Line #48 Literature/AhrimanTrilogy


1	[[quoteright:308:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ahriman.jpg]]
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3	The Ahriman Trilogy is a series of young adult paranormal adventure stories, often described as ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' in the world of Creator/HPLovecraft. The first book in the series, ''[[http://www.captainsupermarket.com/last-son-of-ahriman.html The Last Son of Ahriman]]'' came out in late 2014, the sequel, ''[[http://www.captainsupermarket.com/the-dark-price-of-ahriman.html The Dark Price of Ahriman]]'' came out in early 2016, and the final installment, ''[[http://www.captainsupermarket.com/the-new-dawn-of-ahriman.html The New Dawn of Ahriman]]'' was released in 2018.
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5	The central premise of the series is that evil comes from a rogue celestial body that sends monsters and madness to earth. A group of mages rose to fight its influence, and do so by actually bonding with the planet itself, using the power of madness against it. Needless to say, other mages aren't all that thrilled with this.
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7	The book follows Simon Bell, who was never intended to have the power. When his family is killed, he accidentally completes the ritual and becomes a mage. Using his newfound power and fighting the relentless maddening whispers of the planet, he attempts to restore his sister's soul. In the second book, he stumbles across the person really responsible for his family's death. Whether or not he can actually take revenge is a question.
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9	Has nothing to do with TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 series of the same name. Or a ''{{Series/Highlander}}'' series episode arc sometimes called the same name.
10	----
11	!! The Ahriman Trilogy provides examples of:
12	* ActionGirl: Zoe Durant, Simon's warden, fits this to a T. Detective Vicki Yang as well, though she could easily be called [[spoiler: a Dark Action Girl]] toward the end.  Erin Orsulich less so, but she has her moments.
13	* AdultsAreUseless: Averted, with Cleon Monroe.
14	* AffablyEvil: Sure, Avery is an evil witch, but she acts like a friendly homemaker.
15	* TheAlcoholic: Frank Browning.
16	* AlmightyIdiot: Ahriman itself. While immeasurably powerful, it lacks any real personality or even consciousness, and never demonstrates any sort of higher-level thinking, acting pretty much solely on instinctual urges. It leaves all the actual thought and planning to those it corrupts.
17	* AxCrazy: All the Agents, though Porter Morgan, the aptly named Axe-Man, takes this literally. He is driven to kill people by Ahriman's whispers in his head, hoping the murders will quiet the voices.
18	* AwesomeAussie: In the second book, you have Caitlin Reid, a half crazy chemistry expert who uses her knowledge to make caustic bombs that only hurt eldritch horrors. She also openly acknowledges the trope with her mention that she hasn't wrestled a croc in a week. Simon isn't sure if she's joking.
19	* BattleCouple: That's the whole point of the mage/warden relationship. The mage fights the planet, while the warden deals with mortals and other mages. The gender of each half of the couple is variable, but it's usually one male, one female.
20	* BettyAndVeronica: Ashley and Zoe for Fausto. Erin and Zoe for Simon.
21	* TheChosenOne: Averted. Simon's brother Gabe was the chosen one, but he gets killed at the very beginning.
22	* DeathWorld: Ahriman. The unbreathable, lethally cold atmosphere will kill anyone without magical protection in seconds. That magical protection has to either be ''very'' powerful or come from Ahriman itself. In the latter case, it whispers in visitors' heads constantly to make them go insane and turn them into its will. Once you get past that, there are the native [[EldritchAbomination Ahrimanes]], nearly all of which are predators far deadlier than most mundane Earth animals. The worst of these are [[PhysicalGod literal gods]] the size of mountains, which spend most of their lives asleep but periodically go on ravenous rampages during which they eat whole ''species''. There is no rain, or any surface water at all, and the only thing resembling an ocean is in fact [[BlobMonster an enormous, carnivorous amoeba creature]]. On top of that, the terrain shifts seemingly at random...because Ahriman is actually [[GeniusLoci alive and semi-sapient]], and it may help or hurt visitors for any or no reason.
