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* ApatheticCitizens: In ''The Dark Eidolon'', before [[spoilers: Narthos is nearly trampled to death underneath hooves, people as pass by and do nothing as the beggar boy is hated by the city]], this sets in the entire revenge plot.
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Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961) was an American writer of {{horror}}, {{fantasy}} and ScienceFiction. He is most notable for being one of the founders of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos along with Creator/HPLovecraft, Creator/RobertEHoward and others.
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Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961) (January 13, 1893 – August 14, 1961) was an American writer of {{horror}}, {{fantasy}} and ScienceFiction. He is most notable for being one of the founders of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos along with Creator/HPLovecraft, Creator/RobertEHoward and others.
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* UndeadLaborers:
** In ''The Double Shadow'' Avyctes uses mummies and liches as his household staff.
** The necromancers in ''The Empire of the Necromancers'' reanimate the population of a city to serve as their slaves.
** In ''The Double Shadow'' Avyctes uses mummies and liches as his household staff.
** The necromancers in ''The Empire of the Necromancers'' reanimate the population of a city to serve as their slaves.
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Also unlike Lovecraft, sexuality plays a strong role in many of Smith's works and female characters are a lot stronger and more prominent than in Lovecraft (most likely to Smith having a much more... ''active'' love life than Lovecraft). Unlike Howard, sorcerers in Smith [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards tend to have the upper hand against swordsmen]] and Smith has many sorcerer protagonists, both good and evil. And finally, Smith was not a racist or a xenophobe, which can be seen best in stories like ''The Great God Awto'' and ''A Star-Change''.
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Also unlike Lovecraft, sexuality plays a strong role in many of Smith's works and female characters are a lot stronger and more prominent than in Lovecraft (most likely to Smith having a much more... ''active'' love life than Lovecraft). Unlike Howard, sorcerers in Smith [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards tend to have the upper hand against swordsmen]] and Smith has many sorcerer protagonists, both good and evil. And finally, Smith was not as much a racist or a xenophobe, xenophobe as Lovecraft, which can be seen best in stories like ''The Great God Awto'' and ''A Star-Change''.
Star-Change'', although reading his Zothique stories show he was still very much a man of his time.
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* AnyoneCanDie: And they often do. In the "Dark Idolon", nobody makes it out alive. The Zothique and Hyperborea stories in general typically end with high body counts.
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* AnyoneCanDie: And they often do. In the "Dark Idolon", ''The Dark Eidolon'', nobody makes it out alive. The Zothique and Hyperborea stories in general typically end with high body counts.
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work and creator names are not supposed to be in bold (that's for the Other Wiki)
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'''Clark Ashton Smith''' (1893-1961) was an American writer of {{horror}}, {{fantasy}} and ScienceFiction. He is most notable for being one of the founders of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos along with Creator/HPLovecraft, Creator/RobertEHoward and others.
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'''Clark Ashton Smith''' (1893-1961) was an American writer of {{horror}}, {{fantasy}} and ScienceFiction. He is most notable for being one of the founders of the CthulhuMythos along with Creator/HPLovecraft, Creator/RobertEHoward and others.
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'''Clark Ashton Smith''' (1893-1961) was an American writer of {{horror}}, {{fantasy}} and ScienceFiction. He is most notable for being one of the founders of the CthulhuMythos Franchise/CthulhuMythos along with Creator/HPLovecraft, Creator/RobertEHoward and others.
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* AnachronismStew: Smith mentions that the Hyperborea stories occur “in the last centuries before the onset of the Great Ice Age”, possibly meaning the last long interglacial period, the Eemian Interglacial (130,000-70,000 BP). The mention of mammals common to this epoch, such as sabre-tooth cats, aurochsen and mammoths, further places the period as the recent Pleistocene, before the start of human civilisation. However, in ''Ubbo-Sathla'', Smith gives a different period in history for Hyperborea: the Miocene, approximately twenty-three million years past, which concluded in a glacial advance. A ''Tyrannosaurus'' and an ''Archaeopteryx'' appear in ''The Seven Geases'' alongside mentions of sabre-tooth cats and mammoths.
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* AnachronismStew: Smith mentions that the Hyperborea stories occur “in "in the last centuries before the onset of the Great Ice Age”, Age", possibly meaning the last long interglacial period, the Eemian Interglacial (130,000-70,000 BP). The mention of mammals common to this epoch, such as sabre-tooth cats, aurochsen and mammoths, further places the period as the recent Pleistocene, before the start of human civilisation. However, in ''Ubbo-Sathla'', Smith gives a different period in history for Hyperborea: the Miocene, approximately twenty-three million years past, which concluded in a glacial advance. A ''Tyrannosaurus'' and an ''Archaeopteryx'' appear in ''The Seven Geases'' alongside mentions of sabre-tooth cats and mammoths.
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* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: ''The Colossus of Ylourgne.'' A story about an undead giant made of hundreds of corpses.
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* FateWorseThanDeath: In ''The Isle of the Torturers'', Smith’s prose delights in the viciousness of the torments inflicted on Fulbra and his companions. Smith presents death as a blessed relief, with existence as the torture. Beneath its gruesome veneer, ''The Isle of the Torturers'' makes death a pleasant prospect: the ultimate escape from pain.
* GhostMemory: In ''Xeethra'', Xeethra partakes of one of those dark red fruits and is overcome with strange feelings and memories, soon forgetting who he was, soon coming to believe that he was "King Amero, who had newly come to the throne, [and] would rule as his fathers had ruled over all the kingdom of Calyz by the orient sea".
* {{Nephewism}}: The orphaned goatherd Xeethra in the story of the same name lives with his uncle.
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* RunningGag: In ''The Seven Geases'', when Ralibar Vooz interrupts the magical ceremony of the wizard Ezdagor, the enraged magician casts a geas on him to send him deep under Mount Voormithadreth to the lair of Tsathoggua. Tsathoggua has no use for the hunter, so he sends him to spider-god Atlacha-Nacha. Who sends him to the inhuman sorcerer Haon-Dor. Who sends him to… Ralibar Vooz’s wanderings deeper and deeper into the subterranean realms beneath the Eiglophians and his encounters with foul gods and lost races resemble not so much a story as a amusement park dark ride.
