History Literature / DoctrineOfLabyrinths

* BastardBoyfriend: Malkar is the Unconflicted Type. We know less about Ivo than we do about Malkar, but from what Vincent says, he's pretty nasty too.

''The Doctrine of Labyrinths'' is a series of four fantasy novels, ''Mélusine'', ''The Virtu'', ''The Mirador'', and ''Corambis'' and an additional side story, A Gift of Wings, by Creator/SarahMonette featuring the incredibly dysfunctional Lord Felix Harrowgate, a powerful wizard who nearly managed to put his [[SonOfAWhore baseborn past]] and [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold unsavory history]] behind him, and his equally-dysfunctional younger brother Mildmay, whose personality is [[TheStoic just as]] [[TheQuietOne fractured]] and whose past [[KnifeNut is]] [[HitmanWithaHeart just]] [[SonOfAWhore as]] [[GentlemanThief dismal]].

* KnifeNut: Mildmay is an expert knife-fighter, specifically with butterfly knives. He flips them absentmindedly when upset or annoyed or just ''thinking''.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There are at least 50 characters who play a significant part in the plot and that's just from the first two books. Confusing is an understatement.

%% * SpotOfTea: The Corambins, in keeping with the fourth book's {{Steampunk}} feel.

* ContemptibleCover: Allegedly. The [[http://www.amazon.com/Mélusine-Sarah-Monette/dp/0441014178/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265693314&sr=8-1 first book]] has a perfectly fine cover, other than it seemed to offend some people who get the vapors over shirtless men. The [[http://www.amazon.com/Corambis-Sarah-Monette/dp/B002IKLO2I/ref=pd_sim_b_2 finale]] is a little racier but not the pornographic horror you would have expected from some reactions.

* KnifeNut: Mildmay is an expert knife-fighter, specifically with [[ButterflyKnife butterfly knives]]. He flips them absentmindedly when upset or annoyed or just ''thinking''.

* {{Asexuality}}:
** Asked what he'd like to do with his life, Vincent answers, "Cut off my sex and go into a monastery," and Mehitabel "worried that he wasn't joking". However, given [[SexSlave his]] [[{{Woobie}} miserable]] [[RapeAsBackstory history]], it's hard to know whether this is a trait he was born with, or one he developed over time. We do know that in his youth he imagined that a "young, wealthy lord would see my [[SelfDeprecation sterling qualities behind the hard veneer of prostitution]] and [[RescueRomance take me away]] to his palace on Lighthill. But I was never in that story either."
** Some of the brothers of St. Crellifer's, specifically Brother Orphelin and Brother Lilburn. Felix can see in his madness that celibacy is no trouble for Orphelin because he is much more interest in power and secrets than sex. And Lilburn... doesn't seem to feel anything at all.
** Simon and Rinaldo similarly don't engage in sex, with each other or anybody else (despite rumors that they are lovers) and seem to be the only people in the Mirador to do so. This might be a consequence of the trauma they suffered, but they aren't about to think about that in depth.

* SurrealSymbolicHeads: While insane, Felix sees Malkar's as a dog's, Stephen's as a bear's, Thaddeus's as a raven's, and Mildmay's as a fox's. Interestingly enough, Felix considers both Malkar and Mildmay to be "dogs" in the symbolism of the Sibylline.

* BadassMustache: Bernard sports a braided one, saved from utter ridiculousness by the fact that he's actually a badass.

* MatureYoungerSibling: Mildmay is several years younger than Felix, but spends the bulk of the entire series trying to mitigate the damage Felix's recklessness and mental health issues cause, to the point of even having to manage Felix's money for the pair.

* MatureYoungerSibling: In Doctrine of Labyrinths, Mildmay is several years younger than Felix, but spends the bulk of the entire series trying to mitigate the damage Felix's recklessness and mental health issues cause, to the point of even having to manage Felix's money for the pair.

* NotSoDifferent: Felix becomes convinced that this is the case with him and Malkar, particularly in regards to how he treats Mildmay.

* StudentTeacherRomance: Mildmay believes Corbie has a huge crush on Felix [[spoiler:and the reason Corbie sleeps with him is because Felix is gay and thus off limits.]] Felix both loves and hates Malkar, a relationship that ends badly for everyone involved.

