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* [[Alternate Self]]: The Murakoks have several of them living in different worlds across the setting's [[The Multiverse|many worlds]]. They believe that all of their lives are equally real.
* [[Ancient Tradition]]: The group of mages actively working to save the world. Known members are Juffin's mentor Makhi Ainti and Maba Kalokh. {{spoiler|Strongly tied to Maba Kalokh's appropriately named Order of the Clock of Backward Time, these Ancient Magisters can build time bridges to the past. They convinced King Mönin to use his Arbiter power in the Quiet City, and told Juffin to seek out more Arbiters to relieve Mönin. Juffin's wife told him that he needs to be unhappy for his task, and left him via time bridge. Juffin assumes she got her wish to be among the Ancient Magisters}}.
* [[The Archmage]]: Various Grand Magisters of the ancient Orders were usually their respective most powerful members. Loyso Pondokhva was probably ''the'' grandmaster of conventional Plain Magic, but many other historical mages could have challenged him by less conventional means, such as True Magic (Juffin), Arbiter abilities (Mönin), etc.. Ironically, the Order of the Seven-Leaf was never the most powerful tradition magically and Grand Magister Nuflin couldn't hold a candle to most of his competitors, yet they won the War of the Codex through strategy and politics (and being among the best at protections), leaving him the sole
* [[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.
* [[Ban on Magic]]: Not ''all'' magic, only the Plain Magic and only for grades above the fifth. The legal magic is quite enough to ensure reasonably comfortable existence for everyone. Later in the series, the law is further relaxed for cooks who gain the right to use magic up to grade 20 for their professional activities, and several books later Plain Magic licenses become available to the general population.
* [[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
* [[Beneath the Mask]]: One of recurring themes.
** The Dark Side smoothly disables assumed faces, bringing true personalities to the surface - Shurf leaves both LSIF's Sir Lonli-Lokli and the Holey Chalice Order's Mad Fishmonger behind. Sotofa and Juffin, two insufferable magic prodigies from Kettari, leave the old and wizened Seven-Leaf Order's Head Witch Sotofa Khanemer and the LSIF's Most Reverend Chief Sir Juffin Khalli behind them.
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** Drinking the blood of a child causes the drinker to appear much weaker, or strongly confused and disoriented, without actual loss of power.
** Ukkumbi pirates will often inflict a cut on themselves and make a blood sacrifice to their ships by smearing some blood on the wood, in order to prevent sea sickness. Max does so for ''Filo'', Anchifa's ship, by chance, and states that this ritual has an effect for him.
* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: according to Juffin, True Magic has the side effect of modifying the user's moral compass. Common effects are the dichotomies of "interesting vs. boring", "secret vs. obvious" or "free vs. captive". Later he admitted at least two people were not affected by this (though on his scale they still weren't very advanced yet).
* [[Brotherhood of Funny Hats]]: Students' and some other clubs in Echo. Some clubs, e.g. the Bark-Eaters, who regularly gather tree bark, turn it into gourmet food and proceed with a feast, are harmless. Yet other clubs became or gave birth to Orders, e.g. the Holey Chalice club.
* [[Cannibalism Superpower]]: Simply eating a person does little to nothing in terms of power, but some known [[Human Sacrifice]] rituals essentially elevate cannibalism to [[Ritual Magic]].
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* [[Dark World]]: The Dark Side, kinda. "Dark Side" is a poetic epithet given to the [[Spirit World]] underlying the material world of Echo. It is no more malicious than the material world and it's not actually "dark" there (except for Sir Max, who initially takes the name too seriously and his belief makes him perceive it as literally painted black, though still discernible enough to admire).
* [[Deadly Prank]]: The first time Max uses his Poisonous Spit of Death ability, he does it for the lulz, since he was told it only works when he is scared and the criminal on the receiving end wasn't particularly scary. Turns out, he was misinformed.
* [[Dead Person Conversation]]: Ghosts in the Echo setting are fully sentient... though many are insane.
** A combination of high-grade black and white spells allowed a person thus inclined to become a ghost after death
** Due to Tehhi's unique family history, all her siblings who died became ghosts. They regularly visit Tehhi's bar anyway. Tehhi herself later mentioned that she was annoyed by her absent "father" too much to discuss him because they were phantom spirits, trapped in human form by magic of their "birth". She didn't even mention that her mother, obviously, ''must'' have been a crazy fangirl of Loyso to begin with.
** Tüvin, the deceases Chief of Huron River Harbor, liked the place and his job so well that his ghost now serves as [[Spirit Advisor]] to the current Chief of Harbor.
