Line #280 Characters/InheritanceTrilogy


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7	Unmarked spoilers ahead.
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9	[[foldercontrol]]
10
11	[[folder:The Three]]
12	!!Yeine Arameri
13	->''"I am not as I once was. They have done this to me, broken me open and torn out my heart. I do not know who I am anymore. I must try to remember."''
14
15	Our ActionGirl from a BarbarianTribe called to participate in a clan succession ceremony, who ends up embroiled in the affairs of gods.
16	----
17	* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: After she absorbs Enefa's essence, she becomes technically Sieh's mother, despite being a significant fraction of his age. She later describes the godlings as stepchildren.
18	* ActionGirl: Even before becoming a god she was from a culture where women were the warriors and the men tended to the home.
19	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: "Having sex with Nahadoth at night gets people killed? I've gotta try that!"
20	* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Takes on Enefa's powers and goddesshood.
21	* ChildOfTwoWorlds: Half Darre, half Amn. Since the two peoples don't think highly of each other, each sees her as an outsider, and she has to work extra-hard to earn respect in the Darr homeland.
22	* DeadPersonConversation: With Enefa, thanks to hosting Enefa's soul.
23	* DeityOfHumanOrigin: She becomes a new goddess through the piece of Enefa's soul implanted in her, and is known from then on as the Grey Lady.
24	* DidYouJustRomanceCthulhu: She can't help but find Nahadoth extremely alluring, but she takes pains not to use him as a sex slave as the other Arameri do.
25	* DivineDate: She ends up in a romantic relationship with Nahadoth.
26	* FishOutOfWater: Yeine is a moral, straightforward person thrust into a viper's nest of treacherous, rapacious court politics.
27	* TheHeroDies: She's killed at the end of book 1, but manages to absorb Enefa's essence and become a god.
28	* InnerMonologue: The viewpoint character for book one.
29	* MamaBear: Sieh notes that Enefa was less maternal than Yeine, whose maternal instinct is so strong that she, as a human girl, attacks a god to protect Sieh.
30	* OnlySaneWoman: She is the more reasonable one everywhere she goes.
31	* ParentalSubstitute: She becomes a mother figure to Sieh, whom she has maternal feelings for because he was Enefa's child.
32	%%* {{Polyamory}}
33	* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: She's very proud of her fighting skills and thoroughly earned her position as leader of her people.
34	%%* PsychicDreamsForEveryone
35	* SanitySlippage: As a result of her two souls.
36	* SaveYourDeity: She was literally born into a plot to resurrect the third figure of the Three and save Nahadoth and his loyal children from two thousand years of slavery.
37
38	!!Nahadoth
39	->''"Here, fueled by the residue of ancient devotion, he showed me all he had once been: first among gods, sweet dream and nightmare incarnate, all things beautiful and terrible."''
40
41	Our Hero... Heroine... err... the oldest of a trio of deities, enslaved by his brother and forced to serve a human family. Nahadoth is a god (most of the time) of darkness, change, and chaos.
42	----
43	* AndIMustScream: Being forced into a human form was so torturous for him that two thousand years of enslavement in Sky was almost an afterthought.
44	* AttractiveBentGender: Though Nahadoth usually assumes a male form and is referred to with male pronouns, his gender is as changeable as the rest of him, and his female form is equally beautiful.
45	* BlackEyesOfEvil: Not that he's strictly evil.
46	* BrotherSisterIncest: He, Itempas, and Enefa formed a threesome, which is how things usually are with gods.
47	* CastingAShadow: He's a RealityWarper who can remake galaxies with a thought, but when he's working at a human scale, he tends to act through his ever-changing shadow, and every other shadow in the region gets deeper and more opaque when he's near.
48	* DarkIsNotEvil: Dark is just a force that balances out the light. Although he's very dangerous--his nature is chaos and change as well as darkness -- he isn't evil.
49	* ADayInTheLimelight: Nahadoth is a main character in book one and a major character in books two and three, but gets a short story all to himself in "The Wild Boy."
50	* DisproportionateRetribution: When godlings start getting murdered in Shadow, his ultimatum is to find the culprits in one month or he'll destroy the city.
51	%%* ExoticEquipment%%Quotes are not context.
52	%%-->"When heavy, thick warmth pushed into me, I had no idea whether this was a penis or some entirely different phallus that only gods possessed. I suspect the latter, since no mere penis can fill a woman’s body the way he filled mine. Size had nothing to do with it."
53	* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Nahadoth doesn't have a "true" form, because it's always changing. His most common humanoid form is of a very attractive man with pale skin and black hair, but the details still shift from moment to moment.
54	* GodOfChaos: Embodies Chaos and change in the universe. He is not evil per se, but doesn't align with human morality most of the time. It doesn't help that he's endured 2000 years of SanitySlippage from being trapped [[GodInHumanForm in human form]] or that he's shaped by the belief of mortals around him, most of whom see him as a terrifying monster.
55	* GodOfDarkness: Nahadoth is the God of Chaos and Darkness. He is not evil and is presented as a natural force in the universe, but is still dangerous in his own right.
56	* GodInHumanForm: He's confined to a mortal shell in daylight as an Arameri slave.
57	* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Spent the first few aeons of his existence as the only thing in all the Multiverse, and did not handle it all that well. As he describes it, he rent his essence asunder and screamed his pain across the heavens just to ''feel'' something.
58	* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: Pretty much every sexual encounter with him is fraught with danger. His relationship with Itempas is also full of both sex and violence, sometimes at the same time.
59	* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: To a human body during the day.
60	* JerkassGods: He's left deeply bitter about his treatment by the Arameri and Itempas and has no qualms about killing en masse.
61	* LivingEmotionalCrutch: He's Itempas's main one.
62	* LustObject: The Arameri find him irresistible. Many of them, over the centuries, have died because they couldn't resist ordering him to go all the way.
63	* MadGod: Two thousand years of being enslaved, raped, and having your consciousness split and confined between day and night will test any deity's sanity. And Nahadoth wasn't all that sane or stable to begin with...
64	* MisterSeahorse: Thanks to being a VoluntaryShapeshifter he can have kids with Itempas. Though rare, they tend to be far more powerful than children born to Enefa with either Naha or Tempa.