* StudentTeacherRomance: Mildmay believes Corbie has a huge crush on Felix [[spoiler:and the reason Corbie sleeps with him is because Felix is gay and thus off limits.]] Felix both loves and hates Malkar, a relationship that ends badly for everyone involved.

* {{Tearjerker}}: Basically anything involving Felix or Mildmay's childhoods, but especially Joline and Zephyr (who, as Mildmay says, "never did anything to hurt nobody"), and [[spoiler:Gideon's]] death and Felix's reaction. Also [[spoiler:everything with Mehitabel and Hallam]], and the implication that [[spoiler:Gerrard never loved Kay and may have mocked him with his wife]].

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
** Malkar again, and any other names he's going by.
** And Kolkhis and Vey Coruscant.
** Louis Goliath, the spymaster of the Bastion.
** And General Mercator.
** And the White-Eyed Lady.
** Within the Lower City, Mildmay the Fox. Yes, even after he's been [[spoiler:crippled and bound to a wizard of the Mirador]].

* AbusiveParents: Basically everyone, up to and including orphans... whose parental figures were abusive enough to make up for any ambiguity.\\
\\
The Keepers who raised Felix and Mildmay were as close to parental figures as the brothers had after they were [[ParentalAbandonment sold]] at the ages of four and three, respectively. Both of them were raised as kept thieves. Felix's Keeper regularly beat and drowned children who failed tasks or didn't obey; after his death Felix was taken in by a pimp who later sold him to a blood wizard. Mildmay's Keeper forced him to work as an assassin until he ran away at seventeen.

* AllGaysArePromiscuous: Played with. Felix certainly could be considered to be, but that's not true of, to give only two examples, Gideon or Kay.
* AllGaysLoveTheater: Played straight in ''The Mirador''.

* AllWomenAreLustful: The only apparent aversion is Emily Teveria, who's [[DeathByOriginStory dead]] by the time ''Mélusine'' begins.
* AloofBigBrother: Subverted. Felix is so obviously not the more stable of the brothers, not that that's saying much.

* AmIJustAToyToYou: Gideon asks Felix this in one of ''The Mirador'''s many heartbreaking scenes.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: The end of ''Corambis''. The author has said she wanted to make it clear that the story didn't end with the narrative, and she definitely did.

* ArtifactOfDeath: Any Titan clock.

* {{Asexuality}}: Asked what he'd like to do with his life, Vincent answers, "Cut off my sex and go into a monastery," and Mehitabel "worried that he wasn't joking". However, given [[SexSlave his]] [[{{Woobie}} miserable]] [[RapeAsBackstory history]], it's hard to know whether this is a trait he was born with, or one he developed over time. We do know that in his youth he imagined that a "young, wealthy lord would see my [[SelfDeprecation sterling qualities behind the hard veneer of prostitution]] and [[RescueRomance take me away]] to his palace on Lighthill. But I was never in that story either."

* AttemptedRape: Far less common than actual rape. Discussion continues over whether this is a subversion, making the story [[ThisIsReality more realistic]], or... [[RapeAsDrama not]]. Honestly, a lot of the criticism for the series comes down to how this trope is handled.

* BackFromTheDead: Always ends badly. At best you'll wind up with tortured souls making some mediums [[UnhappyMedium very unhappy]]; at worst, you've got yourself the above ''and'' some serious carnage.

* BadassInDistress: Mildmay is the resident Badass, but at one point he gets locked in a farmhouse cellar and has to get rescued by Felix who is completely insane at this point and fights like a little girl even at his best. [[spoiler:Not to mention later, when the usually competent Mildmay has to be rescued DamselInDistress style.]]

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Ha ha ha ''no''.
* BeautyIsBad: Beautiful characters are almost shallow, vain, and spiteful, at least before their HiddenDepths are revealed.
* BedlamHouse: St. Crellifer's.
* BerserkButton: Felix has a number of triggers to set him off, namely Malkar, the Sim, Malkar, his Keeper, Malkar, that time when he was crazy, and Malkar. Mildmay's are people pitying him and people not understanding his speech. Shannon's is his mother and Stephen's is Felix. Thaddeus and Gideon's is the Bastion. Basically the people in these books have a lot of issues, mmkay?

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Gideon, apparently. Mildmay makes some remark in ''The Mirador'' about this.
* BigBad: Malkar.

