History Literature / TheFifthSeason

* WizardingSchool: ''Horribly'' subverted. The Fulcrum may look like a school, but it's just a place to beat and brainwash young orogenes into becoming obedient slaves of non-orogenes. Anyone who causes too much trouble or fails too much is either killed or taken away and [[spoiler:lobotomized]].

* DeathOfAChild: Essun's three-year-old son Uche was beaten to death by his own father

* WorldSundering: Alabaster uses his [[DishingOutDirt orogeny powers]] in conjunction with the [[AmplifierArtifact obelisks]] to create a massive rift in the earth that split's the world's only continent in two permanently, killing everyone in the city where the rift appeared and many in the areas relatively close-by immediately, as well as ensuring the ensuing volcanic winter-type event will starve everyone in the world within a few decades.

* WorldSundering: Alabaster uses his [[DishingOutDirt orogeny powers]] in conjunction with the [[AmplifierArtifact obelisks]] to create a massive rift in the earth that split's the world's only continent in two, killing everyone in the city where the rift appeared and many in the areas relatively close-by immediately, as well as ensuring the ensuing volcanic winter-type event will starve everyone in the world within a few decades.

* TomatoSurprise:
** Damaya, Syenite, and Essun [[spoiler: are the same woman at different crises in her life]].
** To a lesser degree, [[spoiler:Hoa]] is the narrator.

* LostTechnology: The cast comes across many ruins of technologies from old civilizations. The obelisks are this, as are the orogeny-activated geodes of Castrima.

** There are several others, too, such as "Earthfires" for "hell".

* ScientificallyUnderstandableSorcery: Orogenes' powers follow the laws of energy transfer - in order to use their power, they must find a source of heat in the environment and if they can't, they suck heat from the ambient and freeze everything around them. This allowed Shemshena to defeat Misalem by removing any possible source of energy for him.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Subverted. We don't see what happens to Jija until the second book.
* WizardingSchool: ''Horribly'' subverted. The Fulcrum may look like a school, but it's just a place to beat and brainwash young orogenes into becoming obedient slaves of non-orogenes. Anyone who causes too much trouble or fails too much is taken away and [[spoiler:lobotomized]].

* CreatorInJoke: [[Literature/InheritanceTrilogy Once again]], the snobby imperialists have a history of [[spoiler: cannibalism]].

* DisinheritedChild: [[spoiler:Tonkee]] was quietly shuffled off to a university and disinherited by her aristocratic family because she (a) showed far more interest in academia than in rule and (b) disrupted a politically sensitive ArrangedMarriage plan by coming out as Transgender. She's equally relieved to be out of the family.

* EatDirtCheap: The Stone Eaters, as you might guess.

* FantasyGunControl: Yumenes has asphalt and electric lights, but the cannon is a brand new technology. The handheld weapon of choice seems to be the crossbow. Borders on SchizoTech, considering that gunpowder predated hydroelectric power in the real world by more than 500 years. [[spoiler: This is justified in the sequels due to metallic iron & steel being a conduct for Father Earth to spy on, mind-control, and kill people.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: At least one--perhape all--of Alabster's children--which he only had because the Fulcrum forced him too--are node maintainers. Alabaster uses them [[spoiler: courtesy of the obelisks]] to destroy the entire culture that created and maimed them.

--> [[spoiler:'''Alabaster''': "Tell me, have you ever heard of something called a moon?"]]

* AntiMagic: Guardians become Guardians because they're capable of doing this. An orogene can't even sense their footsteps.

* DishingOutDirt: Orogenes, of course.

* FantasticRacism: Orogenes are widely viewed as subhuman monsters who'll go nuts and kill everyone around them at the drop of a hat. In fact, they were legally ruled ''not'' human a few thousand years before the start of the book. The hatred of orogenes is so strong that Essun's husband ''beats his three-year-old son to death'' when he finds out he is one.
** More mundanely, Sanzeds look down on other ethnicities, because Sanzed racial traits (hair that filters ash easily, wide hips, etc) are considered better for surviving apocalypses.
** Humans distrust Stone Eaters, claiming that [[BlueAndOrangeMorality their motives are unknowable.]] However, established human culture is very wrong about orogenes, and the few Stone Eaters we see are generally empathetic.
* FantasticSlurs: "Rogga" for orogenes. Ykka aims to make it an AppropriatedAppellation [[spoiler:in her orogene-friendly community]] and adopts it as a use-caste name, effectively treating the term as if it were a profession rather than an insult. Orogenes on the other hand call non-Orogenes "stillheads" (usually shortened to "stills", which according to the Fulcrum at least is offensive.

** The sequel reveals that Alabaster got rid of his Guardian by [[spoiler: ripping the magic iron needle that gives a Guardian their power out of the back of her skull. She survived, for a while]].

* RagnarokProofing: In a world where periodic apocalypses are inevitable, this has become a standard of virtue. Habitation is judged by susceptibility to damage from earthquake or tsunami to the point that most people consider islands uninhabitable by default. Instructions for surviving an apocalypse are literally written in stone and taught with religious reverence. Common standards of physical beauty are based on those most likely to survive a long, sunless Fifth Season. Yumenes has survived as long as it has by systematically controlling [[spoiler: and lobotomizing]] oregenes and forcing them to quell equatorial shakes. And so on.
** Various deadciv artifacts also qualify. Castrima's underground vault was found InWorkingOrder despite having been buried under a lava flow for millennia.
** The second book relates that for the past few thousand years, Lorists have preserved stonelore on specially-produced polymer tablets. Stone was no longer considered durable enough.

