History Literature / CraftSequence

* UndeadLaborers: People who die in debt or who simply incur so much of it that they no longer have enough soulstuff to support full human consciousness may become zombies and work off their debts in that state. In Craft-based societes, work on industrial-scale farms, janitorial work, freight handling, and other forms of menial labor are often performed by zombies.

* UndeadLaborers: People who die in debt or who simply incur so much of it that they no longer have enough soulstuff to support full human consciousness may become zombies and work off their debts in that state. Work on industrial-scale farms, janitorial work, freight handling, and other forms of menial labor are often performed by zombies in Craft-based societies.

* StarPower: Craft uses starlight as an energy source. The stars are also said to be the origin of the human soul (which, of course, is also a Craft energy source), although the Quechal have a decidedly more ominous perspective about the nature of the stars [[spoiler:which is apparently also true]].

* Main/Necromancy: An important branch of Craft, used for everything from raising [[UndeadLaborers simple revenants for menial labor]] to restructuring dead gods.

* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler: Both Kos and Seril avoided death by hiding a reserve part of their power and a full portion of their personality. Kos hid his in a cigarette, while Seril divided hers among her gargoyles]]

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: The series is set in a world recovering from the God Wars, in which human magic users challenging gods for the right to exercise their powers freely escalated into a global revolution involving the deaths of many gods and mortals and the birth of the world's first god-free civilizations.

* [[Main/Magocracy]]: Societies not ruled by gods and their priests are ruled by powerful Craft practitioners who use their abilities to provide for and defend their subjects. Since magic, law, and economics are more or less the same thing in this world, a ruling elite of people versed in magic is perhaps inescapable.

* Main/Magocracy: Societies not ruled by gods and their priests are ruled by powerful Craft practitioners who use their abilities to provide for and defend their subjects. Since magic, law, and economics are more or less the same thing in this world, a ruling elite of people versed in magic is perhaps inescapable.

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: The series is set in a world recovering from the God Wars, in which human magic users challenging gods for the right to exercise their powers freely escalated into a global revolution and the birth of the world's first god-free civilizations.

* KissOfDeath: Elayne gives one to her former mentor, returning his deadly shadow creature that she hid in her mouth when he forced a kiss from her.

* SchizoTech: Because of the influence of the Kos and his church and the Craftsmens' magitek inventions, Alt Columb has steampunk air conditioning and central heating, as well as golem horse wagons for taxis. Their understanding of physical science, legalism, economics and finance is 21st century level. But they still use sail-based ships and bow and arrows.

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Each of the titles in the series to date has a number in it [[note]]("first" is an ordinal number)[[/note]].

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: Elayne and Tara's old mentor, Denov is one of the greatest Craftsmen in history. And it's not enough for him. He doesn't want an immortality that turns him into a walking skeleton and he has to use lots of raw power and a deep understanding of cosmic laws to do what a god can do with a bit of thought. So he's trying to find a way to become a god without the usual godly weaknesses that come from being tied to its worshippers.

* MindRape: Tara and Elayne's old mentor Denov used to hijack their minds and power, turns out he does that to anyone under his tutelage but he takes special delight if his victim is female.

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: Kos the Everburning benefits from this. He's a benevolent, friendly god and one of the few to avoid the mayhem of the God Wars. Even the anti-religious Craftsmen like him and he's seen as a trustworthy institution for global trade. And then he's killed [[spoiler:by his chief priest Gustave, who believed Kos was a going through a bout of madness and decided that killing and then resurrecting Kos is the best idea)]]

* ''A Ruin of Angels''

* ResurrectionSickness: Resurrection will always reduce the individual on the receiving end. That's because resurrection involves recreating the individual using all the relevant available information. As such there'll always be something missing in the personality or abilities. And sometimes this reduction is done deliberately.