History Creator / JackVance

* ClarkesThirdLaw: Ampridatvir

* HappyPlace: The Overworld

* LostColony: Almost all of the "aliens" in the various Gaean Reach stories are humans from planets that have had thousands of years to develop divergent cultures.

* LostTechnology: Plenty of it.

* MoralEventHorizon: Crossed with depressing regularity by many of Vance's villains. The Demon Princes - galactic-level master criminals - are of course in a class of their own, but there are other, more minor characters who are willing to do some quite repulsive things in order to achieve minor goals.

* NarrativeFiligree: A constant in the works of Jack Vance. World building is an objective in and of itself. In ''Lyonnesse'' we learn the exact layout of Suldrun's garden, the names of the plants, how it looks at several times and day and times of year. For the grand plot it would suffice to simply confine Suldrun to her garden. Vance will build up a history, a religion, a race, a river or a plain, never necessarily needing it to advance the core story.

* OurNudityIsDifferent: In "The Moon Moth", everybody keeps their faces covered at all times by stylized masks that show the wearer's current social standing. Not even spouses ever see each other's naked faces.

* ShoutOut: In ''Emphyrio'', Ghyl expects Earth to be a dying, decadent world with a red sun -- in other words, he's expecting it to be ''The Dying Earth''. It isn't anything like that.

* AnAesop: One of the stories with T'sais is definitely one, some of the other ''Dying Earth'' stories could be said to be one also. Arguably, Cugel the Clever learns that backstabbing is bad and trust is good by the end of his second book.

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Vance is fond of having his characters be ButtMonkeys; and while it's common to see it happen to the heroic protagonists due to poor decision making, it sometimes afflicts the villains as well.

* CrapsackWorld: Arrabus is supposed to be an egalitarian paradise, but when Jantiff Ravensroke moves there for a short stay, it doesn't take long for the gloss to come off.

* UncannyValley: In-universe in ''Emphyrio'' -- there's something subtly Different (with a capital D) about the lords who rule Halma.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: ''Jack Vance''. Seriously.

** In "The Dogtown Tourist Agency", 'Visfer' / 'Visfers' (abbreviated to Vv / Vvs) for 'Mr' / 'Ms'.

* FantasticHonorifics: In "The Dogtown Tourist Agency", 'Visfer' / 'Visfers' (abbreviated to Vv / Vvs) for 'Mr' / 'Ms'.

* NotSoDifferent: In ''The Face'' (Demon Princes Book 4), Gersen kills [[spoiler:Lens Larque]] before he can carry out the greatest revenge prank in the history of the universe. After [[spoiler:Larque's]] death, however, he goes through with it himself because the target of the prank slighted Gersen himself in exactly the same way.

VancianMagic is named after Jack Vance, as was [[SignificantAnagram Vecna]], [[SorcerousOverlord the infamous wizard-king]] turned [[OurLichesAreDifferent lich]] turned [[AGodAmI god of secrets and dark magic]] and [[ArtifactOfDoom transplant donor]] of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.

* EssentialMadness: His short story "The Men Return" featured a world where causality had basically gone out the window. One character was barely surviving, trying to find patterns where there were none. The ones who were crazy before The Event on the other hand were basically gods.

* NamesToRunAwayFrom / OffscreenTeleportation: Chun the Unavoidable. Although as hinted by said name, running will do you absolutely no good.

** In ''The Cadwal Chronicles'', each of the six Agency Bureaus has been dominated its own administrative family for roughly nine hundred years.

* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture: In ''Emphyrio'', using any kind of mechanical assistance, even a straight-edge guide, in the production of goods on Halma is [[FelonyMisdemeanor strictly prohibited]], which is intended to artificially maintain high prices on exported goods while providing busywork for the planet-wide dole system.

* WorldOfSnark: A touchstone of Vance's works are his characters' rapier wit.

* YouKilledMyFather: At the climax of ''Emphyrio'', Ghyl is told that if he reveals what he knows, he will bring down the government of Halma and cause the collapse of the social order: surely he doesn't want that? He answers that the government killed his father, so he feels no great affection for it.

* ''Literature/TheDemonPrinces'': a five volume series set in the Gaean Reach.

* LegacyCharacter: In ''Emphyrio'', Ghyl is so inspired by the legend of the eponymous character that he adopts the name at key points, asking himself "what would Emphyrio do?" to guide his actions.

* LegacyCharacter: In ''Emphyrio'', Ghyl is so inspired by the legend of the eponymous character that he adopts the name at key points, asking himself "what would Emphyrio do" to guide his actions.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Cugel the Clever goes through one and a half books before he is finally cured of this disease