History Literature / DyingEarth

* JackassGenie: The sandestins in the ''Dying Earth'' stories, especially the ones that serve Rhialto the Marvelous. Justified: they are a race with much more potent powers than Earth's wizards, and despise the fact that they can be compelled to obey.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:Twango's manse is a microcosm of unrestrained capitalism. His workers are tricked into taking on a debt, must pay hand over fist for basic necessities, work all day to undo the debt they accumulated , and then are incessantly tempted by Twango with lush rooms, fancy items, and gourmet meals that they can't possibly afford but can instead purchase on credit at even more exorbitant prices, lengthening the cycle. He pays them a terse or two per scale they dig up, then sells those scales for twenty times that.

** More traditional is the mysterious Yacht that hounds Cugel and the pilgrims as they move along the desert shore. Looking at it’s luxurious features and beautiful inhabitants causes you to go into a trance, sometimes for hours, after which you fall into a deep existential depression once it departs. As the depression worsens, you become increasingly desperate to see it again to the point a pilgrim decides he’d rather die alone in the desert than live a long life where he can never see the boat again. The boat, being intangible, is implied to also be related to the Overworld.

** Deodands are described as incredibly handsome looking men. If not for the pitch black skin and snake like eyes being known features of Deodands, most inhabitants likely wouldn't be able to tell them from the "normal" (at least for this eon) high varied human races that dot the planet.

* VampiricDraining: Sadlarks scales do this when in contact with bare flesh, how much so depends on the grade of scale. At low grades it’s an uncomfortable sucking sensation at the point of contact. Higher grade scales have cost people fingers and entire arms due to careless handling. The highest grade, the Skybreak Spatterlight, devours its victims entirely and instantaneously, soul and all.

* VampiricDraining: Sadlarks scales do this when in contact with bare flesh, how much so depends on the grade of scale. At low grades it’s an uncomfortable sucking sensation at the point of contact. Higher grade scales have cost people fingers and entire arms due to careless handling. The highest grade, the Skybreak Spatterlight devours it’s victims entirely and instantaneously, soul and all.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Even a few million years are enough time for natural selection and genetic drift to significantly alter living species -- for reference, about humanity went from being essentially bipedal chimps to its current form in about three million years. The millions of years that would have transformed our world into the Dying Earth would also have seen humanity evolve into something we likely wouldn't perceive as human anymore. While offshoot races adapted to the planet are shown, mainline humans like Cugel are still the majority despite not having adapted or changed at all.

* BadassBookworm: The Curator; Guyal of Sfere.

* HappyPlace: The Overworld.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Humans would have, at the absolute minimum, long ago lost hair through evolution's march. And while offshoot races adapted to the planet are shown, mainline Humans like Cugel are still the majority despite not having adapted or changed at all.

* ClarkesThirdLaw: Ampridatvir

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Master Twango.

* AdventureFriendlyWorld: the population is low, and international relations are practically nonexistent, the latter likely due to the sheer danger of travel. As such, single individuals can have huge influence over events and society, and there’s plenty of monsters, ruins and lost lore to go around.

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: According to the Curator, who knows what he is talking about, Demons and demon realms are the coagulated mass of mankind's debauched desires, fantasies, and vices given form by magic.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Earth's sun is not of a sort that will slowly fade to red and then die. It will first expand large enough to kill everything on the face of the Earth, and then shrink and stop giving enough light and heat to keep the remaining cinder from freezing -assuming Earth survived-[[note]]It ''will'' end fading to red and going out, though, but it will take billions of years. See [[UsefulNotes/TheSun here]].[[/note]]

* BrainInAJar: Rogol Domedonfors, ruler of Ampridatvir

* CatchPhrase: Chun's is also his MyNameIsInigoMontoya and his PreMortemOneLiner.

* EldritchAbomination: Pandelume looks like one, to the point that anyone who looks upon him will instantly go insane, but he behaves like a rather friendly person (surprising considering the setting). Magnatz is a more straightforward example, since he is unambiguously evil.
** Blikdak is one as well, being a gigantic corpulent demon whose leaking bodily fluids take on lives of their own as monstrous phantoms and who is able to devour knowledge itself.
** Sadlark is one as well. Even when broken down into nothing more than scales he cannot be killed, and still reflexively can defend himself and feed on souls (which Cugel uses to great effect, to the point the Skybreak Spatterlight can be considered his signature weapon in his second book).

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: [[ImplacableMan Chun the Unavoidable.]] Chun will warp reality if there is no other way to get to his quarry.

