History Literature / ChroniclesOfMagravandias

* TheApprentice:
** Shan to Taropat
** Nip to Thremius
* ArcWords: "It will happen regardless of what you think or do."

* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning
* BadassAndChildDuo: Rav and his bodyguard Garante.

* TheChessmaster: Darris Maycarpe.

* ClosetKey: Tayven for Khaster.
* CorruptChurch: The worship of Madragore.

* DecadentCourt: The court in Magrast.

* DoggedNiceGuy: Khaster Leckery.

* DrivenToMadness: Bayard, by the end.

* EccentricMentor[=/=]CynicalMentor: Taropat is a quirky and cranky mentor at the best of times and nearly insane at the worst.

* EveryoneLovesBlondes: In a rare male example, Tayven. At least, he starts out this way.

* TheEvilPrince: Bayard.
* TheFairFolk: The elden. [[FallenAngel It's much more complicated than that.]]

* FieryRedhead: Sinaclara

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Ellony, as fitting TheIngenue.

* HalfIdenticalTwins: Valraven and Pharinet.

* HellholePrison: The Skitterings.

* HotWitch: Lady Sinaclara.
* IdenticalStranger: Shan looks uncannily like a younger Tayven.

* KingBobTheNth: Valraven Palindrake is the fifth of his name. Emperor Leonid II.

* LadyOfBlackMagic: Tatrini is a woman of many talents.

* LeftForDead: Tayven.

* TheLostWoods: The Forest of Bree.

* TheMagicComesBack: But not in the way the characters expect it to.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Nip and Niree

* NotSoDifferent: Behind a lot of the conflicts in the series. Most of the rivals in the series e.g. Valraven and Bayard, are very similar.

* OpposedMentors: Taropat and Sinaclara for Shan.

* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: The Ustredi.

* PlatonicLifePartners: Valraven and Varencienne's marriage.

* TheQuest: The seven lakes of Recolletine.

* RedLightDistrict: The Soak.

* SacrificialLamb: Ellony Leckery.

* StayInTheKitchen: The Magravandians have this opinion of women.
* StudentAndMasterTeam: Shan and Taropat.
* SuccessionCrisis: The entire basis of the political plot.

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Pharinet and Ellony.

* {{Twincest}}:
** Valraven and Pharinet.
** It's implied this will happen between Rav and Elly in the future (as Jia calls Elly "the future sea wife").

* WellDoneSonGuy: Shan to Taropat.

* WizardBeard: Thremius has one.

* WouldHurtAChild: Master Dark.

* {{Yandere}}: Pharinet.
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Gastern.

* InfantImmortality: Subverted. [[spoiler: The emperor's youngest three sons are only children, but they die in the end all the same.]]

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: The court in Magrast.

* YourCheatingHeart: All over the place. Pharinet and Valraven carry on an affair while married to the Leckerys, Varencienne sleeps with Merlan [[spoiler: later Shan and Khaster, with the implication that one of them fathered her third child]], Khaster takes up with Tayven while still married to Pharinet, Tatrini implies that she and Leonid both took lovers... basically a side effect of the arranged marriages.

* LampshadeHanging: Happens frequently, though not enough to make the series a {{deconstruction}} and not quite enough for the characters to be GenreSavvy. The characters just, unknowingly, question normal fantasy novel actions and logic.

* {{Twincest}}: Valraven and Pharinet.

* TheKingdom: According to legend, Caradore and Magravandias were once like this. The characters question if matters were ever that ideal.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Many of the problems in Caradore could have been avoided by the Palindrakes and the Leckerys not marrying in the first place. Pharinet knew it was a bad idea before Valraven or Khaster ever proposed, and after disaster strikes the grieving families grouse that if the weddings had never happened, Ellony and Thomist would still be alive.

* AManIsNotAVirgin: Pharinet is surprised that both Valraven and Khaster are sexually experienced. She wonders when and how they gained that experience. The only male character who loses his virginity on the page is Shan.

* BlondGuysAreEvil: The Malagashes are famous for their blonde hair.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Many of the problems in Caradore could have been avoided by the Palindrakes and the Leckerys not marrying in the first place.

** Merlan resists any and all attempts people make to say he's like Khaster, even though they look almost exactly alike.

* RoyalBlood: The Palindrakes, Malagashes, and other royal families. The Mewtish people in particular are proud of their long history and ancient royal dynasty.

* PolarOppositeTwins: Twins Rav and Elly are opposites physically and mentally. He is golden like his Malagash relatives, bold, adventurous, and talkative. Elly is dark like the Palindrakes, gentle, quiet, and sensitive.

* PowerTrio: The Brotherhood of the King--Shan the warrior, Taropat the magus, and Tayven the bard.

* FallenAngel: Azcaranoth the peacock angel is likened to [[GreekMythology the myth of Prometheus]] with a touch of {{Satan}}.

* DeathOfTheOldGods: The church of Madragore dissuades and sometiems outright bans local religions. Foy is the most notable example.
* DecoyProtagonist: Arguably, everyone who isn't Valraven, who doesn't get POV chapters until ''The Way of Light''. Shan is this in particular as he is the POV character through the majority of ''The Crown of Silence.''

** Shan is gang-raped by soldiers
** Tayven is nearly assaulted by Bayard before Khaster steps in, and is raped by Bayard later [[SlippingAMickey while drugged]]. [[spoiler: Actually Tayven was not that affected by the drug and reveals to Bayard that he could have killed him during that encounter.]]

* LadyOfBlackMagic: Tatrini

** Foy: Water
** Efrit: Fire
** Paraga: Air
** Espereth: Earth

* WizardsLiveLonger: Taropat, Thremius, and Sinaclara are all older than any living person

Two-hundred years later, Magravandias is [[TheEmpire a vast empire]] and still expanding with the help of Caradorean nobles leading their armies. Pharinet Palindrake, twin sister to Valraven V, begins to learn the truth of her family and her country's history and wants to revive the power of the sea dragons. This is complicated when she becomes insanely jealous of her best friend, who is destined to marry [[TheChosenOne Valraven]] and become the [[InHarmonyWithNature sea]] [[ComesGreatResponsibility wife]], a role she [[BrotherSisterIncest wants for herself]]. It gets worse before it gets better.

** Ellony, Valraven's first wife, is innocent and virginal, unable to handle the harsh realities of the world.
** Varencienne, Valraven's second wife, is Valraven's life partner and the mistress of Caradore, but their marriage is ultimately a partnership and not love.
** Pharinet, Valraven's sister, is the most sexually driven of the three, and it is their forbidden passion that sets the tragedy into motion.

* TheThreeFacesOfEve: The three women in Valraven's life--Ellony (child), Varencienne (wife) and Pharinet (seductress).
** Gastern has a dream of three queens--one green, one red, and one black. This is possibly TheHecateSisters or a combination of the two, the matter is never clarified.