History Literature / ShadowsOfTheApt

* EveryOneDies: [[spoiler: Of the original main characters, the only survivors are Cheerwell Maker and Thalric]]

%%* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Thalric

* The Wasp-kinden are consciously trying to become this, and they’ve generally succeeded - while they don’t quite have the effortless discipline and coordination of the Ants, they’ve successfully built a modern military out of a bunch of squabbling clans, with all the organization that implies, and make up for their shortcomings against the Ants with technological advantages.

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Mantis-kinden. Ant-kinden and Wasp-kinden are more Proud Soldier Races.

* TranslatorMicrobes: An unusual example. It goes unremarked-on that everyone speaks the same language, everywhere in the world, with accent being the only notable difference. Written language may vary wildly from place to place, but spoken language never changes. No one has any trouble talking to anyone else, even in places that have been isolated from the rest of the world for centuries or millennia. The short story “For Love of Distant Shores” explains this as language being an inherent, biological characteristic of humans in this setting, which always develops the same way.

* TranslatorMicrobes: An unusual example. It goes unremarked-on that everyone speaks the same language, everywhere in the world, with accent being the only notable difference. Written language may have developed very differently, but spoken language never changes. No one has any trouble talking to anyone else, even in places that have been isolated from the rest of the world for centuries or millennia. The short story “For Love of Distant Shores” explains this as language being an inherent, biological characteristic of humans in this setting, which always develops the same way.

* HandBlast: Wasp-kinden have the “sting” as their most common Art, letting them shoot bolts of energy out of their palms. Therefore, no Wasp is ever technically unarmed, and they consider open hands a threat in their culture.

* SorcerousOverlord: The Moths were a race of this and were the foremost rulers of the Bad Old Days until their servitor races rebelled. The biggest example for the Moths is Argastos, the Moth's greatest Warmaster. Even after death, his decayed corpse continued to command his legions of Mantis Warriors and any victim that fell into his clutches would be made to join him (most recently a Wasp airship crew).

* ArmorIsUseless: Averted, the new alloys created by the Iron Glove society is quickly worked into advanced body armor and walking tanks. This makes them nearly invulnerable, even the armor-piercing snapbow bolts just glance off them.

* UnfortunateNames: ''Cheerwell'' Maker.

* NoNonsenseNemesis: the Wasp Empire has a habit of using all the firepower necessary to deal with its enemies and then some, and in case they get it wrong the first time around they are perfectly willing to learn, adapt, and try again. [[spoiler: They manage to crush [[ProudWarriorRace the Mantids of Felyal]] by coming in [[MoreDakka loaded for Godzilla]] and with [[WeHaveReserves large city's worth of troops]], and their siege of Collegium shows they did their homework on how the Vekken got defeated.]]

* WarIsHell: while hardly the driving theme of the series, it's still present. simply due to the way [[ WartsAndAll the war against the Wasp Empire is described.]]

* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Beetle-kinden.
* OurElvesAreBetter: Spider-kinden and Moth-kinden.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: Scorpion-kinden.

* AllThereInTheManual: Quite a bit of back story and History of the Lowlands can be found on the Shadows of the Apt website, along with other short stories based in that world.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: Che knows that people can gain powers through meditation, among them telepathic hive minds, ultraviolet vision, wings, and the ability to shoot energy from your hands. She initially refuses point blank to believe in "magic." In fact, nearly all Apt characters fall into this category.\\
\\
This is because magic works in an entirely different way to 'Art' as noted when [[spoiler:she noticed something off about Stenwold's agent in Helleron]], whereas the people in this world can identify something as an 'Art' immediately even if they haven't seen it before.

* ArmorIsUseless: Averted, the new alloys created by the Iron Glove society is quickly worked into advanced body armour and walking tanks. This makes them nearly invulnerable, even the armour-piercing snapbow bolts just glance off them.

