Realm of the Elderlings

The Realm of the Elderlings is the universe in which the majority of Robin Hobb's work takes place. It is currently comprised of the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies and the Rain Wilds Chronicles quartet, as well as at least one upcoming book. There are also the related stories "Homecoming", "The Inheritance", "Words Like Coins", "Blue Boots" and "Cat's Meat".

These series contain examples of:
Tropes Common To The Universe


 * Crystal Spires and Togas: The Elderling civilization seems to have been this and based on
 * Magitek
 * Grey and Gray Morality
 * The Magic Comes Back: All the series except the Farseer one revolve to a greater or lesser extent around the return of dragons and their Elderling servants.
 * Our Elves Are Better: The Elderlings combine this with Lizard Folk
 * Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons are intelligent can fly and breath acid as a weapon. They also have a complex life cycle beginning as Sea Serpents, going upriver to cocoonthemselves and emerging as dragons. The disruption of this cycle is what created the current state of the world

The Farseer Trilogy:


 * Assassin's Apprentice
 * Royal Assassin
 * Assassin's Quest


 * Abusive Parents: Molly's father. becomes like this later, until someone intervenes.
 * Alcoholic Parent: Molly's father. Suprisingly, related to the entry above.
 * And I Must Scream: It's not presented as a particularly horrible fate, however.
 * Angst: Fitz tends towards this mindset, sometimes dropping into Wangst territory. Given what happens to him, though, it's probably understandable.
 * Annoying Arrows: Averted. Fitz gets hit with one and only his badassery and Determinatorness allow him to keep going. It nearly kills him and it takes weeks for him to recover.
 * Awesome McCoolname: Chade Fallstar
 * Badass Bookworm: Fitz cover as an amateur/apprentice scribe, in which he gains the respect of several nobles in the course of his real work. Chade as well probably counts, since he's more or less a Mad Scientist who invents gunpowder on the side.
 * Best Her to Bed Her: Somewhat implied with Malta Vestrit, with her subconscious view of herself and Reyn showing an ancient kidnapping marriage.
 * Big Bad Ensemble: Regal and the Red Ships
 * Big Badass Wolf: Nighteyes, naturally.
 * Bishonen: The Fool. He is often described as delicate and feminine, and
 * Blood Sport: Regal's gladiator ring
 * Break the Cutie: Happens to Fitz over the course of the series, pretty badly (Most people consider him good, if not very good looking, though this is revealed retroactively).
 * Broken Bird: Burrich's gruff exterior goes along with an even gruffer past. Being taken into slavery, losing his family,, then being Kicked Upstairs to stable master after taking a hit for Chivalry and injuring his knee are just the start of it. Having to take care of the king's Royal Bastard is just icing on the cake.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer:
 * Cain and Abel: Regal's feud with Chivalry and Verity. His mother hammered it into him that he was "better" than his half-brothers because she was higher-born than Chivalry and Verity's mother, and he never forgot it.
 * Career Killers: Fitz, of course, and Chade. Somewhere between the "assassin" and "hitman" subtypes, as they are assassins in name and double as spies, working undercover, meaning they have some status, but the actual killing is considered "dirty work", carried out by bastard children to the princes and kings of the royal family. And should you not longer be under the protection of the king ...
 * Chekhov's Gun: On his way to assassinate Prince Regal, Fitz encounters the half-mad bond companion of a Witted man Regal had tortured to death. The insane little ferret is bent on killing Regal, as well, intending on slashing open his throat and drinking his blood, and Fitz wishes him well, as one assassin to another.
 * Also the Witness Stones.
 * The Caligula: Prince Regal fits this to a tee, complete with decadent parties, a drug habit, gladiators fighting for his amusement and a sadistic penchant for Cold-Blooded Torture.
 * Children Are Innocent: Rosemary is a Double Subversion.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Lady Patience.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Fitz does not fight fair at all. Poison, hidden weapons, sniping, and deliberate maiming are all standard tactics for him.
 * Molly as well. With bees nonetheless.
 * Cold-Blooded Torture: Done to Fitz.
 * Comic Book Adaptation: A French production that has only been translated into Dutch so far.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Nighteyes, who never seems to stop being amused by certain human tendencies. Fitz has a hard time keeping a straight face when Nighteyes nicknames new encounters, on occasion, too, especially when he refers to Starling as the "howling bitch" for her singing.
