Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Darwath

 Darwath
type
TVTItem
 Darwath
label
Darwath
 Darwath
page
Darwath
 Darwath
comment
Darwath is the setting of a series of fantasy novels by Barbara Hambly, initially a trilogy in the 1980s, followed by various later sequels. The Darwath trilogy — The Time of the Dark, The Walls of Air, and The Armies of Daylight — tells the story of Gil and Rudy, two ordinary Californians who are recruited by the wizard Ingold Inglorion to help save his world from the Dark. Mother Of Winter — Ancient aliens are terraforming the world back into its ancient form, with only Ingold and Gil to stop them, while Rudy uncovers the origin of the Keep's power. Icefalcon's Quest — The Icefalcon must return to his roots to rescue Prince Tir. Pretty Polly (short story) — Gil starts having strange dreams about her past when people in the Keep of Dare start dying. Rumors of a strange monster abound just as Ingold goes missing.
 Darwath
fetched
2023-06-15T22:43:45Z
 Darwath
parsed
2023-06-15T22:43:45Z
 Darwath
processingComment
Dropped link to CthulhuMythos: Not a Feature - ITEM
 Darwath
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Darwath / int_11bc87bc
type
Comic-Book Fantasy Casting
 Darwath / int_11bc87bc
comment
Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Ingold Inglorion is very obviously the late Sir Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, brown robes, beautiful voice and all.
 Darwath / int_11bc87bc
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_11bc87bc
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_11bc87bc
 Darwath / int_21d70919
type
Crapsack World
 Darwath / int_21d70919
comment
Crapsack World: Darwath is being invaded by flesh-eating Lovecraftian monsters, but that's just their top problem; also, their world is sliding into an Ice Age, and the Church is zealously destroying the wizards and magic-tech that are the only things that just might save them.
 Darwath / int_21d70919
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_21d70919
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_21d70919
 Darwath / int_2933bdf5
type
Genetic Memory
 Darwath / int_2933bdf5
comment
Genetic Memory: The kings of Darwath inherit the memories of their ancestors. It's why Eldor is killed or so we think and why baby Altir becomes a Living MacGuffin, as those memories include how the Dark was defeated last time. It's initially thought that only the men have this ability, until Minalde starts getting visions of her own.
 Darwath / int_2933bdf5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_2933bdf5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_2933bdf5
 Darwath / int_3787fba
type
Extradimensional Power Source
 Darwath / int_3787fba
comment
Extradimensional Power Source: In Mother Of Winter, Rudy uses 1-dimensional strings to gather preservation magic, a 2-dimensional circle to summon animals, and a 3-dimensional sphere to summon water and rehydrate potatoes. The secret to using magic from 4-dimensional objects is passed down to Ingold for the finale.
 Darwath / int_3787fba
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_3787fba
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_3787fba
 Darwath / int_43955609
type
Extradimensional Emergency Exit
 Darwath / int_43955609
comment
Extradimensional Emergency Exit: Ingold pulls two Extradimensional Escapes early in the opening book of the Darwath trilogy, "The Time of the Dark": He "crosses the void" to Earth from the fall of the palace at Gae with Prince Tir, to shield him from the Dark Ones. When a Dark One tracks him to California in our world, he crosses back to Darwath, taking Gil and Rudy with him to get them out of a burning cabin.
 Darwath / int_43955609
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_43955609
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_43955609
 Darwath / int_4441d947
type
The Storyteller
 Darwath / int_4441d947
comment
The Storyteller: Gil becomes quite well known among the guards for retelling Earth fiction during the long dull hours of guard duty, to the point that they become quite familiar with tales of time machines, transporters, and starships.
 Darwath / int_4441d947
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_4441d947
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_4441d947
 Darwath / int_52196c03
type
Age-Gap Romance
 Darwath / int_52196c03
comment
Age-Gap Romance: Between Gil and Ingold. It takes a while to get off the ground precisely because of this.
 Darwath / int_52196c03
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_52196c03
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_52196c03
 Darwath / int_52748705
type
Bamboo Technology
 Darwath / int_52748705
comment
Bamboo Technology: Gil builds a tricorder from spare parts in the Keep. It Makes Sense in Context.
 Darwath / int_52748705
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_52748705
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_52748705
 Darwath / int_5539b84f
type
Corrupt Church
 Darwath / int_5539b84f
comment
Corrupt Church: Darwath has a generic "The Church" that frequently makes Our Heroes miserable, having as a central tenet of its faith that wizards are evil and soulless. It also generates some interesting Church vs. State conflicts regarding food distribution and legal jurisdiction, wrangles between two bishops — the compassionate Maia of Thran (an ex-soldier) and the fierce ascetic Govannin Narmenlion, who is less 'corrupt' than utterly convinced of the rightness of her beliefs — and is, on occasion, somewhat helpful by providing historical records.
