Labyrinths of Echo: Difference between revisions

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Despite the dark premise, the series is quite humorous and lighthearted most of the time, resulting in severe [[Mood Whiplash|Mood Whiplashes]] whenever the [[It Got Worse|shit actually goes south]].

After the final volume, the ''Labyrinths'' were continued by a [[Sequel Series]], the ''Chronicles of Echo''. It consists of prequels narrated by other characters after ''The Quiet City'', but describing events at various times spanning from before the War of the Codex to after ''The Quiet City''. This series is still ongoing and currently contains 7 volumes, with the most recent one published in 2011.

 

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=== The series provides examples of following tropes: ===

 

* [[Actual Pacifist]]: Prequels provide exposition on the healers' Call. Anyone who experiences this is driven to help others. To the point of being unable to sleep if a potential patient can't get to them, so in "Old Times" a healer's house had no locks and criminals won't touch the healers' property. They also tend to be [[The Empath|good at detecting when someone suffers in the first place]]. A true healer discovering he accidentally harmed someone (for them, an intent is impossible) catches [[Heroic BSOD|a bad case of breakdown]].

** However, healers ''can'' fight monsters far from "people" enough to not trigger these reactions and not even living in the first place. Natural healers also tend to be talented mages with lots of practice and hell-bent on saving lives. The current King's Healer started in a provincial SI where he once faced the monster hard to resist, extremely hard to kill and "vaporizing" on death. He took a piece of this thing as a trophy and sent it to the capitol.

* [[The Alcatraz]]: The [[Anti-Magic]] prison Kholomi, designed to hold the most dangerous prisoners. The only successful attempt to penetrate the barrier involved dying and walking as a non-corporeal spirit. Another time, Juffin was called to supervise scrubbing the remnants of almost-escapee from the walls.

* [[Artifact Title]]: In the first edition, the volume ''The Dark Side'' was supposed to include four novels, with the eponymous [[Spirit World]] being introduced in the third. However, the volume was split for publishing, resulting in a title that had nothing to do with it contents. This was fixed in the later editions.

* [[Background Magic Field]]: the Heart of the World. Almost all citizens of Echo, built upon the Heart's location, are fairly competent at Plain Magic - babies keep their diapers clean by a grade 2 spell. Magic items from all over the world gain a significant power boost in Echo, and items and enchantments from Echo either weaken or drain other power sources if moved away.

* [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy]] by means of [[Alternate Self]] and [[Flash Sideways]]: As Murakoks share the memories across all of their instances, Max suspects [[Josef Stalin]] whose pseudonim was "Koba" to be a Murakok instance of Echo's Beggars' Foreman who also goes by "Koba". Thus Koba's [[Black Comedy|weird jokes]] about Echo's LSIF make Max both wary and curious about the man.

* [[Beneath the Mask]]: One of recurring themes.

** Max and Shurf, both during a state of heightened awareness, note that "Most Reverend Chief" and "Kettarian Hunter" are mere masks, and that Juffin Khalli is a being beyond humanity and lacking human weaknesses. Max compares him to Khabba Khän, contrasting that Khabba is benevolent, maybe beneficial, to the world at large, and spreads an aura of peace. Juffin instead spreads an aura of fear - the Book of Burning Pages possibly displayed Juffin rather accurately.

** During Ulviar's Exchange, Max notes that "Sir Max from Echo" is also just a mask, and wonders why the true self was content at wearing the same mask for so long.

* [[Blatant Lies]]: during an epidemy of Anavuayna, Max is among those capable of curing the affected with his Deathly Spheres. Max encounters several dozen infected and casts as many Deathly Spheres as he can at random. As the lucky ones recover and disperse, he tells the others that he'll need a short break and then continue. While the people don't know that Max needs several hours to recover from the effort, thus dooming the remaining crowd, he is immediately called out on it by a low-level clairvoyant in the crowd.

* [[Blood Magic]]:

** The unnamed entity dwelling at the point opposite to World's Heart on the globe.

* [[The Empath]]: Anyone with the Healer's Call.

* [[Equivalent Exchange]]: Echo's Beggar's Foreman Koba claims that the Beggars' Guilds serve to balance the cities, and that removing them would simply reduce other citizens to beggars.

