History Literature / TheBalancedSword

* MeaningfulRename: Poplock comes from a culture where a person is given one name when they are born, and chooses a second name that has some personal significance when they become an adult. His name-choosing occurs early in ''Phoenix Rising''.

* WhamLine: Several. The third book has two in as many chapters in the finale.

-->He's not a demon! Kyrie, he's a [[OurWerewlovesAreDifferent Great Wolf!]]

** Myrionar, Kyri's patron god, takes it a whole lot further: As the god of justice, for all people regardless of race, gender, or category, It is referred to with a gender-neutral pronoun and never shows Its face nor allows Its face to be depicted, so that Its own categories (if it has them) are not apparent. It is always represented by Its emblem, a set of scales balanced on a sword tip.

* WorldOfBadass: [[EverythingTryingToKillYou The nature of Zarathan]] means professional adventurers are ''very'' common, and a necessary resource to protect more ordinary people. To the point that Tobimar's status as an exiled prince on an nigh-impossible quest is considered notable, but not particularly surprising.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: It's said that Zarathan has at least five kinds of creature covered by the term "vampire", with differing powers, weaknesses, and chances of being cured. The vampire who appears in ''Phoenix Ascendant'' is one of the Curseborn, the same kind of vampire that appears in some of the Literature/JasonWood stories.

* TheExile: Tobimar Silverun. Under certain circumstances, a member of the Silverun family will have to leave their country of birth to quest for their ancestral lands and legacy. They must leave at once, and never return until they succeed.

* DreamingOfThingsToCome: It's revealed in ''Phoenix in Shadow'' that the BigBad has a recurring dream that he believes to be a premonition of his final downfall: he's fleeing, with no escape plan (and he's TheChessmaster, he ''always'' has a plan), from an enemy about whom he can never remember anything when he wakes except the gray eyes. When it's pointed out that Kyri has gray eyes, he says that he doesn't believe it's her because she has the eyes of someone seeking vengeance for a recent wrong, not the controlled determination of the eyes in the dream. During the climactic battle at the end of ''Phoenix Ascendant'', he looks into Kyri's eyes as they fight and [[spoiler:her eyes still aren't the eyes from the dream, but they're a lot closer than he was expecting. He escapes with his life, but the implication is that one day they'll meet again.]]

* AdaptationalBadass: [[spoiler:In the Literature/JasonWood series, Virigar, while often spoken of as one of the most terrifying things in existence, who most monsters wouldn't pick a fight with if they could possibly avoid it, is still the guy who lost a fight to a nerd armed with a bucket. In this story, he's the hidden BiggerBad, who had devoured a greater demon off-screen, came dangerously close to devouring a god, and took a truly ''incredible'' amount of punishment before he was forced to retreat, including two literal acts of divine intervention. And he was only thwarted and driven away, not killed.]]

** BiggerBad: [[spoiler:Virigar, who devoured and replaced Viedraverion centuries ago.]]

* LeakingCanOfEvil: Moonshade Hollow, the dark and twisted land that is the source of the monsters that attack Kyri's homeland, is revealed to have become the way it is from the influence of [[spoiler:one of the Great Wyrms, dark counterparts to the Dragon Gods,]] that was trapped and buried underneath it centuries ago.

* In ''Literature/TheBalancedSword'', the BigBad has a recurring dream that he believes to be a premonition of his final downfall: he's fleeing, with no escape plan (and he's TheChessmaster, he ''always'' has a plan), from an enemy about whom he can never remember anything when he wakes except the gray eyes. When it's pointed out that the trilogy's heroine, Kyri, has gray eyes, he says that he doesn't believe it's her because she has the eyes of someone seeking vengeance for a recent wrong, not the controlled determination of the eyes in the dream. During the climactic battle at the end of the trilogy, he looks into Kyri's eyes as they fight and [[spoiler:her eyes still aren't the eyes from the dream, but they're a lot closer than he was expecting. He escapes with his life, but the implication is that one day they'll meet again.]]

* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: The insectoid creature Poplock encounters on his first adventure.

* TheChessmaster: The BigBad, running an elaborate scheme with many moving parts, and Konstantin Khoros, the mysterious wizard who shows up occasionally to give events a nudge in the service of his own plan for the BigBad's defeat, are each described at least once as playing [[CallARabbitASmeerp battlesquares]] with human piences.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Lampshaded and made a plot point in ''Phoenix in Shadow'', when the protagonists discover a lost realm that's been cut off from the rest of Zarathan for thousands of years, inhabited by people who speak the same language as the protagonist.

* {{Catchphrase}}: "Fear me" (or, depending on the situation, "Fear ''me''") is the phrases Poplock commonly uses when revealing his presence and entering a fight.

* Constellations: As an otherworld, Zarathan has its own constellations. One that is mentioned several times is the Balanced Sword, symbol of the god Myrionar.

''Phoenix Rising'' is a fantasy novel by Creator/RykESpoor, published in 2012. The sequel ''Phoenix in Shadow'' was published in May 2015. The third and final part of the trilogy, ''Phoenix Ascendant'', was published in February 2016 (eBook) and March 2016 (trade paperback).

The novel concerns three heroes in particular.

