History Literature / Xanth

* BestialityIsDepraved: Oddly averted, if not outright [[DefiedTrope defied]]. Due to the magic of Xanth, virtually any two creatures can breed together as long as they can make the parts fit (and if they don't fit, you can always get an accommodation spell). So while beings tend to be attracted to their own species, there is very little stigma with InterspeciesRomance. Lots of MixAndMatchCritters and HalfHumanHybrids originate this way, especially with the prevalence of Love Springs. Centaurs, for example, came about when a man and his mare both drank from the same spring.

** The Adult Conspiracy is taken so seriously that children who manage to break it gain incredible power -- one of the books has a whole miniplot before the main plot even starts where the main character has to drag her brother to a magic spring to make him forget how to swear, because it's a colony of goblins. She has to remove those words from his mind because he's a child and that sort of thing being repeated to the other goblin children will make them the worst generation ever, and since their goal is to improve the goblins as a species, he has to be stopped.

* DeliveryStork: How new babies enter Xanth, though "summoning the stork" is still required (earlier books have it as GRatedSex, but the "G" part steadily erodes over time). This only applies to humanoids, though - animals (including thinking ones, like centaurs) go through the pregnancy-and-birth routine. Xanth's worst king, Muerte A. Fid, was such a bad egg that there's an in-universe rumor the storks made a ''basilisk'' deliver him instead.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Well, the definition of "evil" is stretched a bit for Trent, but he notes that even during his rebellion, he would never intentionally transform someone in a way that would kill them. (e.g. turning them into fish while they are still on land - this didn't stop the rumor mill from ''claiming'' he did, though.)

** Muerte A. Fid, the twelfth King and Magician of Alchemy, is said to be by far the worst King that Xanth ever had (and he was bad from the very beginning - the stork had to hold its nose while delivering him).

** The centaurs of Centaur Isle have no tolerance for other centaurs who manifest talents, or for crossbreeds other than their own kind, refusing to allow Chex, a winged centaur, onto their island simply because of her species, and even ''talking'' about such relations is discouraged, regardless of the speaker's species. The northern centaurs are only a little better, and don't accept Chex either; her mother Chem also ceases to be welcome there after bearing a child to a non-centaur. Even their own family members will reject centaurs who display magic or breed with non-centaurs - both Chet and Chem Centaur are effectively disowned by their mother for breeding outside their race (even if it was because of a love spring in Chet's case).

* FeetOfClay: Literally in ''Crewel Lye'' - Jordan is affected by a TakenForGranite spell, but his talent of self-healing causes it to wear off over time. For the last stages, his feet are still made of stone.

** As revealed in ''Zombie Lover'', the love springs ''do'' have standards - if one of the people involved is underage, the springs induce parental love in the adult partner instead.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: In ''Castle Roogna'', a ring claims to be magical, a wishing ring. When Dor makes a wish on it, it answers, "I'm working on it." Every wish made on it comes true through outside factors — except that every wish made on it does come true, and it never claimed that it could pull off instantaneous wish granting. [[note]] This is consistent with the operation of the talents of both [[spoiler:Bink - self-protection through making things go right, only later in the series does he gain a level of control over this talent to allow it to work on a chosen target -]] and [[spoiler:Murphy - making things go wrong, with self-protection as a side effect; unlike Bink, Murphy learned early on how to direct his talent's target -]] which work through coincidences.[[/note]]

* NoPeekingRequest: In ''Demons Don't Dream'', Princess Nada Naga uses her VoluntaryShapeshifting powers to turn into a snake to cross a river while maintaining her clothes dry, but she has to order Dug to turn around both times she shifts since ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing. She actually makes a big deal to impress on him that as a Princess in her culture, being seen naked by him would cause her [[NakedFreakOut great shame]] to the point she'd consider herself DefiledForever. It still [[ThePeepingTom doesn't stop Dug from trying to sneak a peak]] with the [[WatchingTheReflectionUndress reflection on his belt buckle]].
* NoSell:

** This is how Grey Murphy's talent manifests in ''Man from Mundania'' (at first no one realizes it's his talent; they think it's coincidence or his inherent skepticism about magic somehow pulling a reverse-ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve.)