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* RunningGag: In ''The Seven Geases'', when Ralibar Vooz interrupts the magical ceremony of the wizard Ezdagor, the enraged magician casts a geas on him to send him deep under Mount Voormithadreth to the lair of Tsathoggua. Tsathoggua has no use for the hunter, so he sends him to spider-god Atlacha-Nacha.Atlach-Nacha. Who sends him to the inhuman sorcerer Haon-Dor. Who sends him to… Ralibar Vooz’s wanderings deeper and deeper into the subterranean realms beneath the Eiglophians and his encounters with foul gods and lost races resemble not so much a story as a amusement park dark ride.
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* CannibalTribe: The hero of ''The Symposium of the Gorgon'' runs afoul of a cannibal tribe who proceeds to worship him as a god.
* {{Druid}}: A bunch of Gaulish druids appear in ''The Holiness of Azédarac'', which is partially set in 475 CE; they are depicted as savage practitioners of HumanSacrifice.
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%%* MalevolentMaskedMen: In ''The Charnel God''.
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%%* MuckMonster: Abhoth, appearing in "The Seven Geases".
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-->For the gray mass quobbed and quivered, and swelled perpetually; and from it, in manifold fission, were spawned the anatomies that crept away on every side through the grotto. There were things like bodiless legs or arms that flailed in the slime, or heads that rolled, or floundering bellies with fishes' fins; and all manner of things malformed and monstrous, that grew in size as they departed from the neighborhood of Abhoth.
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%%* TakenForGranite: In ''The Maze of Maal Dweb''.
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* TakenForGranite:
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* AmbiguousEnding: ''Morthylla'', the last and most oblique Zothique short story, has a circular, ambiguous ending involving a man who kills himself, but 'forgets' that he has died. A meeting in graveyard, a debauched party… the customary business of the last continent is all here.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: What happens to someone who steps into the Singing Flame:
-->''Any attempt to describe the experience would be foredoomed to futility, since it seemed that a whole range of new senses had been opened up in me, together with corresponding thought-symbols for which there are no words in human speech. I was no longer Philip Hastane, but a larger, stronger and freer entity, differing as much from my former self as the personality developed beneath the influence of hashish or kava would differ.''
-->''Any attempt to describe the experience would be foredoomed to futility, since it seemed that a whole range of new senses had been opened up in me, together with corresponding thought-symbols for which there are no words in human speech. I was no longer Philip Hastane, but a larger, stronger and freer entity, differing as much from my former self as the personality developed beneath the influence of hashish or kava would differ.''
* AuthorAvatar:
** The recurring character Philip Hastane is in many ways an analog of his creator. He lives in a cabin in Auburn, California, writes wrote poetry and weird fiction, and is associated with a large number of artists and dilettantes whom he met through letters and conferences.
** The protagonist of ''Morthylla'', Valzain, can also be seen as one. He is a young poet for whom earthly pleasures no longer have any meaning, and restlessness afflicts him. His dreams taunt him with a beautiful and unreal world: “Do such dreams have any source, outside the earth-born brain itself? I would give much to find that source, if it exists. In the meanwhile there is nothing for me but despair.” It is easy to imagine the aging Clark Ashton Smith, a poet for nearly forty years, pondering such questions.
** The recurring character Philip Hastane is in many ways an analog of his creator. He lives in a cabin in Auburn, California, writes wrote poetry and weird fiction, and is associated with a large number of artists and dilettantes whom he met through letters and conferences.
** The protagonist of ''Morthylla'', Valzain, can also be seen as one. He is a young poet for whom earthly pleasures no longer have any meaning, and restlessness afflicts him. His dreams taunt him with a beautiful and unreal world: “Do such dreams have any source, outside the earth-born brain itself? I would give much to find that source, if it exists. In the meanwhile there is nothing for me but despair.” It is easy to imagine the aging Clark Ashton Smith, a poet for nearly forty years, pondering such questions.
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* GodOfEvil: Thasaidon, Lord of Evil, as his name suggests, in Zothique's equivalent of the Devil.
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* GodOfEvil: Thasaidon, Lord of Evil, as his name suggests, in is Zothique's equivalent of the Devil.
* HellishHorse: In ''The Dark Eidolon'', trampled as a child by a horse, Namirrha plots his vengeance with a horse theme. There are the ghostly steeds which thunder back and forth all night to terrorise Zotulla and there are the very impressive "macrocosmic stallions of Thamogorgos" which overrun the entire city, crushing its towers beneath their hooves.
* MindControlMusic: The prodigious green flame in ''The City of the Singing Flame'', an eerie and alluring presence whose music draws alien creatures who prostrate themselves before the flame before immolating themselves in its fire.
* {{Patricide}}: In ''The Dark Eidolon'', Prince Zotulla murders his own father with an adder to get the throne.
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%%* SubvertedTrope
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* AffablyEvil: Smith's creations in ''The Seven Geases'' employ the same cultured, if often circuitous, language as the human beings that populate Hyperborea in great quantities, even if their motivations are every bit as alien as those in Lovecraft.
* AnachronismStew: Smith mentions that the Hyperborea stories occur “in the last centuries before the onset of the Great Ice Age”, possibly meaning the last long interglacial period, the Eemian Interglacial (130,000-70,000 BP). The mention of mammals common to this epoch, such as sabre-tooth cats, aurochsen and mammoths, further places the period as the recent Pleistocene, before the start of human civilisation. However, in ''Ubbo-Sathla'', Smith gives a different period in history for Hyperborea: the Miocene, approximately twenty-three million years past, which concluded in a glacial advance. A ''Tyrannosaurus'' and an ''Archaeopteryx'' appear in ''The Seven Geases'' alongside mentions of sabre-tooth cats and mammoths.
* CerebusSyndrome: ''The Ice-Demon'', ''The White Sybil'' and ''The Coming of the White Worm'' mini-cycle differs from the rest of the Hyperborea series: humourless and seeming to imitate Smith’s two other fantasy worlds, Averoigne and Zothique.
* ClarkesThirdLaw: Maal Dweb rules over all the kings of Xiccarph through the power of his knowledge. Likely the knowledge is scientific, and Smith describes Maal Dweb’s extraterrestrial travel, genetic experiments, and advanced mechanics (the animated iron statues that serve him may be robots). But from the view of the people of Xiccarph and the readers, Maal Dweb is a wielder of magic.
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%%* DeathByMaterialism: In ''The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan''.
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%%* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Vulthoom's.
