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Deltora Quest is the collective title of three separate series of Fantasy novels written by Australian author Emily Rodda, with cover art and other illustrations by Marc McBride. A series written as a mix of fantasy, mystery, interactivity, horror, romance, action and adventure, it definitely has a following. Also, quite Troperiffic. The fifteen-book series chronicles the adventures of Lief, Barda and Jasmine as they fight to defend their land from the forces of evil, going on a series of quests and adventures across the country in the process.

The first series, Deltora Quest, follows our heroes as they journey to find the seven long-lost gems from the Belt of Deltora and search for the heir to the throne so that the land of Deltora can be freed from the reign of the Shadow Lord. The series was released between 2000 and 2002.

  • The Forests of Silence (2000)
  • The Lake of Tears
  • City of the Rats
  • The Shifting Sands
  • Dread Mountain
  • Maze of the Beast
  • Valley of the Lost
  • Return to Del (2002)

Deltora Quest 2, alternatively called Deltora Quest Shadowlands, further chronicles these adventurers as they journey to find the three pieces of the long-lost Pirran Pipe to rescue Deltorans held captive in the Shadowlands. Notable for making the third-person narration sympathetic to Jasmine's thoughts almost as frequently as Lief's. The series was released over the course of 2002.

  • Cavern of the Fear
  • The Isle of Illusion
  • The Shadowlands

In Deltora Quest 3, also known as Dragons of Deltora, our heroes must journey across Deltora to awaken the seven sleeping dragons of Deltora and destroy the Four Sisters, which are secretly poisoning the land. Notable for ramping the Nightmare Fuel up to eleven in its last book, where seemingly everything that can go wrong at once does. This series was published over the course of 2004.

  • Dragon's Nest
  • Shadowgate
  • Isle of the Dead
  • The Sister of the South

Had a anime adaptation, a manga adaptation and also a game on the DS. The anime has aired around the world, on The Hub, on ABC3, and in Italy.

The anime has its own page.

There's also spinoff books with additional illustrations by McBride, such as The Deltora Book of Monsters, Tales of Deltora and Secrets of Deltora.

In 2011, a second series set in the same universe was released. This series, titled The Three Doors, shares many of the plot elements and mythologies of the first series, and directly references the past history of Deltora.

Set in the city of Weld in a land across the sea, The Three Doors follows a boy named Rye on his quest to save his city from the mysterious Enemy who has begun to attack his home.

The three books in The Three Doors are:

  • The Golden Door (September 11th, 2011)
  • The Silver Door (April 4th, 2012)
  • The Third Door (October 1st, 2012)

A third series has also being added to the continuity. This series, titled Star of Deltora, takes place about a decade after the end of Deltora Quest 3 and is initially set in Del, but promises to visit other lands across the sea.

It follows the adventures of a girl named Britta as she works to prove herself as a worthy apprentice to the famous Trader Rosalyn, Mab.

The four books in Star of Deltora are:

  • Shadows of the Master (August 1st, 2015)
  • Two Moons (November 1st, 2015)
  • The Towers of Illica (April 1st, 2016)
  • The Hungry Isle (September 1st, 2016)

The Rowan of Rin series has also been retroactively made a part of the same continuity.

The characters.

Be warned: This series RUNS off of plot twists. There are many spoilers ahead, including some unmarked.


