A fantasy furry novel written by M.C.A. Hogarth and serialized on LiveJournal before being collected into two books published by Sofawolf, Flight of the Godkin Griffin follows the adventures of Mistress Commander Angharad Godkin, a military commander in a vaguely Roman style empire, who is one day away from retirement after thirty-four years of military service, only to be suddenly reassigned to be the governor of a recently conquered and very restive province. Though it smells of politics, Ang does her soldierly duty and leads her company into restive Shraeven, to be confronted with war, politics and some very demanding gods.
Tropes:
- Benevolent Mage Ruler: Shraeven, a newly conquered province of the Godkindred Kingdom that still considers itself a country, has nobility who are chosen by the gods instead of by bloodline, indicated by markings on their body and wielding of Elemental Powers as gods are the sole source of magic in this setting. Angharad, the new governor of Shraeven looks like she is being set up to make Shraeven independent and be their new queen as god after god marks her. But after destroying the physical form of the Godkindred's God-Emperor she gives rulership of Shraeven to her "native guide" (and lover) Ragna, and becomes Priest-Sorcerer-Queen of the Godkindred instead.
- Breeding Cult: The Godkindred state religion believes in interbreeding to become gods, while the Mountain Pards in contrast try to inbreed themselves to the level of beasts.
- Child by Rape: In the first book Angharad is gang-raped by a tribe of near-feral mountain Pards. She later lays an egg in the second book. Silfi is impregnated by Governor Chordwain, but she aborts it.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Angharad herself has shades of this, lusting very strongly at points towards Ragna, but not following through because of the severe power imbalance and Ragna's horrible upbringing.
- Cool Horse: Honeydipped, Ang's mongrel mount with golden fetlocks and near human intelligence.
- Deity of Human Origin: The Godkindred's goal.
- Domestic Abuse: Silfia's parents forced her into an Arranged Marriage to a man who beat and terrorized her. Until she snapped and murdered him. The experience permanently soured her opinion of men.
- Duel to the Death: Fully acceptable and with a strict code in the kingdom, with death as the penalty for violating the code. There are multiple examples in the work itself.
- Silfia's brother-in-law tracks her down to challenge her over the death of his brother. He then cheats during the duel and Angharad beheads him.
- Angharad challenges Shraeven's corrupt former governor Chordwain, but he forces Silfia to act as his champion. Silfi pretends to kill Angharad, then claims the ex-governor's life as her boon.
- And finally, Angharad and the Godson fight a Wizard Duel over Shraeven, which ends with her using the powers of Shraeven's gods to force him to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence.
- Guilt-Free Extermination War: There's not much argument to Angharad wiping out the Mountain Pards, or at least the males, the females they used as baby factories were spared. Ragna, who was born in one of those clans, even encourages Ang to kill them.
- God-Emperor: the Godson
- God in Human Form: The ancestors of every sapient creature on the planet turn out to have been gods who voluntarily resumed mortal existence, and it's implied that before blending with animals they were actual humans.
- Heinz Hybrid: Most of the Godkindred, and several Shraevenese other than the Pards as well. Angharad has at least ten species in her bloodlines: coatl, crane, fisher, hawk, lion, phoenix, puma, ringtail cat, Siamese cat, and snake.
- LEGO Genetics: Actually a significant part of the Worldbuilding. Since anyone can mate with any other species, the Godkindred try to mix as many as possible into their bloodlines to try and achieve godhead. Meanwhile the villainous Pard clans try the exact opposite, forcing their women to mate with beasts to create mongrel children closer to genetic purity.
- Old Flame: Silfia comes back into Ang's life after eighteen years and is quite eager to restart their relationship, though Ang is a bit slower to warm to the idea.
- Oh, Crap!: After neatly ambushing the gathered pard clans, Ragna tries desperately to get Ang's attention just as she comes to the realization that they didn't get the mongrels.
- Physical God: Averted by the gods of Shraeven, who actually need a mortal "vessel" to perform magic in the physical world. The Godson became one, but during their final duel Ang realized divinity should not be contained in a mortal body and "helped" relieve him of his flesh.
- Rape as Drama: Ang and Silfia. Avoiding this trope is one of the reasons Ragna joins up with Ang's troops.
- Super Breeding Program: The Godkindred Kingdom believe that by breeding many different species together they can become gods. Social status is determined by the number of species in one's geneology.
- We Can Rule Together: In the second book the Godson offers to make Angharad his queen, not that way she has no bloodlines he's interested in, she turns him down.
