Ciaphas Cain: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"If I had only known what was waiting for me, I would've [insert cowardly and/or self-deprecating action here]."''|'''[[Atop the Fourth Wall|Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.]]'''}}

 

 

In short, he's the type of person guys in his profession are supposed to ''shoot''.

The novels are presented as [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|sections of Cain's private memoirs]], organized, edited, and [[Footnote Fever|footnoted]] by [[State Sec|Inquisitor]] Amberley Vail, Cain's occasional liaison both professionally <ref>he and his regiment occasionally help the Inquisition, either as cat's-paw or heavily armed backup, and she's who he calls when he finds something that falls under the heading of "the Inqusition's problem"</ref> and personally.

 

 

'''<big>The novels</big>'''

* ''Death Or Glory'' is essentially a prequel, detailing Cain's first rise to prominence during the Ork invasion of Perlia. Shot down behind enemy lines, he begins gathering up survivors into a makeshift convoy and traveling towards safety. Though he stumbles upon a number of fortuitous circumstances (such as what looks like a clandestine research lab under a dam), he really has only one goal in mind: saving his own skin...

* ''Duty Calls'' picks up with Cain still in the 597th, but carries on from where ''Death or Glory'' left off; it forms the middle book of a trilogy. Called to handle a genestealer infestation and associated tyranid hive fleet, Cain finds himself press-ganged by Amberley into helping her search for the people who ran that clandestine research lab. They have taken from it an artifact which could alter the very fate of the galaxy...

* ''The Emperor's Finest'' details Cain's experiences serving with a chapter of [[Space Marines]] while clearing out a [[Derelict Graveyard|Space Hulk]].

* ''The Last Ditch'' once again sees Cain fighting alongside the Valhallan 597th to defeat an Orkish uprising on Nusquam Fundamentibus, during the course of which he uncovers something ({{spoiler|a long-buried Tyranid bioship}}) that casts new light on an old foe.

* ''The Greater Good'' shows a Tyranid threat so great that the Tau, in the midst of fighting the Imperium over a certain planet, [[Enemy Mine|ask for a truce and alliance]]. The story calls back as much as sixty years to ''The Emperor's Finest'', as Cain is working with the same Astartes chapter, as well as to ''For the Emperor'', since the Tau liaison is one Cain met in that book, and ''The Last Ditch'', because {{spoiler|some of the Mechanicus have been '''really''' too intent on [[For Science!]]}}

 

 

* "Sector Thirteen" involves Cain investigating a brothel where several of his men got into trouble. What he discovers is that it's actually the center of a genestealer infestation. He and Jurgen now have two priorities: wipe out the genestealer cult, and--more importantly--survive.

* "Traitor's Gambit" finds Cain on a planetary inspection tour aboard the governor's luxurious yacht... which is immediately commandeered by a group of pro-Tau terrorists. He and Jurgen must find a way to stop the enemy from using it as a [[Suicide Attack|Suicide Attacker]] on the Imperial fleet -- while somehow avoiding death themselves.

 

 

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{{tropelist}}

* [[Abhorrent Admirer]]: In a non-romantic example, Cain considers Sulla as this. She, of course, remains completely unaware of what he thinks, and sees him as a mentor.

* [[Absolute Cleavage]]: When Mira introduces herself, she is wearing a [[Ermine Cape Effect|stylized outfit]] resembling a [[Bling of War|garish military uniform]] that is cut a little too tight around the chest for her [[Buxom Is Better|endowment]]<ref> And being the daughter of a planetary governor, it was almost certainly deliberately tailored that way</ref> which she resolves by leaving the top several buttons undone. According to Cain, other items of her wardrobe tend toward being [[Impossibly Low Neckline|low-cut]], so this is something of a stylistic theme with her.

