Line #30 Literature/TheTravellerInBlack


1	The Traveller in Black is the central character of a series of fantasy stories written by Creator/JohnBrunner and published in various magazines in the 1960s and 1970s. The first four were collected in ''The Traveller in Black'' in 1971; ''The Compleat Traveller in Black'', published in 1985, collects the entire series in revised form.
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3	The stories are set in a fantastic land, described as being part of Eternity as distinct from Time, where magic is everywhere and forces of Order and Chaos contend with one another. WalkingTheEarth in this land is a mysterious stranger dressed all in black, who has "many names, but only one nature".
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5	Part of the nature of the Traveller in Black is that any wish spoken in his presence will be granted, not always to the benefit of the wisher; those who wish carelessly and selfishly get their comeuppance, while those who wish unselfishly (whose number, in the entire series, can be counted on one hand) are rewarded.
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7	!!These stories provide examples of:
8	* AffablyEvil: Manuus is one of the most welcoming and polite wizards in the stories, all the while trying to foment a war between two cities in the cause of Chaos.
9	* AndIMustScream:
10	** A man wishes he could start a new religion so that he could have all the fine clothes, food and young women he wanted. The Traveller grants his wish by freezing him where he sits. His fellow villagers consider his perfect immobility miraculous and worship him as a god, dressing him in fine robes, giving him food in the form of burnt offerings, and presenting him with young women as human sacrifices.
11	** A man wishes he could learn all the secrets of a magical tree. The Traveller complies by incorporating the man's body ''into'' the tree's, so that he instantly understands how to use its magic but is physically incapable of using it (or of doing anything else).
12	* BatheHerAndBringHerToMe: In "The Wager Lost by Winning", the rather unsympathetic wish-maker is bathed before being claimed by Lord Fellian.
13	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: A recurring theme.
14	** In "Imprint of Chaos", Duke Vaul [[spoiler:is trying to bring the Statue of the Quadruple God to life, since it is prophesied that if this happens, the Quadruple God will destroy the city's enemies. Despite the traveller's warning that said enemies are not abroad but right here in the city, Vaul insists on going ahead. Whereupon the traveller awakens the God, who indeed destroys the city's enemies -- starting with Vaul, and continuing with his priests.]]
15	** In "The Wager Lost by Winning", Viola wishes to be reunited with her fiance, who's been kidnapped and enslaved. The slavers promptly return and drag her off, too.
16	* BeingGodIsHard: It’s eventually revealed that the traveller [[spoiler: is, like the elementals, an aspect of the creator of the Chaos that came before him. She got bored.]]
17	* BrotherSisterIncest: In several cases, it's hinted that brother/sister pairs of sorcerors have increased their magical power by doing this.
18	* CatchPhrase: "I have many names, but only one nature" and "As you wish, so be it".
19	* CoveredInMud: At the end of "The Things That Are Gods", when Crancina's plan fails, she and Count Lashgar and his priests are precipitated into the muck at the bottom of the recently-drained Lake Taxhling, much to the amusement of the population.
20	* {{Epigraph}}: Each story begins with one.
21	* ExactWords: In "The Things That Are Gods", an elemental incapable of lying assures the Traveller that the new threat he senses is not an elemental working against him. [[spoiler: It's an elemental working ''with'' him, to enact a wish that runs contrary to his purpose.]]
22	* FakeMemories: In "Imprint of Chaos", an evil magician takes a seat on the Ruling Council of a city, the better to cause the citizens to make a choice that will increase Chaos in the area. His plan includes implanting Fake Memories in the rest of the Council members that he has always been a member of the Council himself.
23	* FictionalColour: When the Traveller uses his staff to heal an injured man, it shines with light "the color of which humans have no name for".
24	* ForeverWar: Between the Kanishmen and the Kulyamen, as one of the symptoms of Chaos.
25	* GodGuise: Bernard Brown finds himself an involuntary example, thanks to the Ryovorans' conviction that anyone they can't make head nor tail of ''must'' be the god they've been hoping for.
26	* GodIsInept: The god in "Imprint of Chaos" is basically a big, powerful child.
27	* HardLight: The Traveller carries a walking-staff made of "light curdled by a number of interesting forces". The Traveller can dissolve and recreate at least one of these forces at will, allowing him to use his staff as a powerful source of light.