* BigLabyrinthineBuilding: The Mirador and the Bastion, which may or may not have once been "on the same plan."
* BigOlEyebrows: Giancarlo is known for his.

* BilingualBonus: Mainly done with French. Also some Latin and Greek.
* BitchAlert: Kolkhis's entrance, at the Stag and Candles in ''The Virtu''.
* BitPartBadguys: St. Crellifer's staffers, Astyanax, the Sunny Pingree band, not to mention a bunch of two-bit criminals scattered all over the story.

* BlackMagic: Noirant magic.

* BookDumb: While Mildmay is quite intelligent, he's also functionally illiterate… [[spoiler:until Felix begins to teach him to read in 'Corambis']].

** The students Felix was teaching in ''The Mirador''. They have a little education, but they haven't had the kind of opportunity and access that would make them ready to be apprentices. This is implied to be the case with most non-Cabaline wizards in Mélusine.

* BrainsAndBondage: Malkar and Felix practice this, together and separately. The [[spoiler:Duke of Murtagh]] displays this as well.
* BrainsAndBrawn: This is what Felix and Mildmay are, respectively, to outside eyes. However, it's really subverted, because while Mildmay never had formal education, he's still more sensible than Felix. Felix, who ''was'' educated, but only pragmatically, and as such has huge holes in his knowledge and habitually makes terrible decisions.
* BrainyBrunette: Mehitabel Parr.
* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Methony's motivation for basically sleeping with everyone in Nephele and then running away to Mélusine.
* BreakTheHaughty: Dished out to Felix throughout ''Mélusine'' and ''Corambis''.

* {{Buttmonkey}}: Just about every protagonist in the series is this to one degree or another. Most notably every character who gets a POV. And Gideon. And Vincent. And Hallam. And even [[JerkassWoobie Vulpes]]. And...

* CarpetOfVirility: Murtagh's is a Type 1.

* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: Felix, Shannon, Vincent, Semper, and Angel.
* CatchPhrase: "Fuck me sideways 'til I cry!" "''Darling''." "Acting the swan daughter."
** Also: "Fuck this for the Emperor's snotrag!" and "Fuck this for a half-wit dog."
** Not to mention "bitchkitty" and "Milly-Fox" and "eyes as big as bell wheels." Mildmay has a lot of these.
* CharacterDevelopment: The main arc of the story is centered on how Felix and Mildmay, and to a lesser extent [[spoiler:Mehitabel and Kay]] accomplish this, becoming functioning members of society again, or... ever.

* ChekhovsArmy: If you see the name Vincent, Estella Velvet, Faith Cowry, Hugo Chandler, or Edwin Beckett, make a note. They're more important than they seem.
* ChekhovsGun: For parsimony excluding people, there's one in ''Mélusine'', when Gideon [[LegendofChekhov tells]] Felix about the magic-powered machines of Corambis. Felix has trouble believing him, but ''Corambis'' proves Gideon right.

* ChivalrousPervert: Mildmay.

* CityGuards: The city watch if you're upper class. The Dogs if you're from the Lower City.
* TheCityNarrows: Most of the Lower City is rough, but Simside, Queensdock, and the Arcane are even wretcheder than the rest of this WretchedHive.

* ClearTheirName: Mehitabel tries desperately to do this for Felix and Mildmay in ''The Mirador''.

* ClockTower: Felix has an unfortunate encounter with one of these in ''Corambis''.

* ComeToGawk: Felix is paraded through Mélusine after he was framed for breaking the Virtu.

* {{Confessional}}: Part of Corambin/Caloxan religion.

* ConsummateLiar: Mavortian, according to Mildmay.

* ConvictedByPublicOpinion
** The Duke of Glimmering was hoping this would happen with Kay, but the people of Bernatha feel pity rather than contempt and the duke just comes off looking spiteful.
* CoolBigSis: Corbie slips herself into this role with Julian.

* TheCorruptible: Felix.

* CountryMouse: Ginevra Thomson.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Inflicted on [[spoiler:Mavortian]] by Malkar.

* CulturedBadass: Felix, Malkar, and Kolkhis.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Felix is described as a noirant (black magic) wizard and a natural necromancer. Did I mention he's the protagonist?

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''The Mirador''. It's like peering into a pitch-black cave.