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%%* EvilIsDeathlyCold: In ''The Coming of the White Worm'' and ''The Ice Demon''.
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%%* TheFuture
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* GhostCity: Zothique has only crypts, mummified rulers, and the hollow remains of metropolises. Few living cities exist, and 'the sands of Zothique are full of lost tombs and cities'.
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%%* GodOfEvil: Thasaidon.
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%%* HowDoYouLikeThemApples: In ''Xeethra''.
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* NakedFirstImpression: The eponymous character in ''The Enchantress of Sylaire'' is first seen bathing in a forest pool by the hero.
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* PlotTriggeringDeath: ''The Death of Ilalotha'' opens with the funeral observances of Ilalotha, lady-in-waiting to the queen of Tasuun.
* PortalDoor: In ''The Door to Saturn'', from his tower in far northern Mhu Thulan, the sorcerer Eibon escapes through a panel that takes him to the planet Cykranosh.
* PortalDoor: In ''The Door to Saturn'', from his tower in far northern Mhu Thulan, the sorcerer Eibon escapes through a panel that takes him to the planet Cykranosh.
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* RunningGag: In ''The Seven Geases'', when Ralibar Vooz interrupts the magical ceremony of the wizard Ezdagor, the enraged magician casts a geas on him to send him deep under Mount Voormithadreth to the lair of Tsathoggua. Tsathoggua has no use for the hunter, so he sends him to spider-god Atlacha-Nacha. Who sends him to the inhuman sorcerer Haon-Dor. Who sends him to… Ralibar Vooz’s wanderings deeper and deeper into the subterranean realms beneath the Eiglophians and his encounters with foul gods and lost races resemble not so much a story as a amusement park dark ride.
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* ToServeMan: The god of Zul-Bha-Sair is Mordiggian to whom "it is the law and the custom" that all who die in the city be given to his priests and offered to him as food.
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%%* ILoveTheDead
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* {{Necromantic}}: ''The Last Incantation'' plays with this: the ancient necromancer ''thinks'' the lover he resurrected was brought back wrong somehow, as she's somehow less beautiful than he remembers, but as it turns out, the spell went off without a hitch. ''He'' has just grown too old and twisted to love her the way he did when he was young.
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* {{Necromantic}}: {{Necromantic}}:
** ''The Last Incantation'' plays with this: the ancient necromancer ''thinks'' the lover he resurrected was brought back wrong somehow, as she's somehow less beautiful than he remembers, but as it turns out, the spell went off without a hitch. ''He'' has just grown too old and twisted to love her the way he did when he was young.
** ''The Last Incantation'' plays with this: the ancient necromancer ''thinks'' the lover he resurrected was brought back wrong somehow, as she's somehow less beautiful than he remembers, but as it turns out, the spell went off without a hitch. ''He'' has just grown too old and twisted to love her the way he did when he was young.
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* RevengeBeforeReason: The sorcerer Namirrha ignores the warnings of [[OnlySaneMan Thasaidon]] as he plots against the king who slighted him as a youth and set him on the road of necromancy. But Namirrah should have paid attention to Thasaidon’s advice; in Zothique vengeance has an uncanny way of changing into irony.
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* ReligionOfEvil: Smith featured corrupt, cruel, false or merely ineffectual and pompous authorities of orthodox religion in numerous stories.
* RevengeBeforeReason: The sorcerer Namirrha ignores the warnings of [[OnlySaneMan Thasaidon]] as he plots against the king who slighted him as a youth and set him on the road of necromancy. ButNamirrah Namirrha should have paid attention to Thasaidon’s advice; in Zothique vengeance has an uncanny way of changing into irony.
* RevengeBeforeReason: The sorcerer Namirrha ignores the warnings of [[OnlySaneMan Thasaidon]] as he plots against the king who slighted him as a youth and set him on the road of necromancy. But
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* UnPerson: A victim of Aforgomon in ''The Chain of Aforgomon'' literally ceases to exist, all knowledge, memory, and record of them fading from existence.
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* ContinuityNod: In ''The Colossus of Ylourgne'', Gaspard du Nord, while climbing up into Vyones Cathedral, hides behind a gargoyle with features identical to the lustful stone carving that tormented the city over a hundred and fifty years ago in ''The Maker of Gargoyles''.
* DeathSeeker: In ''The Empire of the Necromancers'', two necromancers raise the kingdom of Cincor from the dead and enslave the shambling corpses, letting them shuffle about in forgetful imitations of their former lives. But the strength of longing for true death proves too powerful for the former living of Cincor, and the first and last rulers of the royal family awaken to plot revenge against the sorcerers who cheated them of death’s release.
* DirectLineToTheAuthor: Smith frames ''The Coming of the White Worm'' as Chapter IX of the fictitious Book of Eibon, from a translation by Gaspard du Nord, the hero of the Averoigne tale ''The Colossus of Ylourgne''. This device explains the complexity of the story’s diction, Byzantine even considering the author’s usual style.
* DirectLineToTheAuthor: Smith frames ''The Coming of the White Worm'' as Chapter IX of the fictitious Book of Eibon, from a translation by Gaspard du Nord, the hero of the Averoigne tale ''The Colossus of Ylourgne''. This device explains the complexity of the story’s diction, Byzantine even considering the author’s usual style.
* HarmlessVillain: Azédarac mostly serves a comic purpose. He rants ridiculously with a froth of demonic names bubbling from his lips, but he seems more like a low-level office bureaucrat who’s afraid his manager will discover he has started embezzling from the company picnic fund. Compare him to the sorcerer Nathaire in ''The Colossus of Ylourgne'', whom Smith portrays with maximum menace and minimum irony.
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* KarmaHoudini: The titular villain from ''The Holiness of Azédarac''. A malevolent sorcerer who has infiltrated the church and risen to the post of bishop is discovered while dabbling in the dark arts by a monk send to investigate the rumors about him. He manages not only to prevent the truth from coming out by [[TrappedInThePast having the monk whisked seven centuries back in time]], but manages to be canonized as a saint after his death (which is strongly implied to [[FakingTheDead have been faked]]).
** According to his notes, Smith planned to avert this in the aptly named sequel ''The Doom of Azédarac'', but he never got around to writing that.
** According to his notes, Smith planned to avert this in the aptly named sequel ''The Doom of Azédarac'', but he never got around to writing that.