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     Deltora Quest A - K 
  • Action Girl:
    • Jasmine is a fairly capable fighter, best seen in The Shifting Sands during the Rithmere Games.
    • Brianne in Deltora Shadowlands was a champion of the Rithmere Games and fought in (and managed to escape from) the Shadow Arena.
    • Lindal of Broome single-handedly takes down the Orchard-Keeper in Dragon's Nest, saving the three companions' lives in the process, and also does well against the dragons she pits herself against.
    • Gla-Thon is generally one of the more competent fighters among the side characters, with the Grey Guards noting her to having given them some of the most trouble in Return to Del.
  • Achilles' Heel: Grade 1 and 2 Ols can only be killed either through stabbing them through the heart or with the power of the Belt of Deltora.
  • Aerith and Bob: There are made up names, such as Barda, Lindel, Fardeep, and Jinks. There are unusual, but used, English names, such as Doom and Josef. Then there are Anna, Tom, Ava, Jack, Lief and Steven.
  • All There in the Manual:
    • Tales of Deltora, which depicted the legends that proves important for the series, such as showing how the Shadow Lord's dark greed began, the Masked Ones' beginnings, as well as telling how King Adin united the Seven Tribes against the Shadow Lord's army, complete with Deltora Quest's artist giving his depiction of the scenes.
    • The Deltora Book of Monsters, a monster book about the monsters living in Deltora, including those owned by the Shadow Lord, explains a number of facts about some of the creatures in the story, including the origins of the Glus.
    • Secrets of Deltora, the travel guide/diary of Doran the Dragonlover, who goes around Deltora and writes about the land, civilized area and people under the order of the current King at the time, hoping that his book would educate the heir on the world beyond Del. It also has the series' pseudo-interactivity of using riddles and foreshadows Doran's doomed journey for the Sisters.
  • Amphibian at Large: The fifth book, Dread Mountain, has the giant toad Gellick. It is a servant of the Shadow Lord and guardian of the emerald, which is lodged in his head.
  • And I Must Scream: When they are stung by Wenn, Barda and Lief are briefly left unable to move at all though they are still conscious.
  • Animated Adaptation: The series received an anime during the mid 2000's, though it only adapted the first eight books.
  • Animated Armor: Gorl is revealed to be this; his physical body having crumbled to dust long ago with only his will animating his armour. Destroying the armour destroys him for good.
  • Arc Number: Seven. Seven gems, seven tribes, seven dragons, seven letters in 'Deltora', seven Ak-Baba, the Shadow Lord re-invades Deltora exactly seven years into Endon's reign, Jasmine was seven when her parents were taken, etc.
  • Arc Words: "The Enemy has many plans"/"I have many plans".
  • Awesome Moment of Crowning: At the climax of Return to Del, it looks like all hope is lost. The rebellion has been captured, Jasmine, Barda and Doom are caught, and the heir still hasn't been found. Believing Jasmine to be the Heir, Lief has to jump across a gap holding both the Belt and his sword. Realizing he cannot make the jump, he sheathes his sword and puts on the belt. This causes the Belt to glow, revealing Lief as Adin's heir and King of Deltora.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Lief and Jasmine. Also, Barda and Lindal. Jasmine and Doom have these moments, as well, but not in a romantic way.
  • Babies Ever After: After the end of the final book, Lief and Jasmine have three children, named Jarred, Anna and Endon. Barda and Lindal have six children 'all taller than their parents'.
  • The Bad Guys Win: After years of sabotaging the Royal Family by causing their own people to lose faith in them as well as destroying their alliances and finally temporarily destroying the Belt of Deltora for a short amount of time, the Shadow Lord is able to perform a hostile takeover with not much resistance. It isn't until sixteen years later that its reign of suffering and terror ends.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Doom is fond of this trope, as is the author.
    • The creature depicted on the cover of the books usually has a twist once per series:
      • The Shifting Sands has the Sand Beasts, or Terraoccti. After Gorl, Soldeen and Reeah, one would assume them to be the guardian of the fourth gem, but they're simply a natural, albeit dangerous native of the Shifting Sands. The true guardian of the gem is the Hive.
      • The cover monster of The Shadowlands is a Vraal, which debuted in the previous series. Unlike The Fear and the Arach, it's not the final foe the characters face in the story.
      • The cover monster of The Sister of the South is the opal dragon, a creature firmly on the side of the heroes, as opposed to Rolf's dragon form, The Masked One, and the Kobb.
    • The second series revolves around finding the pieces of the Pirran Pipe so Lief can use it to fight the Shadow Lord in the Shadowlands. After two titanic fights in the first two books, Lief and co arrive at the third island, and the reader expects another monster fight. Nope. The Kerons are the only Pirrans who managed to keep their piece of the Pipe, and so Lief simply explains what's going on, asks for the Pipe, does a trade and then it's off to the Shadowlands.
  • Batman Gambit:
    • The Shadow Lord's plan in the third series turns out to be one of these. It just didn't count on the dragons being convinced to come together. Although it did try to kill them off anyway, fortunately Doran the Dragonlover prevents this. Best summed up by the Shadow Lord's own words, "I have plans within plans."
    • Oh so many plans indeed. Just looking at the first series: not only was there the main plot of scattering the gems of the belt, but also the lie about the Guardian of the Diamond being King Endon to demoralize would-be heroes and the fake bodies of Endon and his wife and child, again to demoralize, and the gripper field itself and sending Dain to fake being the heir, Ichabod and other Ols adding further tricks and threats. The second series shows even more of its plans, both those to bait the king, and the nasty new creatures it's cooking up. Then there's the third series... as mentioned above, it deals with the last of The Plan. The epilogue deliberately restates that it will never, ever stop planning and plotting.
    • In the second series, The Shadow Lord's main plan is fashioned around a Batman Gambit. Lief follows Jasmine into the Shadowlands, which is precisely what the Shadow Lord expected him to do.
  • Because Destiny Says So: Jasmine only agreed to go on The Quest with Lief and Barda because her mother's ghost appeared to her and told her to.
  • Beneath the Earth: Where the Pirrans fled to using magic.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Do not hurt people Lief of Del cares about, if you value your life.
    • Also, do not mock Jasmine or her family, or she'll cut you.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension:
    • Lief and Jasmine in all three series.
    • Barda and Lindal in the third series.
  • Black Knight: Gorl.
  • Body Horror:
    • Claw and quite a few characters trapped in the Shadowlands.
    • The Guardian's pets turn out to be this as well.
    • And then there's what the Masked Ones almost did to Lief...
    • We can assume that the real Anna was ripped apart by a Vraal.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Glock and just about every member of the Jalis tribe. Also, most if not all of the population of Broome.
  • Book Ends:
    • The first book ends with the reveal that Gorl was long dead and that he only existed as Animated Armor held together by his own willpower which survived his own death. At the climax of the final book, Lief has the realisation that the Shadow Lord was of a similar nature, existing merely as will, and can never be truly defeated.
    • In the second chapter of The Forests of Silence, Jarred reads The Belt of Deltora, that contains the passage "[Adin] ruled the land long and wisely. But he never forgot he was a man of the people, and that their trust in him was the source of his power. Neither did he forget that the Enemy, though defeated, was not destroyed. He knew that the enemy is clever and sly, and that to its anger and envy a thousand years is like the blink of an eye. So he wore the belt always, and never let it out of his sight." The Sister of the South ends with the same passage but this time in regards to Lief's reign as king.
