History Literature / TheFifthSeason

* UnusualEuphemism: "Rust" replaces "fuck," as the go-to, universal curse word. That said, Syenite still uses "fuck" as a vulgar verb for having sex.

* DisinheritedChild: [[spoiler:Tonkee]] was quietly shuffled off to a university and disinherited by her aristocratic family because she (a) showed far more interest in academia than in rule and (b) disrupted a politically sensitive ArrangedMarriage plan by coming out as {{Transgender}}. She's equally relieved to be out of the family.

* InfantImmortality: Averted in the first ten pages; Essun's three-year-old son Uche has been beaten to death by his own father. Also with [[spoiler: her son Corundum]].

* BadassGay: Alabaster is the only ten-ringer at the Fulcrum, and his orogeny powers far exceed that of just about everyone he comes into contact with. [[spoiler:He is in fact so powerful that he singlehandedly manages to cause the cataclysmic earthquake at the beginning of the first book, kicking off the titular fifth season.]]

* Tsundere: Syenite has shades of this as a consequence of being so guarded. A piece of narration from her time in Meov sums up this trope's mentality nicely:

* AnachronicOrder: The Damaya and Syenite sections clearly take place before the Essun sections, given that Yumenes still ''exists'' during them, while its destruction is the start of the Essun sections. [[spoiler:Specifically, Damaya is a young Syenite, who takes the name of Essun after everything in her life goes to shit.]] Overlaps with TwoLinesDifferentTimes.

* AnachronicOrder: The Damaya and Syenite sections clearly take place before the Essun sections, given that Yumenes still ''exists'' during them, while its destruction is the start of the Essun sections. [[spoiler:Specifically, Damaya is a young Syenite, who takes the name of Essun after everything in her life goes to shit.]]

* BiTheWay: Pretty much everything about Innon is loud, proud, and out. He, Alabaster, and Syenite spend roughly two years in a polyamorous relationship that might just be the happiest times of all their lives.

* Really700YearsOld: [[spoiler: Hoa]] is at least twenty-seven centuries old, but looks about eight. As in ''eight,'' eight, not "eight-hundred."

* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Fulcrum wisdom says that orogenes can't cooperate; the more powerful torus cancels out the other. The [[spoiler: the obelisks]] get around this rule, though only Alabaster knows it. He uses them to [[spoiler: combine his power with all the Node Maintainers' and destroy Yumenes,]] perhaps illustrating why the civilization that made this possible isn't around anymore.

* FantasyGunControl: Yumenes has asphalt and electric lights, but the cannon is a brand new technology. The handheld weapon of choice seems to be the crossbow. Borders on SchizoTech, considering that gunpowder predated hydroelectric power in the real world by more than 500 years. [[spoiler: This is justified in the sequels due to iron being a conduct for Father Earth to spy on, mind-control, and kill people.]]

* SurvivalistStash: Every established comm has at least one of these, as commanded by stonelore, with the exception of the Fulcrum [[spoilder: the Fulcrum orogenes are to all be immediately murdered by the Guardians during Seasons]]. So do many families and individuals. Essun raids her family's personal supplies before pursuing Jija.

* FantasyGunControl: Yumenes has asphalt and electric lights, but the cannon is a brand new technology. The handheld weapon of choice seems to be the crossbow. Borders on SchizoTech, considering that gunpowder predated hydroelectric power in the real world by more than 500 years.

* SurvivalistStash: Every established comm has at least one of these, as commanded by stonelore, with the exception of the Fulcrum [[spoilder:- the Fulcrum orogenes are to all be immediately murdered by the Guardians during Seasons]]. So do many families and individuals. Essun raids her family's personal supplies before pursuing Jija.

-->'''...[the Meovites] think that Syenite enjoys being reminded that she is part of a group now, contributing and contributed to, and that she no longer needs to guard herself against everyone and everything. They're right. That doesn't mean she's going to tell them so.'''

* ArtifactOfDoom: Some dead civ relics can be these. [[spoiler:The quartz obelisk wakes the volcano that annihilates the comm of Allia.]] In fairness, it seems to be broken.

