History Literature / TheChroniclesOfThomasCovenant

* ArcWords: In the second trilogy: "Did I not say she was well Chosen?"

* PurpleProse: Author Donaldson loves him some archaic adjectives. Just take this lovely (infamous) piece of English as an example. It doesn't often get worse, but it IS consistently around that level.

* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: [[spoiler: After Covenant gives Lord Foul his ring during the climax of ''White Gold Wielder'', Lord Foul kills Covenant by incinerating him with wild magic. However, because the Law of Life has been broken, Covenant's spirit remains in The Land as a ghost, standing between Lord Foul and the Arch of Time. As a ghost, Covenant proves to be completely immune to the ring's wild magic; Lord Foul uses up so much of his own energy trying to use it to blast through Covenant's ghost that he ends up destroying himself.]]

* TheVillainMakesThePlot: Done rather well; Lord Foul is a BigBad for the whole series but each chronicle, and sometimes each book, have their own villain. As the series progresses the villains evolved with the heroes.
* VillainsActHeroesReact: Oh yeah, big time. It's one of the strengths of Foul's plans.

* DemotedToDragon: In their backstory, the Ravers were originally the Land's reigning [[BigBadDuumvirate Big Bad Triumvirate]], until Lord Foul arrived and made them his lieutenants. Of course, since Foul was pretty much everything the Ravers had ever aspired to being, they were more than happy to oblige him.

* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: See the picture at the top of the page.

* AgentMulder: Hile Troy is perfectly happy to embrace the reality of the Land, not least because for the first time in his life he can ''see'' there.

** [[spoiler:Findail and Vain are fused to make the new Staff of Law]].

* AntiHero: Thomas Covenant, starting out as a Type I in our world becoming a Type V [[spoiler:after his rape of Lena]] then settling down in the second trilogy as a Type III. Linden also starts as a Type I and ends as a Type III.

* TensionBreakingLaughter: The Giants believe strongly in this as an antidote to despair.

* AfterTheEnd: The second trilogy takes place after the Land has become desolate for millennia owing to the corrupted earthpower of the Sunbane completely changing the environment every few days. The third trilogy, on the other hand, takes place mid-apocalypse.

* NonIndicativeName:
** The Humbled are three Masters who have been chosen to be maimed in the manner of Covenant, all the better to emulate and represent him. They are if anything even ''more'' proud and stubborn than other Masters.

!!''The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant'' provides examples of the following tropes:

* ArcWords: In the second trilogy: "Did I not say she was well Chosen?"

* AfterTheEnd: The second trilogy takes place after the Land has become desolate for millennia owing to the corrupted earthpower of the Sunbane completely changing the environment every few days. The third trilogy, on the other hand, takes place mid-apocalypse.
* AgentMulder: Hile Troy is perfectly happy to embrace the reality of the Land, not least because for the first time in his life he can ''see'' there.
* AgentScully: Linden Avery is a downplayed example. That she's been transported to another world is something she accepts fairly easily, but she refuses (for personal reasons) to acknowledge the existence of objective evil. Samadhi [[MindRape sets her straight]].
* AllJustADream:
** In the first trilogy, Thomas Covenant is convinced "The Land" isn't real. At the end of it, Covenant decides that whether or not it's "real" doesn't matter; if it is a dream, then his dreaming it ''makes'' it real and something that's worth protecting. The Land's reality, or lack thereof, is no longer important in the second and third series.
** Donaldson removed an entire chapter from ''The Illearth War'' because it did not have Covenant present, thus proving the Land had a continuity of its own without him. It was released as part of an anthology of Donaldson short stories.

* AmazonBrigade: The Swordmainnir in ''The Last Chronicles'' are an all-female band of Giant warriors - an entirely natural thing for them, since Giants regard fighting as a feminine pursuit. Lostson Longwrath used to be TheOneGuy among them, but by the time of the story he's more like their patient or captive.
* AndIMustScream:
** [[spoiler:Findail and Vain are fused to make the new Staff of Law]].
** Played straight when possessed by Ravers. Linden is not only forced to watch the Raver control her, but the Raver loves to taunt her while possessing her.