  • The Call Knows Where You Live: Jasmine initially had absolutely no intention of joining Lief and Barda in the first series. Then, after they get the topaz, it draws her dead mother's spirit, who bids her to join them.
  • Canon Welding: Rowan of Rin is confirmed to take place in the same universe as Deltora Quest and its related books, but as of yet there has been no relevant interaction between the two stories. Rin is briefly visited in the second Star of Deltora book, Two Moons, but the ship is immediately turned away by the Maris.
  • Character Development: Lief gets more mature and thinks before he acts (mostly). Barda learns to like Lief and Jasmine, and they form a little makeshift family. Jasmine learns to be (a bit) more trusting and (a bit) less wild.
    • During The Three Doors Trilogy Rye gets more confident throughout the books.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Tiny details in a previous book or even earlier in the same book can be crucial later on. Many are directly related to the puzzles e.g. the names of the Guardian's pets.
  • A Child Shall Lead Them: Well, the heir takes the throne at about seventeen years of age.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Three guesses...
  • Circus of Fear: The Masked Ones.
  • City in a Bottle: The island of Auron in the second series. Except that it's not a city in a bottle because you need more than just one person in it to have a city...
  • Clarke's Third Law: A fair amount of what the Shadow Lord does sounds more like our technology than magic. From the lights in the Gray Guard growth building, to the "sparking rods", to the reference to the power being cut, it's easy to conclude that it's using electricity, which the heroes have no way to distinguish from magic. Whether the generation of Gray Guards is magic, science, or a bit of each is hard to say.
  • Clingy Costume: In Shadowgate, the inner circle of the Masked Ones' masks of adulthood turn out to be this, as they're permanently fused to the wearer's skin—unfortunately for Lief, who as a favour to Bede, put on one...
  • Cloudcuckoolander:
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: The Granous' idea of fun is gruesomely torturing their victims and dismembering their fingers and toes.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Anything directly belonging to the Shadow Lord is generally colored grey with scarlet markings.
  • Crapsack World:
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In The Cavern of the Fear Glock proves that he's much more than a gambler, gossiper and alcoholic.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: After the Grey Guards decide to attack Steven, Nevets pops out and...well, let's just say that the man-eating plants that go by the name of grippers have a buffet. The grey guards also inflict this on their enemies using "blisters", which poison their victims and cause them to die rapidly in agony. Fortunately, it's implied that the blisters cause a less painful death once Gellick is destroyed and the gnomes come up with an alternative.
  • Cult Colony: Noradz. They're obsessed with cleanliness to the point where everyone freaks out when a bread roll falls to the ground.
  • Curse Is Foiled Again: Partial subversion in the third series. When each of the Four Sisters poisoning the land is destroyed, the region it affected heals up immediately (crops grow again, poisoned wells clear up, et cetera)... but once all four are destroyed, disgusting grey gunk starts rising from the ground to flood the land. Fortunately, the main characters manage to destroy that too. With dragons.
  • Cute, but Cacophonic: Prin's dub voice. Nails on a chalkboard is far too kind a phrase for that voice.
  • Cutting the Knot: The guardian of the diamond offers Lief, Barda, Jasmine and Neridah a chance to play his game for the diamond. Neridah declares that it's pointless and leaves. Later, while Lief and co are playing the game and the guardian's asleep, she comes back, breaks in and steals the diamond. Thing is, we're told earlier that a stolen diamond only brings bad luck, so while she tries to escape, she slips, hits her head on a rock and dies.
  • Dangerous 16th Birthday: Lief's potentially lethal journey starts on his sixteenth birthday.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Jasmine, Doom, Ranesh, Manus, Fardeep, all of the Dread Gnomes, Tira and the rest of Noradz, and the Torans probably qualify now too... This is the sort of thing that happens when you live in a Crapsack World.
  • Dark Magical Girl: Kirsten and Paff.
  • Darker and Edgier: Each series is definitely darker than the one before it. Each book within the individual series gets progressively darker, as well.
  • Darkest Hour: The finale in each series is this.
    • First series: Everyone except Lief has been captured and sent to the Place of Punishment to be publicly executed. Jasmine is supposedly the heir, but the Belt won't shine for her, meaning that they've possibly spent the entire series fighting for a trinket with no real power. All Lief can do is head to the execution grounds nevertheless, knowing that he has no plan and will likely die.
    • Second series: The Shadow Lord's Xanatos Gambit has been pulled off just about completely successfully. Lief, Barda, and Jasmine are trapped in the Shadowlands, surrounded by enemies, and the captives they've come to save are likewise in the same situation. And although Lief is able to temporarily keep the enemies at bay using the Pipe, its effectiveness is gradually dying, being in the hands of a novice musician...
    • Third series: Not only does Lief still not know where the Sister of the South is, he realizes that he's condemned everyone he loves to the Toran Plague, including himself. They'll all be dead within the next few hours, and upon his death, the people will no doubt blame Tora, which in turn means that faith in Marilen will weaken—therefore allowing the Shadow Lord to invade Deltora.
  • Deadly Game: The ones in Rithmere, as well as the Shadowland Arena.
  • Dead Guy Junior:
    • Lief and Jasmine name their daughter after Jasmine's dead mother and name one of their twin sons after Lief's father - in a subversion, the other is named after Jasmine's father, who is very much alive at the end of the series - but no longer uses his birthname. (Those would be: Lief's father Endon, former king and later blacksmith, and Jasmine's parents Jarred and Anna.)
    • Ranesh and Marilen name their son after Josef.
  • Defanged Horrors: There's a lot that goes on that would make an older reader cringe or at least raise an eyebrow, but are either concepts that a child wouldn't yet find as terrifying (e.g. the paranoia-based horrors) or described in sparse detail (e.g. all the implied gore).
  • Determinator: The Vraal. Once it decides that you're it's opponent, it will never rest.
  • Domed Hometown: The island of Auron, covered by a giant magical dome that makes the inside an Arcadian Lotus-Eater Machine.
  • Doomed Hometown: Subverted! Del may have taken a great deal of damage during the years when the monarchy stopped working, but it's definitely still standing when everything is said and done. (The anime tried its damnedest to play this straight, utterly demolishing the palace and much of the surrounding city in the climactic battle. It also gets rebuilt very quickly.)
  • Doomy Dooms of Doom: Doom, the leader of La RĂ©sistance.
  • The Dragons Come Back: Essentially the plot behind Dragons of Deltora. Once Lief visits the areas where the dragons slumber with the completed belt their enchanted sleep is broken or they hatch.
  • Driven to Suicide: Paff, who clutches the Belt of Deltora to kill herself after failing to protect the Sister of the South.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: Glock, who kills The Fear by ramming his broken sword down its throat, but is crushed by the mass of the creature.
  • Dysfunctional Family: Jasmine and Doom in the second and third series. It's not that they don't like each other, it's just that their family is unusual (and they've been apart for years). It's often pointed out by other characters. In fact, even Jasmine and Doom point it out in ''The Sister of the South''.
  • Early-Bird Cameo:
    • The scarred man they meet in Tom's shop reappears a book later and becomes one of the main characters - Doom.
