History Literature / TheImmortals

* PoorCommunicationKills: Daine's parents didn't inform her of her true parentage and tell her anything about her powers until several years after her mother died, leaving her to blunder around alone and nearly drive herself insane with her half-god powers in the meantime. They were both on probation due to the whole new-goddess-and-guarantor thing and couldn't visit the mortal world easily. Her father tasked a badger god with keeping an eye on her after she was born - the badger checks in on her a few times when she's a baby, then loses track of time and doesn't talk to Daine until she's thirteen. Even then he's coy about her situation.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The [[https://tamorapierce.fandom.com/wiki/The_Immortals_covers?file=Emperormage.jpg Random House cover]] of ''Emperor Mage'' shows Daine with a golden lion tamarin monkey on her shoulder. No such animal is present in the text. Early on she rescues a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_marmoset pygmy marmoset]] who's her companion for the rest of the book, a monkey that's ''much'' smaller and more cryptically colored.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The [[https://tamorapierce.fandom.com/wiki/The_Immortals_covers?file=Emperormage.jpg Random House cover]] of ''Emperor Mage'' shows Daine with a golden lion tamarin monkey on her shoulder. No such animal is evident in the text. Early on she rescues a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_marmoset pygmy marmoset]] who's her companion for the rest of the book, a monkey that's ''much'' smaller and more cryptically colored.

* EnlightenedSelfInterest: The nobles running Fief Dunlath are strip mining for opals and clearcutting their forests. Sent by wolves to try to convince them to stop, Daine tries appealing to their self interest. Their activities are poisoning the big central lake and killing or driving off the wild game, which isn't sustainable if they want to support themselves and their people on their own land. Unfortunately for her, these nobles care only about their own futures and wave her off.

* GoodbyeCruelWorld: In Wolf-Speaker, Lord Belden kills himself and leaves a note saying that he won't bring more disgrace to his name by fleeing, in a kind of self-inflicted LeaveBehindAPistol.

* HeelFaceTurn: Rikash, introduced in ''Wolf-Speaker'' as markedly more of a NobleDemon than Zhaneh and more rude than malicious, [[spoiler: turns on Ozorne in the third book when he discovers that Ozorne has imprisoned Rikash's queen and her consort.]]

* UndeadFossils: In ''Emperor Mage'', the Graveyard Hag gives Daine the ability to animate the dead by touch, leading to some PowerIncontinence that's quite distressing for her. It even works on an archaeopteryx fossil, causing the bones to pull free of their slab, reassemble, and start flying around.The Hag ''wanted'' her to raise humans, but Daine was very against that. [[spoiler: When Daine finally "loses her temper", she still won't visit the graveyard, believing that if the human dead get up and walk the streets, within a few months people will forget and see it as a bad dream, but if dinosaur fossils destroy the palace that's some real damage that will at the least force the Empire to commit to rebuilding and recouping rather than going to war against anyone. As she notes, they're immune to any conventional weapons, don't feel pain as living animals do, and require very powerful spells to disintegrate, making them essentially unstoppable.]]

** ...at least, not nearly as much as she is in ''Emperor Mage''. The Graveyard Hag is far more mischievous and callous, and has distinct plans for what she wants Daine to do as well as a much firmer grasp on the situation. She drips bits and pieces of information for Daine to pick up and likes to laugh at her and prevent her from talking about knowing the goddess is about.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Prince Kaddar is in most ways good and humane and easy for Daine to relate to, once they have some initial awkwardness out of the way. Like the royals she's come to know in Tortall he wants to use ruling power to help citizens in need rather than for conquest or glory. But, as the heir to an empire that heavily relies on slave labor, he thinks knowing who random slaves are, let alone caring about or wanting to free them, is ridiculous, an opinion that has Daine repeatedly feeling as if she's been slapped in the face.
* DemotedToExtra: If you read chronologically, ''Tempests and Slaughter'' comes before this quartet. That book is ''much'' longer and goes into more detail about numerous characters who appear in ''Emperor Mage'' in much smaller roles. Most notable is Chioké, who here is just the most prominent of Ozorne's loyal mages. Varice fares a little better but she's no longer close friends with Ozorne, merely a courtier and functionary of his. Lindhall actually gets more depth here than in ''Tempests and Slaughter'', as he's actively working to smuggle slaves out of Carthak.

