Darkover: Difference between revisions

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* [[Amazon Brigade]]: The Renunciates, also called the Free Amazons, are a guild of women warriors who reject Darkover's traditional gender roles (women can only be wives or work in a Tower). They all tend to have a [[Dark and Troubled Past]].

* [[Arranged Marriage]]: constantly

* [[Bad Powers Good People]]: Dorilys of Rockraven does use her storm-control powers to save lives on a few occasions.

* [[Bad Powers, Good People]]: Dorilys of Rockraven does use her storm-control powers to save lives on a few occasions.

* [[Brother Sister Incest]]: Mikhail of Aldaran insists on his ''preteen daughter'' marrying her 20-year-old half-brother in order to solve his [[Heir Club for Men]]/[[Succession Crisis]] problem. Yes, he wants them to make a baby. And it's implied that if he wasn't impotent, he'd have been willing to commit [[Parental Incest]] to solve the problem. Even worse, [[Big Brother Attraction|both of the siblings are eventually willing to go through with it]], even the brother who already has a girlfriend.

* [[Brother-Sister Incest]]: Mikhail of Aldaran insists on his ''preteen daughter'' marrying her 20-year-old half-brother in order to solve his [[Heir Club for Men]]/[[Succession Crisis]] problem. Yes, he wants them to make a baby. And it's implied that if he wasn't impotent, he'd have been willing to commit [[Parental Incest]] to solve the problem. Even worse, [[Big Brother Attraction|both of the siblings are eventually willing to go through with it]], even the brother who already has a girlfriend.

* [[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.

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* [[Going Native]]: Numerous Terrans, including Magda Lorne, Andrew Carr, Jeff Kerwin, and Margaret Alton

* [[Halfbreed]]: Lew and Marius Alton get a lot of grief for having a Terran mother.

* [[Half Human Hybrid]]: The alien native ''[[Our Elves Are Different|chieri]]'' and the humans are capable of interbreeding. It's implied that the abnormally high incidence of psychic talents on Darkover is due to their ''chieri'' blood. Not to mention the extra fingers.

* [[Half-Human Hybrid]]: The alien native ''[[Our Elves Are Different|chieri]]'' and the humans are capable of interbreeding. It's implied that the abnormally high incidence of psychic talents on Darkover is due to their ''chieri'' blood. Not to mention the extra fingers.

* [[Heir Club for Men]]: constantly.

* [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: nearly all those with psychic talent have red hair, which means that the love interests and heroines are almost always redheads.

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* [[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 Target Sexuality|potential relationship.]] }}

* [[Interspecies Romance]]: The origin of the strong psychic powers, and also used in ''The World Wreckers.''

* [[~~Its~~ 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.

* [[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 The Air]]: The Ghost Winds spread ''kireseth'' pollen, which has this effect among others.

* [[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.

* [[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.

** This attitude is of course a legacy of the Landfall era when it was vital for all fertile females to have as many children as they could manage by several different fathers to establish a sufficiently large and varied gene pool to guarantee the survival of our species on Darkover.

* [[The Magocracy]]: The planet is ruled by a king and seven noble houses, and the heir to those positions must have laran. Subversion: those who actually specialize in the use of laran are supposed to stay in the Towers and out of government.

* [[Matriarchy]]: While Darkover as a whole is extremely patriarchal, women head the Aillard Domain.

* [[May December Romance]]: actually not done on Darkover, or at least marrying someone not of your generation isn't, because they might very well BE your father.

* [[May-December Romance]]: actually not done on Darkover, or at least marrying someone not of your generation isn't, because they might very well BE your father.

* [[Mind Over Manners]]: After the time of Varzil the Good, those with telepathic gifts are expected to be ''extremely'' conscientious with their powers. Those with the [[Mind Rape|Alton Gift]] are held to particularly high standards.

* [[My God What Have I Done]]: Bard di Asturien gets a big one after being forced to live through the experiences of the women he's raped.

* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: Bard di Asturien gets a big one after being forced to live through the experiences of the women he's raped.

* [[Obstructive Code of Conduct]]: The Compact forbids the use of any non-melee weapons. When it's broken, the results are usually a bad thing.

* [[One Steve Limit]]: totally averted. The same first names are used ''over and over and over'' for generations. And one book had multiple Davids.