History Literature / TheTombsOfAtuan

* AMatchMadeInStockholm: Arha and Ged first meet when he comes to rob her temple, and she imprisons him in the labyrinth and starves him for days. But last time she killed someone she had trauma-dreams about it afterwards, so she doesn't want to do that again. And once they start talking, Arha is so lonely that it really strikes a cord with her. Before too long she's sided with him and is ready to help him escape, and leave with him.

* AffectionateNickname: Manan calls Arha "little honeycomb."

* ThePowerOfFriendship: The Ring of Erreth-Akbe is rejoined by way of the friend we made along the way.

* ImpliedLoveInterest: Ged and Tenar are the two main characters, they save each other, they clearly care about each other... and that's as far as it goes. It's set during Ged's CelibateHero days. [[spoiler: Decades later, during ''{{Literature/Tehanu}}'', they actually get together.]]

* BanOnMagic: All "magic" is prohibited to Kargs and in the Kargad Lands. As it turns out, they [[spoiler:worship evil gods who hate magic, which is actually okay]].

* FlatEarthAtheist: Tenar is ironically disbelieving that Ged can perform magic until she sees him actually cast a spell. This is because of her Kargish upbringing--the Kargad are magically uninclined and take a rather arrogantly skeptical view of the western world's magical abilities. This isn't because they are in any way rationalists; in fact the Kargads are the only people in Earthsea who actually worship gods.

* SomebodyNamedNobody: The Nameless Ones. As the priestess of the Nameless Ones, she too has no name, and is called "Arha," meaning "the Eaten One."

* TheTropeWithoutATitle: The Nameless Ones. As the priestess of the Nameless Ones, she too has no name, and is called "Arha," meaning "the Eaten One."

-->'''Ged:''' They are dark and undying, and they hate the light: the brief, bright light of our mortality. They are immortal, but they are not gods. They never were. They are not worth the worship of any human soul. [...] They have nothing to give. They have no power of making. All their power is to darken and destroy. They cannot leave this place; they are this place; and it should be left to them. They should not be denied nor forgotten, but neither should they be worshiped. The Earth is beautiful, and bright, and kindly, but that is not all. The Earth is also terrible, and dark, and cruel. The rabbit shrieks dying in the green meadows. The mountains clench their great hands full of hidden fire. There are sharks in the sea, and there is cruelty in men’s eyes. And where men worship these things and abase themselves before them, there evil breeds; there places are made in the world where darkness gathers, places given over wholly to the Ones whom we call Nameless, the ancient and holy Powers of the Earth before the Light, the powers of the dark, of ruin, of madness…

* AuthorityInNameOnly: While Arha is technically the One Priestess, in truth Atuan as a government has left her little more than a powerless figurehead to concentrate power in that of the Godking; she's little more than a glorified security guard for the Tombs. The Godking has so neutered Arha's power that Kossil is the effective leader, as the voice of the state itself.

* CircleOfStandingStones

* HighPriestess: There are 3 High Priestesses at the Place of the Tombs of Atuan, one for each temple. Kossil is the High Priestess of the Godking; Thar is the High Priestess of the Twin Gods; Arha is the High Priestess of the Nameless Ones. Arha is the highest one and even the other two must obey her... [[AuthorityInNameOnly in theory]].

-->'''Ged:''' They are dark and undying, and they hate the light: the brief, bright light of our mortality. They are immortal, but they are not gods. They never were. They are not worth the worship of any human soul. [...] They have nothing to give. They have no power of making. All their power is to darken and destroy. They cannot leave this place; they are this place; and it should be left to them. They should not be denied nor forgotten, but neither should they be worshiped. The Earth is beautiful, and bright, and kindly, but that is not all. The Earth is also terrible, and dark, and cruel. The rabbit shrieks dying in the green meadows. The mountains clench their great hands full of hidden fire. There are sharks in the sea, and there is cruelty in men’s eyes. And where men worship these things and abase themselves before them, there evil breeds; there places are made in the world where darkness gathers, places given over wholly to the Ones whom we call Nameless, the ancient and holy Powers of the Earth before the Light, the powers of the dark, of ruin, of madness. . . .

* PlayingSick: Manan tells the story about how Tenar's mother pretended that baby Tenar had smallpox to try to stop them from taking her daughter away.
-->'''Manan:''' The little bright-eyed baby lying in a cot of rushes weeping and screaming, and all over its body weals and red rashes of fever, and the mother wailing louder than the baby, "Oh! Oh! My babe hath the Witch-Fingers on her!" That's how she said it; the smallpox she meant. In my village, too, they called it the Witch-Fingers. But Kossil, she who is now the High Priestess of the Godking, she went to the cot and picked up the baby. The others had all drawn back, and I with them; I don't value my life very high, but who enters a house where smallpox is? But she had no fear, not that one. She picked up the baby and said, "It has no fever." And she spat on her finger and rubbed at the red marks, and they came off. They were only berry juice. The poor silly mother had thought to fool us and keep her child!

* MrExposition: Early in ''The Tombs of Atuan'', Manan plays this role.

'''Arha''': Yes, I know. ''[She proceeds to tell the whole story word-for-word as it was told to her by Thar.]'' Now tell me how ''I'' was chosen!\\

* ReligionOfEvil: Arha's Nameless Ones are some terrible, ancient, {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. Even most Kargad priestesses avoid them as much a possible because they creep people out.

* HighPriest: Arha, the Eaten One, the high priestess of the Powers in ''The Tombs of Atuan''.

* MeaningfulRename: The rite turning Tenar into the priestess involves taking away her name; henceforth, she is Arha, the Eaten One. [[spoiler:Ged restores "Tenar" to her, a significant plot event.]]

* TheTropeWithoutATitle: The Nameless Ones.

[[redirect:{{Literature/Earthsea}}]]

[[redirect:Literature/EarthseaTrilogy]]