History Literature / TheNightLand

* TheDreaded: The Night Hounds, as they are faster and far more persistent than most other night creatures.

-->“This to be Love, that your spirit to live in a natural holiness with the Beloved, and your bodies to be a sweet and natural delight that shall be never lost of a lovely mystery… And shame to be unborn, and all things to go wholesome and proper, out of an utter greatness of understanding; and the Man to be an Hero and a Child before the Woman; and the Woman to be an Holy Light of the Spirit and an Utter Companion and in the same time a glad Possession unto the Man… And this doth be Human Love…”

* AdaptationDistillation: The Dream of X, which Hodgeson himself wrote in order to secure its copyright in America, compresses the original 200 000-word novel into a mere 20 000 words.

** In Wright's ''Awake in the Night Land'' it is specifically stated that they have essentially eaten all the other stars and they're only allowing Earth to remain habitable and the Last Redoubt to stand so they can watch the remains of humanity squirm a while longer.

* DeathByChildbirth: Naani's first incarnation, Mirdath.

* {{Determinator}}: The protagonist.

* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Naani]]

* DistressedDamsel: Naani.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Literally so, hence the poison capsules. The many variations are referred to collectively as capital-D Destruction.
** One notable example is when the House Of Silence puppets some souls it had ensnared earlier in a bid to bait the loved ones of the deceased out into the Night Land. The narrator, with his psychic sensitivity, said that the agony, despair and sorrow those ensnared were feeling were so deep it quite literally was too much for his brain to even remotely fathom and sent him into a panic attack.

* ForegoneConclusion: Averted. Even though the hero is narrating his own story, said story is about a dream he had of something that will happen to him in the future; therefore, until the ending, the reader has no way of knowing whether the hero will survive or not.

* HeroicFantasy
* HeroicWillpower: The hero is quite the {{Determinator}}.

* {{Narrator}}
* {{Neologism}}s: Such as "Monstruwacan".

* NonActionBigBad: The Evil Forces, particularly [[spoiler:the House of Silence.]]

* {{Unobtainium}}: The miraculous super-hard, super-strong grey metal.
* {{Vibroweapon}}: The Diskos works on this principle, but rotating rather than a back-and-forth vibration. It can also provide light.

** It is not clear whether the Master-Word was something coded into humans genetically at some point, or if its properties are one of the few things the Good Powers have managed to keep the {{Eldritch Abomination}}s from screwing with. It appears to be related to the "brain-elements," but they have the same ambiguity.
** In one of the stories in ''Awake in the Night Land,'' it is strongly implied that if someone who is inside the Air-Clog invites someone outside it to pass through, they can do so, regardless of whether ''either'' of them can speak the Master-Word.

* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: * In the climactic scene of ''The Night Land,'' the main characters are nearly to safety but the hideous creatures of the Night Land are almost upon them. Millions of people are about to watch them die a few hundred yards from the shelter of the [[DeflectorShields Air-Clog]]. Cue the Master Monstruwacan authorizing the activation of the [[CitadelCity Last Redoubt]]'s main energy weapon emplacements, which have not been used for tens of thousands, maybe millions of years. [[spoiler:They still work. Though the power drain nearly shuts the entire pyramid down and the backblast almost kills the main characters, the pursuing hordes are obliterated.]]

** Averted when the "Hundred Thousand," the more-or-less standing army/rapid reaction force of the Last Redoubt, realize that only the Power of Good hovering over the protagonist and Naani is protecting them from the hideous creatures which are trying to prevent their safe escape into the protected area around the pyramid. If any of them step foot over the periphery of the Air-Clog, they will immediately be Destroyed. Despite this, many of them have to be physically restrained by their comrades from trying to help the apparently doomed couple.

* SomethingOnlylTheyWouldSay: While any human can speak the [[TrustPassword Master-Word]] and prove they're human, only the narrator/hero of ''The Night Land'' knows that Naani is the reincarnation of Mirdath, and only he knows that name or the story of their love in that previous life so many millions of years ago. He describes what he remembers of it to her to prove that he is the reincarnation of her lost love. (And that she's not crazy for remembering it.)

* JumpedAtTheCall: When news of the plight of the Second Redoubt becomes known, a large group of young men break the rules and sally forth to try to go to their aid. This is the absolute worst ''possible'' idea because large groups of humans cannot travel in stealth through the Night Land. And there are two ways to travel through the Night Land: in stealth, or metaphorically ringing a large dinner bell.

** In one of the stories in ''Awake in the Night Land," it is strongly implied that if someone who is inside the Air-Clog invites someone outside it to pass through, they can do so, regardless of whether ''either'' of them can speak the Master-Word.

* TrustPassword: The Master-Word. Only humans can say it, either aloud or in their minds. Nothing which cannot speak the Master-Word can pass the Air-Clog. (Though it is not necessary to say or think it to do so.) Any entity which tries to communicate with a human, psychically or otherwise, claiming to be one itself can easily be identified as a Night creature if it will not say or think it.