    • Lief and Barda run into the sleeping topaz dragon in the second series, but it doesn't reappear until the third.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Or, in this case, earn it three times. Lief lampshades it in the third series.
    Lief: In those daysnote , I thought that if we succeeded in our quest we would all live happily ever after. I did not dream the nightmare would go on and on —
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Sharn, Zeean, Marilen and the rest of the Torans.
  • Enchanted Forest: The Forests of Silence, which appear in the eponymous first book of the series, are a series of three forests with a bad enough reputation to be considered unusually terrifying even in a land heavily infested with monsters and horrors. The first forest is home to a vicious monster called the Wennbar and to a tribe of creatures called the Wenn that worship it and bring it captives to eat, while the second contains a hidden grove where there grow flowers whose nectar gives eternal life.
  • Encyclopedia Exposita:
  • Everyone Has Standards: While King Endon was raised on the Rule like his predecessors before him to be a Puppet King, when his former caretaker Min is murdered after trying to warn him about an evil conspiracy not even an hour later and her son flees not soon after, he realizes that something is wrong and that Min was likely killed for knowing too much. This results in him trying to contact Jarred, which in turn results in him being able to escape with his life and stay in hiding while raising his heir to succeed where he had failed.
  • Evil Chancellor: The Chief Advisors to the King of Deltora, most notably Prandine. They turn out to all have been Grade 3 Ols.
  • Evil Sorcerer: The Shadow Lord's origin, also Sorceress Thaegan, and a few of the Shadow Lord's other servants also turn out to be this.
  • Fake Town: The Ralad tribe built one of these in order to fake their extinction and thereby remain safe from the Evil Overlord. (Their real city is an elaborate underground complex.) It works like a charm, not least because the Ralads' hat is architecture.
  • Fatal Flaw: The Capracons had pride. They lived in a stunningly beautiful city, Capra, which they hung with red lanterns... made of dragon eggs, stolen from nests and sucked dry. The ruby dragons repeatedly told them to stop, but the Capracons were so intent on keeping their city beautiful that they refused. The ruby dragons then proceeded to destroy Capra and killed most of the Capracons.
  • Fate Worse than Death:
    • Dragonlover Doran becoming a Sister's Guardian many years ago.
    • Laughing Jack also gets one.
    • Being a prisoner of the Shadow Lord is this, according to Lief's father.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • In the first series:
      • Regarding the second candidate for the heir: We've been told that the king and queen fled Del, and hey, the Forests of Silence—near Del—are a place the Grey Guards would never look for them, right? And Jasmine is conveniently the same age as Lief, when we know the heir was born in the same year as him. Except just kidding, this is a Red Herring!
      • The justification of his father's "pledge", as to why Lief's parents are oddly insistent that their only child go on an extremely dangerous quest when Barda would've been happy to do it himself, makes much more sense when you realize that they likely wanted Lief to return a hero, as to ensure his popularity among the people and that he not repeat his father's mistake.
      • That Doom refers to his wife as "dear heart" points to him being Jarred, not Endon, if one recalls the prologue. Once you realize that Doom is Jarred, it then follows that Lief's parents are not who everyone thinks they are. Adding to this that Jasmine’s mother, who appears at the end of the first book as a spirit, is described as "sweet-faced" — a description used for Anna previously but not Sharn…
      • Lief's parents are always referred to as such in the narration. They're only called Jarred and Anna by other people.
      • The cloak that Lief's mother wove for him is noted on occasion to be remarkable, even before the other party is aware that it's an Invisibility Cloak; Zeean outright states that it's worthy of the looms of Tora. Which makes sense, since Lief's mother—Sharn—is of Toran descent.
      • That Lief's parents want him to be educated is unsurprising considering what they envisioned as his future career.
      • It's never explained how Lief's father knows that the Belt will stay whole as long as the heir lives. Probably because he made that up and knows the heir is alive because he's looking at him right now.
      • Dain discovers that his parents weren't in Tora, as he'd believed. He then becomes absolutely wrecked with grief and despair, to the point that he barely moves. Lief is surprised at this- shouldn't someone who's been with the Resistance for a year be more resilient? After all, it's not like he'd received confirmation that his parents were dead... In the same chapter, Lief realises that Tora is magically protected from those who have evil intent. In the last book, it's revealed that Dain is a Grade-3 Ol. He was able to hold his form up even with the protections, but they were taking a significant toll on him.
    • Second series:
      • In the narration, the Belt is always written in lowercase, hinting that it's not the Belt of Deltora Lief's wearing, but a fake.
      • Marilen somehow realizes that a tray of food she was given is poisoned. She refuses to explain how she knew this, since she would have to reveal that she's wearing the real Belt and was warned by the Amethyst.
      • While Lief can tell that Jasmine's upset at him for keeping secrets, he's bewildered by how disproportionately angry she is at him. Thus suggesting that Faith isn't real, and that Lief has no idea about the lies that Jasmine has been fed.
      • Sharn makes a comment about Marilen being so young, which seems odd when one assumes Marilen is Lief's fiancee. Which, of course, she isn't; she's the Spare to the Throne.
      • Lief seems a bit nervous when he explains to Barda that the gems probably won't work as well underground. Because he's lying, what with the gems being fakes.
      • When Jasmine points out that it makes no sense for the gems to be weaker underground, she's conveniently cut off and the subject is dropped.
      • When Lief has to temporarily exchange the Belt for the final part of the Pirran Pipe, he's utterly relieved that it wasn't something they need for their venture in the Shadowlands (as they wouldn't have been able to bring the Belt, in any case, and this makes for a good hiding place)... but probably more so because the "Belt" is a fake and he's relieved that Tirral asked for something completely worthless.
    • Third series:
      • That the Shadow Lord made it possible to find all Sisters by leaving their map fragments behind should've set off a few warning bells.
      • While the series generally avoids referring to specific incidents in past series, Shadowgate makes an explicit mention of Reeah from City of the Rats. Most likely, Rodda wanted the titular city to be on the reader's mind come Sister of the South.
      • In the first series, the heroes briefly ponder why the Shadow Lord wanted to drive the citizens out of what became the City of the Rats, instead of enslaving them there. Back then, they probably weren't expecting the answer to be "because it wants to implement Gray Goo there."
      • In the second series, Lief (and the reader) read the entirety of the tales that kick off the series. In the third series, he doesn't get the chance with the tale that inspired the Sisters. Otherwise, he and the reader would've seen what was coming at the very beginning, rather than at the end.
      • The final tablet dares the king to "lose and win" or "win and lose". Turns out, it's not just meant to be sound poetic. Lief can defeat the Sisters and thus activate the Shadow Lord's final trap, or he can accept that Deltora will never be fully free of famine but prevent the ultimate end.
      • On that note, the final fragment of the poem is "And if at last their voices cease / The land shall find a final peace", which at first sounds like the land will be free and peaceful. This isn't the Shadowlord's plan however.
  • Gemstone Motifs: Each of the seven tribes of Deltora is represented by a magical gemstone, which make up the Belt of Deltora; when worn by Deltora's rightful ruler the Belt protects the land from evil. The gems also have powers and symbolic meanings linked to attributes valued by each tribe, all of which the ruler of Deltora should strive for as well. The gems include a diamond, emerald, lapis lazuli, topaz, opal, ruby and amythest.
