I Got a Key to the Kingdom Lyrics, Family

On the first day, in that location was a mystery.
On the second day, there was darkness.
On the 3rd day, there were pirates.
On the fourth day, at that place was war.
On the 5th day, there was fearfulness.
On the sixth day, in that location was sorcery.
On the seventh solar day, there was a choice.

— Keys To The Kingdom

A fantasy series of seven books by Garth Nil, consisting of Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday, Drowned Midweek, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday, Superior Saturday, and Lord Sunday.

At the epicentre of the universe is The House, a non-afterlife Celestial Bureaucracy created by The Architect to exist responsible for recording everything that happens in the rest of the universe, the Secondary Realms. After the disappearance of The Architect, the 7 nearly powerful citizenry of The Business firm determine non to appoint a mortal from the Secondary Realms as the Rightful Heir in accordance with The Will she had left behind, but instead to intermission and imprison The Will in seven parts and keep the power of the titular Keys To The Kingdom for themselves. Ten thousand years after, Role Ane of The Volition escapes its imprisonment and is partially successful at tricking one of the trustees into handing over role of his Key to a mortal Rightful Heir, Arthur Penhaligon. Initially reluctant, Arthur is charged with defeating each of the trustees and claiming their Keys. Even so, he likewise discovers difficulty non only with the Business firm and its residents, merely also with the fact that he may or may non be coming dwelling house...

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This series provides examples of:

