History Literature / LegendsAndLattes

* RetiredBadass: Viv opens the story sick of adventure, wanting to settle down and run a shop. Her efforts to stay retired drive much of the plot's drama.
** Durias also, since any adventurer who lives to his age must be at least something of a badass.

''Bookshops & Bonedust'', a {{prequel}}, was released in 2023.

A prequel, titled ''Bookshops & Bonedust'', is set to release on November 7th, 2023.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], Viv never deliberately presents as less intelligent than she is, but since she's an orc people tend to underestimate her intelligence her anyway. The prequel story "Pages to Fill" shows that she is willing to let people continue to believe so if it serves her ends.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: InUniverse, Viv explicitly states that she has some respect for criminals who use violence to get what they want, since even though she wasn't a criminal she knows what a life of violence is like. But she has no respect for Kellin and his ilk, and what's more, she knows that the Madrigal agrees with her. [[spoiler:Viv gets rid of him by pointing out that she were to kill Kellin because he is stalking Tandri, his boss wouldn't raise any objections at all.]]

Despite Viv's best efforts, adventure follows her anyway, as she gets tangled up with the city's ThievesGuild, and is threatened by one of her old adventuring companions, who wants to steal a magical object Viv is using to ensure her shop's success.

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** Lack of the Madrigal's ThievesGuild is quite friendly and prefers words to violence. He actually gets annoyed with Kellin over his aversion of this.

* BarbarianHero: Viv was one of these as an adventurer, and was the brutal tank of the group.

** Viv's neighbor Laney is just a fussy, gossipy old lady, but despite her complaints about noise she still welcomes Viv into the neighborhood and comes in to check that she's doing well. [[spoiler: When the shop burns down she's horrified, offers blankets to Viv and Tandri as they sit in the street, and comes over to help with the rebuilding process.]]
* DarkestHour: [[spoiler: When Viv's coffee shop is burned down by Fennus and the Scalvert's Stone stolen. Viv is bankrupt due to having spent her life savings building it up, and turns on her friends in anger.]]
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Viv makes and carries out careful plans to get the shop itself up and running, but has no idea how to promote and advertise, assuming that people will just come--even though no one in Thune has ever heard of coffee or has any notion why they would want to buy it. Fortunately, Tandri has the business savvy and artistic talent to get things running.
* DontMakeMeDestroyYou: The problem with the Madrigal's protection racket isn't that Viv can't handle it--between herself and her friends she could easily destroy the whole mob--but that she doesn't want to go back to that life or to get her coffee shop caught up in it. [[spoiler:The Madrigal winds up negotiating with her to give payment in pastries instead.]]
* EquivalentExchange: Tandri mentions a principle called Thaumic Reciprocity, wherein any energy expended in creating a magical effect eventually rebounds. Much of magical study is figuring out how to redirect or minimize the blowback. [[spoiler:When the shop burns down, Viv initially thinks it's her good luck reversing thanks to the Scalvert's Stone, but this turns out to be untrue.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Madrigal might run a protection racket, but [[spoiler: she appreciates Viv's attitude, she negotiates payment in pastries, and she hates assholes like Kellin and Fennus.]]
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Friends and acquaintances as diverse as the shop's carpenter Cal, the retired adventurer Durias, and even Viv's old flame Gallina pick up on Viv and Tandri's growing attraction, and try to nudge Viv into noticing it for herself.
* FantasticRacism: Averted in Thune, which is a bit more cosmopolitan, but Viv has experienced this in the past and instinctively downplays her fangs to avoid scaring people. Tandri the succubus does get some of this, as everyone ''assumes'' she ReallyGetsAround. [[spoiler: It actually drove her from university.]]

** The prequel short story "Pages to Fill" is set in the gnomish city of Azimuth, which does indeed have gas lamps on streets (which all alight at once in the evening) and in houses, and is generally technologically ahead of Thune, which still employs people to light lamps manually.

* HateSink: Fennus is the only character in the book with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Kellin is a complete creep towards Tandri, but is swiftly put in his place.
* HeroesPreferSwords: As an adventurer Viv's primary weapon was an enormous, threatening-looking greatsword called Blackblood. Since she's an Orc her weapon of choice was more menacing than the blade you'd normally see in your usual adventurer, but Viv was still a good, heroic person while wielding it.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Since the Scalvert's Stone [[spoiler:draws like-minded people to its holder, [[HateSink Fennus]] taking it ends in a swift death]].
* ImpliedDeathThreat: Viv puts her sword, Blackblood, on the wall as a warning to the Madrigal's gang. She actually ''doesn't'' want to kill them all, though.

** A lot of the people in Thune think coffee is something that will never catch on, not understanding how it differentiates from tea even when it's explained to them.

* {{Macguffin}}: The Scalvert's Stone is formed in the forehead of a Scalvert Queen (a ravening monster with a huge head containing many ExtraEyes). Supposedly, if placed in the right location it will bring good luck and fortune to its owner. [[spoiler: It actually draws people with similar natures to the owner, so Viv finds herself awash in optimistic dreamers.]]
* MagicFeather: It's implied that Viv's attempt to use the Scalvert's Stone to induce luck for her new coffee shop is pointless--indeed, when the [[spoiler:stone is stolen and the shop burned down and rebuilt]], it remains successful. Though the actual truth is more complicated. [[spoiler:The stone doesn't draw luck, but like-minded people, and Viv's new companions are still there to help her.]]

