History Main / DemonPrinces

* For the series by JackVance, please see: ''Literature/TheDemonPrinces''.

[[redirect:Literature/TheDemonPrinces]]

A ScienceFiction pentalogy by JackVance, comprising these volumes:
# ''Star King'' (1964)
# ''The Killing Machine'' (1964)
# ''The Palace of Love'' (1967)
# ''The Face'' (1979)
# ''The Book of Dreams'' (1981)

Set in the Oikumene, a loose [[TheFederation federation]] of planets, they chronicle the adventures of one Kirth Gersen as he exacts his revenge on five supercriminals — the "Demon Princes" — for their raid on his hometown, causing the death or enslavement of every inhabitant except himself and his grandfather.
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!!Tropes in this series
* AbhorrentAdmirer: The Darsh of ''The Face'' seem to feel this way about each other, even (or [[NoAccountingForTaste especially]]) if they're married. One Darsh tradition is a chase for desirable sexual partners on the night of the full moon. Some of the women use younger, cuter (pre-mustache) women as bait. Rape in Darsh society appears to be part of the deal in courtship, and cuts both ways for both genders.
* AerithAndBob: Names in all five books range from slightly odd-sounding (Kirth Gersen) to fanciful (Kakarsis Asm) to... Myron Patch and Howard Alan Treesong.
* AlliterativeName: such as Silas Sparkhammer, Caril Carphen, and others.
* AllPowerfulBystander: Gersen muses that the Institute could destroy the Demon Princes if it wanted to.
* AlternativeCalendar: The calendar was recalibrated starting from A.D. 2000.
** {{Retcon}}ned [[hottip:*:(in a [[FootNoteFever footnote]])]] in the post-Apollo books to A.D. 1969, First Man on the Moon.
* AncientConspiracy / AncientTradition: The Institute, which is officially "just" a society of philosophers. Its (many) detractors consider it to be the former.In some ways, it also resembles an AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: Skin, hair, and eye color can be altered at will. Notably, in the first book Gersen dates a GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe.
* {{Badass}}
* BadassGrandpa: Kirth Gersen's grandfather, who trains him and is hinted to have had criminal ties in the past.
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: Howard Alan Treesong's other personalities decide this fate for him.]]
* BizarreSexualDimorphism: The HumanSubspecies known as the Darsh have women who are larger and hairier than the men (who are usually hairless after puberty) to the point of often growing {{Badass Mustache}}s.
* CelibateHero: Kirth Gersen, at first.
* CounterfeitCash: Used in an ''epic'' scam in ''The Killing Machine''.
* CompleteMonster: Hardly needs to be said.
* CloningBlues: [[spoiler: Viole Falushe has spent his entire career cloning the woman he desired, but can't get any of them to desire him.]]
* CrapsackWorld: Thamber.
* DeadGuyOnDisplay: Marmelizing is a process mentioned in ''The Book of Dreams'' that turns a body into its own memorial statue. [[spoiler: It almost becomes Demon Prince Howard Alan Treesong's FateWorseThanDeath when the parents of one boy he killed beat Kirth Gersen to a revenge BestServedCold.]]
* DefaceOfTheMoon: [[spoiler: Lens Larque's final plan in ''The Face''.]]
-->'''Kirth Gersen:''' Go out into your back garden. There's a great Darsh face hanging over the garden wall.
* DevilInPlainSight: The Princes are very good at concealing themselves despite their notorious reputations.
* DoomedHometown: The Mount Pleasant colony.
* TheDragon: Attel Malagate has Beauty Dasce as his Dragon. Howard Alan Treesong has two CoDragons.
* DreadfulMusician: Gersen once goes undercover as a band member. Eventually, the target gets fed up and orders him thrown in the river. HilarityEnsues. [[spoiler: And you can also put an S on the front of "laughter".]]
* DuelOfSeduction: Alice Wroke has been told by Treesong to seduce Gersen for information. Gersen, however, is way ahead of her, and chooses to simply FeedTheMole.
* CoupDeGrace: [[spoiler: Howard Alan Treesong--to himself.]]
** Also indirectly [[spoiler:Suthiro the poisoner, whom Gersen has infected with ''cluthe'' but who still needs a finishing shot when Gersen nearly gets too close.]]
* EvilIsPetty: All five Demon Princes are seen exacting DisproportionateRetribution for relatively minor slights.