    • The diamond, symbol of the Jalis, represents strength and purity.
    • The emerald, symbol of the Dread Gnomes, represents honor.
    • The lapis lazuli, symbol of the Mere, represents fortune.
    • The topaz, symbol of Del, represents faithfulness.
    • The opal, symbol of the Plains people, represents hope.
    • The ruby, symbol of the Ralad, represents happiness.
    • The amethyst, symbol of Tora, represents truth.
  • Genius Loci: The Island of Tier is an enchanted, living island that can move around and likes to eat ships.
  • Ghost City: The heroes (and Dain) arrive in Tora to find it completely empty. They realize this is because an ancient magical contract exiled all the Torans when they refused shelter to King Endon sixteen years ago.
  • Giant Flyer: The Ak-Baba, the Shadow Lord's pet deathbirdies. Deathbirdies about a fourth the size of your average dragon... which is still something for any sane person to give consideration to. Also, dragons, in the third series.
  • Glamour Failure: Waiting for the brief moment that their form falls apart is how one can usually detect an Ol, called "The Tremour" in the series.
    • In the second book, since the Topaz is able to reveal illusions, by touching it Lief is able to see that Doj and Nij are actually two of Thaegan's monstrous children.
  • Glass Cannon: Grade 3 Ols are incredibly strong, cunning and can transform into literally anything with no way of detecting them. But unlike their brethren, they can be killed by anything that would kill a human.
  • Gondor Calls for Aid: In Return to Del, Lief and co. call upon all the allies they've made up until that point, intending to unite the tribes once more.
  • Good Hurts Evil: Anyone evil who drinks from the Kin spring is turned into an identical, non-growing, immortal tree. It's not clear whether the ego's still in there; if so, you could argue the And I Must Scream makes this Disproportionate Retribution.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars:
    • Doom, grizzled face and complete with a scar on one side of it. And a good guy.
    • After a run-in with the Masked Ones, Lief ends up with scars over part of his face and neck, as a result of Jasmine preventing Body Horror via transformation with the Masked One's special animal mask. He continues being a good guy.
  • Gotta Catch 'Em All: The main quest in the first series. And the second series, but to a much lesser extent.
  • Gotta Kill Them All: The main quest in the third series, killing all four Sisters.
  • Gray Goo: The ending.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Bede had a brief relationship with a woman named Kirsten, but dumped her and later married her sister, Mariette. Kirsten's jealousy and despair from this led her to become the guardian of the Sister of the North, imprison her sister in a locket and make Bede her slave for years.
  • He Knows Too Much:
    • Jarred in the prologue had to flee from his childhood home after he was framed for attempting to kill his best friend and current heir to Del because of this.
    • Min, the former caretaker of Jarred and King Endon had tried to warn the latter about a conspiracy and how something was going to happen during the night of the Shadowlord's takeover only to be brushed off. Not even an hour later she was found dead. King Endon, however, realizes that she was likely killed because of what she knew and tried to warn him about to his regret, a theory that his wife Queen Sharn and later his best friend Jarred agree with. Especially since her son, a palace guard, also fled the same night of her murder which only served to hammer in his suspicions.
    • Min's son, Barda, fled the palace not long after his mother was murdered because he feared that he would be next right after his mother.
  • Heroic BSoD:
    • Jasmine gets hit by this in the series 2 book The Shadowlands after finding out that Faith isn't real.
    • Lief gets it as well, in the series 3 book Sister of the South, when he believes that he made a mistake and the Toran Plague is real.
    • In Star of Deltora it's revealed that most of the ex-slaves from the Shadowlands have this, because of all they have gone through during their captivity. Master Sheevers, the master potter Britta trades with, is a major example.
  • Heroic Lineage: King Adin's bloodline.
  • High Fantasy: Fantasy land of many different races co-existing? Check. Evil Overlord who has taken over the land? Check. Party of adventurers going on an Epic Quest involving a Plot Device? Check.
  • Hive Mind: The Hive, the boss of The Shifting Sands.
  • Holding Hands: Lief and Jasmine do this often in the third series.
  • I Am Who?: Lief is the heir. Jasmine is Doom's long-lost daughter. Doom is the real Jarred.
  • I Cannot Self-Terminate: Doran the Dragonlover wants the Amethyst Dragon to kill him for a very good reason.
  • Icon of Rebellion: A V-shaped bird, coined from the Ralad language, is used as the symbol of those who stand against the Shadow Lord , whether as a part of the La RĂ©sistance or not.
  • I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Almost every single location the gang went to, the majority of them being the plot-relevant location providing the title of the book. Lief was understandably worried upon hearing their names.
  • Identity Amnesia: Doom's secret in the first series. He gets it back at the end of series one.
  • Invisibility Cloak: The special traveling cloak Lief's mother, Sharn, gave to her son, which can render anyone hidden underneath it invisible, or near enough that it makes no difference. This cloak saves the gang on more than one occasion.
  • Invisible Writing: Briefly appears in one of the books, Isle of the Dead. Tom the shopkeeper sends Lief, Barda and Jasmine a gift of firebeads and sweets. Since Tom is notorious for his No Hero Discount attitude they are wondering why he did so, when they notice that the wrapping they had left by the fire they just made now has writing on it. The wrapping is a note from Tom advising them on the next stage of their quest... with a postscript asking them, when convenient, to pay for the items he has sent.
  • Interface Spoiler: The spines of the books in the first and second series spoil which gem or piece of the Pirran Pipe the heroes find in that book, while the heroes usually don't find out which part they're looking for until the end of the book. The diamond and the endpiece of the Pipe avert this, since they're the last pieces to be found. The spine of Return to Del also hints at the true order of the gems in the Belt.
  • It's All My Fault: Lief's father King Endon invokes this trope when Deltora and the palace are attacked by the Shadow Lord, feeling that if he had been a "stronger" king, it never would have happened.
  • It Was with You All Along: The heir, that is.
  • Jerkass: Doom and Glock, but only in the first series. Glock remains a Jerkass in the second series as well, and so does Jinks, but Glock makes up for it with his Dying Moment of Awesome.
    • Zoolah in Shadows of the Master. Though she does have a valid reason for it...
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Doom in the second and third series. Although he's tough, he truly cares for his friends and his daughter. Glock also counts, until his death.
  • The Juggernaut: 3-19, and presumably all the other Grade 3 Ols, despite their tradeoff of dying as humans do. 3-19 himself casually walks around in the middle of a gale that pins down even the Grey Guards.
  • Kansas City Shuffle: In the beginning of the series, Endon's wife pulls this off against his treacherous adviser Prandine. While they're in a tall tower, she looks out the window, gasps, and says unconvincingly that she saw nothing. Prandine, of course, goes to check it out, at which point she promptly defenestrates him. She really did see nothing, but knew he wouldn't think she was truthful.
  • Kangaroo Pouch Ride: Occasionally, the heroes ride in the pouches of the Kin to get to places quickly.
  • Kick the Dog: The ending to the Shadowlord's Faith Gambit was just a big kick in the face to a certain wild girl.
  • King Incognito: Adin's heir was raised in secret to protect them from the Shadow Lord until the Belt was restored. The secrecy is so complete that even Lief has no idea he's the rightful king until the Belt identifies him.

