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| 4 | %% Zero-context examples have been commented out. Don't un-comment them unless you provide more context and explain how the example fits the trope. |
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| 8 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1647282692059705500 |
| 9 | %% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. |
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| 11 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/swordoftruth4_0.png]] |
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| 13 | ->''"People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People's heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.''" |
| 14 | -->-- ''The Wizard's First Rule'' |
| 15 | |
| 16 | A series of HighFantasy novels -- ahem, ''[[SciFiGhetto stories that have important human themes]]''--written by Creator/TerryGoodkind. It started in 1994 with the publishing of ''Wizard's First Rule'' and ended in 2007 with the eleventh in the series and final book of the ''Chainfire'' trilogy, ''Confessor''. There is also a [[{{Prequel}} prequel]] novella, originally published in the ''Legends'' compilation of short stories and now available on its own, called ''Debt of Bones''. In story-internal order, the books are as follows: |
| 17 | |
| 18 | * ''Wizard's First Rule'' (1994) |
| 19 | * ''Stone of Tears'' (1995) |
| 20 | * ''Blood of the Fold'' (1996) |
| 21 | * ''Temple of the Winds'' (1997) |
| 22 | * "Debt of Bones" (1998) |
| 23 | * ''Soul of the Fire'' (1999) |
| 24 | * ''Faith of the Fallen'' (2000) |
| 25 | * ''The Pillars of Creation'' (2001) |
| 26 | * ''Naked Empire'' (2003) |
| 27 | * ''Chainfire'' (2005) |
| 28 | * ''Phantom'' (2006) |
| 29 | * ''Confessor'' (2007) |
| 30 | |
| 31 | In addition to these books, Terry Goodkind has written other novels related to the main ''Sword of Truth'' series. ''The Law of Nines'' serves as a sequel of sorts to the main series and features an entirely new cast of characters. ''The Omen Machine'', billed as "A Richard and Kahlan Novel", takes place immediately after ''Confessor'', but is not connected to the [[MythArc Myth Arcs]] of the previous series. ''The First Confessor'' is a [[ProtectionFromEditors self-published]] e-book which features events in the backstory of the main series. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | * ''The Law of Nines'' (2009) |
| 34 | * ''The Omen Machine'' (2011) |
| 35 | * ''The First Confessor'' (2012) |
| 36 | * ''The Third Kingdom'' (2013) |
| 37 | * ''Severed Souls'' (2014) |
| 38 | * ''Warheart'' (2015) |
| 39 | |
| 40 | After the conclusion of Warheart, the main series ended. However several side characters received a spin-off series of sorts, titled ''Literature/TheNicciChronicles''. That series follows the adventures and tribulations of Sister Nicci and Wizard Nathan. |
| 41 | |
| 42 | The TV adaptation, called ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'', has its own page. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | Links: |
| 45 | * [[http://www.terrygoodkind.com/ Official website]] |
| 46 | ---- |
| 47 | Richard Cypher is a woods guide living in a mostly-pastoral nation called Westland, cut off from the rest of the world--known to them as consisting of two other lands, called the Midlands and D'Hara--by a magical boundary that is in fact a window to the underworld; all who enter it die. After coming upon an "odd-looking vine", he spots a mysterious and beautiful woman who appears to be chased by four armed men. Offering to help her, he finds she is being trailed by assassins. |
| 48 | |
| 49 | She explains that she has come in search of a great wizard, who supposedly came to Westland years ago, to help defend the Midlands against a man named Darken Rahl, who hopes to bring all the world under his dominion. Richard knows that what she says is impossible; nothing can get through the boundaries, and Westland doesn't have any magic. Yet he has never seen a woman like her, nor men like those hunting her. He decides he should take her to Zedd, a slightly crazy old man who is like a grandfather to him, and who always seems to know everything that goes on... |
| 50 | |
| 51 | As you [[TheUntwist might have guessed]], Zedd does, indeed, turn out to be the wizard, and the three characters team up to stop Darken Rahl before all is lost. Richard is given the titular Sword of Truth, which uses the power of its user's personal anger to strike down enemies. |
| 52 | |
| 53 | The two first books, ''Wizard's First Rule'' and ''Stone of Tears'', are fairly standard fantasy fare, complete with dragons, an evil wizard out to rule the world, the discovery that he [[TheManBehindTheMan wasn't working for his own sake]], a potentially world-ending plot, a magic sword, a wise old wizard, a mysterious woman with strange powers, and a [[AuthorAppeal gratuitous S&M sequence]]. For a long time some people thought Goodkind was ripping off [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Robert Jordan]], as his stories contained many things that had exact counterparts in Jordan's novels. From the third book on, [[DerivativeDifferentiation things get slightly less derivative]], with the introduction of a new BigBad and increasing focus on Richard's struggles as a leader. By the fourth book the plot is still pretty standard but starts going under its own power. |
| 54 | |
| 55 | Around the fifth book, Goodkind began introducing overtly [[UsefulNotes/{{Objectivism}} Objectivist]] themes and {{aesop}}s inspired by Creator/AynRand in the Sword of Truth. Things went overboard in the eighth book, ''Naked Empire'', which contains the infamous [[StrawCharacter evil pacifist]] plot. The last three books, collectively called the Chainfire Trilogy, brought back plenty of the early themes and events of the series, and ''Confessor'', the last book, was specifically one huge throw-back to ''Wizard's First Rule''. |
| 56 | |
| 57 | Goodkind has stated a distaste for cliffhangers and other ways of forcing people to buy future books, which is why, aside from the Chainfire trilogy, the books have mostly self-contained plots; some new danger is introduced, the characters wonder about its meaning, and it is defeated. However, all of these book-plots are tied by the MythArc of either [[TheEmpire the Imperial Order]] or the [[{{Satan}} Keeper of the Underworld]]. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | There's also a spin-off book, ''The Law of Nines'', which follows a completely different cast of characters and [[GenreShift shifts genres]] from HighFantasy to [[UrbanFantasy a contemporary thriller with fantasy elements]]. It takes place in the magic-free world created at the end of "Confessor", the inhabitants of which developed technology to replace the magic they had lost. The story follows the exploits of Alex Rahl, a distant descendant of Richard's half-sister Jennsen, whose life is changed forever when he meets a woman named Jax who claims to be from a parallel universe where magic still works. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | Now has a [[Characters/SwordOfTruth character sheet]]. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | ---- |
| 64 | !!This series provides examples of: |
| 65 | |
| 66 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 67 | |
| 68 | [[folder: Tropes A-H]] |
| 69 | * AbsenceOfEvidence: In ''Chainfire'', after the eponymous spell has made everyone forget that Kahlan [[RetGone ever existed]], Richard tries to use this to convince everyone else that she has. He points to where he says he, Kahlan, and Cara had been walking, and notes that there were no footprints between his and Cara's, which were several feet apart. He tells his companions that this means someone erased Kahlan's footprints. Nobody believes him since, as mentioned, everyone is sure that she never existed in the first place. |
| 70 | * AbusiveParents: Three examples occur in the series. Darken Rahl ''kills'' all of his children who he knew about, since none had magic (he wanted a gifted heir). Oba's mother does nothing but belittle him that we see, and this may be why he has an utter {{lack of empathy}} (though his birth father Darken Rahl displays the same trait). Nicci's mother was entirely unsympathetic to her daughter's needs, and even hit her when Nicci came for comfort over being frightened by a beggar, saying she should accept this. She demanded utter self-denial and service to others from Nicci, which left her a self-loathing mess for years to come. This explains why she served the Keeper and then the Imperial Order, since both fed into this. |
| 71 | * AccidentalAthlete: Richard gets conscripted into a Ja'La team after he slaughters his way through a considerable number of soldiers in an almost-successful attempt to free himself. |
| 72 | * ActionGirl: Kahlan is one. Also Cara, and by extension the rest of the Mord-Sith. [[spoiler: Nicci]] later becomes this as well. They're all highly skilled, ferocious fighters using ordinary weapons or magic (although nonetheless Kahlan in the books also [[DamselInDistress gets captured a lot]]). |
| 73 | * ActualPacifist: The Bandakar initially, who fall under the rule of the Imperial Order due to this. Most of them later abandon pacifism and kill fight with Richard's guidance. It's rather anvilicious in proclaiming pacifism is stupid and wrong. |
| 74 | * AerithAndBob: Names such as Richard, Warren and Nicci are present alongside Kahlan, Zeddicus and Jagang. Both normal and unusual names can be found in almost equal measure anywhere in the world, among heroes, {{muggle}}s and antagonists. How the real-world names (with histories and etymologies that are incompatible at best with the fictional languages and cultures of the setting) ended up in this world is never addressed. |
| 75 | * AffablyEvil: The D'Haran guards at the People's Palace during the first book. While they're there to guard Darken Rahl and, ostensibly, Richard, Kahlan, Zedd, and Chase are the enemy, Darken Rahl believes they're no longer a threat to him, so the guards are just polite and friendly, even going so far as offering Richard a horse and giving him directions and advice on what road to take when he leaves. |
| 76 | * AgeGapRomance: Warren and Verna are actually both the same age, but due to Warren spending more time in a spell that slows aging, he looks much younger. Verna was at first really self-conscious about her apparent age. |
| 77 | -->'''Verna:''' Warren, I love you. I mean I really truly love you. |
| 78 | -->'''Warren:''' You have no idea how long I dreamed of hearing you say those words, Verna. I love you, too. |
| 79 | -->'''Verna:''' What about my wrinkles? |
| 80 | -->'''Warren:''' Someday, when you get wrinkles, I'll love them, too. |
| 81 | * AgonyBeam: Agiels are rods that cause intense pain when pressed against the flesh of a person. They're used to torture people. |
| 82 | * AlternateUniverse: ''The Law Of Nines'' takes place [[spoiler:in the parallel world created by Richard at the end of Confessor]]. |
| 83 | %% * AlwaysChaoticEvil: Heart Hounds, Mriswith, Screelings, male Confessors, etc. [[spoiler: Subverted by the gars.]] |
| 84 | * AmazonBrigade: The Mord-Sith, who are the sworn protectors of Lord Rahl, as well as his expert torturers. They perform... [[SexSlave other services]] for him, they act as his bodyguard, are capable of beating up squads of elite soldiers without breaking a sweat, have a magical torture device / weapon / awkward phallus ''thing'' called an Agiel, they're made via a truly horrifying BreakTheCutie indoctrination process, are probably the second most feared thing in all of D'Hara, only behind the Lord Rahl himself... oh and they can capture your magic ''and then use it to torture you''. They've driven one member of the main cast insane. |
| 85 | * AMillionIsAStatistic: |
| 86 | ** Zedd detonates a light spell with [[FantasticNuke similar power to a modern nuclear weapon]] in the midst of the [[TheEmpire Imperial Order]]'s [[MillionMookMarch gigantic army]]. The resulting explosion kills an estimated [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill 500,000-1,000,000 soldiers of the enemy army]], though [[WeHaveReserves there's more where that came from]]. Though the Imperial Order has always considered Zedd (and Richard Rahl, who he was acting on behalf of) to be the epitome of evil (and more so afterward), Zedd is not bothered by what happened because the soldiers killed were all [[{{Mook}} faceless enemy thugs]] of an invading army intent on killing him and enslaving/raping everyone on the continent. |
| 87 | ** Zedd's attitude toward murdering a large fraction of the world's known population in the backstory (before the rest of the continent was revealed to also have people in the third book) and burning up their souls to fuel two thousand-mile-long hellmouths to serve basically the same function a ten-foot wall could have filled is essentially "meh, worth it". |
| 88 | * AnimalEyeSpy: Slides have an ability to look through animals' eyes and hear with their ears when sending people's captured souls into them. [[spoiler: Nicholas used this to always stay one step ahead of Richard until he figures it out.]] |
| 89 | %% * AnimalStereotypes |
| 90 | * AnimalWrongsGroup: Darken Rahl could get like this, depending on his mood. According to Cara, while he was a vegetarian and considered eating meat to be wrong, he ''usually'' didn't have a problem with people in the People's Palace selling or eating meat. But every once in a while, he would snap and brutally murder such a person while sobbingly asking how someone could be so cruel to animals. In one case, such a "punishment" consisted of [[{{Hypocrite}} beheading a man's horse]], [[AxCrazy gutting it, and then jamming his head in the open wound, letting him drown in the guts]]. |
| 91 | * TheAntiGod: The Keeper of the Underworld is the polar opposite from the Creator (at least per belief, since the latter never appears). He is the GodOfTheDead and GodOfEvil who loathes everything living, while the Creator's held to be a benevolent being who made all things (except the Keeper, perhaps). |
| 92 | * AntiMagic: The "pristinely ungifted," who are not only immune to magic, but can't perceive it, and who always pass this trait onto their children. At one point, Jagang has his forces kidnap a bunch of them and forces them to breed with his men just to spread this trait to the next generation. He also forces some of them into invading the Wizard's Keep to capture Zedd and Adie, since its elaborate magical defenses (along with their spells) are completely useless against them. |
| 93 | * AntiMagicalFaction: The Blood of the Fold, and the Imperial Order--[[{{Hypocrite}}s at least in theory]]. Both factions are more than willing to use magic and mages to further their goals despite this anti-magic view. One Imperial Order member later explains they use magic in order to eliminate it. The Fold play it straighter, with mages who are downright enslaved. |
| 94 | * AntiVillain: Nicci. While she comes across as a horrible person at first, this is mostly a result of her horrible childhood and severe indoctrination. She fights for the Imperial Order out of duty, rather than being a StrawHypocrite like most of its leaders, [[spoiler:and joins the good guys when Richard finally manages to convince her that Communism is bad]]. |
| 95 | * AppetiteEqualsHealth: In the fifth book, Zedd claims he is fine, but then immediately goes on to refuse food. Since he is the BigEater of the series, the rest of them get worried. |
| 96 | * TheArchmage: |
| 97 | ** Zeddicus Z'ull Zorrander and Darken Rahl both count, though Darken Rahl had a significant leg up on Zedd because he sold his soul to the Keeper for Subtractive Magic. Notably, Zedd wouldn't have had much standing at all in the presence of the wizards 3000 years before, and Rahl would've been just second-rate. Much later in the series, Richard becomes this, in addition to the Seeker, a Mud Man, [[spoiler: Lord Rahl]], a wizard, and many other impossible jobs that he asks not to have in the first book. |
| 98 | ** Nathan and Ann from the Palace of the Prophets. Which is saying something, since most of its inhabitants have been there for hundreds of years. Nicci is even stronger, and about as powerful as Darken Rahl (unusual, as sorceresses are almost invariably only a shadow of wizards). That said, she and the other [[spoiler: Sisters of the Dark]] have been [[spoiler: stealing wizards' Han and making deals with the Keeper]]. |
| 99 | ** War Wizards were this 3000 years ago. Special mention goes to Alric Rahl, Joseph Ander, and several others. |
| 100 | %% * ArcWelding |
| 101 | %% * ArcWords |
| 102 | %% * ArrowCatch: Richard. Justified in that it is explained he does it with magic, specifically by [[BlowYouAway manipulating the air]]. |
| 103 | * ArtAttacker: There's a court wizard who places spells on people by drawing them, using their likeness for SympatheticMagic. |
| 104 | %%** Later in the series, Princess Violet and Rachel learn and use this kind of magic, in ''Phantom'' and ''Confessor'' respectively.%%Does not explain the trope. How/why are these two characters an example of Art Attacker? |
| 105 | * ArtisticLicenseEconomics: |
| 106 | ** The StrawCharacter communist bureaucracy that stifles the people of the Imperial Order, as depicted in detail in ''Faith of the Fallen'', is so ridiculous that it should by all rights have caused the Empire to die out before the protagonist even became aware of its existence. However, Nicci visits her home town (which was an early place under control of the Imperial Order) and finds nothing but abandoned ruins. It is also explicitly stated that almost all the Old World was conquered within Richard's lifetime, and entirely thanks to Jagang, who is really the only thing holding it all together. |
| 107 | ** Also, the Palace of the Prophets has a seemingly endless supply of gold, which it encourages its young wizards to spend willy-nilly on the women of the nearby town, and which it freely hands out to any woman who bears a child as a result. This seems to have little to no effect on the value of the gold; when Verna interrogates one local resident and gives him a gold piece for his trouble, it's said that this is likely more than he'd see in a year. |
| 108 | * AscendedExtra: Nicci plays a fairly minor role in ''Stone of Tears'', but becomes a major character in ''Faith of the Fallen'' and remains one during the rest of the series. |
| 109 | * AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: The Confessors' hierarchy is based on whose gift is the most powerful and requires the least recovery time after each use. |
| 110 | * AstralProjection: The Slides can project their souls, plus those of people's whom they capture, into animals to control them or [[AnimalEyeSpy use their eyes and ears]]. |
| 111 | %% * TheAtoner: [[spoiler: Nicci.]] |
| 112 | * AttackReflector: The Mord-Sith can turn any spells cast at them back onto the caster. As a result, they're basically immune to magical attacks, so even a wizard of the most powerful level like Zedd can't fight them directly. |
| 113 | * AttemptedRape: Happens a lot of times to Kahlan, but no one ever succeeds, though in ''Faith of the Fallen'' [[spoiler: Nicci, desiring vengeance on Richard and Kahlan, links herself to Kahlan through a maternity spell, then allows a thug to brutalize her (Nicci), forcing Kahlan to feel every sensation.]] |
| 114 | * AudibleSharpness: Whenever the Sword of Truth is drawn, the air rings with the sound of steel. |
| 115 | * AuthorAppeal: |
| 116 | ** The first book's very long S&M sequence, with perfunctory torture scenes in every following installment. Plus all the political stuff impugning socialism. And the social stuff denouncing religion. Also, lots of almost-rape -- as in, Kahlan almost gets raped in every book (apparently, people have a hard time remembering that [[MuggingTheMonster messing with a Confessor]] is a bad idea). Also, some women will unbutton their shirts at the drop of a hat. |