Kyri Vantage, daughter of a family who have long protected the border of Southern Zarathan, seeks justice for her parents, slain by assailants whose identities and motives remain unknown. Tobimar Silverun, prince of Skysand, seeks the truth of his people's origins, a search which many a Silverun has set out on and from which none has ever returned. Poplock Duckweed, a roaming adventurer from a nation whose members rarely stir far from their own doors,[[note]](Also, they're short compared to most other sapient races. But the resemblance to hobbits mostly ends there.)[[/note]] seeks knowledge, of the world in general and also specifically of a group of demon-worshippers whose activities prompted the beginning of his career.

As the novel progresses, they find that their individual quests are connected to each other and to a massive plot being set in motion by the demon king Kerlamion Blackstar.


!!This novel provides examples of:

%%* TheArchmage: God-Emperor Idinus, the most powerful wizard ever to live, who has ruled the second-largest nation in the world as an iron-clad theocracy for thousands of years.
* BackToBackBadasses: Tobimar do this with both Xavier and Kyri.
* BagOfHolding: Every well-equipped adventurer has a "neverfull pack". It's not actually true that they can never be filled up, but they do let you carry a lot more equipment around.
* BecomingTheMask: Combined with GoodFeelsGood, this causes ''several'' undercover villains to either do a HeelFaceTurn or at least seriously question their goals, as pretending to be heroes gives them more happiness and acclaim than secretly working on the Bag Bad's plan.
* BeneathSuspicion: Poplock is an intelligent toad. He is usually small for one such, and often pretends to be a normal dumb toad. At times, he also pretends to be Tobimar's pet toad.
* BigBad: Kerlamion Blackstar, the King of All Hells.

* TheChessmaster: Khoros, the mysterious wizard who shows up occasionally to give events a nudge in service of far-reaching and complicated plan. Poplock and Tobimar, discussing him, make an explicit analogy to chess (or at least [[CallARabbitASmeerp its local equivalent]]).

* DualWielding: Tobimar fights with two swords. When he meets another character that also fight with two swords and in the same style, they immediately explore their respective training backgrounds.

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: This world is old, and there are countless creatures mutated by magic, either by design or mere exposure to magical energies. In towns and cities people are fairly safe, and the Saurian Empire maintains an extensive road system throughout the continent with cleared ground a mile on either side. Step away from ''that'' however, and you'll almost immediately get attacked by something with razor sharp teeth and extreme hunger. And there are places that are even ''worse.''
* TheExile: Tobimar. Under certain circumstances, people in Tobimar's family have to leave their country of birth to quest for their ancestral lands and legacy. They must leave at once, and never return until they succeed.

** Khoros's face is always [[EyeObscuringHat hidden by the shadow of his hat]], no matter what the lighting conditions or the angle you look at him from.
* FantasticFightingStyle: Tor, including tricks like turning invisible and killing demons with your bare hands. And that's only halfway through the art.

* FantasyWorldMap: Vaguely L-shaped, with lots of mountains. Unlike many other fantasy world maps, it's created so that the heroes have no chance of visiting every place on it.

* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Kyri breaks down into hysterical laughter after her encounter with Myrionar, and her aunt brings her out of it with a slap.

* MeaningfulRename: Poplock comes from a culture where a person is given one name when they are born, and chooses a second name that has some personal significance when they become an adult. His name-choosing occurs early in the novel.
* MonsterIsAMommy: At one point Kyri visits a village that's under attack from giant centipede creatures; it turns out that they're only trying to retrieve their eggs, which one of the villagers gathered up thinking they were interesting rocks. Fortunately for all concerned, Kyri works it out in time to settle the matter before there's serious bloodshed.

* MurdererPOV: The prologue is the attack on Kyri's parents, with one of the attackers as the point-of-view character, without revealing their identity. Several interludes throughout the novel feature the leader of the attackers, again without revealing his identity; each interlude reveals more about him, but the audience doesn't learn who he is until Kyri does.

* NamedWeapons: Each of the Justiciars has a trademark weapon with its own name.
* NonHumanSidekick: Tobimar and Poplock. Though Poplock will probably claim that Tobimar is his sidekick.
* NoodleIncident: The incident that led to Victoria Vantage's old adventuring colleague gaining the nickname "Bridgebreaker". In the matter of Auntie Victoria's own nickname, we not only don't get the story behind it, we don't even get the nickname itself (beyond "V--") because she cuts off anybody who starts to say it when her niece is in earshot.
* ThePaladin: Several of the gods have dedicated holy warriors; the Justiciars, dedicated to Myrionar, God of Justice and Vengeance, play a significant role in this novel. Rion Vantage, Kyri's brother, joins their ranks at the beginning, [[spoiler:and Kyri herself becomes a true Justiciar after his death]].
* ProudWarriorRace: The Saurans, who greet each other formally with the armed bow, showing all their weapons openly. It is a major faux pas to be formally introduced without a weapon.

* TookALevelInBadass: Poplock, soon after he is introduced. Went from being a frightened small youngster to a seasoned fighter capable of taking on a room full of ''mazakh'' in just a few chapters.

* VillainousCrush: [[spoiler:Aran aka Condor]] for Kyri.
* WorldOfBadass: [[EverythingTryingToKillYou The nature of Zarathan]] means professional adventurers are ''very'' common, and a necessary resource to protect more ordinary people. To the point that Tobrimar's status as an exiled prince on an nigh-impossible quest is considered notable, but not particularly surprising.