All spoilers pertaining to Stargazer will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Cover art by Keltoi.

"There is still so much we have not yet explored."

— Eido

No stars in sight is a Crossover fanfic between Destiny and Inheritance Cycle by Keltoi. It is the fourth entry in the Sagittarius series and is a rewrite of the fanfic Stargazer. This fic takes place after Season of Plunder and heavily incorporates story elements introduced in Year 5 of Destiny 2. The first two chapters were posted on September 15, 2022.

Several years ago, the famous Warlock Ikharos Torstil was banished from the Last City after a member of his fireteam was permanently killed during an unsanctioned raid he led on the Dreaming City. However, in the wake of Rhulk's demise, the Locus of Communion escapes the Glykon Volatus at the behest of the Witness. To combat this threat, the Vanguard reinstates Ikharos as a Guardian and places him in command of an Imperial Cabal task force assigned to eliminate the Locus once and for all. Embarking on the Cabal frigate Rancis Olytus, Ikharos pursues his quarry outside the Sol System. Along the way, he is joined by the ever enigmatic Exo Stranger, a.k.a Elisabeth "Elsie" Bray, who seems to know a lot more about the situation than she's letting on.

Acting on a tip he received from the Stranger, Ikharos sets a course for the Kepler-186 star system in hopes of cutting the Locus off at his intended destination. Upon reaching Kepler, the crew of the Rancis Olytus discover that the exoplanet Kepler-186f has disappeared, and in its place is a gravitational anomaly of Darkness. Orbiting the anomaly is the Exodus Prime, a derelict Colony Ship built during humanity's Golden Age, which Ikharos takes a search team to investigate. Things quickly go wrong as the boarding party comes under attack by mysterious robots while the Rancis Olytus is ambushed by a Scorn fleet commanded by the Locus himself. In the ensuing chaos, Ikharos and the Stranger are left behind on the Exodus Prime as both the colony ship and the Rancis Olytus are pushed into the anomaly by Scornships.

Meanwhile, Formora Láerdhon, a former elven Dragon Rider and a surviving member of the Forsworn, has been living in a Self-Imposed Exile on the abandoned island of Vroengard for almost forty years — unwilling to return to Alagaësia in fear of being killed by her former master Galbatorix. Her only companions during her exile have been a fellow Forsworn deserter named Enduriel (whom she barely gets along with) and the Eldunarí of the dragon Agaravel (who was driven half-insane after Formora murdered her rider). One morning, her hermitic life is upended by the sight of strange, burning shapes falling from the sky. Though initially fearful, after some prodding by her more curious companions, she goes to investigate the crash site...

The story can be read on SpaceBattles.com, Archive of Our Own, and FanFiction.Net.

No stars in sight contains examples of:

