"May our wings forever find your sky."
— Vir Requis motto
Dragons of Requiem is a High Fantasy book series by Daniel Arenson.
Long ago, a race of humans called the Vir Requis ruled a kingdom called Requiem. The Vir Requis possessed the ability to transform into dragons, and they ruled the skies and tried to live alongside humans in peace. But the Vir Requis were hated and hunted by humans, and the Vir Requis' numbers slowly waned until they were nearly extinct. After Requiem is destroyed, the Vir Requis are scattered across the world, where they live in secret. But when tyrants and hunters continue to search for Vir Requis with the intent to wipe out their race completely, the Vir Requis must band together to fend off evil forces, and to rebuild Requiem once more.
The series is split into seven different trilogies.
Dawn of Dragons
- Requiem's Song
- Requiem's Hope
- Requiem's Prayer
Song of Dragons
- Blood of Requiem
- Tears of Requiem
- Light of Requiem
Dragonlore
- A Dawn of Dragonfire
- A Day of Dragon Blood
- A Night of Dragon Wings
The Dragon War
- A Legacy of Light
- A Birthright of Blood
- A Memory of Fire
Requiem for Dragons
- Dragons Lost
- Dragons Reborn
- Dragons Rising
Flame of Requiem
- Forged in Dragonfire
- Crown of Dragonfire
- Pillars of Dragonfire
Dragonfire Rain
- Blood of Dragons
- Rage of Dragons
- Flight of Dragons
This series provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Some of the main villains in the series care very little about their offspring. Just ask Raem Seran, who tried to kill his son and later locked him in a tower for being a "cursed" weredragon, or Frey Cadigus, who routinely beat and nearly killed all three of his children when they were young.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Dies Irae cowers and pleads for his life twice in Blood of Requiem after Benedictus wounds and is about to kill him.
- Alas, Poor Villain:
- Queen Solina, especially given her backstory. While she's responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands, she realized too little too late that she let her hatred overwhelm her into doing unforgiveable things. All she ever wanted was to be with Elethor, and even in death, she couldn't have that.
Solina: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for how much I hurt you. All I wanted was to be with you here. I'm sorry."- To a lesser extent, Leresy Cadigus. Considering his constant abuse as a child and being talked down to by everyone, it was upset to see him perish right when he finally stood up to his father and killed him.
- Gemini Deus, who Took a Level in Kindness, saved the Vir Requis on various occasions, and finally stood up to his much less sympathetic sister and killed her. Even Domi pitied the man and respected him enough to give him a proper burial.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us:
- In Requiem's Prayer, Slyn's sphinxes attack and destroy most of the recently built Requiem, forcing the Vir Requis to flee.
- A Dawn of Dragonfire starts with Queen Solina's phoenixes attacking Requiem and driving most of the population underground. It happens again in A Day of Dragon Blood, but this time Solina has an army of wyverns. Solina also succeeds in destroying Nova Vita and the rest of Requiem, and nearly all the Vir Requis are killed.
- In A Birthright of Blood, the Cadigus Empire storms Lynport once they find out Rune is hiding there. They succeed in destroying the city and most of the Resistance, and Rune surrenders himself to them.
- Almost Dead Guy: Subverted with Lucem, who appeared to have died in his viewpoint chapter. Later, Elory finds his bleeding body lying out in the fields, and he presumably dies after uttering his final words to her. The next chapter even makes it appear that he died of blood loss and was about to be buried. But during the epilogue, it's revealed that he passed out and is still alive.
- An Arm and a Leg:
- Benedictus bites off Dies Irae's arm at the start of Blood of Requiem. He replaces it with a mace.
- Agnus Dei has her hand cut off in Light of Requiem.
- Raem Seran has both his arms and legs bitten off in Requiem's Hope.
- Lucem has his leg torn off in Pillars of Dragonfire.
- Anyone Can Die: Given the tone of the franchise, it's to be expected.
- The Dawn of Dragons trilogy kills off seven of its twelve POV characters, albeit two of them were Mauve Shirts.
- The Song of Dragons trilogy killed off half of the POV characters before its ending, not to mention many other side characters.
- Dragonlore has the highest body count. Bayrin, Mori, and Lyana are the only main and/or POV characters who live to the end.
- The Dragon War trilogy has the lowest body count in the series. Except for the Cadigus family and Luna, all the main characters live.
