History Literature / TheDarkAngelTrilogy

* BigBad: The lorelei.

* DownerEnding: The ending of the last book. [[spoiler:Aeriel is eternally [[LonelyAtTheTop set apart from everyone]] except Erin and forced to spend her life repairing the universe instead of ruling beside Irrylath, with whom she’s finally celebrated her long-awaited wedding night only hours previously.]]
** BittersweetEnding depending on one's opinion of various other characters and how healthy their relationships were. [[spoiler: In a post-Twilight world, is it such a bad thing for the girl to NOT end up with the vampire she loved self-destructively? Instead, she has Erin, who loves her freely.]]

* OurSoulsAreDifferent
* OurVampiresAreDifferent

* PatchworkMap: Each country is distinguished by a different biome, skin color, and government. The mountains of Terrain are ruled by the sibyl, satrap, and syndics, and its people are white. Next door are the plains of Avaric, a kingdom whose people are golden-skinned. Next again is the desert of Pendar, whose people have a skin tone [[AmbiguousSituation described alternately as "dusky rose" and "cinnamon"]] and live in bands with informal chiefs. The City of Isternes is ruled by the Lady and its people are plum-colored. In the Sea-of-Dust are coral islands whose people are black. On the west shore are the forested hills of Bern, blue-skinned and ruled by bandit chiefs. Inland is Zambul, green-skinned people ruled by landowning majises, the only country shown with both woods and fields. North is wooded Pirs, ruled by the suzerain; [[AmbiguousSituation the people are described alternately as copper or pale amber]]. Rani (rose-skinned) and Elver (teal-skinned) are not visited in the course of the story. And under all of this are vast cave systems inhabited by the [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame duaroughs]].

* ShoutOut: Imrahil the last king of Avaric (Syllva's husband and Irrylath's father) shares his name with a character from the grandfather of HighFantasy, ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.

* TheLostWoods: The forested hills of Bern, a black, wraith-haunted woodland that's increasingly dry and dead the higher Aeriel climbs towards the pass into Zambul where the darkangel of Bern roosts.

* {{Sidekick}}: Erin, to Aeriel. Taken UpToEleven at the end of the third book.

* BadDreams: The titular darkangel is stricken with these as a result of Aeriel's stories. [[spoiler: They continue to haunt him as Irrylath.]]

* WomanInWhite: The lorelei.

* GreenEyes: Aeriel's eyes are originally described as "fig-green,” once as “emerald,” and later as "peridot.” After Aeriel’s travels in the second book, they are widely regarded as a symbol of her supposed magic powers.
** Her green eyes and fair skin also give her a strong resemblance to the White Witch (the Witch is bloodless like the darkangels; Aeriel is sun-bleached white from her original mauve skin and yellow-green hair.) She doesn't know it until the end of the story, but it's one of the reasons Irrylath is uncomfortable with her.

* CallARabbitASmeerp: Subverted – much of the "exotic" vocabulary, like ''lorelei, syndic, satrap, suzerain, rani,'' are seldom-used but legit English terms, often loanwords, or AltumVidetur coinages like ''equustel'' and ''leosol''.

* WingedUnicorn: The Avarclon, or "starhorse" (or [[AltumVidetur "equustel".]])

* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Terraineans are white (''not'' pale beige), Mariners are black (''not'' dark brown), Pirseans are [[AmbiguousSituation either copper or pale amber]], Berneans are blue, Zambuleans are green, Isterns are mauve...and the list goes on.  An unusual example in that this does ''not'' imply strictly to characters coded as white; while most characters' coding is difficult to suss out, Mariners are clearly coded as black (aside from being ''literally'' so), as are the Ma’a-mbai and other Pendar nomads (despite actually being dark pink) and the last surviving Ancients.

* IGaveMyWord: Irrylath honors his promise to the avarclon, even though for all he knows it might result in his immediate death [[spoiler:and it ''does'' contribute to his being forever separated from Aeriel]].

* PatchworkMap: Each country is distinguished by a different biome, skin color, and government. The mountains of Terrain are ruled by the sibyl, satrap, and syndics, and its people are white. Next door are the plains of Avaric, a kingdom whose people are golden-skinned. Next again is the desert of Pendar, whose people are dark brownish-magenta and live in bands with informal chiefs. The City of Isternes is ruled by the Lady and its people are plum-colored. In the Sea-of-Dust are coral islands whose people are black. On the west shore are the forested hills of Bern, blue-skinned and ruled by bandit chiefs. Inland is Zambul, green-skinned people ruled by landowning majises, the only country shown with both woods and fields. North is wooded Pirs, ruled by the suzerain; [[AmbiguousSituation the people are described alternately as copper or pale amber]]. Rani (rose-skinned) and Elver (teal-skinned) are not visited in the course of the story. And under all of this are vast cave systems inhabited by the [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame duaroughs]].

* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Terraineans are white (''not'' pale beige), Mariners are black (''not'' dark brown), Pirseans are "pale amber," Berneans are blue, Zambuleans are green, Isterns are mauve...and the list goes on.  An unusual example in that this does ''not'' imply strictly to characters coded as white; while most characters' coding is difficult to suss out, Mariners are clearly black (aside from being ''literally'' so), as are the Ma’a-mbai and other Pendar nomads (despite actually being dark pink) and the last surviving Ancients.

* PatchworkMap: Each country is distinguished by a different biome, skin color, and government. The mountains of Terrain are ruled by the sibyl, satrap, and syndics, and its people are pale blue. Next door are the plains of Avaric, a kingdom whose people are golden-skinned. Next again is the desert of Pendar, whose people are brown-skinned and live in bands with informal chiefs. The City of Isternes is ruled by the Lady and its people are plum-colored. In the Sea-of-Dust are coral islands whose people are black. On the west shore are the forested hills of Bern, blue-skinned and ruled by bandit chiefs. Inland is Zambul, green-skinned people ruled by landowning majises, the only country shown with both woods and fields. North is wooded Pirs, ruled by the suzerain. Rani (rose-skinned) and Elver are not visited in the course of the story. And under all of this are vast cave systems inhabited by the duaroughs.

* AmbiguousInnocence: The titular darkangel still has very much the attitudes of a child, despite being chronologically about thirty. Given his [[MyBelovedSmother maker]], this is somewhat justified.

* PrettyBoy: The eponymous darkangel is eerily beautiful [[spoiler:although that's mainly because he still has a soul; fully-realized darkangels are just eerie]]. Irrylath[[spoiler: with his humanity regained]] is even prettier.

* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Terraineans are white (''not'' pale beige), Mariners are black (''not'' dark brown), Pirseans are copper, Berneans are blue, Zambuleans are green, Isterns are mauve...and the list goes on.  An unusual example in that this does ''not'' imply strictly to characters coded as white; while most characters' coding is difficult to suss out, Mariners are clearly black (aside from being ''literally'' so), as are the Ma’a-mbai and other Pendar nomads (despite actually being dark pink) and the last surviving Ancients.

* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: People can have white (not pale beige), black (not dark brown), copper, amber, blue, green, teal, purple, and mauve skin.

* TheMarvelousDeer: The Grey Neat hunted by the suzerain of Pirs, which Aeriel recognises as her gargoyle Mooncalf [[spoiler: or Pirsalon.]]

* {{Shotacon}}: The lorelei raises potential darkangels as her lovers.

* HowDoYouLikeThemApples: Apricoks, produced by a tree on the Bern shore of the Sea-of-Dust.