Tigana is a 1990 fantasy novel by Guy Gavriel Kay. It takes place in the Peninsula of the Palm, a Fantasy Counterpart Culture for medieval Italy. Two foreign conquerors occupy the Peninsula: Brandin, king of Ygrath, and Alberico of Barbadior. They have carved up the land between them, and hold it in an uneasy balance of power. The main focus of the story is on a group of rebels who seek to liberate the area, but must defeat both tyrants at the same time, lest one overrun the Peninsula. We also see the viewpoint of Brandin, as well as Dianora, a concubine bent on assassinating him.
During Brandin's conquest, his son was killed in the province of Tigana. In retaliation, he razed the area flat, and put a curse on it that no one outside Tigana would know of its name or history. He turns out to be a competent ruler, cultured, if arrogant, and likable... but is that enough to erase his prior sins?
This work contains the following examples:
- 0% Approval Rating: Nobody seems to approve of Alberico (whereas Brandin is actually quite a good ruler) but they're afraid to say so, with good reason.
- Affably Evil: Brandin is cultured, benevolent, an excellent ruler, and an all-around great guy. However, he'll never be dissuaded from seeking revenge against those who have wronged him, no matter who (or what) it harms (or who actually wronged whom in the first place), and so for the good of the entire Peninsula, he's got to go.
- Air Strip One: Tigana/Lower Corte. See Please Select New City Name.
- Alien Sky: Their world has two moons, Vidomni and Ilarion. The former is white, and the later blue.
- And the Adventure Continues: On the very last page, while riding to Alessan and Catriana's wedding, Devin, Baerd, and Sandre see a riselka. One of them will die, one be blessed, and one face a stark choice. We never learn who gets what fate.
- And This Is for...: "In the name of my sons, I curse you forever."
- Anti-Hero: Alessan. Few would argue his cause isn't noble, but he's willing to do some pretty dark things along the way, forcibly binding wizards into his service and manipulating the two Tyrants into outright war with one another being chief among them.
- Arc Symbol: A trialla singing in the night. Astibar blue wine. The riselka.
- Becoming the Mask: Dianora worries that she's starting to fall for the man she swore to assassinate, Brandin. She's right, and ends up saving his claim to the Peninsula because of it.
- Best Served Cold: Dianora. Initially.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Taeri kills himself to avoid being captured and tortured before death by Alberico. Catriana later does the same thing to avoid torture, though she is saved.
- Betty and Veronica: Devin's two love interests, Alais and Catriana.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Brandin and Alberico, who are the main antagonists of the novel but also oppose each other. The rebels end up exploiting this by manipulating them into fighting each other, knowing that just overthrowing one will leave the other sole ruler of the Palm.
- Big Damn Reunion: There are times when seems like there might be a moment at the end where Dianora and Baerd would meet again. It's bitterly subverted.
- Bittersweet Ending: Another GGK hallmark. Both tyrants are dead, the memory of Tigana is restored, and Alessan has reclaimed the title of crown prince and will be Happily Married to Catriana. On the other hand, Baerd will never see Dianora again or even know what happened to her, and Sandre can't get his lost family back. Also, Devin, Baerd, and Sandre see a riselka, heavily implying that one of them will die soon.
- Black-and-Gray Morality/The Good, the Bad, and the Evil: Alessan is pretty grey Anti-Hero, Brandin is is somewhat darker grey Anti-Villain, and Alberico... is freaking The Caligula.
- Blood Magic: A limited case. Magicians of the Palm can't fully use their power until they cut off two of their fingers, symbolically linking themselves to the peninsula.
- Book Ends: The book begins with Alessan making a wager about whether a famous poet will mourn Sandre's death in verse. It ends with another wager: Sandre betting that Alessan will be crowned King of the Palm within a year.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Dianora and Baerd
- Bury Your Gays:
- Tomasso doesn't last very long.
- Isolla of Ygrath, the lover of Brandin's wife; the latter sent her to assassinate him.
- The Caligula: Alberico is constantly on the edge of this trope; he starts going downhill pretty much from the moment he very nearly gets assassinated.
- Canon Welding/Shout-Out: Finavir, or Finvair—as Brandin explicitly points out, spellings vary—is very close to Fionavar. The context in which it's mentioned makes it very easy to believe they're one and the same.Brandin: In Ygrath the tale is sometimes told and sometimes believed that this world of ours, both here in the southern lands and north beyond the deserts and the rain forests—whatever lies there—is but one of many worlds the gods sent into Time. The others are said to be far off, scattered among the stars, invisible to us.
