History Literature / Dragaera

The Paarfi of Roundwood books are a series of historical fiction novels written by Paarfi of Roundwood, an [[LemonyNarrator eccentric]] historian whose [[PurpleProse florid]] style is a parody of Creator/AlexandreDumas. Each book in the series is based on a book written by Dumas. The books in the ''Khaavren Romances'' closely follow the structure of the ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'' stories, while ''The Baron of Magister Valley'' is follows ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo''. Paarfi writes the books during and sometime after Vlad's life, but they take place several hundred years before Vlad's time. Due to the long-lived nature of Dragaerans, there are a number of cross-over characters between the two series.

The Paarfi of Roundwood books are a series of historical fiction novels written by Paarfi of Roundwood, an [[LemonyNarrator eccentric]] historian whose [[PurpleProse florid]] style is a parody of Creator/AlexandreDumas. Each book in the series is based on a book written by Dumas. The books in the ''Khaavren Romances'' closely follow the structure of the ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'' stories, while ''The Baron of Magister Valley'' is follows ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo''. Paarfi writes the books during and sometime after Vlad's life, but the setting of the books take place several hundred years before Vlad's time. Due to the long-lived nature of Dragaerans, there are a number of cross-over characters between the two series.

The Paarfi of Roundwood books are a series of historical fiction novels written by Paarfi of Roundwood, an [[LemoneyNarrator eccentric]] historian whose [[PurpleProse florid]] style is a parody of Creator/AlexandreDumas. Each book in the series is based on a book written by Dumas. The books in the ''Khaavren Romances'' closely follow the structure of the ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'' stories, while ''The Baron of Magister Valley'' is follows ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo''. Paarfi writes the books during and sometime after Vlad's life, but the setting of the books take place several hundred years before Vlad's time. Due to the long-lived nature of Dragaerans, there are a number of cross-over characters between the two series.

The world of Dragaera is the brainchild of Creator/StevenBrust. It serves as the setting for two of his novel series -- the ''Khaavren Romances'' (now complete) and the ''Vlad Taltos'' books (ongoing) -- as well as the standalone novel ''Brokedown Palace''.

The ''Vlad Taltos'' series describes the life of the Easterner Vlad Taltos, an Imperial citizen after his father bought their way into the House of Jhereg, which is essentially the "Mafia caste." Despite being a second-class citizen, Vlad makes his way through life as an assassin and a mid-level power player in the underworld of the Empire's capital. Most of the novels are written from the first-person perspective of Taltos himself, but Brust will sometimes experiment with other approaches.

The ''Khaavren Romances'' series follows the swashbuckling adventures of four Dragaeren heroes. It is a deliberate {{homage}} to ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'', told by a historian narrator who writes in a loving style-parody of Creator/AlexandreDumas' PurpleProse. The plot closely follows the ''Musketeers'' series, including the same number and structure of books. The series takes place several hundred years before the Vlad books, though due to the long-lived nature of Dragaerans, there are a number of cross-over characters between the two series.

!!Khaavren Romances series:
* ''The Phoenix Guards'' (1991)
* ''Five Hundred Years After'' (1994)
* ''The Viscount of Adrilankha''
** ''The Paths of the Dead'' (2002)
** ''The Lord of Castle Black'' (2003)
** ''Sethra Lavode'' (2004)

* HumansByAnyOtherName: Has a very weird relationship with this trope. Both what we consider humans ("Easterners") and the [[OurElvesAreBetter elflike]] Dragaerans refer to themselves as human and call the other something else.

* OurElvesAreBetter: Dragaerans are called "elfs" by Easterners in the eastern kingdoms. They are tall, slender, extremely long-lived, highly magical, and some strains have pointed ears. Their Empire is based on the Protestant Reformation era of Europe. Dragaerans come from all walks of life, from peasants to criminals to tradesmen to professionals to nobles.

** ''The Baron of Magister Valley'' (2020)

* CrypticBackgroundReference: Both Paarfi and Vlad constantly drop references to things that don't get explained, in Paarfi's case because [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis he isn't writing for humans]], and Vlad seems to want to avoid digression. Examples of Vlad's unexplained references include [[EnemyWithout fighting his own likeness]], [[DealWithTheDevil communing with Eastern spirits to recover the Necromancer's soul]], and [[DemonicInvaders Morrolan fighting a demon who had taken his sword while Vlad lay helpless]]. Sound like important events to someone in their twenties? All of those events were recounted on one page of ''Phoenix'', and happened in one room of Castle Black.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: Played with on a massive scale in the peripheral material of both series. In one Vlad book, he refers to a "fool" who is paying him for his stories, and in another novel describes how he's speaking into a "tube" to narrate the story. In the Khaavren Romances, Brust even interviews the series's fictonal author, Paarfi, and talks about the changes he's had to make in "translating" the original text. Paarfi reacts with outrage at the liberties he's taken.

** The preface to the second Khaavren novel explains that [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis Paarfi's]] [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness writing style]] isn't historically correct but taken from a play called ''[[Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead Redwreath And Goldstar Have Traveled To Deathsgate]]''.

