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6After ten years in exile, tired, aging [[KnightInSourArmor Sir Sparhawk]] returns to his dirty, polluted home city of Cimmura to find that things have changed quite a bit in his absence. The incompetent King Aldreas has died under mysterious circumstances, and his youthful heir Ehlana is on the verge of death, her life preserved solely by an extremely risky spell. The city--and the kingdom of Elenia it rules--now is controlled in all but name by the corrupt [[SinisterMinister Primate Annias]] of the Elene Church, who's put a puppet ruler in control and is stripping the treasury bare to pay for his private campaign for the head of the Church. And his ally, the [[EvilCounterpart fallen Pandion Knight]] Martel, is stirring up trouble across the continent to discredit and ultimately destroy the Church Knights to which Sparhawk belongs.
7
8Gathering a party of various companions, including champions of the [[ChurchMilitant Church Knights]], sorcerers of [[MageSpecies Styricum]], [[LoveableRogue street thieves]], and his squire, Sparhawk sets out- both to thwart the designs of Annias, and to find a cure for the queen's suspicious illness. But increasingly, he and his companions are embroiled in a shadowy world of magic, powerful artifacts, and the evil God that craves them.
9
10A SpiritualSuccessor to ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', the ''Elenium'' is nonetheless quite distinct and arguably serves as an example of Creator/DavidEddings at his best. It is both darker and more medieval in feel while still avoiding a CrapsackWorld, and contrasts the usual callow protagonist on a climb to greatness with its own cast of predominantly seasoned, somewhat cynical professionals. Particularly notable in that none of the knights--who are, essentially, paladins--are LawfulStupid, and that political action is increasingly as important to the story as classical adventuring.
11
12There is a sequel trilogy called the ''Tamuli'' (which is covered here too).
13
14!!Novels in the series
15
16!!! ''The Elenium''
17* ''The Diamond Throne'' (1989)
18* ''The Ruby Knight'' (1991)
19* ''The Sapphire Rose'' (1992)
20
21!!! ''The Tamuli''
22* ''Domes of Fire'' (1992)
23* ''The Shining Ones'' (1994)
24* ''The Hidden City'' (1995)
25
26----
27!!This series provides examples of:
28
29[[foldercontrol]]
30
31[[folder:A-B]]
32* AbusivePrecursors: The Elder Gods.
33* AccentRelapse: Inverted with Caalador, who speaks in an outrageously folksy Cammorian accent most of the time... until people tell him to cut it out.
34* AccidentalAimingSkills: Kurik, when the Basilica is under siege.
35* AccidentalProposal: [[spoiler:Sparhawk accidentally proposes to Ehlana when, instead of returning her ancestral ring, twin to one he owns that symbolizes the link between their families, he instead puts his ring on her finger.]] Played with in that it's only accidental on his side. She knows from the beginning that he made a mistake, but she keeps him on the hook because she had wanted to marry him anyway.
36* ActionGirl: Mirtai in the ''Tamuli''. It helps that her entire race is like this - slavers who attack a group of teenage Atan girls with dreadful intent wind up as eunuchs.
37* AdiposeRex: Otha, the Emperor of Zemoch, is what happens when you take the villainous type of this trope and give him several ''centuries'' to perfect his laziness and corruption. He needs several strong men to carry his litter around (having long ago lost the ability to move under his own power) and is frequently described as a "slug" by the other characters.
38* AdvantageBall:
39** The Church Knights, by dint of their training, reputation, and armor, which is not only [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe protective]] but intimidating as well, tend to [[CurbStompBattle Curb Stomp]] any enemy force in combat, regardless of the opposition's numbers, equipment or tactics. The individual Knights tend to do this as well.
40** The Lamorks as well, by virtue of using crossbows, which can pierce even the armor of the Church Knights.
41** The Cyrgai possessed this in the distant past due to their advanced military strategies which made them a major threat to their more primitive neighbors. Most modern races hold the ball in comparison to the Cyrgai due to changes in military tactics and equipment.
42** In the ''Tamuli,'' this is the Atans' hat. They outclass everyone else to such an extent that entire enemy armies have surrendered rather than fight them. Mirtai demonstrates that even Church Knights are no match in dismounted combat by knocking Kalten on his ass without much effort - mounted knights would probably be more of a challenge as Atans don't seem to use missile weapons or polearms.
43** The Atans' lack of polearms and ranged weapons becomes an issue when encountering Trolls and Klael-soldiers, both of whom are more than a march for an Atan in hand-to-hand. The only ranged weapon the Atans use is the bow, but bows are for hunting exclusively and not considered "proper" weapons of war. Kring and Berit run themselves ragged trying to convince the Atans that javelins and crossbows are proper weapons of war.
44* AgeInsecurity: Sparhawk is continually stymied in any attempt to learn the age of Sephrenia, the instructor of the Pandion Knights in magical studies. He knows that she taught his father and grandfather, and still looks like quite a young woman, but she refuses to give any sort of straight answer; a person's exact age, she explains, can be a deadly tool in the wrong hands. [[spoiler: In the second trilogy, it comes out Sephrenia is three hundred and change but by that point no one really bothers with it much because they've got bigger and weirder things to deal with.]]
45* AlasPoorVillain: After everything Martel has done, when he lies dying Sparhawk and Sephrenia both gather to his side and mourn his death. Sephrenia even grants him her blessing, which she had withheld after Martel's fall from grace.
46* TheAlcoholic:
47** All it takes to get Krager to spill his entire life story is a barrel of Arcian red wine. And some cash, maybe. But mostly the wine. [[spoiler: While he gets away at the end of the ''Tamuli'', it's mentioned that the drink has taken its toll on his body, and he isn't likely to live long.]]
48** Also King Wargun of Thalesia, who spends the entirety of ''The Tamuli'' dying offscreen from his destroyed liver.
49* AllAreEqualInDeath: Invoked in-universe when Sparhawk has to sneak into the catacombs under the Cimmura Cathedral.
50* AllTrollsAreDifferent:
51** Elenian Trolls are twice as tall as a human, covered in fur and leathery hide, [[TheAgeless immortal]] (though ''not'' invulnerable), and they live in the frozen mountains of Thalesia where packs have to live miles apart from one another because they'll usually kill each other on sight. They're also distantly related to humans and have not only their own culture but their own gods.
52** And let's not even get into [[TheOgre the Ogres.]] They're even bigger.
53* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Subverted with the Zemochs, who look like this at first but later turn out to be harmless after the EvilOverlord and [[GodOfEvil his god]] that were ruling them were... forcibly removed. Following the end of the war, the opposing nations focused primarily on rebuilding the nation and rehabilitating the Zemochs rather than on retributive punishment. Played largely straight with the Cyrgai, though they're more like Always StupidEvil as a result of centuries of inbreeding and fanaticism.
54* AndIMustScream:
55** Happens to a BigBad at the end of the ''Tamuli'' and to another minor villain. The Troll-Gods set them on fire (and in the minor villain's case, shove him into "No-Time," a kind of frozen moment) so that they will run and burn alone forever.
56** The Powerless Ones, Gods whose worshipers have [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly all died and have been forgotten, reduced to little more than incoherent whispers wanting attention.]]
57* AntiHero: Sparhawk, of the "Disney Anti-Hero" variety. He's got hard edges and can be rather petty or ruthless when he feels it's called for, but at heart he's an honorable man who lives for his duty to his knighthood, his nation, and ''especially'' his Queen.
58* ArbitrarySkepticism:
59** Played for laughs in the last book when a Tamuli scholar refuses, like the rest of his race, to believe in Trolls. [[BunnyEarsLawyer Ulath answers]] by calling a gargantuan, angry (illusionary) troll in the hall.
60** Also: 'I'm an agnostic, Divine One.' 'Would you like to examine that last sentence for logical consistency, Stragen?'[[note]]"Divine One" is the honorific used when addressing a god or goddess.[[/note]]
61** The prelates of the Hierarchy suffer from an especially glaring case, where they dismiss all Styrics gods and creatures even though they are blatantly existing and using their powers, including granting magic to the Styrics and their acolytes, while blindly and unquestioningly believing in their one true god, who does absolutely nothing during the entirety of the series and might as well not even exist.
62* ArmyOfTheAges: Cyrgon does this in the ''Tamuli'', but it's less effective than most examples.
63* ArmorIsUseless:
64** ''Very'' averted. Armor is key to the Church Knights' way of battle, and while Atans fight in light armor they never actually clash with heavily armored troops and have the advantage of sheer size anyways.
65** Played straight with Azash's undead guardians in the end of the first trilogy. They all wear huge menacing armor with spikes that look very frightening, because that's what the Zemochs thought armor was for - but they never understood the ''real'' purpose for armor, so the Zemoch armor is clumsy, incredibly unwieldy, and doesn't even protect properly; all those spikes only serve to direct a blow towards weak points instead of deflecting them. In fact, the armor is ''worse'' than useless.
66** Also played with in the case of Adus, not because the armor is inherently useless but because it doesn't fit right. Also averted in that once he's down, his killer (a ten-year-old boy) needs help to get a sword through his breastplate to deliver a ''coup de grace''.
67** Played with with Martel. It is not that his armor is ''useless'' (he ''is'' a trained Church Knight), but out of vanity he has his armor made in the finest (and heaviest) style in the world, with [[BlingOfWar gold details and ornamentation on it]], which tires him faster than the equally-skilled and equally-aged Sparhawk. And he admits it [[spoiler:with his dying breaths.]]
68** Played straight, however, whenever crossbows are involved. At close to medium range crossbow bolts can pierce armor as if it was a sheet of paper.
69* ArtifactAlias: The Styric foundling Flute is known by the end of the second novel to be [[spoiler:the Child-Goddess Aphrael]], but she's still commonly called Flute. It's however justified as each identity has its own unique traits and quirks, and Flute is noticeably different from her other selves. Even [[spoiler:Aphrael]] is just another mask she wears, and her ''true'' self is something she keeps hidden at all times.
70* ArtifactOfDoom: Bhelliom. Sure, you can [[spoiler:kill a god]] with it, but [[spoiler:you'll have to spank the Troll-Gods first.]]
71* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The Dawn-men, explicitly stated to be ancestral to both humans and trolls, resemble nothing that appears in our own evolutionary lineage.
72** Faran is at least 16 years old at the beginning of the series, as it takes around 6 years to train a warhorse and Martel remembers him from when he and Sparhawk were friends 10 years prior. The series takes about 2 years, with another 4 in the epilogue, and then 2 more between series, making him at least 24, but he's showing no signs of aging, despite horses only living about 30 years generally.[[note]] The oldest verified horse, "Old Billy", lived to 62[[/note]] His not aging might have something to do with a certain Child-Goddess who likes to meddle and despises change (and is shown to share a mutual fondness with him).
73*** Khalad does mention in the first book of the ''Tamuli'' that Sparhawk might want to start thinking about putting Faran out to pasture.
74* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: There's a big deal made of the Cyrgai ([[{{Expy}} Expies]] of UsefulNotes/AncientGreece using Phalanx tactics) being hopelessly obsolete against "modern tactics", like the Eastern Peloi javalin-armed light cavalry using hit-and-run tactics. In actuality, said javelin-throwing light cavalry tactic is as ancient as the Phalanx itself, being used by the Persian armies in their war against Greece. Yes, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Plataea the one where they were soundly defeated]].
75* AscendedExtra: Zalasta. He appears briefly in the ''Elenium'' as a friend of Sephrenia, but becomes much more prominent in the ''Tamuli''. [[spoiler: He's also revealed to be a [[BigBadFriend Big Bad Friend]] and [[TheManBehindTheMan responsible for a lot of events]] in the ''Elenium.'']]
76* AuthorityInNameOnly: Prince Avin Wargunsson might be Regent of Thalesia (to become King when insane father finally finishes dying), but every one of his subjects treats him as a complete joke. The King of Rendor is also stated to be this.
77** Emperor Sarabian is treated this way by his own government in the ''Tamuli''. His role has become so ceremonial that when he begins taking an active role in leading his empire, several characters wonder if it is even legal for him to do so at this point.
78* AxCrazy:
79** Subverted in the ''Tamuli'' when the Knights go undercover. Bevier cuts down the haft of his lochaber and plays the part of a PsychoForHire in Scarpa's army, and he [[LargeHam hams it up so much]] everyone in the army camp is completely terrified of him.
80** [[TheBrute Adus]] as well, cutting through his own troops to reach Kalten in the final battle, while roaring like an animal.
81* BabiesEverAfter: Only for [[spoiler:Sparhawk and Ehlana]]. Subverted in that their bouncing baby daughter is actually ''[[spoiler: Aphrael.]]'' [[spoiler: [[MindScrew At the same time she exists as Flute]]]]. When they do eventually meet, nobody non-magical (or [[EverythingsCuterWithKittens non-human]]) suspects a thing except [[spoiler:[[OnlySaneMan Berit]]]], who sees that Sparhawk, Sephrenia, and Vanion are remarkably twitchy about it.
82** Justified in that [[spoiler: the poison Ehlana was given made her barren, and Aphrael figured she'd kill two birds with one stone -- she needed somewhere safe to hide and get over the shock of a God's death (Ehlana's womb was perfect) and she'd give Ehlana the heir she needed.]]
83** The only problem with that is Sephrenia getting miffed with Aphrael because she seems to know that the poison causes sterility, which seems odd, since it's [[spoiler:also universally fatal.]]
84* BackFromTheDead:
85** A major part of the plot in the ''Tamuli'' is someone calling up armies from the past.
86** [[spoiler:Kurik]] does this twice, as his presence is needed to banish/reclaim the Bhelliom.
87* BackToBackBadasses: Sparhawk's and Ehlana's respective ancestors, which served as the initial basis for the bond between the two families.
88* BadassArmy:
89** The Peloi and their ridiculously well-trained horses. Even the Church Knights step lightly around these guys. So does Otha, who invaded the West through Lamorkand in part because he didn't want to risk fighting the Peloi.
90** Of course the Church Knights.
91** And the Atans, really.
92** Subverted with the Cyrgai. 10,000 years ago, they were the most powerful military in the world, and now they are extinct [[spoiler:or so everyone thinks. When they ''do'' run into Cyrgai in modern time, they are just as badass as they were 10,000 years ago...except everyone else has been LevelGrinding in badass that entire time]].
