History Literature / TheReluctantKing

* TookALevelInKindness: Jorian becomes wiser and more mature during his toils. [[spoiler:When he ultimately learns that his beloved Estrildis found another paramour and got pregnant by him, he decides to let her live happy with him and wishes them both well, contrasting the very beginning of the novel where he swears to chop her hypothetical lover into ribbons.]]

* TakeThat: The folk tales Jorian tells often have morals that seem like veiled satires of ideas like welfare solving crime (since criminals are supposedly all motivated by want) or the disaster that renouncing material concerns as a Hindu-like sage advises would result in.

** Tarxia is ruled by the clergy of Zevetas, who consider him its patron. Given their devotion, they mandate that he is the greatest god in the pantheon, although he's considered minor elsewhere, and all different beliefs there are outlawed. Foreign visitors who follow other beliefs only briefly can stay in Tarxia.

* OffWithHisHead: The city state of Xylar operates under an odd custom where after five years each of their kings is publicly beheaded. At that point, his head is thrown into the crowd, with whoever catching this becoming their next king. However, they have to suffer the same fate once their own five years are up. Jorian however escaped.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The omnibus e-book's cover has Jorian (who in the book is described as having long hair and a mustache) with short hair. Worse, beside him is a woman who's clearly meant to be Yargali, who's literally whitewashed. She's described as having skin that's so dark it's nearly black, with the character on the cover Caucasian looking.

* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Gods gain strength from how much worship they receive. Those with the most are very powerful. Conversely, ones that have been deprived eventually fade into nothing.

* AnAesop: Jorian's tales of King Filoman the Well-Meaning and his various foolish decisions are obviously used for delivering various messages through negative example, e.g. paying off criminals won't solve crime, although some are very inapplicable for the real world, like "[[FantasticAesop don't use golem generals]]".

* DiamondsInTheBuff: It's mentioned that a wizardess in a costume competition put a jewel in her navel to qualify as her "[[LoopholeAbuse costume]]" (as she's wearing ''something''), nearly winning it.

* DeathBySex: Invoked in the third book, where Jorian tries to get Vanora off him by claiming that he was cursed so that any woman who has sex with him dies horribly. He's bluffing, there's no such spell.

* JerkToNiceGuyPlot: Jorian goes through a lot of this, becoming wiser and more mature during his toils. [[spoiler:When he ultimately learns that his beloved Estrildis found another paramour and got pregnant by him, he decides to let her live happy with him and wishes them both well, contrasting the very beginning of the novel where he swears to chop her hypothetical lover into ribbons.]]

* BuxomIsBetter: Jorian is highly admiring of Yargali, as she has huge breasts described as melon sized.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Novaria is made up of twelve city states akin to Ancient Greece or Italy until 1870, having a shared culture, language and religion despite being separate, with different government systems. Shven is home to nomadic warriors modeled on the Mongols or similar cultures (although described as white). Fedirun contains another culture that resembles the Bedouin Arabs. Mulvan is an empire with a strict caste system resembling ancient India's, although it has features of Persia and China as well. Iraz, dividing Mulvan from Fedirun, is also a lot like the Byzantine Empire. Salimor, in the Eastern Ocean, resembles Japan and the Philippines. Kuromon is based on China and Japan too.

* AnAesop: Jorian's tales of King Filoman the Well-Meaning and his various foolish decisions are obviously used for delivering various messages through negative example, e.g. paying off criminals won't solve crime, although some are very inapplicaple for the real world, like "[[FantasticAesop don't use golem generals]]".

* HonorBeforeReason: When [[spoiler: Istrildis' new lover barges into Jorian and his group he angrily challenges him to a duel for her, accusing him of being an honorless coward when he tries to talk his way out. After Jorian beats some sense into him, he acknowledge how foolish he has been and behaves properly.]]

* WeirdTradeUnion: Magic users in various countries have guilds they must join to work and obtain licenses, frequently wuth extortionate rates.

* FantasticLegalWeirdness: In "The Unbeheaded King" there's a brief discussion by ghost Baron Lorc who had been a magistrate while alive if he's still got authority to perform a divorce. Since there's [[LoopholeAbuse no law]] saying a ghost can't be a magistrate so far as he knows, Lorc concludes his office is still in effect.

* CharacterDevelopment: Jorian goes through a lot of this, becoming wiser and more mature during his toils. [[spoiler:When he ultimately learns that his beloved Istrildis found another paramour and got pregnant by him, he decides to let her live happy with him and wishes them both well, contrasting the very beginning of the novel where he swears to chop her hypothetical lover into ribbons.]]

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: In Xylar, after five years the king is beheaded, at which his head gets hurled to the crows, with whoever catches this becoming king afterward. Escaping from this is a felony, and considered as blasphemy too. Judge Grallon thinks Jorian grossly immoral as he refuses to willingly submit for this.