History Literature / BlackJewels

* "The Queen's Price" (2023)

* ''The Queen's Weapons'' (March 2021)

** In fact, this is more or less a good marker on whether a female character in the seriesis good or evil; if she prefers sensible clothing to fancy clothing, she's probably good. If she adores being dressy or is fashion-obsessed, she's probably a villain.

* BladeOnAStick: Played Straight. The main Eyrian weapons are called "Bladed Sticks"

* BreakTheCutie:
** Jaenelle.
** Della.
** Wilhelmina.
** Surreal.
** Every girl who went to Briarwood.
** Lucivar.
** Daemon.

* BadassInCharge:
** Jaenelle as the Queen of Ebon Askavi.
** Saetan as the High Lord of Hell and the Warlord-Prince of Dhemlan.
** Later Daemon as the High Lord of Hell and the Warlord-Prince of Dhemlan.
** Lucivar as the Warlord-Prince of Ebon Rih.

* ActionGirl:
** Surreal, who is also a bit of a KnifeNut.
** Jaenelle in the later books.
** Titian.

* GenreSavvy: Surreal and Rainier in ''Tangled Webs''. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since the [[HauntedHouse spooky house]] they're trapped in was explicitely made in-universe after all the classics elements of horror stories, and the characters are well-read.

* MixedAncestry:
** Lucivar, who is half-Hayllian, half-Eyrien, which led to him being hated as a "half-breed bastard" by his fellow Eyriens at training camp
** Surreal, who is half-Hayllian and half-Dea Al Mon

* MoodRingEyes: a minor example, as they technically stay blue, but Jaenelle's eyes turn from summer-sky to sapphire when she's in Witch mode, and it is apparently quite noticeable to everyone.

* SerialRapist: Kartane [=SaDiablo=]. Growing up in an evil matriarchal DeadlyDecadentCourt gave him some major issues around women, power, and sexuality, and he reacts to this by preying on adolescent girls from lower social classes.

** Sometimes, the morality of the Black Jewels 'verse verges on {{Blue and Orange Morality}}. The ruthless, violent actions of the protagonists are accepted as justified, if not always right, within the moral framework of the story. However, the main characters, even though most of them are described as having an appearance similar to normal human beings, are not human. They have very different instincts, whether due to biology, their magic, or both, and this means that their morals sometimes differ from normal, real life people. However, [[DownplayedTrope they still do share some morals with the real world.]] For example, while murder is sometimes considered justified, rape is both a {{berserk button}} and [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil a special kind of evil]] to most of the protagonists.

Prequel:

Sequels:
* ''Dreams Made Flesh'' (two short stories and two novellas)
* ''Tangled Webs''
* ''The Shadow Queen''
* ''Shalador's Lady''
* ''Twilight's Dawn'' (Four novellas)

* PurpleEyes: There is a brief mention of Alexandra Angelline's eyes being the color of Purple Dusk Jewels.

* YouMeanXmas: Winsol (presumably meaning "winter solstice") is an obvious stand-in for Christmas, complete with tree and gifts.

* TheGhost: Prythian, the High Priestess of Askavi, is referred to often in the series as Lucivar's enslaver and is seemingly the third-in-command under Hekatah and Dorothea, yet she never appears in the story herself and is killed off-screen.

* AristocratsAreEvil: Played straight for pretty much every aristocratic character who isn't part of the SaDiablo Family or a friend of Jaenelle.

* DragonInChief: Dorothea, despite being High Priestess of Hayll and the known root of Terreille's corruption, is subservient to Dorothea and her rise to power was part of Hekatah's own plans of controlling the three Realms. Dorothea, however, doesn't see it that way and is waiting for her chance to be rid of Hekatah forever.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Dorothea, despite being, by her own admission, an incredibly cruel and vicious person, is shaken by [[spoiled: the way Daemon seemingly murders Marian and Daemonar]].

* FamilyRelationshipSwitcharoo: [[spoiler: Philip Alexander is really Jaenelle and Wilhelmina's father, but their legal father is Robert Benedict, who is Philip's older brother]]

* GenderBenderName: Jaenelle's mother,Leland, whose name is usually a male one. Ladvarian is this by Eyrien standrads, since Eyrien women's names always end in -ian

* IHaveNoSon: Dorothea about Kartane in the third book. The reason is murky, though it's assumingly that he is no longer usefult ot her with his illness.

* MayflyDecemberRomance: Daemon and Jaenelle. Daemon was about 1700 years old when Jaenelle was born, and can expect to live as long again, while Jaenelle has a normal human life expectancy.

* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: This is pretty explicitly part of the worldbuilding. The culture is matriarchal, with males serving females as guardians and protectors; but females generally have more powerful (or at least more deadly) magic, and one character even says outright, albeit half joking, that the reason males serve is because "you're deadlier when you're angry" and at least if they go down first the males won't have to deal with them when their tempers are roused.

** Saetan, Daemon, and to a lesser extend Lucivar, not only have extremely potent power, but also have seriously lethal tempers and protective male aggression up the wazoo hardwired into their psyches.

* RapeMakesYouCrazy: Witches who are "broken", that is, raped before they can lose their virginity the normal way, gradually lose their sanity, as well as most of their power.

* SerialRapist: Kartane [=SaDiablo=]. Growing up in an evil matriarchal DeadlyDecadentCourt gave him some major issues around women, power, and sexuality, and he reacts to this by preying on teenage girls from lower social classes.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Averted ''hard'' for the main villains of the original trilogy. Dorothea had no qualms about raping her own son and then abandoning him when he was no longer useful. Hekatah married Saetan only for his power and never loved him or her sons; in fact, she was willing to allow their third son to be killed just to get back at Saetan and outright says at one point that children are only good for securing alliances and basically used her sons to keep Saetan under her thrall.

* Matriarchy: The traditional society of the Blood is supposed to be the Enlightened version of this, where Queens rule and males serve, but there are enough rights given to men and nuances between the genders that they remain more or less equal. which it is in Kaeleer. In Terreille, thanks to Dorothea's corruption, it's become a Straw Matriarchy in some places, where females rule harshly and forcibly control all powerful males, who in turn terrorize weaker females or destroy the potential of those who could become strong later, and a Matriarchy in Name Only in other places, where the Queens are basically figureheads controlled by powerful males. Dena Nehele was the sole exception in Terreille but even that fell eventually.

^ NomDeMom: Jaenelle uses her mother's maiden name because Witch follows the matriarchal ways [[and because her legal father is actually not her father]].

* UsedToBeASweetkid: Daemon and Kartane both until Dorothea got to them.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Dorothea, despite being, by her own admission, an incredibly cruel and vicious person, is shaken by [[the way Daemon seemingly murders Marian and Daemonar]].

* FamilyRelationshipSwitcharoo: [[Philip Alexander is really Jaenelle and Wilhelmina's father, but their legal father is Robert Benedict, who is Philip's older brother]]/

Saetan was this to Jaenelle and the entire First Circle.
Cassandra ''wanted'' to be this to Jaenelle, but she preferred Saetan
Andulvar and Prothvar were this to Lucivar in his childhood