28	* HumanSacrifice: Done in Acromel by tradition and to try to animate the Quadruple God's statue. Also in Kanish to praise Fegrim: an elemental whom the Traveller knows couldn't care less.
29	* ICannotSelfTerminate: Once Chaos declines to a point where they have no hope left of ever being freed again, the bound elementals start asking the Traveller to make them "cease".
30	* IHaveManyNames: The Traveller in Black is described more than once as "having many names, but only one nature". A subversion, as he's never actually ''called'' anything but "the traveller". In "Imprint of Chaos", the traveller "introduces" himself by mentioning his singular nature, and then continues "You may call me Mazda, or whatever you choose." This would appear to be one of his names, but he doesn't insist on it. He also uses the name in the magazine printings of the other stories, but not in the revised text of ''The Compleat Traveller in Black''.
31	* IKnowYourTrueName: In "Break the Door of Hell", it's mentioned in passing that Vivette knows Ormond's true name, and this gives her a measure of power over him.
32	* InformedAttribute: While he ''says'' he has many names a lot, none of those names are actually stated in the stories. Even "traveller in black" doesn't seem to be one, as this description is never capitalized.
33	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: As the epigraphs make clear, "Break the Door of Hell" alludes to Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh, "Dread Empire" to Alexander Pope's ''Dunciad''.
34	* TheMagicGoesAway: Occurs over the course of the series as Order gains ground on Chaos; magic can not function in a world entirely given to Order.
35	* MutagenicGoo: The waters of the river Metamorphia transform people, animals, debris and even eroded lumps of mud into all sorts of unsightly things.
36	* NaiveNewcomer: The first story has a 20th-century Londoner find himself transported to the setting of the series, providing a familiar viewpoint for the reader. (He's sent home at the end of the story, having served his purpose both in-universe and out-.)
37	* OrderVersusChaos: The overarching conflict of the stories; the Traveller himself is an agent of Order.
38	* ThePowerOfBlood: In "The Things That Are Gods", Crancina schemes to gain magical power by filling an entire lake with blood [[spoiler: to animate the magically-transformed statues on the lakebed as her minions]].
39	* {{Recut}}: The text of ''The Compleat Traveller in Black'' is revised, adding {{foreshadowing}} in the earlier stories for "Dread Empire" among other changes.
40	* ScarecrowSolution: Used to frighten off a god (it wasn't a very ''smart'' god) in "Imprint of Chaos".
41	* SinsOfOurFathers: Bardolus from "Break the Door of Hell" is exposed to a suicide-inducing drug by his resurrected mother, in payback for his father having raped her to sire Bardolus.
42	* SouthernGothicSatan: Dressed in black, with many names but only one nature, the titular character travels from town to town, causing people's wishes to come true in ironically appropriate ways, leading to the downfall of the selfish and the proud.
43	* UnfazedEveryman: In the first story, a 20th-century Englishman is summoned to the magical past in which the stories are set, and reacts to every strange thing he encounters with calm rationality. (It's suggested that he was specifically chosen for that attribute, it being in notably short supply in that place at that time.)
44	* VirginPower: A rare male example appears in "Imprint of Chaos". Eadwil, one of the diviners consulted by the Margrave of Ryovora, is a youth who's postponed "a major upheaval of his physiology", the better to preserve his sorcerous abilities. Another (female) wizard is strongly implied to likewise be dependent upon her virginity for power, as she demands that her would-be lovers castrate themselves before they can touch her.
45	%%* WalkingTheEarth: The Traveller.
46	* WalkingWasteland: In the presence of the enchanter Tyllwin, plants wither and birds die.
47	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
48	** We never learn what actually happens to Jorkas, only that he's not around as of "The Wager Lost By Winning". The animated Quadruple God runs back to hide in its temple at the end of "Imprint of Chaos", but is nowhere to be found when the Traveller briefly stops there again in "Wager".
49	** Despite her being mentioned on four separate occasions in "Wager", it's never stated if senile Granny Anderland, left behind in Wantwich when the other villagers were abducted, was found again -- alive or otherwise -- when they got home after Lord Fellian's undoing. Likewise, the fate of the mentally-challenged girl whom Fellian set free to prove a point is never stated, even though the Traveller had expressed concern for her welfare if expelled from Fellian's household.
50	* WhenThePlanetsAlign: The Traveller makes his periodic journeys when a certain array of four planets comes into alignment.

Context Literature / TheTravellerInBlack