History Literature / CretanChronicles

* AnAxToGrind: Some of your enemies use axes against you, including Minos, Procrustes, and some low-level mooks. In fact, the double-headed axe is the emblem of Minos.

* ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike: If you save a young man about to be sacrificed to a trio of Furies (WingedHumanoid monsters with women's heads and bird wings), the man will curse you for saving his life; the Furies are sacred creatures and its an ''Honour'' for him to be sacrificed.

* BalefulPolymorph:
** Your crew's encounter with Circe have her transforming your crew into pigs, and she will attempt to do the same to you.
** Thaisia, after getting on the gods' bad side, gets transformed into a jackal for her troubles.

* AMythologyIsTrue: Naturally, since the trilogy is inspired by Greek Mythology, you can come across ancient Greek icons like Hercules or Perseus during your adventure.

* AllMythsAreTrue: Naturally, since the trilogy is inspired by Greek Mythology, you can come across ancient Greek icons like Hercules or Perseus during your adventure.

* LesserOfTwoEvils: [[spoiler: The player has to abandon Ariadne before their wedding at the start of the second book. Otherwise, Altheus becomes guilty of the crime of murdering family members because of Ariadne's relatives who died by his hand in the previous book by marrying into her family. This lesser crime of breaking his vows to Ariadne [[HowTheMightyHaveFallen results in Altheus gradually losing everything]], and comes home a hollow wreck instead of a conquering hero.]]

* ALoadOfBull: One of your enemies is the Marathonian Bull, which serves as a WarmUpBoss to prepare you for the Minotaur battle in the next book. Of course, the Minotaur itself also counts.

* EnthrallingSiren: Many of these will attempt to hinder your journey home in the third book. Using a strategy you learn from Odysseus, you order your crew to stuff their ears with beeswax to avoid being hypnotized by their singing.

* OceanOfAdventure: Sailing is a major plot point in the second and third books, as you travel across the Aegean sea to King Minos' Island to find out the truth behind your brother Theseus' death. On the way, you can encounter pirates, mutineers, storms and whirlpools, and a massive {{Sea Serpent|s}}.

* PatronGod: Altheus can select one of six different deities in his quest to uncover the truth behind his brother's death. The choice of deities can affect the difficulty level and outcome of gameplays -- for instance, choosing Poseidon can make the second book's journey across the Aegean Seas easier, selecting Ares can increase Altheus's power level during combat situations, while having Aphrodite will have the goddess periodically showing up in Altheus' visions in order to provide him suitable advice on his actions.

Being an adventure through an interconnecting trilogy of books, each installment of ''Cretan Chronicles'' are known for their immense length and thickness; the average book totals to more than 600 pages each, with every book being a standalone adventure. (The book instructs any players who failed in the second or third book to start right from the beginning, but logically a player could make a note of their accumulated equipment before the start of each adventure and proceed through there, not unlike ''Literature/{{Sorcery}}''.

* ContinuityLockout: Unlike ''Literature/{{Sorcery}}'', there is very tight inter-continuity between the three books, to the point where reading from the second or third books would make the adventure near-incomprehensible.

* PrayerIsALastResort: You will do this if a battle is going really badly for you, and you're about to be slain. But this only works if your HONOUR score is high enough, and you are only allowed to do so once per book, like in ''Literature/{{Sorcery}}''.