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The Lost Woods is a video game level trope.
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* ArtifactOfDoom: The Shadow Box is the SoulJar for the damned souls trapped in [[TheLostWoods the Darakyon]]; as well as being a source of immense magical power in its own right, it's also a vessel for the Darakyon's malign collective will. [[EvilSorcerer Uctebri]] seeks it to use it as a source of power for his own magics.
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* ArtifactOfDoom: The Shadow Box is the SoulJar for the damned souls trapped in [[TheLostWoods the Darakyon]]; Darakyon; as well as being a source of immense magical power in its own right, it's also a vessel for the Darakyon's malign collective will. [[EvilSorcerer Uctebri]] seeks it to use it as a source of power for his own magics.
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** Tynisa initially has a ''very'' rose-colored view of the Commonweal, because she assumes that her friend [[TheAce Salma]], is a typical example of a Dragonfly prince. It turns out Salma is a WhiteSheep, and there are ''very'' good reasons he left home to study abroad and rarely talks about his family or childhood. Admittedly, the Commonweal nobles overall still have a [[KnightInShiningArmor pretty]] [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomethign good]] [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure average]]; Salma's [[spoiler: family]], however, is rotten to the core.
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** Tynisa initially has a ''very'' rose-colored view of the Commonweal, because she assumes that her friend [[TheAce Salma]], is a typical example of a Dragonfly prince. It turns out Salma is a WhiteSheep, and there are ''very'' good reasons he left home to study abroad and rarely talks about his family or childhood. Admittedly, the Commonweal nobles overall still have a [[KnightInShiningArmor pretty]] [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomethign [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething good]] [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure average]]; Salma's [[spoiler: family]], however, is rotten to the core.
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** Tynisa initially has a ''very'' rose-colored view of the Commonweal, because she assumes that her friend [[TheAce Salma]], is a typical example of a Dragonfly prince. It turns out Salma is a WhiteSheep, and there are ''very'' good reasons he left home to study abroad and rarely talks about his family or childhood.
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** Tynisa initially has a ''very'' rose-colored view of the Commonweal, because she assumes that her friend [[TheAce Salma]], is a typical example of a Dragonfly prince. It turns out Salma is a WhiteSheep, and there are ''very'' good reasons he left home to study abroad and rarely talks about his family or childhood. Admittedly, the Commonweal nobles overall still have a [[KnightInShiningArmor pretty]] [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomethign good]] [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure average]]; Salma's [[spoiler: family]], however, is rotten to the core.
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The website also contain loads of short stories and [[AllThereInTheManual histories]] based in the same world.
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The website also contain loads of short stories and [[AllThereInTheManual histories]] based in the same world. Tchaikovsky would later write another trilogy, ''Echoes of the Fall'', set in the same world but on a different continent, which sheds further light on some of the mysteries of the setting.
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%%* AboveGoodAndEvil
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** The Masters of Khanaphes think in terms of centuries and civilizations, and really couldn't care less about any moral judgments other beings might make of them, or the fates of individuals caught up in their grand plans.
** Inverted with the mindless Worm, which is more ''below'' good and evil. It cares nothing for morality, politics, kinden or even Aptitude - it just wants to consume endlessly until it is the only thing left in existence. It's explicitly noted that the Worm can't really be called "evil," because "evil" implies an active choice... and the Worm is merely following its nature.
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* LogicalWeakness: The [[spoiler: Centipede-kinden]] created their "god," the Worm, by somehow summoning the platonic ideal of their totem creature into the body of a giant centipede. The resulting creature ''does'' have the power of a god... but it's still in a living, mortal body, which is vulnerable to anything powerful enough to pierce its hide. [[spoiler: Like Totho's grenades, say...]]
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* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first two books both reference the Centipede-kinden and their ancient war with the Moths and the other Inapt kinden as if it's decently well-known history or mythology. Late books establish that this war was ''so'' traumatic the Moths actively scrubbed it from their histories aside from the most vague references, and even those that survived referred to their enemy only as [[spoiler: the Worm]].
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* GoneHorriblyRight: When Seda decides to seek out [[SealedEvilInACan the Seal of the Worm]] to try and harness its power for herself, her magical advisors Gjegevey and Tegrec instead convince her to seek out a less dangerous Sealed Evil, [[OurLichesAreDifferent Argastos]], instead. Unfortunately for them, it turns out Argastos was imprisoned to ''guard'' the Seal of the Worm, meaning that in their attempt to direct Seda away from the Seal, they accidentally led her right to it. Whoops.
