Some legacies are meant to be broken.
Legendborn is a Young Adult Urban Fantasy novel by Tracy Deonn. Called "a modern day twist on Arthurian legend," it follows a Black teenage girl who discovers a secret historically white magic society while attending a UNC-Chapel Hill residential pre-college program. The book is the first in the Legendborn series.
A sequel titled Bloodmarked was released in November 2022.
This work provides examples of:
- Academy of Adventure: Many EC students are in Round Table, and battle demons.
- Affectionate Nickname: Bree has two: her best friend Alice calls her "Matty" while her Love Interest Nick refers to her as "B."
- All Therapists Are Muggles: Refreshingly averted. Dr. Patricia Hartwood not only knows about magic so Bree can share her struggles, but is a magic practitioner herself.
- Artistic License – Education: The author took a few deliberate liberties with UNC Chapel Hill, and explained them in the afterword. For starters, it has no Early College program like what Bree and her friends are admitted to. She also moved the Unsung Founders Memorial (which remembers slaves formerly owned by the university and its personnel) to a location more useful to the first book's story, added mausoleums to the cemetery, and renamed the Confederate soldiers' memorial Silent Samnote the "Carr statue" (after Julian Carr, the historical white supremacist UNC trustee who spoke at the real Silent Sam's inauguration).
- Artistic License – History: The Round Table is supposed to be the oldest secret society in the country. While its real life counterpart, Order of Gimghoul is old, the oldest is from William and Mary: FHC society, whose members include Thomas Jefferson. What we’d imagine as college ‘secret societies’ in a modern sense, developed at Yale University. Interestingly, there’s
another series about these societies being magical. - Aura Vision: Mariah possesses this ability due to the branch of Rootcraft she practices.
- Bequeathed Power: After connecting with her ancestors, Bree discovers this is how her family's Root abilities (alongside King Arthur's powers) are passed down.
- Betty and Veronica: Bree is in a Love Triangle with the traditionally heroic Nick, a Scion of Lancelot, and Sel, a more morally-ambiguous Scion of Merlin.
- Black and Nerdy: Bree is a Black gifted student, demonstrated by her acceptance into and early college program, and makes several nerdy pop culture references (e.g. Lord of the Rings and Jane Austen) throughout the book.
- Capital Letters Are Magic: Practically every word related to the Order and magic as a whole. Just to name a few, the book capitalizes the RoundTable (or just Table), Abatement, Oath, Code, Squire Scion, Vassal, and Page. Along with verbs like Called and Awakened.
- Cast from Lifespan: This is the major issue with Legendborn magic (otherwise known as Bloodcraft in Rootcraft circles) - in exchange for incredible boosts of power, healing magic that can get rid of near-fatal injuries in hours, and permanently gaining the superhuman abilities of one's ancestors, Scions and Squires essentially cut their life expectancy in half once Awakened.
- Category Traitor:
- Played straight with Sel. Demons accuse Sel of being a traitor, given he’s part demon and he fights demons.
- Averted with Bree, Patricia, and Mariah. Despite trying to join the Legendborn, who have persecuted Bloodcraft users, Patricia and Mariah never accuse Bree of being a traitor. However, Patricia and Mariah do quite rationally warn her to exercise caution around Bloodcraft users, who have persecuted Rootcraft users in the past before. Mariah also does point out that hanging with the Legendborn, an elitist ol’ boys club of white people, sounds exhausting. Additionally, when it’s revealed Bree is a Scion of Arthur, they’re supportive of her, and taken necessary precautions to avoid risks.
- Double Standard: Bree is sanctioned more harshly for being at a illicit college party than the other students because she's Black.
- Dramatic Irony: Sel spends the first half of the book suspecting that Bree is a Shadowborn demon trying to infiltrate the Order by mimicking a human. Sel eventually learns he's wrong and says he was paranoid, but it later turns out that there was a demon infiltrating the Order—the demon who killed and replaced Evan.
