History Literature / ThePrioryOfTheOrangeTree

A {{Gunpowder|Fantasy}} FeministFantasy series written by Samantha Shannon, inspired by the myth of [[Myth/SaintGeorge Saint George And The Dragon]].

A {{Gunpowder|Fantasy}} FeministFantasy series written by Samantha Shannon, inspired by the myth of Literature/SaintGeorgeAndTheDragon.

** In the East, Seiiki, an island nation with a strictly isolationist policy ruled by a warrior aristocracy, is very like Japan during the Edo period, with the neighboring Empire of the Twelve Lakes on the mainland corresponding to China.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Countries and regions in the world are inspired by real world counterparts--Inys is very like Elizabethan England, Seiiki is very like Japan, with neighboring countries corresponding to other East Asian countries and the dragons being like ''lung'', and so on.

A prequel novel titled ''A Day of Fallen Night'' was published in early 2023.

* ReligionOfEvil: Yscalin's king decided to worship the Nameless One and forced his subjects to do the same. They don't actually believe it, but the alternative is being chained up to be eaten by draconic creatures, so they have no choice.

* SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality: In between 6 and 7. (It isn't "women are better than men", rather "most of the characters who drive the plot are women".) Most of the social difficulties in the setting are due to interclass, ethnic, and/or religious conflict; neither male nor female characters are subject to GenderScoff, and women being powerful leaders and warriors is not seen as unusual in any way. There is some ambiguity to this, however--Truyde once mentions that the Inysh are obsessed with the behavior of young ladies (it's unclear if this is particular to ladies and not young men, though there are indications that men are supposed to be chaste as well) and people who don't like the late Queen Rosarian call her [[SlutShaming a slut and a harlot]]. Cleolind has also been subject to {{Chickification}} in the Inysh histories as the helpless "Damsel" and Tané laments that women in the old stories tend to lose their names. That might imply that things were less egalitarian a thousand years ago except that Galian's original Knights of Virtue included women.

A prequel novel titled ''A Day of Fallen Night'' is due to be published in early 2023.

* UltimateEvil: The Nameless One, an enormous dragon and probably the most powerful entity the world has ever seen. He seeks to dominate and enslave humanity and could probably reduce most of the kingdoms to ashes if he returned to full power.

* SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality: In between 6 and 7. (It isn't "women are better than men", rather "most of the characters who drive the plot are women".) Most of the social difficulties in the setting are due to interclass, ethnic, and/or religious conflict; neither male nor female characters are subject to GenderScoff, and women being powerful leaders and warriors is not seen as unusual in any way. There is some SlutShaming leveled at some characters (such as Sigoso describing the late Queen Rosarian as a slut and a harlot) but it's also indicated that chastity is considered important for both sexes in Virtudom. Although Cleolind has been subject to historical {{Chickification}} (as seen above), it also seems like equality between the sexes has always been the default.

* FailedASpotCheck: For all his information-gathering and dread reputation, Combe admits that he completely neglected [[spoiler:to do any surveillance on the duchies of Virtue because he assumed that their loyalty was beyond question]].
* FalseFlagOperation: The attempts on Sabran's life. Ead realizes that the cutthroats are at once too competent and too clumsy to ''not'' be sent by someone on the inside and deduces that their real purpose was to frighten Sabran into marriage (but Ead killing them all meant that only the last one had any effect). Later, [[spoiler:Truyde hires a troupe of actors to play as draconic doomsingers so she can convince Sabran to open talks with the East. Igrain usurps this plan with one of her own, inserting ''real'' assassins into the group to kill Aubrecht since he's not the man she wanted Sabran to choose.]]

* IdenticalGrandson: Sabran looks just like [[spoiler: Kalyba]].

* BetaCouple: In the background of Ead and Sabran trying to figure out their mutual attraction are Magret Beck and Sir Galian Lintley, who are very steadily in love and only hampered by the fact that her noble rank is much higher than his.

* IllegalReligion: The Six Virtues is the only allowed religion within Inys, and official posture is that every other religion is false and heretical. This rankles nations outside Virtudom who would otherwise have nothing against relations with Inys. [[spoiler:Sabran officially abandons this pose late in the book when she has to seek alliance with Lasia.]]

* DefiantToTheEnd: After the coup is foiled, [[spoiler:Igrain Crest goes to the block still adamant that she was right to murder Rosarian, Aubrecht, and to betray Sabran]].

* PosthumousCharacter: Jannart, Niclay's lover, is dead before the novel begins.