23	* DiscOneFinalBoss: Toby Homolka, the BigBad of the first book.
24	* TheDragon: Porter Morgan, the Axe-Man. The sequel gives us Elmer, for Avery.
25	* DrowningMySorrows: Frank, when he thinks he's failed to protect Simon and Zoe.
26	* EldritchAbomination: Ahriman and its denizens/children. It's a straight example of the trope.
27	* EldritchLocation: Ahriman itself toes the line between a location and a god. There's not much of a distinction.
28	* EnemyMine: Simon and [[spoiler: Cleon]] team up at the end to take Toby down.
29	* EvilSorcerer: Toby Homolka definitely. His master, Avery is strongly implied.
30	* ForeignCussWord: Zoe is fond of using a little French-Canadian curse with ''torrieu.''
31	* GenreBusting: This could probably best be described as young adult Urban Fantasy superhero cosmic horror.
32	* GoodScarsEvilScars: Both Simon and his mom have the good variety. Simon has the kiss-like marks from the anubans in the beginning.
33	* HauntedHouse: Subverted with the Guest. The Bell house is haunted... but it's closer to being possessed. The entity is friendly, draws on the energy of the inhabitants, and uses its power to protect.
34	* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Fausto is a large football player. Zoe is tiny.
35	* HumanoidAbomination: The Axe-Man slowly becomes one as the first book progresses. By the second, he's human in general shape only. He can summon his axe out of nothing, is permanently shrouded in shadow, and can seemingly vanish from existence when he's not otherwise occupied. He is also barely more than a puppet of Ahriman's murderous will, driven to serve Ahriman mages and to kill just about everyone else.
36	* KickTheDog: The Surgeon in a horrible case.
37	* UsefulNotes/LosAngeles: The bulk of the book takes place in San Pedro, a suburb by the port.
38	* LovecraftianSuperpower: Simon's abilities are practically the platonic ideal of the trope.
39	* MadScientist: The Surgeon.
40	* TheManBehindTheMan: Avery. Well, the terrifying older lady behind the man anyway.
41	* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Sensitive, intellectual Simon and militant bruiser Zoe.
42	* MinorMajorCharacter: Druj is the avatar of Ahriman's will and the part of it that handles basically all of its actual thinking, including selecting and empowering Agents, making him indirectly responsible for much of the series' events. This ''would'' make him the BigBad, except he appears in only a couple of scenes in the third book, acts mainly as a DiabolusExMachina to get the main cast separated from each other, and spends more time [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty trying to stick it in Laila]] than anything else. [[spoiler: Ahriman's threat to Earth also remains after Simon kills him, and the FinalBoss ends up being Fausto.]]
43	* NoBisexuals: Averted. Cait identifies as bisexual rather matter-of-factly.
44	* SequelHook: [[spoiler: "She's going to summon a god!"]] is maybe one of the more obvious cues there is a sequel in the works.
45	* SpellMyNameWithAThe: The Axe-Man, the Surgeon. Both have real names, but don't use them. Other Agents also use names like this, apparently bestowed by Ahriman, and generally forget their old names entirely.
46	* StarfishAliens: The Ahrimanes are the EldritchAbomination variety. Specifics vary by type, but Ahrimane anatomy [[BizarreAlienBiology adheres only marginally to biology, physics, and common sense]]. Additionally, their biochemistry is also radically different, but varies from type to type; chants, for example, suffer chemical burns from ''milk.''
47	* TapOnTheHead: Played for laughs. Zoe wants to prove she can knock someone out, and Simon doesn't believe her. His narration cuts off mid-sentence.
48	* TomBoyAndGirlyGirl: Zoe and Erin.
49	* WaifFu: Zoe, although it's clear she does actual martial arts suited for someone with a small frame. The whole point of jiu-jitsu, one of her primary methods of combat, is for smaller defenders to disable larger attackers.

Context Literature / AhrimanTrilogy