The series consists of three novels:
- Children of Amarid
- The Outlanders
- Eagle-Sage
This series provides examples of:
- Balkanize Me: Tobyn-Ser has a major split emerge between the mages loyal to the green-cloaked Children and the newly formed green-cloaked League in Outlanders. By the time of Eagle-Sage, a third faction of "free mages'' that wear yellow robes has emerged which rejects both but has allied itself with the Temples' religious leaders.
- Bond Creatures:
- The Children of Amarid get their magic by binding hawks that grant them magical power.
- Phelan, the leader of the Children during the Third Abboriji War, bound a wolf as his first and only familiar. There's no record of any other mage in history binding a mammal (or any other non-bird animal, for that matter).
- Cyberpunk: Lon-Ser has roughly 22nd-century levels of technology in many regards, with energy beam weapons ("throwers"), hovercrafts ("carriers") and widespread industrialization. In Bragor-Nal, the main city-state's Quads (zones), however, crime is rampant and assassination of your superiors or rivals is seen as a completely legitimate way to get into power. It gets better once Melyor becomes the Sovereign of Bragor-Nal, but it doesn't go away overnight.
- Deflector Shields: Mages can raise walls or curtains of fire to block enemy attacks.
- Deity of Human Origin: In Eagle-Sage Sartol attains godlike power with his command of the summoning stone and his army of Unsettled phantoms.
- False Flag Operation: The false mages in the first novel are really Lon-Ser agents who are using Magic from Technology to turn the people of Lon-Ser against the Children.
- Fate Worse than Death: Mages who die without being bound to hawks must walk the place that they bound their first hawk forever as ghosts. This is due to Theron's Curse, which was laid upon the Children by its co-founder Theron due to his outrage at being thrown out of the Order for accidentally killing the man whose woman he was jealous of. The Curse is undone im Eagle-Sage because it is the only way to stop Sartol's ghost from conquering the world.
- Gaia's Lament: Lon-Ser has had most of its natural resources exhausted and its largest city-state, Bragor-Nal must grow its food in a large artificial structure called "The Farm" in the middle of the urban area.
- Grand Theft Me: In Eagle Sage it's revealed that the Unsettled can possess mages if they willingly accept them.
- Green Thumb: Mages can shape wood into objects with their minds.
- Magic from Technology: The false mages in Children of Amarid are actually operatives from Lon-Ser who are using robotic birds and Throwers disguised as cerylls to attack the people of Tobyn-Ser in order to turn the people against the true mages.
- Medieval Stasis: Very much averted. Tobyn-Ser's technology hasn't changed in the past 1000 years but the minute that Lon-Ser starts opening up its doors, the people are very swift to adopt industrialization and purchase high-tech goods.
- Oh, Crap!: Everyone's reaction to not one, but two Eagle-Sages being anointed in the third novel. Since there have only been 3 Eagle-Sages in history and each one marked the onset of the three Abboriji Wars, they know that this cannot mean anything good. Most people assume that, given the recent attempts by Lon-Ser to invade and the political instability that Melyor faces, they will face war with the other continent. It's actually because of the upcoming war with the ghost of Sartol who has gained ultimate power by taking the Summoning Stone and who commands an unwilling army of Unsettled.
- Playing with Fire: The Mages' main offensive ability is to throw bolts of energy from the cerylls (crystals) on top of their staffs.
- Power Crystal: The cerylls are the other key to the mages' power, being found only on an island off of the southern coast. Each mages' ceryll is a different hue. The largest ceryll ever found was brought to the dome that serves as the headquarters for the Children of Amarid and has the unique ability to communicate with all members of the order and to teleport a small number of mages to a certain place in times of great need.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Sartol sexually abuses Tammen, the woman whose body he steals in Eagle-Sage. He also has some creepy thoughts about his apprentice Alayna in the first novel.
- The Magic Comes Back: The finale of Eagle-Sage sees a mage having a vision that the Gildrites of Lon-Ser will eventually regain their magic.
- We Will Use Lasers in the Future: The people of Lon-Ser use Throwers to shoot beams of light at their foes. In Eagle-Sage, the Temples of the Gods use the funds raised by the resources harvested from their lands to purchase energy weapons to defend themselves as well.