Dragaera is a fantasy world dominated by two major sentient races. The first are the Dragaerans, who are tall, long-lived, and vaguely elven. The second are the Easterners, who are human for all intents and purposes. Interestingly, ''both'' species call themselves "human", and use the formal name for the other. Most Dragaerans live in the vast and powerful Dragaeran Empire, which covers most of the main continent, and the rest inhabit some of the independent islands off the southern coast. Most Easterners live (surprise) to the east, in several small kingdoms, although some have emigrated to the Empire. Both the series take place largely in the Empire. ''Brokedown Palace'' takes place in the Eastern kingdom of Fenario.

The ''Vlad Taltos'' series describes the life of the Easterner Vlad Taltos, an Imperial citizen after his father bought their way into the House of Jhereg, which is essentially the "Mafia caste". Despite being a second-class citizen, Vlad makes his way through life as an assassin and a mid-level power player in the underworld of the Empire's capital. Most of the novels are written from the first-person perspective of Taltos himself, but Brust will sometimes experiment with other approaches.

Dragaera is a fantasy world dominated by two major sentient races. The first are the Dragaerans, who are tall, long-lived, and vaguely elven. The second are the Easterners, who are human for all intents and purposes. Interestingly, ''both'' species call themselves "human," and use the formal name for the other. Most Dragaerans live in the vast and powerful Dragaeran Empire, which covers most of the main continent, and the rest inhabit some of the independent islands off the southern coast. Most Easterners live (surprise) to the east, in several small kingdoms, although some have emigrated to the Empire. Both the series take place largely in the Empire; ''Brokedown Palace'' takes place in the Eastern kingdom of Fenario.

The Empire consists of seventeen houses/castes, each named after an animal on the planet. Although some houses are considered superior to others, a certain amount of peace between them is maintained by the custom that all seventeen get their turn to provide an Emperor or Empress. "The Cycle" determines the order; as each abdicates, the next house in line provides their Heir. Assassination of an Emperor is discouraged by the Orb, a mystic sphere that orbits the head of the current sovereign and protects him or her from harm... at least until it is time for the Cycle to change.

The number 17 is of mystic significance in Imperial culture, and that extends to the books themselves, which all run for 17 or 34 chapters. Another common trait to the books is Devera, a little girl who appears in some form in literally every book Steven Brust writes; in the Dragaera novels, she's established to be the daughter of a major character, only she technically hasn't been born yet.

The ''Vlad Taltos'' series describes the life of the Easterner Vlad Taltos, an Imperial citizen after his father bought their way into the House of Jhereg, which is essentially the "Mafia caste." Despite being a second-class citizen, Vlad makes his way through life as an assassin and a mid-level power player in the underworld of the Empire's capital. Most of the novels are written from the first-person perspective of Taltos himself, but Brust will sometimes experiment with other approaches.

A word of warning: spoilers follow.

* MalignedMixedMarriage: Inter-House marriages (although not flings) are generally looked down upon. However, children born during the Interregnum have much less of an issue with it, which is why Piro (Tiassa) and Ibronka (Dzur) are totally blindsided by their parents' anger. While eventually [[spoiler: Khaavren]] reconciles with them, [[spoiler: Princess Sennya]] remains estranged for centuries, and it's left ambiguous as to whether [[spoiler: she and Ibronka]] ever forgive each other.
** Zerika IV and her Easterner lover Brimfrod/Lazslo, while not actually married as such, suffer from this. Grita leaks knowledge of their relationship to the Lyorn Heir, who [[spoiler: promptly withdraws his support]]. However, after the war, it's not such a problem because everyone who knows a) doesn't care, or b) does care, but refuses to insult their lawful Empress.

** All the chapter titles in ''Vallista'' are [[IncrediblyLamePun incredibly lame puns]] riffing on the titles of classic gothic stories, such as [[Literature/TheTurnOfTheScrew The Turn of Disacru]] and [[Literature/TheMysteriesOfUdolpho The Miseries of Odelpho]].

** In Yendi, Sethra's punishment of Sethra The Younger is based on 17[[superscript:4]]

** There's a [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130512063458/http://www.speakeasy.org/~mamandel/Cracks-and-Shards/jokes.html fan page on these]], from Creator/AbbottAndCostello to {{Hamlet}}, with a [[http://www.speakeasy.org/~mamandel/Cracks-and-Shards/GratefulDead.html separate page]] for Music/TheGratefulDead.

* FauxInterracialRelationship. In the prequel novel ''Five Hundred Years After''. Khaavren, the main protagonist has a MeetCute with his future wife Dara, and bewails the fact that while he loves her, their relationship won't work because she is of a different House (basically a race) than he is. She then reveals that while [[CultureEqualsCostume she dresses like a member of one House,]] she actually belongs to the same House as him, she just likes the other colors better. [[DeliberateValuesDissonance The fictional narrator then comments how great it was that this impediment was cleared up.]]

* Catch22Dilemma: Inevitable with the way the Cycle works. When the Cycle turns, the heir of the next House must take power. How do you know when the Cycle has turned? Well, when the heir of the next House takes power. Invoked by Adron in ''Five Hundred Years After'', when he grimly points out that he'll only know he can win at the point he's already won.

* WorldOfSymbolism: Subverted in ''Brokedown Palace'', which Brust had ''meant'' to write as a socialist political allegory. WordOfGod is that he had to change gears when the characters stubbornly insisted on acting like ''people'' rather than symbols.

* PlaygroundSong: "Dung-Foot Peasant", a Teckla children's ditty, provides epigraphs for ''Athyra''. It's mentioned that the song has evolved, adding new verses and forgetting others, between Savn's early childhood and his sister's.