- One word: RamshornContext Sparhawk is in Rendor, trying to find a cure for Ehlana, and after meeting the local doctor who had effected a cure of the same poison but used the artifact up by grinding it in a liquid, he thinks the artifact used by Arasham, The Fundamentalist Muslim-Expy, might be able to do the same thing. Turns out it's just a powerless piece of a ram's horn. However while there he encounters Martel, trying to dispatch the Rendors against the Elenes to keep them too busy to stop his other schemes, and to prevent this Sparhawk claims to be a representative of the Deiran king who is supposedly eager to ally—but he wants Arasham to wait to attack until they can coordinate. So he gets the crazed zealot to agree to a password which will prove a visitor is from the Deirans and not the Elene Church, without which no one, not even Martel, can get Arasham to attack. The password is of course Ramshorn. This later comes back as a Brick Joke in the Tamuli when everyone has their appearances changed and need a password to identify themselves to each other.
- On a related note, Ulesim-Most-Favored-Disciple-of-Holy-Arasham, and the manner of his death.
- Avin Wargunsson's death and funeral. He's killed by being drowned in a barrel of wine; once he's discovered and removed from the barrel, his entire body is stained- in essence, he was dyed purple. Nobody at the funeral could keep a straight face at the sight.
- Nor could any of the Knights (or Patriarch Bergsten) when they got word of it.
- Bevier going undercover in Scarpa's army. He studied as an actor, so he naturally plays a part. Unfortunately, as the narration notes: 'His intent was obviously to appear dangerously competent. Instead, he was achieving the appearance of a homicidal maniac.'
- Upon discovering that the Undead Knights surrounding Otha's palace in Zemoch will do nothing as long as you don't touch the cornerstones they guard, Talen convinces Berit to push one over. Hilarity Ensues as the entire small army of Undead Knights domino over the entire perimeter of the palace.
- "The other murderers thought Bersola was crazy. Candor compels us to admit they were probably right."
- A member of the intelligentsia in Tamul is rather insistent that Trolls don't exist. Ulath persuades him otherwise by having the illusion of a Troll he befriended kick in the door and confront the man.
- In Domes of Fire, Empress Elysoun wears a very special dress to a banquet- a dress which purposely doesn't have a front aside from a cushion of lace, meaning that everyone spends most of the banquet staring at her tits.
- The Running Gag that starts when Sparhawk tries to find a ship captain willing to take them to Rendor. Using a tired old story, he claims he's a minor noble who went into debt to impress a rich young heiress. When he found she was hideously ugly, he fled, thus trying to hire said captain to get him as far from the heiress as possible, with her cousins in hot pursuit to try to drag him back for marriage. The story gets more and more embellished with each time Spawhawk's team runs into the sailor. Years later in the first book of the Tamuli, they run into said captain once again. When asked what the situation with said heiress is, he mournfully replies that the cousins finally caught up to him and forced him to marry her... then points out his gorgeous wife, Queen Ehlana.
- Just about everything involved with Sabre /Elron. One of the enemy conspirators, He's just as inept at being the local Folk Hero as he is at being a poet. The first time the protagonists see him, they're not entirely sure the guy's real.
- Sparhawk, tired of Aphrael suddenly appearing out of nowhere, and asking her for some kind of warning or such. Queue her next time showing up with an angelic chorus and fanfare of trumpets.
- The loyal imperial wives trying to work together, with their wildly different personalities and cultures.
- This bit of history. Arasham sometimes stumbles over the language and once, during his campaigns back in the hinterlands, he gave an order. He meant to say, "Fall upon your foes," but it came out wrong. Instead, he said, "Fall upon your swords," and three whole regiments did exactly that. Arasham rode home alone that day, trying to figure out what had gone wrong.
- Both Otha's request to Azash and his first prayer do qualify:
Otha: (after finding Azash' idol while searching for a lost goat and be offered anything he wants in exchange for adoration) I'd like to be the king of the world, to live forever, to have a thousand ripe young girls willing to do whatever I wanted them to do, and a mountain of gold - and, oh yes, I want my goat back.
(Azash makes the goat appear behind Otha and demands inmediate adoration)
Oh, mighty - um - Azash, wasn't it? God of Gods and Lord of the World, hear my prayer and receive my humble worship. I am as the dust before thee, and thou towerest above me like the mountain. I worship thee and praise thee and thank thee from the depths of my heart for the return of this miserable goat - which I will beat senseless for straying just as soon as I get her home.'