* EvilOverlooker: Justified in ''The Face'': it's actually [[spoiler: foreshadowing.]]
* FeudalFuture: The planet Thamber in ''The Killing Machine''.
** Specifically, it's being kept in medieval stasis by Kokor Hekkus for his personal playground.
* FictionalDocument: Lots of these are used through all five books to round out the setting. Notable documents include the multi-volume ''Life'' by Unspiek, Baron Boddissey, (excomunicated from the human race); ''The Avatar's Apprentice, a Scroll of the Ninth Dimension'', a narrative romance populated by tricksters and used as an {{Epigraph}} whenever shenanigans are about to go down; and ''The Demon Princes'' by Caril Carphen, used as an EncyclopediaExposita.
* ForeignQueasine: Half the food in the Oikumene.
* FoodPorn: The other half.
* FootnoteFever: The footnotes are seldom important to the core plot, instead adding color and forcing the reader to imagine what various strange words would sound like.
* FreudianExcuse: Almost all of the Demon Princes have poor or at least pathetic backgrounds, but that's far from justifying their crimes.
* GildedCage: Interchange in ''The Killing Machine'', a planet whose sole purpose is to house kidnap victims awaiting their ransom.
* GottaKillThemAll: [[spoiler: Except for Howard Alan Treesong, whom Gersen is satisfied has been broken as a man.]]
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: Pallis Atwrode in ''Star King.'' It's actually an artificial dye.
* HairOfGold: Alusz Iphigenia from ''The Killing Machine''.
* HeroesWantRedheads: Alice Wroke from ''The Book of Dreams''.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Averted. Marksmanship is Gersen's weakest point compared to his ninja-like hand-to-hand skills; in ''The Book of Dreams'' he has two opportunities to shoot at Howard Alan Treesong, and fails to deal a killing blow both times.
* InsultBackfire:
--> '''Gersen:''': "In your youth, you committed many outrages."
--> '''Navarth''': "I'm a mad poet! I've committed outrages my whole life!"
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Malagate is killed by the world he wanted to conquer.]]
* [[spoiler: LastGirlWins: Alice Wroke]]
* LoveMakesYouEvil: Demon Princes Howard Alan Treesong (''The Book of Dreams'') and Viole Falushe (''The Palace of Love''). ''Especially'' Viole Falushe.
* MadArtist: Navarth the poet (''The Palace of Love''). Depending on your tastes, his poems as seen in the book may be a fine example of StylisticSuck.
* MasochistsMeal: Darsh food is intentionally vile: the people of Dar Sai seem to pride themselves on their ability to stomach it. The once-mentioned Sandusker cult also has the same attitude to their food. And part of ''The Book Of Dreams'' revolves around a banquet for the highest-ranking members of The Institute at which ''charnay'' is served - a foodstuff which, apart from being fruit, is more or less a direct stand-in for ''fugu''.
* MasterPoisoner: The planet Sarkovy's [[PlanetOfHats Hat]] is brewing and finding creative ways to administer poisons. The higher ranks of their grand masters can be {{Poisonous Person}}s, although in a touch of realism, these people tend to die rapidly themselves. Hero Kirth Gersen spent several instructive years there, to the point of being able to outwit and infect a rival Master Poisoner.
* MoralEventHorizon: The Demon Princes crossed this (again) when they massacred and enslaved the entire population of a planet.
** By the time we meet them, they've long since relegated themselves to living on the wrong side of that line.
* MuggingTheMonster:
** Young Kirth's first kill happened by this.
** A story is recounted of a mugger who tried to jump Howard Alan Treesong, who at that point was [[TheSyndicate licensing every criminal act in that section of the Oikumene]]. Treesong had the man arrested.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Each of the Demon Princes has selected a name that appeals to him: Lens Larque is a predatory bird from his native planet; Howard Alan Treesong is named for the hero of an obscure story cycle; Kokor Hekkus' MeaningfulName comes from the screeching sound made by his title beheading machine.
* NightmareFetishist: Kokor Hekkus.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Gersen gives one of these to a barbarian chieftan in ''The Killing Machine''.