** Lady Yolane and Lady Maura are half sisters with the same father. They talk about him in the past tense, but don't elaborate on how long it's been.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Yolane is strip mining her fiefdom [[spoiler: to sell opals to Carthak, an operation overseen by mages loyal to Ozorne and an assortment of Immortals they've summoned. Being third cousin to King Jonathan, she has ambitions to become Tortall's Queen. She falters when the mages discuss using bloodrain, which will poison the land for miles and kill everything in the vicinity, an effect that will take seven years just to start fading. Ambitious though she is, she did swear to keep Dunlath safe. Opal profits can keep her people fed even if the mining destroys their usual livelihood; this magical poison is something else entirely. The mages and her husband wave this concern away, though.]]

* FakeKillScare: Played with in ''Emperor Mage'', when the titular emperor has [[TheArchmage a certain someone]] killed. [[spoiler:This angers everyone's favorite Wild Mage, and she proceeds to call up some ZOMBIE DINOSAUR SKELETONS and every other living animal in the area, destroy a palace and most of the city, and do quite a bit more damage.]] When that certain someone shows up, proving to her that it was a magical clone of himself that had been killed, she cools off, answering "What happened?" with "I thought you were dead. I lost my temper."
* FalseFlagOperation: Carthak disguises its warships as pirates in their attempt to kill Thayet and the royal children so that Tortall can't declare war. When Tortall sends a peace delegation, [[spoiler:Ozorne kidnaps Daine so he can frame her and declare war on Tortall]].

* FossilRevival: Daine does this during her trip to Carthak, courtesy of a temporary gift from the Graveyard Hag. The Hag ''wanted'' her to raise humans, but Daine was very against that.

* GoodbyeCruelWorld: In Wolf-Speaker, Lord Belden kills himself in a kind of self-inflicted LeaveBehindAPistol
and leaves a note.

* RaisingTheSteaks: In ''Emperor Mage'', Daine [[spoiler:uses the resurrection powers temporarily granted to her by the Graveyard Hag to resurrect the dinosaur skeletons at the Imperial Palace and trash the place while pursuing Ozorne]].

* ResurrectiveImmortality: The distinction between Immortals and minor gods, some of whom are ''quite'' minor, is that Immortals can be killed normally and gods appear instantly in fresh new bodies. Many minor gods are animals who are hunted and eaten by other gods, and may be annoyed at dying even if it's no big deal for them. Broad-Foot grumbles when the fish god he's just eaten surfaces to splash him in the face. When Daine and Numair traverse a swamp, they're pursued by many gods of mosquitoes, horseflies etc which are not quelled by being smacked and complain that the mortals are being selfish with their blood.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Usually media involving a FriendToAllLivingThings who's regularly perched on by numerous birds etc [[NobodyPoops won't have the animals make messes]], unless it's a gross out moment PlayedForLaughs. Daine's animal friends [[BirdPoopGag streak her clothes, hair, and skin with filth]] on a regular basis. Realistic again, she's someone who's loved and taken care of animals for her whole life and takes this in stride. She's only bothered when realizing that another human who'll be disgusted will see her, or when she realizes that she's forgotten to take off a beautiful garment and now it's ruined. People who are familiar with birds also take this with little comment.

* AnimalTalk: "The People" have one language which seems to be magical in nature. They usually don't think to talk to other species except when influenced by Daine's human intelligence. Interestingly, while young animals like the half-grown wolf cubs in ''Wolf-Speaker'' also talk, Daine doesn't percieve them as speaking in words until near the end of the book, after she's shared the senses of a young cat.

** Animals and {{Action Girl}}s, as in her other books.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: This overlaps with DeliberateValuesDissonance, as Daine does not consider what is best for humans to be more important than what is best for animals - or even for Immortals, once she gets to understand them better. She's fine with hunting, but past that? She does conclude at one point that some of the predatory animals which she loves reduce her to tears with their hunting tactics, since she loves the prey animals as well, but she loves them still and doesn't consider them evil for having such natures.

*** That's also the book where she's upset about encountering a tauros while bathing and having to kill it when, despite her warnings, it keeps pursuing her. Some of this is the threat it presented to her and her Ma, since in the heat of the moment she forgot that her Ma is no longer defenseless, but she closes the scene saying that it's not fair for the tauros, either - are there even any female tauroses?

