Since today’s trope-a-day was quite short, and tomorrow’s will be also, I thought I’d take a moment and share my Pinterest board where I stash assorted imagery that I find inspirational, writing-wise, for general delectation. (Note that none of these are my pictures, nor were any drawn/
I Am Legion: Any Fusion (permanent hive mind, although Self-Fusions, being copies of the same mind to start with, often stick to the singular) or conflux (temporary ad-hoc group consciousness), for a start… (Notably, the Transcend as a whole is not known for this: as a collective consciousness of individuals
Hyperspeed Escape: A theoretical tactic, beloved of armchair admirals: drag half of a stargate pair with you to the battle, and then – if you’re losing, or if you’re ambushed – escape through it and disable/collapse it behind you such that the enemy can’t follow. This, of course,
“We believe that for a specialized organ to arrogate to themselves the responsibility and sole right to provide other people’s safety as a matter of course is merely another form of mutually regressive servitude. The enforced helplessness of the protected invites ignorance, vulnerability, and oppression; the hubris of the
Hyperspace Lanes: The Portal Network version, inasmuch as the stargates are entangled potential wormhole termini, and as such, each one only leads to its counterpart. Getting between non-adjacent stars requires a whole lot of in-system travel between gates at the intermediate nodes.
Hunter of His Own Kind: Marginally fulfilled by those members of the ISS Internal Security and Surveillance Directorate, and Fifth Directorate, who deal with the Empire’s little Renegade problem. The downside, as it is occasionally pointed out, of the whole immortal billionaire genius demigod thing, is that when one
Humans Are Ugly: Extending this trope to interspecies relations in general, it is usually averted because the species in question are just too far from each other; by and large we, for example, don’t find earth’s “alien” species – trees, flying fish, pythons, trilobites – ugly, per se, because we’
Humans Are Diplomats: There not being humans, well, no, but since there is greenlife, the diplomatic hat is worn by one of Earth’s species. Well, sort of – diplomacy and community-building is the hat of the dar-bandal, the uplifted dogs, who bring their talents for social cognition to this field
Humans Are Average: Hypothetical, but also subverted. On average, baseline humans are far, far below average. On the other hand, played straight inasmuch as if humans chose to take average advantage of the average enhancement technology available out there once they arrived on the galactic scene, then they would, indeed,
So, in today’s piece of worldbuilding, have an analysis and explication of the different classes – or the different types, rather – of military starships operated by the Imperial Navy. (The basis for the ternary plot I’m using is, of course, Winchell Chung’s analysis here, so you might want
Humanoid Aliens: Do exist (unlike their more human counterparts), in the rough one-head, two-arms, two-legs, optional tail-or-wings sense, which isn’t all that high a standard to meet, and it is a relatively practical body plan, after all. Not, however, the overwhelming galactic majority.
Human Subspecies: Okay, no, since there are no humans. (Or, at least, none worth speaking of.) However, once the genetic engineers really got working, there are literally thousands of eldrae subspecies, galari subspecies, myneni subspecies, kaeth subspecies, esseli subspecies – although, with the esseli, it’s proceeded almost to the point