** During the Nextwave invasion in ''Night Mare'', when Trent was suddenly incapacitated, nine new Kings (starting with Dor, Jonathan and Humfrey, who had all served before, though neither Jonathan nor Humfrey's status as a former King was revealed to readers at the time - Humfrey's status was revealed in ''Question Quest'', and Jonathan being a former King only came out in ''Roc and a Hard Place'') were chosen as their predecessors suffered the same fate. The tenth king, Mare Imbri, was the one to finally defeat the person who'd incapacitated her nine predecessors, and subsequently freed them all from the prison their minds were being held in.

* OncePerEpisode: In every book, at least one character will go to Good Magician Humfrey's castle, where they must win through [[TheThreeTrials three challenges]] in order to be able to ask him a question. (Which they must then pay for with some sort of significant service; the Good Magician's time ain't cheap.) This pattern was maintained even during a period of time when Humfrey had mysteriously vanished from Xanth.
* OnePersonOnePower: everyone in Xanth has a single magical talent, though some of them are far more useful than others.
* OppositesThemeNaming: The princesses Dawn and Eve.

** They're a race of scholars and researchers who consider magic to be an obscenity.
** Fully justified in that they are well aware of the crossbreeding effect of life in Xanth, and know their entire race is originally descended from soldiers and Mundane mares. This has led them to strive to better the mind and to outright loathe magic.

** Aeolus the Storm King discovered and used a [[SoulJar Soular Cell]], which he could store his soul in and thus prevent himself from aging as long as it was in storage.
* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent:

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: In book 39, it's revealed that Jenny Elf and Jeremy Werewolf have had a second child (their firstborn, son Jerry Welf - and no, that's not a typo - was introduced in book 29), a daughter named Jone. She's introduced by means of Jenny visiting her grave, revealing that she died in an accident. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that Astrid, a basilisk/cockatrice who was introduced in book 38 and changed to human form in book 39, inherited Jone's soul when it was dropped by the night mare who was carrying it to the afterlife, and rolled into the burrow where Astrid was asleep, entering her body. The end result was that Astrid inherited Jone's destiny of saving Xanth.]]

* SkeletonKey: Discussed in ''Heaven Cent'', and played with in a big way - it's not a literal skeleton key that's needed, but a musical key played on Grace'l (a female skeleton)'s extra rib, that triggers the path to where Electra and the incomplete Heaven Cent are resting.

* SmellySkunk: An actual skunk doesn't appear in ''Night Mare'', but the trope is referenced when Bink uses Humphrey's book of Words of Power, and one of the words in question - "SKONK!" - produces a cloud of horrible odor that makes everyone caught in it start gagging.

** No matter how obscure or specialized a main character's talent is, you can bet they'll get a chance to use it to save the day- justified in that many of the tales begin with someone getting an [[CapitalLettersAreMagic Answer to their Question]] from Humfrey, who gets rid of the annoying morons -- er, ''enables the querent to discover their own answer'' by sending them on a quest [[PlotTailoredtotheParty they are perfect for.]]
** Humfrey's three challenges that you have to pass to enter his castle have a variation on this. They almost always require the use of your talent, but in an indirect way that you have to really think about to come up with - no simple Point A to Point B here.
* TheTransmogrifier: Trent has the Talent of transforming people reversibly, which he can use for benevolent or harmful purposes. Most prominently, he has a habit of turning his enemies into trees - not fish, as the MaliciousSlander claims.

* {{Tuckerization}}: Good Magician Humfrey and his wife the Gorgon were modeled after Lester and Judy Lynn del Rey; after Judy Lynn died and Anthony left Del Rey Books, the Magician and his family disappeared from Xanth for a while because Anthony felt awkward writing them.
%%** Jenny Elf, as noted in the introduction.

*** A further writer on board thing deals with how his centaurs reject magic as obscene. This is then directly compared to humans rejecting nudity and bodily functions as obscene. (In Book 2 -- ''The Source of Magic'' -- for those who are about to say "WHEN?")

* AbdicateTheThrone: At least some of Xanth's Kings abdicated after a time, including Jonathan (sixth; felt the job had gotten too rotten), Humfrey (seventeenth; only kept the job until he could find a successor and go back to seeking out knowledge), Trent (nineteenth; retired after the Nextwave crisis) and Dor (twentieth; retired around age 64 in favor of his daughter).

* AllMenArePerverts: An unquestioned assumption of the setting.