* BowsVersusCrossbows: Averted. Daine is just as good with a crossbow as she is with the longbow even though she prefers the latter. In ''Wolf-Speaker'' two Stormwings mock her for using a crossbow, assuming that it's too short-range and slow-loading to be a threat, and she shoots both of them out of the sky [[YourEyesCanDeceiveYou with her eyes closed]].

* CoversAlwaysLie: The [[https://tamorapierce.fandom.com/wiki/The_Immortals_covers?file=Emperormage.jpg Random House cover]] of ''Emperor Mage'' shows Daine with a golden lion tamarin monkey on her shoulder. No such monkey is evident. Early on she rescues a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_marmoset pygmy marmoset]] who's her companion for the rest of the book, a monkey that's ''much'' smaller and more cryptically colored.

** ''Dragons'' may have elected not to return but the impact of the other species' return is huge, and ''Literature/ProtectorOfTheSmall'' deals heavily with the effects of this change in the world. Monsters are about, and strange people who may be dealt with ''as'' people but also have their own strange customs and criminals. In ''Literature/TortallASpysGuide'' a breakdown of the demographics of Tortall has ''one in ten people'' be a sapient, talking Immortal.

* ModestRoyalty: Daine is shocked when she first meets Jonathan and Thayet since they don't look like her mental image of royalty. She has several hiccups in ''Emperor Mage'' - Ozorne is ''not'' so modest and, having become used to the idea of casually talking to royalty, she has to consciously remember to treat him with more formality.

* OurGodsAreDifferent: Some of the Great Gods appeared in the previous quartet, but the first one to appear in this one is the male Badger God. There are of course many gods of humans with many specialties. All animals, right down to gnats and midges, also have [[OddJobGods their own gods]], made in their own image, with powers that are quite a bit more limited than the Great Gods'. It often seems that the less powerful a god is the less likely they are to be JerkassGods.

* PregnancyDoesNotWorkThatWay: In ''Wild Magic'' a pregnant dragon who's already at the point of having contractions miscarries and the contractions stop. Daine, who's only just learned how to heal mundane animals, has a bout of PowerIncontinence and heals her - the dragon's fetus returns to life and the contractions start again, and she flies off to give birth. In live bearing animals, contractions happen regardless of whether a fetus is alive - it still has to leave the womb. Admittedly, this is a dragon.

** The first is that hyenas will bring about Ozorne's doom. He keeps some in his menagerie in an attempt to show that he's not afraid of them.

* RelationshipUpgrade: ''The Realms of the Gods'' has [[spoiler:Daine and Numair]] getting together. There was some minor foreshadowing to this point, but the fact that [[spoiler:Daine was in her early teens and Numair in his late twenties, and [[HotForStudent her teacher]],]] had [[spoiler: Numair]] in utter denial initially, though he ''was'' jealous of younger men interested in her. Once he did figure it out, he was incredibly reluctant to bring it up, even after [[spoiler: Daine reached sixteen]].

* ShapeshifterModeLock: Daine doesn't run up against this herself but she knows that if she takes any Immortal form she won't be able to change back. Rikash teases her, saying that she must have wanted to try dragon shape.
* SheCleansUpNicely: Daine wears formal dresses in several scenes of ''Emperor Mage'' because of the high class functions; even when out and about in more casual settings, rather than treaty negotiations, she wears brand new, put-together outfits. Mentioned in universe as a present from Thayet.

* TakeOffYourClothes: Defied by Daine and Numair. [[LiteralCliffHanger After falling off a cliff,]] Daine strips her ruined clothes off for Numair to heal her, only for him to protest that she should stay clothed while in his presence.

** [[spoiler:Emperor Ozorne]] is cornered and injured by [[TheHeroine Daine]] and [[spoiler: the hyenas, who TheProphecy had stated would bring about Ozorne's downfall]]. His choices are apparentely two-fold - either he accepts Kaddar's offer to abdicate and be spared, Daine and [[spoiler: the hyenas]] get him. He tries to TakeAThirdOption by cashing in a favour from Rikash, who offered him one of their feathers which can supposedly allow him to escape from any danger, "as if on wings of steel". Of course, Rikash [[BatmanGambit had anticipated this]] and never exactly said ''how'' it would allow him to escape -[[spoiler: he's transformed into a Stormwing, and thereby stripped of his mortal throne and mortal magic, and placed under the jurisdiction of three vengeful Stormwings. He escapes, barely, and becomes more TheDragon to a much larger threat]].

