History YMMV / TheRiftwarCycle

* CompleteMonster: Murmandamus is the Big Bad of ''Silverthorn'' and ''A Darkness at Sethanon''. A Pantathian [[SnakePeople serpent-priest]] who plans to bring the [[SealedEvilInACan long-banished]] [[AbusivePrecursors Valheru]] back into the world, Murmandamus disguises himself as the reincarnation of the moredhel's (dark elves) greatest leader, uniting the mountain, forest, and hill clans in a campaign of genocide against their human and eledhel enemies. He sends assassins after the Prince of Krondor, which gets numerous people caught in the crossfire. He steals the souls of his human servants in a ritual that involves [[HumanSacrifice sacrificing]] a [[WouldHurtAChild nine-year-old girl]]. He creates the Black Slayers, soulless moredhel, bound in service to him forevermore. He murders a seer who gave him the information he wanted, and massacres hundreds of slaves when he realizes that his campaign isn't going to start when he wants it to. In ''A Darkness at Sethanon'' he destroys the cities of Armengar and Sethanon, lines his headquarters at Sar-Sargoth with a thousand human heads on pikes, [[BadBoss kills hundreds of his own men in a fit of rage]], tramples his right-hand serpent-priest, Cathos, to death, consumes the souls of all those who have died aiding him, and in the end, tries to activate the Lifestone, an ArtifactOfDoom that will slay all life on Midkemia from bacteria to humanity, in order to loose the Valheru. Believing that he will attain demigodhood when the Valheru return, Murmandamus dies laughing about how "[[CardCarryingVillain I am a thing of death, Lord of the West. I am ever the servant of Darkness]]."

* IronWoobie: Mara, in The Empire Trilogy. To elaborate, the first book begins with her learning the deaths of her father and her brother, before being forced to become the ruling lady of a weakened House while one of the most powerful noble families in the Empire wants her dead. During the Trilogy, she has to struggle to keep herself and the House Acoma alive, while the attempts of her enemies hurt and kill the ones she loves. In the first book, she starts off with no ressource, is nearly murdered before she could even mourn her father and brother, has to marry an abusive husband [[spoiler:and to plan his death after he gave her a son]] (which deeply scars her) and loses [[spoiler:Papewaio]] (one of her ParentalSubstitute). In the second book, her [[spoiler:surrogate mother Nacoya dies to protect her son against an assassin]] and she has to send [[spoiler:her lover Kevin back in his world]]. In the third book, she has to challenge the Great Ones themselves. Her [[spoiler:first son Ayaki]] dies in the first chapter because of an assassin and she loses [[spoiler:her second baby]] because of a poisoning attempt. She also becomes sterile after her third birth and, because of that, ultimately chooses in the end of the book to [[spoiler:divorce with her loving second husband Hokanu in order to let him have a male heir for his own noble House]]. Then, in the end, the Great Ones' wrath causes the deaths of some of her closest servants and friends (including her [[spoiler:last remaining ParentalSubstitute Keyoke]]). During all this time, after each breakdown, she forces herself to keep the impassive face expected from a Tsurani woman. God! Talk about [[EarnYourHappyEnding earning your happy ending]]...

* IronWoobie: Mara, in The Empire Trilogy. To elaborate, the first book begins with her learning the deaths of her father and her brother, before being forced to become the ruling lady of a weakened House while one of the most powerful noble families in the Empire wants her dead. During the Trilogy, she has to struggle to keep herself and the House Acoma alive, while the attempts of her enemies hurt and kill the ones she loves. In the first book, she starts of with no ressource, is nearly murdered before she could even mourn her father and brother, has to marry an abusive husband [[spoiler:and to plan his death after he gave her a son]] (which deeply scars her) and loses [[spoiler:Papewaio]] (one of her ParentalSubstitute). In the second book, her [[spoiler:surrogate mother Nacoya dies to protect her son against an assassin]] and she has to send [[spoiler:her lover Kevin back in his world]]. In the third book, she has to challenge the Great Ones themselves. Her [[spoiler:first son Ayaki]] dies in the first chapter because of an assassin and she loses [[spoiler:her second baby]] because of a poisoning attempt. She also becomes sterile after her third birth and, because of that, ultimately chooses in the end of the book to [[spoiler:divorce with her loving second husband Hokanu in order to let him have a male heir for his own noble House]]. Then, in the end, the Great Ones' wrath causes the deaths of some of her closest servants and friends (including her [[spoiler:last remaining ParentalSubstitute Keyoke]]). During all this time, after each breakdown, she forces herself to keep the impassive face expected from a Tsurani woman. God! Talk about [[EarnYourHappyEnding earning your happy ending]]...

