Emberverse: Difference between revisions

* [[Church Militant]]: an apt description of the Mormon church in New Deseret. Given they have the CUT for neighbors, it's understandable.

* [[Clock Punk]]: Especially in the third trilogy. Bicycle-powered trains anyone?

* [[Colonel Badass]]: Colonel Sir Nigel Loring, sometime of the Blues and Royals. He helps to save the Queen and the Royal Family, trains troops in the new fighting methods, protects the families of his soldiers, escapes royal custody, fights heroically in a battle at sea (where he's instrumental in saving the Crown Prince), and outwits the Lord Protector -- all before he links up with the main plotline!

* [[Corrupt Church]]: The Roman Catholic Church in Portland, in the days of Lord Protector Norman Arminger, has its own "pope," burns heretics and dissenters, and supports the PPA's brutal tyranny. Its opposition includes Mount Angel and its [[Warrior Monk]] order, who believe the Catholic Church should uphold what Abbot Dmwoski calls "the ''best'' of our long tradition."

*** Before modern navigational aids the Columbia Bar was a deadly menace known as the "graveyard of ships" due to current and tide conditions; over 2000 ships have been wrecked there since 1792. Even when you've gotten past the bar, beating upriver against the current as far as Portland is hard for sailing ships. It can be done, but there's a reason Astoria is where it is.

*** Any ships on the Columbia River at the time of the Change would have been disabled and would themselves become navigational obstacles. Barring a salvage operation that would be extremely time-consuming and expensive with the technology available, Astoria remains the only viable port for Portland. Portland's docks remain important for upriver transportation and the transshipment yards are still useable, however.

* [[Distressed Damsel]]: Signe, early in the first book. It's this experience which prompts her to [[Take a Level In Badass]].

** Mathilda is also taken hostage at least three times during the series. Justified in that as the Protector's daughter she has high political value to her potential captors. She also becomes quite capable of rescuing herself when necessary as she gets older.

* [[Distressed Dude]]: Ingolf gets captured with alarming frequency.

* [[The Dragon]]: For Norman Arminger, Conrad Renfrew; for his wife Sandra, Tiphaine D'Ath.

* [[Dung Ages]]: massively and deliberately averted. Although the overall tech level of the Emberverse is pre-industrial if not completely medieval, modern medicine and sanitation (and the relationship between sanitation and public health) are still well-known and widely practiced.

* [[Genre Shift]]: The series begins as an apocalyptic disaster thriller with brutally realistic consequences of the loss of much of the US' infrastructure. In short order it evolves into medieval structures. {{spoiler|The actual destination is the closest kin to a fantasy world one can do with [[Alien Space Bats]].}}

* [[God Save Us From the Queen]]: Hallgerda of Greater Britain manipulates her mad husband and places her royal stepsons in harm's way in an effort to ensure her own children will inherit the throne. She eventually kills King Charles when he refuses to disinherit his older sons in favor of her children. Interestingly, the trope does ''not'' apply to [[Magnificent Bastard|Lady Regent Sandra]] of Portland. Ruthless as she can be, she is constrained by the need to avoid alienating her subjects thanks to an open-borders policy. She also sincerely loves her spouse and is devoted to her daughter.

* [[Granola Girl]]: Signe, before the Change. She's a vegetarian and thinks the prospect of a world without guns is wonderful. Then she ''lives'' in that world....

* [[Handicapped Badass]]: Eilir, who doesn't let her deafness interfere with -- well, anything. She's a kickass fighter and wilderness scout, who thanks to her mother's early training is ''very'' good at stealthy approaches.

* [[Lipstick Lesbian]]: Delia, Tiphaine's lover.

* [[Master Swordsman|Masters of the Sword]]: Rudi Mackenzie, Tiphaine d'Ath, Norman Arminger

* [[Magic Knight]]: Father Ignatius. Rudi even more so.

* [[Manly Gay]]: Rigobert, Delia's [[The Beard|husband]] and father (via turkey baster) of her four children.

* [[Nobody Over 50 Is Gay]]: Dr. Aaron Rothman begs to differ -- [[Deadpan Snarker|and thinks you look quite fetchingly butch with that little scar on your chin.]]

** Rigobert is probably in 50-plus territory based upon statements made in ''Tears of the Sun''. Given that Ingolf (himself no softie) considers Rigobert an extremely dangerous man, the latter qualifies as a [[Badass Grandpa]] as well, at least by virtue of age (he's not literally a grandfather yet).

* [[Not So Different]]: Averted in ''The Scourge of God''. Rudi Mackenzie is describing Chuck Barstow's actions at the time of the Change, including survival-motivated fighting, deception, and theft (see [[Break Out the Museum Piece]], above). Odard Liu, thinking of his own brutal sire's actions at that time, is about to invoke this trope, with a side of [[I Did What I Had to Do|Our Parents Only Did What They Had To Do]]. Rudi shuts him down by pointing out one more thing Chuck Barstow felt he "had to do": rescue and take in a group of stranded schoolchildren (including his son Oak, whom Odard knows personally), something that Eddie Liu would certainly never have considered.

** Many of the new nations that arise after the Change are inspired by [[Theme Park Version|old movies and books]], and the residents of each one seem to think of all the others as acting upon some strange fantasy. Even nations like Boise, Corvallis, and Iowa, which have retained more of the pre-Change world's forms and systems than the others.

*** So, are you going to tell us or what?

** Ingolf Vogeler and crew set sail for Nantucket from a cannibal-haunted ruined New England town named... [[HP Lovecraft|Innsmouth]].

* [[Smug Snake]]: Norman Arminger, Duke Iron Rod, Piotr Stavarov, Eddie Liu

* [[Society for Creative Anachronism]]: Many of the founding members of the PPA were originally members of this.