93* BadassBookworm:
94** Bevier, a poet and amateur actor, student of military history and siege engineering. And that's when he isn't out and about decapitating people with his axe.
95** Ulath as well. One of the best fighters in the group, he mentions that the winters in Thalesia are so harsh that all one can do for months on end is read and think.
96* BadBoss: Azash, Annias, Martel, and especially Adus, who at one point cuts through his own troops to reach Kalten.
97* BastardAngst: Stragen is hypersensitive about his illegitimate birth.
98* BattleCouple: Mirtai is an ActionGirl and as much a warrior as any man. She towers over Kring, who is a horseman and about as deadly as she is--which deeply impresses Mirtai when she learns. [[spoiler: They get engaged, and due to their different cultures are planning to get married, ''twice'', by the end of the ''Tamuli''.]]
99* BeQuietNudge: Ehlana attempts this with her husband. Of course, since he's wearing plate armor, all she gets out of it is a bruised elbow.
100* BigBad: [[GodOfEvil Azash]] in the first trilogy. The second is a bit more complicated, with [[spoiler: [[PhysicalGod Cyrgon]], [[EvilSorceror Zalasta]] and [[EldritchAbomination Klael]] all vying for the role]]. By the end, even [[spoiler:Krager]] has thrown in his hat for the title.
101* BigBadWannabe:
102** Annias. He's smart, and a decent {{Chessmaster}}, but his SmugSnake tendencies typically bite him in the hindquarters, and he's no match for [[DragonInChief Martel]] or the real BigBad, [[GodOfEvil Azash]]. This is actually lampshaded and justified in-series when Vanion and Ehlana both point out that Annias ''used'' to be extremely clever and competent, with only his recent schemes being obvious, pathetic, and easily abrogated. Sephrenia then explains that Azash tends to ruin his followers by influencing or outright forcing them to be more like him--and while he himself is a competent BigBad in terms of power, his ability to be clever and subtle, particularly within the bounds of the more sophisticated Elene culture, is next to nil.
103** [[spoiler:Krager]] in the ''Tamuli''.
104* BigBrotherInstinct: Invoked by Platime, when he seals his loyalty to Queen Ehlana. He tells her that she's the same as his own little sister now, and anyone who crosses her will have to deal with him. He even addresses her as "baby sister" for the rest of the books.
105* BigDamnHeroes: Zalasta gets one of these moments in the ''Tamuli'' when he wipes out a powerful enemy sorcerer and a [[DinosaursAreDragons giant dinosaur]] during a battle. [[spoiler:It's actually a big dramatic FalseFlagOperation designed to win the Elenes' trust]].
106* BlackKnight:
107** The first character we see in the series wears black plate, has a crooked nose, carries a huge sword, rides an evil-looking horse and quietly threatens anyone who gets in his way. His name is Sparhawk and [[DarkIsNotEvil he's the protagonist]].
108** The entire Pandion Order invokes this trope. They have a reputation for being cruel and implacable warriors who torture prisoners graphically in their chapterhouses. They planted those rumors themselves, to make enemies believe they're even more badass than they already are (and to save them the trouble of ''actually'' having to torture people; that's a great deal of work, after all). They actually prefer ''not'' having to slaughter their enemies most of the time and cultivate this reputation to encourage enemy forces to surrender rather than fight.
109* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The trolls think nothing of eating other sentient beings (indeed, failing to eat what you kill is actually a sin against their God of Eat, even if the killing was done for other reasons), but they are deeply offended by abductions, poisonings, hostage-taking and other things that humans are liable to dismiss as DirtyBusiness. The troll-gods take a ''personal'' interest in punishing guilty humans when they find out that such things exist.
110* BodyguardLegacy: Sparhawk is a mighty magical knight and his family is the hereditary champion of the Throne of Elenia. When he marries the current Queen, Ehlana (or rather, [[MayDecemberRomance she marries him]]) he becomes the Prince Consort but still maintains his role as Knight Protector. Since he and Ehlana will have no children other than Danae, he is also the last male Sparhawk, but it is strongly implied that his squire Khalad will be knighted and take over the role of Knight Protector.
111* BoobBasedGag: Elysoun has huge boobs. [[OurNudityIsDifferent Female toplessness isn't considered nudity]] in Valesian culture, but she's entirely aware that walking around with her boobs out renders men from other cultures permanently DistractedByTheSexy, and she finds it hilarious. And it is.
112* BookEnds: The ''Elenium'' begins and, except for the epilogue, ends with Sparhawk slinking into Cimmura on a rainy night. The ''Tamuli'' begins the same way.
113* BreakTheCutie: ''The Shining Ones'' is one huge one for [[spoiler: Sephrenia. First, it's revealed that there's a powerful Styric magician working with the other side, and every Styric magician of that caliber happens to be her friend. Then she's forced to go to Delphaeus, the home of the race she believes killed her family. Then she witnesses the rest of the party forming an alliance with them and completely disregarding her feelings with some very unkind words (to be fair, they didn't know and she wouldn't tell them) and then it's revealed that her old friend Zalasta was the traitor, and he was also behind her parents' murder and would have had her killed too. All because he wanted her for himself and was jealous that she was the chosen High Priestess of Aphrael.]]
114* BrickJoke: Throughout the first trilogy, Sparhawk was booking passage on a particular ship giving the excuse that he was fleeing from an ugly heiress and her cousins to explain his desire for passage. Come the second trilogy, they end up on the same ship (Aphrael likes symmetry), and Sparhawk explains that he was caught by the cousins and forced to marry, gesturing to his beautiful wife.
115** The first book even starts setting up one in the first chapter, as an annoying noble interrupts Sparhawk's attempt to kill Krager. Sparhawk casts a spell on said noble as he leaves. Several chapters later, said noble comes to the Pandion chapterhouse with a [[{{Squick}} massive boil on his nose]] that Sparhawk encourages him to get lanced. Sephrenia calls Sparhawk out on the fact that said boil was not a natural occurance, to Sparhawk's amusement.
116* TheBrute: Adus. Kalten describes him as putting armor on a gorilla (who doesn't bathe). He's pretty much the archetype at its best: a mentally handicapped, rape- and torture-happy animalistic thug, who can't write and can barely read, but is a [[IdiotSavant savant]] when it comes to small-unit tactics, serves as TheDragon's chief enforcer, and is very, ''very'' dangerous in combat. Martel refers to him as a walking battle axe, and that's not too far off.
117* BuryYourGays: Mirtai's former owner.
118[[/folder]]
119
120[[folder:C-D]]
121* CatchPhrase: Sparhawk -- "Neighbor." Martel -- "Old boy." Ulath -- "I ''hate'' sieges." And of course,
122-->'''Anyone:''' Whose turn is it to do the cooking?
123-->'''Ulath:''' Yours.
124* TheCavalry: Wargun and his RedshirtArmy.
125* ChekhovsGun: Sparhawk's ring. Aldreas' spear.
126* ChekhovsGunman: Lady Bellena first shows up, unnamed, in the first book, learning magic from a Zemoch. Book 2 has her showing up using those powers to terrorize a village and her brother's keep.
127* ChekhovsSkill: Bevier's study of history and acting.
128* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:Zalasta]]. [[spoiler:Xanetia]]'s recap of how [[TheReveal he is directly involved in everything bad that's happened in both the ''Elenium'' and the ''Tamuli'']] up to that point goes on for around 20 pages.
129* ChildhoodBrainDamage: The main characters meet a secondary, clearly handicapped character who was kicked in the head when young by a cow.
130* ChivalrousPervert: Almost every time the party stops in a tavern Kalten takes a pass at the barmaids. Ulath just may be a bigger pervert, though it's more of an InformedAbility with him because we don't actually see him doing it, just read about it later.
131* ChosenOne: Anakha, Bhelliom's chosen one. [[spoiler:That's Sparhawk to the rest of you.]]
132* ChurchMilitant: The Church Knights, four holy orders of highly trained magic-using soldiers intended to defend the Church.
133** There is also the Church ''Soldiers'', rather ''less'' trained soldiers. Unlike the Church Knights they aren't technically part of the priesthood themselves, but they ''are'' soldiers for the Church, just answering to significant priests rather than operating as autonomous knightly orders. Consequently they mostly show up as mooks for Annias.
134* CityOfGold: Matherion isn't quite gold, but the entire city is covered in polished nacre (mother of pearl) tiles that shine like a rainbow. Played with in that any time there's an earthquake or a brisk wind, some of the tiles fall off and the city looks like it has the pox. And the Empire subsequently goes through a financial crisis from buying new tiles.
135-->"Behold!" Oscagne intoned quite formally. "Behold the seat of beauty and truth! Behold the home of wisdom and power! Behold fire-domed Matherion, the centre of the world!"
136* CluelessChickMagnet:
137** Berit, especially in ''Tamuli''. Someone wonders if they should tell him, only to be shushed by ALL the women present. Apparently, his innocent cluelessness is part of his attractiveness.
138** Inverted by Bevier, who's attractive and knows it, but is pitching at the priesthood one day and refuses to act on it.
139* ColdIron: Anathema to Bhelliom, so that any simple, mundane sword can destroy it, though doing so might obliterate the planet. Styrics and their gods also avoid iron, using bronze when metal tools are necessary, but this seems to be a cultural peculiarity rather than a weakness. It's revealed near the climax of the ''Tamuli'' that the Styric gods are actually sensitive to magnetism, and the way iron distorts magnetic fields is an extremely uncomfortable sensation for them, often described by Aphrael as "making my skin crawl".
140* CooldownHug: Delivered by [[HiddenDepths Kalten]] to Sephrenia in ''The Shining Ones''. Given that he's a trained warrior, big enough to make three of her and knows she would never escalate her attempts to get out over scratching him and ineffectually hitting his chest, she doesn't have much choice but to give in eventually.
141* CoolHorse: Faran, Sparhawk's mount.
142* CorruptChurch: The Elene Church was this in the past, which led to several factions breaking away and creating the Eshandists and the churches in the Elene kingdoms of Daresia. Some churchmen, notably [[SmugSnake Makova]], are still corrupt, but there are others who aren't.
143* CrapsackWorld: Largely averted; though there are some hints at it in the settings, the people occupying them are pretty normal. Cimmura's a notable example setting-wise in that it's a polluted mess that's constantly being doused in rain, but it's also home to Ehlana, Sparhawk and a guild of NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters.
144** Zemoch during the reign of Otha is described this way. Basically a cross between Mordor and the USSR.
145* CruelAndUnusualDeath:
146** Mirtai is very good at causing these, especially in her {{Backstory}}, including ripping the guts out of a pair of murderers while they were still alive and leaving them to ''burn to death in a blazing house with their guts around their feet.'' The other [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Atans]] encourage this. Justified because the guys in question had her owner killed.
147** Hilariously subverted when in the end of ''The Hidden City'' she kills a man by throwing him out a window. Kalten asks what she did, she tells him "I defenestrated him" and he, believing that "defenestrating" means something much worse, tells her that it's a terrible thing to do to a man until she clears up the meaning.
148** Sephrenia threatens a particularly obstinate Styric with this in the form of the "death spell," even going so far as to begin the incantation for it. Aphrael quickly chastises her with a reminder that she won't let Sephrenia cast that spell. Sephrenia just as quickly points out that he doesn't know that.
149*** It's unclear whether Sephrenia is forbidden to cast that spell ''at all'', or if it's just that Aphrael is unwilling to impose the death penalty for a bit of backtalk. If Sephrenia is able to cast the death spell in other circumstances and other gods would be more willing to punish blasphemy, that may have helped her bluff.
150* CrystalPrison: Inverted in that the inhabitant is only in there to keep her alive. This is more of a short-term HumanPopsicle for [[spoiler:Queen Ehlana, to save her from the poison until they can find a cure]].
151** [[spoiler:This is also the Bhelliom's form on Earth, as it was forced into a sapphire in order to escape being trapped in iron.]]
152* CurbStompBattle:
153** Nearly every primary and secondary warrior character comments on this after fighting [[spoiler: the Cyrgai]]. In fact almost the entire ''Tamuli'' proves to be a long-running series of these, with the heroes often commenting on how uncreative their opponents are. It's especially bad during the climax, when just about every battle is horrifically lopsided in favour of the heroes. It's most notable with [[spoiler: Sparhawk versus Cyrgon, and [[AGodAmI Anakha]] versus Zalasta]].
154** In ''Domes of Fire'', both a party of mounted Atans and some of Bevier's knights are killed by Mooks with crossbows. Both are very, very angry, and it's pointed out that crossbows are [[GameBreakingBug game breakers]] in this world because they can effectively punch through any armour the knights have got. One of their next actions is to find the crossbow depository and take it out.
155* CursedWithAwesome: An unusually literal case with the [[spoiler:Delphae]]. The apparent 'curse' aspect is controllable to the point of having off-switches, and it causes them to gradually develop greater magical abilities (all of it under their full control). Understandably, the Knights wonder why this counts as a ''curse'', until it is explained that there is a difference in the fundamental nature of enchantments and curses -- enchantments 'sing in the air', revealing their presence to anyone with magic nearby, while curses are quiet and dampen the 'sound' of magic around them. Since [[spoiler: the Delphae]] are trying to hide, a curse was the most appropriate -- even if it is only ''[[LoopholeAbuse technically]]'' a curse.
156** Originally this case fit the trope more conventionally: the Delphae are innately nonviolent, which is why their god needed to give them an edge in the first place, but this means they aren't emotionally equipped for the horror of what their touch does. Having to actually use it tends to cause them massive despair.
157* CuteMute: Flute. Subverted in that [[spoiler:she can talk, but chooses not to until the second book]].
158* CutleryEscapeAid: Mirtai's backstory in ''The Tamuli'' involves being captured by slavers as a child. She pulled the handle off the spoon they gave her, and sharpened the metal shank.
159* DarkerAndEdgier: Though the specifics are often quite different, in BroadStrokes the ''Elenium'' can be thought of as a DarkerAndEdgier evolution or spiritual successor to ''Literature/TheBelgariad.''
160* DeadpanSnarker:
161** The entire Thalesian race. Most of the main cast gets this way at times, too. It's Eddings, what do you expect?
