History Literature / AMemoryCalledEmpire

* {{Irony}}: The Teixcalatzlan call outsiders barbarians, in the sense of being foreigners and uncivilized, but they practice blood sacrifice, something most modern cultures consider barbaric in the modern sense of the word.

* HeightAngst: Downplayed. Mahit never expresses any particular distress about her height, but she does note that she's taller than most Teixcalatzlan, which only further marks her as an outsider.

* HumanSacrifice: Teixcalaanli seal oaths in blood but actual sacrifices are rare, always voluntary, and usually done as a political statement. The first we see is a supporter of One Lightning sacrificing himself, [[spoiler: the second is Emperor Six Direction after declaring his successor.]]

* NobleBigot: Teixcalatzlan are this at best. Even those like Three Seagrass, who are genuinly interested in other cultures, were still raised to view them as something inferior to Teixcalaan. Mahit struggles with wether or not Three Seagrass likes her for who she is or for being "exotic."

* StarCrossedLovers: Yskandr and his lovers were always on borrowed time, because [[spoiler: he was sleeping with ''the Emperor'' and Nineteen Adze, and they are, well, who they are, and he was the ambassador of a station the Empire may well annex...yeah. [[FromBadToWorse And then he was murdered]].]]

* UterineReplicator: The norm, though not universal, on Teixcalaan and the only form of reproduction on Lsel. Mahit finds the idea of giving birth alien--to her, it's a waste to put someone who could be ''working'' through that kind of physical trauma when it's not necessary. Five Agate is notisably proud that she carried her son to term, implying that natural births are a priviliege on Teixcalaan.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:Amnarbat sabotages Yskandr's imago because she believes he has sold out the station to Teixcalaan, and it would be better that his imago-line is ended rather than corrupt the next ambassador. Too bad her sabotage only leaves the next ambassador totally lost in the labyrinthine hellscape that is Teixcalaan's politics.]]

* UterineReplicator: The norm, though not universal, on Teixcalaan and the only form of reproduction on Lsel. Mahit finds the idea of giving birth alien--to her, it's a waste to put someone who could be ''working'' through that kind of physical trauma when it's not necessary.

* BiTheWay: It turns out that Yskander slept with both [[spoiler: Nineteen Adze and the Emperor himself.]]

* DeathOfPersonality: A potential outcome [[spoiler: for the child]] of Emperor Six Direction's [[spoiler: desire to install his own imago in a 10-year-old clone of himself.]]

* GambitPileup: *Everyone* is plotting, on both Lsel and Teixcalaan. On Lsel, [[spoiler: Darj Tarats and Dekakel Onchu both plot, differently, to stave off Teixcalaanli dominance, with Tarats planning to use the unseen alien threat as bait. Meanwhile, Aknel Amnardbat deliberately sabotages Yskander's imago-machine.]] On Teixcalaan, [[spoiler: One Lightning plans a coup, while Thirty Larkspur uses the chaos to mount his own rush for the throne. Two Lemon and a group of anti-imperial provocateurs plot terror attacks. And everyone in the Teixcalaanli government seeks to coopt and cope with Yskander's deal to make Emperor Six Direction immortal via imago-machine.]]

* HiveMind: The Teixcalaanli police are linked into the city and each other, at least while on duty, possibly all the time.
* HumansAreWhite: Averted, in fact Mahit takes note of one blond-haired person from the northern regions of Teixcalaan as unusual.

* NoTranshumanismAllowed: In the Empire neurological enhancement is banned due to the critical importance of the Imperial Examinations in their institutions, it would be seen as cheating.

* SpeculativeFictionLGBT: Neither Teixcalaan nor Lsel put much or any emphasis on identifying sexual preferences. Yskander's apparent [[spoiler: bisexuality]] and the lesbian relationship between [[spoiler: Mahit and Three Seagrass]] are not treated as remarkable.

* SuccessionCrisis: Emperor Six Direction is very old and lacking natural children to inherit the throne, he has a "ninety percent clone", Eight Antidote, but he's only ten years old, so he's named his creche-sister Eight Loop and the merchant scion Thirty Larkspur to be co-emperors. But there's been stirrings favoring the general One Lightning. [[spoiler: It culminates with One Lightning attempting a military coup while Thirty Larkspur uses the chaos to try an internal coup. Only for Six Direction to suddenly name his adviser Nineteen Adze Emperor before sacrificing himself in the temple, an act which generates such massive good PR that there's no way anyone could work up enough support to oppose her.]]

* SpeculativeFictionLGBT: Neither Teixcalaan nor Lsel put much or any emphasis on identifying sexual preferences. Yskander's apparently [[spoiler: bisexuality]] and the lesbian relationship between [[spoiler: Mahit and Three Seagrass]] are not treated as remarkable.

* FantasticNamingConvention: Teixcalaanli names combine a number with a proper noun, usually a plant though there are other possibilities. Cultural liaison Three Seagrass thinks a Lsel expat's chosen name of "Twenty-four All Terrain Vehicle" is in poor taste while another suggestion of "2e Asteroid" sounds hilarious.

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* WhodunnitToMe: External backup variant. Yskandr's imago was made fifteen years previous and suffers a mental breakdown after discovering he's dead, going silent and only occasionally providing flashes of memory to Mahit.

* SuccessionCrisis: Emperor Six Direction is very old and lacking natural children to inherit the throne, he has a "ninety percent clone", Eight Antidote, but he's only ten years old, so he's named his creche-sister Eight Loop and the merchant scion Thirty Larkspur to be co-emperors. But there's been stirrings favoring the general One Lightning. [[spoiler: It culminates with One Lightning attempting a military coup while Thirty Larkspur uses the chaos to try an internal coup. Only for Six Direction to suddenly name his adviser Nineteen Adze Emperor before sacrificing himself in the temple.]]

* VirtualGhost: Lsel uses brain implants to create "imagos" from the memories of their people, and when one dies, their imago is loaded into their successor's implant to guide them and add their own memories to the imago. Some imago-lines go back fourteen generations. Unfortunately Mahit's imago of Yskandr suffers a mental breakdown when she sees his body.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: A sleep-deprived and stressed Mahit realizes too late that she ''completely forgot'' to think of [[spoiler: how to pay for having the outdated imago switched out for the one pulled from Yskandr's corpse.]]

* StarCrossedLovers: Yskandr and his lovers were always on borrowed time, because of the simple fact that [[spoiler: he was sleeping with ''the Emperor'' and Nineteen Adze, and the fact they are, well, who they are, and he was the ambassador of a station the Empire may well annex...yeah. [[FromBadToWorse And then he was murdered]].]]

* UterineReplicator: The norm, though not universal, on Teixcalaan and the only form of reproduction on Lsel. Mahit finds the idea of giving birth alien.

* SuccessionCrisis: Emperor Six Direction is very old and lacking natural children to inherit the throne, he has a "ninety percent clone" but he's only ten years old, so he's appointed one of his creche-sisters and a patrician with extensive family connections as co-emperors. And there's been stirrings favoring the general One Lightning.

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* VirtualGhost: Lsel uses brain implants to create "imagos" from the memories of their people, and when one dies, their imago is loaded into their successor's implant to guide them and add their own memories to the imago. Some imago-lines go back fourteen generations. Unfortunately Mahit's imago of Yskandr suffers a mental breakdown when she sees his body.