- Elaborate University High: UNC’s Early College program allows for the main characters to be of high school age, a typical YA demographic (16-18 years old), but away from their parents (mostly) and attending full university classes.
- Excalibur: This being a fantasy series based on Arthurian legend, of course Excalibur was bound to show up. In this case, Excalibur is an aether weapon that is so strong it is permanently corporeal, and every time a scion of Arthur wields the sword its power magnifies exponentially.
- Excalibur in the Stone: Played straight, with the actual Trope Namer, Excalibur. The sword is locked in stone in the tunnels beneath the university campus, in the cave known as ogof y ddraig (Welsh for "cave of the dragon"). Naturally, only Arthur and his descendants are able to wield the sword, and its taking up is a sign that Camlann has begun, which happens when Bree is the one to release the sword.
- Exclusive Clique Clubhouse: The castle the Round Table meets in.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Like the original, all Merlins are half-human and half-demon. Being part Shadowborn, all Merlins are susceptible to being driven insane by their demonic ancestry. Thus the Order keeps Merlins in check by magically binding them with Oaths of Service toward the Order of the Round Table.
- History Repeats: How Nick ended up as a scion of Lancelot instead of a scion of Arthur as he's always been led to believe: his ancestor Samuel Davis - a descendant of Arthur - had a wife Lorraine who engaged in an affair with a man named John Reynolds, a descendant of Lancelot. Reynolds impregnated Lorraine and as a result the entire Davis clan now follows the line of Lancelot. The parallels between this affair and the one between Lancelot and Guinevere are not lost on the rest of the Legendborns.
- Incubi and Succubi: Merlins are part Incubi and Succubi, and share similar traits, but their seductive traits are “passive.” As William describes, they have unnatural beauty, unusual eyes, distinctive voice, and “one minute you’re taking bloodwork, the next you’re wondering if the infirmary bed will hold two people.” On the other hand, the other Merlins besides Sel, like Douglas, are not described as particularly good looking.
- Kill and Replace: In the first book's climax, it's revealed that Evan Cooper, the Squire to Fitz in the Line of Bors, had been killed months prior and impersonated by a Shadowborn demon—a goruchel. The demon's motive is to become close to Nick in order to kill him.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Sel wipes people's memories whenever they see something supernatural. The fact he does this to Bree multiple times. Her ability to break through it the second she experiences pain is one of the first signs she has special powers.
- Legendary Weapon: Excalibur, the Trope Codifier, plays a role.
- Lineage Comes from the Father: Played With. Nick mentions how in times when women weren’t allowed to fight, the first female heir would often be killed off so the heir would be male. Refreshingly subverted for Bree. Bree’s inheritance of powers comes from a line of eight women.
- Love Triangle: Bree and Nick have clear and mutual romantic interest in each other, but as they grow to know and understand each other, Bree also finds herself attracted to Sel, and he calls her "cariad" meaning "love". Additionally, Sel and Nick are magically bonded, and Sel admits he has previously had romantic feelings for Nick.
- Magical Sensory Effect: In addition to seeing magical auras, Bree is able to recognise a spellcaster's signature by the scent or taste of their aether.
- Sel's magic smells like cinnamon and smoke.
- William's magic smells like citrus.
- The aether of Shadowborns smells like rot and putrescence.
- Missing Mom: All three main characters have backstories that involve the loss of their mothers.
- Bree's mother dies in a car collision in the prologue, and the main thrust of the story has Bree discover why her memory of the event was altered by a Merlin posing as a police officer.
- Nick's mother was punished after she tried to take a young Nick away so he wouldn't be forced into the dangerous life of a Legendborn knight. The Regents ended up altering her memory, making her forget Nick, her family and Legendborn society entirely. This is the main reason why Nick left the Order of the Round Table in the first place.
- Sel's mother was wrongfully framed as a traitor to the Order by Martin Davis, and imprisoned in the belief that her half-demon heritage was corrupting her.
- Muggles: Non-Legendborn are referred to as Unanedig, which is Welsh for "Onceborn."
- Only the Chosen May Wield: Bree pulls Excalibur from the stone, proving her heritage.
