The Riddle-Master Trilogy is a High Fantasy trilogy by Patricia A. McKillip with a Morality Kitchen Sink. The novels in the trilogy are:
- The Riddle-Master of Hed
- Heir of Sea and Fire
- Harpist in the Wind
The third novel, Harpist in the Wind, was nominated for the Hugo Award and the World Fantasy Award, and the series remains one of McKillip's most popular works. Several Omnibus editions have been produced under various names, including Riddle of Stars, Quest of Riddlemasters, and The Riddlemaster's Game.
The series takes place in a world where all wisdom is couched in the form of riddles to be solved. The land is divided into kingdoms whose rulers are magically linked to their realms. This "land-rule" is governed by a mysterious figure known as the High One.
Morgon was a student before his parents died and he became the land-ruler of Hed. He was born with a birth mark of three stars on his forehead which are the subject of prophecy, although he tries to ignore that. When the High One's harpist, Deth, comes to visit during his travels, he informs Morgon that Raederle of An's hand in marriage was promised to whomever could defeat Peven of Aum in a riddle game and that An has been in an uproar ever since Peven told the last person to challenge him that he was too late. Morgon admits that he won Peven's crown in a riddle game and resolves to go with Deth to visit Raederle and offer himself in marriage.
Before they can get very far, their ship is attacked by shape-changers who are determined to kill The Starbearer aka Morgon. For his very life, Morgon travels with Deth to the High One on Erlenstar Mountain in search of an answer to the riddle of three stars.
The second book follows Raederle of An, Lyra of Herun, and Morgon's sister Tristan as they search for Morgon, Deth, and the High One, who are all now considered missing ever since Morgon reached the High One and fell out of all contact. The third book deals with the growing war against the shape-changers and the continuing search for the truth about the High One.
These novels provide examples of:
- Abusive Precursors: The Earth-Masters destroyed their own children and waged a massive self-destructive war that nearly destroyed the world until one of them finally managed to beat the others, sealed them in the sea, and became The High One, trying to create a more peaceful land in their wake.
- Action Girl: Lyra of Herun, who is herself the leader of the Morgol's all-female guard.
- Aerith and Bob: While most names are a bit strange, they still range from the relatively-normal Tristan and Morgon to Ghisteslwchlohm. Of course, there's some cultural differences at work here; Tristan and Morgon are both from Hed, which has the most "normal" names, and while Ghisteslwchlohm's origins are never explained, it's speculated that he's from Herun, where Overly Long Names are the norm.
- Amazon Brigade: The Morgol's guard is composed entirely of women.
- Anxiety Dreams: Raederle has them over some monster coming to claim her hand after hearing that someone had won the Engagement Challenge for her hand and before learning it was Morgon, who she was already in love with.
- Arcadia: The gentle, quiet, idyllic life on the island of Hed, peopled by souls of wise simplicity, is a stark contrast to the more typical fantasy kingdoms wound on the mainland.
- Armor-Piercing Statement: Deth delivers one at the end of the first book: "They were promised a man of peace", making Morgan realize that killing him would be unfair to the children of the shape-changers, who had those as Arc Words. Lampshaded by Morgon, who ruefully says that he thought Deth was unarmed when words were always his most powerful weapon.
- Big Good: The High One. That's the real one, mind, not Ghisteslwchlohm. The real High One was the only thing that kept the world stable and ended the constant warfare of the shape-changers. It turns out that the whole plot was actually him grooming Morgon to take his place.
- Big Bad: Though Ghisteslwchlohm occupies this role for most of the story, the ultimate source of the threat to the world is the shape-changers, who want to kill the high one, wipe out humanity, and resume a self-destructive war that was threatening the entire world. The one impersonating Eriel is heavily implied to be the mastermind.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Ghisteslwchlohm thinks he's got everything under control- and then he runs into the Earth-masters and ends up their mind-controlled puppet.
- Big Bad Ensemble: For most of the trilogy, the shape-changers and Ghisteslwchlohm represent entirely separate threats, sometimes working at cross-purposes.