* TheAtoner: Vain, for the entire ur-vile race.
-->Somewhere above them, the few surviving ur-viles watched Kiril Threndor in a reflective pool of acid and barked vindication at Vain's success.

* BackFromTheDead: The cave-wights in the ''Second Chronicles'' are trying to do this to Drool Rockworm. He would've [[CameBackWrong come back wrong]] if they had succeeded.
* BadassArmy: The Bloodguard. The ''haruchai'' in general are a ProudWarriorRace whose Hat is "exceptionally skilled martial artist", and the Bloodguard are the best of the ''haruchai''. Cross them at your peril.
* BadMoonRising: [[EliteMook Drool Rockworm]]'s corruption of the moon from the first trilogy.
* BatmanGambit: Covenant's plan at the end of ''White Gold Wielder'' only works because he knew that [[spoiler:the first thing Foul would do with the white gold ring is attack him with it.]]
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: What happens to Lord Foul at the end of the second trilogy is deliciously ironic. Lord Foul's goal throughout the first two trilogies was to obtain Covenant's White Gold wedding ring, so he could use its power to destroy The Land and escape. At the end of the second trilogy, Covenant seeks out Lord Foul for a final confrontation, but, to the amazement of everyone watching, Covenant simply [[spoiler:hands the ring over to Lord Foul -- who immediately destroys himself trying to use it.]]

* BeeBeeGun: In the second trilogy, on of the Raver-possessed Sunbane victims chucks a spider at Covenant; earlier a Raver had possessed a swarm of wasps and stung him half to death.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: The Unhomed, Giants who were stranded from their homeland. They're exceedingly gentle, but look out if they get mad.

* BigBadDuumvirate: In the Third Chronicles, Foul has teamed up with [[spoiler:the renegade Elohim [[KillItWithFire Kastenessen]], the closest thing he can be said to have to an equal on the evil side of things]]. From his prior behavior, though, it's clear that the Despiser doesn't play well with others [[spoiler:and indeed, he has ''Moksha'' Raver playing TreacherousAdvisor to Kastenessen, keeping his rage focused on accomplishing things the Despiser wants to see happen]].
* BigBadWannabe: Drool Rockworm in the first book gets his hands on the Staff of Law and the Illearth Stone but can't control them. [[TooDumbToLive He turns to Lord Foul for help]], and ends up thinking he's the BigBad when really he's [[AxCrazy completely insane]] and dancing on Foul's strings.
* BlackEyesOfEvil: The Harrow has black eyes, and is the most vicious and self-serving of the Insequent.

* BlessedWithSuck: Esmer, son of a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Haruchai]] and one of the [[spoiler:merwives, daughters of an Elohim and a mortal]], can wield enormous power but he's always got to betray ''somebody''.
* BloodMagic: The Sunbane can be manipulated to produce various effects by shedding blood (your own or someone else's) Unfortunately, this also makes the Sunbane ''stronger''.
* BodyHorror: Illearth soldiers, Sun Bane touched, Fertile Sun.
* ButterflyOfDoom: Time travelers must be careful in order not to cause an end of the world by [[TemporalParadox changing the past]].

* ChekhovsArmoury: Covenant's BatmanGambit at the end of White Gold Wielder was founded on the breaking of the Law of Death four books earlier -- itself caused by his crossing of the MoralEventHorizon in the book prior to that -- and YouCantFightFate established ''five'' books earlier, with a dash of the YouAreNotReady that pervades the entire series. Not even Lord Foul, eternal {{Chessmaster}}, saw it coming.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Esmer, quite literally. His ancestry left him with a conflicted nature; he literally can't help anyone without also having to do something to betray them at the same time (and vice versa).
* CollapsingLair: Foul's Creche is destroyed in Covenant's first confrontation with the Despiser.

* ComesGreatResponsibility: Covenant ''hates'' responsibility. Especially responsibility that doesn't exist.

* CruelMercy: In ''The Illearth War'', people are paying all of Thomas' bills so he has no reason to enter town. His lawyer calls it "black charity" and is thoroughly pissed.

