History Literature / TheStoneSky

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:In the confrontation between Essun and Nassun, Essun ends up sucking the life out of all the Guardians within Warrant for the power to contest Nassun's hold over the Obelisk Gate, and they die in agony. Considering everything the Guardians have done to orogenes since the Seasons began, both directly and indirectly, it's hard to feel sorry for them.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Essun dies, but she lives on in the stone eater Hoa creates from her and continues to want to make the world better. The Seasons are stopped forever and the Fulcrum and Guardians are gone, but there's no guarantee that the next empire or civilisation won't be built on yet more systemic oppression. Nassun lives, but she loses a hand and most of her orogeny, and with Schaffa and Essun's deaths she is left without any parents; it's uncertain what will happen to her, Essun's friends and Ykka's comm.]]

* FromCataclysmToMyth: The Shattering is only vaguely described in myths as the worst season and to have originated from the Earth's anger at orogenes for the loss of his only child. ''Literature/TheObeliskGate'' clarifies that this really happened and the "child" was the moon, and this book gives the whole story, showing that some details were forgotten like [[spoiler: the Shattering actually being delayed for a hundred years after the loss of the moon and destruction of Syl Anagist.

* HumanResources: [[spoiler:Syl Anagist turns out to be fueled by the Thniess, an oppressed people that Syl Anagist turned into a power source and keep unconscious but in unbearable agony in the 'Briar Patch'.]]

* GenocideBackfire: Syl Anagist actually did manage to [[spoiler: get rid of all of the Thniess/Niess.]] However, they then tried to [[spoiler: genetically engineer deliberate racial caricatures of the Thniess to use their powers for energy generation, to show the world how thoroughly they had dominated them, and ''those'' people violently turned against them.]]

* HeroicSacrifice: Yaetr's notes at the end of chapters at one point tell a story of a group of imperial orogenes who were too weak to stop a volcano eruption, but they didn't have time to get reinforcements so they sacrificed their lives to stop it.

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:Nassun's]] "Hi, mama."
** [[spoiler: "It's Maxixe."]]
** [[spoiler: "It is the briar patch."]]

* TheAtoner: Schaffa wants to make up for how he abused orogens children in the past by being unconditionally loyal to Nassun, even if it means helping her destroy the world.

** More time among Sylanagist reveals that they're just pretty racist about everything, down to one of the conductors having "undesireable ancestry."

* {{Magitek}}: The Obelisk Gate was originally advanced technology designed to harvest magic from the earth and supply all of Syl Anagist.

* CataclysmBackstory: The loss of the moon and the Shattering, which was the first and greatest season. We see at the beginning of this book that there was once a very technologically advanced city called Syl Anagist taking up most of the world, which was presumably destroyed by the Shattering. [[spoiler: Except the order of events has been remembered wrong, the destruction of Syl Anagist happened when the tuners turned the Plutonic Engine against it as revenge for their oppression and the Shattering happened a hundred years later as the result of the obelisks the Earth succeeded in controlling burning into the ground, which the tuners managed to prevent from going off immediately or causing a far worse catastrophe.]]

* PosthumousCharacter: Alabaster. [[spoiler: Sort of. (He’s a stone eater now.)]]

* SadisticChoice: Essun draws on her oregeny without thinking about it, forgetting what the Obelisk Gate has done to her. She realizes it's going to turn part of her to stone, but is quick enough that she gets to decide exactly ''which'' piece of her body she'll permanently lose use of. [[spoiler: She chooses a breast as the least useful remaining piece of her anatomy, picking the left to balance the missing weight of her right arm.]]