* NotSoDifferent: In ''The Face'', [[spoiler:Kirth Gersen decides to carry out Lens Larque's final plan — and for pretty much the exact same reason]].
* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The Institute, again. Purposely, as it turns out.
* PapaWolf: Navarth is a partial example. Although a neglectful and...erratic...parent to Drusilla / Jheral IV, he is still willing to go to great lengths and privations to get her back.
* PlanetOfHats: Sarkovy, a Planet of Poisoners (mentioned in ''Star King'' and featured in ''The Palace of Love'') as well as Methlen (''The Face''), a Planet of Snobs. One of the planets of ''The Book of Dreams'' is clearly influenced by the DeepSouth.
* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Jerdian Chanseth, from ''The Face'', and Jheral Tinzy, from ''The Palace of Love.''
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Kokor Hekkus has been operating for two hundred and eighty-seven years.
* RescueSex: Jerdian Chanseth.
* ReunionRevenge: Howard Alan Treesong does this in ''The Book of Dreams''.
* RevengeBeforeReason: A recurring theme throughout the series. One of Gersen's girlfriends leaves him when he refuses to end his quest for revenge.
* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: Kirth has been trained by his grandfather [[TykeBomb since childhood]] in fighting, assassination, poisons, weapons, disguise... but his socializing abilities are primarily focused on infiltration rather than regular human interaction.
* SpiderTank: The "dnzad".
* SplitPersonality: [[spoiler: Howard Alan Treesong]] Eerily so.
** They are:
*** [[BloodKnight Lorris Hohenger the Red]]
*** [[WarriorPoet Rhune Fader the Blue]]
*** [[BlackKnight Eia Panice the White]]
*** [[TricksterArchetype Spangleway the Jape]] (color: yellow)
*** [[TheChessmaster Mewness of the Green]]
*** [[EvilGenius Jeha Rais the Black]]
*** [[TheObiWan Immir]] (no color)
* TheStoic: Jehan Addels. High-ranked members of the Institute are expected to be this.
* SoWhatDoWeDoNow: The final lines of ''The Book of Dreams'':
-->"I have been deserted by my enemies. Treesong is dead. The affair is over. I am done."
* SugarAndIcePersonality: Alusz Iphigenia.
* TakeAThirdOption: Lens Larque, after Gersen has arranged that he can either show up in court or forfeit his ship. [[spoiler: He blows it up and collects on the insurance... the policy for which is held by a company owned by Gersen.]]
* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: used straight and subverted in one case, where Gersen's opponent was wearing a mail vest and he had to scramble to get his knife back. [[spoiler:The second time, he aims for the bare throat.]]
* TransplantedHumans: Through colonization of the Oikumene, and to the extent that HumanSubspecies exist. Apart from the Star Kings (a race of [[AdaptiveAbility adaptable aliens]] to which the first Demon Prince, Attel Malagate, belongs), no other sapient aliens are seen in the entire series.
** There are hints of extinct sapient races whose extinction predated human arrival on their planet.
* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture: Part of the reason the slave trade thrives.
* [[spoiler: WifeHusbandry: Viole Falushe's motivation in ''The Palace of Love'', horribly mixed with TrulySingleParent.]]
* WhipItGood: Lens Larque (''The Face'') has a whip named Panak. A traditional art form on his planet, Dar Sai, is a dance where nude young men are whipped into performing acrobatic maneuvers by an older male.
** VERY young men - the Darsh culture is essentially one of institutionalised paederasty, bordering on (if not crossing over into) paedophilia.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Or blue (red, gold, green, etc.) skin — cosmetic dyeing is very fashionable throughout the Oikumene.
* YouKilledMyFather: Part of Gersen's motivation [[spoiler: as well as Alice Wroke's]].
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* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Malagate is killed by the world he wanted to conquer]]