| 117 | ** On a lighter note, ''Faith of the Fallen'' has a lovingly detailed description of the manufacture of (the fantasy equivalent of) ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lardo lardo di Colonnata]]'', a form of pork fatback cured in marble basins with rosemary and other herbs. |
| 118 | * AuthorFilibuster: Many times, especially in the later books, Richard would deliver messages which reflected the author's own views (some other characters occasionally do this too). It's rare that such views were in any respect foreshadowed or justified by what we know about the characters, and often those who they speak with put up only token objections [[EasyEvangelism before quickly converting]] to them, even if they went against very old, ingrained belief systems. |
| 119 | * AuthorTract: ''Sword of Truth'' is a DoorStopper twelve-book series filled with {{Author Filibuster}}s from the fourth book on, about the evils of extreme Socialism and of the importance of individual rights and freedom. These themes were always slightly present, but ''really'' begin to crop up later in the series: Although the D'Haran Empire under Richard is no less of an autocracy than the Imperial Order, it is one guided by a firm sense of individual liberty championing the idea that every individual should be the best that they can be, and should be free to benefit based on the effort they put in and the skills they possess, and how this benefits society as a whole. By contrast, people under the Imperial Order are living in absolute squalor, and there is a fear of [[TallPoppySyndrome being anything more than mediocre to avoid rising above anyone else]] and drawing undue attention and punishment from those in power, and how this drags down all of society with it. |
| 120 | * AutomatonHorses: Almost completely averted. Characters travelling any great distance will have two or three horses along to avoid wearing any one out too much. There are [[ShownTheirWork very loving descriptions]] of various mouth bits and other gear, along with their pros and cons as they relate to handling a horse. Richard, in particular, is shown many times rubbing down a horse and cleaning hooves of debris as part of his setting camp routine. It's even mentioned that a horse wearing an invasive bit shouldn't be allowed to graze freely, as it can't chew properly and could develop colic, which is a fact that most authors would never think to include unless they were just straight up showing off. |
| 121 | * AwkwardSilenceEntrance: In ''Wizard's First Rule'', when Richard and Kahlan enter an inn in a WretchedHive, all talking stops and people turn toward them. Outsiders are uncommon there to start with, but Kahlan looks so out of place she is automatically MistakenForProstitute. |
| 122 | * BackForTheFinale: The Chainfire trilogy sees the return of just about every significant character in the series at one point or another, including those who were PutOnABus (Gratch), those who just hadn't shown up in a few books (The Mud People), and those whom the author had apparently simply forgotten about in the meantime (Ulic and Egan). |
| 123 | * BadassBoast: |
| 124 | ** This exchange from ''Temple of the Winds'': |
| 125 | --->"You don't even have your weapon."\ |
| 126 | "I ''am'' the weapon." |
| 127 | ** The speaker in question then proves he wasn't kidding by [[spoiler:ripping the other man's spine out through his stomach.]] |
| 128 | * BadassBookworm: Warren. By all appearances, he is a class A nerd. But then ''Faith of the Fallen'' reminds us he's ''also'' a natural born wizard who can throw [[{{Hellfire}} Wizard's Fire]] around with the best of 'em. |
| 129 | %% ** Nicci also counts. |
| 130 | %% ** Surprisingly, Jagang shows serious genre savvy, though it would be more accurate to call him a bookworm badass. |
| 131 | * BadassNormal: Chase, consistently described as wearing a small armory (he had to actually dress down in order to infiltrate an enemy camp), knowing how to use every weapon he has to great effect, and is probably the deadliest non-magical person in the whole series. |
| 132 | * BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil: Ann says to Richard at one point that she believes getting rid of the Keeper (who embodies death and is the main BigBad in the early series) would not be a good thing, unlike the view other Sisters of the Light have. She explains that without the Keeper nothing would ever die. Very soon there would be no room for anyone in the world and they'd be left as utterly miserable immortals forever. She warns him never to tell anyone about her view, because many would consider it heresy and proof that she's a servant of the Keeper herself. |
| 133 | %% * BaldOfEvil: Emperor Jagang. |
| 134 | %% * TheBaroness: |
| 135 | %% ** The Mord-Sith. |
| 136 | %% ** Nicci. |
| 137 | * BavarianFireDrill: In ''Phantom'', Rachel manages to bluff her way past many people while escaping from captivity. |
| 138 | * BeAWhoreToGetYourMan: Attempted by Nadine in the backstory, which failed miserably. She and Richard had had something of a relationship, and she wanted him to step it up to the next level... and decided the best way to do that was to let Richard catch her schtupping his brother and ''invite him to join in''. Three guesses how well ''that'' [[SarcasmMode ingenious plot]] turned out. |
| 139 | * BedTrick: Kahlan and Richard, near the end of ''Temple of the Winds'' (it's arranged by a third party). While each thinks they're now in bed with another person (Drefan for Kahlan, Nadine for Richard) they actually are put into bed together, a twist on the usual scenario since both desired each other to begin with. |
| 140 | * BequeathedPower: Each Sister of Light, if she fails to convince a person with the gift to come train with them, will kill herself and pass her life force to another so that when the second one (or third one) attempts, she has stronger MindControl powers to add to her arguments. |
| 141 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Used in a twisted fashion with the Mord-Sith. It's explained that they deliberately seek out the kindest, gentlest, most loving little girls to become Mord-Sith, and [[BreakTheCutie breaking them]] makes for a more cruel, sadistic torturer. |
| 142 | %% * BigBad: Darken Rahl is [[spoiler:killed]] in the first book, [[spoiler:appears as a ghost]] in the second book, is [[spoiler:permanently replaced as the BigBad by someone completely different]] in the third, and [[spoiler: gets his last, final, and most devastating punishment]] in the fourth. Through the rest of the series, Emperor Jagang takes this role. |
| 143 | * BlackAndWhiteMorality: The heroes are good and noble, and always right, while the villains all KickTheDog like they're in an international dog-kicking competition. Or at least, that's how the author intends it. To many readers, it comes off as more BlackAndGreyMorality, given how ruthless the heroes can be (using torture, massacring people etc.) if not EvilVsEvil at times. |
| 144 | * BlackEyesOfEvil: Emperor Jagang's "nightmare" eyes are black and sign of his evil. When any Dreamwalker is experienced enough, their eyes turn, as "the mark of a Dreamwalker." |
| 145 | * BlackMagic: Magic is defined as Additive and Subtractive, with the "magic sand" for Additive magic being pure white and for Subtractive magic being as black as space. Subtractive magic can also be granted only by making a DealWithTheDevil by the time of the books, though in the past it was available to most mages and neutral. While it destroys things (in contrast to Additive, which creates them) it's not inherently evil. Rather, Subtractive's issue is due to its source, and it reemerges in a neutral way after Richard's born with both. |
| 146 | %% * BlackMagicianGirl: [[spoiler: Nicci]] becomes this for Richard's allies after her HighHeelFaceTurn. |
| 147 | * BloodMagic: |
| 148 | ** Darken Rahl uses a kind of blood magic in the form of consuming the brains and testicles of a young boy loyal to him to summon a creature of the underworld to ride and thus can travel anywhere very quickly. The journey books were introduced later in the series and did not require blood to operate. |
| 149 | ** Also in the books, it's mentioned that blood is particularly potent for things like drawing spell forms, though usually other things like sorcerer's sand also work for spells. The biggest blood-fueled spell form in the series is [[spoiler:the People's Palace. The trick here is, the blood is still in the people going through the palace, which is how it's kept potent when just blood would have dried out and lost its effect long ago.]] |
| 150 | * BloodSport: Ja'La dh Jin. The way it's (vaguely) described, it's a team game somewhat like football, but with extreme violence not only permitted, but encouraged. |
| 151 | * BlowYouAway: One of the abilities of the [[FunctionalMagic Gifted]]. Richard is able to stop arrows by manipulating the air, and Nicci can form a blade from the air that can cut a man in half. |
| 152 | * BondageIsBad: The Mord-Sith are initially villains who have a strong {{Dominatrix}} theme. Even after becoming a part of the "good" side they still remain [[TortureTechnician expert torturers]]. All of them are initiated into the Mord-Sith through being tortured into submission so they will serve the Lord Rahl, and break others in the same way. This explicitly echoes the idea of bondage domination (though obviously without safeguards which are actually used). |
| 153 | * BoomerangBigot: The Imperial Order preaches that magic is evil, as it sets people with the gift over those without. Yet their leader Emperor Jagang, along with its spiritual guide Brother Narev are themselves magic users. This is explained away as since they use their powers in the goal of destroying magic eventually, it's fine. One of their followers (who himself is a magic user) even says he'll die too in the end. |
| 154 | %% * BraidsOfAction: The Mord-Sith. |
| 155 | * {{Brainwashed}}: |
| 156 | ** The effect of Confession. Anyone who undergoes it loves the Confessor who does it without limit over the rest of their life, will do anything they're ordered to, and die from grief without them. |
| 157 | ** Mord-Sith are tortured and forced to kill so they'll serve as fanatically elite bodyguards/torturers of the Lord Rahl. |
| 158 | * BreachingTheWall: There were two cases of magical barriers put up in order to stop a war. The first is broken by the BigBad of the first book in order to have an easier time conquering and looking for the {{McGuffin}}s, the second is deactivated by the protagonist so that he can stop [[{{Satan}} The Keeper]] from breaching the barrier between life and death, destroying everyone. |
| 159 | * BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: This is how Kahlan persuades Richard to go away with the Sisters of the Light in ''Stone of Tears''. Later, when Richard has to do the same thing to his pet gar Gratch, he realizes what Kahlan was actually doing. |
| 160 | %% * BreakTheCutie: How the Mord-Sith become, well, Mord-Sith. |
| 161 | * BrokenAesop: |
| 162 | ** The first few books have Richard being told that most people who end up doing great evil [[WellIntentionedExtremist honestly believed that they were doing the right thing]], and that unquestioning belief in the rightness of one's cause is the most dangerous thing in the world. Later on in the series, the author takes the opposite position: some things really are [[BlackAndWhiteMorality as simple as black and white]], and if you really are Right, taking [[KnightTemplar extreme measures]] when fighting against those who really are Evil is not only justifiable, but ''necessary''. However, the protagonists end up doing some, well, morally questionable things in the process, to the point where the protagonists can end up looking like [[AccidentalAesop textbook examples of what the first few books warned against becoming]]. ''Naked Empire'' spends a good chunk of time preaching that you have to work for things, and that knowledge doesn't just come to you when you need it. In the last pages of the book, Richard's dying of poison and the knowledge of how to make the antidote basically just shows up in his head. Another particularly obvious one is the repeated exhortation to live your own life and think for yourself - but if you don't think Richard is right you're wrong, probably evil, and are going to die. It's broken even before that, since Richard's explicit superpower is that things come to him without any effort (most obviously magic, but it's implied that everything from his skill with a bow to sculpture are just handed to him for free by the universe with no training, practice, etc. required). |
| 163 | ** Richard constantly rejects the guidance of prophecy, calling it unreliable, even though ''every single time'' the prophecies end up coming true, just [[ProphecyTwist not in the expected way.]] |
| 164 | * BrotherhoodOfEvil: A {{gender flip}}ped example: the Sisters of the Dark is an organization of {{evil sorcerer}}s within the Sisters of the Light secretly serving [[GodOfEvil the Keeper]]. |
| 165 | * BrotherSisterIncest: Tobias and Lunetta Brogan apparently have an incestuous relationship, giving her saying she cast {{glamour}}s for him in private. |
| 166 | * BroughtDownToNormal: [[spoiler:Richard]] in the last few books of the series... not that he ever really did much with [[spoiler:his magic]] in the first place. |
| 167 | * BulletTime: This occurs in the books as well as the series, whenever Kahlan uses her power and in many of Richard's fights, accompanied by the recurring phrases "Time was hers" and "Bringer of death" respectively. |
| 168 | * BuryYourDisabled: When the Imperial Order conquers a city, it's shown they kill a mentally disabled man as he's deemed "useless" (they only keep citizens with useful skills alive as slaves). This is used to highlight their cruel brutality in the book where it happens. |
| 169 | * BuryYourGays: Raina, though, to be fair, a 50% mortality rate of the series' homosexuals is not remarkably high compared to the overall mortality rate. Her lover survives the series, is one of Richard's advisors (as she knows some High D'Haran), and in the last book is shown paired up with another Mord-Sith. However, this "pairing" is [[HideYourLesbians mostly implied]]. |
| 170 | * TheCaligula: Princess Violet, originally a RoyalBrat in ''Wizard's First Rule'', returns in ''Phantom'' as one of these, [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen having become Queen]]. Darken Rahl also has some aspects of this, but it's not his defining characteristic. Emperor Jagang, however, is indeed a tyrant and EvilOverlord, but he's ''not'' crazy. |
| 171 | * CallBack: |
| 172 | ** Almost the whole of the last three books is a callback to the first book, mostly by putting characters in similar situations to the first book, but showing how they handle things differently now that they've changed. |
| 173 | ** The scene where [[spoiler: Richard goes to the underworld]] has the exact same dialogue as the one in the first book with Darken Rahl. |
| 174 | * CardCarryingVillain: Emperor Jagang seems to think Richard is this, giving, "Because he's evil!" as the reason he believes Richard is opposing him. |
| 175 | * CastFromHitPoints: Wizard's Life Fire. |
| 176 | * CatchPhrase: |
| 177 | ** Zedd and Richard: "Nothing is ever easy." |
| 178 | ** Richard: "Bringer of death.", "Dead is dead." |
| 179 | ** Zedd: "Bags!" |
| 180 | * CessationOfExistence: Due to the chimes' starting to destroy magic in ''Faith of the Fallen'', its later revealed that the underworld (being magical) was destroyed, with there no longer being an afterlife. Thus, now people who die simply stop existing. This is just fine, according to the protagonists. |
| 181 | * ChameleonCamouflage: It has mriswith, lizard people capable of changing their color for a fairly good concealment. They also wear capes which do the same, but much better. |
| 182 | * CharacterDevelopment: Nicci gets quite a bit starting in ''Faith of the Fallen'', as her entire character and role needed to be turned around starting there. It starts with her getting an ExpansionPackPast, and eventually leads to [[spoiler:her HeelFaceTurn.]] |
| 183 | * CharacterFilibuster: Especially towards the end of the series, characters' speeches often go on for pages at a time; in one case, such an oration lasts for ''two whole chapters''. Many of these are also {{author filibuster}}s. A particularly egregious examples is in ''Naked Empire'', where Richard convinces the completely pacifist Bandukar to take up arms at his side against the Imperial Order soldiers through a series of lectures which take up much of each chapter where they appear. It seems he somehow became a master of oratory (and philosophy) overnight, since we see no real signs of this before. The Bandukar simply give up beliefs they have held for millennia with only a token resistance. |
| 184 | * ChekhovsBoomerang: The Boxes of Orden, after having been mostly ignored since the second book, become very important again in the series finale. |
| 185 | * ChekhovsGunman: The [[spoiler: night wisps]] mentioned in the first book, and casually in a few others turn out to actually be important. |
| 186 | * ChekhovsSkill: Kahlan being taught about war by her father. [[spoiler: She uses that knowledge of warfare to help obliterate an army [[HeroicResolve more than 10 times the force she had.]]]] |
| 187 | * ChessMotifs: Show up in ''The Omen Machine'', with the titular contraption's prophecies "Queen takes pawn," and "Pawn takes queen." Most of the main characters don't recognize them at first, as in this 'verse, Chess is an obscure game played only in the far reaches of the empire. |
| 188 | * TheChessmaster[=/=]TheManBehindTheMan: Ann is a rather benevolent version of this before her 'retirement' where she arranges events so that Richard is born and can fulfill the prophecies. Afterwards she tries to be this but fails miserably. Becomes even worse at this starting in the Faith Of The Fallen where she becomes quite [[{{Flanderization}} obsessive]] about ordering Richard to lead his armies [[BecauseDestinySaysSo because of the prophecies]] even though its repeatedly mentioned he fulfills the prophecies anyways and he is supposed to lead, not her. She gets [[WhatTheHellHero called out on it several times ]]and its even pointed out that her obsession with prophecies [[NiceJobBreakingItHero allowed the huge conflict to take place]], but she [[TheDeterminator doesn't let that stop her from trying for long]]. |
| 189 | * ChildByRape: [[spoiler:Richard ''Rahl'']], and Du Chaillu's fourth child. Also the children of Confessors, since their fathers are always {{brainwashed}}, though it's not actually referred to as rape. |
| 190 | * ChildSoldiers: Mord-Sith, the elite D'Haran women warriors, are selected from the gentlest girls, then they're broken through torture. After suffering it themselves, they're forced to witness their mothers being tortured fatally, then do the same with their fathers. Once that's done, they train to be full Mord-Sith. |
| 191 | * ChosenOne: Richard is the first person in three thousand years to be a true Seeker of Truth ''or'' a War Wizard, in addition to being an integral figure in multiple prophecies. The universe more or less revolves around his actions. |
| 192 | * [[ClockKing Clock Queen]]: Kahlan's study of her guards' schedules allows her to cause no end of frustration to her captors. |
| 193 | * ColdBloodedTorture: What [[spoiler: Kahlan]] does to Demmin Nass in the first book. Zedd comments on how cruel it is, [[GoodIsNotNice Chase calls it true justice]]. |
| 194 | * CombatPragmatist: As the series goes on, Richard uses this more and more as his modus operandi. Twice in the last book alone he cut off an Imperial Order commander and [[BigBad Emperor Jagang]] himself in mid-sentence with decapitation and magic heart attack, respectively. |
| 195 | * CombatSadomasochist: The Mord-Sith. Richard acquires a touch of it through their... [[ColdBloodedTorture tutelage]]. |
