Line #260 Literature/TheEdgeChronicles


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/101842247_7289.jpg]]
2
3	->''Far far away, jutting out into the emptiness beyond, like the figurehead of a mighty stone ship, is the Edge.''
4
5	''The Edge Chronicles'' is a [[MiddleGradeLiterature middle grade]] series written by Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell. Surprisingly dark and cynical for its target audience, the novels take place on the Edge, as in [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the edge of the world]]. The series is filled with {{sky pirate}}s, bizarre wildlife, and an aversion of many stock fantasy tropes.
6
7	It consists of trilogies (each centered around a certain character) and some additional novels and side-stories.
8
9	The first trilogy stars Twig.
10	* ''Beyond the Deepwoods'' (1998)
11	* ''Stormchaser'' (1999)
12	* ''Midnight over Sanctaphrax'' (2000)
13
14	The second centers on Rook Barkwater.
15	* ''The Last of the Sky Pirates'' (2002)
16	* ''Vox'' (2003)
17	* ''Freeglader'' (2004)
18
19	The third ({{prequel}}) trilogy stars Quint.
20	* ''The Curse of the Gloamglozer'' (2001)
21	* ''The Winter Knights'' (2005)
22	* ''Clash of the Sky Galleons'' (2006)
23
24	Next up in the main series is ''The Immortals'' (2009), a novel set about 500 years after ''Freeglader'' which wraps up the first three trilogies. A fourth trilogy takes place after ''The Immortals'' and stars a lad named Cade.
25	* ''The Nameless One'' (2014)
26	* ''Doombringer'' (2015)
27	* ''The Descenders'' (2019)
28
29	Supplementary books and material include:
30	* ''The Edge Chronicles Maps'' (2004)
31	* ''The Lost Barkscrolls'' (2006), a short story collection.
32	* "Weird New Worlds" (2009-11), a story in blog form which takes place after ''The Immortals''.
33	* ''The Sky Chart: A Book of Quint'' (2014), taking place after the Quint trilogy.
34	----
35	!!Tropes Used:
36	* ActionGirl: Eudoxia in 'The Immortals'. Varis and Magda in the Rook Trilogy. Maris could also qualify, but most of her action is off-screen between the Quint and Twig Trilogies.
37	** The Cade Saga gives us Celestia Helmstoft and Whisp.
38	* AerithAndBob: There aren't many Twigs, Quints, Rooks, Xanths, or Cowlquapes running around, but "Nate" and "Cade" are perfectly common names in our world -- and they share their stories with Eudoxia, Ambris, Blatch, Drax, Quove, Celestia...
39	* AfterTheEnd: Each Age of Flight ends with an apocalyptic event that radically reshapes life on the Edge. Undertown is a thriving city at the beginning, but when the characters in ''The Immortals'' visit, it's a weed-choked ruin.
40	* AgeGapRomance: Maugin, Twig's ImpliedLoveInterest, is old enough to have known him as a baby and may be older than that. However, due to her species's odd biology, she'll never age beyond her teens.
41	* AlasPoorVillain:
42	** [[FatBastard Vox Verlix]]. He's hardly the worst villain in ''Vox'' and, whilst he was definately a {{Jerkass}} when he was younger, he only really becomes a villain because he has been betrayed by everyone he has ever worked with. In the end he dies a broken old man with his palace falling to pieces around him, betrayed once again - this time by the one person he thought was actually on his side. It is also interesting to note that the name of this book is ''Vox'' rather than, say, ''Rook''.
43	** To a lesser extent, Screed Toe-Taker. His final words, and [[GoOutWithASmile his final smile]], are a poignant contrast to his 20-odd years of murder. Then you meet him as a noble young man in The Winter Knights, and his final fate seems [[HarsherInHindsight even more]] [[DoomedByCanon tragic]].
44	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Mostly averted. Even some of the more aggressive species, such as shrykes, flat-head goblins, and termagant trogs have individuals who side with the heroes, and most races have both good and evil members.
45	* AmazonBrigade: Shrykes.
46	* AmbitiousButLazy: [[BitchInSheepsClothing Thaw Daggerslash]] is a particularly dark version. Whilst a charming, capable, and dedicated SkyPirate who possesses a variety of useful skills, with great ambitions to be captain of his own great sky ship and become a legend in his own right, he's never succeeded as he is unwilling to start at the bottom and work his way up to become Captain as is tradition. [[spoiler: As such he masterminds a ruthless plan to murder Captain Wind Jackal, by impersonating his hated archenemy Turbolt Smeal and luring him and his crew into increasingly dangerous traps, all whilst he ingratiates himself to said crew, thus when Wind Jackal dies he can take over. When this gambit fails and the crew instead chooses Wind Jackal's son Quint, Thaw flat [[TheQuisling out aligns]] with the dreaded [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Leaguemasters]] to help them wipe out all the sky pirates, as long as they give him the ship after the crew's killed.]]
47	* AndroclesLion: Twig gains the friendship of all banderbears after helping one with a rotten tooth.
48	** Subsequently, Rook [[spoiler:also becomes a friend of banderbears after rescuing one from an evil slave-employing factory.]]
49	** Nate in ''The Immortals'' [[spoiler:also becomes a friend to banderbears after helping one with a rotten tooth, by using the Riverrise water he purchased to use on himself.]]
50	* AnyoneCanDie: As long as they aren't the main character, although the main character of one trilogy can die in the next.
51	* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Vilnix Pompolnius to the Professor of Darkness.
52	* ArcWords:
53	** In ''Stormchaser:'' "A quest is a quest for ever."
54	** In ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax:'' "Dawn over Riverrise. [[TitleDrop Midnight over Sanctaphrax.]]"
55	** In ''Freeglader:'' "Friends of the harvest!"
56	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: In ''The Immortals'', Brack is charged with fraud, embezzlement, blackmail, smuggling, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit murder, and short-shrifting a sports team.
57	-->"Arrest?" said [[spoiler:[[JerkAss Felftis Brack]]]] cooly, backing away. "On what charges?"\
58	"Charges of fraud, embezzlement, blackmail, smuggling, false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit murder..."\
59	''[[spoiler:Brack]] tries to flee, but runs into some sports players he hired and never paid, who throw him into a lake''\
60	"...And non-payment of the New Lake thousandsticks team," finished the constable.
61	* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler: Cloud Wolf. Also Twig and Rook, eventually.]]
62	* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: The Gloamglozer claims to Quint that he cannot be destroyed as long as spite, cruelty, ignorance and petty vice exist in the hearts of mortals.
63	-->"So long as the strong pick on the weak, so long as fear is valued above tenderness, so long as hatred, envy, and mistrust divide the various creatures of the Edge, then I am indestructible!"
64	* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Xanth Filatine]] becomes this during the entire Rook trilogy. He starts his HeelFaceTurn by saving Magda from the Guardians of Night, then works as hard as anyone to establish and defend the Freeglades.
65	* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: The Cloud Eater is easily the biggest monster in the series, making Quint's sky ship look like a toy.
66	* AwesomeMcCoolName: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] and [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with sky pirates. Generally, the cooler the name, the less impressive they are. Thus the relatively restrained Cloud Wolf is highly competent and respected, while the flashy Thunderbolt Vulpoon is a cowardly slaver.
67	** Played straight with Thunderbolt's son Deadbolt Vulpoon, who proves awesome enough to match his name.
68	* BabiesEverAfter: Since it's a family saga, every main character has least one kid -- [[spoiler:Quint with Maris, Twig with Sinew, Rook with Magda, and Xanth with an unnamed woman.]] The current final scene of the series ends with [[spoiler:Cade and Celestia's firstborn being named [[BookEnds Twig.]]]]
69	* BadassBookworm: Badass Scholars, really, but: ''Librarian Knights'' and ''Knights Academic''. Ambris Hentadile also deserves a mention, as does Bungus Septrill.
70	* BadassFamily: The Verginix family. For five generations, they fight on the frontlines of every conflict that wracks the Edge, tangling directly with massive armies and supernatural threats. Their descendants are still up to it five centuries later.
71	** The Pentephraxis family also count, though they're mostly evil except for [[TokenGoodTeammate Cowlquape]].
72	* BatmanGambit:
73	** Twig offers Mother Horsefeather the secret of safe phraxdust production in exchange for a ship, a hefty payment, and forgiveness of his father's debts. Predictably, she pays up immediately, expecting to become rich from cornering the water market. [[spoiler:Until Twig distributes the secret recipe to everyone in Undertown, leaving Horsefeather out a massive amount of money with nothing to show for it.]]