** Zekk the pygmy marmoset is "an expert on plant foods" and can advise Daine on unfamiliar vegetable dishes. He himself mostly eats fruit. Real pygmy marmosets mostly eat specific forms of tree sap and insects. They supplement this diet with fruit and nectar, but not other plants.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: At one point, Daine angrily says that wolves never eat people. This isn't completely true. It's not normal for wolves to eat human beings, but they've been known to do so (or try) if unable to catch their natural prey, and will scavenge bodies more readily.

* FriendToAllLivingThings: Deconstructed with Ozorne, who is popular enough with his animals, particularly his birds, but is otherwise a very, very nasty man. On the other hand, Daine is nature's friend through and through, and also wants to help and protect young humans. She even comes to this point with many Immortals.
* FullFrontalAssault: Stormwings don't wear clothing beyond a bit of jewelry and hair ornaments, so are bare chested. When Daine learns VoluntaryShapeshifting she can't take her clothes with her, so this is an issue with her as well. The most spectacular example coming at the end of ''Realms''; thanks to constantly shapeshifting to the point of magical exhaustion [[spoiler: Daine is wearing nothing but her Badger claw during her final confrontation with Ozorne. The scene is so intense that neither of them mention it, and the reader barely notices it.]]

* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Daine can talk to animals. She proves on many occasions that, since she can do it at a distance, speaking to animals gives her huge advantages in war and intrigue. For instance, animals will spy for her and she can prevent an army from marching as they have no edible food, no water, no horses, and hardly a strap of leather or piece of rope that hasn't been chewed through; a logistics nightmare.

* HotForStudent / HotForTeacher: [[spoiler:Daine and Numair. Daine had reached the age where she would be considered an adult and was no longer Numair's student before she even realized Numair liked her, and Numair himself seemed initially reluctant when Daine brought it up. Numair himself didn't realize he was ''in'' love with Daine (both would have happily admitted to platonic love years before) until she pressed the issue, but he was jealous and prickly towards men closer to her age long before then.]]

** When Daine's in wolf shape and running with wolves to hunt a noblewoman on a horse, she tells the horse to dump Yolane and run for it. The horse is too fearful to respond to Daine as readily as most animals do, but she hesitates, and Yolane hits her with a riding crop. Having had enough, the horse bucks her off and flees.

* ModestRoyalty: Daine is shocked when she first meets Jonathan and Thayet since they don't look like her mental image of royalty.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Yolane is strip mining her fiefdom [[spoiler: to sell opals to Carthak, an operation overseen by mages loyal to Ozorne and an assortment of Immortals they've summoned. Being third cousin to King Jonathan, she has ambitions to become Tortall's Queen. She falters when the mages discuss using bloodrain, which will poison the land for miles and kill everything in the vicinity, an effect that will take seven years just to start fading. Ambitious though she is, she did swear to keep Dunlath safe. The mages and her husband wave this away, though.]]

* GenreShift: Lightly so. Each book of the quartet has its own tone and focus. ''Wild Magic'' is highly concerned with characters from the last quartet and with a new cast of mostly low-powered individuals in Onua and the Riders. ''Wolf-Speaker'' has the lowest stakes and entirely takes place in Fief Dunlath. ''Emperor Mage'' takes place in Carthak, where Daine is at the edges of an important political conversation and a tool of a malicious Goddess. ''The Realms of the Gods'' brings in a totally new antagonist and very high stakes, is generally stranger, and mostly takes place in the titular realms.

* HotForStudent / HotForTeacher: [[spoiler:Daine and Numair. Daine had reached the age where she would be considered an adult and was no longer Numair's student before she even realized Numair liked her, and Numair himself seemed initially reluctant when Daine brought it up. Numair himself didn't realize he was ''in'' love with Daine (both would have happily admitted to platonic love years before) until she pressed the issue.]]