65	* MrFanservice: It's repeatedly stressed that Nahadoth is really, ''really'' attractive.
66	%%* NightmareFuelStationAttendant%%Quotes are not context.
67	%%-->"And then the face shifted again into something that in no way resembled human, something tentacled and toothed and hideous, and I screamed. Then there was only darkness where his face should have been, and that was most frightening of all."
68	* OffingTheOffspring: The demon holocaust.
69	* TheOlderImmortal: He was the first god born out of the Maelstrom.
70	* PapaWolf: Comes out strong in book two when godlings start dying, and in the backstory of Nahadoth going on a mad genocidal killing spree to take out the demons.
71	* ParentalFavoritism: Sieh notes that he's prone to playing favorites, as it's against his nature to treat them, or anything else, as equal. That's Itempas' schtick. Sieh tends to be his most favorite of all.
72	* ParentalIncest: Sometimes has sex with his divine children.
73	* PersonOfMassDestruction: Even with his powers bound, he sinks an entire continent. He was trying for the whole world.
74	* PhysicalGod: Apart from the mortal shell he's confined to in daylight, Nahadoth's god form is still tangible... just endlessly changeable.
75	%%* {{Polyamory}}: With Enefa and Itempas.
76	* PowerMakesYourHairGrow: His hair merges with the shadows when he gets closer to his true form.
77	%%* RavenHairIvorySkin%%Quotes are not context.
78	%%-->"Face like the moon, pale and somehow wavering. I could get the gist of his features, but none of it stuck in my mind beyond an impression of astonishing beauty. His long, long hair wafted around him like black smoke, its tendrils curling and moving of their own volition."
79	* SexGod: Passion is very much a part of his nature. He's ''so'' good in bed that it is actually lethal to most mortals.
80	* SexShifter: He predates the concept of gender and will shift into either sex or some combination of the two at whim. In ''The Kingdom of Gods'', he manifests a womb to [[spoiler:try to heal Sieh]] while remaining superficially male; in "The Awakened Kingdom", Nahadoth appears exclusively as a woman.
81	* SiblingYinYang: The dark god of chaos and change to Itempas' bright god of order and stability.
82
83	!!Itempas (Shiny)
84	->''"I am all knowledge and purpose defined. I strengthen what exists and cull that which should not."''
85
86	Our Whackjob, one of the three creator deities, who killed his sister to have sex with his brother forever, and spends the second book facing the consequences.[[note]]In truth, he is a bit more nuanced than that.[[/note]] Itempas is a god of light, order, and stability.
87	----
88	%%* AbusiveParents: To the Enefadeh.
89	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: InUniverse, there are two sides to every story, and his isn't heard until the second book.
90	** He killed Enefah to be with Nahadoth, not because of simple jealousy, but because of a sort of powerful psychic backlash he was struck with when the two literally cut their connections with him temporarily while being with each other. The trauma from that sent him down to Earth to seek comfort, and his mortal wife happened to be [[{{Yandere}} completely batshit insane]]. She kindled his pain into jealousy and manipulated him into killing Enefah, killing her own demigod son (whose blood would be poisonous to Gods) and offering Itempas his blood.
91	** Itempas maintains that he knew what he did was wrong immediately afterwards, but having brought upon everyone a CrapsackWorld, he let things continue as they did because he can't change once committed to a new course. Most of the other Gods believed that he did not think himself in the wrong, when he did.
92	** This is implied to be the reason that his redemption took only a solid ten years of honest life rather than the millenia of suffering Yeine and Nahadoth assumed it would take.
93	* TheAtoner: Not that it was his own idea, but he's forced to become mortal to atone for killing Enefa and enslaving his children for two thousand years.
94	* BigBrotherAttraction: For Nahadoth, who isn't exactly a brother, but who definitely predated him by several "eternities."
95	* BreakTheHaughty: Spent two thousand years ruling over his enslaved siblings and his followers essentially enforced a monotheistic religion. When the other gods freed themselves, they confined him to a mortal body and dumped him in the slums to teach him a lesson.
96	* BrotherSisterIncest: Him and Nahadoth, him and Enefa.
97	* BroughtDownToNormal: His punishment at the end of the first book. He revives after every death, but other than that he only has power at sunrise, or if he's selflessly defending a mortal from deadly danger.
98	* ButNowIMustGo: Inverted; Oree ''told'' him he had to go after some, ahem, "encouragement" from Yeine, who felt it was too soon for him to be released from his punishment even though he'd fulfilled the condition of loving truly, and gave Oree the choice of kicking him out or death. Oree decided kicking him out was best for everyone involved.
99	* CharacterDevelopment: He's bound as a human, which allows him to change on his own for the first time.
100	* CrazyJealousGuy: Originally light on the crazy, but he was manipulated by Shahar Arameri, who was herself completely off her rocker.
101	%%* DarkAndTroubledPast
102	* DeathIsCheap: His human form regenerates whenever he dies. He dies frequently because he doesn't bother to take the same basic precautions that a mortal would, like safety and impulse control. He and others even use his tendency to regenerate as an easy way to heal him. Back broken? Kill him, and he regenerates whole.
103	* DeathSeeker: Played with. While he never actively attempts to kill himself, or intentionally seeks it out, while trapped in mortal form he rarely takes the most basic of precautions. Most people, when thinking "I should stab myself with this knife." would reject the thought. Itempas doesn't because he sees no reason not to.
104	* DefrostingIceQueen: Towards Oree in book two. He goes from a silent houseguest only there because it's as good as anywhere else, to truly caring about her.
105	* DescendFromAHigherPlaneOfExistence: He was booted out of Sky and ended up living in the slums.
106	* TheDon: In book three. You could even call him [[IncrediblyLamePun the Godfather]].
107	%%* DontYouDarePityMe
108	* EarnYourHappyEnding: ThePunishment that Yeine and Nahadoth inflict on him is intended to {{Invoke\|dTrope}} this by motivating him to [[TookALevelInKindness Take a Level in Kindness]]. [[spoiler:By the end of the trilogy, he succeeds, and is tentatively accepted back into the Three.]]
