History Characters / WorldOfTheFiveGods

* AscendedExtra: The dy Gura brothers had a cameo in ''The Curse of Chalion'', escorting Cazaril to Ibra and back.

* LyingByOmission: When she tells the story of [[spoiler:the death of Arvol dy Lutez]] four times across both ''The Curse of Challion'' and ''Paladin of Souls''. In all but the last, she conceals the underlying reason he died, that in the heat of the moment, [[spoiler:when she was going to call down a miracle of healing to resurrect dy Lutez for their threefold sacrifice scheme, she hated him and excluded the Mother from her heart, preventing the miracle.]]

* BewareTheHonestOnes: He's genuinely shocked when his case against an corrupt official in the Daughter's Order is summarily thrown out, and is uneasy when Iselle recruits him to help in arranging her marriage to Bergon. However...

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Penric usually is the most generous, forgiving person in the world. That is until the events of ''The Orphans of Raspay,'' when being betrayed ''twice'' while trying to escape an island of pirates leads to him letting Desdemona off the leash, burning the pirate base to the ground, and sinking two of their ships in a whirlwind of Chaos Magic.

* InsistentTerminology: Thanks to some bad experiences and not taking the proper oaths, (see above) Penric is adamant that he is ''not'' a physician. He just has all the training and heals the ill and injured at every opportunity.

* WarGod: Her Order is much like the Son's, but turned inward; it pursues bandits, hunts down murderers, investigates crime, roots out corruption and defends those who can't defend themselves (such as, for example, maidens who are not trained in combat -- hence their patron deity). Those who pledge themselves to the Daughter in this regard are fewer than the followers of the Son, but what they lack in numbers they make for with a certain romantic dedication.

* UncertifiedExpert: ''Technically'' correct, as Penric never took his final oaths as a sorcerer healer. In practice it's ignored by everyone who isn't Penric, as he's recognized as a highly skilled healer, even if he chooses not to identify himself as such.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Due to the fate of her first human host (mortally wounded falling off a cliff, barely hung on long enough for her next host to find), Des has an unreasoning terror of heights. More to the point the panic this causes is accompanied by the Chaos she commands building up rapidly, her ability to contain same deteriorating, and her fine control falling apart completely; not the best combination when one's current host is being hauled up a cliff face by what boils down to a cunning arrangement of knotted ropes during a prison break. She's also absolutely terrified of the gods - more reasonably, as they're the only thing that can actually destroy ''her'' rather than her hosts - and does the demonic equivalent of curling into a TroubledFetalPosition whenever they show up.

* CompellingVoice: Being a shaman, Inglis can compel people using his wierding voice.

* FarmBoy: A royal equivalent. Teidez was born a prince and raised as nobility, but until his fourteenth birthday he lived with his mother and grandmother in the latter's remote countryside castle, far away from the royal court or big cities. When he settles in Charion's DecadentCourt, Carazil notes that this makes him the perfect prey for the scheming courtiers: as he was not raised at court, Teidez lacks the knowledge of its social codes and devious ways, and being too young to have fully built his own character, he is gullible and easily-impressed enough to fall for the other noblemen's manipulations.

* LawOfInverseFertility: He and his royina, Sara, have been trying to conceive for years. At the book's start, the fact that Orico invites his brother and sister to the Zangre indicates that the royal couple have officially given up. [[spoiler: As it turns out, it is Orico's curse that turned Sarah infertile.]]

* TheHighQueen: The High Royina. She's heading there toward the end of the book, with her native intelligence, [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask carefully schooled demeanor]], heroic husband and clever advisors. She's got ''great'' PR.

* NobilityMarriesMoney: His intended marriage to Prieta, the daughter of a wealthy cheese merchant. The marriage is cancelled when he becomes a sorcerer.

* EducationMama: A very creepy version who feeds people with useful skills to demons, then tears the demons out and stuffs them into Sordso, conferring their skills on him and leaving the demon-eaten shells to rot. Ista notes that Sordso, formally a surprisingly good poet, has not one single poet demon suffusing his soul.

* GlamourFailure: Ista notes in ''Paladin of Souls'' that, no matter what shapes they take, the gods can always be recognized by their eyes, which are [[TheOmniscient " ''infinite'' "]].