 * Deadly Decadent Court: Usually not decadent, but the first books are called Royal Assassin and Assassin's Apprentice for a reason.
 * Determinator: He walks across a continent, fights a group of armed men, and takes an arrow in the back while climbing a mountain, and keeps going.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: Galen. Not the "really for your own good" kind.
 * Fantastic Racism: The persecution of Old Blood.
 * Burn the Witch: Witted people who are caught are hanged over water and burned.
 * The Evil Prince: Regal
 * Faking the Dead:
 * and then
 * The Fool: Played for laughs at times, subverted in that the Fool is actually an intelligent, educated Mad Oracle. Arguably he is more The Jester, at least at first.
 * Heir Club for Men: Subverted. The line of succession moves to the next heir, regardless of gender. The current generation of Farseer royalty is made up completely of Estrogen Brigade Bait, but female rulers are just as common as male ones.
 * Heroes Prefer Swords: Averted. Fitz usually uses a sword, but he actually prefers an axe, and his teachers comment occasionally that he just doesn't have the talent to be a particularly good swordsman.
 * Heroic Albino: The Fool, who begins the trilogy with white skin and hair.
 * Heroic Bastard: Guess. Chade, too, since out-of-wedlock children to royalty are often made assassins.
 * : Regal's penultimate fate.
 * Hidden Elf Village: The Mountain Kingdom has definite shades of this.
 * Ho Yay: Between Fitz and the Fool; starts at a small scale in Royal Assassin.
 * Hunk: Fitz, along with being a pretty boy. He's an ax-wielding oarsman. There's no way he's not stacked.
 * Idiot Ball: The amount of trust nearly everyone  extends towards Regal is pretty amazing.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: Fitz really does just want to settle down with Molly.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Fitz, particularly in "Assassin's Quest."
 * The Kingdom: the Six Duchies
 * Living Legend: The Fitz earns a reputation as a fighter before "dying". After dying, he continues to earn a reputation as a witted sinner, but still serving his king.
 * Low Fantasy: Follows a High Fantasy plot structure, but Hobb's narrative resembles Jack London more than JRR Tolkien. Character Development, Weather and Environment, and internal narrative are, generally, the main focus. Questing is nasty, hard, dirty work, and magic is a (thankfully) uncommon, often painful experience.
 * Mad Oracle: The Fool, though
 * Mama Bear: is nothing if not this.
 * Master Poisoner: This is a large part of Fitz's training in Assassin's Apprentice.
 * Meaningful Name: Babies born in noble families are usually named after a virtue, in belief child assimilates said virtue as a crucial part of his/hers personality. Thus we have Lords Chivalry, Verity, Bright, Shrewd, Dutiful and Ladies Patience, Constance, Faith, Celerity and Grace, among others.
 * Meaningful Rename: Thrice:
 * First when he was given into the care of his father's family; he loses the name given him by his mountain mother, which he doesn't remember until the end of the third trilogy and is given the name Fitz Chivalry by his uncle Verity.
 * Second a secret Man Name as part of Fitz's Rite of Passage
 * Third is in the third trilogy.
 * Mind Rape: Part of what the Skill can do to someone, forcing pain, attacking their mind, or forcing compulsions onto someone. It's even possible to fry someone's mind entirely with a Skill-blast, though the feedback is pretty nasty when that happens.
 * New Powers As the Plot Demands: Fitz ends up doing some amazing things with the Skill once he's under pressure or asleep. Much of this is the result of mental blocks he's built up (or had inflicted upon him) against the Skill that make it difficult for him to consciously control it; his natural Skill strength is pretty phenomenal when he actually can get to it.
 * Ninja Maid: Lacey, the "best student Hod ever taught."
 * No Holds Barred Beatdown
 * Not Using the Z Word / Technically Living Zombie: The Forged. They stumble around in groups taking or killing what they want with no heed for their own safety and will even Technically, they act more like The Soulless, but the aimless, unabashed wandering in large groups definitely evokes feelings of a Zombie Apocalypse.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: the Myth Arc's first version of dragons are sculptures made of magical stone and imbued with the memories of Skill coteries; additionally,
 * Parental Abandonment: A recurring theme, more or less.
 * Patronymic: FitzChivalry
 * Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Mk.1. Verity and Kettricken. After a fashion.
 * Pretty Boy: Fitz definitely starts this way. The Fool laments its loss upon seeing his scarred visage later in life.