109	* ElementalHairComposition: He manifests as a young man with hair made of white light.
110	* EmbarrassingNickname: Shiny, Shiny, Shiny. Some of the Godlings find it ''hilarious''.
111	%%* EmergentHuman
112	%%* MrFanservice
113	%%* FlyingDutchman
114	* ForgetsToEat: It wasn't one of his habits as a god, so he literally dies of thirst a few times before getting the habit as a human.
115	%%* GodInHumanForm
116	* GodIsFlawed: Edges into GodIsEvil territory on occasion, but mostly it's just a matter of him being completely incapable of compromising, and given the choice between change and violence, he would most frequently resort to violence.
117	* GodOfOrder: Itempas is the Old God of Light and Order, who co-created the universe. However this makes him prone to BlackAndWhiteInsanity.
118	* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Very, very fast. Just ''one moment'' of realizing his siblings were only thinking about each other was enough to seriously damage his psyche.
119	* GreaterScopeVillain: Of the first book. The Arameri are the direct source of the conflict of the book, but it was him who gave them power in the first place. Itempas himself only appears at the very end.
120	* GrowOldWithMe: After the end of Book 3, he returns to Oree to do this. He's even aged himself up a bit.
121	* HotGod: Oree, Naha, and Yeine all find him very, very attractive.
122	* HumanityEnsues: Nahadoth and Yeine imprison him in human flesh after the latter claims Enefa's divinity, in the hope that having to live among humans will teach him humility and kindness.
123	* InterspeciesRomance: With the first Shahar, and later with Oree.
124	* JerkassGods: Sets off a war because he's hurt. Recovers, but instead of admitting he was wrong and forgiving the people he's harmed, he doubles down, keeping them imprisoned for millennia and insisting that ''they'' have to submit first. Also kind of a stiffnecked hardass in personality, though he does have an extremely dry sense of humor.
125	%%* JerkWithAHeartOfGold
126	* LightIsNotGood: Though [[LightIsGood neither is it particularly bad]].
127	* LoveMakesYouCrazy: His jealousy of Enefa and Nahadoth and his also-crazy mortal lover lead him into some really bad decisions.
128	* LoveMakesYouEvil: Not ''very'' evil, but evil nonetheless.
129	* LoveRedeems: The condition of his enforced mortality was to stay there until he "learned to love truly"; neither Yeine or Nahadoth expected him to find it after only ten years, and they forced him to leave because he hadn't suffered enough.
130	%%* MilesToGoBeforeISleep
131	* MiseryBuildsCharacter: Yeine and Nahadoth believe that stripping his powers and confining him to a human body is a more effective punishment than just killing him (also, better, as killing him would probably end life as mortals know it, if not destroy the universe).
132	* MurderTheHypotenuse: He killed Enefa because Nahadoth briefly loved her more than him.
133	* MysteriousPast: The reader knows it, but Oree is in the dark about it for a large chunk of the book.
134	* NewChildLeftBehind: Slightly messed with in that Tempa and Oree's daughter, Glee, chases her dad down and stays with him.
135	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Book one plays up the drama that the Stone of Earth kills the sacrificial Arameri who picks it up. But Itempas kills Yeine before she can pick it up, and the Stone, because it embodies the power of a goddess of the cycle of life and death, actually revives her.
136	* ObsessivelyOrganized: Well, he's the god of order. Of course he's obsessed with everything being neat.
137	* PapaWolf: Like Nahadoth, Itempas shows this most strongly when godlings start dying.
138	* {{Polyamory}}: With Enefa and Nahadoth. [[spoiler:Eventually with Yeine and Nahadoth.]]
139	* {{Pride}}: Admitting that he was wrong is not a major feature of his personality. Even after two thousand years.
140	* TheQuietOne: Particularly in his early days as a mortal, since he finds humans utterly unworthy of consideration. He lives with Oree for three months before he bothers to say a word to her.
141	%%* RedemptionEqualsSex: Thanks for the book three opening quickie, Yeine!
142	%%* RedemptionQuest: What he's forced into making.%%Quotes are not context.
143	%%-->"You will serve, not a single family, but all the world. You will wander among mortals as one of them, unknown, commanding only what wealth and respect you can earn with your deeds and words. You may call upon your power only in great need, and only to aid these mortals for whom you hold such contempt. You will right all the wrongs inflicted in your name."
144	* ReformedButRejected: Nahadoth and Yeine initially bound Itempas to wander as a human until he corrected all the wrongs done in his name ''or'' found love. But when he found love in ten years, they decided that after everything he put the Enefadeh through, that wasn't long enough, and sent him back on the road. Even after Tempa cries for Sieh's death and is given his powers back, Yeine and Nahadoth still don't like him... well, Yeine is a tiny bit more sympathetic, but she still sides with Nahadoth in order to keep the peace. It's acknowledged that while Nahadoth will eventually forgive him, as despite everything they do still love each other, "eventually" is going to take a ''long'' time.
145	* ResurrectiveImmortality: Functionally this throughout book two and three (with an exception for death-by-demon-blood). Being put in a mortal body stops him from healing when he's hurt, like his siblings and godlings do, but if he dies, he'll heal and come back. Functions as ChekhovsSkill in Sieh's plan to stop the Maelstrom.
146	* SiblingYinYang: God of light, order, and stability to Nahadoth's darkness, chaos, and change.
147	* SingleTargetSexuality: In contrast to Nahadoth and Enefa, who took loads of human lovers, Itempas is so content with the OT3 that he only takes two human lovers in all of history, and those only when Nahadoth and Enefa (or Nahadoth and Yeine) abandon him.
148	* TheStoic: As a mortal. He barely speaks three words together.
149	* SomeoneHasToDie: Is planning to [[SuicideMission go out]] saving the world [[TakingYouWithMe from the God Mask and the Maelstrom]], hitting notes of FaceDeathWithDignity and RedemptionEqualsDeath in the process.
150	* SunkCostFallacy: Having killed Enefa, he imprisoned Nahadoth and the Enefadeh because it was a choice between that and losing them for good, which would defeat the purpose of killing Enefa in the first place.
151	* SupernaturalGoldEyes: Though they're brown once he turns human.
