Deadly Euphemism: Outside certain specialized and arguable applications, the Imperials donât really go in for euphemisms. Some of their terms sound a bit like euphemisms, but âerasedâ reflects the technical difference between cognicide and corpicide â namely, that you have to kill people in the information-theoretic sense (see: Final Death)
âAre you sure this will work?â âWell, no, itâs an experiment.â Brandel held up his hands, warding off the glare thus produced. âBut the theory is sound. Weâre never going to find out more unless we move it in vivo.â âThe theory is barely formed.â SolĂ©Ă€ gestured at
Deadly Decadent Court: Half true. The Court of Courts and its lesser cousins certainly qualify as decadent, inasmuch as (a) those actually involved in the business of government at that level are very generously remunerated in order to (i) remove some of the incentive problems, and (ii) keep up the
âWhile there is almost certainly a group analogous to, say, âFocus on the Familyâ in the Empire, they tend to concentrate on less, ah, obvious moral issues, like cross-species multiple marriages whose topology is only barely representable in three dimensions raising their clone-children in virtual reality.â â(Theyâre for it.
Dark-Skinned Blond / Dark-Skinned Redhead: While, for various biological reasons, none of the natural eldrae races can really manage dark dark skin (see But Not Too White; engineered clades are, of course, a different matter), the lumeneldrae do get as dark as âcopperâ; and their range of hair colors runs approximately
âUnique among the eikones in this respect â although argument continues among a minority of theologians that the Divine Ignition may possess a single Aspect of infinitely variable manifestation rather than an infinite number of Aspects â ElmirĂĂ«n possesses but a single Aspect, befitting his nature as the eikone of order, structure,
Danger Deadpan: The combination of a firm commitment to Stiff Upper Lip and neural-lace enabled electronic emotion management make this trope, if anything, played even straighter than it is in Real Life⊠where itâs already played pretty damn straight.
Slavery violates the Universal Accord on Sophont Rights. It also violates at least half a dozen other solemn articles of interstellar law â the kind which, as matters which offend everyoneâs sensibilities tend to do, are applied ecumenically even to non-signatories â and, indeed, the natural order of things. None of
Cyborg: This is the default state of being for most Imperials, and indeed postsophonts in general. Although in the Empire, it usually takes the form of large numbers of nanosomes and nanocytes, with maybe some subtle and mostly internal implants, on the aesthetic grounds that Giant Robotic Parts are so
âTo propose taking apart, possibly explosively, a star by means of, or to use as, a weapon is to suggest a violation of Tier I, Chapter I, yes, and a serious war crime. Call the chaps at Harmonious Serenity. âTo propose doing exactly the same thing for science, on the
Cyberpunk with a Chance of Rain: Magen (Magen Exodus), throneworld of the eponymous Magen Corporate, is like this. In amusing irony, Magenâs planetary weather was this miserable before the governing cartel of the Associated Worldsâ closest approach to a cyberpunk dystopia got hold of it â not that itâs
âIt wasnât so bad for colony kids; weâd never known anything else. But while we were growing up, we could watch our ship-born parents wince every evening at the thought of eating dead animal and dirt-grown plants. As for what they put on those plants to make them