History Literature / TheParasolProtectorate

* CinderellaCircumstances: Alexia's family life is similar to this, even if she has a stepdad rather than a stepmom. Nobody in the family likes her much, and she has two pampered half-sisters that [[ParentalFavoritism everyone likes better]], and she's TheUnFavourite.

%%* AFriendInNeed: Played with and averted.

%%* TheFashionista: A male example in Lord Akeldama.

Gail Carriger has also written Literature/TheFinishingSchoolSeries, aimed at YoungAdult readers, set in the same universe 25 years earlier and featuring a few characters from The Parasol Protectorate. A four-book sequel series called ''Literature/TheCustardProtocol'' has also been published. Gail Carriger has also written several stand-alone novellas in the same universe about side characters from the other books, collectively titled the Supernatural Society Novellas.

Gail Carriger has also written Literature/TheFinishingSchoolSeries, aimed at YoungAdult readers, set in the same universe 25 years earlier and featuring a few characters from The Parasol Protectorate. A four-book sequel series called ''The Custard Protocol'' focusing on [[spoiler: Alexia and Lord Maccon's daughter]], Prudence, has also been published, the first with the [[CharacterTitle same name]]. Gail Carriger has also written several stand-alone novellas in the same universe about side characters from the other books, collectively titled the Supernatural Society Novellas.

* [[MeaningfulName Meaningful Nickname]]: [[spoiler: Prudence]] makes one for Akeldama since she shortens his name to be [[spoiler: a Portmanteau of [[HappilyAdopted "Ma" and "Da" for Mother and Father]]]].

* BadassBookworm: Professor Lyall. He's small for a werewolf, and a complete nerd (his professorship is in reference to his expertise on the breeding habits of sheep), but he's the most graceful transformer anyone's ever seen and he's the Beta of Woolsey pack, which means very few other werewolves in England can outfight him. He's also one of the oldest werewolves in England, older than both the dewan and Lord Maccon. that's gotta count for something.

* BiTheWay:
** Channing confirmed [[spoiler: Lyall]] has had mostly female lovers in the past despite only having male lovers in the series.
** Other characters of mention would be Boots (mentioned by Akeldama while implying the above), Angelique ( For being[[spoiler: Quesnel's biological mother]]), and [[spoiler: [[DisappearedDad Alessandro]]]].
** Alexia is devoted to her husband, but there is undeniable physical attraction to Madame Lefoux at several points.

* FirstEpisodeSpoiler: Alexia Tarabotti [[spoiler: gets married]] at the end of book 1, and learns [[spoiler: she is pregnant]] at the end of book 2. Given that the main plot of book 3 involves her trying to prove [[spoiler: she could be pregnant by her allegedly sterile husband]], it's nearly impossible to describe without giving away the plot twists of book 1 and 2.

Gail Carriger has also written Literature/TheFinishingSchoolSeries, aimed at YoungAdult readers, set in the same universe 25 years earlier and featuring a few characters from The Parasol Protectorate. A four-book sequel series called "the Custard Protocol" focusing on [[spoiler: Alexia and Lord Maccon's daughter Prudence]] has also been published, the first with the [[CharacterTitle same name]]. Gail Carriger has also written several stand-alone novellas in the same universe about side characters from the other books, collectively titled the Supernatural Society Novellas.

* {{Bifauxnen}}: Madame Lefoux always wears masculine clothes anyway, but spends some time in the third book pretending to be a man with the help of a fake mustache. [[spoiler: Is not the first time she has used this trick. In her younger days she disguised herself as a boy to attend an all male institute.]]

* EmergencyTransformation: [[spoiler: Biffy]] in book 3 and [[spoiler:Ivy]] in book 5.
* TheFashionista: A male example in Lord Akeldama.
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: The attraction between Alexia and Maccon. At the end of book 1, we find that the people shipping include [[spoiler:''Queen Victoria'', who says she considered interfering personally.]]

