History Literature / Demesne

The story can be found [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/demesne-fantasy-frontier-dungeon-not-a-litrpg.918789/ here]] on its Space Battles thread or [[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/40290/demesne here]] on Royal Road.

!!''Demesnse'' contains examples of the following tropes:

* AccidentalDiscovery: Dungeon binders are understandably secretive about their abilities, and many of the things they do are functionally state secrets. Lori spends quite some time trying to recreate various routine aspects of being a Dungeon Binder, and makes most of her discoveries on accident. So far she's figured out [[spoiler:efficient border expansion techniques and how to condense magic into beads, but she's still trying to figure out how to perform the other forms of magic besides wispering.]]

* HasTwoMommies: Lori. It's left ambiguous if they're both her biological parents via Deadspeaking, or some more mundane method was used in her conception.

* BrilliantButLazy: Lori aspires to be this, but little things like making sure the village doesn't flood and her idiots don't starve to death keep getting in the way.

* LoveTriangle: Umu and Mikon are both openly interested in him and aren't even trying to hide it, but he seems unreceptive to either of them. They are joined by a third character, Riz, after the settlers from River's Fork move in.

* TriangRelations: Umu and Mikon form a Type 3 with Rian. They are both openly interested in him and aren't even trying to hide it, but he seems unreceptive to either of them. They are joined by a third character, Riz, after the settlers from River's Fork move in.
** [[spoiler:There are steps to making it a Type 11 later in the story once they finally get Rian to accept that they are actually interested in him and all move into the same house. Type 11 because Mikon is also trying to start something with the other women at the same time, but is having about as much trouble conveying romantic interest to them as they had with Rian.]]

** Subverted in Lorian. Lori made a point of setting things up so the buildings she made wouldn't collapse without a Wisperer's attention, although her death would be seriously inconvenient for anyone who survived her. Lest anyone confuse this with concern for her demesnites's continued well being, she did it purely because refreshing bindings is tedious and she didn't want to add to her morning maintenance checklist.

** [[spoiler:There's also Shanalorre from River's Fork, who is a little younger than Karina. She takes over as Binder after her parents die in the first dragon to pass by.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: While largely functional, Lori can definitely be read as having some sort of social disorder.

** [[spoiler:While he's away on the trip to Covehold, the job gets handed to Riz. She is much more beleaguered by the job than Rian ever was and has to be regularly reminded that the position is temporary.]]

* DraconicAbomination: Dragons in this setting refer to periodic, semi-aware magical storms. As long as a demesne is ready for one, they're about as routine and dangerous as a hurricane... assuming your hurricanes like to transmute random patches of ground to various metals, throw zombies around, or merge large predators together to see what would happen, anyway. The cleanup from the first one to go through Lorian sets the town back by about a week. [[spoiler:It also guts River's Fork Demesne and manages to kill both their Binder and the Binder's back up, along with a large portion of their settlers.]]

* TriangRelations: Umu and Mikon form a Type 3 with Rian. They are both openly interested in him and aren't even trying to hide it, but he seems unreceptive to either of them. They are joined by a third character, Riz, after [[spoiler:the settlers from River's Fork move in.]]

* WouldntHurtAChild: Lori is genuinely concerned for the well being and fair treatment of the children in her demesne. This is exemplified when she [[spoiler:finds out that Shanalorre claimed River's Fork's core. She had spent the entire trip psyching herself up to kill whoever had claimed the core the instant she discovered their identity, only to stop at the last minute when she realized the new binder is a child.]]

** This is one of the things working against River's Fork Demesne after its original binder died. He had set up the demesne's infrastructure to require regular maintenance from an experienced Deadspeaker to remain in working order without considering what would happen in case of his sudden death. Less than a year later and the demesne is in shambles and its people are on the edge of starvation. Shana is able to keep things from collapsing outright, but isn't experienced enough to fix (or even understand) the subtler dynamic problems of the demesne's plant-based infrastructure or repair things that get damaged by outside forces.

* BrokenBird: Shanna. Where to start... Her parents both died shortly after establishing their demesne when a dragon passed through the area. The dragon also killed about half the people she knew in the demesne. She was able to bind the core and become a dungeon binder, tying her to the land forever, shortly before a relief expedition from Lorian arrived, prepared to offer shelter to all the survivors. Her uncle, the demesne's lord, sees her only as a child and is trying to control things himself. The head of their militia tried to kill her, and not everyone thinks he was wrong to want to do away with her when Lori, a competent and trained wisperer, was right there and had weathered the same dragon that killed so many with no losses. Several people dissatisfied with Lori's rule also moved to River's Fork and started to stir up trouble just like they had in Lorian. While she is a deadspeaking savant with the ability to heal people, she has no formal training and is unlikely to ever replicate the feats her father, a fully trained deadspeaker, was capable of, and has to watch as the creations he gave his life for slowly crumble around her. In her viewpoint chapters, she is shown to be a deeply traumatized person living with the knowledge that she will inevitably die in the same way her parents did, and thinks her main duty is to be a steward to her people until Lori takes over after her death.

