History Literature / MorgaineCycle

* ThereIsOnlyOneBed:
** There are a pair of {{UST}}y scenes, one book apart, that both deal with the idea of Morgaine and Vanye sharing a bed. In both, Morgaine uses the word "overnice", a MeaningfulEcho.
*** ''Gate of Ivrel'' has a scene where Morgaine offers Vanye half the bed, but he insists on sleeping on the hearth instead. The glimpse he got of her half-undressed for bed is nearly more than he can handle.
---->'''Morgaine:''' Thee does not have to be overnice. Thee is welcome to thy half.\\

*** ''Well of Shiuan'' has a scene where they actually ''do'' share a bed, with the sword ''Changeling'' lying between them. Vanye is ''hyperaware'' of Morgaine's presence, and the UST is nearly more than he can handle. He considers getting up and sleeping on the hearth again.
---->''And in her hand was ''Changeling'', that always slept with her; she laid it atop the coverlet, a thing fell and dangerous, in the valley that would be between them. Vanye rested very still, felt the mattress give as she settled beside him and drew the covers over her, heard the gentle sigh of her breath.\\

** Vanye would sleep on the floor, but Morgaine puts her sheathed sword down the middle of the bed to divide it in two and insists that they share, because it's important that they both get their rest. Of course, this only makes the sexual tension between them worse.

** ''Gate of Ivrel'' contains a {{UST}}y scene where Vanye insists on sleeping on the hearth rather than share a bed with Morgaine. The glimpse he got of her half-undressed for bed is nearly more than he can handle.
--->'''Morgaine:''' Thee does not have to be overnice. Thee is welcome to thy half.\\

** ''Well of Shiuan'' contains a scene where they finally share a bed, with the sword ''Changeling'' lying between them. It's very {{UST}}y; Vanye is ''hyperaware'' of Morgaine's presence. He considers getting up and sleeping on the hearth again.
--->''And in her hand was ''Changeling'', that always slept with her; she laid it atop the coverlet, a thing fell and dangerous, in the valley that would be between them. Vanye rested very still, felt the mattress give as she settled beside him and drew the covers over her, heard the gentle sigh of her breath.\\

** ''Gate of Ivrel'' contains a {{UST}}y scene where Vanye insists on sleeping on the hearth rather than share a bed with Morgaine.

** ''Gate of Ivrel'' contains a {{UST}}y scene where Vanye insists on sleeping on the heath rather than share a bed with Morgaine.

* ThereIsOnlyOneBed: Vanye would sleep on the floor, but Morgaine puts her sheathed sword down the middle of the bed to divide it in two and insists that they share, because it's important that they both get their rest. Of course, this only makes the sexual tension between them worse.

* MayDecemberRomance: The UnresolvedSexualTension between Vanye and Morgaine. She's older than the ''qhal'' elder Merir (who, as a ''qhal'' who actually ''looks'' old, is very old indeed), while he's twenty-one at the most.

** The only possible rescue for this world is with the power of its Gate. Which Morgaine is there to destroy. Which she does, effectively destroying all hope for that world, because destroying all the Gates is the only way to protect the universe from another TimeCrash.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Gallons of it between Vanye's Kurshin culture and Morgaine's ruthless sensibilities, then again between both of them and the people of Shiuan, especially the [[spoiler:Khalur lords]]. This is also one of the roots of the conflict between Morgaine and [[spoiler:Chya Zri/Liell/Roh]].

%%* KnightInSourArmor: Vanye.

%%* PowerLimiter: ''Changeling'''s sheath.

%%* WeaponsThatSuck: ''Changeling'', Morgaine's crystal gate-sword.
%%* WretchedHive: Ra-Leth. The credits in the graphic novel [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this.

The books read like fantasy because they are told from the point-of-view of a samurai-like medieval warrior, Nhi Vanye I Chya (Vanye), and there's much that from his point of view is magic. However, from the point of view of characters from more advanced backgrounds, it's all just technology, albeit of the "[[ClarkesThirdLaw indistinguishable from magic]]" category a lot of the time. The books are tenuously tied into Cherryh's Literature/AllianceUnion science-fiction universe, although this is a matter of a single quote at the start of the first book and some {{backstory}} in a short story Cherryh published elsewhere (and the graphic novels explicitly state that the task force Morgaine is the last of was sent out on the orders of [[spoiler:Ariane Emory herself]]); it does not actually feature in the story till the end of book four.

* AloofBigBrother -- While both Erij and Kandrys were tough on Vanye, Erij was generally more supportive than Kandrys. Both of them were [[TheRuntAtTheEnd bigger]] as well as being better fighters than he, and he was well aware of these facts. The graphic novel clearly shows Erij telling Kandrys he'd gone too far, just before Kandrys pushed Vanye into killing him.
* AnnoyingArrows -- oh so averted. [[spoiler:Morgaine]] is very badly wounded by an arrow in book 3.