| 196 | * TheComicallySerious: Nicci is always, ''always'' dead serious... except during certain scenes. |
| 197 | * CommieLand: ''Faith of the Fallen'', being inspired by Creator/AynRand's work, involves the protagonist being forced to live in a collectivist dystopian city of TheEmpire. |
| 198 | * CorruptBureaucrat: Subverted. Nicci needs to raise a large sum of money to secure Richard's release from the dungeons, which she believes will line the pockets of the bureaucrat in charge of these matters. It turns out that he's honest after all, flatly rejecting this due to being a true believer loyal to the government. |
| 199 | * CosmicKeystone: The Boxes of Orden, as using them incorrectly can release [[SatanicArchetype the Keeper]] into the world of the living. |
| 200 | * ConceptsAreCheap: The heroes use the word "Freedom" to justify a whole bunch of brutal actions and atrocities including using confession to take away people's free will and kill people who disagree with them. |
| 201 | * ConvulsiveSeizures |
| 202 | * CrapsackWorld: The Old World is a Communist dystopia ruled by religious fanatics and a magic-powered StateSec, and so is a somewhat exaggerated version of this. But in the rest of the world, heroes and muggles still routinely suffer horrible fates. |
| 203 | * CrazyCulturalComparison: The Mud People greet each other by punching to demonstrate strength. Though there are cultural allowances to accomodate for things like age (the elders, for example, are given a more ceremonial smack rather than the rattle-your-teeth-and-knock-you-to-the-ground punches younger warriors might give each other). |
| 204 | %%* DangerousForbiddenTechnique |
| 205 | %%* DarkerAndEdgier: ...Than ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''. |
| 206 | %%* DarkActionGirl: Nicci [[spoiler: before her HighHeelFaceTurn.]] |
| 207 | * DarkMessiah: Jagang of the later books claims he's been chosen by the Creator to create a paradise where all the needy are taken care of, while everyone works for others' benefit. He can inflict mental torture on those who can use magic and whisper into the minds of those who can't. He's also a rapist and generally terrible human being and the leader of a horde of fellow ones. He even has his own false prophet guy who sets up the religion of evil and has a scheme so they can practically live forever, luckily [[spoiler: they both get killed and all their followers sent to another dimension.]] Most critics of the series would also view Richard Rahl, the "hero", as one of these too. He executes people without trial, coerces countries into submitting to his rule, massacres civilians, uses torture on prisoners and in general won't accept anything except people completely signing up to his side. [[SarcasmMode All in the name of liberty]], [[{{Hypocrite}} don't you know]]. |
| 208 | * DateRape: Not a "date" in the usual sense, but this happens to [[spoiler:Jensen]] in ''Pillars of Creation'', the seventh book in the series. Her inner monologue makes it clear she isn't at all comfortable with what her suitor is doing, but she's unable to bring herself to stop him. Not that she likely could have, as he's far stronger than her. |
| 209 | * DeadlyForceField: |
| 210 | ** A spell capable of doing it is used against Richard in the first book. The spell could have crushed him, although it's also poisonous (in his case, it was intended for capture, not killing). He manages to change it so that the caster is crushed to death instead. |
| 211 | ** One of the magical barrier types featured in the books is a so-called light spell. It can be set as a simple incinerating barrier, but it can also be set to expand, breaking all in its path. Out of the cases shown of that happening, one leveled a house, one destroyed a palace... and one was an outright FantasticNuke. |
| 212 | ** The background of the books has Zedd stopping a war between the Midlands and D'Hara by erecting a magical boundary between the two regions, one instantly killing anyone attempting to enter it. A prequel short story set at the time shows that he originally claimed he intends to drive the boundary over the whole D'Hara as a wave of death, but ultimately decided that such indiscriminate and complete genocide is way too much. |
| 213 | * DeadpanSnarker: Though completely humorless, Nicci has a tendency to make snarky remarks of black humor. Zedd does not find these very amusing at all. Zedd and Nathan get into the more usual type, and apparently Richard ''used'' to be like this, but we never see it in the series. |
| 214 | * DealWithTheDevil: If you aren't born with Subtractive Magic (like Richard), you can get it for the low, low price of your soul and eternal damnation! |
| 215 | * DefiantStrip: In ''Wizard's First Rule'', Denna strips in preparation for her death, because all her clothing is from her being [[TortureTechnician Mord-Sith]], and she wants to [[DyingAsYourself die as ''herself'']]. |
| 216 | * DemocracyIsBad: One Amazon review for "Soul of the Fire" notes much fantasy has this trope implicitly, and that that book makes it very very explicit, as the people of Anderith vote for neutrality, which then gets them massacred by the Imperial Order whom they won't/can't fight against. |
| 217 | * DemonicPossession: Slides take control of animals through projecting their souls, plus people's they captured, into various creatures' bodies. |
| 218 | * DestroyerDeity: The Keeper of the Underworld wants to kill all living things, so he can torture them forever in the afterlife. |
| 219 | * DeusExMachina: |
| 220 | ** Richard Rahl's gift (ability to do magic) qualifies. At the end of a book, expect him to know how to perfectly use it to get out of the dire situation of the week, while at the beginning of the next book he's so clueless about how to use it that the events of the last book [[BagOfSpilling might as well have not happened]]. |
| 221 | ** Lampshaded somewhat at the end of ''The Pillars of Creation'' when one character asks Richard why he even needs the Sword of Truth after seeing his magic shred an entire platoon. Richard explains that his gift seems to work out of anger and need, whereas the Sword works all the time. |
| 222 | ** Most notable in the [[spoiler:eighth book]], where [[spoiler:Richard]] is dying from being poisoned, with the only antidote down the drain and the only person who can make the antidote dead. He then uses [[spoiler:his Gift]] to reverse engineer the ingredients (down to the amount needed of each) of the antidote at the very last minute. |
| 223 | ** Also notable at the end of the fifth book, when Richard realizes how to stop the bells, using a leap of logic that is nothing short of mind-boggling. |
| 224 | ** Or the second book where Richard, without being aware he's doing anything of the sort, uses magical lightning to strike down all the enemy commanders and then any soldiers who don't surrender. |
| 225 | * {{Deuteragonist}}: Kahlan Amnell in the series, with Richard as the protagonist and Zedd as the tritagonist. In the seventh book, Oba Rahl becomes this.[[note]]Richard and Kahlan have only a brief appearance, with Jennsen replacing them as the protagonist.[[/note]] In the ''Chainfire Trilogy'', it is uncertain who is what, given the shifting of roles, but the top three are definitely Richard, Kahlan, and Nicci in some order. |
| 226 | * DevilButNoGod: The Keeper of the Underworld is present in several books, usually at the climax where it turns out he's inches from crossing over into the world and killing everything. Additionally, he seems to regularly talk with the Sisters of the Dark to make [[DealWithTheDevil deals]] with them. The Creator, however, doesn't seem to do anything at all. |
| 227 | * DirtyCommunists: The Imperial Order are a fantasy version, who use an insanely dysfunctional command economy and try to force equality on everyone [[ReligionOfEvil because of their religion]]. Given that the trope is played very, ''very'' straight, the reader should also expect almost all senior figures to really be {{Straw Hypocrite}}s who merely use the rhetoric of "caring about our fellow man" to line their own pockets. However, [[spoiler:Sister Nicci]] is a true believer [[spoiler:until Richard converts her]]. |
| 228 | * DismemberingTheBody: The only way to reliably stop a screeling (a demonic/undead assassin sent by [[{{Satan}} The Keeper]]) is to hack it apart. |
| 229 | * DisproportionateRetribution: |
| 230 | ** The series sees a man being [[ColdBloodedTorture tortured]] by a [[TheBaroness Mord-Sith]] after he assassinates a mage in the opposing army (after stabbing a little girl; the girl survives, the mage doesn't). Surprisingly, the torturers are the heroes. After the man has spilled all his information, the mage's lover orders him to be tortured to death as slowly as possible, in retaliation for being so cocky when he was captured. |
| 231 | ** In the first book, the staff taking care of the tomb of Darken Rahl's father were executed if a single petal fell off the flowers there or a single torch went out in Rahl's presence. And he considered himself merciful for allowing them a quick death in such cases. |
| 232 | ** In one book, Kahlan looks through old records of trials, one of which includes an entry about a wizard who had been executed for being an incurable alcoholic. Her initial response is to think it's an example of this trope, but when she thinks about it she realizes that given the [[PersonOfMassDestruction raw destructive power of wizards]] it just wouldn't be safe to let the guy live. |
| 233 | * DisobeyThisMessage: A heavily BrokenAesop since everyone in this series who disagrees with Richard is evil and deserves to die. |
| 234 | * DistractedByTheSexy: |
| 235 | ** Nicci intentionally uses this, at one point going as far as to [[spoiler: pull her dress down to her waist during ''Chainfire'', thereby distracting everyone from looking at her face and possibly recognizing her.]] One Mord-Sith does this in the seventh or eighth book, leading to some quite amusing scenes when the normally leather-clad torturer marches back into camp in a revealing pink dress. |
| 236 | ** Kahlan uses this to her advantage as a ''battle tactic'' against the Imperial Order in ''Stone of Tears'' by fighting ([[BodyPaint almost]]) completely naked. |
| 237 | * DiveUnderTheExplosion: In ''Temple of the Winds'', Kahlan and Nadine are chasing a wizard through a drainage tunnel. Once they come close, he starts launching fireballs from the other end, so they have to dive under the water and swim the rest of the way. |
| 238 | * DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The series introduces antagonists who have rhetoric that's pretty obviously communist, starting with the first book's villain Darken Rahl (he lives in the "People's Palace", has a "People's Peace Army" and lectures a ''peasant'' on how his duty is to aid others-he's also a vegetarian), then increasingly so with the Imperial Order. ''Naked Empire'' has pacifists so committed they're basically suicidal, who also use slogans straight out of 20th century American anti-war movements. This all seems fairly out of place in the {{medieval European fantasy}} setting that the books take place in (though such groups occasionally occurred even then, it was always far more on the fringe and soon suppressed by the establishment). |
| 239 | * DoingInTheWizard: Done somewhat blatantly in the series and can mainly be ascribed to the Sisters of the Light. In the first few books, magic is described as being one's "gift" and prophecies in-world were very traditionally vague. Once the good Sisters are introduced, they bring along their own descriptions, describing the gift as one's "Han". And beyond the fourth book, the previously well-written and plot-relevant prophecies disappear and are replaced with [[MinovskyPhysics quantum physics]] {{technobabble}} meant to sound more scientific than mystical, going beyond MagicAIsMagicA (this is also, not coincidentally, when the story becomes an AuthorTract). At this point, the evil Sisters of the Dark also start stealing the "Han" of male wizards and using it for themselves, apparently through the power of [[spoiler:spiky demon penis]]. |
| 240 | * {{Doorstopper}}: As is traditional for the epic fantasy genre, each volume is a thick tome spanning many hundreds of pages. |
| 241 | * DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Confessors' power results in the person subject to it turning into a wholly {{brainwashed}} love slave. They take "mates" from among men to reproduce. Yet this is never called rape, even though after that's done their mates can't refuse to consent. This is particularly [[{{Hypocrisy}} hypocritical]] as the Confessors are in the "good" camp, while rape is ubiquitously used as a mark of their evil enemies. |
| 242 | * DoubleStandardRapeSciFi: {{Zigzagged}} in the series. |
| 243 | ** The glamour spell, the series' equivalent of {{love potion}}s, is seen by characters as tantamount to rape. Sorceresses who use it are either executed or expelled from the Palace of the Prophets (the Palace has a spell which [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld slows down aging to about 10%]], so there is little difference between the two for the exiles). On the other hand, the Confessors' power literally makes a person touched by it their [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul devoted slave]] forever. While that's all problematic enough, it crosses into rape territory because having sex causes them to lose control of their power, Confessing whoever they do it with. This means that there were only two recorded cases of a Confessor able to have a mate who ''isn't'' forced to consent with {{mind control}}, and these cases were ''3,000 years apart''. Bear in mind that Confessors are on the ''good'' side, and this isn't treated as rape. Not that it is actually viewed as a good thing - it's merely the only way to promote the Confessor lines, which are essential to their legal system. |
| 244 | ** The Confessors themselves hate the effect of their power, too, and specifically take mates they ''don't'' have feelings for since they can't bear to do that with a man they love. However, they're a bit [[Hypocrite hypocritical]] as they are still taking mates. |
| 245 | ** In ''Faith of the Fallen'' Nicci puts a spell on Kahlan, so she will suffer whatever Nicci suffers, but tenfold, and uses it to have Richard following her. After that, she first tries to seduce Richard then, since she fails, doesn't fight when a local thug, Gadi, rapes her, so that Kahlan will feel it. The fact that she lured him on purpose doesn't change the fact that Gadi is a rapist (since he didn't have to do it and ignored consent), but it does mean that Nicci is effectively raping Kahlan. It's never brought up again. May double as DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnFemale as well. |
| 246 | ** A variation in ''Temple of the Winds''. While there is no direct magic compulsion, the condition to access said temple (which they must enter) are two arranged marriages (Richard with Nadine, Kahlan with Drefan) that have to be consummated immediately. The fact that they have no choice and are couples that would never have been together otherwise, making it rape by coercion, is never brought up (as an added bonus, there is a mundane BedTrick also involved that gets glossed over as well). |
| 247 | * DownerEnding: ''Soul of the Fire'' is singularly the most depressing book of the series, and ends with [[spoiler:Kahlan having been beaten to death (and resuscitated by Richard) and losing their child, nearly every other sympathetic character dead, and Richard having been handed the most brutal defeat yet in the series as the Anders vote against him and are conquered handily by the Order]]. |
| 248 | * TheDragon: Demmin Nass for Darken Rahl, Nicholas the Slide and Nicci for [[EvilOverlord Emperor Jagang]], Ulicia and Oba Rahl for the [[GodOfEvil Keeper of the Underworld]]. |
| 249 | * DreamWalker: Dream Walkers were gifted people altered by magic so they had an ability to enter others' dreams and so take control of their minds. Over time they grew in strength so that their ability extended to waking life also, but the name was retained. |
| 250 | * DressCode: The length of hair in the Midlands signifies a woman's rank: longest hair, highest rank. This is magically enforced for Confessors, who physically cannot cut their own hair. Kahlan, as the Mother Confessor, has the longest hair in the Midlands. In one book, a character whose husband gains a political position is shown with hair extensions to signify the rank until she grows it out herself. |
| 251 | * DressedLikeADominatrix: The Mord-Sith are an elite group of female warriors who are infamously cruel and devoid of compassion. Their primary purposes are to capture enemy wizards using special magic, and to torture captives into mindless obedience. They carry leather sticks that resemble riding crops but function as {{agony beam}}s, and wear full-body leather in one of three colors. The closest to a "default" is brown. If they're wearing white, it symbolizes that they have complete control over their "pet," and thus don't need to punish them or draw blood. If they're wearing red, that means they fully intend to draw a ''lot'' of blood. One Mord-Sith wears her white leather [[spoiler:on her wedding day]], so take that as you will. |
| 252 | * DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Sebastian]], unable to reconcile his love for Jennsen with his belief in the Imperial Order, takes poison. Jennsen herself said he should. |
| 253 | * TheDulcineaEffect: Richard first meets Kahlan when he spots her being pursued by four men who appear to mean her harm in the woods. |
| 254 | * DystopianEdict: In the first book, Darken Rahl outlaws the use of fire in the lands he holds and conquers, because he was scarred by Wizard's Fire as a child. |
| 255 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: In [[spoiler: ''Wizard's First Rule'']]. After that, it's more of, "earn your right to suffer even worse horrors in the next book." |
| 256 | * EarthAllAlong: An interesting example. [[spoiler: Their world isn't our world, however it was directly responsible for the creation of it.]] |
| 257 | * EasilyConqueredWorld: Bandakar, whose [[StrawCharacter strawman pacifists]] put up as little of a fight as you'd expect them to. Also Anderith, which is guarded by a circle of magic bells that can be defeated by [[spoiler:plugging wax into your ears]]; their army is literally entirely for show. |
| 258 | * EasyEvangelism: |
| 259 | ** Used in ''Faith of the Fallen''. People are shown the light by a pretty statue, of two people standing tall, because no subject in TheEmpire seems to do that, along with the inscription "Your life is your own...", because no one in the empire seemed to have even thought of that. An alternative reading is that ''everyone'' had thought of it, or wanted to think of it, but they were so beaten down by the dystopia that they'd never dare say such things aloud before (the blacksmith and others admit as much in private earlier in the book). And seeing it displayed so openly and ''proudly'' finally convinced them to act on it. An ability to convince people is often stated to be a common trait to people who have the gift, Richard Rahl-Sue is the most gifted wizard ever, and the statue was implied to be at least in part a creation of magic, so it's possibly [[JustifiedTrope justified]], though not explicit. |
| 260 | ** Again in ''Naked Empire'', where Richard easily manages to show a bunch of pacifists that their view is wrong. Not only that, but he can get them to take up arms with no compunctions, despite it going against what they were told all of their lives. It can't be explained by magic here, since Richard's gift was explicitly not working at the time. It helps that they had already been wavering about their pacifism when faced with the Imperial Order ravaging them, but even so. |