* FurAgainstFang: Downplayed thanks to the BrokenMasquerade. They still compete for [[TheRenfield drones and clavigers]], and Vampires do have have a bit of fun promoting fashion trends that Werewolves find annoying, but direct confrontations tend to favor PassiveAggressiveKombat.
* GadgeteerGenius: Madame Lefoux, notable for creating Alexia's ParasolOfPain [[spoiler: and [[HumongousMecha the Octomaton]]]].
* GaslampFantasy

* {{Gorn}}: The manga adaptation doesn't shy away from the more graphic descriptions of the novels.

* DisappearedDad, MysteriousParent, and DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: Alexia's dad. He wasn't the type to stick around for a child anyway, but even if he'd wanted to, he couldn't have. He's got to have some kind of amazing backstory, but so far we haven't heard most of it.
** [[spoiler: Alessandro Tarabotti was the product of a Templar breeding program, the goal of which was to create hunters who could track and kill the supernatural. After leaving Alexia's mother, he was killed by a werewolf Alpha who he took on to protect the love of his life.]]
** [[spoiler: We also know that two preternaturals almost physically repel each other due to the nature of their abilities.]]
* DrivenByEnvy: FELICITY, she even admits such.

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: The reason why [[spoiler: Alessandro Tarabotti took on the Alpha werewolf who killed him. Against the protestations of said beloved.]]

* NoodleIncident: The Hedgehog Incident (for a while, at least).

* ChristmasCake[=/=]OldMaid: Alexia's been described as a young spinster. [[spoiler:At first.]]

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: [[spoiler: Sir Francis Walsingham, spymaster to Queen Elizabeth I]] was a vampire, and acted as potentate to Queen Victoria before [[spoiler: Lord Akeldama]].

* BetaCouple: [[spoiler: Ivy and Tunstell]]
** Also [[spoiler: Biffy and Professor Lyall]], in Timeless. [[spoiler: Pun intended.]]

** Channing confirmed [[spoiler: Lyall]] has had mostly female lovers in the past despite only having male lovers in the series. Other characters of mention would be Boots (Mentioned by Akeldama while implying the above), Angelique ( For being[[spoiler: Quesnel's biological mother]]), and [[spoiler: [[DisappearedDad Alessandro]]]].

** Lord Maccon and Floote in the final battle in Timeless.

* BigEater: Both the Lord and Lady Maccon, especially when the latter is [[spoiler:pregnant.]]
* BlessedWithSuck: Pretty much sums up Biffy's reaction to becoming a werewolf. And then, in ''Timeless'', [[spoiler: he spontaneously develops Anubis Form, a power only held by Alpha werewolves ... after learning that Alphas have this bad habit of going bugnuts insane as they age.]]
* BraveScot: Lord Maccon, who's a Scottish werewolf.
* ButICantBePregnant: [[spoiler: Alexia, since her husband is supposed to be infertile. Leads to MistakenForCheating because of it.]]

* [[spoiler: TheButlerDidIt: In ''Timeless'' in particular.]]

* BattleButler: Floote, in the third book, turns out to be quite a handy shot. Later, in book four, we find out that most of the clavigers are [[spoiler:trained how to subdue and capture their werewolf masters.]]

Gail Carriger has also written Literature/TheFinishingSchoolSeries, aimed at YoungAdult readers, set in the same universe 25 years earlier and featuring a few characters from The Parasol Protectorate. A four-book sequel series called "the Custard Protocol" focusing on [[spoiler: Alexia and Lord Maccon's daughter Prudence]] has also been published, the first with the [[CharacterTitle same name]].

* AFriendInNeed: Played with and averted.

* AlternateHistory: Pretty obviously, really.

* AntiMagic: preternaturals.

* BattleButler: Floote, in the third book, turns out to be quite a handy shot. Later, in book four, we find out that most of the the clavigers are [[spoiler:trained how to subdue and capture their werewolf masters.]]