74	** Vox Verlix and the Librarians conspire to lure their enemies into the sewers and destroy them with the Dark Maelstrom, knowing that both the goblins and shrikes will leap at the chance to wipe out the Library. [[spoiler:Becomes a GambitPileup when Vox double-crosses the Librarians, preying on their trusting natures to leave them in the Maelstrom's path as well.]]
75	* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: When it becomes clear that stone-sickness will destroy all their flight-rocks sooner or later, the sky pirate captains make a pact to purposely scuttle their own ships, forming an entirely new settlement in the Mire.
76	* BewareTheNiceOnes: The low-bellied goblins are one of the more peaceful species in a brutal world, but drive them too far and they can turn nasty. [[spoiler:When the clan leaders push them one time too many, the peaceable Lob and Lummel start a revolt that decapitates all five.]]
77	* BigBad: For the series as a whole, the Gloamglozer. Through its hatred of the Verginix line and its indirect creation of stone-sickness, it's responsible for the conflicts of nearly half the novels.
78	** Vilnix Pompolnius, the scheming, undeserving Most High Academe, in ''Stormchaser''.
79	** Orbix Xaxis, the fanatical Guardian of Night in ''The Last of the Sky Pirates'' and ''Vox''.
80	** Hemuel Spume, the destructive captain of industry in ''Freeglader''.
81	* TheBigDamnKiss: Maris gives Quint a surprise NowOrNeverKiss just before the climax of ''Clash of the Sky Galleons'' before following his request that she save herself and leave him behind.
82	* BilingualDialogue: Any and all conversations involving Banderbears.
83	* BirdPeople: The Shrikes, of the flightless variety.
84	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'' and the Twig trilogy as a whole. Twig remains a sky pirate, Cowlquape becomes Most High Academe, and the Mother Storm will rejuvinate the Edge. However, they had to sacrifice Sanctaphrax to do it, and Maugin and the others are stranded at Riverrise. Tips over into a full-on HappyEndingOverride by the Rook Trilogy.]]
85	* BitchInSheepsClothing:
86	** Slyvo Spleethe when he's trying to get Twig to stow away on Cloud Wolf's stormchasing voyage. Subverted in that Twig, [[ObviouslyEvil like everybody else]], already knows Spleethe is bad news -- but the cunning Spleethe catches him at an emotional low point and showers him with kindness.
87	** Thaw Daggerslash. He's all smiles and compliments at first glance, but he's a slimy schemer who will do anything to get a great sky ship of his own.
88	* BizarreSexualDimorphism:
89	** Female Termagant Trogs are hulking, ill-tempered bald amazons, while their male counterparts are small, skinny, and passive.
90	** Shrykes play on the reality that females are larger than males in many predatory bird species by having the females being large, fierce and very aggressive. Males, or "shryke-mates", are invariably referred to as "weedy" or "pitiful", and are usually pictured as scrawny little things being hauled around on collars.
91	* BloodlessCarnage: Averted. From the very beginning, Riddell's illustrations include all the blood, with [[spoiler:the murder of Spiker]] standing out.
92	* BodyHorror: Hoverworm venom makes you inflate like a ballon, float into the sky, and eventually pop. Also noteworthy is the fate of [[spoiler:Hax Vostillix]] in ''The Winter Knights'': [[spoiler:tricked into eating woodwasp eggs, which hatch inside him and sting their way out.]]
93	* BookEnds: The series begins and ends with [[spoiler:the birth of a baby named Twig.]]
94	* BreakingOldTrends: After three trilogies that follow the three-books-per-character rule, ''The Immortals'' contains an entire saga in a single mammoth tome. It's also the first book where the chapters don't have names.
95	* BreatherEpisode:
96	** Between the bloody battle with Screed and the desperate flight back to Undertown, Twig and Maugin spend a relatively relaxing couple of weeks fixing up an old sky-ship.
97	** Rook, Magda, Xanth, and Stob's training at the New Great Library in ''The Last of the Sky Pirates.''
98	** Nate's time in Great Glade is far more relaxing than both his mining career and his visits to the other cities.
99	* BrickJoke:
100	** Overlapping with ContinuityNod. The League-Master's round table is seen in Stormchaser first, and gets shattered by a falling weight near the start of ''Midnight over Sanctaphrax''. In ''Vox'', several books later, Rook finds himself in the palace, and notices an odd round table, that had at one point been snapped in half and then crudely bolted back together.
101	** Happens again in ''Vox'' and ''The Immortals''. Vox Verlix has the head of his own statue hurled through one of the skylights in the Palace of Shadows in ''Vox'', and it reappears in ''The Immortals'' when Nate goes to meet his mother's brother, the Professor of Flight, who is apparently related to the lesser-known half of the Verlix clan. The Professor states that it was dug out of a pile of broken masonry in Old Undertown (the ruin of the Palace of Statues).
102	* TheBully: Vox Verlix in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'' and Branxford Drew in ''The Immortals''.
103	* TheBusCameBack:
104	** [[spoiler:Tem Barkwater eventually makes it out of the Twilight Woods.]]
105	** A retroactive example with Tweezel, who plays a supporting role in the Quint trilogy, and disappears after Twig's birth, and subsequently goes unmentioned in his books written before Quint's. He appears in brief but important roles in the Rook Trilogy and ''The Slaughterer's Quest''.
106	* CallARabbitASmeerp: The first few books were chock full of original creatures with a light smattering of MixAndMatchCritters, but as the series progressed the number of normal animals with "wood" tacked onto the beginning of the name increased. Woodbees, woodturkeys, woodwolves...that said, a steadily growing number of races and creatures still popped up as the books went on.
107	* CentralTheme: Continuity and change. While the Edge is rocked by several upheavals and long-term changes, every age has an organization dedicated to the noble pursuit of knowledge, from the Knights Academic to the Descenders. The end of ''The Descenders'' reveals that [[spoiler:the Edge is sustained by a continual cycle of glisters and stormphrax.]]
108	* ChasteHero: Nobody goes beyond kissing on the page. However, given the amount of BabiesEverAfter, it's safe to assume the Verginix-Barkwater boys always figure out what to do sooner or later.
109	* ChekhovsGun: Quint's portrait, more than once. It plays an important part in [[spoiler: the Quint and Rook trilogies, ''The Slaughterer's Quest'', and ''The Immortals''.]]
110	* AChildShallLeadThem: [[spoiler:Twig, when he becomes captain of the ''Stormchaser'' crew.]]
111	** [[spoiler:Ditto Cowlquape, who becomes Most High Academe as a teenager... and it very quickly goes badly for him.]]
112	* ChildSoldiers: The series ''loves'' this trope. We have the academics-at-arms in the Quint trilogy, the Librarian Knights and some of the Freeglade Lancers in the Rook trilogy, and at one point Nate and Eudoxia (and probably some others) in ''The Immortals''. Results in a case of FridgeHorror when you read about the [[CruelAndUnusualDeath horrible fates]] some of them suffer and then remember how old they are.
113	* CoolShip: All the sky-ships are awesome, but special mention has to go to the Skytaverns of the Third Age, which ferry thousands of passengers across the Deepwoods with the power of stormphrax alone.
114	* ContinuityNod:
115	** All over ''The Immortals''. For example, the scene where Nate meets Weelum is very similar to the one in ''Beyond the Deepwoods'' where Twig meets the first banderbear to appear in the series.
116	** Another example appears in the final story in ''The Lost Barkscrolls'' anthology, when the main characters visit the ruins of the Foundry Glades and find [[spoiler: the skeleton of Amberfuce in the cauldron he was boiled alive in at the end of ''Freeglader''.]]
117	** A subtle one in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'' when Flabsweat, a minor character in the previous book, gets a passing mention.
118	** Played with in ''The Last of the Sky Pirates''. When Rook is talking to Deadbolt Vulpoon, the latter mentions how his father gave his life to save Twig in the last trilogy. [[spoiler: It didn't quite happen like that.]]
119	* ContinuityPorn: The Quint Trilogy is stuffed with nods to later developments and characters that only become relevent in the Twig books set a generation later. From the Glomeglozer itself, to the rise of Vilnix's rivalry with Quint, mentions of Stormchasing for Stormphrax, the mythical city of Riverise, down to Wind Jackel leading woodtrolls off the path of the Deepwoods.
