History Literature / Mithgar

* AscendedFanfic: The series originally began when [=McKiernan=] wanted to publish fanfiction of Tolkien's ''[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings]]''.

** ''Dragondoom'': Black Kalgalath and Andrak are a BigBadDuumvirate, with Modru as a BiggerBad.

* WitchSpecies: Mages are their own distinct race; they resemble a cross between humans and elves and while they age (especially when doing magic) they can go into special trances that let them regain lost youth. Though other races have certain mystical abilities, Mages (and hybrids like Stoke and Ydral with some Mage blood) are the only ones who cast formal spells.

* AboveTheGods: the Fates are said to be above the gods, and the Great Creator is above them. Whether or not any of these exist as discreet entities or just abstractions is left ambiguous.

* EliteMooks: Rucks are the standard mooks, with more powerful Spawn like Hloks, Ghuls, and Trolls taking this position.
* EvilOverlord: Modru and his master, Gyphon.
* EvilSorcerer: Black Mages, by definition.

* FiveRaces: Essentially, like Tolkien: the dwarves, the elves, the humans, the warrows, and the Utruni stone giants (which seem to parallel the ents as an elemental species).
** A lot more races work their way in as the series goes on, particularly the Pysks (pixies) and other [[FairFolk Hidden Ones]] and the wizards (which as in Tolkien are a separate species).

* GodOfEvil: Gyphon, who is basically [[Literature/TheSilmarillion Morgoth]] in terms of his role in the cosmology, but with a different backstory. A couple of other Gods of Evil are namedropped occasionally, but never but in direct appearances.
** At one point a character states that all the gods of evil are just Gyphon in different guises. Including a thinly-disguised [[Literature/TheBible Old Testament God]].

* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Since they're basically the Tolkienian ones...
** Complete with an utter lack of female dwarves, which is a complicated story that has been slowly teased in a number of books.

* TragicBromance / UnstoppableRage: A common trope here, especially in the early books. Someone dies in battle, someone who cares about that person is filled with rage and superhuman strength, enabling them to destroy the enemy before quickly burning out.

* OurElvesAreBetter: The elves are portrayed as better than everyone else in almost everything.
** Just as the orcs and so on from the Lower Plane are always evil, short-lived, mostly mindless, and so on, the elves from the Higher Plane are always good, immortal, and brilliant.

* FantasyAxisOfEvil:
** Humanoid: Corrupted humans (Gyphon varies which nationalities he prefers to make use of up a bit)
** Fallen: Black Mages
** Savage: Hloks and Trolls
** Crafty: Rucks
** Eldritch: Ghuls and other demons

* ActionGirl: Plenty, but most notably Elyn from ''Dragondoom'', Riatha from ''Eye of the Hunter'', and Aiko from ''The Dragonstone'', who is basically Disney/{{Mulan}}.

** ''TheIronTower'': Modru

* WorldBuilding: The world of Mithgar (which apparently means "middle world") is the primary setting of the series. Other worlds, such as Adonar (homeworld of the elves), Neddra (homeworld of [[AlwaysChaoticEvil the Spawn]]), Vadaria (home of mages), and Feyer (home of the Hidden Ones) are mentioned often and occasionally visited. The Dragonworld is mentioned occasionally, but never seen, and a homeworld of demons is alluded to.

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* GodOfEvil: Gyphon, who is basically [[TheSilmarillion Morgoth]] in terms of his role in the cosmology, but with a different backstory. A couple of other Gods of Evil are namedropped occasionally, but never but in direct appearances.

The Mithgar books by Dennis L. [=McKiernan=] are a series of books with an interesting backstory: the first ones written (the ''Silver Call Duology'') were meant to be sequels to ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. After figuring out that publishing this would be illegal, it was necessary to file the numbers off the Tolkien bits, which meant inventing a replacement backstory for the setting. That backstory eventually developed into a much longer and more involved tale, and was released as the ''TheIronTower Trilogy''. The rest of the books from the Mithgar series get much more original as time goes on, but for some readers it's still hard to shake the facts of its origin.

Though the series was dormant for some time following the release of ''Silver Wolf, Black Falcon'' (effectively the GrandFinale) in 2000 (not counting a short story collection and ''City of Jade'', a novel only about half the length of normal), another {{Doorstopper}} called ''Stolen Crown'' was released in February 2014.

