The Ea Cycle is a fantasy tetralogy by David Zindell narrated in first person by Valashu Elahad, a prince of Mesh. In the beginning, Val goes on a continent-spanning quest for the Lightstone, a holy artifact that the fate of the universe hangs on. But Val and his stereotypically diverse group of friends also need to keep the Lightstone safe from Morjin, the Big Bad leader of The Empire, until the Lightstone can be claimed by its rightful wielder, the Maitreya.
Expect a lot of talk about chakras and meditation and ascending to a higher state of existence. Zindell is obviously heavily into New Age and it shows.
This book series provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Jezi Yaga really likes Maram, while he thinks she's hideous.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Alkaladur can cut through most armor with minimal effort.
- Action Girl: Atara joined the Manslayers against her father's wishes and is a crack shot with a bow.
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Liljana uses her blue gelstei to read Morjin's mind late in The Lightstone. She learns a lot, but at the cost of never being able to smile again.
- Arch-Enemy: Valashu and Morjin to each other.
- Badass Bookworm: The Librarians of Khaisham maintain the Great Library and also train themselves to fight and defend it. Unfortunately for them, Count Ulanu shows up at the Library with a much larger army. They give two apprentices the Library's complete index. They think this will be the best thing they can give to future generations as they are completely overmatched and the enemy wants to destroy all the books in the Library.
- Barbarian Tribe: The Sarni are nomadic herders and hunters, and don't care very much about history or scholarship.
- Bears Are Bad News: Maram is afraid of bears, and he keeps running into them.
- The Big Guy: Maram tries to be this. He's overshadowed by Ymiru, and really, all the Ymaniri.
- Blind Seer: Atara uses her white gelstei to become one after Morjin gouges out her eyes.
- Blind Weaponmaster: Morjin blinds Atara, but she's no less deadly with her bow after that.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Ostriches are seen in desert areas and called "ostrakats". The "barkbark nuts" are identical to betel nuts.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The gelstei crystals.
- Silver can be much harder than diamond and is much less brittle. Val's sword Alkaladur is made of this.
- White allows the user to see things that are far away in space or time.
- Blue is used to communicate across long distances, remove language barriers, or read another person's mind.
- Green provides the ability to heal most injuries.
- Red allows the user to shoot firebolts if the crystal has been exposed to light.
- Purple can be used to rearrange the structure of inanimate objects. The purple gelstei is rare and difficult to use.
- Black is the stone of negation and is often used to restrain the power of red gelstei.
- Common Tongue: Everyone on Ea except the isolated Maiians speaks the same language.
- Cool Horse: Val's horse Altaru is more intelligent, stronger, and has more endurance than most other horses.
- Cool Old Lady: Liljana is this, along with the cook and the lady who knows everybody who knows everyone else.
- Cosmic Keystone: The Lightstone is the only piece of golden gelstei in the universe. As such, it's insanely important.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: All of the people who don't worship Morjin seem to revere a deity known as The One. This deity combines various elements of Deism and Buddhism.
- Cute Mute: Estrella, for the most part. Morjin's priests tortured her, which burned out something in her head. The Brotherhood Masters are able to get her to speak for a while by combining their power. Unfortunately, while everything she says is true, but no one can understand it at the time.
- Elective Monarchy: Mesh is one of these. When the king of Mesh dies, the warriors of Mesh elect a new king from available candidates by simple majority vote.
- The Empath: Val has an empathic gift called valarda, which makes him able to feel what anyone nearby is feeling. This means if he hurts any of his enemies, he feels all of the pain he's caused them. Val does not let this stand in the way of slaughtering any of his opponents.
- Engagement Challenge: Atara's father demands that Val bring the Lightstone to him before he will allow Atara to marry Val.
- Evil Overlord: Morjin plays this almost as straight as it can be played with an underground lair, multiple armies, the ability to create ghuls, and the tendency to brag about his plans. Of course, Morjin used to be an angel until he met Angra Mainyu.
- The Gods Must Be Lazy: The Galadin (archangels) are not allowed to set foot on Ea. The Elijin (angels) are not allowed to act on Ea, except for Kane, who's been grandfather-claused in. Humanity is supposed to save itself even though Morjin is an immortal Evil Overlord. Later, some of the Star People explain the reason behind this: "The last time we sent angels and powerful warriors to retrieve the Lightstone, they went crazy, killed each other, turned evil, and created the current horrible mess."
- G-Rated Drug: The timpani fruit that is available in the Vilds seems very similar to psychedelics.
