History Literature / YumiAndTheNightmarePainter

* GodIsDead: A normalcy for a book related to the Cosmere. In this case, the reason the planet is so screwed up is because the Shard Virtuosity committed suicide. [[spoiler:Or at least, it ''seems'' like this is the reason. Design even says you normally don't see things like this except as a direct result of a dead god. But in the end, it was something entirely different, though perhaps Virtuosity could have done something if she had still been alive]].

** Early in the story, Hoid compares the status of the Nightmare Painters to nurses and firefighters — essential workers who everyone is so keen to honour for their service that they don't want to waste time discussing things like salary. Much later in the story, when the characters visit a carnival, the crowd responds to a painter by applauding, saying "Thank you for your service", and letting them skip a queue.

* BrickJoke: Early in the story, Hoid compares the status of the Nightmare Painters to nurses and firefighters - essential workers who everyone is so keen to honour for their service that they don't want to waste time discussing things like salary. Much later in the story, when the characters visit a carnival, the crowd responds to a painter by applauding, saying "Thank you for your service", and letting them skip a queue.

Painter (Nikaro) is a lonely man making his living by trapping nightmares in paintings. He considers himself a lone warrior protecting the city, nevermind the fraternity of fellow painters who work with him. He is not a particularly fortunate man, but he makes his life more difficult by brooding. All he wants is to be important, not realizing that he is the biggest obstacle in his own way.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler:Once Hoid is unfrozen he wants ''off'' the planet as fast as possible. As nice as the planet is after the Shroud comes down he openly states he has no intention of ever visiting again.]]

* MassiveMultiplayerScam: The problems with this are pointed out. [[spoiler:Painter briefly theorizes that the landscape Yumi sees is a shroud illusion, and she's actually on his world. In fact, when they line up their maps, she's ''nearby''. Yumi counters that this would be impossible for anyone to maintain for any length of time, even if the entire government is in on it. Sure, her people don't leave their towns much, but some do, and they know what lies outside their villages. Painter accepts the logic; his next thought is that it's an overlapping alternate dimension. Turns out he was right the first time, but didn't go far enough: ''Everyone'' is in on the scam, because everyone besides the yoki-hijo are nightmares enslaved by the machine, acting out a GroundhogDayLoop to keep these fourteen girls trapped]].

* {{Nepotism}}: [[spoiler:The Dreamwatch, allegedly the most elite nightmare weavers, are actually a bunch of rich and powerful people's relatives who treat the job as a social club and steal the credit from the subordinates who do the actual work.]]

** Design makes basically only the barest attempt to act human. Probably the only reason that it works is because the locals don't know about intelligent non-humans.

* SoulPower: What [[{{Magitek}} technology]] in Torio is powered by, using spirits from the earth. [[spoiler: Unbeknownst to Kilahito, their own tech is this very same power, as well as the Father Machine.]]

* GodIsDead: A normalcy for a book related to the Cosmere. In this case, the reason the planet is so screwed up is because the Shard Virtuosity died. [[spoiler:Or at least, it ''seems'' like this is the reason. Design even says you normally don't see things like this except as a direct result of a dead god. But in the end, it was something entirely different, though perhaps Virtuosity could have done something if she had still been alive]].

* TheWormThatWalks: [[spoiler: Masaka is one of these, a "Horde" from [[{{Literature/TheStormlightArchive}} Roshar]].]]
** Though they are technically not native to Roshar either, that is the only world in which they have been encountered so far.

* YourSoulIsMine: A temporary, voluntary version of this is how technology on Yumi's world works. She calls up spirits and asks them to perform a task in exchange for witnessing her art. They transform into a pair of devices (repelling statues, a machine and the control device, etc) and stay that way for a few years. Eventually, the spirit gets bored and leaves, and the person needs to get a new one. [[spoiler:The Machine, meanwhile, tricks the spirits into arriving with its technically precise but heartless stacking, then captures them to power itself. The first time it was turned on, it captured ''every'' soul in the city, starting with the humans, and soon killed most of the planet in order to keep itself going]].

** [[spoiler:Even the Machine itself isn't malicious. As the scholars say, it doesn't ''want'' anything. It's not intelligent. It has no more desire than a waterwheel. It's just stacking stones, collecting souls, and protecting itself. Nothing more and nothing less. According to Hoid, it is slightly more intelligent than the scholars believe (you can't shove that must Investiture into something and leave it completely mindless), but it's still not actively malicious. The only emotion it ever shows is when a yoki-hijo challenges it in stacking, and it begins to move faster in desperation]].

** Nikaro speculates that the swap might involve time travel, which Design categorically rules out because traveling into the past is impossible. However, she notes [[TheSlowPath traveling into the future]] is obviously possible. [[spoiler:It turns out this is exactly what Yumi has done by being stuck in an Amnesia loop for centuries.]]

* ContinuityNod: [[spoiler:During the second epilogue Hoid asks Design if she remembers the time his memory was tampered with, which happened during the epilogue of ''Literature/RhythmOfWar''.]]

* YourMindMakesItReal: How the Nightmare Painters operate. By visualizing a Nightmare as something harmless and painting it as so, Nightmare Painters are able to banish them. Design later tells Painter that the actual act of painting the Nightmare isn't really necessary. It's the focus and intent of the individual that makes it so.