- Storm Over Warlock: Shann Lantee is the sole survivor when Throgs attack. With Ragnar Thorvald, whose ship is shot down soon after, they must survive — and discover the secret race living on Warlock
- Ordeal in Otherwhere: Charis Nordholm is brought to Warlock to deal with the matriarchial Wyverns
- Forerunner Foray: Ziantha's discovery of a Forerunner artifact leads her to cross planets to find more, and she encounters a man who proves to be Shann and Charis's son.
Foray also opens on Tikil, the same world as her Catseye.
Tropes included:
- After-Action Patch-Up: Thorvald treats Shann's injuries several times.
- Agony Beam: Shann remembers one, used on him as a child.
- All-Natural Gem Polish: Underground crystals are clearly crystalline.
- Artifact of Attraction: The bone coin
- Back from the Dead: Turan plays this for all it's worth
- Bond Creatures: The animals develop into this.
- Bring News Back: After Shann's capture in Ordeal, Charis must
- Cat Folk: Yasa in Foray is one.
- The Cavalry: At the end of Storm
- The City Narrows: The Dipple; the Dumps of Tyr
- Changing of the Guard: No two protagonists are alike.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The Throgs threaten Shan with this.
- Damsel in Distress: When a Wyvern loses control of a forktail.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Shann tries to hide his.
- Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: When they are caught in a cave.
- Description in the Mirror: Ziantha in Forerunner Foray:She looked into the cruelly bright mirror, cruel because being so often used to check a disguising makeup, it revealed rather than softened every defect of complexion and feature. There was the real outward Ziantha. And with this hour and her great fatigue, that sight was a blow to any vanity.She was very thin and her skin was pallid. Her hair, from the warm steam of her bath, curled tightly to her head, no lock of it longer than one of her fingers. In color it was silver fair, though in daylight it would show a little darker. Her eyes were gray, so pale as to seem silver too. The mouth below was large, her lips with little curve, but a clear red. As for the rest — she scowled at the true Ziantha and shrugged on her night robe.
- Dirty Business: Leaving Lantee prisoner.
- Dream Spying: Speculated about in Storm
- Dude in Distress: Shann in Storm and Ordeal
- Due to the Dead: Turan was buried with a war captive.
- The Dulcinea Effect: Shann jumps to the rescue of a Wyvern.
- Empathic Weapon: Empathic gems, actually. Definitely having influence.
- Enclosed Space: The city where D'Eyree lives.
- The Exile: Puvult, in Foray, had returned after Turan's death — making Turan's revival dangerous.
- Fallen Princess: Charis fell to her enslaved position
- Feudal Future: the Forerunner civilization
- Field Promotion: Shann Lantee, to cadet
- The Final Temptation: The psychic return of a beloved but now deceased pet.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Thorvald and Shann in Storm; Ziantha and Turan in Foray
- First Contact: The Wyverns allow this in the first book.
- Flaw Exploitation: Yasa leaves the planet under orders — when she wants to go.
- For Science!: Ziantha's usefulness in discovering ancient civilization ensures her final safety.
- A Friend in Need: Thorvald comes to Shann's assistance when the Throg is attacking him.
- Gendercide: Briefly used to set up the opening
- Gender-Restricted Ability: Dreaming among Wyverns
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Ziantha gets one while unable to contact the artifact.
- God Guise: Turan and Vintha claimed to have miraculously returned by the direct intervention of the god Vut.
- Grand Theft Me: For once, the heroes pull this off, albeit accidentally.
- Grave Robbing: Their object is the "tomb of Turan."
- Heads or Tails?: Or fly off through the air.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Turan's, to protect Ziantha.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Inverted: Garth's malice is not the cause of his own death, but it does save Shan's life.
- Human Sacrifice: Practiced for the dead in Foray
- I Gave My Word: The soldier Turan recruits to help
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: In Ordeal, one set of bad shooting is lampshaded.