• Adults Are Useless: The main heroes are children and the Citizenry of the house are either too stupid or stubborn (or corrupt, or bureaucratic, or evil) to change anything. The Piper'due south Children are too shown to be much more helpful to Arthur than about Denizens. On the other hand, pretty much all the adult humans in the story are shown to exist competent or fifty-fifty Reasonable Potency Figures.
• Aliens Love Homo Nutrient: Despite the House existence the epicenter of the universe, the Denizens are infatuated with simple Earth food such as tea. This is justified in that people do not actually need to swallow in the House and only do and then for entertainment, making the consumption of food all the more than rare.
• Alternate History:
  • Arthur'due south globe is about the aforementioned as ours, except it was the scene of a devastating plague that prompted the government to accept the hard line on whatsoever epidemic.
    • However, it may not apply. Arthur'due south hi-tech cast in Drowned Wednesday, and the fleetingly mentioned electronic newspaper are 2 examples of futurity applied science, meaning that the plague could be a future event, and the story is set 20 Minutes into the Future.
  • When Leaf thinks about people walking on the moon, she recalls Chinese astronauts.
• Apocalypse How: Class Z-1. If the Firm is consumed by Nothing, Earth and the residuum of the Secondary Realms will be gone as well. Specifically, if the Unequalled Gardens are destroyed. First thing in, last affair out. The only exception is the New Architect holding the 7 Keys, who can so start over in rebuilding everything from Nothing.
• Applied Phlebotinum: "Nada", the stuff from which everything is fabricated and everything will eventually return. It tin can do a variety of things, by and large destroy anything if given plenty time and course foreign "Nithlings" if combined with normal matter. Information technology'due south besides an important — but dangerous — component in many spells.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Beingness: Arthur at the end of Lord Lord's day becomes the new Architect, with the power to remake the universe out of Zip.
• Say-so Equals Asskicking:
  • The way the Firm'southward bureaucracy works. Each Citizen has a number representing how close they are to being full authority. Superior Sabbatum is number one — more powerful entities exist, simply they're not Denizens.
  • There'southward not really any reason to say Sabbatum is the highest because those higher than her aren't Denizens; Arthur isn't a Denizen, but still has a position in precedence. Indeed, nearly the get-go of Sir Thursday, Arthur's precedence within the House is explicitly given as six. Ane can speculate as to who the five to a higher place him are; Sir Th, Lady Friday, Superior Sabbatum and Lord Sunday are the obvious candidates for 4 of them. Who the other i is remains a mystery, though the Builder, the Mariner and the Old One are all possibilities.
• Automaton Horses: The Not-Horses used past the Glorious Army of The Architect are a literal example. They take a tough, metal skin, run for much longer than a normal equus caballus, and can go without sleep for a week. They do however require regular care, including a wire castor to ward off rust. They besides accept names and enjoy beingness petted, Arthur gets to ride one called Sqwidge.
• "Awkward Silence" Archway: In Lady Friday, the members of the Glorious Ground forces of the Architect in the operations room of the Star Fort fall silent and stand at attending when Arthur enters the room, prompting Arthur to quickly tell them to carry on.
• Badass Normal: Leaf qualifies equally this, especially by the terminal book. Poor girl barely even knew Arthur and still got dragged into his adventures. She survives existence kidnapped and shanghaied into serving on a ship, she goes up confronting Lady Friday to rescue her aunt, and she befriends Daisy and returns to the House to try and help Arthur. She even manages to take a nuclear attack on her hometown in footstep, rescuing and caring for all the old folks Fri's been stealing memories from.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Dame Primus, aka The Architect, ultimately succeeds in manipulating everyone into destroying virtually the entirety of the Firm and the rest of the universe. Becomes a Bittersweet Ending as she leaves behind enough data and tools to rebuild everything.
• Batman Gambit:
  • See Who Wants to Alive Forever?, beneath. If Arthur realized at any point what was going on, there is no way he would have gone through with it and the Architect'south plan would have been ruined so. Even so, she's able to exist enough of a Manipulative Bastard that he'south non able to figure out the truth in time.
  • Despite the fact that it looked like Lord Sunday had plenty of fourth dimension to tell Arthur when he was trying to convince Arthur to give him the Keys. In fact, telling him the truth could perchance have convinced him. Nevertheless he didn't do it. Subsequently all, Dominicus'due south sin is pride...
• Bears Are Bad News: Function Two of The Volition.
• The Beautiful Aristocracy: The higher-ranking Denizens. The more than power or authorization a Denizen has in the house, the taller and more than attractive they are; this becomes a painful complication for Arthur later on equally the magical contagion in his body accumulates and begins to transform him into something similar a Denizen: he occasionally grows several inches, or has his teeth and jaw motion effectually abruptly to a more than perfect position which human bodies are non supposed to exercise.
• Bigger on the Inside: Practically every edifice in The Business firm is bigger on the inside than on the outside.
• Big Bad:
  • The pirate Feverfew is this in Drowned Wednesday, and the title graphic symbol of each other book in the serial is the big bad of that book.
  • In add-on, Superior Sabbatum is responsible for bad things that happen in multiple books.
  • Dame Primus, aka the Will of the Architect, aka The Architect is ultimately responsible for the destruction of almost the entire universe, the House and the deaths of all simply a scattering of characters in a Who Wants to Alive Forever? gambit.
• Big Good:
  • Dame Primus. Even so, Arthur suspects she'south really not acting in his best interests at all. He'southward right, in a roundabout sort of fashion.
  • The Mariner is one of the most powerful beings ever, being a son of the Architect, and helps out Arthur. However, he keeps reiterating he's trying to be neutral.
• Bittersweet Ending: Sure, Arthur is God AND gets to be a normal boy at the same time, and Suzy gets a scrap of happiness, merely that doesn't change the fact that sooner or after normal Arthur is going to realize he's non mortal, and in the meantime, there's the expiry of all only most FIVE denizens AND Arthur's mother to worry about (though the House will probably be reconstructed quickly).
• Claret Magic: Suzy uses Arthur'southward blood to close a "weirdway", since he's the Master of the Lower House.
• Brainless Dazzler: Almost Denizens.
• Bright, just Lazy:
  • Mister Monday. Although the "vivid" function isn't actually shown.
  • Lord Sunday to an extent, being too proud to actually practise anything until it's too late only perchance the almost powerful Denizen in the House.
• The Telephone call Knows Where Yous Live: Arthur initially ventures into the Firm looking for a cure for the Sleepy Plague, caused by the Nithlings sent to retrieve Arthur's part of the First Key.
• Call to Agronomics: The New Nithlings decide that they would rather exist farmers than soldiers. Non that they have a selection in the matter.
• Capital Letters Are Magic: All over the identify.
• The Key Virtues: The seven parts of the Will of the Architect, taking anthropomorphic forms, each embody the 7 Christian Virtues. This is in opposition to the Morrow Days, the Arc Villains of each book, who are plagued with one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
  • The First Part (The Frog) represents Fortitude, being the well-nigh proactive and biggest take a chance taker among the Wills.
  • The Second Part (The Conduct) represents Prudence, making it come up off as Insufferable Genius who has more of import things to do than directly assisting the heroes.
  • The Fourth Role (The Serpent), represents Justice, displaying a strong sense of For Great Justice where it seems more interested in punishing an evildoer rather than dealing with a more than firsthand threat.
  • The Fifth Part (The Beast), represents Temperance, being far more agreeable and patient than previous parts of the Volition.
• Celestial Hierarchy: The House is one, dedicated to observing, recording and properly archiving all of beingness. A lot of Denizens' magic and power to act depends on the proper paperwork being filled out and correct procedure being followed. Information technology doesn't function very well, mainly because of abuse and incompetence:

  Arthur shut his optics for a moment. He couldn't believe he was beingness told about an accounting problem in the epicentre of the universe, in the Firm on which the entirety of creation depended for its continuing beingness.

