History Literature / DreadEmpire

* NightOfTheLivingMooks: Discussed and defied. Apparently Yo Hsi considered this, but found that undead in large enough numbers to serve as an effective military force were also to cumbersome to be easily controlled, so he scrapped the idea. [[spoiler: Ethrian, empowered by an ancient godling, is able to pull it off with much more success]].

''The Dread Empire'' is a dark epic fantasy series by Creator/GlenCook. Though its earliest volumes predate Cook's more famous ''Literature/BlackCompany'' series by several years, the two share a number of similarities in themes and tone, offering a soldier's-eye view of a gritty, morally grey world in the throes of conflict driven by larger-than-life sorcerers and immortals. However, ''Dread Empire'' is told in third-person rather than ''Black Company's'' first person, offering a wider scope with a broader range of perspectives, and though still distinctly gritty it represents a somewhat more traditional take on the genre.

** In theory, Shinsan itself is this, with the ranking Tervola having the duty of electing a new Emperor or Empress should the old one perish. In ''theory''. In practice, power tends to fall to [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority whoever is strong enough to seize it and force the Tervola to fall in line]].

* TheChessmaster: The Star Rider has plans for everything. ''Everything''. RealityEnsues in the later books; even the best chessmaster can only do so much when most of his pieces have been captured.

* WeHaveReserves: The favored strategy of the Tervola Ko Feng, known as "Lord Hammer" for this very reason. His specialty is crushing the enemy with overwhelming martial and magical force, trusting in his own forces being able to absorb any losses they might take along the way. Serves him well in the short term. [[RealityEnsues Less effective in the long run]].

* BlackAndGrayMorality: Our heroes include a ProudWarriorRaceGuy mercenary, a roguish conman, and a self-centered ancient wizards, none of whom are exactly paragons of morality - but our ''villains'', being a brutally repressive, expansionist empire, the AncientConspiracy manipulating them, and the mysterious immortal using ''them'' to cause chaos and war, are quite clearly worse.