I saw a link today to this article, concerning the prospect of engineering predation out of the ecology in the interest of eliminating suffering (see also the Hedonistic Imperative), and was reminded of this particularly marvelous quotation from Terry Pratchett (Vetinari speaking): “I have told this to few people, gentlemen,
High Class Call Girl: Absolutely all of them (see: Platonic Prostitution – but this applies even outside that market segment, say with the Eldinimieuthunimis offworld – Band of Brothels, and Unproblematic Prostitution). Given the local cultural attitudes, no-one is interested in servicing the hypothetical low end (at least in the Empire, those
Unproblematic Prostitution: Played absolutely straight in the Empire for all seven of the listed common elements – and mostly straight in those offworld locations the Eldinimieuthunimis is operating in the negotiable affection business and enforcing their cultural prejudices with a will – but it is to be noted that this is very
DROPSHIPS: EMPIRE OF THE STAR The final entry in this section, affectionately known to the Imperial Legions as the “Big Ugly Breakfast 1” – and less affectionately known to almost everyone else as “Good gods, what is that thing?” – is the Flapjack-class cavalry dropship (Eye-in-the-Flame Arms/Artifice Armaments). Uniquely among Imperial
Hidden Elf Village Planet: There are a decent number of these – people who have seen the greater Galaxy and decided that they’d prefer not to have anything to do with it – and they’re often appropriately hard to get to, since most of them exist in systems that don’
Hidden Depths: Demographically, in immortalist civilizations, the average person you meet has centuries of personal history behind them. A lack of hidden depths is really more unusual in those parts, and requires some considerable effort to live out the same decade again and again and again and again…
(This has absolutely nothing to do with my writing, and everything to do with the fact that I play far too much Kerbal Space Program, and am ridiculously susceptible to earworms. And maybe writing it down will at least help with the latter.) The Minmus Colonial Anthem (ttto: the South
It seems perhaps worth, in light of that last trope, describing one of those situations in which the Empire leaves people free to pursue their own foreign policies, if they so desire, so let’s skip right to the big one.  It is, if you will, an argument in two
Heroic Neutral: This is the way the Empire’s foreign policy, to the extent that it has one, is supposed to work. (See Awakening the Sleeping Giant, Hegemonic Empire, et. al.) Of course, where it all falls down is that that’s the way the Empire’s foreign policy is
Heroic Lineage: Arguably exists, since the histories of virtually every eldraeic House includes an adequately large cast of heroic characters. Of course, it’s not In The Blood, as genetic determinism doesn’t actually exist, but it does rather inspire people to emulate their illustrious ancestors.
Henchmen Race: Not unknown, but highly discouraged in the Accord worlds on rights-of-sophonts ground, where it involves modifying or uplifting an existing species. Various people’s bioroids, on the other hand, may appear to play the trope straight, but as usually-non-self-replicating biological robots devoid of any threshold autosentience or self-will
Hellhound: Some of the larger and more militant breeds of bandal are thought to fit this trope, like the Ancyr warhound, but really, they’re just particularly intelligent Big Friendly Dogs. (Unless severely provoked.) Now, in the modern era, when the Imperial military fields entire legions made up of sapient