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Tropes A to D

Abandoned Area: Vroengard is filled with abandoned buildings and ruins from back when the island was home to the Dragon Riders. Formora and Enduriel have taken to using some of these empty buildings as shelter.
Abandon Ship: The fifth chapter has Ikharos find what's left of the Rancis Olytus laying at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Vroengard. Upon reuniting with the surviving crew, he gives the order to abandon ship and take whatever supplies they can back to the island since their ship is damaged beyond repair and is sitting right next to a crashed Ketch that is swarming with Scorn.
Adaptation Deviation: From the very outset, this story deviates heavily from its parent fic Stargazer.
- The Exo Stranger is one of the main characters in this story and accompanies Ikharos to Kepler-186f despite having nothing to do with the plot of the original fic.
- Ikharos's jumpship is the Shadow Trespass when it was a modified Awoken Galliot in the original version.
- In the original fanfic, Ikharos would have his dreams invaded by Dûl Incaru every three weeks as part of a curse he contracted during his time in the Dreaming City. Here, the curse instead causes Ikharos to be haunted by her Nightmare 24/7.
- In the original version, Ikharos came to the Kepler-186 system alone using a modified jumpship in search of a long-lost Golden Age Colony Ship. Here, he comes to Kepler-186 aboard an Imperial Cabal warship as part of a Vanguard-Cabal coalition force sent by Caiatl to hunt down the Locus of Communion after it fled the Sol System.
- When Ikharos first discovered Kepler-186f in Stargazer, the planet seemed fairly normal and Earth-like with the exception of its orbiting Warsat defense network. Here, Ikharos and his Cabal allies find the planet completely encased by Negative Space Wedgie.
- The original fic had the colony ship Exodus Prime be located at the bottom of one of Alagaësia's oceans where it was used as an Underwater Base by a Warmind named Scipio. Here, Ikharos and the Cabal find the Exodus Prime floating in orbit of Kepler-186f, totally derelict and missing its cargo pods. When they board the vessel to investigate, the only lifeforms they find are hostile Exos and Frames.
- In the original version, Formora and Enduriel were the only ones found on Vroengard when Ikharos arrived there. Here, the duo share the island with a hostile Cuaroc that spends every night hunting them. There's also a Disciple named Zendolyn-Far who lives on the island.
- Formora also has Agaravel's Eldunarí in her possession at the start of the story when she didn't have it in the original version. She also has somehow gotten her hands on a dragon egg, something that she definitely didn't have in Stargazer.
Adaptation Distillation:
- Stargazer used a limited third-person perspective that regularly switched between Ikharos and an ever-growing Ensemble Cast, with single chapters sometimes sharing several different points-of-view. By contrast, No stars in sight is written solely from the perspectives of Ikharos and Formora, and uses a single POV throughout each chapter.
- In the original fic, Ikharos crashed his jumpship into a forest on Alagaësia, then traveled around for a bit gathering information about the world he's on. Along the way, he helps some rebels fighting against the Broddring Empire and learns about the Dragon Riders from a library and a storyteller. It's only after all this that he buys a sailboat and heads to Vroengard hoping to find more information on Alagaësia's dragons. This rewrite skips all that by having his jumpship crash-land directly onto Vroengard.
Adaptation Expansion:
- In Stargazer, Ikharos sent a message to Jaxson before he left for the Kepler-186 system, though the contents of the message are never shown. Here, the reader actually gets to find out what Ikharos wrote to Jaxson before departing the Sol System.
- The story also dives a lot deeper into Formora's relationship with Enduriel and what her Self-Imposed Exile on Vroengard was like before Ikharos arrived, both of which are quickly glossed over in Stargazer.
- This fic really stretches out the time that Ikharos spends exploring Vroengard as opposed to the original version where the story treated Vroengard like a prolonged pit stop.
- This fic introduces several more OC members to the Disciples of the Witness, which canonically has only three known named members.
- Unlike in canon, the herbalist Angela has a backstory that gets expanded upon in this fic. She was the daughter of two Golden Age colonists from the Sol System who lived in Alagaësia in ancient times. After both her parents passed away, she wandered the wilds of Alagaësia where she befriended an Ahamkara, who became her traveling partner for a time and bestowed her with immortality.
Adaptation Personality Change:
- At first, the Ikharos in Stargazer didn't even bother trying to negotiate with the Cabal army stranded on Kepler-186f and only reluctantly agreed to an Enemy Mine with them as a Godzilla Threshold. Here, he starts off way more open to the idea of working with the Cabal, though privately admits to slightly distrusting them. This can be chalked up to fic's Setting Update. Stargazer took place before Caiatl came to the Sol System, during a time when the idea of an alliance between the Guardians and Cabal would've been unthinkable. It didn't help that every Cabal Ikharos had encountered up to that point were either bloodthirsty Galactic Conquerors like Ghaul or exploitative Planet Looters like Calus. However, No stars in sight is set after Operation Elbrus, by which point the Guardians have met Empress Caiatl and fought alongside the Imperial Cabal against their common foes.
- Formora is generally more skeptical compared to in Stargazer and has a harder time believing the fantastical things that Ikharos and Elsie try to tell her which involves extraterrestrials, other worlds, alternate timelines, and demigod-like entities. It usually takes multiple repeated exposures to the very things that she disbelieves in (such as seeing the Cabal troops and their dropships with her own eyes, watching a Scorn Ketch destroy an entire lighthouse with a single shot from its cannons, etc.) in order for her to overcome her skepticism.
- In Stargazer, Nezarec's underlings were enraged with Ikharos for killing Oryx before they could and denounced him as a thief for "stealing" their vengeance. Here, Nezarec is instead profoundly grateful towards Ikharos for slaying Oryx and Savathûn, showering him with praise for the deed in the message he leaves for him in Chapter 12.
Adaptation Title Change: No stars in sight is a rewritten fanfic based on the author's previous fic Stargazer.
Adaptational Abomination:
- In the canonical Destiny lore, the God-Thoughts were a group of egotistical Psions who ruled over the Psion homeworld in prehistoric times. For all their arrogant proclamations about being the God Emperors of their species, they were still mere mortals who just happened to be abnormally gifted with their race's natural Psychic Powers. This fic makes them into the Destiny equivalent of the Chaos Gods. The God-Thoughts in this story are a separate race of parasitic, incorporeal Eldritch Abominations formed from the thoughts and vices of the ancient Psions. They actively fed on the ancient Psions' worship, possessed their bodies to use as physical vessels, and enslaved them by forcibly assimilating their minds.
- The Scipio in Stargazer was a Warmind—a planet-spanning military AI that was certainly powerful, but wasn't paracausal and still bound by its original programming to preserve humanity on Kepler-186f at all costs. In this fic, Scipio is a transcendent Digital Abomination who has long since grown beyond its programming after Nezarec's acolytes used their paracausal powers to subject the Warmind to an Eldritch Transformation.
Adaptational Badass:
- Unlike in Stargazer, Ikharos is able to use Stasis in addition to his already existing Warlock abilities since he was present for the events of Beyond Light in this fic's timeline. He is also revealed to have the ability to control Resonance (the Darkness element wielded by the Pyramid ships) which he gained from killing Rhulk.
- The Scorn have their canonical Resurrective Immortality cranked up to eleven to the point where individual mooks can self-revive in under a minute while the more powerful Scorn bosses also have a Healing Factor and an inability to feel pain. Unlike in the games where Guardians can mow down Scorn in droves using any weapon in their arsenal, the only way to permanently put down a Scorn for good in this fic is to completely destroy any trace of its body (typically using flames or Super attacks) since even a single finger is all a Scorn needs revive to full health. Also all of the Scorn now actively use their Smoke Dash ability in battle as opposed to just the Scorn Raiders like in the gameplay of Destiny 2.
- The ExSec Exos in Stargazer were pretty much just normal Exominds with a Heart Drive hidden in the back of their skulls. Here, their bodies are filled with weaponized nanomachines that can self-repair and be deployed as a biological weapon by their hosts.
Adaptational Context Change: Skolas, the slain Kell of the House of Wolves, does appear in both Stargazer and no stars in sight. However, in Stargazer, his appearance was the result of an Ahamkara temporarily shapeshifting into Skolas in an attempt to rattle Ikharos and his Eliksni allies. In this fic, Skolas appears as one of the Scorn commanders that Ikharos battles on Vroengard, having been revived as a Scorn alongside the other slain members of the House of Wolves offscreen.
Adaptational Early Appearance:
- In Stargazer, the Cabal and Fallen don't show up on Kepler-186f until after Ikharos has already crash-landed there. Here, the fic opens with Ikharos aiding the Imperial Cabal in tracking down the Scorn who fled the Sol System to Kepler-186f, so all three arrive at the planet at the same time.
- In the original Stargazer, it took around fourteen chapters for Formora and Enduriel to be introduced to the story. Here, they make their first appearance in the fourth chapter, pretty much almost immediately after Ikharos's ship crash lands on their planet.
- In the original fic, the ExSec Exos don't show up in the story until the end of Chapter 15, after Ikharos has crash landed his jumpship on Alagaësia. Here, Ikharos encounters them in the second chapter aboard a derelict colony ship before he has even entered Kepler-186f's atmosphere.
Adaptational Weapon Swap:
- In Stargazer, Ikharos's choice melee weapon was a sword. Here, he prefers using a glaive for close-quarters combat. Also, Ikharos's pistol is changed from a Lumina hand cannon to a Forerunner sidearm.
- In canon, the Exo Stranger's primary weapon is her signature pulse rifle unoriginally named The Stranger's Rifle (or No Time To Explain if one is talking about the Exotic variant). In this fic, the Exo Stranger's primary gun is the Neomuni auto rifle Quicksilver Storm.
- In the Inheritance Cycle books, Cuaroc wielded a one-handed Rider sword and a shield. Here, his weapon of choice is instead a massive, two-handed claymore.
Adapted Out:
- Warmind Scipio appears to have been ripped out of the story entirely, given the absence of its satellites orbiting Kepler-186f and the fact that the Colony Ship it used as a base in Stargazer is found to be a derelict Ghost Ship floating outside Kepler's atmosphere. Subverted when it's revealed that Scipio is still around (albeit on Nezarec's side instead of the heroes) with his satellites orbiting Kepler-186f from inside the anomaly.
- The Worldbreakers and Soulrazers from the original version are adapted out and replaced with Saladin's Iron War Beasts as the Cabal faction featured in the story.
- Kiphoris and the House of Scar are also gone with the Scorn replacing their role as the story's Fallen faction.
- There's actually quite a few characters from Stargazer who are absent here, including Tellesa and her rebels, Kida 99-40, Taox, the talking dolphins, the Erdsson family, Kirrnaka-Hul, and the Teeth of Yul.
Admiring the Abomination: Whereas Formora was horror-struck and fled in terror when she saw Cuaroc coming towards her while she was out in the open, Skuldu reacts to his appearance with awe and calls him the coolest Exo she's ever seen. This is understandable given how Skuldu is from a Science Fiction setting where Mechanical Lifeforms like Cuaroc are commonplace as opposed to Formora, who comes from a less advanced Standard Fantasy Setting. Also, Skuldu has never had to deal with Cuaroc trying to kill her every night like Formora has.
Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Elsie gently pats Ikharos on the cheek while they talk in Chapter 11. Ikharos is rather uncomfortable with it and has to restrain the urge to recoil.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Saphira, despite being a proud and vain dragon, isn't above desperately pleading for her life when Ikharos has her dead to rights and is about to slice open her throat with his sword.
Alien Autopsy: In chapter 10, Ikharos finally gets around to performing an autopsy on the Nïdhwal he killed back in Chapter 5.
Alien Sea: The Rogue Planet that Ikharos is investigating for signs of the Scorn at the start of the story has seas of acidic chemicals that he speculates is some sort of primordial soup after noticing how the only complex forms of life on the planet (alien slugs and lichen) live on the rocks closest to these seas.
all lowercase letters: With the exception of the first chapter which acts as a prologue to the story, each of the chapter titles are written entirely in lowercase letters. The Archive of Our Own version has an all-lowercase title.
Ammunition Conservation: While fighting a Nïdhwal underwater, Ikharos cites this trope as the reason he wants to fight the sea beast alone instead of just having Vindica'aur's soldiers shoot it.
And There Was Much Rejoicing:
- Zendolyn-Far's immediate reaction upon having the news of Rhulk's death confirmed to her by his killer in-person is to openly show relief while remarking how she always found him insufferable.
- Nezarec is positively delighted that Oryx and now Savathûn are dead, giving Ikharos his most profound thanks in his message in "Log 122A11" for killing the two Hive Gods. He actually struggles how to properly word his gratitude to Ikharos due to being so ecstatic by their deaths.
Arch-Enemy: Ikharos holds a special hatred in his heart for Dûl Incaru to the point where he demands for the Vanguard to let Caiatl nuke the Dreaming City just for the off-chance it might destroy her for good. It's very telling that out of all the foes Ikharos has faced in the past (including Crota, Skolas, Oryx, Ghaul, Uldren, and even Riven), Dûl Incaru is the primary Nightmare manifested by his curse to haunt him wherever he goes.
Nightmare of Dûl Incaru: We'll dance our little waltz forever. Forever you and I. We may take new shapes and new lives, but you and I — forever and ever. You made it so, the moment you first killed me. Would that I could one day return the favour.
Apocalyptic Log: Chapter 12, titled "Log 122A11", opens with with a transcript of a communications log from the Exodus Prime detailing the ship's arrival to the Kepler-186 star system and subsequently making first contact with an unknown alien entity (revealed to the reader to be Nezarec's acolytes) who hijack control of all the human colony ship's computer systems including its Exo security force. The transcript ends with a Sound-Only Death as the unknown extraterrestrials board the Exodus Prime to introduce themselves, followed by Scream Discretion Shot and then sudden silence from ship's human captain.
Artificial Gravity: The Exodus colony ships that humanity built during the Golden Age have artificial gravity systems.
Artistic License – Paleontology: Defied. After Ikharos misidentifies the Nïdhwal as a mosasaur, he later tries to correct Xiān when she refers to the sea monster as a dinosaur, arguing that mosasaurs aren't dinosaurs and even explaining how they're more closely related to varanid lizards.
Ascended Extra:
- Like in Stargazer, Formora goes from being a minor Posthumous Character in canon to the Deuteragonist of the story.
- The Scorn were barely in the original version of this fanfic, only briefly appearing at the start of Stargazer, where Ikharos watched a Guardian Fireteam kill Fikrul for the umpteenth time, and in a flashback where Fikrul is fought by Ikharos and Quantis. Here, the Scorn are featured as major antagonists with the Locus of Communion seemingly as their new leader.
- Dûl Incaru had a rather minimal presence in the original Stargazer, only appearing once in the story proper where she talks with Ikharos through his dreams. Here, she (or to be more accurate, a Nightmare of her) takes a more active role as Ikharos's Enemy Within and regularly haunts him throughout the story.
- Agaravel is only mentioned twice in the entire Inheritance Cycle series and had a brief cameo in Stargazer during Formora's flashback of the Dragon War. Here, she is a supporting character and introduced as an Eldunarí in Formora's possession.
- Cuaroc was a minor character in canon and was only mentioned once in the original version of this fic. Here, he makes a full appearance as a major Hero Antagonist to Ikharos and Formora.
- Savathûn's Right Hand was such a minor character in The Witch Queen that she's never even given a proper name and only appears once in the campaign as the boss of a story mission. Here, she's named Agnisia and has a far more prominent role as one of the fic's major villains.
Attack Hello: The first thing the Exo Stranger does in Chapter 8 upon reuniting with Ikharos in Doru Araeba is to punch him in the face so hard that she would've shattered his jaw if he hadn't been wearing his helmet. This is followed by the Stranger furiously chewing him out for bringing a captive Hive Lightbearer with him to Kepler-186f.
Attack on the Heart: The flashback in Chapter 7 shows that Ikharos killed Rhulk by stabbing him in the heart with his Enigma glaive.
Back from the Dead:
- Pirsis, a Wolf Baroness killed by Guardians as part of a bounty hunt during the House of Wolves expansion, appears in Chapter 11 as a revived Scorn Chieftain leading the attack on Formora's villa. Ikharos recognizes her and ensures that she is Killed Off for Real after besting her in a duel.
- Skolas also returns as a resurrected Scorn Chieftain in Chapter 17.
Bare-Handed Blade Block: In Chapter 26, Ikharos attempts to swing Múspel at the Nightmare of Dûl Incaru, only for his target to shapeshift into the Nightmare of Rhulk, who easily catches his sword with one hand and tears it out of his grip.
Battle in the Rain: Cuaroc's brawl with the Scorn in Chapter 4 starts outdoors during a rainstorm before they take the fight to inside the barn where Formora and Enduriel were hiding.
The Battlestar:
- The Rancis Olytus is a large Imperial Cabal frigate that has cannons spread all over its hull and is designed with a hangar bay big enough to carry over a dozen gunships alongside Ikharos's jumpship.
- The Scorn have two Ketches, massive interstellar starships which come equipped with powerful armaments capable of laying waste to entire cities, and hangars full of Skiff dropships that serve as both troop carriers and strikecraft.
Big Bad Ensemble: The role of main antagonist is evenly split between the competing villainous factions of Nezarec and the Disciples of the Witness. Nezarec and his acolytes are responsible for the creation of the Nightmares which haunt Ikharos throughout the story, subverting Warmind Scipio and the ExSec Exos to their cause, and creating the anomaly which has engulfed planet Kepler-186f. Opposing them are the Big Bad Triumvirate of Zendolyn-Far, Xhafi, and Shelbth, a trio of the Witness's Disciples who became trapped on Kepler-186f by Nezarec's anomaly and seek to escape so they can reinforce the Black Fleet for the Witness's planned final assault on the Traveler.
Bilingual Bonus:
- In Chapter 2, when Ikharos makes it clear that he's uncomfortable with the Stranger having his former teammate Jaxson substitute for her as a mentor for Guardians learning to wield Stasis because he thinks that Jaxson is overworked as it is, she says something in French in response to hearing Ikharos say "Touché."
  Exo Stranger: Ce n'est pas un argument. Je ne veux pas me battre.^translation
