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->''"There is the courage of the sword, and the courage of the word, and the courage of the word is rarer." - Voices''

The ''Annals of the Western Shore'' is a trilogy by Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin. It takes place in a fantasy setting that is otherwise unnamed and is unrelated to her ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'' books. The western shore is mostly a collection of city-states, apart from the mountainous Uplands and Carrantages, governed by republic or quasi-republic or plain oligarchy. Each book takes place in a different area.

Each book is a ComingOfAge story, told in first-person by a protagonist writing down the events from years later. Although there are three books in the series, it doesn't follow the typical {{Trilogy}} format. Instead, each book is a standalone story with different places and characters of the common setting, narrated in first-person by its protagonist. As usual with Le Guin's work there isn't a great deal of action to speak of, focusing mainly on CharacterDevelopment as each character struggles to make sense of the world they live in.

A CentralTheme of the series is the power of stories and knowledge to inspire individuals and make connections between people, as well as the wish to be nonviolent in a violent world, and the destructiveness of violence. It is also a work of FeministFantasy and explores the differences between men and women and how they behave and are treated in society.

* ''Gifts'': Orrec and Gry, two children of Upland families, struggle with the magical gifts of their lineage and the gifts of others in the continual power struggle between families, while they themselves don't wish to use their powers the way their own families wish.
* ''Voices:'' Memer is a young woman in the occupied city of Ansul, desperate to have the oppressive Alds gone and studying the forbidden art of reading under the old Waylord. After seventeen years of subjugation, the people of Ansul are both weary and restive, and the arrival of a famous storyteller is a spark to both sides.
* ''Powers:'' Gavir is a young slave content with his lot in life until war and personal tragedy destroy his illusions of comfort and security, sending him on a long and painful trek through the lands of the western Shore.

----
!! Tropes present throughout:

* ComesGreatResponsibility: One of the major themes in all three books is about the nature of power and how to use it.
* ComingOfAgeStory: Each protagonist is in their teenage years and crossing into adulthood.
* DoesNotLikeMagic: The people of the city-states, usually. The only people who have common and accepted magical powers are the Uplanders and Marsh People, both groups considered to be barbarians on the coast.
* HumansAreWhite: Averted as usual with le Guin. The only people who are explicitly white-skinned are the Alds of Asudar.
* FantasyPantheon: Most prominent in ''Voices''. The god most invoked is Ennu, the [[{{Psychopomp}} guide to the afterlife]] and general guide and protector.
* FeministFantasy: The role and treatment of women in society is explored heavily, as well as the differences (and similarities) between the way men and women behave.
* FunctionalMagic: It's always Inherent Gift.
* GoldSilverCopperStandard: A variant with bronze as the lowest denomination of coin.
* LeftJustifiedFantasyMap: Apart from ''Gifts'', which doesn't take place anywhere near the ocean. Since it's the ''Western'' shore, it's to be expected.

!! Tropes by book:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Tropes found in ''Gifts'']]
* AllForNothing: [[PlayingWithaTrope Played with]] in regards to the visit to Drummant. [[spoiler: Whether Canoc consciously deceived his son or not, the quickly approaching trip must have contributed to his more extreme actions. Orrec would be expected to demonstrate his newfound gift during that visit, or else leave Caspromant looking foolish - and vulnerable.]] Even after Orrec's eyes are blindfolded, Canoc insists upon making the trip. Ogge Drum had been making trouble for quite some time, and it was Canoc's hope that the invitation to Drummant might avert [[FeudingFamilies the coming strife]], especially if Ogge's offer of an ArrangedMarriage came through. Upon ''leaving'' Drummant, Orrec has been well established as [[TheDreaded a deterrent]] for any further actions against Caspromant, and Canoc was able to bring back his stolen cows. However, that is the extent of the good that came from that visit. The ArrangedMarriage offer turned out to be a calculated insult, not a genuine offer to mend fences. Canoc may have retrieved his cows, but that only ensured that [[MoralMyopia Ogge would eventually move to retrieve the cows that had been "stolen" from Drummant]]. And worst of all, [[spoiler: Ogge took the opportunity to use his Wasting gift on [[GoodParents Melle]] [[GreenEyedMonster out of envy]], dooming her to a protracted and painful death.]] All in all, it seems unlikely that Canoc would regard the results as worth the trip.