| 261 | * EasyLogistics: The Imperial Order's army is so ridiculously huge (as in [[MillionMookMarch a number of millions]] in the main force alone, and plenty of reinforcements and reserves), keeping it supplied should be difficult to impossible within a medieval technological paradigm. Then again, they've got a vast empire that is supplying them, and they're mentioned as raiding everywhere they go for supplies. Having plenty of magic supporting it might also help some. |
| 262 | * EitherOrProphecy: Mostly played straight, but subverted in the fourth book with a "bound fork" prophecy in which Richard dies in both possible outcomes. [[spoiler: He "dies" by entering the Temple of the Winds, which exists in both the world of the living and the world of the dead.]] |
| 263 | * EmotionlessGirl: Nicci. Confessors also use this idea as a public image, adopting their "Confessor's Face." |
| 264 | * EmpathicHealer: This is how wizardly healing works in the series. The wizard doing the healing doesn't receive the same wounds, but has to take some of the pain that is associated with getting the wound in the first place in order to do it. For example, restoring someone's severed foot makes the wizard take on the pain of it getting bitten off. |
| 265 | * TheEmpire: In the first book, D'Hara is TheEmpire. In the second book, the existence of another, much larger, empire is hinted at, and in the third book, defeating it becomes a MythArc of sorts that holds the rest of the series together. |
| 266 | * TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Always threatened, but (almost) never happens. Richard actually uses the phrase "the end of the world as we know it" when discussing [[spoiler: Chainfire]]. |
| 267 | * EnemyToAllLivingThings: Anyone touched by the Keeper of the Underworld, most notably [[spoiler: Oba and Jennsen in ''Pillars of Creation'']]. |
| 268 | * EroticEating: In ''Wizard's First Rule'', while they're alone in the Mud People's Spirit House, Kahlan starts to seduce Richard by taking a bite of an apple, slowly feeding him another bite of the apple, and licking the juice off his chin. Though they don't go much further than that, Richard quips the next morning that he'll never look at an apple the same way again. |
| 269 | * EvilOverlord: In the first book, Darken Rahl. Starting with the third book, Emperor Jagang. ''Pillars of Creation'' reveals that the [[spoiler:Imperial Order (including Jagang himself) believe this of Richard.]] |
| 270 | * EvilVegetarian: Darken Rahl. He refused to eat meat but when he saw a man mistreat a horse, he cut open the horse and drowned the man in its entrails, sobbing over how someone could be so cruel to animals. He also has no problem killing and cannibalizing humans for magic (though he does find it gross). |
| 271 | * EvilWillFail: Jagang's empire is completely oppressive to individuality and self-interest. As a result, when a high ranking member falls in love and is confronted with the dissonance of what he feels and what he believes, he [[spoiler: commits suicide.]] Not to mention it has a completely ridiculous economy that couldn't possibly survive in the long run. One of the main complaints with the series is that the later books turn this into an [[{{Anvilicious}} anvil to be dropped repeatedly on the reader's head in exposition and monologue form.]] |
| 272 | %%* ExpansionPackPast: Nicci gets one in ''Faith of the Fallen''. |
| 273 | %%* ExpansionPackWorld |
| 274 | * {{Expy}}: |
| 275 | ** Samuel bears more than a passing resemblance to [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]]. |
| 276 | ** There are also the various similarities between Goodkind's world and that of ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''. The most direct parallels appear in ''Stone of Tears'' (the title of which is in itself suspicious) and ''Blood of the Fold''. The Sisters of the Light are similar to the Aes Sedai in Robert Jordan's work (complete with [[TheMole evil members]]). The Keeper of the Underworld and the Dark One are both {{Satan}} figures that are trying to break the magical barriers keeping them out of the normal world. They both have human followers, called "banelings" and "darkfriends", respectively, and there are organizations (the Blood of the Fold, the Children of the light) dedicated to [[WitchHunt hunting them]] that only manage to spread paranoia and kill innocent people. |
| 277 | %%* FailureIsTheOnlyOption |
| 278 | * FairyCompanion: In the first book, Kahlan has a companion by the name of Shar, [[OurFairiesAreDifferent who is a night wisp.]] Shar helped Kahlan keep her sanity when she traveled through the boundary, but as a result of the boundary, as well as Darken Rahl's influence and power, she and her kind are dying. |
| 279 | * FalseFlagOperation: Darken Rahl uses this tactic in the first book, attacking one of his own towns while making it look like soldiers from Hartland did it. |
| 280 | * FantasticNuke: |
| 281 | ** The colossal light spell. When it goes off, the casualities can end up in the ''hundreds of thousands''. |
| 282 | ** The prequel story pictures the boundary spell that way. It was intended to destroy the whole enemy state... although Zedd ultimately decided that would be too much. It might actually be a deliberate allusion to the Manhattan project, considering 1) It is used because actually entering enemy territory is estimated to be too costly. 2) There are experts who doubt the spell can actually be contained instead of destroying everything and 2) one spell is created as a test, and two for effect. |
| 283 | * FantasyContraception: Shota gives Kahlan a charm to wear which will prevent conception. However, it stops working in ''Soul of the Fire'' after the Chimes disrupt magic, so she becomes pregnant. |
| 284 | * FeatheredFiend: The evil spirit chicken monster in ''Soul of the Fire''. |
| 285 | * FemmeFatale: Merissa and Nicci. The former leans almost to being TheVamp, while the later is more of an [[TheUnfettered Unfettered]] DarkActionGirl. |
| 286 | * {{Fictionary}}: High D'Haran, a rather Germanic language. Important because a lot of older prophecies are written in it. |
| 287 | * FictionalDocument: Several books of prophecy, The Book of Counted Shadows, ''[[spoiler:Chainfire]]''. |
| 288 | * FilibusterFreefall: The series began as a standard fantasy epic about a hero fighting his evil emperor father and other supernatural villains. While the first few held some hints of Objectivist themes, after several they had taken over, turning the series into an AuthorTract supporting the philosophy. The villains soon all grew into thinly veiled communists, socialists, and pacifists, while the protagonist becomes an avatar of Objectivist beliefs. The shift in focus is emphasized when the protagonist occasionally has to explain why his new Objectivist beliefs contradict views he'd expressed earlier, before the free-fall. |
| 289 | * FinalSolution: |
| 290 | ** When the series begins, all Confessors except for Kahlan have been murdered on orders of Darken Rahl. She's nearly murdered too but is saved by Richard. |
| 291 | ** Later on, the Imperial Order openly wants to [[AntiMagicalFaction kill all magic users, magical creatures, and destroy magic itself]]. Yet still have magic users in their ranks, and are even led by them. Regardless of whatever skewed mindset is at work there, they never manage to. |
| 292 | * FlatEarthAtheist: In ''Phantom'', Richard denounces the concept of an afterlife where people are rewarded or punished for their actions, because "nobody has ever come back from the grave to describe conditions in the next life." This despite Richard during the events of the first five books having conversed with the spirits of the dead at least ''three times'', and having ''personally gone to the underworld and come back''. |
| 293 | * FlawExploitation: Nicci exploits [[spoiler:Richard's love for Kahlan in order to capture him.]] |
| 294 | * FlayingAlive: Many characters suffer this or are threatened with it. The [[WizardingSchool Palace of the Prophets]] graduate Neville Ranson is forced to inflict it on his lifelong friend as part of his forcible initiation into the service of the Keeper. |
| 295 | * FoodAsCharacterization: Richard can't stomach meat because of all the killing he has to do in his job as a war wizard. |
| 296 | * ForcedTransformation: |
| 297 | ** When the Confessors use their gift on an innocent person, they're then transformed into animals since Confession affects them less. Brophy is one of these, who'd been transformed into a wolf. He shows up in the first book. In his case however he can [[TalkingAnimal still talk]] and is devoted to Kahlan, who'd Confessed him, like a human Confession victim. |
| 298 | ** The mriswith descend from long ago humans ancient wizards experimented on to make them invisible. However, this ended up leaving them as LizardFolk crossed with BeePeople (in how they reproduce) although they can turn invisible too. |
| 299 | ** The Slith is a living magical portal who had been transformed into this long ago by magic. Richard asks about her life prior to this, and it turns out she'd been a prostitute who had wizard clients. This made her considered disposable and a candidate for transformation. Richard is disgusted to hear how she was treated though, and it makes him realize those long dead wizards were evil men, even those on the supposed "good" side. |
| 300 | * ForgotAboutHisPowers: Wizards have the ability to transform a man into a wolf, or presumably another animal, as evidenced by Brophy. This power is never used after the first book, even though it's not that far-fetched to imagine that it would be quite useful in a number of scenarios. However it was explicitly said to be a one-way change if the user only has additive magic. Though in theory, Richard could do it. Full-scale physical manipulation requires both sides of the power, which was one of the reasons the older Wizards sealed subtractive magic away, due to all the monstrosities created during the previous war by the unrestricted full use of magic. |
| 301 | * FountainOfYouth: There's a spell on the Palace of Prophets which makes people inside age much slower than normal, so they'll live for centuries, as wizards there need that much time for learning magic. |
| 302 | * FreudianExcuse: Learning about the "training" the Mord-Sith go through, which consists of a particularly horrifying form of BreakTheCutie (on the theory that [[BewareTheNiceOnes the people who start out with the most empathy]] eventually become the best torturers), eventually results in Richard feeling sorry for and forgiving the Mord-Sith that's torturing him. |
| 303 | * FunctionalMagic: The description of Additive and Subtractive magic qualifies; Additive Magic can only create things, and Subtractive Magic can only destroy things. For example, "creating" fireballs to burn your enemies would be Additive Magic, while curing a case of poisoning by eliminating the toxin would require Subtractive Magic. |
| 304 | * GambitRoulette: By book 3, it becomes evident that [[spoiler: Prelate Annalina]] has been manipulating events [[spoiler: from before the protagonist was born.]] |
| 305 | * GenderRestrictedAbility: An enforced case in the series. |
| 306 | ** There are only female Confessors, but not because males can't get the power. It's because when a male has the power, it's a much ''stronger'' version, without the cooldown that female confessors have, and because of this they end up using said power to get everything they want. After the first generation of tyrannical male Confessors was dealt with, all male Confessor babies are killed shortly after birth. |
| 307 | ** There's also differences between Wizard (male) magic power and Sorceress (female) magic power. In practical terms, they can do more or less the same things: throw wind, fire and lightning around, create spell forms, etc. But they're stated to work differently, such that each gender doesn't properly "get" how the other works. At the Palace of the Prophets, for example, it takes several hundred years for the sorceresses to teach young wizards how to use their gifts properly, but it takes a ''much'' shorter amount of time for a male wizard to teach another male wizard. |
| 308 | * GenerationalMagicDecline: Many forms of magic have died out or are very rare, and wizards in general have now been depleted due to common magical battles wiping out many. The Sisters of the Light [[SuperBreedingProgram have a positive eugenics program to remedy this]]: they encourage the wizards who study under them to father children with young women in the area (or Sisters), and pay the families for raising them, hoping it will breed more. However, even by doing so their numbers remain low, because the magical gift is not always passed down. |
| 309 | * GenreShift: From "stories with important human themes" to a series of {{Author Tract}}s in favor of [[Creator/AynRand Objectivism]]. |
| 310 | * GeometricMagic: The books contain several examples. The most powerful spells in the book require special signs drawn in powdered herbs, bone, blood, and, for the most powerful spells, sorcerer's sand (crystallized wizard bones from 3000 years ago). It is stated that in the last case, even the smallest mistake cannot be corrected and means death. At least one wizard family lived in an entire palace built as a magical sign. There is also a form of magic where an artist uses various shapes, formulas, and such in conjunction with a painting of a person in order to place curses on them. |
| 311 | * TheGift: Most magic users have the gift, the inherent ability to use it. However, some have the calling, the ability to learn magic regardless. It's noted that the latter is inherited, but over the centuries with so much battle between magic users the gifted are steadily dying out. |
| 312 | * {{Glamour}}: Witch Women like Shota or Six do this unconsciously, and sometimes unintentionally, to those around them. It's considered rape by the Sisters of the Light if one uses this to seduce and then have sex with a man, punishable by death or exile from the Palace of the Prophets (which is basically the same thing). |
| 313 | * {{God}}: Mostly just a superstition; the Creator is seen by most of the main characters as, at best, a force of balance. |
| 314 | * GodOfEvil: The Keeper of the Underworld. He rules over the souls of the dead, but his goal is to unleash himself on the living so they can be killed and tortured forever in the afterlife. |
| 315 | * GodOfTheDead: The Keeper of the Underworld, who rules over spirits in the afterlife. Unlike in many examples though, he is explicitly a malevolent being. |
| 316 | * GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Two examples--when Du Chaillu says she's going to abort her pregnancy (which was [[ChildByRape due to rape]]) Richard asks her not to, saying a child is not to blame for what it's father did (he was conceived this way himself). Verna also urges against it, due to her belief a child is a gift from the Creator. Du Chaillu concedes, and because they're married according to her people's custom, later considers the child to be also "his." Later Kahlan, having gotten pregnant by Richard, considers having an abortion due to having been told by a semi-reliable source that the child would be male, and the last time male Confessors were allowed to live past infancy they turned out to be AlwaysChaoticEvil; since then male Confessor children have always been killed at birth. Du Chaillu is then the one to say she shouldn't, but Kahlan still gets an abortifacient. She eventually decides against it...two minutes before she's beaten very nearly to death, [[ConvenientMiscarriage which causes one from trauma anyway]]. |
| 317 | * GoodIsNotNice: Kahlan in the [[UnstoppableRage Con Dar]]. Richard, pretty much any time from the second book on, [[SarcasmMode thank you Sisters of the Light]]. [[spoiler: Nicci]] after joining the good guys, though she was never very nice to start ([[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman except to look at]]). Neither Zedd nor the Prelate have issues with lying and manipulating innocent people. Cara is... well, a Mord-Sith. |
| 318 | * GoYeHeroesGoAndDie: [[InvokedTrope Intentionally]] used by Zedd to demoralize a mob that wanted to burn him for witchcraft, by getting them to work themselves into believing a "warlock" is a nigh-unstoppable BigBad and complimenting them for being willing to fight such a powerful foe. |
| 319 | * GratuitousRape: Used as a cheap tactic by Goodkind to make his [[DesignatedHero "heroes"]] look better by comparison. |
| 320 | * GreatOffscreenWar: The Great Wizard War that happened 3000 years ago, in which many of the artifacts and {{MacGuffin}}s that exist in the present, including the eponymous Sword of Truth, were created by the war-wizards of the time. Many of the plots of the entire series owe themselves to the direct events of that war. |
| 321 | * GreenEyedMonster: Played straight with Jagang, averted with Nicci. |
| 322 | * HairMemento: Kahlan gives Richard a lock of her hair after she forces him away in a BreakHisHeartToSaveHim way. For added value, she cuts off the hair herself, which, for a Confessor, means terrible pain. |
| 323 | * HappinessInSlavery: [[TheBaroness Mord-Sith]] to any Lord Rahl, due to brutal brainwashing from a young age, which includes being [[SelfMadeOrphan forced to kill their fathers]]. They still stick around even after Richard freed them (deciding that someone who would do that is worth following), and some were happier than most after he gave them more... freedom. |
| 324 | * HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: Jedidiah asks this of Sister Margaret in ''Stone of Tears''. Her death follows shortly thereafter. |
| 325 | * HealingHands: In the series, any wizard can do this. War Wizards can do this on instinct alone. Sorceresses can learn to heal, but never as effectively as wizards. It has a nice integration of the Additive/Subtractive magic system: if someone has internal bleeding in their lungs, you have to remove that blood or they won't be able to breathe even if you rebuild their lungs. However, it's very hard to control Subtractive magic, so you have to be sure to not accidentally get rid of their organs. It fits the CrapSackWorld setting that even trying to heal someone risks horribly mutilating them. |
| 326 | * HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Dena, Cara, General Trimack, Kevin Andellmere, Bruce.]] |
| 327 | * HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Nicci. It's hard to name a major faction, good or bad, that she ''hasn't'' served at one point. [[spoiler:In the end, she is ultimately good.]] |
| 328 | * {{Hellfire}}: Wizard's fire. |
| 329 | * HereThereWereDragons: Almost literally invoked. The later books in the series heavily imply that the world will soon be without magic entirely, which means the end of magical creatures. Richard first realizes how bad this is when he finds the skeleton of a dragon, and wonders if it was the last of them. [[spoiler:Turns out, it wasn't.]] |
| 330 | * HeroicBastard: Though not explicit, Richard is the result of his mother being raped by [[spoiler: Darken Rahl]]. However, he was raised by the man she married, George Cypher, who he considers his real father. Kahlan too, as her father was married to another woman when her mother chose him as her mate. He is TheHero, she is the {{deuteragonist}}. No one brings up that they born out of wedlock though, making it {{downplayed}}. |
