History Literature / KingdomsOfThornAndBone

* FiveManBand: Among the main characters, though hardly ever all of them share a scene:
** TheHero: Anne, and/or Aspar.
** TheLancer: Austra and Cazio.
** TheSmartGuy: Stephen.
** TheBigGuy: Neil.
** TheChick: Winna.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Eslen is [[UsefulNotes/TheColonialPeriod Colonial America]] rather than the typical British analogue. The tribes of [[GrimUpNorth Hansa]] possibly correspond to the Francs. Vitellio is {{UsefulNotes/Italy}} more or less right down to the heart of [[TheChurch the Church]] being there. In fact, the backstory indicates that the different nationalities of humans in this world were brought there from real-world Earth locations by the Skasloi, and the languages they speak are recognizably related to real-world languages. (For example, Vitellian is related to Oscan, an extinct language of Italy; and Lierish is a Celtic language.)

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Eslen is [[TheColonialPeriod Colonial America]] rather than the typical British analogue. The tribes of [[GrimUpNorth Hansa]] possibly correspond to the Francs. Vitellio is {{UsefulNotes/Italy}} more or less right down to the heart of [[TheChurch the Church]] being there. In fact, the backstory indicates that the different nationalities of humans in this world were brought there from real-world Earth locations by the Skasloi, and the languages they speak are recognizably related to real-world languages. (For example, Vitellian is related to Oscan, an extinct language of Italy; and Lierish is a Celtic language.)

[[TheDarkTimes Two thousand years ago]] [[HotWitch Virgenya]] [[LadyOfWar Dare]] overthrew the [[EldritchAbomination Skasloi]] overlords that had enslaved humanity. Her descendants rule the kingdom of Crotheny, until a traitorous plot to overthrow them leads to tragedy. The legendary Briar King has awakened from his slumber, heralding death. All is not as it seems and [[RebelliousPrincess Anne]] [[TheHerosJourney Dare]] must become the queen her country needs while monstrous assassins stalk her. [[FishOutOfWater Sir Neil]] [[KnightInShiningArmor MeqVren]] must learn that the politics of the court are as deadly as the battlefield as he tries to safeguard the queen. [[BadAss Aspar]] [[{{Ranger}} White]] must face murderous creatures of legend as he tries to unravel the mystery of the Briar King.

* ImplausibleFencingPowers: Cazio has these a few times.

* HandicappedBadass: Neill in the fourth book. After being rendered unfit to fight from his injuries in earlier books, he gets roped into a duel with another knight that's intended to kill him. At the start of the duel, Neill throws down his shield and announces that since he has no chance of surviving, he [[DeathSeeker won't even try]] - instead, he'll make damn sure that he [[TakingYouWithMe takes his opponent down with him.]] In a later scene, Muriele admonishes him that while that was all good and well, [[OffScreenMomentOfAwesome chasing the other knight through half the town after he fled the field in terror was just excessive.]]

* WeCanRuleTogether: [[spoiler: Stephen]] makes this offer to [[spoiler: Anne]] in the climax to the fourth book. She isn't interested, but not for the usual reasons - she plans on ruling ''all by herself.''

* NoAntagonist: Despite the [[BigBadEnsemble large number of bad people]] around, none of them are in fact responsible for the decaying state of the world. Rather, each one is either [[WellIntentionedExtremist trying to cure it in one misguided way or another]], looking to take advantage of it, or aren't even aware of it but cause more damage because of it than they otherwise could have.

* NoAntagonist: Despite the [[BigBadEnsamble large number of bad people]] around, none of them are in fact responsible for the decaying state of the world. Rather, each one is either [[WellIntentionedExtremist trying to cure it in one misguided way or another]], looking to take advantage of it, or aren't even aware of it but cause more damage because of it than they otherwise could have.

* UnequalRites: There are two kinds, the faneway power and shinecraft. The former is considered a holy gift from the saints and is used by the Church, the latter black magic that no one is willing to admit consorting with (though the Hansans use it anyway, in secret). [[spoiler: Subverted: the use of the faneways has been slowly corrupting the world for centuries, whereas shinecraft appears to have no negative consequences for its use.]]

* TheChosenOne: Anne and Aspar are both hinted to right from the first book to have a major role to play in saving the world. In the third book, Stephen turns out to have a grand destiny of his own. [[spoiler: Subverted in that Anne and Stephen turn out to be destined to be great ''villains,'' while Aspar is the one who saves the world in the end.]]