* AnimalTalk: The Barre gift of calling, practiced by Gry and her mother Parn. Gry can also perceive fetuses in utero, but it stops working once brain development reaches a certain point because the thoughts start getting too complex.
* ArrangedMarriage: Standard practice to build alliances and ensure the next generation will carry the gift. Ogge deliberately insults Caspromant by offering a marriage with a mentally disabled niece.
* AxCrazy: Erroy Gere, whose power is called "twisting." It's as nasty as it sounds and he exercises it on cruel whim, but Canoc succesfully warned him off with a display of his own power.
* BadPowersBadPeople: Generally averted, but certain gifts like the Geres' twisting or Drums' wasting are really hard to use benevolently. Gry suspects that these malevolent abilites are actually healing gifts that have been inverted.
* BlessedWithSuck: Orrec's power is very strong and he can't control it, forcing him to go blindfolded. However, the rumor of his wayward powers means that nobody wants to offend Caspromant.
* BodyHorror: Unmade people and animals are described as boneless sacks of flesh. Erroy's victims also count.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Orrec confronts his father just before the end on [[spoiler:creating the false impression that Orrec has a wild gift. Canoc has a hard time admitting it, having convinced ''himself'' that it was Orrec who did those things]].
* ComingOfAgeStory: For Orrec and Gry as they try to figure out what to do with their gifts when their society expects them to be used for one thing and they want to use them for the other.
* DefinitelyJustACold: Melle's strange illness, but it quickly progresses beyond her ability to try and power through it.
* TheDreaded: Orrec himself becomes this thanks to the story of Blind Caddard, who also went blindfolded as a young man due to a wild gift.
* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: The story of Blind Caddard ends with him turning his gift on anyone and anything that offended him even slightly until he went MyGodWhatHaveIDone and unmade his eyes.
* CanineCompanion: Coaly, the guide dog that Gry trains for Orrec. [[spoiler:He keeps her even after he stops wearing the blindfold.]]
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Between Orrec and Gry, even though their parents initially toss around prospective betrothals with others.
* CrusadingWidow: It's only his responsibilities as brantor that keeps Canoc from this. Alloc confides that the household's greatest fear was that he would ride up to [[spoiler:Drummant]] alone to take revenge.
* DeadlyGaze: How many of the lethal gifts work, including the Caspros'. They have a family legend of one who had to blindfold himself before he could control his power and then permanently blinded himself after he started killing his family.
* FantasticSlur: "Calluc" for lowlanders. Melle is called such a few times; Orrec shocks himself when he uses the word to Emmon.
* FeudingFamilies: A frequent occurence between different domains. In some cases, like the Drums, feuds can happen ''within'' families.
* FlatEarthAtheist: Melle has a hard time fitting the gifts of the uplanders into her worldview.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Gry's gift allows her to call animals to her. Usually it's used to call animals for hunting, but Gry won't use it for that.
* GenderIsNoObject: Well, it might be some object, as there seems to be a division of labor by gender. But it's not a huge object; women can be brantors and Orrec is irritated when an outsider acts like it's odd. (They're certainly more egalitarian than the lowlands.)
* GenderRestrictedAbility: The gifts, although both sexes can pass on the lineage's gift to their children. For example, AnimalTalk is had only by Barre women, and the unmaking only with Caspro men.
* TheGift:
** In case you couldn't guess by the title. The magical talents of Upland families are called gifts, but certain individuals are innately powerful in them--Alloc will never be as powerful as Canoc, and Blind Caddard was so good at unmaking that he had to go blindfolded as a child.
** In the end, Orrec [[spoiler:discovers that his real gift is storytelling]].
* GossipEvolution: Tales of Orrec's wild Gift spread around the Uplands after he destroys a hillside.
