History Literature / TheFionavarTapestry

* StoicWoobie: Aileron, Matt Soren, Torc, Dave and Paul (''especially'' Paul) all tend to conceal their personal anguish behind emotional facades of varying sorts, and none of them is at all good at reaching out for help. [[spoiler:They do all get better about it, though it takes some of them more time than others.]]
---> '''Loren:''' ''(in exasperation, discovering Matt bleeding)'' How am I supposed to know when you're hurt if you won't tell me?
---> '''Matt:''' You aren't. You aren't supposed to know.

%%* OurOrcsAreDifferent: The Urgachs.%%Does not explain the trope

%%* TheStoic: Aileron, Matt Soren, Torc, Paul, and Dave fit the trope like a glove.%%Does not explain the trope
%%* TeachHimAnger: The race of Giants, gentlest of the Weaver's children.%%Does not explain the trope

* YouCantFightFate: [[ScrewDestiny Averted]]. Humans at the very least very much ''can'' fight fate (it's part of what the Wild Hunt stands ''for''), and several characters pointedly do; however, there will usually be a price to pay for that. (For example, when [[spoiler:Kimberley refuses the Baelrath's urging to call the Crystal Dragon to war]], it eventually results directly in [[spoiler:Imraith-Nimphais sacrificing herself to defeat the enemy the dragon was destined to fight]]. She feels horrible about it, but Paul points out that it also means [[spoiler:she was able to teleport Matt to the army of the Dwarves so he could stop them from fighting for Maugrim]], so there are good consequences too.)

* CastFromHitPoints: The type of magic used by Loren and the other mages of the kingdom. There is a pair of magic-users, the mage, who does all the casting, and the source, whose life force is used to cast. [[spoiler: Metran uses the life energy of hundreds of Svart Alfar to create both the unending winter in Brennin and the death rain that destroys Eridu, and he revives them using the Cauldron to do it again.]]

%%* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Dave nearly pulls this off near the end of the second book; fortunately, a Goddess has a thing for him and it worked out.%%Does not explain the trope

* EvilOverlord: Rakoth Maugrim isn't just ''an'' Evil Overlord; he is the inspirational archetype/avatar for 'all' [[BigBad Dark Lords]] or [[GodOfEvil Gods of Evil]] of ''all'' the worlds in the Tapestry, and it is explicitly stated that if he succeeds in conquering Fionavar then all worlds will become overshadowed by the Dark.

%%* TheFairFolk: Pendaran Wood, Eiliathen, The Wild Hunt.%%Does not explain the trope

%%* BigBad: Rakoth Maugrim, The Unraveler.%%A character's name is not context
%%* BoisterousBruiser: Tegid.

%%* EvilCounterpart: Galadan is Paul's, just look at their respective backstories.%%Does not explain the trope
%%* EvilOverlord: Not just ''an'' Evil Overlord. ''The'' Evil Overlord of all the worlds in the Tapestry.%%Does not explain the trope

* CantArgueWithElves: Averted. The Lios Alfar are humble, polite and respectful.

%%* GentleGiant: Literally, the Paraiko.%%Does not explain the trope

* BreakTheCutie: Jennifer[[spoiler: /Guinevere's rape and the subsequent consequences of it.]]

%%* FiveManBand:%%Does not explain the trope
%%** The Five.
%%*** ''TheHero - Paul''
%%*** ''TheLancer - Kevin''
%%*** ''TheSmartGuy - Kimberley''
%%*** ''TheBigGuy - Dave''
%%*** ''TheChick - Jennifer''
%%** The antagonists.
%%*** ''TheBigBad - Rakoth Maugrim''
%%*** ''TheDragon - Galadan''
%%*** ''TheBrute - Uathach''
%%*** ''TheEvilGenius -[[spoiler:Metran]]''
%%*** ''TheDarkChick - Fordaetha of Ruk''

%%* Action Girl: Sharra, Imraith-Nimphais

* AllMythsAreTrue with a hearty dose of CrossoverCosmology: Fionavar itself.