- Big "NO!": Morgon's Great Shout at the end of the first book, in which he shouts "no" with enough force to break the high-one's doorstep.
- Call to Agriculture: Morgon wants to be a peaceful farmer, not the Chosen One, and in the first part of the story is ignoring the call to destiny represented by the three stars on his forehead to remain a farmer-king.
- Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Deth: Pretends to be working for the High One, despite actually being the High One himself and working under deep cover for his impersonator, so that he can mentor his successor into success, which requires betraying said successor to the man unknowingly impersonating himself (aka the High One), and faking his own death to impersonate a wizard who was never in fact a wizard but was always him. (Deth why.)
- Engagement Challenge: Raederle has been offered by her father to the man who can defeat Peven in a riddle game, a game where the ghost poses riddles and the challenger must solve them or die. It's been considered unwinnable for centuries before Morgon comes along. Everybody who hears about the challenge, including Morgon, who won it, thinks accepting it was an incredibly stupid move.
- Evil Mentor: Ghisteslwchlohm's standard operating procedure. He does it repeatedly, once in the backstory when he founded Lungold to control the other wizards, then destroyed it when they started to catch on, once in the modern day to Morgon, while posing as Ohm, and once in a more overarching sense by posing as the High One. And Ghisteslwchlohm is very, very evil, using torture and murder to acquire more power at every turn.
- Evil Sorcerer: Ghisteslwchlohm is a classic example; he betrayed the wizards of the Wizarding School Lungold, destroying it in the process, then set himself up in a God Guise by pretending to be the High One in order to eventually try and acquire his power in truth.
- Fiery Redhead: Raederle and her brother Rood have both red hair and a fiery passion.
- Fingore: Deth is a foremost a harpist even after his hands are destroyed and his fingers wrecked as punishment by Ghisteslwchilohm.
- Fisher King: The land-rulers are all benevolent examples; they are bound to their land through a system called the Land-Rule, and both reflect and are reflected by it. The Earth-Masters, who originally held this power, are much less benevolent examples.
- Forced to Watch: Deth is forced to watch Morgon's torture, if not by Ghisteslwchlohm then by his own conscience and because there's nothing he can do to save Morgon, beyond harping.
- Functional Magic: Inherent Gift is pretty common, particularly among land-rulers and their families; the whole world is filled with Wild Magic; Rule Magic has largely disappeared with the wizards but returns with them.
- Genocide from the Inside: Although the Earth Masters are technically not dead, the High One drove all the others into the sea and bound them forever. He is also, debatably, a rare heroic example, in that it appears he crushed the others and forced them into the sea when they started to destroy their own children and it became clear that their war was going to destroy everything if he didn't.
- Ghost Amnesia: Peven, the ghost of an ancient king, has forgotten the names of his children. As part of a riddle-game he's playing with Morgon's life on the line, he asks Morgon their names one by one, essentially giving Morgon several free passes.
- God Guise: Ghisteslwchlohm impersonating the High One, who is essentially the deity of the setting. He knows he's not the real deal, but as the most powerful being in the realm, he figures he can make a better go at it than anyone.
- God Was My Co-Pilot: Deth, who accompanied Morgon throughout the series, was actually the High One, effectively the deity of the setting.
- Godhood Seeker: Ghisteslwchlohm's ultimate plan was to use Morgon to acquire the land-law of all the realm's kingdoms, becoming the High One - the setting's equivalent to a deity - in truth.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Raederle; she is half-human, but her family's Earth-master heritage is also very pronounced in her.
- Have You Seen My God?: The High One has been missing for 700 years, though nobody but Ghisteslwchlohm, who was impersonating him, actually knew this.
- Hidden Depths: Several characters, including Morgon, the peaceful farmer-Prince of a remote island, who is the last one anyone (including himself) expects to get caught up in prophecies that will affect all the lands and who turns out to be the heir to the High One; Raederle, who has inherited more than she knows or wants to know from the mysterious shapeshifters beneath the sea; and the pig-woman of An who Raederle befriends.
- His Name Is...: Technically inverted, but similar in principle - when Morgon convinces the wizard Suth to tell him why he has been hiding in vesta form for seven hundred years, Suth manages to say nothing except a name before he's struck dead by magic: Ohm.
