History Literature / DarknessSeries

* PeopleOfHairColour: Used extensively; hair colour, along with clothing (kilts vs trousers vs tunics) is the main racial identifier. Algarvic (Fantastic Germanic) peoples like the Algarvians, Sibians and Lagoans (Fantastic Germans, Danes/Norwegians and British) have red hair and wear kilts. Kaunian (Romance and Jewish) peoples like the Jelgavans, Valmierans and the Kaunians of Forthweg (Low Countries, French and Jews of Poland) have blond hair and wear trousers. The 'Slavic' peoples of Unkerlant, Forthweg and Grelz (Russia, Poland and Ukraine) have brown hair and wear tunics.
* ThePlotReaper: When Pekka and Fernao, both major characters from the beginning, finally meet at the series' halfway point, they slowly start to fall in love with each other; Pekka is married, but both she and her husband Leino are being kept in total isolation with their colleagues working on separate top secret projects. Meanwhile, Leino's shagging one of his coworkers (who aside from her looks really has nothing going for her) with far fewer reservations. This could have created a very complicated and messy situation when everyone met, but instead Turtledove kills Leino and his lover at the beginning of the last book. Somewhat played with as news of Leino's death (but not his affair, no one ever finds out about that) initially makes Pekka feel enormously guilty and break off her relationship with Fernao, though eventually they get back together and get married.
* RockBeatsLaser: The Algarvians are able to conquer Sibiu in a surprise attack by using a fleet of 'primitive' sailships which aren't often used for military operations anymore; everyone assumes that an invasion fleet would be made up of magical ley line-using floating ships, which can be magically tracked.

* AllohistoricalAllusion: Sort of, appropriately enough given Turtledove's other works.
** Putting things in RealLife terms, this version of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII starts when Germany peacefully marches into Austria and the equivalents of Poland, France, Spain and Norway/Denmark declare war on Germany. Britain initially remains aloof, only joining in after neighbor falls to Germany, and America and Japan are already fighting their own brushfire war before the main conflict begins.
** While the other kingdoms have direct World War II analogues, Jelgava is more akin to [[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars Spain during French occupation]].
** A few elements from real-life UsefulNotes/WorldWarI show up in this setting's World War II. Valmiera's initial costly attacks into Algarve falter against strong defenses, just as France's assault into Alsace-Lorraine did in August 1914, and the last Algarvians to surrender are a colonial guerilla force in distant Siaulia a month after the war's official end, just as Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his troops in German East Africa did in December 1918.

'''Darkness'' is a series of six {{Doorstopper}} books by Creator/HarryTurtledove which covers the story of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII from a global perspective, using Loads And Loads Of Viewpoint Characters from all the major participant nations ([[AndZoidberg and Finland]]). The twist is that this is not the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ''we'' know, but the same sequence of events transposed onto a generic LowFantasy world which has used FunctionalMagic to achieve industrialization. Fantastic equivalents for real weapons and technologies abound: dragons for aircraft, leviathans for submarines, behemoths for tanks...

A cycle of six {{Doorstopper}} books by Creator/HarryTurtledove which covers the story of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII from a global perspective, using Loads And Loads Of Viewpoint Characters from all the major participant nations ([[AndZoidberg and Finland]]). The twist is that this is not the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ''we'' know, but the same sequence of events transposed onto a generic LowFantasy world which has used FunctionalMagic to achieve industrialisation. Fantastic equivalents for real weapons and technologies abound: dragons for aircraft, leviathans for submarines, behemoths for tanks...

One of the more interesting twists is that the [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Fantasy Counterpart Cultures]] do not match up with the countries they're representing: Turtledove randomly mixed ethnicities and used languages and place names from more obscure countries. For example, the nation of Kuusamo is the equivalent of the United States, but is inhabited by Finnish-speaking East Asians. This allows the reader to take a slightly more objective view of the conflict.