     Deltora Quest L — Z 
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Even though Pradine was just one of many advisors that that worked diligently over the years to weaken the Royal Family and complete the final phase of his real master's plan through murder and brainwashing Endon into being a Puppet King, he is finally killed by a woman he had dismissed as weak after she tricked him into looking out the window and giving her the perfect opportunity to kill him considering he was wielding a dagger soaked in a very potent poison that could kill people within seconds.
  • Last of His Kind: In the first series, it appears that Glock is the last of the Jalis tribe. In the second series, Lief is the last heir of Adin, until The Reveal, in the last chapter, shows otherwise.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: The back of each book spoils the previous book. The backs of the books in the second and third series spoil who the heir is.
  • Long-Lost Relative: In the final book of series one, it is revealed that Doom is Jasmine's father. Neither knew this, even though they had spent a lot of time together. This was because Jasmine was so young when her parents were taken that she couldn't recall their faces. Doom lost his memory in the Shadowlands, and didn't regain it until he smashed his head, thus realizing that Jasmine was his daughter.
  • Liar's Paradox: In the second book, "Lake of Tears", when Lief gets given a riddle by a Bridge Guardian and tricked into the wrong answer, the guardian allows him to say one last thing to determine how he die. Lief will say a statement, if it was true then the guardian would strangle Lief, if it was false he would cut his head off with his sword. Lief opts to Taking a Third Option and responds with the statement "You will cut off my head." Fortuately, a paradox was exactly what was needed to defeat the guardian in the first place, as the monster was condemned to guard the bridge "Until truth and lies are one." The guardian is returned to its original form, a black bird, and freed.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Doom is Jasmine's father.
  • Made of Indestructium: The gems cannot be destroyed, period, nor taken beyond Deltora's borders without giving their carrier a very nasty death. The Belt itself supposedly cannot be (completely) destroyed as long as an heir lives, but that's yet to be proven.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • The seven dragons are all named after their respective gem's associated trait. This is also the foundations for their personality. Lampshaded in the final book:
      Honora: Now we know each other's true names... for any fool could guess which dragon name is which.
    • "Lief" means "heir".
  • Mistaken for Disease: In Sister of the South, this was done as a deliberate Evil Plan to destroy the city of Del. After Lief's mother Sharn returned from Tora, she was poisoned with a toxin giving symptoms of swollen scarlet botches. This illness would become known as the "Toran Plague" and was spread through a Blob Monster creature sent out in the night by the villain who would kill its victims by suffocating them, creating the illusion of a plague spreading.
  • The Mole: Deltora under Shadow Lord rule in the first series is full of spies, but Dain takes the cake, especially for being able to fool Doom.
  • Mordor: The Shadowlands, though unlike Mordor, which is at least said to be somewhat fertile, the Shadowlands are utterly dead with only monsters populating the land. Heck, you could even call the Shadow Lord an Expy of Sauron.
  • Morphic Resonance: Whatever form an Ol may take, it will always feature the Shadowlord's mark somewhere on its body, though all but the Grade 1 Ols are clever enough to keep them out of plain sight.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Not people, but places. The Forests of Silence. The Lake of Tears. City of the Rats. The Shifting Sands. Dread Mountain. The Maze of the Beast. The Valley of the Lost. Need I say more?
  • Narrative Profanity Filter: Not used often, but when it is, it's usually referring to something Barda or Doom wouldn't be allowed to say in front of the target audience.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While the Sisters' song was poisoning the land, killing everyone slowly through drought and famine, it's also acting as a seal on an ancient terrible monster that'll devour and turn everything it touches into hard grey crust. A fine example of The Plan of the Shadow Lord if it weren't for the dragons.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
    • The only reason Jarred survives after fleeing the palace and the Belt is repaired is because Jarred and Endon were taught smithing as part of the Rule, a series of traditions set down by the Shadow Lord's servants, the Chief Advisors, as a way to weaken the royal family.
    • Had Prandine not murdered Min because of what she had accidentally learned and tried to warn Endon about not even an hour later that resulted in her son fleeing from the palace, her former charge would have never suspected something was wrong, which would lead to him sending a secret message to his best friend who had been forced to flee. As a result, even though it was too late to fight back against the Shadow Lord and its ilk, the King and Queen as well as Jarred were able to flee the castle and pave the path for the next generation to fight against the Shadow Lord and win.
  • Nobody Thinks It Will Work: He's the handsome, brave, heroic and renowned king of a massive country. She was raised by trees.
  • No Hugging, No Kissing: Lief and Jasmine. Although by series 3 Rodda's normally spare narrative mentions a lot of little affectionate gestures between the two of them, and the epilogue proves that they soon end up doing much more than that...
  • Non-Human Sidekick:
    • Filli (a small furry animal) and Kree (a raven).
  • Not Just a Tournament: In The Shifting Sands, Lief, Barda and Jasmine enter in a tournament for money to continue their travels. The problem is, the tournament is a trap. After Jasmine wins, they are kidnapped by the grey guards to be taken to the Shadowlands where they would be expected to fight in the Shadow Arena for the Shadow Lord's entertainment. The tournament is used to find the best fighters with the prize money as bait.
  • The Oathbreaker: The Torans swore a vow of loyalty to Adin and his descendants, and pledged that if they broke the vow, they would be cast out from their city. Then King Endon begged them for sanctuary, for both himself, his wife and their unborn child. The Torans viewed the king as a stranger, and decided to refuse him. Unfortunately for them, the vow they'd made was backed by magic.
  • Odd Name Out: The Os-Mine Hills is the only infamously dangerous location in Deltora that does not have a book named after it. It also does not have a particularly scary sounding name.
  • One-Hit Kill: Thaegan is killed by a tiny cut on her finger.
  • Only Good People May Pass:
    • For anyone who drinks from the Dreaming Springs, if they are off good will then they will visit the place they thought about while drinking in their dreams, but for those who are evil they will become transformed into trees.
    • Only those who are righteous with no evil intent can enter the City of Tora. If an evil being tries to, such as the Ol named Dain, they became greatly weakened and reduced to a sobbing mass.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Doom. Even his daughter calls him Doom, even to his face.
  • Only Smart People May Pass: Rodda seems to love this trope. Pick a book and you can be almost guaranteed to find puzzles, secret codes and other what-nots. Word of God is that she looked to video games to get an idea of what might get kids to read, hence the high degree of pseudo-interactivity.
  • Only One Name: Everyone, with the exception of Queen Bee and her sons, Steven and Nevets Bee.
  • The Ophelia: Jasmine is a downplayed example, being wild-haired and having learned to commune with trees and animals from a young age. As a result, she's pretty socially awkward among other humans, though she gets better about it.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Deltoran dragons correspond to and are representative of the seven gems, breathe fire in corresponding colors, and have personalities determined by the properties ascribed to the gem they are associated with. There's a reason that the third series is called Dragons of Deltora. It has dragons. And it's awesome.
  • Our Gnomes Are Weirder: The Dread Gnomes. The weirdest thing about them is that have many qualities one would expect to see from dwarves. Except they are not dwarves. They are Dread Gnomes. In fact, their only features that are not all that dwarf-like are their mischievous nature as well as their distinct love of archery, a skill more associated with elves.
  • Our Elves Are Different: The Torans are a haughty, magical tribe who have long, silky hair, wear robes with sleeves so deep they brush the ground, and live in a magical city where evil cannot enter. They seem otherwise human, though.
  • Our Monsters Are Weird: Where do we begin to describe, let alone categorise, half the monsters in this series. The beautiful yet terrifying illustrations of Marc McBride don't help.
  • Passing the Torch: Lief's father was originally the one who was going to go on the quest, but due to his accident, he decides to have Lief go in his stead.
  • Plot Coupons: Each series has these, which the books helpfully illustrate on the spines.
    • The first series has the gems of the Belt of Deltora.
    • The second series has the three pieces of the Pirran Pipe.
    • The third series subverts this, as the heroes' main objective is to destroy the Four Sisters. However, each Sister's guardian carries the map to the next one. This turns out to have been planned by the Shadow Lord.
  • Pragmatic Hero: Lief, Barda and Jasmine spend most of the series tiptoeing around potential threats. Badass Normals they may be, but that doesn't take you very far in a land that has Everything Trying to Kill You.
    • Barda in particular tends to take this approach to long term plans, often thinking through if heroic actions are possible or would even accomplish all that much and save people in the long term.
  • Prefers the Illusion: Some of the Auron refugees created an illusory copy of their idyllic, sophisticated homeland on the underground island they fled to. To preserve the (emotional aspect of) this illusion, they forced all dissenters off the island and magically sealed its borders. A millennium or so later, only one person still lives on Auron- he killed everyone else to keep the illusion 'pure', as they couldn't deny reality or their traumatic memories of it. The exiles, in comparison, adapted to the ocean's "strange, wild beauty" and thrived.
  • Pregnant Badass:
    • Sharn in the Forests of Silence prologue. Anna, at the same time, but to a lesser extent.
    • Marilen also qualifies when in the third series she defies her father's orders, takes supplies from Tora's tradeship to aid Del and uses Toran magic to transport herself to Del while it is scourged with disease and the people believe the Torans caused the plague. That's pretty damn badass.
  • Prolonged Prologue: Takes up half of the first book.
  • Properly Paranoid:
    • Doom has learned to be this, and tries to enforce it onto everyone else.
    • Knowing that Ols exist will lead to this.
    • As Sha-Ban said to Josef "I can trust you," "You eat, and you are warm." Considering what happened after that, she should have been more paranoid, and Josef learned that so should he.
  • Puppet King:
    • By the time Endon becomes king, the royal line has lost all real power over the kingdom. Prandine, the Chief Advisor, runs everything. He also happens to be a Shadow Lord spy who is helping to cover up the fact that most Deltorans live in squalor and hate the king for his seeming indifference to their pleas for aid.
    • In the third series, Paff starts spreading rumours that Marilen is part of a Toran plot to seize the throne and rule over Deltora as the puppet queen. It's untrue, of course, but a lot of people end up believing this.