* BadassArmy: An army of one thousand Mantis-kinden from Felyal doesn't quite live up to their boasts--they said they'd be able to kill the whole of the 20,000-strong Imperial Fourth Army. [[spoiler: They only got three quarters of them before the rest fled.]]
* BadassLabcoat: Sort of; Stenwold and Totho both wear their artificing gear (heavy leather clothes, fireproof aprons, tough gloves etc.) rather than armour in the first few books because firstly they are artificers before warriors, and secondly because [[HiddenInPlainSight none of the guards would pay attention to]] [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles an artificer looking for work in an imperial city.]] In fact, [[spoiler: during the siege of Collegium the city's defence was upheld by a last-minute militia that was equipped with what poor reserves the city had. After that each man woman and child grabbed whatever could be used in a fight. Seeing how the local residents are mostly artificers... You get the idea.]]

** A lot of foreshadowing is happening with the prophecy that [[spoiler: Stenwold hears from the monarch of the Commonweal]] and towards the end of the Heirs of the Blade with what Che [[spoiler:says about the crest of worms while she was in a trance like state]]
* BladeBelowTheShoulder: Mantis-kinden have two flavours--their Art-grown spines and the Claw.

** Due to their influence [[spoiler: Empress Seda seems to be doing pretty much the same. Except that it seems to have a uncontrollable hunger vibe compared to the Uctebri's controlled hunger]]

** It is occasionally mentioned that Totho is always carrying his "project" on his back, apparently a prototype for a weapon he has designed. This becomes important when [[spoiler: Achaeos notices that Totho hasn't had it since they left Myna and realises that this is because he actually left with Salma and the Totho with them is a doppelganger.]] [[spoiler: Totho's weapon later falls into the hands of the Empire and his Snapbow is put into mass production, leading to a last minute Wasp victory at The Battle of the Rails. The allied Lowlanders then nearly tear themselves apart trying to create their own snapbows while preventing their allies/ rivals from doing the same.]]

** Just read the lore sections of the author's website and the date posted. Dude's been planting Chekhov's mines everywhere and priming them to blow for a loooong time. No wonder he's pumping books out so fast. Everything is already planned.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Thalric; not that it helps him, [[spoiler:given that the Empire eventually decides he's better off dead - and then changes its mind again, at which point he betrays and murders a top-ranking general. He's hauled to the capital in chains, and arrives at just the right time to marry the new Empress, who needs a male figurehead. Then the Rekef decide they would prefer a new male figurehead... In Heirs of the Blade it seemed he was pretty content to put the past behind him and tag along with Che (although that is what we thought at the end of Salute the Dark with Seda...)]]

** And of course, it's worth mentioning the "Triumph of Aeronautics", an armoured airship.
* CoolTank: The Iron Glove developed the Sentinels, these are wood-louse shaped battle vehicles that are armed with a leadshotter and twin rotary piercers. Their biggest advantage is that they're almost invulnerable with their extra-thick black steel armour. Only a small number of Sentinels have ever been disabled by enemy attack (ie flipped on its back, crew killed, etc) and none have been destroyed. One Sentinel even took direct hit from a magnetic cannon and only had a small dent to show for it. The Sentinels [[spoiler: were the only reason why the Wasps could capture the Collegium.]]

* EldritchAbomination: The Worm [[spoiler: looks like a giant centipede that has segments composed of all the people it's devoured (their faces can be seen in its body). The necromancer Maure couldn't feel the presence of the lingering dead in that world, because the Worm ate them all and it's presence causes humans to forget how to use magic and technological artifice, simply because it doesn't believe in either. It's aspiration is to invade the real world and convert it into more segments of itself.]]

* EvilSorcerer: Uctebri [[spoiler: is a Mosquito kinden sorcerer who offers to give Emperor Alvdan immortality if he can have Alvdan's younger sister Seda. What Uctebri actually intends is to turn Seda into a magical tool and he's the one who assasinates Alvdan. After Seda is corrupted, she has her former mentor Uctebri killed and she becomes an evil sorcerer too]].

* LensmanArmsRace: Because of the war, both the Empire and Collegium have greatly advanced their military technology to counter each other's efforts. This reaches its apex in the The Air War, where the Empire built Farsphexes (diesel-powered, fixed-wing fighter bombers) and specific tactics to counter the Collegium's Stormreader interceptors which were still limited to windup power. The presence of the Iron Glove society accelerates the arms race even further as they willing sell their unique cutting-edge technology to any side.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: Che, to Totho. He's not happy about it.

