History Literature / TortallUniverse

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** In ''Emperor Mage'' and ''Trickster's Queen'', two separate nations (Carthak and the Copper Isles respectively) that practice slavery are taken over by more moderate, reasonable leaders after overthrowing the previous tyrants. However, in both cases, slavery is not abolished by the new leaders, as it is quickly pointed out by everyone involved that the economic impact of suddenly freeing every slave in the country and being forced to provide them with wages instead of just room and board would be ''catastrophic''. Thus, while it's implied that the new rulers are slowly working to phase slavery out, the system itself remains in place for the time being.
** A single female hero, no matter how triumphant or legendary, does not undo centuries of misogyny and paternalistic attitudes towards women. It takes ten years for any noble girl to apply for knight training after Alanna opens the way; no family until the Mindelans would allow their daughter to undertake it. Kel struggles against sexist attitudes from her entry into training all the way through being appointed to command as a knight, including from other women.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Tortallan squires are depicted exclusively as knights-in-training. In the real medieval ages, many were lifelong professional squires. Granted, Tortall is not Earth history, but there was a reason not all squires became knights.

* AscendedExtra: Kylaia al Jmaa, who was first mentioned offhand by Liam in ''Lioness Rampant'' as the Shang Unicorn and later became the protagonist of "Student of Ostriches", a short story. You'd be forgiven for thinking she was a new character.

* BreakingTheGlassCeiling: In the first series, Alanna becomes the first female knight in a century, but this isn't publicly known until after she's done it, because she [[SweetPollyOliver disguised herself as a boy]]. As a result of Alanna's achievement, however, Kel (in the third series) is then able to become the first girl since Alanna was knighted to train ''openly'' (and she insists on wearing dresses at dinner to ensure people don't forget that she's a girl).

* ContinuityNod: Every single new series is packed with references to the previous series, mostly through the reappearance of old characters. In ''First Test'', one moment concerning Numair from ''Wolf-Speaker'' is mentioned. One of the best things about this series is that characters age and change between books and series, and it's always good seeing what the heroes from previous books are up to. ''Beka Cooper'', while a prequel trilogy, has a great number of relatively subtler calls to books written earlier. Well, and [[spoiler:the Cat]].

* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Alanna is a noble who pretends to be a boy to become a MagicKnight, Daine is a backwoods demigoddess orphan who becomes a NatureHero, Keladry is a normal (noble) girl with normal (noble) parents who becomes a BadassNormal lady knight, Aly is the daughter of Alanna and George and is a GuileHero spy, and Beka is a commoner who works as a police officer and has a connection to the Black God.

* DeadGuyJunior: Multiple characters end up naming their children after deceased characters, not just limited to the royals. Among the more notable examples are Alanna's children Thom, Alianne and Alan, the latter two named after both her father and the name Alanna went by during her {{Masquerade}}.

** Finally, in the "speaking with the dead" sense, the titular ''Literature/BekaCooper'' has a minor magical affinity for spirits. Pigeons are (mostly) unwitting psychopomps that carry the dead until they slip into the Peaceful Realms. Beka can hear their passengers and later communicate with them and uses this to try to solve murders. The [[DontFearTheReaper Black God]] favors her for this. Farmer Cape, the mage she meets in the third book, has a spell that can let him listen in on Beka's conversations and another spell that allows him to speak to the dead who've passed entirely out of the mortal world, though he does note that they forget things quickly and so it's not always as useful as one might think.

* MindControlDevice: Numair and his eyes. Blayce and his thing. Numair explains that they need your attention but sufficiently powerful mages don't need an object. Often: AttentionDeficitOohShiny.

* NarrativeProfanityFilter: Phrases like "Alanna swore colorfully" are used until the ''Beka Cooper'' books, where the actual curses are printed.
* NiceToTheWaiter: Everyone good is this, everyone bad is not. [[InformedAttribute We keep being told]] by the huge cast of nobles who care about commoners that it's atypical in Tortall for nobles to care about commoners. The only main cast member to do this is Kel's friend Merric, who, while certainly not cruel or miserly, tells her and Neal at one point that they're too concerned and generous. This is corrected in Beka's books, however, since she has to deal with loads of annoying nobles (and even upper middle-class commoners) who are offended at being questioned by a member of the unwashed masses.

In 2019, it was [[https://www.cbr.com/tamora-pierce-tortall-universe-tv-series/ announced]] that Lionsgate and Playground Entertainment were working on a TV adaptation of the series.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Initially the case, but as Pierce develops as a writer morality becomes less clear-cut. Her heroines are always good and face at least one truly evil enemy, but there's increasing nuance in the details. Nearly everyone who likes Alanna, and who she likes back, is outright good while those who are cruel to her are evil. She sees the gods, who favor her, as purely good. Daine comes to realize that some of the initially-antagonistic Stormwings and other Immortals have motives she understands and can ally with her, and that just because a man loves animals doesn't mean he's a good person. Kel is possibly the [[IncorruptiblePurePureness purest idealist]] of Pierce's heroines, but she has to navigate an unfair world and understand the value of compromise, and readily understands that just because someone's an UngratefulBastard doesn't mean they should be left to suffer. Aly is sketchier in many ways, as are plenty of her allies, some of whom duck the responsibilities placed upon them, and in her experience the gods are [[JerkassGods certainly not benign]]. Beka, as a commoner Dog, is the protagonist with the least societal power and sees the worst of Tortall. She is literally more corrupt than the others in that she takes bribes, while still being strictly principled.

** In Beka's time there was relative gender equality, though even at the time there was a spreading cultural influence telling women to StayInTheKitchen; by Alanna's time that's the norm. Her example and the allies she makes, other women warriors included, set a lot of changes in motion.

* NobodyPoops: Completely averted through small mentions of characters going to the bathroom in the middle or end of a scene, and latrines. In ''Lady Knight'' Kel volunteers to clean the lantrine in 'lead by example' humility. It's taken up to eleven in ''Mastiff''. Beka describes often and at great length the many times her scent hound Achoo finds a spot where their quarry relieved himself on the road. And then of course we had Saucebox demonstrating his opinion of Pounce's high opinion of himself.

* SecretRelationship: That Alanna and Jonathan were romantically involved in their youth and even seriously considered marriage, to the point that [[BrosBeforeHoes Thayet initially angsted about accepting his advances for fear of endangering her friendship with Alanna]], is evidently far from common knowledge even decades after the fact, despite the fact that [[EveryoneCanSeeIt they weren't terribly discreet about it at the time.]] Well {{Justified}} in that four books into the series, they're both married, FamedInStory, and highly visible political figures whose reputations (particularly Alanna's) could be very heavily damaged if this information were to become public, because her position as King's Champion would seem like an obvious conflict of interest.

* ShoutOut: Gainel, god of dreams, is one to Creator/NeilGaiman.

--> '''Weiryn''': "What makes you think our first duty is to be kind? Too much tenderness is bad for mortals. They improve themselves only by struggling. Everyone knows that."
--> Daine blinked. He sounded like those humans who claimed that poverty made the poor into nobler souls.

** Gainel, the god of dreams, is kindly to Daine but has little regard for human life and supports the return of the Immortals to the human realms because they support richer dreams and nightmares.
** Minor gods are often better. Several animal gods that Daine meets range from brusque but good and helpful to outright friendly and giving. Daine's mother was [[DeityOfHumanOrigin raised]] into a small goddess of midwives and helps intervene in difficult childbirths.