- The Requiem for Dragons trilogy kills all but four of the main characters and nearly all of the side characters, except for Eliana.
- Half of the main cast from the Flame of Requiem trilogy is dead by the time the series is over.
- Arc Villain: Zerra Blacksmith. His storyline only affects Laira for a majority of Requiem's Song, and even then, his plot's reduced to him chasing after her, and he has no real impact on the main plot. It isn't until the last chunk of the book where his plot interweaves with everyone else's, and shortly after, he's killed by Laira.
- Arch-Enemy:
- Lord Acribus for Mori, The Dragon in A Dawn of Dragonfire who raped and tormented her throughout the novel.
- General Mahrdor for Lyana, who forms an unhealthy obsession with her and longs to keep her as a prized possession.
- Asshole Victim: The Rot Gang from Light of Requiem, a trio of teenagers who Kick the Dog, torment and abuse a young girl, and spend their time scavenging to help Dies Irae create mimics.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The Behemoth from Dragons Reborn is a six-legged, eight-eyed, gargantuan beast that the Horde uses to feed prisoners to.
- Babies Ever After: Every trilogy ends with at least one couple having children during the resolution.
- Big Bad: Each trilogy has one.
- Dawn of Dragons has King Raem Seran and Angel.
- Song of Dragons has Dies Irae.
- Dragonlore has Queen Solina.
- The Dragon War has Emperor Frey Cadigus.
- Requiem for Dragons has High Priestess Beatrix Deus.
- Flame of Requiem has King Ishtafel.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Slyn, the leader of the Widejaws. He starts off looking like another Arc Villain, but after Raem finds him and turns him into a sphinx, he becomes another one of his minions. Even after he takes over Requiem, he spends his time celebrating and declaring himself the new "king," acting like he's the one in charge until Raem knocks some sense into him.
- Bittersweet Ending:
- For the Song of Dragons trilogy. Dies Irae is finally killed, the Vir Requis have stopped his army, Kyrie marries Agnus Dei and is reunited with Terra and Memoria, Gloriae is crowned Queen of Requiem, and she gives birth to two more Vir Requis. However, millions of innocents have been slaughtered, Agnus Dei lost her hand, most of the kingdom is in ruins thanks to Dies' wrath, and Benedictus and Lacrimosa are both dead.
- The Dawn of Dragons trilogy ends with hundreds of thousands of humans and Vir Requis dead, Alina, Issari, Bryn, and Sena amongst them, a large portion of Terra has been destroyed, and Laira comes to realize that no amount of happiness will make her forget about the torture Raem and Zerra put her through. But Dorvin and Maev marry and have a child, as do Laira and Jeid, and Requiem is finally rebuilt into a blooming kingdom. The final chapter reveals that the trilogy took place three millenniums before Song of Dragons, meaning the survivors were not exposed to Dies Irae's wrath and lived the rest of their lives in peace.
- The Dragonlore trilogy ends with the entire cast dead, except for Mori, Bayrin, and Lyana—all of whom have been traumatized over the loss of their loved ones and the carnage that ensued. Requiem has fallen twice, Tiranor is also presumably in ruins, and hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, have been slaughtered. However, Lyana has a child, Bayrin and Lyana marry and have children as well, and Requiem is (eventually) rebuilt. It's also implied that the nephil have been crushed for good and will never return.
- The Requiem for Dragons trilogy ends with everyone dead except Cade, Domi, Amity, and Fidelity, all of whom are unable to forget about all the pain and torture they went through. Hundreds of thousands have been killed throughout Mercy and Beatrix's rampage as well, including almost all of the Horde. But Eliana is saved, Fidelity is crowned queen, Cade and Domi marry and have children together, Requiem is rebuilt, the firedrakes are tamed and used for good, and the Vir Requis have begun to repopulate.
- The Flame of Requiem trilogy ends with King Ishtafel dead and the Vir Requis finally free of his tyranny. Elory and Lucem having a baby together, Requiem is rebuilt, Vale is crowned king, and newcomers Bim and Til survive the carnage. But over half of the Vir Requis slaves that were freed died over the course of the trilogy—including Tash, Meliora, and Jaren—and the survivors have to live knowing that their generation has sullied Requiem with blood and death.
