History Literature / ThievesWorld

%%* BloodBrothers

* HeroesWantRedheads: Chenaya takes advantage of this. The ones who get to know her closer tend to change their opinion quickly, though. Whether it's due to her... rather unusual habits, acting batshit crazy at times, or her ego bigger than the prince's palace is open to debate.

*** As one of [[Webvideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony's]] Webvideo/CounterMonkey's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKgmhmEtgx4 stories]] show, this can suck even worse than one would expect.

* TheArchmage: Hazard-class mages.

%%* TheCityNarrows

* HeroesWantRedheads - And it's frequently reciprocated. The ones who get to know her closer tend to change their opinion quickly, though. Whether due to her... rather unusual habits, acting batshit crazy at times or ego bigger than the prince's palace.
* ImmortalityHurts: Tempus, [[spoiler: whose role as the avatar of the storm goddess makes him immortal but not invulnerable. No matter how horribly he's injured he ''will heal eventually'' suffering all the while. The same god also made him incapable of "taking a woman in gentleness".]]

* MalevolentMaskedMen: The agents of Jubal, Sanctuary's resident crimelord, wear hawk masks

* OneManArmy: Tempus Thales is a formidable and nearly untouchable fighter who can kill hordes of enemies by himself, partly due to being the chosen champion of the Rankan storm goddess.

%%* PowerTattoo: The Blue Star Adepts.
* PsychicPowers: At least three different traditions - S'Danzo seers ([[SpiderSense precognition]]), Bandaran adepts (AuraVision and other sensory powers, self control) and barbarians (body enhancements like SuperSpeed and other useful tricks).
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Tempus Thales has been in the goddess Vashanka's service for centuries and he still looks like a handsome young man.

* RitualMagic: Most of the spells in Thieves World require ingredients and lenghty rituals. Even something as simple as throwing fireballs need at least a minute of chanting.
* RoyalBrat - Generous, powerful, clever, beautiful... and extremely immature in some respects. Divine blessing from such a young age spoiled her even more than her high status possibly could.

%%* TarotMotifs

* BlessedWithSuck: Tempus, [[spoiler: whose role as the avatar of the storm goddess makes him immortal but not invulnerable. No matter how horribly he's injured he ''will heal eventually'' suffering all the while. The same god also made him incapable of "taking a woman in gentleness".]]
** That's a mix of divine contract and being cursed by a mage. Along with his sister.
*** As one of [[Webvideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony's]] Webvideo/CounterMonkey's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKgmhmEtgx4 stories]] show, this can suck even worse than one would expect.

* LowFantasy: The scope of the setting is quite limited and grounded for the fantasy genre. Most of the stories take place in a single WretchedHive populated by corrupt guards, morally ambiguous criminals and dark cults.

*** As one of [[Webvideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony's]] Webvideo/CounterMonkey's [[http://spoonyexperiment.com/2012/03/04/counter-monkey-thieves-world-part-1-poor-impulse-control/ stories]] show, this can suck even worse than one would expect.

''Thieves' World'' is a dark urban fantasy SharedUniverse created by Robert Asprin in 1978 and mostly focused on the city of Sanctuary. It drew in authors like Creator/PoulAnderson, Creator/JohnBrunner, Andrew J. Offutt, Creator/CJCherryh, Janet Morris and Creator/MarionZimmerBradley (with the first ''Literature/{{Lythande}}'' story) to contribute, and generated a buttload of books (12 short story compilations, 8 official novels, some graphic novel adaptations of the compilations and roleplaying adaptations from the likes of Creator/{{Chaosium}} and Creator/{{FASA}}) before it went on hiatus in 1989.

* AdjectiveAnimalAlehouse: The WretchedHive city of Sanctuary has the Vulgar Unicorn, Golden Lizard and Diving Bird taverns. Several vague descriptions of the Vulgar Unicorn's sign are given, including "...that animal improbably engaging itself" and similar.

* LowFantasy: The scope of the setting is quite limited and grounded for the fantasy genre. Most of the stories take place in a single WretchedHive populated by corrupt guards, morally ambiguos criminals and dark cults.

%%* PowerTattoo: The Blue Star Adepts

* BadassGay: Tempus Thales' Sacred Band of Stepsons is made of homosexual couples and all of them are fearsome elite warriors. Bonus points for being based on the Sacred Band of Thebes from ancient Greece.

* EliteMooks: The Stepsons, Tempus' personal warband of elite soldiers.

** DependingOnTheWrither Tempus is either this or a ruthless VillainProtagonist.

* BlessedWithSuck: Tempus, [[spoiler: whose role as the avatar of the storm god makes him immortal but not invulnerable. No matter how horribly he's injured he ''will heal eventually'' suffering all the while. The same god also made him incapable of "taking a woman in gentleness".]]

* CrapsackWorld: Sanctuary is not a nice place to live unless you are very rich. If you are very rich, most of the rest of the population want to kill you and take your stuff. And they may try -- unless some rival will manage to get rid of you before, that is. Also the city guards are little more than armed thugs that are more likely to beat people up and take their stuff than help them, and their commander is none other than that [[SarcasmMode bundle of joy]] that Is Tempus.

%%* LowFantasy

* AntiHero: As if the title didn't tell you, many pov characters in the setting are thieves who are mainly trying to survive in the CrapsackWorld and are OnlyInItForTheMoney.

* CrapsackWorld: Sanctuary is not a nice place to live unless you are very rich. If you are very rich, most of the rest of the population want to kill you and take your stuff. And they may try -- unless some rival will manage to get rid of you before, that is.

%%* RitualMagic

%%* SharedUniverse

* Elitemooks: The Stepsons, Tempus' personal warband of elite soldiers.

%%* BreakoutCharacter: Tempus Thales

%%* DarkerAndEdgier

* AdjectiveAnimalAlehouse: The city of Sanctuary has the Vulgar Unicorn and Golden Lizard taverns. Several vague descriptions of the Vulgar Unicorn's sign are given, including "... that animal improbably engaging itself" and similar.