162** Sarabian.
163--> '''Berit''': Well, Your Majesty, it was your wife, Elysoun - the one with the unusual costume.
164--> '''Sarabian''': Yes, I'm acquainted with her.
165* DecapitatedArmy: The Zemochs aren't really evil, and are happy to forgo any plans for war once Azash has been wiped out.
166* DeliberatelyCuteChild: Aphrael. It turns out the child act is more or less AFormYouAreComfortableWith - and Aphrael uses it entirely so people will pick her up and give her kisses. Her true form is actually quite adult and never clearly described save for her eyes and her [[InnocentFanserviceGirl lack of clothes.]]\
167\
168The kisses and such have an ulterior motive: they make those people love her. Bhelliom outright states it's afraid of her because of this, because she can essentially wrap anyone around her little finger, itself included.
169* DepravedHomosexual: Baron Harparin, one of Annias' minions, who is a pedophile. He's universally detested by all the characters and the butt of constant snide remarks from friend and foe alike. It's pretty clear that it is his pedophilia that people find despicable, not his homosexuality. One of Mirtai's former owners averts this while unfortunately falling victim to BuryYourGays.
170* TheDevilIsALoser:
171** Azash presents a pretty good case. He may be the most evil of the Elder Gods, but he's also an emasculated IdiotBall-carrying buffoon locked inside a clay idol. His minions can be pretty scary, though.
172** Cyrgon even more so. This is a guy who deliberately bred up a race of inbred musclemen who haven't changed in millennia.
173** Also justified in both cases. Azash is more like a primordial, evil force of nature than a real character, while Cyrgon is essentially the god of unthinking stagnation, having designed his chosen people at the dawn of time and become so attached to them that he is unwilling to change them one iota. His conservativism is a deliberate choice; despite his dislike of innovation, he learns quickly in a fight.
174* DiabolusExNihilo: Klael shows up randomly in the final book of the second series and promptly takes over as BigBad. Once explained it makes sense, and anyone familiar with Literature/TheMalloreon could see something like that coming, but it was still rather jarring.
175* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:Azash gets wiped out by Sparhawk and Bhelliom]] in the third book. The other gods are understandably quite terrified.
176* DissonantSerenity: Sparhawk is more frightening when he gets quiet than when he rages and roars. Even more true with Bevier, whose faith cause leads him to take ''shockingly'' violent action once he is certain he is on firm theological and moral ground. At one point he not only ''decapitates'' a corrupt [[HiredGuns church soldier]] that refuses to let them pass, he then leads the man's terrified subordinates in chanting ''prayers for the dead man's soul''.
177* DistractedByTheSexy: Invoked and damn near weaponized in the Tamuli, as a method to avert attention to the messages being sent between Ehlana and Sarabian via Melidere. The baroness keeps everyone so locked on [[HartmanHips her hips]], they probably didn’t even realize she had hands or anything in them.
178* TheDragon: Otha is technically this for Azash, but as he's physically not up to much Dragoning, Martel fills the role in the FinalBattle.
179** DemotedToDragon: [[spoiler: Later on, [[PhysicalGod Cyrgon]] is pressed into duty to serve as this to [[EldritchAbomination Klael]]]] after arrogantly summoning it.
180** DragonInChief: Martel, arguably. He's ostensibly working for Annias, Otha, and ultimately Azash, but as the above consist of a SmugSnake, an idiot, and a near-mindless EldritchAbomination, he's the one whose schemes really drive the plot, ''and'' he has the [[ShadowArchetype personal connection to the hero]] to boot.
181* TheDreaded: The Shining Ones are the acme of terror for Tamuls, to the extent that even the [[BadassArmy Atans]] refuse to face them unless absolutely necessary. Subverted; they turn out to be a race of [[PerfectPacifistPeople pacifistic]] {{Mary Sue}}s.
182* DualAgeModes: Although Aphrael spends most of her time as a child, she can be an adult if she wants. Or [[MesACrowd both at the same time]].
183* DumbBlonde: Subverted by [[ObfuscatingStupidity Melidere]]. On the surface, she's Ehlana's air-headed lady-in-waiting. [[spoiler:In practice, she's simultaneously one of Ehlana's chief advisors and a successful white-collar criminal.]]
184* DumbMuscle:
185** On the side of villainy: Adus, the Cyrgai, and Klael's {{Giant Mook}}s.
186** Kalten appears to be this, but it's actually ObfuscatingStupidity. He's actually smarter than Sparhawk in some ways.
187* DyingReconciliation: Toward the end of ''The Sapphire Rose,'' the third part of the trilogy, protagonist Sparhawk and his childhood friend-turned-nemesis Martel have a fatal swordfight. As Martel lies dying, he makes peace with Sparhawk and also their teacher, Sephrenia. Knowing that they've both forgiven him for his evils, he tells them that he's glad to be receiving something almost like a formal deathbed, because "I get to die in the presence of the only two people I've ever really loved."
188* DyingTruce: The final duel scenes in both trilogies wrap up with Sparhawk delivering the fatal blow and then having a respectful (if short) conversation with the one he just killed.
189[[/folder]]
190
191[[folder:E-F]]
192* EagerRookie: Played with. Sparhawk told a young knight to guard Sephrenia, but agreed to let him take part in the battle (his first) when Sephrenia said she didn't need a guard. The knight was then killed by Adus. This was notably foreshadowed - after their first meeting, Sparhawk tells Vanion "He's too good for this world, you know. God will probably be calling him home soon."
193** This might have also been a YouCantFightFate situation, as he was one of the [[BarrierMaiden twelve knights sustaining the spell keeping Ehlana alive]].
194* EasilyElected: Leaders in the Republic of Tega are ''forcibly'' elected -- candidates can't refuse nomination and are guarded to prevent escape. If elected, all their assets are converted into shares of the national treasury to encourage responsible rule. (At least reelection is illegal.)
195* EldritchAbomination: All the Elder Gods are like this, apparently. Azash, as the worst of them, also crosses over to GodOfEvil, as he's evil by both the standards of mortals ''and'' other Eldritch Abominations. [[spoiler: Klael is as far beyond the other {{Eldritch Abomination}}s as they are beyond humans.]]
196* ElectiveMute: Flute, for the first book and part of the second.
197* TheEmperor: Otha, and the TooDumbToLive King of the Cyrgai. Sarabian is a ReasonableAuthorityFigure though.
198* TheEmpire: Zemoch. Tamul is a more benevolent version, and the Cyrgai ''used'' to be this, until the rest of the world caught up to them and ultimately left them in the dust.
199* EndlessDaytime: Sparhawk accidentally causes this when he uses Bhelliom to help him catch up with Martel ... but leaves the ''method'' up to the Troll-Gods.
200* EthnicGod: Each race has at least one god; most have a pantheon, while the Styrics have over a thousand. It's never explained whether the gods made the races or vice-versa, but the connection is apparently insoluble: on a few occasions, Aphrael has to get the Elene god's permission to act on his people.
201* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas:
202** No matter how depraved he becomes, Martel never stops loving Sephrenia.
203** Lycheas and Arissa obviously care for each other, as does Lycheas's father [[spoiler:Annias]], demonstrated when he goes out of his way to get the two rescued from imprisonment and brings them into exile in Zemoch when his plan goes south.
204** Scarpa calls out for his mother while he [[spoiler: [[{{Gorn}} is melted into goo by the Delphaeic curse]] This is an interesting one, as he had his mother killed when he began his StartOfDarkness.]]
205* EvilCounterpart:
206** Martel, to Sparhawk.
207** Klael to Bhelliom.
208* EvilFormerFriend: [[spoiler: Zalasta]] becomes this to [[spoiler: Sephrenia]]
209** Martel is this to Sparhawk.
210* EvilIsNotAToy: Cyrgon, Cyrgon, Cyrgon. Summoning Klael, a being of infinite power and malevolence, capable of eating Gods for breakfast and picking its teeth with {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, and trying to control it and make it his minion? That's just asking for trouble.
211* EvilSorcerer: Otha. Martel ''tried'' to be this in the Backstory, but got caught and most of his powers were stripped away. [[spoiler: Also Zalasta in the ''Tamuli'']].
212* {{Expy}}: Many from ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', mostly due to filling identical archetypes.
213** Melidere = Velvet (Liselle)
214** Stragen = Silk (Kheldar)'s white-collar side--businessman, politician, spy, high-class criminal.
215** Tynian/Ulath = Barak
216** Bevier = Mandorallan
217** Kurik/Khalad = Durnik with some rough edges.
218** Talen = If Silk were a street urchin. Or maybe Silk's mischievous side given form.
219** Sarabian = 'Zakath
220** Xanetia = Cyradis
221** Delphae = Dals
222** Tamul Empire = Mallorean Empire
223** Matherion = Mal Zeth
224** Bhelliom and Klael = The Light Prophecy/Orb of Aldur and Dark Prophecy/Sardion
225** Azash = Torak
226* FalseFriend: [[spoiler: Zalasta]], to everyone who isn't [[spoiler: Sephrenia. To her, he ends up as an EvilFormerFriend.]]
227* FantasticCatholicism: The Church of Chyrellos--except that there is no Christ figure, so it's essentially Judaism in Catholic clothes.
228* FantasticRacism: The quickest way to piss off a Troll is to insinuate that he ''might'' be an Ogre. Also there's the Elenes and the Styrics, the Styrics and the Zemochs, the Styrics and the Delphae...
229* FantasyCounterpartCulture:
230** Not taken to the all-consuming extent of the Belgariad, but in general the Elenes are English and French, the Thalasians are Scandinavians, the Cammorians are sort of Italian, the Pelosians are Russians (with the Peloi being Cossacks or Mongols) and Lamorks are Germans, the Styrics are Jews (though their religion is more like pre-Christian paganism, and they have some Roma influences thrown in as well), the Tamuls are Chinese, the Cyrgai are the worst examples of Greco-Romanic culture (particularly Sparta), and the Rendors are Arabs.
231** There are also a few Fantasy Counterpart Religions: the Church of Chyrellos is obviously the Roman Catholic Church, and the Church of Astel and its leader are {{Expy}}s of Eastern Orthodoxy and the Patriarch of Constantinople, respectively. And while the Rendors look like Muslims, at least from a xenophobic Western perspective, the history of their breakaway sect sounds a lot like the formation of Protestantism.
232* FatBastard: Otha. He hasn't had to actually move in centuries, to the point that he ''can't walk at all.'' Subverted by Platime, who despite his criminal status is no worse than the protagonists.
233* FateWorseThanDeath: The touch of the Delphae, aka the Shining Ones, is regarded as this by Tamuls in general, to the point that they're willing to accept certain death of almost any other cause to escape it.
234* FeelingTheirAge: Sir Sparhawk is middle-aged at the beginning of the first book, and several times it's noted that he hasn't got the speed or stamina he had as a younger man.
235* TheFettered: While generally unscrupulous in their tactics and unconcerned with most secular laws, the Church Knights are absolutely unwilling to break church law or disobey ecclesiastical orders, which allows Annias a NearVillainVictory, just because they aren't willing to simply assassinate him or reveal his atrocities without absolute proof.
236* FingerInTheMail: In the ''Tamuli'', instructions to Sparhawk from Ehlana's kidnappers include a lock of her hair as verification.
237* FireForgedFriends: Sparhawk and Ehlana's ancestors, whose families become bound together after they end up back to back on a battlefield butchering bandits left and right.
238* {{Flanderisation}}: Kalten starts off Sparhawk's lifelong best friend and backup man; Sparkhawk's equal in general knowledge, raw cunning, and combat ability, but who never got the hang of magic because his talent with the Styric language is close to nil. This maintains throughout the first book, and after that Kalten begins a slide for being a big dumb guy who's somehow missed everyday information (like what a 'diagonal' is).
239** And then subverted, as the last couple books demonstrate that Kalten may not be ''book'' smart, but he thinks fast on his feet and can be remarkably clever. He's also shown to actually be able to understand the gist of most Styric conversations, even if he can't hope to pronounce the words.
240*** Ultimately, it's a case of Kalten discovering ObfuscatingStupidity. He hides his intelligence behind the fact that everyone expects him to be stupid. The only exception is Sparhawk, who's his main companion in the first book and has been his friend since childhood; the more he's around people who aren't Sparhawk, the stupider he acts.
241--->'''Sparhawk:''' Kalten, sometimes you amaze me.
242--->'''Kalten:''' I know, this stupid-looking face of mine is very useful sometimes.
243* FloweryElizabethanEnglish: Appears several times. All the speaking dead, whether they died centuries before or a few days before. A man playing a resurrected dead hero speaks this way, plagiarizing an old play. Also [[spoiler: Bhelliom speaks this way]].
244* FolkHero: Sabre tries to be one of these in the ''Tamuli'', but his Zorro act is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]], [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], [[ButtMonkey mocked]] and generally played completely for laughs, with all the heroes treating him as a figure of fun and a complete joke. And then he [[spoiler:[[SaveThePrincess kidnaps Ehlana and Alean]]]] in the last book. It's ''still'' played for laughs, with Scarpa and Krager ruthlessly mocking him nonstop. It is only fair, since Sabre had to have Krager help him with [[spoiler: the kidnapping]].
245** This is part of the standard model for the bad guys' plan in ''The Tamuli'', with the various provinces getting a modern folk hero/rebel leader (buffed up with magic to help charisma if they're someone like [[spoiler: Elron]]/Sabre) and a resurrected historic folk hero to lead the anti-Tamuli uprising (anti-Elene Church uprising in the nascent Lamorkand implementation). One of the things that first makes people suspect Scarpa might be a bit different from the other rebel leaders is that the resurrected Arjunan folk hero is pretty much an afterthought that even the ''Arjunans'' aren't particularly fond of.
246* FrazettaMan:
247** The Trolls embody this stereotype almost to a T, to the point of being so primitive it's stated they'd have died off centuries ago if they weren't immortal. Essentially nine-foot tall apes, they are incapable of using any weapon other than clubs and tend not to work in groups, but still possess a language and their own gods.