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* OurLichesAreDifferent: The ancient Moth sorcerer-warlord Argastos exists in this form as shown in ''War Master's Gate''; though long dead, unlike a normal ghost (which are usually described as being a sort of echo of a dead person) his consciousness is still very much all there and inhabits his own mummified corpse (though he usually puts on a prettier face for receiving guests) and commands all his magical power. He also commands a legion of other undead, created from both his original servants and those unfortunates who found his barrow but were unable to free him from it.
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* SealedEvilInACan:
** The ancient Inapt, having defeated the Worm in battle but unable to rout them from their underground strongholds, ultimately ''banished'' said strongholds into another dimension and sealed them there, unable to reach the rest of the world, by means of the Seal of the Worm.
** Argastos, the Moth sorcerer who led the war against the Worm, was also imprisoned in a barrow above the central Seal and set to guard it for all eternity. Whether Argastos was evil ''before'' his sealing is left ambiguous (he claims to have been a great hero, but as the narrative explicitly points out, many tyrants have done the same) but he ''definitely'' is by the present, having spent centuries stewing in his own resentment and plotting his revenge.
** The ancient Inapt, having defeated the Worm in battle but unable to rout them from their underground strongholds, ultimately ''banished'' said strongholds into another dimension and sealed them there, unable to reach the rest of the world, by means of the Seal of the Worm.
** Argastos, the Moth sorcerer who led the war against the Worm, was also imprisoned in a barrow above the central Seal and set to guard it for all eternity. Whether Argastos was evil ''before'' his sealing is left ambiguous (he claims to have been a great hero, but as the narrative explicitly points out, many tyrants have done the same) but he ''definitely'' is by the present, having spent centuries stewing in his own resentment and plotting his revenge.
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* FunctionalMagic: Two main kinds:
** Art is an InherentGift that everyone has to some degree; by meditating on and seeking to emulate their kinden's totem creature, a person can learn to access some of its abilities. These are mostly basic powers that affect only the person in question or their immediate environment (ie, telepathy, night vision, flight, the Wasps "stings," etc.) or even physical transformations (such as the barbs or claws certain kinden can sprout). One of the idiosyncrasies of Art is that an observer can ''always'' recognize it as Art.
** Magic is usable only by the Inapt, and requires a great deal of study to be used ''well'' even for those with great inborn talent. Magic often involves much longer-range effects, and is much more flexible in what it can do compared to Art, but often requires elaborate rituals or meditation to activate; it also draws its power from the collective unconscious of humanity, and is less powerful in the present than it was in the past due to the Apt turning away from magic and refusing to believe in it or credit its power. While all forms of magic can alter reality in various ways, different Inapt kinden have their own traditions with their own specialties - the Moths tend to focus on darkness, shadows and gathering information, Mosquitos on BloodMagic, Spiders on [[MasterOfIllusion illusion and misdirection]] and the Masters of Khanaphes on long-range environmental effects.
** Art is an InherentGift that everyone has to some degree; by meditating on and seeking to emulate their kinden's totem creature, a person can learn to access some of its abilities. These are mostly basic powers that affect only the person in question or their immediate environment (ie, telepathy, night vision, flight, the Wasps "stings," etc.) or even physical transformations (such as the barbs or claws certain kinden can sprout). One of the idiosyncrasies of Art is that an observer can ''always'' recognize it as Art.
** Magic is usable only by the Inapt, and requires a great deal of study to be used ''well'' even for those with great inborn talent. Magic often involves much longer-range effects, and is much more flexible in what it can do compared to Art, but often requires elaborate rituals or meditation to activate; it also draws its power from the collective unconscious of humanity, and is less powerful in the present than it was in the past due to the Apt turning away from magic and refusing to believe in it or credit its power. While all forms of magic can alter reality in various ways, different Inapt kinden have their own traditions with their own specialties - the Moths tend to focus on darkness, shadows and gathering information, Mosquitos on BloodMagic, Spiders on [[MasterOfIllusion illusion and misdirection]] and the Masters of Khanaphes on long-range environmental effects.