• Cessation of Existence:

  Arthur What would have happened to me if I had died?
  Volition: You'd be dead. What do you hateful?
  Arthur: I hateful... where am I now? Is there some sort of life after expiry? If the Builder created everything...
  Volition: There is no afterlife that I know of. There is Nothing, from which all things once came. There is the House, which is abiding. There are the Secondary Realms, which are ephemeral. When yous are gone from the Secondary Realms that'southward it, though some say everything returns to Nix in the end.

• Chained to a Rock:
  • The Old One, a Prometheus-similar character (or peradventure the existent bargain) is chained to a clock, from which wooden puppets announced every twelve hours to remove his optics, which abound back painfully over the next few hours. Reinforcing the Prometheus similarities is that it used to be his liver that was taken before his eyes (may or may not have been by a vulture).
  • Arthur gets chained to a smaller version of the Old One's clock in Lord Sunday.
• Chekhov's Gun
  • The Compleat Atlas of the House is a pretty major one; in Lord Dominicus Arthur uses it to, ahem, remake the Universe.
  • And the convalescent seed pod, since Daisy is ane.
  • Arthur finds his lost toy elephant from early on babyhood and accidentally brings information technology to life several books afterwards at a vital moment.
• Chekhov's Hobby: Fred'south ability to sign to the Winged Servants of the Night.
• The Chessmaster: The Builder and Dame Primus.
• The Chosen One:
  • Arthur, the Rightful Heir. Arguably deconstructed, since he was chosen because he was well-nigh to die, and Monday would promptly get the key dorsum.
  • Actually implied to exist reconstructed, since The Volition was influencing Mon to choose him, and probably knew that the Central would heal him plenty that he could fulfill his role.
• Co-Dragons:
  • Each Morrow Mean solar day has or had 3 specific 'superior Citizenry' which count as their 2nd in control (Noon, Dawn, and Sunset).
  • Grim Tuesday took his three Denizens, melded them into ane and then separated that into seven, calling them Grotesques and giving them each unlike names. It'due south unknown what time they can exist on Globe.
• The Collector: Grim Tuesday and Lord Lord's day.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of the Morrow Days has three powerful servants, a Dawn, a Apex and a Dusk. Dawns all accept gold tongues, Noons all have silver tongues and Dusks all have black tongues.
• The Abuse:
  • A Muggle using Functional Magic will accumulate a buildup of sorcerous taint, eventually transforming them into an immortal Citizen.
  • On a side note, the Volition is revealed to take done this to the Trustees, and information technology's implied they weren't one-half as bad beforehand as they were during the series. Mon's Dusk is the simply one who truly seems to be aware of this, though. There'southward a fairly blatant hint in Sir Thursday, where the titular Trustee'southward optics are shown to be xanthous. Then the Fourth Office of the Will turns out to be a serpent.
• Artistic Sterility:
  • Grim Tuesday can copy anything, but can't make anything original.
  • In Lord Sunday, the Architect states that Denizens in general are incapable of creativity. In fact, this is the whole reason why the Rightful Heir has to be mortal.
  • Defied by The Piper, who purposely gives his creations the ability to learn like mortals.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Several examples, but primarily Monday'due south Dusk and the Servants of the Nighttime, who both help Arthur.
• "Day of the Week" Name: The Trustees.
• Dimension Lord: Lord Dominicus.
• Discard and Draw: Arthur does this with the Keys.
• Does This Remind Y'all of Anything?: "Experiencing" calls to listen drug-taking very apace, particularly when you read Lady Friday's reaction to it.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Sir Thursday, in a particularly nasty variation; he beats his subordinates when he gets angry and once killed ii Piper's Children in a fit of rage.
• Eldritch Abomination: Nithlings are a byproduct of proto-creation-stuff being let into the House. Have varying intelligence, all of them very, very, ugly. Except for the New Nithlings. They just look like ordinary humans with a tentacle or two.
• "Stop of the World" Special: At the end of the serial, Arthur becomes the successor to the Architect and is given the opportunity to replace the universe that was just destroyed. Instead of starting from scratch, he but recreates the old universe.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • In the 7th book, after the Piper tries to dispense Arthur into giving upwardly the Keys 1 last time, Lord Sun tells him, in brusque, to shut upward and deal with it.
  • Besides in the seventh volume, Lord Dominicus tells Arthur that he won't stoop to hurting random mortals in social club to force Arthur to give him the keys. Although he seems to consider Arthur's female parent to be fair game.
• Evil Overlord: All the trustees except Wednesday.
• Evil Is Sterile: It is mentioned that but The Architect, The Old I, or humans can create annihilation original. The Denizens tin only copy things they've seen. This becomes important afterwards.
• Evil Twin: The Skinless Boy, a clone of Arthur created by Saturday to blackmail him into giving up the Keys. He has a nasty Mind Control ability.
• Exactly What It Says on the Can: The Compleat Atlas of the Firm and its Immediate Environs is a pretty literal name from the start, just by the end of the series, the extent to which information technology is literally "Compleat" is turned Up to Xi.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Happens to Arthur a lot. This is because he is the Rightful Heir, and the higher someone'southward rank in the house, the taller and more beautiful they are.
• Explosive Leash: The collars that children in the Piper's army had written onto their necks, which threatened to strangle them if they were disloyal.
• "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: In a submarine crewed by Rats, swallowed past a kilometres-long whale.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Elements of Christian theology, Aboriginal Greek myth, and European folklore are all present in the House. The protagonist actually meets the Pied Piper, the Ancient Mariner, and a towering old human being who is suspiciously similar to Prometheus.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In Sir Th, Dame Primus says that she suspects that the Trustees "take been influenced or induced to behave as they practice, with the ultimate aim existence the complete and utter destruction of the Firm - and with it, the entirety of creation." Information technology is the Will that's influencing them for that exact purpose! Even more dramatically, if y'all pay attention to the precise wording and punctuation in Dame Primus's alphabetic character in Drowned Wednesday, you may notice that she explicitly names herself as the Architect.
  • Despite all the pieces of the Will being male person, Dame Primus is female. This is considering the Architect is female person.
  • The name "The Will of the Architect" ends up meaning something different than first idea. While it seems to be a will every bit in testament, it ends up proving to be more along the lines of "the Architect'south will exist washed".