| 331 | * HeroicBSOD: Richard suffers an especially harsh one after ''Soul of the Fire''. His attempts to sway the people of Anderith to his side fail miserably as they vote to remain neutral in the war between D'Hara and the [[TheEmpire Imperial Order]], Kahlan is ruthlessly beaten and loses the baby they had just conceived, and the Imperial Order draws first blood after they move into Anderith and he can't do a thing to stop them, since they had voted for neutrality after he had told them that he wouldn't waste his men's lives fighting to save people who wouldn't contribute to the effort. He destroys Anderith's ForgottenSuperweapon, but the Imperial Order still has a strong foothold in the Midlands and can strike out at will. Personally, militarily, and politically defeated, he takes Kahlan and Cara with him to a remote mountain range in Westland with every intention of sitting out the rest of the war in peace and to hell with everyone else. In part, it's because he wants his people to learn to fight tyranny because they want to rather than because he orders them to, but mostly it's because he's just that sick and tired of the whole mess. If it weren't for Nicci [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive tracking him down and kidnapping him]], he would have been able to hide for years without being found. |
| 332 | * HeroicSuicide: Wizard's Life Fire can be this, when done to protect another person. It requires that a wizard [[CastFromHitPoints put all of his life force]] into a spell that consumes everything surrounding them in a last act that also kills him. In the first book, Kahlan's former wizard does this to ensure that Darken Rahl cannot [[spoiler: use magic to learn who has made off with a Box of Orden]]. Zedd tastes the ashes left on the wall and notes that they are sweet, the sign that it was done to protect another person. [[spoiler: This is also the first indication they have that he was acting on some greater plan, rather than just abandoning Kahlan for the money and power of his new post.]] Zedd later attempts it to stop the chimes, but survives and is revived by Richard. In the prequel book ''Warheart'', Barracus uses Subtractive Magic to insure a war wizard will be born when a dream walker is and counter it, then kills himself to keep the secret. In ''The Pillars of Creation'' Althea poisons herself to prevent not only her husband's suicide out of grief if he found her brutally murdered instead, but chose death to begin with rather than living when this would mean the Keeper winning. |
| 333 | * HideYourLesbians: The Mord-Sith have significant numbers of same-sex relationships, but the only one between two named characters had [[BuryYourGays one of them die]] in the next book after she was introduced. The surviving member of that pair is implied to have started up a new relationship with another named Mord-Sith in the last book. All of the relationships were basically {{informed attribute}}s, such that if they weren't stated to be a couple readers wouldn't know necessarily they're not just friends. |
| 334 | * HighHeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Nicci]]. |
| 335 | * HiredByTheOppressor: |
| 336 | ** The Imperial Order makes extensive use of magic users despite their dedication to exterminate all magic. |
| 337 | ** The third book is centered around Blood of the Fold, a similar organization where the leader has a sorceress for a sister and is not ashamed of using her power for his purposes. |
| 338 | * {{Hypocrite}}: |
| 339 | ** Darken Rahl and Queen Milena spout pseudo-communist rhetoric saying people must share the wealth, while both are rich monarchs. They even have the nerve to lecture a ''peasant'' about this. Rahl even lives in a vast "People's Palace". Emperor Jagang takes this even further as he advocates this even more strongly while living even more in contradiction to his stated ideal, taking the best for himself. This reflects the [[{{UsefulNotes/Objectivism}} Objectivist]] view, which says no one can ever consistently live out this principle, making hypocrisy inevitable (or [[StrawHypocrite just a ploy to attain power]] in the first place). |
| 340 | ** The anti-magic Blood of the Fold's leader himself uses his sorceress sister's magic. At least the Imperial Order excuses this as "using magic to destroy it". |
| 341 | [[/folder]] |
| 342 | |
| 343 | [[folder: Tropes I-P]] |
| 344 | * IJustWantToBeNormal: Richard spends the first couple of books saying he's just a woods guide, before he accepts his role as [[spoiler:Lord Rahl]]. |
| 345 | * ImAHumanitarian: The Mud People ritually consume the flesh of their fallen enemies, in an aversion of the "cannibals are always villains" aspect of the trope. |
| 346 | * InstantExpert: |
| 347 | ** Averted with the bird call the Bird Man gives Richard in ''Wizard's First Rule''. Despite taking most of a day to teach him, and remarking that children he's taught could get it to summon a particular bird after three tries, all Richard is able to do with the call is summon a horde of birds all at once. |
| 348 | ** Played straight in ''Faith of the Fallen'', where Richard shows himself to be a master carver on his first attempt, explained as his magical powers using it as an outlet when he's forcibly deprived of his sword and not fighting anyone for months on end. |
| 349 | * IntoxicatedSuperpowerSnag: |
| 350 | ** A Confessor's power must be kept under constant control, so when Kahlan is getting a wound stitched in the first book, she is forced to SkipTheAnesthetic so as not to accidentally unleash her power on the healer and destroy her mind. |
| 351 | ** In the second book, a drunken wizard tries to kill Kahlan in the middle of his own war camp, but he's so hammered that he can't control his fireballs and ends up accidentally wiping out about a hundred of his own men before Kahlan kills him. |
| 352 | * IRejectYourReality: The Bandakar are philosophical skeptics who believe there's no reality as our senses are not reliable. When something goes wrong, they start chanting "Nothing is real" (until Richard [[EasyEvangelism easily shows this view is absurd]]). |
| 353 | * {{Irony}}: The Sword of Truth is only effective against objects or opponents that the wielder believes are justified in attacking. Thus, a weapon called the Sword of ''Truth'' can only be used against opponents the wielder ''perceives'' as being guilty or deserving, not necessary opponents that actually ''are'' guilty. |
| 354 | * IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler:Nicci willingly accepts her position as the No. 2 woman in Richard's life and wishes him and Kahlan happiness.]] |
| 355 | * JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: The heroes have few qualms about the use of this, and at one point cross the line into full-blown ColdBloodedTorture. |
| 356 | * {{Jerkass}}: In later volumes of the series, after he became a rabid Objectivist, Goodkind had a tendency to write his views into his books in the most blatant way possible; by having his "good" characters stop the story for pages and pages at a time, so that they can speechify to those around them (and thus, the reader), expounding upon Goodkind's views in a ham-fisted fashion that left no doubt in anyone's minds that this was just him preaching at us. Anyone who was shown disagreeing with this was portrayed not only as wrong, but irredeemably evil, and those nay-sayers who were important to the plot would ultimately prove themselves to be rapists and child molesters. This had the undesired but very present effect of making it seem like all of Goodkind's "heroes" were total jerkasses, unable to accept any viewpoint but their own. After all, this is the series that had its ''hero'' kick a little girl in the face with such force that she went into a coma and her healers weren't sure if she would ever wake up! In fairness, she turns out to be an AssholeVictim and an EnfantTerrible. |
| 357 | * KangarooCourt: [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Kahlan's conviction]] by Neville Ranson in ''Stone of Tears''. He was biased against her from the beginning, presenting lying "witnesses" for the judges he's selected who quickly find her guilty. |
| 358 | * KnightTemplar: Richard slowly turns into one, despite [[BrokenAesop being warned against doing so.]] Then there's the series ''canonical'' Knight Templar, Sister Nicci. |
| 359 | ** The Blood of the Fold, an AntiMagicalFaction who enslave or purge magic-users. While [[NoMereWindmill magic is in fact very dangerous]] in this setting, and the storyline that features them shows that they sort of have a point about wanting to control it to keep ordinary people safe, the means they use to do it are brutal and inhumane at best and [[KickTheDog unforgivable]] at worst. |
| 360 | %%* LadyInRed: Merissa always wears a red dress, and her personality definitely fits with the trope. This is perhaps a deliberate contrast to Nicci's preferred colors. |
| 361 | * LadyOfBlackMagic: Nicci and the other Sisters of the Dark obtained the ability to use Subtractive Magic (associated with the underworld) through a DealWithTheDevil and an extremely painful ritual. After her HeelFaceTurn, she uses that same magic on Richard's behalf. |
| 362 | * LadyOfWar: As the Mother Confessor is one of the closest things the Midlands has to an emperor (her near-absolute authority is recognized by all of the nations there), Kahlan had to learn how to fight (using both weapons and her personal magic) and how to lead an army while maintaining the dignity appropriate to her position. She's very good at it. |
| 363 | * TheLancer: Kahlan functions as Richard's second-in-command and sometimes equal in addition to being his love interest. When she isn't available, her role is filled by [[spoiler:Nicci.]] Lesser lancers include General Reibisch, Benjamin Meiffert, and [[BadassNormal Chase]]. |
| 364 | * LandOfOneCity: |
| 365 | ** Aydindril, which was essentially the Capitol of the Midlands, was an autonomous city-state ruled by the Mother Confessor. |
| 366 | ** The Palace of the Prophets, a large structure which houses the Sisters of the Light (an order of sorceresses) and the wizards whom they train, is large enough to count as a small city by itself. It's ruled by the Prelate, the Sisters' head. |
| 367 | * LetsGetDangerous: Richard Rahl signifies himself getting dangerous with the phrase, "bringer of death." Similarly, when Nicci is going to get dangerous, she slips into the persona of "Death's Mistress." |
| 368 | * LineInTheSand: Kahlan offers her soldiers the opportunity to opt out before their seemingly suicidal attack on the Imperial Order. After they leave, she orders the remaining soldiers to go after them and kill them, on the (eventually proven correct) assumption that they planned to sell the others out to the Imperial Order. |
| 369 | * SugarWiki/TheLittleBlackDress: The only thing that Nicci ever wears, except in the last couple books, when one of the Mord-Sith keeps putting her in a frilly pink nightgown; even the narration thinks this is funny, especially when Nicci proceeds to make pronouncements of doom while still wearing it. |
| 370 | %% * LittleMissBadass: Rachel in the later books; not surprising, since she was adopted by Chase in the first book, and he's been teaching her everything he knows. |
| 371 | * LizardFolk: Mriswith, a race that came from a GoneHorriblyRight attempt to give wizards invisibility. They also overlap with BeePeople, since, though covered with scales and possessing ChameleonCamouflage, they procreate through a dragon sized, pheromone communicating HiveQueen. |
| 372 | %% * LongRunningBookSeries |
| 373 | %% * LostTechnology: Technically lost ''magic'', but it fits the trope. |
| 374 | * LotusEaterMachine: The boundary separating the New World from the Old World works like this, tempting those attempting to travel through it with their hearts' desire. It also appears to keep people alive when it traps them, since [[spoiler:when Richard brings down the boundary, dozens of people who've been stuck there for years are finally freed]]. |
| 375 | * LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Richard Cypher's real name is actually Richard ''Rahl''. He is a ChildOfRape by Darken Rahl, and has inherited his kingdom and magical powers. Neither of them knows this until Zedd reveals it.]] |
| 376 | %% * MacGuffin: However, it's often quite clear what they do, and some actually get used. |
| 377 | * MageMarksman: Richard uses magic to guide his arrows unerringly into striking their targets, at first without knowing, later deliberately. |
| 378 | * MagicAIsMagicA: |
| 379 | ** Attempted, sometimes with full-on MagiBabble explaining things, but it's never all that consistent. By the end of the series, it seems to boil down to [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands "however Richard needs it to work."]] |
| 380 | ** One thing that ''is'' kept consistent is that all magic has some kind of balancing factor or opposite. Additive magic has Subtractive magic. The Sword of Truth runs on both anger ''and'' love. The Rahl bloodline's enchantment that ensures there's always a Gifted heir results in the AntiMagic pristinely un-gifted. It comes back as a clue in ''The Omen Machine'': [[spoiler:Richard doubts the validity of the machine's prophecies partly because they're all uniformly doom and gloom, with no positive prophecies]]. |
| 381 | * MagicFire: Wizard's Fire is a standard ability of wizards that conjures a flame that is extra virulent, seeking targets and resisting extinguishment. An upgrade is Wizard's Life Fire, which uses the wizard's [[CastFromHitPoints life force]], [[TakingYouWithMe killing him]] in order to create an enhanced burst of flame. |
| 382 | * MagicalSociety: The Palace of the Prophets in the Sword of Truth series. Sisters of the Light, an order of sorceresses, live there and have a WizardingSchool. It's also suggested that something of this nature existed within the Wizard's Keep at Aydindril, but is no more because there are so few wizards left. |
| 383 | * MagicIsEvil: The Blood of the Fold believe this, and that all magic users are banelings, who serve the [[GodOfEvil Keeper]]. In their native Nicobarese and then beyond they seek to hunt down all the magic users they can find. When they actually find them though, it [[MuggingTheMonster ends badly]]. Mostly, they simply kill many [[{{Muggle}} ungifted]] people that have been mistakenly identified as being gifted. However, the leader of the group has a sister who is a sorceress [[{{Hypocrite}} whom he uses to further his aims]]. The Imperial Order believes this too, though in their case it's due to some people being gifted while others aren't offending their communist principles. Bizarrely, they are led by gifted and have a number willingly in their ranks, either ranging from hypocrites to apparently self-hating. |
| 384 | * MagicKnight: |
| 385 | ** Richard qualifies in later books; though he never ''quite'' gets a handle on just how to use his magic, he's still able to use it to devastating effect, and he's an almost unbeatable swordsman, partially thanks to magic. |
| 386 | ** D'Hara tries to avert this with the Lord Rahl. He's the magic against magic, they're the steel against steel. Some Lords Rahl don't like ''rules''. Throughout the series, Richard is repeatedly reminded by his men something along the lines of, "''Please'', Lord Rahl, try to remember: ''We'' do the sword fighting, ''you'' do the magic." |
| 387 | ** Mord-Sith. They're anti-magic knights. With a magic torture stick. |
| 388 | ** A Confessor in the Con Dar is this. And creepy as all getup. |
| 389 | ** Nathan Rahl wears a sword through much of the series. Many of his friends ask him why he needs a sword when he's a hilariously-powerful wizard. Then the Pristinely Ungifted show up. The Pristinely Ungifted aren't even immune to magic, ''they have no connection to it whatsoever''. To them, magic might as well not exist except when it does something like hold someone off the ground (where they see the person in the air even if they don't understand) and some poorly-defined subset of Subtractive Magic, which they have some connection to because they're mortal. |
| 390 | * TheMagocracy: |
| 391 | ** Aidandril is a city ruled by the Mother Confessor, a woman whose touch can make anyone fall so in love with them they'll do whatever they desire. |
| 392 | ** D'Hara has been ruled by the House of Rahl for centuries, with all of them being powerful wizards. It's said the Rahls will ''only'' accept an heir with the gift, something insured by their magic (though it has the side effect of also creating the Pristinely Ungifted, people who not only can't do it, but are ''immune'' to most magic). |
| 393 | ** The Imperial Order is run by two magic users, Emperor Jagang and Brother Narev, despite their professed [[{{Hypocrite}} hatred for magic and those with it]]. |
| 394 | * TheMaker: The Creator is believed to have created everything, hence the name, at least by many in the New and Old Worlds. However, the protagonists come to view this as a metaphor for a creative force, not an entity, and either way no direct evidence for it is ever presented. Numerous characters, good or bad, claim to act in the Creator's name however. |
| 395 | * {{Matricide}}: Oba Rahl kills his mother with a shovel. She was an abusive harpy, though [[TheSociopath he's no better]]. |
| 396 | * MeaningfulName: "Darken" Rahl, for one. Very on the nose. Halsband Island as well, where the Palace of the Prophets is on which wizards are trained using a rada'han, a collar which controls them, which is what the word halsband means in Dutch. As Richard Rahl notes, it's also a term for the collar used in falconry to launch a hawk on the attack. |
| 397 | * MedievalUniversalLiteracy: The civilized countries appear to be literate. In the fifth book, Richard visits a country where an oppressed majority isn't allowed to learn to read, and tries to explain to them the advantages of literacy, which presumably they'll have after siding with him. |
| 398 | * MerlinAndNimue: Richard Rahl has this relationship with Sister Verna, as well as the other Sisters of Light. In the later books, the trope is even more prevalent in his relationship with [[spoiler: Nicci]], who has become something of [[TheLancer his]] [[BlackMagicianGirl right]] [[NumberTwo hand]], mentor, and unlike Verna, definitely has feelings for him. |
| 399 | * MilitaryMage: A number of these serve on both sides, willing [[MindManipulation or not]]. In most cases they seem to be functionally artillery, with the most powerful (like Zedd) fitting into the OneManArmy role. Richard himself is a War Wizard, one who with both kinds of magic is the most capable among them. |
| 400 | * MillionMookMarch: The Imperial Order. They gather over a million troops for an invasion, and later the number swells with reinforcements to 2-3 million. By comparison, before Richard starts trying to consolidate the Midlands' forces, the largest assembled armies were in the 100-200,000 range, and the D'Haran-led resistance is hopelessly outnumbered for the duration of the series. |
| 401 | * MindRape: |
| 402 | ** Darken Rahl has the ability to project horrific visions into others' minds, which he does to [[spoiler: Kahlan]] in ''Stone of Tears.'' |
| 403 | ** The undisputed king of MindRape in the series is the Dreamwalker [[EvilOverlord Emperor Jagang]], who enters peoples dreams with his mind and thus takes control over them, being able to make them do anything which he wants, which is shown to be a horrifying experience. |
| 404 | ** Shota does this to Richard in ''Phantom'', making him experience his own subconscious thoughts after he just heard a very graphic first-hand account of what happens in a city occupied by the Imperial Order. |
| 405 | * MindYourStep: The stairs of the house Richard moves into with Nicci in ''Faith Of The Fallen'' are in pretty sorry condition, so Richard talks some of the local thugs, who had been threatening him, into helping him fix them, telling them otherwise they wouldn't amount to anything. Two of them oblige, while the third, well, [[KickTheDog isn't swayed so easily]]. |
| 406 | * MirroringFactions: There's the fact that the Confessors, a faction of "good" women, have the same infanticidal tendencies as the House of Rahl, the leaders of the evil empire. Or how Emperor Jagang does all his horrible actions in the name of God while Richard does all of his horrible actions in the name of "Moral Clarity". Then, despite Richard claiming that he's fighting for freedom against tyranny he demands total submission in the war, dismissing any reasonable suspicion as he demands this under threat of later punishment. All his talk of individual liberty is hollow since anyone who disagrees with him is labeled an idiot or enemy, much like the Imperial Order views everyone else. |