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* JustBeforeTheEnd: Zothique is the last doomed land, the death rattle of the planet Earth. It is an “End of History” scenario; its end is the world’s end, and nothing will come after.
* KarmaHoudini: The titular villain from ''The Holiness of Azédarac''. A malevolent sorcerer who has infiltrated the church and risen to the post of bishop is discovered while dabbling in the dark arts by a monk send to investigate the rumors about him. He manages not only to prevent the truth from coming out by [[TrappedInThePast having the monk whisked seven centuries back in time]], but manages to be canonized as a saint after his death (which is strongly implied to [[FakingTheDead have beenfaked]]).
**faked]]). According to his notes, Smith planned to avert this in the aptly named sequel ''The Doom of Azédarac'', but he never got around to writing that.
* KarmaHoudini: The titular villain from ''The Holiness of Azédarac''. A malevolent sorcerer who has infiltrated the church and risen to the post of bishop is discovered while dabbling in the dark arts by a monk send to investigate the rumors about him. He manages not only to prevent the truth from coming out by [[TrappedInThePast having the monk whisked seven centuries back in time]], but manages to be canonized as a saint after his death (which is strongly implied to [[FakingTheDead have been
**
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%%* UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}
* OnlySaneMan: Ironically, the GodOfEvil Thasaidon espouses the most moral stance in ''The Dark Eidolon'' and shows a degree of wisdom the mortal characters lack: he warns that it is irrational to taken revenge on a person whose transgressions against you are what is responsible for making you powerful in the first place. But rationality is a weak force in Zothique.
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%%* PlantAliens
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* RevengeBeforeReason: The sorcerer Namirrha ignores the warnings of [[OnlySaneMan Thasaidon]] as he plots against the king who slighted him as a youth and set him on the road of necromancy. But Namirrah should have paid attention to Thasaidon’s advice; in Zothique vengeance has an uncanny way of changing into irony.
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%%* SinisterMinister: The titular character in ''The Holiness of Azédarac''.
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%%* TimeTravel
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%%* VictoryIsBoring: Affects Maal Dweb.
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-->'''Maal Dweb:''' I suffer from the frightful curse of omnipotence. In all Xiccarph, and in the five outer planets of the triple suns, there is no one, there is nothing, to dispute my domination. Therefore my ennui has become intolerable. There is but one remedy for this boredom of mine, the abnegation, at least for a while, of that all too certain power from which it springs. Therefore, I, Maal Dweb, the ruler of six worlds and all their moons, shall go forth alone, unheralded, and without other equipment than that which any fledgling sorcerer might possess. In this way, perhaps I shall recover the lost charm of incertitude, the foregone enchantment of peril. Adventures that I have not foreseen will be mine, and the future will wear the alluring veil of the mysterious. It remains, however, to select the field of my adventurings.
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%%* ActionGirl: Vixeela in ''The Theft of Thirty-Nine Girdles''.
%%* ActionHero: Subverted.
%%* ActionHero: Subverted.
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%%* AlienInvasion: In ''The Metamorphasis of Earth''.
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%%* AncientTomb
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%%* AnyoneCanDie
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%%* TheBadGuyWins
%%* BalefulPolymorph: In ''The Maze of Maal Dweb''.
%%* BarbarianHero: Subverted.
%%* BalefulPolymorph: In ''The Maze of Maal Dweb''.
%%* BarbarianHero: Subverted.
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%%* TheBadGuyWins
TheBadGuyWins: "The Dark Eidolon", "The Maze of Maal Dweb", and most depressingly "Xeethra", just to name a few.
%%* BalefulPolymorph: In ''The Maze of MaalDweb''.
%%*Dweb'', the hero is turned into a deformed ape creature for his efforts.
* BarbarianHero: Subverted.
%%* BalefulPolymorph: In ''The Maze of Maal
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* BarbarianHero: Subverted.
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%%* BlackComedy
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%%* CosmicHorrorStory: Used straight and subverted.
%%* CruelAndUnusualDeath
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%%* CosmicHorrorStory: Used straight Mostly parodied. The eldritch horrors tend to be much more willing to interact with humans, and subverted.
either have a pety cruel streak to their torment, or are rather laid back and affable.
%%*CruelAndUnusualDeathCruelAndUnusualDeath: One Zothique story has the villain devoured by the very same plants he used to dispose of his enemies as a garden.
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%%* DeadlyDecadentCourt: All of them.
%%* DealWithTheDevil: In ''Xeethra''.
%%* DealWithTheDevil: In ''Xeethra''.
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* DealWithTheDevil: In
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%%* DoomedProtagonist
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* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: Lovecraft-style ghouls are used.
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* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: Lovecraft-style ghouls are used.used, although [[DarkIsNotEvil they are predominantly good people.]]
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** There's also ''The Chain of Aforgomon''. Calaspa ''could'' have had his beloved's body reanimated or her spirit called back by magic easily enough...but that wasn't good enough, was it? He just ''had'' to actually ''turn back time'' for an hour to when she was still alive...yeah. That didn't end so well.
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** There's also ''The Chain of Aforgomon''. Calaspa ''could'' have had his beloved's body reanimated or her spirit called back by magic easily enough... but that wasn't good enough, was it? He just ''had'' to actually ''turn back time'' for an hour to when she was still alive...yeah. That didn't end so well.
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%%* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: Lovecraft-style ghouls are used.
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%%* ShaggyDogStory: ''The Seven Geases''.
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%%* TheTimeOfMyths: Where the Hyperborea and Poseidonis stories take place.
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%%* TortureTechnician: A whole island of them in ''The Isle of the Torturers''.
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* NoSell: In ''The Double Shadow'', the CosmicHorror that Avyctes summons passes straight through magical barriers and can't even be perceived by his familiars.
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* NoSell: In ''The Double Shadow'', the CosmicHorror EldritchAbomination that Avyctes summons passes straight through magical barriers and can't even be perceived by his familiars.
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Smith was fond of playing with tropes and his stories occasionally feature BlackComedy.
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Smith was fond of playing with tropes and his stories occasionally feature BlackComedy.
BlackComedy. The classic ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' module ''Castle Amber'' draws inspiration from his stories set in his fictional Averoigne setting.
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** According to his notes, the plan was to avert this in the sequel, but Smith never got around to writing that.
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** According to his notes, the plan was Smith planned to avert this in the sequel, aptly named sequel ''The Doom of Azédarac'', but Smith he never got around to writing that.