248** Trolls, Elenes, and Styrics are all descended from the Dawn-Men, a race of carnivorous apes who walked the earth eons ago. Far larger than Elenes or Styrics, the Dawn-Men were still smaller than Trolls (though even [[MadeOfIron harder to kill]]), and while capable of working in groups and making flint weapons (abilities Styrics and Elenes would later build on, but Trolls would abandon), lacked language skills (something all of their descendants would develop). Cyrgon, amusingly, cannot tell Trolls and Dawn-Men apart.
249%%* FriendVersusLover
250* FullFrontalAssault:
251** Bellina, [[spoiler:under Azash's curse, who hangs out naked in her brother's cellar ''butchering and eating children alive.'']]
252*** And then inverted when the Knights run across a horde of naked revelers trying to summon Azash into a clay idol, and promptly assault ''them.''
253** Also done by Lillias during her farewell to Sparhawk.
254* TheFundamentalist: Patriarch Ortzel, the arch-conservative Lamork churchman who's got his heart set on forbidding the Church Knights from using magic. But since he's not Annias, everyone [[spoiler:except Ehlana]] gets behind him as the good guys' candidate for Archprelate. Thankfully, he gets CharacterDevelopment later and becomes more cosmopolitan.
255[[/folder]]
256
257[[folder:G-H]]
258%%* GeneralFailure: Otha.
259* GeniusBruiser: Most of the knights come close, but Ulath is probably the best example, being seven feet tall and [[TheQuietOne silent]], yet possessed of remarkable intellectual depth, particularly in the fields of religious study, history, and folklore.
260** Then there's Bhlokw, a Troll Priest who cheerfully engages Ulath in philosophical debate (such as [[spoiler:whether there's still a moral obligation to obey the Gods if they've gone crazy)]].
261* GentlemanThief: Played perfectly straight with Stragen. Or should I say, ''Milord'' Stragen? Averted with Platime, whose attempts to be gentlemanly are wholly comical.
262* GhostlyDeathReveal: It's eventually explained to Sparhawk that in his absence, Sephrenia and a select group of his fellow Pandion Knights performed a magic ritual to keep the poisoned Queen Ehlana alive at the expense of their own life energy. Every month, one of them will die unless the cure is found, with Sephrenia being the last to go. Neither he nor Sephrenia knows which one will die each month until each knight's ghost appears to inform them of the passing; Sephrenia, who is Really700YearsOld and has known all of these knights since they were children, takes it extremely hard every time.
263* {{Giant Mook}}s: Klael's alien army in the ''Tamuli''.
264* AGodAmI: One conversation suggests that all mortal races are gradually evolving to become like Gods, with the Delphae taking an accelerated course.
265* AGodIAmNot: At the end of ''The Hidden City'', [[spoiler:Sparhawk realizes that as Anakha, he has more power than most of the gods. But he decides he doesn't want the responsibility and gives it all up]].
266* GodEmperor: In ''The Tamuli'' it's the inverted form, with Cyrgon, a god who is also the earthly ruler of the people of the same name.
267* GodOfEvil: Azash [[spoiler:and Cyrgon]].
268* GodOfFire: Ulath enumerates the Troll Gods for his fellow Church Knights. Among these is Khwaj, the god of fire, whom Sparhawk later compels to turn their campfire into a listening device to spy on their enemies.
269* TheGodsMustBeLazy: The Elene God does not do one single thing through both series, although he is acknowledged as being real, incredibly powerful, and really boring at parties. The members of his ChurchMilitant actually pray to the Styric gods for magical abilities he could easily grant them. Though one churchman suggests that maybe if they'd actually tried asking him to grant them powers they could have avoided the slight ''institutionalized heresy'' that their entire military wing is involved with.
270** The Elene God is based on ''God'' of the Roman Catholic Church. Like the Roman Catholic God, you are just supposed to have faith that he's working behind the scenes with his "grand plan" beyond your understanding.
271** The Tamul gods are too busy partying and acting like children to actually do anything. Most Tamuli have trouble remembering any of their names.
272** Inverted with the Atan god. He is real and probably as powerful as the Styric gods, and takes a keen interest in his worshippers, but the Atans consider it disrespectful to ask the gods for things they could fix themselves. They do invoke their god, but only for really important occasions like weddings and coming-of-age-ceremonies (who only occur within Atan, so very few people other than the Atans know about it).
273* GodsNeedPrayerBadly:
274** The Elene god and Azash are probably the two most powerful deities in the world [[spoiler:not counting Bhelliom and Klael]] because they have so many worshippers; ordinary Styric gods like Aphrael are substantially weaker. In the ''Tamuli'', at one point the conspirators try to starve Aphrael to death by killing off enough of her worshippers that she'll lose the power to sustain herself.
275** Aphrael states at one point that outside of human perception, the air is positively littered with the ghosts of dead gods whose worshippers are all gone.
276** It's also implied that this may be the reason that the Elene god has commanded His followers to believe only in Him: He's afraid of the others poaching his followers. Aphrael reveals that in order for the knightly orders to receive Styric assistance, the Styric gods had to agree not to convert any knights.
277* GoneHorriblyRight:
278** The Atans are the result of an [[SuperBreedingProgram extended breeding experiment]] intended to produce the ultimate {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s. They succeeded so perfectly that they were forced to sell themselves into slavery to the Tamuls to prevent their own overdeveloped killer instincts from killing off the entire race over, say, an [[SeriousBusiness argument over the weather]].
279** The Delphae are a race that can kill with a touch thanks to a [[CursedWithAwesome curse]] from their god and are hated by most other races in existence. This is all part of their god's master plan.
280** The Cyrgai were cursed so that they could not travel beyond the borders of their own nation, or they would die instantly. Cyrgon commanded that they immediately set about using their female slaves to breed an army that would be able to cross the border, as the slaves were not Cyrgai. In their zeal, the Cyrgai overlooked their own women and crossbred themselves into [[spoiler:borderline]] extinction.
281** At one point the knights, hoping to avoid any fights or delays, put on their armor so everyone knows that they are knights and will either defer to them or stay out of their way. A couple of hours later, a noble seems them, immediately recognizes them as knights, and orders them on a side quest that they are obligated to obey.
282* GoodScarsEvilScars:
283** Inverted. Sparhawk's nose was broken and healed crooked, making him look cruel and ugly. Martel only has silver hair over a surprisingly youthful face.
284** Kring is described as having several serious scars on his face and scalp, but they're noted as evidence of the rather physical path to leadership in his tribe.
285* HappilyAdopted: It only gets a brief mention in the ''Elenium,'' but Kalten was essentially this; after his parents were killed in an accident when he was a child, he was taken in by Sparhawk's parents and the two boys were raised together. Sparhawk's narrative notes that "in some ways, they were closer than brothers."
286* HappinessInSlavery:
287** Played with extensively with the Atans, who as a whole believe they must always be "slaves" and that a completely "free" Atan is a very, very bad thing. This is due to them being such a ProudWarriorRace that generational blood feuds can be started over a disagreement about the weather, and so they as a race offered themselves as slaves to the Tamuls. However, their "slavery" consists entirely of them agreeing to not kill anyone without permission and serve as the Tamuls' army, which allows them to be warriors and have glorious battles, without bringing their race to the edge of extinction from everyone killing everyone else for the slightest reason. And the Atans are all happy with this arrangement.
288** This is exemplified with Mirtai's case, where instead of the normal institutionalized slavery of her people, she was kidnapped and forced into a more personal slavery. But despite hating the more personal nature of her slavery (no, not ''that'' way), she repeatedly refused and scoffed at any attempt to free her by Ehlana after she became her "slave", always saying that it was impossible for her people to ever be free, normally followed by a long list of people Ehlana knows that Mirtai would have killed by now for some type of insult if she had been free.
289*** To clarify, she tells Ehlana at one point that, had she been free, she would have killed a major character for the unpardonable sin of [[FelonyMisdemeanor allowing his shadow to touch her.]]
290** It's worse than it sounds. A high-ranking Tamul official, outraged over Arjuni slave raids, once authorized a punitive Atan expedition into Arjuna--without giving them any limits. They actually hanged the King and drove his subjects into the southern jungles, thus starting an economic crisis. It took centuries to convince the Arjuni to emerge from their hiding place and rejoin larger society. The Atans look upon the incident as a dreamy golden time when they got to ''really'' cut loose.
291** Alean, in a way. As a servant girl, she has no complaints about her indentured status other than her first employer (a noble notorious for his misdeeds, including raping his servants) and the fact that she and Kalten can't get married due to her common status.
292* HealItWithBooze: In the first book, Sparhawk does first aid on one of his companions by scrubbing the wound out with some cheap wine before bandaging it. When he gets back to base, Sephrenia, the team's medic/sorceress, is less than impressed.
293* TheHeroDoesntKillTheVillainess: [[spoiler:Played with. All of the male villains have been killed by the heroes. Princess Arissa, the lone female conspirator, is still alive and, it is implied the heroes would have been spared her life, but she drinks poison instead. When she realizes that the heroes don't plan to kill her, she begs the sorceress Sephrenia to save her. [[GoodIsNotSoft Sephrenia refuses]] and the heroes leave her to die.]]
294* HeroicBastard: Talen and Stragen. Arguably Platime as well, considering that he's both one of the good guys and a self-admitted, unrepentant career criminal.
295* HeterosexualLifePartners: Tynian and Ulath.
296* HiddenDepths:
297** Melidere is introduced as Ehlana's lady-in-waiting, a baroness who is very intelligent but who knows that many feel threatened by intelligent, beautiful young women and so acts vacant because it's a good way to pick up information. It's revealed in ''The Shining Ones'' that she's also a criminal (her father shaved the edges of coins and re-milled them in order to create a rather significant fortune, and Melidere kept up the work).
298** Kalten as well. In a two minute span, he manages to slip coded messages to Ehlana that he knows she and Alean are there, and that he, Caalador, and Bevier are all in disguise nearby. Ehlana even says that he passed more information than Sparhawk could have in an hour.
299** Alean herself: a shy, demure servant girl who nonetheless comes up with a brilliant idea for safeguarding documents from the enemy (and then a way of spotting the forged documents that the heroes are looking for) while also enthralling Kalten, whose love-life has hitherto consisted of hitting on local barmaids, into settling down and becoming a proper husband.
300* HiddenWeapons: Mirtai is always armed, to the point where she carries a spoon with the handle sharpened to the point of being a shiv. Special mention is made of her being "not visibly armed" at Ehlana's wedding while wearing a sleeveless mid-thigh length dress.
301* HideAndNoSeek: In the ''Tamuli'', used by Mirtai to Danae, telling her to get some water, and giving her time to say things that weren't appropriate for children to hear:
302** Mirtai is telling her life-story as part of a 'ritual of passage into adulthood', and when she gets to a certain point, she does this.
303** {{Lampshaded}} when Danae returns with the water and asks Mirtai if she has finished with the part that Danae isn't allowed to hear.
304* HolyGround: From the ''Tamuli'', there is a concern that an Elene-style church has been consecrated (it hasn't).
305* HomoeroticSubtext: Invoked whenever any female character kisses another female character with variations of "you shouldn't do that, [[GirlOnGirlIsHot it gives the wrong kinds of ideas]]"
306* HornsOfBarbarism: The Genidian Knights (based in Thalesia, a Viking FantasyCounterpartCulture) wear horned helmets as part of their formal armor. {{Justified|Trope}} in that the horns in question come from ogres, and are much harder than steel; they're additional head protection.
307* HorsingAround: Sir Sparhawk's horse Faran. Faran is infamous for his bad temper and a tendency to bite strangers (such that Sparhawk always has to warn handlers about it). In one of the later books, the Child-Goddess Aphrael tells Sparhawk that Faran only has a bad temper because he is trying to please Sparhawk by matching ''his'' personality. Much to Sparhawk's annoyance, Faran has a habit of prancing dramatically whenever Sparhawk rides him with his formal armour on. The horse is also remarked upon to be unusually intelligent, to the point of understanding Sparhawk's speech and having memorized the ritual entry into a Pandion Chapterhouse as well as Sparhawk has; he's furthermore ''incredibly'' loyal to Sparhawk, so much that Sparhawk can occasionally call on Faran to do what needs to be done without explicit commands and has no fear but that Faran will comply.
308* HugeGuyTinyGirl: [[spoiler:Sparhawk and Ehlana.]]
309* HumanSubspecies: The first series has the Elenes (taller, capable of logical thinking, decidedly unintuitive), the Styrics (smaller, incapable of logic, very intuitive and connected to their gods) and the Trolls (nine foot tall predatory apes sitting somewhere between KillerGorilla and FrazettaMan). All are descended from the Dawn-Men, a race of huge carnivorous [[FrazettaMan ape-men]] who walked the earth eons previously. The sequel series introduced the various races of the Tamul Empire; how they fit into the equation is not entirely clear, though the Atans' bulk is the result of a breeding program.
310* HypocriticalHumor: A RunningGag in the ''Tamuli'' is [[GentlemanThief Stragen's]] displeasure [[ObfuscatingStupidity with Baroness Melidere]], one of Queen Ehlana's closest friends. She acts as, in Stragen's words, [[DumbBlonde "She makes it seem as if the light in her eyes is the sun streaming through the hole in the back of her head."]] He flat out says, "I hate dishonest people." This coming from the [[ThievesGuild leader of all the criminals]] in the capital of Thalesia.
311** Also the RunningGag of Ulath hating sieges, but usually being the first to suggest it as an option. He's eventually called on it, and gives the excuse that its [[PlanetOfHats a part of Thalesians' character to hate sieges.]] Bevier says the former king of Thalesia withstood a seventeen year siege successfully, but Ulath replies, "But he didn't enjoy it."
312[[/folder]]
313
314[[folder:I-L]]
315* IdiotSavant: Adus, when it comes to small-unit tactics.
316* IfICantHaveYou: [[spoiler: Zalasta to Sephrenia.]] He stabs her and then tells her "I love you."
317* IKissYourHand: The standard greeting among Styrics.
318* ISeeDeadPeople:
319** Sephrenia gets regular visits from the ghosts of several Pandion knights, while Sparhawk shares a little chat with [[spoiler:the ghost of King Aldreas]].