120	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Every Leaguesmaster in Undertown. They have no interest in doing an honest business or selling good products, and spend most of their time grasping after more money and power.
121	* CorruptQuartermaster: Slyvo Spleethe and Turbot Smeal. The quartermasters are the one doing back-alley deals with the Leaguemaster and have a lot of opportunities to betray their crew.
122	* CrapsackWorld: Welcome to the Edge! You can live in the Deepwoods, a DeathWorld full of EverythingTryingToKillYou, or cross [[FateWorseThanDeath the Twilight Woods]] and [[SwampsAreEvil the Mire]] to the WretchedHive of Undertown, where slavery is only ''technically'' illegal, and openly practiced outside of it. Trade can only be accomplished through over-priced deals with corrupt Leaguesman ships, or bardered with by Sky Pirates, who have fifty-fifty odds of dealing fairly, or ambushing your community for slave labor and supplies. If you're lucky enough to make the cut as a Sanctaphrax academic, enjoy working at a university where ChronicBackstabbingDisorder appears to be a minimum job requirement, while a skism between Earth and Sky Schollars threatens to boil into cival war, and has done so already.
123	** Things only go FromBadToWorse by the Second Age, when Stone Sickness makes any large ships impossible to fly, Sanctaphrax, the greatest source of knowledge in the Edge is lost to Open Sky, the Earth Schollars have fled into hiding in Undertown for their survival, the Sky Schollars have become radicalized into a cult that will do anything to bring a Great Storm back, while the shryke and gobblin nations have arisen to enslave many of the free peoples of the Deepwoods. Then a FantasticNuke destroys Undertown...
124	** Things are much better by the Third Age, where the Edge seems to finally be developing a comfortable middle class, but you've still got two of the three cities run by dictators and the other by a greedy merchant oligarchy, slavery is still practiced in shady corners away from civilization, the phrax mines are harsh and lead to debilitating sickness, gangs of thugs and spies loyal to Quove Lentis traffic supplies and victims across the Edge in Skytaverns if you can't afford the price, while technological progress has enabled weaponry on a scale that makes combat in the first two Ages of Flight primitive in comparison.
125	* CreatingLifeIsBad: Trying to create life is a very bad idea:
126	** It may [[GoneHorriblyRight go horribly right]], and [[spoiler:not only will the result will be murderously insane, it will summon a continent-sized space whale that will suck all the heat out of the world unless you feed it a piece of crystallized lightning]]. It gets worse when we learn about [[spoiler: stone sickness, which causes stone everywhere to crumble to dust which eventually spells the end of society as many know it]], in the Rook trilogy
127	** Or, it may [[GoneHorriblyWrong go horribly wrong]], and you get [[spoiler:the Blood-Red Glister, an EldritchAbomination tentacle monster that will suck out your emotions and strength and leave you an empty shell]] (and get the same [[spoiler: space whale side effect as previously mentioned]].
128	* DarkerAndEdgier: The series itself is much harsher than the majority of childrens' literature. PlotArmor is averted for secondary characters, death is sudden and can come at any moment, prejudice, racism, and xenophobia persist across all races, GrayAndGrayMorality abounds, and even the kindest characters cannot be pacifists and must kill to survive. You'll notice this if you read in publication order. The Twig books are dark enough, with serial murders, slavery, and [[spoiler:an apocalyptic threat that can only be averted by destroying an entire city.]] But then the Second Age (Rook Trilogy) massively dials up the scale of suffering, especially ''Vox'', which may hold the record for the highest body count of any single installment in a middle-grade fantasy. Stories set in this period are full of moments where children and adults alike fight on the frontlines, violence is very heavily described and occasionally illustrated, with anti-capitalist themes and classism in full force.
129	* DarkIsNotEvil: The Slaughterers and the Professor of Darkness sound like evil people...but the Slaughterers are merely the red-colored, happy-go-lucky professional butchers of the Edgewoods, while the Professor of Darkness studies literal darkness (as in, the absence of light). Even when the Professor of Darkness [[spoiler:becomes Twig's final obstacle before saving the Edge by cutting Sanctaphrax loose, he's doing it to defend the city he loves, not for any overtly evil reasons.]]
130	* DeathWorld: The Deepwoods especially, but the entire Edge can be considered this, from a filthy bog full of predators to a forest that turns you into a zombie, to the dozens of races fighting for survival, and the Nightwoods, home to even harsher creatures. [[WretchedHive Even the towns are almost like this.]] So everyone in the series is living on the [[StealthPun edge]] of disaster. When the Descenders eventually start to climb down the Edge itself, conditions are even worse...
131	* DecapitationPresentation:
132	** [[spoiler: The goblin clan leaders get all their heads on a pike and shown as part of the goblins surrender to the Freegladers.]] They deserved it.
133	** [[spoiler: The same thing happens to Kulltuft Warhammer in ''The Immortals'', except this time it is presented in a far more negative light. The culprit is even sentenced to capital punishment by being thrown over a waterfall in a barrel.]]
134	* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: Are they ever! If by some miracle a main character's parents are still around when the story begins, you can bet they probably won't make it to the end of the trilogy.
135	* DefrostingIceQueen:
136	** Maris's attitude toward Quint in ''Curse of the Gloamglozer''.
137	** [[spoiler:Maugin, the stone pilot, is a Zig-Zagged example.]] In ''Beyond the Deepwoods'' the stone pilot never speaks, just grunted when moving the flight rock, We never even found out if they were male or female, due to the wording of the text. And that was it until they got to the mire in Stormchaser. [[spoiler: Once she started actually talking to Twig, it became apparent she had plenty of reasons to hide her face. Nevertheless she still becomes more open in general;]] And doesn't hesitate to ditch the suit in front of Twig's crew, as opposed to wearing it all the time aboard the Stormchaser.
138	** A lighter example with Celestia in ''The Nameless One'', who teasingly calls Cade "city boy" for his inexperience living in the Farrow Ridges, until he builds his own dwelling and shows he can rough it as good as the other settlers. They quickly become close friends thereafter.
139	* DerelictGraveyard: The Armada of the Dead, a town created out of sky ships scuttled by their own captains in the wake of stone-sickness.
140	* TheDevilIsALoser: The Gloamglozer is a CaptainErsatz of {{Satan}}, and all he's interested in is playing petty (albeit deadly) tricks on people. Averted later when he's much more dangerous in subsequent portrayals.
141	* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Minor example between Twig and [[spoiler: Maugin]] in ''Stormchaser''. While trapped in the Mire, Twig and [[spoiler: the Stone Pilot]] work on making a wrecked ship skyworthy again. After several days' hard work, the pair sit down to enjoy dinner for the evening, whereupon she spots a shooting star and tells Twig to make a wish, to which he responds that he already has. It's later revealed that his wish was for them to return to the skies, but the framing of the scene suggests that he may have kissed her, at least.
142	* DirtyCommunists: Averted with the Freeglades. If this series was written during the Cold War, it might have been called Communist propaganda. Though they're not really affiliated with Soviet Russia per se in any way, the Freeglades' society is basically ''[[{{Utopia}} communism that works]]'' -- everybody works honestly, money has been made unnecessary, and everyone is happy. (By contrast, ''many'' of the villains are ruthless capitalists.)
143	* DisappearsIntoLight: The ultimate fate of [[spoiler:Twig, Quint, and Rook, who are reborn as glisters after defeating the original Gloamglozer.]]
144	* DiscOneFinalDungeon: The Tower of Night, as classic an evil fortress as there ever was, [[spoiler:is utterly obliterated two-thirds of the way through the Rook trilogy.]]
145	* {{Doorstopper}}: The Immortals is essentially a sequence of four novels (one for each city; Great Glade, Hive, Riverrise, and the Edge[[spoiler:/Old Sanctaphrax]]) all bound together as a single book.
146	** The special editions of each trilogy in one volume count too.
147	* DisneyVillainDeath: Several times.
148	** Vilnix Pompolnius in ''Stormchaser''.
149	** Imbix Hoth and Ruptus Pentephraxis in ''Clash of the Sky Galleons.''
150	** Branxford Drew in ''The Immortals.''
151	* DistantSequel: ''The Immortals'' takes place five hundred years after all previous installments.
152	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Hax Vostillix's persecutions of the Earth Scholars have a distinct flavor of [=McCarthyism=].