* DeadPersonConversation: Felix has them with Magnus Cordelius, the fantôme in the tower, Grendille Moran, and the fantôme in the burning building; Mildmay observes one between Augusta Fenris and Luther Littleman.
* DecadentCourt: The court of the Mirador. And it's implied that Tibernia has this too.

* DeathByOriginStory: Methony, Joline, Iosephinus Pompey, Zephyr Wolsey, and the list goes on...

* DisappearedDad: Neither of the brothers knows who their father was. Felix's could be anyone in the Gardens of Nephele and Mildmay's could be... well, anyone in Mélusine. Possibly with green eyes.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Vey Coruscant]] is certainly formidable enough in her own right, but defeating her isn't the endgame.
* TheDogBitesBack: Felix to Malkar in ''The Virtu''; Mildmay to Kolkhis in ''The Mirador''.
* TheDon: Kolkhis and Vey Coruscant. Unusual in that both are female

* DontGoInTheWoods: The Forest of Nauleverer is a pretty creepy place.

* DoomsdayDevice: The machine under Summerdown.

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Averted, as Mildmay has nightmares about how Kolkhis used him, both sexually and as an assassin.

* DownerEnding: All of the books have quite somber endings, but ''The Mirador'' takes the cake in the 'depressing ending' department.

* DreamLand: There is an implied wide dreamworld out there, though Felix mostly sticks to the Khloidanikos.

* EldritchAbomination: Ghouls and fantômes.
* EldritchLocation: The Mirador and Bastion.
* EmbarrassingFirstName: For Mr. Mild-may-your-suffering-be-at-the-hands-of-the-wicked.

* EmpathicEnvironment

* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Corbie is exceedingly popular with the boys at the Institution and seems to have them wrapped around her little finger before Felix or Mildmay even set foot on campus.

* EvilMatriarch: Kolkhis. She claims to love her children, Mildmay especially, but she seems to love making them suffer for her amusement more.

* EvilSorcerer: Malkar Gennadion, Vey Coruscant, Beaumont Livy, Brinvillier Strych, Porphyria Levant, and Edmund Beckett. Although [[spoiler:a couple of those actually turn out to be Malkar under another name]].
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Once for Felix in the beginning of ''Mélusine'', and once again at the end of ''Corambis''. Once for Mildmay, when Mavortian pays him to take the dye out of his hair.

* FamedInStory: All the narrators are this by the end of the series.
* {{Familiar}}: Felix reflects that Mildmay fills this role for him.

* FanDisservice: Half... okay, nearly all the scenes involving sex.

* FieryRedhead: Methony and her sons.

* FishOutOfWater: Mildmay [[spoiler:accompanying Felix to the Mirador]]. Definitely not played for laughs.

* ForTheEvulz: Malkar's motivation for everything we see him do.

* FriendsWithBenefits: Mildmay and Mehitabel. Sort of. It's complicated.
** Felix and.... a whole bunch of people.
* FrozenFace: Mildmay's, due to damage from a long-ago knife fight.
* FunctionalMagic: In several different flavors.

* GambitPileup: ''The Mirador''.

* {{Gayngst}}: Gideon feels this for enjoying sex with Felix.

* {{Geas}} After you cast the obligation de sang or the obligation d’âme on someone, you can essentially cast as many gaesa as you want on them.

* GetItOverWith: Mildmay, suffering from the Mirador's curse, and not expecting much salvation from the wizards around him.
* GhostCity: Nera and Corybant.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Felix in ''Mélusine''.http://summerglauwiki.com/blog/river_bar_gun/2013-06-12-824
* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: If you want this trope, you're in the wrong book series.

* HauntedHeadquarters: The Mirador.

* TheHermit: Anchorites.
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Cardenio and Arakhne.
* HeroHarassesHelpers: Felix does this almost to Mildmay throughout ''The Virtu'' and ''The Mirador''.

* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler:Shannon]], and many other characters prominently featured in ''The Mirador''.

* HoneyTrap: Vulpes, for Felix.

* IHaveYourWife: The way that Vulpes coerces Mehitabel back into spying for the Bastion.

* ISeeDeadPeople: Felix, when mad. [[spoiler:Vincent Demabrien, and Julian Carey]].
* ImmodestOrgasm: In ''The Mirador'', Mehitabel reminisces about having one of these in her dressing room, courtesy of Mildmay.
* ImpliedDeathThreat: Felix delivers one to Robert. In the middle of a crowded room, no less.
* ImprobableAge: Mildmay was Mélusine's top assassin in his mid-teens.