* IronWoobie: Mara, in The Empire Trilogy. To elaborate, the first book begins with her learning the deaths of her father and her brother, before being forced to become the ruling lady of a weakened House while one of the most powerful noble families in the Empire wants her dead. During the Trilogy, she has to struggle to keep herself and the House Acoma alive, while the attempts of her enemies hurt and kill the ones she loves. In the first book, she starts of with no ressource, is nearly murdered before she could even mourn her father and brother, has to marry an abusive husband [[spoiler:and to plan his death after he gave her a son]] (which deeply scars her) and loses [[spoiler:Papewaio]] (one of her ParentalSubstitute). In the second book, her [[spoiler:surrogate mother Nacoya dies to protect her son against an assassin]] and she has to send [[spoiler:her lover Kevin back in his world]]. In the third book, she has to challenge the Great Ones themselves. Her [[spoiler:first son Ayaki]] dies in the first chapter because of an assassin and she loses [[spoiler:her second baby]] because of a poisoning attempt. She also becomes sterile after her third birth and, because of that, ultimately chooses in the end of the book to [[spoiler:divorce with her loving second husband Hokanu in order to let him have a male heir for his own noble House]]. Then, in the end, the Great Ones' wrath causes the deaths of some of her closest servants and friends (including her [[spoiler:last remaining ParentalSubstitute Keyoke]]). During all this time, after each breakdown, she forces herself to keep the impassive face expected from a Tsurani woman. God ! Talk about [[EarnYourHappyEnding earning your happy ending]]...

* IronWoobie: Mara, in The Empire Trilogy. To elaborate, the first book begins with her learning the deaths of her father and her brother, before being forced to become the ruling lady of a weakened House while one of the most powerful noble families in the Empire wants her dead. During the Trilogy, she has to struggle to keep herself and the House Acoma alive, while the attempts of her enemies hurt and kill the ones she loves. In the first book, she starts of with no ressource, is nearly murdered before she could even mourn her father and brother, has to marry an abusive husband [[spoiler:and to plan his death after he gave her a son]] (which deeply scars her) and loses [[spoiler:Papewaio]] (one of her ParentalSubstitute). In the second book, her [[spoiler:surrogate mother Nacoya dies to protect her son against an assassin]] and she has to send [[spoiler:her lover Kevin back in his world]]. In the third book, she has to challenge the Great Ones themselves. Her [[spoiler:first son Ayaki]] dies in the first chapter because of an assassin and she loses [[spoiler:her second baby]] because of a poisoning attempt. She also becomes sterile after her third birth and, because of that, ultimately chooses in the end of the book to [[spoiler:divorce with her loving second husband Hokanu in order to let him have a male heir for his own noble House]]. Then, in the end, the Great Ones' wrath causes the deaths of some of her closest servants and friends (including her [[spoiler:last remaining ParentalSubstitute Keyoke]]). During all this time, after each breakdown, she forces herself to keep the impassive face expected from a Trurani woman. God ! Talk about [[EarnYourHappyEnding earning your happy ending]]...

* IronWoobie: Mara, in The Empire Trilogy. To elaborate, the first book begins with her learning the deaths of her father and her brother, before being forced to become the ruling lady of a weakened House while one of the most powerful noble families in the Empire wants her dead. During the Trilogy, she has to struggle to keep herself and the House Acoma alive, while the attempts of her enemies hurt and kill the ones she loves. In the first book, she starts of with no ressource, is nearly murdered before she could even mourn her father and brother, has to marry an abusive husband [[spoiler:and to plan his death after he gave her a son]] (which deeply scars her) and loses [[spoiler:Papewaio]] (one of her ParentalSubstitutes). In the second book, her [[spoiler:surrogate mother Nacoya dies to protect her son against an assassin]] and she has to send [[spoiler:her lover Kevin back in his world]]. In the third book, she has to challenge the Great Ones themselves. Her [[spoiler:first son Ayaki]] dies in the first chapter because of an assassin and she loses [[spoiler:her second baby]] because of a poisoning attempt. She also becomes sterile after her third birth. Then, in the end, the Great Ones' wrath causes the deaths of some of her closest servants and friends (including her [[spoiler:last remaining ParentalSubstitute Keyoke]]. God ! Talk about [[EarnYourHappyEnding earning your happy ending]]...

