History Literature / MidnightTides

* {{Undead}}:

** In a quarry, several Letherii workers come upon a Khalibaral demon sealed away in a cave. It manages to snatch three worker and a necromancer before the foreman calls for Bugg, who has no idea what to do about it until the Jaghut Huntress who originally sealed the demon away returns in time and recaptures the demon while complaining how humans can never seem to stop digging where they don't belong.

* ImpoverishedPatrician: Tehol Beddict once owned about a quarter of he Letherii economy before an economic crash cost his investors most of their money and left him on the street. [[spoiler:Tehol engineered the entire chain of events as proof-of-concept that the economy could be brought down, and actually hid most of the cash safely; technically, he still owns most of the city. He publicly lives in squalor to avoid suspicion and because it amuses him to confuse people.]]

* DistantPrologue: The prologue of ''Midnight Tides'' takes places at an unnamed point during TheTimeOfMyths, in this case during the Sundering of the Realm of Kurald Emurlahn in the Time of the Elder Gods, and show the invasion of the Tiste Edur. It is continued as the prologue of ''Literature/ReapersGale''.

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: ''Midnight Tides'' takes place in a part of the setting that is completely unexplored at this point in the series, with only two characters being immediately recognizable. Even in a books series infamous for constantly changing viewpoint characters, ''Midnight Tides'' stands out.

''Midnight Tides'' is the fifth book of ten in ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', and the first in the Letherii arc. It was released in 2004, and is preceded by ''Literature/HouseOfChains''. This volume is notable for employing a loose version of the LiteraryAgentHypothesis -- events are ostensibly narrated by Trull Sengar, a character from the last book -- and for its use of AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent, as it introduces the last of the [[RotatingArcs three major arcs]]. Despite this, it does not employ significant use of LostInMediasRes -- one of the hallmarks of the series -- as it largely follows a more traditional storytelling structure than usual, and, as such, is a somewhat different read from the rest of the series.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: The story is, in theory, told by Trull Sengar to his companions following the epilogue in ''Literature/HouseOfChains'', but there are numerous events recounted that are impossible for him to know.

* SealedBadassInACan: The ancient [[DarkIsNotEvil Tiste Andii]] ascendant [[HeroicAlbino Silchas Ruin]] lies trapped in the grounds of a dying Azath House. He used to be one of the major players among the Tiste Andii and once led his followers into a new world while waging war on the K'Chain Che'Malle, but was betrayed and {{buried alive}} by his friend and ally Scabandari Bloodeye. His slow escape is one of the many plotlines of the book.

* BreakTheHaughty: [[spoiler:Rhulad Sengar]] is involuntary made TheDragon of The Crippled God and is [[BlessedWithSuck granted immortality]]. Quickly realizing he got the short end of the stick in a DealWithTheDevil he is slowly driven to madness by repeated incidents of dying and painfully coming BackFromTheDead and the knowledge that he no longer has control over his life and fate.

* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: The Crippled God]] strikes again, supporting Hannan Mosag in his unification of the Tiste Edur tribes and when it becomes clear he will not [[spoiler: lead the Tiste Edur into a war of conquest, replacing him with the younger Rhulad Sengar, making sure he stays in line]]. We have seen his tendency towards this trope in ''Literature/MemoriesOfIce'' already. He is, in fact, backing several people throughout the series, because that is the only way he can influence the world around him at all.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: The state of Necromancy in Lether leads to this. Particularly spiteful aristocrats will pay a ''Ceda'' large sums of money to curse their enemies with eternal undeath. The victim will die, then immediately rise again, unable to move into the afterlife or enjoy the comforts of the living like food, rest, and sex. Shurq Ellale suffered this fate after robbing a member of the nobility, and [[BigBrotherBully Gerun Eberict]] has this done to [[spoiler: his own brother, [[FriendlyZombie Harlest]].]]

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Per WordOfGod, Erickson set out to turn Lether into something not often seen in the fantasy genre- a fantasy interpretation of the United States of America. With its focus on continental expansion, devastation of tribal peoples, focus on debt and money, he may have done a bang up job.

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* Greed: Lether operates with a laissez-faire capitalist economy for which nothing is ever enough, leading to the kingdom's ruthless expansionism.

* OnlySaneMan: Trull Sengar is the only Tiste Edur of any influence who dares to openly speak out against [[spoiler: his brother Rhulad's push for war with Lether]].

--> '[[spoiler: And then the corpse screamed.]]'

* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: The Crippled God]] strikes again, backing Rhulad and also making sure he stays in line. We have seen his tendency towards this trope in ''Literature/MemoriesOfIce'' already. He is, in fact, backing several people throughout the series, because that is the only way he can influence the world around him at all.

* SealedBadassInACan: [[spoiler:Ancient Tiste Andii ascendant Silchas Ruin]] lies trapped in the grounds of a dying Azath House. His slow escape is one of the many plotlines of the book.

* JacobAndEsau: The Beddict brothers. Though their parents are long dead by the start of the book, Tehol draws comparisons. Hull and Brys are both a lot like their father, Hull in personality and Brys in physical traits, while Tehol himself is a gender-flipped version of their mother.

* {{Fingore}}: Brys Beddict loses one of his fingers [[spoiler: and his life]] at the end of the book. The finger even becomes relevant to the plot later in ''Literature/ReapersGale''.