* [[Anachronic Order]]: The first three books are in chronological order, the fourth is a prequel, the fifth takes place between books two and three, the sixth takes place in the WH40K universe's "present day" long after the events of the rest (although the last three all focus on his part in a single larger story), the seventh takes place between book four and book one, and the eighth (Which notably involves his second campaign on a specific world when the story of his first trip there has yet to be published) takes place after the third, but still half a century before the sixth. The short stories are in equally random order, ranging from Cain's first allegedly heroic deed as a Commissar to a story taking place a decade before the sixth book. In-story, the Cain Archive Amberley is editing the stories from is described by her as "consisting merely of a single dataslate, stuffed full of files arranged with a cavalier disregard for chronology, and to no scheme of indexing that I've been able to determine despite prolonged examination of the contents." Also, the editing and release of Cain's memoirs is done at Vail's sole discretion, such as expanding upon [[Plot Hole|Plot Holes]] in previous books (''Duty Calls'' was used to resolve a dangling plotline in ''Death or Glory'').

* [[Apocalypse Wow]]: Cain's {{spoiler|Necron tomb-killing}} promethium bomb in ''The Caves of Ice'' is powerful enough to launch debris into orbit, where it buffets his fleeing troop ship. That would probably manage to squeak onto the [[Apocalypse How|Class 0 minimum requirements]] were the planet reasonably civilized beyond the sole refinery (which was consumed in the blast entirely).

* [[Armour Is Useless]]: Averted. Cain takes to wearing carapace armor under his coat from ''For The Emperor'' onwards, which helps on several occasions. Armor has also saved some others' lives.

** Played straight with the Reclaimers and genestealers in "The Emperor's Finest".

*** Or "cruiser" could just be short for "battlecruiser".

** Cain and a few other characters mistakenly thinking that any ship used by Space Marines is called a Battle Barge, as opposed to a distinct class.

** Later in the same book, Cain marvels at a pile of demo charges that could take down an Ork Gargant. Jurgen agrees if the Orks had a Gargant... and if the Tyranids hadn't eaten all the Orks.

* [[Assassin Outclassin']]: Cain survives three distinct assassination attempts in ''Duty Calls''.

* [[Attack! Attack! Attack!]]: The Battle Sisters in ''Duty Calls'', until Cain reminds them of other duties. Also, orks, tyranids, necrons and Khornates.

* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: [[Exploited]] by Cain in ''Duty Calls'' when he realizes that the Battle Sisters are about to be overrun by Tyranids, which would have the effect of causing the entire defensive line to fold. He doesn't know who's in charge, so he picks the group of Sisters that have racked up the highest body count. He chooses correctly, as it turns out.

* [[Badass Back]]: At one point in ''The Traitor's Hand'', Cain attempts to elbow a cultist behind him, then switches to stabbing his chainsword under his arm into the cultist's chest.

* [[Badass Grandpa]]:

** Cain himself in ''Cain's Last Stand''. Even at more than a century of age and well into his ostensible retirement, Cain is still ''quite'' capable of the handing of asses back to their owners. It also helps that thanks to juvenat treatments, he is physically the equivalent of an extremely fit 50-something man, [[Older Than They Look|including in appearance.]]

* [[Badass Longcoat]]:

** Like the sash and cap, this is a standard part of Cain's uniform.

* [[Bearer of Bad News]]

* [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]]: Cain and Mira.

* [[Better to Die Than Be Killed]]: {{spoiler|Commissar Donal}}.

* [[Big Beautiful Woman]]: Mira is described as having inherited a slight tendency toward weight from her father. She apparently carries that [[Buxom Is Better|weight]] [[Curves in All the Right Places|quite well]].

* [[Big Bulky Bomb]]: Multiple instances:

** He pulls another stunt like this on Nusquam Fundamentibus, where {{spoiler|he essentially triggers a volcanic eruption to kill a buried Tyranid bioship before it can summon more of its kind}}.

* [[Big Dam Plot]]: Cain destroys a dam to escape an Ork army in ''Death Or Glory''. He later rigs another one (its replacement) in ''Cain's Last Stand'', but it fails when {{spoiler|Necrons arrive to claim the Shadowlight and jam the detonation signal}}.

* [[Bling Bling Bang]]: Amberley's power armor is gilded so much it looks like it's made entirely of gold from distance.