* {{Cult}}: A group of cavewights at the end of the first trilogy form one to try and bring [[spoiler:Drool Rockworm]] back to life. There is also one in our world in the second trilogy that worships Foul [[spoiler:which Joan joins]]
* CurseEscapeClause: Kasreyn has to insert a "flaw" into every spell of his. Because of the nature of things, nothing truly perfect can exist. Any perfect spell would just fail. The implication is most spell casters are not good enough to manage perfection, so to them this does not matter. But Kasreyn has to insert flaws deliberately because he is ''just that good''. This is why Kasreyn is after Covenant's ring. Kasreyn uses pure gold to cast his spells. Because white gold is an alloy and thus "impure", it satisfies the "flaw" requirement and Kasreyn could use it to create (effectively) perfect spells.

* DesignatedHero: [[{{Invoked}} Done deliberately]]. The people of The Land are in desperate need of a hero, and they tend to treat Covenant like one in spite of the way he actually acts. Indeed, one of the main thrusts of especially the first trilogy is exploring the idea of what happens when the MessianicArchetype is really a self-hating jerk and one-time rapist.

* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: Covenant in ''White Gold Wielder''.

* DoomedHometown:
** Mithil Stonedown, Soaring Woodhelvenen to a lesser extent; still [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom doomed]] but not a 'hometown' for the characters. It was more a place of refuge and respite on the road. But still doomed.

* EndOfTheWorldSpecial: At the end of the ''Second Chronicles'', Linden gets one of these due to both her role as TheEmpath and the fact that she's between the Land and our world.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Lots of these, Foul's speech at the beginning of the first book being perhaps the most obvious.

* ExactWords: How Covenant frees [[spoiler:Nom the Sandgorgon]].
* ExpansionPackWorld: The second trilogy expanded the map from the first one quite significantly.

* FlatEarthAtheist: Keeping an iron grip on his survival disciplines is the number one priority for Tom. He feels he simply can't make any admissions to the "magic" that he keeps seeing, or it'd undermine his sense of reality and necessity.

* GambitPileup: Things get pretty convoluted in the ''Last Chronicles''.
* GentleGiant: Foamfollower is introduced as this.

* GoodSamaritan: The Healer of Morinmoss. Her magic requires her to injure herself to heal others, but it's what she's dedicated her life to doing nonetheless.
* TheGrotesque: Pitchwife is a painfully deformed giant who still manages to be irrepressible and charming.
* GrumpyBear: In the first trilogy, Thomas Covenant is determined to be miserable no matter how wonderful a place he finds himself in, acting as though he expects things to go to hell any minute now. He's right in that the SugarApocalypse really is just around the corner, but, unlike the people around him, Covenant is unable to enjoy the good times while they last.

* HollywoodTactics: Hile Troy's battle plan in the Illearth War.

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Deconstructed in the first trilogy. It turns out that nothing and no one is completely uncorruptible, and being ''nearly'' so makes you incapable of living with or recovering from corruption when you do succumb to it. Learning to live with a certain amount of shame and inadequacy without letting it either [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope drive you to all-out villainy]] or [[HeroicBSOD traumatise you into inaction]] turns out to be the key to victory for both Covenant and the Lords. This is why white gold is so powerful: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored_gold#White_gold white gold]] is gold alloyed with a white metal, providing the gold "imperfection".
* InherentlyFunnyWords: C'mon, nowadays, you can't hear Nom's name and not think of [[WebOriginal/LOLCats "Nom, nom, nom!"]]
* InnocentBystander: Soaring Woodhelvenen, the whole town.

* KillItWithWater: In-universe, this represents a profound violation of natural law, requiring some sort of eldritch catalyst to be possible in the first place. So it follows that the villains would be eager to make use of this trope with Illearth Stone in hand.
* KnightTemplar: The Masters made all of the right deductions [[LawfulStupid and came to all of the wrong answers.]]
* LastOfHisKind: [[spoiler:Foamfollower becomes that in the first chronicles, on the Land's continent, at least.]]

* TheLastTitle: ''The Last Dark''.

* LoopholeAbuse: In the Second Chronicles, Kasreyn's spell keeps the Sandgorgons magically imprisoned, with the loophole that if one's name is spoken, it will temporarily be freed to kill the speaker before returning to the prison. As a gambit to defeat Kasreyn and escape, Linden has Covenant summon Nom when she brings him out of his catatonic state. Kasreyn immediately buggers off and Nom arrives to kill Covenant. After Covenant fights it to a standstill with his wild magic, he points out that if Nom doesn't kill him, it doesn't have to return to the prison. Nom takes the hint.
* LooseCanon: ''Gilden-Fire'', a novella consisting of material cut from ''The Illearth war''.

