History Literature / TheFirstDwarfKing

* FiveManBand: The High Races have this dynamic.
** TheHero: The Dwarves
** TheLancer: The Elves
** TheBigGuy: The Tarsi
** TheSmartGuy: The Redariam
** TheChick: The Humans
** SixthRanger: The Orcs

* BlondesAreEvil / BlondGuysAreEvil / HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: All three tropes come into play, depending on the character in question.
** BlondesAreEvil: Phryne, full stop.
** BlondGuysAreEvil: Eustathios is a [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example. He's an AntiHero, and definitely a JerkAss, but he [[spoiler: avoids doing anything truly despicable, fights his battles according to the rules (if any), and has a tragic backstory]].
** HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Armo and [[EveryoneLovesBlondes Dagmar]]. They're even a couple! Leofric as well.

[[folder: tropes]]

* ''Act II: Journey to New Lands'' TBA
* ''Act III: Upheaval'' TBA

** The [[OurOrcsAreDifferent or]][[OurGoblinsAreDifferent cs]]: Despite living in [[DeathMountain most hostile environment in Herezar]], they've not only managed to survive, but thrive. They also have the most sizable army in the entire world, if only due to [[ExplosiveBreeder sheer numbers]]. Despite this, they train themselves to avoid HollywoodTactics and provide a valuable ally to the dwarves during [[spoiler: the battle at Kordsgard]].
** The [[TheGreys Redariam]]: WeakButSkilled. Think about that -- despite getting all the bad cards physically, they [[CursedWithAwesome got the best minds]]. While everyone else was still using horses for travel, the Redariam had such devices as jet-propelled aircraft, skyscrapers, and smartphones. Oh, and they have a BadassArmy of their own -- armed with such weapons as [[GatlingGood chainguns]], [[MacrossMissileMassacre missiles]], and the like.
** The [[LizardFolk Tarsi]]: Take the intelligent minds of the Redariam, combine it with an entire race of [[LightningBruiser lightning bruisers]], add in the Gift of Wisdom, and you get the perfection that is the Tarsi. Among other things, they have a Council of [[ChessmasterSidekick Chessmaster Sidekicks]] who answer to an ''even more'' powerful group -- [[BadassFamily the Imperial Family]]. And their priests are members of a ChurchMilitant, who double as MartialPacifists, each of whom is not only a MasterSwordsman in his own right, but can call upon the powers of the [[{{God}} Almighty]] to smite even the most powerful of foes.

* FantasyGunControl: The races presented in the book appear to have mastered the art of using gunpowder to the point that rifles and pistols are considered normal household items. However, they're still [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy stuck in fantasy middle-age Europe]]. [[spoiler: Trang Barok seems to have created cannons, however....]]

* AnimeCatholicism / FantasticCatholicism: The story utilizes ''both'' tropes. The Deothian religion is based upon Roman Catholicism...and administered by Father Kiyoshi, whose race is a FantasyCounterpartCulture of ImperialJapan. It's worth pointing out that the author is a Catholic in RealLife, so he knows [[ArtisticLicense what he's talking about]].

* ScienceFantasy: The First Dwarf King uses this beautifully. Much of the first act takes place in a world populated by humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and demons. Sounds like a Standard Fantasy Setting, right? Well, the races have gotten to the point where they use guns in the place of bows and arrows, which they wield tandem with swords, axes, and warhammers. In addition, the second act reveals [[spoiler: a race of aliens living on an island off the coast, whose society utilizes the equivalent of 21st century technology. Just to make things even more complicated, the aliens' closest allies are a race of LizardFolk who live in MedievalStasis ''by choice'' -- save for a handful who developed a fleet of airships. The lizards also have a ChurchMilitant whose members can call upon {{God}} to summon katanas out of thin air.]] And that's just scratching the surface.

