A gun of legend versus an army of demons.
The Valducan series is an Urban Fantasy series by Seth Skorkowsky. It follows the adventures of the Valducan order, a group of warriors who possess magical weapons capable of killing demons. Demons are responsible for every sort of monster in the world, possessing humans and changing them into vampires or werewolves or other beasts depending on their nature. It's possible to kill the host with conventional weapons but doing so just banishes the demon and leaves them to hunt again.
The holy weapons gathered by the Valducan Order are capable of killing demons permanently, however, and are impossibly valuable. Each hunter bonds with his weapon in an intimate fashion, almost like a lover, and uses them to destroy monsters for the rest of their lives. The destruction of a holy weapon is an incredible loss and drastically weakens humankind's ability to fight evil.
Each novel follows a different hunter with a different weapon. The name of the weapon provides the title of the book.
- Damoren starring Matt Hollis who wields a holy revolver.
- Hounacier starring Malcolm Romero who wields a holy machete.
- Ibenus starring Victoria Martin who has two weapons.
- Redemptor starring Matt Hollis has him come back to continue his crusade.
This series contains the following tropes:
- Abnormal Ammo: Damoren only fires silver ammunition but they also have to be made with its casings or it won't slay demons properly.
- Ancient Conspiracy: The villains from Damoren turn out to be one of these, which surprises the Valducan since most demon cults don't last very long.
- Action Girl: Any female member of the Valducan Order is this.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Demons and their subjects. Which is what confuses them about Matt since he's not evil. subverted, somewhat, by the revelation that Higher demons aren't evil per se even if they view lesser demons the same way humans are viewed by their prey.
- Ancient Tradition: The Valducan Order is a group of Crusaders who were more interested in killing demons than Muslims.
- Badass Abnormal: Matt, which is unprecedented in this universe.
- Badass Normal: All of the Valducan are this since their profession is demon-hunter.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: The Valducan are wielders of holy weapons on a holy crusade but are pretty ruthless people when they have to be. Their weapons aren't actually holy either.
- Body Horror: Anyone possessed by a demon suffers this, transforming them into a vampire or dragon or Wendigo or whatever.
- Broken Bird: What happens to a Valducan who has his or her holy weapon destroyed. Some get adopted by orphan weapons, however.
- Creature-Hunter Organization: The Valducan knights.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The relationship between a Valducan and their weapon is constantly spoken of in terms of a marriage but deliberately and indirectly.
- Fantastic Racism: It's more or less stated outright demons view humans as cattle to be fed upon. And Higher Demons view demons this way.
- The Fundamentalist: Malcolm Romero is one of these in both Voodoo as well as Valducan practices. It puts him at odds with his fellow practitioners as well as Matt Hollis. Malcolm is, notably, a white man raised outside the faith and didn't believe in the supernatural until much later in life.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Tiamat, the mother of all monsters, is this.
- The Gunslinger: Matt Hollis is this as are, by nature, all wielders of Damoren since it was reforged as a revolver.
- Grand Theft Me: Anyone marked by a demon is subject to this at any time.
- Healing Factor: Matt has one of these related to demon blood. It's why he's such an effective hunter.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Matt Hollis had this in the first book, Malcolm Romero has this with the entire New Orleans community.
- Hollywood Voodoo: Played with in Hounacier as it's shown to be a legitimate religion with Malcolm Romero having been trained by an extremist of the faith (who just so happens to be right about a few things).
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: Damoren is a gun with a blade on it that kills demons with silver bullets.
- Hounacier is a magical demon-killing machete.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Malcolm Romero proves to be one of these in the second book.
- Killed Off for Real: What happens to any demon slain by a holy weapon versus those killed by regular means (which simply jump to a new body or return to hell).
- Magic Knight: Malcolm Romero is a bokor as well as a knight of the Valducan order.
- Mighty Whitey: Malcolm gets a lot of these accusations thrown at him.
- Monster Progenitor: Tiamat is believed to be the mother of all demons. The Valducan believe if she's slain, demons will be limited in number for the rest of time. They're wrong.
- Motive Decay: The villain of Hounacier starts her quest to free possession victims without killing them. When she finally gets powerful enough to do it, she doesn't bother killing the demons but keeps them to increase her power.
- Our Angels Are Different: They're a higher order of demon who possess weapons in order to feed on lesser demons.
- Our Demons Are Different: They're the origin of all monsters and consider humans to be a kind of food.
- The Quisling: Anya betrays the Valducan—which she was never really a member of anyway.
- Religion of Evil: The demon worshipers are all this by nature.
- Reforged Blade: Damoren is one of these. Except, it was reforged into a gun.
- The Reveal: Occurs later in the book. All holy weapons are possessed by Higher Demons which feed on the deaths of lesser demons.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: Malcolm Romero is a Voodoo priest/demon hunter.
- Urban Fantasy: This is the book's genre, though it also has Horror elements.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Deconstructed in that the Valducan want to kill Matt because every single person with his condition has been evil in the entire history of their order. They also take the fact he doesn't behave like a monster as indications he might be different.
- The Virus: How demonic taint affects you. Even strong-willed humans are transformed into soulless monsters within a short period.