** Nicholas conDoin, Arutha's third son. Mocked endlessly behind his back due to his deformed foot and bullied alot by his elder brothers he admired.
** Erik von Darkmoor's surrogate sister Rosalynn. She's brutally raped by Erik's half-brother Stefan and ends up pregnant with his child. She probably found closure in the form of Erik killing Stefan though.

* TheScrappy: Prince Patrick. He's an arrogant spoilt brat who rules over the Western Realm and is clearly unfit for the position to the point that no one really seems to like working for him and Pug can barely tolerate him.

* CompleteMonster: necromancer Leso Varen.
** The Emerald Queen.

** Note that there is ONE character in all the books who's been to Elvandar and has anything negative to say about it: Calis, Tomas and Aglaranna's son. He considers its static, unchanging ways to be "boring" and vastly prefers human company.

* MoralDissonance: Many issues concerning the moredhel. One particularly jarring scene involves two scouts deliberately leading a troop of Tsurani into a group of migrating moredhel women and children. After dooming them to be cut to shreds, they talk in surprise about how unexpectedly pretty those moredhel were for a race that's [[BeautyEqualsGoodness supposed to be evil.]] While this could be a realistic depiction of the sort of enemy dehumanisation typical in prolonged warfare, one of the scouts, Martin, has been raised by eledhel, whose moral uptightness is placed on a pedestal many times in the series. However, the Moredhel are not called the Brotherhood of the Dark Path for nothing - signs at least point to that Path being what keeps them from re-joining their kin. AmbitionIsEvil, much?
** One controversial issue is the Returning (i.e. when a moredhel [[LossOfIdentity leaves behind their former life]] and [[HeelFaceTurn embraces the ways of the eledhel]]): HeelFaceTurn, or HeelFaceBrainwashing? [[hottip:*: Taken at face value in the books, the Returning is held to be miraculous by the eledhel, and considered the result of foul witchcraft and mind-manipulation by the moredhel, not to mention a great tragedy. The Returning happens when a moredhel is ready and chooses to let go of their old war-like ways and abandon the Dark Path. No non-moredhel character in the books ever voices the opinion that the Returning is anything but a great thing to happen - not even the ones doing the Returning, despite how painful it must be for them. On the other hand, there are several details in the books that make it sound a bit suspicious. First there's the question of how and why a moredhel with no prior exposure to the ways of the eledhel (and no way to even know what those ways even are, exactly) should ''naturally'' decide to abandon the entirety of the world-view they've been raised with and forsake their family and responsibilities and go buddy up with their ancestral enemies. Then there's the process of Returning, which involves the affected moredhel starting to act odd and distant over a span of years, culminating in a single, sudden and, it seems, inevitable switch to eledhel, at which point they run for Elvandar - in other words, something that doesn't look like the result of natural changes in personality, but instead an affliction of sorts. On that note, there's the fact that the Returning is attributed (by moredhel and eledhel alike) to the "Call of Elvandar", i.e. its magic, which, as known from the books, is at least significantly shaped by the Spellweavers (the eledhel mages). There is evidence from ''Magician'' that the Spellweavers can discreetly manipulate a person's personality and suppress certain impulses, as they did with Tomas. (Them doing it en-masse would also explain how they can keep Elvandar a peaceful utopia, despite the moredhel and the eledhel being the same people.) Plus, trying to resist the Call is physically painful. And lastly there's the problem that the Call seems to naturally target more goodish/less Dark Path-heavy moredhel. Since a moredhel who Returns is removed from the moredhel population, the Returning is obviously ''getting in the way'' of the moredhel becoming less evil as a people. To support this, in the case of both of the Returned moredhel we get to know in the books, it's quite likely that the moredhel people would have been better off if they'd stayed. On the other hand, all pure-blooded elves seems magically drawn to Elvandar, not just the moredhel, but even the star elves, whose existence was unknown to the Spellweavers, suggesting that this may not actually have been a result of deliberate brainwashing.]]

** Any Dasati who has risen to an influential position within their society will almost certainly be one as well.
** Demons generally are.