* MamaBear: Linden Avery, in the third series, which is set off by her desire to rescue her adopted son from Roger and Foul.

* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: [[spoiler: After Covenant gives Lord Foul his ring during the climax of ''White Gold Wielder'', Lord Foul kills Covenant by incinerating him with wild magic. However, because the Law of Life has been broken, Covenant's spirit remains in The Land as a ghost, standing between Lord Foul and the Arch of Time. As a ghost, Covenant proves to be completely immune to the ring's wild magic; Lord Foul uses up so much of his own energy trying to use it to blast through Covenant's ghost that he ends up destroying himself.]]

* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Linden sobs at the end of ''White Gold Wielder'' that she never got to say goodbye to Tom (or her father) after Tom's HeroicSacrifice. [[spoiler:Tom returns briefly as a ghost.]]

* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: Averted when Stave nearly falls to his death. Both Stave and two giants - who don't really catch him as much as absorb part of the shock - are severely injured.
* NotSoDifferent: Thomas [[spoiler:defeats]] Lord Foul in ''White Gold Wielder'' when he realizes that Foul is the embodiment of his own self-disgust, in a sadomasochistic ying-yang relationship: Thomas is self-hate while Foul is hate.
* ObstructiveZealot: The Masters. All of them [[spoiler: except Stave]]. Their conviction in stopping anyone from using Earthpower is born from good intentions, but still, it would have helped out things considerably if they'd just loosened up a little.

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: The Masters' attitude towards Foul. To the point where they bar the use of Earthpower, which they are incapable of using.

* OurTimeTravelIsDifferent: To travel through time, one has to unceremoniously jab holes in the last "Law" still holding reality together.
* ParentalIncest: Elena and Covenant. Elena seduces Covenant almost as soon as he appears in the Land again. It's almost as though she's had a crush on her mysterious white-gold-wielding other-worldly father for awhile. Thomas eventually accepts her advances, though nothing is implied beyond that...
* PathOfInspiration: The Clave and its Rede although it didn't start out that way.
* PhlebotinumOverload: In ''AATE'', [[spoiler:the croyel]] blows up after consuming Earthpower [[spoiler:from Jeremiah]].

* PillarOfLight: At the end of the first trilogy.

* PowerNullifier: Esmer by his mere presence to Linden's use of wild magic.
* PowerOfTrust: The entire theme of the second trilogy. Linden has the power to use The Ring without disrupting the Arch of Time, while Thomas can't because of the venom in his body. Everyone, and we mean '''''everyone''''', wants Linden to take the Ring from Thomas and just destroy Foul. Linden finally seizes the Ring from Thomas at the GrandFinale -- but gives it back to Thomas to give to Foul, after he wordlessly asks with a look, ''"Do you trust me?"'' [[spoiler:Turns out it was Thomas' BatmanGambit.]]

* RomanticizedAbuse: Played for {{Squick}}. [[spoiler:In the second book, it's revealed that Lena never completely recovered from having been raped, and was no longer entirely sane, imagining herself as having been in a romantic relationship with her rapist, even though he is on another planet and does not reappear for decades.]] She does seem to recover her senses [[spoiler:in the third book, once she discovers that their daughter is dead, and Covenant essentially let her die (and/or helped it happen)]].
* SamaritanSyndrome: Covenant finds out the hard way that this trope is in force.
* SavageWolves: Kresh are vicious predators.

* SpeakOfTheDevil: The case with the Sandgorgons.
* SpellMyNameWithAThe: All of the Insequent are like this -- the Vizard, the Ardent, the Harrow, the Mahdoubt, the Theomach.
* StableTimeLoop: Done rather well in the third chronicles; the characters are even GenreSavvy about it.
* TheStarsAreGoingOut: [[spoiler: This is what signals the end of the world in the final volume.]]

* SugarApocalypse: When TheLegionsOfHell attack GhibliHills, the result is not pretty.

