Complete Monster: Dr. Eymichi Shiro is a doctor working for the Federation of Mugen, and is driven entirely by his lust for scientific advancement. A Mad Scientist who murdered countless Speerlies to understand their power, Shiro also experiments on the Nikara people, carving and vivisecting them apart while they are still alive to understand the root of their shamanistic abilities. For Speerlies, Shiro takes advantage of an opium dependence, torturing them with withdrawal symptoms, to better control them. Shiro has also refined a plague, plotting to deploy it on Nikara populations to end the war quickly.
Jerkass Woobie: Almost none of the central characters can be classified as good people, but all of them went through hell.
In-universe, the massacre of Golyn Niis and the innocent population inside it, the torture inflicted on them nothing short of Gorn.
Rin using the power of the Phoenix to commit mass genocide of the Federation of Mugen, including women and children. Kitay directly calls her out on it and tells her she's no better than them.
Narm: While far from funny, it can be difficult for some people to take the sacking of Golyn Niis seriously as the torture on the civilians becomes so outlandish and pointlessly cruel the further into the city the Cike go, it topples into unbelievable and ridiculous. Ironically, while according to interviews the author wished to present the historical horrors of Nanjing because they are not often taught to American audiences, that same lack of background makes the scene impossible for many people to accept, treating it merely as edgy Grimdark.
The massacre at Golyn Niis, based heavily on the Real Life Rape of Nanjing. The main cast gets to the city by riverboat, and before they even get there the river is red with blood and choked with bodies. When they open the gates, they find that the Federation soldiers have systematically murdered the city's half a million residents and put them on display. There are headless bodies, limbless bodies, castrated bodies, bodies hung up by their tongues, and otherwise mutilated bodies absolutely everywhere in the city. Probably the worst, though, are the barrels full of babies who were boiled alive in them. Less than a thousand people survive, and they end up having to burn the bodies in massive piles because there's simply too many to bury.
And, naturally, the viscerality of the scene leads straight into Nausea Fuel. If you've just eaten lunch, it's best you put the book down when Rin gets to Golyn Niis - especially when she hears Venka's personal account.
Portmanteau Couple Name: Rinezha, Rinkitay, and Rinvenka for Rin x any of the Sinegard Four, and Chaltan for Chaghan and Altan.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The author has had to go on record requesting not to shelve or advertise the book as YA. Apparently a good number of libraries and bookstores saw the teenage Action Girl protagonist and assumed that was the target demographic, even though it's a story with graphic massacres, rape, torture, drug addiction, and genocide (including one committed by the protagonist).
Queen Tearza of Speer is constantly mocked by historians and the students for being weak and foolish for committing suicide after the Red Emperor betrayed her. She actually died because she refused to take the Phoenix's power to stop the invasion of Speer, knowing full well he would demand the entire world burn as well - the Phoenix punished her by killing her physical body and leaving her soul trapped in the spiritual realm, unable to move on. When she tries to warn Rin not to give in to the Phoenix, Rin brushes her actions off as being a selfish coward and uses the Phoenix to destroy the Federation and Tearza can do nothing but watch.
Poor Rin’s whole life is basically one big Trauma Conga Line, from her abusive home life in Tikany, to being thrust into a brutal war fresh out of Sinegard, being a subject of Dr. Shiro’s gruesome experiments, to being tormented by the Phoenix, and so on. It’s no wonder she can only find peace in death.
Nezha lost his younger brother after exploring an underwater grotto, where he was then claimed by the Dragon, which caused him intense physical pain and seizures. It’s to the point where he desperately craves death, but he physically cannot die. At the end of the series, he ends up all alone, likely forever.
At Golyn Niis, Venka is taken hostage by the Mugenese and kept in a ”Relaxation House”, where she is repeatedly and brutally raped, sometimes by several men at a time, and has to perform an abortion on herself. After she reunites with her father, he tells her being raped made her lose her dignity, and implies she would’ve been better off dead.