* TrainingTheGiftOfMagic: Among orogenes, a child can start an earthquake, but it takes a master to throw a boulder. They train to use their abilities and senses in more precise ways, as well as to increase their overall power.

* UnusualEuphemism: "Rust" replaces "fuck," as the go-to, universal curse word. That said, Syenite still uses "fuck" as a vulgar verb for having sex, and sometimes you'll hear a character curse with "Rusting fuck" or "Flaking, fucking rust."

''The Fifth Season'' is a 2015 novel by Creator/NKJemisin. In a world plagued by terrible earthquakes, the survival-obsessed populace scrapes by living in disaster-prepared city-states called comms and following the survival tips of the ancients known as stonelore. There once was an empire called the Sanzed Equatorial Affiliation in this land, whose presence is still felt through the culture, rules, and other things passed down by their former capital Yumenes and the rest of their former lands. The government of Yumenes helps maintain stability with the Fulcrum, an army of enslaved orogenes trained under the watchful eyes of the mysterious Guardians. These orogenes are born with staggering power, but are widely feared and hated, considered agents of the bitter, humanity-hating Father Earth.

Continued in ''Literature/TheObeliskGate''.

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Stone eaters take humanoid form in order to make interacting with their chosen orogenes easier. There are varying levels of good at it.

* BullyingADragon: How the people of the Stillness generally treat orogenes, even though they can control earthquakes and suck the heat and energy out of whatever is around them. The people of Tirimo, in fact, turn on Essun as soon as they realize what she is; it goes about as well of them as you'd expect. Alabaster actually lampshades this when the deputy governor of Allia fails to show him and Syenite any basic hospitality or politeness.
-->'''Alabaster''': "We are merely here to wield powers greater than she can comprehend in order to save her region's economy, while she's-- She is a pedantic minor bureaucrat. But I'm sure she's a very important pedantic minor bureaucrat."
* BuryYourGays: [[spoiler:Innon]] is the only person we see killed onscreen by the Guardians' most feared ability -- destroying an oregene with their own power, from the inside out. [[spoiler:Alabaster]] isn't dead at the novel's conclusion, but would likely be better off that way. Alabaster's mentor was killed by the Guardians in a flashback, as well.
** Less strictly, being transgender is one of the reasons that [[spoiler: Tonkee's family disowned her.]]

* TheFamine: Society is built around surviving years-long famines. Every household and community maintains caches of non-perishable food, and they're familiar with the {{Cold Equation}}s of rationing resources when a "Season" comes. ("You don't think about [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty the meat]].")

* HighClassCannibal: During the Seasons when the planet becomes a DeathWorld, it's a grim fact that "[[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty you don't ask about the meat]]". Some of the Sanzed elite, however, developed a taste and continued the practice into peacetime.

* IncompatibleOrientation: In a bit of dark irony, Alabaster, whom the Fulcrum continually assigns Syenite and other female orogenes to mate with in hopes of passing on his powers, turns out to be StraightGay. They [[LieBackAndThinkOfEngland do their duty]] anyway, but not happily.

* TheNightThatNeverEnds: The continent-shattering earthquake at the beginning of the book opens a volcanic rift continually pouring out enough ash to blot out the sun for thousands of years, kicking off an EndlessWinter.

* OurHumansAreDifferent: Humans have "sessapinae" in their brains that let them sense vibrations and seismic phenomena, a survival trait in the DeathWorld they inhabit. Those born with the FunctionalMagic of orogeny can "sess" the exact composition of the earth for miles around, [[AnIcePerson drain energy]] from their surroundings, and control seismic activity in the region.

* PowerIncontinence: Orogeny, in two ways. On the one hand, orogenes instinctively stabilize earthquakes near them, even as young children. On the other, their fight-or-flight response also triggers their powers, so they need to discipline themselves not to cause a quake or freeze their surroundings solid when they're in stressful situations. Discussed when Schaffa explains that those instincts are rubbish at gauging the ''magnitude'' of a threat, which causes problems when you're a PersonOfMassDestruction.

* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Energy is conserved when using orogeny, and is drawn from around the caster. This is one of the reasons why Orogenes are so deadly--they can easily suck all the heat of people around them, snap-freezing them to death. Syenite uses this at one point to project her orogeny to no productive end, simply to lower the temperature and cloak her ship in fog.

* SuperpowerfulGenetics: Zig-zagged and discussed. The Fulcrum breeds orogenes with each other, especially the more powerful ones, in hopes of producing more orogenes [[spoiler:or [[MuggleBornOfMages Guardians]]]], which works to an extent, but orogenes are also born at random in the general population. It annoys the Fulcrum to end, since it means that orogeny will never be within their complete control.
* SurvivalistStash: Every established comm has at least one of these, as commanded by stonelore, with the exception of the Fulcrum [[spoiler: the Fulcrum orogenes are to all be immediately murdered by the Guardians during Seasons]]. So do many families and individuals. Essun raids her family's personal supplies before pursuing Jija.

* ViciousCycle: The Fifth Seasons are the result of this. This particular Fifth Season will last a thousand years, and there is a possibility that the disturbance that created the cycle can be reversed. Either way, this is humanity's last Season.