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* The ''TabletopGames/DyingEarth'' RolePlayingGame based on the above.
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* The ''TabletopGames/DyingEarth'' ''TabletopGame/DyingEarth'' RolePlayingGame based on the above.
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* The collection, ''Literature/SongsOfTheDyingEarth'', by various authors, also based on the above.
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* The collection, ''Literature/SongsOfTheDyingEarth'', by various authors, also based on the above.above.
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* The ''Literature/DyingEarth'' series by JackVance
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* The ''Literature/DyingEarth'' series by JackVanceCreator/JackVance
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[[redirect:Literature/DyingEarth]]
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* The ''Literature/DyingEarth'' series by JackVance
* The ''TabletopGames/DyingEarth'' RolePlayingGame based on the above.
* The collection, ''Literature/SongsOfTheDyingEarth'', by various authors, also based on the above.
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A classic series of LowFantasy novels by JackVance. Several other authors have written novels in the setting, which has become something of a SharedUniverse. It is considered one of the seminal works of fantasy and has had a huge influence on the genre.
Welcome to Earth, a few million years in the future. [[TheMagicComesBack Magic is back]], mostly displacing science, and it is both AfterTheEnd and JustBeforeTheEnd: Civilization has pretty much collapsed, and the Sun is close to going out. Earth's remaining inhabitants are generally aware of this but have no means to escape their increasingly hot and barren CrapsackWorld. Those that haven't become religious zealots are largely [[NietzscheWannabe nihilistic fatalists]], engaging in what debauchery they can in the time left.
The original four books consist of short stories about different characters (most notably Turjan of Miir and Rhialto the Marvellous), interspersed with the longer saga of Cugel the Clever. Thief, charlatan, con man, and whatever else he needs to be to get the most benefit with the least work, Cugel teeters on the border between AntiHero and VillainProtagonist. When he botches robbing the mansion of Iucounu the Laughing Magician, the wizard teleports him across the world with a command to bring back an artifact he wants... and includes a small demon attached to his liver and equipped with various sharp implements to encourage his compliance. The series relates his various adventures attempting to return and revenge himself on Iucounu, while conning as many people as possible out of their valuables and/or virginity along the way.
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!!Tropes:
* AnAesop: One of the stories with T'sais is definitely one, some of the other ''Dying Earth'' stories could be said to be one also. Arguably, Cugel the Clever learns that backstabbing is bad and trust is good by the end of his second book.
* AntiHero: Liane the Wayfarer. Also Cugel. Also Magnus Ridolph. In fact many of Vance's characters are [[AntiHero antiheroes]].
* ArtificialHuman: T'sais and T'sain
* BadassBookworm: The Curator, Guyal of Sfere
* BrainInAJar: Rogol Domedonfors, ruler of Ampridatvir
* {{Casanova}}: Rhialto the Marvellous
* [[ClarkesThirdLaw Clarke's Third Law]]: Ampridatvir
* CharacterDevelopment: Cugel the Clever behaves quite differently towards the end of the second book, capable of making friends who he does ''not'' plan to backstab later.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Cugel the Clever goes through one and a half books before he is finally cured of this disease
* EldritchAbomination: Pandelume looks like one, to the point that anyone who looks upon him will instantly go insane, but he behaves like a pretty nice guy. Magnatz is a more straightforward example, since he is unambiguously evil.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Chun the Unavoidable
* ExpandedUniverse: ''Songs of the Dying Earth'', edited by no less than [[GeorgeRRMartin George R. R. Martin]]
* HappyPlace: The Overworld
* {{Jerkass}}: Cugel the Clever, who was downright evil for the first book he was in.
* JerkassGenie: The sandestins in the ''Dying Earth'' stories, especially the ones that serve Rhialto the Marvellous.
* JustBeforeTheEnd: The ''Dying Earth'', of course.
* LaughablyEvil: Iucounu. Whether he counts as "evil" in this setting is debatable, but if you cross him your punishment will involve some sort of humorous irony... and pain.
* LostTechnology: Plenty of it, some of which is indistinguishable from magic.
* LotusEaterMachine: The Eyes of the Overworld.
* OnlySaneMan: Rhialto the Marvellous seems like this compared to the rest of the magicians he deals with.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Guess which side it's on. Go ahead, guess.
* TedBaxter: Cugel thinks of himself as a ManOfWealthAndTaste and LovableRogue. In reality he's basically a JerkAss DirtyCoward who regularly gets OutGambitted and HoistByHisOwnPetard.
