History Literature / TheSunlitMan

* DamagedSoul: Nomad's Torment, the side-effects of briefly being a Dawnshard, renders him unable to knowingly cause harm to another living being. The Charred also have their Identity and Connection burned out, leaving nothing but aggression and submission to the Cinder King. [[spoiler:It turns out that sunhearts can be used to heal this; by speaking the Command that gives some Investiture to the sunheart, it takes unwanted or damaging Investiture first, acting as a sort of spiritual filter. Nomad is able to remove his Torment this way, allowing him to summon his Shardblade and fight, whilst the Charred have their free will and intelligence restored, although the parts of them that are burned out do not return and they remain pretty aggressive, leaving them as {{Blank Slate}}s with BloodKnight tendancies.]]

* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: The Scadrian scientists have no problem watching the locals fighting and dying, and doing nothing to help. Nomad notes that while plenty of scientists are perfectly moral, groups like this self-select for a lack of empathy. [[spoiler:In fact, they figured out how to recharge sunhearts, which would solve the vast majority of their society's problems, and saw no need to tell the locals]].

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Being descended from Threnody, everyone on the planet ''should'' be leaving behind a shade when they die. It turns out that being turned into a sunheart prevents that from happening. If they aren't turned into a sunheart, their shade instead eventually joins the Chorus, a writhing mass of shades at the heart of every city. The Chorus remembers history and will build anything if given proper diagrams, but warn that they ''will'' kill anyone who enters their enclosure.

* OutsideContextProblem: Nomad to the Cinder King and his charred [[spoiler:upon regaining the ability to wield Aux as a Shardblade/spear and perform surgebinding again, making him utterly unlike anything they've ever faced before.]]

* InMysteriousWays: The people of Canticle are convinced that everything is part of Adonalsium's plan, though its partly because they simply because they want to believe there is some reason why everything happens. Nomad is unconvinced. [[spoiler:Although he begins to notice certain favorable coincidences that do indicate a larger plan, like his Torment prepping him to deal with the way the Cinder King hobbles him in the final fight, to the point that he even jokes he needs to leave Canticle before the coincidences actually get him believing.]]