| 407 | * MissingMom: |
| 408 | ** Darken Rahl's mother is never seen and only mentioned once, when he notes that his father "discarded" her after she gave birth, which [[StrawMisogynist Darken himself]] approves of. |
| 409 | ** Richard's mother died while he was just a boy. |
| 410 | * MommyIssues: Nicci's relationship with her mother is a female example. Her [[UnnamedParent unnamed]] mother's dogma being instilled in her at an early age is revealed to be the root of her near-insanity, and is probably responsible for more of her anguish than anyone else in the world. |
| 411 | * MoralDisambiguation: It starts out with a deep discussion of good and evil, right and wrong, and cause-and-effect, including black, white, and lots of distinct shades of grey. As the focus of the series switches to the war against the Imperial Order, it becomes a very us-against-them, black-and-white morality environment, to the point where the protagonists were doing things at the end of the series that they would have decried as evil at the beginning. |
| 412 | * MoreThanMindControl: Jagang's brutal MindRape of the Sisters of the Light eventually makes them so terrified of his wrath that they do everything possible to help the Imperial Order, even when he isn't controlling them. |
| 413 | * MuggleBornOfMages: Leitis, Verna's daughter with Jedediah. Despite both of them having the gift, she did not. She was therefore sent to be raised by another family, as the Palace of the Prophets had no further use for her. This has become increasingly common, despite the Palace's efforts to breed more gifted people. |
| 414 | * MutuallyExclusiveMagic: Sorcerers' and wizards' magic is completely different, such that neither can affect the other. This takes the sorcerer Brother Narev by surprise when he tries to kill Richard with magic, who's a wizard, something he doesn't know. Richard then takes advantage of his surprise and kills Narev using a sword. |
| 415 | * MyGirlIsASlut: [[spoiler:Dalton Campbell]] is the last one to realize his wife's infidelity, and he had prided himself on their fidelity, much to his dismay. |
| 416 | * MyGirlIsNotASlut: Despite having been with only Richard once (and only a couple people knew) and was going to marry him, several people assume this about Kahlan in ''Temple of the Winds''. |
| 417 | * MysticalPlague: In ''Temple of the Winds'', Jagang unleashes a plague that's like a worse version of the Black Death on the Midlands' capital city. [[KickTheDog And he deliberately starts it with a bunch of young children]]. |
| 418 | %%* MysticalThemeNaming: The People's Palace is the seat of power of an ancient ruling wizard dynasty. It is built in the shape of a giant spell meant to empower any wizard from that dynasty and drain the power of anyone who is not, and powered up by the blood of all the people walking through its corridors. However, it's not quite unnoticed — one visitor managed to navigate it easily simply by knowing the spell.%% |
| 419 | * NamedInTheSequel: In the third books, Richard studies an ancient diary of a long-dead wizard. The man never gives his name, so Richard merely refers to him as "Koloblicin" ("strong advisor") or simply "Kolo". A later Distant Prequel taking place in the wizard's time features him under his proper name of Quinn. |
| 420 | * NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: First there's Darken Rahl, but most of the noms de guerre the good guys end up with also. Zedd is the Wind of Death; Richard is the Bringer of Death; Nicci is Death's Mistress. And you better believe [[PersonOfMassDestruction they earned those nicknames]]. Zedd deserves special mention, because he's a kindly old man alternating between wise advisor and perky side-quest assistant in the early books, to the point that if you haven't thought too much about the backstory or read Debt of Bones, it can seem like a complete 180 when he suddenly resorts to [[WeaponOfMassDestruction Weapons Of Mass Destruction]], bio-weapons, and straight-up unapologetic genocide later in the series, as well as being shockingly casual about murder on little provocation even compared to Richard. The rest of the world is actually fairly justified in regarding him as something like Hitler crossed with Stalin riding an atomic bomb. |
| 421 | * TheNeedsOfTheMany: The main villains of the series ([[TheEmpire The Imperial Order]]) use this to justify the murder of entire cities full of people. They reason that they are [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans creating the perfect world]], and that anybody who disagrees with them has no place in it. More broadly, they believe anyone in need should be served by the rest (although they're [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocrites]] about much of it). |
| 422 | * NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Richard doesn't actually know anything about magic, but the powers he eventually develops work instinctively; he does impossible feats of magic without knowing the slightest thing about how he's doing it. Frequently used as an AssPull. |
| 423 | * NeuroVault: ''Wizard's First Rule'' revolves around Darken Rahl's attempts to extract the contents of the Book of Counted Shadows from Richard's mind. |
| 424 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: |
| 425 | ** Repeatedly, as a setup for the next book. Due to the way book 7 is written, in book 8 you don't even know ''why'' they broke it, just that it happened at the same time as the last book's events. |
| 426 | ** In ''Chainfire'', [[spoiler: Nicci]] becomes very worried that she is to blame for Richard's "delusions", something that causes her a great deal of guilt. She also blames herself for using Subtractive magic to save his life, effectively giving the Blood Beast Richard's "scent". |
| 427 | * NobleSavage: {{Played straight}} with the Mud People. |
| 428 | * NonindicativeName: Goodkind loves using this one. |
| 429 | ** The Sword of Truth's magic doesn't operate based on truth, but on the wielder's perceptions, whether or not they're accurate. |
| 430 | ** A death spell doesn't kill people; it's used to make people ''think'' the target is dead. |
| 431 | ** A maternity spell has little to do with motherhood, instead creating {{synchronization}} between the caster and the target (effectively taking them hostage). This is compared to the link a baby has to its mother in utero though. |
| 432 | ** Confession makes a person fall in love with the Confessor, to the point they'll do anything they ask. This is used to make them confess any crimes they're accused of, but that is just one possible order they will obey, not the direct result from the Confessor's touch. |
| 433 | * NoPeriodsPeriod: Exception-periods (or "moon flow") are mentioned three times: |
| 434 | ** While a plague is going through the Midlands, Richard goes to see Kahlan, and is told she isn't feeling well. Naturally he immediately fears the worst, only to be told by her maid that it's just "that time of the month" and she normally wouldn't have mentioned it except to assuage Richard's fears. |
| 435 | ** Richard is developing a rash on his neck, so Cara goes to a healer to get a salve. She gives it to Richard, and he starts applying it while she lists off the ingredients, only to get squicked out when she gets to "...and some of my moon flow blood." |
| 436 | ** [[spoiler: Kahlan's first time with Richard (whom she thinks is Drefan) is during her period, and attempting to arouse him for a second round she winds up tasting the blood.]] |
| 437 | * NotThatTheresAnythingWrongWithThat: When Richard learns two of his Mord-Sith are lesbian lovers, he's quick to assure one, Berdine, that he's got no problem with it. However, the manner in which it's done, including comparing it to pea soup (he doesn't like that for food, but wouldn't care if someone else does) comes off this way. |
| 438 | * NumberTwo: [[FaceHeelRevolvingDoor Whichever side Nicci is currently on]], you can bet she'll be number two. |
| 439 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: Nathan Rahl acts like an idiotic manchild most of the time, but drops the act as soon as things get serious. Zedd likes to play up to people's expectations that he's a silly old coot, only to surprise them at the best of moments. |
| 440 | * ObstructionistPacifist: The beliefs of the culture that produced evil pacifists are absurd to the point where they won't fight back or even try to get out of the way when people with weapons are nearby and trying to kill each other. Indeed, they are TooDumbToLive. |
| 441 | * OffingTheOffspring: |
| 442 | ** Darken Rahl has a lot of kids, most of them he doesn't even know about. For their sake, they had better either inherit Rahl's magical powers, or make sure that he never finds them. Old Darken is admittedly obsessed with finding his one true "Gifted" heir, and doesn't appreciate ungifted offspring running around. |
| 443 | ** Though Darken Rahl takes this to extremes, it's actually a long-standing tradition in the House of Rahl that goes back thousands of years. "Pristinely Ungifted" offspring of the House of Rahl are historically killed at birth, because of the inherent AntiMagic quality they possess, and the fact that any children ''they'' have will also be Pristinely Ungifted, meaning that they could potentially wipe out magic entirely. Of course, Darken has forgotten about the reason for this tradition and just settled for getting rid of any accidental offspring that don't fit his criteria as his true heir. |
| 444 | ** Also of note are female Confessors. Male Confessors are much, much stronger than female ones to the point where it becomes impossible to control them; according to the backstory, the vast majority were complete monsters, using their powers to get whatever they wanted, and sparking off decades of war before they were wiped out. So, all female Confessors are ''forced'' to have their mate kill any of their male children immediately at birth, while the Confessor herself tends to be overcome with grief for some time afterward. After Kahlan and Richard are married, there is much drama on this point — particularly as a male will definitely inherit Kahlan's Confessor powers, but also potentially Richard's magical gifts. |
| 445 | * OmniscientMoralityLicense: Cited by certain characters as the reason they should be allowed to guide the main character's life. Subverted most of the time in that they're repeatedly called out on it, and probably caused a lot of the series' conflicts and strife by doing so. Only Nathan gets away with it on occasion, mostly because he's an actual prophet and has the prophecies, rather than interpreting them secondhand. Canonically, this is ''the'' defining trait of the Seeker of Truth. A true Seeker is [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality literally morally infallible.]] Which, of course, makes all his [[AuthorTract pronouncements]] and [[AuthorFilibuster speeches]] morally infallible too. |
| 446 | * OnceAnEpisode: |
| 447 | ** Every book, a new Wizard's Rule will be revealed. |
| 448 | ** Khalan almost gets raped, which then ends up not happening due to a ContrivedCoincidence. (Growing more and more contrived as the series goes by.) |
| 449 | * TheOrder: |
| 450 | ** The Confessors, a group of women who for millennia served as truth-finders, insuring true confessions as [[ThePowerOfLove their gift]] can [[TruthSerum make people tell it]]. Led by a Mother Confessor, she chaired the Council of the Midlands, serving as effectively their leader. They were centered in Aidendril, and have largely died out in wars. |
| 451 | ** The Wizards had one as well, who trained men who have magic in the Wizards Keep of Aidendril. Closely allied to the Confessors, ancient Wizards actually created them. |
| 452 | ** The Sisters of the Light are sorceresses who train young women with the gift and shepherd prophets. Since Wizards have largely died out, they took over training young men as well, but this takes far longer. A religious group, the Sisters are worshippers of [[GodOfGood the Creator]], though some within their ranks have now secretly sworn themselves to his mortal enemy [[GodOfEvil the Keeper]]. They live in the Palace of the Prophets on Halsband Island, a place in the Old World, which is under a spell which slows their aging significantly, so they can live centuries. |
| 453 | ** The Mord Sith, a group of [[AmazonBrigade female warriors]] who serve as bodyguards and [[TortureTechnician torturers]] to D'Hara's Lords Rahl, wielding the agiel, a magical weapon capable of causing [[AgonyBeam intense pain]]. Additionally they're able to turn magic [[AttackReflector back against its casters]]. |
| 454 | ** The Imperial Order, a fanatical group in the Old World which advocates extreme collectivism and equality. Due to this, they oppose magic as some people have the gift while others don't. In spite of this, their leader and many members are themselves magic users (they justify this as using magic to destroy it). They create an empire under Jagang, a Dreamwalker with the ability to control people's minds, later invading the New World which causes a huge war. |
| 455 | * OrderedToDie: |
| 456 | ** Confessor magic enslaves a person's mind completely, to the extent that powerful ones can order a person to drop dead, and he will. Kahlan has demonstrated the ability several times over the books. |
| 457 | ** Jagang demonstrates his power to the captive Sisters of Dark by ordering a previously captured one to die... and showing them what it means to die when still formally serving a most displeased [[GodOfEvil Keeper]]. |
| 458 | * OurDragonsAreDifferent: We only ever see red dragons, but the first book mentions several other varieties of differing size, intelligence, and temperament. Red dragons are intelligent, proud, honorable, and skilled at magic. When asked whether she could land near an army without being seen, Scarlet, a red dragon, boasts that she could land in the ''middle'' of the army without being seen. |
| 459 | * OurMagesAreDifferent: |
| 460 | ** Most wizards and sorceresses are a Race and Lottery Winners, but learn their powers like Scholars. The gift is sometimes inherited from one's ancestors (less and less common ever since a major magical disruption 3,000 years ago), and sometimes, it seems, pops on its own (there used to be a time when nearly everyone was a wizard, so there isn't much difference). However, it is possible for a wizard to take an apprentice without a gift, and teach him to use magic, with the process probably using some magical procedures (Mutants). The wizards trained that way are, apparently, considerably less capable. Subtractive magic is also Theurgic, as it requires a DealWithTheDevil unless the wizard is born with the most powerful gift, that of the war wizard. War wizards and prophets are wizards with extra powers, even more rare than the less powerful kind. |
| 461 | ** Creatures of magic gain their powers through various, unique means. Most are Mutants (created by ancient wizards using lost magical techniques) and a Race (passing it down to their children with rates of inheritance between 1% and 100%). Dreamwalkers and Sorcerers are also Lottery Winners, with one of each being born to no magical parentage after 3,000 years. Mord-Sith and Slides are purely Mutants, but the processes of becoming one are both a FateWorseThanDeath. |
| 462 | ** Constructed magic is invested in items and can be used to some degree by anyone (Gadget Users). Certain people are better at using the items than others, especially with the Sword of Truth, which only grants all of its powers to a true Seeker. The cave paintings in Tamarang overlap with Artists, as it requires at least a rudimentary skill in drawing and takes longer to learn with less apt pupils, like Violet. |
| 463 | * OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: The series has a werecat. |
| 464 | * OurWitchesAreDifferent: The witch women are powerful spellcasters, living for many centuries. The abilities shown include illusion, foresight, and a degree of time manipulation, along with more mundane offensive magic. Everyone gives them a wide berth. |
| 465 | * OutlivingOnesOffspring: Verna suffered this. She and Jedediah, a wizard training in the Palace of the Prophets, had a daughter together (wizards and sorceresses are encouraged to have relationships in hopes that they will produce more gifted people). However, their daughter was ungifted, and thus given to a family outside the Palace to raise. Verna kept in contact with her, but as she was affected with the Palace's anti-aging spell, it means her daughter died from old age as she went on to live many years more. |
| 466 | * PainlessDeathForAPrice: In the sixth book of the series, the Imperial order captures a [[TortureTechnician Mord-Sith]] and attempt to interrogate her. By the time Nicci hears of it, the Mord-Sith is too badly mutilated to survive, but has told the interrogator nothing. Nicci kills the interrogator and asks the Mord-Sith to give her some non-secret information about Richard in exchange for a slit throat. |
| 467 | * {{Patricide}}: [[spoiler:Richard]] kills his father, [[spoiler:Darken Rahl]]. This was wholly justified, as his father was an evil tyrant attempting to take over the world. He also didn't even know they were related until then. |
| 468 | %%* PayEvilUntoEvil |
| 469 | * PerfectPacifistPeople: Deconstructed by the Bandakar society. Exiled beyond a magical boundary for being [[AntiMagic pristinely ungifted]], they adapted by forming a near-unbreakable community bond, going so far as to outlaw any form of violence against each other. The deconstruction comes when the heroes find out that their strict pacifist philosophy extends [[SuicidalPacifism even to self-defense in any form]]. Deviant criminals who've committed murder are attempted to be rehabilitated several times beyond the point of common sense. As a last measure, they subdue the offender and dump him down a cliff that leads outside the boundary as a form of exile. They won't attack or drive off the predatory birds that occasionally fly away with young children. And when the Imperial Order comes to call, the most they offer is a meek protest when its soldiers proceed to kidnap and rape women of all ages in a program of systematic breeding to cultivate their ungifted trait. Even when the heroes attempt to [[TrainingThePeacefulVillagers train them to fight back]], the Bandakarans mostly refuse, saying that they have no right to judge the men of the Order as they don't know the circumstances under which they're acting, and try to stop the heroes from fighting with them. [[NeverLiveItDown They're then slaughtered as they got in the way.]] |
| 470 | * PersonOfMassDestruction: Zedd, who isn't called "The Wind of Death" for nothing. Also, Richard leans toward it whenever he gets his magic working. |
| 471 | * ThePhilosopher: [[InformedAttribute Supposedly, Richard.]] |
| 472 | * PityTheKidnapper: [[spoiler:Zedd and Annalia]] in ''Temple of the Winds.'' It nearly backfires when the group that captured them plans to trade them to cannibals. |
| 473 | * PlayingWithFire: Wizard's Fire. |
| 474 | * PlotArmour[=/=]StoryDrivenInvulnerability: Darken Rahl in ''Wizard's First Rule'' because of the magic of Orden. |
| 475 | * PowerNullifier: The Rada'han, whatever the hell [[spoiler:Six and Violet were doing in Phantom.]] |
| 476 | * ThePowerOfLove: DoubleSubversion. The power of a Confessor is the power to turn anyone into a mindless slave by taking the small spark of love within them and enhancing it until their mind is filled with nothing but love for the Confessor who had touched them. [[spoiler:At the end of the first book, Richard, because he already loves Kahlan with his entire being, is able to withstand her power without losing his mind.]] |