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** According to his notes, the plan was to avert this in the sequel, but Smith never got around to writing that.
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** There's also ''The Chain of Aforgomon''. Calaspa ''could'' have had his beloved's body reanimated or her spirit called back by magic easily enough...but that wasn't good enough, was it? He just ''had'' to actually ''turn back time'' for an hour to when she was still alive...yeah. [[CaptainObvious That didn't end so well.]]
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** There's also ''The Chain of Aforgomon''. Calaspa ''could'' have had his beloved's body reanimated or her spirit called back by magic easily enough...but that wasn't good enough, was it? He just ''had'' to actually ''turn back time'' for an hour to when she was still alive...yeah. [[CaptainObvious That didn't end so well.]]
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Also unlike Lovecraft, sexuality plays a strong role in many of Smith's works and female characters are a lot stronger and more prominent than in Lovecraft (most likely to Smith having a much more... ''active'' love life than Lovecraft). Unlike Howard, sorcerers in Smith [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards tend to have the upper hand against swordsmen]] and Smith has many sorcerer protagonists, both good and evil. And unlike Lovecraft, Smith was not a racist or a xenophobe, which can be seen best in stories like ''The Great God Awto'' and ''A Star-Change''.
to:
Also unlike Lovecraft, sexuality plays a strong role in many of Smith's works and female characters are a lot stronger and more prominent than in Lovecraft (most likely to Smith having a much more... ''active'' love life than Lovecraft). Unlike Howard, sorcerers in Smith [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards tend to have the upper hand against swordsmen]] and Smith has many sorcerer protagonists, both good and evil. And unlike Lovecraft, finally, Smith was not a racist or a xenophobe, which can be seen best in stories like ''The Great God Awto'' and ''A Star-Change''.
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* KarmaHoudini: The titular villain from ''The Holiness of Azédarac''. A malevolent sorcerer who has infiltrated the church and risen to the post of bishop is discovered while dabbling in the dark arts by a monk send to investigate the rumors about him. He manages not only to prevent the truth from coming out by [[TrappedInThePast having the monk whisked seven centuries back in time]], but manages to be canonized as a saint after his death (which is strongly implied to [[FakingTheDeath have been faked]]).
to:
* KarmaHoudini: The titular villain from ''The Holiness of Azédarac''. A malevolent sorcerer who has infiltrated the church and risen to the post of bishop is discovered while dabbling in the dark arts by a monk send to investigate the rumors about him. He manages not only to prevent the truth from coming out by [[TrappedInThePast having the monk whisked seven centuries back in time]], but manages to be canonized as a saint after his death (which is strongly implied to [[FakingTheDeath [[FakingTheDead have been faked]]).
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* KarmaHoudini: The titular villain from ''The Holiness of Azédarac''. A malevolent sorcerer who has infiltrated the church and risen to the post of bishop is discovered while dabbling in the dark arts by a monk send to investigate the rumors about him. He manages not only to prevent the truth from coming out by [[TrappedInThePast having the monk whisked seven centuries back in time]], but manages to be canonized as a saint after his death (which is strongly implied to have been faked).
to:
* KarmaHoudini: The titular villain from ''The Holiness of Azédarac''. A malevolent sorcerer who has infiltrated the church and risen to the post of bishop is discovered while dabbling in the dark arts by a monk send to investigate the rumors about him. He manages not only to prevent the truth from coming out by [[TrappedInThePast having the monk whisked seven centuries back in time]], but manages to be canonized as a saint after his death (which is strongly implied to [[FakingTheDeath have been faked).faked]]).
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* KarmaHoudini: The titular villain from ''The Holiness of Azédarac''. A malevolent sorcerer who has infiltrated the church and risen to the post of bishop is discovered while dabbling in the dark arts by a monk send to investigate the rumors about him. He manages not only to prevent the truth from coming out by [[TrappedInThePast having the monk whisked seven centuries back in time]], but manages to be canonized as a saint after his death (which is strongly implied to have been faked).
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%%* SolarCPR: ''Phoenix''.
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%%* SummoningRitual: Shown onscreen in ''The Double Shadow''.
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%%* BodyHorror
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%%* GardenOfEvil: Repeatedly.
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%%* GrimUpNorth: In ''The Ice Demon'', and more extradimensionally also ''The Coming of the White Worm'' and ''The Light from the Pole''.
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%%* MagicMirror: Present with different powers in ''Necromancy In Naat'' and ''The Enchantress of Sylaire''.
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** "The Enchantress of
** "The Colossus of Ylourgne". The magician Gaspard du Nord has a mirror that allows him to see distant scenes and places.
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%%* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable: In ''Necromancy in Naat''.
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%%* {{Necromantic}}: Malygris in ''The Last Incantation''.
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** There's also ''The Chain of Aforgomon''. Calaspa ''could'' have had his beloved's body reanimated or her spirit called back by magic easily enough...but that wasn't good enough, was it? He just ''had'' to actually ''turn back time'' for an hour to when she was still alive...yeah. [[CaptainObvious That didn't end so well.]]
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%%* {{Satan}}: In ''Schizoid Creator''.
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%%* BodyOfBodies: "The Colossus of Ylourgne".
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%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
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'''Clark Ashton Smith''' (1893-1961) was an American writer of {{horror}}, {{fantasy}} and ScienceFiction. He is most notable for being one of the founders of the CthulhuMythos along with Creator/HPLovecraft, Creator/RobertEHoward and others.
Compared to Lovecraft's, Smith's stories tend to focus less on the CosmicHorrorStory and more on the pure exoticism of the setting. Some Mythos entities recur between them, such as the god Tsathoggua, but these entities tend to be less malevolent in Smith's portrayal than in Lovecraft's.
Also unlike Lovecraft, sexuality plays a strong role in many of Smith's works and female characters are a lot stronger and more prominent than in Lovecraft (most likely to Smith having a much more... ''active'' love life than Lovecraft). Unlike Howard, sorcerers in Smith [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards tend to have the upper hand against swordsmen]] and Smith has many sorcerer protagonists, both good and evil. And unlike Lovecraft, Smith was not a racist or a xenophobe, which can be seen best in stories like ''The Great God Awto'' and ''A Star-Change''.
Smith was fond of playing with tropes and his stories occasionally feature BlackComedy.
