Daybreak on Hyperion is an original English work written in the style of a Light Novel. Set on the continent/world of Hyperion, the story starts at the Alisia Academy of Magic in the Empire of Rhin-Lotharingie. Pascal Kay Lennart von Moltewitz, the only child of the Kingdom's top military officer has just returned to school after an autumn campaign, serving as a junior officer where he was promoted and knighted for his actions. When he is informed that he and his classmates will be summoning their magical familiars he decides that a normal animal familiar will just not do, he decides to modify the ritual to summon a person, one who will be his intellectual equal, but with sufficiently different views that they will not just be a sycophantic Yes-Man.
Things do not go quite to plan and while Pascal gets what he wants, it may prove to be more than he bargained for.
Note: This is currently a work in progress, available at the author's blog
, Baka-Tsuki, and Royalroad.
Daybreak on Hyperion contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Ariadne's family has a reputation to military skill that she is trying to live up to.
- Alien Sky: Hyperion's world doesn't so much have a moon as it does a companion planet with an indigo colour.
- All There in the Manual: The website hosting the novel also provides a plethora of background information about The 'Verse which can only be implied in the narrative, such as the military organization system utilized by the armies in this series, as well as detailed character profiles for the protagonists.
- Animesque: Is deliberately written to imitate the style of a Japanese light novel despite being written in English to start with. The start of the plot also bears a rather distinct resemblance to The Familiar of Zero, though it heads off in its own direction fairly quickly.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Part of the transformation. Pascal put very specific physical requirements into the summoning. Possibly too specific as it was easier for the seeking component of the spell to find someone who met the personality criteria and transform them to meet the physical criteria than expending energy finding someone who fit both.
- BFS: Manteuffel swords. Longer than a bastard sword with blades that are narrower but thicker.
- Blob Monster: White Puddings. Kaede likens them to giant, animate cubes of tofu.
- Book Dumb: Reynald is not stupid, but in his own words hates reading. Serves as a form of Obfuscating Stupidity.
- Completely Unnecessary Translator: Gwendolyn, a former Queen of Ceredigion and Oriflamme Paladin who had attained immortality as a Worldwalker centuries before the start of the story, pretends to speak only the local language Brython during her encounter with Kaede and her squad in volume 3. Most of the squad can only speak in Imperial or Lotharin, except for the squad's sergeant, forcing him to act as an ad hoc translator. He becomes very unhappy when he finds out that Gwendolyn is proficient in their languages all along.
- Corrupt Church: The Trinitian Church's hierarchy is more or less a pawn in the Emperor's schemes.
- Covert Pervert: Pascal's fiancée, Princess Sylviane... really likes cute things, much to Kaede's horror.
- Cursed with Awesome: Princess Sylviane suffers from hypomania, a mild form of bipolar disorder which can cause her to lose all inhibitions and descend into a state of self-righteous fury and also severe depression when her rage subsides. However, her hypomanic state also makes her mind hyperactive, allowing her to process an enormous amount of information quickly, which is an asset in real-time battle planning. Moreover, because she is acutely aware of the potential problems caused by her condition, she is also willing to institute a legal check to her power.
- Dhampyr: Descendants of the original vampires which have been wiped out. The majority of their powers are sealed at a young age and while they don't have to drink blood, doing so allows them to maintain their useful appearance.
- Divine Intervention: Gwendolyn invokes her Right of Armed Intervention to save the Rhin-Lotharingie army from certain defeat during the climax in volume 3 by animating an entire forest of trees to crush the invading Cataliyan army.
- The Empire: The Holy Imperium of the Inner Sea. Or the Empire/Imperium for short. Rhin-Lotharingie is also an Empire, but the Imperium fits the trope better and is what locals mean when they say "The Empire."
- Exotic Eye Designs: Dhampirs have cross shaped pupils after their powers are sealed.
- Familiar: Pascal showing off by attempting (and succeeding) at being the first to summon a human as a familiar is what kicks the plot off.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: All of the nations featured in this story are fantasy counterparts or amalgamations of actual historical states in the real world.
- The Kingdom of Weichsel has been identified by Kaede as a counterpart of the Kingdom of Prussia.
- The Holy Imperium of the Inner Sea is a version of the Roman Empire that never collapsed, with its Trinitian Church a counterpart to a Catholic Church that never underwent an equivalent of the Great Schism.
- The Empire of Rhin-Lotharingie is described as a Celtic Carolingian Empire, whose inhabitants never fully integrated into the Imperial cultural sphere (in Earth terms, it would be akin to an empire of partially Romanized Gauls).
- The Greater Jarldom of Skagen and the Kingdom of Västergötland are counterparts of Denmark and Sweden respectively that did not abandon their Norse paganism.
- The Grand Republic of Samara is the Novgorod Republic whose dominant faith is a mixture of Buddhism and Tengrism.
- The Cataliyan Caliphate is a counterpart of the Rashidun Caliphate, combined with the military prowess of the Umayyad Caliphate. It practises the Tauheed faith, the equivalent of Islam in this story.
- The briefly mentioned Shahdom of Chorasmia and the Dawn Imperium appear to be counterparts of Sassanid Persia and Han dynasty China respectively.
- Fantastic Nuke: Pascal actually manages to create a magical version of a thermonuclear weapon based on nothing more than a rudimentary description of the strong nuclear force provided by Kaede and knowledge of a light-based spell that mimics the sun from a Knight Phantom commander. However, Pascal is forced to deploy the weapon prematurely in the climax of volume 3 and is unable to prevent a significant amount of collateral damage.
- Fantasy Gun Control: Black powder is used in mining but almost non-existent in terms of military applications. This is because vulnerability to enemy magic (fire making premature explosions or water just making it too wet) its considered impractical as the basis for a weapon of war.