* TrustPassword: The Master-Word. Only humans can say it, either aloud or in their minds. Nothing which cannot speak the Master-Word can pass the Air-Clog, and any entity which tries to communicate with a human claiming to be one can easily be identified as a Night creature if it will not say or think it.
** It is not clear whether the Master-Word was something coded into humans genetically at some point, or if its properties are one of the few things the Good Powers have managed to keep the {{Eldritch Abomination}}s from screwing with.

* JumpedAtTheCall

* FantasyGunControl: Despite being set thousands of years in the future, humans don't use firearms, only the Diskos—a circular, spinning sawblade on a stick. The basic explanation is that knowledge of the workings of still-extant ranged weapons was [[BlackBox lost ages ago]]; besides, the humans' philosophy is that if a monster is too far to be struck with a melee weapon, then it's better to avoid it rather than provoke it into attacking. The narrator also suggests that, perhaps, the laws of chemistry don't work the same way in the future. The Last Redoubt ''used'' to have fearsome energy weapons, but they were AwesomeButImpractical (their use diminishes the power available for the Last Redoubt's exterior defensive field, the [[DeflectorShield Air-Clog]] and were ultimately abandoned.

* FantasyGunControl: Despite being set thousands of years in the future, humans don't use firearms, only the Diskos—a circular, spinning sawblade on a stick. The basic explanation is that knowledge of the workings of still-extant ranged weapons was [[BlackBox lost ages ago]]; besides, the humans' philosophy is that if a monster is too far to be struck with a melee weapon, then it's better to avoid it rather than provoke it into attacking. The narrator also suggests that, perhaps, the laws of chemistry don't work the same way in the future. The Last Redoubt ''used'' to have fearsome energy weapons, but they were AwesomeButImpractical (their use diminishes the power available for the Last Redoubt's exterior defensive field, the [[DeflectorShield Air-Clog) and were ultimately abandoned.

* FantasyGunControl: Despite being set thousands of years in the future, humans don't use firearms, only the Diskos—a circular, spinning sawblade on a stick. The basic explanation is that knowledge of the workings of still-extant ranged weapons was [[BlackBox lost ages ago]]; besides, the humans' philosophy is that if a monster is too far to be struck with a melee weapon, then it's better to avoid it rather than provoke it into attacking. The narrator also suggests that, perhaps, the laws of chemistry don't work the same way in the future. The Last Redoubt ''used'' to have fearsome energy weapons, but they were AwesomeButImpractical and were ultimately abandoned.

[[TimeAbyss The Sun has died.]] The remaining millions of the human race have moved downward into deep ravines, where volcanism still provides enough heat to keep the air in a breathable form. They live within a colossal pyramidal Redoubt, lit, heated, and defended by the mysterious [[LifeEnergy Earth Current]], and besieged by the incomprehensible creatures of darkness who have overtaken the cold, dark Earth. They await the inevitable day when the Current fails and the monsters gathering outside swarm their defences.

[[TimeAbyss The Sun has died.]] The remaining millions of the human race have moved downward into deep ravines, where volcanism still provides enough heat to keep the air in a breathable form. Humanity's survivors live on in a few pyramidal Redoubts, lit, heated, and defended by the mysterious [[LifeEnergy Earth Current]]. They await the inevitable day when the Current fails and the monsters gathering outside swarm their defences.

[[TimeAbyss The Sun has died.]] The remaining millions of the human race have moved downward into deep ravines, where vulcanism still provides enough heat to keep the air in a breathable form. Humanity's survivors live on in a few pyramidal Redoubts, lit, heated, and defended by the mysterious [[LifeEnergy Earth Current]]. They await the inevitable day when the Current fails and the monsters gathering outside swarm their defences.

* HauntedHouse: Taken to eldritch levels with the House Of Silence. An impossibly large ornate home on a hill, which seems to be abandoned but whose interior is lit by pale lights, and whose door is always unlocked. It is always sending intoxicating psychic messages out to anyone outside the Redoubt, and if you aren't properly trained you ''will'' run right through its doors and into its horrid embrace, never to be seen again. It is considered the absolute worst of all the horrors of the Night Land, since it ''always'' inflicts [[FateWorseThanDeath Destruction]] on those it successfully ensnares.

* FantasyGunControl: Despite being set thousands of years in the future, humans don't use firearms, only the Diskos—a circular, spinning sawblade on a stick. The basic explanation is that knowledge of the workings of still-extant ranged weapons was [[BlackBox lost ages ago]]; besides, the humans' philosophy is that if a monster is too far to be struck with a melee weapon, then it's better to avoid it rather than provoke it into attacking. The narrator also suggests that, perhaps, the laws of chemistry don't work the same way in the future. Overall, using ranged weapons is considered a waste of the limited "Earth-Current" energy on which most future human technology runs.

* FoodPills: The narrator takes these along to eat when he travels through the Night Land.