320** During the second book, Tynian reveals himself as a {{Necromancer}} and goes around raising ghosts to help the party find Bhelliom. Sephrenia knows how it's done too, but she claims (truthfully or not) that she's not strong enough to wrangle up ghosts. "I'm a little small for that sort of thing." Given that necromancy is almost literally wrestling the dead into submission, and she's described as being a rather tiny woman, she has a point.
321* ImmuneToFate:
322** The gods can see the destiny of every mortal, except one: [[spoiler:Sparhawk]]. He's known as the Anakha, meaning "without destiny". This made the gods so nervous they considered killing him before he was even born.
323** Eventually it is revealed that [[spoiler:Sparhawk]] is immune because he was infused with the power of Bhelliom, an elemental force older and stronger than any god. Even while that power was dormant, it was so great that no god could see his future.
324* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Bevier, with some variation. He behaves like the perfect devout knight, prays on a regular basis, feels guilty thinking about women... But as soon as he's certain that killing someone is morally justifiable, people who get in his way get to know what the business end of his giant lochaber axe feels like.
325** Berit in the ''Tamuli''. His innocence is what draws Elysoun to him, despite his protestations against sleeping with a married woman (her culture has no taboo against adultery). He also doesn't understand innuendo, setting up a swordsmanship demonstration for the Atan ladies who wanted to learn more about "Elene weaponry". [[spoiler:Eventually subverted; after Sparhawk gives him a talk about how sex really isn't that big a deal, he gives in to Elysoun's charms and even becomes a little jealous when she tells him she's sleeping around with other men as well.]]
326* IncrediblyLamePun: "The Baron Harparin was so pleased that he completely lost his head."
327* IndyPloy: Styrics are terrible at these, mostly due to them not taking surprises well or being particularly quick on their proverbial feet. Sparhawk pulling one of these, therefore, ends up confounding their foes several times, particularly with Martel’s plot with Arasham.
328* InsaneTrollLogic: From an actual Troll God no less. The reason that Tynian and Ulath can be in the "time of broken moments" and be jumped slightly through time so they exist in only the smallest, tiniest fraction of every moment rendering them unable to be seen/heard by anyone else, and yet perfectly see and understand everyone else they are trying to spy on? Because the Troll God Ghnomb thinks it works that way.
329* KarmaHoudini:
330** Arguably, Martel. Sure he dies, but it's a quick death after a fair fight, with the two people he cares about most by his side. In his own words, it's almost as good as a formal deathbed. And this after bringing untold suffering out of pure spite and greed. None of his victims died so well.
331** Subverted with Krager. He gets away scot-free after helping the bad guys in the ''Elenium'' and he gets away scot-free after helping the bad guys in the ''Tamuli''. Once characters start complaining about that at the end of the ''Tamuli'', it is revealed that what he did ''not'' get away scot-free from was [[spoiler: drinking a lot of alcohol over the years. He's probably less than a year from death at the end of ''The Hidden City'', and the only reason he's not really suffering is that he's so delirious he wouldn't even notice someone stabbing him to death]]. Khalad resolves to do it anyway, not out of revenge, but because ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure.
332** [[spoiler:Sabre]] appears to make it through the end of the series alive (we last see him cowering under the furniture while [[spoiler:the Delphae kill Scarpa]]). Appropriate, since he is more of a ButtMonkey than actually evil. Of course, given the number of powerful, violent people who are very, ''very'' angry with him, he may not have escaped for long.
333* KeystoneArmy: Various ancient armies that have been brought forwards in time in ''The Tamuli'' disappear when their leader is killed, leaving only the (rapidly-mummifying) bodies of any other dead.
334* KillerOutfit: Mentioned as the reason why the Genidian Knights wear chainmail instead of the other orders' traditional platemail: a previous preceptor tried to order them to align with the other orders. Thalesia has a lot of rivers, so the majority of the order refused, as platemail is a bit hard to remove when you're drowning. The preceptor, in his platemail, and another knight in chainmail were dumped into a river. The latter shucked off the chainmail and swam to the surface. The former... didn't. They then elected their current preceptor, who was smart enough not to suggest something so foolish.
335* KnightInShiningArmor: Bevier. All the Cyrinic Knights are generally like this, what with the burnished armor, white surcoats, and such, but Bevier plays it completely straight.
336* KnightInSourArmor: Sparhawk, of course, though most of the other knights fall into this territory.
337* LamarckWasRight: Despite being a generation younger than his father, Khalad can do everything Kurik can do and immediately fills the squire role upon arrival. {{Justified|Trope}} because Khalad's family have [[LegacyOfService always been squires for the various generations of Sparhawks]] and he's just following the tradition. In fairness, Eddings does give Khalad his own personality, but there really is a lot of Kurik there.
338* LargeHam:
339** Sabre, who certainly ''tries'' to affect the mannerisms of a MagnificentBastard, but suffers from the fact that the closest he's ever come to the real deal is in old epics. The result is so thoroughly over-the-top and cliche that Sparhawk is amazed the guy's for real the first time he sees him. [[spoiler: Of course, he's just a little fish in the grand scheme of things]].
340** Then there's Lilias, who only makes one appearance but puts on one ridiculously hammy show for her neighborhood with Sparhawk until their performance resembles a badly-written romance novel.
341** Aren't we forgetting Bevier as [[PsychoForHire a one-eyed mercenary?]] He admitted to being an actor during his schooling, but I doubt he'd make it as a professional.
342** Faran, whenever Sparhawk is in his armor.
343** Even Sparhawk gets in on this when he is talking to Arasham, posing as a loyal disciple while pumping the old man for information.
344* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Sparhawk, twice. See LemonyNarrator below.
345* LeftJustifiedFantasyMap: At least until the story shifts to Tamul, where it become a ''right''-justified fantasy map.
346* LegacyOfService: A two-tiered example. The Sparhawks have been (institutionalized, hereditary) champions of the monarchs of Elenia for several generations, and Kurik's family have been squires to the Sparhawks for several (though unlike the Sparhawk's champion undated) generations. By the end of the ''Elenium'', [[spoiler: Sparhawk is set to be the last Sparhawk champion, as his wife ''is'' the monarch of Elenia, and they will only have the one -- female -- child. However, while Kurik died, his son Khalad stepped into the squire role as per tradition, and it's implied that unlike Kurik he will ''not'' be able to avoid knighthood, and the family might end up replacing the Sparhawks as the champions of the Elenian monarchy.]]
347* LemonyNarrator: Played with (added to a few isolated examples of it being PlayedForLaughs) when the third person narration of Sparhawk's inner monologue turns into garish PurpleProse, then comments upon Sparhawk noticing it and groaning inwardly. It's actually a minor plot point. Blame [[spoiler:Aphrael]]. It happens ''again'' but up to eleven with [[spoiler:Sparhawk/Anakha]] ''[[LeaningOnTheFourthWall actually complaining outwardly about it]]'' at the last book's climax. It's actually a bigger plot point. Blame [[spoiler:Bhelliom]].
348* LetsFightLikeGentlemen: The final duel between Sparhawk and Martel fits the bill. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the book constantly drives home that Sparhawk and Martel are evenly matched and both of them want to find out who's truly better. Once the outcome is certain, Martel admits he never had any doubts. [[spoiler: On his deathbed.]]
349* LightningBruiser: Your average troll is nine feet tall and weighs around a thousand pounds. They have arms long enough for them to walk on their knuckles like some apes. Despite the size, they have inhumanly sharp reflexes and acute hand-eye coordination, to the point they can go fishing bare-handed with every confidence of success. Ulath, resident troll expert of the group, says if you're not careful when you're fighting a troll, it'll easily jerk your weapons out of your hands and feed them to you. Even Genidian Knights who have to fight a troll try to shoot it full of arrows to hamper its movements and then hit it from all sides to avoid the threat of the hands.
350** Ghwerig, deformed and dwarfed as he was, could still run almost as fast as a man. A troll without twisted hips and shoulders could presumably go a lot faster.
351* LittleMissAlmighty: Aphrael, the Child Goddess
352* LoadBearingBoss: After Azash and Otha are killed, the city of Zemoch starts to slowly fall apart as though thousands of years of attrition hit it all at once. It's less of a spectacular collapse and more of an accelerated decay.
353* LoveableRogue: Talen. Oh so very Talen. Stragen also fits the bill.
354* LoveHungry: Aphrael.
355* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Zalasta]] really, ''really'' wants to win over [[spoiler:Sephrenia]].
356[[/folder]]
357
358[[folder:M-N]]
359* MagicalBarefooter: Flute, a mystical child [[spoiler:and goddess]], always has bare feet. And her feet always have grass stains, even when she's been inside all day, invoking FertileFeet.
360* MagicalJew: Styrics are a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Jews, and they are a race of magicians who basically mentored the Elenes in the ways of magic and mysticism. In particular, the protagonist Sparhawk was taught by the Styric priestess Sephrenia.
361* MagicKnight:
362** Of the "Paladin" variety, although Pandions are more "Good but grey on the side of practicality." Technically all Church Knights are taught magic, but individual skills vary. In practice, Sparhawk does most of it. For extra special fun, the god who gives them magic powers is ''not'' the god they worship. [[spoiler:Aphrael is working on it, though.]] The Church is aware of this, but prefers not to talk about it.
363** Subverted with Kalten, who's been taught by Sephrenia but is unable to make magic work and isn't ashamed to admit it. He just can't pronounce the Styric words, much less manage to think completely in Styric as necessary to cast spells. This is brought up as a joke every now and then.
364* TheManInFrontOfTheMan:
365** [[spoiler:Sure, Annias looks like the real villain, but his whole scheme was Martel's baby all along.]]
366** Similarly, [[spoiler:Krager]] takes the credit in the sequels.
367** And [[spoiler: Zalasta]] was behind both of them.
368* MayDecemberRomance: Sparhawk has got a good 20 to 30 years on [[spoiler:Ehlana]]. [[spoiler: And Sephrenia is ''considerably'' older than Vanion. Like, orders of magnitude older.]]
369* MayflyDecemberRomance: While this doesn't quite appear, the foundation is firmly set for [[spoiler: Aphrael and Talen]].
370* MedievalStasis: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] for the most part. The history behind the Elene kingdoms includes bronze-age warriors and the discovery of iron, and when the [[spoiler:Cyrgai]] show up in the second series they're all wearing bronze-age equipment and using antiquated phalanx tactics. Also, the borders of Cynesga have changed dramatically over time. That said, the timespans over which these innovations happened are considerable. For example, the Zemoch invasion of Eosia happened 500 years before the start of the story, at which point all the major kingdoms still existed.
371* MegatonPunch: Berit delivers one of these when Talen's BrattyHalfPint act starts to wear on the group. He throws in a punt for good measure.
372* TheMentor: Kurik is one of these. He's older than Sparhawk, more skilled than basically all the Church Knights, and the heroes defer to him more often than not. [[spoiler:And then he dies. He comes back in spirit a couple of times, whenever Aphrael takes the knights to the ocean cliff where they throw away and retrieve Bhelliom. During the retrieval]] Sparhawk has black spots appear in front of his eyes because he forgets to breathe. Kurik bashes him on the shoulder and calls him an idiot. [[spoiler:Cracking put down from a dead guy!]]
373* MoodWhiplash: This exchange in the third book:
374-->'''Sephrenia:''' Sparhawk, stop! Bhelliom's tampering with your thoughts. It's trying to lure you into using it. Each time you do, its hold on you grows stronger. Think about something else.
375-->'''Kurik:''' Like Aphrael? Or is she dangerous too?
376-->'''Sephrenia:''' (Smiles) Oh yes, very dangerous. She'll capture your soul even faster than Bhelliom will.
377* {{Mordor}}: Zemoch is a classic example.
378* MrExposition: Every major character fills this role at one point or another, but the worst offender is Xanetia. At one point in The Shining Ones, she [[spoiler:reads the mind]] of TheChessmaster of the other side, and then explains exactly what he has been doing behind the scenes for the entirety of both trilogies to that point. In excruciating detail. In YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe. For about three chapters.
379* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Played for laughs and said almost verbatim when Oscagne realizes that he has led [[TheGoodKing Emperor Sarabian]] to realize the true power an absolute monarch has.
380* MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels: Basically what happens whenever Kalten tries to speak Styric. Happens again when he is learning Tamul: he tries to say "smile" but it comes out wishing for a person's teeth to rot away. Also happens to Sparhawk in the first book when he magicks up a bouquet of flowers for Sephrenia but comes this close to conjuring up a handful of snakes.
381* MyRuleFuIsStrongerThanYours: During the Archprelate elections and the political maneuvering leading up to it, encyclopaedic knowledge of canon law is a major asset on the heroes' side. This includes the Preceptors' right to attend meetings despite centuries of abstention, forcing Annias's supporters to attend very early meetings lest other factions elect a new chair in their absence, and holding official votes on every trivial matter to keep count of who's standing where. One friendly patriarch (probably) jokingly suggests nominating for sainthood the monk who'd codified the law centuries ago.
382* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Martel's name could be a historical ShoutOut to Charles Martel, a Frankish duke who stopped the Muslim invasion of Europe in the eighth century by using cunning, pragmatism and adaptability. [[EliteMooks And heavy professional infantry.]] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tours.
383* {{Narm}}: In universe example. In the Tamuli, a funeral ends up being a source of laughter as the priest delivering the eulogy couldn't keep a straight face, as the deceased [[spoiler:Prince Regent Avin Wargunson's skin was dyed purple from being drowned in red wine, and the people preparing the body couldn't get the wine out.]].
384* NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters: Platime is one of these. Sure, he's committed almost every crime in the book, but not treason - and besides, he loves the Queen and pays his taxes!
385** He's also never practiced witchcraft, committed barratry (mostly because he doesn't know what it is), or had carnal knowledge of an animal. [[SarcasmMode Truly, a virtuous man.]]
386* NeverLearnedToRead: Sephrenia, by choice. She doesn't want to start thinking in Elene, so she doesn't want to learn to read it just to be on the safe side. We find out in the ''Tamuli'' that she '''can''' read Styric. She's just been letting everyone think Styric doesn't have a written form.
387* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Possibly averted. The trolls aren't harmed by eating [[spoiler:the Klael-soldiers]], but they find the taste absolutely foul, and they probably gained no nutrition from it.
388** ''Definitely'' averted in the case of [[spoiler:the Klael-soldiers' problems in Earth's atmosphere]].
389* NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: Utterly averted by Kring, who worships Mirtai from the moment he sees her. In fact, the only worry he has about her is how the women of his tribe will react to dealing with such a strong-willed outsider. Also subverted in her past, as she had to ward off numerous rape attempts before becoming Ehlana's slave.
390* NoLovesIntersect: Largely played straight, especially in the ''Tamuli.'' Averted, though, in the last book of the ''Elenium,'' when Berit falls head over heels for [[spoiler:Ehlana]]. It leads to an undercurrent of extended tension between him and Sparhawk. Fortunately, Sparhawk figures out the problem and is able to defuse it.
391[[/folder]]
392
393[[folder:O-P]]
394* ObfuscatingStupidity:
395** [[spoiler: As she points out huffily, Sephrenia and other Styrics aren't nearly so simple as they appear. She's fully trained in logic (though she prefers intuition); she ''can'' read (just not Elene, as noted above), and she deliberately downplays her own immense powers while in Elenia to avoid appearing too threatening.]]
396** [[spoiler: She]]'s not the only one. [[spoiler: Flute/Aphrael, Emperor Sarabian, and to an extent Bhelliom itself all qualify. Cyrgon's an interesting case, because his stupidity is genuine but a conscious choice stemming from his role as a god of unchanging militarism and tyranny; when push comes to shove, he ''can'' learn if he has to.]]
397** Also, Kalten. He really isn't very good at academic pursuits, including magic, but he's surprisingly sharp behind his exaggerated loveable oaf persona.
398*** This is best exemplified in ''The Hidden City'' when Kalten, Caalador, and Bevier infiltrate Natayos to see if Ehlana and Alean are there. When Alean recognizes the disguised Kalten [[SpottingTheThread by how he walks]], and Ehlana tells her to sing, he recognizes her voice... and immediately begins whistling a counterpoint to let them know he heard. Then he strikes up a conversation with the guards so he can slip in references to Caalador's accent and Bevier's axe. Ehlana herself calls him a "treasure" whom Alean should never let go of, since he gave them far more information than Sparhawk ever could have.
399*** He is also the only one who is able to [[spoiler:help Sephrenia deal with Zalasta's betrayal]].
400** Melidere, one of Ehlana's ladies in waiting, puts on the show of a DumbBlonde, while the truth is that Ehlana keeps her around for her brains.
401* ObstructiveBureaucrat: The government of Tamul, in regard to their 'absolute power' Emperor. He comments that he has to look out the window to get an accurate weather report.
402* OhCrap:
403** From the ''Tamuli'', "This is [[spoiler:Prince]] Sparhawk, the man who [[spoiler:destroyed the Elder God Azash]], and you've just insulted his wife." The listener reacts appropriately... by running for his life.
404** Sephrenia's reaction when Sparhawk suggests killing [[spoiler:Azash.]]
405* OldRetainer: Kurik, who has been Sparhawk's squire for all of Sparhawk's life, and has repeatedly turned down knighthood in spite of kicking knightly arse on a regular basis in favour of remaining a squire. Sparhawk comments that Kurik is as much a part of him as his hands.
406* OneHourWorkWeek: There are monks whose sole duty is to perform certain obscure rituals during the funeral of the Archprelate. Which means that they only have to do about fifteen minutes of work each every two to three decades.
407* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In ''The Shining Ones'', Sephrenia, who has been established as largely non-violent, begins to spout racial hatred toward the Delphae and pretty much begs the others to kill them. Turns out [[spoiler: she thinks they killed her family.]]
408** The narrator also gets a spot of OOC: most of the action is narrated using informal modern English. During Sparhawk's final confrontation with Zalasta in ''The Hidden City'', the narration abruptly shifts to stilted English in a hyper-formal register, and a few pages later, the reader discovers why.
409* OrcusOnHisThrone: Otha, justified by the fact that he's largely incapable of ''getting up off'' said throne by now.
410* OrphanedEtymology: Bevier's Lochaber axe, though a real and effective weapon, stands out a little in a setting without a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lochaber Lochaber]].
411* OurDemonsAreDifferent:
412** The Elder Gods are implied to have created several races of these as servants; the only ones the reader ever meets are [[KillItWithFire the Balrog-esque Damorks]] and the [[BigCreepyCrawlies insectile]] {{Scarily Competent Tracker}}s called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Seekers]]. There are also otherworldly monsters that serve [[spoiler: Klael]] and show up in the ''Tamuli'', but it's unclear if they really qualify as "demons" or not.
413** Bhelliom stated the [[spoiler:Klael-soldiers]] are in fact [[spoiler:HumanoidAliens from one of Klael's planets]]. They're pretty badass; if they weren't [[spoiler:methane-breathers who wear out quickly in an Earth-like atmosphere]] things might have gone poorly. Fortunately, Khalad noticed their little quirk and was [[ImpressivePyrotechnics more than happy to exploit this]].
414* OurNudityIsDifferent: Female toplessness is not considered nudity in Valesian culture. Of course, Empress Elysoun is well aware of [[DistractedByTheSexy the effect that walking around with her boobs out has on men from other cultures]], and she [[ReallyGetsAround takes full advantage of it]]. Even when she's going to an Elene-hosted party, she'll have her Elene dress modified so her assets are still front and center.
415* {{Panacea}}: Any magical object presumably would work as a cure for Ehlana's ailment. Alas, magical objects are very rare in this world, as a creation of one requires for a god to permanently sacrifice part of their power. The protagonists eventually procure the Bhelliom [[spoiler:which, it turns out, isn't a magical object, but a creator of their world imprisoned in stone]].
416* PaperThinDisguise: The monastery Sparhawk returns to in Rendor seems innocent enough to the actual Rendors. Everyone else knows it's [[spoiler:full of Cyrinic Knights there to spy on the Eshandists]].
417* PetTheDog:
418** Martel gets one of these moments when Annias calls Sephrenia a witch, prompting Martel to grab him by the collar and threaten him with things much worse than Sparhawk could ever do should he ever talk trash about "my little mother" again. While it's DisproportionateRetribution,it's also a sign that Martel still cares about Sephrenia even after everything he's done.
419** There is also his [[spoiler:genuine sadness to learn that Kurik had been killed, for he had the same level of respect for the squire that most knights had.]]
420** [[spoiler: Krager]] of all people to [[spoiler: Ehlana and Alean, after they've been mistreated by Scarpa.]]
421** [[spoiler:Zalasta]] even gets one, when he [[spoiler:apologizes to Ehlana after Scarpa's mistreatment of her and Alean, and during Ehlana's captivity he ensures that she is treated well and converses with her daily.]] Not that it makes the reader care about him after [[spoiler:he stabs Sephrenia in the heart.]]
422* PhysicalGod:
423** Aphrael and Azash, not to mention the Styric pantheon and [[spoiler:Cyrgon]]. On top of them, Bhelliom and [[spoiler:Klael]].
424** Also the troll-gods. The Elene god is implied to be this as well, though he never puts in a personal appearance.
425* PlanetOfHats: Generally averted in the first series, though the Pelosians do wear literal funny hats. The second series plays it straight: the Tamuls are lazy administrators, the Atans are gigantic warriors, the Styrics are wizards, the eastern Elenes are melodramatic slave owners, the Arjuni are slave traders, the Tegans are mind-numbingly boring, the Cynesgans are evil mongrel people, and the Valesians are free-love nudists.
426* PlatonicProstitution: Early on in the very first book, Sparhawk hires a prostitute because he wants to eavesdrop on some minor villains who are meeting in the room next to hers. The prostitute, a HookerWithAHeartOfGold who enjoys her work, considers herself to owe him a raincheck, which she reminds him about whenever they meet.
427* PoisonRing: At one point in the ''Tamuli'', Khalad is looking for a way to conceal Sparhawk's ring. He pays a jeweler to take one of these rings apart and mount the "lid" to cover the ruby.
428* PoorCommunicationKills:
429** One of the Eshandist leaders had a problem being understood; when he yelled at his fanatic followers, "Fall upon your foes!" they heard "Fall upon your swords!" He spent the next several years wondering why he lost.
430** More like "poor communication mildly inconveniences" in this instance, but: Alean loves Kalten. Kalten loves Alean. Alean thinks [[ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe he will never notice her because she's just a maid]]. Kalten thinks Alean could never look at him that way because [[ChivalrousPervert notorious womanizer]]. Then Kalten starts trying to get himself killed on the battlefield because he's so lovelorn, and suddenly Alean starts communicating. Volubly, and at great length. Cue glorious hookup.
431* PowerGlows: The Delphae. [[spoiler:Bhelliom and Klael in their true forms, too.]]
432* PreventTheWar: After Sparhawk destroys Azash, the heroes are at pains to prevent King Wargun from launching a genocidal war against Zemoch anyway, despite the Zemochs being entirely nonthreatening without the lash of their dark god.
433* PrimitiveClubs: Most trolls are armed with clubs, since they lack the metalworking necessary to manufacture swords, and their arms aren't shaped right for stabbing with a spear.
434* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Atans and the Cyrgai, who both suffer from cultural Idiot Balls to greater or lesser extent (the Atans never back down from a fight, no matter how unlikely they are to win it; the Cyrgai are completely incapable of change.) [[spoiler: If you're wondering, Atans beat Cyrgai, hands down]].
435** See HappinessInSlavery above; the Atans are so content to live exclusively as warriors that they willingly and intentionally enslaved their entire race to ensure their survival.
436* PsychoForHire: Adus, Martel's [[TheBrute Brute]] and walking battle axe. In the ''Tamuli,'' Bevier does an amazingly {{Large Ham}}my impression of one.
437* PunchClockVillain: Subverted with Krager. In ''The Elenium'' he appears to be just in it for the booze. In ''The Tamuli'', he [[spoiler:gets a MookPromotion and reveals himself as TheManBehindTheMan and the one really in league with the Cyrgai.]]
438* PuppetKing: When Ehlana and company come to visit him, Emperor Sarabian of the Tamul Empire wields no real power. He spends most of his time in harmless activities while his ministers actually run the Empire.
439* ThePuppetCutsHisStrings: Under Ehlana's tutelage, Sarabian tosses his ministers aside and starts running the Tamul Empire himself.
440[[/folder]]
441
442[[folder:Q-R]]
443* RapeAsBackstory:
444** This happened to Alean repeatedly, much to Kalten's consternation.
445** Averted with Mirtai, whose old master tried to rape her and [[EyeScream paid for it]]. [[{{Gorn}} A lot]].
446* ReallyGetsAround:
447** Princess Arissa, who's literally slept with most of Cimmura, including King Aldreas (her ''brother'') [[spoiler:and Annias -- the latter when she was twelve years old]].
448** Elysoun is technically this in the ''Tamuli'', though since she's also MsFanservice it's played for laughs.
449*** The difference between the two is that Elysoun does it because it isn't a sin in her culture. Arissa does it ''because'' it is a sin in her culture.
450* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The knights constantly ask about Sephrenia's real age. It quickly becomes a RunningGag. It's eventually revealed that she's only [[spoiler: three hundred and change years old.]]
451* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: There are several, but Dolmant stands out. While corruption is far from universal in the church, he stands out above the rest in his honesty. Vanion and the other leaders of the Knightly orders also qualify.
452* RecruitedFromTheGutter: Talen starts out as a street thief and is brought into the travelling group by Sparhawk after [[SinisterMinister Annias]] finds out he's been spying on the knight's behalf. He later ends up a royal page (and Pandion novice-to-be) in the ''Tamuli''. Although [[spoiler: at least part of Sparhawk's motive is to keep [[SacrificialLion Kurik]]'s son safe.]] It's even implied at the end of the ''Elenium'' that [[spoiler:he may be Princess Danae's royal consort in the future. (Of course, Danae is really Aphrael.)]]
453* RedshirtArmy:
454** The soldiers of the Church of Chyrellos might be a lampshade of this; they barely qualify as mooks, and they wear ''red tunics''.
455** [[spoiler: The Cyrgai.]]
456** [[spoiler:When confronted by Klael's giant alien warriors, even the Atans and the Church Knights fall into this category.]]
457* ReligionOfEvil: Worshippers of Azash seem to literally ''worship'' evil (or at least, what we miserable mortals see as evil), while the religion of Cyrgon exists to prop up a militaristic totalitarian state.
458* ReligionIsMagic:
459** Played with in that the Church Knights' magic doesn't come from the Elene God, but from the Styric pantheon. For reference, your average Elene peasant thinks nothing of burning down Styric villages and massacring them all. Nobody stops to consider that the Elene God might grant the same kind of magic to the Church Knights. In fact Sephrenia calls the Archprelate out on it.
460** It is noted that the Styric gods granting magic to the Church Knights had to agree not to try to convert their knights. Since [[spoiler: Stragen]] is not a Church Knight and has no intention of becoming a Church Knight, his use of magic based on knowing Styric and being observant around Pandion Knights inadvertently more-or-less swears him to Aphrael (he basically reacts by shrugging and saying there are worse gods that could have happened with).
461* ReplacedWithReplica: Aphrael sneaks one of the rings that are the key to Bhelliom's power [[note]]well, that's what everyone ''thinks''[[/note]] off Ehlana's finger, replacing it with a fake. (She pulled the same trick on Ghwerig in the backstory, swiping both rings.)
462* {{Retcon}}: In ''The Sapphire Rose'', Sephrenia is outraged at Mirtai referring to Ehlana as her owner and seems not to know much about the Atans or the Daresian continent. It's revealed in ''The Shining Ones'' that Sephrenia is from Astel originally, and even though she spends a lot of time away from the Daresian continent, it just seems unlikely that she wouldn't have heard of the Atans or their status as slaves, especially as they also guard the Styric city of Sarsos. It is possible, however, that because Sephrenia was concealing the existence of Sarsos, her true education, and the nature of the Styric people, she had to adopt such an attitude since she otherwise couldn't prove how she knew of the Atans and their slavery. Not seeming to know much about Daresia also falls under her ObfuscatingStupidity act.
463*** It's possible that she was shocked to see an Atana in ''personal'' slavery in Eosia, as opposed to the ''institutional'' slavery that the Atans live in under the Tamuls.