* IncompatibleOrientation: Felix for Mildmay, and that's just besides the whole brother thing. Kay for Gerrard. [[spoiler:Corbie]] for Felix, as hinted at by

* InterruptedSuicide: Felix in Mélusine; he's talked down by [[spoiler:Gideon]].
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: The emperor of Nera.

* IronicName: "Felix" means happy. He isn't.

* JigsawPuzzlePlot: Done in ''The Mirador'', and set-up for in the previous two books.

* JustInTime: Felix, Mildmay, and Corbie's arrival to [[spoiler:Summerdown]].

* KickTheDog: Nearly everything Malkar ever does falls under this trope, but most other characters get a turn, and Felix gets several.
* KillerRobot: The Automaton and Titan Clocks, [[spoiler:including the extra-big one under Summerdown]].

* KnowledgeBroker: Mildmay's former Keeper, Kolkhis. Elvire, the madame of the Goosegirl's Palace, too.
* KudzuPlot: Done very well in ''The Mirador''. The other books, while still complicated, aren't quite so complex.
* LampshadeHanging: Mildmay frequently mocks many conventional fantasy tropes and cliches: "Duels are just fancy knife-fights and just as fucking stupid." "I didn't know there were rooms like this outside of stories about evil wizards."

* LastFertileRegion: Bercromius Park.

* LeanAndMean: Kolkhis, as described by Mildmay.

* LeyLine: Mentioned by a Tibernian wizard, with regard to the tower in Hermione, in ''The Mirador''.

* LockedInTheDungeon: Felix and Mildmay. A lot.

* TheLostWoods: The Forest of Nauleverer.

* MageTower: There are a lot of these, notably the Mirador, the Bastion, and the tower in Hermione.

* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: It's entirely possible that Shannon isn't biologically a Teverius, but he's legally one and the family's sticking to that. [[spoiler:Augusta Fenris's conversation with Luther Littleman seems to confirm that Shannon is ''not'' of "the blood of the Teverii.]]

* ManipulativeBastard: Malkar and Kolkhis both. And Felix counts, too. And Mehitabel. And Mavortian. And Lorenzo, probably. And Shannon. And...

* MartialPacifist: Mildmay.
* MasterApprenticeChain: Corbie's will stretch back to Porphyria Levant. On another branch it goes back to one Rosindy Clark who taught Iosephinus Pompey. The former is what provides conflict and drama. The latter is what makes teaching her seem possible.
* MasterOfDisguise: Mehitabel, justified since she grew up in an acting troupe and later worked as a spy.
* MauveShirt: Gerrard Hume.
* MeaningfulName: Cressida is a suiting codename for Mehitabel...
* MechanicalMonster: The Automaton of Corybant.

* MentalWorld: Felix's construct Mélusine, and the Khloidanikos.
* MentorOccupationalHazard: How different would this story have been if Iosephinus Pompey hadn't [[DeathByOriginStory died before it began]]? We'll never know, but it's a fair guess that the (anti)heroes might have been a lot less miserable.

* MindScrew: Many of Felix' and Mildmay's dreams.

* MoreThanMindControl: worked on Felix by the BigBad Malkar and on Mildmay by Kolkhis, they spend most of the series trying to escape it and rebuild themselves, even after the people who'd been controlling them weren't a regular fixture in their lives (outside of their own constant thoughts, memories and nightmares).

* MurderousMalfunctioningMachine: The Automaton of Corybant goes crazy and does this.

* MyNameIsInigoMontoya: Malkar's [[TheReveal startling]] introduction to Mildmay.
* MysteriousNote: Felix gets one from Vey Coruscant in ''The Mirador''.

* MysticalPlague: Caused by [[spoiler:the machine under Summerdown]] in ''Corambis''.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Malkar again, and any other names he's going by.

* ObliviouslyEvil: The Cabalines, when hunting heretics.

* TheOphelia: A definite gender inversion in Felix in ''Mélusine''. The trope gets played with in Vincent (''The Mirador'')-- people ''think Vincent'' is crazy, what with all that getting distracted by ghosts, but he isn't. Interestingly, both characters have delicate physical builds and are very pretty despite being male.
* OurGhostsAreDifferent
* OurGhoulsAreCreepier
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: The Kalliphorne.