* AlternateHistory: Sort of, appropriately enough given Turtledove's other works. Putting things in RealLife terms, this version of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII starts when Germany peacefully marches into Austria and the equivalents of Poland, France, Spain and Norway/Denmark declare war on Germany. Britain initially remains aloof, only joining in after neighbor falls to Germany, and America and Japan are already fighting their own brushfire war before the main conflict begins.
** While the other kingdoms have direct World War II analogues, Jelgava is more akin to Napoleonic-era Spain.
** A few elements from real-life World War I show up in this setting's World War II. Valmiera's initial costly attacks into Algarve falter against strong defenses, just as France's assault into Alsace-Lorraine did in August 1914, and the last Algarvians to surrender are a colonial guerilla force in distant Siaulia a month after the war's official end, just as Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his troops in German East Africa did in December 1918.

* BoomStick: The weapons known only as "sticks" that infantry use in lieu of guns, being a sort of mass-produced magic wand or wizard's staff that fires an energy blast when a finger is placed into the firing hole. The blasts can be attenuated by heavy rain.

* BrotherSisterIncest: Not an actual example, but invoked: Kaunian Vanai creates a spell which allows her to take on a Forthwegian appearance, in order to hide from the Algarvians. Her Forthwegian lover Ealstan is a bit {{Squick}}ed that the spell for some reason makes her look almost exactly like his sister Conberge.

* DragonRider: Deconstructed -- while dragons are commonly used for aerial combat, they are nasty, foul-tempered, violent, and stupid creatures who have to be cruelly treated from birth in order to discourage them from killing their riders.

* FantasyCounterpartAppliance: Sticks for guns, crystals for radios (these effectively being standardised, mass-produced magic wands and crystal balls respectively), egg-tossers for artillery.

* HumanResources / PoweredByAForsakenChild: The Algarvians' Holocaust-powered superweapon, which uses mass human sacrifice in what is implied to be a DealWithTheDevil, or rather the Powers Below.

* AlternateHistory: Sort of, appropriately enough given Turtledove's other works. Putting things in RealLife terms, this version of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII starts when Germany marches into Danzig--Poland is not conquered until the end of the first book. Britain isn't a member of the Allies from the start. And America and Japan are already at war before the main war begins.

* AnyoneCanDie: Plenty of viewpoint characters die after featuring in multiple books. They are often replaced by one of their friends or comrades who we've already met in their narrative to ease the transition. (Turtledove also uses this trick in some of his other series).

* FantasyConflictCounterpart: The series is about a fantasy version of WWII. With MagicMissile shooting "sticks" as guns, dragons as aircraft, behemoths for tanks, leviathans for submarines, earthquake-generating spells powered by HumanSacrifice in place of airstrikes, the America equivalent even develops a FantasticNuke.

A cycle of six {{Doorstopper}} books by Creator/HarryTurtledove which covers the story of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII from a global perspective, using [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters Loads And Loads Of Viewpoint Characters]] from all the major participant nations ([[AndZoidberg and Finland]]). The twist is that this is not the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ''we'' know, but the same sequence of events transposed onto a generic LowFantasy world which has used FunctionalMagic to achieve industrialisation. Fantastic equivalents for real weapons and technologies abound: dragons for aircraft, leviathans for submarines, behemoths for tanks...

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The ''Darkness'' series does this rather directly, but subverts it somewhat by mixing and matching cultures around -- for example, the equivalent of Nazi Germany is a nation of reheads who speak Italian and display various Celtic characteristics, including a fondness for kilts.

* FantasticNuke: Pekka's storyline is about the magical equivalent of the Manhattan Project. The FantasticNuke is finally used at the end of the last book, [[spoiler:but in a slight change to real history, only one is used and it's used against the capital of the Japan equivalent, killing their emperor equivalent]].

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The ''Darkness'' series does this rather directly, but subverts it somewhat by mixing and matching cultures around -- for example, the equivalent of Nazi Germany has Celtic ethnicity and Italian language.

