Dirty Cop: Rhennthyl disposes of several of these.It remains this even as late as Rhennthyl's age (though without a sole ruler). Decadent Court: Both in Quaeryt's time, as well as Alistar's time, the noble court is this.Colliding Criminal Conspiracies: Each protaganist (thus far) has witnessed this.Coattail-Riding Relative: Rhennthyl's younger brother.Action Girl: The majority of the recurring female characters are this.Charyn (third arc, rough after Alistar's stories end).Alistar (third arc, roughly between first and third arcs chronologically).Quaeryt (Second arc, chronologically first).Rhennythl (First Arc, chronologically last).The series, at present, consists of three separate arcs with four main characters. The ninth novel through twelfth books deal with the political intrigue of the empire as it changed from a monarchy to a oligarchic republic, during a time of troubles for the college.

The next five novels (set chronologically before the original trilogy by almost seven or eight centuries), follow the founding of the continent-wide empire and of the Collegium Imago (College of Imagers) from the viewpoint of Quaeryt, a scholarly imager ex-sailor friend of the king. The series rapidly grew from the initial three novels, which are set when the protaganist's homeland, Solidar, has recently undergone an industrial revolution, bringing them to the age of steam. After being somewhat forcibly inducted into the Collegium Imago (a school and institute for imagers), his life becomes more intertwined with the political plots, while fending off the hostile efforts of an enraged nobleman. originally began as a trilogy of novels centered around the life of an everyman painter, Rhennthyl, who winds up discovering his talent for imaging (the series' name for magic) through the death of his mentor.

The imager portfolio