Tide Lords

Cayal, the Immortal Prince and one of the most powerful of the near-divine Tide Lords, was over eight thousand years old and very, very, bored. So he decided to get his head chopped off. His powers were at an ebb, so there was a slight chance it would actually kill him, but even if it didn't it would erase his memories, which was good enough as far as he was concerned. He killed a few people in a country known for its harsh justice system and love of beheadings, confessed to the crime, ate his last meal, and...

The executioner was on vacation. So they hanged him instead.

So begins a fantasy quartet by Jennifer Fallon set on the world of Amyrantha and focusing on the exploits of a group of magic using immortals known as the Tide Lords and especially Cayal, known as the Immortal Prince who wants to try and kill himself. The books in the series are:

• The Immortal Prince
• Gods of Amyrantha
• The Palace of Impossible Dreams
• The Chaos Crystal

Do not confuse with Time Lords

Tropes used in Tide Lords include:

• A God Am I: Kentravyion and to a lesser extent all the other Tide Lords.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Cabal of the Tarot.
• Apocalypse How: The Tide Lords cause Class Twos with surprising regularity. Opening a portal with the Chaos Crystal causes a Class-X
• Artistic License Astronomy: The last part of the fourth book contains several tropes that have been discredited by the march of science. Wouldn't have been so bad if the books hadn't been written well after these advances had been made.
• Beware the Superman: The Tide Lords are very powerful, completely unkillable, and unimaginably bored. Words cannot describe how terrified their subjects are.
• Canon Sue - YMMV, but Arkady has at least some shades of this: very smart (university professor), incredibly beautiful and loved/lusted after by several men. Even her gay husband loves her, although just platonically.
• Can't Spit It Out: Both Arkady and Declan
• Deadpan Snarker - Maraliyce, at times.

Arkady: Do you really think Cayal is immortal?
Maralyice: Thought so when I first met him. He hasn't done much in the past eight thousand years to dissuade me of that opinion.

• Depraved Bisexual: Jaxyn
  • Who is perversely known as the Lord of Temperance, the only Tide Lord with any form of self-restraint (Cayal and Brynden gave him that reputation as a prank).
• Distant Finale: Very distant. 65,000,000 years distant.
• Everybody Dies: Oh yeah. There are only seven survivors of the final battle. And this isn't from the people participating in the battle, it's from the planet that the battle took place on.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The Crasii come in several flavours with canine and feline being the most common.
• Happiness in Slavery: A Crasii has one of three reactions to immortals: Fawning and willing obedience, hatred that becomes fawning and willing obedience (since they are magically compelled to obey), and hatred that stays that way (since these ones are immune to the compulsion). They are also naturally subservient to humans in general, though their feelings on that vary far more.
• Holier Than Thou: Brynden's attitudes towards the other immortals.
• Immortality Immorality: Kentravyion especially but all the immortals tend to be shockingly callous when it comes to the lives of mortals.
• Immortal Procreation Clause: Immortals cannot reproduce with each other, but they can father or bear the children of mortals. These children are mortals known as Tidewatchers. New immortals are created by a person with an extreme will to survive is burned by the Eternal Flame, which Cayal had long since extinguished.
  • At least, that's the official story. The truth, as Lukys revealed after Declan accidentally made himself immortal, is that immortals are created when a Tidewatcher whose mortal parent is descended from another Tidewatcher (will to survive is irrelevant) is burned alive (The specific flame does not matter).
• Love Makes You Crazy: Or at least rather obsessive in Lukys's case.
• The Magic Goes Away / The Magic Comes Back: The Tide ebbs and flows for centuries at a time, hence the name.
• Magnificent Bastard: Cayal is an interesting subversion. For most of the first book, Arkady believes he's a conman and a trickster who has been coached and prepared beyond all reason, when in reality he's just exactly what he claims.

Cayal: I wish I was half as clever as you think I am.

• • Played straight with Lukys
• Mineral MacGuffin: The Chaos Crystal/Bedlam Stone.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Any Tide Lord during High Tide. They destroy civilzations on a regular basis.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Pellys, especially after he was beheaded
• Shaggy Dog Story: Well over two thirds of the actual text in the series is about building political conflict between two neighboring nations that various Tide Lords are helping along. All of this ultimately becomes irrelevant when the entire planet explodes, killing everyone on it other than a handful of the more rational Tide Lords.
• Slap Slap Kiss: Arkady and both Declan and Cayal
• Stalker with a Crush: Elyssa for Cayal.
• Invisible to Gaydar: the Duke of Lebec
• The Reveal: Averted. Seriously. The books don't so much as reveal plot twists as confirm things the readers have already figured out.
• The Beard: Arkady for her husband.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Cayal's problem.
  • Strangely, though he was suicidal at eight thousand, he seems to have gotten over it at the age of 65 million.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Truest of Kentravion but to a lesser (or at least less obvious) extent with most of the Tide Lords.