* HappilyMarried: Canoc and Melle. Even though he went to kidnap a wife, Melle volunteered because it was better than her family's extremely restrictive views about women.
* HeroicBSOD: Orrec refers to the time after Melle's death as "the dark year" thanks to the deep and abiding unhappiness of himself and his father.
* InMediasRes: The book begins after Orrec's voluntary blinding and the death of his mother Melle Aulitta, then goes back to Orrec's early childhood, returns to the point he began the story, and goes on to the end.
* LovableRogue: Downplayed with Emmon. He's not loveable on his own merits, but Canoc tolerates him because the lowlander accent is a reminder of his wife. Orrec and Gry like his stories as well. Most everyone else is just stoic about the fact that he's a fugitive thief and don't make a fuss when he takes some spoons on the way out.
* MrExposition: Emmon the lowlander and his curiosity gives Orrec and Gry an excuse to explain what the titular gifts are and what they mean to Upland society.
* NoSocialSkills: Gry's mother Parn, gifted with AnimalTalk, is said to border on this.
* NumberTwo: Alloc is Canoc's right hand in running Caspromant, though he doesn't consider himself smart and doesn't have a very strong gift.
* OriginStory: In a way this is one for Orrec and Gry, as the next book is set seventeen years after this one and Orrec becomes quite an influential figure by then.
* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Canoc verses Ogge, which Orrec describes as a fencer (Canoc) fighting a man with a bludgeon (Ogge).
* PowerIncontinence: Orrec's wild gift. After a scare where he thought he killed his father, he blindfolds himself. [[spoiler:Much later, he realizes that it was a sham pulled by his father to give him a fearsome reputation.]]
* PyrrhicVictory: In the end, [[spoiler:Canoc kills Ogge through unmaking, but he's killed himself by a Drum crossbowman. And with Orrec unable to use the gift, it's implied that Caspromant will become a part of Roddmant, at least for the time being]].
* MissingMom: Orrec tells us early in the book that his mother is recently dead, but we don't find out how or why until much later.
* MoralMyopia: Ogge Drum. He steals two of Caspromant's valuable white cows and is subtly but incontrivertably called on it by Canoc. A year later, Ogge attacks Caspromant claiming that ''they'' stole them.
* MundaneUtility: Gry's father has the gift of the knife, so named because it can cut flesh. He uses it to painlessly remove splinters.
* TheQuietOne: Gry, who is comfortable in silence.
* TheReveal: Orrec realizes near the end [[spoiler:that he has no gift at all. His father manipulated him into thinking he did so he could use the reputation of a new Blind Caddard as a weapon]].
* RoyalInbreeding: Although they're not royal, strictly speaking, it's common for gifted individuals to marry cousins so the lineage remains strong.
* SacredHospitality: To some extent. Guests are supposed to be offered work to do because Uplands culture abhors feeling useless, and it can be very unwise to refuse an invitation, along with the usual rules about not harming your guests.
* SoapOperaDisease: Justified, as it's the Drum gift. The victim doesn't have any symptoms except a gradually increasing weakness and wasting, to the point where even a light touch can mean broken bones. [[spoiler:It's the fate of Orrec's mother.]]
* SheIsTheKing: Played with. Most brantors are male, but it's a unisex title. Orrec and Gry find it ridiculous when a lowlander calls Parn a "lady-brantor."
* TheStoryteller: Orrec eventually becomes this from reading all the stories his mother wrote for him and develops a talent for poetry as well. Emmon advises him that such a skill is highly valued in the lowlands.
* VictoryThroughIntimidation: Canoc uses this tactic when he and his raiding party find themselves outnumbered by the townspeople of Dunet. By briefly demonstrating his gift of undoing, he cows the townspeople, who don't know the limits of his power, into handing over "tribute" without a fight. [[spoiler:This could be foreshadowing for Canoc's later scheme of pretending that Orrec has a terrifyingly powerful wild gift in order to maintain Caspromant's independence.]]
* WalkingTheEarth: [[spoiler:Orrec and Gry decide to do this in the end, feeling they have no place in Upland society anymore.]]