* AnimalVehicleHybrid: There's a car/''harpy'' hybrid

* CreepyCentipedes: The dreaded nickelpedes. They have 500 legs and their bite can gouge out a slice of flesh the size of a U.S. nickel coin, hence the name. There are also dimepedes, which are smaller but twice as vicious, and quarterpedes, which gouge out two bits of flesh with every pinch.

* CuteMonsterGirl: Almost every non-human female is considered vastly more attractive than her male counterpart. Except for Ogres. Ogre women are '''ugly'''. They prefer it that way; they work at being ugly the way human women work at being beautiful. An average ogress can "curdle milk with half a glance"; a Curse Fiend imitating one proved able to curdle ''water''. They're just as hideous and almost as strong as the male ogres.

* GeniusBruiser: Chester Centaur -- although all centaurs are scholars as well as pretty big and strong, Chester is particularly aggressive.

* GRatedSex: "Summoning the Stork" is actually just hugging and kissing, naked, until the "..." appears.

* NotCompletelyUseless: Lacuna has a magic talent that allows her to alter printed text, or make printed words appear. It's not very useful in most cases, except the occasional prank at a wedding ceremony, but then she has a run-in with the evil Com-Pewter, who can [[RealityWarper alter local reality]] with the words printed on his screen. She gives him a HeelFaceBrainwashing by making "I will be good instead of evil. Save and compile." appear on his screen.

* OurCentaursAreDifferent: They're a race of scholars and researchers who consider magic to be an obscenity.

* PowerCreepPowerSeep: Originally, magicians were rare enough that the Council had to accept the Evil Magician as King: they didn't have a ''choice'' [[spoiler:not when Bink's talent was determined to remain a secret]]. Time-travel confirms that there tended to be two or three magicians at most at any given time, and they often kept the competition for the crown down by eliminating the competition. However, after Bink's meeting with the demon [=XaNTH=], it ensured that [[spoiler:all of Bink's descendants would have magician-level talents.]] Since then, other magicians have come out of the woodwork [[spoiler:like a centaur whose talent would likely never have been noticed if it wasn't needed to rescue Trent]] and people involved with the family like Irene have gained power-ups. Quite a lot of people that are not acknowledged as magicians in the later books have talents that in previous eras would have qualified them not just as magicians, but as the most dangerous and powerful type of magician, those who could control the magic of other people and artifacts, multiplying their power [[spoiler:like the creator of the Deathstone and Bink.]]

* RealLifeWritesThePlot, {{Tuckerization}}:
** Jenny Elf, as noted in the introduction.
** Good Magician Humfrey and his wife the Gorgon were modeled after Lester and Judy Lynn del Rey; after Judy Lynn died and Anthony left Del Rey Books, the Magician and his family disappeared from Xanth for a while because Anthony felt awkward writing them.

* SemanticSuperpower: Many of the best magical talents allow for quite a bit of {{rules lawyer}}ing. At one point Ivy uses her magic talent of enhancement to enhance the empty space between molecules in a solid wall, ''making a hole in it''.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The series started out somewhere in the middle, and steadily got more and more idealistic.
** It started out with a lawful, good borderline PhysicalGod in a DeathWorld[=/=]CrapsackWorld, averaging out somewhere in the middle, and moved towards MarySue types in a world where happy endings were a law of nature.

* SuperEmpowering: Ivy's ability can selectively supercharge people's properties, including their magical talents. Her husband Grey can do the same thing by canceling out magical properties, when they're turned back on the built-up energy causes their talents to come back by multiple times. And the Demon X(A/N)th can do this both at will (as he did to Breanna of the Black Wave) and by simply existing, as he is the source of magic that saturates Xanth and causes people to develop their own magic.

* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: No matter how obscure or specialized a main character's talent is, you can bet they'll get a chance to use it to save the day- justified in that many of the tales begin with someone getting an [[CapitalLettersAreMagic Answer to their Question]] from Humfrey, who gets rid of the annoying morons -- er, ''enables the querent to discover their own answer'' by sending them on a quest [[PlotTailoredtotheParty they are perfect for.]]

* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Referred to in-story as "Spot-On-The-Wall talents".
** HeartIsAnAwesomePower: A lame talent used efficiently and with intelligence often is just as useful as a Magician-level talent.

* WriterOnBoard: When the "Colored People" accidentally arrived in Xanth they were specifically treated as equals, and several pages are spent talking about this. (They're still called "colored people" -- but now those colors include blue, green, red, yellow, pink, etc., etc...)