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Hexwood

 Hexwood
type
TVTItem
 Hexwood
label
Hexwood
 Hexwood
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Hexwood
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A novel by Diana Wynne Jones. A powerful magical artifact from the center of the galaxy, buried on Earth, becomes active and distorts reality in its neighborhood.
 Hexwood
fetched
2023-08-11T07:29:35Z
 Hexwood
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2023-08-11T07:29:35Z
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Dropped link to GenreBusting: Not a Feature - IGNORE
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processingComment
Dropped link to OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
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processingUnknown
OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness
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isPartOf
DBTropes
 Hexwood / int_13d7a65e
type
The Artifact
 Hexwood / int_13d7a65e
comment
The Artifact: With the sole exception of Reigner One, none of the other Reigners actually are Reigners. Their species was carefully exterminated or exiled centuries ago, and the current group are just ordinary Human Aliens who empower themselves with a lot of very expensive technology. Even Reigner One is only a half-blood Reigner, and the others are extremely disturbed when he casually reveals that their Servant, Mordion, is in fact full-blooded.
 Hexwood / int_13d7a65e
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_13d7a65e
 Hexwood / int_154aa477
type
Big, Screwed-Up Family
 Hexwood / int_154aa477
comment
Big, Screwed-Up Family: Practically everyone is distantly related to Martellian Pender, the previous First Reigner. Ironically enough, the only two major characters who probably aren't — Reigners Three and Four — are sister and brother.
 Hexwood / int_154aa477
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1.0
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_154aa477
 Hexwood / int_22cf536c
type
Chekhov's Gun
 Hexwood / int_22cf536c
comment
Chekhov's Gun: As Vierran departs the House of Balance for Earth, her father smuggles her a gift: a bracelet that hides a gun loaded with poison darts, as well as a message tape. The gun itself never gets fired, but the tape later provides a major revelation for Vierran.
 Hexwood / int_22cf536c
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1.0
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1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_22cf536c
 Hexwood / int_281de59f
type
Extremely Short Timespan
 Hexwood / int_281de59f
comment
Extremely Short Timespan: All told, the events of the book take place over about a fortnight. Inside the Bannus, however, many years pass.
 Hexwood / int_281de59f
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1.0
 Hexwood / int_281de59f
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_281de59f
 Hexwood / int_2f329e3c
type
Tomato in the Mirror
 Hexwood / int_2f329e3c
comment
Tomato in the Mirror: "Ann Stavely"/Vierran Guaranty
 Hexwood / int_2f329e3c
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 Hexwood / int_2f329e3c
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_2f329e3c
 Hexwood / int_2f36d97
type
Older Than They Look
 Hexwood / int_2f36d97
comment
Older Than They Look: Hume, who spends most of the book bouncing around between the ages of five and sixteen, is actually Martellian Pender, the original Reigner One, known throughout Earth history and mythology under various guises, most notably Merlin. When he recovers his memories at the end of the book, he ages up a bit to compensate.
 Hexwood / int_2f36d97
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1.0
 Hexwood / int_2f36d97
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Hexwood / int_2f36d97
 Hexwood / int_37690091
type
Stable Time Loop
 Hexwood / int_37690091
comment
When Yam is discovered by Ann and Hume at Hexwood Farm, Hume already knows who he is, since Yam was the first person he met after he was "born", and Yam had already been sworn to protect Hume by Mordion in both of their personal futures, which doesn't happen until after Hume and Ann rescue Yam and bring him back to Mordion.
 Hexwood / int_37690091
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Hexwood / int_37690091
 Hexwood / int_3b99a9e0
type
Reality Warper
 Hexwood / int_3b99a9e0
comment
Reality Warper: The Bannus. It was designed to be a sophisticated decision-making machine; a scenario would be presented to it, and the Bannus would alter local spacetime to act out the scenario and all possible outcomes until the desired result was found. It also has the power to select new Reigners, preventing any one group from staying in control for too long. Because of its unreliability, it was shut down and hidden on Earth. A secondary reality warp field is the Woods in which most of the action takes place. It interferes with and provides assistance to the Bannus in equal measure, and makes things much more complicated than they might have been otherwise.
 Hexwood / int_3b99a9e0
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1.0
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1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_3b99a9e0
 Hexwood / int_4180cb75
type
Alternate Identity Amnesia
 Hexwood / int_4180cb75
comment
Alternate Identity Amnesia: Pretty much every character.