* WalkingWasteland: What Orrec fears he will be if he ever removes his blindfold. [[spoiler:He won't, because he has no gift.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Orrec. As a young boy, he enjoyed obeying his father, but as his gift continued not to show up they both became very worried. Made worse by the fact that a brantor ''has'' to have the gift to inherit the position.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Invoked. One of the first thing Orrec tells us is that Emmon left to find the greater domains of the Carrantages and they can only hope that he didn't fatally offend any of ''their'' brantors.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility: Most brantors adhere to this with the principle of "the gift's gift". When Canoc raids a lowland town to find a wife, he leaves them some mules in exchange (which to an uplander like him is a significant gift).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes found in ''Voices'']]
* ActualPacifist: Orrec is ''really'' reluctant to help Desac incite a revolt against the Alds, particularly as the Alds invited him in the first place. He does agree to tell their heroic stories and his poem "Liberty", but he doesn't want to be their IconOfRebellion.
* ArcWords: The god Lero is repeatedly invoked; Memer describes the day she meets Orrec and Gry as a day of Lero, for example. [[spoiler:She doesn't explain until Chapter 10 that Lero is the god of balance, and a balanced approach is exactly how the people of Ansul resolve their problems with the Alds.]]
* BeliefMakesYouStupid: More like mindless adherence to religious dogma makes you stupid, but Atth's most devout don't come off well. (You kind of set yourself up for ignorance when you declare writing demonic.)
** It should be noted that the people of Ansul are also extremely religious, it's just their religion is polytheistic, animist, and largely undogmatic while the Alds are strict monotheists (or Manichean dualists, for the ones who believe in the Night Mouth} and extremely dogmatic.
* BookBurning: Strictly speaking, since Alds consider fire holy, they "drown" books by throwing them in the ocean--and the books' owners, too.
* CatchPhrase: Gudit the stablemaster has "stands to reason" as his.
* CentralTheme: Fighting injustice through nonviolent means.
* ChildByRape: Memer. Her mother was raped by Ald soldiers during the invasion. There are many like her and they're referred to as "siege brats".
* TheChosenOne: [[spoiler:Memer becomes the new Reader of the Oracle.]]
* CoolBigSis: Gry becomes one to Memer, encouraging her to take more risks and think about things differently.
* CrustyCaretaker: Gudit, who embarks on a crusade to clean up the stables and responds to most things with "it stands to reason."
* CrypticConversation: The Oracle answers questions in {{Koan}}-like sentence fragments. The one Memer gets is "broken mend broken."
* DeadGuyJunior: [[spoiler:Orrec and Gry had a daughter named Melle, but she died at six months.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Gand Ioratth. After Orrec makes a RousingSpeech and refers to Tirio as Ioratth's wife, Ioratth just quips, "Married us, did you?"
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Alds come from the desert, are religious fundamentalists, deeply misogynistic, and pray by touching their foreheads to the ground. Apart from the detail that they're light-skinned, it's hard not to see them as an unfortunate (but very mid-2000s) stereotype of Muslims, even if they are given more depth later in the story.
* FantasticSlur: "Sheep-hair" for Alds, and sometimes half-Alds like Memer.
* FantasyPantheon: Ansul has dozens of gods, at least. The Waylord says they stopped him from betraying the secret library during his torture. Contrasted with the Alds, who have just the one.
* EnemyCivilWar: There's a lot of tension between the priests of Atth and the soldiers, who consider the Ansul occupation to be a waste of time and resources. Halfway through the book word comes down that the religious faction has lost power in their homeland of Asudar.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Waylord. It's significant whenever he's addressed by his first name, Sulter.
* TheFundamentalist: Ioratth's son Iddor. Unlike his dad, who only invaded Ansul because he was ordered to, Iddor gets ''really'' into the holy war and search for the Night Mouth.
* GenderIsNoObject: Ansul was like this until the Alds came in and imposed their sexism on the population.
* GeniusLoci: The Oracle in the cave at the back of the library.