153	* DwindlingParty: in ''Stormchaser''. [[spoiler: Twig, the Stone Pilot, and Cloud Wolf are the only crewmembers to survive the book - and Cloud Wolf doesn't last much longer.]]
154	* {{Dystopia}}: New Undertown. Not that the old one was great, but your options in the Second Age are to get enslaved and worked to death, or hope you can escape to a precarious existence in the Freeglades.
155	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The very first book, ''Beyond the Deepwoods,'' consists entirely of Twig getting in and out of various scrapes as he wanders the Deepwoods. The darkness and complexity of the Edge don't really start to come through until the second installment, ''Stormchaser''.
156	* EldritchAbomination:
157	** The Rogue Glister in ''Curse of the Gloamglozer.''
158	** Subverted with the Gloamglozer itself -- while it's one of the few overtly magical beings in the Edge, its motivations (spite and hatred) are recognizable to any human.
159	** The Cloudeater in ''The Winter Nights'' might quality.
160	* EldritchLocation: The Twilight Woods are heavily implited to be [[GeniusLoci intelligent and malicious]], and cover over their reeking decay with a beautiful glamour.
161	* EnchantedForest: The Deepwoods, the Twilight Woods, and the Nightwoods are all different variants of this trope.
162	** The Twilight Woods are shrouded in eternal twilight and slowly erase the memories and sense of self of those who cross them. Anyone who loses their path will wander in the forest forever.
163	** The Deepwoods are an ''enormous'' coniferous forest (later books show that they take up far more territory than all other lands in the Edge combined) and are teeming with dangerous peoples, monstrous predators and [[ManEatingPlant carnivorous plants]].
164	** The Nightwoods are a forest beyond even the Deepwoods, dark and deadly and full of vicious waifs, found on the other side of the [[TheHedgeOfThorns Thorn Forests]]. An extremely dangerous crossing of the Nightwoods is also the only way to reach the legendary land of Riverrise.
165	* EvenEvilHasStandards: The fact the slavery is illegal is really the only limit on the Leagues' power in Undertown, although some still keep slaves anyway.
166	* EvilGenius: Vox Verlix, [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation though it's debatable]] whether he was truly evil or just oblivious.
167	* EvilPlan: A consistent hallmark of the villains. From Slyvo Spleethe all the way down to Quove Lentis, nearly every baddie is either pursuing a long-term scheme or enjoying the fruits of one.
168	* EvilTowerOfOminousness: The Tower of Night.
169	* EmotionEater: The Gloamglozer and the glisters, especially the [[EldritchAbomination Rogue Glister]].
170	* EnemyCivilWar: In ''Vox'', the goblins and shrykes hate each other almost as much as they hate the good guys.
171	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: That more or less sums up the plot of the first book.
172	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Guess what Screed Toe-Taker's gimmick is.
173	* EyeScream: The mutant glister from ''Curse of the Gloamglozer'' attacks its victims by holding them down and forcing tendrils into their eyes. [[SarcasmMode Surprisingly]], it's quite painful.
174	* FantasticRacism: Of an interestingly systemic rather than the usual overt variety. It's rarely remarked upon, but in the First and Second Ages, all positions of power and influence are held by the human-like fourthlings.
175	** A more straight case comes from Golderayce in ''The Immortals,'' who believes only the waifs have the right to access the powers of Riverrise.
176	* FatBastard: Vox Verlix and Simenon Xintax.
177	* FateWorseThanDeath: The Twilight Woods make you both immortal and insane. Falling over the Edge is actually seen as a preferable alternative.
178	* FeatheredFiend: Shrykes. Vulpoons are also unpleasant.
179	* FirstGirlWins: [[spoiler:Maris, Sinew, Magda, Eudoxia, and Celestia.]]
180	* FloatingContinent: Sanctaphrax, though it's only a city.
181	** The Edge itself has many of the characteristics of one. Though it's technically attached to solid ground, it's so large -- and the ground so far below -- that it might as well be floating.
182	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Many times.
183	** One example comes when Twig tries heartcharming in ''Beyond the Deepwoods''. The idea is that a stick placed in the middle of a drawn heart falls to point towards his destiny. Instead it stays pointing upwards. This is pointed out later when Twig meets the sky pirates.
184	** We meet Screed Toe-Taker several chapters before Twig does, as he strands and massacres a family of innocent goblin migrants.
185	** The ''Winter Knights'' has a scene in the Loftus Observatory that foreshadows both [[spoiler: The Cloudeater]] and Maris and Quint [[spoiler: nearly falling to their death]]
186	** Throughout ''Clash of the Sky Galleons'', we see pieces of the Bringer of Doom being made. One is even a Chekhov's Gun for its eventual destruction. Also, almost every appearance of Thaw Daggerslash gives clues that he isn't as charming as he acts at first. TheReveal at the end is really no surprise at all when it comes.
187	** ''The Last of the Sky Pirates'' has a scene early on that reveals Twig left for parts unknown instead of scuttling his ship.
188	** The fireball that hits Rook in ''Vox'' [[spoiler: is actually a prototype of the real weapon Vox intends to use to destroy Undertown and New Sanctaphrax.]]
189	** Quint/Cloud Wolf is absorbed into the Mother Storm in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'', hinting at the ending of ''The Immortals'': not only will [[spoiler:his son and great-grandson share the same fate, but the effect can happen in reverse -- and will do so to deal the final blow against the original Gloamglozer.]] Without the initial loss of Quint, the finale of Nate saga would come across as far more of a GainaxEnding.
190	* ForgottenFallenFriend:
191	** Rudd the cloddertrog in ''The Immortals'', who looked out for Nate in the mining stockade ever since his father died, is killed watching his back in a bar fight gone horribly wrong, and is mentioned maybe twice, if that, in the rest of the book.
192	** Cloud Wolf's original crew. [[spoiler: They die/get lost in [[FateWorseThanDeath the Twilight Woods]] one by one during Stormchaser except for the Stone Pilot. Only Tem is ever mentioned again.]]
193	** Averted with Twig's crew. He ''never'' forgets any of them, and it's clear how guilty he feels about their fates.
194	* ForTheEvulz: The reason the Gloamglozer does anything. It feeds on emotions of other but fear and despair is what tastes the best for him.
195	* GambitPileUp: In Vox, all the enemy factions make their move at the same time to kill the librarians and each other; the librarians survive because the others were lured into a trap by the eponymous character. [[spoiler: In the end, however, Vox himself is out-gambitted by the two he trusted the most.]]
196	* GentleGiant: Any banderbear.
197	* GhostTown: Screetown in the Rook Barkwater stories - Felix Lodd's group of freedom fighters even get called "the Ghosts of Screetown".
198	* GodEmperor: The immortal dictator of Riverrise, Golderayce One-Eye.
199	* GodzillaThreshold: Twig and Cowlquape come to terms remarkably quickly with the idea of [[spoiler:cutting Sanctaphrax loose from the edge, which Twig spent all of ''Stormchaster'' trying to prevent]] -- because the alternative, [[spoiler:life on the Edge withering away]], would be far worse.
200	* GoneHorriblyRight: Linius Pallitax's research in the Ancient Laboratory. Like [[Literature/{{Frankenstein}} Victor Frankenstein before him]], he's excited by the process of creating life, but horrified by the results.
201	* GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler:The Gloamglozer]] to the Rook trilogy, as it's revealed in ''The Immortals'' that he was the cause of stone sickness.
202	* HappyEndingOverride: The Quint trilogy ends with Quint and Maris in love and excited about their future as Knights Academic. Come the start of the Twig trilogy, they've been forced to abandon their first child, which led to their marriage falling apart. [[spoiler:Eventually, Quint vanishes into the Great Storm without ever learning that Maris found new happiness as the mother of the Free Glades.]]
203	** At the end of ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'', Twig is an established sky pirate like he's always wanted, and his friend Cowlquape is Most High Academe of the new Sanctaphrax. By the Rook Trilogy, [[spoiler:a frustrated Twig has spent decades wandering the Deepwoods without being able to return to Riverrise, while Cowlquape has been imprisoned in the Tower of Night.]]
204	** Rook averts this, becoming the first Verginix descendent in generations to see his children grow up. But even he's not immune. [[spoiler:Near the end of his natural life, he visits Riverrise and spends 500 years imprisoned there by Golderayce One-Eye.]]
205	** Happens yet again in the Cade Trilogy, when Nate's research on the underside of the Edge tears him away from his beloved Eudoxia for fourteen years.