** This is one of the things working against River's Fork Demesne after its original binder died. He had set up the demesne's infrastructure to require regular maintenance from an experienced Deadspeaker to remain in working order without considering what would happen in case of his sudden death. Shana is able to keep things from collapsing outright, but isn't experienced enough to fix (or even understand) the subtler dynamic problems of the demesne's plant-based infrastructure or repair things that get damaged by outside forces. Less than a year after his death and the demesne is in shambles and it's people are on the edge of starvation.
** Subverted in Lorian. Lori made a point of setting things up so that while her death would be seriously inconvenient, the buildings wouldn't collapse without a Wisperer's attention. Lest anyone confuse this with concern for her demesnites's continued well being, she did it purely because refreshing bindings is tedious and she didn't want to add to her morning maintenance checklist.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Beasts are large lizard creatures, at least some of which are feathered bipedal raptors. They occupy most of the apex predator slots in the world. They're less of a problem than you'd think, as being infected with iridescence from birth makes entering a demesne lethal to them.

* BrokenBird: Shanna. Where to start... Her parents both died shortly after establishing their demesne when a dragon passed through the area. The dragon also killed about half the people she knew in the demesne. She was able to bind the core and become a dungeon binder, tying her to the land forever, shortly before a relief expedition from Lorian arrived, prepared to offer shelter to all the survivors. Her uncle, the demesne's lord, sees her only as a child and is trying to control things himself. The head of their militia tried to kill her, and not everyone thinks he was wrong to want to do away with her when Lori, a competent and trained wisperer, was right there and had weathered the same dragon that killed so many with no losses. Several people dissatisfied with Lori's rule also moved to River's Fork and started to stir up trouble just like the had in Lorian. While she is a deadspeaking savant with the ability to heal people, she has no formal training and is unlikely to ever replicate the feats her father, a fully trained deadspeaker, was capable of, and has to watch as the creations he gave his life for slowly crumble around her. In her viewpoint chapters, she is shown to be a deeply traumatized person living with the knowledge that she will inevitably die in the same way her parents did, and thinks her main duty is to be a steward to her people until Lori takes over after her death.

* BrokenBird: Shanna. Where to start... Her parents both died shortly after establishing their demesne when a dragon passed through the area. The dragon also killed about half the people she knew in the demesne. She was able to bind the core and become a dungeon binder, tying her to the land forever, shortly before a relief expedition from Lorian arrived, prepared to offer shelter to all the survivors. Her uncle, the demesne's lord, sees her only as a child and is trying to control things himself. The head of their militia tried to kill her, and not everyone thinks he was wrong to want to do away with her when Lori, a competent and trained wisperer, was right there and had weathered the same dragon that killed so many with no losses. Several people dissatisfied with Lori's rule also moved to River's Fork and started to stir up trouble just like the had in Lorian. While she is a deadspeaking savant with the ability to heal people, she has no formal training and is unlikely to ever replicate the feats her father, a fully trained deadspeaker, was capable of. In her viewpoint chapters, she is shown to be a deeply traumatized person living with the knowledge that she will inevitably die in the same way her parents did, and thinks her main duty is to be a steward to her people until Lori takes over after her death.

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Rian, full stop. The man has some serious self worth issues. He's been getting better about it as time goes on, but it still pops up now and then.

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Rian, full stop. The man has some serious self worth issues.

* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Lori's brilliant idea to sit on a rock she was moving with wispering, getting hurt falling off of it, and needing to be saved by Shana after the wound becomes infected. And Rian trying to go beast hunting while sleep deprived because he felt like he wasn't contributing to the demesne's survival, despite everything he was doing as it's only lord.

* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Lori's brilliant idea to sit on a rock she was moving with wispering, getting hurt falling off of it, and needing to be saved by Shana after the wound becomes infected. And Rian trying to go beast hunting while sleep deprived

* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Lori's brilliant idea to sit on a rock she was moving with wispering, getting hurt falling off of it, and needing to be saved by Shana after the wound becomes infected.

* ThoseTwoGirls: Umu and Mikon. Played with, as they're not unfriendly to one another, but one of the main things they have in common is an inability to attract Rian's attention.
* TriangRelations: Umu and Mikon form a Type 3 with Rian. They are both openly interested in him and aren't even trying to hide it, but he seems largely uninterested in either of them. They are joined by a third character, Riz, after [[spoiler:the settlers from River's Fork move in.]]
** [[spoiler:There are tentative steps to making it a Type 11 later in the story once they finally get Rian to accept that they are actually interested in him and not just being polite or friendly. Type 11 because Mikon is also trying to start something with the other women at the same time, but is having about as much trouble conveying romantic interest to them as they had with Rian.]]

* HowDoIShotWeb: A Dungeon Binder is supposed to be able to use all four of the magical disciplines, but their isn't enough overlap between their approaches for Lori to figure it out on her own.

* LikeBrotherAndSister: Rian and Lori, eventually. He's a stand in for the sibling she always wanted, and she's a stand in for the sister he left behind on the Old Continent. Which one is the older sibling depends on the situation and which one is most blatantly disregarding their personal well being.

* LikeBrotherAndSister: Rian and Lori, eventually. He's a stand in for the sibling she always wanted, and she's a stand in for the sister he left behind on the Old Continent.