History Literature / ShadowOfTheConqueror

* StayInTheKitchen: [[{{Reconstruction}} Reconstructed]] and [[InvertedTrope inverted]] by practitioners of the religion of Matriology. These folk have a matriarchal culture that holds that it is the nature of women to give life, whereas the nature of men is to take life, [[TheSacredDarkness Both of which are acknowledged as necessary acts]]. Thus in, say, a farmer's house, the husband's duty is to pick the fruit and slaughter the cattle, while the wife's duty is to plant the seeds and prepare the food. Thus it isn't so much that ''women'' aren't allowed ''out'' of the kitchen so much as that ''men'' aren't allowed ''in'' it.

* StayInTheKitchen: [[ReconstructedTrope Reconstructed]] and [[InvertedTrope inverted]] by practitioners of the religion of Matriology. These folk have a matriarchal culture that holds that it is the nature of women to give life, whereas the nature of men is to take life, [[TheSacredDarkness Both of which are acknowledged as necessary acts]]. Thus in, say, a farmer's house, the husband's duty is to pick the fruit and slaughter the cattle, while the wife's duty is to plant the seeds and prepare the food. Thus it isn't so much that ''women'' aren't allowed ''out'' of the kitchen so much as that ''men'' aren't allowed ''in'' it.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Daylen is self-admittedly a former murderer, rapist, tyrant, pedophile, and current PsychopathicManchild, but he earnestly wants to be a better man, defend the innocent, [[MustMakeAmends make amends]] to the world, and [[GoodFeelsGood do good]].

* FountainOfYouth: Jumping over the edge of Tellos and passing the bottom edge of the universe normally [[WrapAround loops you back to the top]] like a game of asteroids, but if you're physically touching either a piece of darkstone or sunstone when you reach that point, you instead just die. Daylen, in [[BungledSuicide an attempt to commit suicide]], does this while holding ''one of each'', [[FirstEpisodeSpoiler which turned out to have quite a different effect, namely granting him a form of Lightbinding magic, as well as reversing his physical age to about 17]]. This is the only time anyone has ever been de-aged in the process of obtaining Light-Binding magic, and the only explanation for this offered so far comes from Daylen himself, who basically just shrugs and says "I dunno, DivineIntervention?"

** '''Lightbinding''' magic is neutrally-aligned, and obtained by a mysterious ritual called "The Vigil," which Daylen [[FirstEpisodeSpoiler may or may not have accidentally reverse-engineered.]] It's first variant, Lifebinding, grants you the ability to temporarily enhance physical attributes, such as vision, strength, mass, stamina, etc. The second type, Worldbinding, gives external powers like gravity manipulation or lightning blasts.

* MyGrandsonMyself: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. Daylen [[FirstEpisodeSpoiler accidentally makes himself about six decades younger via magic]], so constructs a false identity as Daylen Namaran Jr.

** Jumping off the edge and passing the point that would normally [[WrapAround loop you back to the top of the world]] while touching either sunstone or darkstone with bare skin instantly kills you. When Daylen passes said point while touching ''both'', however, he [[FirstEpisodeSpoiler instead becomes young again and gains new magical powers.]]

* BungledSuicide: Daylen at the beginning, due to having committed Stalin-tier crimes against humanity throughout his life and then seen the error of his ways in his old age. Living on a WorldInTheSky, he elects to jump off the edge. But since this occurs in ''chapter three'', you probably don't need us to tell you that [[FirstEpisodeSpoiler he doesn't get the result he expected]].

* MagicKnight: Lifebinding naturally lends itself to this, as the user needs to be skilled in combat to properly utilize all of the various enhancements it offers. Lightbringers and Worldbinders who train in combat also end up as Magic Knights.

* HornyDevils: Daylen mentions that one type of Greater Shade is called a Lust, which can bend weak-willed men to its control with its magic.

* GenreBusting: It's a DungeonPunk ''and'' a HighFantasy story set in a world of solar {{Magitek}}, with Renaissance swords everywhere, the eve of an Industrial Revolution dawning, early twentieth-century political conflicts on the world stage, and some [[{{Animesque}} Anime]] and SuperheroTropes thrown in for spice. Some reviewers have even declared it the foundation of an entirely new genre, dubbed "Sunpunk."

* GenreBusting: It's a DungeonPunk ''and'' a HighFantasy story set in a world of solar {{Magitek}}, with Renaissance swords everywhere, the eve of an Industrial Revolution dawning, early twentieth-century political conflicts on the world stage, and some [[{{Animesque}} Anime]] and SuperheroTropes thrown in for spice.

* StayInTheKitchen: [[ReconstructedTrope Reconstructed]] and [[InvertedTrope inverted]] by practitioners of the religion of Matriology. These folk have a matriarchal culture that holds that it is the nature of women to give life, whereas the nature of men is to take life, [[TheSacredDarkness Both of which are acknowledged as necessary acts]]. Thus in, say, a farmer's house, the husband's duty is to pick the fruit and slaughter the cattle, while the wife's duty is to prepare the food. Thus it isn't so much that ''women'' aren't allowed ''out'' of the kitchen so much as that ''men'' aren't allowed ''in'' it.