- Immortal Ruler: Har the "wolf-king", land ruler of Osterland, is a powerful and unaging mage who loves the wild regions and creatures of his land almost as much as its people. In addition, the High One, from whom all the land rulers draw their powers (literally), is older still than even Har, though he's not much into direct ruling.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Morgon attempts to tell Raederle this. Fortunately for everyone, she convinces him otherwise.
- Kill the Ones You Love: It's always been part of the plan that Morgon has to kill Deth. Deth didn't expect Morgon to love him at the time, but he did.
- Language of Magic: Magic is a unique hodgepodge of functional music, language, sympathetic geometry and elemental.
- Last of His Kind: The High One is actually the last of the Earth-Masters, or at least the last one who wasn't bound in the ocean.
- Magic Music: Music can do all sorts of magical feats in the setting, from suffocating people to shattering weapons. Morgon's harp, which he can barely play, is capable of the latter feat with just a single note.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: When people are emotional, they can give Great Shouts capable of shattering stone. It doesn't seem like something they can weaponize so much as a type of Power Incontinence, since nobody is ever shown doing it deliberately.
- Meaningful Name: Deth and Rood, who is willing to strip to make a point. Also Yrth 'earth' and Raederle 'riddle', referring to her ancestry.
- Morality Kitchen Sink: Morality ranges from Actual Pacifist Morgon though even he spends most of the second book hunting someone down with express intent to kill them, pragmatic but still very good-aligned Raederle, very grey Deth, whose actions verge on Necessarily Evil sometimes but whose intentions are good, pretty damn awful Ghistelwhchlohm, who is the type to Mind Rape someone for a year to get a piece of information, and the shape-changers, who verge on Blue-and-Orange Morality.
- Musical Assassin: A shapeshifter assassin sent to kill Morgon nearly suffocates him with a supernatural song.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Played straight and subverted with Deth, the High One's harpist; he pretends this is his reason for following Ohm's evil orders, but in reality he has his own agenda.
- Necessarily Evil: Deth, betraying Morgon to Ghisteslwchlohm and then harping to him throughout his imprisonment, which he justifies as necessary for Morgon to learn the things he needs to learn in order to serve ast he High One.
- Nothing Is Scarier: One riddle focuses on this. A Prince of Hed was pursued into his home by a monster; when he finally opened the door nothing was there. The structure of the riddle is that it's always better to try and answer the unanswered question.
- Offing the Offspring: The shape-changers's children; while technically impossible to kill for good, their parents destroyed them to the point where they can only "live" like ghosts under a mountain, forever.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: We hear a lot about Morgon finally managing to turn Ghisteslwchlohm's power against him and escape; unfortunately, it's all either secondhand or long after the fact.
- Omniscient Morality License: Deth only does what he must, justifying it with his absolute knowledge of what is necessary, and he's willing to take any punishment for it.
- Out of Focus: Morgon is the main character of the first book; in the second, he barely appears, and Raederle is the focus character instead. The third book splits the focus between them.
- Overly Long Name: A Herun tradition, apparently, which is why they all go by shortened versions of their names - e.g. Elrhiarhodan and her daughter Lyraluthuin are El and Lyra to their friends
- Punny Name: Deth. It's actually short for Tirunedeth, but he is fully cognizant of the pun's potential. It has a second layer when you meet his dead son Tirnon, who reveals that his father's name was originally Tir.
- Rage Against the Mentor: Morgan has this relationship with Deth after he's betrayed, spending most of the second volume pursing his former mentor in a rage. Oddly averted with Ohm, who was Morgan's formal teacher; while Ohm betrayed him much more directly, Morgan doesn't seem to have taken it as personally, possibly because his relationship with Ohm was never as close.
- Really 700 Years Old: The wizards, shape-changers, and a few of the land-rulers live an indefinitely long time, yet many of them look much younger.
- Reluctant Warrior: Morgon, once circumstances force him out of being an Actual Pacifist, uses his sword reluctantly.