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Avoided, as ''Betrayal at Krondor'' received critical acclaim and Feist liked it enough to novelize it personally. He even transported some of the game characters into his later books.

** One controversial issue is the Returning (i.e. when a moredhel [[LossOfIdentity leaves behind their former life]] and [[HeelFaceTurn embraces the ways of the eledhel]]): HeelFaceTurn, or HeelFaceBrainwashing? [[hottip:*: Taken at face value in the books, the Returning is held to be miraculous by the eledhel, and considered the result of foul witchcraft and mind-manipulation by the moredhel, not to mention a great tragedy. The Returning happens when a moredhel is ready and chooses to let go of their old war-like ways and abandon the Dark Path. No non-moredhel character in the books ever voices the opinion that the Returning is anything but a great thing to happen - not even the ones doing the Returning, despite how painful it must be for them. On the other hand, there are several details in the books that make it sound a bit suspicious. First there's the question of how and why a moredhel with no prior exposure to the ways of the eledhel (and no way to even know what those ways even are, exactly) should ''naturally'' decide to abandon the entirety of the world-view they've been raised with and forsake their family and responsibilities and go buddy up with their ancestral enemies. Then there's the process of Returning, which involves the affected moredhel starting to act odd and distant over a span of years, culminating in a single, sudden and, it seems, inevitable switch to eledhel, at which point they run for Elvandar - in other words, something that doesn't look like the result of natural changes in personality, but instead an affliction of sorts. On that note, there's the fact that the Returning is attributed (by moredhel and eledhel alike) to the "Call of Elvandar", i.e. its magic, which, as known from the books, is at least significantly shaped by the Spellweavers (the eledhel mages). There is evidence from ''Magician'' that the Spellweavers can discreetly manipulate a person's personality and suppress certain impulses, as they did with Tomas. (Them doing it en-masse would also explain how they can keep Elvandar a peaceful utopia, despite the moredhel and the eledhel being the same people.) Plus, trying to resist the Call is physically painful. And lastly there's the problem that the Call seems to naturally target more goodish/less Dark Path-heavy moredhel. Since a moredhel who Returns is removed from the moredhel population, the Returning is obviously ''getting in the way'' of the moredhel becoming less evil as a people. To support this, in the case of both of the Returned moredhel we get to know in the books, it's quite likely that the moredhel people would have been better off if they'd stayed. On the other hand, all pure-blooded elves seems magically drawn to Elvandar, not just the moredhel, but even the star elves, whose existence was unknown to the Spellweavers, suggesting that this may not actually have been a result of deliberate brainwashing.]]

* IdiotPlot: Not a major issue, but; none of the military leadership types in 'Shadow of a Dark Queen' realise that the forces working for The BigBad a navy until it is pointed out to them late in the book by a conscript. This is despite the fact that they know she: a.)needs to invade the Kingdom of the Isles and b.) currently has her massive army on the wrong continent. Played completely straight.
** In fairness to the military leadership, the last time dark forces tried to invade The Kingdom, they used magic to transport their army. And at the time they thought the BigBad was more interested in seizing and maintaining local control than there were preparing an invasion.

** One controversial issue is the Returning (i.e. when a moredhel [[LossOfIdentity leaves behind their former life]] and [[HeelFaceTurn embraces the ways of the eledhel]]): HeelFaceTurn, or HeelFaceBrainwashing? [[hottip:*: Taken at face value in the books, the Returning is held to be miraculous by the eledhel, and considered the result of foul witchcraft and mind-manipulation by the moredhel, not to mention a great tragedy. The Returning happens when a moredhel is ready and chooses to let go of their old war-like ways and abandon the Dark Path. No non-moredhel character in the books ever voices the opinion that the Returning is anything but a great thing to happen - not even the ones doing the Returning, despite how painful it must be for them. On the other hand, there are several details in the books that make it sound a bit suspicious. First there's the question of how and why a moredhel with no prior exposure to the ways of the eledhel (and no way to even know what those ways even are, exactly) should ''naturally'' decide to abandon the entirety of the world-view they've been raised with and forsake their family and responsibilities and go buddy up with their ancestral enemies. Then there's the process of Returning, which involves the affected moredhel starting to act odd and distant over a span of years, culminating in a single, sudden and, it seems, inevitable switch to eledhel, at which point they run for Elvandar - in other words, something that doesn't look like the result of natural changes in personality, but instead an affliction of sorts. On that note, there's the fact that the Returning is attributed (by moredhel and eledhel alike) to the "Call of Elvandar", i.e. its magic, which, as known from the books, is at least significantly shaped by the Spellweavers (the eledhel mages). There is evidence from ''Magician'' that the Spellweavers can discreetly manipulate a person's personality and suppress certain impulses, as they did with Tomas. (Them doing it en-masse would also explain how they can keep Elvandar a peaceful utopia, despite the moredhel and the eledhel being the same people.) Plus, trying to resist the Call is physically painful. And lastly there's the problem that the Call seems to naturally target more goodish/less Dark Path-heavy moredhel. Since a moredhel who Returns is removed from the moredhel population, the Returning is obviously ''getting in the way'' of the moredhel becoming less evil as a people. To support this, in the case of both of the Returned moredhel we get to know in the books, it's quite likely that the moredhel people would have been better off if they'd stayed. On the other hand, all pure-blooded elves seems magically drawn to Elvandar, not just the moredhel, even the star elves, whose existence was unknown to the Spellweavers, suggesting that this may not actually have been a result of deliberate brainwashing.]]