** Juffin once killed a pack of cards to play with a ghost - it was easier to make ghost cards than to allow the ghost interaction with real ones.
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** 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.
* [[For Science!]] with [[Beware the Superman]]: Loyso Pondokhva was ''the'' greatest Plain Magic talent among the generation of Kholomi High Royal School absolvents intended to destroy the ancient Orders to strengthen the King's position. Loyso and his comrades disposed of the ancient Orders and then [[Hoist by His Own Petard|went on to found their own Orders]] or to take existing ones over. Loyso (and his Water Crow Order) acknowledged the threat of [[The End of the World as We Know It]], yet actively worked to this end, as he wanted to try grabbing the world's power, which is theoretically possibly for those witnessing the destruction. Loyso is later shown to explain his motivations to
* [[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]]:
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* [[Hope Is Scary]]: Sir Max comments on it.
* [[How Dare You Die on Me!]]: Max saves a dying man ({{spoiler|Mokhi Faa}}) in ''Bakki Bugvin's Glasses'' by pleading him not to die. Since the man was under a [[Extreme Doormat|magical compulsion to fulfill]] ''any'' requests, he healed up instantly like a champ.
* [[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
* [[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.
* [[Immortality]]:
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** Type II: The sentient stones of Holomi (no information on killing any Khrebels is given); The mice-kings of Uanduk and the elves of Shimuräd forest, both vulnerable to certain artifacts.
** Type III: sufficiently powerful mages, especially True Magic users, effectively stop aging and are notoriously hard to kill.
** Type IV: Certain entities have strange modes of existence (mostly as [[Cosmic Plaything]]s) that involve having yet another quasi-mortal life after the previous one ends; the degree of access to old memories varies.
** Type V: Strong-willed people are well-known for coming back as ghosts, although there are some methods to deal with them. The whole process is sufficiently well understood to be commercialized, too. The ancient members of the Order of the Long Way collectively passed "the Paths of the Dead" to achieve a state of corporeal immmortality, being somewhere between this and type III, although the ritual was imperfect.▼
*** Dopersts's niche is a subset of "episode roles" giving someone fear. E.g. if you have a fear of accidentally running over someone, one may appear before your car - and "die" like a real human, but then the body will vanish and this Doperst will appear elsewhere and go bug someone else in another shape - maybe just for a few seconds of "an old enemy passing by", maybe in a nightmare, it doesn't know either until it's there. Rinse, repeat.
*** Some entities including {{spoiler|Sir Max himself by intent and "children" of Loyso by being caught in strange magic}} were given quasi-human lives themselves ''and'' become Shadows of true mortal people in some other world. Their adventures may reflect in weird side effects for the other side, of course ("you see, ''mine'' actually ''likes'' being a princess trapped in an enchanted palace"). {{spoiler|Max of the World of Spider (the guy whose life was partially shaped by Juffin's magic and early memories Sir Max carries) has his own series, where he gets into surreal magical mess without any visible reason and eventually even meets Frank from the Chronicles}}.
** Type V: Strong-willed people are well-known for coming back as ghosts, although there are some methods to deal with them. The whole process is sufficiently well understood to be enforced via immediate (on death bed) or waiting ("whenever you'll croak") magic and as such commercialized.
▲**
** Type IX: there are spells geared towards [[Grand Theft Me]] for this purpose.
** Type X: The mirror dweller from ''The Debut in Echo''. The Green Waters' dweller. Fätans. {{spoiler|The members of the Order of the Long Way now need blood to continue their existence}}, causing Max some amusement as he deports them to our world as "real vampires".
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** Corporeal immortality, {{spoiler|type X}}: the Order of the Long Way. The entire Order passed "the Paths of the Dead" and successfully returned to the world. {{spoiler|While the idea was sound, they did not account for how much the world changed over millenia and now require blood to live.}}
** Immortality of the mind, type V: A combination of high-grade black and white magic ensuring that you will come back as a ghost. The extra ability to interact with the material world is available at a separate price, too.
* [[Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery]]: Juffin's early apprentice thought The Kettarian's face with a few cosmetic modifications would be incredibly sinister and thus very cool, and pestered him about it. Only when Juffin said "oh, look however you like", he began to think about practical sides and figured out that wearing the face of a hitman hated by far too many powerful mages without having abilities of the original is not a healthy idea.