 * Psychic Link: both the Skill and the Wit/Old Blood are used in this way, the latter mostly as Bond Creatures
 * Mindlink Mates: Fitz, Nighteyes and the Fool
 * Really 700 Years Old: Kettle, who thanks to the skill has managed to live more than 200 years.
 * Royals Who Actually Do Something: Pretty much everyone, most obviously the Mountain Kingdom. Inverted with Regal, who plots and schemes to power but thinks he has a right to be a layabout, drug addicted Jerkass.
 * Rite of Passage: Fitz hints at having one of these to mark passage into manhood. It's one of the few things he doesn't expound upon, as its not considered seemly to discuss in mixed company.
 * Royal Brat: Regal starts out as this, but later he becomes worse. Much, much worse.
 * Samus Is a Girl: Hod.
 * Secret Test of Character: Fitz gets one as part of his assassin training early on. Chade instructs him to steal something of King Shrewd's as a prank, then gets angry with him when he balks; in reality, they're testing him to see if his loyalty to Chade, one of the only mentors he's ever known, is strong enough to override his loyalty to Shrewd. Fitz passes via Take a Third Option, at which point Chade admits the entire thing was Shrewd's idea.
 * It should be mentioned that this was probably a major pass/fail exam on Fitz's part; there's at least some chance that Shrewd would have had him killed quietly if he'd failed.
 * Seers: Apart from the white prophets, there's also the first Farseer who was named thus because he could see the future.
 * Shoot the Dog: Subverted, at least in the first book;
 * The Spartan Way: How the Skill users are trained by Galen.
 * Sibling Triangle: Kettle was part of one in her past,
 * Slut Shaming: Not too bad, but the threats to Molly begin with being forced out of the castle in shame. Fitz's reputation is also likely to suffer, though not as much. Minstrels are explicitly free from the shame normally attaching to sluttly liaisons.
 * Squishy Wizard: Averted by Fitz. See Determinator.
 * Stay in The Kitchen: Kettricken comes from a culture where women, even royals, share in combat and heavy manual labor, even more so than in the Six Duchies. She resents bring cooped up in a tower making tapestries (considered a winter activity) when she could be, at he very least, stitching sails for the fleet of ships being built. Partially Justified in that both her and her unborn child are targets for assassination and Fitz is doing his darnedest to protect them and the stability of the whole kingdom.
 * Stern Teacher: Burrich. Incredibly gruff and almost universally loved.
 * Averted with Chade, who sometimes falls under the Trickster Mentor, but is terribly laid back considering how serious his job is.
 * Take a Third Option: Fitz passes his Secret Test of Character this way. Rather than steal something from Shrewd in order to pass one of Chade's tasks, he goes to meet with Shrewd, then picks up and hides a fruit knife with Shrewd watching, without saying a word, then slams it into Chade's mantle the next time they meet.
 * The Exile: Kettle was exiled.
 * Fitz went into a self-imposed one at the end of the books.
 * Theme Naming: Traditionally, noble-born (especially of the royal line) are named for traits and virtues, with the folklore claiming that they would grow to exhibit the traits for which they were named. Commoners tend to have simple names denoting a profession.
 * The Theme Naming does pan out, from what we see. Shrewd is a cunning old bastard, Verity is honest and blunt-spoken, Chivalry is said to have edged into Honor Before Reason territory. Regal arguably lives up to his name as well, considering its connotations do fit with the power and wealth that are his entire pursuit in life.
 * Tiny Guy Huge Girl: Verity is said to have Stout Strength, while Kettricken comes from tall, nimble Mountain folk.
 * Training From Hell: What Galen does.
 * Tsundere: Molly.
 * Undying Loyalty: Although several characters are notable for their unwavering loyalty to the person or a cause, Burrich stands out among them.
 * The Wise Prince: Chivalry and especially Verity.
 * Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Inverted. Molly doesn't like palace living or the burdens that come with it.
 * Women's Mysteries: Inverted. See Rite of Passage
 * Would Hit a Girl: or slash, or poison. Given the genders are pretty much equal, nobody pulls punches.
 * Undying Loyalty: Although several characters are notable for their unwavering loyalty to the person or a cause, Burrich stands out among them.
 * The Wise Prince: Chivalry and especially Verity.
 * Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Inverted. Molly doesn't like palace living or the burdens that come with it.
 * Women's Mysteries: Inverted. See Rite of Passage
 * Would Hit a Girl: or slash, or poison. Given the genders are pretty much equal, nobody pulls punches.