* AnyoneCanDie: And a lot of them do.[[spoiler: Though two of the main characters who die come BackFromTheDead.]]
* BadAssNormal: Out of the Five it's Dave. [[spoiler: He's the only one that isn't a reincarnation or gains/awakens powers, relying instead on his strength and wits.]]
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Matt Soren and Paul/Pwyll Twiceborn. Averted by Kevin, Imraith-Nimphais, Diarmuid, Finn and Darien.]]
* BeamOWar: Played beautifully straight in the duel between Loren and [[spoiler: Metran]], complete with the villain's beam inching closer and closer to victory before a HeroicSecondWind on Loren's part.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Jennifer[[spoiler: /Guinevere]], the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Lios Alfar]]. Doubly Subverted with Avaia as she is beautiful from far away, but smells foul and has a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.

* BigBad: Rakoth Maugrim, The Unraveler.

* ClimacticBattleResurrection: The final battle in The Darkest Road, and how!

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: At least for ''The Summer Tree''. Four out of the five are reunited, only to learn that the fifth is in deep DespairEventHorizon.]]
* TheDragon: Galadan, the Wolflord.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: All the characters, but [[spoiler: Arthur, Lancelot and Jennifer/Guinevere]] especially.
* EvilCounterpart: Galadan is Paul's, just look at their respective backstories.
* EvilOverlord: Not just ''an'' Evil Overlord. ''The'' Evil Overlord of all the worlds in the Tapestry.
* ExactWords: Invoked and subverted. When Dave accidentally comes upon the goddess Ceinwen hunting, she tells him that no man of Fionavar may see this sight and live. Instead of saying he's actually from Earth, he sincerely apologizes and offers to pay whatever price she asks. Ceinwen points out he ''could'' have pulled this, and is so pleased he didn't that she spares his life and makes him a favorite of hers.
** However, it does come back to bite him later. She said ''of'' Fionavar, not ''born in'' Fionavar, meaning that [[spoiler: he has to go back to Earth, because if he makes Fionavar his home she'll have to follow through on killing him.]]
* TheFairFolk: Pendaran Wood, Eiliathen, The Wild Hunt.
* FiveManBand:
** The Five.
*** ''TheHero - Paul''
*** ''TheLancer - Kevin''
*** ''TheSmartGuy - Kimberley''
*** ''TheBigGuy - Dave''
*** ''TheChick - Jennifer''
** The antagonists.
*** ''TheBigBad - Rakoth Maugrim''
*** ''TheDragon - Galadan''
*** ''TheBrute - Uathach''
*** ''TheEvilGenius -[[spoiler:Metran]]''
*** ''TheDarkChick - Fordaetha of Ruk''
* GentleGiant: Literally, the Paraiko.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Averted when the protagonists learn that [[spoiler: for over a thousand years, every Lios Alfar who set sail to the West for their version of heaven... was devoured by a sea monster set to lie in wait for them by the BigBad.]] "Most hated by the Dark, for their name was Light."
* HandsomeLech: Hands down: Diarmuid [[spoiler: (at least until he and Sharra hook up).]] In a way Kevin Laine could qualify too.

* HeroicBSOD: Jennifer at the beginning of ''The Wandering Fire''.

** [[spoiler: Paul willingly volunteers to hang from the Summer Tree till his death to bring rain to the parched land. (He gets better).]]
** [[spoiler: Finn, first by leaving behind forever everyone he's ever known or loved, and then by dying as the only way to prevent the Wild Hunt from killing ''everyone''.]]
** [[spoiler: Kevin willingly sacrifices himself at Dun Maura to enable the Godess to banish Rakoth's winter.]]
** [[spoiler: Matt Soren allows himself to be drained to the death to fuel Loren's spells on Caer Sedat.]]
** [[spoiler: Diarmuid, who fights a duel he cannot win to give Lancelot, Guinevere and Arthur a chance to change their fate.]]
** [[spoiler: Imraith-Nimphais, which goes kamikaze on Rakoth's dragon.]]
** [[spoiler: And last but not least, Darien, who hurls himself on a dagger he had just given his father Rakoth...a dagger enchanted so that anyone who kills with it, if they kill without love, will die.]]

* MeaningfulName: Loren Silvercloak, Pwyll Twiceborn. Jennifer also might count [[spoiler: since it's the anglicized form of Guinevere]].
** Names of creatures also: Lios Alfar and Svart Alfar literally translate to "Light and Dark Elves" in Old Norse.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Rakoth Maugrim, The Unraveller; Galadan, The Wolflord.
** "The Unraveller" becomes a much more intimidating title when you realize that the people of Fionavar refer to the multiverse as "The Tapestry".
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Dave nearly pulls this off near the end of the second book; fortunately, a Goddess has a thing for him and it worked out.
* NonActionGuy: Kevin, to his own chagrin, which eventually proves to be one of the motivations for [[spoiler: his HeroicSacrifice]].

