History Literature / TalesFromTheFlatEarth

* Zorayas gets hers when a handsome king rejected her for being too ugly, and she learned of her true origins as an emperor’s daughter.
* Qebba got his when he was turned into a beast through no fault of his own.

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Zorayas rules a vast empire with an iron fist, executes anyone who displeases her in cruel fashions, and even begins [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunting her slaves]] and [[BestialityIsDepraved sleeping with animals]] as she slips further into ennui.

* HeadTurningBeauty: The Flat Earth is still in a time of legend and myth, so many legendary beauties exist in the stories. There's far more headturners of both sexes than there are ugly people. Examples range from Sivesh (who is so beautiful that Azhrarn keeps him as a lover) and [[TheVamp Queen Zorayas]], to Azhriaz, Night's Daughter.

The setting is a world that is flat and square, and floats amid formless chaos. Its cosmology consists of four "layers"; apart from the Flat Earth itself, they are the Underearth (realm of the demons), the Upperearth (realm of the gods), and the Innerearth (realm of the dead).

* TheGodsMustBeLazy: While the series definitely has Gods, they're Neglectful Precursors who created the universe, got bored with it, and now do nothing but stand around contemplating their own greatness. They've intervened in the world approximately three times, all of which were to deliver smack-downs on anyone who dared to challenge them. The primary protagonists of the series are chief demons/personifications of dark forces named the "Lords of Darkness," particularly Azhrarn, the Lord of Evil, who has a BlueAndOrangeMorality, and is probably as old as the Gods themselves. Much of the series is devoted to showing how he manipulates humanity for his own pleasure, but is still (arguably) a friendlier force to humanity than the Gods. In the first book, after inadvertently beginning a chain of events leading to the Apocalypse, he enters Heaven to ask the Gods to do something, which they point-blank refuse, after which he proceeds to save the world himself.

* MysticalPregnancy: Dunizel is still a virgin when she's pregnant carrying Azhriaz, since Azhrarn impregnated Dunizel by giving her his blood. Initially Azhriaz is seen as a miracle from the gods, but is later decryed as an EnfantTerrible when it was discovered that Azhrarn is the father. A hysterical mob then claimed Dunizel was only technically a virgin because she was getting sodomized by Azhrarn and she gave birth anally.

* BalefulPolymorph: Poor, poor Qebba. [[spoiler: He was once the handsome lover of Bisuneh, but Azhrarn had a Drin turn him into a mismatched beast. He spent about eighty years in this state and almost lost his humanity. Once he gets it back, [[HatePlague his resentment knows no bounds]].]]

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Kazir, Ferazhin, and Jurim all have golden hair and kind hearts. Kazir and Ferazhin [[EarnYourHappyEnding Earn Their Happy Ending]], but Jurim falls at the mercy of TheVamp.

* TheBard: Kazir, who makes his living by traveling from town to town and singing. He goes ToHellAndBack to [[RescuedFromTheUnderworld Ferazhin]], and even ''Azhrarn'' is haunted by the [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly song that Kazir sings]].

* HeadTurningBeauty: The Flat Earth is still in a time of legend and myth, so many legendary beauties exist in the stories. There's far more headturners of both sexes than there are ugly people. Examples range from Queen Zoraya to Azhriaz, Night's Daughter.

* RapeLeadsToInsanity: Zoraya would have taken up being a healer, just like the recently dead hermit that took her in as mutilated baby. But getting raped by a brutal vagrant pushed Zoraya, who was already dealing with anger and resentment, over the edge. Zoraya instead devotes herself to black magic (the vagrant being her first victim) and becomes a SorcerousOverlord.

* MarySue: In the preface of the 2017 reprinting of ''Delusion's Master'', Tanith Lee writes that the unearthly Dunizel is an idealized version of her mother as a teenager. However in this case, it works very well due to Tanith's strength as a writer. Dunizel's flawlessness is so alien is that it makes her admired but remote to other people (not that she minds) and in the mythical Flat Earth setting, fantastically beautiful and good people aren't rare - Dunizel is just the most extreme example.

* MysticalPregnancy: Dunizel is still a virgin when she's pregnant carrying Azhriaz, since Azhrarn impregnated Dunizel by giving her his blood. Initially Azhriaz is seen as a miracle from the gods, but is later decryed as an EnfantTerrible when it was discovered that Azhrarn is the father.

* RapeLeadsToInsanity: Zoraya would have taken up being a healer, just like the recently dead hermit that took her in as mutilated baby. But getting raped by a brutal vagrant pushed the Zoraya, who was already dealing with anger and resentment, over the edge. Zoraya instead devotes herself to black magic (the vagrant being her first victim) and becomes a SorcerousOverlord.

* WonderChild: A lady who wants a child has a date with an angel. They kiss, and she is told she'll conceive the next time she and her husband are together; she does, and thereby hangs the tale.

** Zhirem, from ''Death's Master'', grew up barefoot; and after he has grown up into the powerful (and pretty evil) sorcerer Zhirek, he dresses in rich vestments, but still goes barefoot, as he is used to it. Later on, after he had become the philosopher Dathanja, a kind-hearted princess gave him shoes, "which he even wore sometimes".

* DevilButNoGod: While the series definitely has Gods, they're Neglectful Precursors who created the universe, got bored with it, and now do nothing but stand around contemplating their own greatness. They've intervened in the world approximately three times, all of which were to deliver smack-downs on anyone who dared to challenge them. The primary protagonists of the series are chief demons/personifications of dark forces named the "Lords of Darkness," particularly Azhrarn, the Lord of Evil, who has a BlueAndOrangeMorality, and is probably as old as the Gods themselves. Much of the series is devoted to showing how he manipulates humanity for his own pleasure, but is still (arguably) a friendlier force to humanity than the Gods. In the first book, after inadvertently beginning a chain of events leading to the Apocalypse, he enters Heaven to ask the Gods to do something, which they point-blank refuse, after which he proceeds to save the world himself.