- Camp Gay: Tomasso. Except not really, he's actually purposefully playing up the stereotype in order to make people underestimate him.
- Cassandra Truth: Nobody believes Alberico when he claims that the heads of three rival families with rich estates, led by the most Camp Gay guy that ever camped, all got together in a conspiracy to kill him. Especially since everyone involved is conveniently dead (when standard practice is to wring out a confession and then horribly execute) and it gives him the perfect pretext to take their stuff.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: After Erlein saves Catriana's life, Alessan deliberately releases Erlein from his magical binding of service. Despite his genuine anger at being dragooned by force into the rebellion, and acting throughout the entire book up 'til then like he wants nothing more than to leave, he ends up staying with the main cast for the final battle anyway.
- Chekhov's Gunman: It's a Guy Gavriel Kay novel, after all.
- Marius of Quileia is mentioned in the first chapter as the matriarchal country's longest-surviving king in some time. He is later revealed to have been a guardian to the young Alessan, and is instrumental in the plot to start a war between Brandin and Alberico.
- The Night Walkers of Certando seem like a bit of a
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, until they reappear at the climax to contribute their power to the final battle between Brandin and Alberico. - And of course, there's Rhun the fool, a.k.a. Prince Valentin of Tigana.
- Court Jester: the King's Fool in Brandin's court is magically linked to him, acting out his master's subconscious urges.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: One variety of execution is "death wheeling", where the victims have all of their limbs and their back broken and are then left on a wheel to die; if this is done within the hearing of nobility, the victims' severed hands are stuffed in their mouth to stop them from screaming. Alberico is particularly fond of doing this.
- Deadpan Snarker: Approximately four-fifths of the cast.
- Death by Irony: Alberico has spent twenty years and the entire novel scheming to become Emperor of Barbadior, cursing the current Emperor for refusing to die of old age. The Emperor finally snuffs it only two days after Alberico dies in battle.
- Despotism Justifies the Means: Alberico doesn't care about anything but using his power as a stepping stone to become the Emperor of Barbadior. Brandin calls him out for not caring about anything in the world besides power for its own sake.
- Disproportionate Retribution: His habit of doing this is what makes Brandin an Anti-Villain rather than a straight-up hero. To use the most notorious example (though others exist), his reaction to his favourite son dying in a war that he himself started is to annihilate the defenders' country so hard that it poisons the entire Peninsula.
- Divine Incest: The Palm has a three-god pantheon: Adaon and Eanna are consorts and brother and sister. They have a daughter, Morian, who is Adaon's second bride as well.The sin of the gods, it was named, [incest]. For Adaon and Eanna were said to have been brother and sister at the beginning of time, and Morian was their child.
- The Dog Bites Back: How Brandin dies, assassinated by his own court fool—aka, Prince Valentin of Tigana.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: The goddess Morian, associated with transitions and death, is thought of as a figure of peace and guidance—but not before one's time has come.
- Doomed Hometown: Or doomed entire home province, with regards to Tigana.
- Dying as Yourself: After twenty years as Brandin's deformed, mindless fool, Valentin regains his senses just in time to kill his master and be killed in turn.
- Epigraph: Two. One from Dante, The Paradiso, and the other from George Seferis, "Stratis the Sailor Describes a Man".
- Eunuchs Are Evil: Averted with Scelto.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Pretty much the incentive for the entire plot. Brandin really loved his son Stevan. So much so that he's willing to go to utterly extreme lengths to avenge him.
- Evil Chancellor: Damon could be considered one, but only because he opposes Dianora. From the Ygrathan perspective, he's The Good Chancellor.
- Eviler than Thou: Brandin is a ruthless conqueror, but he's got redeeming qualities. Alberico...doesn't.
- Evil Versus Evil: The two sorcerer-kings occupying the Peninsula absolutely loathe each other.
- Faking the Dead: Sandre, at the very start. Catriana later fakes a bridge-dive for propaganda purposes. It’s several layers of foreshadowing.
- Fingore: To become a wizard, with power bound to the Peninsula, it is necessary to cut off two of the fingers on your left hand.
- Foreshadowing: About halfway through the novel, Scelto claims that Camena the poet will be "altered" to eventually become Rhun's successor as Brandin's jester as a form of punishment (for having tried to assassinate Brandin with Isolla's help). This doesn't actually happen, but at the end, it's revealed that Brandin has, in fact, used the Court Fool creation process as a form of punishment before—on Rhun, whose real identity is that of Valentin, Prince of Tigana.