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* AfterTheEnd: Downplayed. It's indicated that the world as it exists in the books' present is what it is because it was reshaped by some ancient cataclysm, but it doesn't come up often because only the Masters of Khanaphes are old enough to remember it, or to care.
** It's also the case that Apt characters are psychologically incapable of understanding how magic ''works,'' so they'll tend to instinctively reject the possibility that something could be magic in favor of a more "rational" explanation (however unlikely it may be) until they have literally no choice otherwise. Inapt tend to have the same reaction to machines - they don't understand ''how'' it could work, so they refuse to believe it ''could'' work until they see irrefutable evidence that it ''does.''
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* TheBigBadShuffle: Initially, [[TheEmperor Alvdan]] and [[EvilSorcerer Uctebri]] are the main antagonists of the series as a BigBadDuumvirate. After they both die, Seda - as Alvdan's sister and Uctebri's BastardUnderstudy - inherits both their roles, and proves herself more dangerous than either, becoming the BigBad for most of the series [[spoilers: until the last arc, when the Worm is released and overshadows all other threats, though Seda remains active in her own right as well]]. The last two books also include the Ant tactician [[AmbitionIsEvil Milus]], who opposes the Wasps but only to advance his own ambitions. And that's not getting into the various {{Arc Villain}}s and {{Big Bad Wannabe}}s who show up across the series.
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* TheBigBadShuffle: Initially, [[TheEmperor Alvdan]] and [[EvilSorcerer Uctebri]] are the main antagonists of the series as a BigBadDuumvirate. After they both die, Seda - as Alvdan's sister and Uctebri's BastardUnderstudy - inherits both their roles, and proves herself more dangerous than either, becoming the BigBad for most of the series [[spoilers: [[spoiler: until the last arc, when the Worm is released and overshadows all other threats, though Seda remains active in her own right as well]]. The last two books also include the Ant tactician [[AmbitionIsEvil Milus]], who opposes the Wasps but only to advance his own ambitions. And that's not getting into the various {{Arc Villain}}s and {{Big Bad Wannabe}}s who show up across the series.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Several flavors:
** Drephos' moral code is... interesting. He has a ''very'' high sense of professional ethics (including being one of the only Wasp officers willing to hire and promote people solely based on their skill at artifice, regardless of kinden, gender, social class or national origin) but it's coupled with a ''complete'' lack of concern for who uses his weapons (or who they're used ''on'') or the harm they cause, so long as they work. He also disdains the Bee-Killer gas, not because it's a weapon designed for genocide, but because it's ''crude'' and he doesn't want to be remembered for science that shoddy.
** The Slug-Kinden have such a long view of time and cause and effect that they only work towards goals that take place across centuries, and though they claim to be patrons of civilization and enlightenment, they also couldn't give a damn about most individual lives. Che is appalled at their callousness, but also can't really make any moral argument they'd consider worth engaging with.
** Mantis-Kinden are ''obsessed'' with HonorBeforeReason, to a degree that other kinden find literally ''insane'' - but don't tell the Mantids that.
** Drephos' moral code is... interesting. He has a ''very'' high sense of professional ethics (including being one of the only Wasp officers willing to hire and promote people solely based on their skill at artifice, regardless of kinden, gender, social class or national origin) but it's coupled with a ''complete'' lack of concern for who uses his weapons (or who they're used ''on'') or the harm they cause, so long as they work. He also disdains the Bee-Killer gas, not because it's a weapon designed for genocide, but because it's ''crude'' and he doesn't want to be remembered for science that shoddy.
** The Slug-Kinden have such a long view of time and cause and effect that they only work towards goals that take place across centuries, and though they claim to be patrons of civilization and enlightenment, they also couldn't give a damn about most individual lives. Che is appalled at their callousness, but also can't really make any moral argument they'd consider worth engaging with.
** Mantis-Kinden are ''obsessed'' with HonorBeforeReason, to a degree that other kinden find literally ''insane'' - but don't tell the Mantids that.
* ElectiveMonarchy: Ant-kinden city-states usually work like this - because of their telepathy, the Ant leadership are able to effectively identify young Ants with leadership potential, who are promoted to the city's governing body, collectively called Tacticians. The Tacticians in turn elect the King or Queen should the throne become vacant, generally from among their own ranks.