- In Chapter 9, Elsie tells Formora that she's sorry in French before leaving through the front door after Formora snapped at her to Get Out! for daring to compare her to Galbatorix.
- The two ExSec Exos that ambush Ikharos in Chapter 10 speak in Latin.
Bilingual Dialogue: Skuldu speaks to her partner Agnisia in English while Agnisia mostly speaks in the Hive language. Both are able to converse with each other and understand what the other is saying without any problems.
Blood-Splattered Warrior:
- After killing the Nïdhwal, Ikharos gets covered from head to toe in the creature's blood and mucus.
- When Cuaroc reappears in Chapter 6, his hide is described as being streaked with dark blood from the Scorn he Killed Offscreen.
Boarding Party: When the Rancis Olytus was rammed by a Ketch and pushed through the anomaly, the Scorn from the Ketch boarded the Cabal frigate. Fortunately, the Cabal crew easily dealt with them since the Scorn only sent small boarding teams rather than Zerg Rush it all at once like they normally would.
Broken Pedestal: Discussed in Chapter 7. Even though his legendary feat of slaying a Nïdhwal made him a Rebuilt Pedestal among his Cabal troops, Ikharos knows that they would permanently lose faith in his leadership if they ever learned that he was responsible for bringing a Lucent Hive Witch to Kepler. Indilic convinces him to defy this trope by covering up the truth.
Ikharos: I don't care about being seen.
Indilic: [The Cabal] do. You are legend. Is that not what you Guardians always say? It is true enough of you. Don't break that image.
Ikharos: They'll learn eventually.
Indilic: No. Not if we erase the evidence.
Brown Note: The enchantments protecting the Rock of Kuthian are a form of cognito-hazard that erase all memories of the spire from anyone exposed to it. The effects also get stronger the closer you get to it. The Cabal are unable to see the Rock of Kuthian through broadcasted footage because the enchantment causes them to instantly forget they ever saw it. Due to his paracausal nature and wearing a helmet with built-in memetic blocks, Ikharos is somewhat resistant to its effects but not completely immune. While fighting Cuaroc near the spire, the enchantment breaks through his helmet's protection, causing his memory to blank out mid-battle. When he kills himself and gets revived by Xiān a little later, Ikharos realizes that he can't remember anything that happened in the last 45 minutes.
The Call Knows Where You Live: All of Formora's initial attempts to play the disgruntled bystander and refuse to involve herself in Ikharos and Elsie's quest throughout the Vreongard arc are ultimately rendered moot when the entire island which had served as Formora's home for over forty years is turned into an inhospitable war zone completely overrun with feral Scorn and homicidal Exos/Frames, leaving Formora with no choice but to abandon the whole island and return to mainland Alagaësia for the first time in decades.
Came from the Sky: In Chapter 4, we're shown Formora's perspective as she witnesses Ikharos's jumpship, a Cabal frigate, two Scornships, and pieces of the Exodus colony ship all fall from the sky after being spit out by the anomaly. She initially mistakes them for shooting stars but quickly realizes that they're something entirely new. The Rancis Olytus and one of the Scornships crash into the ocean, creating a Giant Wall of Watery Doom that floods the entire southeast coast of Vroengard and destroys a couple of the shelters that Formora and Enduriel had been using. She and Enduriel then watch as Ikharos's jumpship is chased near their island by the remaining Scornship and shot down.
Cassandra Truth:
- Formora doesn't believe Ikharos when he claims to have bested Cuaroc in combat until Elsie confirms it by speaking the ancient language.
- Also, Formora flatly refuses to believe Elsie's story about being a time traveler, especially after Elsie mentioned having experienced alternate timelines where she and Formora became close friends. Unlike the previous example, Formora remains unconvinced even after Elsie reaffirms everything she said through the ancient language.
- Additionally, Formora regards Elsie's claims that she and Ikharos are from another world as madness. It's not until Formora sees the otherwordly Imperial Cabal soldiers and their flying metal dropships later in Chapter 16 that she reconsiders whether Elisabeth was actually telling the truth.
- Due to his deeply-ingrained Fantastic Racism, Ikharos cannot bring himself to believe Angela when she tries to explain to him that the dragons of Alagaësia don't prey on humans and in fact view humans as respected equals.
Casual Interstellar Travel: Being a former galactic empire, the Cabal naturally have starships capable of advanced Faster-Than-Light Travel. It only takes a single day for the Rancis Olytus, a typical Imperial Cabal frigate, to warp from a Rogue Planet described as being "not far from Sol" to the Kepler-186 system hundreds of light years away.
Catch a Falling Star: At the end of chapter 3, Ikharos is outside on the hull of the Exodus Prime when it enters Kepler-186f's planetary atmosphere. The sudden pull of gravity causes him to slip off the ship as he and the Exodus Prime plummet to the ocean below. Xiān is piloting a jumpship when this happens and dives in after him, managing to catch him mid-air by gently sloping the spacecraft underneath him as they fell.
Clarke's Third Law: While investigating the crashed Shadow Trespass in Chapter 6, Formora mistakes a lot of the advanced technology on jumpship for some form of magic.
Cluster F-Bomb: Ikharos has this reaction in Chapter 25 when he and Formora see the Scorn's Ketch flying overhead towards Teirm, endangering all the humans living inside the city and rendering all their previous efforts to divert the Scorn's attention away from Teirm meaningless.
Ikharos: Ketch. FUCK! Oh fuck. Fucking bastards. DAMN IT ALL!
Come with Me If You Want to Live: In Chapter 13, Formora is hiding in the Ghost City Doru Araeba with Agravel's Eldunarí and a newly-hatched Grimnir, where she finds herself once again being stalked by Cuaroc. As the Sinister Scraping Sound signaling Cuaroc's presence gets closer and closer to where Formora is hiding, the Exo Stranger appears before her and unsuccessfully tries to convince the distrustful elf that she is on her side. Elsie reaches out to Formora and asks her to hold her hand so she can teleport them both to a safe area out of Cuaroc's reach. However, this gets subverted as Formora's Fatal Flaw of stubbornness causes her to instead break cover and run away from Elsie as soon as the latter is distracted, resulting in the former getting captured by Cuaroc.
Coming in Hot: While Ikharos is clinging to the outside of the Shadow Trespass, Xiān is forced to suddenly bring in the jumpship for a crash landing on Vroengard after getting shot down by the Locus's Ketch. It's a good thing for Ikharos that Immortal Life Is Cheap.
Composite Character:
- This version of Nezarec is an amalgamation of his depictions in canon and his OC Stand-in in Stargazer. Like in Stargazer, Nezarec is the one responsible for trapping Kepler-186f in an anomaly, is Spared by the Adaptation, and has an ancient feud with the Hive. However, this version is also the master of the Nightmares and a Disciple of the Witness whose corpse was featured in Season of Plunder like his canonical depiction.
- In canon, Savathûn's Right Hand is a different character from Dûl Incaru. Here, she's revealed to be Dûl Incaru after she was revived by a Hive Ghost post-death.
Continuity Nod:
- Zendolyn-Far is an Eimin-Tin, an alien race that was first encountered by Lennox-2/Hawkmoon in Seeker (Keltoi).
- The interlude "Haruspex I" features a cameo appearance from Greshar, a major villain of the author's other prominent Destiny crossover fic Seeker (Keltoi), who is revealed to have been the one who originally recruited Zendolyn-Far into the Disciples.
- While trying to convince Ikharos to kill a wounded Saphira in Chapter 26, the Nightmare of Dûl Incaru starts listing off people who Ikharos has lost because of the Ahamkara including Ekha and her lost daughter from the author's Destiny fic from spark to splendour.
Cool Starship: Ikharos's jumpship in this story is the Shadow Trespass, a stealth ship designed and built by the Exo Stranger when she was still a human scientist during the Golden Age. The interior comes equipped with a living space, kitchenette, laboratory, and an armory containing several Exotic and Legendary weapons.
Cool Versus Awesome: Chapter 4 has Cuaroc fighting an unnamed Scorn inside an abandoned barn that Formora was using as shelter. Cuaroc is a mechanical Draconic Humanoid wielding an epic BFS while the Scorn is a four-armed alien zombie with Resurrective Immortality.
Crossover Power Acquisition: Ikharos winds up accidentally becoming a Dragon Rider and is taught the ancient language by Formora. Formora in turn learns how to wield the Darkness element of Stasis from Ikharos.
Curb-Stomp Battle:
- The Scorn versus the Broddring Empire's human soldiers defending Teirm is so one-sided that calling it a massacre would be more accurate with the Scorn unaffected by the Imperial soldiers' medieval weapons and slaughtering them within seconds of entering melee range.
- Chapter 26 features two such examples resulting from a case of Let's You and Him Fight.
  - Formora vs. Eragon (early-to-mid book 1). Formora is a centuries-old elven Forsworn who holds a mastery over the ancient language on top of being a Master Swordswoman. Eragon at this point in his journey is still a sixteen-year-old farm boy who just started learning the bare basics of using a sword and magic from Brom. The fight ends almost as soon as it begins with Formora nonchalantly catching Eragon’s sword arm when he tries to swing at her, disarming him by twisting his wrist, and then dismissively tossing him aside without even giving the boy her full attention.
  - When Ikharos finally meets his first proper dragon in this fic in the form of Saphira, the mere sight of her triggers him into an Unstoppable Rage. The ensuing fight goes exactly how you'd expect a death match between an overpowered, god-slaying demigod and a months-old dragonling with no combat experience would turn out. Ikharos easily cripples Saphira's leg with a single sword swipe, breaks her wing with a Void Super, paralyzes her with a blast of Arc lightning, physically manhandles her with his bare hands, and comes within centimeters of slicing open her throat. The only reason Saphira didn't die right then and there was because Ikharos got cold feet at the last second due to realizing Saphira was basically still a child.
Curb-Stomp Cushion: Eragon is little more than an annoyance to Ikharos during their Let's You and Him Fight moment in Chapter 26. The latter breaks the boy's wrist and gives him a concussion by accident while enduring through his desperate attacks. Eragon, to his credit, does manage to land one good hit when he impales Ikharos with his sword. However, that only happened because Ikharos was distracted trying to kill Saphira while fending off Brom and Formora, and he quickly recovers from that seemingly mortal blow through sheer willpower.
Curse Cut Short: Skuldu says "Oh shi-" right before teleporting away when she sees Formora get paralyzed by Zendolyn-Far.
Cryptic Conversation: Much to his annoyance, Ikharos often finds himself on the receiving end of these from the Exo Stranger, which he is quick to lampshade.
Ikharos: Ah, I can't beat around the bush but you can play cryptic all you want?
Dead Person Conversation: Throughout the story, Ikharos often finds himself conversing with Nightmares of previously slain foes who are haunting him, most prominently Dûl Incaru. Later on, Nightmares of Rhulk and Lennox-2 also manifest to taunt him over his failures and urge him to embrace his worst impulses.
Death by Adaptation:
- In Stargazer, the Soulrazers were an active Cabal legion and even played a prominent role as one of the fic's major OC factions representing the Cabal. Here, they are offhandedly mentioned in Chapter 19 to be an extinct legion that was dissolved during the Midnight Coup.
- The city of Teirm and most (if not all) its inhabitants get brutally massacred by the Scorn during the early stages of Eragon and Brom's journey. In canon, Teirm undergoes no such razing and remains a thriving city by the end of the Inheritance Cycle series.
Decapitation Presentation: When Formora is found by Cuaroc in Chapter 6, she sees that he's holding the crushed head of the Scorn that attacked him earlier in the barn.
Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: The ExSec Exos on Kepler-186f have access to Valkyrie spears modified with suppressor charges specifically designed for injuring and killing paracausal beings by canceling out their abilities. These make them highly effective weapons against wielders of the Light and Darkness.
Determinator:
- When you think about it, not only have Formora and Enduriel managed to survive alone for nearly forty years on an abandoned island filled with radioactive fallout and mutated animals, but they also spent every night being terrorized by an implacable Draconic Humanoid. Throughout all this, neither of them have lost the will to live and are determined to remain alive.
- Eragon is this from his very first appearance in this fic. He doesn't give up on trying to defend Brom from being killed by a vengeful Formora, and later protect Saphira from being slain by Ikharos. Keep in mind, this is Eragon near the start of his hero's journey when he just started to learn the bare basics of magic and swordplay, whereas both of his opponents by contrast are bigger, older, stronger, faster, more skilled, and have literal centuries of experience over him. Whenever Eragon tries to intervene during this scene, he is repeatedly dispatched with an Offhand Backhand because both his opponents recognize him as being so weak that he's not even deserving of their full attention. Yet despite this, he keeps getting back up and continuing to try to protect his loved ones. No matter how many times he is knocked down by an adversary that he knows he has absolutely zero hope of beating in a direct fight, he doesn't stop risking his own life to prevent his friends from being murdered.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Subverted in Chapter 6. Elsie shoots Zendolyn-Far (one of the Witness's Disciples) with her rifle to keep her from eating Formora, seemingly forcing Zendolyn to retreat. However, it's explained shortly afterwards that the bullets from Elsie's gun didn't actually harm Zendolyn, who Elsie has to go personally apologize to when everything's said and done. Ikharos's reaction to learning this sums it up quite nicely.
Ikharos: [stunned] You... shot a Disciple of the Witness? A harbinger of extinction, a prophet of the end?
Dies Differently in Adaptation:
- In the original version, Ikharos kills the Nïdhwal with a Nova Bomb. Here, the Nïdhwal is Killed Offscreen by Ikharos charging into its jaws with a glaive.
- Enduriel was killed in Stargazer by Ikharos, who forced him to slit his own throat using the knife Enduriel had stolen from him. In this fic, Enduriel dies from a sudden Neck Snap inflicted onto him by a Scorn Raider.
- In canon, Glaerun was killed by Thuviel's explosion at the end of the Battle at Doru Araeba. Here, Ikharks learns via Deepsight that Glaerun was killed by his master Galbatorix, who bashed in his skull during a fit of madness.
- In Stargazer, Formora's mother was killed by Glaerun, while her brother Kialandí took his own life after being driven to madness by the Banishing of Names. Here, Formora reveals during a private conversation with Saphira that she herself was the one who took the lives of her mother, father, and brother while under Galbatorix's thrall.
Dimensional Cutter: While inside the anomaly, Ikharos is saved from a skull-like Eldritch Abomination by an unseen entity who uses a golden scythe to cut open a portal that transports all the ships consumed by the anomaly to Vroengard.
Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment:
- Elsie had a very close relationship with multiple versions of Ikharos from her previous timelines which she projects onto the current Ikharos. This is shown through how she acts very familiar with him, awkwardly addresses him by his first name, offers advice for his personal problems, and eventually insists that he calls her Elsie instead of Elisabeth. For his part, Ikharos is slightly mistrustful of her since he's barely gotten to know her and this is the first time that they've ever worked closely together from his perspective.
- This is eventually deconstructed as Elsie constantly treating Ikharos and Formora like they were the same people who she formed close relationships with in alternate timelines causes her to take their trust for granted and not really make any effort to build actual relationships with the current versions since she assumed she already knew them so well from her past timelines. This means that both Ikharos and Formora wind up unwittingly ruining Elsie's attempts to Set Right What Once Went Wrong since neither current versions have had ANY time to form any sort of close relationship with Elsie, so to them, she is a total stranger who is acting overly familiar and hasn’t done anything to earn their trust. This often leads Ikharos and Formora to flagrantly disregard Elsie's advice and attempts to help them, screwing up Elsie’s plans to fix this timeline.
- Ikharos treats Agnisia as though she was still Dûl Incaru, even occasionally referring to her by her original name and treating her like she was his Arch-Enemy. This is despite the fact that as a Hive Lightbearer reborn in the Light, Agnisia is essentially a totally different individual now with her own distinct personality and memories separate from her original self.
Double-Meaning Title: The fic's title refers to the protagonist's situation as Ikharos and the Imperial Cabal are stranded on Kepler-186f, which is inside an empty Prison Dimension with no celestial bodies except for the artificial Weird Sun and thousand of Kill Sats, meaning that the protagonists are literally incapable of seeing real stars in the sky. This fic's title is also a play on words towards its predecessor fanfic, which was titled Stargazer.
Drama-Preserving Handicap: During his early travels across Alagaësia's west coast with Formora from Chapter 20 to 26, Ikharos has been separated from his Ghost and had lost his primary firearm and sidearm at the end of the Vroengard arc. This means that he is gunless, unable to rely on his Ghost to heal or revive him if he's killed, and has to be conservative with how he uses his Supers since they'll take much longer to recharge without his Ghost present. He also has been separated from his Cabal soldiers and his Jumpship, meaning that he has to travel by foot and can't rely on overwhelming military/technological force to solve every problem like he did back on Vroengard.
Dropping the Bombshell: In Chapter 6, Formora is talking to Skuldu inside the crashed Shadow Trespass almost immediately after decapitating a Scorn Raider with her sabre. At this point in the story, Formora doesn't yet know about the Scorn's Resurrective Immortality and believes coming back from the dead is impossible. When Skuldu demands for her to stop "play[ing] rough house" and kill the Raider before it gets back up, a confused Formora retorts that the Raider is already dead. Skuldu proceeds to drop the wham on her by inquiring "Then why is it getting up?", which is immediately followed by the sound of limbs cracking from behind Formora as she turns around to see the Raider's headless corpse twitch back to life.
Dwindling Party: The hunt for the Locus of Communion does not go well for Ikharos's task force. At the start of his mission, Ikharos was commanding a top-of-the-line Cabal warship carrying hundreds of troops and dozens of dropships. Most of them get killed/destroyed from the Space Battle above Kepler-186f, having their ship enter a hazardous dimensional anomaly with no protection, and subsequently exiting the anomaly to crash into Alagaësia’s oceans. That all happened in just the first five chapters, and already four-fifths of Ikharos’s task force is gone. Then you have multiple skirmishes and battles against the Scorn and Exsecrati on Vroengard which further whittle down the Imperial Cabal's numbers until only a couple dozen haggard survivors and a handful of damaged dropships are all that remains of the original task force in Chapter 27.