  • Puppeteer Parasite: The Conversion Project slugs.
  • Red Herring:
    • Used twice in the final book of the first series, when they are looking for the heir. At first it is believed to be Dain, then Jasmine, before it was revealed to be Lief.
    • In the second series, Marilen is set up as Lief's chosen bride, in keeping with the tradition of the ruler marrying a Toran. In reality, she's the Spare to the Throne and is wearing the Belt in case anything happens to Lief on his rescue mission to the Shadowlands.
    • It is used again in the final book of the third series, in regards to the Sister of the South's Guardian. It is heavily implied to be Doom, but it is actually Paff.
  • Replacement Scrappy: In-universe; Paff replacing Ranesh as Josef's assistant in the library. Her apparent ineptitude helps her real goals go largely unnoticed until almost too late.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Reeah, the vraal, and the snake pit at Shadowgate. But the lattermost was actually responsible for killing the Guardian of the Sister of the North, Kirsten.
  • Rightful King Returns: At the end of Return to Del, Lief is revealed by the Belt to be the heir to Deltora and so becomes its king.
  • Romantic False Lead:
    • Marilen for Lief, Dain and Glock for Jasmine.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Once the competent royal takes the throne, he certainly qualifies. His father had tried to be this, but too late. Luckily, he'd married a very quick-witted woman...
  • Running Gag: Jasmine searches bodies. It's an old habit. Barda doesn't approve.
  • The Scrappy: In-universe, the opal out of all the gems. Lief hates touching it, since it usually means impending Nightmare Fuel.
  • Sdrawkcab Alias: Nevets, Steven's 'brother'.
  • Shapeshifting: Ols. They can all shape shift into just about anything. Grade 1s are obvious if you know what you're looking for. Grade 2s briefly show their true forms after a long amount of time. Grade 3s are pretty much indistinguishable from whatever they are trying to mimic.
    • Though in the books it's implied that Grade 3s are limited to a specific set of forms (Dain only transformed into his "normal" self, a knife he normally "carried", and his true Ol form), and also take the same weaknesses of that form.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: At one point in the first series, Jasmine has gone incognito and traveled away from Lief and Barda because, as a wild girl accompanied by animal friends, she's the most recognizable member of their party. She washes, puts on a dress, covers her Wild Hair with a scarf, and puts on makeup. When she later (accidentally) meets up with Lief and Barda, it takes them a long time to recognize her.
  • Shining City: Tora, at least compared to Del. Legend says it was magically carved out of a mountain of marble.
  • Shipper with an Agenda: In the second series, the Shadow Lord's chosen method of luring Lief to the Shadowlands was to lure Jasmine instead, knowing that Lief would surely follow.
  • Ship Tease: In Deltora Quest, Lief/Jasmine is continuously teased before finally being confirmed at the end of Deltora Shadowlands.
  • Sibling Fusion: The twins Steven and Nevets inhabit one body.
  • Sigil Spam: The Shadow Lord brands everything with its mark. Equipment, Ols, loyal servants, insurrectionists, evicted houses, the night sky above his domain, etc.
  • Significant Anagram:
    • Deltora is spelled with the first letters of the gems on the Belt of Deltora, arranged in the order King Adin the blacksmith managed to convince the Tribes to give him their Gems.
    • Dain deliberately chose his name to trick everyone else into thinking he's the heir, since the name's an anagram of Adin.
  • Single Line of Descent: By custom, every king or queen has only one child. This turns out to have been a plot by the Shadow Lord to make it easier to kill off the royal line. Ultimately, subverted as Adin (the first king) himself had several children, which allows a distant relative of the throne to show up as a plot point.
  • So Proud of You: Anna says this to Jasmine when her spirit is momentarily drawn back by the topaz.
  • Sorcerous Overlord: The Shadow lord fits this better than Evil Overlord alone since it is also a powerful sorcerer and in fact derives much of its power from that fact.
  • Speed, Smarts and Strength: The core trio has Lief as the strategic leader who uses his mind, Barda as the brute strength, and Jasmine as the most agile and nimble member.
  • Squishy Wizard: Zigzagged with Sorceress Thaegan. She has the power to make an entire species mute, turn a whole town into the Lake Of Tears, and made some very strange and powerful children... And she can be defeated by getting a cut on her finger which instantly kills her, which stands out as an Exaggerated example of the trope. That said, since Thaegan is well aware of this, she magically armors her body to the point of complete invulnerability in an attempt to defy this trope... except the finger she uses to cast spells out of necessity.
  • Strange Minds Think Alike: Jasmine and Doom tend to think of the same ideas, such as believing the other is the traitor in one book without either getting offended by it. It turns out to be something In the Blood, since they're revealed to be father and daughter, with Doom having lost his memories of Jasmine due to trauma from being kidnapped by Shadow Guards and Jasmine being so young when it happened that her memories of her parents were fuzzy.
  • Succession Crisis: This happens to be a major plot-point in the second series. After he becomes King, Lief is in constant danger of dying without an heir as Shadow Lord spies try to kill him and end Adin's bloodline forever. Before he can travel to the Shadowlands in a badass attempt to free the trapped Deltorans there, Lief sensibly realises that he must make sure that he has an heir to succeed him should he die in the attempt. With the single line of descent forced upon the Kings and Queens by their chief advisors long ago, Lief is forced to trace his ancestry all the way back to Adin, and then follow the descent of Adin's second issue. This leads Lief to Tora, and Marilen.
  • Switching P.O.V.: Several times throughout the second series, the point of view shifts to Jasmine whilst she grapples with how Lief has evidentially lied to her.
    • Sharn, Josef and Jinks also briefly get the story told through their perspectives over the course of Isle of Illusion, in which times the events back in the Palace take place.
    • During the chapter 'Messages' of Return to Del, the point of view moves across several secondary characters as word of the meeting at Withick Mire spreads.
    • Both times that a Vraal has appeared and attacked the protagonists, there it a seamless shift about midway through the encounter to the Vraal's perspective.
    • Doom also gets his point of view told in a scene in Isle of the Dead, when he is preparing a letter to send to Lief, Barda and Jasmine.
    • In Shadows of the Master, one of the chapters begins in Jantsy's POV, and later goes back to Britta's.
  • Theme Table: Seven tribes, seven dragons, seven gems, etc.
  • Third-Person Person: Tom the Shop Keeper.
  • There Are No Therapists: But if there were, Jasmine and Doom would be a lot better off.
  • Theme Twin Naming: Lief and Jasmine name their twin sons after their fathers, Endon and Jarred, who were also best friends.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Over the course of several generations, but when the series starts, the royal family of Deltora. They have a magic belt that gives them increased intelligence and thought, helps the wearer see through illusions, brings good luck, gives glimpses of the future, etc, etc. And somehow, they're persuaded into only wearing it once in their entire lives, during their coronation. King Endon is talked out of this by Jarred just before the Shadow Lord invades.
  • Tragic Monster: Many.
    • The golden giant, a bird transformed into a human and cursed to guard a bridge.
    • Soldeen is shown to have been a tortured soul when he touches the topaz even before it is revealed that he was originally the leader of D'Or before Thaegan cursed him.
    • The Guardian, Fardeep, who found despair in the Valley of the Lost and became so consumed by his emotions that they erupted from his body in the form of monsters.
    • The Wild Ones; humans experimented on by the Shadow Lord to the point of madness. Averted by the few Wild Ones that retain enough mental faculties to enjoy the Shadow Arena.
    • Doran the Dragonlover, who became the Guardian of a Sister.
  • Transflormation: Drinking water from a dreaming spring with a "wicked heart" will turn the drinker into a tree.
  • Treacherous Spirit Chase: There is one of these spread across the entire of Deltora Quest 2, and across a magic communication crystal.
  • Tsundere: Jasmine fits this pretty well.
  • Two-Headed Coin: Reese tries to do this with a supposedly random drawing to determine whether the companions will be imprisoned or executed. Lief outsmarts him by destroying the card he drew, then saying that they can check the other one to see which it was.
  • Undying Loyalty:
    • The Torans swore an oath to the line of Adin and carved it on a stone which would banish them from their home should they break it. They weren't so loyal a few hundred years later.
    • The Jalis, despite their belief that they are the superior to every other tribe, are fiercely loyal to the crown.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Lief and Jasmine, but it's resolved by the end of the second series.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Everyone in the second and third series, especially. But Lief and Jasmine get hit by this pretty hard in the second series.
  • The War Has Just Begun: The final book ends with this trope.
  • Was Once a Man: The Shadow Lord is revealed to be this. Its original form, Malverlain, presumably died centuries ago, before even the time of Adin. The only thing left of him was his will to rule over Deltora, Dorne and pretty much everywhere else.
  • Weak, but Skilled:
    • Jasmine's general fighting style, due to her small stature, especially in the fourth book of the first series, The Shifting Sands, where she's classified as 'agility'.
    • Lief falls under this. Despite being of average height and strength for his age, most of his opponents are generally bigger and stronger.
  • We Sell Everything: Tom's shop does for travellers, which Tom makes a point of noting.
  • Where It All Began:
    • In the first series, the gang began their journey in Del and concludes it there.
    • The third series acts as this not only for itself, but for the Deltora Quest storyline as a whole, with the main trio once again returning from a journey around the kingdom to Lief's home city of Del for one final push against the Shadow Lord and his minions. It also becomes this for the entire conflict between Deltora and the Shadow Lord at the climax when they race to the Hira Plain, the place where the belt was first completed and Deltora truly united by Lief's ancestor Adin, to thwart the Shadow Lord's final plan.
    • In Tales of Deltora, Opal the Dreamer first foresaw the Belt when she lived on the Hira plain. Said Belt was finally completed there for the first time as well, marking the end of the first Shadowlands invasion in Adin's time.
  • Written by the Victors: According to everyone who isn't a ruby dragon, the dragons destroyed the city of Capra out of envy for its beauty. According to an actual ruby dragon, the dragons didn't give a damn about beauty, they just wanted to stop the Capracons from stealing their eggs and sucking them dry so they could use the shells as lanterns.
  • Xanatos Gambit: "I have many plans"/"The Shadow Lord has many plans" - recurring.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Paff is actually surprisingly good at this.
  • You Cannot Grasp the True Form: The Shadow Lord is never fully described in the book, just as a sort of darkness whenever a description is called for. In the anime, when it could actually be pictured, this is nicely done as well, shrouding most of it in shadow except for its red eyes, even in broad daylight.

