History Literature / MordantsNeed

* UpToEleven: Terisa notes that all of The Domne's sons, including Geraden, take their traits to the extreme. Minnick is an obsessive homebody and farmer, Artagel is a LovableRogue and Swashbuckler extraordinaire, Stead is an extreme LovableSexManiac, and so on.

* KnifeNut: Gilbur has an ugly 12" blade always at the ready under his chausible, and he loves to use it.

* KnifeNut: Gilbur. He always has an ugly curved dagger at the ready.

* FeministFantasy: WordOfGod is that the series was meant as this, hence Terisa's arc of going from a [[NeutralFemale non-entity]] entirely under her [[ParentalAbuse father's thumb]] to playing an active role in a cause she believes in, all three of King [[GenderBlenderName Joyse's]] daughters going against [[StayInTheKitchen tradition]] by involving themselves in events, and the constant theme of how [[WouldnTHitAGirl different]] [[WouldHitAGirl men]] treat women. Some readers did not think much of the effort, citing the relative scarcity of female characters compared to male ones, that fully half of the ones that do play major roles are [[AntiHero morally ambiguous at best]], and the fact that the protagonist is constantly being threatened with (or subjected to) [[RapeAsDrama rape]], [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] and other abuses to an extent that some might call excessive.[[note]]To be fair, the same happens to a male character.[[/note]] [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And we should probably leave it at that.]] On the other hand, Joyse's daughters, however, all show courageousness, with [[spoiler:Elega taking the initiative to try to restore stability, Myste going after The Champion to save him from being hunted down, and even ShrinkingViolet Torrent arming herself with a knife, and managing to avoid being kidnapped alongside her mother, and helping her father rescue her.]]

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Terisa asks [[spoiler: Eremis]] why he doesn't just translate [[spoiler: Joyse]] through a flat mirror and drive him insane. He chuckles he wants [[spoiler: Joyse]] to suffer first.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Geraden and Barsonage visit Havelock late in the second book, Havelock has ''cleaned his entire quarters'', arranged all his mirrors neatly, swept and cleaned his chasuble. He's normally an extreme PigPen. [[spoiler:He knows that events are coming to a head.]]

* ImplacableMan: The High King's Monomach, Gart. He only speaks once, to Artagel. For a man of few words, he's absolutely ''chilling'' when he does speak once in the entire duology, totaling three short sentences.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Havelock when he's lucid. Just don't ask him any questions.

*** Lampshaded by Terisa near the climax. She notes everyone has an assigned role -- save herself and Geraden. [[spoiler:Joyse]] chuckles and says not to worry -- they'll cross that bridge when they get to it, just be prepared.

* OhCrap: The only swear Terisa begins to use is "Oh shit." She later mutters to herself that she really ought to learn a ''new'' swear when it starts achieving CatchPhrase status.

* IllKillYou: Late in the book, when Eremis attacks Terisa, Geraden screams '''"[[SayMyName Eremis]]"''' as if it were the worst curse word in the world.

* ArcWords / BookEnds: Hearing horns.

** All three of Joyse's daughters turn out to be {{Action Girl}}s: Myst [[spoiler:goes into a hostile landscape to find the Champion, who nearly kills her]], Elege [[spoiler:poisons the reservoir and allies herself with Kragan to save Mordant]], and ShrinkingViolet Torrent [[spoiler:grabs a knife and goes after her mother, to give any rescuers a path to follow]].

* NotSoDifferent: After Terisa describes his father as being controlling and his wife being an ExtremeDoormat, The Domne remarks Terisa's already met High King Festten.

* SpaceWhaleAesop: The ethics of transporting people and animals from their native habitat is explored. The real world equivalent is basically respecting the rights of strangers and the dangers of invasive species.

* StrawHypocrite: Somewhat unusual since it concerns an issue that [[SpaceWhaleAesop has no equivalent in the real world]], but otherwise it works the same: a large part of why Terisa frequently believes that she's not really real is that Eremis keeps arguing, quite skillfully, for that being the case for everything that came out of a mirror - Images are creations of the glass, the theory goes, and the memories of their own world they arrive with are false. In the end, he [[spoiler: [[EvilGloating gloatingly]] admits that he finds the idea of Images not having their own inherent reality to be absurd. But arguing that Images aren't real is the only way to convince those bleeding hearts in the Congery that it's okay to rip them out of their own worlds for your own purposes, and he considers the idea of him not being allowed to do that to be equally absurd - because in his mind, [[SocialDarwinist the ability to do a thing implies the right to do it]].]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: The Tor]] tells [[spoiler:Eremis]] he will die a "fool's death". The latter ends up {{Mind Wipe}}d standing up naked with a full erection.

* {{Foil}}: Much is made of the fact Myste is the daylight version of Elega, and Elega is the night version of Myste. Terisa assumes Elega takes after Queen Madin, but she realizes Myste and Elega both take after their father. It's ''Torrent'' to takes after her mother, and shows hints of [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask Wearing The Queenly Mask]] in the {{Denouement}}.

* {{Foil}}: Much is made of the fact Myste is the daylight version of Elega, and Elega is the night version of Myste. Terisa assumes Elega takes after Queen Madin, but she realizes Myste and Elega both take after their father. It's ''Torrent'' to takes after her mother, and shows hints of WearingTheQueenlyMask in the {{Denoument}}.

* {{Foil}}: Much is made of the fact Myste is the daylight version of Elega, and Elega is the night version of Myste.