* LaughablyEvil: Iucounu. Whether he counts as "evil" in this BlackAndGrayMorality setting is debatable, but if you cross him your punishment will involve some sort of humorous irony... and pain.
** For example, when he catches Cugel in the act of robbing his mansion, he puts on an (intentionally) hilariously transparent act of thinking Cugel is a lost merchant.

* LotusEaterMachine: The Eyes of the Overworld. Unlike many examples, the users are aware they live in a lie and can leave any time by removing the eye-cusps. The “Overworld” lifestyle means suffering even worse conditions than the rest of the inhabitants of the Dying Earth (what they perceive as a “feast” is likely a bowl of coarse gruel, their “palace” might be a rotting hut, etc.) but the illusions are so convincing most consider it WorthIt despite the dire effects it has on their health.
** More traditionally is the mysterious Yacht that hounds Cugel and the pilgrims as they move along the desert shore. Looking at it’s luxurious features and beautiful inhabitants causes you to go into a trance, sometimes for hours, after which you fall into a deep existential depression once it departs. As the depression worsens, you become increasingly desperate to see it again to the point a pilgrim decides he’d rather die alone in the desert than live a long life where he can never see the boat again. The boat, being intangible, is implied to also be related to the Overworld.
* LoveRedeems: Platonically, between T'sain to T'sais.
* MacGuffin: Sadlark’s central scale, called the Skybreak Spatterlight, drives much of the plot in Cugel’s second book.

* MonstrousHumanoid: Deodands are described as incredibly handsome looking men. If not for the pitch black skin and snake like eyes being known features of Deodands, most inhabitants likely wouldn't be able to tell them from the "normal" (at least for this eon) high varied human races that dot the planet. Pelgranes are also humanoid, but are overtly monstrous, with wings and claws and an elongated snout. [[spoiler: Nissifer, the murderous passenger of the Aventura, turns out to be a sort of wasp-human who licks bones clean]]

* TheCasanova: Rhialto the Marvellous. Liane the Wayfarer and Cugel the Clever both consider themselves such but are not. Liane is an unrepentant rapist.

* CuteMute: the three ArtificialHuman mimes on board the Aventura are waif like women with childish personalities. Even Cugel is disgusted that the womanizing passenger is attempting to seduce them; they are too innocent for any normal person to be able to view them sexually.

** Sadlark is one as well. Even when broken down into nothing more than scales he cannot be killed, and still reflexively can defend himself and feed on souls (which Cugel uses to great effect, to the point the Skybreak Spatterlight can be considered his signature weapon in his second book)

* GoodIsNotNice: Cugel the Clever, who was downright evil for the first book he was in (in general, calling him ''good'' is a bit of a stretch).

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Yellig and Malser. Neither one can imagine a life without the other but [[spoiler: after they escape they both become womanizing playboys, while they never show any romantic interest in eachother or men in general]]

* JackassGenie: The sandestins in the ''Dying Earth'' stories, especially the ones that serve Rhialto the Marvellous. Justified: they are a race with much more potent powers than Earth's wizards, and despise the fact that they can be compelled to obey.

* LotusEaterMachine: The Eyes of the Overworld. Unlike many examples, the users are aware they live in a lie and can leave any time by removing the eye. The “Overworld” lifestyle means suffering even worse conditions than the rest of the inhabitants of the Dying Earth (what they perceive as a “feast” is likely a bowl of coarse gruel, their “palace” might be a rotting hut, etc.) but the illusions are so convincing most consider it WorthIt despite the diastorous effects it has on their health.

* MonstrousHumanoid: Deodands are described as incredibly handsome looking men. If not for the pitch black skin and snake like eyes being known features of Deodands, most inhabitants likely wouldn't be able to tell them from the "normal" (at least for this eon) high varied human races that dot the planet. Pelgranes are also humanoid, but are overtly monstrous, with wings and claws and an elongated snout. [[spoiler: Nissifer, the murderous passenger of the Aventura, turns out to be a sort of wasp human who licks bones clean]]

* MotivationOnAStick: The ''Galante'' and vessels like it are pulled through the water by harnessed pairs of giant worms, which are kept swimming via bait dangled in front of them.

* EvilCounterpart: Downplayed, since Cugel’s character development ends with him as neutral rather than truly good, but Iolo is essentially who he used to be in the first book, back before he was nigh capable of even the most informal forms of cooperation. Ironically, Cugel’s newfound moral compass lets Iolo initially get the better of him.

* CharacterDevelopment: Cugel the Clever behaves quite differently towards the end of the second book, capable of making friends who he does ''not'' plan to backstab later.