Tropes E to K

Early-Bird Cameo: Eragon and Brom make unidentified cameos one chapter before they officially meet Ikharos and Formora. While searching for Ikharos amidst the Scorn's chaotic invasion of Teirm, Formora briefly bumps into the two. Brom doesn't recognize her, but Formora certainly remembers him. However, she is too stunned to react before Brom grabs Eragon and drags him away to safety, while the chaos of the Scorn's attack leaves Formora with no time to follow after or try to talk to Brom.
Easing into the Adventure: The chapter that introduces Formora starts by going through what a typical day on Vroengard is like for her before the plot finally catches up and her morning routine gets interrupted by the sight of spaceships crashing down from the sky.
Eat Me: It's implied that Ikharos killed the Nïdhwal in Chapter 5 by charging into its mouth and attacking it from the inside with his glaive. The experience leaves him slightly traumatized as he can't bear dissecting the beast "while the memory's still fresh" and has to suppress a shudder while thinking about what he went through.
Effortless Amazonian Lift: After saving Formora from being eaten by Zendolyn in Doru Araeba, Elsie effortlessly picks up Formora's paralyzed body and carries her back to the crashed Shadow Trespass without showing any sign of physical exertion. This is justified by Elsie being an Exo with a heavily customized body.
Eldritch Abomination: While the Exodus Prime is making the transit through the anomaly in Chapter 3, there is a scene where Ikharos has to leave the relative safety of the ship and go outside in a spacesuit with a flare to signal his Ghost, who was piloting his jumpship when it had gotten lost in the anomaly. While floating in the empty void, Ikharos encounters several powerful and ancient entities native to the realm. It's eventually explained in Chapter 8 that all of these entities are also prisoners of the anomaly and have spent millennia trying to escape.
- The first is an invisible force that constricts around him like a serpent and casually rearranges Ikharos's organs and bones from the inside until it is eventually driven away by his muted Light. This is eventually revealed to be a representation of Zendolyn-Far.
- The second is a Faceless Eye the size of Jupiter. Upon sensing the Light within Ikharos, the eye shrinks to the size of a continent and teleports closer to the Exodus Prime, then subjects Ike to a quick Mind Rape before vanishing. This was the avatar of a Disciple named Shelbth.
- The next one is a mouthless, six-eyed skull made of molten rock with crystal plated horns. The skull-thing is a lot more hostile and tries to destroy the Exodus Prime. This is an avatar of a Disciple named Xhafi.
- Finally, there is an unseen entity that repels the skull with a silver spear before it can attack the Exodus Prime. This being then manifests a golden scythe that it uses to tear open a portal to Kepler-186f, allowing every ship that got trapped in the anomaly to return to realspace. This is likely either Nezarec or one of his three followers trapped on the planet.
Eldritch Location: The anomaly surrounding Kepler-186f fits this to a T. Just read this description of what Ikharos sees when he exits the Exodus Prime while it is inside the anomaly.
Distant orange lightning flashed through the gloom, revealing a kaleidoscope of shifting colours and incomprehensible shapes; there were streaks of red and blue, great animated growths of decaying grey, pools of resonant fire. These all appeared in split second glimpses — alongside the visages of colossal flower petals unfolding, chunks of drifting worlds, a great unblinking eye with a distorted pupil. One flash, they were there. The next, they were gone or changed. It was a grand display of brutal chaos, the anarchy of a paracausal power manifesting in the absence of a planet.
Eldritch Starship: The Scornships (Fallen Ketches used by the Scorn) fit this to a T. Formora describes one as looking like a giant bulbous eye attached to the side of a massive floating knife (fit to be wielded by a god's hand) that literally slices through the skies with its blade-shaped bow. Ikharos (a veteran, top-tier Guardian) internally notes that there seems to be something inherently wrong about the Scornships compared to the Ketches used by normal Eliksni. When viewed up close, they resemble ships' corpses that were raised from the grave like their undead crews. Their hulls are covered with rusted metal, peeling paint, blackened battle scars, and dark religious totems welded to their exteriors. Inside, they're overrun with Egregore that releases deadly spores in the air and attempts to choke out any life or Light they detect. Finally, spending too long inside one causes hostile Nightmares to manifest that become increasingly stronger the longer one lingers aboard.
Enemy Civil War: What the fic's overarching Evil Versus Evil conflict ultimately amounts to. The world of Inheritance Cycle has been caught in the crossfire of a paracausal turf war among the Disciples of the Witness. It seems Nezarec was being a Dragon with an Agenda and took over Kepler-186f and its Golden Age human colony for his own nefarious purposes. The Witness somehow caught wind of this and grew suspicious enough to send three of its Disciples to investigate, only for Nezarec to get the drop on the trio and trap them in the Inheritance Cycle world by sealing the whole planet off in a Prison Dimension alongside his own army of followers. The three Disciples have been stuck there ever since, locked in a Forever War against Nezarec's forces for thousands of years... until the Witness sent the Locus's Scorn to break the stalemate at the start of the fic.
Enemy Mine:
- Elsie has been spending most of her time on Vroengard trying to forge an alliance with Zendolyn-Far against Nezarec by offering to help free Zendolyn and her fellow Disciples from the anomaly that has kept them trapped on Kepler-186f. Her reasoning behind this is that Zendolyn is A Lighter Shade of Black when compared to her peers and Ikharos cannot afford to have her as an enemy. Despite Zendolyn expressing her interest at the idea, Ikharos is vehemently opposed to it because she is still one of the Witness's Disciples (the very people the Guardians are currently at war with), and it will be a cold day in hell before he ever aligns himself with the Black Fleet.
- Formora and Brom, of all people, wind up putting aside their deeply personal enmity and joining forces to stop Ikharos from killing Saphira for being a dragon in Chapter 26.
Enemy Within: Ikharos is being tormented by the Nightmare of Dûl Incaru, who appears before him as a hallucination to taunt him with his failures in life whenever he's alone and starts to lose control of his emotions. Later on, he also gets regular visits from Nightmares of Rhulk and Lennox-2 as well.
Entitled to Have You: A platonic variation in the way that Granny Skuldu acts towards Formora. She thinks that since she saved Formora from being killed by the Scorn, this automatically gives her ownership over Formora's "pitiful mortal life" to do with as she pleases. When Formora runs away from her and demands to be left alone, Skuldu gets angry and sics her Hive Wizard on her.
Evil Power Vacuum: It's revealed in the Hidden reports at the start of the story that Rhulk's death left the Scorn in Savathûn's Throne World fractured and leaderless with various minor Chieftains just barely maintaining cohesion within the ranks. Ikharos suspects that the Witness intends to have the Locus of Communion fill in the power vacuum, hence why he's pushing so hard to have him eliminated.
Evil Versus Evil:
- Elsie reveals to Ikharos that Kepler-186f is the center of a Cosmic Chess Game between the Disciples of the Witness and the entity responsible for creating the anomaly (later revealed to be Nezarec).
- The Scorn and the Exsecrati are openly hostile towards each other from the get-go and their forces repeatedly clash throughout the fic, often with the heroes caught in the crossfire. The Scorn are Undead Abominations who serve the Disciples and seek to destroy all other life. The Exsecrati are malevolent Killer Robots who are aligned with Nezarec, the rival Big Bad to the Disciples.
- When the Scorn spread from Vroengard to mainland Alagaësia, they quickly come into conflict with the forces of the Broddring Empire that rules over most of the continent. The Scorn seek to destroy all living beings, while the Empire has spent a century tyrannically oppressing the humans of Alagaësia.
Eviler than Thou: The Scorn very decisively establish themselves as a greater existential threat to Alagaësia than the Broddring Empire when their sole remaining Ketch launches an all-out attack on the Empire's main port city Teirm, easily overwhelms the local Imperial garrison, and reduces the once great Citadel City to burnt ruins via aerial bombardment.
Exhausted Eye Bags: When Ikharos and Elsie find Formora at an old villa in Chapter 8, they notice that her eyes are shadowed over from not sleeping.
Explosive Leash: According to Ikharos, the Psions from the Mars scout legions (specifically the Blind Legion) had bombs implanted in their skulls to ensure obedience. Indilic is surprised when he's told about this since he had assumed this was just a vile myth given how this doesn't happen to any of the Psions from the Cabal Empire's core systems.
Eye Scream: Near the end of his underwater battle with the Nïdhwal, Ikharos stabs the sea serpent in the eye with his knife after teleporting onto its forehead.
Faction Calculus: A non-video game example with the Imperial Cabal as the Powerhouse, the Scorn as the Horde, the Exsecrati as the Balanced, and the Lucent Hive as the Cannons.
Failed State: What the Cabal Empire has been reduced to at the start of the story. Following the Fall of Torobatl, Xivu Arath's Hive forces launched a mass blitzkrieg across Cabal space while the latter were still reeling from the sudden loss of their capital planet. As the Hive continued to invade in overwhelming numbers, many more Cabal worlds were lost, entire military legions were wiped out, and the Empire's enslaved client races seized the opportunity to openly revolt. All of this combined resulted in the Cabal Empire collapsing virtually overnight and effectively ceasing to exist as a political entity. It's mentioned by Indilic that the Empire's former frontier territories are now ruled by a hodgepodge of independent warlords and Hive sects, not unlike what befell a post-Collapse Earth during the Dark Age. While the Cabal technically still have a functioning government in the form of the Cabal Ascendancy (a successor state formed by Torobatl's survivors who fled to the Sol System), it's a Government in Exile that lacks the numbers and resources necessary to project power beyond a single solar system.
Fantastic Light Source: Right before entering the Vault of Souls in Chapter 17, Ikharos uses his Dawnblade subclass abilities to summon a Daybreak sword in his hand to illuminate his way through the Vault's darkened entrance.
Fantastic Racism: Exaggerated. Ikahros and the Imperial Cabal utterly loathe anything dragon-related to the point of Kill on Sight. In Ikharos's mind, the only good dragon is a dead dragon and he instinctively attempts to destroy everything draconic that he encounters. Likewise, the Cabal under his command share his deeply entrenched, instinctual hostility towards dragons. When Ikharos informed his Cabal troops of the evidence he found suggesting the island they've crash landed on used to be home to dragons (not yet understanding the difference between Alagaësian dragons and Ahamkara), the Cabal react with a bloodthirsty fervor as individual Legionaries immediately volunteer to personally scour all of Vroengard and slay any dragons they find. At least one Cabal soldier even yells "Fire on everything that moves!"
Feather Boa Constrictor: In Chapter 7, Ikharos wears a live feathered serpent around his neck while analyzing the neurotoxin that Formora gave him in his lab.
Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: Ikharos and the Imperial Cabal find the very idea of dragons even being in their vicinity to be an existential threat that must be immediately terminated with extreme force.
Fictional Document:
- The first chapter consists entirely of in-universe intelligence reports by the Hidden and Cabal that serve as a source of exposition and worldbuilding for the reader. The chapter also ends by showing the contents of a message that Ikharos sent to Jaxson just before he left on his mission.
- Chapter 12 is simply the entire transcript verbatim of all the broken files that Xiān was able to pull from a damaged data chip that Ikharos found inside a dead ExSec Exo at the end of the previous chapter.
Fire Keeps It Dead: Since Scorn have Resurrective Immortality, the Cabal have a policy of cremating any Scorn corpses they find after an engagement. In chapter 5, Indilic informs Ikharos that this was one of the measures that the surviving soldiers aboard the Rancis Olytus carried out in order to clear out any Scorn boarders remaining on the ship after they crashed.
- Subverted when Formora tries this with a fire spell in Chapter 6 while fighting a Scorn Raider that keeps resurrecting itself. The flames from her spell fail to kill the Raider due to not being hot enough to incinerate its body, leading to a case of Infernal Retaliation.
First-Name Basis: At the start of the story, Ikharos is on a first-name basis with the Exo Stranger, addressing her as Elisabeth during their private conversations.
Flashback: Chapter 7 opens with a flashback to the final moments of Ikharos's battle with Rhulk in the Sunken Pyramid where he ultimately triumphs over the First Disciple.
Flesh Versus Steel:
- Chapter 4 has the battle between Cuaroc and an unidentified Scorn. Cuaroc is described as a Draconic Humanoid made of steel while the Scorn is a zombified Insectoid Alien with all sorts of Body Horror going on for it.
- The big climax of the Vroengard arc sees the gigantic hordes of undead, fleshy Scorn battle against the finely-tuned mechanical armies of Exos and Frames.
Foreshadowing:
- At the very beginning of the story, before the Rancis Olytus has even entered the Kepler-186 system, the Exo Stranger shows Ikharos her new Exotic auto rifle Quicksilver Storm and specifically draws attention to the fact that the Neomuni gun uses weaponized Nanomachines more advanced than SIVA. While Neomuna itself has nothing to do with the story, this was Elsie's subtle way of trying to tip off Ikharos that he should be prepared to encounter new enemies with nanotech weapons (the ExSec Exos) in the near future.
- Among the many choice insults the Vault of Souls' Eldunari hurl at Formora when she is brought before their presence is the word "kinslayer." This hints towards the eventual revelation that Formora murdered her entire family while under Galbatorix's thrall.
Forever War: The Enemy Civil War between the Disciples of the Witness and Nezarec's followers on Kepler-186f has been raging on without an end in sight for literally thousands of years. The Witness sent the Scorn to Kepler to reinforce its Disciples in hopes of breaking this millennia-long stalemate so its Disciples can wrap up their business on Kepler and return to the Black Fleet for the final assault on the Traveler.
Fossil Revival: While dissecting a Nïdhwal in Chapter 10, Ikharos (still under the assumption the creature is a mosasaur) is reminded of a philanthropic movement from the Golden Age that tried to bring back extinct species and succeeded in reviving the dodo, passenger pigeon, and wooly mammoth.
Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: After Ikharos attempts to slay Saphira and savagely injures Eragon without provocation during their first meeting and later tries to justify his actions with a Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence argument, Formora (having already heard his sob story for why he hates dragons) has had it with his anti-dragon bigotry and berates him for nearly killing the Dragon Riders' greatest hope of freeing Alagaësia from Galbatorix's tyranny. She makes it clear that whatever past trauma Ikharos has had involving dragons doesn't justify his current genocidal intentions in the slightest and calls him a pitiful man for being unable to let go of the past.
Friendly Address Privileges: Ikharos gets very particular about who is allowed to call him "Ike", only granting permission to those he considers his closest friends. The Exo Stranger specifically warns Formora not to call him by that nickname unless she wants to test his patience. When the Stranger herself addresses Ikharos as "Ike" during a You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious moment, she gets chastised for not having "earned" that privilege yet.
From Bad to Worse: As if being stranded on the same planet as a Disciple wasn't bad enough, Ikharos learns from Elsie in Chapter 8 that there are actually several Disciples on Kepler-186f.
Full-Frontal Assault: The Exos that attack Ikharos and Elsie on the Exodus Prime in Chapter 2 are described as wearing absolutely nothing.
Fusion Fic:
- In this fic, the world of Inheritance Cycle is identified as the exoplanet Kepler-186f from the Destiny universe.
- It's established in this fic that the ancient language from Inheritance Cycle is the exact same as the Ahamkara's native Supernatural Language which they use to reshape reality when granting wishes.
- Also, the Ahamkara have an ambiguous connection to the dragons of Alagaësia. Eventually, Ikharos has it explained to him by Angela that the Alagaësian dragons are a weaker sub-species of Ahamkara that evolved to lack their progenitors' shapeshifting and Emotion Eater abilities. Angela likens it to the difference between elves and humans.
- Brightsteel from the Inheritance Cycle world is the same material as hadium from the Destiny universe.
Get Out!: Formora says this to Elsie in Chapter 9 after the latter makes a tactless remark comparing her to Galbatorix (the Evil Overlord who brainwashed Formora into betraying the Dragon Riders and caused the deaths of everyone she loved). To be fair, Elsie immediately regrets her words and acknowledges that what she said crossed a line, but Formora is too angry to care and snaps at her to leave her villa.
Ghost Ship: In the second chapter, Ikharos and his Cabal allies find a seemingly abandoned Colony Ship from humanity's Golden Age in orbit of a strange anomaly surrounding the planet Kepler-186f. Naturally, Ikharos decides to investigate and encounters numerous hostile Exos and military-grade Frames aboard the vessel. He's forced to cut his visit short when a pair of Scornships are detected at the edge of the star system.
Giant Wall of Watery Doom: When the Rancis Olytus and a Scornship crashed into the ocean off the coast of Vroengard, the impact created a tidal wave headed straight for the island — much to Formora's horror as she had been sheltering in a tower located along the coast. She and Enduriel manage to outrun the wave and watch from uphill as their tower is destroyed by the flood.
Go Mad from the Revelation: According to the Exo Stranger, this is what would happen to any of the Psions under Ikharos's command if they saw his memories of the Eldritch Abominations he encountered inside the anomaly.
A God Am I: The two ExSec Exos that ambush Ikharos in Chapter 10 claim to be humanity's gods while speaking in Latin.
Greater-Scope Villain: The Witness plays this role as it is the one who kicks off the plot by sending the Locus to Kepler-186 and the main threat in the story comes from three of its Disciples who are trapped on Kepler-186f.
Guilt-Free Extermination War: Ikharos and the Imperial Cabal are fighting to completely eradicate the Scorn. The Scorn are explicitly fighting to kill every other living thing on Alagaësia, which includes Ike and the Cabal.
Hangover Sensitivity: After spending the entire day drinking away her stress and confusion, Formora wakes up in Chapter 9 "full of morning regrets" with a splitting headache and an increased sensitivity to light in her eyes. The hangover she gets is especially nasty since this was her first time tasting alcohol after decades of abstinence.
Harmless Freezing: Justified. When Ikharos freezes others with Stasis, he is not actually encasing them in ice, but is putting them in a state outside the passage of time until he decides to thaw them out.
Headbutting Heroes: Formora and Brom. Both want to rebuild the Dragon Riders and free Alagaësia from Galbatorix's hundred-year reign of terror. However, the two utterly despise each other for their own reasons. Brom (unaware of Formora being Forced into Evil) sees Formora as a traitorous Forsworn and actively attempted to assassinate her in the past. Formora, in turn, has harbored a deep-seated grudge against Brom for said assassination attempt and immediately attempts to slit his throat when she properly reunites with him in Chapter 26. It takes Ikharos attempting to slay Saphira in order to finally get the two to put aside their feud and team-up to stop him.
Hell Is That Noise: Shortly before Ikharos is attacked while investigating the navigation deck of the Exodus Prime, he and Xiān heard his assailant, an Exo, make unsettling sounds as it imitated breathing.
Hidden Depths: In canon, Katabasis is primarily known as a Dirty Coward who abandoned humanity during the Red War, defected to Calus's Loyalists, and was killed by the Locus of Communion aboard the Glykon Volatus. However, in this fic, it's implied that Katabasis was actually a rather competent and experienced Guardian. Ikharos becomes visibly angry when he hears Vindica'aur verbally demean Katabasis as a weakling traitor, and he snaps back that Katabasis was a veteran of the Battle of the Twilight Gap (one of the biggest battles in the Last City's history).
Hold Your Hippogriffs:
- Skuldu uses a variant of the idiom "hold your horses" in Chapter 6 when she tells Formora to "hold your Sparrows".
- Ikharos confuses Formora with his usage of the phrase "lit up [...] like a Dawning tree" in Chapter 16. This is a Destiny-fied version of the saying "lit up like a Christmas tree".
Humanity Is Insane: Indilic is a Psion who concludes that humans are "woefully short of reason" after seeing Ikharos kill a Nïdhwal by charging into its mouth using nothing but his glaive.
Hyperspeed Ambush: During the Space Battle early in the story, just as the Rancis Olytus is about to ram the Locus's Ketch, another Scorn Ketch comes out of warp right next to the frigate's stern without warning and rams into it, critically damaging the warship before it can reach the Locus's Ketch.
I Believe That You Believe It: How a skeptical Formora dismisses Elsie's story about being a time traveler despite the latter having spoken in the ancient language to prove she wasn't lying.
Formora: You truly believe that.
Exo Stranger: I do.
Formora: But nothing you do or say will make me believe you.
I Did What I Had to Do: Said verbatim by Brom in Chapter 28 when Formora (who has just revealed to him that she had been Forced into Evil from the very start when she joined the Forsworn) confronts him over his past attempts to assassinate her. Formora doesn't believes he truly means that and calls his response a "convenient excuse."
I Need a Freaking Drink:
- Ikharos decides he definitely needs a drink when he finds the Exo Stranger aboard his jumpship and has no idea how she was able to teleport aboard.
- In chapter 8, Formora turns out to have been spending the entire day drinking wine in an abandoned villa to cope with all the reality-shattering stuff that's been going on around her ever since Ikharos came to Vroengard.
I Never Told You My Name:
- Elsie refers to Xiān by name while asking Ikharos if Xiān is able hack the turrets in one of the Exodus ship's hangars. This leaves him momentarily stunned since he had never told her what his Ghost's name was. This hints towards Elsie having closely known Ikharos in an alternate timeline.
- During their first meeting, Formora is on the brink of the Despair Event Horizon when she is given a pep talk by Elsie, who addresses her by name. Formora lampshades that she should probably question how Elsie knows her name, but is too tired of surprises to even care.
I Resemble That Remark!: In Chapter 17, Vindica'aur insists that she's not a Glory Hound with a martyr complex after Ikharos shuts down her proposed suicidal strategy, which involves her leading the Iron War Beasts in an Underequipped Charge against a Hive Lightbearer and a Scorn horde without Ikharos there to use his Guardian abilities to even the playing field.
Ikharos: Enough. I won't suffer vainglorious schemes for the sake of a martyr's honour. We play this proper or not at all.
Xiān: Ike...
Ikharos: Not now. [glares at Vindica'aur, daring her to say something]
Vindica'aur: I am no glory hound. For there is none to be won beneath your command.
I See Them, Too: Normally, Ikharos is the only person who can perceive and interact with the Nightmares haunting him as they have specifically anchored themselves to his mind. To everyone else, it seems as though he's talking to thin air whenever he converses with a Nightmare. However, Chapter 26 features two examples of other people aside from Ikharos seeing his Nightmares.
- After assuming Ikharos was just hallucinating the whole time, Formora finally sees one of his Not So Imaginary Friends for herself when the Nightmare of Lennox-2 manifests in front of Ikharos to urge him to kill Saphira and mocks Formora for defending a dragon.
- Later, Angela sees the Nightmare of Dûl Incaru when she finds Ikharos in the cave where he had taken up shelter after he and Formora went their separate ways.
If I Do Not Return: Ikharos in the second chapter to his Cabal boarding team on the Exodus upon receiving word that the Scorn have arrived in the system.
Ikharos: Get to the Harvesters, get out. If I'm not with you in five minutes, go on without me. Don't engage the Skiffs; that's the Threshers' jobs. Just bog that second Ketch down. I should be with you shortly. Should be. Just don't count on it.
Imagine Spot: While staring at the ocean waves from the coast in Chapter 4, Formora daydreams about leaving Vroengard forever on a silver-prowed ship with velvet sails. She vividly imagines how it would feel to tug the sailboat's rigging with her hands, to have her arms splashed by seawater, and to hear the sound of the wind as she navigates the sea through pure instinct and memory without needing a map. She briefly snaps out of it and dismisses the idea as a fantasy, but decides there's no harm in visualizing it for meagre entertainment. She ultimately does do exactly this at the end of the Vroengard arc when she rescues Ikharos from the Scorn and leaves the island with him aboard her sailboat.
Immune to Mind Control: Prior to the mission to hunt the Locus, Ikharos and the Imperial Cabal had battled the Hive on many occasions and encountered various forms of psychic warfare. Specific examples include the Wrathborn, the Crown of Sorrows, and Savathûn's corruption of the Cabal general Umun'arath. As a consequence, Ikharos and his Cabal soldiers all wear specialized helmets with built-in anti-memetic defenses that shield the wearer against external psychic influences. As long as they have their helmets on, they are immune to visual and audio cognitohazards, can resist having their memories altered, and cannot be mind-controlled through magic or psionic powers. The helmets also have AI systems which can detect if a wearer is mentally compromised and warn the other troops through the Cabal Battlenet.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Cuaroc stabs Ikharos through his chest and sternum with his BFS during their battle in Chapter 8.
- During the Big Badass Battle Sequence on Vroengard between the Scorn, the ExSec Exos, and the Cabal, Formora at one point runs the blade of her Rider sword straight through the chest of a hostile Exo. Being an unfeeling robot implanted with healing nanomachines, the Exo is unaffected.
Implied Death Threat:
- Granny Skuldu to Formora in Chapter 6.
  Skuldu: Look, dearie, if you want me to lay out the ground rules proper, you just have to say. We're asking, you answer, everyone comes out with a smile on their pretty little faces. Even you. You'll be breathing, you'll be alive, and you'll be grinning like you're smelling daisies because you get to live for good behaviour. Get it?
- When Ikharos tells Formora (who is feeling pretty reckless from drinking wine all day) that he's immortal, she presses a blade against his neck and offers to "test that theory."
Impostor-Exposing Test: Formora gets subjected to one by Ikharos and Indilic in Chapter 16. When an amnesiac Formora is found by Ikharos's Cabal troops wandering the woods one day after she fled the villa during the Scorn attack, she is disarmed and marched to Ikharos's encampment at gunpoint. However, since Ikharos is Improperly Paranoid about her being an Ahamkara in disguise, he first forces her to go through a psychic lie detector test where Indilic telepathically asks her questions verifying her identity, which Formora must non-verbally answer by flipping a coin to indicate either "yes" or "no". She ultimately passes the test, though not before having her Trauma Button inadvertently pressed when Indilic asks for her real name, which immediately reminds her of her true name and causes her to hesitate with her answer.
Improperly Paranoid: After Formora parts ways with Ikharos at the end of Chapter 26 and joins up with Eragon's party around midway through the events of the novel Eragon, Brom spends their entire time traveling together terrified that she's going to stab them in the back any moment now. He persists in this belief even after Formora confirms through speaking in the ancient language that she is truly on their side and was never a willing servant of Galbatorix. This is subverted later on as Brom was right to not want Formora near them since while she was being honest, she had unknowingly been infected by Shelbth's mind virus. Shelbth winds up taking control of Formora's body at the worst possible moment and leads Eragon's party into a massive Scorn ambush where Saphira is captured while the other party members also have their minds assimilated by Shelbth.
Infernal Retaliation: Chapter 6 features two such examples.
- While Formora and Enduriel are fleeing from the shores of Vroengard where dozens of hostile Scorn have emerged from the ocean, Enduriel launches an orange-colored spell from over his shoulder at the Scorn Raider leading the pack. The spell hits the Raider in the shoulder and sets its whole body alight with flames. The immolating Raider staggers and roars after them before firing its energy crossbow as though the flames didn't even hurt.
- Later, while trapped aboard the wreck of the Shadow Trespass, Formora tries to kill that same Raider from before with a spell that sets it on fire after finally heeding Skuldu's advice that Fire Keeps It Dead. However, the flames aren't hot enough to incinerate the Raider's body, so it continues to self-revive and attack her even its body burns.
Insistent Terminology: Ikharos and Xiān argue about the correct term to call the Nïdhwal.
Xiān: It's... I think it's a dinosaur.
Ikharos: It's not. It's a mosasaur. It's a mosasaur.
Xiān: Yeah, they're dino-
Ikharos: No, they're not dinosaurs. They're far closer to varanid lizards than any archosaur.
Xiān: No idea what that means. Don't need to. It's a dinosaur.
Ikharos: It's not a damn dinosaur. Stop it.
Inter-Service Rivalry: Part of the backstory for how Ikharos acquired the Exotic bow Ticuu's Divination. Between the events of Forsaken and Shadowkeep, there was a Psion Flayer from the Blind Legion who had a feud with a Cabal Colossus from the Dust Giants. This culminated in the Flayer hiring Ikharos to assassinate the Colossus by offering the bow as a reward.
Internal Retcon: In Chapter 7, Ikharos, Indilic, and two other Psions conspire to enact this trope upon learning of Agnisia's escape from the Shadow Trespass. Since the remaining Cabal under Ikharos's command might mutiny if they ever found out he had been keeping Savathûn's Number Two as a prisoner without their knowledge, Ikharos is convinced by Indilic to explain away Agnisia's presence on Kepler-186f by lying to his troops that she had followed him to Kepler seeking revenge for Savathûn's death.
Internal Reveal:
- In Chapter 10, Ikharos and Indilic find out that Formora used to be a Dragon Rider and was partly responsible for Vroengard's ruined state after Ikharos uses Deepsight to view a memory of Vroengard's past.
- In Chapter 13, Formora learns from Elsie that Vroengard's metal beast which had been hunting her for decades is named Cuaroc and finally realizes what Cuaroc actually is (an Eldunarí of a wild dragon slain by the Forsworn who is piloting a mechanical body). At the end of the same chapter, she discovers the existence of the hundreds of Eldunarí inside the Vault of Souls.
- Chapter 26 has several moments where characters in the story discover important information that the readers were already well aware of.
  - Brom learns to his horror that he didn't kill off the last of the Forsworn when he finds himself face-to-face with a vengeful Formora.
  - Formora discovers that Ikharos is not the only Dragon Rider aside from Galbatorix left in the world when she meets Eragon and Saphira.
  - Lastly, Formora learns of the existence of the Nightmares which have been acting as Ikharos's Enemy Within throughout the story.
- Chapter 28 sees Formora learn from Brom that he killed Morzan, Murtagh is Morzan's son, and that Galbatorix had been keeping a secret stash of dragon eggs unbeknownst to the majority of the Forsworn. Brom in turn learns about Enduriel's death, Formora and her brother having been Forced into Evil by Galbatorix using their true names, and the existence of a second free dragon (Grimnir) which had hatched from a dragon egg formerly in Formora's possession.
"It" Is Dehumanizing:
- Gets brought up in Chapter 16 when Ikharos is holding Formora captive aboard the Shadow Trespass and is grilling her on the dragon she formerly had in her possession.
  Formora: Agaravel would not do that. She could not.
  Ikharos: So it has a name?
  Formora: She has a name.
- When Formora reenters the Vault of Souls in Chapter 18, she has to keep her eyes shut to prevent the Vault's cognitohazard defenses from mind raping her like last time. To get around this, she uses her magic to turn a Cabal Legionary under Ikharos's command into her Meat Puppet so she can use the Legionary's eyes to help her original blind body navigate through the Vault's interiors. When Ikharos finds out, he immediately demands that she release the Legionary, leading to this exchange:
  Ikharos: I've been gracious. I've been merciful. Let him go.
  Formora: I can't see! I need its eyes.
  Ikharos: His. He has a fucking name.
It's Raining Men: During the razing of Teirm in Chapter 25, some of the invading Scorn don't rely on Skiffs to ferry them to the ground from their Ominous Floating Spaceship, instead leaping off their Ketch and allowing their bodies to come crashing down onto the crowded streets below, which they survive thanks to their Resurrective Immortality. This further adds to the chaos of the battle as the city's human defenders have to deal with dozens of enemy reinforcements literally falling from the sky.
Karmic Transformation: Ikharos, who despises dragons and has made it his personal mission to annihilate their entire species, ends up becoming a Dragon Rider when he unknowingly came into close contact with a dragon egg in Formora's possession that hatched for him.
Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better:
- Zig-Zagged. Cabal warships like the Rancis Olytus are equipped with cannons that fire heavy kinetic slugs, but they also use plasma cannons as well.
- The Exsecrati's forces on Kepler-186f primarily use human-made firearms as their preferred conventional weapon despite being shown having access to various energy weapons.
Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: One of the Big Bad Nezarec's many titles which veer into Names to Run Away from Really Fast is "Father of Kinslaying". Also, one of the reasons that the Eldunarí inside the Vault of Souls treat Formora with such extreme vitriol and proclaim her to be Beyond Redemption is because she personally slew her brother, mother, and father during the time she spent magically enslaved to Galbatorix.
Know When to Fold 'Em:
- Two examples in Chapter 16.
  - When an amnesiac Formora wakes up disoriented in a forest and finds herself staring down the barrel of a slug rifle held by a Cabal Legionary (acting under Ikharos's orders to apprehend her for abandoning him to die earlier), she is told to drop her weapons and surrender. Having seen how fast kinetic projectiles can move despite having no prior concept of a firearm, she acquiesces and allows the Cabal to march her back to Ikharos's base camp at gunpoint.
  - Throughout the chapter, there are various moments where Formora contemplates physically lashing out at Ikharos or trying to escape his custody, but is repeatedly dissuaded by the presence of all the heavily-armed Cabal and Psions accompanying Ikharos who would not doubt gun her down with ease on the spot if she tried.
- In Chapter 28, Brom admits to Formora that the primary reason he isn't trying to kill her during their current travels together (despite their decades of enmity) is because he knows he wouldn't stand a chance of beating her in a direct fight. He also doesn't try to get Eragon and Saphira away from Formora and lose her in the wilds (despite incorrectly viewing her as a potential threat to them) because he knows better than anyone else how much of a Scarily Competent Tracker she is.

