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''Darkover'' is a series of novels by famed [[Science Fiction]] and [[Fantasy]] author [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]]. They deal with the [[Lost Colony]] world of Cottman IV, called Darkover by the natives. The series itself spans many thousands of years of history.
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* ''The Alton Gift'' (with Deborah J. Ross)
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* [[A Plague
* [[Alien Non
▲* [[A Plague On Both Your Houses]]: a servant curses the head of the Aldaran household as he dies in ''Stormqueen!''
▲* [[Alien Non Interference Clause]]: The Empire has this in theory, as worlds that want limited contact with the Empire are supposed to be respected. However, in [[Characterization Marches On|later books]], they start looking for an excuse to break the rule and force their way into Darkover, and in ''Traitor's Sun'' they finally abandon the rule (fortunately, Darkover manages to cut off all contact before the Terrans can invade).
* [[Alien Sky]]: the Darkovan sun is a large, red star, colloquially known as the Bloody Sun. The night sky has four moons.
* [[All Myths Are True]]: The creation myth of the house of Hastur is actually true, although the "god" was [[God Guise|actually an alien Chieri]]
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* [[Burn the Witch]]: after Cleindori demonstrates that [[Virgin Power]] isn't really a requisite for her job, she and a lot of her family and friends (and the members of the Forbidden Tower) are slaughtered. And yes, in some cases, burned (in their house).
* [[But I Would Really Enjoy It]]: Callista's dilemma in ''The Forbidden Tower'' is that she wants to have sex with her husband (see below), but has been brainwashed into being a Keeper who's not allowed to get laid, and undoing that brainwashing is extremely difficult.
* [[Canon
* [[Catfolk]]: The Catmen.
* [[The Clan]]: The seven major noble houses of Darkover and the numerous minor families.
* [[Closet Key]]: Danilo for Regis (in more ways than one; he has the catalyst laran, after all) and vice versa.
* [[Culture Clash]]: The Darkovans and the Terrans do this a lot; stories where the characters [[Going Native|go native]] invariably focus on the difficulty of adapting to a different culture.
* [[Death
* [[Depraved Homosexual]]: Dyan Ardais, before his redemption.
** It's implied that this might partly be owing to Dyan never really getting over the fact that in their teens, {{spoiler|Kennard Alton}} broke his heart TWICE, first by picking a new best friend and then by {{spoiler|going straight on Dyan.}} Jawdroppingly, Dyan realizes the last-mentioned {{spoiler|while he and Kennard are actually having sex}}.
* [[Disney Villain Death]]: {{spoiler|Jaelle and Aquilara}}
* [[Doppelganger]]: Paul Harrell, to Bard di Asturiens
* [[Dramatic Irony]]: Auster is ''convinced'' that the Terran Jeff Kerwin is somehow being used as a spy for the Terrans against his knowledge. {{spoiler|Turns out that (a) Jeff doesn't have a Terran dad, Auster does, and (b) he was [[Separated
* [[Dropped a Bridget On Him]]: In ''Hawkmistress!'', Romilly MacAran, [[Sweet Polly Oliver|in disguise as a boy]], is an object of lust for one of her companions. Turns out he didn't see though her disguise at all, he was actually gay.
* [[Due to
* [[The Empire]]: The Terran Empire during the Second Age
* [[Eternal English]]: Played straight with the Terran Empire, subverted on Darkover which speaks two different languages derived from gaelic and Spanish.
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* [[Fantastic Racism]]: The trailmen and [[Catfolk|catmen]], nonhuman intelligent races on Darkover, are the subject of racism from the humans.
* [[Fantasy Gun Control]]: The Darkovan Compact forbids any kind of range weapon. It was developed to deal with the destructiveness of laran weaponry, but it covers guns as well.
* [[Faster
* [[Fish Out of Water]]: Any Terran on Darkover; Andrew Carr and Jeff Kerwin are examples. ''Thendara House'' is a paired example, with Magda Lorne with the Amazons and Jaelle with the Terrans.
* [[Feudal Future]]
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* [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: nearly all those with psychic talent have red hair, which means that the love interests and heroines are almost always redheads.