- Blood Magic: Shedah and Nemes are both practitioners of this. Details are not forthcoming, but apparently Shedah crafted an Elixir of Life out of the blood of princesses, which she regards as more potent than divine ichor.
- Body Horror:
- The mimics are composed of severed body parts from human beings and/or animals, ranging from arms, legs, heads, ears, eyes, etc. Some mimics even have multiple limbs, while others are shaped to resemble mutilated animals.
- After Raem Seran has his limbs bitten off, one of his demons replaces them with a tentacle, a lobster claw, a bird's leg, and a furry limb with a hoof.
- Break the Haughty: Dorvin spends most of Requiem's Hope being humiliated or trumped in fights, although he brought most of it on himself. After his sister dies, he's fully broken, and subsequently lightens up in the third novel.
- Bring My Brown Pants:
- Leresy Cadigus wets himself twice. First it's during the Battle of Castra Luna while he's trying to run away, and it happens again later after Valien nearly chops his head off.
- Halfhead pees his pants after Tanin threatens to turn him into a dragon.
- Brought Down to Normal:
- The mimics have the power to nullify the Vir Requis' ability to shift. Almost all of Light of Requiem shows the Vir Requis trying to fend off Dies' undead army while in human form.
- The Genesis Shards have a similar power. Any Vir Requis exposed to the Shards will instantly turn into a human if they're in dragon form.
- The Flame of Requiem trilogy has special collars fastened to the Vir Requis' necks that prevents them from shifting. The seraphs used all these collars to control hundreds of thousands of Vir Requis for slave labor.
- Burn the Witch!: Laira's mother, Anai, is burned alive in front of her daughter after she's caught shifting into a dragon.
- Catchphrase:
- "Stars!" and "Stars damn it!"
- "May our wings forever find your sky."
- Civil War: The Dragon War trilogy's main premise. The Cadigus family viewed the Aeternum and Eleison bloodline as being weak (in large part because of the sheer amount of times the Vir Requis were slaughtered under their rule), so Frey Cadigus murdered almost everyone in the Aeternum family and took over the throne, then ruled Requiem with an iron fist. Eventually, several Vir Requis went against the Cadigus Empire and form a rebellion.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: For a majority of A Day of Dragon Blood, some of the Vir Requis show doubt over their army because none of them are warriors, and they're hardly old enough to fight. Almost all of the Vir Requis are slaughtered when Solina's army of wyverns attack—not because they didn't fight or ran away, but simply because they weren't trained or strong enough to hold back Solina's forces.
- Darkest Hour:
- Tears of Requiem ends with King Benedictus dead, and Dies Irae still alive and still hunting for the last four Vir Requis.
- A Day of Dragon Blood ends with nearly all of the Vir Requis dead, Adia and Lord Deramon amongst them. Princess Mori is kidnapped and taken to Tiranor. Nova Vita is in ruins, along with most of Requiem. Queen Solina is still alive, and thousands of her wyverns still occupy Requiem's borders and are hunting for the survivors.
- Dragons Reborn is arguably the worst case. The Horde is massacred by Mercy's army, Korvin, Fidelity, and Domi's whereabouts are unknown, Gemini is presumed dead, and Cade and Amity are stranded with only a small handful of wounded survivors of the Horde to aid them. To top that all off, Roen sacrifices his life so Fidelity can escape.
- De-power:
- An herb known as tillvine can "cure" the Vir Requis of shifting into a dragon and make them human again. Laira is forced to swallow some when she tries to fool the Widejaws into eating meat laced with the herb.
- Tillvine is the central plot point for the Requiem for Dragons trilogy. The Big Bad's motivation is to seek out and "cure" as many Vir Requis as possible by forcing them to consume the herb.
- A Death in the Limelight: Since Anyone Can Die and all that, some of the POV characters are killed at the end of the chapter that focuses on them.
- Death of a Child: Nearly every single book in the series kills off children and even infants nonchalantly. Dragons Reborn, in particular, has a sequence where Mercy is ordered to murder hundreds of babies "diseased" with the Vir Requis' magic.
- Demoted to Dragon: Angel. At first, she works alongside Raem and even has a couple of her own viewpoint chapters, and they're shown conspiring together. But by Requiem's Hope, Angel has less screentime and mostly exists to take orders from Raem while she lets her demons do all the hard work.
- Dimension Lord: Angel, Queen of the Abyss.