* PlanetOfHats: Due to drawing their Art from a shared archetype of their totem creature and aspiring to emulate its qualities, most of the kinden naturally develop particular traits, skills and eccentricities most of that kinden share, and can be rather hatty as a result. But there are some [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch definite exceptions]]:
** Stenwold attributes his adopted daughter Tynisa's nose for intrigue to her Spider heritage; Tynisa herself, on the other hand, ironically seems to think she got it from [[TheSpymaster Stenwold himself]].
** The Spider-kinden in general are often stereotyped as being brilliant, glamorous aristocrats and masters of intrigue... because they very much go out of their way to ''create'' that image. The few peaks the reader is given into the Spiderlands proper indicates that there are plenty of Spiders who do menial jobs, outright live in ''poverty'', or are otherwise ordinary people nothing like the Aristoi.
** Tynisa initially has a ''very'' rose-colored view of the Commonweal, because she assumes that her friend [[TheAce Salma]], is a typical example of a Dragonfly prince. It turns out Salma is a WhiteSheep, and there are ''very'' good reasons he left home to study abroad and rarely talks about his family or childhood.
** The Wasps have a, largely deserved, reputation for being arrogant, bloodthirsty, empire-building ProudWarriorRaceGuys. While this is mostly true... it's also true that there are a growing number of Wasps who are getting sick of war and ''don't'' think their society should be organized around these principles.
** Even the Mantids HonorBeforeReason reputation is hinted to be at least somewhat exaggerated; the demands the Mantid honor code places on those who follow it are ''so'' extreme that it's hinted that plenty of Mantids must make minor fudges on it all the time, and it's then politely ignored by the community under most circumstances; otherwise, there would be no Mantids ''left''.
** Stenwold attributes his adopted daughter Tynisa's nose for intrigue to her Spider heritage; Tynisa herself, on the other hand, ironically seems to think she got it from [[TheSpymaster Stenwold himself]].
** The Spider-kinden in general are often stereotyped as being brilliant, glamorous aristocrats and masters of intrigue... because they very much go out of their way to ''create'' that image. The few peaks the reader is given into the Spiderlands proper indicates that there are plenty of Spiders who do menial jobs, outright live in ''poverty'', or are otherwise ordinary people nothing like the Aristoi.
** Tynisa initially has a ''very'' rose-colored view of the Commonweal, because she assumes that her friend [[TheAce Salma]], is a typical example of a Dragonfly prince. It turns out Salma is a WhiteSheep, and there are ''very'' good reasons he left home to study abroad and rarely talks about his family or childhood.
** The Wasps have a, largely deserved, reputation for being arrogant, bloodthirsty, empire-building ProudWarriorRaceGuys. While this is mostly true... it's also true that there are a growing number of Wasps who are getting sick of war and ''don't'' think their society should be organized around these principles.
** Even the Mantids HonorBeforeReason reputation is hinted to be at least somewhat exaggerated; the demands the Mantid honor code places on those who follow it are ''so'' extreme that it's hinted that plenty of Mantids must make minor fudges on it all the time, and it's then politely ignored by the community under most circumstances; otherwise, there would be no Mantids ''left''.
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* SlaveRace: Anyone conquered by the Wasps will likely end up here, either pressed into military service as "Auxillians" or enslaved outright. The notable exceptions are those Beetle and Fly kinden native to the Empire itself, who handle a lot of the economic and administrative jobs the Wasps need loyal people to do but are entirely uninterested in doing themselves; while not considered equal to the Wasps, they are still full Imperial citizens and placed above everyone ''else''.
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* SlaveRace: Anyone conquered by the Wasps will likely end up here, either pressed into military service as "Auxillians" or enslaved outright. The notable exceptions are those Beetle and Fly kinden native to the Empire itself, who handle a lot of the economic and administrative jobs the Wasps need loyal people to do but are entirely uninterested in doing themselves; while not considered equal to the Wasps, Wasps themselves (who are effectively all aristocrats, being sufficiently supported by the labor of their slaves and subjects they can dedicate their lives wholly to soldiering and/or politics), they are still full Imperial citizens and placed above everyone ''else''.