- Hidden Elf Village: Multiple locations in Ea are linked to the Vilds, extradimensional forests where the Lokilani live. The protagonists tend to find one of these whenever it'd be really convenient for them.
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Morjin created (or mutated) a shape-changing creature named Meliadus and called him his son. Predictably, he hates everything and everyone, especially his father.
- I Thought It Meant: Early on, the protagonists are looking for the Sea People. You'd expect them to be humans who live near the sea. No, they're dolphins and whales.
- Lost Technology: Everyone has forgotten how to create gelstei crystals.
- Love at First Sight: Val immediately falls in love with Atara. She falls in love with him too. However, she's vowed to slay 100 men before she marries anyone, which causes problems.
- Mugging the Monster: A Sarni warrior challenges Maram to a beer-drinking contest. Maram drinks more beer than any Sarni has ever managed to drink while still standing up.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Late in The Lightstone, Maram breaks his firestone by trying to use it when it hasn't absorbed enough sunlight. He continues to carry it. When Jezi Yaga kidnaps him, he convinces her that all his "male power" is bound up in the firestone, and he'd be better able to satisfy her if it was fixed. She falls for it.
- Non-Action Guy: Master Juwain, Liljana, and Estrella are definitely not action people. Master Juwain is a healer and a walking encyclopedia. Liljana is great at support and spycraft. Estrella has a supernatural ability to find lost things. All of these things are vital to the success of the quest.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Morjin sends Val several messages accusing Val of being just like him. He's not entirely wrong. Unlike Morjin, Val is always trying to be a better person.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The dragons don't breathe fire. They spit out a thick liquid that bursts into flame not long after being exposed to oxygen. This is slightly more plausible than biological creatures breathing fire.
- People Puppets: Morjin can take control of people who serve him, creating ghuls who generally attempt to kill Morjin's enemies in a very unsubtle way. Later, Morjin is able to make droghuls, creatures shaped out of his own flesh that Morjin can control remotely.
- Pre-Climax Climax: Val and Atara slip away before the final battle and have a good time.
- Proud Warrior Race: Practically every nation, possibly because the world seems to be stuck at a medieval level of technology that doesn't involve gelstei. The Sarni and the Valari value skill in war more than some other nations.
- Really Gets Around: Maram. If he's anywhere near women, he's always trying to seduce at least one and frequently succeeding. It's implied that he did something with one of the Lokilani women, who are about half the size of regular humans.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Ymiru, Burri, and Audhumla of the Ymaniri, as well as Morjin's dragon Angurboda, take their names almost directly from Norse myth.
- Religion of Evil: Morjin's Path of the Dragon is a borderline case that claims to be good but is very bad at hiding it.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Angra Mainyu, the most powerful evil archangel in the universe, was imprisoned thousands of years ago. If he's ever released, the Ieldra will hit the reset button on the entire universe. During the final battle, Morjin is able to release Angra Mainyu, but refuses to, because he wants to defeat Val himself. This does not work out well.
- Stay in the Kitchen: The Valari want their women to raise children, keep house, and be spiritual. In The Diamond Warriors, Behira calls them out on this, says that any women who want to train as warriors should be allowed to, and takes initiative. The women are told to stay behind and defend their homes. They disobey that order and ruin Morjin's plans.
- Take Over the World: Morjin's goal. He almost succeeds.
- Time Abyss: Kane is thousands of years old and has forgotten more history than any other character knows about.
- Took a Level in Badass: Maram is constantly drinking, trying to seduce women, not very good in combat, and saying how much of a coward he is. Everyone is surprised when he wins prizes in wrestling and archery at the Valari Games. Later, he fights a flying dragon single-handedly and wins.
- Trauma Conga Line: The second half of Lord of Lies for Val. First he claims to be the Maitreya, and when that claim is proved false, the alliance of free kingdoms he was trying to set up falls apart. Then they find that King Kiritan has been replaced by a shapeshifter and the kingdom of Alonia descends into anarchy. Val and his friends ride back to Mesh. Morjin's army then invades Mesh. They kill all of Val's brothers, kill Val's parents, steal the Lightstone, and trash the castle. The warriors of Mesh lose all confidence in Val as a result. So even though he's the last son of the last king, he doesn't win the support of the majority of the warriors.
- Waif Prophet: Estrella is a young girl who can find things, including water in a part of a desert where everyone believes there is no water. She is also the Maitreya.
- Verbal Tic: Kane is very fond of the word "So." When a word starts with "h", Ymiru replaces it with "hr".