* [[I Choose to Stay]]: {{spoiler|Magda and Camilla choose to join the [[Hidden Elf Village]] at the end of City of Sorcery.}}
* [[It's Okay If It's You]]: Regis Hastur has a thing for Danilo Syrtis, who is very reluctant due to a major case of homophobia (preferring to maintain their current [[Heterosexual Life Partners|relationship]] ) until {{spoiler|Regis finally manages to get him into bed, after which he does an abrupt 180 and becomes quite possessive; it's implied that Danilo is ONLY interested in Regis to the exclusion of any other [[Single
* [[Interspecies Romance]]: The origin of the strong psychic powers, and also used in ''The World Wreckers.''
* [["It's Not Rape If You Enjoyed It"]]: Bard's laran enables him to force a woman to want him sexually (they're not happy about it afterwards), and this is something he cites frequently.
* [[Kissing Cousins]]: almost every single freaking relationship on Darkover that doesn't involve an alien species or a Terran is a case of cousins marrying.
* [[Law of Inverse Fertility]]: Ellemir, who loves children and very much wants her own, finds it very difficult to carry a child to term. Her twin sister Callista, who is not especially interested, has no trouble at all. The result is a bunch of children running around the estate who all call Ellemir "Mama," regardless of their biological parentage. (IIRC, even some children not born to Ellemir, Callista, or either's husband do this. She just mothers any child in range.)
* [[Lost Colony]]
* [[Love Is in
* [[Luke, I Might Be Your Father]]: Dezi's father might be one of oh, six guys his mother slept with that night. None of them will claim him as his own, which royally pisses him off.
* [[Mandatory Motherhood]]: and how. Not only can nobody conceive of such a thing as being wanted, Darkover used to have breeding programs for laran. The Comyn still insists on everyone having as many kids as possible with other Comyn (at a time in the past, it was forbidden for one woman to have more than two children by the same man: a Darkovan woman a little patronizingly explains to an Earthwoman the concept of "genetic pool"). Camilla of ''Darkover Landfall'' and Rohana of the Renunciate trilogy particularly were not thrilled to have lots of kids.
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* [[Orphan's Plot Trinket]]: Jeff Kerwin grows up in the Terran Empire with no idea that the blue stone he's always worn is the matrix of his Keeper mother Cleindori; when he finally comes back to Darkover, the Comyn identify him through the matrix.
* [[Our Elves Are Better]]: The ''chieri'', of the Space Elf variety.
* [[No Periods, Period]]: In ''Hawkmistress!'', Romilly's menstruation is a big problem while she's disguised as a boy.
* [[Numbered Homeworld]]: Cottman IV
* [[Patronymic]]: Children take the last name of the higher ranked parent.
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* [[Residual Self Image]]: The form a person takes in the Overworld is based almost completely on the way they picture themselves. It may not even be human in form.
* [[Retcon]]: The author later stated that the FTL accident that sent the colony ship off-course also sent it through time, accounting for the disparity between the long Darkovan history and the much shorter history of the Terran Empire.
* [[Sci
* [[Screw Yourself]]: In ''Two to Conquer'', the protagonist meets up with an identical duplicate of himself. And then, well, [[Squick]].
* [[Sex Slave]]: The riyachiyas in ''Stormqueen.''
* [[Shout
* [[Split Personality]]: Dr. Jason Allison of ''The Planet-Savers'' was raised by Darkovan trailmen before returning to the Terrans to become a cold, xenophobic doctor who entirely repressed his childhood experiences; his "Jay" personality, warmer and more impulsive, has those memories but none of Jason's medical and scientific training.
* [[Straw Misogynist]]: The Terran men as well as the Darkovans, and institutionally as well as individually. (In a galaxy-spanning Terran Empire of three thousand years in the future -- one in which men and women are repeatedly asserted to be equal in every way -- when Jane Smith marries John Doe, she is automatically designated not only with his surname, but with his ''full'' name: not "Smith, Jane", not "Doe, Jane", but "Doe, Mrs. John".)
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[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]
[[Category:Darkover]]
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