* BodySurf -- Several characters, notably [[spoiler:Thiye Son of Thiye, for whom this is a case of OffstageVillainy, though the friendly chap has apparently been doing this to his own [[MeaningfulName appropriately-named descendants]]. The main instance of this particular subtrope is Chya Zri/Liell/Roh]]. An interesting variation on this trope is that the BodySnatcher can only [[spoiler:abandon their previous body when it's mortally wounded - this is usually self-inflicted and deliberate.]]

* ButNowIMustGo -- An explicit part of Morgaine's mission, really: [[OnceAnEpisode close the Gates on one world and then move on to the next]]. [[spoiler: ''Fires of Azeroth'' ends with this trope actually happening, but the first two books invoke but then subvert it, ending with Morgaine and Vanye pursuing Roh through gates into the next world instead.]]
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder -- almost everybody from Shiuan.
* CoolGate -- well, they're there, and they do what it says on the tin, but they're not good for you.
* CoolHorse -- Siptah, Morgaine's warhorse.
* CoolSword -- the tip of Morgaine's crystal sword ''Changeling'' opens a rift in reality which swallows anything it gets near.
* CourtlyLove -- how Vanye behaves towards Morgaine.
* CowardlyLion -- Vanye considers himself to be a coward, and his family agrees. He's also an ActionSurvivor who spends large sections of each book badly hurt, battered, half-starved and sleep-deprived to a degree that could make Creator/BruceWillis wince, yet kicks numerous shades of butt along the way. After [[spoiler:the battle of Nehmin]], Morgaine calls him out on this: "Thee? [[ImportantHaircut Braid thy hair]], Nhi Vanye. Thee's been too long on this road for that."
* CrapsackWorld -- Most of them. The worst and most hopeless is the setting for the second book, ''Well of Shiuan'', which is sinking into the water; within a generation or two, no land will be left. And this was way before anyone was worrying about rising sea levels and global warming; no GreenAesop was meant.

* DecadentCourt -- The ''Khal'' nobility of Ohtij-in. It is implied that the rest of the Shiua courts run much the same way.
* DirtyBusiness -- Neither Morgaine nor Vanye (especially Vanye) relish the antiheroic actions that become necessary along the way, and they're well aware of how morally objectionable some of these things are.
* DirtyCoward -- [[spoiler: Liell]].

* FantasticRacism -- the Qhal detest humans, who they spread throughout the worlds of the Gates essentially as a supply of dumb labor. Humans, for their part, detest the Qhal for being their slave-masters. The Qhalur low fertility and thus low numbers mean that in the long run they're doomed, and in several of the worlds, the remaining Qhal are actually mostly only part-Qhal, mostly human crossbreeds who bleach their hair. Meanwhile, even being blond is often enough to get you treated with suspicion among humans, or indeed killed.

* GrandTheftMe -- can be done with sufficient knowledge of the Gates' workings. One character is taken over by an ancient qhal mind, though his own consciousness still remains inside as well. [[spoiler: The same character suggests that Morgaine must have done this in the past, although she denies it, and it seems not to be true given revelations in book 4.]]
* GreyAndGrayMorality -- Almost everybody has understandable albeit not always sympathetic reasons for what they do and which side of the conflict they are on.

* HeroicBastard -- Vanye is one of these and due to this fact is [[TheUnfavorite treated badly by his father]] and has some serious CainAndAbel action going on with his two older (legitimate) brothers.
* HeroicVow -- These are a really important element in the story and in Vanye's characterization due to his [[InTheBlood Nhi]] obsession with [[HonorBeforeReason honor]], and when he does something stupid to keep his honor he's generally well aware of the stupidity of what he's doing. Oaths, their making, their consequences and the attendant difficulties, anguish and so on make for some major drama. He, Erij and Roh all have to deal with complications assorted with oaths they have made.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure -- Subverted in the case of [[spoiler:Liell]] - he looks like this at first but it quickly becomes clear that he's an EvilChancellor and the ManBehindTheMan to the thoroughly corrupt local regime.
* RedOniBlueOni -- Morgaine is the Blue Oni and Vanye the Red Oni, except of course the fact that Vanye is the one bound up by weight of tradition with an HonorBeforeReason code of conduct.
* ResetButton -- Morgaine set up a system linked into the Gates so any time Vanye passes through one of them, his body will be returned to the state it was in when she set it up: healthy, rested, well-fed. Evidently her own use of this is why she doesn't need the BodySurf to remain young. Vanye's not entirely happy about this, because he doesn't feel he's reached a man's full growth ... and now he never will. But it saves his life at one point, when he's dying of [[spoiler:internal injuries compounded by exhaustion, starvation, and stimulant overdose]].