* MySensorsIndicateYouWantToTapThat: A Lifebinder's [[TheNoseKnows enhanced scent]] can reveal emotions, which Daylen uses to get a feel for people's intentions. When he uses it on Jena, finds out that she's massively aroused just looking at him because of his [[ClarkKenting resemblance to Dayless]].

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]]. More like communist. The book actually features a group of people called Dawnists (named for [[TheEmpire the Dawn Empire]], which they want to bring back) who are analogues to ''Neo''-Nazis, their monstrous idol being [[EvilOverLord Dayless the Conqueror]] himself. The main difference between these guys and real life Neo-Nazis is that there's actually no evidence of racism in either the Dawnists
, Dayless, or Dayless's policies. The desire to TakeOverTheWorld and give a HistoricalHeroUpgrade to a despot and war criminal they're all too young to have actually experienced firsthand are still there, though.

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]]. The book actually features a group of people called Dawnists (named for [[TheEmpire the Dawn Empire]], which they want to bring back) who are analogues to ''Neo''-Nazis, their monstrous idol being [[EvilOverLord Dayless the Conqueror]] himself. The main difference between these guys and real life Neo-Nazis is that there's actually no evidence of racism in either the Dawnists, Dayless, or Dayless's policies. The desire to TakeOverTheWorld and give a HistoricalHeroUpgrade to a despot and war criminal they're all too young to have actually experienced firsthand are still there, though.

* TheAtoner: The primary character trait of the protagonist, Daylen Namaran. To say that he was comparable to Hitler back when he ruled Hamahra would not be an exaggeration in the slightest.

* BungledSuicide: Daylen at the beginning, due to having committed Hitler-tier crimes against humanity throughout his life and then seen the error of his ways in his old age. Living on a WorldInTheSky, he elects to jump off the edge. But since this occurs in ''chapter three'', you probably don't need us to tell you that [[FirstEpisodeSpoiler he doesn't get the result he expected]].

* DidntSeeThatComing: Daylen is an Unknown Known, as [[spoiler: after his true identity is revealed, no one expected him to save Highdawn from the Dawnist plot. Lyrah in particularly is utterly ''floored'' that ''Dayless the Conqueror'' of all people just saved millions of people.]] With good reason mind you, since Daylen was a tyrant comparable to ''Adolf Hitler'' when he was in power.

* FountainOfYouth: Jumping over the edge of Tellos and passing the bottom edge of the universe normally [[WrapAround loops you back to the top]] like a game of asteroids, but if you're physically touching either a piece of darkstone or sunstone when you reach that point, you instead just die. Daylen, in [[BungledSuicide an attempt to commit suicide]], does this while holding ''one of each'', [[FirstEpisodeSpoiler which turned out to have quite a different effect, namely granting him a form of Lightbinding magic, as well as reversing his physical age to about 17]]. The only explanation for this de-ageing ever offered comes from Daylen himself, who basically just shrugs and says "I dunno, DivineIntervention?"

* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Lightbinding is loaded to the brim with these. Daylen notes many times how his powers seem to have built-in safeties that allow him to use them properly, such as his strength also increasing when he boosts his mass to allow him to carry it, and his mind being temporarily able to process the incredible amounts of information that come from increased perception.

* Microts: Given the EndlessDaytime nature of the setting, denizens instead measure time in "Falls," which is the ammount of time it takes a distant object called The Plummet to fall to the bottom of the world and [[WrapAround loop back to the top]]. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] by WordOfGod, which states that a Fall lasts 24 real-world hours.

* GirlOnGirlIsHot: When Dayless grew bored with raping the girls brought to him, he forced them to perform [[RapeByProxy depraved acts on each other]].

* RapeByProxy: When Dayless grew bored with raping the girls brought to him, he forced them to perform depraved acts on each other.

* EnemyMine: The presence of the Shade forces a temporary truce between [[spoiler: Lyrah and Daylen]], even though she wants nothing more than to kill him at that point. Any [[TeethClenchedTeamwork teeth-clenching]] is purely on her part, however, as he never thinks of her as an enemy and is more than happy to help.

** Lyrah notices Daylen staring at her face when he realizes that she's a BrokenBird and questions him about it. Desperately fishing for a lie, Daylen tries to cover what he was really thinking about by saying that he was staring because ''she's beautiful,'' remembering belatedly that this is one of her [[TraumaButton trauma]] and [[BerserkButton berserk]] buttons. Cue Lyrah blushing [[PlayedForDrama with mingled embarrassment and rage, and Daylen mentally cursing himself with gusto]].

* SwissArmySuperpower: Lightbinding can be used to enhance ''any'' physical or mental trait of the user, or anything that's a part of their physical self. A Lightbinder can gain enhanced [[SuperStrength strength]], [[SuperSpeed speed]], [[SuperHearing hearing]], [[TheNoseKnows scent]], [[SuperSenses other senses]], [[SuperReflexes reflexes]], [[SuperToughness fortitude]], AuraVision, [[HealingFactor healing]], [[PhotographicMemory memory]], [[HyperAwareness perceptive]] [[SherlockScan scans]], [[WallCrawl grip]], [[InASingleBound jumps]], [[CharmPerson charisma]], [[spoiler: [[SuperIntelligence intellect]], [[ImprobableFencingPowers swordsmanship]], [[SwordBeam sunforged swords]]]], and [[LongList only the Light knows what else]].