History Literature / OldKingdom

* TargetedHumanSacrifice: Charter Stones can only be broken by an exceptionally evil Free Magic ritual involving the sacrifice of a Charter Mage. The Great Charter Stones specifically require RoyalBlood.

* TwentiesBobHaircut: Sabriel is described as having one during her very first appearance, though it's not reflected in the cover illustration. (The novel is set in a fantasy world, but Ancelstierre is a f to 1920s England in technology level and culture.)

* SeekingUltimateStrength: [[BlackMagic Free Magic]] sorcerers inevitably get {{addict|iveMagic}}ed to the experience of forcing magic and other creatures to obey their will. Best exemplified by Kerrigor, who, not content with being [[spoiler:[[TheEvilPrince Crown Prince]]]], mastered Free Magic, transformed himself into an UndeadAbomination, [[LoveSacrificedForPower made human sacrifices of his family]], and tried to tear apart the Kingdom so he could rule over a [[TheNecrocracy Necrocracy]] of his thralls.

->''"Your work?" asked the man, shivering a little, though it was no longer cold.''\\
''"Yes," said Abhorsen. "I am a necromancer, but not of the common kind. Where others of the art raise the Dead, I lay them back to rest. And those that will not rest, I bind. Or try to. I am Abhorsen."''
-->-- from the prologue of ''Sabriel''

* CosmicKeystone: The Great Charter Stones. When Kerrigor broke some of them, it made things difficult for a while.

** A less sympathetic example with Clariel. Her stubborness and single-minded desire makes her easily manipulated and causes her to try to harness Free Magic to get what she wants.

** Hedge in the third book. At first he appears to be the BigBad, but it turns out he... well, [[EldritchAbomination isn't]]. Chlorr is pretty much ''his'' Dragon, though.

* HumanPopsicle: Touchstone has been sealed for 200 years as the wooden figurehead of a ship.

* ImprobableWeaponUser: Bells? A mirror? And [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom panpipes at the gates of doom]]?

* SymmetricEffect: The last and largest of the seven bells is Astarael, the Weeper, which sends all hearers deep into Death -- ''including the one ringing it''. It's generally used by Abhorsens only as a final TakingYouWithMe gambit. [[spoiler:When used on Kerrigor, it doesn't stick, since his SoulJar lets him return, but it does delay him, and the ringer couldn't have survived anyway.]]

* LightIsNotGood: Free Magic creatures tend to be associated with light, with the most powerful glowing with a particularly baleful white fire from part or all of their bodies. And while they're not always ''evil'' per se, they are very, very dangerous. [[spoiler: Mogget's true form is bright white light.]]

* LightIsNotGood: Free Magic creatures tend to be associated with light, with the most powerful glowing with a particularly baleful shade of white from part or all of their bodies. And while they're not always ''evil'' per se, they are very, very dangerous. [[spoiler: Mogget's true form is bright white light.]]

[[caption-width-right:283:[[ImprobableWeaponUser Bells have never]] [[MusicalAssassin looked so awesome.]]]]

* AddictiveMagic: Free Magic and Necromancy and the dominance and power both grant over other creatures and dead spirits is incredibly seductive. This is why Free Magic sorcerers become TheUnfettered - their lust and desire for power eventually consumes them.

* AndThisIsFor: Clariel mentions [[spoiler:her mother and father]] when [[spoiler:killing Aronzo]].

* BackgroundMagicField: The Old Kingdom and the lands beyond it are steeped in one. The Charter Stones and the Wall generate one allowing access to Charter Magic, but in places beyond their reach north of the Wall, there is only Free Magic. The BMF also has deleterious effects on machine-made objects from Ancelstierre, causing them to break down.

* CoughSnarkCough: In ''Clariel'', Aronzo does this, calling the Abhorsens "[[FantasticSlurs rat-catchers]]".

* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: The Abhorsens. Sabriel (and her father) are described as having "deathly white" skin, "night-black hair" and black eyes, and Lirael is described similarly, with "white skin... dark eyes and even darker hair". The abnormal pallor of Sabriel's skin is implied to have been caused by travelling through Death, although this doesn't really explain Lirael.

** As a child, Terciel had dark skin, but it has grown pale by the time he has reached his early twenties.

** In ''Sabriel'', [[spoiler:it is her father, Abhorsen Terciel.]]
** In ''Abhorsen'', [[spoiler:it is the Disreputable Dog, aka Kibeth.]]

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Played straight and averted. When the Disreputable Dog tells Lirael about the creation of the world and the Charter, she says that two of the Seven chose to retain their immortal and integrated selves. She says that perhaps they weren't tired of life, and were interested in how the world would develop, which implies that the other Five had wearied of their lives, which by then must have spanned millennia.