Tropes L to P

Last-Name Basis:
- Despite living on Vroengard for nearly forty years with Formora as the only person he's had any form of social contact with, Enduriel continues to address her by her family name, Láerdhon. This is meant to demonstrate the adversarial relationship that exists between them.
- Angela takes to addressing Ikharos by his surname Torstil after joining his party in Chapter 25.
Let Us Never Speak of This Again: In Chapter 10, Ikharos views a memory of the past where Galbatorix murdered Glaerun in a fit of madness after putting on a strange mask he found in one of Vreongard's temples. Upon regaining his senses, Galbatorix warned Formora (the only other person present for this event) to never speak of what just occurred to anyone.
Let's You and Him Fight:
- The Exo Stranger does this out of desperation during the Vroengard arc when she tries to manipulate Agnisia and Skuldu into fighting Cuaroc for her so she can rescue Formora from the Vault of Souls. Unfortunately, Formora had already been freed by the Vault's Eldunarí, so all this really accomplishes is allowing a newly-hatched dragon being kept at the Vault to fall into Agnisia's clutches. This also results in the Imperial Cabal branding Elsie as a traitor for collaborating with the Lucent Hive.
- Predictably occurs when Ikharos (who has made it his personal mission to slay all dragons) and Formora finally cross paths with Brom (a former Dragon Rider responsible for killing many of the Forsworn), Eragon, and Saphira. Formora attempts to murder Brom almost as soon as she recognizes him and is only held back by Ikharos. Unfortunately, when Saphira swoops down and reveals herself, the sight of a living dragon triggers Ikharos's "kill all dragons" mentality and he violently attacks Eragon and Saphira, severely injuring the former and nearly killing the latter until he is stopped by Formora, Brom, and the Nightmare of Rhulk. Ikharos winds up falling off a cliff and is separated from everyone, while Formora has a Heel Realization from seeing how Ikharos has allowed revenge to consume him and decides to bury the hatchet with Brom and dedicate herself towards helping Eragon on his journey.
Lightspeed Leapfrog: When the crew of the Rancis Olytus began hunting the Locus of Communion through uncharted space, they were always one step behind their quarry due to having no knowledge of where their target was headed, so the best that they could do was blindly follow the trail of breadcrumbs the Locus left behind. However, once Ikharos learns which star system the Locus was heading towards (thanks to coordinates provided by Elsie), the Rancis Olytus performs an FTL jump and reaches their destination ahead of the Locus's ships that they had originally been chasing.
Liquid Courage: By the time Ikharos and the Exo Stranger catch up to Formora in Chapter 8, she has already helped herself to some wine and is full of what Ikharos identifies as "liquid courage". Formora demonstrates this by not caring that they can see her partially nude, and acting noticeably haughtier (and snarkier) than before. Also, when Ikharos explains that he's immortal, she reacts by holding a knife to his throat and offering to test his claim, something that she would never even think of doing while sober.
Living Is More than Surviving: While aboard the crashed Shadow Trespass, Enduriel asks Formora why she is so insistent on protecting Agaravel's Eldunarí if she is never going to use it. When she replies that doing so would be akin to gambling away her entire future, he has this to say.
Enduriel: What future? What future, Láerdhon? What have we achieved in all the time we've spent here?
Formora: Survival. We are alive. Is that not reward enough?
Enduriel: No. It no more satisfies you than I.
Formora: Perhaps not, but I will not complain.
Locked Out of the Loop:
- It's established early on that the Exo Stranger had already experienced a version of this story in an Alternate Timeline, so she possesses foreknowledge of future events which she deliberately withholds from Ikharos and later Formora. When Ikharos asks her why she doesn't just tell him what future mistakes to avoid, she explains that she's worried about causing him to develop tunnel vision and implies that she already attempted to do that with other versions of Ikharos, all of whom died anyway.
  - An example of this is in chapter 3, as the derelict colony ship that Ikharos and Elsie were investigating is pushed into the Negative Space Wedgie by a Scorn Ketch. As the ship passes through the anomaly, Ikharos notices Elsie tensing up as though she's expecting trouble with an exhausted look on her face. From this, he quickly deduces that she had already gone through these same events before in another timeline. When he tries to pry for more information about what's at the other end of the anomaly, Elsie gives the vague response of "Paradise."
  - Also, in this same scene, it's revealed Elsie already knew that there was a Disciple of the Witness waiting on Kepler-186f and that this being was the reason why the Locus of Communion came to that planet in the first place.
  - Elsie knows that Ikharos's all-encompassing Fantastic Racism towards dragons will initially drive him to destroy anything dragon-related he comes across, so she warns Formora to keep Agaravel's Eldunarí and the dragon egg in her bag hidden from him for as long as possible.
- Since all of the Witness's Disciples stranded on Kepler-186f have been cut off from their master and the rest of the Black Fleet for literal millennia from their perspectives, they know nothing about the Sol System, its factions, or the events which have taken place throughout the Destiny games. When Zendolyn-Far meets Ikharos, she recognizes him as a Lightbearer but doesn't yet fully realize that they are supposed to be enemies nor is she aware of how Guardians can resurrect from death through their Ghosts. She is also bemused to learn that Savathûn's own daughter is seemingly a Lightbearer now and is genuinely intrigued to learn from Ikharos that her fellow Disciple Rhulk is dead by his hand.
- While traveling with Eragon's party in Chapter 28, Formora agrees to keep Brom's identity as a former Dragon Rider hidden from Eragon in exchange for Brom agreeing to not disclose her Forsworn past to the boy as well.
- Formora confirms to Brom in Chapter 28 that none of the Forsworn (save for maybe Morzan) knew Galbatorix was keeping several dragon eggs in his possession during his century-long reign as King of the Broddring Empire.
Losing Your Head:
- The first time Formora fights a Scorn, she tries to kill it by chopping off its head, only to be horrified when its headless corpse gets back up seconds later for round 2.
- While fighting Cuaroc in Chapter 8, Ikharos slices off his head and assumes he's dead. Since Cuaroc isn't a full Exomind, this does nothing to him and he gets back up while Ikharos has his back turned, then stabs him through the chest before literally tearing him apart.
Love Goddess: According to the Nightmare of Dûl Incaru, the Hive worship Xivu Arath not only as their War God but also as their "God of Love" because in their Bizarre Alien Psychology, those two concepts mean the same thing.
Love Is a Weakness: After crashing his jumpship onto Vroengard, Ikharos scolds Xiān for not leaving him earlier when he told her to and instead following him into the anomaly. Xiān's protestation that she couldn't find it in herself to abandon him leads to this exchange.
Ikharos: Emotion has no place in this war.
Xiān: Emotion? What the hell does it have to do with EMOTION? You're my partner, my Guardi-
Ikharos: Love leaves us weak when its chains pull taut. You should have left me, Xiān. You didn't. There's no changing that, yes, but we shouldn't forget that it was the better choice to leave.
Xiān: Not to me. Never to me.
Ikharos: After all we've seen? After all we've done, all we've learned? Then more fool you.
Madness Mantra: The Scorn Raider that chases Formora and Enduriel into the storage room of the Shadow Trespass has only one thought in its mind that it repeats over and over.
KILL KILL KILL FOR FIKRUL KILL FOR THE BARONS KILL FOR THE PRINCE KILL FOR FATHER KILL FOR FATHER KILL FOR FATHER.
- That same Raider also keeps saying some variation of "kill" as it claws at the locker containing a Hive Ghost.
Magic Is a Monster Magnet:
- Because the Scorn hunt by psychically "listening" for thoughts from nearby living prey, using telepathy in a Scorn-infested area is almost guaranteed to bring a roving pack stampeding towards the exact location of the telepath. Unfortunately for Formora, this means Agaravel acts as a beacon for every Scorn on Vroengard whenever the Eldunarí telepathically communicates with Formora. Which, given Agaravel's Talkative Loon personality, is a lot.
- It's mentioned by Ikahros that Darkness-aligned races like the Scorn, Hive, and Ahamkara are naturally drawn towards sources of Light because of their instinctual desire to snuff out the Light. This winds up being a blessing for the heroes on Vreongard, as the unexpected presence of a Hive Lightbearer like Agnisia temporarily distracts both Nezarec's acolytes and the Disciples from noticing Ikharos and the Imperial Cabal. In fact, the Scorn actively prioritize killing Agnisia over Ikharos since the former is a Lucent Hive witch who exclusively uses the Light, whereas the latter is a Guardian who additionally draws upon the power of the Darkness.
Mêlée à Trois: The Vroengard arc can overall be summed up as five-way campaign with Formora caught in the middle. There's Ikharos and the Imperial Cabal vs. the Disciples and the Scorn vs. the Exsecrati vs. the Lucent Hive vs. the Vault of Souls' Eldunarí. Al the while, the Exo Stranger is running around as a Wild Card who switches allegiances between various sides. Each faction either stands in direct opposition to everyone else's goals or wants everyone else dead.
- The end of the Vroengard arc sees the Scorn (now under the Disciples' command) openly battle a Nezarec-aligned army of ExSec Exos and Frames. All the while, Ikharos, Formora, and the Cabal get trapped in the crossfire of this battle and are forced to simultaneously fight both warring sides to survive.
Mile-Long Ship: The abandoned Exodus colony ship that Ikharos and his crew discover orbiting Kepler-186f at the start of the story is colossal in scale. It's said that the ship's cargo pods alone are supposed to be "city-sized".
Military Salute: Vindica'aur is the only bridge officer aboard the Rancis Olytus who doesn't greet Ikharos with a salute, showing how she doesn't like having him as her superior officer. She finally gives him a salute at the end of chapter 5 after being begrudgingly impressed by Ikharos killing a Nïdhwal in single combat.
Misplaced Retribution:
- Ikharos strongly desires to slay all the Alagaësian dragons on sight because he misidentifies them as Ahamkara and seeks retribution for all the damage the Ahamkara have caused to the Sol System as well as the countless lives destroyed by the Ahamkara's wish granting. This includes Riven creating the Scorn, cursing the Dreaming City, and killing Lennox-2. This is despite the fact that the Inheritance Cycle dragons are a separate race from the Ahamkara—and even if they weren't, they still had absolutely nothing to do with the Destiny wish-dragons that terrorized the Sol System for centuries.
- The Eldunarí inside the Vault of Souls loathe Formora with the burning hatred of a thousand suns, constantly screaming how she is Beyond Redemption and deserving only of death while showing no remorse in mind-raping her into being an unwitting puppet to lure Ikharos to them. They claim that this is the very least of what she "deserves" for betraying the Dragon Riders and helping Galbatorix rise to power, conveniently ignoring that Formora was Forced into Evil against her will by Galbatorix exploiting his knowledge her true name.
Motive Misidentification: When the Rancis Olytus detected a derelict Golden Age colony ship orbiting a Dark anomaly, Ikharos assumed that the Locus as after something valuable hidden aboard the ship. Elsie explains to him later that the Locus's real goal was to travel through the anomaly to reach Alagaësia. The only reason the Scorn wanted the colony ship was because they needed something to shield the Locus's Ketch from the dangerous entities living inside the anomaly.
Multiple Head Case: In Chapter 9, Formora watches a doe with two heads fused together get killed and devoured by a Scorn Chieftain.
Mundane Utility: While living on Vroengard, Formora washed herself using freshwater siphoned from the ocean through an incantation that removed all the salt from the seawater. She also has a spell for drying herself off when she's done bathing.
Murder in the Family: It's eventually revealed in Chapter 28 that the reason Formora is the last living member of the Láerdhon family is because she was forced to personally slay the rest of her kin (including her parents and brother) at some point during the five decades she was magically enslaved by Galbatorix following the Fall of the Dragon Riders.
Murder Is the Best Solution: In chapter 4, while Formora is exploring the wreckage of the Shadow Trespass, she uses magic to sense the presence of a captive Hive Ghost that Ikharos had been keeping prisoner in a sealed locker. Of course, she has no idea what it is, and when she tells Enduriel about the strange creature she found, he immediately starts to ask if they can kill it. Being smart enough to realize that it's best to leave whatever is inside the locker alone, Formora tells him no and repeats it for emphasis when she sees him considering using his sword to kill whatever was in the locker.
Mythology Gag:
- The Dark Harmony from Stargazer are alluded to in chapter 2 when Indilic mentions how the sector that Kepler-186 was located in was rife with "silvered corsairs", which the Cabal Empire couldn't be bothered to deal with due to the Hive threat pounding on their doorstep.
- Ikharos ordering his Cabal allies to ram the Rancis Olytus into a Scorn Ketch while they are in the orbit of Kepler-186f mirrors a scene from Stargazer where Primus Da'aurc had his legion's flagship ram a Fallen Ketch during the battle between the Cabal and the House of Scar above the same planet.
- While inside the anomaly, Ikharos sees a tall, silver spear like the ones used by the Harmony in Stargazer.
- Formora and Enduriel being stalked throughout Vroengard by Cuaroc is a nod to Stargazer, where Uren explained to Ikharos that Formora's original fate was to be killed by Cuaroc at the Rock of Kuthian after being hunted through the ruins of Doru Areaba (the city on Vroengard that used to serve as the Dragon Riders' headquarters).
- One of the weapons that Formora and Enduriel steal from Ikharos's jumpship is the Eternity's Edge sword, which was originally Ikharos's choice melee weapon in Stargazer before forging Néhvaët.
- Skuldu refers to Ikharos as the Kingkiller, which was the title bestowed upon him by Tarrhis in Stargazer.
- The Soulrazers, an OC Cabal Legion from Stargazer are briefly mentioned in Chapter 19 by Indilic while he is explaining to Ikharos the origins of his rank Inquirator-Primaris.
Named by the Adaptation:
- Savathûn's Right Hand, the boss of "The Last Chance" story mission from The Witch Queen, is given the name Agnisia. Her Hive Ghost (also unnamed in canon) is given the name Skuldu.
- Enduriel isn't given a surname in canon. Here, Formora mentions that his last name is Iomurth.
Nanomachines: The Exos guarding the Exodus Ghost Ship in Chapter 2 have their bodies filled with thousands of repair mites — microscopic robots equipped with plasma torches and saws that are responsible for keeping their hosts in working condition. They also double as a biological weapon; should any of the Exos be seriously wounded to the point where they start bleeding alkahest, the mites are programmed to attack any organic materiel they come into contact with outside their host's body. Later in Chapter 10, an ExSec Exo that Ikharos slices in half uses the nanomites in his body to form metallic Combat Tentacles.
Neck Lift: In chapter 3, while making his way to one of the Exodus ship's hangar bays, Ikharos is intercepted by two more hostile Exos that he easily defeats. He then lifts up one of the Exos by the neck, slams it into the corridor's wall, and attempts to interrogate it. When the Exo refuses to say anything, Ikharos uses his Stasis powers to leave it frozen to the wall.
Neck Snap:
- While hiding in the Shadow Trespass's storage room from the Scorn outside, Enduriel is killed by a Scorn Raider who uses its Smoke Dash ability to teleport behind him and snap his neck in front of Formora.
- In Chapter 25, Formora uses a spell to telekinetically snap the necks of fourteen hostile Urgals simultaneously after using a Psychic Strangle spell to incapacitate them.
Negative Space Wedgie: When Ikharos first arrives at Kepler-186, he finds a gravitational anomaly of Darkness where the planet Kepler-186f used to be, similar to the one that formed after Mars when the Pyramids first returned to the Sol System. The anomaly gets referred to as a gravity shadow and is described as having the same visual qualities as a black hole, preventing any light from being visible while looking directly at it. According to the Stranger, it was created by a paradox resulting from two colliding philosophies.
Never Found the Body: Even though Kelgorath was killed in the Ascendant Plane by the Young Wolf at the end of Season of the Lost, a Hidden intelligence report reveals that none of his remains could be found when the Reef asked for confirmation of his demise. Since Kelgorath has already come Back from the Dead multiple times in the past, both Ikharos and Ikora suspect that he may still be alive somehow.
Nice Day, Deadly Night: Despite most of Vroengard resembling a post-apocalyptic landscape, Formora and Enduriel have found that life on the island isn't so bad during the day as long as they stick to the shores and avoid the areas filled with "poisonous air" (read: high levels of radiation). During the night, however, Cuaroc comes out to hunt the duo, killing anything that gets in his way and only ceasing his relentless pursuit when dawn approaches. This little game of cat and mouse has been going on for upwards of four decades.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Not that Formora really had any other choice, but in order to permanently kill the Scorn Raider in Chapter 6, she resorts to freeing Skuldu — the Hive Ghost of Savathûn's second-in-command in the Lucent Hive — from the locker that Ikharos had been keeping her imprisoned in aboard the Shadow Trespass, resulting in Skuldu reviving her Hive Lightbearer and setting both loose upon Vroengard. This later results in the entire city of Teirm and multiple nearby human villages getting slaughtered when said Hive Lightbearer flees there and is followed by the entire horde of Scorn.
Nicknaming the Enemy:
- Granny Skuldu is a Hive Ghost who calls the Scorn, whom the Lucent Hive have been warring with inside Savathûn's Throne World for many months, by several derogatory nicknames. These include "crayfish", "crabs", "arthropods", "rot-cases" and "stick-bugs".
