History Literature / Emberverse

[[quoteright:347:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ice_iron_and_gold_cover_7093.jpg]]

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Norman Arminger, Mike Havel, and Abbot Dmwoski, for starters -- given the world, for good reason. Averted with Juniper Mackenzie, who is a charismatic leader but only a fair combatant, and even more so with Sandra Arminger, who is small in stature and repeatedly described as lacking experience with weaponry.

* NonActionGuy: At over 60, he's not much use at hand-to-hand combat, but Ken Larsson is the husband of one ActionHero (Pam), the father of three more (Eric, Signe and Astrid), and the father-in-law of [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Lord Bear]] himself. He's also the Bearkillers' premier engineer and one of Lord Bear's most trusted advisers.

** A character mentions having been against the death penalty pre-change, but now recognizes it as a necessity.

** Averted, at least at first, by Lawrence Thurston's efforts in Boise--he adopted Roman military organization out of practicality, not out of any great desire to emulate the ancient past; his main focus to the end was to restore the pre-Change United States. His son Martin turned the Romanisms UpToEleven [[spoiler: when he sold out to the CUT.]]

* BoisterousBruiser: John Hordle fits it to a T.

* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: In the first book, Juniper's friend Chuck Barstow gets the idea to raid the Eugene history museum's Living History exhibit and steal a wagon and horses during the chaos. Juniper's other friend Dennis' brother is an amateur blacksmith (who lives on Nantucket and gets flung back in time along with it), and during the escape from Corvallis, Dennis arms Juniper and himself with swords and axes his brother made for him.

* ChurchMilitant: an apt description of the Mormon church in New Deseret. Given they have the CUT for neighbors, it's understandable.

* CrapsackWorld: Between the rampant starvation, plagues, cannibalism, and neo-warlords and gangs running amok, it is not a fun place to be in ''Dies The Fire''. Even after this, vast swaths of North America at least are depopulated wastelands with the occasional cannibal band.

* CulturallyReligious: Juniper [=MacKenzie=] was raised Catholic, and other characters observe that, despite having converted to Wicca, she still seems to be carrying her Catholic Guilt.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In ''Dies the Fire,'' Mike is concerned about the injuries or mutual death that almost always result from trying to knife-fight anyone who isn't completely incompetent. [[spoiler: Two books later, he challenges MasterSwordsman & BigBad Norman Arminger to single combat. Both of them die.]]

* FutureImperfect: Starting to crop up with the Changelings as they come of age. Although all of the main characters are well-educated, their understanding of the pre-Change world is at best theoretical and at worst, horribly flawed.

* GoryDiscretionShot: During the Dying Time, Oregon and Idaho deal with mass starvation (some of it quite deliberate), imposition of slavery by strong-arm rule, outbreaks of the Black Death, rampant RapePillageAndBurn including massacres of children, and an infestation of cannibal bands. After all that, no one ''believes'' - or recounts to the reader - the stories they are hearing from bicycle refugees from California and St.Louis.

** [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Elvish]] gets used a lot by the crazed Tolkien fangirl Astrid, who takes the story's suggestion that it is based on actual history a little too literally. It's subject to TranslationConvention, but Stirling still gets more mileage out of it than he needs.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] at least twice in ''The Scourge of God.'' Rudi says that Astrid's endless Elvish is insufferable, and Tiphaine d'Ath calls her a "pseudo-elf" later on.

* HandicappedBadass: Eilir, who doesn't let her deafness interfere with -- well, anything. She's a kickass fighter and wilderness scout, who thanks to her mother's early training is ''very'' good at stealthy approaches.

* HonestAdvisor: [[TheDragon Conrad Renfrew]] and Sandra Arminger are the only advisors with the nerve (and the license) to tell Norman Arminger when he's wrong.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: And how. "This is the City that Works." The Bearkillers, proto-Clan Mackenzie and other towns encountered also turn away people they can't feed in the Dying Time.