** One controversial issue is the Returning (i.e. when a moredhel [[LossOfIdentity leaves behind their former life]] and [[HeelFaceTurn embraces the ways of the eledhel]]): HeelFaceTurn, or HeelFaceBrainwashing? [[hottip:*: Taken at face value in the books, the Returning is held to be miraculous by the eledhel, and considered the result of foul witchcraft and mind-manipulation by the moredhel, not to mention a great tragedy. The Returning happens when a moredhel is ready and chooses to let go of their old war-like ways and abandon the Dark Path. No non-moredhel character in the books ever voices the opinion that the Returning is anything but a great thing to happen - not even the ones doing the Returning, despite how painful it must be for them. On the other hand, there are several details in the books that make it sound a bit suspicious. First there's the question of how and why a moredhel with no prior exposure to the ways of the eledhel (and no way to even know what those ways even are, exactly) should ''naturally'' decide to abandon the entirety of the world-view they've been raised with and forsake their family and responsibilities and go buddy up with their ancestral enemies. Then there's the process of Returning, which involves the affected moredhel starting to act odd and distant over a span of years, culminating in a single, sudden and, it seems, inevitable switch to eledhel, at which point they run for Elvandar - in other words, something that doesn't look like the result of natural changes in personality, but instead an affliction of sorts. On that note, there's the fact that the Returning is attributed (by moredhel and eledhel alike) to the "Call of Elvandar", i.e. its magic, which, as known from the books, is at least significantly shaped by the Spellweavers (the eledhel mages). There is evidence from ''Magician'' that the Spellweavers can discreetly manipulate a person's personality and suppress certain impulses, as they did with Tomas. (Them doing it en-masse would also explain how they can keep Elvandar a peaceful utopia, despite the moredhel and the eledhel being the same people.) Plus, trying to resist the Call is physically painful. And lastly there's the problem that the Call seems to naturally target more goodish/less Dark Path-heavy moredhel. Since a moredhel who Returns is removed from the moredhel population, the Returning is obviously ''getting in the way'' of the moredhel becoming less evil as a people. To support this, in the case of both of the Returned moredhel we get to know in the books, it's quite likely that the moredhel people would have been better off if they'd stayed.]]