The Liveship Traders:


 * Ship of Magic
 * The Mad Ship
 * Ship of Destiny


 * Badass Preacher:
 * Because You Can Cope: Part of Ephron's implied rationale for leaving the family Liveship to Keffria was that Althea was competent enough to make it on her own, whereas Keffria and her children were dependent on Kyle, and Ephron didn't trust Kyle's ability to provide for them without Vivacia.
 * Bifauxnen: Althea as Athel is more than a little attractive to women, including Jek.
 * Bratty Teenage Daughter: Malta certainly fits the description
 * Broken Bird: Etta, an ex-prostitute who isn't really a Hooker With a Heart of Gold (only under very odd circumstances could she be called "sweet").
 * Continuity Nod: when Amber resculpts the ship Paragon's visage in order to restore its eyes, the end result is heavily implied to be Fitz the assassin. In The Tawny Man,.
 * Corrupt Church:
 * Daddy's Girl: Malta to Kyle, Althea to Ephron
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Dear Sa, Kennit has one. Paragon's past at least rivals Kennit's. So does Brashen, albeit on a considerably smaller scale than Kennit.
 * Dead Guy Junior: a variation:
 * The Empire: Jamaillia
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Kennit can't. In the end (not literally), the story shows why.
 * Faith Heel Turn: Hinted to be the backstory of
 * Fantasy Contraception: wizardwood used as a belly button ring.
 * Freudian Excuse:
 * Half-Identical Twins: An odd variation where Althea and Wintrow are described as almost identical, although they're aunt and nephew
 * Idiot Ball: almost all of the problems in the first book are directly caused by Ronica entrusting the family liveship not to her nice but unorthodox daughter Althea, but to the harsh and brutal husband of her other daughter, Kyle. Within the first few chapters, Kyle alienates his wife, disrupts the life of his son, chases Althea out of the family, supports his daughter becoming a manipulative vixen, kicks out most of the ship's crew, and turns the newly awakened family ship to slave trading.
 * If You Taunt Him You Will Be Just Like Him: Being a Sa priest is not easy.
 * I Gave My Word
 * It's All My Fault: Vivacia, upon seeing.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Jerk: Satrap Cosgo is made more prudent and pragmatic by his ordeals, but every time you think he's learned something about empathy, graciousness, or humility as well, he turns out to be as big of a Jerkass as ever.
 * Living Legend:
 * Kennit, King of the Pirate Isles, strives for this his entire career, and succeeds in spite of himself. His legacy passes to Etta and Wintrow.
 * Kennit is also the protege of another pirate who would have been king. His legend was much darker.
 * Malta and Reyn, as, become movers and shakers across nations by virtue of that fact. Also, wildly popular at parties.
 * Love Triangle: Three of them, each with one girl and two guys: Althea, Brashen and Grag; Malta, Cerwin and Reyn; Etta, Kennit and Wintrow.
 * Machiavelli Was Wrong: Just ask Vivacia which captain she preferred and which one was the most successful.
 * Made a Slave
 * Manipulative Bastard: Kennit is either this, or he thinks it's all about him.
 * Never My Fault: Kyle Haven and Kennit both tend toward this form of reasoning, and it's not played for laughs.
 * No Dead Body Poops: Explicitly noted when the dead pig is found in Davad Restart's coach.
 * Not Quite the Right Thing: Happens to Wintrow, a lot.
 * Not So Different: Althea knows she and Malta are(n't). Neither are Kennit and, as it turns out.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: variation two, living dragons who are intelligent, arrogant and powerfully magical
 * Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Malta and Reyn's (then again, Reyn was the one who asked for it)
 * Plucky Middie
 * Rape As Drama:
 * Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil
 * Reality Ensues: protip: if you want someone to help you, don't make them look stupid for months first.
 * Religion Is Magic: Specifically, healing magic. It's implied that the magic practiced by the priests is the Skill.
 * Saintly Church: The church of Sa, for the most part.
 * Sapient Ship: the premise, ships imbued with the memories of their ancestral families, with sentient, talking figureheads
 * Save the Villain
 * Screw the Rules, I Make Them
 * Sinister Minister:
 * Slut Shaming: The tenor of Bingtown society is more conservative than Six Duchies, and the shaming women face is more severe. Althea in particular gets a lot of it, including from her own sister in one important incident from their youth. Jek, who actually is implied to be promiscuous, is notably immune to being shamed because of her forceful personality.
 * The Stoic: Wintrow tries hard to be this
 * Sweet Polly Oliver: Althea masquerading as Athel in order to earn back her ship.
 * Troubled but Cute: Brashen, and he's well aware of the "trouble(d)" part.
 * Turn the Other Cheek: Part of the teachings of the Sa priests.
 * Ungrateful Bastard: Kennit, especially to Etta.
 * Wholesome Crossdresser:
 * Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Kyle is determined to turn Wintrow into his image of a Real Man, regardless of Wintrow's wishes.

