Please note that the summaries for latter books can and will contain spoilers for earlier books.
Book one starts with a prologue explaining how it was the best of times in Lumatere. The kingdom was safe, wealth was abundant, and the people were happy. Finnikin of the Rock, son of Trevanion, leader of the King's Guard, and best friend to both Prince Balthazar and Lucien, heir to the Monts, forms a pact with the latter two to protect their kingdom — and is forced to watch as his entire life collapses: The royal family is murdered, the Forest Dwellers are slaughtered, an imposter king takes the throne, Finnikin's father is thrown in jail on accusations of treason, and his beloved, Beatriss, is executed. Angered by the carnage, Seranonna of the Forest Dwellers proclaims a dark curse, trapping the people of Lumatere inside. All that remains are a pair of bloody little handprints on the kingdom's door, presumably those of Balthazar, the lost prince.
Fast-forward ten years, and we have the events of book one. The people who managed to escape Lumatere before Seranonna's curse are forced to live as exiles in refugee camps scattered throughout the continent of Skuldenore. Finnikin and his teacher, Sir Topher, travel the continent in the hopes of procuring land for the exiles. One day, they're summoned to a camp of acolytes and are told that the novice Evanjalin can lead them to the lost prince Balthazar, but what they don't know is that Evanjalin's motives might not be as clear as they seem.
In book two, Froi, now fiercely loyal to Finnikin, as well as a full-fledged citizen of the newly restored Lumatere, must travel to Charyn. There, he meets the mad princess, Quintana, and comes to learn of dark secrets hidden in his blood.
Book three follows Froi and new allies as they attempt to put things to rights: Charyn is on the brink of civil war, and Froi, torn between the people he loves and the people he owes his allegiance to, has no idea how to proceed...
The Lumatere Chronicles provides examples of the following tropes:
- Ax-Crazy: Quintana. Considering what she grew up with, it's hard to blame her; unfortunately, it only contributes to the general air of fear and distrust that surrounds her.
- A Wizard Did It: Ingeniously averted. To explain in detail would be ridiculously spoiler-laden, but Marchetta provides a detailed explanation as to the importance of Finnikin's sacrificing his flesh to the rock, Seranonna's curse, how Beatriss survived, and Evanjalin's ability to see people's dreams and connection to Finnikin's stepsister Vestie.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Quintana murders her father, using techniques taught to her by Froi.
- Berserk Button: Lord August is a Lumateran nobleman who escaped before Seranonna's curse took hold and is now in service to the court of neighboring Belegonia. Finnikin visits with him in the hopes of procuring aid for the Lumateran exiles but makes the mistake of suggesting a meeting with 'his,' that is, August's king. August oh-so-politely points out that his king is dead, and that the King of Belegonia is his employer.
- It takes a lot to bring out true anger from Sir Topher, Finnikin's mentor and constant companion during their years of exile. Froi raping Evanjalin in her bed is something that will accomplish it.
- Children Are Innocent: Oh, Vestie. Despite being called an abomination because people are convinced that she was the result of Lady Beatriss being raped by a Charynite, when the curse on Charyn ensures that it was a Lumateran traitor who did so, you're still loved and you still love others.
- Hell, Tesadora and Isaboe took a lot of care to make sure she remained innocent, walking the sleep with her and protecting her from the horrors they saw.
- Civil War: Yutlind, the southernmost territory of Skuldenore, is embroiled in one through most of the first book, with the southern half seeking independence. Both sides retain their fierce distrust of outsiders such that neither wants to seek foreign aid for their cause until Finnikin and company arrive. The southerners are convinced to aid the Lumaterans in return for a promise of future recompense. At the end of the book, one of newly crowned Queen Isaboe's very first acts is to honor her end of the bargain and recognize the rebel Yuts' independence as the new country of Yutlind Sud.
- Common Tongue: Lumateran, to some extent. When refugees arrive from Charyn in the valley along the two nations' border, it's taken as the exception when some of them don't speak the language.
- Conlang: Nope. The only identifying detail we are given about any of the eight languages of Skuldenore is that Charynite has a V-T distinction (that is, formal vs. informal pronouns). Since Froi — a native Sarnak speaker and fluent Lumateran speaker — finds this strange, we can infer that neither Lumateran nor Sarnak share that feature. That is all the info we have.