** One controversial issue is the Returning (i.e. when a moredhel [[LossOfIdentity leaves behind their former life]] and [[HeelFaceTurn embraces the ways of the eledhel]]): HeelFaceTurn, or HeelFaceBrainwashing? [[hottip:* Taken at face value in the books, the Returning is held to be miraculous by the eledhel, and considered the result of foul witchcraft and mind-manipulation by the moredhel, not to mention a great tragedy. The Returning happens when a moredhel is ready and chooses to let go of their old war-like ways and abandon the Dark Path. No non-moredhel character in the books ever voices the opinion that the Returning is anything but a great thing to happen - not even the ones doing the Returning, despite how painful it must be for them. On the other hand, there are several details in the books that make it sound a bit suspicious. First there's the question of how and why a moredhel with no prior exposure to the ways of the eledhel (and no way to even know what those ways even are, exactly) should ''naturally'' decide to abandon the entirety of the world-view they've been raised with and forsake their family and responsibilities and go buddy up with their ancestral enemies. Then there's the process of Returning, which involves the affected moredhel starting to act odd and distant over a span of years, culminating in a single, sudden and, it seems, inevitable switch to eledhel, at which point they run for Elvandar - in other words, something that doesn't look like the result of natural changes in personality, but instead an affliction of sorts. On that note, there's the fact that the Returning is attributed (by moredhel and eledhel alike) to the "Call of Elvandar", i.e. its magic, which, as known from the books, is at least significantly shaped by the Spellweavers (the eledhel mages). There is evidence from ''Magician'' that the Spellweavers can discreetly manipulate a person's personality and suppress certain impulses, as they did with Tomas. (Them doing it en-masse would also explain how they can keep Elvandar a peaceful utopia, despite the moredhel and the eledhel being the same people.) Plus, trying to resist the Call is physically painful. And lastly there's the problem that the Call seems to naturally target more goodish/less Dark Path-heavy moredhel. Since a moredhel who Returns is removed from the moredhel population, the Returning is obviously ''getting in the way'' of the moredhel becoming less evil as a people. To support this, in the case of both of the Returned moredhel we get to know in the books, it's quite likely that the moredhel people would have been better off if they'd stayed.]]

** One controversial issue is the Returning (i.e. when a moredhel [[LossOfIdentity leaves behind their former life]] and [[HeelFaceTurn embraces the ways of the eledhel]]): HeelFaceTurn, or HeelFaceBrainwashing? [[hottip:*: Taken at face value in the books, the Returning is held to be miraculous by the eledhel, and considered the result of foul witchcraft and mind-manipulation by the moredhel, not to mention a great tragedy. The Returning happens when a moredhel is ready and chooses to let go of their old war-like ways and abandon the Dark Path. No non-moredhel character in the books ever voices the opinion that the Returning is anything but a great thing to happen - not even the ones doing the Returning, despite how painful it must be for them. On the other hand, there are several details in the books that make it sound a bit suspicious. First there's the question of how and why a moredhel with no prior exposure to the ways of the eledhel (and no way to even know what those ways even are, exactly) should ''naturally'' decide to abandon the entirety of the world-view they've been raised with and forsake their family and responsibilities and go buddy up with their ancestral enemies. Then there's the process of Returning, which involves the affected moredhel starting to act odd and distant over a span of years, culminating in a single, sudden and, it seems, inevitable switch to eledhel, at which point they run for Elvandar - in other words, something that doesn't look like the result of natural changes in personality, but instead an affliction of sorts. On that note, there's the fact that the Returning is attributed (by moredhel and eledhel alike) to the "Call of Elvandar", i.e. its magic, which, as known from the books, is at least significantly shaped by the Spellweavers (the eledhel mages). There is evidence from ''Magician'' that the Spellweavers can discreetly manipulate a person's personality and suppress certain impulses, as they did with Tomas. (Them doing it en-masse would also explain how they can keep Elvandar a peaceful utopia, despite the moredhel and the eledhel being the same people.) Plus, trying to resist the Call is physically painful. And lastly there's the problem that the Call seems to naturally target more goodish/less Dark Path-heavy moredhel. Since a moredhel who Returns is removed from the moredhel population, the Returning is obviously ''getting in the way'' of the moredhel becoming less evil as a people. To support this, in the case of both of the Returned moredhel we get to know in the books, it's quite likely that the moredhel people would have been better off if they'd stayed.]]