 Darwath / int_5539b84f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_5539b84f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_5539b84f
 Darwath / int_558f5da6
type
Cryptic Conversation
 Darwath / int_558f5da6
comment
Cryptic Conversation: This is Ingold's favorite method of teaching wizardry. Rudy gets a full dose of it during their journey to the Wizards' City of Quo in The Walls of Air.
 Darwath / int_558f5da6
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_558f5da6
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_558f5da6
 Darwath / int_69391768
type
Expecting Someone Taller
 Darwath / int_69391768
comment
Expecting Someone Taller: In The Time of the Dark, when Rudy sees a young woman being given lots of bossy instructions when she takes the baby heir to the throne out for a bit of air, Rudy assumes the girl is the most junior nursemaid. She's the Queen.
 Darwath / int_69391768
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_69391768
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_69391768
 Darwath / int_69dff6df
type
Fantasy Counterpart Religion
 Darwath / int_69dff6df
comment
Fantasy Counterpart Religion: Incidental details scattered throughout the books indicate that the Church of Darwath greatly resembles the medieval or early-Renaissance Catholic Church. There are bishops, priests, monks, churches and monasteries. The Church preaches against luxury and in favor of self-discipline — and of course it's bitterly opposed to any kind of magic.
 Darwath / int_69dff6df
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_69dff6df
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_69dff6df
 Darwath / int_73733868
type
Awesomeness by Analysis
 Darwath / int_73733868
comment
Awesomeness by Analysis: Gil sifts through old fashion catalogs, fairy tales, old diaries, and other minutia no one paid attention to and figures out from context clues that the monsters were never actually defeated the first time and their current emergence is part of a natural cycle.
 Darwath / int_73733868
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_73733868
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_73733868
 Darwath / int_82d2715f
type
Magitek
 Darwath / int_82d2715f
comment
Magitek: There's an abundance of Lost Technology that runs on magic, ranging from data crystals to holographic interfaces to the Keep itself.
 Darwath / int_82d2715f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_82d2715f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_82d2715f
 Darwath / int_8774fb47
type
Eldritch Abomination
 Darwath / int_8774fb47
comment
Eldritch Abomination: The Dark Ones are an entire species of these. They have no solid body; they're as flexible as an octopus. They're natural flyers, by some completely unknown means. They have their own kind of magic and they can suppress human magic. There is no evidence they're native to the world of Darwath. Worst of all is what Rudy sees when he visits a Nest of the Dark and gets deep enough into it to see the Dark Ones' nursery. When another wizard asks him about it afterwards, he won't talk about what he saw beyond a single question: "Do you know what a tarantula-wasp is?"
 Darwath / int_8774fb47
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_8774fb47
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_8774fb47
 Darwath / int_8797239c
type
Bait-and-Switch
 Darwath / int_8797239c
comment
Bait-and-Switch: On Earth, Gil Patterson is a graduate student in medieval history, while Rudy Solis is an auto mechanic. When they cross to the medieval, magic-using realm of Darwath, one would expect him to become a warrior and her to become a mage. Just the opposite actually happens: Gil discovers a knack for the sword and joins the elite fighting unit called simply "the Guards" (although she never stops being a scholar), while Rudy finds that he's mageborn and becomes an apprentice wizard with Ingold as his teacher.
 Darwath / int_8797239c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_8797239c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_8797239c
 Darwath / int_add931af
type
I Choose to Stay
 Darwath / int_add931af
comment
I Choose to Stay: Both Gil and Rudy have found reasons to stay in Darwath by the end of the trilogy.
 Darwath / int_add931af
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_add931af
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_add931af
 Darwath / int_aeb9527
type
Data Crystal
 Darwath / int_aeb9527
comment
Data Crystal: The earlier human civilization that built the Keep of Dare used magitech data crystals to store information. No one ever figures out if there's an audio track.
 Darwath / int_aeb9527
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_aeb9527
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_aeb9527
 Darwath / int_b2280b66
type
Retcon
 Darwath / int_b2280b66
comment
Retcon: The 5th book just casually mentions that there's been disembodied 'demons' everywhere, all throughout the series. Everyone just ignores them, so thoroughly that they were never mentioned. The only reference is an occasionally mentioned 'demon-catcher', sounding similar to an American Indian dream-catcher in our world.