* MagicAIsMagicA: Art is Art, and is inherited and instantly recognisable ''as'' Art; technology is only usable and creatable by the Apt, and Aptitude is nearly always decided by kinden; magic is only usable by the Inapt, and relies on doubt and fear.
* TheMagicVersusTechnologyWar: The setting's backstory has the magic using Inapt races being overthrown by their mechanically proficient servants several centuries ago.

** This is basically what Adrian Tchaikovsky is trying to do. He says that he's trying to subvert the whole idea in fantasy that after an event, everything goes back to normal.

* TheSociopath: Alvdan. He is utterly devoid of empathy and kindness, and has a creepily shallow affect, normally feeling no emotions other than boredom or paranoia. He seems to take genuine pleasure only [[{{Sadist}} in tormenting other people]], and is at his happiest when [[spoiler: ordering the genocide of the Bee-kinden.]]
* SorcerousOverlord: The Moths were a race of this and were the foremost rulers of the Bad Old Days until their servitor races rebelled. The biggest example for the Moths is Argastos, the Moth's greatest Warmaster. Even after death, his decayed corpse continued to command his legions of Mantis warriors and any victim that fell into his clutches would be made to join him (most recently a Wasp airship crew).

* TheMagicGoesAway: While alluded to in previous books, in The Scarab Path and The Air War, it finally comes out that magic was once truly the stuff of miracles. If the Inapt races were capable of the sorceries of their ancient times, the Apt would never have been able to overthrow them. However the Inapt races were caught up in devastating wars amongst each other that greatly diminished their power. Since magic thrives under a climate of darkness and mystery, the current age of reason and technology has prevented magic from being the force it used to be, except in certain isolated parts of the world.

** The Pilots of the Exalsee are compared to a dueling society; they all know and respect each other, some are very close friends, and if they were to find themselves pitted against one another their feelings wouldn't change. However this wouldn't stop them fighting to the death and shooting each other out of the air. Probably the best example of this is between Taki and [[spoiler:Axrad (a Wasp pilot who seeks her out for an Air Duel during the invasion of Solarno)]]
** Stenwold and Thalric are worthy adversaries as opposing spymasters [[spoiler: and nearly [[FriendlyEnemy friends]] later in the series if it wasn't for the fact that Stenwold and his spies don't trust Thalric enough to let him become that close. However it is clear that Thalric regrets this fact and often despairs about how he has more in common with Stenwold's friends than he does with any of his own kin.]]

''Shadows of the Apt'' is a fantasy series by Adrian Tchaikovsky (real name: Adrian Czajkowski). The basic plot is fairly familiar: a [[IgnoredExpert single visionary]] must persuade his people of the imminent threat from a [[TheEmpire rapacious, conquering empire]]. The main twist is the idea of the insect-kinden; all humans inherit powers based on the idealised abilities of a particular arthropod.

* PassingTheTorch: The series really splits into two [[spoiler: after the death of Emperor Alvdan]], in the 2nd phase of the series two new important characters are introduced, the Collegium students - the Antspider and Eugen Leadwell. [[Spoiler: These two would be the ones to go to Capitas to see the end of the war and the Wasp Empire, something that none of the original main characters will do. And it'll be these two who will lead the rebuilt Collegium in the epilogue]]

* OneOfUs: Adrian Tchaikovsky's [[http://www.panmacmillan.com/interviews/displayPage.asp?PageID=8245 author A-Z]] on his publisher's website includes references to Webcomic/DresdenCodak, [[Webcomic/GirlGenius Jaegermonsters]] and [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons ten-foot-by-ten-foot rooms containing an orc and a chest.]]

%%* EvilCanNotComprehendGood

%%* GladiatorGames

%%* LonelyAtTheTop

%%* MadeASlave
%%* MadScientist:
%%** Colonel-Auxilian Dariandrephos.
%%** [[spoiler: Totho eventually turns into this.]]

* TheEmpire: The Wasp Empire.