206	* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Xanth Filatine.]]
207	* HiddenElfVillage: Woodtroll and Slaughterer villages can only be visited by outsiders in sky-ships, and are apparently quite hard to find even then. They also provide some of the few sanctuaries in [[DeathWorld the Deepwoods.]]
208	* HorseOfADifferentColor: Prowlgrins are the most widely-used riding animals on the Edge, though as bipedal, carnivorous, tree-dwelling... things they are in all other respects ''completely'' unlike horses.
209	* HotbloodedSideburns: Chris Riddell seems to be fond of these.
210	* HumansAreWhite: All fourthlings seen in the series have Caucasian features.
211	* HumansByAnyOtherName: It's a little more complicated -- the books eventually explain that they're essentially what you get when you add up all the many peoples of the Edge and take an average -- but fourthlings are essentially this.
212	* HumanSubspecies: Fourthlings aren't exactly human, but they're able to have viable offspring with Slaughterers, who are always described as a different subspecies altogether.
213	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Happens to one of the waif guides on the Thorn Trail. It's implied that he's not the only one.
214	* ImprobableAge: Each trilogy focuses on a character in their early teens saving, if not always the world, then at least their home city.
215	* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: What drives Vilnix. Born as a nobody in the Undercity, he is hellbent on gaining status and respect, and getting back at whoever has [[EvilIsPetty slighted him]] or he thinks looks down on him.
216	* InterspeciesAdoption: Twig is raised by Woodtrolls, and his grandson Rook was [[spoiler:briefly fostered by Banderbears as a baby.]]
217	* {{Irony}}: The title character of ''Vox'' is both High Leaguesmaster of Undertown and Most High Academe of Sanctaphrax, yet has no power at all outside his own palace.
218	* IWasNamedMyName: An understandably rare human example where Twig is captured as a pet for a Termagant Trog, while pretending to be unable to speak he starts chanting "Twig, Twig, Twig." which causes her to decide this is a good name for him.
219	* JerkAss: Vilnix Pompolnius is probably the best and most obvious example. He spent his days at the knight's academy alienating everyone, sabotaging and poisoning fellow students for fun and even killed someone in the most horrible way. When he becomes Most High Academe, he wears nails in his shoes and other uncomfortable clothes in order to retain the jerkassery that brought him to power.
220	* JerkassHasAPoint: Wind Jackal tells Quint that this is the point of a good quartermaster. They're always complaining and making steep demands, but these are needed to keep the more adventurous Sky Pirate captains grounded and get the ship what it needs. They grumble and complain because they know what's best for their ship and they're usually right.
221	* JusticeByOtherLegalMeans: Vilnix in ''The Winter Knights'' conceals his wrongdoing well enough that Quint and Maris can't have him arrested for murder, attempted murder, or extortion. [[spoiler: They can, however, prove he went to the school of poison, which is grounds for an automatic expulsion from the academy.]]
222	* KarmicDeath: Frequently used.
223	** [[spoiler: Vilnix Pompolnius falls to his death in a Sanctaphrax basket whilst trying to escape from a mob of angry academics and Twig.]]
224	** [[spoiler: Mother Muleclaw falls to be devoured (offscreen) by Wig-wigs in the Wig-wig Arena.]]
225	** [[spoiler: Orbix Xaxis is struck by lightning, the very thing he hoped would give him supreme power.]]
226	** [[spoiler: Vox Verlix, become a morbidly obese alcholic, is drowned with the stuff by his maid. For added irony this is after his plan to betray everyone was hijacked by Amberfuce betraying ''him'']]
227	** [[spoiler: Hemuel Spume is trapped in one of his war machines as it explodes.]]
228	** [[spoiler: Amberfuce is boiled to death inside his own bath by his old nurse.]]
229	** [[spoiler: Golderayce One-Eye is killed by his own poison dart due to [[ChekhovsGunman the Caterbird]] suddenly intervening.]]
230	* KickTheDog: Orbix Xaxis' 'purification ceremonies'.
231	* KidHeroAllGrownUp: A heartbreaking example. The fifth book takes place after about a fifty-year TimeSkip and we find out that [[spoiler: Twig never found his friends and grew old wandering the great forest.]]
232	* KillerRabbit: Wig-wigs are best described as orange, fluffy, mouths full of sharp teeth. Despite being about 8 inches tall, they are at the very top of the Deepwoods' food chain.
233	* KillItWithFire: The only real defence against the above orange fluffy death-bringers.
234	* KnightTemplar: Orbix Xaxis seems to be one. Some might say he just uses this is merely his justification, but the fact that [[spoiler: he willingly sacrifices himself to allow a lightining bolt to strike the Sanctaphrax rock]] proves he really believed in his cause.
235	* LanternJawOfJustice: Felix Lodd is both described and drawn as having one; apart from some [[WellDoneSonGuy daddy issues]], he's probably one of the most traditionally heroic characters in the series, so it's fitting.
236	* LaserGuidedKarma: Oh, ''Vox''... usurped the position of Most High Academe from Cowlquape, and spent the rest of his life paying for it. He established the Guardians of Night to take care of the diseased Sanctaphrax rock, (who betrayed him and took it for themselves) created the Great Mire Road and contracted with the shrykes to manage the Twilight Woods segment of it, (they betrayed him and took it for themselves) constructed the Sanctaphrax forest and contracted with goblins to guard it, who then... decided to share power with Vox? [[RuleOfThree No, of course not, they betrayed him and took it for themselves]]. Then he was left an AuthorityInNameOnly bereft of any of the power that he backstabbed to get, a morbidly obese drunkard with chins in the double digits. Upon building a machine that'd destroy Undertown and all that betrayed him. Then he was betrayed and murdered by his servant and his right-hand waif. ''Damn''.
237	** Fittingly, the right-hand waif that betrayed him sold out the servant that had carried him all the way to the Foundry Glades. And then the waif was [[CruelAndUnusualDeath boiled alive in a hot tub]].
238	* LateArrivalSpoiler: Wonderful though the UK cover art for ''Clash of the Sky Galleons'' is, it means you're going to know that [[spoiler: Thaw Daggerslash is masquerading as Turbot Smeal]] long before it comes out in the plot. This applies in a lesser way for most of the other covers as well.
239	** If you read the books in chronological rather than publication order, you'll learn the true nature of the Gloamglozer long before it first appears to menace Twig. Interestingly, you'll be [[InvertedTrope unspoiled]] about several other things, such as [[spoiler:the outcome of Quint and Maris's romance, and the fates of characters like Screedius Tollinix and Stope Boltjaw.]]
240	* LibertyOverProsperity: Cloud Wolf refuses to play the Leagues' game, and as a result, he's nearly destitute at the beginning of ''Stormchaser.''
241	* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: There are upwards of forty; about a dozen kinds of waifs, eight kinds of trolls, a few kinds of trogs, around twenty kinds of goblins, and then assorted races like slaughterers, fourthlings, and spindlebugs. A lot of them are cross-fertile, leading to a HeinzHybrid (like one of the Hive conscripts in the Immortals, who's part woodtroll/part fourthling/part slaughterer).
242	* LoveMakesYouEvil: Golderayce One-Eye's unrequited love for Maugin spurs him [[spoiler:to murder her.]]
243	** Danton Clore [[spoiler:takes over New Sanctaphrax]] in the hopes of winning Eudoxia away from Nate. (It doesn't work.)
244	* LowFantasy: There's no magic, except for the Gloamglozer and the supernatural properties of certain materials. None of the main characters have prophesized destinies; they're all just trying to get by, and if they do save the world, it's by accident and only after significant suffering. Most of the villains are motivated by realistic human desires, usually money and power, instead of being embodiments of darkness.
245	* LukeIAmYourFather: A heroic example, when Cloud Wolf acknowledges Twig as his son.
246	* LukeNounverber: All sky pirate ships, including the ''Skyraider'', ''Stormchaser'', and ''Edgedancer''.
247	* MagicAIsMagicA:
248	** Cold rock rises, hot rock sinks. Applied constantly throughout the series whenever flight rocks are involved, particularly in the Winter Knights when the freezing cold makes almost every attempt to fly lethal.
249	** There is also an incredibly badass moment where a freezing storm sends the Galerider's rock unstable, and nearly dooms the ship. The Stone Pilot saves everyone single-handedly [[spoiler: ''by setting herself on fire'']].
250	* ManEatingPlant: Bloodoak trees, essentially giant stomachs within woody trunks, who use a symbiotic vine to capture stray animals to eat.