152	%%* TookALevelInKindness: Over the course of book two.
153	%%* TopGod: During book one.
154	* WhiteHairBlackHeart: Before he TookALevelInKindness
155
156	!!Enefa
157	->''"She killed things all the time, Yeine. She was death as well as life, the twilight along with the dawn. Everyone forgets that."''
158
159	Our Dead Girl, the dead third creation deity. Enefa was the goddess of twilight, life and death, and balance.
160	----
161	* AbusiveParents: To Kahl, who she banished to an isolated void.
162	%%* BrotherSisterIncest: With both her brothers.
163	* DarkSecret: Kahl. She forced Sieh to forget his existence.
164	* DeadPersonConversation: Happens frequently in Book One, with Yeine.
165	* GodOfTheDead: She's the Goddess of Life and Death and actually invented those concepts as one of the three [[TheMaker co-creators]] of the universe. However, she didn't need to oversee death personally, and not even she knew where the souls of the dead end up. Her brother [[GodIsDead killed her]] before the time of the books, in which [[spoiler:Yeine [[DivinityOfHumanOrigin inherits her divinity]]]].
166	* MotherNatureFatherScience: Averted. Nahadoth and Itempas are emotional forces of nature, while Enefa is the steel-hearted scientist who creates life and offs imperfect experiments as she sees fit.
167	* OnlySaneWoman: Or more scientific-minded
168	* ParentalIncest: Had a son with ''her'' son, [[spoiler:Sieh]].
169	* PosthumousCharacter: Killed by Itempas before the start of the series.
170	* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Subverted. As shown by the quote above, Enefa may have been much loved, and she may have been unjustly killed but she wasn't [[IncorruptiblePurePureness all good all the time]]. She had her negative traits just like Itempas and Nahadoth do, and is accused more than once of being partly responsible for Itempas' breakdown and the second Gods' War..
171	[[/folder]]
172
173	[[folder:Godlings]]
174	!!General Godling Tropes
175	->''I had not met many godlings at that point, but anyone who dwelled for long in Shadow learned this much: they drew their strength from a particular thing—a concept, a state of being, an emotion. The priests and scriveners called it affinity, though I had never heard any godling use the term. When they encountered their affinity, it drew them like a beacon, and some of them could not quite help responding to it.''
176
177	Our Divine Supporting Cast.
178	----
179	* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Gods' War split them into factions that left some ''very'' ugly grudges, even after 2000 years.
180	* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Their true forms in the divine realm are [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm unknowable to humans]], and the bodies they create in the mortal realm are often alien or disquieting, so most of them develop human forms in which to manifest.
181	* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: Averted. Turns out they don't even like having worshipers that much.
182	* TheMafia: A group of them form a semi-criminal organization in Book 3 to coordinate their interests in the mortal realm.
183	* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The youngest godlings are this, since they were all rendered sterile for the 2000 years between Enefa's death and Yeine's apotheosis. [[spoiler:Zig-zagged when Ahad is created at the end of the first book and when Shill is created in "The Awakened Kingdom".]]
184	* TimeAbyss: The oldest godlings measure age in the ''billions'' of years. This was hard on godlings who had affinities for concepts that hadn't manifested in the universe yet, like the God of Dreams, who predates all mortal life that could dream.
185	%%* TangledFamilyTree
186
187	!!Sieh
188	->''Madding sighed. "Mortal languages don't have words for this. He... lives true. He is what he is. You've heard that saying, haven't you? It's more than just words for us." I had no idea what he was talking about. He saw that in my face and tried again. "Imagine you're older than this planet, yet you have to act like a child. Could you do it?"''\
189	''Impossible to even imagine. "I... don't know. I don't think so."''\
190	''Madding nodded. "Sieh does it. He does it every day, all day; he never stops. That makes him strong."''
191
192	Our Trickster, a lesser deity imprisoned alongside Nahadoth. Sieh is the god of childhood.
193	----
194	* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Eventually becomes an actual god, and makes a new Three along with Shahar and Dekarta Arameri.
195	* BreakTheHaughty: This happens a ''lot'' in book three as he's forced to contend with the limitations of mortality.
196	* CallingTheOldManOut: He criticizes Nahadoth's tendency to play favorites with the godlings, while also noting that it's unfair because he can't help but play favorites; it's against his nature to treat things equally when they are clearly not.
197	%%* CatsAreMagic
198	%%* CatsAreMean
199	%%* CatsAreSnarkers
200	%%* ChessMaster: Per WordOfGod.%%Quotes are not context.
201	%%--> Sieh is TheChessmaster of the Enefadeh. Kurue was their leader, but it was Sieh's strategies which drove much of the plot. He's the one who conceived the plan to hide Enefa's soul in Yeine's body. When that plan went horribly awry, he's the one who chose to befriend her, and in his own unique way seduce her, in hopes of convincing her to die for them.
202	* CreepyChild: Thanks to really being billions of years old and open about the physical and psychological horrors he's suffered. It's unsettling to have a child looking at you with murder in his eyes.
203	* TheDutifulSon: Thinks of himself as this, while looking down on all the godlings who didn't stick by Nahadoth during his imprisonment.
204	%%* EvenTheGuysWantHim
205	* FantasticRacism: Aside from children, Sieh doesn't have a very high opinion of mortals, albeit with good reason.
206	%%* FirstPersonSmartass: In book three.
207	* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Usually takes the form of a prepubescent child, though he sometimes ages himself up to teen.
208	* GrowingUpSucks: Especially if you're the god of childhood and have to experience puberty.
209	%%* HappilyAdopted: By Yeine.
210	* HeroicSacrifice: He kills himself to stop Kahl and the Maelstrom from destroying the world.
211	* IMissMom: As tricky and deceptive as he is, Sieh truly misses Enefa and treats Yeine as a mother figure.
212	* ImmortalImmaturity: His nature is childishness. No matter how many years he's existed in the world, he's still a brat. {{Invoked\|Trope}}, since he chooses to "live true to his nature", and is made ''very'' powerful by his dedication to it.
213	%%* InnerMonologue: Book three's viewpoint character.
214	%%* InterspeciesRomance: With Shahar and Deka in book three.
