History Literature / AMemoirByLadyTrent

* LineageComesFromTheFather: Discussed in ''The Tropic of Serpents''; Scirling society is patrilineal, while Erigan society is matrilineal. This poses some problems where inheritance is concerned.

* HoldYourHippogriffs: Audrey speaks of "putting the tail ahead of the dragon".

* EpistolaryNovel: ''Turning Darkness Into Light'' is presented as a collection of letters, diary entries, and articles, though they include far more dialogue and detail than most diaries and letters.

* SeaSerpents: Sea serpents are dragon-like species that are common in the world's oceans. They're Isabella's primary subject of study in the third book.

* FantasticRacism: In ''Turning Darkness Into Light'', fifty years of the world knowing that [[spoiler:[[DraconicHumanoid Draconeans]]]] exist hasn't exactly resulted in them being welcomed with open arms. The Calderite sect interprets Scripture's description of the downfall of their civilization to mean that God has turned his back on them and they have no right to live anywhere but the Sanctuary of Wings (basically a reservation so remote that nobody else lives there). The Hadamists take an even more extreme position, advocating genocide of the "[[spoiler:demonic lizard-men]]". Notably, only two countries, Scirland and Yelang, classify an attack on one as equivalent to an attack on a human being.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Anthiope is Europe and the Middle East as a distinct continent, with Scirland instead of Victorian England, Vystrana standing in for a [[{{Ruritania}} generic eastern European country]], Bulskevo as Russia, Nichaea as Greece, Thiessin as France, Chiavora as Italy, Akhia as Arabia and so on. Eriga is Africa, Keonga is Polynesia, and Yelang is China (with Mrtyahaima being the Himalayas). Lutjarro and Hakkoto, equivalents of Australia and Japan respectively, are mentioned but never visited. The people of Mouleen are based on pygmy tribes such as the Mbuti and the Aka. The Draconeans aren't an exact analogue for any real culture, though the artwork we see in the illustrations has a definite Egyptian bent to it. There seems to be no analogue for the Americas, except for Coyahuac, which is similar to the Yucatan. (Coyahuac is shown on the map to be a peninsula of Othole, a continent across the sea from Daijin (Asia), but no other places there are named or visited.)

* EpistolaryNovel: ''Turning Darkness Into Light'' is presented as a collection of diary entries and articles, though they include far more dialogue and detail than most diaries.

* {{Transgender}}: [[spoiler: Heali'i]] is biologically male, but Keongans consider her ''ke'anaka'i'', or "dragon-spirited", which means she has gender identity and social function of a woman. Isabella is mistaken for a trans man in Keonga as well.

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: The Afterword to ''Within the Sanctuary of Wings'' has Isabella recount briefly what has happened in the life of her and other people involved in her story, as well as some general information about the differences between the world from her memoires and the world as it is now.

* CunningLinguist: Suhail, who speaks so many languages that when asked ''how'' many, he has to stop and think about it before answering.

* PairTheSmartOnes: Isabella frequently mentions that her attraction to Suhail is centered on their shared passion for scholarly pursuits. Though his [[ShirtlessScene Shirtless Scenes]] also help.

* HungryJungle: Mouleen. Its native people love it dearly and know how to live there successfully, but to outsiders it is justifiably known as the "Green Hell". Just about everything is out to eat you.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: In a world full of dragons, a large number of mundane animals similar to those of our world seem to coexist with them. Realistically however, it would make more sense for dragons to be a FantasticFaunaCounterpart of certain species as competition between two creatures filling the same niche is too great to allow both to survive (i.e., mammals only diversifying into many niches after the dinosaurs became extinct.)

** The Draconeans are [[spoiler: upright humanoid bipeds, however, not having descended from a primate-like ancestor and having a large tail and wings, it makes the overall anatomy rather questionable to look nearly human as the build would not be feasible to support an erect spine.]]

** The Draconeans are [[spoiler: upright humanoid bipeds, however, not having sescended from a primate-like ancestor and having a large tail and wings, it makes the overall anatomy rather questionable to look nearly human as the build would not be feasible to support an erect spine.]]

** Princess (future Queen) Miriam's diplomatic expedition to Yelang forms the backdrop of ''Voyage of the Basilisk'', and it eventually turns out [[spoiler:she was actually trying to secure Scirling foothold on the Broken Sea]].

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Anthiope is Europe and the Middle East as a distinct continent, with Scirland instead of Victorian England, Vystrana standing in for a [[{{Ruritania}} generic eastern European country]], Bulskevo as Russia, Nichaea as Greece, Thiessin as France, Chiavora as Italy, Akhia as Arabia and so on. Eriga is Africa, Keonga is Polynesia, and Yelang is China (with Mrtyahaima being the Himalayas). The people of Mouleen are based on pygmy tribes such as the Mbuti and the Aka. The Draconeans aren't an exact analogue for any real culture, though the artwork we see in the illustrations has a definite Egyptian bent to it. There seems to be no analogue for the Americas, except for Coyahuac, which is similar to the Yucatan. (Coyahuac is shown on the map to be a peninsula of Othole, a continent across the sea from Daijin (Asia), but no other places there are named or visited.)

Needs WikiMagic.

* InNameOnly: Isabella admits in the first book that there's very little that's wolf-like about wolf-drakes beyond a propensity for preying on livestock. Visually, they resemble giant crocodiles with atrophied wings more than anything else.

* GreenAesop: the memoirs discuss in-universe problems posed by dragons in a world going through a industrial revolution. Most of them [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything mirror real-life conservation issues]]:
** coexistence between rural human populations and wild dragons vs. the issues of predators (wolves, tigers, lions etc) on cattle-raising human communities.
** the exploitation of dragons for their bones vs. the IRL decline of large animals such as whales, rhinos and elephants hunted for body parts.

** The threat posed by a dam construction project on the Green Hell in the second book vs. IRL infrastructure developments (dam, agriculture...) in the Amazonia and their impacts on its biodiversity and indigenous populations.

* BreathWeapon: One of the defining traits used to classify an animal as a true dragon rather than simply being dragonlike is the possession of a breath weapon of some sort, be it fire, ice or acid.

* ElephantGraveyard: A dragon graveyard plays an important part in the first book.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Anthiope is Europe, with Scirland instead of Victorian England, Vystrana standing in for a [[{{Ruritania}} generic eastern European country]], Bulskevo as Russia, Nichaea as Greece, Thiessin as France and so on. Eriga is Africa, Keonga is Polynesia, Yelang is China (with Mrtyahaima being the Himalayas) and Akhia is Arabia. The people of Mouleen are based on pygmy tribes such as the Mbuti and the Aka. The Draconeans aren't an exact analogue for any real culture, though the artwork we see in the illustrations has a definite Egyptian bent to it. There seems to be no analogue for the Americas, except for Coyahuac, which is similar to the Yucatan. (Coyahuac is shown on the map to be a peninsula of Othole, a continent across the sea from Daijin (Asia), but no other places there are named or visited.)

** The sparklings are no bigger than a fist.

* SeaMonster: Sea serpents are dragon-like species that are common in the world's oceans. They're Isabella's primary subject of study in the third book.

* ComicBookFantasyCasting: Isabella herself is never really given much physical description, but the one time we get a clear illustration of her at the very end of ''In the Sanctuary of Wings'', she looks very like Creator/MaggieSmith.

%%* ScoobyDooHoax: Zhagrit Mat.