- Disc-One Final Boss:
- Zerra is killed at the end of Requiem's Song, just after it seemed like he'd join King Raem and become one of the trilogy's main villains.
- Flame of Requiem started building up Queen Kalafi as the Big Bad, while Ishtafel was just The Heavy. She dies towards the end of Forged in Dragonfire, and Ishtafel takes her place as the main villain.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Dies Irae. After his father refused to let him rule Requiem, he decided to murder his father, take control of all the griffins, and then he commenced a genocide on the Vir Requis, which led to the deaths of millions.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Double subversion in the Song of Dragons trilogy. Gloriae gets Kyrie heavily inebriated, and then rapes him in hopes of producing more Vir Requis. When Agnus Dei finds out, the sisters fight each other and stay angry at one another for a couple chapters. However, by the end of the novel, and by the third book, Agnus Dei, Gloriae, and Kyrie barely bring up the incident again, and Agnus doesn't mind one bit when it's revealed that Gloriae did get pregnant.
- Downer Beginning:
- At the start of Blood of Requiem, Requiem has already fallen and the last Vir Requis in the world (short of Benedictus) are massacred.
- A Dawn of Dragonfire starts with Prince Orin's torture and death, followed by Mori getting raped, and Queen Solina leading her army to Requiem.
- Requiem's Song starts with Laira's mother being burned alive in front of her.
- The Dragon: There's typically one per trilogy. And in some cases, one per book.
- Raem Seran has a revolving door of Dragons. First it's Zerra, up until he's killed by Laira. Later, it's Ciana, until she's killed by Dorvin. And lastly, there's Slyn, the leader of the Widejaw tribe.
- Gloriae the Gilded for Dies Irae. Later it's Umbra, after Gloriae has a Heel–Face Turn.
- Queen Solina has Lord Acribus, until he's killed by Bayrin. Then it's General Mahrdor, until he's killed by Lyana. Lastly it's Legion, the leader of the nephil army.
- Frey Cadigus has his daughter, Shari Cadigus. There's also Beras, who's a Dragon to the Dragon.
- Beatrix Deus has her daughter, Mercy Deus.
- Dragon with an Agenda: General Mahrdor. While loyal to Queen Solina, his primary goal is to torture Lyana and to keep her as his pet. Conquering Requiem is secondary, and borderline irrelevant to him.
- Driven to Suicide: Sena Seran.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him:
- There was little foreshadowing or buildup behind Prince Sena Seran's suicide. The first sentence of the second chapter of Requiem's Hope is just Laira finding his body.
- Shari Cadigus is also disposed of very quickly and without any sort of showdown, despite all the buildup surrounding her character.
- Queen Kalafi, the new conqueror of the Vir Requis who fought against gods, dies after she's shoved down and cracks her skull against a poolside. She even laughs weakly as she dies, fully aware of the irony of the situation.
- Dying Curse: Just before Shedah the witch dies, she curses Issari to become a Vir Requis like her sister. It worked.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The Dragon War trilogy ends on a surprisingly bright note. The Cadigus family is killed, with Leresy redeeming himself before he dies. Tilla confronts Valien and Kaelyn about her brother's demise, but decides not to kill either of them. Valien becomes the new ruler of Requiem and marries Kaelyn. Erry finds out who her father is and decides to go live with him and her half-sister. And Rune and Tilla return to Lynport to rebuild the town and live their life in peace.
- Evil Gloating: It's rare for a villain who doesn't do this in front of the protagonists, given how over-the-top all the main villains are.
- Evil Smells Bad: A majority of the antagonistic creatures in the series are noted for smelling very unpleasant or smelling like death. In some cases, it's justifiable, since some of the creatures are reanimated corpses.
- Eye Scream: At the end of Blood of Requiem, Benedictus stabs Dies Irae in his left eye. He later replaces it with a horse eye in Light of Requiem.
- Fantastic Slurs: The term "weredragon" (which some humans like Dies Irae use) is very offensive to the Vir Requis. It depicts them as monsters or demons who hate humans, which is far from the case. Interestingly, the Vir Requis of Dies Irae's era thought he had invented the term, though it also shows up the the prequels, three millennia earlier.
- Fat Bastard: Abina Sin-Naharosh, a bloated, obese man who is too fat to move and struggles whenever he lifts his arms.