* [[Just Before the End]]: The shadow of the apocalypse has been hanging over the world since the War of the Codex, and pretty much the entire series is, in one way or another, about preventing it from occurring. {{spoiler|It should have been already ''after'' the end, but they got an earlier [[Reality Warper|Arbiter]] to enforce a more satisfying timeline, and even that is barely enough. Max, being an [[Reality Warper|Arbiter]] himself, and learning that our world's population has many more Arbiters, comes up with the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] solution: publish his adventures as a book, thus making the Arbiters among the readers wish for the stories to continue and thus for the world to persist.}}
* [[Kinda Busy Here]]: Telepathic Calls cannot be blocked or ignored for the most part, so such situations tend to arise inadvertently.
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* [[Layered World]]: Material world -> the Dark Side -> the underside of the Dark Side ({{spoiler|though King Mönin reveals in the last book that the "underside" is not a location or space but a way for Arbiters and their minions to travel across worlds in spirit form}}).
* [[Leave No Survivors]]: the Arvarokhian response to unknown ships approaching Arvarokh. They will afterwards consult their shamans on the intentions of the slain. In the case of [[Unfriendly Fire]], the Arvarokhians will at least bury the hapless sailors with honors.
* [[Legacy Immortality]]: Successful leaders being imitated by successors "for luck" is a widespread superstition, especially among the brigands - e.g. if one famous guy was known for having lost an ear, his successor may take the name and cut his own ear.
* [[List of Transgressions]]: part of the Eye of Wrath rite. The Eye of Wrath is an enchanted ring granted by the king as reward for extraordinary services, e.g. saving the king's life. The owner of the ring is [[Selective Enforcement|exempt from civil law]] until the current king decides that the ring's owner has gone too far. In this case a hearing is called and a list of crimes is read. As soon as the ring goes crimson, the crimes have exceeded the greatness of the deed, and the ring is returned to the treasury, while the owner is fully accountable for his actions from that moment on. Juffin does the reading for General Bubuta Bokh in ''Talkative Dead Man''.
* [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]]: In the preface of volume one, Martynchik and the books' illustrator Igor Styopin claimed to have received the manuscripts of the book from Max himself during his visit to our world.
* [[Living Ship]]: The shikka of Ukkumbi ([[Vestigial Empire|survivors of an ancient empire]] turned to piracy) is the fastest ship on the seas of the World of Rod. They look, feel and (mostly) handle like normal wooden ships built for speed, with little free space. But it's fairly common knowledge that a shikka is ''not'' a normal vessel - e.g. it needs the captain on board to remain controllable at all, and if the captain is on the shore, the ship is on anchor - ordering the first mate "oh, run her to the next port and back" is not an option. It's not known whether they are made as wilful artifacts of [[Blood Magic]] on purpose or it's just a result of materials and building techniques, but a shikka is very attached to the captain. The transfer of this status typically requires
* [[Loads and Loads of Races]]: All anthropomorphic races of Echo are capable of cross-breeding to fertile offspring, making racial distinctions mostly a moot point.
** Two races of tangible elves originating on the Uanduk continent and invisible elves (at least the tangible ones claim that species to be elven).
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* [[Only Smart People May Pass]]: While the Book of Uncommitted Crimes contains all the crimes ever thought up but never put into action, any given reader will only see those entries which he or she would be able to solve. Kofa Yokh used the Book as an aptitude test for police officers. To his dismay, his successor after the War of the Codes, Bubuta Bokh, could not see a single paragraph.
* [[Other Me Annoys Me]]: Max notes that his appearance and charisma are inversely proportional to the actual state of mind - he looks the happiest when in despair, and hates the Max who seems to walk around in his body.
* [[Our Souls Are Different]]: Ostensibly referred as "the spark" (as in, "the divine spark") in the setting, it is nevertheless a well-known, if hardly understood, magical concept. There are also
* [[Our Werebeasts Are Different]]: There are various animals capable of turning into humans for a while, but they tend to end up childish and confused. One of a few exceptions are werewolves who like to live as humans. There even was a whole dynasty of these - they were considered too rustic by the elf-blooded aristocrats, but generally were adequate as monarchs go, if unusually gregarious.
* [[Pocket Protector]]: Happens twice in ''The Foxes of Magakhon'': once when a bottle of Kakhar's Balsam protects Max from a Baboom shot and the second time, when Magister Honna's headband (which Max wraps around his neck) prevents his magical decapitation--too bad it burns up on use. {{spoiler|In retrospect, the two events are connected, solidifying Max's status as [[Cosmic Plaything]]: Kakhar's Balsam is a stimulant that kept him awake on a long mission and Honna's headband was an amulet that prevented Khumgat from claiming him during his sleep: with both out of the way, Max almost disappears from the world of Echo the next time he falls asleep.}}
* [[Portal Door]]: Almost a motif. Max either tweaked his Khumgat entry or conditioned himself to leave the world only via doors opened in the darkness. Closing eyes counts -- which is good, since soon he began to see in normal darkness simply due to living in the Heart of the World long enough. Then the Labyrinth of Mönin used much the same form of travel, only directly and without darkness.