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Stormwings were dreamt up by a human in the hopes that their depredations (Stormwings defile the bodies of fallen soldiers rather than let them be honorably buried or treated with reverence) would discourage war by subverting the idea that there's anything glorious about it. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work most of the time. Rikash points out that if humans would just stop ''waging war'', there would ''be'' no war dead to desecrate and they'd go away. It's not the Stormwings' fault that they'll never be unemployed. (Well, not the fault of the Stormwings who actually follow the rules on these things.)

** Stormwings are a race of [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies harpy-like beings]] who live to desecrate the dead (in a largely futile effort to make people reluctant to wage war) and their feathers are made of sharp metal that can cut up birds, so Daine doesn't like them. Then she meets Rikash, who befriended the lonely Maura and reveals that they are [[FriendToAllChildren fond of children]], since their own fertility rate is low.

* PoorCommunicationKills: Daine's parents didn't inform her of her true parentage and tell her anything about her powers until several years after her mother died, leaving her to blunder around alone and nearly drive herself insane with her half-god powers in the meantime. They were both on probation due to the whole new-goddess-and-guarantor thing and couldn't visit the mortal world easily. Her father tasked a badger god with keeping an eye on her - the badger checks in on her a few times when she's a baby, then loses track of time and doesn't talk to Daine until she's fourteen. Even then he's coy about her situation.

* Really17YearsOld: At the start of the first book Daine tells Onua that she's fifteen. Onua can tell she's off by two years.

* RefusingParadise: [[spoiler:The choice Daine makes at the end of the fourth book. Although she had promised Sarra that she would stay for a year or so long visit early in the book, when Mithros demands she pick one realm and stay there Daine doesn't have to think for long -- she feels more at home in the mortal realm, where most of her friends are.]]

* ResurrectiveImmortality: The distinction between Immortals and minor gods, some of whom are ''quite'' minor, is that Immortals can be killed normally and gods appear instantly in fresh new bodies. Many minor gods are animals who are hunted and eaten by other gods, and may be annoyed at dying even if it's no big deal for them. Broad-Foot grumbles when the fish god he's just eaten surfaces to splash him in the face. When Daine and Numair traverse a swamp, they're pursued by many gods of mosquitoes, horseflies etc which are not quelled by being smacked and complain that the mortals are being selfish.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Usually media involving a FriendToAllLivingThings who's regularly perched on by numerous birds etc [[NobodyPoops won't have the animals make messes]], unless it's a gross out moment PlayedForLaughs. Daine's animal friends [[BirdPoopGag streak her clothes, hair, and skin with filth]] on a regular basis. Realistic again, she's someone who's loved and taken care of animals for her whole life and takes this in stride. She's only bothered when realizing that another human who'll be disgusted will see her, or when she realizes that she's forgotten to take off a beautiful garment and now it's ruined.

* AngerBornOfWorry: Midway through ''Wild Magic'', a terrified Alanna and Numair positively ''shred'' Daine, giving her a WhatTheHellHero speech of truly epic proportions. Why? [[spoiler:She was trying to contact dolphins telepathically in meditation and decided her heart was too loud -- so she accidentally ''stopped it''.]] No wonder she scared them so badly!

* AnimalTalk: "The People" have one language which seems to be magical in nature. They usually don't think to talk to other species except when influenced by Daine's human intelligence.

** A less notorious example: Pierce loves animals and {{Action Girl}}s.

* CarnivoreConfusion: Daine initially isn't affected by this despite being able to talk to prey animals (though she stifles her magic when hunting in order to make it fair), because plenty of her animal friends hunt other animals. After she develops her power and learns to shapeshift she had an offscreen incident where she tried deer shape in the Royal Forest in hunting season, and another where she panicked while surrounded, changed into a goose, and almost lost a wing to a barbed arrow. After that she stopped eating game and for a time continues to eat farm animals, deliberately closing herself off from them to do so. However by the end of the quartet the only meat she can eat comes from chicken, mutton, and fish - and the word she uses there is 'manage', which suggests pescatarianism or outright becoming a vegetarian may be in her future.