- More general details are given, though, including that Belegonian is more 'romantic' than Lumateran, and that common Yut is different enough from all the other languages to be almost alien.
- Arjuro has a tattoo across his back which is the Charyn word for 'traitor'. The word itself is never spelled out for us, though.
- Darkest Africa: Yutlind is the definitive example on the continent. Occupying the far south, it is the only part of Skuldenore where jungle can be found, and it is a dense jungle. The Yut people are also notoriously reclusive to the point of xenophobia; they mistake Finnikin for a god incarnate simply because of his brightly colored hair. In addition, among the several characters who can speak all the languages of Skuldenore, they all seem to agree common Yut is by far the strangest.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The dominant religion on the continent centers around the twin goddesses Sagrami and Lagrami. Sagrami is considered a dark, evil goddess, and her worshippers — including the Forest Dwellers of Lumatere led by Seranonna — are considered to be involved with dark magic. However, the Goddess Sagrami is just as good as Lagrami. In fact, towards the end of the first book it's revealed that they're actually two halves of the same goddess; it's theorised that the patriarchal society of times gone past originally did this as a means of diminishing the Goddess' power and influence over them
- Dead Guy Junior: Froi names his and Quintana's son Tariq.
- Isaboe's daughter is named Jasmina, after one of her sisters.
- Determinator: Evanjalin. She sees her family murdered, is forced to leave her brother Balthazar to be mauled by the Silver Wolf along with the assassin who killed their parents, spends years in a vow of silence, is also forced to watch the horrific nightmares of her people, two nights of which caused another woman's hair to go white, endure distrust from her people, keep her identity as Princess Isaboe hidden from Finnikin, the man she loves, and endure years of brutal work as a slave, but she JUST WON'T GIVE UP!
- Beatriss, who was repeatedly raped and tortured by Charynites as a example to everyone else when she was trapped inside Lumatere, but never, ever gave up being there for her people, to the point that she would replant every crop, no matter how many times they were burned.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The reason the Days of the Unspeakable happened? The former captain of the royal guard was mad that Trevanion got his job for dealing with the barbarian raids he couldn't stop. He booked it to Charyn and orchestrated the royal family's assassination with the Charynite king.
- Do Wrong, Right: Froi sneaks into Quintana's room at night several times, and each time she greets him by trying to stab him, thinking he's an assassin. His response is to get annoyed and show her how to kill a man in five seconds.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Oh dear God.
- Fantastic Racism: There's a lot of this towards the Lumateran exiles, but the people of Charyn are the worst.
- The Lumaterans also wind up playing this trope straight, showing that their people are not as innocent as their leaders would like to believe.
- Interestingly, Tesadora of the Forest Dwellers, initially introduced as bitter and traumatized, is among the first to understand that the ordinary people of Charyn are not to be blamed for what happened, and showing disdain towards them is hypocrisy. She also cuttingly reminds some of the other Lumateran characters that the Imposter King was just as much Lumateran as he was Charynite.
- Females Are More Innocent: Kind of. The overwhelming majority of villains in the books are men, and the worst of them are rapists as well as murderers; however, as noted above, Tesadora doesn't dismiss the fact that women can be just as bad (at least in some areas), only we never quite see it. It's very likely the main reason that there aren't any female rapists isn't because they don't exist, but because of the context - those who commit the deed are men given high levels of power and authority (whether in the army, or in the palace of Charyn, or in the prison system, etc.), and the society they live in does enable women to become as corrupted by the ugly use of power. The one major female villain we do get, the Soothsayer, is a particularly loathsome old woman who has a backstory role in torturing the child Quintana on the Charynite King's orders.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Quintana and Phaedra.
- Fiery Redhead: Finnikin, a notorious brawler and passionate fighter, has bright red shoulder-length hair. It saves him from death at the hands of the Yuts when they interpret it as a sign of divinity.
- Foreshadowing: In the second book, as a means of making conversation with and/or extracting information from Zabat, Froi mentions that in Sarnak, people run their personal name and the name of where they're from together to make new names. Dafar + Abroi = Froi.