251	* ManipulativeBastard: Most quartermasters. It's sort of their thing; there are occasional exceptions, but it does get to the point where you begin to wonder why captains ever take on the same quartermaster for more than one voyage.
252	* MasterOfDisguise: Once again, the Gloamglozer.
253	* MasterPoisoner: Hestera Spikesap is a master of potions one and potions all, from elixirs that revitalize the body to powerful alcohols, but poisons of all kinds appear to be her greatest talent. She knows how to give disobedient servants bad stomach aches, and [[spoiler:ends up [[{{Yandere}} poisoning her master Vox to have him all to herself, forever]].]] Rook who studied under a lot of of herbalists and doctors in the Freeglade is upset at how perfidious Hestera's recipe notes are.
254	* TheMedic: Maris learns how to use herbs to make medicine from her nurse Welma, and she later becomes resident doctor on the ''Galerider''.
255	* MeleeATrois: The finale of ''Vox'' is an all-out brawl between goblins, shrikes, a handful of surviving Librarians, and [[spoiler:rock demons.]]
256	* MercifulMinion: As a part of [[spoiler: Xanth Filatine's]] HeelFaceTurn, he shoots the rope tethering Rook's ship instead of shooting Rook himself, allowing Rook to flee from the {{Mook}}s swiftly closing on his location.
257	* MindRape: Certain waifs have this ability to go with their mind-reading capacities. Amberfuce tries to erase Rook's personality in ''Vox'', but luckily proves unable to touch the furthest reaches of his soul...
258	* MinovskyPhysics: Stormphrax and flight rocks/buoyant wood. There's also Chine, the Librarians' version of Stormphrax.
259	* MrExposition: The Professor, Ambris Hentadile, in ''The Immortals''.
260	* MonsterOfTheWeek: Most of 'Beyond the Deepwoods' has a Monster of the Chapter format, each nastier and weirder than the last.
261	* TheMutiny: Sprinkled ''liberally'' in the Quint and Twig trilogies. Twig finally starts regarding this by the end of ''Stormchaser''; he nips the possible mutinous nature of new crewmember in the bud and shows hesitance at taking on a quartermaster who has nothing to deter him from mutiny.
262	** An example of the 'overthrowing tyrannical captain' kind in ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'' when [[spoiler: Twig successfully carries off a mutiny on the Skyraider, overthrowing Thunderbolt Vulpoon and earning the everlasting loyalty and devotion of the crew.]]
263	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Linius Pallitax's reaction when he realizes he has unleashed the Gloamglozer.
264	* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Hekkle is a shryke (albeit a male one) who actively works for the good guys in ''The Last of the Sky Pirates''. Another good shryke, an unusually kindly female named Mother Bluegizzard, owns the New Bloodoak Tavern in ''Freeglader''. Noticeably, Bluegizzard is the only female shryke seen in the series whose mate doesn't have a chain around his neck.
265	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
266	** Screed Toe-Taker.
267	** Orbix Xaxis versus Rook Barkwater. Guess which one's the good guy. Repeats with Drax Adereth versus Cade Quarter.
268	** Subverted when Xanth Filatine, possessor of a champion evil-guy name, completely wastes it by ''[[HeelFaceTurn turning good.]]''
269	* NeverAcceptedInHisHometown : Twig, and to a lesser extent, Nate [[spoiler: after his father's death and Grint Grayle's takeover of the mine]].
270	* NeverASelfMadeWoman: Quite a lot, although Magda is an aversion, since we never learn anything about her family. Technically, it applies to men too, especially in the Rook trilogy. Everyone expects Felix to be chosen as a Librarian Knight elect because of who his father is.
271	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Rook accidentally sets off the explosive "[[DoomsdayDevice baby]]" after fighting savagely to ''prevent'' it from going off...by sweating on it.
272	* NiceJobFixingItVillain:
273	** Who would have guessed that Screed's twenty years of murder would turn out for the better? [[spoiler: Screed himself, apparently, which was his original motive.]]
274	** A straighter example occurs much earlier in the same book. Spleethe smuggles Twig onto the Stormchaser to use him as a hostage in the mutiny. A brief line earlier implies that Vilnix was going to use Twig as a hostage himself to steal the Stormphrax when they returned.
275	** OK, so Vox [[spoiler:summoning a Dark Maelstrom to destroy New Undertown]] wasn't a ''good'' thing, exactly. However, not only did it directly cause the much-needed death of [[spoiler:Orbix Xaxis]], but it also spurred the mass settlement of the Free Glades, the best hope for peaceful and prosperous life in the Edge.
276	* NewEden: There's an element of this in ''The Immortals'' when the characters get to the Mire and find a lush grassland instead of the expanse of bleached mud they were expecting.
277	* NoOSHACompliance: A deliberate part of the design for the dungeon in the Tower of Night.
278	* NotGrowingUpSucks: [[spoiler:Maugin, the Stone Pilot in the Twig sequence, is a neotenous Termagant Trog who missed her Blooding]], meaning she'll stay looking the age of twelve for the rest of her life.
279	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Any Sanctaphrax academic who turns to evil will indulge in this trope. In particular, Hax Vostilix and Quove Lentis both use their positions of authority to hamstring any scientific research they don't approve of.
280	* ObviouslyEvil:
281	** Grint Grayle. From the very moment he's introduced, it's pretty obvious what he did and what's about to happen.
282	** Hemuel Spume. A corrupt slave-owner who pollutes the Glades with industrial waste, drives his slaves to death in a matter of weeks through sheer hard labor, and wants to destroy the Freeglades, the last bastion of major civilization, just to sell more slaves to the remaining races.
283	* OhCrap: Quint's reaction in ''The Curse of the Gloamglozer'' when he realises the man he has followed onto the roof is not actually Linius Palitax...
284	* OneSteveLimit: Names on the Edge are unique enough that we don't see a single one repeated. [[spoiler:[[BabiesEverAfter Except for Twig.]]]]
285	* OurGoblinsAreDifferent: Even within the series itself, goblin subspecies differ dramatically from one another.
286	* OurHumansAreDifferent: The Edge doesn't have a race called "humans" or "men." The equivalent race is known as the Fourthlings, because it mixes together ancestry from all four corners of the Edge. Other than them, the Slaughterers, Grey Goblins and Cloddertrogs are the most humanoid.
287	* OutsideContextProblem: The Cloudeater presents one in ''The Winter Knights.''
288	* ParentalAbandonment: In the Verginix/[[spoiler: Barkwater]] family, try to think of ''one'' example of a child not becoming an orphan or at least separated from his or her parents at a very young age. It was revealed in ''The Immortals'' that Rook managed to break the chain.
289	* ParentalSubstitute: Maris for all the original Freegladers.
290	* ParentsAsPeople:
291	** Wind Jackal is a loving father who seizes every opportunity to secure Quint's success. Unfortunately, his quest for vengeance in ''Clash of the Sky Galleons'' drives him to endanger himself, his crew and his son.
292	** Once Quint himself reunites with his own son, Twig, he's torn between a father's unconditional love and his desire to prevent his enemies from using Twig against him. This leads him to be far stricter and more short-tempered with Twig than necessary.
293	** Twig cared for his daughter but his SurvivorsGuilt over not honoring his promise to Maugin and the feeling that all his crewmates died for no reason leaves him to leave her with the idea that he'll come back.
294	* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Used and averted: a sky pirate is more of a freelance merchant/smuggler than an actual pirate, but they do raid league ships when they have to. There's also the fact that how far each pirate goes depends on the morality of each individual captain and crew. On one side you have indiscriminate piracy and even ''worse'' behavior like trafficking in slaves, while on the other, you have piracy against [[CorruptCorporateExecutive people who have it coming]] and surprisingly fair trade.
295	* PointyEars: Chris Riddell's illustrations give them to pretty much every single form of sapient life on the Edge, in styles ranging from human-sized but pointed on the fourthlings to huge and batlike on the waifs. For most fourthlings, it's the only thing showing that they aren't just humans.
296	* PollutedWasteland: The Foundry Glades, nearly tipping over into {{Mordor}} territory.
297	* PregnantBadass: Maris worked beside her husband on a sky ship while pregnant, gave birth during a storm, ''while the ship was crashing'' and then made a trek directly afterwards to a woodtroll village so her son would live.
298	* TheProfessor: Read any book with Sanctaphrax in it.