----
!!Tropes found in Clark Ashton Smith's works:
%%* ActionGirl: Vixeela in ''The Theft of Thirty-Nine Girdles''.
%%* ActionHero: Subverted.
* AfterTheEnd: The setting of the ''Zothique'' stories.
%%* AlienInvasion: In ''The Metamorphasis of Earth''.
* AlienSky: Suns of unusual color and non-standard numbers appear repeatedly.
%%* AncientTomb
%%* AnimateDead
%%* AnotherDimension
%%* AnyoneCanDie
* ApothecaryAlligator: In "The Return of the Sorcerer":
-->There were tables strewn with archaic instruments of doubtful use, with astrological charts, with skulls and alembics and crystals, with censers such as are used in the Catholic Church, and volumes bound in worm-eaten leather with verdigris-mottled clasps. In one corner stood the skeleton of a large ape; in another, a human skeleton; and overhead a stuffed crocodile was suspended.
* {{Atlantis}}: One of Smith's main cycles of stories is set in Poseidonis, the last isle of foundering Atlantis.
%%* TheBadGuyWins
%%* BalefulPolymorph: In ''The Maze of Maal Dweb''.
%%* BarbarianHero: Subverted.
%%* BeneathTheEarth
%%* BestServedCold
* BetterLivingThroughEvil: The EvilSorcerer Namirrha's backstory in ''The Dark Eidolon''
* BigScrewedUpFamily: One of Smith's more notable contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos is the idea that the various EldritchAbomination are all related to each other in some way or another like a classical pantheon, rather than a bunch of random, unrelated extradimensional aliens. For instance, Hastur is supposedly Cthulhu's half-brother. And he's married to Shub Niggurath and therefore, presumably the father of at least some of her enigmatic Thousand Young.
%%* BlackComedy
%%* BodyHorror
%%* BodyOfBodies: "The Colossus of Ylourgne".
%%* BuriedAlive: In ''The Second Internment''.
%%* BurnTheWitch: In ''The Necromantic Tale''.
%%* CelibateHero
* CharmPerson: Part of the repertory of every self-respecting evil female caster.
%%* ChasedByAngryNatives
%%* ColdBloodedTorture
%%* CometOfDoom
%%* CosmicHorrorStory: Used straight and subverted.
%%* CruelAndUnusualDeath
%%* {{Curse}}: In ''The Witchcraft of Ulua''.
%%* DarkestAfrica
%%* DeadAllAlong
%%* DeadManWriting
%%* DeadlyDecadentCourt: All of them.
%%* DealWithTheDevil: In ''Xeethra''.
%%* DeathByMaterialism: In ''The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan''.
%%* DisposingOfABody
* DisproportionateRetribution: ''The Dark Eidolon'' is all about this.
%%* DoomedProtagonist
* DownerEnding: Toyed with a lot. Sometimes we get a simple TheBadGuyWins downer; sometimes a KillEmAll ending, where the villains go down as well; and sometimes a straight happy ending.
* DraggedOffToHell: Inverted [[spoiler:in ''The Devotee of Evil''.]] Averted [[spoiler:in ''Xeethra'' to the surprise of the main character. It's still a DownerEnding though.]]
%%* DropDeadGorgeous
%%* DueToTheDead
%%* DyingAlone
%%* EgomaniacHunter: The main character in ''The Seven Geases''.
%%* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Vulthoom's.
%%* EldritchAbomination
%%* EmptyPilesOfClothing: In ''The Weaver in the Vault''.
%%* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt
%%* EverythingsSparklyWithJewelry
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In ''The Dark Eidolon'', the archdemon Thasaidon, Lord of the Seven Hells, refuses to help the sorcerer Namirrha in his plan for vengeance. This may be because all the people who would be killed by the plan are evil, and therefore unwitting servants of Thasaidon.
%%* EvilIsDeathlyCold: In ''The Coming of the White Worm'' and ''The Ice Demon''.
%%* EvilOverlord: Maal Dweb, Malygris...
** Nearly all of whom are also {{Sorcerous Overlord}}s too. Maal Dweb especially.
%%* EvilSorcerer: See above.
* EvilVersusEvil: Every single character in ''The Dark Eidolon'' is evil.
%%* EyeOfNewt
* FauxDeath: Played for horror in ''The Charnel God'' and ''The Second Internment''.
%%* FunctionalMagic
%%* TheFuture
%%* GardenOfEvil: Repeatedly.
%%* GeniusLoci: In ''Genius Loci''.
* GlamourFailure: Caused by the application of holy water in ''The End of the Story''.
%%* GodOfEvil: Thasaidon.
%%* GoingNative
%%* GoneHorriblyRight
%%* GrimUpNorth: In ''The Ice Demon'', and more extradimensionally also ''The Coming of the White Worm'' and ''The Light from the Pole''.
%%* HeroicSacrifice
%%* {{Hologram}}: Used by the villains in ''Vulthoom'' and ''The Immortals of Mercury''.
%%* HowDoYouLikeThemApples: In ''Xeethra''.
%%* HumanoidAliens
%%* HumanSacrifice
%%* ILoveTheDead
%%* ImAHumanitarian
%%* {{Irony}}
* KillEmAll: Repeatedly, to various degrees of scale and completeness.
* KissOfDeath: Most notably the non-vampiric one in ''The Kiss of Zoraida''.
%%* KissOfTheVampire
* LadyLand: A surprisingly proto-feminist version in ''The Root of Ampoi''.
%%* TheLegionsOfHell
%%* LibationForTheDead: A non-symbolic version in ''The Death of Ilalotha''.
%%* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards
%%* LivingShadow: Prominently in ''The Double Shadow'' and in a minor role in ''The Abominations of Yondo''.
%%* LoveableRogue: Satampra Zeiros.
%%* LovePotion: In ''The Mandrakes'' and ''The Mother of Toads''.
%%* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Subverted in ''The Dark Age''.
%%* MagicMirror: Present with different powers in ''Necromancy In Naat'' and ''The Enchantress of Sylaire''.
%%* MagicWand: Used by Maal Dweb in ''The Flower Women''.
%%* MalevolentMaskedMen: In ''The Charnel God''.
%%* ManEatingPlant
%%* UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}
* TheMiddleAges: Where the Averoigne stories take place.
%%* MuckMonster: Abhoth, appearing in "The Seven Geases".
