History Literature / Ambergris

%%* CrystalDragonJesus: The Truffidians.

* DieselPunk: Petrol-fuelled motor vehicles are common and there are some pieces of technology that we don't have such as the tank with a turret underneath or the twin-barrelled pistol with explosive ammo. However, they don't have electricity (as noted in the short story "The Strange Case of X") and still use lamps fueled with squid oil.

* TheDreaded: Duncan notes thatIf Mazinkert I was really nearly 7 feet tall and all muscle and pirate ferocity, then how much more dangerous must Michael Breugel be. Michael was the one that almost destroyed Mazinkert's fleet and sent them fleeing into exile in the jungles. Breugel's descendants still have hostilities towards Ambergris.

* BodyHorror: [[spoiler:Duncan's]] slow transformation and degradation.

* ConspiracyTheorist: Duncan associates closely with them later in his career, since they're the only ones who listen to his theories with a straight face. As far as the general population is concerned, he's the craziest one of them all, since he claims to back up his wild theories with personal experience.

* TheDreaded: Duncan notes thatIf Mazinkert I was really nearly 7 feet tall and all muscle and pirate ferocity, then how much more dangerous must Michael Breugel be. Michael was the one that almost destroyed Mazinkert's fleet and sent them fleeing into exile in the jungles.

* AlternateUniverse: In ''The Strange Case of X'', the Ambergrisian writer of ''City of Saints and Madmen'' ends up in modern Chicago, where he's held in an asylum.

* DarkSecret: Dradin occasionally reminisces about his sexual encounter with a sweaty Sister of his order while in the jungle mission. That's not what actually happens, while maddened by jungle fever he rapes and then dismembers her with his machete and kills other members in his compound.

* LandOfOneCity: Ambergris is but a single city founded on the ruins of the fungal city that the whaling fleet calls Cinsorium has all the economic and political party of a country.

* JustTheFirstCitizen: Ambergris was founded by a whaling fleet turned pirate. So first rulers of the city are called the Cappan (a regional pronounciation of "Captain") which started under t

In 2020, the Ambergris stories have been collected into one collection that's simply called ''Ambergris'' with no change to the stories order.

* BadassArmy: The remaining Rebel forces have been holed up in different worlds in different eras. And in their respective safe places, they had been gathering resources and building up their troop strength with what's available locally for a very long time. So when they return to Ambergris, it's the end of the Gray Cap rule.

* OneCityState: Ambergris is but a single city founded on the ruins of the fungal city that the whaling fleet calls Cinsorium has all the economic and political party of a country.

* AFeteWorseThanDeath: The Festival of the Freshwater Squid. It's an orgy of violence of murder and death resemblant of the Purge movies.

* AFeteWorseThanDeath: The Festival of the Freshwater Squid.

Ambergris is also the name of a city that serves as the setting for a series of books penned by Jeff [=VanderMeer=] which are known, for lack of a better title, as ''The Ambergris Cycle''. The city itself possesses a dull gray color, although this is offset by the inordinate amounts of fungus which makes its home within the cracks and along the walls of the city's architecture. Mushrooms, lichens, molds and other fungi have taken over the city. Quite literally, in fact, for in addition to the city's human dwellers the underground of Ambergris houses the curious beings known only as the Gray Caps. They are ShroudedInMyth. Named for their distinctive headwear. Short of stature, origin a mystery. Rumored to control the fungus. To feed on it. To [[FungusHumongous live in it]]. To be themselves [[PlantAliens mushroom creatures.]] They lurk in places too dark and dank for humans to venture, and they grow ever more bold in their contact with the world above.

* CrystalDragonJesus: The Truffidians.

* FantasticRacism -- The Nimblytod and the Dogghe tribes were indigenous to the Ambergris area before it was settled by Manzikert's armies.

* BodyHorror -- [[spoiler:Duncan's]] slow transformation and degradation.

* UnreliableNarrator -- Janice holds that she is offering a balanced yet opinionated account of her brother's life. Duncan takes issue with the first claim. She straight out admits this herself towards the end; including that it was her [[spoiler: who informed Duncan's superiors he was in a relationship with a student destroying his career]].

* TheQuisling: The Partials, and to an extent, Finch and his colleagues.

!Tropes present in the books of Ambergris

*

* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler: Bliss]] has been manipulating events in the Ambergris at least as far back as the Wars of the Houses, he claims on behalf of the Kalif but is strongly implied to represent a BiggerBad.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Many characters. Most notably Janice.

* UnreliableNarrator -- Janice holds that she is offering a balanced yet opinionated account of her brother's life. Duncan takes issue with the first claim.

* BodyHorror -- Wyte, more drawn-out and excrutiating than even [[spoiler:Duncan's]] was.

* CrystalDragonJesus: The Truffidians

* StarfishAliens: The giant freshwater squid probably aren't from outer space, but otherwise they fit perfectly in the description. They're strongly implied to be sentient, communicate with bioluminence and when people gather together to hunt them once a year, they in turn gather together to hunt people.

* BodyHorror -- [[spoiler:Duncan's]] slow transformation and degredation.

* BioPunk: Fungus guns, fungus bombs, the memory bulbs...fungus ''cyborgs''!

* FungusHumongous -- By this point, the [[MushroomMan Gray Caps]]' mushrooms have grown to the size of buildings.
* HalfHumanHybrid -- As opposed to previous characters who slowly became fungal after becoming exposed to Gray Cap weapons, the Partials willingly give up their selves to becoming living tools.

* NWordPrivileges -- Only now do we learn that the Gray Caps prefer to be known as the ''fanaarcensitii.''

* TheUnpronounceable -- ''Fanaarcensitii'' is among the easiest to pronounce of Gray Cap words. Finch doesn't even know what his boss's actual name is (a "series of clicks and whistles" that sound like ''hecleriticalic'').

* BadassArmy: the remaining Rebel forces have been holed up in different worlds in different eras. And in their respective safe places, they had been gathering resources and building up their troop strength with what's available locally for a very long time. So when they return to Ambergris, it's the end of the Gray Cap rule.

** Also against the Graycaps by Mazinkert and his people, culminating in a genocide. This turned out to be a bad idea.

Ambergris is also the name of a city which serves as the setting for a series of books penned by Jeff [=VanderMeer=] which are known, for lack of a better title, as ''The Ambergris Cycle''. The city itself possesses a dull gray color, although this is offset by the inordinate amounts of fungus which makes its home within the cracks and along the walls of the city's architecture. Mushrooms, lichens, molds and other fungi have taken over the city. Quite literally, in fact, for in addition to the city's human dwellers the underground of Ambergris houses the curious beings known only as the Gray Caps. They are ShroudedInMyth. Named for their distinctive headwear. Short of stature, origin a mystery. Rumored to control the fungus. To feed on it. To [[FungusHumongous live in it]]. To be themselves [[PlantAliens mushroom creatures.]] They lurk in places too dark and dank for humans to venture, and they grow ever more bold in their contact with the world above.