- Resigned to the Call: It takes a few near-death experiences for Morgon to even consider going to the High One and asking him to figure things out, but he ultimately resigns himself to it.
- Right Justified Fantasy Map: It seems that human colonization of the High One's realm came from over the Eastern sea, and never extended into the harsh Bad Lands further West; therefore, there's a detailed ocean on the right side of the map, and many detailed lands surrounding it, but not much on the left.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Due to the small size of their kingdoms and each land-ruler's psychic connection to his or her own land, most royals can be depended on to actively deal with threats and contribute significantly to Morgan and Raederle's quest. And, of course, Morgan and Raederle themselves are royals.
- Sacred Hospitality: A major aspect of the setting; Har once cursed a man for failure to extend it properly.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The shape-changers, who the High One sealed in the sea long before the story started.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Because it's all he can do, Deth plays Morgon his harp while Morgon's being mind raped. Morgan highlights this and says that it made his torture even worse, while poisoning music for him going forwards.
- Spell Book: Wizards left behind spellbooks of the most obscure and impractical kind. Opening them alone is a challenge and seems to be a major focus at Caithnard.
- Standard Hero Reward: Lampshaded. When Morgon finds out that a king swore his daughter to anyone who could win a contest he'd just won, he asks how anyone could be so stupid as to make such a promise. Luckily, there was already some attraction between the two (and it's implied that the king had some ability to see the future and foresee this outcome.)
- Standard Royal Court: Inverted, subverted and every other verted. Only An, Ymris and Herun have anything resembling such, with normal aristocrats and a proper courtly appearance; even there, ritual is limited and there's not much decadence. Morgon's 'court' includes his pig keeper and is basically just a large farm household.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: All the Morgols of Herun have them; it's a side-effect of the power that lets them see through solid objects, and therefore indicates a supernatural capability.
- The Unpronounceable: One of the wizards is actually called "Iff of the Unpronouncable Name"; it turns out his full name has to be sung, not spoken, and even then it took a while to work out the tune.
- Was It All a Lie?: A question asked by basically everyone who ever interacted with Deth, after the news that he betrayed Morgon begins to circulate. In particular, his answer is played both ways with his relationship with El; while still needing to maintain his cover with Ghisteslwchlohm, Deth callously implies it was all a lie, but when reporting this to El, Morgon describes Deth's actions From a Certain Point of View to tell her Deth actually loved her. This kindness is what ultimately breaks Deth and reveals that it was never a lie to begin with.
- Wham Line: At least one per book (with several in the third), but the most obvious is at the very end of the first book, when Morgon's mentor, Ohm, reveals that he's simultaneously the Big Bad, Ghisteslwchlohm, and what people thought was the Big Good, the High One:"I am Ghisteslwchlohm, the Founder of Lungold, and—as you have guessed—its destroyer. I am the High One."
- Wizarding School: Lungold was the original one before Ghisteslwchlohm destroyed it; every mentioned wizard in the story attended it. In the modern day, there's Caithnard, the school of riddle-masters, which evokes the tropes of one; but it's unclear if it teaches actual magic.
- Wizards Live Longer: All the wizards are centuries old at least; it's implied that they do die of old age eventually, but exactly how long they last isn't specified. This also holds true for some other magic-users who aren't wizards, like the more powerful land rulers; Har is roughly two thousand years old, and Danan Isig may be even older.
- Words Can Break My Bones: "The Great Shout" is a variation on this, occurring involuntarily in a moment of intense emotion - psychic shouting that can do a remarkable amount of damage. At one point Morgon's shout is sufficiently powerful to shatter the High One's doorstep.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: Played with, in that Raederle is officially the second most beautiful woman "in all the Three Portions of An."
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: The shape-changers themselves are naturally capable of controlling their own shape; most wizards can as well, as can anyone with enough natural talent and willpower.
- Zero-Approval Gambit Deth aka The High One. Also Mathom of An who outrages his lords and his heir by leaving An to search - or so he says - for Morgon, thus allowing the bindings on the ancient and hostile ghosts he holds in check to loosen. He is successful; An arms itself remarkably quickly for war as a result.