** Most of Daine's memories about Sarra are positive [[spoiler: and they're both thrilled to be reunited in ''Realms of the Gods'']], but reading between the lines you wonder if she was actually all that responsible or sensible a parent. One of the first things we learn about Sarra is that she spent Daine's entire life periodically testing her for The Gift, either ignoring or oblivious to the fact that she's given Daine a minor complex about not having it. Then there's Daine's continuing trauma of being a bastard in a medieval society, ''and'' in a small town for her whole childhood - which wasn't Sarra's fault at the start, but she never acknowledges what it's done to Daine. Then there's the implications that Sarra was an EthicalSlut, which wasn't considered acceptable in her home village, making Daine's place in society even worse and it's definitely affected Daine's view on romantic relationships. [[spoiler: When Numair hints at marriage [[BigDamnKiss right after they acknowledge their mutual feelings]], her first thought is that "All her life, she'd been told that no one would ever want to marry Sarra's bastard".]] There's more than a few implications that Sarra was a BunnyEarsLawyer, being something of a ditz outside her work as a healer and the work she enjoyed around the house and garden - Daine's pov and even Sarra's dialogue implies that Daine looked after Sarra as much or more as Sarra looked after her, which isn't a healthy thing to burden a child with. Not to mention the hypocrisy of a woman who was murdered by bandits, leaving her thirteen year old daughter to find her mutilated body, telling her off for fighting and killing ''while in the middle of a war'', because "that's not women's work" .

''The Immortals'' is the second series set in the Literature/TortallUniverse. Veralidaine Sarrasri, more commonly called Daine, is a a thirteen-year-old girl on the run from her past. She has a "knack for animals" that borders on the supernatural, attracting the attention of Numair Salmalín, TheArchmage of Tortall. As he instructs her, they realize that her power may be greater than either of them can imagine.

* AlienBlood: The blood of gods and most Immortals is silver. Spidren blood is black and [[BloodyMurder burns like acid]].
* AmbiguouslyBrown: Daine's father is described as being olive brown [[spoiler: with streaks of green. Being a god he might be of any ethnicity or none]]. Daine mentions in the first book that she stood out in Snowsdale among so many blue-eyed blondes, and some book cover renditions make her brown-skinned as well.

* AmplifiedAnimalAptitude: This happens to any animals that spend a lot of time around Daine, especially if they get any of her blood in their mouths. She's not happy about it because they're not used to the sudden influx of intelligence and it makes their lives very complicated, but it's not something she can control.
** She realizes it's happening to the wolf Brokefang, who's experiencing a rushing-in of knowledge and awareness that he struggles to manage and keep up with - he knows that he and his pack-mates and children will die and that all other animals, and humans, are complex beings that do things for reasons that make sense to them. Daine feels that she's taken his innocence and he won't be happy as a normal wolf anymore.

* EyeScream: The first time Daine meets a Stormwing it's Zhaneh Bitterclaws, and Daine shoots her in the eye. Zhaneh [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction doesn't appreciably react]] but is furious with her. In her two appearances afterwards, the Stormwing's ruined eye is black and oozing.

* ForgottenFallenFriend: Daine's beloved dog Mammoth, who was killed along with her mother and grandfather in the bandit raid on their farm and whom she deeply regrets losing, is never mentioned again after a few times early in her first book.

* MercyKill: In Daine's backstory, after her mother was killed she went feral and ran naked and on all fours with wolves. The villagers thought she'd gone mad. The friendliest wanted to put her down with as little pain as possible.

* OddFriendship: Daine and Rikash the Stormwing. [[spoiler:She even names one of her kids after him after he dies.]]

* TheProphecy: It's a ''bad'' prophecy! [[spoiler:Uuosae, Queen of Chaos, will eventually defeat her divine siblings and turn all realms to Chaos; in other words destroying everything. Most of ''The Realms of the Gods'' is about preventing this from happening.]]

* SlaveCollar: Worn by Carthaki slaves.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Usually media involving a FriendToAllLivingThings who's regularly perched on by numerous birds etc won't have the animals make messes, unless it's a gross out moment PlayedForLaughs. Daine's animal friends streak her clothes, hair, and skin with filth on a regular basis and she, as someone who's loved and taken care of animals for her whole life, has basically no reaction to this and touches feces without hesitation. She's only bothered when realizing that another human who'll be disgusted will see her, or when she realizes that she's forgotten to take off a beautiful garment and now it's ruined.