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* VestigialEmpire: Several, owing to the major Inapt powers all being in serious decline, if not having collapsed outright:
** The Commonweal is a large empire north of the Lowlands and west of the Wasp Empire. While still considered a great power, its glory days are clearly behind it - thinly populated for its size, with most of its people living in poverty, and its nobility having largely either forgotten the ideals they're supposed to abide by, or too weak to do much even if they haven't. It's pretty clear that the only reason the Wasps haven't conquered the Commonweal already is that it's just too ''big'' to swallow in one gulp.
** Khanaphes was, supposedly, the first city in the world and the great power of its day. By the time of the present, between climate change reducing much of its territory to desert, its godlike Masters spending most of their time in hibernation, and failing to keep pace with much of the rest of the world's technological advances, it's a regional power at best - and that only because its region is considered a backwater the modern powers mostly don't bother with.
** The Moths were a Magocracy who ruled all the Lowlands at their height, and became the world's preeminent power after the decline of Khanaphes. After the Apt revolution, they were reduced to a handful of small, isolated city-states whose people do little but lament their past glories.
** Averted by the Spiders, the only great power of the ancient world to still be a great power in the modern day - while they ''have'' largely lost their magic, the Spiders' skill at politics and diplomacy is valuable in any age and still makes them a force to be reckoned with even so, and while the Spiders themselves are Inapt, they're pragmatic enough to know that even if ''they'' can't understand or use advanced technology themselves, they can still have ''subjects'' who can. Indeed, it's explicitly noted that the Spiderlands are still the second greatest power in the known world, second only to the Wasp Empire.
** The Commonweal is a large empire north of the Lowlands and west of the Wasp Empire. While still considered a great power, its glory days are clearly behind it - thinly populated for its size, with most of its people living in poverty, and its nobility having largely either forgotten the ideals they're supposed to abide by, or too weak to do much even if they haven't. It's pretty clear that the only reason the Wasps haven't conquered the Commonweal already is that it's just too ''big'' to swallow in one gulp.
** Khanaphes was, supposedly, the first city in the world and the great power of its day. By the time of the present, between climate change reducing much of its territory to desert, its godlike Masters spending most of their time in hibernation, and failing to keep pace with much of the rest of the world's technological advances, it's a regional power at best - and that only because its region is considered a backwater the modern powers mostly don't bother with.
** The Moths were a Magocracy who ruled all the Lowlands at their height, and became the world's preeminent power after the decline of Khanaphes. After the Apt revolution, they were reduced to a handful of small, isolated city-states whose people do little but lament their past glories.
** Averted by the Spiders, the only great power of the ancient world to still be a great power in the modern day - while they ''have'' largely lost their magic, the Spiders' skill at politics and diplomacy is valuable in any age and still makes them a force to be reckoned with even so, and while the Spiders themselves are Inapt, they're pragmatic enough to know that even if ''they'' can't understand or use advanced technology themselves, they can still have ''subjects'' who can. Indeed, it's explicitly noted that the Spiderlands are still the second greatest power in the known world, second only to the Wasp Empire.
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* SmugSnake: Seda at one point describes Uctebri almost exactly as this trope - a clever man whose plans nonetheless ultimately fail because he's unable to acknowledge that other people might be more clever than he is.
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%%* ArtifactOfDoom
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* TheBigBadShuffle: Initially, [[TheEmperor Alvdan]] and [[EvilSorcerer Uctebri]] are the main antagonists of the series as a BigBadDuumvirate. After they both die, Seda - as Alvdan's sister and Uctebri's BastardUnderstudy - inherits both their roles, and proves herself more dangerous than either, becoming the BigBad for most of the series [[spoilers: until the last arc, when the Worm is released and overshadows all other threats, though Seda remains active in her own right as well]]. The last two books also include the Ant tactician [[AmbitionIsEvil Milus]], who opposes the Wasps but only to advance his own ambitions. And that's not getting into the various {{Arc Villain}}s and {{Big Bad Wannabe}}s who show up across the series.
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%%** Arianna as well.
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%%* ColdBloodedTorture
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** The Wasp Empire is surprisingly similar to the Roman Empire, with their use of Auxillians, and constant need for slaves.