* ParentalAbandonment: Felix and Mildmay's mother, Methony, sold them at the ages of four and three, respectively, to their incredibly sadistic Keepers. They never find out who their fathers even were. Not that they care.
* ParentalIncest: [[spoiler:Diokletian]] lusts after Felix because Felix reminds him of the woman he loved, who happens to have been Felix's mother. Which means there's a definite chance of [[spoiler:Diokletian]] being Felix's father. Oddly, this bothers [[spoiler:Diokletian]] a lot more than it bothers Felix, who doesn't seem to have an issue with incest.

** Felix and [[spoiler:Gideon]]'s final conversation was a quarrel, much to Felix's regret.
* ThePenance: Inflicted on Kay by Glimmering (although Kay had confessed to a priest), early in ''Corambis''.

* PersonaNonGrata: Mildmay and Felix, not only in ''Mélusine'', but also at the end of ''The Mirador'' and in ''Corambis''.

* ThePlotReaper: Claims heavy casualties, including [[spoiler:Sherbourne Foss, Gideon Thraxios, and Gerrard Hume]].

* PowerGlows: The Virtu.

* PredecessorVillain: Porphyria Levant and Brinvillier Strych. [[spoiler:Strych is actually a case of HijackedByGanon-- he's also Malkar Gennadion.]]
* PresentTenseNarrative: Most of the story is told in past tense, but there are notable shifts into the present to signify a shift in reality. All dreams are told in present tense. If it's not a dream though, something is horribly wrong.

* ThePrimaDonna: Susan Dravanya, lead actress of the Empyrean and Mehitabel's "personal bete noire".

* TheProudElite: Most of the inhabitants of the Mirador.
* ProudMerchantRace: Bernathans. Felix notes that bragging about their MerchantCity seems to be a kind of disease.
* PsychicDreamsForEveryone
* PsychicLink: Caused by the obligation de sang or the obligation d’âme.

* RapeAsBackstory: Felix, Mildmay, and Mehitabel, in different ways.
* RapeAsDrama: There is at least one rape or implied rape every book. Most of the criticism for the series comes down to how this trope is handled.

* [[ViewersAreGeniuses Readers Are Geniuses]]

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Mildmay, somewhat [[StoicWoobie uncharacteristially]], delivers it to Felix after a miserable party in ''The Mirador''.
* RedLightDistrict: Pharaohlight.

* RetiredOutlaw: Mildmay. It keeps creeping up on him despite his best efforts, though.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Hugo Chandler!]]
** [[spoiler:Malkar is Brinvillier Strych. ]]

* SafeSaneAndConsensual: Ideally, this is the sex that's supposed to happen between tarquins and martyrs (or, in Corambis, flames and shadows). Unfortunately, Felix has a hard time adhering to the rules. Some people, such as Malkar and [[spoiler:Edwin Beckett]], don't even bother trying.

* SarcasmBlind: Vulpes. Mehitabel enjoys this quality in him.

* ScarpiaUltimatum: Malkar delivers one to Felix.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Robert of Hermione. Of course, [[spoiler:this would have worked better if he hadn't plotted to ''kill'' his main connection]].
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Or magic. Works either way, more or less, especially when considering that only rich wizards can afford good training.

* SexIsViolence: Felix and Mildmay have serious run into serious problems with this trope.

* ShamedByAMob: Felix, a couple of times, in Mélusine. ComeToGawk is also an issue for him.
* ShamefulStrip: Felix faces this at the hands of Malkar and, later, Brother Orphelin.

* ShelteredAristocrat: Sheltered, rich, royal Shannon.

* SiblingYinYang: Felix is beautiful, arrogant, well-educated, and useless at anything that's not academia. Mildmay is scarred, has serious confidence issues, looks and talks like a thug, and academically stunted but terribly world-wise and clever.

* SilentBob: Mildmay.
* SilentPartner: Gideon.
* SimpleYetOpulent: Mehitabel's preferred style of dress.

* SirSwearsALot: Mildmay.

* SnarkToSnarkCombat: Between Felix and Mehitabel and Felix and Shannon.

* SpellBook: De Charon's ''Principia Caeli'' and Ynge's ''Influence of the Moon''.
* SpotOfTea: The Corambins, in keeping with the fourth book's {{Steampunk}} feel.

* StarScraper: The Mirador and the Bastion.