299	** Also nickname of [[spoiler:Ambris]] in the Immortals.
300	* PsychologicalProjection: Vilnix's POV is ''gushing'' with this. He firmly believes everyone is as selfish and underhanded as he is, and interprets any altruism (usually from Quint) as pity.
301	* ThePurge:
302	** Earth-scholars in the First Age, and librarians in the Second Age.
303	** The Leaguemasters try to wipe out Sky Pirates, their main business competitors, every generation or so with little success. In ''Clash of the Sky Galleons'', the Leagues' EvilPlan is to mastermind a purge to end all.
304	* RagnarokProofing: Despite Sanctaphrax drifting through Open Sky for five hundred years, the technology in the Ancient Laboratory is still operational. [[spoiler:The Gloamglozer uses it to make more of itself.]]
305	* RevengeBeforeReason: When Wind Jackal is convinced that Turbot Smeal, the man who killed his family safe Quint in a fire years ago, is still alive he goes through the worse death traps on the chance he is indeed there. At one point Quint suggests just burning one of his supposed hideout but Wind Jackal screams at him that fire is the coward's weapon and he will kill Turbot face to face.
306	* SamusIsAGirl: [[spoiler: Maugin, aka the Stone Pilot. Extra points because immediately before this was revealed, Twig braced himself to confront another hideous monster, reaching the wrong conclusion about why the stone pilot had concealed their appearance.]]
307	* SceneryPorn: There are some insanely detailed and beautiful pictures of sky ships, not to mention the maps.
308	* SealedGoodInACan: Twig discovers a Caterbird, the setting's closest thing to a BigGood, locked up in a pet shop. Knowing the Caterbirds' habit of flying away according to its own mysterious whims, Twig refuses to release it until it tells him the story of Vilnix Pompolnius's rise to power.
309	* SeaMonster: Since the books treat the Deepwoods like an ocean, several of the monsters have this flavor, the Logworm being the most traditional example.
310	* SelfMadeMan: Vilnix was abandoned as an infant in Undertown and made his way to Most High Academe of Sanctaphrax on his own. He did so by knife-grinding for assassins and thugs without asking questions, sabotaging other people's work and finding how to make Phraxdust by chance to keep a monopoly on pure water.
311	* SeriesFauxnale: ''The Immortals'' is a classic example. It was originally intended to conclude the saga, and was stuffed full of [[CallBack Call Backs]] and BookEnds, with the end seeing [[spoiler:the Gloamglozer destroyed for good.]] However, Paul and Chris weren't quite ready to be done, and wrote the Cade Saga to tie up the major loose end remaining from Nate's story.
312	* SequelEscalation:
313	** The Twig Trilogy. The first book is about a child trying desperately to stay alive. The second revolves around a quest to save two cities from catastrophe while unraveling the mystery of phraxdust. By the third, the entire Edge is at stake.
314	** The Rook Trilogy. From the humble journey of apprentice Librarian Knights surviving in the Deepwoods, to the entirity of the order fighting for their survival in the second book. After [[spoiler:the destruction of Undertown]], the last book sees the survivors of the city, the remaining Knights, remnants of the Guardians of Night, and the remaining free peoples in a last desperate fight for what remains of large-scale civilization in the Edge..
315	* ShaggyDogStory: [[PlayedWith The series plays around with this trope.]]
316	** At the end of ''Stormchaser'', Twig brings back the first batch of Stormphrax in decades, along with the formula for the safe production of phraxdust. Sounds like the Edge is in for a new era of peace and prosperity, right? Wrong! The arrival of the Mother Storm forces Twig to cut Sanctaphrax's Anchor Chain in the very next book, ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'', and by the Rook Trilogy, the world has entered a Dark Age.
317	** However, this is where the "playing with" comes in. At first glance, this would seem to make everything Twig did be in vain...but if there hadn't been just one chain remaining, Sanctaphrax could never have been cut loose, while phraxdust later gets used as a fuel supply which puts civilization back on track.
318	** ''Clash of the Sky Galleons'' follows Wind Jackal's obsessive quest for revenge against his former quartermaster, Turbot Smeal, who started a fire that killed all his sons except for Quint. At the climax, we learn that [[spoiler:Smeal burned to death in the same fire he started, and the quest that took Wind Jackal's life was AllForNothing.]]
319	* ShoutOut: In ''Curse of The Gloamglozer'', Quint notices a constellation named [[Music/TheWho Borius the Spider]].
320	* TheSkyIsAnOcean: Sky ships consist of a hull built around a huge flight rock (magical stones that rise when cooled and sink when heated so they work like reverse hot-air balloons).
321	* SkyPirates: Lots and lots of them [[spoiler:in the First Age of Flight. What remains of the previous generations in the Second Age rapidly decline as Stone Sickness makes large-scale flight impossible. They're still around in the Third Age, though they share little with the First Age sky pirates aside from the name]].
322	* SmugSnake: Cagemaster Leddix, the chief executioner of the Tower of Night. Vilnix Pompolnius, too.
323	* SpaceWhaleAesop:
324	** A more literal example. CreatingLifeIsBad because the result may [[spoiler:summon a continent-sized space whale that will suck all the heat out of the world]].
325	** After reading all the books, the Aesop could be "pirates make bad parents." All the characters who have close relationships with their pirate parents end up being horrible parents themselves: [[spoiler:Wind Jackal and Cloud Wolf, namely.]] Twig was initially said [[spoiler: to have waited until Keris grew up before leaving]], but ''The Slaughterer's Quest'' revealed that [[spoiler: he actually left when she was three. Granted, he did have a fairly important quest to finish, and he left her with her uncle, but still]].
326	* SpannerInTheWorks: As the Dark Maelstrom approaches, [[KnightTemplar Orbix Xaxis]] prepares to raise the lightning rod atop the Tower of Night...[[spoiler:only to find that Xanth sabotaged the machine before escaping. This forces Orbix to climb the tower and use his own body as the lightning rod, vaporizing him instantly.]]
327	* SpoiledBrat: Branxford Drew. Contrasting with...
328	* SpoiledSweet: ...Eudoxia Prade, a rich DaddysGirl who nonetheless has a strong sense of justice.
329	* SpellMyNameWithAnS: In the German version, the name of Sanctaphrax was changed to Sanktaphrax -- "K" is used far more frequently than "C" in German, so the spelling change was likely to make reading more fluid for German-speakers.
330	* StayOnThePath: The theme of the first book. Twig, naturally, doesn't, and away he goes...
331	* SteamPunk: ''The Immortals'' strays into this territory, although "phraxpunk" is probably more accurate.
332	* StormingTheCastle: At the climax of ''The Last of the Sky Pirates,'' Rook and Twig execute a daring assault on the Tower of Night.
333	* TheStarscream:
334	** Both Amberfuce and Orbix Xaxis were lieutenants of Vox Verlix until it no longer suited their purposes.
335	** Pretty much everyone who sided with Vox at one point backstabbed him at another.
336	** Slyvo Spleethe in ''Stormchaser'' and Turbot Smeal in ''Clash of the Sky Galleons''. Given that sky pirate-quartermasters have to be cunning to be good, it seems that having a Starscream on board is a hazard of the business.
337	* SupportingProtagonist: Rook Barkwater is our main character for three books. However, the Second Age of Flight is such a CrapsackWorld, and the events around him so massive, that he rarely influences events in the way Quint and Twig got to. It's telling that the most impactful thing he does is a NiceJobBreakingItHero moment.
338	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: For the AChildShallLeadThem trope. Twig receives a battlefield promotion to captain of the Stormchaser. Although he does the best anyone possibly could in that situation, [[spoiler:he still loses most of his crew.]]
339	** The Rook trilogy ends with the Freeglades established as a utopia of agrarian siblinghood. Then 500 years pass, and it's become another stratified city of haves and have-nots, though not quite to the extent of Undertown.
340	* TheSwarm: The dreaded Wig-wigs.
341	* TheSymbiote: One of the Deepwoods' native dangers is the [[ManEatingPlant aggressively carnivorous bloodoak tree]]. Bloodoaks, however, don't have any means of capturing prey -- in practice, a bloodoak's just a trunk with a stomach in it. Each bloodoak grows alongside another plant, the tarryvine, which roots itself in its trunk; [[VineTentacles the tarryvine is mobile, agile and quite capable in a fight]], but lacks a way to digest prey. Their relationship is straightforward enough -- the tarryvine darts into the surrounding forest to snatch passing animals or people and dumps them down the bloodoak's mouth, creating a shared meal for the two symbiotes.
