Liavek: Difference between revisions

 

Liavek is a city-state with both a [[Magic A Is Magic A|fairly detailed magic system]] and technology on the edge of the Industrial Age- for example, there are railroads, but no factories.

All spells come undone on the birthday of the magician who created them. Permanently magical objects do exist, but they're extremely rare, since the magician has to sacrifice their magic in order to create one, and if it's destroyed during their lifetime, they die.

 

 

* [[Action Girl]]: Snake, Ler Oeni.

* [[Big Screwed-Up Family]]: The Benedicti family. Oh holy blue chipmunk, the Benedicti family.

* [[Bi the Way]]: Deleon Benedicti.

* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: Several of the Liavekan religions are this. Liavek's most prominant religion, the Way of the Twin Forces, involves a balance between good and evil- in some interpretations, choosing one or the other is undesirable, while in others the important thing is to pick a level of goodness/badness and stick with it. The Church of Truth, prominant enough that one of its priests becomes a co-regent for a child ruler at one point, has as its stated goal the destruction of reality. Which various members of the Church- including the eventual co-regent- had tried to carry out in the series proper. And of course, there's also the House of Responsible Life, apparently a minor but respected sect whose members are united by their desire to commit suicide (but only once they've divested themselves of any and all worldly ties, of course).

* [[Brought Down to Normal]]: Any wizard whose luck object is destroyed. If it's during their ill-luck period (the time opposite in the year to their birth hours) it's permanent; otherwise, they can restore their powers on their next birthday. In the latter case, a very skilled wizard can still work magic for the few minutes each day that correspond to their birth. {{spoiler|Both Trav Marik and Quard can do this}}. Wizards may also choose to stop renewing their powers each year: for example, Thrae, the head of the Desert Mouse theater company, gave up practicing magic because she had more and more trouble investing her luck each year.

* [[Magic A Is Magic A]]: The whole "birth luck" system, which remains fairly consistent despite the complexities.

* [[Miles to Go Before I Sleep]]: The House of Responsible Life is a ''religion'' built around this trope. They seek to rid themselves of all earthly reponsibilities before actually killing themselves. Very few of them succeed. {{spoiler|The only Green Priests who actually get around to committing suicide in the story are Verdialos and Etriae. Nerissa seems to be moving out of this trope as the series ends.}}

* [[No Ontological Inertia]]: Spells last only until the magician's luck is released, either on the magician's birthday or when his or her luck object is destroyed. When they're undone, things generally go back to how they were- or even worse. For this reason, mixing magic with medical practice is not recommended.

* [[Odd Job Gods]]: Bree Amal, Goddess of Keepers of Disorderly Houses, and Ghologhosh, God of Small Curses. (Rikiki is once referred to as the god of chipmunks, but he probably isn't.)

* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]]: Despite the difficulties of using birth luck magic to preserve one's life (when by definition no spell lasts longer than a year, and anyone who creates a magical artifact loses their powers for good), a lot of the powerful magicians are several hundred years old, including Trav Marik, Gogoaniskithli, the Ka'Riatha, and some of the Tichenese magicians as well. It can be accomplished in one of two ways: have a partner you trust enough to maintain your youth during your luck period (Trav and Gogo prove to be doing this {{spoiler|and she still does it for him after they break up}}); or you can use someone else's artifact of immortality.

* [[Secret Diary]]: There's a weird example in Book 3. One of the more sympathetic [[Big Screwed-Up Family|Benedictis]] steals her sister's diary in the hopes of finding out why she's been acting so weird lately, only to find that it's written in a language she doesn't know. She takes it to an older relative for translation, and said relative refuses with great indignation. Up until she got that reaction, it didn't occur to her that what she was doing was questionable at all.

* [[Sword Cane]]: Granny Carry.

* [[Throw It In]]: Deleon's writing process, apparently. In an effort to control who is cast as the evil queen ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]), he promises to make her bright blue. Then he has to make this integral to the plot, so the company manager won't throw it out...

* [[The Unfavorite]]: Nerissa Benedicti.

 

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[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]

[[Category:The Eighties]]