Hope Spot: A tragic example In Last Stand. It seems there might not be a war after all, and everything is going to work out -no, wait, never mind. Some bad guys just slit a foreign prisoner's throat live on TV broadcasting everywhere. So close. Skulduggery Pleasant is a series of dark fantasy novels written by Irish author Derek Landy. Tom Percival is the series' illustrator. The books revolve around the adventures of fledgling detective Valkyrie Cain and her mentor Skulduggery Pleasant, along with other friends and allies. The central story concerns Valkyrie's struggle to stop evil forces threatening the world and her internal struggle to resist the darkness within.

There's about three hundred years between Ghastly and Tanith, give or take a century or two. Though, given the age of most sorcerers, this is most probably still acceptable in their society. Meaningful Name: Invoked and encouraged in-universe. Magic users can cast harmful spells on people if they know the person's given name. As a result, most of them take a second, self-chosen name (or a 'taken' n The Plague Doctor's mission to deal with what seems to be the Faceless Ones, but actually Obsidian, who's the Bigger Fish to them and literally everything else, is to summon Darquesse. It works. Midnight: Cadaverous Gant, Abyssinia's former Dragon who betrays her after he realizes that she won't honor her promises to him, setting up his own revenge scheme against her and Valkyrie.If you count Darquesse and Lord Vile as being the same as Valkyrie and Skulduggery then they definitely count here.

Cliffhanger: Pretty much standard for the end of each book if not a Wham Line to end things off though The Faceless Ones takes the cake with Skulduggery trapped within a parallel dimension with the Faceless Ones. The Legend of Chekhov: Skulduggery recounts the legend of the Sceptre of the Ancients to Valkyrie, insisting that it's completely untrue and the Sceptre is "highly unlikely" to exist. Naturally, he's holding the non-existant Sceptre in his skeletal hands soon afterward. Valkyrie has several of these with her friend Tanith, after the latter is possessed by a Remnant. Unfortunately, none of them succeed. Skulduggery himself has a quirky sense of humour that may or may not be a symptom of insanity, but absolutely no one doubts his power or efficiency.Dying Declaration of Love: Valkyrie to Skulduggery before he makes the sacrifice needed to shut down the Accelerator. Of course, she had no way of knowing that him shoving Ravel into it instead would qualify... Skulduggery: Well, the stories are nothing compared to the truth, and the truth is nothing compared to what I'll do to you if Valkyrie gets hurt. I'm the worst enemy you could ever make, Silas. Look at me and answer honestly. Do you believe me?

When a Faceless One possesses someone that person becomes featureless: the person's hair falls out and their eyeballs, mouth and nose melt away, similar to Kith. Bolton Children's Book Award 2008 at Bolton Literacy Trust". Boltonliteracytrust.org.uk . Retrieved 18 November 2012. [ permanent dead link] Katanas Are Just Better: Tanith's sword is apparently one. Her silhouette in the first book's cover makes it more obvious. Deathbringer the Adorable: The Cannibal Clan in Myosotis Terra often talk about "The Beast" and how "The Beast must be fed!" What they mean by this is that if they don't feed their small, fluffy pet monster, it will starve, and the leader of the Clan really doesn't want that. Co-Dragons: Mevolent had Nefarian Serpine, Baron Vengeous and Lord Vile. Serpine was the cunning one and de facto second in command, Vengeous was the loyal fanatic and Vile was the one who he pointed in the general direction of whatever he wanted dead.In Mortal Coil, Craven mentions that he wears thermals underneath his Necromancer robes. We see them in Death Bringer when Valkyrie sets fire to them. Mages have their own neighbourhoods in mortal towns that are intentionally made to look bad so mortals leave them alone. Apocalypse Kings: The three titular gods (the Deathless, the Cythraul, and the Sathariel), ancient enemies of the Faceless Ones who seek to destroy the world and deny them their homeland. Valkyrie finds out that Skulduggery and Lord Vile are the same person in Death Bringer, which so far has remained a secret from almost everyone else. China Sorrows is implied to have learned the truth in Last Stand of Dead Men, and Tanith Low discovers the truth in Seasons of War.