464** In ''The Ruby Knight'', Berit spends quite some time swimming around in a lake during the search for the Bhelliom. In ''Domes of Fire'', Sparhawk makes a remark to the effect that he isn't sure Berit knows how to swim. Huh.
465*** Diving while wearing only loincloth in a lake where he had his head above water while probing the ground with his feet is different from swimming in a castle moat deep enough to drown in while wearing full evening wear.
466*** Happens with Kalten as well. In the ''Elenium'', we see him swimming in the lake looking for the Bhelliom. In the ''Tamuli'', he's terrified of being under water, meaning that he needs to be [[InstantSedation drugged by the Beer of the Gods]] before being dragged through a flooded passage.
467** In ''The Sapphire Rose'', the box in which the Bhelliom is placed [[spoiler:before being thrown into the ocean]] is described as being made of steel (to restrain the jewel's power) and lined with gold (to conceal its presence), and is secured with a keyless padlock. In ''The Shining Ones'', upon [[spoiler:being retrieved]], the box is described as being made of gold and having no keyhole or padlock.
468** In ''The Ruby Knight'', Sephrenia refers to the Troll Gods as "wise". Later, in the ''Tamuli'', Xanetia says that the five Troll Gods combined have the intellect of a five-year-old child.
469* RetiredBadass: Vanion in the second series. He, a battered old man not far removed from being saved from his deathbed, challenges ''the entire population of Sarsos'' to a race to prove a point about their lack of physical fitness. He gets out to a big lead until he trips in a rabbit hole and sprains his ankle. ''And he still wins.''
470* RevengeBeforeReason: This might as well be Lamorkand's national motto. The entire country is in a constant state of turmoil because landowners will go to war at the drop of the hat.
471* RightThroughTheWall: Once they get married, Sparhawk and Ehlana are active enough that Danae complains about it.
472-->‘Don’t keep mother up all night,’ [Danae] said back over her shoulder, ‘and please try to be quiet. Why do you two always have to make so much noise?’
473* RollInTheHay: Kurik strongly implies that his eldest was conceived in this manner, and later, while visiting his farm, he and his wife (whom he had not seen for several months) enter the scene with him muttering that the boys need to do better at weeding the thistles out of the hay.
474* RoyalDecree: The written variation. The Council are about to destroy it... until they're reminded that destroying a royal decree is punished by death.
475** Becomes a circular argument with a Cynesgan border guard. Sparhawk presents a decree from Sarabian granting their party passage through all borders in the Empire. The guard believes it is a fake and asserts that it is punishable by death to forge a royal decree, and Sparhawk retorts that it is punishable by death to ignore one. He reasons that one of them is about to be in big trouble. [[spoiler:The guard, it turns out. The Knights kill all the border guards when they realize that the delay is so reinforcements can arrive.]]
476* RoyalRapier: Since the series is set in a culture that mixes the Renaissance and Cavalier eras, the rapier appears repeatedly as a chosen weapon of royalty and nobles:
477** When Queen Ehlana starts wearing a sword, she chooses a rapier. Besides being the traditional noble's sword, it fits her personality: elegant, beautiful, quick, skilled at the intricate moves of Elenian politics, and deadly when she chooses to be.
478** GentlemanThief Count Stragen is the bastard son of a corrupt Thalesian nobleman. To show his contempt for his father, he talks and dresses like a noble but acts like the master criminal that he is. Of course he wears a rapier -- it's a necessary part of his image.
479** When [[PuppetKing Puppet Emperor]] Sarabian of Tamul [[ThePuppetCutsHisStrings starts asserting his authority over his government]], he consciously patterns his appearance after Ehlana's, including Elenian clothes and an Elenian-style rapier for a weapon. In ''The Hidden City'', he demonstrates the rapier isn't just for appearances when he [[spoiler:uses it effectively during an attempted palace coup]].
480** Averted hard with Sir Sparhawk. He views himself as Ehlana's bodyguard first and her husband second, so when she tries to get him to wear a rapier as part of his court clothing, he rejects it in favor of his knight's broadsword, a weapon he knows how to use.
481* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Mostly used realistically. The royals play pivotal roles as leaders in many events, but only rarely get their hands dirty. Subverted hilariously by King Soros of Pelosia, who comes along for the ride with TheCavalry but spends so much time praying it's up to Patriarch Bergsten to run the show.
482* RunningGag: Several, some of which spread across both trilogies:
483** Sparhawk often shudders at the theologial ramifications of various actions/events.
484** Sparhawk never remembers to oil his equipment, leading to it getting rusty.
485** [[BlatantLies Wine is only kept around by various churchmen for medicinal purposes.]]
486** '''Sephrenia:''' "Elenes..."
487** '''Someone: '''"Dear God..." '''Nearest actual deity: '''"Oh, thank you".
488[[/folder]]
489
490[[folder:S-T]]
491* SacrificialLion: For the entire trilogy, we've seen that [[spoiler:Kurik]] is a match for any of the knights, and indeed instructed several of them in combat. This makes it especially jarring when he is unceremoniously slaughtered by Adus.
492%%* SafetyInMuggles '''Administrivia/ZeroContextExample'''
493* SapientSteed: Faran is not only foul-tempered and fond of showing off, he's also very intelligent. Aphrael once remarked Faran acts the way he does because that's what Sparhawk expects in his steed.
494* SavedFromTheirOwnHonor: The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Atans]] sold themselves into nominal "enslavement" (citizenship, effectively) by the Tamul emperor because their honour code became too extreme for their society to function. Mirtai once explains that if she were free, she'd be honour-bound to to kill everyone whose shadow has touched her.
495* SaveThePrincess: The plot of the first two and a half books is to {{find the cure}} for Queen Ehlana's poisoning.
496%%** Makes a reappearance in the final novel as well.
497* SayYourPrayers: Inverted. After killing a corrupt church soldier, Bevier leads the man's subordinates in prayers for his soul. It's an effective intimidation tactic, but given how devout Bevier is, it's entirely possible that the prayers were sincere. After all, just because you have to kill a man doesn't mean you want to send him to Hell.
498* ScaryImpracticalArmor: When Sparhawk and company reach Zemoch they find a horde of [[spoiler:undead]] soldiers wearing this. It gives them pause until they realize it's worse than useless. Apparently the Zemochs saw fully-armoured Church Knights bearing down on them during the last war but didn't understand the point of plate mail. They only knew it was really damn scary, so they started making armour designed entirely to intimidate.
499** Sephrenia points out how pathetic it is that the entire Elene world is shaking over their boots over a complete moron who can't even think of a decent purpose to [[spoiler:create the above undead]], and also as Talen gives a hilarious suggestion to Berit [[DisasterDominoes as to what to do after they pass said soldiers...]]
500* ScarilyCompetentTracker: The Seekers of Azash.
501* SealedGoodInACan: [[spoiler: Bhelliom is a (mostly) benevolent and very powerful creator of the world]].
502* SealedEvilInACan:
503** Azash, who was sealed inside a clay idol of himself. He did find some ways around this, however--it turns out his spirit can enter ''any'' identical idol as well, and he had a huge temple-fortress built around the original.
504** [[spoiler: The Cyrgai later on are more like Sealed Evil In A City.]]
505** [[spoiler:Klæl]] is sorta this (although the can is a form of a mountain-sized monster). In its real form it's much more powerful eternal spirit of destruction, but series of mishaps made it stuck as a giant monster.
506* SedgwickSpeech: In the midst of the big siege in the third book [[DeceptiveDisciple Ulesim]] gets up in front of the Rendors and delivers a huge speech about attacking the city relentlessly. And then Kurik nails him between the eyes with a crossbow bolt in mid-sentence.
507* SemiDivine: The Delphaes in ''The Shining Ones'' started as humans but now are slowly evolving into gods. As a result, they possess awesome powers, but they can also melt alive anyone who gets too close to them. Eventually, they fully evolve into gods and leave the earth forever.
508* ServantRace: The Cynesgans started existence as a race of literal bastards, born from women raped by Cyrgai soldiers. They were pressed into service as cannon fodder and scapegoats and later purposefully bred by the Cyrgai in an attempt to create an army immune to the curse that kept pure-blooded Cyrgai from leaving their own lands.
509* SexyDiscretionShot: Just as things [[DressHitsFloor get interesting]] on Sparhawk's wedding night, the narrator starts admiring the city outside the window.
510* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: ELYSOUN
511* SheIsAllGrownUp: Ehlana, as Sparhawk quickly discovers.
512* ShiningCity: Fire-Domed Matherion in ''The Tamuli''.
513* ShipperOnDeck: Aphrael, about midway through the ''Tamuli''.
514* ShoutOut / {{Homage}}:
515** The entire subplot involving Ghasek in ''The Ruby Knight'' (involving the ChekhovsGunman Bellina no less) could have been lifted straight out of a Film/HammerHorror movie. The terrified people in the nearby village, the HatePlague-infected minstrel, the creepy forest setting with its chilling moonlight, the haunted castle, the discovery in the basement, the FateWorseThanDeath for Bellina in the end--it has all the Gothic hallmarks. And it was incredibly effective, disturbing, and a major source of horror to some. It is also a ShoutOut to Real Life serial killer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzebet_Bathory Countess Elizabeth Bathory]], who [[spoiler: kept a TortureCellar in her castle and was eventually condemned to be walled up in her quarters.]]
516** The story of Otha, [[BlatantLies innocent goatherder]], following a lost member of his herd and coming across the idol of Azash, who then commands him to worship him and convert the rest of Eosia to his ReligionOfEvil, very much feels like a dark and [[RefugeInAudacity rather ballsy]] subversion of the story of [[Literature/TheBible Moses and the Burning Bush]].
517** Eddings also makes a not-so-subtle ShoutOut to his previous works when he makes Sparhawk utter [[Literature/TheBelgariad Belgarion's]] CatchPhrase:
518--->''Why me?''
519* TheSiege: One of these forms a large arc in the third book. There's another one in the ''Tamuli''. They come into play as a running gag, too: Thalesians ''hate'' sieges. (They're perfectly willing to engage in one, and do it very competently, but they ''hate'' sieges. Just ask them.)
520** When Ulath is called on his constant vocal hatred of sieges despite being almost as quick as resident siege guru Bevier to suggest forting up, hilarity ensues:
521---> '''Ulath:''' Thalesians are ''supposed'' to hate sieges. We're not patient enough for them.
522---> '''Bevier:''' Didn't King Wargun's grandfather endure a siege for 6 years once?
523---> '''Ulath:''' Yes, but he didn't ''enjoy'' it.
524* TheSingingMute: Flute switches to singing wordlessly when she drops her signature flute in the ocean by mistake. Subverted when she reveals that she was always able to speak and is a GodInHumanForm.
525* SinisterMinister: Primate Annias, who doubles as Elenia's EvilChancellor.
526* SmugSnake: Annias and Otha.
527** Krager in the ''Tamuli''. In his first appearance he boasts about how everything Martel (the true MagnificentBastard of the series) accomplished was due to his tutelage, how if it had been ''Krager'' advising Azash then he surely would have won, how the defeat he just suffered was merely an inconvenience, and how Sparhawk would be facing far greater opposition than before. It then turns out that all of Cyrgon and co's schemes are thwarted far easier than Martel and Azash's, their ranks consist of idiots and {{Harmless Villain}}s, and it becomes very clear that Krager was talking out of his ass.
528* SoNearYetSoFar: The first book starts out with Sparhawk being taken to see Queen Ehlana, except that she is placed in suspended animation inside her crystal casing in order to keep her alive. Most of the rest of the trilogy consists of him and his companions searching for a way to cure her.
529* SortingAlgorithmOfEvil: Apparently averted, as Cyrgon, the GodOfEvil in the ''Tamuli'', is less powerful, less intelligent (arguably), and less evil than Azash in the ''Elenium''. [[spoiler: [[DoubleSubversion And then in the third book]], [[EldritchAbomination Klael]] shows up...]]
530* SpannerInTheWorks: Sephrenia and Aphrael were consistently doing this to [[spoiler:Zalasta]] without ever realizing it.
531* SpecificallyNumberedGroup: The Styric Pantheon is aptly known as The Thousand, or, literally, "ten times ten times ten", which they picked because it was an auspiciously round number. One god who'd lost a finger had wanted it to be the "nine times nine times nine", but more deities than that had already come into existence.
532* SquishyWizard: Otha is an unusually [[FatBastard literal]] version of this trope.
533* StatuesqueStunner: Mirtai, the Atan giantess who towers over all the Church Knights. She could pass for tall and dark if you overlook [[BladeEnthusiast the dozen or so knives she carries everywhere]]. That includes knives strapped to her knees [[GroinAttack specifically for kneeing men in the crotch.]] According to Talen, she even has a pair built into the soles of her shoes.
534* StickyFingers: Talen. It's become a RunningGag, to the point where Sparhawk automatically tells Talen to empty his pockets if there's a ''chance'' he might have stolen any small valuables recently.
535* StockMedievalMeal: On one occasion when Kalten is suckered into fixing breakfast for the knights, he slices bread and cheese for everyone and asks if this gets him off the hook.
536* StopWorshippingMe: Averted. The God of the Atans doesn't go in for grand displays (except during ''very'' important ceremonies), and his people don't bother him much unless it's important, so he's on the unusual side for a god. The flip side is he is obligated to at least see what a worshipper wants when they do call for his attention. Used to advantage when Aphrael needs his permission to take an Atan to her personal domain for healing.
537* StoryBreakerPower: Xanetia positively ''oozes'' these. She's effectively immortal, she can read minds [[spoiler:and thus promptly discovers the ManipulativeBastard]], she can melt people ''and scenery'' to goo with a touch, she can [[spoiler:touch Bhelliom without being obliterated]], she can turn invisible, and her magic makes absolutely no "sound." Once she joins the party she's effectively a one-stop shop for all your GameBreaker needs. There are several issues, though; [[spoiler:firstly, Sephrenia starts out loathing her, due to old racial prejudice (and the fact she thinks Xanetia's people killed her family), causing everyone to futilely attempt reasoning with her, and she eventually breaks from the group for a while. Secondly everyone else on the continent is terrified of the Delphae and Xanetia is almost constantly in disguise, which she admits is somewhat painful for her. Thirdly, she is not only a helper, she is a hostage for her people's good faith; if they betray the party, Xanetia - effectively their crown princess - is to be killed.]] This causes various degrees of tension for some time.