• Genki Girl: Suzy (who is also a Plucky Girl).
• Genre Savvy:
  • Arthur spends most of the series making friends with diverse Denizens. He does the aforementioned in the Gardens in Lord Sunday, and his new friend leads him exterior. Straight into a trap. It turns out the gardening boy is really Lord Sunday in disguise.
  • When Arthur barters information from the Raised Rats, they hold on a three-questions-iii-answers-each type of agreement. Arthur, however, is quick to inquire for clarification whether there is a "play a joke on" to it, such as if request that particular question counts, or whether it's only significant questions. Information technology'south the latter.
• A God Am I: A side event of using sorcery, not simply for mortals, but having information technology on call seems to impact the thinking of many senior Denizens as well.
• Slap-up Big Volume of Everything: The Compleat Atlas of the House and Immediate Environs.
• Greenish Rocks:
  • Zero (that is, Nothing with a capital North - a fictional substance) can practice anything needed for the plot - from dissolving stuff, powering machines, or turning you into a mouse for a day.
  • Also the Keys themselves, which can do anything the user demands that is in the user's power, and quite a fleck more.
• Gotta Catch Them All: The Keys To The Kingdom, and the Parts of the Will.
• Have You Seen My God?: The Builder.
• Hazardous Water:
  • The water in Lady Fri tries to drown you if you lot aren't protected.
  • Sabbatum's rain drain would've killed Arthur if he wasn't a Citizen.
  • And if you want to get technical, the rain was Part Half-dozen of the Volition. And the Will was created to destroy all Creation.
• Hippie Parents: Leafage'south parents, who are non merely huge on environmentalism, simply also gave their children some interesting names and keep only wooden utensils and jewellery in the house. It'south unsaid that this runs in the family somewhat, from what Leaf says of her grandmother.
• Honor Earlier Reason:
  • Arthur battles with this after Dartbristle is killed trying to fulfill a task. Despite working for The Piper, Arthur is encouraged by the Volition to finish his last act. All the same, he decides to do it, and accept the consequences afterward because it's what he feels is right. It turns out that it allows The Piper to get into the Upper Business firm. Not great.
  • Despite being the highest in potency of the Dusks, pregnant increasing snobbishness, Lord's day'due south Sunset 'The Reaper' takes time out of his kidnapping of Leafage to help 'a comrade' who is in trouble when in the Front Door. It's the Lieutenant Keeper, and despite the Reaper saying that Dominicus could brand him whole, he dies and passes on his sword and duty to Leaf, scuppering his plan. The Reaper laments on what a mistake this was and merely leaves to report his failure.
• Hour of Power:
  • Noons can simply stay on Earth from noon to one PM. Logically, Dusks and Dawns are under similar restrictions.
  • Similarly, each Trustee can simply visit the Secondary Realms on the day they are named after (Mon on Monday, Tuesday on Tuesday, etc.)
• Humanoid Abomination:
  • The Scoucher, a Nithling with tentacle-arms featured in book two.
    • Even more disturbingly, its description eerily foreshadows the dreaded Slendy...
  • The Skinless Male child counts likewise, every bit information technology's a part-Nithling Evil Twin of Arthur.
• Humans Are Special: Humans are patently the most creative mortals in the Universe, the only ones ever to rival the Architect in creativity.
• I Just Desire to Be Normal:
  • Arthur, once he realizes that The Corruption, above, will eventually go on him from going home.
  • Foliage goes through a more than pocket-size one in Lord Sunday, when she becomes the Doorkeeper for a while.
• Injury Bookend: In Grim Tuesday, Arthur broke his leg and used his residue power from the Starting time Key to heal it, only the bones set all wrong and Dame Primus had to re-break information technology so he could go it properly attended to back on Globe, with a nice niggling nano-enhanced cast
• Innocent Fanservice Daughter: Suzy. She thinks aught of undressing in front of Arthur, and frequently wears shredded or sliced-open wearable. Just then again, she has the body of a kid....
• Insectoid Aliens: In Lord Sunday, Arthur accidentally visits a planet of these using the Improbable Stair.
• Invisible to Normals: Some of the things from the Business firm are this, such as the Fetchers who come to Arthur'southward school in the get-go book. Though Leaf can sometimes see such things, apparently her grandmother was a witch or something.
• Kid Hero:
  • Arthur, evidently.
  • The Piper's Children (nearly notably Suzy).
  • Leaf is 1 in some parts.
• Kill 'Em All: This happens to everything in every universe. Even so, the people in the Secondary Realms come dorsum to life. Most of the Denizens and Newniths in the Firm do not, and neither does Emily.
• Big and in Accuse: A physical law in the House. The more ability or authority a Citizen or beingness possesses, the taller and more beautiful they are, while being demoted makes them smaller and plainer. When Arthur meets Pravuil enslaved in the Coal Pit, he gives him the rank of Sir Pravuil, making him grow a couple of inches. Lord Sunday, last of the Trustees and the most powerful, is ten feet alpine. Every bit Arthur'due south torso becomes more contaminated with magic and he becomes less man and more than like a Denizen, he starts getting taller and more beautiful. This is extremely painful, every bit human bodies are non supposed to grow several inches taller in a few seconds, or have their teeth and jaw suddenly shift to a more perfect position. He becomes twelve anxiety when he becomes the New Architect.
• Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation-Guided Amnesia: Averted in that washing betwixt the ears removes all memories rather than simply the personal identity.
• Line-of-Sight Proper noun: Arthur, to forbid existence noticed, thinks of existence soldier "Ray Green" in Sir Th from seeing the sun's rays and the forest nearby.
• Losing Your Head: Denizens can also survive decapitation, if they get their head reattached to the rest of their body before long enough. If their trunk is not available, they can regrow information technology from simply a head.
• Magic Mirror: The Fifth Key, which allows the wielder to travel, or send someone, to whatsoever place as long equally 1. The person has been there before and 2. Information technology has a reflective surface.
• Magic Music: The Piper's pipes can force Piper'due south Children or Raised Rats to obey the Piper's commands.
• Manipulative Bounder: Dame Primus.
• Matryoshka Object: In Grim Tuesday, Suzy hides a satchel inside ane, with the twist that it'southward in opposite with the innermost doll being the largest.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Piper's Children have their original first name followed by a set of words related to their task (Suzy and Arthur's two imitation names involved ink coloring, while Fred presumably handles adding golden initials and numbers.
  • As well, Arthur Penhaligon.
  • Suzy'due south final proper noun (mentioned once in Mister Monday) is Dyer, which fits the colour stuff that almost Piper'southward Children have going on.