- Our Demons Are Different: They’re called Shadowborn. They cross gates into Earth, and most are incorporeal, feeding on and increasing negative human emotions. But if they get strong enough to use magic, they’ll “go corp”, turn corporeal and can physically attack.
- Pensieve Flashback: How the Rootcraft tradition of "memory walking" is depicted. Practitioners are able to astrally project themselves into the memories of their ancestors, who they then can interact with in a limited capacity.
- Plot-Inciting Infidelity: The Scion of Arthur’s wife had an affair with the Scion of Lancelot, making Nick Lancelot’s descendant, not Arthur. The Scion of Arthur raped an enslaved woman, Bree’s ancestor. Thus, the reason for Bree’s mysterious powers is because she’s Arthur’s descendant.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Bree’s mother’s death is Bree’s primary motivation throughout the first book.
- Power High: Whenever Sel performs any sort of Legendborn Oath, the resulting flood of aether intoxicates him in a manner similar to drinking copious amounts of alcohol.
- Power at a Price: Awakened Scions and their Squires have to endure Abatement. It occurs when knights transfer their power to their Scion. The Spell of Casting drains the human's body the longer they are Awake. The life expectancy of an Awakened Scion is 35 at most.
- Rape as Drama: Bree’s ancestor, Vera, was raped by the Scion of Arthur, when she was enslaved by him. This means Bree, not Nick, is the Scion of Arthur.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: In the book, the Round Table is a magical secret society of legacies from King Arthur and his knights of the round table. Its headquarters are a castle in Battle Park forest reserve. Round Table is based on the real-life UNC secret society the Order of Gimghoul
, a UNC Secret Society which follows the ideals of Arthurian chivalry. The castle in the Battle Park forest reserve, is the headquarters of the Order of Gimghoul. - Reasonable Authority Figure: Nick's father, Lord Davis. He's the previous Scion of Arthur who dotes upon his son and steps in when Sel tries to attack Bree during the first trial. Subverted when it turns out he's a Manipulative Bastard who's opening more demon portals to threaten the Scions and start Camlann so he can control the Order through Nick.
- Played straight with Bree’s father. When Bree is acting out of character after first coming to campus, he finds her a good therapist. He also comes to check on her at school.
- Sacrificial Lion: Fitz, Whitty and Russ all end up getting killed at the hands of Rhaz, the goruchel posing as Evan in the climactic battle of the first book.
- School Club Front: They use their collegiate secret society to cover up the fact they’re really demon-hunters.
- School Clubs Are Serious Business: The Round Table protects UNC from demons.
- She Is the King: Bree is referred to as the king of the Round Table, not queen, because she is the Scion for Arthur Pendragon and she carries his spirit and title.
- Sneaking Out at Night: The book begins when Alice and Bree are at a quarry in Eno River State Park. Sneaking out is instant expulsion from Early College program.
- Spanner in the Works: Davis will never be King because Bree is actually Arthur’s Scion, and she pulls out Excalibur to prove it.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted. Bree has a therapist, Patricia, who is also knowledgeable about magic.
- True Sight: Most Onceborns cannot see magic or demons. Once Pages make their pledge, it gives them True Sight so they can. However, Bree already has True Sight, mysteriously.
- Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: Despite all the Legendborn drama, they still have to keep up their classes. Subverted in the second book.
- Willing Channeler: This is the essence of Medium magic in Rootcraft. A Medium makes offerings to their deceased ancestors to borrow their knowledge and power by becoming possessed by said ancestor. Bree herself ends up becoming a Medium; first by channelling and using her body to house the spirit of her grandmother, and then being taken over by King Arthur once she is Called as his true Scion.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Merlin (the wizard from King Arthur's times) was part human and part demon. Any descendant of Merlin possesses his magical abilities, enhanced senses and endurance but also possesses the demon part of him. According to Sel, "the darkness of the underworld and the light of the living shouldn't exist in one body", and so the older a Merlin gets, the more likely they are to succumb to their evil demonic nature.