** Coffee itself is depicted as a magical substance no one has ever heard of before, as are Thimble's pastries and chocolate.

* NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters: The Madrigal turns out to be far more reasonable and practical than Viv expected, as [[spoiler: she's willing to take payment in confections. She also helps rebuild the store after Fennus burns it down.]] It turns out she actually was hoping to revive the area, and the coffee shop fits perfectly into her plans.

* ThePowerOfFriendship: Is actually induced by Viv via her use of the Scalvert's Stone, though that wasn't her intention (and most of her old adventuring party were inclined to help anyway).
* PunchClockVillain: The Madrigal's gang doesn't really want to engage in any of the criminal activity they're threatening to do, as that is far less profitable in the long run.

* SimpleSolutionWontWork: Upon having her new café threatened by the local ProtectionRacket, Viv's first instinct is to grab her {{BFS}} off the wall and start breaking heads. Tandri advises that she ''could'' do that, but it would likely end either with her dead, or un-retired (the whole point of the café was to get ''out'' of the adventuring business). [[spoiler:Luckily, it turns out the local mob boss is open to accepting payment in free pastries.]]

* WillTheyOrWontThey: Tandri and Viv after they start sharing living space to protect the shop and [[spoiler:while they're rebuilding it after it burns down]]. [[spoiler: They do.]]

* HeroesUseSwords: As an adventurer Viv's primary weapon was an enormous, threatening-looking greatsword called Blackblood. Since she's an Orc her weapon of choice was more menacing than the blade you'd normally see in your usual adventurer, but Viv was still a good, heroic person while wielding it.

* CoolOldLady: [[spoiler:The Madrigal is an elderly lady and a lot more AffablyEvil than Viv expected.]]

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Gallina thinks that Viv and her old adventuring party could wipe out the entirety of the Madrigal's gang. Which Viv agrees is possible (though it'd be tricky to get them all before they torch the shop or attack one of Viv's employees), but not something she wants to do because she's put that life behind her.

* MustHaveCaffeine: Averted, surprisingly. Coffee entices Viv less for its caffeine than the general taste and aroma of it. When she does drink several cups in a row out of nervousness, she gets so jittery she almost fumbles Tandri's job interview.

* MagicAmpersand: ''Legends & Lattes'', through use of the title format popularized by ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', instantly conveys that this is a cheeky take on that sort of fantasy world, concerning an orc barbarian who does nothing more momentous than... retire from adventuring and open a coffee shop.

* ThePlace: ''Legends & Lattes'' is a MagicAmpersand title in the vein of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', but in-universe it's the name of Viv's café, invented by Cal complete with a sword-and-shield motif for the sign.

* SupremeChef: Thimble, the rattkin baker who agrees to start working for the shop in exchange for a living wage and free coffee, and because he feels that the menu needs expanding. The cafe's business really takes off when he starts adding his heavenly cinnamon rolls to the menu, and he invents biscotti, which they name "thimblets".
* TakeTheThirdOption: Stuck between paying the Madrigal protection money or going back to her old violent ways, Viv settles for [[spoiler: paying off the Madrigal in pastries]].

* StalkerWithACrush: Kellin insists that Tandri is as attracted to him as he is to her. Tandri is quite emphatic this is not the case. Kellin, unfortunately, is a member of the ThievesGuild. [[spoiler:Viv makes him back off by threatening to tell the Madrigal about him, as she [[EvenEvilHasStandards doesn't like assholes.]]]]

* RetiredBadass: Viv opens the adventure wanting to become one of these. Her efforts to stay retired drive much of the plot's drama.

* UnresolvedSexualTension: Tandri and Viv develop this, which puts Viv in an awkward position because Tandri has suffered sexual harrassment everywhere she's gone and was driven out of the university by it.

* NonLinearCharacter: Durias the retired adventurer is often seen playing chess with himself, but Tandri never sees him move the pieces. It turns out he's playing chess with a version of himself sometime in the past. He also mentions that he "can't remember which go-round this is" and has TimeTravelTenseTrouble regarding whether he's had this experience already.
* OrphanedEtymology: In this universe, the word "latte" came from its inventor, a gnome named Latte Diameter. The etymology of "coffee" itself and other coffee-shop terminology, like the spices and chocolate that go into the pastries, go unexplained.

* {{Magitek}}: Apparently, combining the two is not uncommon, with one example being an ''electric guitar'' (or "thaumic lute").

* MagicFeather: It's implied that Viv's attempt to use the Scalvert's Stone to induce luck for her shop is this. Though the actual truth is more complicated. [[spoiler:It doesn't draw luck, but like-minded people.]]

* OrphanedEtymology: In this universe, the word "latte" came from its inventor, a gnome named Latte Diameter.