  • Grim'southward Grotesques are named for the Yan tan tethera sheep counting system, though the individual spellings come up from differing regional variants of the organisation, and in fact both Sethera and Azer hateful "six" (Azar, however, does hateful seven).
• Mêlée à Trois: Although it begins with just Arthur VS the Morrow Days, by the final 2 books information technology's at present Superior Sat VS Lord Dominicus VS The Piper VS Lord Arthur, culminating in i terminal showdown in Lord Sunday. When Arthur gets Saturday'southward primal, she is enslaved by the Piper leaving only the 3 sides. The Mariner, who counts as a side by himself, is neutral in all this, but eventually comes over to Arthur'southward side.
• Middle Child Syndrome: Implied with Friday's Dawn, who disapproves of his mistress' practice of experiencing and has never been allowed into her secret fortress in the Secondary Realms, dissimilar her Noon and Sunset.
• Mobile Maze: The Great Maze, the section of the House used to train the Glorious Ground forces of the Architect. Information technology is a one thousand by chiliad grid of i mile by one mile tiles which randomly switch their positions every twenty-four hours.
• Mobile Shrubbery: An illusory 1 is used by Arthur in the Incomparable Gardens, reasoning that a walking shrub won't expect out of place.
• Monster Whale: Drowned Midweek's curse turned her into a Leviathan-sized whale. In this form she's so large that she be get mistaken for an island and her Horror Hunger makes her eat people whole.
• Must Be Invited: the Fetchers, although plain you don't have to ain/live in the edifice to invite them in.
• New Transfer Educatee: Arthur.
• Nice to the Waiter: Arthur is polite to everyone, including those below him. This is such a rare occurence in the House that the phone operators go out of their mode to help him, including defying Sabbatum herself, because he thinks of saying please, and even recognise him but considering he is so polite to them.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: Quite surprising, because the genre of the series, and the fact that Arthur's 2 companions are both girls around his historic period (in Suzy's example, at least physically and emotionally). Romance is not discussed at whatsoever point, and none of the characters even think almost it. Kind of disappointing, really.
• No Proper noun Given: We never find out what town Arthur lives in, or even the country. It's complicated every bit the series is set in an Alternate History. Or twenty Minutes into the Time to come.
  • America, the Great britain, and Australia are all likely candidates, however. References to bushfires and the Australian emergency lines suggest Commonwealth of australia, but pounds are in use.
    • The reference to a "British accent" ought to rule out the Great britain — no UK native would e'er use the term since there are and then many dissimilar British accents.
  • Lampshaded in Lady Wednesday. Arthur's home is described as something along the lines of "Odd name for a boondocks... Never heard of that country before..."
• Noodle Incident: We never discover exactly what the Old One did that pissed the Architect off and then desperately. A rare example of this trope non being Played for Laughs.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Many Denizens, but Matriarch Primus in particular.
• Omnicidal Bedlamite: Dame Primus is the embodiment of the Will of the Architect, and consequently wants to dissolve the whole universe into Goose egg.
• Simply a Mankind Wound: Denizens can survive most wounds that should kill - ane jarring example in particular is in Drowned Wednesday, where Ichabod gets a big splinter right through the stomach... and promptly complains about how that was his all-time shirt. Priorities. One citizen ends up being decapitated, in so much as his body gets dissolved past Nada leaving but his head, and has to spend time regrowing his body. They're resilient alright.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Arthur, except he's twelve.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Lady Friday tin exist interpreted in this vein, but draining emotions and memories rather than claret.
• Out-of-Character Alert: The Volition very well-nigh gets abroad with convincing Monday to manus over the full First Fundamental to Arthur, but in the nick of time Monday remembers that Sneezer is normally "an idiot" and it'southward across suspicious he's all of a sudden come up with what sounds on paper to be such a clever idea.
• Outsourcing Fate: It turns out that the purpose of Arthur'due south quest was to get the new Architect. See the "End of the World" Special entry higher up.
• The Ability of Friendship: Arthur has a habit of making friends wherever he is. Subverted in the concluding book, where his new "friend" is Lord Lord's day in disguise, leading him into a trap.
• Primordial Chaos: The substance called "Nix". It's extremely corrosive, but advanced magic or Heroic Willpower can shape it into material objects.
• Punch-Clock Villain:
  • The New Nithlings are really nice chaps who only serve the Piper because they owe him.
  • A lot of the Denizens belonging to the Trustees come across as this. They're just doing their jobs, because they'll be horribly killed if they aren't. Special mention goes to Sat'due south sorcerers, who will exist encysted into a bag of their ain organs if they disobey her (a procedure they can really survive for months).
• Really 700 Years Old: The Piper'due south Children appear the same every bit when they were offset brought to The House, mostly between the ages of nine and xiii. They have lived in the House for more than than ten thousand years, but due to Year Inside, Hour Outside were taken from Earth about seven hundred years ago. They still act similar children, though.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Mister Monday, the bibliophages, and Part Four of The Volition (run across As well Dumb to Live).
• Retcon: Both when a Spirit-Eater was being described in the Atlas, and when the incident with the Gray Spot was mentioned in the last volume, they said it was mute, notwithstanding Foliage heard it apologizing when it was 'accidentally' bumping into everyone to spread it'southward influence.
• Rule of Cool: Pretty much the unabridged serial.
  • At the end of the series The New Architect is described as wearing "cool sunglasses".
• Save the Villain: Arthur and Mon. This is arguably more of a 'heal the villain' than annihilation else, though.
• Scaled Up: Mister Monday in his ophidian course.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Since the breaking of The Will, each of the trustees has been afflicted past ane of the seven mortiferous sins. In social club of Mon to Dominicus, they stand for Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, Wrath, Animalism, Envy, and Pride.
• Shockwave Clap: Dame Primus does this with the Second Central in Sir Th.
• Shout-Out: Several.
  • Probably the most notable is The Ancient Mariner being a major secondary graphic symbol. And he'south awesome. He likewise has a ship that can canvas in space shaped like a giant turtle.
  • Similarly with the Piper.
  • Subverted, hilariously, when Arthur tries information technology in-canon.

