Recently, a prequel novel to the movie was published by Ragnarok Publications called Sword Sisters. This novel was written by Tara Cardinal in conjunction with Alex Bledsoe. This chronicled the teenage years of the character who would grow up to the titular Reaper.
All of the franchise contains:
- Abusive Parents: Comes with being the child of a demon.
- Author Avatar: Tara Cardinal is both the creator, model, actress, and writer behind Aella.
- Badass Abnormal: Aella is half-demon and possesses all manner of abilities due to this state.
- Badass Normal: Amelia, by contrast, is just very skilled.
- The Berserker: Aella is prone to psychotic rages which help her during battle.
- Big Bad: Ganesh, a depraved demon king hunting down his daughter.
- Child by Rape: All Reapers are this.
- Expy: Aella is more or less Red Sonja if the latter wore clothes.
- Hate Sink:
- Ganesh raped a Reaper, stole their daughter, framed her as having given the child up willingly, horribly abuses her for years and sends an army to massacre the Reapers after she's freed.
- Sigurd betrays the Reapers to the demons, berates his son for the slightest mistake, and forces him to drink Reaper blood against his will.
- Hates Being Touched: Aella hates being touched due to her past abuse as a child.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Aella and Amelia.
- Last of Her Kind: Aella is destined to be the last Reaper. It happens in the movie.
- The Legend of X: Legend of the Red Reaper.
- Our Demons Are Different: These are white-skinned humanoids with ridged eyebrows and long hair. Their blood grants immortality at the cost of addiction, they can breed with humans, and they can only be killed by decapitation.
- The Sociopath:
- Ganesh, a demon king willing to slaughter an entire castle and village to get his favourite abuse victim back in his clutches.
- Sigurd, a knight who leads an attack on his liege because he dislikes how he was selected, constantly berates his son for the slightest mistake, and forces him to drink Reaper blood for power.
- Sword and Sorcery: The genre the world takes place in.
Sword Sisters contains the following:
- Blatant Lies: Amelia tries to say she's not a virgin to the locals despite it being a well-known fact her boyfriend is gay and one of them being her ex.
- Body Horror: Some people speculate Reaper genitalia is not not right. Aella knows this is not the case.
- Chained to a Rock: What the villagers do to Amelia.
- Chaste Hero: Aella has never been with anyone before.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The villagers reaction to Aella killing their god. It turns out what she killed wasn't their god.
- Feminist Fantasy: Two badass women strike back at evil village elders who want to sacrifice their young women to a woman-hating evil god.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Aella thinks gods aren't real. She's terribly-terribly wrong.
- Giant Spider: Aella fights one of these to protect Amelia.
- Hates Being Touched: Aella due to the (non-sexual) abuse she suffered at demon hands.
- Human Sacrifice: What the villagers practice.
- Incompatible Orientation: Amelia's boyfriend is gay. She's unaware of this.
- Marriage to a God: What the villagers think happens. They're wrong.
- No Woman's Land: Women outside the Reapers are treated as property by their husbands, male elders, or leadership.
- Oh, Crap!: Aella's reaction to discovering her opponent can enslave demons.
- Physical God: Both the Demons and whatever the hell the cave god is.
- Prequel: The novel takes place during Aella's teenage years.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Aella has long dreamed of a farm boy who showed her kindness but develops for another man later.
- Virgin Sacrifice: Amelia is one of these. Not by choice, however.