- Genocide Backfire: Brandin's magical genocide of the Tiganese eventually results in being killed by Valentin, the Prince of Tigana who he had brainwashed and tortured and his remaining armies scattered and broken.
- Glamour Failure: A close look at the riselka reveals that she very clearly is not human, despite superficial resemblance.
- Going Native: Invoked by Brandin. After abdicating as King of Ygrath and declaring himself King of the Western Palm, Brandin attempts to legitimize his new kingdom by styling himself as "Brandin di Chiara" and letting Dianora attempt the Ring Dive as a way to shore up his political goodwill.
- Good Bad Girl: Alienor is a kind, helpful woman who kisses Alessan and flirts with both Catriana and Devin all within her first scene.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: No one will ever know who Dianora really was and her original mission—not even her only surviving family. No one will ever know the true identity of Brandin's Fool. Only one man, Scelto, realizes these truths, and he decides that revealing the truth would help no one, and he keeps them secret for the sake of peace.
- Handicapped Badass: Marius, who killed half a dozen would-be assassins while hamstrung.
- Scalvaia gets an honorary mention for almost killing Alberico with a walking stick, of all things.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Upon finding out his son Tomasso had a male lover, Duke Sandre executed the lover and whipped his son for it, and took a while to show any affection for Tomasso again.
- Historical Fantasy: The Palm is pretty recognizably Fantasy Italy, though it's not as firmly a historical counterpart as some of Kay's other works.
- Hufflepuff House: We get action in seven of the nine provinces, but very little about Corte outside of its historical rivalry with Tigana, and almost nothing in or about Ferraut.
- I Gave My Word:Rhamanus: My name is Rhamanus. I offer it to you in pride, for no dishonor has ever attached to that name. You will have no oath from me though. I swore one to the King I love before I led his Guard here. I told him I would stop you or die. It is an oath I will keep.
- Intro-Only Point of View: The prologue is from the perspective of Saevar the sculptor, Baerd's and Dianora's father, who dies immediately after the events of the prologue years before the story proper starts.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Erlein never passes up an opportunity to needle Alessan and company, but—as Alessan himself admits—he is being held captive, and his people are in great danger from what Alessan plans to do. (And Erlein gets better, anyway.)
- Kick the Dog: Alessan binding ErleinErlein: And what part of that little speech gives you rights over my life and death?
Alessan: I have a duty. I must use what tools come to hand.
Erlein: I am not a tool! I am a free and living soul with my own destiny! - Kiss of Distraction: Exaggerated. Catriana and Devin are stuck in a tight secret passageway, and she has sex with him in an (unsuccessful) attempt to stop him from hearing a conversation in the next room.
- La Résistance: The main characters are a small group trying to resist and overthrow both of the tyrants controlling the Peninsula of the Palm.
- Let's You and Him Fight: The crux of Alessan's plan is to trick Alberico and Brandin into going to war over Senzio.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Brandin. He's a decent guy once you get to know him, and manages to win the hearts of many Palm natives, which Alberico never pulls off. But he also went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge that unpersoned an entire country, and the less said about the creation process for the King's Fool, the better. Next to Alberico, though, anyone comes out looking good.
- Light Feminine Dark Feminine: The two goddesses of the Triad, Eanna and her daughter Morian. Eanna is the creator of the stars and the heavens; she names and loves all things in creation. Morian—although no more evil than Eanna—is associated with darker, more dread forces, including transitions, crossroads, death, and the afterlife.
- Liminal Time: During the Ember Days, the dead are said to be able to walk in the world of the living. This allows the Night Walkers to fight them.
- Love Letter Lunacy: Devin gets a very fragrant, rather forward love letter from Alais's sister Selvena.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Catriana and Devin in the closet while eavesdropping on Tomasso's plan, with Catriana doing this to distract Devin from hearing what is being said.
- Mercy Kill: Sandre gives poison to his captured son Tomasso, to save him from being tortured and killed by Alberico.Sandre: This is the last thing I can do for you. If I were stronger I could do more, but at least they will not hurt you in the morning now. They will not hurt you any more, my son.
- The Mole: Herado reports on his family, the Sandreni, to Alberico.
- Moral Myopia: Brandin obsessively seeks vengeance for his son's death without stopping to consider that, since said son was the leader of an invading army, the Tiganese may have been right (or at the very least justified) in killing him.