 Hexwood / int_4180cb75
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1.0
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Hexwood / int_4180cb75
 Hexwood / int_4e7c4536
type
Wham Line
 Hexwood / int_4e7c4536
comment
Wham Line: Vierran, in a hotel outside the Bannus field with Reigners One and Three, listens to a secret tape her father smuggled to her. After his message is over, another voice plays:
 Hexwood / int_4e7c4536
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 Hexwood / int_4e7c4536
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_4e7c4536
 Hexwood / int_4f84cdef
type
Smug Snake
 Hexwood / int_4f84cdef
comment
Smug Snake: Reigner Four.
 Hexwood / int_4f84cdef
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1.0
 Hexwood / int_4f84cdef
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1.0
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Hexwood / int_4f84cdef
 Hexwood / int_537dd8fe
type
Affably Evil
 Hexwood / int_537dd8fe
comment
Affably Evil: Reigner One. He looks and behaves like a kindly grandfather, offering soothing words and candy. He also orders the torture and termination of these children if they don't behave to his liking.
 Hexwood / int_537dd8fe
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1.0
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1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_537dd8fe
 Hexwood / int_570f2124
type
Minor Injury Overreaction
 Hexwood / int_570f2124
comment
Minor Injury Overreaction: King Ambitas's "wound that won't heal", which forces him to remain bedridden, turns out to be nothing more than a nasty bruise he received just before crossing over from reality into the field of the Bannus. Mordion has to fight not to burst out laughing when he is called upon to "administer" to the wound.
 Hexwood / int_570f2124
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1.0
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1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_570f2124
 Hexwood / int_677ecaa9
type
People Farms
 Hexwood / int_677ecaa9
comment
People Farms: The Reigners specifically "breed" their Servants, ordering "chosen" girls to "breed" with their Servant, and then "farming" the offspring until they find out which ones they have to cull. Yes, it is freaky as all get out.
 Hexwood / int_677ecaa9
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1.0
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1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_677ecaa9
 Hexwood / int_72c8b35c
type
When She Smiles
 Hexwood / int_72c8b35c
comment
When She Smiles: Mordion is a male example. Early on, Ann notes that he is clearly well aware of the effect his smile has on others, and uses it to get what he wants.
 Hexwood / int_72c8b35c
featureApplicability
1.0
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featureConfidence
1.0
 Hexwood
hasFeature
Hexwood / int_72c8b35c
 Hexwood / int_7c862b8a
type
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
 Hexwood / int_7c862b8a
comment
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Once the Bannus's plot kicks into action, the Reigners are too busy trying to wipe each other out to wonder what's really going on.
 Hexwood / int_7c862b8a
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1.0
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1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_7c862b8a
 Hexwood / int_7c897aaa
type
Psychic Link
 Hexwood / int_7c897aaa
comment
Psychic Link: Ann hears the voices of four other people from different worlds and times. She tries to convince herself that they're imaginary, but deep down she knows they're real. This ability is innate to many "full-blooded" Reigners, and in the end she and the four others become the new Reigner council.
 Hexwood / int_7c897aaa
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 Hexwood / int_815055ba
type
Plot-Induced Illness
 Hexwood / int_815055ba
comment
Plot-Induced Illness: Ann is introduced as being very unwell from a long-lasting virus that keeps her bedridden. This "illness" was placed on her by the Bannus to preserve her false identity as a school-aged child that couldn't go to school outside of the field. By the time the school year is over, she miraculously recovers, and is able to travel into the wood to take part in the story properly.
 Hexwood / int_815055ba
featureApplicability
1.0
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1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_815055ba
 Hexwood / int_83856158
type
Worthless Yellow Rocks
 Hexwood / int_83856158
comment
Worthless Yellow Rocks: Flint, from Earth, is valuable elsewhere in the universe.
 Hexwood / int_83856158
featureApplicability
1.0
 Hexwood / int_83856158
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1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_83856158
 Hexwood / int_8b6394c
type
These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know
 Hexwood / int_8b6394c
comment
These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Most of Earth has been kept in the dark about its relations with other planets because the world is simply not ready to deal with it.
 Hexwood / int_8b6394c
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1.0
 Hexwood / int_8b6394c
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_8b6394c
 Hexwood / int_8b6e8d7
type
Anachronic Order
 Hexwood / int_8b6e8d7
comment
Anachronic Order: Ann's visits to the wood happen like this at first, and she primarily recognises them as such because of Hume's changing age. She seems to be the only one experiencing things this way, but even her mind cannot be trusted. The second mini-chapter takes place near what is chronologically the end of the book. And Vierran's introduction and visit to Earth actually takes place chronologically before the entire first half of the book. To be fair, there's an in-story reason for that. To be precise, the chapters really occur in chronological order, but the Bannus is blanking out people's memories and rerunning the scenario repeatedly in order to get the outcome it desires.
