“There are two kinds of black plants that you’ll commonly see in your travels. The first evolved on the worlds of ember stars, where the primary’s light is relatively dim and much of it in the low-energy red and infrared parts of the spectrum, and so the plants
Kill It With Fire: Played straight in both senses. The Empire is certainly happy to use flamethrowers and other Fire Breathing Weapons, fire bombs, fire sheets, and other kinds of fire in war, not because it’s tremendously efficient (it’s not) or because things are Immune To Bullets (they
Memeweave: Extranet Meta/Extranet Service Notifications/Open Access Classification: WHITE (General Access) Encryption: None Distribution: Everywhere (Bulk) As received at: SystemArchiveHub-00 at Víëlle (Imperial Core) Language: (various local)->Universal Syntax (at source)->Trade Key window phrases: extranet expansion, Sullen Wildlands, clueless bloody outies, spam Time of
Deadly Euphemism: Outside certain specialized and arguable applications, the Imperials don’t really go in for euphemisms. Some of their terms sound a bit like euphemisms, but “erased” reflects the technical difference between cognicide and corpicide – namely, that you have to kill people in the information-theoretic sense (see: Final Death)
“Are you sure this will work?” “Well, no, it’s an experiment.” Brandel held up his hands, warding off the glare thus produced. “But the theory is sound. We’re never going to find out more unless we move it in vivo.” “The theory is barely formed.” Soléä 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
“While there is almost certainly a group analogous to, say, ‘Focus on the Family’ 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.” “(They’re 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 “copper”; and their range of hair colors runs approximately
“Unique among the eikones in this respect – 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 – Elmiríën 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 it’s 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 – the kind which, as matters which offend everyone’s sensibilities tend to do, are applied ecumenically even to non-signatories – 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