- Fiery Redhead: Reynald has red hair and fairly hot temper.
- Foreshadowing: The heated conversation between two immortal Worldwalkers over the limits of their rights to intervene in mortal affairs in the prologue of volume 3 foreshadows Gwendolyn, their fellow Worldwalker, invoking that very same right to save the day in the climax of the volume.
- Functional Magic: A mix of Inherent Gift and Rule Magic. The Inherent Gift is the ability to use magic. The exact rules aren't detailed greatly, but there are at least two main styles of magic, Aura and Rune magic, though its possible to use both.
- Gender Bender: Part of what the summoning spell did to Kaede.
- First Law of Gender Bending: Kaede is stuck as a girl for the foreseeable future.
- Gender-Blender Name: Kaede's name is technically gender neutral.
- Giant Flyer: Sky whales exist. Wild ones travel in pods and are treated by herders and wild animals alike as something akin to a natural disaster. Reynald has a baby one as a familiar.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: The author spends considerable effort to portray the viewpoints and motivations of all factions in this story as even-handedly as possible, despite its protagonists-centered focus, and the result is a story where no factions are perfect and all have their own fair share of problems.note
- Human Sub Species: Samarans have pale to clear blood with healing properties and extended lifespans similar to powerful mages but appear to be normal humans otherwise.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The Dead Mountains, a sterile region created by the dying curses of the vampires before they were exterminated.
- In-Universe Nickname: Pascal is known as the Runelord by his classmates for his specialising in runic magic
- Kukris Are Kool: Dual Wielding kukris are the preferred close combat weapons of Imperial Mantis Blade assassins. Reynald as well, being trained by his step-mother who is an ex-Mantis Blade.
- The Magocracy: Nobility and magical ability are synonymous in Weichsel at least. Commoners who display magical ability are automatically elevated to the yeomanry from which they and their descendants can at least attempt to further raise their social standing.
- The Medic: Parzifal by necessity has he is incapable of most forms of magic apart from bio-alchemy, of which medical uses are one of the primary applications.
- Mind-Control Music: Lady Vivienne, an Oriflamme Paladin, has the ability to enchant her music with magic, which can be used to not only boost the morale and concentration of allied troops, but also disorient and lull enemy troops. This latter ability eventually cements her reputation as the 'Winter Siren'.
- Mix-and-Match Weapon: Based upon the very real Scandinavian svärdstavar, Swordstaves are the staple armament of the Weischen infantry and well used by the cavalry too.
- Morph Weapon: Among their other tricks, Manteuffel swords can be turned into long lances.
- No Social Skills: Pascal's formal manners are perfectly fine but he is severely lacking in the social skills that would allow him to actually making friends. Something Kaede plans on correcting.
- Our Genies Are Different: The Cataliyan Caliphate employs jinn to serve as advisers and elite soldiers; every high-ranking Cataliyan military officer would have their own personal jinni who serves as their second-in-command.
- Parental Abandonment: Pascal's mother died when he was young and his father was often absent.
- Pegasus: Ariadne has one for her familiar.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Pascal is genuinely smitten with Sylviane. She is fond of him, but often exasperated by his lack of social skills.
- The Perfectionist: Pascal demands perfection from all around him, including himself.
- Reincarnation: Samarans believe in reincarnation and have fragmentary memories from their past lives.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The heir to the Empire of Rhin-Lotharingie is always an Oriflamme paladin and the only place that an Oriflamme paladin can take on the battlefield is leading from the front.
- Sacrificial Lion: The severity of the Lotharin situation is aptly demonstrated when Lady Mari and Sir Robert, armigers and long-time companions to Princess Sylviane, died protecting the princess from a Cataliyan attack near the end of volume 3, which greatly devastated her.
- Say It with Hearts: Within the limits of the text format Ariadne does this when talking about Parzifal.
- The Social Expert: As an aspiring historian with a particular interest in the why and how of history, Kaede serves as a foil to Pascal's lack of social skills.
- Technicolour Fire: Phoenix's flames are blue and gold and the same goes to the flames they can grant to their companions.
- Translator Microbes: Translation magic is commonplace in this series, and is used not only by Pascal to enable Kaede to understand his language and vice versa, but also by people travelling to other countries to translate the local languages.
- Trapped in Another World: Kaede, along with a new body.
- When Trees Attack: Gwendolyn's Divine Intervention at the end of volume 3 takes the form of an entire forest of animated trees crushing a Cataliyan army.
- Wizarding School: The Königsfeld Academy of Magic in Weichsel where Pascal and the others are students. Overlaps with Military Academy.
- Wizards Live Longer: Mages can live up to two centuries. The extended lifespans of Samarans are implied to because of their inherently magical nature.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: Pascal describes his fiancée Sylviane in terms giving this impression. When Kaede actually meets her, she thinks that Ariadne is better looking.
- Wreathed in Flames: Oriflamme Paladins when fused with one of the nations's twelve phoenix familiars which Reynald thinks is awesome.
- The 'Burning Throne' of Rhin-Lotharinge is no metaphor or hyperbole, but literally cloaked in purifying flames such that those characters are not deemed worthy of a phoenix's choice, dare not sit upon it, lest they burn for their ambition and avarice.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Kaede has no known way of returning home and may not even be able to.
- You Killed My Father: Subverted, General Neithard von Manteuffel was framed for Conspiring the late Field Marshal and Landgrave, Karl August von Moltewitz's assassination in order to neuter the Manteuffels and cow his rival, Cardinal Lanckoroński, set up for his fall. Ironically, since the late Landgrave himself didn't deign to play politics, It's unlikely that any of the local powers were actually conspirators in his assassination. Not knowing any of this, Pascal gladly led the man's arrest and practically reveled in his summary execution.