* DistressedDamsel: Princess Laurelin of Riamon in the first trilogy. She does at least make some attempts at planning her own escape, but achieves nothing.

* {{Doorstopper}}: Almost all of the books, with the exception of ''City of Jade''.

* MedievalStasis: Nothing ever changes in the six eras (each of which comprises a few thousand years), technologically or politically. Except for the sinking of [[{{Atlantis}} Atala]] and the Hel's Crucible at the end of the War of the Ban, both of which happens in the Second Era.

* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: The Ghuls, who superficially resemble Ringwraiths (but are much weaker and much more common, and are a race in their own right rather than undead humans). They basically look like gaunt, pale humans that are all but impervious to harm, barring a handful of {{Achilles Heel}}s; they like to ride on [[HellishHorse Helsteeds]] and are usually the field commanders of the Spawn. It's sometimes hinted that they're actually a very weak form of demon, unrelated to the ordinary Spawn.

The Mithgar books by Dennis L. [=McKiernan=] are a series of books with an interesting backstory: the first ones written (the ''Silver Call Duology'') were meant to be sequels to ''TheLordOfTheRings''. After figuring out that publishing this would be illegal, it was necessary to file the numbers off the Tolkien bits, which meant inventing a replacement backstory for the setting. That backstory eventually developed into a much longer and more involved tale, and was released as the ''TheIronTower Trilogy''. The rest of the books from the Mithgar series get much more original as time goes on, but for some readers it's still hard to shake the facts of its origin.

* AscendedFanfic: The series originally began when [=McKiernan=] wanted to publish fanfiction of Tolkien's ''[[TheLordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings]]''.

* ShiningCity: The city of Challerain Keep, which is like [[TheLordOfTheRings Minas Tirith]], complete with tiers of terraced rings.

* ActionGirl: Plenty, but most notably Elyn from ''Dragondoom'', Riatha from ''Eye of the Hunter'', and Aiko from ''The Dragonstone'', who is basically {{Mulan}}.

* BaldOfEvil: All Black Mages with the exception of Stoke (who has long black hair) and possibly Modru (who wears a mask all the time, so its hard to say).

* ActionGirl: Plenty, but most notably Elyn from ''Dragondoom'' and Aiko from ''The Dragonstone'', who is basically {{Mulan}}.

Though the series was dormant for some time following the release of ''Silver Wolf, Black Falcon'' (effectively the GrandFinale) in 2000 (not counting a short story collection and ''City of Jade'', a novel only about half the length of normal), another {{Doorstopper}} called ''Stolen Crown'' is forthcoming, and will be released in January 2014.

* OurGhoulsAreCreepy: The Ghuls, who superficially resemble Ringwraiths (but are much weaker and much more common, and are a race in their own right rather than undead humans). They basically look like gaunt, pale humans that are all but impervious to harm, barring a handful of {{Achilles Heel}}s; they like to ride on [[HellishHorse Helsteeds]] and are usually the field commanders of the Spawn. It's sometimes hinted that they're actually a very weak form of demon, unrelated to the ordinary Spawn.

* BigBad: Gyphon for the whole series. Most individual books/subseries have one too:

* AllTrollsAreDifferent: The Ogru trolls, which are big dumb brutes somehow with the ears of bats.

* OurOrcsAreDifferent: The Rucks and Hloks, pretty much the typical Tolkienian type.

* MedievalStasis: Nothing ever changes in the six eras (each of which comprises of a few thousand years), technologically or politically. Except for the sinking of [[{{Atlantis}} Atala]] and the Hel's Crucible at the end of the War of the Ban, both of which happens in the Second Era.

The Mithgar books by Dennis L. [=McKiernan=] are a series of books with an interesting backstory: the first ones written (the ''Silver Call Duology'') were meant to be sequels to ''TheLordOfTheRings''. After figuring out that publishing this would be illegal, it was necessary to file the numbers off the Tolkien bits, which meant inventing a replacement backstory for the setting. That backstory eventually developed into a much longer and more involved tale, and was released as the ''Iron Tower Trilogy''. The rest of the books from the Mithgar series get much more original as time goes on, but for some readers it's still hard to shake the facts of its origin.

** ''The Iron Tower'': Modru