- Froi teaches Quintana to kill a man in five seconds as a way of defence against an assassin. Quintana learned very well, as her father found out...
- For Want Of A Nail: Perri is sent to get Beatriss to a place of safety before the unspeakable. Instead, he goes to warn Tesadora. It's honestly hard to say what the right choice was.
- Freudian Excuse/Does Not Like Men: Justified and played with through Seranonna's daughter, Tesadora, who didn't escape the kingdom and was forced to watch as the enclave she lived in — as well as just about everywhere else — was raided by the Imposter King's men, who then... Well, some fathers of Lumatere were more willing to let their daughters die than have them suffer through what the Imposter King's men would do. However, she states that if she were placed in a room with the women who sided with the Bastard King's men, there would be a bloodbath.
- The Great Wall: The entire country of Lumatere is surrounded by a giant defensive wall complete with gatehouses. Seranonna's curse prevents anyone inside from leaving; the wall prevents anyone outside from getting in. One major gatehouse is along the border with Belegonia, outside of which lies the largest of the exile refugee camps. It becomes the flashpoint for the invasion and reclamation of Lumatere.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Finnikin flips his shit after Isaboe wakes up and says Froi's name in the third book. He instantly concludes that they had an affair, despite there being absolutely no evidence of this, and has a cruel argument with her about it.
- Groin Attack: Evanjalin fends off a group of bandits by delivering one of these to their leader. With the hilt of a sword, no less. Ouch.Finnikin: I don't trust her.Sir Topher: Handled a sword better than you?Finnikin: Obviously not, but she still managed to maim two men, last count. One who, in all probability, will not be fathering anyone's child for quite a while.
- Heroes Love Dogs: Quintana loves dogs, especially puppies.
- Info Dump: Be prepared for very detailed explanations of what happened inside Lumatere while the Exiles were wandering the earth and what really happened when the royal family was murdered towards the end of the book.
- Kick the Dog: Any time Lucian is in the vicinity of his arranged wife Phaedra (which isn't often, because he took one look at her and sent her back to her family), you can bet that he will be ranting and raving to anyone who will listen about how disgusted he is by her. Finnikin refrains from telling him to knock it off because Lucian is his childhood best friend, but all involved agree Phaedra deserves way better than she gets. Later in the series, Phaedra is forced to move back into Lucian’s home, and as they spend more time together, Lucian slowly changes his tune and begins to treat her more affectionately.
- Language Drift: In a manner of speaking. Most of the languages of Skuldenore are, while mutually unintelligible, still similar enough that characters of different origins can pick out the odd word here or there. Yut, on the other hand, is incredibly strange and bizarre by comparison, owing to the Yut people's fierce isolationism and xenophobia over the centuries.
- Mama Bear: Lady Beatriss. Don't insult her kids. She'll make you pay.
- An unusual collective example: Japhra of the Flatlands is an apprentice to Tesadora, a skilled healer and midwife, who was raped by the Imposter King's men when she was twelve. She was rescued by Lady Beatriss, and is looked after by Tesadora and the other Lumaterans who all care for her like a daughter. In book two, when news comes of a Charynite assassin taking a knife to Japhra's throat, it's Lucian who delivers the message to Finnikin and company; let's just say, orchestrated or not, the perpetrator's lucky to still have all four of his limbs. Trevanion, in particular, is on his feet in a heartbeat and ready to roll some heads. Hell, even Jasmina starts crying in her crib where she'd been happily cooing a moment ago.
- Meaningful Name: Froi's original name was 'Dafar of Abroi' — 'Dafar' meaning 'nothing' and 'Abroi' being a town full of inbred hicks that nobody wants anything to do with, the idea being that he was meant to be as inconspicuous as possible.
- Meaningful Rename: Isaboe became Evanjalin, which was the name of Trevanion's mother.
- Mercy Kill: Finnikin killed Seranonna, who was sentenced to die by being burned at the stake. He originally thought he was going to kill Beatriss, but changed the plan when Seranonna did the same.