- Fate Worse than Death:
- Anyone who is attacked by a nightshade demon will have their soul ripped from their bodies. What's left is a mindless body that simply lies on the ground unable to even think properly.
- The firedrakes from Requiem for Dragons are Vir Requis who were forced into taking tillvine. However, instead of "curing" them of their ability to shift into a dragon, it does the exact opposite and permanently changes them into a feral dragon no different from a common predator.
- Flesh Golem: The mimics, which are body parts stitches together and reanimated.
- Freudian Excuse: Almost every major villain has one.
- Dies Irae. The reason why he hates the Vir Requis so much is because his father disowned him for not being able to shift into a dragon, and then let his younger brother take over on the throne.
- Raem Seran longs to kill all the Vir Requis because he's ashamed of being one himself.
- Queen Solina hates the Vir Requis because they killed her parents, treated her like an outcast during her childhood, and then banished her from Requiem because they discovered she was in a (consensual) relationship with the prince.
- Frey Cadigus is driven by his need to show the world that Requiem can no longer be pushed around. After reading up on Requiem's history (and what the three aforementioned villains did to the country), he took revenge on the surrounding nations by destroying them all.
- Beatrix Deus wants to cure the Vir Requis of their "disease" because she believes that the Vir Requis' ability to shift into a dragon has brought nothing but death and destruction to the kingdom. Given what Frey and the previous three villains did, she's not entirely wrong.
- Ishtafel despises the Vir Requis so much because they slaughtered his true love, Reehan, right in front of him.
- God Save Us from the Queen!:
- Angel, Queen of the Abyss from Dawn of Dragons.
- Queen Solina from Dragonlore.
- Queen Kalafi from Flame of Requiem.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Some of the characters frequently use the term "stars" or "Abyss" to replace the word "fuck" or "shit." Which is strange, because the characters are fine saying "damn," "shite," and "arse."
- Heel–Face Turn: Gloriae in Tears of Requiem, after she realizes she's Vir Requis and that Dies Irae kidnapped her from her real parents.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Bryn causes a cave in so she can kill dozens of Widejaw barbarians, with her still inside.
- Issari allows herself to be swallowed by starlight so she can use its power to kill Raem. But she absorbs too much and eventually succumbs to it.
- Roen fends off several of Mercy's firedrakes to allow Fidelity to escape, and is killed by her in the process.
- The Hero Dies: Even the lead protagonist(s) aren't safe from death. Just ask Benedictus, Lacrimosa, and Elethor. Benedictus is a borderline Decoy Protagonist, as he's killed off in the second book of the trilogy he's in instead of the final one.
- Hero Killer: Queen Solina. She starts off by killing Prince Orin, and later slays the King of Requiem, Olasar. In A Day of Dragon Blood, she adds Adia and Lord Deramon to her body count, the latter of whom she mortally wounded while he was still a dragon.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Of the "Contains a word(s)" pattern:
Dawn of Dragons
- Requiem's Song
- Requiem's Hope
- Requiem's Prayer
Song of Dragons
- Blood of Requiem
- Tears of Requiem
- Light of Requiem
Dragonlore
- A Dawn of Dragonfire
- A Day of Dragon Blood
- A Night of Dragon Wings
The Dragon War
- A Legacy of Light
- A Birthright of Blood
- A Memory of Fire
Requiem for Dragons
- Dragons Lost
- Dragons Reborn
- Dragons Rising
Flame of Requiem
- Forged in Dragonfire
- Crown of Dragonfire
- Pillars of Dragonfire
Dragonfire Rain
- Blood of Dragons
- Rage of Dragons
- Flight of Dragons
- Asshole Victim: Dies Irae murders Teeth and Legs so he can use their body parts to create more mimics, and even mutilates Arms' corpse too. But all of them were such vile Jerkasses who spent their time insulting one another and defiling corpses that their deaths were more than well-deserved.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The Widejaw tribe consists of barbaric cannibals who Rape, Pillage, and Burn as they please.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Several cases, such as Umbra and Benedictus from the Song of Dragons trilogy.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Fin from Dawn of Dragons and Eliana from Requiem for Dragons are the only notable young characters who don't die. Eliana is a special case, given the obscene amount of babies who were slaughtered throughout the trilogy.
- Ironic Name: Angel, from the Dawn of Dragons trilogy, is actually a demon. In fairness, she is a Fallen Angel, being the daughter of the god [[Light Is Good Taal}.