* OurFounder: After the Change several notable individuals or groups are recognised for successfully rebuilding society, the early books mainly focus on three. Mike Haval of The Bear Killers, Juniper Mackenzie of The Clan Mackenzie, and Norman Arminger of the PPA. Of these three it should be noted that only Arminger actually set out to build a kingdom to rule over, Mike and Juniper were just good,charismatic people who fell into the job and were more than a little uncomfortable with the hero worship that followed.

* RootingForTheEmpire: InUniverse. The PPA base their society around ''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Mordor and Sauron]]'', of all things.

* FourLinesAllWaiting: As a product of LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, particularly evident in books 4-10. In an epic example in ''The Given Sacrifice'', Tiphaine d'Ath senses an attack on the royal family, and she and her picked band start up the stairs to counter it. We see them reach the scene of the attack ''ninety pages later''.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Boy howdy! Especially in books 4-10, which feature members of three generations in the chronology of the story. A partial list of '''point of view''' characters (please note that this is not a comprehensive list of ''significant'' characters) includes Rudi Mackenzie, Mathilda Arminger, Ingolf Vogeler, Mary and Ritva Havel, Edain Aylward Mackenzie, Odard Liu, Father Ignatius, Fred Thurston, Tiphaine d'Ath, Juniper Mackenzie, Sandra Arminger, Chuck Barstow, Astrid Larsson, Ian Kovalevsky, Asgerd Karlsdottir, Lioncel de Stafford, Huon and Yseult Liu, and Orlaith Arminger Mackenzie. Sometimes results in FourLinesAllWaiting. The roster is pared down sharply in the current tetrology, which focuses almost entirely on members of the youngest generation of characters.

* RaisedCatholic: Juniper [=MacKenzie=] was raised Catholic, and other characters observe that, despite having converted to Wicca, she still seems to be carrying her Catholic Guilt.

** If you like that idea, try Creator/StevenRBoyett's "Literature/Change" series, Stirling's inspiration for the Change.

** If you like that idea, try Steven R. Boyett's "Ariel" series, Stirling's inspiration for the Change.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: "Son of the Bear Who Rules"... "Sword of the Lady"... [[KingArthur Where have we heard those before...]]

** For some reason, [[KingArthur ''Artos'']] leaps to mind.... - "Artos" is also Greek for "bear". Guess who his father is.

* TheQuest: A lot of characters, especially the aforementioned Tolkien fangirl comment on the auspiciousness of the fact that Rudi's journey will [[KingArthur take him across the land to find a mythical sword]] and that he will have [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings nine members in his group.]]

** Also a case of NotSoDifferent in that the two members of the band the scout encounters [[spoiler: are the two who are infamous for taking the ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' as literal history and see themselves as revived Dúnedain. ''They'' regard the scout, who almost certainly ''was'' a Boy Scout before or during the Change, as some deluded lunatic with a lot of badges. The fact that he was nearly their equal at fighting and tracking and only lost the fight because he was outnumbered seems to just barely register with them.]]

* NotSoDifferent: Averted in ''The Scourge of God''. Rudi Mackenzie is describing Chuck Barstow's actions at the time of the Change, including survival-motivated fighting, deception, and theft (see BreakOutTheMuseumPiece, above). Odard Liu, thinking of his own brutal sire's actions at that time, is about to invoke this trope, with a side of [[IDidWhatIHadToDo Our Parents Only Did What They Had To Do]]. Rudi shuts him down by pointing out one more thing Chuck Barstow felt he "had to do": rescue and take in a group of stranded schoolchildren (including his son Oak, whom Odard knows personally), something that Eddie Liu would certainly never have considered.
** Many of the new nations that arise after the Change are inspired by [[ThemeParkVersion old movies and books]], and the residents of each one seem to think of all the others as acting upon some strange fantasy. Even nations like Boise, Corvallis, and Iowa, which have retained more of the pre-Change world's forms and systems than the others.
---> Renfrew: ''(to his much-younger aide)'' If you have to ask why it's funny to say the Mackenzies look weird, you're too young to ever understand.