* LotusEaterMachine: The Eyes of the Overworld. Unlike many examples, the users are aware they live in a lie and can leave any time, albeit by removing the Eye which without a wizard attending you can obviously be extremely unpleasant. The “Overworld” lifestyle means suffering even worse conditions than the rest of the inhabitants of the Dying Earth (what they perceive as a “feast” is likely a bowl of coarse gruel, their “palace” might be a rotting hut, etc.) but the illusions are so convincing most consider it WorthIt despite the diastorous effects it has on their health.
** More traditionally is the mysterious Yacht that hounds Cugel and the pilgrims as the move along the desert shore. Looking at it causes you to go into a trance, sometimes for hours, and you become increasingly desperate to see it again to the point a pilgrim decides he’d rather die in the desert than live a long life where he can never see the boat again. The boat, being intangible, is implied to also be related to the Overworld.

* LotusEaterMachine: The Eyes of the Overworld. Unlike many examples, the users are aware they live in a lie and can leave any time. The “Overworld” lifestyle means suffering even worse conditions than the rest of the inhabitants of the Dying Earth (what they perceive as a “feast” is likely a bowl of coarse gruel, their “palace” might be a rotting hut, etc.) but the illusions are so convincing most consider it WorthIt despite the diastorous effects it has on their health.

* LotusEaterMachine: The Eyes of the Overworld.

A classic series of LowFantasy novels by Creator/JackVance. It is considered one of the seminal works of fantasy and has had a huge influence on the genre.

Welcome to Earth, a few million years in the future. [[TheMagicComesBack Magic is back]], mostly displacing science, and the setting is both AfterTheEnd and JustBeforeTheEnd: Civilization has pretty much collapsed, and the Sun is close to going out. Earth's remaining inhabitants are generally aware of this but have no means to escape their increasingly hot and barren CrapsackWorld. Those that haven't become religious zealots are largely [[StrawNihilist nihilistic fatalists]], engaging in what debauchery they can in the time left.

Some other authors have also contributed to the setting. Michael Shea was given permission to publish ''A Quest for Simbilis''. This book is a direct sequel to ''The Eyes of the Overworld'', and was later superseded by Vance's own sequel ''Cugel's Saga''. There is also the anthology ''Songs of the Dying Earth'', edited by Gardner Dozois and Creator/GeorgeRRMartin.

* ArtificialHuman: T'sais and T'sain. Downplayed by the three Mimes on board the Aventura, who are treated as such but whose origins arw a mystery (meaning they may be regular, if highly changed, humans)

* ClarkesThirdLaw: Ampridatvir

* ArtificialHuman: T'sais and T'sain. Downplayed by the three Mimes on board the Aventura.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Earth's sun is not of a sort that will slowly fade to red and then die. It will first expand large enough to kill everything on the face of the Earth, and then shrink and stop giving enough light and heat to keep the remaining cinder from freezing.

Welcome to Earth, a few million years in the future. [[TheMagicComesBack Magic is back]], mostly displacing science, and it is both AfterTheEnd and JustBeforeTheEnd: Civilization has pretty much collapsed, and the Sun is close to going out. Earth's remaining inhabitants are generally aware of this but have no means to escape their increasingly hot and barren CrapsackWorld. Those that haven't become religious zealots are largely [[StrawNihilist nihilistic fatalists]], engaging in what debauchery they can in the time left.

* VancianMagic: The original example, from which ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''' magic system was lifted pretty much whole-cloth.

* OnlySaneMan: Rhialto the Marvellous seems like this compared to the rest of the magicians he deals with.

* AfterTheEnd: The Earth depicted here is a post apocalyptic one, though the reasons it got so bad are never fully revealed. Society has regressed to a often feudal and ocasionally tribal existence. Actual cities are rare, but ruins are everywhere. Most traces of Mankinds knowledge have been lost to time or destroyed by ignorance. Monsters infesting even the smallest woods pick away at the remaining populations.

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: According to the Curator, who knows what he is talking about, Demons and demon realms are the coagulated mass of mankinds debauched desires, fantasies, and vices given form by magic.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Humans would have, at the absolute minimum, long ago lost hair through evolutions march. And while offshoot races adapted to the planet are shown, mainline Humans like Cugel are still the majority despite not having adapted or changed at all.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Cugel the Clever goes through one and a half books before he is finally cured of this disease

* AdventureFriendlyWorld: the population is low, and international relations are practically nonexistent, tje latter likely due to the sheer danger of travel. As such, single individuals can have huge influence over events and society, and there’s plenty of monsters, ruins and lost lore to go around.