* TheyKilledKenny: Liane the Wayfarer dies ''twice''.
* TimeTravel: Rhialto the Marvellous does this often.
* VancianMagic: The original example, from which DungeonsAndDragons' magic system was lifted pretty much whole-cloth.
* VillainProtagonist: Liane the Wayfarer and Cugel the Clever.
* WickedCultured: Many things and people in the ''Dying Earth'' could be described this way, especially the Deodands and Pelgranes, man-eating monsters who enjoy conversing in the eloquent JackVance style.
* WorldHalfEmpty: Civilization's gone, monsters infest the wilderness, and the sun's gonna kill us all any day now. Let's have another bacchanal while we wait...
Welcome to Earth, a few million years in the future. [[TheMagicComesBack Magic is back]], mostly displacing science, and it is both AfterTheEnd and JustBeforeTheEnd: Civilization has pretty much collapsed, and the Sun is close to going out. Earth's remaining inhabitants are generally aware of this but have no means to escape their increasingly hot and barren CrapsackWorld. Those that haven't become religious zealots are largely [[NietzscheWannabe nihilistic fatalists]], engaging in what debauchery they can in the time left.
The original four books consist of short stories about different characters (most notably Turjan of Miir and Rhialto the Marvellous), interspersed with the longer saga of Cugel the Clever. Thief, charlatan, con man, and whatever else he needs to be to get the most benefit with the least work, Cugel teeters on the border between AntiHero and VillainProtagonist. When he botches robbing the mansion of Iucounu the Laughing Magician, the wizard teleports him across the world with a command to bring back an artifact he wants... and includes a small demon attached to his liver and equipped with various sharp implements to encourage his compliance. The series relates his various adventures attempting to return and revenge himself on Iucounu, while conning as many people as possible out of their valuables and/or virginity along the way.
----
!!Tropes:
* AnAesop: One of the stories with T'sais is definitely one, some of the other ''Dying Earth'' stories could be said to be one also. Arguably, Cugel the Clever learns that backstabbing is bad and trust is good by the end of his second book.
* AntiHero: Liane the Wayfarer. Also Cugel. Also Magnus Ridolph. In fact many of Vance's characters are [[AntiHero antiheroes]].
* ArtificialHuman: T'sais and T'sain
* BadassBookworm: The Curator, Guyal of Sfere
* BrainInAJar: Rogol Domedonfors, ruler of Ampridatvir
* {{Casanova}}: Rhialto the Marvellous
* [[ClarkesThirdLaw Clarke's Third Law]]: Ampridatvir
* CharacterDevelopment: Cugel the Clever behaves quite differently towards the end of the second book, capable of making friends who he does ''not'' plan to backstab later.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Cugel the Clever goes through one and a half books before he is finally cured of this disease
* EldritchAbomination: Pandelume looks like one, to the point that anyone who looks upon him will instantly go insane, but he behaves like a pretty nice guy. Magnatz is a more straightforward example, since he is unambiguously evil.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Chun the Unavoidable
* ExpandedUniverse: ''Songs of the Dying Earth'', edited by no less than [[GeorgeRRMartin George R. R. Martin]]
* HappyPlace: The Overworld
* {{Jerkass}}: Cugel the Clever, who was downright evil for the first book he was in.
* JerkassGenie: The sandestins in the ''Dying Earth'' stories, especially the ones that serve Rhialto the Marvellous.
* JustBeforeTheEnd: The ''Dying Earth'', of course.
* LaughablyEvil: Iucounu. Whether he counts as "evil" in this setting is debatable, but if you cross him your punishment will involve some sort of humorous irony... and pain.
* LostTechnology: Plenty of it, some of which is indistinguishable from magic.
* LotusEaterMachine: The Eyes of the Overworld.
* OnlySaneMan: Rhialto the Marvellous seems like this compared to the rest of the magicians he deals with.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Guess which side it's on. Go ahead, guess.
* TedBaxter: Cugel thinks of himself as a ManOfWealthAndTaste and LovableRogue. In reality he's basically a JerkAss DirtyCoward who regularly gets OutGambitted and HoistByHisOwnPetard.
* TheyKilledKenny: Liane the Wayfarer dies ''twice''.
* TimeTravel: Rhialto the Marvellous does this often.
* VancianMagic: The original example, from which DungeonsAndDragons' magic system was lifted pretty much whole-cloth.
* VillainProtagonist: Liane the Wayfarer and Cugel the Clever.
