Crown of Stars

Crown of Stars is a historical fantasy series by Kate Elliot. The books chronicle the adventures of three people in a Europe clone. The three main characters are:

• Alain, a well-meaning young man who became heir to a count. He has incredible skill with animals and is chosen by a goddess of war.
• Sanglant, the first and illegitimate son of the king. He leads the elite cavalry of the king, he's a half-elf with incredible healing powers.
• Liath, a wizard who can't control her magic. She is a member of the king's elite messengers.

The books also have a mess of secondary characters, but they all have bizarre relations to each other. Oh, and All Myths Are True. Also, all the main characters are bastards (not those, but these).

Needs Wiki Magic Love!

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Tropes used in Crown of Stars include:

• Anything That Moves Ekkehard, later a Depraved Bisexual
• All Myths Are True The Eika are metallic dragon vikings. Sphinxes, Dragons, Phoenix, and Centaur.
• Anti-Villain: Fifth Son.
• Badass Alain, Bulkezu.
• Badass Bookworm: Hugh was a pretty good sword.
• Badass Grandpa Helmut Villam.
• Big Bad: Hugh
• Bishonen: Baldwin, who was super hawt.
• Blondes Are Evil Hugh.
• Buffy-Speak "It's kind of you to be so ... kind.".
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The prophet Daisan is pretty clearly Jesus Christ. Interestingly it's the heretics in this setting who believe in his divinity.
• Deadpan Snarker: Hugh has elements of this.
• Disc One Final Boss: Bloodheart.
• Evil Counterpart: Hugh is a rival with Liath, and they're pretty similar in a whole lot of ways, Hugh also shares charisma, wits, and courage with Sanglant, a fact that bothers everybody.
  • Bulkezu and Sanglant had the looks Badassery, and warrior prince like similarities, plus a certain immunity to specific types of attack.
• The Fair Folk: The Ashioi.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The setting in general strongly resembles medieval Europe, except for women having much stronger and/or more visible roles, including a female-dominated version of the Catholic Church.
• Fate Worse Than Death: Hugh loses his hold over his dream girl, fails at revenge, loses is powers, his hand, his eyesight, and has to spend the rest of his life knowing he's been beaten and will never, ever get a rematch, makes you feel sorry for the super cool man he was.
• Face Heel Turn While more of a faint saunter over to the evil side Ekkehard counts.
• Hell Hound Sorrow and Rage, Alain's dogs.
• Heroic Sociopath: Wichman, later.
• Ho Yay: Ivar and Baldwin don't count cause it's canon, Sorgatani, Hanna and Liath on the other hand...
• Genius Ditz: At the end of the series, Baldwin.
• Giant Flyer: The guivre.
• Karma Houdini: Pulled a bit too often sometimes
• Manly Gay: Ivar.
• Messianic Archetype: Alain is hinted to be some sort of Jesus figure; somebody told him the truth, and their leg healed. Tallia suffered the stigmata or it was faked and goes completely insane.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Eika.
• Psycho Electro: When Hugh becomes a tempestri, watch the fuck out.
• Ship Tease Creepily enough, Liath and Hugh.
• Sinister Minister: Hugh
• So Beautiful It's a Curse: Baldwin enters the church to a escape marrying a woman in her 50s. At one point Ivar observes that it's not Baldwin's fault that he's been "cursed" with a face so beautiful that it becomes a mirror for everyone else's ambitions.
• The Starscream: Hugh, again..
• Technical Pacifist: Alain will beat you senseless, but he will not kill. His dogs will though.
• Token Evil Teammate: Lord Wichman, big time.
• Took a Level in Badass While most characters in the book took a level here or again, Liath is by far the biggest example, going from a raped and abused legally bought slave belonging to Hugh to one of the king's best messengers to a mother to joining and then escaping from her mother's cult group to ascending the mythical Crown of Stars to a pure elemental plane of fire and discovering her true birthright as an offspring of said plane's inhabitants to growing firey wings to finally confronting Hugh at the end of the book, displaying her wings, overpowering his magic, and BURNING HIS EYES OUT FROM THE INSIDE.
  • Hugh himself.
• Yaoi Guys: Baldwin and Ivar.
• Warrior Prince Most of the nobles but Sanglant's their poster boy.
• White-Haired Pretty Girl Hanna, though it's her white hair that makes her pretty.