* GiveMeASign: The Waylord and Memer consult the Oracle at Desac's request, since he wants to know if he should openly strike the Alds. People who have asked the Oracle for signs historically tended to interpret the answer as a justification for how they wanted to act in the first place, though.
* GodOfEvil: The Alds believe that Atth is the one true god, but that he has an evil counterpart in Obatth (roughly, Anti-Atth), whose powers are associated with night and water and that he will come from the "Night Mouth" to destroy the world. They also think that the Night Mouth is in Ansul.
* HeroicResolve: The Waylord. [[spoiler:He charges through the library to confront the crowd of Ald soldiers gathering at the house in spite of being long crippled from their torture. Memer points out that while the book and the fountain was a trick, his ability to ''run'' had to come from the gods.]]
* HolierThanThou: Iddor, who takes every chance he can get to upstage Orrec with religious ceremony and blast his stories as heresy to make his father look bad.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: In a conversation at the end, the Waylord and Memer decide that there aren't any "demons" like the Ald believe in.
--> "No," the Waylord said. "We do the demon work."
* IllegalReligion: Although the Alds don't seem to make Ansulites worship Ald, they come down ''very'' hard on worshipping Ansul's gods.
* KillItWithFire: Inverted with Alds. Fire is holy, so they kill heretics by drowning or burying alive. [[spoiler:This also means that Desac's plan to burn the tent doesn't go off as planned because Alds just aren't ''afraid'' of burning to death.]]
* JustFollowingOrders: The ''Waylord'' actually defends Ioratth with this, since the worst of the abuses were carried out by Ioratth's son, Iddor, and the priests. [[spoiler:In fact, Ioratth is delighted when his superiors give him less oppressive orders.]]
* LegendaryInTheSequel: Orrec Caspro is now one of the most famous traveling "Makers" on the coast. The Alds love him because he's a storyteller, the people of Ansul do because of his famous poem "Liberty".
* MagicalLibrary: The hidden library in Galvamand. It's protected by magic and/or Ansul's gods--they prevent the Waylord from revealing it during his year of ColdBloodedTorture.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Desac thinks that the change of politics in Asudar will allow them to rebel without being crushed by the Ald army. [[spoiler:Instead, his actions give Iddor opportunity to "disappear" Ioratth and grind down the bootheel even more; meanwhile Ioratth actually ''wanted'' to ease up on the occupation. Also, Desac misjudged Ald reaction to fire and wound up burning to death with many of his rebels.]]
** However, [[spoiler: Desac's failed plan upsets the status quo enough that it simultaneously encourages the people of Ansul to rise up in a significantly more peaceful fashion under the direction of the Waylord, Orrec, and Per Actamo, and causes Iddor and the priesthood to overplay their hand by kidnapping Ioratth and pretending he was killed, which discredits them when they're exposed, allowing the more moderate military to shut them out completely]]
* NoWomansLand: Ald rule has turned Ansul into this, and their homeland is apparently one as well. Women who go out unaccompanied by a man are considered whores by default and free to be raped by soldiers.
* OccupiersOutOfOurCountry: What Memer desperately wishes for and Desac is trying to bring about. [[spoiler:Ultimately, the occupation is neutralized not by open revolt but patience and mostly nonviolent means.]]
* OldRetainer: Ista the cook, who takes a great deal of pride in keeping up what standards she can, and who raised Memer alongside her own daughter as a "by-mother."
* OldSoldier: Iorrath is a practical, middle-aged general who only invaded Ansul because he was ordered to and isn't very interested in carrying out a holy war. He's also very rough-mannered in private.
* PassingTheTorch: Eventually, [[spoiler:the Waylord passes the title of Reader to Memer, since the Oracle has started speaking to her]].
* PantheraAwesome: Gry and Orrec's guard animal is a tame halflion called Shetar.
* PersecutedIntellectuals: Ald religion holds that books are demonic--anyone found to own one is drowned. The Waylord was imprisoned and tortured for a year because of this.
* PetTheDog: One of the first things we know about Ioratth is that he took Tirio Actamo, an Ansul woman, as a lover and treats her honorably.