    Ichabod: The ship is still mostly the counting business firm, albeit long-transformed and changed. This room is of the counting house, and so it volition always exist connected somehow. If the passageway falls off, some other way will open up.
    Arthur: Through the wardrobe maybe.
    Ichabod: I doubtfulness that, young mortal. That is where I proceed the Captain'southward apparel. It is not a thoroughfare of any kind.
    Arthur: Distressing. I was only... (trails off)
    (Awkward silence.)

    • The irony is that one of the pathways is through the wardrobe...
  • Arthur spends much of the third book in his dressing-gown.
• Shrouded in Myth:
  • Arthur himself. By the tertiary volume, Japheth has been assigned to writing fictionalized versions of his already fairly impressive accomplishments that portray him every bit seven-foot alpine, and looking something akin to a Greek God. Needless to say, people oftentimes tend to be somewhat disappointed on meeting him in person.
    • Of class, he really does end up looking like this when he becomes the New Architect.
  • The Will is turned into a Frog-Bear; Suzy into an assassin.
• Sibling Rivalry:
  • Mon's Noon and Monday's Dusk.
  • The Piper sees this betwixt himself and Lord Sunday, specially since he thinks that Sunday threw him into the Nothing.
• Sinister Scythe: The Reaper carries one.
• Small-scale Role, Big Impact: Monday'south Dusk (or Noon, after Mister Monday) is the one actually responsible for the entire series, by facilitating the Get-go Function of the Will's escape. After the start book, he is not seen aside from a couple of scenes in Grim Tuesday and Sir Thursday.
• The Smart Guy: Dr. Scamandros, the only Upper House-trained sorcerer outside the Upper House (until Giac in Lord Sun), and who ofttimes helps Arthur with magic and exposition subsequently this introduction in Drowned Midweek.
• The Starscream: Superior Saturday and the Piper
• Steampunk: A lot of the 'technology' in the House is either this or Clock Punk. The Raised Rats tech is virtually all Steampunk.
• Stumbled Into the Plot: Played with in regards to Arthur Penhaligon. While he is The Chosen One for receiving one of the Keys, him being chosen was him being in the wrong place at the wrong fourth dimension, where he was ane of many of a listing of children who were close to death (in his case chronic asthma). The villain, Mister Monday, wished to grant ownership of the Minute Hand to the boy and then reclaim after he died off. All the same he didn't consider not just would Arthur be saved from death by the Key'southward healing powers, simply too that Arthur would choose to use the Cardinal to fight dorsum against his forces and be a hero.
• Supporting Leader: Dame Primus.
• Sword Cane: Saturday'due south Noon and Dusk each accept i.