* RagnarokProofing: In a world where periodic apocalypses are inevitable, this has become a standard of virtue. Habitation is judged by susceptibility to damage from earthquake or tsunami to the point that most people consider islands uninhabitable by default. Instructions for surviving an apocalypse are literally written in stone and taught with religious reverance. Common standards of physical beauty are based on those most likely to survive a long, sunless Fifth Season. Yumenes has survived as long as it has by systematically controlling [[spoiler: and lobotomizing]] oregenes and forcing them to quell equatorial shakes. And so on.

* DeathByDepower: The Guardians are all made TheAgeless by the [[spoiler:implanted shard of the Evil Earth]] that grants them their MageKiller powers, and age to death in months if it's removed. [[spoiler:The Evil Earth itself]] does this to Schaffa, trying to force Nassun to abandon her plans in order to save him; its gambit fails and Schaffa spends a few weeks with Nassun before dying peacefully.

* BadassGay: Alabaster is the only ten-ringer at the Fulcrum, and his orogeny powers far exceed that of just about everyone he comes into contact with. [[spoiler:He is in fact so powerful that he singlehandedly manages to cause the cataclysmic earthquake at the beginning of the the first book, kicking off the titular fifth season.]]

* MuggleBornOfMages: [[spoiler:Guardians are cultivated from the children of orogenes who are not themselves oregenes]]. It involves some surgery to the brain stem, and no one else can do it. Damaya is also one, with her story beginning with her parents sequestering her in a barn and calling the Fulcrum to come take her.

-->But this is the way the world ends.
-->This is the way the world ends.
-->''This is the way the world ends.''
-->For the last time.

* AbusiveParents: Damaya's parents lock her in a barn in winter without a blanket, and were perfectly happy to hand her over to a man they thought would kill her. [[spoiler: And Schaffa, once he becomes her ParentalSubstitute, ''breaks her hand'' to teach her a lesson. In a twisted moment, he tells her that he will kill her if he deems it necessary because he loves her. ]]
-->[[spoiler:Schaffa: I will break every bone in your hand, every bone in your ''body'', if I deem it necessary to make the world safe from you.]]

* ArtifactOfDoom: Some dead civ relics can be these. [[spoiler: The quartz obelisk wakes the volcano that annihilates the comm of Allia.]] In fairness, it seems to be broken.

* BuryYourGays: [[spoiler: Innon]] is the only person we see killed onscreen by the Guardians' most feared ability--destroying an oregene with their own power, from the inside out. [[spoiler: Alabaster]] isn't dead at the novel's conclusion, but would likely be better off that way. Alabaster's mentor was killed by the Guardians in a flashback, as well.

* MuggleBornOfMages: [[spoiler:Guardians are cultivated from the children of orogenes who are not themselves oregenes]]. It involves some surgery to the brain stem, and no one else can do it.
** Damaya is also one, with her story beginning with her parents sequestering her in a barn and calling the Fulcrum to come take her.

* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler: The "node maintainers" are lobotomized orogenes.]]

* TheThreeFacesOfEve: The protagonists: Damaya, the child; Syenite, the seductress - [[spoiler: in that it is her job to have sex with Alabaster to produce an orogene]]; and the quiet Essun, known merely as Jija's wife. [[spoiler: Subverted in that they are all the same person, at different stages of her life.]]
* TomatoSurprise: Damaya, Syenite, and Essun [[spoiler: are the same woman at different crises in her life.]]
** To a lesser degree, [[spoiler: Hoa]] is the narrator.

* WizardingSchool: ''Horribly'' subverted. The Fulcrum may look like a school, but it's just a place to beat and brainwash young orogenes into becoming obedient slaves of non-Orogenes. Anyone who causes too much trouble or fails too much is taken away and [[spoiler: lobotomized]].

* [[YouKilledMyFather You Killed My Son]]: And kidnapped her daughter. This is why Essun is chasing down her husband, Jija.

* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Fulcrum wisdom says that orogenes can't cooperate; the more powerful taurus cancels out the other. The [[spoiler: the obelisks]] get around this rule, though only Alabaster knows it. He uses them to [[spoiler: combine his power with all the Node Maintainers' and destroy Yumenes,]] perhaps illustrating why the civilization that made this possible isn't around anymore.