215	%%* JerkassGods: Look at the choice he tries to force on Shahar!
216	%%* KidsAreCruel%%Quotes are not context.
217	%%-->Sieh chuckled. "Of course I'm sorry, Lil. Do I look like the kind of person who would hold a grudge? That would be petty of me."\
218	"Petty," agreed the blonde woman, "and childish and cruel. Does his suffering please you?"\
219	"Oh, yes, Lil. It pleases me very much." Not even the pretense of friendliness this time. There was nothing in that boyish voice but sadistic relish.
220	* MadeASlave: Thanks to ParentalBetrayal by Itempas, and it leaves mental scars for long after's freed.
221	* ManChild: When he's stuck in an adult body. It's actually necessary for him, since acting too much like an adult would be against his nature and would weaken him.
222	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: It turns out that Sieh played his own unwitting part in starting the Gods' War by lying to bring Itempas home to Nahadoth and Enefa, never considering what his abandonment would do to Shahar Arameri's none too stable mind.
223	%%* OffingTheOffspring: To Kahl.
224	* ParentalIncest: With Nahadoth and Enefa; notably never with Itempas.
225	* ThePrankster: He's the universe's original prankster, with antics that range from stealing suns to smothering babies.
226	* RapeAsBackstory: While he was enslaved to the Arameri and forced to indulge their appetites. He says with deliberate calm that they usually wanted him to take even younger forms.
227	* RapidAging: This happens in book three, where there are several instances when Sieh ages decades in a matter of hours. Also, learning that he's a father "poisons" him and makes him age at ten times the normal rate thereafter.
228	%%* SandInMyEyes
229	* TheOlderImmortal: Ironically, given his childlike nature. He was the very first child Enefa created, the prototype for all subsequent godlings and mortals, making him the fifth-oldest thing in the multiverse (after the Maelstrom and the Three).
230	* VoluntaryShapeshifting: He can turn into a cat.
231	* WhatTheHellHero: At times it seems like ''everyone'' is saying this to Sieh in book three.
232
233	!!Hado/Ahad/Beloved
234	->''"Once upon a time, there was a god imprisoned here. He was a terrible, beautiful, angry god, and by night when he roamed these white halls, everyone feared him. But by day, the god slept. And the body, the living mortal flesh that was his ball and chain, got to have a life of its own. It wasn’t much of a life, mind you. All the people who feared the god did not fear the man. They quickly learned they could do things to the man that the god would not tolerate. So the man lived his life in increments, born with every dawn, dying with every sunset. Hating every moment of it. For two. Thousand. Years. Until suddenly, one day, the man became free."''
235
236	Our Sort-Of-Clone, a human body with its own personality that comes to life by day and keeps Nahadoth’s godly power imprisoned. Spends book two confusing the hell out of Oree, and book three taking not a little pleasure in both tormenting Sieh and sending him on errands.
237	----
238	!!!General, and shared with Nahadoth:
239	%%* LongHairedPrettyBoy
240	%%* TallDarkAndHandsome
241	!!!In book one:
242	%%* BornIntoSlavery: He did not exist at all before Nahadoth was confined to human form.%%And?
243	* DeathSeeker: He helps -- or at least doesn't rat out -- the Enefadeh because Nahadoth has promised to kill him once they're free.
244	* GollumMadeMeDoIt: He routinely "wakes up" to find himself next to the bloody remains of people Nahadoth slaughtered at night.
245	%%* JerkAss
246	%%* InvoluntaryShapeShifting
247	%%* LivingBodysuit
248	* SexSlave: To Scimina, although it's heavily implied she's not the first Arameri who's done this to him.
249	%%* SlaveCollar
250	%%* SuperPoweredAlterEgo
251	!!!In book two:
252	* AmbitionIsEvil: Hado tells Oree that he infiltrated the New Lights in order to become an Arameri full-blood so he could eventually become the family head and rule the world. Oree is horrified.
253	%%* TheCasanova
254	* DeepCoverAgent: He's [[spoiler: only pretending to be part of Serymn and Dateh's inner circle]].
255	%%* DragonWithAnAgenda
256	* GoingNative: Boy has he picked up on the Arameri social-climbing, power-hungry, ambitious tendencies.
257	%%* HighClassCallGirl
258	!!!In book three:
259	* AbusiveParents: We learn that, in his very early developing years, Ahad regarded Sieh as a father figure. Let us just say that Sieh did ''not'' live up to that image very well.
260	%%* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: To Glee, of course.
261	* BerserkButton: Do ''not'' tell him what to do, or even speak to him using imperatives (like this sentence). Having spent two thousand years magically enslaved, he's had it up to here with anything that even sounds like a command.
262	* BetaCouple: More or less. He and Glee have apparently been flirting for decades, but they resolve their UST a lot faster and much more easily than Sieh and Deka, and ''especially'' than Sieh and Shahar.
263	%%* CulturedBadass: The badass doesn't come out until Glee is hurt.
264	* ADayInTheLimelight: After playing a supporting role in the main trilogy, Ahad gets a short story all to himself in "The God Without A Name."
265	* DefectorFromDecadence: Of a sort. He grew fed up with living in Sky due to its continued corruption...so after having an affair with T'Vril's wife and collecting his reward for doing so, he now runs an elaborate brothel. And lounges around smoking cheroots.
266	* EveryoneIsRelated: To be fair, it's a logical extension of [[ReallyGetsAround sleeping with half of Sky]] before he left to join the mob.
267	* TheFirstCutIsTheDeepest: Two thousand years of emotional fuckitry at the hands of the Arameri drove him to [[MisanthropeSupreme nihilism, apathy, and general hatred]], preventing him from realizing that his divine affinity, and the thing he should be drawing power from, is love.
268	* GenerationXerox: Sort of! Nahadoth's strange child and Itempas's daughter seem like their OppositesAttract romance will play out better than Naha and Tempa's did. (And hey, Ahad is a doppelganger of Nahadoth's Sky form while Sieh calls Glee "Itempas made over with breasts.")
269	%%* HappilyMarried: With Glee.
270	%%* KissingCousins: Is it incest when a girl hooks up with her uncle's clone?