- Inevitable Waterfall: A waterfall, or rapids, send them off the river despite their lack of ways to carry water.
- In Medias Res: All three books.
- Insectoid Aliens: The Throg, physically at least
- It's All About Me: Yasa is described as totally self-absorbed in Foray, though she is more practical than most about it. She's a cat.
- I Work Alone: D'Eyree's solitary approach to life means she's vulnerable
- Klingon Promotion: Practiced in the Thieves' Guild.
- Lady Land: The Wyvern cities are all female. The males appear, in Ordeal, to live in the wilderness; they do not dream, and are held inferior for it.
- Leonine Contract: Charis signs on as an effective slave, because the alternative is worse
- Loss of Identity: The threat of "erasure" hangs over sensitives who work for the Guild.
- Made a Slave: Indefinite term labor contracts; Charis signs one to escape, and is traded for agricultural slaves
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Even Charis finds the white death's selectivity very odd.
- Mental Fusion: In Ordeal
- Mental Time Travel: Ziantha and Turan in Foray.
- Mind-Control Device: The bone coin
- Mindlink Mates: Shann and Charis will be this after Ordeal, because their son talks of it in Foray
- Mind Probe: The Company men may use it on Lantee, after his capture.
- Monster-Shaped Mountain: In Storm Over Warlock, Shann Lantee first dreams of, and then sees, a mountain like an enormous skull. Winged creatures fly into and out of its eyeholes.
- Necromancy: Ziantha thinks the artifact's effect is like this.
- Nice to the Waiter: Garth Thorvald is not.
- The Oath-Breaker: Turan throws this at his widow.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: Thorvald dubs a place Utgard, after a habitation of giants, from his planet's folklore.
- Parental Abandonment:
- Shann's parents are never mentioned; he was an urchin on the streets very young.
- Charis's father died shortly before Ordeal began.
- Pet the Dog: Jagan is clearly distressed by what the contact with the Wyverns did to Sheeha.
- Planet Looters: The Throg live on raiding. They may have destroyed their native planet.
- Primal Fear: Being buried alive
- The Promise: The Throg makes one to Shann
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: In Foray, Ziantha and "Turan" exploit the civilization they fell into for their purposes — which amount to Tomb Robbing.
- Psychic Link: Shann and Charis develop one.
- Psychic Powers: All the protagonists. The Wyverns.
- Psychological Torment Zone: The Wyverns' test
- Psychometry: In Forerunner Foray, Ziantha can access an item's psychic abilities, if any, by touching the object she wants to read/contact.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: One insane character holds strongly to this.
- Sacred Hospitality: The Wyverns welcome Charis.
- Schrödinger's Butterfly: How can you tell whether a meeting is real and not another Wyvern induced dream?
- Sole Survivor: Shann, of the Throg attack.
- So Proud of You: Ragnar talking to Garth, trapped in the dream.
- Space Pirates: The Jacks, both in Ordeal and Foray
- Starfish Aliens: The Throgs. No communication is possible.
- The Starscream: Ogan in Foray
- Street Urchin: Shann, thrown out on the street at quite a young age to survive.
- Talking in Your Dreams: The first scout on Warlock reported dreams.
- Teleporters and Transporters: A major Wyvern power
- They Have the Scent!: The Throg "hound"
- Thieves' Guild: Ziantha belongs to it
- Time Travel: Mental time travel drives the plot of Foray
- Uplifted Animal: The wolverines are part of a program that produces specially intelligent and trained animals.
- Vanity Is Feminine: Played with for Charis and Ziantha.
- War Refugees: Ziantha's Back Story, though she's too young to remember it.
- Weasel Co-Worker: Garth Thorvald could always sweet-talk his way out of trouble, meaning Shann had to put up with his abuse.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Several events in Ordeal
- You Should Have Died Instead: Or rather as well as — and the man saying it was not in his right mind at the time.