* StepfordSmiler: Felix, Mildmay, and Mehitabel all ''seem'' good enough to get by on when viewed from the outside. Inside is a

* StudentTeacherRomance: Mildmay believes Corbie has a huge crush on Felix[[spoiler:and the reason Corbie sleeps with him is because Felix is gay and thus off limits.]] Felix both loves and hates Malkar, a relationship that ends badly for everyone involved.
* StuffBlowingUp: At the climaxes of ''The Virtu'' and ''Corambis''.
* StupidSexyFlanders: Briefly experienced by Mildmay when a man gives him a surprise kiss in ''The Virtu''.
* SunkenCity: Cymellune of the Waters.

* TheSvengali: Malkar, to Felix.

* {{Tearjerker}}: Let's see, shall we? Basically anything involving Felix or Mildmay's childhoods, but especially Joline and Zephyr (who, as Mildmay says, "never did anything to hurt nobody"), and [[spoiler:Gideon's]] death and Felix's reaction. Also [[spoiler:everything with Mehitabel and Hallam]], and the implication that [[spoiler:Gerrard never loved Kay and may have mocked him with his wife]].
* TechnicallyASmile: You really, really don't want Mildmay to smile.

* TheSvengali: Malkar to Felix.

* ThrownDownAWell: Felix in the Verpine; Hallam in whatever impregnable jail Louis Goliath threw him in in the Bastion.

* TokenMinority[=/=]TokenWhite: Played with. Most people in Marathat and the surrounding countries are brown-skinned, dark-eyed and dark-haired, meaning Felix and Mildmay with their pale complexions and red hair look exceedingly odd and out of place. Shannon being blue-eyed and blond also stands out.
* TookALevelInKindness: Shannon in ''The Mirador'', Felix in ''Corambis''.

* TraumaCongaLine: The whole series is basically a trauma conga line for most of its characters. Felix, Mildmay, Mehitabel, Kay, Gideon, and Vincent all run afoul of this trope.
* TraumaticHaircut: Happens to [[spoiler:Felix]] in Melusine when he's sent to St. Crellifer's.
* TrialOfTheMysticalJury: Felix faces this twice.

* UnderCity: The Arcane.

* UnnecessarilyLargeInterior: The Hall of the Chimeras has a 70-foot vault.

** [[spoiler:However, this comes up most notably with Shannon: note how Shannon is a terrible prick in Felix and Mildmay's narration... but a self-aware, kind and remorseful guy in Mehitabel's.]]

* UnusualEuphemism: "Flats," "flash," "fish," and "jezebel."

* UpperClassTwit: Early!Shannon fits this trope to a tee.

* VestigialEmpire: Cymellune and Troia.

* VolleyingInsults: A couple of scenes between Felix and Shannon qualify.
* WaistcoatOfStyle: De rigeur for upper-class men.

* WhamEpisode: The last 100-or-so pages of ''The Mirador''.
* WhamLine: "Otherwise and formerly [[spoiler:known as Brinvillier Strych]]".
* WhatTheHellHero: Mehitabel calls out Felix a lot for his atrocious treatment of Mildmay. Felix just... keeps on keeping on.

* WhenSheSmiles: Corbie is a pretty enough girl, but Felix says she's absolutely lovely when she smiles.

* WickedCultured: Malkar, although Felix approaches this at his worst (most closely in ''The Mirador'').

* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Everyone with a traumatic past. Which is ''all'' of the POV characters. None of which are over thirty.

* TheWorfEffect: Bernard suffers from this a couple of times in ''The Virtu''.

* WrongSideOfTheTracks: The Lower City in Mélusine, industrial slum variant.
* YouAllMeetInAnInn: The Chimera among the Roses, in Hermione.

''The Doctrine of Labyrinths'' is a series of four fantasy novels,''Mélusine'', ''The Virtu'', ''The Mirador'', and ''Corambis'' and an additional side story, A Gift of Wings, by Creator/SarahMonette featuring the incredibly dysfunctional Lord Felix Harrowgate, a powerful wizard who nearly managed to put his [[SonOfAWhore baseborn past]] and [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold unsavory history]] behind him, and his equally-dysfunctional younger brother Mildmay, whose personality is [[TheStoic just as]] [[TheQuietOne fractured]] and whose past [[KnifeNut is]] [[HitmanWithaHeart just]] [[SonOfAWhore as]] [[GentlemanThief dismal]].