271	%%* LapPillow
272	%%* LoveGoddess
273	%%* MayflyDecemberRomance: Again with Glee, although she's unusually long lived for the "mayfly" part of the equation.%%... so does it fit?
274	* UnproblematicProstitution: He's a pimp, but a very ethical pimp. Everyone who works at the Arms of Night is there by choice and enjoys their job.
275
276	!!Kahl
277	->''I will not be a slave to fate. I will embrace it, control it. I will be what I wish to be.''
278
279	Our LongLostRelative and BigBad all in one; spends book three gearing up to take his revenge on the parents who abandoned him. And since he's a Godling of Vengeance, that's a very big revenge indeed.
280	----
281	* AntagonisticOffspring: He sees Sieh as ArchnemesisDad and Enefa as the EvilMatriarch.
282	* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: For a start, Mummy made him forget he even ''sired'' you.
283	* FinalFirstHug: His first and last hug with Sieh was lethal.
284	* FreudianExcuse: He ''was'' left alone and abandoned in a void for millenia, after all.
285	%%* LukeYouAreMyFather: To Sieh.
286	%%* MommyIssues: With his mother Enefa.
287	%%* OffingTheOffspring: Ultimately an offee.
288	%%* {{Patricide}}: Attempted.
289	* RevengeBeforeReason: He's willing to destroy the entire world and himself along with it. But revenge is his nature.
290
291	!!Shill
292	->''I won’t push any of you, see? I didn’t give you anything, and you don’t owe me anything. Your power is yours; it has always been there. I’m just going to help you reach it. What you do with it, from there on, is up to you.''
293
294	Our Social Justice Warrior, narrator and protagonist of the sequel novella "The Awakened Kingdoms."
295	%%----
296	%%* BabiesEverAfter: The product of this trope.
297	%%* {{Empowerment}}
298	%%* SupernaturalAid
299
300	!!Miscellaneous Godling Tropes
301	%%* TheBigGirl: Zhakkarn.
302	%%* HorrorHunger: Lil, as the goddess of hunger.
303	%%* MayFlyDecemberRomance: Madding and Oree.
304	* PetTheDog: It's mentioned that Lil starts taking care of a group of orphans at the end of the second book, as she's fascinated by their "hunger" for love.
305	* PowerOftheVoid: Ia the Negation is the god of this, which gives him the {{Retconjuration}} power to write events out of history or [[RetGone make people never have existed]]. He's not a bad fellow, but spends his time [[GodInHumanForm in human form]] on Earth because other gods [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm can't bear the sight of his true form's]] absolute nothingness in the divine realms.
306	* RacistGrandma: [[spoiler: Kurue]], who hates mortals [[MadeASlave with reason.]]
307	%%* ScaledUp: Kitr turns into a snake.
308	%%* WarGod: Zhakkarn of the Blood.
309	[[/folder]]
310
311	[[folder:Arameri]]
312
313	!!General Arameri Tropes
314	->''"Like our ancestress Shahar, we Arameri are first and foremost the servants of Itempas Skyfather. It is in His name that we have imposed the age of the Bright upon the world. Peace, order, enlightenment. Itempas's servants do not use, or need, weapons. Tools, though..."''
315
316	Our Ruling Clan, which unofficially controls the world from the city of Sky. Ages before the beginning of the first book, the clan's founder proved crucial to Bright Itempas's victory over the Enefada. For this, the clan was rewarded with the power to command them and the duty of imposing Itempas's will on the world.
317	-----
318	* BigScrewedUpFamily: Sky is a degenerate mess of backstabbing, debauchery, assassination and general corruption.
319	%%* TheBeautifulElite
320	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Often the only real way to get ahead in the family.
321	* ColdBloodedTorture: The Arameri just ''love'' doing this to heretics in particular, but often anyone who annoys them.
322	%%* TheClan
323	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Arameri are, by and large, Amn, who seem to correspond to white people. They've conquered the rest of the world and rule tyrannically while calling their reign the Bright and insisting it's good for everyone. Only Arameri serve other Arameri, but it's unusual for biracial children to rise above menial jobs--in the third book, the fact that high-ranking positions are held by mixed-race Arameri is a sign of how many of them have been assassinated.
324	* DysfunctionalFamily: Everyone in sky is distantly related. Being descended from the woman who helped Itempas defeat their family is a requirement to be in Sky. They're constantly betraying and killing each other.
325	* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Arameri installed a universal age of consent, and do not condone sexual abuse of children, or tolerate paedophiles. T'Vril's father, even though he was a fairly high ranking member of the family, was executed for raping T'Vril's underage mother. (This doesn't apply to godlings, however, and Sieh has apparently been a target of this kind of thing.)
326	* HumansAreBastards: The Arameri are awful to both the gods they keep as slaves, and the nations they rule over.
327	* {{Hypocrite}} : The Arameri look down upon the Northern Kingdoms in particular as savage, with bizarre and disgusting customs - conveniently ignoring the fact that their ancestors, the Amn, were cannibals.
328	* JerkAssHasAPoint: They instituted a global minimum age of consent and have punished some of their own who were caught defying it. They also used their power to prevent kingdoms from plundering each other, ending many nations' practices of mass kidnapping people and forcing them into marriage and/or slavery.
329	* MadeASlave: The Arameri central family forces distant relatives, particularly mixed-race ones, to come and live as servants in Sky.
330	%%* PropagandaMachine
331	%%* StealthInsult
332	%%* TangledFamilyTree
333	%%* WickedCultured
334
335	!!T'vril Arameri
336	-->''"Not only has my cousin forgotten that Bright Itempas no longer rules the gods, but she has also forgotten that we Arameri now answer to several masters rather than one. The world changes; we must change with it or die."''
337
338	Our Recurring Side Character, a high-ranking Arameri servant in book one who is running the world by book two.
339	-----
340	* ColdBloodedTorture: He has a conspirator's tongue pulled out in public.
341	* TheGoodChancellor: The closest thing the Arameri can get to one. T'vril is definitely more good in nature than the highbloods and is more concerned with keeping the empire stable than petty politcal games.
342	* GoodIsNotNice: He is not above cruel and unusual punishment, but only resorts to it in dire situations.