* WickedCultured: Many things and people in the ''Dying Earth'' could be described this way, especially the Deodands and Pelgranes, man-eating monsters who enjoy conversing in the eloquent JackVance style.
* WorldHalfEmpty: Civilization's gone, monsters infest the wilderness, and the sun's gonna kill us all any day now. Let's have another bacchanal while we wait...
to:
Welcome to Earth, a few million years in the future. [[TheMagicComesBack Magic is back]], mostly displacing science, and it is both AfterTheEnd and JustBeforeTheEnd: Civilization has pretty much collapsed, and the Sun is close to going out. Earth's remaining inhabitants are generally aware of this but have no means to escape their increasingly hot and barren CrapsackWorld. Those that haven't become religious zealots are largely [[NietzscheWannabe nihilistic fatalists]], engaging in what debauchery they can in the time left.
The original four books consist of short stories about different characters (most notably Turjan of Miir and Rhialto the Marvellous), interspersed with the longer saga of Cugel the Clever. Thief, charlatan, con man, and whatever else he needs to be to get the most benefit with the least work, Cugel teeters on the border between AntiHero and VillainProtagonist. When he botches robbing the mansion of Iucounu the Laughing Magician, the wizard teleports him across the world with a command to bring back an artifact he wants... and includes a small demon attached to his liver and equipped with various sharp implements to encourage his compliance. The series relates his various adventures attempting to return and revenge himself on Iucounu, while conning as many people as possible out of their valuables and/or virginity along the way.
----
!!Tropes:
* AnAesop: One of the stories with T'sais is definitely one, some of the other ''Dying Earth'' stories could be said to be one also. Arguably, Cugel the Clever learns that backstabbing is bad and trust is good by the end of his second book.
* AntiHero: Liane the Wayfarer. Also Cugel. Also Magnus Ridolph. In fact many of Vance's characters are [[AntiHero antiheroes]].
* ArtificialHuman: T'sais and T'sain
* BadassBookworm: The Curator, Guyal of Sfere
* BrainInAJar: Rogol Domedonfors, ruler of Ampridatvir
* {{Casanova}}: Rhialto the Marvellous
* [[ClarkesThirdLaw Clarke's Third Law]]: Ampridatvir
* CharacterDevelopment: Cugel the Clever behaves quite differently towards the end of the second book, capable of making friends who he does ''not'' plan to backstab later.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Cugel the Clever goes through one and a half books before he is finally cured of this disease
* EldritchAbomination: Pandelume looks like one, to the point that anyone who looks upon him will instantly go insane, but he behaves like a pretty nice guy. Magnatz is a more straightforward example, since he is unambiguously evil.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Chun the Unavoidable
* ExpandedUniverse: ''Songs of the Dying Earth'', edited by no less than [[GeorgeRRMartin George R. R. Martin]]
* HappyPlace: The Overworld
* {{Jerkass}}: Cugel the Clever, who was downright evil for the first book he was in.
* JerkassGenie: The sandestins in the ''Dying Earth'' stories, especially the ones that serve Rhialto the Marvellous.
* JustBeforeTheEnd: The ''Dying Earth'', of course.
* LaughablyEvil: Iucounu. Whether he counts as "evil" in this setting is debatable, but if you cross him your punishment will involve some sort of humorous irony... and pain.
* LostTechnology: Plenty of it, some of which is indistinguishable from magic.
* LotusEaterMachine: The Eyes of the Overworld.
* OnlySaneMan: Rhialto the Marvellous seems like this compared to the rest of the magicians he deals with.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Guess which side it's on. Go ahead, guess.
* TedBaxter: Cugel thinks of himself as a ManOfWealthAndTaste and LovableRogue. In reality he's basically a JerkAss DirtyCoward who regularly gets OutGambitted and HoistByHisOwnPetard.
* TheyKilledKenny: Liane the Wayfarer dies ''twice''.
* TimeTravel: Rhialto the Marvellous does this often.
* VancianMagic: The original example, from which DungeonsAndDragons' magic system was lifted pretty much whole-cloth.
* VillainProtagonist: Liane the Wayfarer and Cugel the Clever.
* WickedCultured: Many things and people in the ''Dying Earth'' could be described this way, especially the Deodands and Pelgranes, man-eating monsters who enjoy conversing in the eloquent JackVance style.
* WorldHalfEmpty: Civilization's gone, monsters infest the wilderness, and the sun's gonna kill us all any day now. Let's have another bacchanal while we wait...