 Darwath / int_b2280b66
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_b2280b66
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_b2280b66
 Darwath / int_b426973b
type
The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body
 Darwath / int_b426973b
comment
The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: A strong-enough wizard can shape-change into any kind of animal, but they run the risk of becoming that animal in mind as well as in body, and losing their awareness of their own humanity.
 Darwath / int_b426973b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_b426973b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_b426973b
 Darwath / int_b58642b1
type
Trapped in Another World
 Darwath / int_b58642b1
comment
Trapped in Another World: Gil and Rudy. It's not that Ingold can't take Gil and Rudy back to Earth, but if they don't deal with the Dark first there's the risk of the Dark learning how it's done and coming to eat Earth.
 Darwath / int_b58642b1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_b58642b1
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_b58642b1
 Darwath / int_b9e8ad28
type
The Multiverse
 Darwath / int_b9e8ad28
comment
The Multiverse: Ingold explains the Void as a sort of super-universe that contains many separate, more or less parallel universes. When Gil and Rudy are in Darwath, Gil notices that the stellar constellations look similar to Earth's, suggesting that Darwath is a parallel Earth. All of the animals and plants of Darwath are also analogs of known Earth animals, save for a few that were obviously created by magic.
 Darwath / int_b9e8ad28
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_b9e8ad28
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_b9e8ad28
 Darwath / int_c1b7d6e2
type
Wizard Classic
 Darwath / int_c1b7d6e2
comment
Wizard Classic: Ingold Inglorion is a classic fantasy wizard — a wise old man, robed and hooded and sporting a thick white beard, carrying a long staff that he uses to focus his magic, who serves as a guide and source of ancient knowledge for the younger characters.
 Darwath / int_c1b7d6e2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_c1b7d6e2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_c1b7d6e2
 Darwath / int_c3478f1d
type
Badass Bookworm
 Darwath / int_c3478f1d
comment
Badass Bookworm: Gil defied her parents to go to college and finish her degree, and once in Darwath she becomes a very capable warrior, earning the epithet Ice-Spear.
 Darwath / int_c3478f1d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_c3478f1d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_c3478f1d
 Darwath / int_c3d20e77
type
Tulpa
 Darwath / int_c3d20e77
comment
Tulpa: The Mother of Winter dreamed her three guardians into existence. Or possibly they dreamed her into existence. At any rate, the four exist independently of each other, with the guardians deciding to get rid of the humans.
 Darwath / int_c3d20e77
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_c3d20e77
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_c3d20e77
 Darwath / int_c95d04f2
type
It Can Think
 Darwath / int_c95d04f2
comment
It Can Think: At first the Dark are considered to be simple monsters, no more intelligent than predatory animals. Then they make and execute a complex plan to kill the infant Prince Altir and his mother in a way that looks like an accident. About the same time, Ingold and Gil discover that long ago, the Dark lived on the surface and even built cities. Late in the second book, Ingold and Rudy discover that the Dark Ones have a Hive Mind, and any human wizard who shapechanges into a Dark One loses his or her individuality and becomes part of the mass-mind forever.
 Darwath / int_c95d04f2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_c95d04f2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_c95d04f2
 Darwath / int_da41243d
type
Spoiler
 Darwath / int_da41243d
comment
Spoiler: The Pretty Polly short story references key points from the last two novels.
 Darwath / int_da41243d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_da41243d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_da41243d
 Darwath / int_dfe120e5
type
Functional Magic
 Darwath / int_dfe120e5
comment
Functional Magic: Mages possess an inherent gift, which must then be developed with training in Rule Magic.
 Darwath / int_dfe120e5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_dfe120e5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_dfe120e5
 Darwath / int_name
type
ItemName
 Darwath / int_name
comment
 Darwath / int_name
featureApplicability
1.0
 Darwath / int_name
featureConfidence
1.0
 Darwath
hasFeature
Darwath / int_name
 Darwath / int_name
itemName
Darwath

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Darwath
hasFeature
Addictive Magic / int_3831f526
 Darwath
hasFeature
Bait-and-Switch / int_3831f526
 Darwath
hasFeature
Comic-Book Fantasy Casting / int_3831f526
 Darwath
hasFeature
Cryptic Conversation / int_3831f526
 Darwath
hasFeature
Data Crystal / int_3831f526
 Darwath
hasFeature
Extradimensional Emergency Exit / int_3831f526
 Darwath
hasFeature
Magic Staff / int_3831f526
 Darwath
hasFeature
No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup / int_3831f526
 Darwath
hasFeature
Single-Precept Religion / int_3831f526
 Darwath
hasFeature
Wizard Classic / int_3831f526