History Literature / TheSharingKnife

* ExoticExtendedMarriage: Has a case where a Lakewalker couple couldn't have children, their families were pressuring them to break up, instead they brought a second husband into the relationship. The husbands are married to each other as well.

* TheEmpath: Just about everyone with Groundsense is this to some degree.

* BadassBaritone: Dag's very deep voice is described a few times, and he's undoubtedly a badass. He'd just ''really'' rather be a [[RetiredBadass retired]] one.

* DrJerk: Arkady Waterbirch is... abrasive. Fortunately he's also a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.

* JerkAss: Sunny. Barr starts out as one but proves teachable.

* OutnumberedSibling: Fawn is the youngest of five siblings and the only girl among them.

* LoveableRogue: Barr - who is genuinely charming, when he isn't trying too hard.

* TheNotSecret: A farmer girl gets pregnant by a passing Lakewalker ([[spoiler: Barr Foxbrush]]) and marries a farmer boy soon afterwards. She spends the next fifteen years hiding the fact that the baby is not his. [[spoiler: At the end of ''Knife Children'', it turns out that her husband has known since the baby was born. The narration points out that he can count to nine.]]

* SeekingTheMissingFindingTheDead: Berry is well aware that this is a likely outcome of her quest to find her missing father, brother and fiancé, explaining it's why she named her boat the ''Fetch'' rather than the ''Finder''. [[spoiler:The trope ends up applying two thirds of the way - her fiancé is alive and well, but ''joined'' the river bandits who killed the others.]]

* ToBeLawfulOrGood: In ''Horizon'', Dag risks his place in a southern Lakewalker camp - one with a medicine maker mentor who has the same abilities as Dag and can teach Dag more than he ever dreamed of - to save a farmer boy from lockjaw. In the end, it's the camp patrol captain, not the mentor, that decides Dag's fate. [[spoiler: He bans Dag from New Moon Cutoff when Dag pushes back on his refusal to deal with farmers - not helped by Dag pointing out where New Moon Cutoff falls far short of traditional Lakewalker doctrine.]]

* TheMaidenNameDebate: Lakewalkers use a matrilineal system of naming and inheritance (husband normally takes wife's 'tent' name, and households are passed to the eldest daughter), while [[{{Muggles}} farmers]] use a patrilinal one. As Dag Bluefield (ne Redwing) earned himself a spot in multiple ballads under his ''prior'' married name (Dag Wolverine of Leech Lake Camp) this leads to a degree of confusion.

* MalignedMixedMarriage: [[{{Muggles}} Farmer]][=/=][[WitchSpecies Lakewalker]] pairings are looked at askance more often than not by just about everyone, but the latter tend to be rather more dogmatic about the matter. Unlike most cases, [[JustifiedTrope there are objective reasons]], Lakewalkers need to keep their groundsense (and hence, bloodlines) strong since TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed, and having sex with {{Muggles}} tends to inadvertently MindRape them.

* WitchSpecies: The Lakewalkers think of themselves as one, and use it to justify their arrogance towards the farmers. They're wrong--magic can appear in farmers as well, albeit in rudimentary form.

** In ''Beguilement'', Dag is told of a Lakewalker from another camp who was banished for keeping a secret farmer family. That Lakewalker turns out to be the BigBad of ''Passage''.
** In ''Legacy'', Barr is forced to admit he used his Lakewalker abilities to [[CharmPerson "persuade"]] a farmer girl to [[UnusualEuphemism "go behind the woodpile"]] with him. Come the epilogue of ''Horizon'', [[spoiler: we find out that that girl bore a daughter from that encounter and wants nothing to do with Barr going forward.]]

* TrueCompanions: Most of the cast in ''Passage'' end up becoming this.

* ButWeUsedACondom: The rhythm method is far more reliable when one party can literally see when his partner is most fertile. Unless that party gets caught up in the moment, as Dag was in ''Horizon''

** In ''Legacy'', Barr is forced to admit he used his Lakewalker abilities to [[CharmPerson "persuade"]] a farmer girl to [[UnusualEuphemism "go behind the woodpile"]] with him. Come the epilogue of ''Horizon'', [[spoiler: We find out that that girl bore a daughter from that encounter and wants nothing to do with Barr going forward.]]

* TheNotSecret: A farmer girl gets pregnant by a passing Lakewalker ([[spoiler: Barr Foxbrush]]) and marries a farmer boy soon afterwards. She spends the next fifteen years hiding the fact that the baby is not his. [[spoiler: At the end of ''Knife Children'', it turns out that her husband has known since the baby was born.]]

* TheNotSecret: A farmer girl gets pregnant by a passing Lakewalker ([[spoiler: Barr Foxbrush]]) and marries a farmer boy soon afterwards. She spends the next fifteen years hiding the fact that the baby is not his. [[spoiler: At the end of ''Knife Children'', it turns out that her husband has known since the baby was born.]]

* ToBeLawfulOrGood: In ''Horizon'', Dag risks his place in a southern Lakewalker camp - one with a medicine maker mentor who has the same abilities as Dag and can teach Dag more than he ever dreamed of - to save a Farmer boy from Lockjaw. In the end, It's the camp Patrol Captain, not the mentor, that decides Dag's fate. [[spoiler: He bans Dag from New Moon Cutoff when Dag pushes back on his refusal to deal with farmers - not helped by Dag pointing out where New Moon Cutoff falls far short of traditional Lakewalker doctrine.]]

* ExoticExtendedMarriage: Has a case where a Lakewalker couple couldn't have children, their families were pressuring them to break up, instead they brought a second husband into the relationship. The husbands are [[BiTheWay married to each other as well.]]

** It's also quite clear that the husbands [[BiTheWay are also married to each other]].

* KaleidoscopeEyes: Dag has a fairly realistic, low-key version; they're essentially brown, but change from gold to black and every shade in between depending on the light.