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A dark and philosophical fantasy series by R. Scott Bakker that is planned to consist of three smaller series, only the first of which has been currently published. An additional two short stories have been published on Bakker's website, with more to come.
 
The first sub-series, ''The Prince of Nothing'', tells the tale of a son searching for his father during a Holy War, in a medieval world where [[Functional Magic]] exists and an obscure [[Ancient Conspiracy]] is plotting [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]], although they have faded into myth. The characters who are embroiled in this include a tired [[Badass Bookworm]] sorcerer, a cunning [[Hooker Withwith a Heart of Gold|whore]], and a mentally unstable barbarian chieftain. But in the midst of the Holy War arrives a wandering monk, Anasûrimbor Kellhus. He is the scion of an isolated sect who have made themselves beings of pure logic over the years. At the beginning, he is completely ignorant about the outside world, yet at the same time, he is mentally superior to other humans and can easily read their emotions while he feels nothing himself.
 
[[Alternate Character Interpretation|Opinions are highly divided]] on whether Kellhus is a scheming [[Villain Protagonist]], the [[Big Bad]] himself, a [[Sociopathic Hero]] doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, or an insane but [[Badass]] [[Anti-Hero]] deserving of our admiration. This has a lot to do with an individual person's perception of what counts as [[Moral Dissonance]], [[Black and Gray Morality]], and [[Moral Event Horizon]]. Irredeemably evil? You be the judge. Ultimately a force for good? At the moment we can only speculate.
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* [[The Empire]]: The "Kellian Empire", which spans most of the Three Seas.
* [[Encyclopedia Exposita]]: The story part of ''The Thousandfold Thought'' is 400 pages long. The glossary is another 100 pages (hardback version).
* [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]]: What will happen if the No-God returns.
* [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas]]: Emperor Xerius, with mother-son incest.
* [[Evil Albino]]: Iyokus
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* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: Cnaiür and basically the whole Scylvendi civilization.
* [[Punctuated for Emphasis]]: "IS! NOT! TRUTH! INFINITE!"
* [[Rape Asas Drama]]: Serwë's whole backstory, and the reason she has such low self-worth. She goes through this again at the hands of Cnaiür.
* [[Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil]]: This is what makes the Sranc species (who are bio-engineered for violent rape) more horrifying than any other fantasy-book monsters.
** We also know that Galian has well and truly crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon]] when he {{spoiler|rapes Mimara, after he and Xonghis have killed the Captain}}.
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* [[Rescue Romance]]: Subverted...twice.
* [[Sanity Slippage]]: Cnaiur goes increasingly mad in the third volume.
* [[Self -Destructive Charge]]: Saubon "punishes" the Shrial Knights by making them charge the Cishaurim. The Cishaurim are sorcerers able to burn hundreds alive with a glance. {{spoiler|Unfortunately for the Cishaurim, some—not many, but ''enough''—of the Shrial Knights are wearing [[Anti-Magic|chorae]]...}}
* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]]: In The Aspect-Emperor, {{spoiler|Akka spends the first two books throwing away everything he's built in the past twenty years, along with the lives of the Skin Eaters, to find the Coffers which he hopes will lead him to Ishual and the truth about Kellhus and the Dunyain. And when he gets to Ishual, only he and Mimara surviving, both of them addicted to Qirri, stuck in the middle of nowhere...they discover that it's already been destroyed by an unknown force.}}
* [[Showing Off the New Body]]
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* [[Ubermensch]]: Kellhus, Moenghus and all the Dûnyain.
* [[Vestigial Empire]]: The Nansur Empire under Ikurei Xerius III. It's been losing territory to Fanim jihads for hundreds of years, and Xerius plans to use the Holy War to get some of it back.
* [[Villain Withwith Good Publicity]]: Kellhus. Also, his father Anasûrimbor Moenghus and the Cishaurim (but see [[Offstage Villainy]] above).
* [[Woobie]]: Too many to count - almost everyone in the books has a Woobie moment at some point or another. Even Kellhus in the first book, when Cnaiur tortures him until he pisses himself from the pain.
** Achamian is the biggest one in the series, hands down.
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