History DarthWiki / Achava

* StockholmSyndrome - subverted with [[spoiler:Jola]]. She loves Solinski, and Solinski loves her. Apart from being her pimp, he actually treats her with kindness and is devastated - with predictable results - when she is spirited out of the city by Biruta and Michal.

* AnythingThatMoves - Solinski genuinely falls in love with both Jola and Michal, and as a pimp has no qualms about anything regarding sex, except incest with Antek.

* CreatorBreakdown - the 2005 draft was peppered with angry allusions to the 2005 General Election, even to the extent of writing in a scene with Michal entering the body of former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard in a dream. The parts where the characters find themselves in the real world, accessed through dreaming while sleeping in Jan's bed, were taken out for the 2011 rewrite, because of poor research opportunities for the references to communist-era Poland, excising gratuitous references to the Holocaust and real-life wars which would take the story too far in the direction of satire or allegory, and a desire to refocus on the imaginary world. Some elements, such as Marcin Solinski's name (the previous version was Sylwester Majdanczyk - ''majdan'' actually means "marketplace" in Ukrainian, a loan-word from Turkish), remain as artifacts, mostly again to avoid UnfortunateImplications regarding Holocaust references.

* VendorTrash - the salvage work Michal does with the paupers at the ghetto workhouse is governed by the Department of Public Works, and as such, anything found there belongs not to those that find it, but has to be passed on to the Department (yes, [[DarthWiki/GoingHome the same one]]) to be sold. Even the coins they find, often of very small denomination, belong to the city.

* TwoLinesDifferentTimes - The backstory of Jan's divorce and Jola's predicament is explained in flashback scenes. Biruta's story in Part 2 is told this way, with the big reveal coming at the climax of the revolutionary story even though the events take place between the two parts and she begins Part 2 dead.

* MeanwhileInTheFuture - The backstory of Jan's divorce and Jola's predicament is explained in flashback scenes. Biruta's story in Part 2 is told this way, with the big reveal coming at the climax of the revolutionary story even though the events take place between the two parts and she begins Part 2 dead.

* TroubledBackstoryFlashback: A number in addition to the extensive use of [[MeanwhileInTheFuture Meanwhile, in the Past]] used in the 2011 version.

* TroubledBackstoryFlashback: A number in addition to the extensive use of MeanwhileInThePast used in the 2011 version.

* FirstEpisodeSpoiler - nay, even Prologue Spoiler. [[spoiler:Bankrupt and impoverished second son of a squire Moreland committed himself to a workhouse out of desperation and arguably ''prospered'' because of it; his story shadows Michal's as a way of demonstrating perhaps one of three possibilities: the active conspiracy against Michal by opportunistic nationalists, the generally crueller and less liberal post-Lenkish War climate of the 1,980ths as compared to the 1,950ths (Whig Theory of History be damned!), or how Michal's depression and inertia is crippling his ability to re-establish himself.]]

The two halves of the story have now been split off to avoid the plot of the second half being a spoiler for the next few books and to avoid SynchronousEpisodes in an otherwise fairly linear series. ''{{DarthWiki/Achava}}'' is now solely the story of Jan Jach, Michal's struggle with the church, his difficult EpiphanyTherapy regarding what he assumes is his destiny, and meeting with his new employer. We are also introduced to the backstory of a character who we have already met and his agency behind the scenes to pin down Simon Seymour, his crime(s), and his whereabouts. The part of the story concerning Biruta, Domaszewicz, and Wlodzimierz Ciesla, although they all still appear in the story, will be written up as another story, a bit like ''DarthWiki/GoingHome'', mainly to prevent the book becoming the Dickensian ''Literature/LordOfTheRings''.

Went through several incarnations – started out as a basic outline in a GraphicNovel written in 2000, then was written as a experimental novel (half in Polish, half in English; with short chapters consisting of nothing but dialogue interspersed with more orthodox prose; and with some very bizarre dream sequences based on the characters seeing themselves in corresponding roles in the real world) in 2002-2003, with some gratuitous satire added in 2005 after the author's side lost the 2005 British general election. As of 2011 the novel has been extensively rewritten and refocused. Some of the more bizarre plot elements, such as [[BearTrapBed Jan's magic bed]], have been saved for other stories in- and out of universe.

* RussianMythologyAndTales - slightly misused in that Baba Yaga and rusalki are of Russian origin rather than Polish, but it can be explained that the vostochni - whose name comes from the Russian/Krovot ''vostok'' word for ''east'' rather than the Polish ''wschod'' cognate - are considered to be a Krovot [[FantasticRacism fifth column]] and have an identity that straddles both provinces of the Empire. Kozlowski and Domaszewicz, however, are of Krovot extraction, [[spoiler:which causes a tension within the Minervan community as well between them and the still ethnically Salwat vostochni]].

* BabaYaga - a version of the legend was incorporated into a dream Michal has on the train as the story opens. Minerva (or Theodora as she was before the 2010-11 setting re-working) suddenly morphs into Baba Yaga, herself an evil goddess in this setting (in fact this remains the case in the current setting, as Stevenson in the current draft of ''DarthWiki/GoingHome'' believes in Morrigan, who is a cognate). Gladkinska later on [[spoiler:threatened Michal with the wrath of Baba Yaga for the cruel way in which the Communists were dealing with the city's inhabitants, particularly when he claims it's not revenge he wants on Walentyna, or other rich men and women, it's justice]].

* RavensAndCrows - The Crows. Lampshaded by Kosinski, whose [[MeaningfulName own name]] means "blackbird".

* CompletelyMissingThePoint - Jan and his dream. It's meant to warn him not to try to find Jola, who has moved back into the area. It propels him into actively looking for her again.

* HoYay - the dormitory. The other men think Michal is gay because he undresses in the bathroom in private. They in turn display decidedly unwittingly homoerotic behaviour towards him. Also, the whole issue of rich men visiting or hanging around the hostel looking for rough trade floats around Moreland and Piotr - quite often in Solinski's mind, as well as in the mind of outsiders like the cabbie who brings Moreland and Piech in from the station on the first night, and also in Michal's from time to time. It's how they get rid of Pav the first time - by mistaking him for a rival pimp specifically interested in Michal. This becomes...

* ArtImitatesLife - the author's cousin was a civilian instructor in the army cadets because he didn't want to go officially into the army, where he'd have to cut his hair. The same dilemma faces Witek.