History Literature / TheOrphansTales

* [[{{Pirate}} Pirates]]: Tommy and her crew.
* PlantPerson: Ravhija and later [[spoiler: her seedling Ravhi]]

* CoolBoat: The good ship ''Maidenhead'', a red ship whose very boards are infused with the magic (and love) of a Star. Crewed, by tradition, entirely by women, and monstrous women at that. Her mast bears sweet oranges for all the crew, and her red sails are feared the world over as omens of piracy!

** Sigrid the Netweaver is torn at the end of "The Book of the Sea." On the one hand, her long-lost love from her childhood, and the prospect of returning to her old home. On the other hand, the very Saint she's idolized for so long, and the prospect of sailing beside her. [[spoiler: She goes with St. Sigrid, and glows like a new bride when she boards the ''Maidenhead.'']]
** CoolBoat: The good ship ''Maidenhead'', a red ship whose very boards are infused with the magic (and love) of a Star. Crewed, by tradition, entirely by women, and monstrous women at that. Her mast bears sweet oranges for all the crew, and her red sails are feared the world over as omens of piracy!

* AmbiguousGender: In Al-a-Nur, the dedicates of the Tower of Hermaphrodites all dress identically, covering their bodies in such a way as to leave their genders entirely ambiguous. This is part of their religion: they find the sacred in perfect balance between opposites. However, this becomes a problem when, in a time of crisis, the city needs a new Papess (who must be a woman), and a candidate from the Hermaphrodites is put forth. The candidate is therefore put in the [[ConflictingLoyalties painful position]] of having to either admit their gender, and thus renounce their faith, or else abandon the city in her hour of need. [[spoiler: Cvethi comes out as female, and ascends to Papess.]]

* ChekhovsArmoury
* ClockworkCreature: Hour

* CourtMage: Omir serves three kings over the course of his career. Although it might be more accurate to say [[TheManBehindTheMan the later ones serve him]]

* StarMagic: The Stars, again. Their magic is powerful but also drawn from their very essence, so that as time goes by, the Stars collectively grow weaker and weaker, and hide themselves away more often.

* CelestialBodies: The Stars. First, they were lights in the sky. Most of them chose to come down to earth, but still claim to their homes in the firmament. On Earth they take various forms, some humanoid, some not, but most of them have a blazing white look to them, and when cut, they bleed powerful liquid magic.

* {{Expy}}: Ragnhild, the Black Papess, self-styled "the first of her name." Long, white-gold hair, considered exotic and beautiful by all who see her, seeks the Papacy of Al-a-Nur on a claim that is centuries old, wears [[ChainedByFashion manacles]] to show that she does not forget her enslaved past, is full of passion and vengeance but little experience in ruling... [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire sounds a bit familiar,]] [[Series/GameOfThrones doesn't she?]]

* HarpingOnAboutHarpies: Harpies in this world are vocational mourners, and devote themselves to putrefying bodies so they can prepare proper laments for the dead one's life. And they resemble women with the heads of hoopoe birds. That may be a pun.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: There are humans, to start with. There are animals such as hedgehogs, goldfish, cormorants, polar bears, and herons, which talk and have their own societies. Then there are Stars, djinni (made from Star-fire), the Yi, and the Hsien, for races that come from the heavens. Races that come from the sea include Magyrs, mermaids (a brief mention), Lamia, and selkies. On earth there are Arimaspians and other cyclops, giants, Griffins, dragons, Monopods, Cynocepheli, huldras, manticores, Gaselli, satyrs, kappas, and there are references to more.

* RuleOfSeven

* NestedStory: At points in the book, the story is as much as five layers deep.

* XMeetsY: The basic premise is ''Literature/ArabianNights'' meets RayBradbury's ''The Illustrated Man''. Then it gets complicated.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: The story ends with [[spoiler: Aerie, Lantern, Solace, Scald, and Sleeve showing up to embrace Sorrow as her family. The prince is sad, as he thinks his role in the story is over... until Sorrow reaches out to him, asking him to join her on her future adventures, and he follows her with great enthusiasm.]]

* ArcWords: Different words for each book. For example,
** "A hole is just empty space."

** The name Sleeve may seem an odd one for a spider, but it might be an updated version of "sleave," an antiquated word that refers to silk that is prepare for weaving.

* {{Expy}}: Ragnhild, the Black Papess. Long, white-gold hair, considered exotic and beautiful by all who see her, seeks the Papacy of Al-a-Nur on a claim that is centuries old, wears [[ChainedByFashion manacles]] to show that she does not forget her enslaved past, is full of passion and vengeance but little experience in ruling... [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire sounds a bit familiar,]] [[Series/GameOfThrones doesn't she?]]

* GenieInABottle: What happened to many genies before and what many of them still [[FateWorseThanDeath fears]].

* UnreliableNarrator: Many of the storytellers are revealed to have left out certain details, changed things, and been biased in their storytelling. Perhaps the most egregious case is Sigrid the Netweaver, who neglects to mention that [[spoiler: she was originally a POLAR BEAR]] in the story she tells