* PoliceState: Ansul. The Alds have no intention of bringing their ''own'' people there to colonize it--they're just there to smash the heretics.
* PunchClockVillain: Gand Ioratth. He's impeccably courteous to his guest Orrec and welcomes it when he gets new orders from Asudar, and doesn't have any particular ill-will towards Ansul.
* RebelLeader: Desac, who often visits the Waylord and pushes to take action against the Alds ''now''. [[spoiler:He eventually burns to death in his own fire.]]
* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler:Iddor tries this, but Tirio is able to save Iorrath by getting the Waylord and Orrec to help.]]
* SpannerInTheWorks: Desac's plan to [[spoiler:start a revolt by burning Ioratth, Iddor, and the priests to death in their tent]] fails utterly because Iddor decides to hold the sacrifice earlier solely to spite his dad for listening to the "heathen" storyteller Orrec.
* TheStoryteller: Orrec Caspro, invited by the Gand. Although the Alds hate the written word, they still love stories and revere "makers" who can tell them well. It's implied that his skill is the same kind of magic power as the gifts seen in the previous books.
* TheTheocracy: The Ald homeland and what they've turned Ansul into.
* ThisIsMyBoomstick: [[spoiler:The Waylord stops Iddor and his mob of soldiers by waving a book under their noses and announcing the Oracle's prophecy--''Set Free''--just as the Oracle Fountain miraculously returns to life, evoking both the demonry of books and their feared "Night Mouth". On the last page, he tells Memer that the book was a children's storybook and that he simply turned the pipes for the fountain back on to give the actual miracle of the prophecy a suitable dramatic effect.]]
* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: Memer ruthlessly mocks and insults Simme, a young Ald soldier who tries to befriend her as Mem. Although he's not great--when he first meets her, he wants to know if "Mem" has a prostitute sister to rent--he's otherwise comes off as a lonely kid who's ignorant rather than malicious. After repeatedly shaming Simme when he visits the house, Memer feels defeated instead of satisfied.
* WholesomeCrossdresser: It's common for young women to dress themselves as boys so they can go out in public. Memer and Gry both do this to accompany Orrec.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes found in ''Powers'']]
* ActionSurvivor: Gav never fights and spends a lot of the book fleeing from one place to another, surviving in spite of the odds against him. He attributes this to the God of Luck.
* AncientGrome: Etra and its neighbors have this flavor. There are city-states, Senators, the ability to appoint a Dictator in emergencies, and a Pater Familias ethic, along with the slaves and restrictive roles for women common to both cultures.
* BastardBastard: Hoby, who is the son of Altan Arca and his personal slave and thus a slave himself. He's mean, resentful, and violent, and later [[spoiler:participates in the rape of Sallo and Ris, and Sallo's drowning]].
* SoBeautifulItsACurse: Sotur certainly comes to believe this during the siege and tells Sallo to become ugly like she did. Irad is also subject to this.
* BerserkButton: Falling for a girl that Barna has claimed, despite how ''many'' he has claimed. Also, challenging his authority. He's maimed and killed men over both [[spoiler:and Gav has to flee for his life when Barna turns on him for looking at Irad too long]].
* BigBrotherInstinct: Gav soon starts to feel protective of Melle, Irad's little sister.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Barna. He appears to be a jovial, charitable man of vision, but he's quick to fly into a killing rage and mistreats women horribly.
* BrokenBird:
** Sotur after the war with Casicar. She's hit hard physically from the malnutrition and becomes very cynical and disgusted with the forthcoming CycleOfVengeance, still maintaining the weary "siege face".
** Irad. She went from an abused slave to sex toy for Barna, who beats her when she resists him. [[spoiler:Her ultimate fate after Barna's death is unstated, but probably horrible whether she lived or died.]]
* BrokenPedestal:
** Learning of Father Altan's hatred for Yaven and [[spoiler:Torm going unpunished for Sallo's death]] tumbles the pedestal that Gav has put the Family on all his life, especially when he later realizes that the Mother (whom he'd always believed to be all-wise and all-just) must have been complicit.