342	* TakeUpMySword: In the literal and figurative sense. In "Stormchaser," Cloud Wolf gives Twig his sword and tells him to complete the Stormphrax quest. This happens throughout the series: The protégé of the older sky pirate must complete the quest, sometimes doing so inadvertently. The older sky-pirates never live to see their quests completed.
343	* TimeSkip: Between each trilogy. Decades pass between ''Clash of the Sky Galleons'' and ''Beyond the Deepwoods,'' and again between ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'' and ''The Last of the Sky Pirates.'' Then there's a much more extreme case in ''The Immortals,'' which takes place about '''five hundred years''' after the end of ''Freeglader.''
344	* TooDumbToLive: Cloud Wolf keeping [[ManipulativeBastard Slyvo]] [[TheStarscream Spleethe]] on as part of the crew, despite [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder repeated]] attempts at [[TheMutiny mutiny]]. Even though Spleethe is usually competent, what kind of idiot captain ''keeps on'' a crewmember who has shown ''time and again'' that, at best, he wants to take over your ship and, at worst, may [[FateWorseThanDeath shoot you into open sky]], a known consequence of mutiny for whichever side loses. Oh, and he is friends with the DumbMuscle of the ship so he can so even if he can't fight he has someone to back him up. [[spoiler:Eventually, Spleethe succeeds, proving that Cloud Wolf really ''is'' TooDumbToLive.]]
345	* TragicVillain:
346	** Vox Verlix. He is an extremely intelligent man who has been screwed over by several different factions. His doomsday device is simply his revenge, yet he manages to be somewhat sympathetic at times, [[spoiler: particularly at the end of ''Vox'' when he is trapped in his crumbling palace]].
347	** Screed Toe-Taker, to a lesser extent, once you learn that the failure of his quest drove him mad.
348	* TranslationYes: The banderbear language consists mostly of the word "wuh", which can have a myriad of different meanings depending on body language and inflection. ''The Immortals'' contains several prime examples.
349	* TraumaButton: Quint is terrified of fire because his mother and older brothers perished in a fire set by his father's disgraced quartermaster.
350	* TheDogBitesBack: In the end of ''Freeglader'', [[spoiler: Amberfuce is trapped in his special bath, abandoned by the gabtroll nurse for which he abandoned his old faithful nurse to abusive treatment as a slave. His old nurse then creeps into the room... and promptly boils him alive in his own bath for mistreating her.]]
351	* TokenEvilTeammate: For sky pirates, quartermasters are usually the ones to mutiny, and even the nicer ones are constantly butting heads with the captain.
352	** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as Wind Jackal explains. The quartermaster's job description is to deal with cutthroat leaguesmen and make sure the ledger is in the black so the pirates can keep plundering the sky. Their job is to oppose any personal vendettas or expeditions with high risks and low rewards -- essentially TheLancer codified into ship's law. This does not, however, explain why they all look so similar.
353	* TokenHeroicOrc: Mother Bluegizzard and Hekkle are good-natured shrykes who, in Hekkle's case, help the heroes against their own kind. Mother Horsefeather, while unpleasant and greedy, is also nowhere near as vile or bloodthirsty as the shrykes encountered later in the series.
354	* TheTrickster: The Gloamglozer is a particularly malevolent example.
355	* {{Unobtainium}}: Stormphrax. It's extremely heavy, so it can keep Sanctaphrax from breaking its chain, and it's also capable of purifying water in its Phraxdust form. Later on, it's also used as a fuel source for massive airships.
356	* {{Utopia}}: The Freeglades, for a while. By the time they've grown into Great Glade 500 years later, the old problems of greed and inequality have started popping back up.
357	* VaderBreath: Orbix Xaxis. He even looks similar!
358	* VillainousBreakdown: When it becomes clear that Xanth sabotaged the machinery in the Tower of Night, Orbix Xaxis freaks out and [[spoiler:climbs the tower to use himself as a lightning rod.]]
359	* VineTentacles: One of the Deepwoods' many native dangers is a ManEatingPlant called a bloodoak. Bloodoaks don't have any means of physically capturing prey, being essentially just woody trunks with digestive sacs inside of them; instead, prey capture is handled by another plant that lives symbiotically with the tree, the tarryvine, which is a writhing snakelike thing that shoots out to grapple anything walking nearby and dump it into the tree's stomach to make a meal for both creatures.
360	* VindicatedByHistory: An in-universe example with Vox Verlix who is remembered in ''The Immortals'' as a great genius and spectacular architect (which, admittedly, he was, but he was also a FatBastard).
361	** There's also Thunderbolt Vulpoon, who we'll remember tried to kidnap Twig and Cowlquape so he could sell them to the shrykes as bait for the Wig-Wig arena. Rook, however, meets Thunderbolt's son and hears a tale of his selfless sacrifice to save the pair.
362	* VoluntaryShapeshifting: The Gloamglozer's main ability.
363	* WarIsHell: In ''The Immortals,'' Nate and Eudoxia are drafted into the Hive Militia, and stumble into a battle scene straight out of ''Saving Private Ryan.''
364	* WeatherControlMachine: [[spoiler:As a revenge against those who betrayed him, Vox creates an extremely powerful bomb, the detonation of which in the sky would cause a titanic storm to ruin Undertown and everything around it.]]
365	* WeatherDissonance: Generally the first sign that something monumental is about to happen. And with the Edge's already spectacularly chaotic weather, the dissonance itself is often monumental.
366	* WellDoneSonGuy: In a rare father-daughter variant, Maris just wants her father's love and approval.
367	** In ''Stormchaser'', Twig wanting his father to be proud of him is a recurring theme. Cloud Wolf does love him, but isn't a natural parent, and refuses to publicly acknowledge Twig as his son for fear of giving his enemies leverage.
368	** In the Rook trilogy, Felix Lodd to his father, Fenbrus.
369	* WhamEpisode: Quite a few.
370	** ''Stormchaser'': [[spoiler:Cloud Wolf disappears, presumed dead, and Twig replaces him as a sky pirate captain.]]
371	** ''Midnight Over Sanctaphrax'': [[spoiler:Twig cuts Sanctaphrax loose from the Edge.]]
372	** ''Vox'': [[spoiler:Undertown is completely destroyed, and civilization must relocate to the Free Glades.]]
373	* WhenTreesAttack: Bloodoak trees catch passerbys with their vines and drop them into the mouth they have on top.
374	* WhoWantsToLiveForever:
375	** Evil waif keeps all of the life-giving Riverrise water for himself in ''The Immortals'', only letting some down to the world below... and feels very bitter over his life's emptiness.
376	** [[spoiler:Twig and Rook also fall victim to this to an extent, while they survive for centuries at Riverrise, and willingly keep drinking the water, both of them choose to pass on when the opportunity presents itself]]
377	* AWorldHalfFull: No matter how much the world tries to cancel out the heroes' efforts with each passing generation, Edge society becomes gradually more progressive, and life is shown to be not without its merits, tough as it may get.
378	* WrenchWench: [[spoiler:The Stone Pilot]]
379	* WretchedHive: Hive, appropriately. Also Old Undertown.
380	** The lower decks of Third Age Skytaverns develop their own underworld cultures, ruled by crime bosses who never leave the ship.
381	* XanatosSpeedChess: Vox Verlix's final plan is a showcase of his misguided brilliance. Within hours of reuniting with Cowlquape, he cooks up a plot to wipe out all the Librarians' enemies in one stroke, [[spoiler:while also concocting a separate, nested plot to betray the Librarians.]]
382	* XtremeKoolLetterz: Pick a page, any page, and count the number of X's on it. Seriously. Some of the character names have three or more.
383	* ZeroEffortBoss: [[spoiler: The Bringer of Doom. The most impressive skyship in the First Age of Flight, armed with the best equipment in Sanctaphrax, made from the largest flight-rock ever harvested, crewed by shrykes in their prime, and built from Bloodoak. Nothing can stand before this behemoth...or so it would be. Instead, it makes an impressive entrance, then [[FlawedPrototype anticlimatically tumbles to the ground]] because the guy charged with harvesting the floating rock used to keep it flying couldn't be bothered to remove the Stormphrax weight inside it. However, it did demonstrate its invincibility by devastating ships that did get in its way beforehand.]]
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Context Literature / TheEdgeChronicles