History Literature / TheTimeOfContempt

** The Second Nilfgaard War has the Nilfgaardians act in a truly monstrous fashion, but the Kings in the North act thoroughly contemptible during it too. Still, Nilfgaard is actively destroying nations while the Northern monarchs are just profiting from it.
** Displayed on smaller scale, when a Kaedweni platoon leader instructs his men to absolutely stay their hand from pillaging the villages they pass through in order to appear "representable", but concedes that raping women is okay, as long they do it out of sight.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Tissaia finds the idea ''ludicrous'' that a mage would ever choose their homelands over their fellow wizards. She is disgusted, [[TitleDrop contemptuous even]], that mages would fight for the North against other mages who would fight for Nilfgaard. She also believes magic should be a wizard's only passion and that all sorceresses should be sterilized[[note]]The last one is, admittedly, because sorceresses who CAN get pregnant (which is not all that common in the first place anyway) more often than not give birth to stillborn or hideously deformed children with all sorts of disabilities.[[/note]].
** This leads to a BreakTheHaughty moment when she discovers not only DO mages hold nationalist sentiments but they are willing to fight and die for them. Compared to their homelands, political power, and race, magic is a MINOR consideration for them. She finds this as baffling as they likely find her assertion to the contrary.
* BreakTheCutie: The entire book is one long, drawn-out case of cutie-breaking for Ciri. Aside from suffering her recurring nightmares with the Nilfgaardian black knight, [[spoiler:Ciri is nearly captured by multiple people during the Thanedd Coup, is forced to draw blood for the first time, ends up stranded in a desert where she is forced to eat bugs and drink mud to stave off starvation and dehydration, loses the unicorn she befriended over the course of that ordeal, is captured, hog-tied and nearly raped by a band of brigands, only to be rescued by ''another'' band of brigands, one of whom more or less ''does'' rape her. It's no surprise Ciri's character begins walking down a dark road.]]

* LesCollaborateurs: [[spoiler: Vilgefortz and Franscesca Findabair]], along with all of their associates, are in Nilfgaard's pockets.

*** Lampshaded. While recovering from his fight with [[spoiler:Vilgefortz]], Geralt thinks of what he could have done to avoid being so badly hurt, and comes to conclusion that nothing would have helped -- his opponent was so above his level that if he wanted to leave the fight unharmed, he should have run away.

* DecadentCourt: The mages live lives of hedonistic luxury, fine food, sex, and gossip. [[spoiler: They're also now bitterly divided into those who support the North and those who support the Empire]].
* DirtyCoward: How the North's monarchs react to Nilfgaard's invasion once things go south. ''Nobody'', even the rulers that are established as compassionate and honoring their alliances, is willing to help Aedirn or Rivia, declaring them lost causes. This bites everyone in the ass when they realize too late this isn't some border skirmish, but a total invasion that's not gonna stop on its own.

* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Tissaia's disgust for Philippa and Dijkstra's arrest of the Thanedd Coup members is built around her belief the North is full of genocidal murderers even if Nilfgaard is just as bad. The idea that the people they've arrested ''really are'' dangerous murderers who want to slaughter their fellow mages for Nilfgaard doesn't cross her mind.

* IAmNotLeftHanded: Mages traditionally look down on combat and fighting-skills as beneath them. [[spoiler: Vilgefortz]] is the exception and it costs Geralt dearly.

** The [[spoiler: mages siding with Nilfgaard]] have nothing to win on doing so. The only way they can enjoy their extremely priviledged position and all the luxuries is by staying loyal, because [[spoiler: Nilfgaard is keeping its magic users on an extremely short leash, reducing them to civil servants with minimal pay and close to zero political power beyond said civil service]]. While it makes sense why [[spoiler: [[TheStarscream Vilgefortz]] and [[NotInThisForYourRevolution Francesca]]]] want to defect, nobody else has anything to gain by following them.

** Philippa, in particular, is a Redanian nationalist and is genuinely outraged by the betrayal of the mages allied with Nilfgaard. [[spoiler: Being a nationalist didn't stop her however from orchestrating assassination of her own [[TheGoodKing king Vizimir II]] just to set herself as [[TheWomanBehindTheMan a regent of the kingdom]]]].
* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: InUniverse, Ciri names herself Falka ([[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast an infamous rebellion leader]] in the North) to the Rats.