* {{Ronin}} -- Vanye, exiled for fratricide
* RoyallyScrewedUp -- the Lethen nobility. Kasedre would be TheCaligula if he weren't just the latest (hopefully the last) of a line of mad hedge-lords. Not that it's their fault; [[spoiler: Zri/Liell has been the ManBehindTheMan for generations, assassinating each lord once a son has been provided and deliberately raising the boys to be bad rulers so he can run things.]] (Also, they have a ''serious'' inbreeding problem.)
* ScienceFantasy -- reads like fantasy, but technically science fiction. Laser guns and stargates.
* SelfMadeOrphan -- Morgaine claims to have murdered her [[spoiler:pre-Qhal]] father because he raped her mother.
* TemporalParadox -- The Gate network is inherently dangerous for a number of reasons, but the worst is the likelihood of [[TimeTravel "backtiming"]] causing extremely dangerous temporal paradoxes and [[TimeCrash breaking]] [[RealityBreakingParadox reality]]. One or more of these were what destroyed the Qhal civilization. [[spoiler: Their precursors too]]
* ThereIsOnlyOneBed -- Vanye would sleep on the floor, but Morgaine puts her sheathed sword down the middle of the bed to divide it in two and insists that they share, because it's important that they both get their rest. Of course, this only makes the sexual tension between them worse.

* TraumaticHaircut -- Vanye's father hacks off his [[BraidsOfBarbarism warrior's braid]] as an outward and severe sign, easily understood by anybody in Andur-Kursh, of stripping his honor from him and declaring him an [[{{Outlaw}} outlaw]] above and beyond just making him swear [[{{Ronin}} Ilin-oath]].

* MeaningfulName: Morgaine, who's named after the sorceress in the Myth/KingArthur legends, Morgaine, aka Morgan Le Fay.

* IChooseToStay -- Morgaine and especially Vanye want to do this a couple of times, but don't get to. [[spoiler:Jhirun]] and [[spoiler:Kithan]], however, do. [[spoiler:As does Roh.]]
* IDidWhatIHadToDo -- Morgaine explains that with the kind of stakes that ride on her quest to close the gates, she can't afford to be kind or honorable.
* KnightInSourArmor -- Vanye.
* LastOfHisKind -- Morgaine is the last of her kind, both in that she's the last survivor of the team that set out to close the Gates, and the [[spoiler:last of the pre-Qhal race]]. Vanye, meanwhile, is the last of ''his'' kind once they pass the first Gate [[spoiler:except for his cousin, possessed by an enemy]].
* ManlyTears -- "Vanye himself wept; a man might, at such a time." [[spoiler: When Roh goes free.]]
* TheMagicGoesAway -- Morgaine closing the Gates means that all their power is gone, and all, good and ill, that can be done with them.

* MeaningfulName -- Morgaine, who's named after the sorceress in the KingArthur legends, Morgaine, aka Morgan Le Fay.
* MysticalWhiteHair -- Morgaine. The white hair indicates that she's not fully human, as well; it's one of the ways Qhal blood shows itself, though we find later that Morgaine is actually [[spoiler:half-human, half of the lost race that preceded the Qhal]].

* PortalNetwork -- the Gates allow travel between different worlds settled by the Qhal, as well as travel within a world and indeed TimeTravel. The latter part is what especially [[TimeCrash shreds reality]], unfortunately.

* PowerLimiter -- ''Changeling'''s sheath.

* UnresolvedSexualTension -- between Vanye and Morgaine, and how. [[spoiler: Unresolved until [[RomanceEnsues book 4, anyway]].]]
* WalkingTheEarth -- The series dwells at length on the difficulties of poverty, hunger, danger and uncertainty inherent to a life living this trope - across multiple worlds. They don't particularly enjoy it, but it's inherent to their quest and, at least initially, their outlawry. [[spoiler: When Morgaine and Vanye leave Roh to live in Shathan, she tells him that both she and Vanye will [[TearJerker envy him his exile]].]]

* WeaponsThatSuck -- ''Changeling'', Morgaine's crystal gate-sword.
* WretchedHive - Ra-Leth. The credits in the graphic novel [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this.

** The fourth book includes ''arguments'' within the mind of another victim who retains much of both personalities. He's quite shocked to discover that the evil lord he'd battled is [[NotSoDifferent a much more reasonable person than he'd thought]] (despite taking over his body).

* DeadlyDecadentCourt -- The ''Khal'' nobility of Ohtij-in. It is implied that the rest of the Shiua courts run much the same way.