343	* OvershadowedByAwesome: In-universe. He has a one-night stand with Yeine, but just can't compare to Nahadoth. Also a RomanticRunnerUp.
344	%%* ReasonableAuthorityFigure
345	%%* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething
346
347	!!Viraine Arameri
348	->''"But at least I still have a soul. What did you trade yours for?"''\
349	''To my surprise, Viraine's glee seemed to fade. He looked down into the pit, the gray light making his eyes seem colorless and older than Dekarta's. "Not enough," he said, and walked away.''
350
351	Our CourtMage who facilitates a certain web of lies, and is keeping someone secret.
352	----
353	* CourtMage: The First Scrivener of Sky in the first book.
354	* LivingBodysuit: He's hiding Itempas in him.
355	* TheLostLenore: He never got over [[spoiler: Kinneth's]] death.
356
357	!!Kinneth Arameri
358	->''Once upon a time there was a little girl whose father murdered her mother. Then she set all her mind and heart and formidable will on vengeance... because that is what a daughter does when her mother has been murdered.''
359
360	Our Heroine's Dead Mom, who actually kicks off the plot.
361	----
362	* DaddyIssues: She doesn't necessarily hate her father completely, but she can't let his actions go unpunished.
363	* DefectorFromDecadence: She left Sky for the "barbarians" of Darre because of Dekarta's actions, as part of her long game for revenge. After her death, Yeine has to investigate what induced her to leave -- and what sort of person she was like as a member of the Arameri DecadentCourt.
364	%%* MamaBear
365	* MommyIssues: Most of her actions stem from losing the mother she dearly loved.
366	%%* TheParagonAlwaysRebels
367	%%* RebelliousPrincess
368	* SpannerInTheWorks: Her actions ultimately [[spoiler: unravel Itempas's carefully laid out system that kept the gods who stood against him in chains.]]
369
370	!!High Priestess Shahar Arameri
371	->'' The child was mad, of course. Later events proved this. But it makes sense to me that this madness, not mere religious devotion, would appeal most to the Bright Lord. Her love was unconditional, her purpose undiluted by such paltry considerations as conscience or doubt. It seems like Him, I think, to value that kind of purity of purpose -- even though, like warmth and light, too much love is never a good thing.''
372
373	Our Crazy Priestess, a fanatical follower of Itempas who is at least partially responsible for everything bad in the series, and imposed the Itempan Church on the world two-thousand years before ''The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms''.
374	----
375	%%* ActivistFundamentalistAntics
376	%%* BlackAndWhiteInsanity
377	%%* FounderOfTheKingdom: A BrokenPedestal example.
378	%%* HighPriest: Of Itempas.
379	%%* KnightTemplar
380	* LivingEmotionalCrutch: To Itempas, a fact which she exploited ''brutally'' by manipulating him into killing Enefa.
381	%%* OffingTheOffspring
382	* PosthumousCharacter: She died long before the series.
383	* SelfMadeOrphan: She killed her own father.
384
385	!!Lady Shahar Arameri
386	-->''I am Shahar Arameri, and I am alone.''
387
388	First of Our Messianic Twins, who manage to form a friendship with Sieh despite the fact that they're the heirs of the family who tortured him for two thousand years. They both also love him passionately - yes, like that - which both creates a OT3 and causes a whole lot of joy and grief.
389	----
390	* AltarTheSpeed: He rushes to marry Datennay as a HopeSpot in face of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.
391	%%* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence
392	* AngstySurvivingTwin: Her twin didn't die, but she was forced to effectively banish him from the court by their mother for political reasons.
393	* DecoyProtagonist: The blurb on the back makes her sound like the main character, while she actually gets shunted aside 260 pages in.
394	%%* DeityOfHumanOrigin
395	%%* InterspeciesRomance
396	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Their reality altering powers mean that, in making a blood oath to get Sieh to be their 'best friend forever,' they unwittingly [[BroughtDownToNormal made him mortal.]] Oops.
397	%%* PimpedOutDress
398	%%* RebelliousPrincess
399	%%* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething
400	%%* SheIsAllGrownUp
401	%%* SiblingTriangle
402	%%* SleepCute
403	%%* StalkerWithATestTube: Again, forced by her mother for politics.
404	%%* TwinDesynch
405
406	!! Dekarta Arameri
407	->''"But I will not be nothing to you, Sieh. And if I must change the universe to have you, then so be it." He smiled again, tight, vicious, beautiful. Terrifying.''
408
409	Second of Our Messianic Twins, who manage to form a friendship with Sieh despite the fact that they're the heirs of the family who tortured him for two thousand years. They both also love him passionately - yes, like that - which both creates an OT3 and causes a whole lot of joy and grief.
410	----
411	%%* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence
412	%%* BadassBookworm
413	%%* DeityOfHumanOrigin
414	%%* InterspeciesRomance
415	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Their reality-altering powers mean that, in making a blood oath to get Sieh to be their 'best friend forever,' they unwittingly [[BroughtDownToNormal made him mortal.]] Oops.
416	%%* OffToBoardingSchool
417	%%* SiblingTriangle
418	* SleepCute: Sieh spies on them
419	* StraightGay: And adorably so, when it comes to his favorite childhood crush.
420	%%* TwinDesynch
421	* VictoriousChildhoodFriend: In a manner of speaking.
422	%%* TheUnfavorite
423
424	!!Scimina Arameri
425	In ''The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms'', she is the favorite to inherit the throne. She's a conniving woman who will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
426	----
427	* BerserkButton: She becomes very unhinged very quickly when her carefully laid out plans start going even slightly awry.
428	* BondageIsBad: How do you know Scimina is evil? Because she keeps Nahadoth's human form on a SlaveCollar all the time.
429	* BullyingADragon: She and her ancestors have been using the Enefada as their personal playthings for millenia, and she takes particular joy in using Nahadoth as a sex slave.
430	* FantasticRacism: She spends half a chapter decrying Yeine's people as savages with a condescending drawl.
431	* Hypocrite: She belittles Yeina's people because in ancient times they used to kidnap men to act as sex slaves and force them into marriage, all the while using her power over the Enefada to force Nahadoth to be her lover.