* FunctionalMagic: Rule Magic (spells are weakened by proximity to water, while they are powered up when close to "{{ley line}}s") and Device Magic ("sticks" and "eggs", magical equivalents of guns and bombs, respectively), as well as some forms of Alchemy. The Nazi-analogue Algarvians also make use of a kind of Black Magic toward the end of the war, as a last resort; it's powered by mass human sacrifice, drawing upon the many ethnic prisoners they took over the course of the conflict. There's also a magical Manhattan Project, utilising heavily mathematical and rigorous investigation of the fundamental laws of magic, much akin to the study of physics.
* HumanResources / PoweredByAForsakenChild: The Algarvians' Holocaust-powered superweapon, which uses mass human sacrifice in what is implied to be a DealWithTheDevil, or rather the Powers Below.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: They're considered rather stupid creatures that 'pilots' have to beat with crops to get them to cooperate.

* PeopleOfHairColour: Used extensively; hair colour, along with clothing (kilts vs trousers vs tunics) is the main racial identifier. Algarvic (Fantastic Germanic) peoples like the Algarvians, Sibians and Lagoans (Fantastic Germans, Danes/Norwegians and British) have red hair. Kaunian (Romance and Jewish) peoples like the Jelgavans, Valmierans and the Kaunians of Forthweg (Low Countries, French and Jews of Poland) have blond hair. The 'Slavic' peoples of Unkerlant, Forthweg and Grelz (Russia, Poland and Ukraine) have brown hair.

* RockBeatsLaser: The Algarvians are able to conquer Sibiu in a surprise attack by using a fleet of 'primitive' sailships which aren't often used for military operations anymore; everyone assumes that an invasion fleet would be made up of magical leyline-using floating ships, which can be magically tracked.

* DyeOrDie: The Kaunians begin to do this to hide their [[RacialTrait blond hair]] from the Algarvians and escape being used as HumanResources. It works for a while, until the Algarvians get wise and start doing spot inspections. Later this gets supplemented with a low level illusion spell.

* TheCaligula: King Swemmel (Fantastic JosefStalin), who boils his enemies in huge kettles. Oddly enough, King Mezentio (Fantastic UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler) comes across as less crazy (but strong-willed), although he's rarely seen.

A cycle of six {{Doorstopper}} books by Creator/HarryTurtledove which covers the story of WorldWarII from a global perspective, using [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters Loads And Loads Of Viewpoint Characters]] from all the major participant nations ([[AndZoidberg and Finland]]). The twist is that this is not the WorldWarII ''we'' know, but the same sequence of events transposed onto a generic LowFantasy world which has used FunctionalMagic to achieve industrialisation. Fantastic equivalents for real weapons and technologies abound: dragons for aircraft, leviathans for submarines, behemoths for tanks...

* AlternateHistory: Sort of, appropriately enough given Turtledove's other works. Putting things in RealLife terms, this version of WorldWarII starts when Germany marches into Danzig--Poland is not conquered until the end of the first book. Britain isn't a member of the Allies from the start. And America and Japan are already at war before the main war begins.

* BroadStrokes: This is a fantastic version of WorldWarII, but not everything exactly matches up, the order of events is sometimes different, and expectations are played with.

* ForegoneConclusion: Once you've figured out who's who, you know who's going to lose--although not everything is ''exactly'' like our WorldWarII.

* AmericaWinsTheWar: Largely averted; Kuusamo plays the same major role as the United States in RealLife, but it's made clear that it's the Unkerlanters (Fantastic Soviets) who do most of the fighting.

A cycle of six {{Doorstopper}} books by HarryTurtledove which covers the story of WorldWarII from a global perspective, using [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters Loads And Loads Of Viewpoint Characters]] from all the major participant nations ([[AndZoidberg and Finland]]). The twist is that this is not the WorldWarII ''we'' know, but the same sequence of events transposed onto a generic LowFantasy world which has used FunctionalMagic to achieve industrialisation. Fantastic equivalents for real weapons and technologies abound: dragons for aircraft, leviathans for submarines, behemoths for tanks...

* TheCaligula: King Swemmel (Fantastic JosefStalin), who boils his enemies in huge kettles. Oddly enough, King Mezentio (Fantastic AdolfHitler) comes across as less crazy (but strong-willed), although he's rarely seen.

** Also done for the purpose of irony as the fantastic equivalent of Jews are described as being fair and blond (the Nazis' espoused "Aryan ideal") and implied to be the remnants of the equivalent of the Roman Empire (which Nazi Germany took many motiffs from).