History Literature / Tinker

* HonoraryAunt: [[spoiler: Lain, who turns out to also be Tinker's real aunt.]]

* MagicAIsMagicA

* TheMaze: In her dreams.
* MysteriousParent: [[spoiler:Esme.]]

* NameThatUnfoldsLikeLotusBlossom: The elves tend to have long, poetic names in this fashion; Tinker's bodyguard, for example, is named Galloping Storm Horse on Wind. Or, for everyday use, "Pony".

* ContemptibleCover: The series is unfortunately plagued with awful-looking, and often inaccurately lurid, covers. It starts in earnest with ''[[https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71PkMaomM3L.jpg Elfhome]]''. However, despite how bad the covers get, they all actually do depict a scene from the book.

* AccidentalMarriage: Owing to human/elf customs differing.

* TheMagocracy: Elven society.

* ''Harbinger''

* OneWordTitle: Whether you call the series ''Tinker'' or ''Elfhome'', it's one, and both are names of books in the series. Book 1 and three, respectively, with the last book being called ''Harbinger''.

* OurElvesAreBetter: And don't they know it.

* BadDreams: Tinker has them after her kidnapping.

* EvilAlbino: The elves believe this, thanks to the last emperor of the Skin Clan, who was albino and who had thousands of slaves killed in experimentation for spells to fix his poor eyesight, among other atrocities. [[spoiler:And he's ''still alive'', Esme and Lain's stepfather, and the BigBad.]]

* HufflepuffHouse: The Water Clan. We know that they ''exist'', but while the Wind, Stone and Fire Clans have all contributed major characters, the only Water Clan elf to appear has only featured in a couple of side-stories contained in ''Project Elfhome'' and is implied to be ''very'' atypical of the clan.

* LittleBitBeastly: Some of the more fortunate half-oni end up looking like this; [[spoiler:Tommy Chang]] can pass as human if he hides his cat ears. Others are closer to full-on PettingZooPeople.

* [[EvilStepmother Evil Stepfather]]: Esme and Lain's stepfather is the BigBad. Can't get much worse than that.

* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Lain thinks she does. Tinker's dreams also show signs of this. [[spoiler:Esme's prophetic dreams led to her changing her major to astrophysics and becoming one of the captains in the colonization effort, all to protect Lain. Since this particular talent is supposed to be passed from mother to daughter, it's not surprising that Tinker has the gift too.]]

* ContemptibleCover: The series is unfortunately plagued with awful-looking, and often inaccurately lurid, covers. It starts in earnest with ''Elfhome''. However, despite how bad the covers get, they all actually do depict a scene from the book.

* ItWasAGift

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Younger elves have to deal with this constantly. Not only is anything they do likely to be compared against the work of some master in their craft who was born thousands of years before, there's a good chance that said master is ''still alive'' and still producing, making it virtually impossible for new blood to get out of their shadow. One subplot in "Elfhome" was a group of doubles (Elves with double-digit ages) who moved to Pittsburg so that they would have a chance to make their mark in their chosen crafts.

* LimitedAdvancementOpportunities: The opportunities for promotion among a domi's ''sekasha'' aren't so much limited as they are virtually nonexistent. Rank is determined entirely by the order in which they are hired, so a ''sekasha'' who is not hired as First right from the start cannot hope to obtain the rank of First unless either everyone senior to him dies, or his domi dies and he gets hired as First by someone else. This is the reason why very few domana have more than one Hand (five) of ''sekasha'', as a ''sekasha'' hired as second or higher Hand has no real hope of ever achieving the rank of First Hand, let alone First, so as a rule only those domi important enough that the prestige of being in his/her service at all trumps the stigma of being in a lesser Hand can attract more than five personal retainers.

* MysteriousParent: [[spoiler: Esme.]]

* ''The Wolf Who Rules''

!!Tropes featured in this work

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The oni and their subraces. [[spoiler: Except the tengu]]. Half-oni are more complicated. All the ones we meet are criminals it's true but it's treated as [[NecessarilyEvil a matter of survival]] and due to massive abuse by the oni they have a mass FreudianExcuse.

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Tinker and Windwolf don't appear in "Wood Sprites" at all. The focus characters are two of Tinker's sisters on Earth who she's never even heard of, much less met (They, like Tinker herself, were born from embryos implanted into foster mothers), and their struggles against their biological mother's evil relatives, who were briefly mentioned in "Wolf Who Rules" but had not appeared before. "Project Elfhome" is a short story collection about characters of secondary importance to the first three novels if they explicitly appeared at all.

* BackgroundMagicField

* BodyguardBetrayal: Sekasha are expected to put down their domana overlords if they go off the reservation. This actually happens in ''The Wolf Who Rules''.
* BodyguardCrush: Elves consider it to be socially acceptable for domana caste nobles to take lovers from their sekasha caste bodyguards--even if the domana in question is already married.
** [[spoiler:When Oilcan is turned into a domana-caste elf, he hires his sekasha caste lover to be his First--as he knew she would reject a marriage proposal and this was a socially acceptable alternative to allow them to be together]].

* CloseKnitCommunity: In ''Elfhome'', especially, what they are aiming for for Pittsburgh

* FantasticRacism: Oh yes. Pittsburgh has humans, elves, tengu and half-oni and every groups has a certain amount of contempt and/or outright hatred for some or all of the others. Even within the elven race as a whole there is this between clans.

* InterdimensionalTravelDevice: The hyperphase gate (unintentionally?) functions as this.

* LimitedAdvancementOpportunities: The opportunities for promotion among a domi's sekasha aren't so much limited as they are virtually nonexistent. Rank is determined entirely by the order in which they are hired, so a sekasha who is not hired as First right from the start cannot hope to obtain the rank of First unless either everyone senior to him dies, or his domi dies and he gets hired as First by someone else. This is the reason why very few domana have more than one Hand (five) of sekasha, as a sekasha hired as second or higher Hand has no real hope of ever achieving the rank of First Hand, let alone First, so as a rule only those domi important enough that the prestige of being in his/her service at all trumps the stigma of being in a lesser Hand can attract more than five personal retainers.

* NameThatUnfoldsLikeLotusBlossom: The elves tend to have long, poetic names in this fashion; Tinker's bodyguard, for example, is named Galloping Storm Horse On Wind. Or, for everyday use, 'Pony'.

* TeenGenius: Tinker. Windwolf is also implied to be this in elven terms (he's over 200 years old, but in terms of maturity that's equivalent to about 20 years old in human parlance)
* {{Tengu}}: Lain has as dream where Tinker brings her a Tengu, which she describes as a Japanese elf that is sometimes looks like a crow.

* WrenchWench

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Tinker and Windwolf don't appear in "Wood Sprites" at all. The focus characters are two of Tinker's sisters on Earth who she's never even heard of, much less met (They, like Tinker herself, were born from embryos implanted into foster mothers), and their struggles against their biological mother's evil relatives, who were briefly mentioned in "Wolf Who Rules" but had not appeared before.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The oni and their subraces. [[spoiler: Except the tengu]]. Half-oni on the other hand seem no better or worse than humans or elves.