• Likewise Dumb to Live:
  • Many of the Denizens, much to Arthur'south frustration. Lower-ranked Denizens in item seem to find it all just impossible to exercise anything that they weren't specifically designed for. Many of the former-bureaucrat coiffure of the sailing ship Moth had very petty idea of what they were doing, despite having crewed the send for several one thousand years.
  • Indeed, the reason the Piper created his Children in the showtime identify is that they could really learn. What's more, he's since created a bunch of New Nithlings with that ability - and then much so that they would rather spend their fourth dimension learning new crafts than being Evil Minions.
  • The Will, considering each represents a classical virtue related to the keyholder's sin, but untempered past the presence of other virtues. Specifically:
    • The Offset Office of the Will, which leads Arthur into a trap (Diligence, opposing Sloth, just without patience). The flip-side of this is that the virtue's overabundance of motivation and dearth of sense is also why it escaped while the others had to exist rescued.
    • The Second Function of the Will, which holds a competition to determine who will apply the Key to cease Zippo from consuming the universe (Prudence, opposing greed, but without any particular management, wants everyone to have a fair shot).
    • The Third Office of the Will, which wants to waste time while its worshipers sing hymns and constantly natters on about belief (Religion, opposing gluttony just without diligence).
    • The 4th Role of the Will, which spits acid into the face of the general of a much larger regular army during a ceasefire (Justice, opposed to unthinking wrath, but lacking patience).
    • The Fifth Part of the Volition is the most sensible and personable of its kin, but its laidbackness and personal restraint preclude it from aiding Arthur every bit much as other parts (Temperance, opposing lust merely lacking urgency).
    • The Sixth Part of the Will, which gave Arthur orders he didn't have fourth dimension to follow. As well, its attempt to give Due to the Expressionless to a fallen enemy accidentally allows the Piper to invade the Upper Firm (Kindness, opposing envy only lacking the sense of priorities the other virtues grant).
    • And the Seventh, which escapes by virtue of not existence onscreen enough to crusade bug. Even so, given that it is Humility (opposed to Pride) the fact that information technology's the virtue that Dame Primus has been working without for the entire book is significant.
    • It should be noted that Dame Primus, the composite of the parts of the Will, is much amend about this; at 1 point she refuses to dissever into more than than 2 parts with ii Keys each considering whatsoever less would be an invitation for attack.