- At first, we're told that Lirah tried to kill baby Quintana, knowing what would happen to her in the future. What actually happened was that Quintana ordered Lirah to drown them both so that they could see the Oracle and Lirah's son.
- Micro Monarchy: The Kingdom of Lumatere, and its neighbor Osteria, are approximately the same size and by far the smallest nations in Skuldenore. Yutlind, the next smallest, is twice their size after losing half its territory to an independence movement.
- The Migration: Skuldenore was uninhabited before a group of people arrived in what is now Sendecane, on the western coast, about two thousand years ago. Where they came from is never pondered.
- This happened at least once in Charyn's history because it used to be ruled by the Serkers to whom Lirah belongs. Now, they're consigned to a single province in central Charyn.
- Mother Nature: The goddess Sagrami appears to fulfill something of this role. Her followers in the cloisters of Lumatere live as nuns under the tutelage of the witch Seranonna and, later, her equally magical daughter Tesadora, both of whom are skilled natural healers.
- Never Learned to Read: Froi was born in Charyn and almost immediately smuggled to Sarnak, where he was abandoned on the streets at the age of four. He survived as a slave and was made to sing so as to distract his masters' victims. When Finnikin and Evanjalin meet him in Sprie, he is thirteen years old and barely able to speak, much less read.
- Not Quite Dead: The reason Finnikin and his mentor Sir Topher seek out Evanjalin in the first place: She claims that Balthazar, crown prince of Lumatere, isn't dead and that she knows where he is. He is actually dead, however; and Evanjalin is actually Isaboe, Balthazar's youngest sister.
- Phaedra didn't die of plague.
- Ocean of Adventure: Averted. The ocean around Skuldenore is not so much as given a unique name at any point in the series, though hijinks do occur on other bodies of water, notably Finnikin's escapade on the Yack River in Yutlind where he was mistaken for a tribal god.
- Official Couple: Lucian/Phaedra, Isaboe/Finnikin, Trevanion/Beatriss, Froi/Quintana, Lirah/Gargarin, Arjuro/De Lancey.
- Omniglot: There are eight nations on Skuldenore, each with a unique native language. Several characters, including Isaboe and Finnikin, are fluent in all of them.
- In the first book, Finnikin can speak Lumateran, Belegonian, Osterian, Sarnak, Charyn, Sorelian, Sendecanese, and common Yut. He has no knowledge of the southern Yuts’ language, however, until he travels to Yutlind Sud and Evanjalin teaches him.
- Sir Topher can speak at least all the languages Finnikin can, as he was the one who taught them to Finnikin in the first place.
- Lucian is fluent in both his native Lumateran and Charyn, since his home in Lumatere is the closest to the Charyn border.
- Froi starts out an aversion, being barely able to speak even Sarnak, his native language. But by the second book, he's fluent in Lumateran, a stronger Sarnak and Charyn speaker than Finnikin, and is said to have studied an assortment of other languages.
- Phaedra is also fluent in both Charyn and Lumateran, though she initially speaks the later with a strong accent; but as she spends more time in the Charynite refugee camp, she becomes a skilled translator and interpreter of both languages.
- The Ophelia: Quintana.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Froi goes into Charyn under the guise of Olivier of Sebastabol, a lastborn. Froi barely knows anything about Charyn, looks nothing like Olivier and has no idea how to act like a lastborn. The only thing that saves him is the real Olivier being detained and the fact that nobody in the palace knows what Olivier actually looks like.
- Parental Incest: Lirah's mother was also her sister.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Lucian and Phaedra, to Lucian's (initial) vocal chagrin. He warms up to her, though.
- Prophecy Twist: Finnikin spent a lot of time believing that he and Lucian made the pact with Balthazar to put him back on the throne. But Balthazar's dead; the pact got redirected to the last living member of the royals, Isaboe.
- The prophecy in Charyn states that the last will make the first - that is, a lastborn boy will have sex with the lastborn girl (and lastborn child), Quintana, and break the curse by getting her pregnant. Everyone thinks it's Tariq of Lascow, the king's heir. It's not. It's Froi, the lost lastborn of the Citavita.
- Properly Paranoid: Quintana.
- The Quiet One: Phaedra.