- Karmic Death: Dies Irae is killed by his "daughter" Gloriae with Per Ignem, the sword he forged for her.
- Kick the Dog:
- Dies Irae does this on a daily basis, whether it's by killing his own soldiers for failing him, raping innocent women, torturing innocent women, kidnapping Gloriae from Benedictus and Lacrimosa and raising her to kill Vir Requis...
- The Rot Gang literally kick a young girl's dog so many times that it dies.
- General Mahrdor heads to Peras' winehouse, trashes the building, and dumps the severed heads of his sons in front of him as punishment for keeping Lyana's location a secret. Then he kills him, and burns the winehouse down.
- Kill the Cutie:
- Issari Seran, a kind-hearted savior of light who risked her life many times to save as many innocents as possible, and eventually gave her life to rid the world of her father.
- Mae Baker, a young and kind (albeit whiny) recruit for the Legion army, and the nicest girl in the trio consisting of her, Tilla, and Erry.
- Killed Offscreen:
- Prince Sena Seran. His body is found in Laira's POV chapter, after he had already hung himself and his body was already cooling.
- Chieftain Oritan. Requiem's Hope doesn't even reveal how he died, but the second to last chapter shows Laira mourning him at the communal grave.
- Light Is Not Good: The Sun God, while a Greater-Scope Villain who never actually appears on screen, is one of the setting's most consistent antagonists. Played With in the prequel, where the god of light, Taal is benevolent to humans, but has unclear feelings on Vir Requis.
- Mae Baker, who's killed at some point during the Battle of Castra Luna.
- Mauve Shirt: Pick any named character who isn't a POV character that lives past his or her first chapter, and they're more than likely this. At best, some of the characters are Red Shirts who were lucky enough to have a name.
- Off with His Head!: It happens fairly often.
- Zerra and Slyn are both beheaded in the Dawn of Dragons trilogy.
- Dies Irae, upon finding out his men failed to kill any Vir Requis, has his top lieutenants decapitate three hundred of his soldiers.
- Our Dragons Are Different:
- The Vir Requis are, for lack of a better term, "weredragons." They're all human beings who can transform into giant dragons in seconds and take the appearance of Western dragons. They still have the ability to speak in dragon form, and when they shift, their clothing (somehow) remains on their human body, even though their dragon body is naked.
- The salvanae, however, are pacifistic Eastern dragons. They look like long, slender serpents and consider themselves to be pure dragons, unlike the Vir Requis. Also they have beards and moustaches.
- Then there are the wyverns, who walk on two legs instead of four and have scales that are almost as hard as steel. They also have the ability to shoot acid from their mouths.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The mimics aren't regular corpses. Rather, each mimic is composed of various body parts from different bodies—both living and dead—that have been reanimated.
- Patricide: What kicked off the Requiem War in the Song of Dragons trilogy. Fed up with his father, Dies Irae kills him in front of his brother and many Requiem lords before declaring war on the Vir Requis.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Dies Irae refuses to let Gloriae release the nightshades from his well because even he knows that they can't be killed or tamed, and they would run amok across the world. That being said, he doesn't try to seal them back up after his daughter releases them, and decides to use them to find the Vir Requis, since his kingdom has been destroyed and he can't control the griffins anymore.
- Redemption Equals Death: Leresy Cadigus, who slays his father in a fit of rage and saves Rune and Kaelyn, but takes a bullet to the chest in the process.
- Redemption Rejection: Towards the end of Tears of Requiem, Dies Irae looks like he's about to have a Heel Realization after Benedictus calls him by a childhood nickname, which brings up memories of his past. He quickly disregards it and goes back to torturing Benedictus.
- Sacrificial Lamb:
- Lady Mirum from Blood of Requiem, whose death hammered in that no one is safe, even if they're a POV character.
- King Olasar from A Dawn of Dragonfire. Unlike Lady Mirum, Olasar was introduced before his POV chapter, and he clearly looked like he would be one of the main protagonists. But like Mirum, he got the Death in the Limelight treatment.
- Sacrificial Lion:
- Benedictus for the Song of Dragons trilogy.
- Alina for the Dawn of Dragons trilogy.
- Adia and Lord Deramon from the Dragonlore trilogy, who are killed in the same chapter, no less.