• Traumatic Haircut: Subverted, Leaf has to have her hair cut off after the military is tricked into nuking her hometown. The military personnel look her to protest but she surprises them by like-minded to it instantly merely to get it over with, by this time she's got much bigger things to worry well-nigh. The members of the army rescue team she talks to admit that they found the decontamination process to exist pretty atrocious.
• Effort to Fit THAT on a Concern Bill of fare!: Arthur's full championship at the end of the series is "Lord Arthur Penhaligon, Rightful Heir to the House, the Keys of the Kingdom and the Architect, Master of the Lower House, Lord of the Far Reaches, Knuckles of the Border Sea, Overlord of the Swell Maze, Commander in Chief of the Glorious Army of the Architect, Master of the Middle House, Ruler of the Upper House, Lord of the Unequalled Gardens, the Business firm and the Secondary Realms" equally well as existence the New Architect. Call him "Art".
• 20 Minutes into the Future: The scenes on Earth imply it's either this or Alternate History. Or both.
• Unstoppable Rage:
  • Arthur, in some cases when he is using all or almost all of the Keys.
  • Did we mention that Sir Thursday's sin is wrath?
• Uplifted Beast: The Raised Rats.
• The Virus: The Skinless Boy invades the heed of anyone he touches using a parasitic mold, turning them into his servants.
• Virtue/Vice Codification:
  • Each office of The Will represents one of vii virtues, most likely intended as opposites to the 7 Deadly Sins, but differing from the classical Seven Heavenly Virtues. They also refer to the Heavenly virtues themselves in a twisted way that hints at the source of the trouble. In order of Mon to Sunday (classical counterpart in parentheses), they represent Fortitude(Diligence), Prudence (Charity), Religion(Chastity), Justice(—), Temperance (Moderation), Charity(Kindness), and Promise(Humility).
  • As noted in Too Dumb to Alive example above, this is almost every bit much of a source of problems in the house as the vices, and the deviations from the seven heavenly virtues (most notably the substitution of Judgement for Patience as an opposing virtue to Wrath, merely likewise the use of looser protestant virtues in full general rather than their classical counterparts as chief identifiers) are actually clues for the alert reader that something is not quite correct with the Will.
• Voluntary Shapeshifter: Lord Dominicus.
• We Want Our Jerk Back!: When Suzy acts proper, to Arthur's great dismay. (Even if it's just for a short while.)
• Winged Humanoid: Several types of Denizens and Nithlings have wings. Removable wings in varying degrees of usefulness also exist.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Leafage and especially her brother Branch. Seriously, tin you blame the guy for going by 'Ed' instead?
• Who Wants to Live Forever?:
  • The Builder eventually got bored of living and decided she wanted to return to Nothing. But the Old I, who was a part of her, had to be destroyed to in order for her to exist dissolved, and his chains can but exist broken if all of Creation is undone likewise. Thus she started playing Xanatos Speed Chess and created a Batman Gambit; run across below and higher up.
  • Also Arthur, although in his case, his complaint was that the sorcery involved would exit him unable to return home without causing sickness and potentially killing his home town. It's unsaid that this got better, though he is still immortal.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: The Builder fabricated the Will to get the Trustees to carry out her plan to destroy all of Cosmos, just they refused and broke the Will. Still, the Architect and then twisted their natures, corrupting each with one of the 7 Mortiferous Sins, causing them to destroy the Firm anyway. Then she recruited Arthur to end the Will and, even though he resisted every footstep of the way, she managed to manipulate him into completing the Will regardless. Notation that this "Speed Chess" took thousands of relative years.
• X Must Non Win: Funnily enough, Arthur's side could be considered every bit X, since the other main combatants know that if he succeeds, the House will be destroyed.
• Year Inside, 60 minutes Exterior: The House seems to move a lot faster than the Secondary Realms. Suzy was taken from the time of the black plague but mentions having been in the house for thousands of years. Arthur'southward to and fro through the door is explained afterward as the House adjusting fourth dimension accordingly so that the person returns to the aforementioned time as they left. Sorcery can make the door glitch though, and Scamandros mentions having left for a few months and come up back to find only 5 minutes have passed.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/KeysToTheKingdom

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