''The Doctrine of Labyrinths'' is a series of four fantasy novels by Creator/SarahMonette, largely featuring the incredibly dysfunctional Lord Felix Harrowgate, a very powerful wizard who nearly managed to put his [[SonOfAWhore baseborn past]] and [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold unsavory history]] behind him, and his equally-dysfunctional younger brother Mildmay, whose personality is [[TheStoic just as]] [[TheQuietOne fractured]] and whose past [[KnifeNut is]] [[HitmanWithaHeart just]] [[SonOfAWhore as]] [[GentlemanThief dismal]].

The character-driven plot is too complex to relate here; there are many sub-plots, minor characters, and dangling plot threads. As a whole, the books mainly focus on the emotional and psychological trauma that accompany Mildmay and Felix (and, occasionally, the guest protagonists of the third and fourth books), and how they heal from said trauma, with a heaping helping of additional trauma, abuse, magic, murder, and emotional regression to keep things interesting.

Felix is generally a vain, self-centered [[JerkAss ass]], and Mildmay generally attempts to protect him and keep him out of trouble, with varying levels of success. Combine their wildly different personalities, two more first-person narrators, more minor characters than you can shake a stick at, an assload of labyrinths, and you've got ''The Doctrine of Labyrinths''.

[[{{Deconstruction}} Among]] [[GenreBusting other]] [[DarkerAndEdgier things]], the series should be noted for its extremely realistic portrayals of post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder[[note]] Which, WordOfGod, Felix has, but lives in a world where diagnosis and treatment do not exist[[/note]], clinical depression and the personality and behavioral consequences of childhood abuse; the characters never really ''get over'' what has happened to them, so much as... [[ThereAreNoTherapists work through it]] to pass for halfway-normal, and slowly, eventually, heal.

Set in a fantasy version of what roughly correlates to the Industrial Revolution-Era France[[note]] though in later books they hit a vaguely Victorian country complete with SteamPunk magic[[/note]], the series goes out of its way to subvert, avert, and deconstruct as many tropes as it possibly can, especially the StandardFantasySetting. Perhaps due to the [[RapeAsDrama subject]] [[HarmfulToMinors matter]] it covers, the series is not very well known, which is a shame. However, it is very well-loved by those who do know it.

The series consists of the books ''Mélusine'', ''The Virtu'', ''The Mirador'', and ''Corambis''. Creator/SarahMonette has also written an additional side story, A Gift of Wings, set in the same universe but involving no interlocking characters. [[note]] A septad is seven of something, usually seven years. A decad is ten days. An indiction is one year. Any other terms the reader is unfamiliar with can probably be found in a larger, more extensive dictionary; they are all historical in nature.[[/note]]

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: The court of the Mirador. And it's implied that Tibernia has this too.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: A lot of people towards Felix, but also Felix towards Mildmay for a good portion of the saga. While Mildmay does date both Mehitabel and Ginevra, neither of them ends up caring for him in quite the same way he does for them. According to [[WordOfGod]], Cardenio feels this way towards Mildmay as well.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: A lot of people towards Felix. [[WordOfGod Cardenio towards Mildmay.]]

* AllGaysArePromiscuous: Gideon is the sole exception.

** Gideon joined a death cult at fifteen because of a longing for suicide, fell in love with a horny wizard but finds sex degrading, and spends a year and a half being openly, humiliatingly [[spoiler:[[YourCheatingHeart cheated on]] by Felix]] before he develops a backbone. And even then, he's so in love with Felix that he [[spoiler:walks into Vulpes's trap]].

* RRatedOpening: The one-and-a-half page drops an F-bomb and mentions [[YourCheatingHeart adultery]], [[RapeAsDrama rape]], MindRape, and [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]].

* DreamingOfThingsToCome[=/=]DreamingOfTimesGoneBy: Explained as a kind of magic, oneiromancy. Felix is particularly prone to these tropes, [[BadDreams which]] [[NightmareSequence often]] [[FlashbackNightmare proves]] [[YourWorstNightmare unpleasant]].

* BadassGay: Felix (who, most of the time, could burn you to a cinder with his mind) and Kay (longtime warrior and popular general). Malkar also qualifies as a badass bisexual, although he's [[DepravedBisexual hardly]] a positive example.