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** The Wasp Empire is surprisingly similar to the Roman Empire, with draws inspiration from a number of real-world empires, including Rome (with their use of Auxillians, and constant need for slaves.slaves and wars of expansion), the Mongols (with their origins as a group of relatively obscure tribes united by a visionary leader and turned into a powerful military juggernaut), ThoseWackyNazis (the Wasp-Kinden themselves are usually pale and blond, never shut up about their perceived racial superiority, and have a brutal and infamous secret police), Spartans (the Wasp-kinden represent an aristocratic elite within Imperial society banned from having any profession beyond serving as needed in the army or government, like Spartiates in classical Sparta) and Mesoamerican and Mesopotamian states (with their fondness for ziggurats).
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%%* LivingShadow
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%%* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler: Totho]]
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%%* MayDecemberRomance
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** Stenwold's love interest for much of the middle part of the series is Arianna, who is several decades younger than him.
** Che and [[spoiler: Thalric]] eventually get together as well; while the age difference isn't quite as extreme as Stenwold and Arianna, Thalric is still noticeably older than she is.
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%%* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Beetle-kinden.
%%* OurElvesAreDifferent: Spider-kinden and Moth-kinden.
%%* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Scorpion-kinden.
%%* OurElvesAreDifferent: Spider-kinden and Moth-kinden.
%%* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Scorpion-kinden.
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%%*
* OurElvesAreDifferent: Several of the Inapt kinden qualify. Dragonflies are usually tall, beautiful, and cultured but in steep decline as a people, resembling High Elves. Spider-kinden are also somewhat High Elf like, albeit with more of a focus on politicking and
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* OurOrcsAreDifferent:
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* SlaveRace: Anyone conquered by the Wasps will likely end up here, either pressed into military service as "Auxillians" or enslaved outright. The notable exceptions are those Beetle and Fly kinden native to the Empire itself, who handle a lot of the economic and administrative jobs the Wasps need loyal people to do but are entirely uninterested in doing themselves; while not considered equal to the Wasps, they are still full Imperial citizens and placed above everyone ''else''.
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* ChildOfTwoWorlds:
** [[spoiler: Tynisa as a half-breed Spider and Mantis is caught in the middle of a [[ElvesVersusDwarves bitter rivarly]] where she struggles with acceptance in each community.]]
** [[spoiler: Che once she becomes Inapt struggles to maintain her identity within Apt beetle society]]
** [[spoiler: Tynisa as a half-breed Spider and Mantis is caught in the middle of a [[ElvesVersusDwarves bitter rivarly]] where she struggles with acceptance in each community.]]
** [[spoiler: Che once she becomes Inapt struggles to maintain her identity within Apt beetle society]]
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* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: Many kinden feature distinct named characters with perspective narratives. There are an unknown number of kinden in-world but several dozen are confirmed.
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[[quoteright:660:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_9143.jpeg]]
%%[[caption-width-right:660:some caption text]]
%%[[caption-width-right:660:some caption text]]
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%%* YourWorstNightmare
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(( Subverted with crossbows being the "weapon of the revolution" that put the Apt in charge and the Inapt on their long journey down the pecking order, and then again when [[spoiler:Totho invents the "snapbow" for the Empire, which is basically an air gun that shoots further and harder than crossbows ever could, and makes even the awesome Mantis-kinden obsolete]].
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** [[spoiler: Varmen]] in ''Heirs of the Blade'', who used to be [[spoiler: an [[MightyGlacier Imperial Sentinel]] befre the advent of snapbows rendered heavy infantry obsolete in a single battle]], while not going out of his way to get himself killed, is quite content to have met his end [[spoiler: on the battlefield, covering Thalric and Che's escape from the Salmae's camp]].
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* WhiteSheep: As it turns out in ''Heirs of the Blade'', [[spoiler: Salma]] was this for his family.
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* BlackMagic: While magic is not inherently bad, it is said that some forms of truly bad magic exist: [[spoiler:the Darakyon ritual and the blood magic that Mosquito-kinden utilizes in general.]]
** A lot of foreshadowing is happening with the prophecy that [[spoiler: Stenwold hears from the monarch of the Commonweal]] and towards the end of the Heirs of the Blade with what Che [[spoiler:says about the crest of worms while she was in a trance-like state]]
** A lot of foreshadowing is happening with the prophecy that [[spoiler: Stenwold hears from the monarch of the Commonweal]] and towards the end of the Heirs of the Blade with what Che [[spoiler:says about the crest of worms while she was in a trance-like state]]
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* BlackMagic: While magic is not inherently bad, it is said that some forms of truly bad magic exist: [[spoiler:the Darakyon ritual and the blood magic that Mosquito-kinden utilizes in general.]]