* FaceHeelTurn: It is implied, and then later on outright confirmed, that Chlorr is in fact [[spoiler:Clariel]]. It is not, however, shown exactly how this turn came to be.
* FallenHero: At the end of ''Abhorsen'', Mogget hints that [[spoiler:Chlorr of the Mask]] was once an Abhorsen. Garth Nix later [[WordOfGod partly confirmed this]] on his blog. [[spoiler:Chlorr's]] original name was Clariel and she dates to a few hundred years before the events of ''Sabriel''. [[spoiler:She wasn't actually an official Abhorsen; her grandfather was the Abhorsen of her time, but she had good intentions before being corrupted by Free Magic.]]
* FantasticNuke: The second of [[EldritchAbomination Orannis']] nine forms. Not merely equivalent in role, either... See DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything.

* HellishHorse: Hedge has one. It is [[IncendiaryExponent on fire]].

** Touchstone, when Sabriel first meets him.
** And Nick, when Lirael first meets him. [[spoiler:In both cases, the pair end up a couple.]]

* MutuallyExclusiveMagic: Charter Magic is an orderly and disciplined magic based on using [[GeometricMagic Charter Marks]] to construct spells with specific effects and is tied to life, order, and creation; Free Magic is a much more destructive and chaotic power whose limits are defined primarily by the strength of the user's will and the amount of magic they have on hand. Gaining too much power in one magic will actively inhibit your ability to use the other, since their natures and the mindsets needed to control them are so opposed. The primary exception being the Abhorsens, who can use some Free Magic, particularly of the necromantic persuasion, despite being primarily Charter Mages. [[spoiler:Or Nick, whose Free Magic ''fuels'' his Charter ability.]]

* TheSoulsaver: Part of the Abhorsen's job description.

* StartOfDarkness: The prequel book describes this for the titular character, who eventually becomes [[spoiler:Chlorr of the Mask.]]

* SymmetricEffect: The last and largest of the seven bells is Astarael, the Weeper, which sends all hearers deep into Death -- ''including the one ringing it''. It's generally used by Abhorsens only as a final TakingYouWithMe gambit. [[spoiler:When used on Kerigor, it doesn't stick, since his SoulJar lets him return, but it does delay him, and the ringer couldn't have survived anyway.]]

* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: Basically the reason [[spoiler:Yrael sides with Sabriel and co. over Orannis.]]
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Nicholas Sayre, once the Destroyer is unbound, who dies from the trauma his body's been put through, rather than a direct wound.]]

* BlessedWithSuck: Some of the major families special abilities are a decidedly mixed-blessing
** The Royal Families' berserker rage often causes more problems than it solves since they often loose reason and rationality at critical moments. It's also a wild ability close to Free Magic as Clariel shows.
** The Clayr's Seer abilities are diluted leaving the Clayr with an impossible to control ability that triggers randomly and shows useless flashes. All Clayr are also "gifted" with portents of their own death and the ability overwhelms them as they age, leaving them UnstuckInTime and lost in their visions. Furthermore as a StoryBreakerPower, the Clayr's ability is often blocked or impeded.

** Breaking or mending or making a Charter Stone requires Charter Mage blood. For the Great Stones, it needs royal, Abhorsen, or Clayr blood The only exception to this is [[spoiler:when the Disreputable Dog grants Nicholas Sayre his Charter mark and pulls him out of Death, making him a type of Charter Stone never seen before]].

** Sabriel's own father, Terciel, sent his daughter to a boarding school in another country/world/dimension (not really clear) because he couldn't afford to put his Abhorsen duties on hold enough to raise a child. Also, [[MadOracle the Clayr told him to]].

** The Clayr's Seer abilities is diluted leaving the Clayr with an impossible to control ability that triggers randomly and shows useless flashes. All Clayr are also "gifted" with portents of their own death and the ability overwhelms them as they age, leaving them UnstuckInTime and lost in their visions. Furthermore as a StoryBreakingPower, the Clayr ability is often blocked and the Clayr are constant targets of magical attacks.

* DeusExitMachina: The Clayr's ability to see to future is a StoryBreakerPower which is why they're regularly subject to this trope. In Lirael and Abhorsen, [[spoiler: the Destroyer is actively blocking the Sight]], and in Goldenhand the Clayr are hit with a convenient, possibly magical plague of the flu before the plot starts.

* StoryBreakingPower:
** The Clayr's ability to See the future which is why it's the only ability consistently nerfed.
** Mogget and the Disreputable Dog are [[spoiler: Bright Shiners and thus the oldest, most powerful and knowledgeable creatures in the setting. The Dog "dies" saving Lirael from Orannis and Mogget is freed after making a definitive HeelFaceTurn which removes them from future stories outside of occasional appearances.]]