* [[Power Floats]]: while flight takes a lot out of the mage, levitation a few centimeters above ground is much easier, while keeping the added bonuses of not leaving footprints, not leaving a trace for Masters of Tracking and not triggering various traps and enchantments on the ground.
** See [[Power High]] below: mages experiencing such a boost can start levitating.
* [[Power High]]: In several variants. Specifically, the temporary boost from a holey chalice makes one literally power-drunk... thus the Order of the Holey Chalice quickly made adepts very loyal and diligent, but wasn't too keen on self-control - the latter didn't end too bad mainly because regular boosts also meant adepts normally have much less power than they are trained to safely handle. While the Order has long been disbanded, Max can borrow Shurf's holey chalice and recreate the effects on himself.
* [[Power Parasite]]:
** The Old Kings' Incantation, used with leftover drinks in cups (and possibly leftovers on plates) and then drinking (and eating) those leftovers, transfers power from the drinker to the caster. Invented by king Khalla Makhun the Furry, as he blended Plain and True Magic in an attempt to prolong his life.
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* [[Properly Paranoid]] with [[Crazy Prepared]]: there is a spell that prevents a person from featuring in another person's hallucinations, e.g. causing plot holes in [[Lotus Eater Machine|LotusEaterMachines]]. And Makhi Ainti not only knows the spell, but has cast it on himself.
* [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]]: Most Arvarokhians qualify.
* [[Raging Stiffie]]: result of the gräm potion. Gräm requires a lvl 20+ black magic and thus is forbidden under the Codex (naturally, illicit supplies pop up on Black Market often enough). 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. LSIF is mostly incapacitated.
* [[Reality Warper]]:
** Arbiters in a form of [[Blessed with Suck]] - they can not control where, when and how their wishes come true, making their entire lives a large [[Be Careful What You Wish For]].
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* [[Rewriting Reality]]: The Yonokhian Seal in ''The Quiet City'' is supposed to function like this. {{spoiler|Turns out, it was just Max's [[Cosmic Plaything]] status and Arbiter powers playing up again.}}
* [[Sanity Slippage]]: Max goes through this in ''The Book of Burning Pages''. It's told in first-person.
* [[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
** 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. Also, the Trackers tend to be absorbed in the "hunt" too much to look around, so giving one a bodyguard usually is a good idea, and by "pulling" the bond from far end can be made even more compulsive and oblivious than usual.
* [[Sealed Evil in a Can]]: Loyso Pondokhva.
* [[The Secret of Long Pork Pies]]: In {{spoiler|''King Bangee''}}.
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** Max is among other royal rewards given a Child of the Purple Pearl. During the hunt for a fätan, Juffin figures out that the Children of the Purple Pearl are artifacts which protect the owner's mind and memory from manipulation.
** The Sword of King Mönin, {{spoiler|embedded in Max and incorporeal}}, will break the wielder out of illusions.
* [[Stink Bomb]]: while Scenters are very rare, LSIF has one. The group smart enough to levitate from the crime scene to prevent leaving traces for Masters of Tracking is also smart enough to spray the rooms with a rare substance which disables Scenters {{spoiler|temporarily. Numinorikh, being the new guy, has serious issues about his usefulness without his Scenter gift}}. It happened enough that later he said it's bewildering how many such mixes turned out to exist, given how rare this ability is.
* [[Tailor-Made Prison]]: Juffin spared Loyso Pondokhva by putting him into "a moribund crone's dream" and sealing the entrance to Khumgat. Loyso survives by funneling his power into prolonging the woman's life.
* [[Taken for Granite]]:
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* [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]]: Eponymous Ugurbado aquires his power from some elder entity, but visibly slips in sanity.
* [[You Can't Fight Fate]] / [[Screw Destiny]]: This dichotomy spans the entire series as a leitmotif.
* [[Your Soul Is Mine]]:
** The mirror dweller in ''The Debut in Echo'', Max's first case.
** Makhlilgl Annokh, the undead dweller of cell #5-Khokh-Au in the Holomi prison, {{spoiler|attempting his own resurrection.}}
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