The Tawny Man:


 * Fool's Errand
 * The Golden Fool
 * Fool's Fate


 * Apocalypse How: Something happened to the Elderings and all those dragons, possibly a class 0-2.
 * And Man Grew Proud: Fool predicts this will happen if Dragons aren't around to keep humanity in check.
 * Big Bad: Finally, the Evil Counterpart behind most of the evils in the series is shown.
 * Boomerang Bigot: as it turns out. Freudian Excuse and all.
 * Cats Are Mean: Subverted
 * A Crack in The Ice: In the last book,  fall down one when crossing a glacier.
 * Dead Guy Junior: This time,
 * Disability Superpower: Thick, who combines the mind of a child with enough power in the Skill magic that he may be the most powerful Skill-user in the series.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: Fitz loses a surprising number of dear and personal friends and opportunities, but in the end, finds a life that he can be content with.
 * Engagement Challenge: the Outislanders' challenge to Dutiful
 * Epileptic Trees: In-universe, they're planted and kept by Prince Dutiful, who's left to draw his own conclusions rather than given the truth from the start. No wonder he comes up with explanations such as Tom Badgerlock being Chade's and Lady Thyme's son.
 * Evil Counterpart: the Pale Woman to the Fool. She's even described as looking almost exactly like a female version of him, except with perfectly white skin to contrast with the steady darkening of the Fool's skin.
 * Fantastic Racism: against the Witted
 * Generation Xerox: Frequently lampshaded.
 * Halfway Plot Switch:
 * The High Queen: Kettricken has become this in the 15 year interlude since Assassin's Quest, with Chade's help.
 * Ho Yay: Fitz and Fool again and this time on an even bigger scale. Overlaps with Tear Jerker
 * Les Collaborateurs: As it turns out,, had been on the take from the Big Bad the whole time.
 * Living Legend: The Witted Bastard is widely suspected to be alive, he has become the symbol for two political movements within the secret, witted communities. And now he's returned to court as a mysterious adviser to the Queen and to Prince Dutiful.
 * Mistaken for Gay: Fitz by almost everyone, including his family and ex-lover. Or not, because several of these think that The Fool is a girl.
 * Mook Face Turn:
 * Myth Arc: Concluded in Fool's Fate
 * Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Mk.2. Dutiful and Elliania.
 * The Plan: The Pale Woman's has one. Her version of the world
 * Poor Communication Kills
 * Power Incontinence: See: The Rainman.
 * The Rainman: Subverted. Thick's Power Incontinence makes him a sheer terror to train, and because of his childish mind, when he's uncomfortable or upset he can't help but radiate those feelings outward. It's enough to make people who aren't even sensitive to the Skill share his seasickness.
 * Retired Badass: Burrich and Chade both qualify.
 * Fitz is sort of retired at the start of Fool's Errand, having vanished after the end of the Red Ship War fifteen years ago. The end of the first trilogy heavily reinforces this, as it ambiguously paints Fitz as very old and well past his prime at the time of this trilogy (he is in fact in his early thirties). This is explained in Fool's Fate:
 * Samus Is a Girl: the Fool. Or perhaps not. The books are never entirely clear on the Fool's gender. He comes from a culture where gender isn't considered a big deal, and finds Starling's curiosity hilarious.
 * Scry vs. Scry: Hinted at in the first trilogy; made much more obvious. The entire plot of the books revolves around the Fool and the Pale Woman's opposing views of what the future should be like and their attempts to enforce their version.
 * Slut Shaming: People heap shame on Fitz and Lord Golden for their perceived promiscuities. Svanja's father is distraught over what she and Hap are doing, and starts a fight with Fitz over it.
 * The Un-Reveal: the Fool's gender. Possibly to show that Fitz has come to accept the Fool's own view that it isn't important.
 * What Happened to The Mouse?: Purposefully invoked . through both series, it's implied we'll never find out the exact circumstances around Chivalry's death.
 * The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: shades of this in Kettricken
 * What Happened to The Mouse?: Purposefully invoked . through both series, it's implied we'll never find out the exact circumstances around Chivalry's death.
 * The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask: shades of this in Kettricken