%%* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable: In ''Necromancy in Naat''.
%%* {{Necromancer}}
%%* {{Necromantic}}: Malygris in ''The Last Incantation''.
%%* NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: Played straight and subverted in ''The Root Of Ampoi''.
* NoSell: In ''The Double Shadow'', the CosmicHorror that Avyctes summons passes straight through magical barriers and can't even be perceived by his familiars.
%%* OminousFog
%%* OurDemonsAreDifferent
%%* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: Lovecraft-style ghouls are used.
%%* OurVampiresAreDifferent
%%* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent
%%* OurZombiesAreDifferent
* PhlebotinumDuJour: Rays can do anything.
%%* PirateBooty: In ''The Master of the Crabs''.
%%* PlanetaryRomance
%%* PlantAliens
%%* PrideBeforeAFall
* PurpleProse: Makes Lovecraft look like Creator/ErnestHemingway...
%%* PyrrhicVillainy
%%* {{Qurac}}: The Arabian Nights version.
%%* RayGun
%%* RingOfPower
%%* {{Satan}}: In ''Schizoid Creator''.
%%* SceneryPorn: Quite a bit.
%%* ScienceMarchesOn
%%* ShaggyDogStory: ''The Seven Geases''.
%%* SimSimSalabim
%%* SinisterMinister: The titular character in ''The Holiness of Azédarac''.
%%* SolarCPR: ''Phoenix''.
%%* SpaceMadness: In ''The Master of the Asteroid''.
%%* StarfishAliens
%%* SubvertedTrope
%%* SummoningRitual: Shown onscreen in ''The Double Shadow''.
%%* SummonMagic
%%* TakenForGranite: In ''The Maze of Maal Dweb''.
%%* TakingYouWithMe
%%* TheoryBeforePhenomenon: In ''The Devotee of Evil'' and ''The Tomb-Spawn.''
%%* TheTimeOfMyths: Where the Hyperborea and Poseidonis stories take place.
%%* TimeTravel
%%* TogetherInDeath
%%* TortureTechnician: A whole island of them in ''The Isle of the Torturers''.
%%* TheUndead
%%* UnholyMatrimony
* UnwantedRevival: ''The Empire of the Necromancers'' gives us the viewpoint of a corpse raised by the necromancers as their slave. It turns out that the dead preferred oblivion.
%%* VainSorceress
%%* TheVamp
%%* VictoryIsBoring: Affects Maal Dweb.
%%* VillainProtagonist: Repeatedly.
%%* WickedWitch: In ''The Mother of Toads''.
%%* WomanScorned: Ilalotha in ''The Death of Ilalotha''.
----
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%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
%%
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'''Clark Ashton Smith''' (1893-1961) was an American writer of {{horror}}, {{fantasy}} and ScienceFiction. He is most notable for being one of the founders of the CthulhuMythos along with Creator/HPLovecraft, Creator/RobertEHoward and others.
Compared to Lovecraft's, Smith's stories tend to focus less on the CosmicHorrorStory and more on the pure exoticism of the setting. Some Mythos entities recur between them, such as the god Tsathoggua, but these entities tend to be less malevolent in Smith's portrayal than in Lovecraft's.
Also unlike Lovecraft, sexuality plays a strong role in many of Smith's works and female characters are a lot stronger and more prominent than in Lovecraft (most likely to Smith having a much more... ''active'' love life than Lovecraft). Unlike Howard, sorcerers in Smith [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards tend to have the upper hand against swordsmen]] and Smith has many sorcerer protagonists, both good and evil. And unlike Lovecraft, Smith was not a racist or a xenophobe, which can be seen best in stories like ''The Great God Awto'' and ''A Star-Change''.
Smith was fond of playing with tropes and his stories occasionally feature BlackComedy.
----
!!Tropes found in Clark Ashton Smith's works:
%%* ActionGirl: Vixeela in ''The Theft of Thirty-Nine Girdles''.
%%* ActionHero: Subverted.
* AfterTheEnd: The setting of the ''Zothique'' stories.
%%* AlienInvasion: In ''The Metamorphasis of Earth''.
* AlienSky: Suns of unusual color and non-standard numbers appear repeatedly.
%%* AncientTomb
%%* AnimateDead
%%* AnotherDimension
%%* AnyoneCanDie
* ApothecaryAlligator: In "The Return of the Sorcerer":
-->There were tables strewn with archaic instruments of doubtful use, with astrological charts, with skulls and alembics and crystals, with censers such as are used in the Catholic Church, and volumes bound in worm-eaten leather with verdigris-mottled clasps. In one corner stood the skeleton of a large ape; in another, a human skeleton; and overhead a stuffed crocodile was suspended.
* {{Atlantis}}: One of Smith's main cycles of stories is set in Poseidonis, the last isle of foundering Atlantis.
%%* TheBadGuyWins
%%* BalefulPolymorph: In ''The Maze of Maal Dweb''.
%%* BarbarianHero: Subverted.
%%* BeneathTheEarth
%%* BestServedCold
* BetterLivingThroughEvil: The EvilSorcerer Namirrha's backstory in ''The Dark Eidolon''
* BigScrewedUpFamily: One of Smith's more notable contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos is the idea that the various EldritchAbomination are all related to each other in some way or another like a classical pantheon, rather than a bunch of random, unrelated extradimensional aliens. For instance, Hastur is supposedly Cthulhu's half-brother. And he's married to Shub Niggurath and therefore, presumably the father of at least some of her enigmatic Thousand Young.
%%* BlackComedy
%%* BodyHorror
%%* BodyOfBodies: "The Colossus of Ylourgne".
%%* BuriedAlive: In ''The Second Internment''.
%%* BurnTheWitch: In ''The Necromantic Tale''.
%%* CelibateHero
* CharmPerson: Part of the repertory of every self-respecting evil female caster.
%%* ChasedByAngryNatives
%%* ColdBloodedTorture
%%* CometOfDoom
%%* CosmicHorrorStory: Used straight and subverted.
%%* CruelAndUnusualDeath
%%* {{Curse}}: In ''The Witchcraft of Ulua''.
%%* DarkestAfrica
%%* DeadAllAlong
%%* DeadManWriting
%%* DeadlyDecadentCourt: All of them.
%%* DealWithTheDevil: In ''Xeethra''.
%%* DeathByMaterialism: In ''The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan''.