* OurDemonsAreDifferent: They're just as evil as you'd expect; they [[EvilIsBigger are the tallest, brawniest race on the planet]]; they're organized into a hierarchy.
* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Played with. On one hand, their men have [[BadassBeard beards]], they all have [[SuperStrength Super Strength]], and they wield [[AnAxeToGrind axes]] and [[DropTheHammer warhammers]]. On the other hand, their women are clean-shaven ([[CuteBruiser and cute but tough]]), they're a loosely-defined nation of farmers instead of warriors (except when they need to be), and their only underground city is Kordsgard -- most people live on plantations ''above'' ground.
* OurElvesAreBetter: Uh, [[ScrewYouElves no they're not]].
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: They served the demons long ago, but after the demons were defeated, they began to form their own culture. Now, only those orcs under the control of Trang Barok serve the demons (admittedly, Trang Barok controls a ''lot'' of orcs). The rest are fleeing from Trang Barok's tyranny.

* AnimeCatholicism / FantasticCatholicism: The story utilizes ''both'' tropes, thanks to the Tarsi -- Father Kiyoshi's people -- being a Japanese-inspired civilization...while the Deothian religion is based upon actual Catholicism, with Western practices. It's worth pointing out that the author is a Catholic in RealLife, so he knows [[ArtisticLicense what he's talking about]].

* AnimeCatholicism / FantasticCatholicism: The story utilizes ''both'' tropes, thanks to the Tarsi -- Father Kiyoshi's people -- being a Japanese-inspired civilization...created by a Western author. It's worth pointing out that the author is a Catholic in RealLife, so he knows [[ArtisticLicense what he's talking about]].

* ScienceFantasy: The First Dwarf King uses this beautifully. Much of the first act takes place in a world populated by humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and demons. Sounds like a Standard Fantasy Setting, right? Well, the races have gotten to the point where they use guns in the place of bows and arrows, which they wield tandem with swords, axes, and warhammers. In addition, the second act reveals a race of aliens living on an island off the coast, whose society utilizes the equivalent of 21st century technology. Just to make things even more complicated, the aliens' closest allies are a race of Lizard Folk who live in Medieval Stasis ''by choice'' -- save for a handful who developed a fleet of airships. The lizards also have a Church Militant whose members can call upon their god to summon katanas out of thin air. And that's just scratching the surface.
The story also uses this trope in its setting and backstory. The universe was created by an omnipotent entity who used evolution to set the races on their course to sentience. Humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, and Redariam evolved from apes, while the Tarsi evolved from ancient reptiles. You may wipe your brains off the monitor now.
* SchizoTech: In an otherwise MedievalEuropeanFantasy setting, people [[FantasyGunControl wield guns on an everyday basis]]. 99.9999% of the Tarsi live in MedievalStasis by choice -- those few who don't created airships.

* SchizoTech: In an otherwise MedievalEuropeanFantasy setting, people [[FantasyGunControl wield guns on an everyday basis]].

* ArcWords: "(The) Heir of Aulis," or some variation thereof.

** Amirah is a BadassPrincess.

* DoorStopper: Averted, though it would have been played straight if the author had had his way. Originally he intended for it to be published as one gigantic tome, but cues during the publishing process convinced him to split it into three books.

* TheDreaded: Many of the villains become this over the course of the narrative -- and with good reason.

** The idea of TheChosenOne being chosen by [[TheProphecy prophecy]] is thrown out; instead, the hero simply happens to be in the right place at the right time. Nor does the hero exist in a vacuum; his actions are made possible by everyone around him. However, it's still clear that the hero is making a significant impact in his own right, especially as the story progresses.

** Most fantasy fiction runs more or less in this way: elves are beautiful, dwarves are strong, humans are all [[FantasyCounterpartCulture European]], and orcs are innumerable. In addition, a lot of old science fiction has aliens whose technology far exceeds anything humans are capable of. ''The First Dwarf King'' accepts these tropes, and gives good reasons for why each race would have such a [[PlanetOfHats hat]]: namely, {{God Deoth}} gave each race a Divine Gift to make them unique from each other: dwarves received the Gift of Strength, elves received the Gift of Beauty, humans received the Gift of Diversity (there are plenty of white humans around, but also brown and black), orcs received the Gift of Fertility (a single husband/wife pair can easily have twenty kids in their lifetime; therefore it's easy for them to produce massive armies), Redariam have the Gift of Knowledge, and Tarsi received both the Gift of Wisdom ''and'' the Gift of Strength.

** For what it's worth, the book's (or books', depending on your interpretation) total word count is more than 360,000, and takes up 724 8.5x11 pages. The final printed copies tend to be 6x9. Note that the first volume has 225 pages, and the second is nearly twice that.