* [[Failure Knight]]: Khel'burik of Ukkumbi wanted to scare contemporary writers from writing novels by claiming that each novel creates a new world, causing all characters to experience a permanent [[And I Must Scream]] state, as their world freezes where the narration ended. The spell he wrought to support his claims worked [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|too well]], making his claims come true. [[My God, What Have I Done?|Khel'burik realized]] that he can not destroy those Dead Illusion Worlds. To atone for this, he became a [[That Man Is Dead|person legendary in his own right]], {{spoiler|Jochchi Shavanakhola. Known as the Merry Magister,}} he overcame death to support his best friend Ch'yolve Maytokhchi, the Wild Wind, in the task of destroying those worlds. {{spoiler|Max, having set Loyso free, simply calls him to Jochchi's and Ch'yolve's aid.}}

** One of the mayors sees his grand-children starving and raped.

** The city's admiral sees himself close to death by thirst, and the only available liquid are his family members suffering from Anavuayna.

* [[Freaky Friday Flip]] / [[Personality Swap]]: The Exchange of Ulviar, also known as the Candle of Fittekh and as the Shadow's Scent. The ritual was invented by the ancient keyifaya king Ulviar the Faceless. Depending on source, his royal healer Fittekh was either the co-inventor or merely assisted Ulviar. The ritual consists of crafting a large wick-less candle from several dozens of rare ingredients, lighting it and extinguishing the flame immediately. The candle slowly glows or smolders spreading a scent {{spoiler|Max}} describes as "a September's night". During this time, at least one of the two participants has to chant the incantation. As there are no data about effects with more than 2 participants, the ritual is best done in a room locked and sealed from inside, and if possible, guarded from the outside to prevent any interventions. The ritual causes the participants' Shadows to come to them and to switch places. The effect holds for 12-20 hours, depending on source, and reverts instantaneously no matter where the participants are, requiring no further action from them. The effect switches not only personas and personalities, but also skills and compulsions - Ulviar possessed not only the healing skills, but also the Healer's call as long as the spell lasted, while Fittekh displayed not only his king's usual ambitions, but also his diplomacy and orator's skills. {{spoiler|After Max, needing to find a way to "want and not want", bemoans his lack of self-control and tells Shurf Lonli-Lokli that he'd like to borrow Shurf's self-control once too often, Shurf tells Max about the ritual. As Shurf considers Max's persona a welcome change from his usual self, Max actually suggests doing it more often.}}

* [[Functional Magic]]:

* [[Hereditary Curse]]: Manukhs used to control Uandook "mice". Mice kings used to curse all Manukhs. This didn't end well for either side.

* [[Hope Is Scary]]: Sir Max comments on it.

* [[Human Sacrifice]]: An ingeniously insane mage invented a way to consume the forgotten Lunar Bull clan's power and connection to the moon for his purposes by finding, abducting, killing and consuming Lunar Bull clan descendants, while metaphorically feeding the hearts of his victims to an incorporeal entity known as a [[Adorable Abomination|Lunar Calf]]<ref> the Lunar Calf is actually harmless and just lonely. Trouble starts if the Calf is kept captive and fed until it matures, becoming the clan's eponymous Lunar Bull, as this will destroy the world</ref>.

* [[I Know Your True Name]]: Fayriba, the shaman of Khenkha, gives Max his True Name, which replaces the lines in his left palm. Juffin considers the True Name, grafted upon flesh in the forgotten [[Language of Magic]] a powerful defensive amulet, and tells Max that in earlier times the [[Properly Paranoid]] reaction would be to kill the shaman, thus making the True Name a secret.

* [[Raging Stiffie]]: result of the gräm potion. Gräm requires a lvl 20+ black magic and is forbidden under the Codex. Max happens to confiscate some counterfeit gräm and spikes Melifaro's kamra cup with a single serving. Melifaro simultaneously returns the favor by spiking the entire pitcher with at least a triple dose, but Max leaves after taking only a few sips. Juffin, aware of the mutual pranks, orders a fresh pitcher, but leaves the spiked one on the table. As Kofa Yokh helps himself to the spiked kamra, Juffin enjoys the show and Kofa ends up in the Rendezvous Quarter.

* [[Reality Warper]]:

** Emulation of Arbiter power through magic (though it's inefficient and imperfect).

** Arvarokhians worship burivukhs as their gods, and they have good reasons to do so. Where burivukhs dwell in numbers, the world becomes as they want to see it. Arvarokh is the only place where the number of burivukhs is really large, though... To quote Kurush, Juffin Halli's burivukh: "We like beautiful people, so Arvarokhians are beautiful. Their eyes have the same color as ours, because we like this color. They are taciturn, because we are not interested in hearing their ramblings. They are active, because we like discussing their doings. We live alone, but our elders come to Arvarokhians to die and enjoy these creatures - they are the pinnacle of our common workings. Arvarokhians like to die, because they believe that each of them may be reborn as a burivukh. This is but a superstition, but sometimes we believe they succeed."