 Hexwood / int_8b6e8d7
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Hexwood / int_8b6e8d7
 Hexwood / int_8e4a0f15
type
Dumb Blonde
 Hexwood / int_8e4a0f15
comment
Dumb Blonde: Vierran's cousin Siri, though beautiful and blonde, is normally very intelligent, but in the world of the Bannus she becomes the deeply stupid Lady Sylvia, and Vierran calls her the trope by name. She wonders if deep down Siri wanted a break from being so competent all the time, and the Bannus gave her a reprieve from having to use her brain for a while.
 Hexwood / int_8e4a0f15
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1.0
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1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_8e4a0f15
 Hexwood / int_96a33f11
type
Riddle for the Ages
 Hexwood / int_96a33f11
comment
Riddle for the Ages: Exactly which aspects of the plot were caused by the Bannus, or the Wood, or both together. The only sure distinction is that the Bannus's field is slightly larger than the Wood, which is why Ann, her family and the other residents of Wood Street operate in a different false reality than the Arthurian world of the Wood, but even that leaves several questions unanswered.
 Hexwood / int_96a33f11
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1.0
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Hexwood / int_96a33f11
 Hexwood / int_987be393
type
Gambit Roulette
 Hexwood / int_987be393
comment
Gambit Roulette: Yam. He says it himself, pretty much:
 Hexwood / int_987be393
featureApplicability
1.0
 Hexwood / int_987be393
featureConfidence
1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_987be393
 Hexwood / int_99ddfcec
type
Unwitting Instigator of Doom
 Hexwood / int_99ddfcec
comment
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Harrison Scudamore, who only wanted to use the Bannus to play out a realistic fantasy war game, accidentally creates a struggle for control over most of the known universe.
 Hexwood / int_99ddfcec
featureApplicability
1.0
 Hexwood / int_99ddfcec
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_99ddfcec
 Hexwood / int_a8d9ac65
type
Mage Species
 Hexwood / int_a8d9ac65
comment
Mage Species: What the Reigners used to be, until Orm Pender took control and had all the other Reigners killed, exiled or enslaved. They possessed innate psychic powers, long lifespans and the ability to control magic.
 Hexwood / int_a8d9ac65
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1.0
 Hexwood / int_a8d9ac65
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1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_a8d9ac65
 Hexwood / int_b1346878
type
Fate Worse than Death
 Hexwood / int_b1346878
comment
Fate Worse than Death: What happens to the mothers of the Reigners' Servants.
 Hexwood / int_b1346878
featureApplicability
1.0
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featureConfidence
1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_b1346878
 Hexwood / int_bef696dd
type
Mind Screw
 Hexwood / int_bef696dd
comment
Mind Screw: Thanks to not one but two Reality Warper fields in play at the same time, things get very confusing very quickly. Events happen out of chronological order (both for the reader and the characters), the same events happen multiple times in slightly different ways, various characters turn out to not be who they appear or believed themselves to be, and each reveal makes everything more convoluted.
 Hexwood / int_bef696dd
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1.0
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_bef696dd
 Hexwood / int_c00462c7
type
Amnesia Loop
 Hexwood / int_c00462c7
comment
Amnesia Loop: It's not until Vierran uncovers her own recorded message to herself that it's made explicitly clear that the Bannus isn't just changing events, it's replaying them.
 Hexwood / int_c00462c7
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1.0
 Hexwood / int_c00462c7
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_c00462c7
 Hexwood / int_c75df49a
type
Shout-Out
 Hexwood / int_c75df49a
comment
Shout-Out: Reigner One's real name, Orm Pender, references Orm, the first dragon, and the island of Pendor, in the Earthsea trilogy, which also makes it a Meaningful Name.
 Hexwood / int_c75df49a
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_c75df49a
 Hexwood / int_ccfe1fc7
type
Have We Met Yet?
 Hexwood / int_ccfe1fc7
comment
Have We Met Yet?: Ann is increasingly frustrated throughout the first half of the book when she seems to enter the wood at a different year each visit; Hume bounces around from being an infant to a teenager and back again, from her perspective, and he occasionally mentions things to her that she has yet to experience. More confusingly, she herself sometimes remembers things that haven't happened to her yet, such as the first time she meets Hume after his "creation". After a second, she finds that she already knows who he is and what his name is, despite never having been told. When Yam is discovered by Ann and Hume at Hexwood Farm, Hume already knows who he is, since Yam was the first person he met after he was "born", and Yam had already been sworn to protect Hume by Mordion in both of their personal futures, which doesn't happen until after Hume and Ann rescue Yam and bring him back to Mordion.