** Daine's magic causes most animals to love her just from being in her vicinity. Whenever she asks them to do something they're curious to eager and often think it sounds fun; at worst, they worry that it will be scary or hurt but a single line of encouragement causes them to obey her anyway. If she's sufficiently angry or upset they'll attack whatever's upset her without regard for their own lives. Daine feels the pain of their injuries and deaths and hates sending her "friends" to die, but she quickly comes to expect that all animals will ''want'' to risk themselves for her, and when she asks for their help it's really just a nice facade over a command. She's ''furious'' when she asks a pod of whales with calves to defend her and her friends and they refuse, not willing to kill or be killed for her sake, and tries to force them. She also dislikes rats, who are only willing to help her if they get something for it. When she's OlderAndWiser Daine considers the effect she has on animals more carefully and prefers to leave them to their own devices more, but in ''Literature/TortallASpysGuide'' she still resents whales for being able to refuse her.

* NotSoExtinct: All the immortal species returning from the Divine Realms.

* EquivalentExchange: Certain powerful spells known as "words of power" have an equal and opposite effect elsewhere in the world. [[spoiler:So when Numair turns Tristan into a tree, somewhere in the world a tree becomes a man. His story is told in ''Literature/TortallAndOtherRealms''.]]

** So many people asked about what happened to the tree that became a man that Pierce wrote a short story about it, "Elder Brother", for an anthology.

* ActionMom: Thayet, founder of the Queen's Riders. They're a cavalry group with many female members.

* AlienBlood: The blood of gods and Immortals is silver.

* AnimalStereotypes: Wild magic, anyone? A number of them are also purposefully broken. Almost all the animals that appear in the books are portrayed positively, with Daine overturning humans' prejudice about many species traditionally seen as evil, such as wolves, hyenas, bats and crocodiles. Rats, however, are not so lucky (see YouDirtyRat!).

* BeautyEqualsGoodness:

* CarnivoreConfusion: Daine initially isn't affected by this despite being able to talk to prey animals (though she stifles her magic when hunting in order to make it fair), but after she develops her power and learns to shapeshift she has trouble with this, and no longer eats game. For a while she's still able to eat farm animals, but after having to shapeshift into a goose the only meat she'll take is fish, as she can sense but not talk to them.

* CharacterOverlap: Jon, Thayet, and Alanna are prominent secondary characters.
* ChekhovsGun: Every book in the quartet has at least one, however, the prize probably goes to the Badger God's claw, which he gives to Daine in almost the first chapter of the first book (it turns to solid silver and she wears it as a pendant) so he can keep track of her in the mortal realms. [[spoiler:In the climax of the last book, Daine uses it to kill Ozorne the Stormwing]].

* EntitledToHaveYou: Daine's magic causes most animals to love her just from being in her vicinity. Whenever she asks them to do something they're curious to eager and often think it sounds fun; at worst, they worry that it will be scary or hurt but a single line of encouragement causes them to obey her anyway. If she's sufficiently angry or upset they'll attack whatever's upset her without regard for their own lives. Daine feels the pain of their injuries and deaths and hates sending her "friends" to die, but she quickly comes to expect that all animals will ''want'' to risk themselves for her, and when she asks for their help it's really just a nice facade over a command. She's ''furious'' when she asks a pod of whales with calves to defend her and her friends and they refuse, not willing to kill or be killed for her sake, and tries to force them. She also dislikes rats, who are only willing to help her if they get something for it. When she's OlderAndWiser Daine considers the effect she has on animals more carefully and prefers to leave them to their own devices more, but in ''Literature/TortallASpysGuide'' she still resents whales for being able to refuse her.
* EquivalentExchange: Certain powerful spells have an opposite effect. [[spoiler:So when Numair turns Tristan into a tree, somewhere in the world a tree becomes a man.]]

* GoneHorriblyRight: At the end of ''Emperor Mage'', [[spoiler:Daine and Rikash force Ozorne to turn into a Stormwing. In the next book, he has taken leadership of several Stormwing clans, used his immortal powers to create a network of spies and very nasty magic killers, and makes a deal with the ruler of Chaos that comes close to destroying the divine and human realms.]]

* BowsVersusCrossbows: Averted. Daine is as straight an ArcherArchetype as can be, but she's just as good with a crossbow as she is with the longbow even though she prefers the latter. In ''Wolf-Speaker'' two Stormwings mock her for using a crossbow, assuming that it's too short-range and slow-loading to be a threat, and she shoots both of them out of the sky [[YourEyesCanDeceiveYou with her eyes closed]].