     The Three Doors Trilogy 
  • Arc Number: Three. Three books, Three doors, Three brothers. Nine powers (3x3=9). Dirk, Sholto and Rye are each three years apart.
  • Chekhov's Armoury: Many objects encountered throughout the Three Doors series inevitably return, whether the heroes recognise it or not.
  • Foreshadowing: While they are in Olt's fortress, Olt tells his guards that he sensed a presence. In Return to Del, the Shadow Lord said the exact same thing while Lief spied on him and Fallow through his dreams, foreshadowing the fact that they are brothers, though it's unclear if it is something only they can do or inherited from the Fellan.
  • Identity Amnesia: During The Third Door, Rye briefly loses his memory and goes by the name Keelin.
  • Red Herring:
    • The second half of The Third Door is practically made up Rye and Sonia wading through a river of Red Herrings; trying to figure out who is friend, who is foe and what the hell is even going on.
  • Timey-Wimey Ball: The Three Doors Trilogy turns out to be this. The Golden Door leads to the past while the Silver Door leads to the future. The Wooden Door just leads to the present outside of Weld. Actions made by those in the past change what happens in the future. Those who have travelled through the doors are seemingly immune to the changes and retain memories of alternate timelines.

     Star of Deltora 
  • Action Girl: Jewel. Even before she gets the chance to use her weapons in the final book, it's made clear that she's as much of an Action Girl as Lindal, having grown up in Broome.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Sky. He grows up fending for himself on the River Broad, and it's implied that he's seen so much death that not even the sight of Bar-Enoch's centuries-old corpse can shock him. This is made even worse by the fact that, unlike the previous examples listed, this happened under the reign of King Lief, during a time when the kingdom is supposedly prospering and at peace.
  • Encyclopedia Exposita: text from A Trader's Life crops up from time to time in Britta's memory.
  • Gambit Pileup: It would be easier to list the characters whose various gambits, schemes, and hidden agendas don’t contribute to the eventual climax.
  • Nobility Marries Money: The Collectors' MO. Then they drain their new in-laws dry to grow the Collections.
  • Only One Name: Played with in Dare Larsett: as Larsett is his given name and Dare a nickname.
  • Parents as People: In contrast to the more idealized mothers in previous series, Maarie is a difficult woman whose complicated feelings put her at odds with the equally difficult Britta.


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