- Sephrenia may be The Heart of the Pandion order, but even Vanion gets to poke fun at her mommie tendencies:
'Ulath,' Sephrenia said, 'hush.'
'Yes, ma'am,' he said.
Go ahead, Vanion,' she instructed.
'Yes, ma'am,' he duplicated Ulath's intonation perfectly.
- Ulath's reaction to Kalten's reaction to Berit's reaction to Empress Elysoun blatantly hitting on him by telling him he looked sleepy (context: he had his eyes closed when talking to her to avoid looking at her exposed breasts) and offering him the very comfortable bed in her quarters that he could use if he wanted to get some rest:
Kalten: (gazing at the youthful knight with openmouthed envy) What did you say?
Berit: Well, I thanked her, of course, but I told her that I wasn’t really sleepy.
(Kalten buries his face in his hands and groans)
Ulath: (patting his shoulder comfortingly) There, there
- Kalten threatens to use a spell to knock Sephrenia's door down, to the derision of the latter (who knows better than anyone else his limited grasp of Styric magic and language). He just kicks the door down.
Kalten: Elene magic.
- In an adorable moment, Sparhawk uses magic to create a bouquet of flowers for Sephrenia. She then points out that he very nearly mispronounced one of the words of the spell, which would have led to him holding a handful of snakes instead.
- After a truce is forged with the Troll Gods, Tynian and Ulath go to meet with a troll named Bhlokw. Considering that, until that truce, Trolls had no compunction against eating humans, and Tynian doesn't speak Troll and Bhlokw can't speak Elene, their initial meeting is rather awkward. Especially when Ulath has to explain why they are cooking their meal.
Bhlokw: You share your eat with this child of
Khwaj?
Ulath: Yes, we think this pleases the gods.
And then it goes further when Bhlokw shows himself to be rather philosophical... for a troll anyway. Bhlokw and Ulath start to discuss whether they should have to obey their gods if they think their gods have gone insane. Considering the topic is the new prohibition on eating humans, Ulath has to admit to a level of bias on the topic.
- Sparhawk had given an oath to not give certain information to someone who isn’t a clergyman. But needing to discuss the implications of that information with Aphrael, he has to do a little legal gymnastics and ask Aphrael if she is a clergy person, much to Aphrael’s amused exasperation.
- Sparhawk and Engessa’s negotiations for Mirtai’s dowry for her marriage to Kring ends up being hijacked by Ehlana (who negotiates for Mirtai) and Tynian (for Kring), while Engessa and Sparhawk come to a quick agreement of thirty horses, but let the other two continue their multiple hour long negotiation, not wanting to ruin their fun. And of course, the final dowry? Thirty horses, of course. They both then acknowledge that the theatrics of the negotiation are part of the ceremony and sit back to enjoy the show.
- A discussion of Patriarch Bergsten brings up the transition of Church Knights to the cloth. Bevier states this is his own eventual ambition. His fellow knights, thinking he’s too good with his axe to be wasted as a clergymen, think they should help him remove the incorruptible part of the trope, and recommend he should meet a ‘friend’ of Sparhawk’s, Naween. Laughter ensued when Bevier said he’d be honored to meet her.
- A rather amusing Batman Gambit occurs at the beginning of Domes of Fire. Sparhawk realizes that the rather rotund Patriarch Emban is going to become a very dubious companion if he has to spend extended periods in the saddle. So Sparhawk offers to get a larger carriage, allowing the priest to join the queen and her retinue on wheels instead of on horseback, even though he warns Emban that such a carriage would be very expensive. Emban states he’d pawn the Basilica of Chyrellos if it kept him out of a saddle. Sparhawk lampshades the trope to Kalten, stating that if he asked for the carriage later, after Emban recovered, he might have been less willing to shell out the money. Still in agony? Sparhawk had him by the saddle sores.
- Every little girl asks her father for extravagant presents. Aphrael wants a pet whale. (In order to impress the other Styric Gods) Due to everyone but Sephrenia being Locked Out of the Loop as to the full extent of Aphrael and Sparhawk's relationship, someone will occasionally ask Sparhawk about it. "I may not win many arguments with her. But I am going to win the one about the whales."
- Many aspects of Sparhawk's team's departure from Matherion to retrieve the Bhelliom. From 'explaining' to Ehlana and Sarabian that they're going to check the Isle of Tega, a yarn that includes mention of some ancient pearl diver and his mermaid lover, something that lampshades the Mermaid Problem, to Sparhawk pumping out a whole series of letters to describe their supposed mission, letters that reached excessive levels, when his usual writing is described by someone as 'written with a broadsword'.