* SupportingLeader: Both Hile Troy and Lord Mhoram.

* TimeTravel: Done in the third chronicles to great effect.
* ThouShaltNotKill: The Oath of the Land plays with the ideal of Thou Shalt Not Kill, and takes it further:
-->''Do not hurt when holding is enough\\
Do not wound when hurting is enough\\
Do not maim when wounding is enough\\
And kill not when maiming is enough\\
The greatest warrior is he who does not need to kill''
* TooHappyToLive: Pondered by Covenant in ''Lord Foul's Bane''. He believes that he had a lifetime's worth of laughter before he was diagnosed with leprosy.
%% * TraumaInducedAmnesia: Anele

* TurnCoat: Esmer, whose very nature prevents him from ever offering any aid without simultaneously backstabbing someone.
* UndeadAuthor: Discussed by WordOfGod; certain fans noted in the Gradual Interview that the story of Kevin, Foul, and the ritual of Desecration somehow got out, despite the fact that the only people present were Kevin (who died) and Foul (who isn't exactly on the Lords' dinner invite list). Donaldson noted that the Ravers probably spread the story on Foul's orders, since he found Kevin's DespairEventHorizon deeply fulfilling (and amusing) and wanted everyone to know about it.

* UnreliableNarrator: The first trilogy was mostly from Thomas' point of view, leaving the question open of whether The Land was a dream, a psychosis or real. The middle third of ''The Illearth War'', however, was done from the the viewpoint of Hile Troy, answering the question.
* TheUnfettered: The Unfettered are those who have trained as Lords but rejected the restrictions that actually ''becoming'' Lords would place upon them to pursue their own interests. They still serve the Land in their own ways, and many of them have powers the "real" Lords don't.

* {{Utopia}}: The good guys in the first ''Chronicles''.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: The Clave have carefully crafted their public image to make people think they use their BloodMagic to protect the people of the Land from the Sunbane, and even most of their initiates don't know the real truth: [[spoiler:that their leader is a Raver, and they're actually making the Sunbane ''worse'' and enforcing a dictatorial rule on the Land in the name of keeping it safe, all according to the designs of Lord Foul]].
* WackyWaysideTribe: The Brathairealm section of ''The One Tree''. While the sandgorgons do return later, most of the action feels very disconnected from the rest of the story.
* WalkingTheEarth: This is like a [[PlanetOfHats hat]] for the Insequent.

* WarringNatures: Esmer of ''The Third Chronicles of Thomas Covenant'' is the son of a ''Haruchai'' (a race of super-strong Lawful Neutral warriors) and a ''merwife'' (Chaotic Neutral siren-like creatures). Hybrid Vigor gave Esmer extraordinary access to Earthpower. And the conflict between his ''haruchai'' and ''merwife'' natures make him batshit insane and potentially as harmful as any of Lord Foul's minions.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Those members of the Clave who think they're ''moderating'' the Sunbane, rather than making it ''worse''. Those in the know are straight [[EvilSorcerer Evil Sorcerers]].

* WitchSpecies: The Insequent are all magic-users of great power, though they're not as good as the Elohim. Probably because the Insequent have to learn their powers while the Elohim are power incarnate.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Drool Rockworm, though as a Cavewight he was already ''pretty'' crazy by most peoples' standards. Also, carrying around a chunk of the Illearth Stone for an extended period of time is not advisable for your mental health.

* LastNameBasis: No one (including the narration) calls Covenant by his first name except for Joan. Linden notes in the third series that even when she and Covenant were lovers, it never occurred to her to call him "Tom" or "Thomas" - "Covenant" always fit [[TheFettered her perception]] [[MeaningfulName of him]] too well for her to call him anything else.

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Deconstructed in the first trilogy. It turns out that nothing and no one is completely uncorruptible, and being ''nearly'' so makes you incapable of living with or recovering from corruption when you do succumb to it. Learning to live with a certain amount of shame and inadequacy without letting it either [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope drive you to all-out villainy]] or [[HeroicBSOD traumatise you into inaction]] turns out to be the key to victory for both Covenant and the Lords. This is why white gold is so powerful: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored_gold#White_gold white gold]] is gold alloyed with a white metal, providing the gold with "imperfection".