** Geralt insists on remaining neutral, but because of his PapaWolf protection of Ciri, he's in EVERYONE'S way.
* NoPointsForNeutrality: As non-aligned mages find out, the Vilgefortz conspirators and their pawns don't give squat about neutrality and kill indiscriminately everyone not on their side.

* PapaWolf: Anything standing between Geralt and Ciri is slaughtered in a manner that would make [[Film/{{Taken}} Bryan Mills]] proud. [[spoiler: Until Geralt meets Vilgefortz and the best he can do is slow him down by letting him beat on him.]]

* QuestionableConsent: Ciri is rescued from gang rape by the Rats, AffablyEvil types, after she kills her first person. Traumatized, Ciri doesn't resist when Kayleigh tries to have sex with her but is obviously terrified. Mistle "rescues" her only for her to have sex with her instead. Ciri still feels frightened and contaminated by her rape by Mistle. She continues to exhibit signs of dissociation, submissiveness, and Stockholm Syndrome several books on. It could be a genuine depiction of a young teenager who’s been through wave after wave of trauma while being sexually menaced by everyone she encounters. She could easily have fixated on Mistle as the least horrifying threat and channeled her subsequent rage and humiliation into violence toward the Rats’ victims. Survival does scary things to people.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The Rats, who are a colourful bunch of late teens from all places and social classes, forming their own gang.
* RapePillageAndBurn: How Nilfgaard handles the Second Invasion of the North. The real kicker? They don't do it ForTheEvulz as the Nordlings think - it's a pre-planned, methodical way of bringing complete ruin to the places they know they will never take in any peace treaty, just to cripple the North for good.

* TheStarscream: Vilgefortz is this to Emhyr [[spoiler: and betrays him during the Second Invasion by sending him a Fake Ciri.]]
* StockholmSyndrome: Implied to be the case for Ciri and her feelings towards Mistle. Even though Mistle effectively raped her, Ciri gets attached to her because she had just gone through a severe TraumaCongaLine and the Rat was the first person to consistently treat her with some measure of respect and kindness up until that point. That and because the alternative was to be alone in a desert where she almost died.
* TeleportationMisfire: The portal in the Tower of the Seagull is supposed to be connected to the mysterious Tower of the Swallow but has long been known to malfunction. [[spoiler:Ciri learns this the hard way when she ends up in the middle of the Korath Desert after using the portal to escape from Thanedd.]]

* WeCanRuleTogether: Vilgefortz really thinks Geralt should abandon being a Witcher, study to be a sorcerer, and become his right hand man. Geralt is genuinely confused why he even cares.
* WhamEpisode: The Thanedd Coup represents the turning point in the saga, where things go completely to hell, not only for the North, but for the main characters as well. [[spoiler:The differing allegiances of the sorcerers are revealed, causing fighting to break out everywhere between those aligned with the North and those secretly working for Nilfgaard. Yennefer disappears without a trace, Ciri is forced to escape the chaos by running into a portal, and Geralt battles his way across the island to find both of them only to be defeated by Vilgefortz. In the aftermath, Geralt is gravely injured, Yennefer's whereabouts are unknown, and Ciri is left stranded alone in a desert far from civilization.]]

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Tissaia finds the idea ''ludicrous'' that a mage would ever choose their homelands over their fellow wizards. She is disgusted, [[TitleDrop contemptuous even]], that mages would fight for the North against other mages who would fight for Nilfgaard. She also believes magic should be a wizard's only passion and that all sorceresses should be sterilized.

* BroughtDownToNormal: [[spoiler: While not normal, Ciri relinquishes her potential to become a godlike sorceress forever.]]

-->''“War to the castles, peace to the villages,” Coehoorn said to his commanders yesterday. You know that principle,’ he added at once. ‘You learned it in officer training. That principle applied until today; from tomorrow you’re to forget it. From tomorrow a different principle applies, which will now be the battle cry of the war we are waging. The battle cry and my orders run: War on everything alive. War on everything that can burn. [[SaltTheEarth You are to leave scorched earth behind you]]. From tomorrow, we take war beyond the line we will withdraw behind after signing the treaty. We are withdrawing, but there is to be nothing but scorched earth beyond that line. The kingdoms of Rivia and Aedirn are to be reduced to ashes! Remember Sodden! The time of revenge is with us!’ ''

* RapePillageAndBurn: How Nilfgaard handles the Second Invasion of the North.

* NoPointsForNeutrality: As non-aligned mage find out, the Vilgefortz conspirators or their pawns don't give squat about neutrality and kill indiscriminately everyone not on their side.