** The Barnavites in the Heart of the Forest. Although they style themselves as a free man's paradise, Barna rules them as surely as any other master, and they abduct women as sex slaves.
** The seer speaker of South Shore, who makes himself out as a wise master teaching Gav, but who is [[spoiler:really only interested in regaining his prestige. And while he claims his first seer died of shellfish poisoning, Ambamer says that he was killed through the speaker making him overuse the drugs]].
* TheBully: Hoby, the Father's bastard son, takes a special dislike to Gav that turns into full-blown hatred when Gav accidentally hits him with a rock while playing soldiers. He gets Gav shunned by other slaves and abuses him at every opportunity. It's finally stopped when he and his gang nearly drown Gav in a well, and the Family sends Hoby to be a civic slave. (Until Torm buys him back as a bodyguard.)
* CallBack: Chamry, one of the Barnavites, used to be a serf on Drummant. He doesn't name the place, but his account of the brantor's power of "wasting" makes it clear.
* DesperatelySeekingAPurposeInLife: Gav, once he leaves Arcamand, tries to find places where a house slave with eidetic memory of stories can be both useful and wanted. [[spoiler:He eventually reaches the free city of Urdile, where Orrec and Gry take him and Melle in.]]
* CategoryTraitor: Even for Arcamand's slaves, "Master's pet" is a deadly insult, and Gav suffers a lot when Hoby sticks the name to him.
* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:Hoby apparently drowns when chasing Gav and Melle across a river.]]
* FantasticDrug: Eda, taken by the seers of the marshes. It's incredibly toxic and most only use it in desperation.
* FantasticHonorifics: Etran slaves append ''di'' or ''io'' to names of the male and female members of their owning Family, and it's seen as a general honorific later.
* FatalFlaw: Gav is very quick to trust. When he becomes aware of it, he tries to stop doing it, but it's really hard.
* EverybodysDeadDave: [[spoiler:After leaving the Marsh People, Gav returns to the Heart of the Forest to find Barna's city burned to the ground, having been invaded by the neighboring city-states to replenish their slave population. All but a few are dead or taken.]]
* GenderScoff: Quite a bit, usually men against women; for instance the Marsh men disdain women's storytelling and women seers. Gav's aunt scoffs against both genders.
* HappinessInSlavery: Gavir and most of the other slaves in Arcamand are completely loyal to the Family, since the Arcas take a point of pride in treating their slaves well.
* HairTriggerTemper: Torm Arca, the family's younger son. From the way it's described as coming on in "fits", it seems to be some kind of psychological disorder.
* TheHermit: Cuga, who mistakes a wandering Gav for a thief and hits him with a stick, then nurses him back to health over a summer before sending him onto the forest.
* HeroicBSOD: Gav shuts down completely after [[spoiler:Sallo is killed by Torm and his friends]]. He says that the only reason he ''didn't'' walk into the river, as he thinks the people of Arcamand assume, is because he was too numb to think of it.
* ItsAllMyFault: Gav's aunt, Ambamer, [[spoiler:blames herself for never being able to find out what happened to Gav's mother and children]].
* KarmaHoudini: Gavir protests that Torm being sent to boot camp for killing Miv is an {{Unishment}}, as Torm dreams of being a soldier. Though he's told that discipline will be much harsher than any of Torm's games, the question of the Father favoring Torm returns later [[spoiler:after Torm and his friends steal Sallo and a virgin gift-girl and end up killing Sallo]]. This time, nobody can provide a good explanation to Gav.
* LegendaryInTheSequel: Orrec and his poem "Liberty" figure into things again, unsurprisingly for a book with many runaway slaves in it.
* MySisterIsOffLimits: Irad is resigned to being used by Barna's men, but she pulls a knife as soon as they try to keep her away from her little sister Melle.
* NewMediaAreEvil: Invoked with Everra, who refuses to read anything written in the last hundred years. When Gav finally reads a few and questions how the new works could corrupt when they're so beautiful, this is how Everra answers:
--> "Discontent. Noble words to teach you how to be unhappy. Such poets refuse the gifts of the Ancstors. Their work is a bottomless pit. Once you remove the firm foundation of belief on which all our lives our built, there is nothing. Only words! Gorgeous, empty words. [...] He teaches nothing but rebellion against what must be--refusal of truth."