Gail Carriger has also written Literature/TheFinishingSchoolSeries, aimed at YoungAdult readers, set in the same universe 25 years earlier and featuring a few characters from The Parasol Protectorate. A sequel series called "the Custard Protocol" focussing on [[spoiler: Alexia and Lord Maccon's daughter Prudence]] already has three of a projected four books out, the first with the [[CharacterTitle same name]].

** Alexia's status as a preternatural is officially secret. It's an odd variation on the trope, though - all supernaturals know, or find out if they ever touch her. The Queen and at least some other people in government know, because her status as preternatural qualifies her for a seat on the Shadow Cabinet, which she holds for most of the series. Society in general doesn't know, but Alexia was a borderline spinster until she married a werewolf, so she is a scandalous figure anyway. Almost the only named characters who don't know are Alexia's immediate family and Ivy. [[spoiler: And Ivy figures it out on her own at some point, acts as a SecretSecretKeeper until told, and is nonchalant about it then.]]

* BiTheWay: Channing confirmed [[spoiler: Lyall]] has had mostly female lovers in the past despite only having male lovers in the series. Other characters of mention would be Boots (Mentioned by Akeldama while implying the above), Angelique ( For being[[spoiler: Quesnel's biological mother]]), and [[spoiler: [[DisappearedDad Alessandro]]]].

** Alexia for Professor Lyall. [[spoiler: In ''Heartless'', Alexia finds out that Lyall engineered the assassination plot by Lord Maccon's former pack so he would leave them and look for a new one. Lyall did this both for revenge on his own Alpha for killing Lyall's lover, and because the Alpha was crazy and dangerous in general by then. Lord Maccon is very mad at Lyall when he finds out that he was manipulated into leaving his previous pack. And mad at Alexia when he finds out she kept this from him.]]

* SilkHidingSteel: Alexia has a ''lot'' more steel than silk, but she does know her manners and use them when it suits her.
* TheSoulless: Alexia Tarabotti was born without a soul, but she does not find her condition troublesome. She studies philosophy "to compensate for her natural lack of morals", and uses reason instead of spirituality to be a good person. Souls in this universe are a quantifiable possession — those who have large amounts, such as artists and musicians, are more likely to survive the transition into werewolf or vampire, while those who have none at all, such as the protagonist, can actually neutralize others' powers when in physical contact with them. There's no evidence other than in-universe religious dogma that the measurable "soul" is in any way related to the religious concept of a soul - from the in-universe scientific theories, it seems to be all a matter of how the body interacts with the "aether" which exists in this universe. [[spoiler: The aether connection, rather than soullessness as our universe would call it, seems proven when Alexia falls in the drink and loses her ability to change werewolves back to human. Aether/water are opposites, and she reverted to 'natural' human in water.]]

* RunningGag: The unfortunately named Captain Featherstonehaugh, whose only contribution to the stories is to be engaged to a different person every book.

* [[MeaningfulName Meaningful Nickname]]: [[spoiler: Prudence]] makes one for Akeldama since she shortens his name to be [[spoiler: a Portmanteau of the her words for [[HappilyAdopted her Mother and Father]]]].

* OurSoulsAreDifferent: Very. In the first book, scientists theorize that the soul is a physical thing, like an organ or maybe a gas, and people when people with that organ die, they become undead of various types as appropriate. But Alexia living among werewolves and vampires serves as an accidental science experiment many times. Over the course of the series, it turns out that the soul is a "charge" or an energy field around a person. People with unusually strong fields either have it linger after death as an echo, like ghosts, or, if their field is mixed with that of a vampire or werewolf, they become one. As a preternatural, Alexia has no such field - but when in contact with a supernatural, it's like a negative and positive electrical charge cancelling each other out. Two preternaturals repel each other, again like electrical charges.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Vampires usually live in hives, centered around a queen who has the power to change new vampires. They are tended by drones, humans who serve in hopes of one day being changed into vampires themselves. Only a vampire queen can turn humans and make them drones and all female vampires are queens, which is why they are harder to make. Vampire queens also can't leave their home unless they're about to be killed, and have only a few hours to find another permanent home. Queen vampires have two sets of fangs, one for eating and one for transformation, and as she gets older her transformation fangs grow and her success rate of creating another female into a queen to act as her successor goes up. Roves are male vampires that do not belong to any hive but can still have their own drones that they can have the local queen transform if their application is accepted. Both roves and queen vampires have the ability to "swarm" if threatened, which severs their link to their territory either temporarily or permanently depending on the situation.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Werewolves must change into mindless monsters at the full moon, and only the older ones can bear the touch of sunlight. They are as allergic to basil as vampires are to garlic. They are tended by clavigers, humans who serve in hopes of one day being changed into werewolves themselves. They are also just as dead as vampires and can only be made though a very bloody ritual preformed by a "True Alpha" werewolf. A "True Alpha" is a werewolf of either gender that has the rare ability to transform their head into a wolves' separately from the rest of their body referred to as an "Anubis Form". True Alphas also go insane faster than normal werewolves so their lifespans tend to be shorter.