- Alessan's mother, Pasithea, thinks he should have killed Brandin years ago, giving zero craps about Alberico or the rest of the Palm.
- Murder-Suicide:
- Seconds after killing his nephew Herado, Taeri kills himself.
- After killing Anghiar, Catriana throws herself out the window so she cannot be tortured. Defied when Erlein uses his magic to save her.
- D'Eymon of Ygrath kills Valentin/Rhun after the latter kills Brandin, and then impales himself on his sword.
- Noble Fugitive: Alessan is the Prince (and last heir) of Tigana, who has had to go into hiding after his home was destroyed. He's plotting the death of the person who did it, which has the bonus effect of ending the curse that stops anyone not born there from even recognizing his homeland's name.
- No Ontological Inertia: A Discussed Trope, as it is an important plot point that drives part of the story. The curse Brandin laid upon Tigana only exists so long as Brandin himself lives, because his power is required to constantly maintain it. Upon his death the curse will end and people will be able to speak of Tigana once more. That is why he is staying in the Palm and prolonging his life through unnatural means: for his vengeance to be complete he needs to outlive everyone who was born in Tigana before it fell.
- "Not So Different" Remark: An internal, self-directed one for Prince Valentin, who at one point during the process of torture, mutilation and mind-crippling enchantment that turns him into Rhun the Fool admits to himself that despite his suffering, he actually understands Brandin's reaction, implying that he himself might have gone to similar extremes had he suffered such grief and loss.He had even understood. Perhaps that was the worst of it all: he had understood.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Sandre and his son Tomasso together planned parallel cases of this for each of them, so they would both be underestimated. Sandre pretends to be a Grumpy Old Man and a drunk. Tomasso is known to be gay and deliberately plays himself up as a stereotypical hedonistic fop to disguise the fact that he's actually highly intelligent and a member of La Résistance.Tomasso: There are advantages to being seen as aimlessly degenerate.
- Offing the Offspring: A particularly upsetting variant.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Subverted. At the end, the protagonists ride away around a bend in the road—and then there is one more sentence about what happened to them around the next bend to make the point that just because the story ends here doesn't mean the characters have nothing left to do with their lives.
- Offstage Villainy: All of Brandin's evil deeds occurred years before the book even starts. We'd never know he was supposed to be evil if those actions didn't have repercussions in the present.
- The One That Got Away: Dianora to Baerd.He lay silent in the grass thinking of her, and then, after a time, perhaps predictably, of Elena. And then, always and forever, certain as dawn or dusk or the turning of the seasons, of Dianora who was dead or lost to him somewhere in the world.
- Out with a Bang: Catriana kills Anghiar of Barbadior after having sex with him, which she does in order to get him alone so she can kill him.
- Parental Favoritism: Brandin loved his younger son Stevan more than his eldest and heir Girald, to an absurd degree. As Isolla of Ygrath puts it...Isolla: You exalted a dead child above a living one, and revenge above your wife. And more highly than your own land. Have you spared a thought, a fraction of a thought, for any of them while you pursued your unnatural vengeance for Stevan?
- Please Select New City Name: Brandin renaming Tigana to Lower Corte is a major driving force in the plot. He magically erases the name Tigana from the consciousness of anyone who didn't live there when it was Tigana, rendering it impossible to hear or even read, so that it seems the name, and the memory of the city-state, is destined to die with that generation.
- Pride: Pride is a big theme in the book, and the pride of the people of Tigana in particular. See Analysis for more. This Tiganese pride is established very early on, in the prologue, when Valentin talks about it:Valentin: Oh, our pride. Our terrible pride. Will they remember that most about us, do you think, after we are gone?
- Both tyrants also suffer from dangerous pride. Brandin is too proud to forgive the Tiganese for killing his son, and Alberico is too proud to cut his losses and sail home without being certain he'll immediately be made emperor.
- The Place: Tigana is the name of one of the nine Provinces of the Palm, the destruction and erasure from history of which kickstarts the narrative and the main character's quest to kill the person who did it.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Alberico is cautious and mostly refrains from being too harsh on the people he rules so he can avoid being turned against, though this starts to fall apart as he gets more paranoid following nearly being killed.
- Pre-Meeting: Devin runs into Rovigo randomly in a bar in the second chapter. Rovigo later turns out to be more involved with the plot, and the Tiganan rebels, than he lets on.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Brandin gives one about Alberico, though not in Alberico's presence, emphasizing how he hates Alberico for having no love or pride and caring for nothing or no one but himself, as well as only wanting power for its own sake without ever thinking of why or what he will do with it.