 Hexwood / int_ccfe1fc7
featureApplicability
1.0
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1.0
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Hexwood / int_ccfe1fc7
 Hexwood / int_d62dd556
type
The Chessmaster
 Hexwood / int_d62dd556
comment
The Chessmaster: Yam/the Bannus
 Hexwood / int_d62dd556
featureApplicability
1.0
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1.0
 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_d62dd556
 Hexwood / int_d66cd0e6
type
Training from Hell
 Hexwood / int_d66cd0e6
comment
Training from Hell: Reigner One takes great pleasure in the training he put Mordion through as a child, which ultimately killed his five adoptive siblings. Though the other Reigners believe he is unfailingly loyal to them, Reigner One knows it took a lot of work to make him that way.
 Hexwood / int_d66cd0e6
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1.0
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_d66cd0e6
 Hexwood / int_d7b34c31
type
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"
 Hexwood / int_d7b34c31
comment
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Reigners. Reigner One is the only one to be named in the book (Orm Pender). May overlap with Nominal Importance as he's both the most powerful and the last to be killed.
 Hexwood / int_d7b34c31
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1.0
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_d7b34c31
 Hexwood / int_df410b77
type
Decoy Protagonist
 Hexwood / int_df410b77
comment
Decoy Protagonist: Ann, the plucky young Earth girl who serves as the primary focus for the first half of the book, is not real. She disappears around the mid-point, replaced by her true self, Vierran. The Bannus had made Vierran act as she had when she was a teenager, for reasons that remain mysterious.
 Hexwood / int_df410b77
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_df410b77
 Hexwood / int_e9db9908
type
Younger Than They Look
 Hexwood / int_e9db9908
comment
Younger Than They Look: "Ann" in the first half of the book is roughly 13 years old, and acts like it. When she recovers her true identity as Vierran, a 21-year-old woman, she is mortified as she remembers the childish way she behaved when, to Mordion and Hume, she still looked like an adult.
 Hexwood / int_e9db9908
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Hexwood / int_e9db9908
 Hexwood / int_e9e35e8f
type
Exact Words
 Hexwood / int_e9e35e8f
comment
Exact Words: Frequently used by the Bannus. For example, the creative way it circumvents the obligation laid on Vierran to "make a child" with Mordion.
 Hexwood / int_e9e35e8f
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 Hexwood / int_e9e35e8f
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_e9e35e8f
 Hexwood / int_eb9afb9d
type
Evil Old Folks
 Hexwood / int_eb9afb9d
comment
Evil Old Folks: Reigner One.
 Hexwood / int_eb9afb9d
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1.0
 Hexwood / int_eb9afb9d
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 Hexwood
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Hexwood / int_eb9afb9d
 Hexwood / int_f55d739f
type
The Baroness
 Hexwood / int_f55d739f
comment
The Baroness: Reigner Three.
 Hexwood / int_f55d739f
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Hexwood / int_f55d739f
 Hexwood / int_fc33ff16
type
One-Winged Angel
 Hexwood / int_fc33ff16
comment
One-Winged Angel: Mordion and Reigner One are transformed into giant dragons for the final battle. Reigners Two and Three are on their way to transforming, but only manage to grow scales and snouts before Mordion terminates them.
 Hexwood / int_fc33ff16
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Hexwood / int_fc33ff16
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ItemName
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Hexwood / int_name
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Hexwood

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Hexwood
hasFeature
Baby Factory / int_12f3059b
 Hexwood
hasFeature
Enchanted Forest / int_12f3059b
 Hexwood
hasFeature
English Literature / int_12f3059b
 Hexwood
hasFeature
Evil Old Folks / int_12f3059b
 Hexwood
hasFeature
Fashions Never Change / int_12f3059b
 Hexwood
hasFeature
Have We Met Yet? / int_12f3059b
 Hexwood
hasFeature
More than Mind Control / int_12f3059b
 Hexwood
hasFeature
People Farms / int_12f3059b
 Hexwood
hasFeature
Phlebotinum Rebel / int_12f3059b
 Hexwood
hasFeature
Scales of Justice / int_12f3059b
 Hexwood
hasFeature
Young Adult Literature / int_12f3059b