* NonActionGuy: Gavir. The most fighting he does is playing soldiers with other children in Arcamand.
* NoWomansLand: Although Gavir is a boy, a ''lot'' of the book is about how hard and dangerous it is for women to live on the Western Shore, since even men who see themselves as freedom fighters consider them objects or animals.
* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:When the neighboring city-states invade Barna's city, they cut off his head and kick it around like a ball.]]
* OhCrap: Gav's reaction when he learns from tavern gossip that [[spoiler:Hoby has been stalking him for goodness knows how long now and getting closer]].
* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Irad's little sister Melle shares her name with Orrec's mother, Gav meets another Sallo when he reaches the marshes, and Melle randomly picks the name "Miv" when she has to pose as a boy.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When sweet, kind, endlessly charitable Sallo accuses the Father of being jealous of Yaven and wanting him dead, Gav is shocked into total silence by the hatred in her voice.
* PhotographicMemory: Gav has an uncanny ability to remember, which comes in handy for winning people over by stories.
* PinballProtagonist: Gav spends most of the book being forced out of his circumstances and reacting to what other people do or say.
* RebelLeader: Barna often fantasizes about leading a massive slave revolt, but it seems to be more a distant fantasy since his "plans" aren't known by most of the Barnavites. [[spoiler:And it all ends when the city is leveled.]]
* SacrificialLamb: Four-year-old Miv is killed by a head injury when Torm strikes him to the ground, illustrating how dangerous Torm is.
* {{Seers}}: Gav has precognative abilities that he keeps secret. Among the things he sees are a snowfall, the Casicar invasion, and the funerals of Miv and [[spoiler:his sister Sallo]]. Such powers are common among his original people, the Marsh folk.
* SexSlave:
** Most of the slave girls that Gav knows, including his sister, are destined to be "gift-girls" for the silk rooms. Curiously, this ''still'' overlaps with HappinessInSlavery for Sallo, since she and Yaven are genuinely in love and he treats her kindly. But it's certainly not true for all gift-girls, and [[spoiler:Sallo's status still makes her vulnerable to Torm]].
** Barna's girls aren't in much better position than the girls in the silk rooms. They're friendly and flirty, but Barna's men steal them the same way they do sheep and cattle and treat them with as much respect.
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: Gav eventually makes his way to the Marsh People and reunites with his mother's family, but as he's a scholar and they explicitly don't tell stories except on sacred occasions, he feels out of place and leaves.
* TargetedToHurtTheHero: Gav wonders if [[spoiler:Torm killed Sallo just to hurt Yaven]].
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: [[spoiler:Sallo]], abused and drowned by Torm and his friends. The whole household mourns her death and say that she was one of the sweetest people they ever knew.
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: As a result of HeroicBSOD, starving, and being whacked on the head by a hermit, Gav locks all his memories of Arcamand behind a "wall". He can still remember stories when his new companions ask for them, but his mind keeps him from fully remembering until Derio asks him about it.
* TheUnfavorite: Yaven to Father Altan Arca, which is bad since Yaven is far and away the better of his two sons.
* UriahGambit: Sallo says that Altan Arca is sending Yaven, his heir, to the front lines in hopes that he'll die in battle, so that he can groom Torm--who is more like Altan--to be his successor.
* WarIsHell: The siege of Etra by Casicar is a long, hard affair. The only people who escape deprivation and starvation are the priests, who have their own private food supply.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We never find out [[spoiler:if Yaven did live through the wars or anything else about Arcamand after Gav leaves. All we know for sure is that Hoby is still around]].
* WomenAreWiser: Gav speculates on this when war takes hold of Etra as it's usually men who declare war, but he also notes that women get swept up in the WarIsGlorious attitude themselves. His aunt, Ambamer, disgustedly says that both sexes are fools.
[[/folder]]