538* StoutStrength: By the time of the ''Tamuli'', the knights of Sparhawk's generation are middle-aged, and they're no longer as slim and trim as they once were. Kalten in particular tends to strain the buttons on his doublet. They'll still cut you clean in two with one blow, even if you're wearing bronze armor (steel tends to take a bit more effort).
539* StrangeSecretEntrance: The city of Cyrga is found this way, involving a long and detailed set of instructions from an oasis across the desert and culminating with finding the exact spot where an illusion conceals an entrance through the mountains by lining them up with the Pillars of Cyrgon.
540* {{Streetwalker}}: Prostitutes pop up in minor speaking roles quite often, especially early in the ''Elenium''. They're usually portrayed sympathetically. Sparhawk even gets a brief adventure [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin gathering evidence in a brothel]]. And this Troper says that without so much as a wink.
541* StrictlyFormula: The series, like ''Literature/TheBelgariad'', quite deliberately and shamelessly rips from myth and medieval literature. And it's [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools awesome.]] As Eddings put it with respect to the Belgariad, ripping off myth is "the literary equivalent of peddling dope."
542* SuddenlySignificantRule:
543** In the ''Elenium'', the rank of Apprentice Knight is not really used anymore - until it means that the not-yet-knighted Berit can wear armour while he rides out with Sparhawk and Company to face Azash.
544** During the Archprelate elections, the Preceptors of the four orders of Church Knights are revealed to hold Patriarchal rank in the church hierarchy. This allows them to attend the proceedings, vote against Annias's proposals or candidates, and invite Sparhawk and his fellow knights to attend because they are technically clergy.
545* SugarBowl: Aphrael's realm, where lovable animals romp in peace under a rainbow sky.
546* SupernaturalSensitivity
547* SurroundedByIdiots: [[spoiler:[[TheMole Zalasta]]'s]] mooks include [[HeManWomanHater Scarpa]], [[SissyVillain Sabre]] and [[PunchClockVillain Krager]] - an insane misogynist, an effeminate poseur and a drunk respectively. Scraping the bottom of the barrel, indeed. (He's quite aware he's doing so, too.)
548* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Kurik is replaced by his son, Khalad, in the ''Tamuli''.
549* TapOnTheHead: Averted. Ulath gets knocked on the head during the siege of Chyrellos. He slips into a coma, and when he wakes up he is extremely confused, forgetting which continent he is on and who his comrades are. He eventually makes a full recovery, but even with magical aid it's a slow, arduous process. Also, it's mentioned that without his scarily good helmet, he would have died.
550* TerrainSculpting: when trolls invade northern Tamul, the Bhelliom responds by creating a humongous escarpment to separate them.
551** When two of the knights are dealing with the troll Gods, Schlee(the god of ice) makes a scale model of the continent down to the smallest discernible details.
552* ThievesGuild: Played straight and on a grand scale. Sure, Platime's chief thief in Cimmura, but every town everywhere has its own thieves' guild, and they all coordinate to some extent.
553* TimeStandsStill: Played straight by the Troll-Gods, starting when Sparhawk browbeats Ghnomb into helping him catch up to [[spoiler:Martel]]. Used pretty heavily in the second series.
554** Averted by Aphrael, whose time compression technique is closer to YearInsideHourOutside.
555* TooDumbToLive: The Cyrgai exemplify this trope to its most literal extent: by breeding almost exclusively with Cynesgans they essentially ''bred their own race out of existence'' [[spoiler:until Cyrgon stepped in]]. At this point they're so hopelessly inbred and isolated they can barely function. Forget bronze age armour, standard issue kit for these guys is the IdiotBall.
556** A particularly literal case has the Cyrgai walking themselves to death as they pursued a group of Peloi cavalry, and reached the line of an ancient curse that the Styric Gods placed around their territory to prevent them from escaping. The first few soldiers dying might not qualify, but the ensuing ranks, watching their fellows die in front of them are definitely like this.
557** Hell, Cyrgon himself. And it's entirely deliberate, seeing as he ''is'' capable of adapting and thinking but freely chooses not to. Still, trying to [[spoiler:make a minion out of [[EldritchAbomination Klael]]]] was a bit of a bonehead move. To say the least.
558** This is how the king of the Atans dies in the Tamuli. He attacks an enormous Eldritch Abomination several thousand times larger than himself, on foot, with a sword, without realizing that it might actually be able to kill him. He dies feeling sorry for it, because it's been unfortunate enough to come up against him.
559* TopGod: His worshipers insist that the Elene God is this (when they're not denying the existence of other gods completely). He's not - He isn't qualitatively different from any of the other gods, nor does he have any authority over them unless they enter His territory. He ''is'' however far more powerful than any of the other gods due to His [[GodNeedsPrayerBadly immense number of worshipers.]]
560* TopWife: The Tamul Emperor is required to take nine wives, one from each of the component races of the empire. However, his marriage to the Tamul wife always takes place well before the marriages to the other eight (who get a joint wedding ceremony to make those eight equals), making the Tamul wife the senior wife.
561* TortureCellar: Bellina has one of these. The Pandions are rumoured to have them, too - as does the Church of Chyrellos, though everyone insists they never get used.
562** The faux-Elenic castle in the ''Tamuli'' has a lovingly recreated one. Stragen uses it to ensure the musicians play an actual fanfare rather than notably discordant Tamul music.
563* TrailOfBlood: Exploited toward the end. Sparhawk and his friends try to navigate a maze by following blood drops from a wounded enemy. Then they discover 1) the blood drops aren't from any of the injured Zemochs, because 2) they aren't blood, and 3) they're only there to keep people in the killing-ground maze, the real entrance to the temple is elsewhere.
564* TranquilFury: Sparhawk, oh good ''God'' Sparhawk. At the end of ''The Sapphire Rose'', when [[spoiler: Kurik dies, [[UnstoppableRage Sparhawk murders his way through many, many soldiers in a state of complete serene anger]] and is only distracted ''when Kalten suggests he go kill Martel.'']] It works because it's going to be more satisfying taking his anger out on the one who is ultimately responsible. Then there's ''The Hidden City'', when Sparhawk learns that [[spoiler: Ehlana was kidnapped.]] A lot of people expect him to go berserk, but instead, he shuts down his emotions after a little angsting, then works out plans to nullify his enemies' plots and arranges for several armies to head towards the stronghold. ([[spoiler: Each army, by the way, is ''individually'' more than capable of [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill butchering the Cyrgai armies.]]]])
565* TricksterGod: Aphrael is one of the weakest gods, but she's ''very'' good at getting what she wants via a combination of clever planning and Obfuscating Cuteness.
566* TwentyFourHourArmor: Averted. The Knights have full plate armour but usually travel in mailshirts because the actual armor is such a damned inconvenience most of the time.
567** For example, there is a scene in which Sparhawk wakes up one morning and basically finds an excuse not to put his armor on just yet, because it's had all night to get chilled.
568[[/folder]]
569
570[[folder:U-Z]]
571* UglyGuyHotWife: Sparhawk's friends constantly make cracks about how ugly he is. [[spoiler:Ehlana]], on the other hand, is anything but.
572** This ties into a RunningGag throughout the ''Elenium,'' where Sparhawk keeps booking passage with a sailor named Sorgi by telling him he's running away from an ugly heiress whose cousins want to force him to marry her. They meet again in the ''Tamuli'', and Sorgi sees Ehlana.
573--> '''Sorgi:''' "They didn't force you to marry her, did they?"
574--> '''Sparhawk:''' "I'm afraid so, my friend. That's my wife on that grey horse there."
575--> '''Sorgi:''' (stares with his mouth hanging open)
576--> '''Sparhawk:''' (mournfully) "Horrible, isn't it?"
577** Also Kring and [[spoiler:Mirtai. Subverted in that Kring's scars, which have been gained in numerous battles, make Mirtai decide he's worth marrying.]]
578* TheUnReveal: In ''The Shining Ones'' there are a few mentions of the Cyrgai Wars, in which the Delphae and Styrics made an alliance and battled the Cyrgai, only for (allegedly) the Styrics to betray them, nearly causing the Delphae to become extinct. This sparked a feud between the races that was never resolved, and the actual truth was blurred so much that pretty much everyone has their own story. Sparhawk repeatedly asks Xanetia and Sephrenia to tell him the truth, and when they refuse, he threatens to ask Bhelliom, since it's a neutral observer. This horrifies both of them, but eventually Sparhawk gets so fed up of their bitchy cat-fight that he tells them that he no longer cares about what happened, and just he wants their fighting to stop. We never do find out what happened.
579* UnskilledButStrong: Otha was granted terrible powers by Azash. He has no clue what to do with them, since he's a not particularly bright or ambitious shepherd who happened to stumble across an EldritchAbomination. This is best shown by him raising a legion of terrible undead warriors. They defend the flagstone they are standing on, and react to nothing else. This is an enemy that could be defeated by ''walking around it''. [[spoiler:[[DisasterDominoes Or by giving just one soldier a push onto another square...]]]]
580* UnwantedHarem: Berit develops one of these in the second series. Apparently something about his eyelashes drives women wild.
581* TheVamp: Arissa, although her efforts to subvert the protagonists fail spectacularly.
582* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: Played with. Khalad vows to kill Krager for his role in Kurik's death, but then is told that Krager is dying of liver failure and is too delirious to even feel a sword being run into him. Vengeance would mean nothing. Khalad, being the practical sort he is, accepts this...but resolves to hunt Krager down and kill him anyway, not out of vengeance but because ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure.
583* VillainBall[=/=]IdiotBall: Annias grabs this in the first book by carrying out the second phase of one of his schemes before determining that the first step succeeded, with predictably poor results. This is noted by Sparhawk as being very out of character (SmugSnake that he is, Annias isn't ''that'' sloppy), and is one of the first signs that ''something'' (read: Azash) is messing with the lesser villains' minds. The same thing happens to Martel when Sparhawk puts a freeze on one of his schemes.
584** It's explained that at least part of it was because they were being controlled by a Styric -Elenes and other races have complex, sharp minds, but Styrics are generally simpler and will be taken in by simple things--so while the ploys would have worked on Styrics, they didn't work on Elenes, and especially not the good guys, who knew Annias and Martel well enough to know how they generally operated.
585** Each Cyrgai was issued a personal Idiot Ball at birth, and they were executed if they ever lost it, i.e. began to show signs of becoming too intelligent.
586* VillainForgotToLevelGrind: The Cyrgai never got any ''weaker'', but believing they represented perfection they never bothered changing, and so the rest of the world buckled down for some serious level-grinding (ten thousand years worth) and blew past them. Against modern Church Knights and Atans the [[RedshirtArmy Cyrgai are hilariously useless.]]
587** The Cyrgai actually have fossilized. Lack of actual opposition turned their martial training into little more than a formalized dance which gets easily taken apart by any competent warrior with real-world experience. Likewise, they spent a lot of time ''looking'' impressive but it's not a good idea to strike a heroic pose during a real fight.
588* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Zalasta]] was always pretty crazy, but he was very good at hiding it. After seeing his grand plans crash down around him, however, he pretty much completely loses it [[spoiler: and is almost totally AxeCrazy by the time he crashes Sephrenia's wedding at the end]].
589* VillainousGlutton: Otha, oh so much.
590* VillainousIncest: Aldreas and Arissa.
591* VowOfCelibacy: The first book notes that the Pandion Knights had originally taken an oath to never marry (and by implication never have sex). However, due to a shortage of Pandions and applicants for knighthood they were allowed by the church to take back their vows so they could marry and have children. It'd also implied that knights are allowed to have sex while undercover, such as Sparhawk's relationship with Lillias.
592** Elene priests are supposed to be celibate, which is presumably where the Pandion celibacy came from (Church Knights ''technically'' belong to the priesthood).
593* WifeHusbandry:
594** Sort of. Ehlana settles on Sparhawk years before she hits puberty, but that wasn't his own doing.
595** [[spoiler: Aphrael also settles on Talen]] but they're much closer in apparent age.
596* WigDressAccent: Played with early in the first book when Sephrenia decks out Sparhawk and Kalten in elaborate disguises so they can move around Cimmura without drawing the attention of the [[{{Mooks}} church soldiers]]. [[PaperThinDisguise It doesn't work.]]
597* WithOurSwordsScene: In ''The Sapphire Rose'', an injured Bevier passes his Lochaber Axe to Berit when he's about to go with the main group into Azash's lair. [[spoiler:Berit uses said axe in the climax to break Azash's concentration during his battle against Sparhawk and the Bhelliom.]]
598* WorthyOpponent:
599** Even though they hate each others' guts [[spoiler: until the final battle]], Martel admits that he still has respect for Sparhawk. He also refers to Sparhawk and Sephrenia as the only two people he's ever truly loved, and at another point he remarks:
600--> ''I'd give my soul to be a man like Sparhawk.''
601** [[spoiler: Cyrgon]] at his end.
602* WrongInsultOffence:
603** In ''Domes of Fire'', Stragen takes the Styric Council to task for not being more proactive in the emerging crisis in Daresia. When one of the Councillors answers by calling him a bastard, he shrugs it off... because he literally is the illegitimate son of a nobleman. He then proceeds to point out he is also a swindler, murderer, and thief (since he is also the head of a thieves' guild), glibly implying that anything they could call him would not be insulting in the least. He even does it ''in their own language.''
604** Oscagne also has deep objections to Tamuls being referred to as "godless yellow dogs". The Tamuls have plenty of gods ([[HypocriticalHumor and given a few minutes to think he might even be able to remember some of their names]]) and the Tamul skin tone is more...
605--> Beige?
606--> Yes, but that's not very flattering either. We like to think of ourselves as "golden-skinned".
607* XtremeKoolLetterz: It's spelled Klæl, for no apparent reason, although a reasonable guess is that it is to emphasize Klæl's [[EldritchAbomination utterly alien]] nature.
608* YouHaveFailedMe: Said word for word by Azash, as he [[TakingYouWithMe kills both Otha and Annias amidst his death throes]].
609* ZergRush: The Rendors' main tactic.
610[[/folder]]

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