** One controversial issue is the Returning (i.e. when a moredhel [[Loss of Identity leaves behind their former life]] and [[HeelFaceTurn embraces the ways of the eledhel]]): HeelFaceTurn, or HeelFaceBrainwashing? [[hottip:*: Taken at face value in the books, the Returning is held to be miraculous by the eledhel, and considered the result of foul witchcraft and mind-manipulation by the moredhel, not to mention a great tragedy. The Returning happens when a moredhel is ready and chooses to let go of their old war-like ways and abandon the Dark Path. No non-moredhel character in the books ever voices the opinion that the Returning is anything but a great thing to happen - not even the ones doing the Returning, despite how painful it must be for them. On the other hand, there are several details in the books that make it sound a bit suspicious. First there's the question of how and why a moredhel with no prior exposure to the ways of the eledhel (and no way to even know what those ways even are, exactly) should ''naturally'' decide to abandon the entirety of the world-view they've been raised with and forsake their family and responsibilities and go buddy up with their ancestral enemies. Then there's the process of Returning, which involves the affected moredhel starting to act odd and distant over a span of years, culminating in a single, sudden and, it seems, inevitable switch to eledhel, at which point they run for Elvandar - in other words, something that doesn't look like the result of natural changes in personality, but instead an affliction of sorts. On that note, there's the fact that the Returning is attributed (by moredhel and eledhel alike) to the "Call of Elvandar", i.e. its magic, which, as known from the books, is at least significantly shaped by the Spellweavers (the eledhel mages). There is evidence from ''Magician'' that the Spellweavers can discreetly manipulate a person's personality and suppress certain impulses, as they did with Tomas. (Them doing it en-masse would also explain how they can keep Elvandar a peaceful utopia, despite the moredhel and the eledhel being the same people.) Plus, trying to resist the Call is physically painful. And lastly there's the problem that the Call seems to naturally target more goodish/less Dark Path-heavy moredhel. Since a moredhel who Returns is removed from the moredhel population, the Returning is obviously ''getting in the way'' of the moredhel becoming less evil as a people. To support this, in the case of both of the Returned moredhel we get to know in the books, it's quite likely that the moredhel people would have been better off if they'd stayed.]]

* MoralDissonance: Many issues concerning the moredhel. One particularly jarring scene involves two scouts deliberately leading a troop of Tsurani into a group of migrating moredhel women and children. After dooming them to be cut to shreds, they talk in surprise about how unexpectedly pretty those moredhel were for a race that's [[BeautyEqualsGoodness supposed to be evil.]] While this could be a realistic depiction of the sort of enemy dehumanisation typical in prolonged warfare, one of the scouts, Martin, has been raised by eledhel, whose moral uptightness is placed on a pedestal many times in the series. However, the Moredhel are not called the Brotherhood of the Dark Path for nothing - signs at least point to that Path being what keeps them from re-joining their kin. AmbitionIsEvil, much?

* MoralDissonance: Many issues concerning the moredhel. One particularly jarring scene involves two scouts deliberately leading a troop of Tsurani into a group of migrating moredhel women and children. After dooming them to be cut to shreds, they talk in surprise about how unexpectedly pretty those moredhel were for a race that's [[BeautyEqualsGoodness supposed to be evil.]] While this could be a realistic depiction of the sort of enemy dehumanisation typical in prolonged warfare, one of the scouts, Martin, has been raised by eledhel, whose moral uptightness is placed on a pedestal many times in the series.

* MoralDissonance: Many issues concerning the moredhel. One particularly jarring scene involves two scouts deliberately leading a troop of Tsurani into a group of migrating moredhel women and children. After dooming them to be cut to shreds, they talk in surprise about how unexpectedly pretty those moredhel were for a race that's [[BeautyEqualsGoodness supposed to be evil.]] While this could be a realistic depiction of the sort of enemy dehumanisation typical in prolonged warfare, one of the scouts, Martin, has been raised by eledhel, whose moral uptightness is placed on a pedestal many times in the series. For that matter, even by the eledhel the moredhel are treated as if nothing about their nation is worth preserving, and thus it can only be a good thing when a moredhel Returns, aka is converted against their will and is forced to abandon their old life, from their home and culture to their family, friends and obligations.
** What book were you reading? The Return isn't even close to a forced conversion. The Return is when one of the Moredhel *chooses* to abandon that life and return to the ways of the Eledhel.
*** So a moredhel can live their normal life for years and then, without any logical precedent for any change, "wake up" and randomly decide that they want to completely change their ways, and have nothing against humans after all, and would really like to be pacifists? Even though it means leaving behind everything they've ever known, friends, spouses, children? And this miraculous change of heart is attributed to some magical "Call of Elvandar" that has been influencing them for years? And trying to resist the Call is apparently ''physically painful''? And we already know from Magician that the Spellweavers are capable of discreetly manipulating an individual's personality and character, as they did with Tomas during his Valheru identity crisis? Ayup. Free will. Suuuuure.

* MagnificentBastard: Duke James/Jimmy The Hand, in either sense of the word.

* IdiotPlot: Not a major issue, but; none of the military leadership types in 'Shadow of a Dark Queen' realise that the big bad needs a navy, until it is pointed out to them late in the book by a conscript. This is despite the fact that they know she: a.)wants to conquer the kingdom and b.) currently has her massive army on the wrong continent. Played completely straight.