432	* LaserGuidedKarma: Once he's freed, [[spoiler: Nahadoth places a collar just like the one she would make him wear on her neck and makes it clear that he'll kill her... eventually.]]
433	* RichBitch: She loves flaunting her wealth.
434	* TooDumbToLive: She's extremely arrogant and thinks that she can strongarm Yeine into [[spoiler: choosing as heir]], making it very easy for her brother to outmaneuver her.
435
436	!!Relad Arameri
437	Scimina's twin brother. By the start of ''The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms'' he's largely given up on besting his sister.
438	----
439	* TheAlcoholic: One of the best ways to earn his favor is to gift him with expensive drinks.
440	* ObfuscatingStupidity: Once he sobers up he manages to politically outmaneuver her sister on top of getting Yeine [[spoiler: to pick him as heir]] by simply not threatening her people and offering them support.
441	* Twincest: Relad prefers women who look like his twin sister, but it's implied to be in part because he hates her.
442
443
444	[[/folder]]
445
446	[[folder:Others]]
447	!!Oree Shoth
448	-->''"I am, you see, a woman plagued by gods."''
449
450	Our Redemption Love Interest, a blind painter with a unique magical talent who finds an undead man in her dumpster.
451	----
452	%%* BlindSeer
453	* DecemberDecemberRomance: Mixed with MayflyDecemberRomance. By the time Itempas comes back to her she's well over a hundred even if she doesn't quite look it. This doesn't matter to Itempas, but he does alter his visible form to look substantially older in order to match.
454	%%* DisabilitySuperpower: He can see magic.
455	%%* DivineDate: With both Madding and Shiny!
456	* GodWasMyCopilot: Until Madding drops TheReveal about "Shiny." Subsequently, PalsWithJesus.
457	* InnerMonologue: Book two's viewpoint character.
458	%%* InterspeciesRomance: Two of 'em.
459	* IWillWaitForYou: This is hinted at the end of book two, but she vehemently denies doing so at the end of book three. Itempas comes back for a GrowOldWithMe anyway.
460	* LivingEmotionalCrutch: One of Itempas’s.
461	* LockedOutOfTheLoop: About the true identity of "Shiny."
462	* LoveFatherLoveSon: Inverted! Madding dies and she hooks up with his dad!
463	* MayFlyDecemberRomance: She and Madding break up because of it. It doesn't stop her from having a relationship with Itempas.
464	* MeaningfulName: Maroneh girls have sorrowful names and boys have vengeful names because Nahadoth sank their homeland.
465	%%* MilkyWhiteEyes
466	%%* MoralityPet: To Itempas.
467	* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Oree's narration goes out of its way to let you know that she didn't kiss Madding until the second date.
468	* ProphetEyes: A variant -- her eyes are completely covered with petal-like layers of grey tissue, which tend to put people off when they realize they're not simple cataracts. [[spoiler:It's uncertain whether this has anything to do with her demon heritage, since her father did not share the trait.]]
469	%%* RestoredMyFaithInHumanity: For Itempas.
470	* SaveYourDeity: It's Oree's magic that loosens Nahadoth and Yeine's chains on Itempas's powers long enough for Itempas to beat down Dateh.
471	* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: “The Broken Kingdoms” is a story Oree is telling to Itempas’s daughter, Glee, in the womb.
472
473	!! Glee Shoth
474	-->''For just an instant, her eyes seemed to flare red-gold like a struck match. "I have spent nearly the past ''century'' trying to keep this world from falling apart," she snapped. "I'm not a god. I have no choice but to live in this realm, unlike you. I will do whatever I must to save it -- including working with godlings like you who claim to despise Itempas, though in reality you're just as selfish and arrogant as him at his worst!"''
475
476	Our DaddysGirl, the daughter of Oree and Itempas. The mediator between her father and her lover Ahad (who don't really like each other, [[SarcasmMode for some reason]]) and one of the leading figures in the attempts to find out just who is causing unrest in the kingdoms.
477	----
478	* ActionGirl: When the going gets tough, she won't hesitate to fight to the death.
479	* BerserkButton: ''Don't'' threaten her daddy, or she will summon a [[CoolSword sword of order]] and come after you. And yes, you ''should'' be scared.
480	%%* BetaCouple
481	* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Daddy ''and'' mommy disapprove of Ahad.
482	* ADayInTheLimelight: After playing a supporting role in "Kingdom of Gods" and a minor role in "The Broken Kingdoms," she gets a short story all to herself in "The Third Why."
483	%%* DivineParentage
484	* GenerationXerox: Glee acts so much like Itempas that it freaks Sieh out (she has her mother's looks and sense of humor, though).
485	* GuardianEntity: With hints of BattleButler, NumberTwo, and HypercompetentSidekick as she travels around protecting her daddy, hiding him from attackers, and ensuring that the Arms of Night act according to his wishes.
486	%%* IronLady
487	%%* KissingCousins: With Ahad.
488	%%* LadyOfWar
489	* MeaningfulName: Maroneh girls are customarily given sorrowful names; Sieh even comments on the contrast Glee's name makes.
490	* OlderThanTheyLook: She ''looks'' about thirty. She's actually nearly a hundred, and she's got quite a few years left in her yet.
491	%%* ParentsInDistress
492	* PowerDyesYourHair: In the final battle, everything she's wearing, even her ''hair'', turns white.
493	* ShipperonDeck: A subtle version. Glee made ''very sure'' to tell Itempas that Oree never remarried after her first husband died.
494	* WreathedInFlames: With a side of TranquilFury.
495
496	!!Dateh
497	-->''"We demons are the gods’ children, too, are we not? Yet they have hunted us nearly to extinction. How is that right? I say that if they fear us so, we should give them something to fear: their despised, persecuted children, coming to take their place."''
498
499	Our Villain, or one of the closest things we’ll have to a straight-up unsympathetic villainous character, who spends book two trying to off stupid sexy Nahadoth.
500	----
501	%%* BloodMagic
502	%%* EthnicMagician
503	%%* ImAHumanitarian
504	%%* KillTheGod
505	%%* RageAgainstTheHeavens
506	%%* YouAreWhoYouEat
507	[[/folder]]

Context Characters / InheritanceTrilogy