--> ''The Year: 1998.''\\

--->"You are not like the women of the Prophet's men. They are sheep. You are a she-wolf, like our Scout women, worthy of badges of merit of your own; I have followed you many days, and seen your skill. I will take you back to the Morrowlander camps northward, , and you will bear strong cubs. The Prophet can go find comfort with his wooly ewes."

--->'''Tiphaine:''' That's for finking out Lady Sandra. ''That's'' for risking the princess. ''That's'' for trying to kill Rudi. ''That's'' for hurting my girl, you son of a bitch! And ''this'' is for the stupid character in that stupid fucking book!

* ''Dies the Fire'' (2004): After the Nantucket Event, Michael Havel and the Larsson family make their way from Montana to the Larsson estate in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, picking up survivors on the way, and eventually forming the mercenary outfit "The Bearkillers". Meanwhile, in Corvallis, the Oregon State University "faculty senate" rallies the city survivors to their banner, while Juniper Mackenzie and her neo-pagan "Georgian Wiccan" coven form the "Clan Mackenzie" in the hills south of Lebanon, Oregon. Finally, history professor Norman Arminger rallies the members of his local branch of the UsefulNotes/SocietyForCreativeAnachronism and the criminal element of Portland to his "Portland Protective Association", based on a feudalistic monarchy with some minor Mordorian influences. All this is accomplished amid the backdrop of billions dying as most of the world's mass food production capabilities and rapid transport fail, leaving everyone to fend for himself.

The Emberverse currently consists of two completed trilogies, a completed tetrology, and four short stories ("Something for Yew", "Ancient Ways," "A Murder In Eddsford" and "Hot Night at the Hopping Toad"). An additional trilogy is planned, taking place a generation after the end of the tetrology. There is also [[http://www.ipinc.net/~kiers/SMSFanFiction/ an officially-sanctioned fanfiction page]].

* BadassGay: Tiphaine d'Ath, Rigobert de Stafford.

** In the United States of Boise, the presidency passes to the previous president's eldest son in a perfunctory election after the latter conspires with a foreign cult to assassinate his father.

* NonActionGuy: At over 60, he's not much use at hand-to-hand combat, but Ken Larsson is the husband of one ActionHero (Pam), the father of two more (Signe and Astrid) ''plus'' a young badass (Eric), and the father-in-law of [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Lord Bear]] himself. He's also the Bearkillers' premier engineer and one of Lord Bear's most trusted advisers.

* BiTheWay: Before taking up with her girlfriend Liath, Aoife Barstow was in love with a boy. Estella Maldonado, occasional lover of Delia the miller's daughter (before Delia became Tiphaine d'Ath's lover), admits to having a girl in "half a dozen or so" villages, and "boys in one or two."

* ActionGirl: Lessee... Astrid Larsson, Eilir Mackenzie, Ritva and Mary Havel, Virginia Kane, Mathilda Arminger, Asgerd Karlsdottir, Órlaith, Heuradys, Reiko -- the list goes on and on. Also any girl on the Bearkillers' "A-list" by virtue of, well, making onto the A-list.

** We are told that Pope John Paul II elected to remain in the Vatican to confront an angry mob rather than be evacuated by the Swiss Guards with the College of Cardinals. He did not live long. His successor (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI as in RealLife) lives to the beginning of the second trilogy, which would make him about 95 years old at the time. BadassGrandpa indeed!

* NonActionGuy: At over 60, he's not much use at hand-to-hand combat, but Ken Larsson is the husband of one ActionGirl (Pam), the father of two more (Signe and Astrid) ''plus'' a young badass (Eric), and the father-in-law of [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Lord Bear]] himself. He's also the Bearkillers' premier engineer and one of Lord Bear's most trusted advisers.

* TheSouthpaw: Rudi Mackenzie, after his right arm is wounded to the point he can't use it as well as he used to.