* PaleSkinnedBrunette: Jerdian Chanseth, from ''The Face'', and Jheral Tinzy, from ''The Palace of Love.''

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Each of the Demon Princes has selected a name that appeals to him: Lens Larque is a predatory bird from his native planet; Howard Alan Treesong is named for the hero of an obscure story cycle; Kokor Hekkus' MeaningfulName comes from the screeching sound made by his titular beheading machine.

* CloningBlues

** In fact this is [[spoiler: almost the exception rather than the rule. Attel Malagate is killed by the Dryads, Viole Falushe throws himself out of the air-speeder before Gersen can kill him, and Treesong is brought low by others and then kills himself.]]

* AbhorrentAdmirer: The Darsh of ''The Face'' seem to feel this way about each other, even (or [[NoAccountingForTaste especially]]) if they're married. One Darsh tradition is a chase for desirable sexual partners on the night of the full moon. Some of the women use younger, cuter (pre-mustache) women as bait.

* DreadfulMusician: Gersen once goes undercover as a bandmember. Eventually, the target gets fed up and orders him thrown in the river. HilarityEnsues.

* GottaKillThemAll: [[spoiler: Except for Howard Alan Treesong, for whom Gersen is satisfied has been broken as a man.]]
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: Pallis Atwrode in ''Star King.''

* TakeAThirdOption: Lens Larque, after Gersen has arranged that he can either show up in court or forfeit his ship. [[spoiler: He blows it up...and collects on the insurance.]]
* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: used straight and subverted in one case, where Gersen's opponent was wearing a mail vest and he had to scramble to get his knife back.

** There are hints of extinct sapient races (whose extinction predated human arrival on their planet).

* YouKilledMyFather: Part of Gersen's motivation [[spoiler: as well as Alice Wroke]].

* VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil

* MasochistsMeal: Darsh food is intentionally vile: the people of Dar Sai seem to pride themselves on their ability to stomach it. And part of ''The Book Of Dreams'' revolves around a banquet for the highest-ranking members of The Institute at which ''charnay'' is served - a foodstuff which, apart from being fruit, is more or less a direct stand-in for ''fugu''.

* BeyondGoodAndEvil

* AbhorrentAdmirer: The Darsh of ''The Face'' seem to feel this way about each other, even (or especially) if they're married. One Darsh tradition is a chase for desirable sexual partners on the night of the full moon. Some of the women use younger, cuter (pre-mustache) women as bait.

* {{Kuudere}}: Alusz Iphigenia.

* TransplantedHumans: Through colonization of the Oikumene, and to the extent that HumanSubspecies exist. Apart from the Star Kings (a race of [[VivaLaEvolution adaptable aliens]] to which the first Demon Prince, Attel Malagate, belongs), no other sapient aliens are seen in the entire series.

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: used straight and subverted in one case, where Gersen's opponent was wearing a mail vest, and he had to scramble to get his knife back.

* YouKilledMyFather: Part of Gersen's motivation [[spoiler: as well as Alice Wroke]]

* [[spoiler: WifeHusbandry: Viole Falushe's motivation in ''The Palace of Love'', horribly mixed with ''TrulySingleParent''.]]

* [[spoiler: WifeHusbandry: Viole Falushe's motivation in ''ThePalaceOfLove'', horribly mixed with ''TrulySingleParent''.]]

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: Marmelizing is a process mentioned in ''The Book of Dreams'' that turns a body into its own memorial statue. [[spoiler: It almost becomes Demon Prince Howard Alan Treesong's FateWorseThanDeath when the parents of one boy he killed beat KirthGersen to a revenge BestServedCold.]]