- Roen from the Requiem for Dragons trilogy, whose death cemented that the heroes were truly on the brink of despair.
- Tash from the Flame of Requiem trilogy, in a similar situation as Roen.
- Scenery Gorn: The author thoroughly enjoys depicting the ruins of Requiem in the Song of Dragons trilogy. Skeletons, rubble, fallen monuments and statues, ash, and various other forms of debris and the general unpleasantness of the ruins are fully detailed.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog:
- One of the main plot points of Requiem's Song was for Tanin and Maev to rescue Prince Sena Seran from captivity. Not long after he's rescued, the prince hangs himself.
- A Day of Dragon Blood fixates on the Vir Requis preparing themselves for Queen Solina's next invasion. By the end of the book, it all proves to be pointless, since Solina's army sacks Requiem and kills almost everyone in the kingdom.
- Dragons Reborn, similar to the novel above, fixates on the Vir Requis banding together and forming their own army to take down the Cured Temple. By the time the book ends, almost everyone from the Horde, even the Behemoth and the civilians, have been killed, the Vir Requis are forced to split up, and Roen is dead.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Some of the trilogies touch on the subject, but the main plot in Flame of Requiem was about the Vir Requis working as slaves for the Seraphim empire and seeking freedom.
- Smelly Feet Gag: When Maev tries to bite off restraints wrapped around Dorvin's ankles, she remarks that his feet smell worse than "a bloated dead marmot."
- Solid Gold Poop: Crown of Dragonfire has strange centipede-like beasts that defecate gold coins. Tash aptly calls them "goldshitters."
- Someone to Remember Him By: In Requiem for Dragons, Roen dies at the end of the second book, but the third one reveals that he impregnated Fidelity, who goes on to have his child in the resolution.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome:
- Requiem's Hope kills off Sena Seran at the start of the second chapter.
- Tash, who was a major character in Crown of Dragonfire, dies three chapters into Pillars of Dragonfire.
- Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Several books have a group of characters splitting off to go on a long journey to acquire a MacGuffin or to recruit some allies to help them fend off the villains' forces. This journey takes up at least half the novel. Yet it will only take one or two chapters for the characters to come back from said journey.
- Villainous Breakdown: Hoo boy. Dies Irae goes insane after controlling the nightshades, but by Light of Requiem, his sanity's completely gone, and he's turned into a psychopath who rapes and kills nonchalantly while creating thousands of mimics.
- We Hardly Knew Ye:
- Jeid and Eranor encounter a wounded Vir Requis who sacrificed his own foot just so he could get free from captivity. We don't even figure out the man's name or backstory before he bleeds to death from a arrow to his gut.
- Eranor also qualifies. He spent most of the time in the background and never got his own viewpoint chapter. Then he's crushed beneath rubble at the end of Requiem's Song.
- Prince Orin, a seemingly important character to the Eleison and Aeternum family line, is killed in the first chapter of A Dawn of Dragonfire, and it wasn't even his POV chapter.
- Pery and Jem Chandler are introduced as two side characters who seem like they'll impact Tilla's storyline. But both of them are killed in their first appearance; Pery is quickly decapitated for being a "coward," and Chandler is mercilessly beaten to death by Beras.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Nehushtan's fate is never revealed. He's last seen during the Battle of Tiranor, but it's unknown if he survived the battle or was killed, as the salvanae aren't seen again until Requiem for Dragons. It can be assumed he was Killed Offscreen during Frey Cadigus' rampage.
- Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": The Song of Dragons trilogy starts with this. Requiem has already fallen, and Benedictus is taking the last few thousand Vir Requis with him to sanctuary. All but Benedictus are slaughtered by Dies Irae's forces, making him the Sole Survivor.
- You Are What You Hate: The beginning of Requiem's Song reveals that Raem Seran is also a Vir Requis who despises and kills other Vir Requis out of shame.
- You Have Failed Me: It's rare for the Big Bads to tolerate failure. At best, they kill the minions who failed them quickly.
- You Need a Breath Mint: When Scraggles licks Erry's cheek, she shoves his head away and tells him to breathe in a different direction because his breath stinks.
- Zerg Rush: This seems to be the primary tactic when it comes to every Big Bad. They usually have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of violent creatures and warriors to fight alongside them, and they always attack by swarming their foes as much as possible.