**]] A lot of foreshadowing is happening with the prophecy that [[spoiler: Stenwold hears from the monarch of the Commonweal]] and towards the end of the Heirs of the Blade with what Che [[spoiler:says about the crest of worms while she was in a trance-like state]]
**
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* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Thalric; not that it helps him, [[spoiler:given that the Empire eventually decides he's better off dead - and then changes its mind again, at which point he betrays and murders a top-ranking general. He's hauled to the capital in chains and arrives at just the right time to marry the new Empress, who needs a male figurehead. Then the Rekef decide they would prefer a new male figurehead... In Heirs of the Blade it seemed he was pretty content to put the past behind him and tag along with Che (although that is what we thought at the end of Salute the Dark with Seda...)]]
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* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Thalric; not that it helps him, [[spoiler:given that the Empire eventually decides he's better off dead - -- and then changes its mind again, at which point he betrays and murders a top-ranking general. He's hauled to the capital in chains and arrives at just the right time to marry the new Empress, who needs a male figurehead. Then the Rekef decide they would prefer a new male figurehead... In Heirs of the Blade it seemed he was pretty content to put the past behind him and tag along with Che (although that is what we thought at the end of Salute the Dark with Seda...)]]
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* ClockPunk[-/-]SteamPunk: The world is in a transition phase between the two technologies, the Apt parts of it anyway.
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* ClockPunk[-/-]SteamPunk: ClockPunk: The world is in a transition phase between the two technologies, the Apt parts of it anyway.
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* DawnOfAnEra / EndOfAnAge: Depending on your viewpoint the revolution of the Apt was either the dawn of science and the end of fear and superstition; or the end of magic and the start of a polluted, ignorant future.
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* DawnOfAnEra / EndOfAnAge: DawnOfAnEra: Depending on your viewpoint the revolution of the Apt was either the dawn of science and the end of fear and superstition; or the end of magic and the start of a polluted, ignorant future.
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* DeityOfHumanOrigin: [[spoiler: The Worm is the god of remnants of the Centipede-kinden, it was created when they turned to religion after getting exiled out of reality.]]
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* DeityOfHumanOrigin: [[spoiler: The [[spoiler:The Worm is the god of remnants of the Centipede-kinden, it was created when they turned to religion after getting exiled out of reality.]]
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* EverybodyDiesEnding: [[spoiler: Of the original main characters, the only survivors are Cheerwell Maker and Thalric]]
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* EverybodyDiesEnding: [[spoiler: Of the original main characters, the only survivors are Cheerwell [[spoiler:Cheerwell Maker and Thalric]]Thalric]].
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* FantasyGunControl: Subverted with crossbows being the "weapon of the revolution" that put the Apt in charge and the Inapt on their long journey down the pecking order, and then again when [[spoiler:Totho invents the "snapbow" for the Empire, which is basically an air gun that shoots further and harder than crossbows ever could, and makes even the awesome Mantis-kinden obsolete]].
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* FantasyGunControl: FantasyGunControl:
(( Subverted with crossbows being the "weapon of the revolution" that put the Apt in charge and the Inapt on their long journey down the pecking order, and then again when [[spoiler:Totho invents the "snapbow" for the Empire, which is basically an air gun that shoots further and harder than crossbows ever could, and makes even the awesome Mantis-kinden obsolete]].
(( Subverted with crossbows being the "weapon of the revolution" that put the Apt in charge and the Inapt on their long journey down the pecking order, and then again when [[spoiler:Totho invents the "snapbow" for the Empire, which is basically an air gun that shoots further and harder than crossbows ever could, and makes even the awesome Mantis-kinden obsolete]].
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* {{Hobbits}} - Fly-kinden.
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* ProudScholarRace: Moth-kinden are type 2 while Collegium Beetle-kinden are Type 1
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* FantasticFirearms: {{Downplayed}}. While gunpowder exists, gunpowder firearms are considered dangerous and unwieldy, and are consequently never smaller than artillery (aside from specialist pieces used by larger characters). Instead, an arms race is kicked off by the introduction of "snapbows", which use compressed air to launch projectiles. They shoot further, hit harder, and reload faster than the crossbows that are the norm at the start of the series, and so quickly and completely change the way wars are fought.