* [[Scarily Competent Tracker]]: While "Master of Tracking" is a job title, it is actually an innate gift required to get the job. Masters of Tracking can "step upon a trace / footprint". A Master of Tracking might have to walk across a room several times until the effect kicks in. Literal footprints are not required, but people carried or floating don't leave a trace, although merely boarding a vehicle does not break the trace - apparently just having your feet upon a surface is enough. Finding a trace causes the Master of Tracking to know what the person did and inflicts an intense desire to follow the footprints while repeating the victim's actions. Masters of Tracking distinguish between footprints of different people (with more experience, they can get a power reading and some info on them) and form a bond to their victims, allowing them to interact with the pursued in real time. The actual amount of damage and the control of damage inflicted vary from mild discomfort (Melamori's predecessor at LSIF, with intent to find) to mild depression (Melamori, with little intent to harm the pursued) to paralysis and pain (Melamori's predecessor at LSIF, with intent to disable) to death ( {{spoiler|Max, with intent to harm}}). Masters of Tracking can not track the dead, which makes using disposable henchmen the [[Properly Paranoid]] way to deal with stolen artifacts. {{spoiler|Max breaks the rules - he can track both dead and undead (not that he likes it, as the link with the pursued causes un-death as feedback), and manages to follow a Dark Way teleport without actually mastering this skill himself first}}. Melamori's Tracking causes mild euphoria in {{spoiler|Max, likely due to his origins and Arbiter status}}.

** Order adept level mages are not immune to the Tracking effect. Order master level mages and [[Determinator|Determinators]] might negate it to some extent. Order Grandmaster level mages, e.g. Juffin, [[Properly Paranoid|constantly keep up layered shield spells]] against Tracking. Juffin tells Max that his first shield simply cut Melamori off his trail as she tried to Track Juffin for fun after being introduced to the LSIF, while further shields would have hurt her using the link her Tracking set up.

* [[The Secret of Long Pork Pies]]: In {{spoiler|''King Bangee''}}.

* [[Shattering the Illusion]]:

* [[Talking in Your Dreams]]: Experienced mages and powerful entities can visit dreams for various benevolent (teaching, communications) or malevolent (killing, consuming souls) reasons. Powerful, but inexperienced mages may cause small scale reality warping, as their dreams happen in reality.

* [[Thinking Up Portals]]: Using the Dark Way ''looks'' like teleportation and can be done near-instantly, but it's about creating or re-opening pathways, which remains in place, can be followed, barred with a locked door, etc. It mostly belongs to the basics of True Magic - wizards ignorant of it can do this, but the success rate varies, so creating a path ''instantly'' is a mark of true talent. The Dark Way should connect two places on ''terra firma'', and attempts to break this limitation are for some reason unsafe.

* [[Time Travel]] / [[Living Relic]]: The Order of the Long Way's members left the world for several millenia and traversed the Paths of the Dead. They find some of the changes amazing, e.g. the ability to tell lies, because in their time attempting a lie had 2 possible outcomes: either the person had enough power to make it happen by saying it, which was a wonder, or the person simply died from the effort. They also consider using the lives of people in your power as bargaining chips (for acquired immortality) acceptable, while Max believes that any [[Immortality Seeker]] should only gamble his or her own life.

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** Alotho Allirokh of the Ironsided Hoob clan; Lord of Aliurkh and Chijkho; Sternly-Glancing Overlord of two half-hundreds Sharpteeth; mighty and loyal warrior of Tojla Liomurik Silver Cone the Conqueror of Arvarokh who rules it to the limits of the world as told in song by Harlokh Sdobnik<ref>transliterated, can not translate the name</ref>, the greatest storyteller among the born; Waterer of the Royal Tree of Spicy Flowers; Keeper of meal-taking carpets; Bringer of the third chalice at the New Moon Feast after the spouse and the Elder Cupbearer; irreplaceable Helmsman of the Royal Boat at the Ulfati lake, who has the right to wear bone shoes on needles of Zoggi; Royal-Chambers-Locking Overlord of a half-hundred of key bundles; Chief of reprisal against Isisorinams; Speaker of the ninth and the twelfth word during the Royal Game of Launi, who kills the Kul'okh bird with two glances, one strike and one ruse; Bearer of three handfuls of coins into the crypt of Kvargi Ishmirmani; Fire-Starter under the royal cauldron for Vatla; Speaker of the Morins' tongue who consumes the Mayushi pig in two-and-a-half goes and who wrought two times twice half-tens songs of his own great heroics.

* [[Uncoffee]]: Kamra.

* [[Urban Fantasy]]: Although it is set in another world, most of the series takes place and around the sprawling metropolis of Echo.

* [[Utility Magic]]: How most of the Plain Magic is used in Echo.