace: Once libromancy goes public, some parties start pushing for using it to get superweapons for their armies. North Korea flat out publishes a novel which features all sorts of nifty toys they'd like to have and requires all its literate citizens to read it regularly in an attempt to be able to get them. Isaac explicitly points out that this isn't likely to work - Libromancy requires the readers to believe in what they're reading, and forcing people to read a book won't inspire that belief.

* PossessionEqualsMastery: Thoroughly averted. Being able to extract a magical device from a book using libromancy does not grant the ability to use it. For example, extracting Harry Potter's wand does not grant the ability to actually cast any spells from those books. Isaac is specifically frustrated by how complex operating the [[Series/DoctorWho sonic screwdriver]] is.

* ReadTheFreakingManual: Apparently, the reason why libromancers can't extract video game power-up items from their manuals is because nobody ever reads them.

* UnbuiltTrope: While the whole pulling-magic-out-of-books thing seems amazing, the series at large analyzes just about every single horrifying consequence of the idea, the most obvious being that there are a ''lot'' of things in books that are small enough for a libromancer to pull out that would be very dangerous if let loose in the real world.

* AbsurdlySharpSword: Excalibur 73. It cuts through anything.

* BadassGay: [[spoiler: Ponce de Leon and Gutenberg.]]

* {{Adorkable}}: Isaac is so very much this. Apparently it's a large part of what Lena sees in him.

* FreeWill: Lena doesn't have it, but really wants it. [[spoiler:As she finds out, having two lovers, both of whom want her to be free, gives her the ability to choose. Sure, she can only choose between the two lovers' viewpoints, but that's infinitely more choice than she's had before.]]

--->'''Isaac:'''Is it really stealing if you’re stealing from an asshole?

* PossessionEqualsMastery: Thoroughly averted. Being able to extract a magical device from a book using libromancy does not grant the ability to use it. For example, extracting Harry Potter's wand does not grant the ability to actually cast any spells from those books.
** Isaac is specifically frustrated by how complex operating the [[Series/DoctorWho sonic screwdriver]] is.

--->'''Ponce de Leon:'''You’ve done a marvelous job of blowing up the Internet today, Johannes.

* [[RealPersonFic Real Person]] SlashFic: In-universe, Gutenberg, under the pen name of Darcy Nacht, wrote fan fiction about [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] and Music/EltonJohn. Out-of-Universe, this book has a romance between [[spoiler:Ponce de Leon and Gutenberg.]]

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. Yes, there are. And in fact, every Porter has to meet one periodically.
** Even Gutenberg! The trope PlayedWith in his particular case when we find out that Gutenburg has been having trouble getting in touch with his lately, so he hasn't been having as many sessions as one might like.

* BiTheWay: Lena really doesn't care about gender.

The HolyShitQuotient only goes up from there.

Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, someone who can use magic to pull objects out of books. Or rather, he was, because after his magic went out of control during a particularly nasty case of fieldwork, he has been forbidden from using magic at all. Most of those with this talent work for ''Die Zwelf Portenære'', commonly known as The Porters, an organization founded by [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Johannes Gutenberg. You see, when he invented the printing press, he did it to promote Libriomancy, because now people could read the same book in the exact same format]]. The first thing the guy did with it was use Literature/TheBible, pull out the HolyGrail, make himself [[ImmortalityInducer immortal with it]] and then lock the book's magic so that [[{{Hypocrite}} nobody else could do the same]]. Only now he's gone missing, is apparently [[MindRape mind-raping]] Vampires and is using them to torture Porters and Vampires to death. Thanks to that, the Vampires have declared war on the Porters. Isaac only finds out about this when some [[{{Twilight}} Sanguinarii Meyerii]], commonly known as [[YourVampiresSuck Sparklers]], come to kill him. He only survives because his crush-of-sorts, the Dryad [[ActionGirl Lena Greenwood]] comes to his aid and tells him that [[AllTherapistsAreMuggles Nidhi Shah, his therapist]] and the person Lena was supposed to be bodyguarding has been kidnapped. Now it is up to Isaac, Lena and Isaac's pet [[IncendiaryExponent fire]] [[SpidersAreScary spider]] [[CoolPet Smudge]] to save the world from an all-out magical war, save Nidhi Shah before she is killed or turned and to find out just what the hell Gutenberg is up to.

* PowerAtAPrice: using libriomancy is exhausting, but leaves one too keyed up to sleep and too nauseous to eat. Enough libriomancy in a short time can easily drive a libriomancer mad or lead to possession.

Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, someone who can use magic to pull objects out of books. Or rather, he was, because after his magic went out of control during a particularly nasty case of fieldwork, he has been forbidden from using magic at all. Most of those with this talent work for ''Die Zwelf Portenære'', commonly known as The Porters, an organization founded by [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Johannes Gutenberg. You see, when he invented the printing press, he did it to promote Libriomancy, because now people could read the same book in the exact same format]]. The first thing the guy did with it was use Literature/TheBible, pull out the HolyGrail, make himself [[ImmortalityInducer immortal with it]] and then lock the book's magic so that [[{{Hypocrite}} nobody else could do the same]].
Only now he's gone missing, is apparently [[MindRape mind-raping]] Vampires and is using them to torture Porters and Vampires to death. Thanks to that, the Vampires have declared war on the Porters. Isaac only finds out about this when some [[{{Twilight}} Sanguinarii Meyerii]], commonly known as [[YourVampiresSuck Sparklers]], come to kill him. He only survives because his crush-of-sorts, the Dryad [[ActionGirl Lena Greenwood]] comes to his aid and tells him that [[AllTherapistsAreMuggles Nidhi Shah, his therapist]] and the person Lena was supposed to be bodyguarding has been kidnapped. Now it is up to Isaac, Lena and Isaac's pet [[IncendiaryExponent fire]] [[SpidersAreScary spider]] [[CoolPet Smudge]] to save the world from an all-out magical war, save Nidhi Shah before she is killed or turned and to find out just what the hell Gutenberg is up to.

* FromBadToWorse: ''Codex Born'' is made of this. The Bad:[[AbusiveParents August Harrison]], grieving for his son, is attacking the Porters with a veritable army, including artificial Wendigos, robot animals and rogue Libriomancers who can use old Chinese books to [[AntiMagic drain magic away]] and later, his very own Dryad. The Worse: [[spoiler:The Dryad is MindRaped by the actual BigBad, then does the same to the ancient, powerful Libriomancers in the Chinese books after pulling them out and then puts up an even better fight than August.]]

* GreatBigLibraryOfEverything: If a libriomancer has access to ''Beastly'' thye have access to every book ever published.

Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, someone who can use magic to pull objects out of books. Or rather, he was, because after his magic went out of control during a particularly nasty case of fieldwork, he has been forbidden from using magic at all. Most of those with this talent work for ''Die Zwelf Portenære'', commonly known as The Porters, an organization founded by [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Johannes Gutenberg. You see, when he invented the printing press, he did it to promote Libriomancy, because now people could read the same book in the exact same format]]. The first thing the guy did with it was use TheBible, pull out the HolyGrail, make himself [[ImmortalityInducer immortal with it]] and then lock the book's magic so that [[{{Hypocrite}} nobody else could do the same]].

* UnbuiltTrope: While the whole pulling-magic-out-of-books thing seems amazing, the series at large analyzes just about every single horrifying consequence of the idea.

** Even Gutenberg! The trope comes back into play ''slightly'' in his particular case when we find out that Gutenburg has been having trouble getting in touch with his lately, so he hasn't been having as many sessions as one might like.