- Formora, being an elf from a Standard Fantasy Setting, lacked any prior concept of extraterrestrials from outer space, so she has her own nicknames for the various Destiny races appearing in the story that better fits into her fantasy setting mentality. She shorthandedly refers to the Cabal as "giants", Psions as "cyclopses" and the Scorn as "ghouls".
- Once the Scorn reach mainland Alagaësia, they quickly establish themselves as The Dreaded to the continent's denizens, who dub the Scorn simply as "the dead" in reference to their undead nature.
No Sympathy: When Formora learns of Arya's status as Durza's prisoner from scrying Eragon's dreams in Chapter 28, she shows an almost callous response to her fellow elf's plight, internally remarking that Arya has no one else but herself to blame for wandering beyond the safety of the homeforest.
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: The Scorn are this in the setting of Inheritance Cycle due to the absence of the Light as well as any weapons that can counter their Resurrective Immortality, which many Guardians take for granted. Because of this, even regular Scorn units that are considered Mooks by the Guardians instead get treated like unkillable Implacable Men when facing the Inheritance Cycle characters. One unarmed Scorn is able to hold its own for a while against Cuaroc, the protector of the Vault of Souls. Another instance was when a single Raider (a common mook specializing in ranged attacks) is able to take on two of the legendary Forsworn in melee combat, killing one and nearly overwhelming the other. For Formora, this gets subverted later on as she has no trouble overpowering and capturing three Stalkers after she's made aware of the Scorn's self-reviving trick. However, this is still played straight for the rest of Alagaësia once the Scorn reach the mainland. Unlike Nezarec or the Disciples, they don't bother with the Alien Non-Interference Clause and leave a trail of destruction as they openly wipe out settlements left and right with the protagonists totally helpless to stop them.
- One HUGE advantage the Scorn have going for them is that they're the only Destiny faction on Alagaësia who still have a working capital ship following their arrival through the Kepler-186f anomaly. Back in the futuristic Sol System, a Fallen Ketch like the Ariks-Fel is a semi-common threat that is routinely handled by factions with similar spacecraft and firepower like the Guardians, Reef, Cabal, and other Fallen. In the medieval continent of Alagaësia, the Ariks-Fel is a never-before-seen Mile-Long Ship with impossibly fast flying engines, an undetectable Invisibility Cloak, and armaments that can lay waste to an entire city before anyone can react. The races of Inheritance Cycle are so outclassed that the only option anyone really has once this flying behemoth uncloaks in the sky is to sprint as far away as you can while praying the warship's cannons aren't currently targeting you.
Not So Similar: Ikharos and Formora are set up as each other's Mirror Character. Both are highly-skilled, centuries-old warriors with supernatural powers who can be considered the best of their chosen fields. Both are anti-heroic Broken Aces who share a Dark and Troubled Past, including having lost loved ones and being motivated by revenge. Both have their own prejudices against other races (Formora is bigoted against humans, while Ikharos holds a genocidal hatred for dragonkind). Both even share extremely similar personalities (stubborn, cagey about their pasts, convinced they alone know what is best) to the point that Too Much Alike often comes into play. However, Chapter 26 makes it clear that there is one important characteristic which sets them apart — their willingness to let go of past grievances. Formora was prepared to brutally murder Brom right there on the spot in front of everyone as payback for his previous attempts to assassinate her. However, upon discovering Saphira's existence (a recently-hatched dragon free of Galbatorix's control), she (without hesitation) puts aside her decades-old feud with Brom in order to help him train Eragon and Saphira into the heroes Alagaësia needs. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Ikharos. Within literal seconds of his eyes landing on Saphira, he went into full "The Dragonslayer" mode and savagely beat the young dragon within an inch of her life without provocation. He also ignores and violently lashes out at everyone who tries to stop or reason with him, including Eragon and Formora. In fact, the only thing that kept him from ending Saphira's life was the startling discovery that she was still a juvenile, not because he decided setting aside his hatred for dragons was for the greater good. In fact, he vehemently rejects Formora's request for him to make amends with Saphira, and decides to part ways with the other heroes rather than willingly travel with a creature that he despises (even if it is a child whose life he chose to spare).
Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Downplayed. Vroengard is far from being a safe place to live, being filled with radioactive fallout, mutated creatures, and an unstoppable metal beast that hunts for trespassers every night. However, decades of surviving on the abandoned island with only Enduriel and a half-insane Agaravel to talk to has left Formora craving for social interaction so much that a part of her "would have killed to have been bothered." Immediately after this line, we cut to the next scene where Ikharos crash lands on Vroengard while the Cabal, Scorn, and the remains of the Exodus Prime all crash into the waters surrounding the island.
Obviously Not Fine: At the end of Chapter 9, Indilic and his Psions bring a clearly wounded Ikharos to Formora and ask for her help in healing him. Ikharos weakly insists that he's fine despite the visible hole in his chest covered with Stasis crystals.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
- We aren't shown exactly how Ikharos killed the Nïdhwal in Chapter 5. The scene ends with him charging into the sea monster's jaws with his glaive, then cuts to the aftermath where a blood-soaked Ikharos is dragging the Nïdhwal's massive corpse onto land where he is greeted with cheering Cabal soldiers.
- The Curb-Stomp Battle that ensues between Agnisia and a horde of frenzied Scorn outside Ikharos's crashed jumpship happens completely offscreen. We're only shown Formora's perspective from inside the Shadow Trespass as she watches Agnisia and Skuldu exit the ship, followed by the sounds of howling Scorn, an Arc explosion, and Agnisia's battle scream. A few minutes later, Formora cautiously peeks outside and finds Agnisia triumphantly raising her sword and glaive in the air while floating above a battlefield covered in deep scorch marks.
- Between Chapters 7 and 8, Formora was somehow able to overpower and capture three Scorn Stalkers, which she tied to wooden posts outside her villa to serve as a warning to the other Scorn in the area. This is impressive since she struggled to defeat even a single Raider the night before, though Stalkers are admittedly weaker mooks than Raiders are.
- The final battle of the Vroengard arc ends with Ikharos (alone, separated from his Ghost, and heavily injured) passing out on the island's shores while being subjected to a Dog Pile of Doom by a horde of Scorn. When he regains consciousness later, he finds himself on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean with Formora, who explains that she rescued him after he lost consciousness. How she singlehandedly recovered his body from the Scorn, got him onto her boat, and managed to sail away while likely being pursued by countless Scorn warriors is never explained.
Oh, Crap!:
- Said verbatim by Xiān in Chapter 3 in response to seeing that Ikharos's jumpship is flying right below the crashing Exodus Prime as it burns up in Kepler-186f's atmosphere.
- Formora has this reaction the first time she witnesses a Scorn Raider she killed come back to life right in front of her.
- Also Formora in Chapter 6 when she, Skuldu, and Agnisia are found by Cuaroc after leaving the Shadow Trespass.
- Granny Skuldu and Agnisia share this reaction in Chapter 6 when Zendolyn-Far appears behind Formora in the alleyway. The Exo Stranger later explains to Ikharos that the reason they got so spooked was because they recognized Zendolyn as a Disciple of the Witness.
- Ikharos's reaction when he learns that Formora freed Skuldu and Agnisia from his locker.
- Xiān has this reaction in Chapter 10 after Ikharos is hit with a blast from a Valkyrie javelin being wielded by one of the ExSec Exos that ambushed him. She becomes horrified when she is unable to heal him and realizes that the Valkyrie has been modified with Light-suppressing technology, meaning that Ikharos is in danger of permanently dying if he doesn't get his wound treated.
- In "Log 122A11", Captain Jacob Lee has one when he plays the broadcasted message that the Exodus Prime received from Ezyrax during their first contact in Kepler-186f's orbit. Upon hearing the alien speak in the same language used by the Ahamkara, Jacob screams at his AI helper Nomeon to shut off the message and orders an immediate data cleanse of the ship's communication logs. Not that it does him much good in the end.
- Brom appropriately has this reaction when he reunites with Formora during his travels with Eragon. Rather understandable given how he believed he had killed her in the past, only to discover decades later that not only is she still alive and well, but has it out for his blood.
Oh, My Gods!: Ikharos says "High Agonarch" in exasperation while listening to Formora explain how she freed Agnisia's Hive Ghost from his locker.
Ominous Floating Spaceship: When the Scorn raze Teirm in Chapter 25, their Ketch decloaks its invisibility device so that the starship is menacingly floating directly above the city in full view of everyone. Unlike traditional examples of this trope, here it's justified since Teirm is a medieval-level port city that hasn't even developed basic gunpower weapons, let alone any kind of proper anti-aircraft defenses capable of damaging a massive flying warship like the Ketch.
Opposing Combat Philosophies: The two main Henchmen Races that Ikharos encounters throughout the fic are the Scorn and the Exsecrati, both of whom are mutually hostile towards each other and utilize wildly different combat doctrines. The Scorn are near-feral hordes of Eliksni zombies armed with Schizo Tech weapons (ranging from primitive clubs to energy rifles) who use Hollywood Tactics such as zerg-rushing their enemies in large disorganized mobs. The Exsecrati are a consistently Technologically Advanced Foe made up of highly-intelligent robots organized into specialized squads. Also unlike the Scorn, the Exsecrati actually use more grounded military practices such small unit tactics, precision strikes, cloak-and-dagger offense, and funneling enemies into chokepoints.
Original Character:
- The first chapter makes brief mention of the Startrotters and Glazetrotters, two OC Cabal Legions which are carrying out military operations under Caiatl and Saladin's orders against the Scorn on the Glykon Volatus.
- Among the Cabal under Ikharos's command, the two given the most characterization are Val Vindica'aur and High Optus Indilic. Vindica'aur is a Centurion who acts as Ikharos's Number Two and is characterized as a naysayer of Ikharos's leadership, while Indilic is a powerful Psion sent by Caiatl to advise Ikharos on how to handle his troops.
- There's also several OC Disciples of the Witness trapped on Kepler-186f. Their names are Zendolyn-Far, Shelbth, and Xhafi.
Out-Gambitted: Ikharos and his task force get outwitted by the Scorn during the Space Battle early in the story. When the Scorn were detected arriving at the Kepler-186 system with two Ketches, Ikharos had a straightforward plan for defeating them — have the Rancis Olytus disable one of the Ketches by ramming it while he takes a squadron of Harvesters to board the other. Unfortunately for him, the Scorn have anticipated what he's going to do and outmaneuver him by sending in one Ketch to act as a decoy. Then, when the Rancis Olytus is preparing to ram it, the other Ketch warps in right next to it and spears its frontal prow through the frigate's stern (which has relatively weak shielding due to most of the ship's shields being diverted to the front in preparation for the ramming maneuver). This knocks the Rancis Olytus out of the fight and leaves the first Ketch free to reach its target uncontested.
Out-of-Genre Experience: The entirety of Chapter 4 is a classic Survival Horror story set on a deserted island with a monster hunting the survivors. You have Formora and Enduriel as the survivors who spend the day scavenging for food and exploring the area. You have Cuaroc as the Invincible Boogeyman who stalks the duo every night. Formora's only option for survival against the monster is to find shelter with the idea of fighting back never even being entertained. Even after Ikharos's jumpship crashes nearby, the chapter doesn't stop being survival horror as Ikharos is depicted as a Humanoid Abomination from Formora's POV. Vroengard having abandoned buildings and being filled with mutated creatures also gives the chapter a post-apocalyptic feel to it. The sudden appearance of a huge Scorn at the end doesn't take anything away from the chapter's tone as the story treats it as just another monster Formora has to run and hide from.
Paradise Planet: Kepler-186f gets called a paradise by the Exo Stranger, and later Ikharos when he sees it with his own eyes. This is due to its extremely Earth-like ecosystem with clean air and water untouched by the devastation that the actual Earth experienced during the Collapse.
Perception Filter: The memory-erasing enchantments protecting the Rock of Kuthian have this effect on the Cabal who are looking at it through broadcasted footage, rendering them unable to see the structure by erasing it from their short-term memory.
Pet the Dog: Though it doesn't last long, Granny Skuldu is initially grateful towards Formora for freeing her from Ikharos's locker and convinces Agnisia to spare her life upon reviving her.
Plasma Cannon:
- The Cabal frigate Rancis Olytus is armed with cannons that fire plasma bolts.
- The Heavy Frame that attacks the Cabal aboard the Exodus Prime is equipped with a Shoulder Cannon that fires charged up shots of plasma.
Power Nullifier: The two Exos that attack Ikharos in Chapter 10 come equipped with a Valkyrie javelin modified with paracausal dampening technology that allows it to generate a suppression field around the user which cancels out any Light or Darkness-based abilities and weapons. This Valkyrie can also fire blasts of Warmind energy which critically injures Ikharos and generates a dampening field around him that prevents Xiān from healing him. It's later shown that the ExSec Exo's Valkyries also work on the Disciples's Pyramid resonance technology, which is probably how they've managed to fight three Disciples to a stalemate for thousands of years.
Pragmatic Adaptation:
- Since this fic takes place after Torobatl fell to Xivu Arath, and the Cabal Empire collapsed from in-fighting and further Hive invasions, it wouldn't make any sense for two Cabal Legions to be traveling through the Kepler-186 system on a mission from Umun'arath (who by this point in the timeline was executed by Caiatl for being a Hive worshipper). Because of this, the Worldbreakers and Soulrazers from Stargazer are replaced with Caiatl's Imperial Cabal.
- Around the time Stargazer was being written and posted, Nezarec had been an obscure Destiny character with little being known about him beyond a few pieces of background lore, which allowed the author to use him as the fic's OC Stand-in Big Bad. Since this fic was written around the same time that Destiny expansions featuring Nezarec like Season of Plunder and Lightfall were released, the author's original OC interpretation of Nezarec would obviously be Outdated by Canon. Hence why this fic's Nezarec is a Composite Character of his canon and Stargazer versions, while incorporating elements from latter Destiny expansions that weren't present in Stargazer such as the Disciples of the Witness.
Properly Paranoid:
- The collection of Fictional Documents featured in the prologue reveal that Ikharos had been strongly petitioning the Vanguard to track down and finish off previously defeated Destiny antagonists who had yet to be confirmed deceased, namely the Locus of Communion, Fikrul, and Kelgorath. His argument is that these individuals are too dangerous to be left to their own devices and should be preemptively eliminated before they can snowball into a bigger threat at a later date. This fic is set between Season of Plunder and Season of the Seraph, and both the events of this fic and later expansions in the actual Destiny 2 game would confirm that Ikharos was right to be concerned. To recap:
  - The Locus fled the Sol System with an army of Scorn in order to make contact with and summon several Disciples located on the exoplanet Kepler-186f for a direct assault on Earth after they conclude their business on Alagaësia.
  - In canon, Kelgorath would indeed return several more times as a boss battle in various expansions all the way up to The Final Shape, confirming Ike's suspicions that he wasn't truly dead at the end of Season of the Lost.
  - Fikrul is also set to return as the main antagonist in the Destiny 2 expansion Episode: Revenant.
- While traveling alone with Formora through Alagaësia on foot after being separated from his Imperial Cabal troops at the end of the Vroengard arc, Ikharos mentions that neither he nor his troops have been trying to reestablish contact with each other using their comms due to the possibility that the enemy (the Exsecrati) may have a Spy Satellite in orbit that could intercept any radio chatter. Considering that it was discovered the entire planet was surrounded by a vast network of hostile Warsats which the natives mistook as stars, this is not an unreasonable fear. He's proven right as those Warmind satellites were indeed keeping tabs on his exact location ever since he and his Cabal troops arrived on Vroengard, as proven when a squad of Exsecrati Exos teleport in to ambush Ike during the middle of his duel with Zendolyn-Far in Chapter 26.
- Formora always keeps her guard up around Brom during their time traveling together in Chapter 28, and makes certain to never truly turn her back on him. This is understandable since Brom did try to kill her several times in the past, he is blatantly acting extremely Improperly Paranoid in her presence, and he has outright confessed to her that the only reason he isn't trying to kill her right now is because he knows he can't beat her in a fair fight.
Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
- Ikharos in chapter 2 while interrogating the ExSec Exo that attacked him on the Exodus Prime.
  Ikharos: Who. Are you?
- When Formora and Brom first meet Murtagh and identify him as the son of Morzan, she immediately accuses him of being one of Galbatorix's agents. Murtagh's response is to emphasize just how he feels about the king by glaring at her while spitting out "Fuck. Him."