* OurOrcsAreDifferent: The Urgachs.

* TheStoic: Aileron, Matt Soren, Torc, Paul, and Dave fit the trope like a glove.
* TeachHimAnger: The race of Giants, gentlest of the Weaver's children.
* VillainBall: When you're an EldritchAbomination with CompleteImmortality because your "name isn't written into the tapestry", and [[spoiler: siring a child]] will serve to write your name ''into'' the tapestry, the one crime you shouldn't commit is [[spoiler: rape]].
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Sharra, a point of view character with a decent amount of page time, drops out of the narrative after [[spoiler:Diarmuid's death]]. There's a couple of mentions of her tending to the wounded during battle, but her ultimate fate is unknown.
** In an [[WordOfGod afterword]] written for the trilogy's twentieth anniversary, Kay stated that he had tried several times to write a scene in the last novel's denouement for Sharra, but ultimately couldn't think of anything that would tell the audience anything they couldn't figure out for themselves: she would go back to Cathal, eventually inherit her father's throne, and rule wisely and well.

* YouCantFightFate: [[ScrewDestiny Averted]]. Humans at the very least very much ''can'' fight fate (it's part of what the Wild Hunt stands ''for''), and several characters pointedly do; however, there will usually be a price to pay for that. (For example, when [[spoiler:Kimberley refuses the Baelrath's urging to call the Crystal Dragon to war]], it eventually results directly in [[spoiler:Imraith-Nimphais sacrificing herself to defeat the enemy the dragon was destined to fight]]. She feels horrible about it, but Paul points out that it also means [[spoiler: she was able to teleport Matt to the army of the Dwarves so he could stop them from fighting for Maugrim]], so there are good consequences too.)

* CastFromHitPoints: The type of magic used by Loren and the other mages of the kingdom. There is a pair of magic-users, the mage, who does all the casting, and the source, whose life force is used to cast. [[spoiler: Metran uses the life energy of hundreds of Svart Alfar in order to cast the death rain, and he revives them using the Cauldron to do it again.]]

** Note that "The Unraveler" is much more intimidating when you realize that the people of Fionavar refer to the multiverse as "The Tapestry".

%%* NonActionGuy: Kevin, to his own chagrin, which eventually proves to be one of the motivations for [[spoiler: his HeroicSacrifice]].

* DragonWithAnAgenda: Galadan serves Rakoth Maugrim, but it's made very clear that this is only to advance his personal goal- destroying the world that witnessed the shame of his true love abandoning him for a mortal and then getting herself killed. Rakoth is entirely aware of this and finds it funny.

*** ''TheBigBad-Rakoth Maugrim''
*** ''TheDragon-Galadan''
*** ''TheBrute- Uathach''
*** ''TheEvilGenius-[[spoiler:Metran]]''
*** ''TheDarkChick-Fordaetha of Ruk''

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Averted when the protagonists learn that [[spoiler: for over a thousand years, every Lios Afar who set sail to the West for their version of heaven... was devoured by a sea monster set to lie in wait for them by the BigBad.]] "Most hated by the Dark, for their name was Light."

* MeaningfulName: Loren Silvercloak, Pwyll Twiceborn. Jennifer also might count [[spoiler: since it's the anglicized form of Guinevere]]

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Rakoth Maugrim, The Unraveler; Galadan, The Wolflord.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Dave nearly pulls this off near the end of the second book, fortunately a Goddess has a thing for him and it worked out.
%%* NonActionGuy: Kevin.

%%* WellDoneSonGuy

The book is well known for keeping good track of its LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, drawing a good amount of its themes and setting from Celtic and Norse Myths, as well as Arthurian Legend.

%%* ActionGirl: Sharra, Imraith-Nimphais
* AerithAndBob: [[FiveManBand The Five]] from Earth all have standard modern names while the characters from Fionavar tend to have strange exotic names. However, there are a few characters who have more standard names, like Matt Soren. Two of the Earthlings receive Aerith-ised versions of their names, which become so commonly used that when a Finovar character calls one by their Bob-name, [[YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious it stopped them in their tracks]].

* AGodAmI: Several of the characters are either gods or demigod offspring of said gods.