The Rain Wilds Chronicles:


 * Dragon Keeper
 * Dragon Haven
 * City of Dragons
 * Blood of Dragons (forthcoming)


 * The Beard: Alise for Hest.
 * Bond Creatures: As some of the dragons and keepers become closer, or keepers drink the dragon's blood, this sort of relationship develops between them.
 * Broken Bird: Thymara.
 * Character Filibuster: Bellin to Jerd, when the latter is Hoo boy.
 * Christmas Cake: Alise at the start
 * Daddy's Girl: Thymara
 * Domestic Abuser: Hest
 * Duology Creep: First being planned out as one book, the story grew so long that it was released as two books. And now her forthcoming sequel has grown to two books too.
 * Fantastic Racism: the Rain Wilders, who already grow dragonish physical traits as they get older, want anyone born with these defects abandoned at birth. Those who survive are forbidden to breed and are generally treated like crap.
 * Fantasy Contraception: Subverted: it doesn't work, and after one character has a miscarriage, another reiterates to all the girls that they'd better keep their legs shut, period.
 * Heroes Want Redheads: averted at first when nobody wants Alise except the guy looking for a beard, played straight later.
 * I Know Your True Name: According to Sintara: no dragon could lie to someone who demanded the truth with her true name or used it properly when asking a question. Nor could a dragon break an agreement if she entered into it under her true name.
 * Instant Messenger Pigeon: for the framing/epistolary story between the two pigeon keepers.
 * Jerkass: Hest, Sintara, Greft, Jess, and really Sedric as well
 * Love Martyr: Sedric
 * Mommy Issues: Thymara's mom obviously doesn't like her.
 * Nerd: Alise is a self-made scholar and dragon expert.
 * Never Found the Body: Rapskal and Heeby
 * Our Dragons Are Different: Born deformed, they suffer the same prejudice as their keepers.
 * Rape As Drama: Hest raping Alise
 * Slut Shaming: Proper Bingtowners don't do extramarital sex, and deformed Rain Wilder's shouldn't ever.
 * Straight Gay: Hest,
 * The Unfavourite: Alise
 * Wings Do Nothing: most of the dragons don't have well-developed enough wings to fly, though they discover that a good diet and practicing flying helps a lot.
 * Wings Do Nothing: most of the dragons don't have well-developed enough wings to fly, though they discover that a good diet and practicing flying helps a lot.