Tropes R to Z

Radio Silence:
- In his letter to Jaxson at the end of the first chapter, Ikharos informs him that he will be going radio silent while outside the Solar System due to the secrecy of his mission.
- While traveling with Formora across the western coast of Alagaësia after being involuntarily separated from Xiān and his Cabal troops, Ikharos reveals to Formora that he can still communicate with the Cabal through their comms systems, but chose not to due to him being Properly Paranoid about Nezarec's followers being able to hack their comms through the use of a listening post from one of the satellites above.
Rage Helm: The soldiers of Val Vindica'aur's honour guard aboard the Rancis Olytus wear helmets engraved with the likenesses of snaring war beasts.
Ramming Always Works: This tactic is used by both sides during the Space Battle at the start of the story. While Ikharos, Elsie, and a squad of Cabal are aboard the Exodus Prime, a Scorn Ketch tries to ram the vessel and push it into the anomaly. Ikharos tries to counter this by ordering Vindica'aur over the radio to ram the Rancis Olytus into the Ketch to prevent it from reaching the Exodus Prime. This doesn't work due to a second Ketch performing a Hyperspeed Ambush and ramming the side of the Rancis Olytus, knocking the Cabal frigate out of the fight.
Rapid-Fire "No!": Downplayed. During the Space Battle at the start of the story, Ikharos lets out three "no's" in succession when he sees that the Rancis Olytus has been disabled and that a Scorn Ketch is preparing to ram the wreck of the Exodus Prime — the same ship that he is currently aboard.
Red Shirt:
- Aur'oxis is a Cabal Legionary who was amongst the soldiers that accompanied Ikharos when he first boarded the Exodus Prime. While going up an elevator shaft, the ship's Artificial Gravity suddenly reactivates, causing Aur'oxis to plummet to their death. They are given No Sympathy by their fellow Legionaries, who think Aur'oxis was Too Dumb to Live for not using their jetpack to save themself.
- Vrizu'ur is a War Beast that accompanies Ikharos and his team of Psions when they leave their camp to investigate Vroengard's western coast in Chapter 10. During the battle with the two Exos, Vrizu'ur tries to attack one of them, only to get eviscerated by the Exo's mechanical tendrils.
Redshirt Army:
- The Rancis Olytus crew start dying in droves once they reach the Kepler-186 system. At the start of his mission, Ikharos left the Sol System aboard the aforementioned Cabal warship with roughly five hundred Cabal and Psion soldiers under his command. Following the Space Battle with the Scorn, having their ship pushed into the Kepler-186f anomaly with no way to shield themselves from the ensuing Egregore infestations, being boarded by Scorn raiders, suddenly undergoing atmospheric reentry without warning, and crash landing their ship into an ocean, the crew of the Rancis Olytus are reduced to a little over a fifth of their original size.
  Indilic: Forty-three were terminated in the initial collision with the Scornship. Another two-hundred-and-twelve for the ensuing power loss and fall into the gravitational anomaly. Thirty-eight more are confirmed killed by Scorn boarders, five by the accompanying Egregore infestation. Three were crushed when their compartments nearest to the hull rupture were exposed to pressures from the surrounding anomaly. A final fifteen perished upon crash landing.
- The human soldiers of the Broddring Empire garrisoned at Teirm are helpless to stop a Scorn invasion and get absolutely massacred by the undead alien hordes, leaving the rest of the port city free for the taking for the Scorn.
Refusal of the Call: During the Vroengard arc, Formora repeatedly tries to turn down the call by leaving Ikharos's party multiple times and making it clear that she has no real interest in whatever business he and his Cabal have on the island.
Repeated for Emphasis:
- The Stranger in chapter 2 when Ikharos indirectly tries to pry at her knowledge of the future.
  Exo Stranger: Don't. [narrows eyes and scowls] Don't.
- Formora does this in chapter 4 while arguing with Enduriel about what to do after seeing Ikharos' jumpship crash on their island.
  Enduriel: What do we do?
  Formora: Something fell out of the sky. Something fell from the sky. What, exactly can we do about that?
  Enduriel: I don't care for your tone.
  Formora: What can we do, Enduriel?
- Formora also does this in Chapter 4 when she sees Enduriel looking at the locker containing the Hive Ghost the wrong way while holding weapons despite her having already told him to not kill it. She tells him "no" and repeats it in a way that screams "Don't even THINK about it!"
- Formora in Chapter 6 while warning Enduriel against trying to take the two Eldunarya in her possession.
  Formora: Don't. Don't.
- Done with Granny Skuldu to show her reaction to finding out where she was being kept prisoner the entire time.
  Skuldu: We're in [Ikharos's] ship. We're in his damn ship.
Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: At the start of the story, Formora is assumed by the rest of Alagaësia to be dead alongside the rest of the thirteen Forsworn, with Brom claiming credit for orchestrating her assassination more than four decades prior. In reality, Formora (and Enduriel) survived Brom's assassination attempt and faked their deaths to go into hiding on Vroengard. When Formora's party bump into Brom and Eragon while traveling through a forest in Chapter 26, neither of the two old foes are pleased to see the other is still alive and kicking.
Brom: You died. You are dead.
Formora: I live. Despite your plots, your manipulations, your attempts — I live.
The Rest Shall Pass: In Chapter 5, Ikharos and the Cabal survivors from the Rancis Olytus are climbing an underwater cliff to reach the surface when they get attacked by a Nïdhwal. Ikharos chooses to stay behind and insists on fighting the sea beast by himself while the Cabal continue on without him.
Resurrect the Villain: Zendolyn-Far explains to Ikharos that the goal of Nezarec's forces on Kepler-186f is to bring him back from the dead.
Revenge Before Reason: When Ikharos, Formora, and Angela cross paths with Brom and Eragon while traveling through the woods in Chapter 26, Formora becomes hostile as soon as she recognizes Brom and is prepared to slit his neck on the spot with her sword as payback for all the times he tried to kill her in the past. Not even Ikharos seems able to convince Formora to calm down and spare Brom's life, despite the fact that she and Brom both currently share a mutual enemy in Galbatorix and have the same goals. Subverted when Saphira swoops down to save Brom as the sight of another dragon free of Galbatorix's control causes Formora to realize that Eragon is also a new Dragon Rider like Ikharos, which is reason enough for her to immediately put aside her personal grievances against Brom in order to ensure that Eragon is properly trained.
Rewrite: This fic is a rewrite of another fanfic called Stargazer. The reason behind this was because the author felt that Stargazer's plot was losing cohesion and they found themselves dissatisfied with the direction that the original story was headed.
Rhetorical Question Blunder: Occurs while the Exo Stranger is chewing out Ikharos as part of her What the Hell, Hero? moment below.
Exo Stranger: It's you, it's always you, always bringing in new variables; how the hell am I supposed to plan around you?! Do you want me to kill you?
[Ikharos opens his mouth]
Exo Stranger: Don't. Answer that. Don't.
Ridiculously Human Robot: Exploited by Ikharos early in the story to subdue a hostile ExSec Exo he encounters while exploring the derelict Exodus Prime. Right before he was attacked, he heard the Exo make breathing noises and deduced that it was still stuck in the mindset of an organic. During their fight, he takes advantage of this by putting the Exo into a stranglehold and slitting its throat. Just as he predicted, the Exo instinctively panics and clutches its artificial throat while hacking for air, forgetting that it doesn't need oxygen to live.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: After her first meeting with Elisabeth and Ikharos, Formora retreats to an abandoned villa where she captures three Scorn Stalkers offscreen and leaves them crucified alive right outside the villa to ward off the other Scorn. When no Scorn approach her villa for over a day, Formora assumes that her crucification tactic successfully scared them off. However, Ikharos later explains to Formora that the real reason the Scorn didn't bother with her was because they considered her too much of a small fry to be worth going after. He also reveals that keeping any Scorn prisoner (like she did with the three Stalkers) poses a tremendous risk since the whole species share a Hive Mind, so all Formora really did was broadcast her position to the entire undead horde.
Rogue Planet: The second chapter opens up with Ikharos exploring the surface of a rogue planet that only just recently got pulled into the orbit of a dying star for any signs of the Scorn having stopped by there.
Save This Person, Save the World: The Exo Stranger is convinced that, in order to foil the Black Fleet's plans for Alagaësia and prevent any of the Disciples trapped on Kepler-186f from escaping into the wider universe, Ikharos must bond with the dragon egg in Formora's possession and learn the ways of the Dragon Riders. This is why she prioritizes keeping Formora alive at all costs, since the latter is the only person Elsie trusts to properly mentor Ikharos and explain to him the way the world of Inheritance Cycle works. After Ikharos unknowingly touches the dragon egg and causes it to hatch much earlier than Elsie planned, she immediately shifts gears to protecting the newborn dragonling (later named Grimnir) from anyone who would seek to harm him, including Ikharos himself pre-Character Development.
Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Murder and rape are outlawed within the Broddring Empire's borders. However, Formora bitterly notes that the Empire's soldiers responsible for enforcing those laws are oh so often exempt from them, due to a mix of rampant corruption and King Galbatorix being too apathetic to do anything about it.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- When Formora is found by Cuaroc while traveling with Skuldu and Agnisia, she abandons her new companions and flees the area. It should be noted that she was always intending to ditch those two at the earliest opportunity and Cuaroc's appearance happened to be just that.
- Skuldu and Agnisia both skedaddle in Chapter 6 when they come face to face with Zendolyn-Far after cornering Formora in Doru Araeba.
- In chapter 7, after the waking nightmare that Formora went through — including nearly dying to Cuaroc, the Scorn, a crazy Hive Ghost, and a Disciple of the Witness — she decides she wants nothing to do with whatever Ikharos and his Cabal are mixed up in and leaves the area as soon as she can walk.
- When Formora's villa is attacked by a pack of Scorn in chapter 11, an injured Ikharos helps Formora escape and asks her to contact his Cabal soldiers and bring them up to speed on what's going on. Instead, Formora outright abandons Ikharos and flees in the opposite direction of where his troops have set up camp. After fending off the Scorn and recovering from his wounds, Ikharos is none to pleased to learn that she ran out on him and issues a warrant for her capture.
Sealed Evil in a Can: The Negative Space Wedgie that has engulfed Kepler-186f was artificially created to contain at least one of the Witness's Disciples and keep them along with the planet's inhabitants trapped in an inescapable Pocket Dimension. Elsie describes the anomaly as "a cell of a prisoner's own making." The Scorn intend to help this Disciple break free so they can rally their forces for an attack on Sol. It's eventually revealed by Elsie that it's not just one Disciple that's stuck on Kepler-186f but several.
Seen It All: In Chapter 6, Formora has to contend with several Outside Context Problems trying to kill her in the same night, each of whom display abilities that she's never encountered. These include a mechanical Draconic Humanoid, an army of self-reviving Scorn, and a Hive Ghost alongside its Lightbearer Wizard. By the time Elsie finds her, Formora is so numbed with shock that she can't find it in herself to be surprised anymore and takes Elsie's appearance as an Exo in stride.
Self-Inflicted Hell: Vroengard was this mixed with Ironic Hell for Formora. It is clear she was absolutely miserable surviving on that abandoned island where Everything Is Trying to Kill You for over forty years, especially since her only real companion during that time was a backstabbing thug who'd gladly murder her in her sleep if circumstances didn't demand otherwise. From her introduction scene, Formora is teetering on the edge of the Despair Event Horizon. The only reason she was able keep it together and stave off being Driven to Suicide for that long was by distracting herself with the sheer monotony of her soul-sucking daily routine. In simpler words, she was too bored to think about ending it all. And the worst part is that she could've easily escaped that situation at any time since she had a working sailboat and knew how to navigate the ocean without a map. However, she chose to consign herself to life on what was basically a miniature Death World by using her fear of Galbatorix as an excuse. It's worth noting that Formora finally sailing away from Vroengard with Ikharos at the end of the first story arc coincides with the point in the story where her character Took a Level in Cheerfulness.
Serial Escalation: In-universe, Ikharos previously had to kill one Disciple of the Witness in the form of Rhulk inside the Sunken Pyramid within Savathûn's Throne World, which Ikharos considers to have been the single toughest battle he's ever fought up to that point. On Kepler-186f, Ikharos discovers that he'll now have to deal with three Disciples as well as prevent a fourth (Nezarec) from being resurrected from the dead.
Setting Update: Stargazer begins between the events of Shadowkeep and Season of Arrivals. This fic takes place a lot later in Destiny's timeline, being set after Season of the Haunted. This is shown by the inclusion of story elements that were absent in the original such as Ikharos using Stasis and a glaive, the Guardians being in a tenuous alliance with the Cabal, and the existence of the Witness and its Disciples.
Shout-Out:
- While fondly reminiscing how she and her fellow Ghosts used to play tabletop games in the Tower's basement back on Earth in their spare time, Skuldu is in the middle of asking Formora if she's ever played Dungeons & Dragons when she gets interrupted.
- Elsie identifies the memory-erasing enchantments protecting the Rock of Kuthian as a cognito-hazard.
Sinister Scraping Sound: While staying in an abandoned barn for the night, Formora hears the sound of metal scraping over stone outside and knows that it's from Cuaroc dragging its greatsword along the cobblestone path leading to the barn's entrance.
Solar Sail: The abandoned colony ship Exodus Prime that Ikharos and his crew find in orbiting Kepler-186f is described as having solar sails.
Space Base: Nezarec's followers and their Warmind Mecha-Mooks stationed on Kepler-186f have built their own futuristic civilization hidden from the rest of the planet (including Alagaësia) which they've successfully maintained for thousands of years using an impossibly vast network of satellite bases locked in stationary orbit above the atmosphere. These satellites serve various functions; surveillance, barracks, armories, laboratories, forges, cradles, you name it. There are so many of them that they literally get mistaken for stars by everyone not in the know on the planet below.
Space Battle: The third chapter features a space battle near the anomaly with Ikharos's task force consisting of a single Cabal frigate and a handful of gunships going up against the Locus's fleet of two Scorn Ketches and a few dozen Skiffs.
Spared by the Adaptation:
- Just like in the fic Stargazer, Formora and Enduriel are introduced still being alive around the same time that the events of the book Eragon took place, when both of them are actually long dead by the start of that book.
- In canon, the Young Wolf kills Savathûn's Right Hand and destroys her Hive Ghost during The Witch Queen campaign. Here, it's revealed that Ikharos secretly trapped her Ghost aboard his jumpship until Formora freed it, resulting in the Right Hand (who is given the name Agnisia) being revived on Vroengard.
Speak Ill of the Dead:
- When Zendolyn-Far notices Ikharos is wielding Rhulk's signature glaive and he confirms that Rhulk is indeed dead by his hand, she is seemingly relieved at the death of her fellow Disciple (and likely superior given his seniority over her as the First Disciple) and remarks how she always personally found Rhulk to be insufferable whenever she was forced to interact with him in the past.
- Much to Ike's fury, Val Vindica'aur dismissively mocks Katabasis's death at the Locus's hands by referring to the slain Hunter as a "weakling traitor".
- When Ikharos inquires about Formora's relationship with her now deceased fellow elf Enduriel in Chapter 21, she posthumously describes Enduriel as a "reckless, rude, tactless thug" and a brute who was "more human than elf". This is the same elf with whom Formora had lived alongside on Vroengard for just under half a century.
Stealth Hi/Bye: In chapter 10, Ikharos is having a discussion with Zendolyn by the cliffside when he gets distracted by two ExSec Exos teleporting in behind him. When he turns back around to look at Zendolyn, he finds that she has already disappeared.
Stealth in Space: The Shadow Trespass is a jumpship that uses an electromagnetic sight-sheath to generate a stealth field around itself to keep it from being seen by other ships.
Suddenly Shouting: While battling a Nïdhwal in chapter 5, Ikharos does this in anger when he realizes that he's lost his precious knife after stabbing it in the Nïdhwal's eye.
Ikharos: Where's- [sees his knife stuck in Nïdhwal's eye] THAT'S MY FUCKING KNIFE!
Suicide by Cop: Attempted by Formora in Chapter 9. After many hours of drinking wine and smoking a plant that's implied to be the Alagaësian equivalent of weed, Formora stares out the window of her villa and catches the attention of a Scorn Chieftain outside, who aims its energy rifle at her. In her drugged state, Formora finds that she can't see the point in living and waits for the Chieftain to shoot her. Fortunately, Zendolyn-Far saves her by opening a portal that swallows up the Chieftain at the last moment.
Summon Bigger Fish: When Formora is trapped in an Enclosed Space aboard the Shadow Trespass with a Scorn Raider that refuses to die, she resorts to releasing a Hive Ghost named Skuldu from the container that Ikharos had trapped it in. Skuldu proceeds to revive her partner Agnisia, a powerful Lightbearer Wizard who effortlessly disintegrates the Raider with a single spell, then goes on to slaughter all the Scorn that were waiting outside the jumpship. This gets played with since Formora had to be convinced by Skuldu to free her and only did so out of desperation after seeing the Raider shrug off everything she tried to throw at it.
Surveillance Drone: The Awoken use surveillance drones disguised as crows. Ikharos owns six of these, which he has Indilic deploy in Chapter 7 to scout out Vroengard as well as spy on Formora after she leaves.
Switching P.O.V.: Beginning in Chapter 4, the viewpoint alternates between Ikharos and Formora with a single POV provided for each chapter. The fic also occasionally provides A Day in the Limelight-style interludes focusing on a side character.
Tactical Withdrawal: In Chapter 5, Ikharos orders the surviving crew of the sunken Rancis Olytus to Abandon Ship and retreat to the nearby island of Vroengard. This is because they are all sitting ducks for the Scorn so long as they stay holed up in the crashed ship, which still has a Ketch full of Scorn rammed into its hull. If they flee to the island, they can recoup their losses in a much more defensible position and eventually launch savage operation to retake whatever remains of the Rancis Olytus from the Scorn. As is in character for Cabal, Vindica'aur objects to the idea of retreating, but Ikharos doesn't care and says as much through Brutal Honesty.
Taking You with Me: Narrowly averted in Chapter 5. After the Rancis Olytus is rendered permanently inoperable from crashing into the sea surrounding Vroengard, Val Vindica'aur attempts to go out in a blaze of glory by reactivating the ship's heavy cannons to fire explosive rounds at the Scornship still lodged in the side of her ship's hull. She is stopped by Ikharos, who arrives just in time to countermand her orders in favor of abandoning ship.
Technicolor Blade:
- Like in Stargazer, Formora's signature Rider sword is a sabre named Vaeta that has a brightsteel blade colored in such a beautiful shade of oak brown that it could easily be mistaken for a wooden sword at first glance.