- Redemption Equals Death: Brandin's undoing comes when he finally gives up on his vengeance so he can save the lives of the men fighting for him. Unfortunately, this then leaves him completely vulnerable to a similarly-unbound foe he'd forgotten about.
- Revenge Before Reason: Brandin. Even his wife thinks he's taken it too far. His quest for revenge for his son Stevan is unending—even though Brandin started the war in which he died, and Stevan, furthermore, was a soldier—not a helpless innocent killed in the crossfire. Up to the very last, when he exhausts his magic entirely, he's most upset about the fact that his revenge will be incomplete.
- Averted by Alessan. He desperately wants revenge against Brandin for what he did to Tigana. However, he's rational enough to understand that his revenge would be meaningless if it hands the entire Palm over to Alberico.
- Revenge Myopia: Besides taking his revenge very far, Brandin also doesn't care that his revenge is for the death of someone who was leading an unprovoked invasion of the province of the people who killed him.
- Rightful King Returns: Alessan to Tigana, after the victory. For greater impact, the epilogue strongly suggests he will soon be crowned King of the entire Palm, uniting the provinces to protect the Peninsula against future invasions.
- Royal Harem: Brandin has one, called a saishan. One of the concubines, Dianora, is planning to kill Brandin in revenge for what he did to Tigana.
- Royalty Super Power: The Princes of Tigana can bind wizards to their service. This comes to them via Divine Parentage.Alessan: You will have heard the legend. It happens to be true. The line of the Princes of Tigana, all those in direct descent, can bind a wizard to them unto death. […] It is our primal story: Tigana is the chosen province of Adaon of the Waves. The first of our Princes, Rahal, being born of the god by that Micaela whom we name as mortal mother of us all. And the line of the Princes has never been broken.
- Sadistic Choice: An unusual example where the villain is forced into making one: In the final battle between Brandin and Alberico, Alessan orders a team of rebel wizards and Night Walkers to lend their power to supporting Alberico, forcing Brandin to choose between saving the lives of his soldiers and preserving his curse upon Tigana when he realizes he does not have enough power to do both. The plan is also something of a Batman Gambit, as it relies on correctly predicting the reactions of both major antagonists. For those interested: Brandin, realizing he will lose the battle if he does not unleash his full power, is forced to empty himself completely to overcome Alberico's boosted defenses, forcing him to end the curse prematurely. Alberico's choices were to accept help from unknown wizards, or retreat to fight another day; his pride wouldn't let him choose the second option, so he gambled with accepting help from strangers. He was too greedy about seizing any help or power offered, just as planned, so when Brandin used all of his power to crush Alberico, that outside boost and help was suddenly withdrawn, causing Alberico's death. If Alberico had withdrawn, he would have easily survived.
- Spanner in the Works: Very early in the book, an assassination attempt by a minor character on Alberico fails by the narrowest of margins, but the victim is permanently weakened by surviving it, and this long-term weakening plays a significant part in his final defeat.
- Stupidity-Inducing Attack: The Court Fool creation process, providing an Ygrathen king's least favourite enemies with a particularly nasty Fate Worse than Death. As Brandin found out, though, it only works so long as you've got enough magic to sustain it, and once you're out of magic, your revenge is standing close at hand, whole in mind, and very angry.
- Seasonal Baggage: There is a seasonal rite about the autumnal killing of Adaon and his spring rebirth....this one morning in the falling season. This morning that was shaped to become the harbinger, the promise of spring to come, of winter's end. This one single morning on the mountain when the god who was a man had to be slain. Torn and slain, to be put into his place which was the earth. To become the soil, which would be nurtured in turn by the rain of Eanna's tears and the moist sorrowings of Morian's endless underground streams twisting in their need. Slain to be reborn and so loved anew, more and more with each passing year, with each and every time of dying on these cypress-clad heights. Slain to be lamented and then to rise as a god rises, as a man does, as the wheat of summer fields.
- Sex for Solace: Dianora and Baerd's relationship was founded mostly out of their shared grief for the loss of their province, their city, their father, and Naddo.Baerd: What are we doing? What have we done?
Dianora: Oh, Baerd. What has been done to us? - Sex Is Liberation: The relationship between conquered peoples and an "unstable sexuality" is one of the themes of the book; how people rebel when they can't rebel. See Analysis for more.
- Sorcerous Overlord: Two of them, opposed to each other as well as the people they conquered note .
