Theme idea, but not sure about it.

[aklingensmith]

I'm trying to come up with more complicated themes and am wondering if this theme would land without a revealer:

Title: I Before E, Except...

QUIETNORTHREIGN
SPIESBLACKBEING
TIEARABIANSHEIK

[mmcbs]

Are those real things? They have no meaning to me.

[aklingensmith]

They are not real things, no. Well, not together.

[mmcbs]

Well to illustrate that the I before E rule doesn't always apply, you need to have "in the language" phrases or things for your clue answers, otherwise it doesn't make much sense. The only exception would be if they are  puns with clues that make them funny.

[aklingensmith]

There is in fact a little pun/wordplay involved, but, as I suspected, it's not immediately obvious. I went ahead and reworked the grid to include two 15-word themers and a three part revealer (that results in some word play). I'm not sure if it's too busy, but it certainly does make the themers make sense.

[spotcatbug]

Took me a while (I just couldn’t give up the search), but now I see the seas in the middles. The first word has ‘i’ before ‘e’ and then there’s a sea and then the second word has ‘e’ before ‘i’. ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’.

Even taking the seas out of the middles, I don’t recognize the phrases. Well, “Quiet reign,” maybe. Still not sure, though. “Spies black” and “Tie sheik” don’t mean anything to me. I don’t think you can just take random “ie” and “ei” words and connect them seas to make your themers. I would like to see the clues, though.

[aklingensmith]

The idea is that the clue would be done in a way that the whole phrase makes sense. What I was curious about is whether the wordplay (essentially it's "I before E except after SEA") would be obvious. I don't think it is enough, so I've tweaked it a bit and have something better I believe