| 477 | * PowerPerversionPotential: In ''Stone of Tears'' it's shown sorceresses and wizards can get each other aroused with magic, or it's implied enhance the experience while having sex. Jedediah uses his magic to arouse a sorceress this way, and also before he has sex with her ([[SexyDiscretionShot off page]]) one does the same for him as well. |
| 478 | * PowerTrio: In ''Wizard's First Rule'', it's Richard, Kahlan, and Zedd, the last Seeker, Confessor, and First Wizard, respectively. In ''Temple of the Winds'', it's Richard, Kahlan, and Cara. In ''Chainfire'', it's Richard, Cara, and [[spoiler:Nicci.]] |
| 479 | * PrettyInMink: A few highborn people wear fancy furs, from queens and kings wearing fox trimmed capes, to a duchess wearing an ermine robe. |
| 480 | * AProtagonistShallLeadThem: The hero Richard Rahl is revealed as the heir of the D'Haran Empire, the initial enemy, after he defeats its leader as the first book concludes. He initially resists taking up the role, but accepts this when another, worse threat is revealed who everyone must unite against to stop. |
| 481 | * ProudWarriorRace: The Mud People, who among other cultural quirks, slap or punch one another on greeting as a way to show respect for one's strength. A full-on punch is reserved for chance meetings between adult males outside the village; Kahlan is greeted with an open-handed slap; inside the village, a gentle slap, little more than a light tap, is used, and the narration notes that this custom "preserves order, and teeth." Richard makes a good impression on the Mud People by laying out the first one he meets, who then quips that while he's glad Richard respects him so much, he hopes that Richard doesn't come to respect him any more than he already does. |
| 482 | * PsychicPowers: Dream walkers. The D'Haran bond to the Lord Rahl is designed to block this sort of thing. |
| 483 | * PunctuatedForEmphasis: Kahlan talks like this when she gets angry. Most notably in ''Wizard's First Rule'' when Michael grabbed her in the wrong place. |
| 484 | [[/folder]] |
| 485 | |
| 486 | [[folder: Tropes Q-Z]] |
| 487 | * RapeAndSwitch: Averted. Richard assumes one of the Mord-Sith became a lesbian after the "rape" section of her TrainingFromHell, only to be informed that no, she was before this ordeal. One of the vanishingly rare instances of Richard actually being wrong about something (note it happened in the first third of the series), as well as him wanting to keep her as a friend even though he wasn't sure about the morality of it. Of course, if Creator/TerryGoodkind believed this trope there wouldn't be [[AuthorAppeal any straight women left in his novels]]. |
| 488 | * RapeAsBackstory: Cara and probably all the Mord-Siths; it seems to be an inherent part of their training, and Darken Rahl used to take them to his bed quite often. Along with them being taken from their families and horribly trained to become Mord-Sith, it's all most get as backstory. It mostly serves to make them sympathetic, along with Richard by comparison, since he would never do such a thing. |
| 489 | * RapeAsDrama: The armies of the Imperial Order rape the women of every city they conquer (but not the cities that join willingly). Many of the female characters and Richard have either had such an experience or have come close. |
| 490 | * ReallyGetsAround: Nicci, having had "relations" with men in circumstances that vary to an insane degree, from rape, to ritual sex with a namble, to being handed to random men as "punishment", to willingly/semi-willingly staying as Jagang's consort, to one case that could almost be called prostitution, to one scenario where she slept with a man she ''actually disliked'' just to [[spoiler: get revenge on Richard and Kahlan]]. |
| 491 | * ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The Palace of the Prophets has a spell on it that slows down aging for anyone who lives in it. As a result, several members of the supporting cast are hundreds of years older than they look. One, Nathan, turns out to be [[spoiler:one of Richard's distant ancestors.]] |
| 492 | * RedemptionDemotion: Averted with [[spoiler:Nicci.]] After joining the good guys, she retains her Subtractive Magic and uses it to great effect on several occasions. |
| 493 | * RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Denna]] actually sort of goes through this ''twice''. The first time, [[spoiler:she lets Richard kill her so he can be free, having fallen in love with him.]] The second time, [[spoiler:her spirit takes on Richard's mark of the Keeper, [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificing herself]] to save him. Luckily for her, though, the HeroicSacrifice disgusts the Keeper so much that he tosses her back to be with the Good Spirits.]] |
| 494 | * RefugeInTheWest: When the war between D'hara and Midlands ended with the first boundary's creation, a lot of people were left fearing and hating magic due to its use in the war. They were given a region without magic in the west and a second boundary was created, sealing it off. |
| 495 | * ReminiscingAboutYourVictims: Darken Rahl makes himself smile by remembering what he did to a girl who laughed at his scars. |
| 496 | * ReplacedWithReplica: Giller replaces one of the Boxes Of Orden with a fake to keep it out of Darken Rahl's hands. Unfortunately for him, Rahl arrives earlier than expected, and since he cannot be fooled, Giller performs a HeroicSacrifice while an accomplice gets away with the box. |
| 497 | * ResignedToTheCall: Richard really, really didn't want to be the only hope of the New World and the leader of D'Hara. He'd much rather have just gone home after defeating Darken Rahl and lived out his life with Kahlan. But he's TheChosenOne, and he eventually accepts that he pretty much has to work all this shit out himself. |
| 498 | * RestrainingBolt: The Rada'han is a magical collar which can prevent a wearer using their magic, cause them pain and control the actions they take when the controller desires and normally can only be removed with their help. It's used as a training device by Sisters of the Light on novice wizards. A sufficiently powerful wizard (e.g. Zedd) can still remove it themselves though. |
| 499 | * RetCon: The Book of Counted Shadows is the key to unlocking the magic of Orden in the first book (proved by its role in awakening Richard's Gift). By the time the magic of Orden returns at the end of the series, it isn't. |
| 500 | * RippleEffectProofMemory: A variant; the Sword of Truth protects Richard from the initial effects of [[spoiler:the Chainfire spell]]. Anyone else who touches it afterward can shake off the lingering effects (i.e., they can acknowledge [[spoiler:Kahlan's existence and see her]]), but they don't regain [[spoiler:their memories of her]]. |
| 501 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: At the end of ''Wizard's First Rule'', Kahlan [[spoiler:goes after Darken Rahl, resolving to do everything she can to kill him even if she dies herself. The way she does it is, according to Zed, something she shouldn't even know is possible, never mind being able to do it. She enters a state known as the Con Dar or Blood Rage. While in this state she is TheUnfettered, and has unlimited access to her Confessor powers.]] |
| 502 | %%* RomanticRunnerUp: Nicci is a female example. |
| 503 | * SavingTheWorldWithArt: The sixth book ''Faith of the Fallen'', puts Richard in the heart of [[TheEmpire the Imperial Order]], powerless to free the people from the enemy government that preaches that people are inherently corrupt and shameful and that only through the Order's "benevolent" guidance can they be redeemed. After being forced to create a hideous sculpture idealizing this, Richard decides to [[spoiler:instead create a sculpture showing the sanctity and beauty in the human potential, which he names ''Life''. This sculpture has such a profound impact on the populace that it inspires a rebellion against the government and its teachings, instigating a civil war within the Capitol of the enemy.]] |
| 504 | * SchrodingersGun: Minor elements in one book will turn out to be crucial to the plot of the next, with practically no foreshadowing; this can sometimes seem much more like an AssPull than anything that was planned in advance. |
| 505 | * TheScottishTrope: |
| 506 | ** Subverted. The Sisters of the Light are constantly warning Richard not to speak the name of the Keeper of the Underworld, but it turns out that the implied dire consequences are merely superstition. |
| 507 | ** Also played straight with the summoning of the Chimes, though it's not ''just'' saying their names. There's a specific set of criteria that the one saying it has to fit for it to work. |
| 508 | * ScrewDestiny: Richard hates prophecy and goes his own way. About half the time he succeeds, half the time, not so much. But then someone always rationalizes it as prophecy being misinterpreted and Richard actually doing what the prophecy said in the first place. However, it may not be rationalization. A repeated theme is that only a Prophet has ANY chance whatsoever of correctly interpreting a Prophecy, and even then is extremely unlikely to be able to get the real meaning across to anyone other than another Prophet. A Prophet can, however, attempt to manipulate events... |
| 509 | * SealedEvilInACan: Several, including BigBad Emperor Jagang. |
| 510 | * SelfFulfillingProphecy: Subverted in that a character who has knowledge of prophecy explains how this might occur and how to avoid it. |
| 511 | * SelflessWish: Inverted. Richard, when faced with a SadisticChoice, chooses the selfish wish... knowing the selfless one will be granted in any case. |
| 512 | * SeriousBusiness: Within the Imperial Order, the people and the establishment alike take the sport of Ja'La very seriously. The society has virtually no social mobility, but becoming an elite player is a surefire way to gain tremendous status and glory. |
| 513 | * SexMagic: In ''Stone of Tears'' sorceresses gain subtractive magic as part of their [[DealWithTheDevil pact with the Keeper]] through having (painful) sex with a demon (he has a barbed penis). |
| 514 | * SexSlave: Confessors choose men they've confessed as mates, although the effect of the Confessor's touch means they're [[{{Brainwashed}} completely happy with this]]. The Imperial Order also enslaves many women for this use. |
| 515 | * ShirtlessScene: |
| 516 | ** In ''Stone of Tears'', Richard takes off his shirt ([[FridgeLogic while holding his sword]]) before [[spoiler: laying waste to 30 blade masters]] for "fluidity." Du Chaillu didn't really seem to mind he'd killed all five of her husbands. |
| 517 | ** In ''Faith of the Fallen'', however, he chides three local youths for not wearing shirts, since it makes them seem like thugs, and advises them to instead put proper clothes on and learn how to [[MindYourStep fix a staircase]]. |
| 518 | * SinkOrSwimMentor: The Baka Ban Mana were assigned the task of one day helping the Chosen One to unlock the full potential of the Sword of Truth. How are they to do that? Train their swordsmen to be the best fighters in the world, then sic thirty of them at the candidate. If he dies, he wasn't the man. |
| 519 | * SkipTheAnesthetic: In the first book, Kahlan is given some leaves to chew while she is having her wound treated. Upon learning it's an anesthetic, she spits the leaves out - the nature of her powers makes any loss of control too risky. |
| 520 | * SleepDeprivationPunishment: Sleep deprivation is a common tactic of Mord-Sith. Cara mentions at one point people would end up begging to be tortured instead. |
| 521 | * SleepsWithBothEyesOpen: Wizards sleep with their eyes open. We first see it with Zedd in ''Wizard's First Rule'', then in ''Stone of Tears'', it serves as another piece of proof that Richard has the gift. |
| 522 | * SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Would you believe that [[WordOfGod Goodkind]] considers this series to be firmly on the idealistic side? |
| 523 | * SoBeautifulItsACurse: Nicci. Her [[AbusiveParents mother]] [[MommyIssues told her at an early age]] that beauty is only useful to whores. Grown-up Nicci is repeatedly described as one of the most beautiful women in the whole series. |
| 524 | * SolitarySorceress: Two regulars in the series: Adie, a sorceress who helps early on and eventually becomes one of Zedd's traveling companions, and Shota, a witch who is more antisocial, telling and giving things to Richard that he doesn't like but she deems to be for his own good. |
| 525 | * SorcerousOverlord: Darken Rahl, lord of the D'Haran Empire. Later Emperor Jagang, head of the Imperial Order. Both have powerful magic and rule as brutal despots. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Some might also see]] Richard as this later on, despite him officially being the [[DesignatedHero hero]], since he becomes ruler of the D Empire and uses more than a little brutality. |
| 526 | * SplittingTheArrow: Kahlan mentions her Home Guard gives ribbons for such shots (called shaft shots). A few had half a dozen ribbons, one had ten. She herself manages such a shot after some training by Richard... who, due to his magical powers awakening, ruined a hundred arrows in a single session. |
| 527 | * StalkerWithACrush: [[spoiler:Nicci]] is a stalker with a crush on [[spoiler:Richard.]] |
| 528 | * StandardFantasySetting: The series shares some of the elements, but mainly uses them as a vehicle for its Author Tract, particularly when the latter begins to take precedence over the fantasy elements. |
| 529 | * TheStoic: Nicci . . . just ''Nicci.'' Undoubtedly the most stoic character in the entire series. After going through an insane life of hardship and self-loathing, she eventually becomes so hardened that she [[spoiler: is raped and doesn't even bother to acknowledge the person doing it.]] |
| 530 | * StoppedDeadInTheirTracks: A variant occurs in the fourth book of the series. A healer goes to see a family where the kids are sick from a plague outbreak, and the parents described the youngest child having some strange sores on her legs. The healer misses a step...they just described a variant that is 100% lethal, no exceptions. |
| 531 | * StrawCharacter: Author Creator/TerryGoodkind has done the [=strawman=] routine on everything from liberalism to socialism to traditional religion to democracy. All other ideals can only stand in the way of the true freedom that comes about under the rule of a benevolent Objectivist dictator, Richard. |
| 532 | ** Richard is opposed by pacifist terrorists who are said to be "armed with only their hatred of moral clarity" and must be ridden down by Richard to prevent them from screwing everything up. |
| 533 | ** All proponents of religion are shown to be foolish by contrast to Richard, who espouses that all must live their lives free from backwards religious beliefs because there can be no proof of life beyond death... [[FlatEarthAtheist despite having extensive personal experience with spirits]]. |
| 534 | ** One pair of villains is a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Bill and Hillary Clinton, who are killed by their own lecherous depravity. |
| 535 | ** Goodkind spares most of his straw for depictions of socialists and socialism, which is portrayed as a ludicrously harmful and illogical philosophy that does nothing but destroy the human spirit. One zealous socialist is shown to quickly drive her husband's business into the ground with her illogical socialist business practices, such as hiring random people simply because they need jobs and paying unskilled laborers as much as master craftsmen because it's "fair." |
| 536 | * StrawCivilian: People are supposed to look foolish for not joining Richard's empire and disagreeing with his strategy of total war against the Imperial Order. But look at it like this. Richard is descended from the line of the Rahls, notorious for being [[VillainousLineage crazy power hungry bastards.]] He ascended to rule the D'Haran Empire by [[{{Patricide}} killing his father.]] He continues to employ the Mord-Sith, whose primary purpose for existing is just to torture people. Most of the claims about the Imperial Order's evil initially comes from Richard and his own soldiers. And he's continuing his father's expansionist policies, and also insisting that people perform the devotion, in which they spend a total of four hours every day essentially ''praying'' to Richard. (There's a magical reason why this protects them, but most people don't know about it). He's also fond of making references to how much killing he does. Oh, and he broke a little girl's jaw. Would ''you'' trust this guy? Well you should, because he's right, and if you don't join with him the Order will kill and rape everyone in the country. Although that may happen anyway. However, Richard simply expects them to get in line without hesitation and also threatens punishment for anyone who doesn't, demanding complete surrender of everything they have into his control. Is it any wonder many refuse? The text acts like it's just them being unreasonable, but from their perspective it has to come off as very suspicious, and he does little to convince them of his benevolence. |
| 537 | * StrawMisogynist: Almost all male villains. For some specific examples, [[EvilOverlord Darken Rahl]] thinks women are hardly rational or intelligent at all, good only for having children, while the villain of ''Temple of the Winds'' is a literal misogynistic SerialKiller. Emperor Jagang seems to view them as good only for sexual abuse by him or his army (or in the case of sorceresses, also as {{slave mooks}}). |
| 538 | * SuicidalPacifism: The people of Bandakar display this, since they've taught for millennia that violence is ''always'' wrong, even to defend yourself or others. When the Imperial Order invades, they're therefore helpless and at the mercy of the soldiers who freely murder or rape people. Richard has to [[CharacterFilibuster talk people out of it]], after which many finally fight back (unrealistically well, since they never used weapons before), killing the Imperial Order soldiers with his help. |
| 539 | * SuicidalSadisticChoice: In the second book of the series, ''Stone of Tears'', Kahlan encounters a man who had just tried to kill her hanging from a ledge, about to fall to his death. She gives him the choice of taking her hand and living the rest of his life as an essentially brainwashed slave or falling to his death. He chooses the latter. |
| 540 | * SuicideAttack: Wizard's Life Fire, a spell that [[CastFromHitPoints uses the wizard's life force]] to consume their surroundings. |
| 541 | * SuicideWatch: In the third book, a seer tells Kahlan that her half-sister (who suffered a bad case of PrisonRape resulting in RapeLeadsToInsanity) is dreaming of hanging herself. She then says she'll sleep next to her this night. |
| 542 | * SummonBiggerFish: The big-time magical spells and their counters tend to work out this way. A magical plague can be cured by invoking the chimes, entities whose arrival can destroy magic entirely. The Chainfire spell, which can destroy the world, can only be countered and undone by the Boxes of Orden, which can ''also'' destroy the world. |
| 543 | * SuperBreedingProgram: It turns out that the Sisters of the Light have one. Hoping to breed more Wizards, who are dying out, the young Wizards training with them are encouraged to sire children with the Sisters of the Light (who are all sorceresses) or the {{muggle}} women in the city. In the latter case, they'll pay the mothers a stipend for raising the child. Verna had a daughter with one of the Wizards, Jedediah, who didn't have the gift and thus was given to another family. She kept in contact with her, and thus endures seeing her daughter die of old age as the Palace of the Prophets slows the Sisters' aging so they can live for centuries on end. |
| 544 | %% * SuperStrength: [[TheDragon Nicholas]] has this. |
| 545 | %% * SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom |
| 546 | * SupernaturallyYoungParent: In "Blood of the Fold", it is mentioned that Verna used to have a daughter who died of old age decades ago. Apparently, if a wizard or a sorceress in the Palace has a MuggleBornOfMages, he or she is given up for adoption. |
| 547 | * SuperpowerfulGenetics: The "gift" that enables one to use magic is hereditary, but eons of wizards killing each other have led to it becoming rarer and rarer; by this point, most children of lower-powered wizards will not be wizards themselves. The powers of a Confessor and the AntiMagic properties of the "pristinely ungifted", however, are guaranteed to be passed on to their children. |
| 548 | * TakesOneToKillOne: The D'Harans say that they are "the steel against steel so that the Lord Rahl can be the magic against magic." Since only the Lord Rahl has the ability to combat magical threats, everyone else has the duty to combat physical threats (and they tend to get concerned when he tries to deal with them himself). |
| 549 | * TakeThat: The evil politicians who are the primary villains in the fifth book are supposedly modeled on Bill and Hillary Clinton, with whom they [[SignificantMonogram share a set of initials]]. [[spoiler:They get an STD and die.]] |
| 550 | * TakingYouWithMe: |
| 551 | ** Wizard's Life Fire, where a wizard who knows he's doomed throws literally [[CastFromHitPoints everything he has]] into Wizard's Fire; one demonstration of it from a Wizard of the Second Order (considerably less powerful than Zedd) is enough to vaporize people instantly. |
| 552 | ** Kahlan also threatens to do this to [[spoiler: Nicci]], but [[NotAfraidToDie she isn't intimidated at all]]. |
| 553 | ** When Zedd is captured by the Imperial Order and forced to identify magic items, he tries to use a music box with a Sunset Spell on it in this fashion. Fortunately for him, he gets rescued in between triggering it and the explosion itself, which conveniently helps cover said escape. |
| 554 | * TautologicalTemplar: {{Discussed}} in the first book, when Zedd describes Darken Rahl's mindset as being like this. Later, however, in ''Naked Empire'', the author argues, [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality completely seriously,]] that it's not only morally permissible, but morally necessary, to kill anyone who stands in the way of protecting your own life, regardless of what other circumstances may apply. |
| 555 | * TeachHimAnger: Zedd has to do this briefly for Richard in the first book, because the Sword of Truth's magic won't work if its wielder isn't angry. |
| 556 | * TermsOfEndangerment: Jagang is very fond of calling women who oppose him "Darling." |
| 557 | * ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: Richard many times, in most of the novels. He seems incapable of feeling anger in particular without announcing it. Other emotions get this to a lesser extent. |
| 558 | * TheTimeOfMyths: The war 3000 years ago between the Old World and the New. The Keep, the Confessors, the Chimes, Chainfire, the Palace of the Prophets, the Bond with Lord Rahl, innumerable books of magic, constructed spells, the Journey Books, the Towers of Perdition, and even the [[spoiler: antagonist and the ''protagonist'']] are all remnants of that war, brought back as the last smidgeon of that war. |
| 559 | * TimeSkip: ''The Law Of Nines'', in addition to taking place [[spoiler:in the second world created by Richard at the end of Confessor]], is also set thousands of years after the main series. |
| 560 | * TitleDrop: The title of each book is mentioned conspicuously in the text, except for in ''Soul of the Fire'', the title of which bears tenuous relation at best to anything in the book. |
| 561 | * ToadLicking: In one of the novels, hallucinogenic toads are used as part of a tribal ritual, but they're not actually licked as the hallucinogens in question are transmitted through skin contact. |
| 562 | * TooDumbToLive[=/=]StupidGood: |
| 563 | ** The entire belief system of the culture that produced the evil pacifists is so absurd that only a StrawCharacter could accept it. And, indeed, many of them do get killed, because [[LawfulStupidChaoticStupid they won't fight back]] or even ''try to get out of the way'' when people with weapons are nearby and trying to kill each other. |
| 564 | ** Several Sisters of the Light show this in ''Stone of Tears'' and ''Blood of the Fold''. Taken to the full extent with [[spoiler:Pasha Maes]]. |
| 565 | * TookALevelInBadass: Richard learning the Dance With Death half way through ''Stone of Tears'' turns him from a woods guide who just happens to have a magic sword into a nearly unbeatable swordsman. |
| 566 | * TrailOfBlood: Subverted in ''Temple of the Winds''. Kahlan and Nadine are tracking a badly wounded wizard through tunnels. When they reach a fork, Nadine says they should follow the path with blood... but Kahlan points out there was no blood before the fork, so it's obviously a false lead, and they should follow the other path - where there are no people. |
| 567 | * TrainingTheGiftOfMagic: People who have the gift need training for them to use magic (this requires touching their "Han", or life force). The gifted are trained in the Palace of the Prophets. When sorceresses, this is fairly easy. However, if they're wizards this can take ''centuries''. As a result, the Palace is under a spell which stops people aging while they're there so they don't simply die of old age before this is possible. Wizards used to be trained in the Wizards' Keep, but the old wizards have died out except for Zedd by the time of the series (he's too busy to train anyone as well). |
| 568 | * TrainingThePeacefulVillagers: Richard to the Bandakarans that join him in ''Naked Empire''. It's actually surprising just how ''well'' they take to violence, considering they're taught from birth that any and all violence, even in self-defense, is wrong. |
| 569 | * TrickedToDeath: The climax of ''Wizard's First Rule'', in which [[spoiler: Richard tricks Darken Rahl into opening the box of Orden that will kill him.]] |
| 570 | * TrojanPrisoner |
| 571 | * TrueSight: The pristinely ungifted, being unable to sense magic at all, are unaffected by magical illusions. |
| 572 | * TruthSerum: This is the purpose of the Confessor's touch. It causes the person touched to feel love toward the Confessor so overwhelmingly that they will tell them anything which they did, or do anything else asked. Thus, it's used to insure a person accused of capital crimes is really guilty, gaining true confessions. |
| 573 | * UnblockableAttack: The Sword of Truth can cut through anything, so long as its wielder thinks it needs to be cut. This includes swords and armor. |
| 574 | * TheUnfettered: Creator/TerryGoodkind being the big Creator/AynRand fan that he is, the heroes of the books tend to take this view as well. There are many occasions in the series of armies winning against insurmountable odds by using absolutely any and every method they can think of, the more ruthless the better, and by being entirely uncaring of [[WeHaveReserves how bad their losses are]] as long as the enemy's are even worse. The morality of this is also [[AuthorOnBoard always stated to be impeccable]] - anyone trying to deprive you of life or freedom deserve whatever they get, and it's better to die fighting than submit to slavery. |
| 575 | * UnnamedParent: This trope is all over the place in the series, particularly in regards to mothers. To name a few unnamed mothers: [[TheHero Richard's]] mother, Kahlan's mother, [[OldMaster Zedd's]] mother, Darken Rahl's mother, Rachel's mother, Drefan's mother, Oba Rahl's mother, Jennsen's mother, Shota's mother, Chad Rencliff's mother, [[RoyalBrat Prince Fyren's]] mother, and Six's mother. There is even a point in ''Phantom'' where Goodkind goes ''out of his way'' to avoid naming a single person's mother; Richard is told his mother's name, and we aren't; we only get something like "Richard heard his mother's name." Those are nearly all {{Posthumous Character}}s though. Oba kills his in the chapter the two are introduced. |
| 576 | * {{Unperson}}: [[spoiler:The Chainfire spell]] was intended to do this to a person, [[RetGone erasing all evidence they ever existed]] and leaving them an UnusuallyUninteristingSight that people can't remember seeing or interacting with. Unfortunately, actually casting it has the rather unfortunate side effect of [[spoiler:causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]] |
| 577 | * UnstoppableRage: The Con Dar, which Kahlan goes into when [[spoiler:she thinks Richard's been killed]]. Also, Richard goes into one whenever someone threatens Kahlan. |
| 578 | * UnusualEuphemism: "Bags", commonly uttered by Zedd. It's not clear what it's a euphemism for, but he's rebuked for saying it in front of children. |
| 579 | * UnwittingPawn: Pasha Maes, manipulated by Ulicia. Later, in the ''Chainfire'' trilogy, Ulicia is the unwitting pawn of Jagang. |
| 580 | * UpgradeArtifact: In the second book, Richard is attacked by a group of expert swordsmen who are good enough that the "cut through anything" power of the Sword of Truth isn't going to be enough to save him. He then figures out a way to use the Sword of Truth to access the combined swordsmanship skills of all its former wielders, turning him into a master swordsman. |
| 581 | * UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Emperor Jagang believes that conquering the entire world and killing everyone with magic will sever the connection the [[{{God}} Creator]] and [[{{Satan}} Keeper]] have with it, allowing mankind alone to advance into a new golden age. He also believes that [[StrawmanPolitical everyone should be exactly equal and all who have any special talents should be punished for it]]. Anyone who resists this plan naturally is also killed or at least enslaved. |
| 582 | * VillainBall: |
| 583 | ** So, you've used a spell to make [[spoiler:the Mother Confessor]] lose her memory, and be the next best thing to invisible. She has no idea who you are, so you can give her any impression of who and what she's supposed to be you want. Do you A. pretend to be her friend, so as to earn her trust and make things easier for yourself, or B. treat her like shit, beat her, berate her, and threaten her, and thereby inspire her to work actively against you? If you picked A, you're smarter than the Sisters of the Dark. |
| 584 | ** In ''The Third Kingdom'', [[spoiler:newly resurrected Emperor Saluchan]] advises Hannis Arc to put down the villain ball. Arc has Richard captive, and plans to drag him around as he conquers the D'Haran Empire as a protracted revenge for the previous Rahl rulers killing his family. [[spoiler:Saluchan]] points out that as long as Richard is still alive, he'll be planning and working to stop and kill Arc -- and therefore a threat that Arc would be better off simply killing now. |
| 585 | * VillainousFaceHold: When Richard realizes the new dark sorceress everyone fears is one of his former teachers, he tells the messenger "Pray you never have to look into Nicci's eyes, Captain." We then cut to the next chapter, which starts with Nicci telling a child to look into her eyes while cupping her chin. |
| 586 | * VillainousIncest: While not outright stated, this is heavily implied to be taking place between Tobias and Lunetta Brogan, as she casts {{glamour}}s regularly on his behalf it seems. |
| 587 | * VillainessesWantHeroes: Denna, Nicci, most of the Sisters of the Dark... every evil female character at least attempts to throw themselves at Richard, either because they've fallen for him or want a child with his SuperpowerfulGenetics. |
| 588 | * ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer: The failure of pacifism in the face of brutal enemies without conscience is a main theme of ''Naked Empire''. |
| 589 | * WasOnceAMan: The mriswith and sliph were once human, turned into this by ancient wizards to use in war. |
| 590 | * WeaponOfMassDestruction: At one point, Zedd detonates what amounts to a ''[[FantasticNuke magical nuclear bomb]]'' in the middle of the Imperial Order's ranks. |
| 591 | * WeaponsBreakingWeapons: The Sword of Truth can cut through any weapon without a similar enchantment. The first time Richard uses it to kill a man, the narration describes in detail how the Sword shatters the enemy's sword... and then his skull. |
| 592 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Richard's bodyguards Ulic and Egan disappear entirely without mention after ''Temple Of The Winds'', and their sudden and [[BackForTheFinale conspicuous reappearance]] in ''Confessor'' seems to suggest Goodkind realized he'd forgotten all about them. There's also the seer girl from ''Stone of Tears'' who returns to tell the heroes ([[CharacterFilibuster at great length]]) about a city conquered by the Order in the last trilogy, then just wanders off later on, never to be referenced again. In ''Soul of the Fire'', Beata is a recurring viewpoint character with her own story arc and also one of the few to survive the events of the climax. She never shows up again. |
| 593 | * WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Snakes for Kahlan, rats for Cara, lice for Nicci. |
| 594 | * WitchHunt: The Blood of the Fold, a group from Nicobarese that believes people with magic are evil, seeks to conduct these in the eponymous book. Whenever they face ''real'' magic users (as opposed to {{muggles}} they've accused, or sympathizers) they're naturally screwed unless their leader hypocritically uses his sister (a sorceress) to even the odds. |
| 595 | * TheWitchHunter: The Blood of the Fold are an organization of these, who firmly believe {{magic is evil}} and all magic users are banelings (i.e. serve the [[GodOfEvil Keeper]]). Similarly the Imperial Order loathes magic because of the inequality it entails, though in the short term both use this out of necessity. |
| 596 | * WithUsOrAgainstUs: While they only actively try to kill the villains, Richard eventually comes to believe that if a person is unwilling to take responsibility for their life into their own hands (read: not an Objectivist), then the life of that person is expendable when it means ensuring the safety of his own people. |
| 597 | * WizardBeard: |
| 598 | ** Averted/parodied in the first book where First Wizard Zedd has no beard. Midway through the first book, Richard calls him out on this, saying that wizards are supposed to have beards, and ''everyone knows that''. Zedd plays along, and magically grows out a long white beard... then immediately shaves it off, saying he doesn't wear a beard because they're ''itchy''. He can't just remove it himself, because he only has Additive magic. |
| 599 | ** Later, it's a plot point that [[spoiler:Richard]] can both grow and remove his own beard — signifying that he can use both Additive and Subtractive magic. |
| 600 | * WizardingSchool: The Palace of the Prophets. Bonus points for being built as a spell-form, preventing the Sorceresses, Wizards, and especially the Prophets from aging, allowing them to accrue truly terrifying amounts of knowledge. Similarly, the Wizards' Keep used to be this, but slowly ran out of Wizards. |
| 601 | * WolfMan: Brophy is literally a man-sized wolf. |
| 602 | * WomanScorned: Con Dar (see also UnstoppableRage). |
| 603 | * WomenAreWiser: Only female Confessors exist, because males are unable to control their power, and caused chaos in the past using them rampantly. Ever since, they have been killed at birth to prevent this happening once again. |
| 604 | * WorldOfBadass: Every character of plot significance is more than capable of and willing to take out numerous {{Mooks}}, although detractors see it as a World Of AxCrazy due to villains tendency to KickTheDog and the heroes to ShootTheDog. |
| 605 | * WouldntHitAGirl: Deliberately averted, and for good reason. Richard notes he is quite aware that women can be just as dangerous as men. |
| 606 | * WriterOnBoard: The series began as pretty typical high fantasy, but increasingly became a vessel for the author to express his [[UsefulNotes/{{Objectivism}} Objectivist]] beliefs. For example, the central struggle in ''Faith of the Fallen'' is between free market capitalism and socialism. The main character Richard delivers a number of {{author tract}}s in which he states Goodkind's Objectivist opinions, which often contradict views the character expressed earlier in the series—or even the story's reality itself, such as claiming that belief in the afterlife is unfounded, [[FlatEarthAtheist when Richard has been there and back himself]]. The afterlife thing is particularly noteworthy, since Goodkind's attempt to justify it is more baffling than any Retcon could be. It is revealed in a later book that since [[TheMagicGoesAway the world was devoid of magic for a time]] the afterlife, magical in nature, has ceased to exist. So now belief in the afterlife is unfounded, even though it could be proven to exist before. This overwhelming change in the world and its profound impact on the human condition is mentioned exactly once, and after that all the characters behave as if they had always lived in a world where there was no life after death... and this ''still'' doesn't account for the fact Richard goes to said afterlife years ''[[PlotHole after]]'' the Chimes deprived the world of magic briefly. |
| 607 | * WrongInsultOffence: In the first book, a mob comes to Zedd's house intending to lynch him because he's a witch. He starts his dialogue with them by asking to clarify whether they want to kill him for sorcery, or simply demean him by calling him a girl. |
| 608 | * {{Xenofiction}}: At one point in ''Soul of the Fire'', the narrative briefly takes the PointOfView of a horse. |
| 609 | * YouAreWhatYouHate: Tobias Brogan, who not only hates magic and its users, but leads the Blood of the Fold, a group intent on killing them all, himself has the gift. It's a secret his mother and sister kept hidden from him all of his life. The protagonist Richard Rahl is clearly able to recognize Brogan has the gift, confusing Brogan greatly during a discussion on defeating insidious evil, and telling him "Be careful the shadow you chase is not the one you cast." Brogan explicitly does not understand what Richard is hinting at. After he finds out, [[VillainousBreakdown it drives him mad]]. |
| 610 | * YouCanSeeMe: |
| 611 | ** Kahlan's first encounter with the Pristinely Ungifted after [[spoiler:the Chainfire Event.]] She may not have said it, but she was certainly surprised. Further, the spell in question was corrupted [[spoiler:by the Chimes]], so some normal people weren't affected. Jagang realized this, and to find those people, has her ''walk naked through his camp''. The people who saw the beautiful, naked women and tried to grab her were caught by Jagang's troops and conscripted to guard Kahlan. |
| 612 | ** In a curious inversion, Adie is blind but sees using magic. She encounters a pristinely ungifted person, and she hears them but can't see them, and is thoroughly disturbed. |
| 613 | * YouJustToldMe: |
| 614 | ** Used a few times in the first book. |
| 615 | ** Also inverted once. A man entreats Richard and Kahlan to follow them, saying it was sent by their friend, the wizard. Richard instinctively asks "Zedd?" and the man responds in the affirmative. But while they're following him, Richard notices something's off, and demands the man tell them their friend's name. The man repeats that it's Zedd, at which point Richard points out he'd know that because Richard told him, and demands the wizard's ''full'' name. The man is then revealed as a shapeshifting creature. |
| 616 | * YouWillKnowWhatToDo: Richard often knows instinctively what to do to solve problems or use his powers. It's subverted in the second book, however. Prophecy was counting on Richard grabbing a certain item from Adie's house in the first book because he would have a feeling about it. Instead, the feeling just made Richard uneasy about the item, and he left it right where it was. |
| 617 | [[/folder]] |
| 618 |
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