- Suicide by Sea: Tonally, the second time Dianora does this is much more this trope than the first time.
- Supporting Protagonist: It would be fair to claim this is more Alessan's story than Devin's. Or Baerd's. Or Dianora's. Or Brandin's. The point is, there are lots of strong candidates for "main character" of this story… and Devin isn't really one of them.
- Take Away Their Name: This is done to a whole region rather than a person. During his conquest of the eastern Peninsula of the Palm, Brandin's son was slayed in a battle in the province of Tigana. Brandin is a sorcerer, and a father who dearly loved his son. In retaliation, he razed the province flat, and put a curse on it that no one who wasn't born in Tigana could remember its name.
- Tempting Fate: In the prologue:Saevar: But they will remember. The one thing we know with certainty is that they will remember us. Here in the peninsula, and in Ygrath, and Quileia, even west over the sea, in Barbadior and its Empire. We will leave a name.
Valentin: And we leave our children, The younger ones. Sons and daughters who will remember us. Babes in arms our wives and grandfathers will teach when they grow up to know the story of the River Deisa, what happened here, and, even more—what we were in this province before the fall. Brandin of Ygrath can destroy us tomorrow, he can overrun our home, but he cannot take away our name, or the memory of what we have been. - Thanatos Gambit: Sandre's death and subsequent funeral at first appears to be this, with the twist that Sandre is actually Faking the Dead. Later Dianora tries for this by planning to purposefully fail the ring dive and die to destroy Brandin's legitimacy, but backs off at the last minute. Still later, Catriana invokes this trope when she assassinates Anghiar and jumps to what she assumes to be her death. It doesn't take.
- Title Drop:
- Part One is titled "A Blade in the Soul"Alessan: I only spoke a prayer of my own. I always do. I said: Tigana, let my memory of you be like a blade in my soul.
- Part One is titled "A Blade in the Soul"
- Twist Ending: Of the Snap Ending variety on the very last paragraph. Possibly, anyway, since we never discover which of the three got which fate. Many chapters before, Dianora sees a riselka (a fairy-like creature, something like a banshee). She repeats to herself the old prophecy about the riselka, including the lines "one woman sees a riselka / her path comes clear to her" and "three men see a riselka / one is blessed, one forks [comes to a crossroads in his life], one shall die". At the very end of the book, Sandre, Baerd and Devin are walking to meet Marius when they spot a riselka sitting by the side of the path. While there's clear hints at who should get which (Sandre is an old man, Devin is deciding between several paths for the rest of his life, and Baerd is finally considering a settled life pursuing his passion for architecture), it's left up to the reader what actually happens.
- Unperson: Performed on the entire country of Tigana, kicking off the novel's plot.
Word of God says that the author was inspired to write the story by the instances of this during the Soviet purges. - Villainous RRoD: How Brandin finally falls. Alessan's team lend their magic to Alberico at the final battle. To counter them, Brandin is forced to cancel the spell on Tigana, and ultimately spend all the magic in his body.
- Visual Pun: The book's off-brand Italian peninsula is shaped like a hand or glove (named "the Peninsula of the Palm") while real-life Italy is shaped like a boot.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: Possibly the Night Walkers. On the one hand, they pop up with no foreshadowing whatsoever. On the other, they provide significant Character Development for one member of the heroes' party, as well as showing that there are rather more serious, immediate reasons to restore Tigana than just addressing past grievances. They also reappear at the climax after Sandre and Baerd realize that their ability to share dreams constitutes a form of wizardry.
- Welcome Episode: The rebel group trying to take down Brandin and Alberico is introduced through Devin accidentally finding out about their actions and getting invited to join.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Sandre deeply regrets having been this to Tomasso, even verging into I Have No Son! out of disapproval of Tomasso's homosexuality. He does get the chance to apologize and tell Tomasso how proud he is right before slipping Tomasso poison in Alberico's dungeon.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Kay explores this motif, having his heroes take several morally dubious choices in their quest. Were they justified by necessity? It's up to the reader.
- Wizards Live Longer: Sorcerers are longer lived than ordinary people, though how long isn't specified. Brandin is in his sixties but only looks around half that, and indicates he fully expects to still be alive and hale after another sixty years have passed; we don't get confirmation on how old Alberico is.
- Your Head Asplode: Isolla of Ygrath, following an attempted assassination on Brandin. It's awful.
- You Remind Me of X: The riselka reminds Brandin of Dianora.Brandin: [as if it had just occurred to him] In fact, she reminded me of you.