- Rape as Backstory: Froi, Quintana, Lirah, and a bunch of others.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: A major theme of the books. Book two also introduces the idea that sex, when mutually consented, is something very sacred.
- Right Through the Wall: Lord August provides Finnikin and company with lodging in his manor during their brief stint in Belegonia. However, the sound of August and his wife's passionate lovemaking ensures they get little rest.
- Self-Made Orphan: Quintana.
- Shining City: Belegonia fulfills this role in regards to the rest of the continent. Sorel is a place of industrial slavery, Charyn is a barren, childless realm of oligarchical intrigue, Sarnak is run by superstitious dark wizards, Yutlind is...well, Yutlind, and even our precious Lumatere isn't immune from atrocities, notably against the Forest Dwellers. But if anything is going wrong in Belegonia, then they're doing a fine job of hiding it. Even the Lumateran exiles in their refugee camps seem to prefer life in the border regions to returning home; at least until the process is jumpstarted by Finnikin.
- At one point, Belegonia is described as the only place in Skuldenore where people can live, as opposed to just survive.
- Ship Tease: Loads and loads of them between Finnikin and Evanjalin. They get married at the end of the book and have a three-year-old girl, Jasmina, by Froi of the Exiles.
- Froi and Quintana. It works out beautifully.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Gargarin and Lirah for each other.
- Froi and Quintana, likewise.
- Small, Secluded World: Skuldenore is a fortune cookie-shaped island-continent
◊ and the only land mass given even a passing reference in the entire series. - So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Dear God, poor Lirah.
- Solar and Lunar: Although their exact motifs are never elaborated on barring Sagrami's nature association, it's subtly hinted that Sagrami and Lagrami are a lunar goddess and solar goddess respectively. Especially considering we later learn they're two antipolar halves of a greater, omnipotent deity.
- Split Personality: Quintana - except that it's not a personality, it's the spirit of her dead sister. It doesn't last.
- Sterility Plague: Charyn has been suffering from one for eighteen years. It affects every Charynite, no matter where they are.
- Tesadora, being half-Charynite, miscarried her first and only child as a direct result of the curse, showing that it affects even those of mixed blood. She has not tried again.
- Strong Family Resemblance: In book two, Finnikin has a daughter who supposedly looks very similar to his mother.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: After first meeting Froi, Finnikin realises that he's Lumateran, though he's obviously young enough that he's probably forgotten his childhood in Lumatere, and Froi never denies it (though he never actually agrees). After the ensuing clusterfuck, Froi willingly goes with them to Lumatere and ends up living there with them. Except that he's not Lumateran at all. In fact, he doesn't have a drop of Lumateran blood in him. He's a pure Charynite who lived in Sarnak for years.
- Too Dumb to Live: The King of Charyn thought there would be no consequences for raping and murdering one of the last surviving members of their country's religious leadership right after a massacre that happened on his watch. This is a setting where there's no question about the existence of gods and magic. While his actions did usher in the curse, it wasn't the gods or some evil spirit that did it, but the spirits of the children that died on that night. Quintana giving birth is part of how their spirits will be laid to rest.
- Translation Convention: The eight nations of Skuldenore all have their own native language, all of which are mutually unintelligible (though some are more similar than others). Yet, when it isn't explicitly stated to the reader, you'd be forgiven for thinking that everyone speaks the same language.
- Walking the Earth: What Finnikin and friends spend much of book one doing.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Olivier sells out Froi and the others, believing that Bestiano is the best bet for a good king.
- Wham Line: For the Lumaterans, in book two: "Have they not told you? Your captain and his men? It's part of our curse. We've not birthed a child in Charyn for eighteen years."
- "Then I ask why Lirah is imprisoned." "For an attempted murder." "Who?" "Her daughter."
- "Isaboe?"
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Quintana is terrified of water.
- World Limited to the Plot: Skuldenore is the only significant geographical area mentioned in the entire series. Even the ocean around it is not given a name aside from the "Ocean of Skuldenore".
- You Can't Go Home Again: Naturally, once the exiles return, it's not as simple as just settling back in. The imposter and his men setting everything on fire was part of it, to start...