* PartialTransformation: Anubis Form - the head-only transformation necessary to change new werewolves. Not possessed by all Alphas, but Lord Maccon has it, and, as of Timeless, so does [[spoiler: Biffy.]]

** [[spoiler: Though Lord and Lady Maccon still end up doing most of the parenting in Prudence's early years as it is partially a political sop to the vampires. However after that point as Rue in her series explains, rarely spends that much time with her birth parents so her beloved "Dama" has done the majority of her raising and her relations to her other parents is more strained.]]

* ItsAllAboutMe: ''FELICITY''. Her pettiness is PlayedForLaughs at first, but as the series progresses she turns out to be such a ManipulativeBitch that she borders on downright evil.
* ItsPersonal: What finally convinced Professor Lyall that something really needed to be done about Lord Woolsey.

The books concentrate on the adventures of Alexia Tarrabotti, a 'plain', sometimes scandalous, half-Italian 'Preternatural' who has the ability to negate supernatural abilities by touch; Lord Conall Maccon, Scottish werewolf and pack Alpha and their friends and colleagues. These adventures include custom-made weaponised parasols, rogue scientists, dirigibles and 'glassicles'.

Gail Carriger has also written Literature/TheFinishingSchoolSeries, aimed at YoungAdult readers, set in the same universe 25 years earlier and featuring a few characters from The Parasol Protectorate. A sequel series called "the Custard Protocol" focussing on [[spoiler: Alexia and Lord Maccon's daughter Prudence]] already has the first two books out, the first with the [[CharacterTitle same name]].

* TheSoulless: Alexia Tarabotti was born without a soul, but she does not find her condition troublesome. She studies philosophy "to compensate for her natural lack of morals", and uses reason instead of spirituality to be a good person. Souls in this universe are a quantifiable possession — those who have large amounts, such as artists and musicians, are more likely to survive the transition into werewolf or vampire, while those who have none at all, such as the protagonist, can actually neutralize others' powers when in physical contact with them.
** There's no evidence other than in-universe religious dogma that the measurable "soul" is in any way related to the religious concept of a soul - from the in-universe scientific theories, it seems to be all a matter of how the body interacts with the "aether" which exists in this universe.
*** [[spoiler: The aether connection, rather than soullessness as our universe would call it, seems proven when Alexia falls in the drink and loses her ability to change werewolves back to human. Aether/water are opposites, and she reverted to 'natural' human in water.]]

* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: {{Downplayed|Trope}} in that the substance is not strictly ''toxic'', but merely ''very unpleasant'', but one vampire overcomes the species' repulsion to citrus this way. [[spoiler:Lord Akeldama did this entirely for the purpose of putting lemon in his tea.]]

Gail Carringer is currently writing Literature/TheFinishingSchoolSeries, aimed at YoungAdult readers, set in the same universe 25 years earlier and featuring a few characters from The Parasol Protectorate. A sequel series called "the Custard Protocol" focussing on [[spoiler: Alexia and Lord Maccon's daughter Prudence]] already has the first book out with the [[CharacterTitle same name]].