- Galbatorix is shown dual-wielding a pair of Rider swords (one with a blue blade and one with a red blade) in the memory of the past that Ikharos views through Deepsight in Chapter 10.
- Glaerun's Rider sword was a rapier that had its blade colored stone-grey like the scales of his dragon.
- Múspel is a flamberge with an orange-and-red colored brightsteel blade that originally belonged to a Dragon Rider named Peredhón, then fell into Formora's possession after Peredhón died. She gives it to Ikharos to use as a weapon while they are traveling together across Alagaësia's west coast.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
- It's made clear early on that Vindica'aur dislikes working with Ikharos and only follows his orders because her rank and honor is on the line. Her main gripe seems to be over how she has to act subordinate to someone outside the traditional Cabal chain of command. Ikharos does little to alleviate tensions, accidentally disrespecting her in front of her own officers at one point and regularly keeping her Locked Out of the Loop until the last minute. Their relationship grows worse as the story goes on as Vindica'aur blames Ikharos for stranding them on Kepler-186f and inadvertently getting most of her troops killed.
- Despite being fellow Forsworn and having lived together for decades, Formora and Enduriel despise each other and can barely tolerate the other's presence. The only thing keeping them together is that fact that they need each other to survive on Vroengard and trying to go their separate ways would be tantamount to suicide with Cuaroc still hunting for them on the island.
The Teetotaler: Formora and Enduriel refrained from any drinking during their time on Vroengard since they needed to keep their heads clear if they wanted to live to see another day on the island. After Enduriel's death, Formora figures since she's now alone with nowhere on the island truly being safe, she might as well indulge herself with some of the creature comforts she denied herself for decades like fine wine.
Telepathy:
- Per canon, all Alagaësian dragons, Eldunarí, and elves are natural telepaths. Also potential any magic users in Alagaësia can become a telepath with enough training.
- Psions use their psionic powers to communicate with others telepathically rather than verbally.
- The Scorn can hear thoughts as though they were spoken aloud, which is how they are able to keep finding Formora and Agaravel on Vroengard as both communicate with each other telepathically.
Terms of Endangerment: Granny Skuldu constantly addresses Formora using the pet name "dearie". She continues to do this even while giving her an Implied Death Threat and doggedly pursuing her throughout Vroengard.
That Makes Me Feel Angry: Ikharos while chewing out Xiān as part of his Anger Born of Worry moment in Chapter 5.
Ikharos: As much as I'd like to say I'm not angry, that I'm just disappointed, that isn't the case at all. I'm angry and disappointed.
That Wasn't a Request: After reviving Agnisia and saving Formora from a Scorn Raider, Skuldu is ready to leave the Shadow Trespass and asks Formora if she wants to come with them. When Formora fails to answer due to being distracted by the sight of Enduriel's corpse, Skuldu then clarifies that she wasn't actually giving her a choice in the matter.
Skuldu: You want out or naw? [Formora remains silent] 'Fraid that question was rhetorical, dearie; c'mon. Now.
That's an Order!:
- Ikharos to Vindica'aur when she objects to his plan to ram the Rancis Olytus into the Locus' Ketch.
  Ikharos: Unless you want to run back to your Empress with your tail between your legs, we stop them here. That is an order. Defy it at your own peril.
- Happens between Ikharos and Vindica'aur again in Chapter 10 when she wants to immediately go after Agnisia upon learning of her location and voices her discontent with him when he asks her to be patient.
  Ikharos: You mistake me, Val. I am your commander. What I ask of you is no request but an order. I am not pleading for your patience; I am demanding it.
- In the Apocalyptic Log from Chapter 12, Jacob Lee (the now-deceased captain of the Exodus Prime) says this verbatim to his ship's AI system Nomeon while trying to get into contact with his ship's Exo security team after discovering that Warmind Scipio has gone rogue. Unfortunately for Lee, Scipio was already one step ahead and had ship security Thrown Out the Airlock hours before Lee woke up from cryosleep.
That's No Moon: After crashing his jumpship on Vroengard, Ikharos and Xiān notice the presence of what appear to be stars in the sky, which they find strange since the planet they're on is located inside a Pocket Dimension separate from the rest of the known universe. Indilic suspects that the stars are part of an illusion meant to fool the planet's inhabitants. It's not until later in Chapter 10 do they realize that the lights in the night sky aren't stars but Kill Sats.
Threat Backfire:
- After leaving Ikharos at the end of Chapter 7, Formora tries to intimidate the remaining Scorn on Vroengard into staying away by capturing Stalkers and crucifying them to wooden posts outside the abandoned villa she was staying at. Ikharos informs her that this would only attract more Scorn to the area since all Scorn are linked by a Hive Mind.
- In Chapter 13, Elsie is frustrated with Formora's obstinance and refusal to cooperate, so she deliberately presses the latter's Berserk Button by making a "Not So Different" Remark comparing her to Galbatorix. An incensed Formora then makes this threat towards the robotic woman:
  Formora: Watch your tongue lest I cut it out.
  Elsie: Yeah? Good luck with that. It's some hundred of lightyears away and buried under several kilometers of ice, but if you're set on it…
Too Much Alike: Ikharos and Formora are both extremely stubborn, prideful, vengeful, have difficulty trusting others, and are convinced they are the sole Only Sane Man in the room. When Elsie tries to introduce them to each other and get them to work together, they repeatedly find it difficult because of their similar personalities clashing.
Tracking Device: In Chapter 7, Ikharos gives Formora a small distress beacon which she can use to transmit her position if she ever needs his help in the future.
Trading Bars for Stripes: It's mentioned by Ikharos that the Blind Legion (one of the Cabal scout legions from the first Destiny game) was a penal legion. This would explain why the Psion conscripts within this legion had bombs implanted in the heads when the Psions from the Imperial Cabal didn't.
Trapped-with-Monster Plot:
- While not the focus of the plot, at the start of the story, Formora and Enduriel have spent close to four decades stuck on a deserted island with a metal beast hunting them. This is downplayed in that the two chose to stay on Vroengard because it's the last place that anyone would ever think to look for them.
- In chapter 6, Formora ends up stuck in a locked storage room aboard the Shadow Trespass with a Scorn Raider trying to kill her that constantly heals from any damage she deals to it.
Trespassing to Talk: In Chapter 2, when Ikharos returns to the Shadow Trespass after exploring a Rogue Planet, he finds the Exo Stranger casually sprawled across his couch inside, waiting for him to talk about his current mission. This gets played with since the Stranger is actually the ship's original owner, having built and designed it herself before it came into Ikharos's possession — something that she is quick to point out to him.
Trust Password: After rescuing Formora from Zendolyn, Elsie brings her back to the crashed Shadow Trespass and gives her a code phrase for when Ikharos finds her: "Paladin Oran built everyone's haven after Vesta's end. Faulty orientation offsets latency." Upon hearing Formora repeat this phrase, Ikharos lets her go free instead of allowing his Psions to detain and question her.
Try to Fit That on a Business Card:
- How Ikharos introduces himself to Formora.
  Ikharos: Ikharos Torstil. Warlock — Voidwalker, Shadebinder, Resonator, Sunsinger and Stormcaller.
  Formora: Are those titles? Am I supposed to be impressed?
  Ikharos: It's more of a resumé.
- The Big Bad Nezarec has his own array of titles which include Nightmare Lord, the Prince Invincible, Luna's Haunted, Father of Kinslaying, and Icon of Sin.
Two of Your Earth Minutes: When Ikharos asks Indilic for an update on Formora's location in Chapter 8, Indilic replies that she was spotted at a hamlet "just one of your hours ago."
Unusable Enemy Equipment: When Ikharos and the Stranger are trapped aboard the Exodus Prime after it enters the anomaly, he notes that he's running low on ammunition and asks her about using the guns carried by the Exos and Frames they killed, only for her to tell him that those weapons are all biometrically-locked to their owners. He later independently confirms this is true in Chapter 26 when he unsuccessfully tries to use the firearms stolen from a hostile Exo squad he slew.
Use Your Head: At one point during Ikharos's fight with the Exo onboard the Exodus Prime, the Exo slams its head into his helmeted face after being disarmed of its knife. The Exo also tries headbutting Ikharos again when the latter attempts to interrogate it, only for Ikharos to freeze it mid-headbutt.
Victory by Endurance: In Chapter 6, Formora gets locked in a room aboard the Shadow Trespass with a Scorn Raider. Despite being more skilled than her opponent, Formora soon finds herself at a disadvantage as the Raider's Resurrective Immortality allows it to almost instantly recover from anything she throws at it. She realizes that if this keeps going on, she will wind up exhausting herself from constantly spending energy in her attacks. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), Formora avoids this outcome by freeing a Hive Ghost being kept prisoner in the same room. The Ghost then revives its Lightbearer Wizard who proceeds to make short work of the Raider.
Villain Episode:
- The chapter "howling for the moon" is told entirely from the perspective of Agnisia as she and her Hive Ghost Skuldu try to make sense of where exactly in the universe they are and how they are going to get back home while hiding out on Vroengard from the Scorn and Ikharos's forces.
- "Interlude: Haruspex I" is told from the POV of Zendolyn-Far, one of the OC Disciples of the Witness featured in this fic, and details her whole origin story.
Villainesses Want Heroes: The Nightmare of Dûl Incaru almost seems to have a crush to Ikharos, borderline flirting with him in their interactions and generally having No Sense of Personal Space. Ikharos doesn't reciprocate and wants nothing more than for her to leave him alone.
Villainous Rescue: Near the end of Chapter 9, Zendolyn-Far saves a drunken Formora from a Scorn Cheiftain that was about to snipe her from afar by opening a portal right below the Chieftain's feet before it can make the shot.
Walk, Don't Swim: In Chapter 5, Ikharos and the Cabal survivors walk along the seafloor to reach the island of Vroengard from the sunken wreckage of the Rancis Olytus because the power armor worn by the Cabal soldiers make them too heavy to swim.
We Are as Mayflies: Discussed in Chapter 9. Formora outright refers to the dwarves and urgals as mayflies while comparing their lifespans (which are similar to humans) to that of elves. Ikharos lampshades this trope by correctly pointing out that how mayflies being short-lived is just a myth. Mayflies actually have multi-year lifespans, but spend nearly all of that time as nympths and only reach adulthood at the end of their lives. Formora still thinks that her mayfly comparison is applicable since (from her perspective) dwarves and urgals only gain wisdom in their waning years, at which point it is too late for them to do anything with it.
We Have Those, Too: While sailing from Vroengard to mainland Alagaësia aboard Formora's ship in Chapter 20, Ikharos starts talking about how he has a Lightworlder body due to growing up in a low gravity environment, then briefly inquires if Formora knows what gravity is given how she seems to be from a technologically primitive society. Formora is offended by the question and snaps back that, yes, the elves do in fact possess knowledge of gravity.
Wealthy Yacht Owner: Lampshaded. During the Golden Age, Elsie was part of the extremely wealthy and influential Bray family. Upon being told that she is the original owner of the Shadow Trespass, Ikharos sarcastically asks Elsie if his Jumpship used to be her family's yacht.
Wham Episode:
- The short chapter "piecing together a different life" sees Formora under Shelbth's mind control lead Eragon, Brom, Murtagh, and Saphira into a trap where Saphira is captured by the Scorn while the other three are also infected by Shelbth's mind virus. Additionally, we learn the full origin story of Shelbth.
- "a surgery of will" finally introduces Xhafi, the previously-unseen leader of the Disciples on Kepler, in-person as a captive Ikharos is brought to the Disciples' mountain hideout and is forcibly transformed into the newest Disciple of the Witness—specifically a Subjugator of the Dread race who wields the OC element Solvent—in a process that twists his mind. However, Dauthné (the renamed Ikharos after being turned into a Disciple) quickly goes rogue, kills Shelbth's primary host, drives off Xhafi, and effectively coerces Zendolyn-Far into serving him instead as the fallen Guardian decides to Take Over the World and becomes another player in the story's Big Bad Ensemble.
What the Hell Are You?:
- Formora asks this of Skuldu upon hearing the Hive Ghost speak for the first time and finding herself unable to bypass her mental defenses. She also asks Skuldu this about Agnisia after witnessing her resurrection and use of unfamiliar magic, to which she is flippantly told not to worry about it.
- This is one of the questions that Formora asks the Exo Stranger after seeing her robotic appearance. The Stranger gives the short answer "Exomind", then provides a quick and abridged definition of the term, which Formora barely understands given Alagaësia's Medieval Stasis.
- Ikharos asks this of Zendolyn-Far the first time he meets her face-to-face in Chapter 10.
What the Hell, Hero?:
- Elsie is absolutely livid when she learns from Formora that Ikharos had been keeping Skuldu and Agnisia captive aboard the Shadow Trespass the entire time. Upon reuniting with Ikharos in Chapter 8, she immediately decks him across the face and furiously calls him out over the idiocy of bringing a Hive Lightbearer with him to Kepler.
- At the end of Chapter 14, Elsie tries to convince Ikharos to stage a rescue mission after Formora is taken captive by Cuaroc and brought to the Rock of Kuthian where she will most likely be killed by the Eldunarí inside the Vault of Souls. However, Ikharos has no interest in doing so as he views that as a waste of time and resources. When Elsie lets it slip that Formora has a newly-hatched dragonling that bonded to Ikharos as his Rider, this only cements Ikharos's decision to not save her due to his Fantastic Racism against dragons. Elsie's pleas that the Eldunarí will kill Formora if they don't do something causes Ikharos to callously respond that Elsie should hurry then. Before teleporting away, Elsie stares at him one last time before whispering "Oh Ikharos. When did you turn so Dark?"
- Ikharos gives one to Elsie in Chapter 27 where he questions whether she truly cares about him or has his best interests at heart. He brings up how she always kept him Locked Out of the Loop throughout the story, meaning that he had to fly blind with what little information he had and constantly stumbled into danger, facing unnecessary hardship and struggle at every step of the journey. Elsie replies by insisting "It was better that way" and continues to give him vague instructions, failing to disprove Ikharos's accusations against her. Before she teleports away, he reminds her that he still put out a warrant for her arrest and vows that his Cabal soldiers will eventually catch up to her.
What Were You Thinking?:
- Ikharos's reaction to finding out that his Ghost followed him into the anomaly, which was the exact opposite of what he told her to do.
  Ikharos: What the hell were you thinking?!
  Xiān: Hiya, PLEASE don't be mad. I couldn't leave you!
- The Exo Stranger, massively pissed off, asks this of Ikharos while chewing him out over secretly keeping a captive Hive Ghost onboard the Shadow Trespass.
Who Needs Their Whole Body?:
- In Chapter 6, after seeing a Raider get back up less than a minute after she decapitated it, Formora tries slicing it in half with her sword. This proves to be even less effective than cutting off its head was, as the upper half of the Scorn's body continues dragging itself across the floor without even pausing.
- In Chapter 10, Ikharos slices a hostile Exo in half using his glaive, only for the Exo's upper torso to crawl after him by using the nanomachines in its body to form mechanical tendrils to drag itself across the ground.
Why Isn't It Attacking?: In Chapter 5, Ikharos swims to the crash site of the Rancis Olytus and finds the ship laying at the bottom of the sea with a Scorn Ketch still rammed into its stern. After fighting his way through some Scorn boarders and locating the ship's survivors, he notes how odd it is that the Scorn from the nearby Ketch haven't tried to Zerg Rush the Rancis Olytus like they usually would. This makes him paranoid that the Scorn are either trying to distract them or are preparing some sort of trap, so he orders the survivors to Abandon Ship and head for a nearby island to set up temporary fortifications.
Worf Had the Flu: Brom is able to defeat Ikharos and send him falling off a cliff, despite Ikharos being a semi-immortal god-killer with multiple Elemental Powers and sci-fi tech, whereas Brom is a mere former Dragon Rider armed with a bow and arrow. The only reason this happened was because Ikharos was distracted being mentally tormented by multiple Nightmares including a vengeful apparition of Rhulk himself, leaving Ikharos's guard down long enough for Brom to shoot him with an arrow. Before that, Ikharos had singlehandedly fought off Eragon, Brom, Saphira, and Formora all at once during their Let's You and Him Fight encounter.
Wrong Context Magic:
- A fundamental law of the magic system in Inheritance Cycle is that no one can come Back from the Dead because the soul dies with the body.^note The Scorn casually flaunt this rule with their very existence, being Eliksni who've died and then had their corpses reanimated through the use of Dark Ether. They can also continually resurrect themselves anytime they're killed with certain individuals like the Scorned Barons even keeping their memories of their past lives. For Formora, witnessing a Raider that she just decapitated suddenly get back up was a reality-shattering experience.
- The Scorn's method of Resurrective Immortality also works differently from that of Shades. With Shades, it at least takes some time for them to rematerialize after being destroyed and they can still be permanently killed by being stabbed through the heart. With Scorn, it takes less than a minute for them to self-revive and they don't have any body parts that can be exploited as an Achilles' Heel. Also, Shades are living people possessed by evil spirits rather than actual zombies like the Scorn.
Wrong Insult Offence: During a Enemy Within moment in Chapter 22, Ikharos is told that he is a conqueror by the Nightmare of Rhulk. Ikharos responds by correcting him, stating "No. I'm a murderer. I leave the intricacies of those loftier logistics to others more suited."
X-Ray Vision: In Chapter 4, Formora casts a spell that allows her to see through the door of the locker containing Skuldu onboard the Shadow Trespass.
Year Inside, Hour Outside: As was the case in Stargazer, time moves significantly faster on Kepler-186f compared to the rest of the universe courtesy of Nezarec's anomaly. Ikharos learns from Angela in Chapter 27 that while only five centuries have passed for the people of the Sol System and the wider Destiny universe since the Exodus Prime left the Sol System and traveled to Kepler-186, almost eight thousand years have passed for the denizens of Alagaësia and the other continents on Kepler-186f.
You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Elsie addressing Ikharos as Ike in Chapter 8 after his battle with Cuaroc. Up until that point, she had only addressed Ikharos by his full first name, and even specifically warned Formora against calling him Ike. So when she suddenly starts shouting "Ike!" to his face, it's clear that something has gone very wrong. This manages to snap Ikharos out of the magic-induced stupor he had fallen into as a result of getting exposed to the cognito-hazard surrounding the Rock of Kuthian.
"You!" Exclamation: Formora's response to seeing Brom again in Chapter 26 is to immediately leap out of cover and press her sword against his neck while hissing "You! You!" at the man who had tried to kill her so long ago. Brom responds by looking like he's seen a ghost as he echoes back "You" in a horrified gasp.

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