%%* DisposingOfABody
* DisproportionateRetribution: ''The Dark Eidolon'' is all about this.
%%* DoomedProtagonist
* DownerEnding: Toyed with a lot. Sometimes we get a simple TheBadGuyWins downer; sometimes a KillEmAll ending, where the villains go down as well; and sometimes a straight happy ending.
* DraggedOffToHell: Inverted [[spoiler:in ''The Devotee of Evil''.]] Averted [[spoiler:in ''Xeethra'' to the surprise of the main character. It's still a DownerEnding though.]]
%%* DropDeadGorgeous
%%* DueToTheDead
%%* DyingAlone
%%* EgomaniacHunter: The main character in ''The Seven Geases''.
%%* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Vulthoom's.
%%* EldritchAbomination
%%* EmptyPilesOfClothing: In ''The Weaver in the Vault''.
%%* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt
%%* EverythingsSparklyWithJewelry
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In ''The Dark Eidolon'', the archdemon Thasaidon, Lord of the Seven Hells, refuses to help the sorcerer Namirrha in his plan for vengeance. This may be because all the people who would be killed by the plan are evil, and therefore unwitting servants of Thasaidon.
%%* EvilIsDeathlyCold: In ''The Coming of the White Worm'' and ''The Ice Demon''.
%%* EvilOverlord: Maal Dweb, Malygris...
** Nearly all of whom are also {{Sorcerous Overlord}}s too. Maal Dweb especially.
%%* EvilSorcerer: See above.
* EvilVersusEvil: Every single character in ''The Dark Eidolon'' is evil.
%%* EyeOfNewt
* FauxDeath: Played for horror in ''The Charnel God'' and ''The Second Internment''.
%%* FunctionalMagic
%%* TheFuture
%%* GardenOfEvil: Repeatedly.
%%* GeniusLoci: In ''Genius Loci''.
* GlamourFailure: Caused by the application of holy water in ''The End of the Story''.
%%* GodOfEvil: Thasaidon.
%%* GoingNative
%%* GoneHorriblyRight
%%* GrimUpNorth: In ''The Ice Demon'', and more extradimensionally also ''The Coming of the White Worm'' and ''The Light from the Pole''.
%%* HeroicSacrifice
%%* {{Hologram}}: Used by the villains in ''Vulthoom'' and ''The Immortals of Mercury''.
%%* HowDoYouLikeThemApples: In ''Xeethra''.
%%* HumanoidAliens
%%* HumanSacrifice
%%* ILoveTheDead
%%* ImAHumanitarian
%%* {{Irony}}
* KillEmAll: Repeatedly, to various degrees of scale and completeness.
* KissOfDeath: Most notably the non-vampiric one in ''The Kiss of Zoraida''.
%%* KissOfTheVampire
* LadyLand: A surprisingly proto-feminist version in ''The Root of Ampoi''.
%%* TheLegionsOfHell
%%* LibationForTheDead: A non-symbolic version in ''The Death of Ilalotha''.
%%* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards
%%* LivingShadow: Prominently in ''The Double Shadow'' and in a minor role in ''The Abominations of Yondo''.
%%* LoveableRogue: Satampra Zeiros.
%%* LovePotion: In ''The Mandrakes'' and ''The Mother of Toads''.
%%* MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: Subverted in ''The Dark Age''.
%%* MagicMirror: Present with different powers in ''Necromancy In Naat'' and ''The Enchantress of Sylaire''.
%%* MagicWand: Used by Maal Dweb in ''The Flower Women''.
%%* MalevolentMaskedMen: In ''The Charnel God''.
%%* ManEatingPlant
%%* UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}
* TheMiddleAges: Where the Averoigne stories take place.
%%* MuckMonster: Abhoth, appearing in "The Seven Geases".
%%* MummiesAtTheDinnerTable: In ''Necromancy in Naat''.
%%* {{Necromancer}}
%%* {{Necromantic}}: Malygris in ''The Last Incantation''.
%%* NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: Played straight and subverted in ''The Root Of Ampoi''.
* NoSell: In ''The Double Shadow'', the CosmicHorror that Avyctes summons passes straight through magical barriers and can't even be perceived by his familiars.
%%* OminousFog
%%* OurDemonsAreDifferent
%%* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: Lovecraft-style ghouls are used.
%%* OurVampiresAreDifferent
%%* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent
%%* OurZombiesAreDifferent
* PhlebotinumDuJour: Rays can do anything.
%%* PirateBooty: In ''The Master of the Crabs''.
%%* PlanetaryRomance
%%* PlantAliens
%%* PrideBeforeAFall
* PurpleProse: Makes Lovecraft look like Creator/ErnestHemingway...
%%* PyrrhicVillainy
%%* {{Qurac}}: The Arabian Nights version.
%%* RayGun
%%* RingOfPower
%%* {{Satan}}: In ''Schizoid Creator''.
%%* SceneryPorn: Quite a bit.
%%* ScienceMarchesOn
%%* ShaggyDogStory: ''The Seven Geases''.
%%* SimSimSalabim
%%* SinisterMinister: The titular character in ''The Holiness of Azédarac''.
%%* SolarCPR: ''Phoenix''.
%%* SpaceMadness: In ''The Master of the Asteroid''.
%%* StarfishAliens
%%* SubvertedTrope
%%* SummoningRitual: Shown onscreen in ''The Double Shadow''.
%%* SummonMagic
%%* TakenForGranite: In ''The Maze of Maal Dweb''.
%%* TakingYouWithMe
%%* TheoryBeforePhenomenon: In ''The Devotee of Evil'' and ''The Tomb-Spawn.''
%%* TheTimeOfMyths: Where the Hyperborea and Poseidonis stories take place.
%%* TimeTravel
%%* TogetherInDeath
%%* TortureTechnician: A whole island of them in ''The Isle of the Torturers''.
%%* TheUndead
%%* UnholyMatrimony
* UnwantedRevival: ''The Empire of the Necromancers'' gives us the viewpoint of a corpse raised by the necromancers as their slave. It turns out that the dead preferred oblivion.
%%* VainSorceress
%%* TheVamp
%%* VictoryIsBoring: Affects Maal Dweb.
%%* VillainProtagonist: Repeatedly.
%%* WickedWitch: In ''The Mother of Toads''.
%%* WomanScorned: Ilalotha in ''The Death of Ilalotha''.
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