* [[Blood Knight]]: Lieutenant Sulla is either laudably eager to destroy the enemies of the Emperor, or a borderline [[Leeroy Jenkins]], depending on whom you ask. Cain definitely leans toward the latter view, but her eventual promotion to general officer rank, and more significantly her troops' high morale and confidence in her abilities, suggests that the former is more accurate.

** The scrumball is [[Truth in Television]]; participation in sports is actually mandatory in many present-day military academies.

* [[Boring but Practical]]: Cain reflects in ''The Last Ditch'' that many commissars favor bolt pistols as side arms for their well known loud and messy effects adding to their intimidation factor. Cain contrasts this with his humble laspistol, which though not as impressive, is something he rarely has to worry about running out of shots for at an inopportune moment, making it better suited for keeping him alive in the field than an ammunition-dependent projectile weapon might be.

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: In ''The Emperor's Finest'' a decidedly meta footnote in Chapter 7: {{spoiler|''The irony of this statement seems to have eluded Cain entirely, though not, I suspect, most of my readers''. In-universe this refers to fellow inquisitors but the passage this footnote refers to fits the most common complaint in RL about the Cain series.}}

* [[Brick Joke]]:

** In ''Caves of Ice'', Scrivener Quintus, in his idiosyncratic minutes of a meeting to assess the Ork threat on the refinery, offhandedly mentions that Broklaw fired his bolt pistol into the air to call the meeting to order. Later on, {{spoiler|when Cain arrives after learning of the Necrons, he gets freaked out at the large blast hole in the ceiling, which Broklaw refers to like an inside joke}}.

* [[The Brigadier]]: Lord General Zyvan.

* [[Children Are Innocent]]:

** Even Cain is horrified in ''Duty Calls'' by the realization that Killian abandoned children to a Tyranid attack.

{{quote|"The tracks on the Land Raider crush the heretics, crush the heretics, crush the heretics. The tracks on the Land Raider crush the heretics all day long..."}}

* [[Clean Cut]]: In ''Duty Calls'', Cain manages to score one of these on an assassin using his chainsword.

* [[Closest Thing We Got]]: Ariott is pressed into service as the caravan's medic in ''Death or Glory.'' He's actually a vet.

* [[Cold Sniper]]: Sorel, in ''For The Emperor''.

{{quote|'''Captain Durant''': The one in the fancy hat wants to know if you've wired up his gadgets.}}

** Also:

* [[Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like]]: The ultra-religious Tallarns, or at least Asmar and Beije in ''The Traitor's Hand'', call it ''blasphemy'' that Cain had his dropship land on part of a monastery because he was in a hurry to get there to save them. The part in question was the ''vegetable garden''. Then they don't even help fix it.

* [[Compromising Memoirs]]: Cain wrote a set, [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|which we're now reading]].

* [[Continuity Nod]]:

** Commissar Forres hastily retracts an accusation of cowardice in ''The Last Ditch'' after she learned that the last time a Commissar insulted Colonel Kasteen, Cain challenged said Commissar to a duel. This was Tomas Beije, towards the end of ''The Traitor's Hand''.

* [[Convection, Schmonvection]]: Explicitly [[Invoked Trope|invoked]] and [[Averted Trope|averted]]. Once Cain claims that a plasma bolt missed by a millimeter. Amberley points out that he would have suffered flash burns that close, so he [[Unreliable Narrator|must have been exaggerating]].

** Those [[Retired Badass|awesome four]] are hardly the [[Two-Teacher School|only teachers in the schola]], and Cain does mention that he wouldn't really bother with the rest of the faculty. And even with the above three, he doesn't really give a picture of their teaching styles.

* [[Cosmic Plaything]]: Cain repeatedly comments that if the Emperor is actually watching him, He has a sick sense of humor.

* [[Covers Always Lie]]: Boy, do they; the cover artist deliberately presents Cain in the overblown style of the [[Contemptible Cover|propaganda posters]] the character so often ends up on. Thus, the laspistol-wielding, cover-seeking Cain is depicted boldly leading his men, and even [[Guns Akimbo|dual-wielding]] [[Hand Cannon|bolt pistols]] [[Atop a Mountain of Corpses|while he stands on a pile of enemy dead]]. Also, none of the covers include the red sash Commissars wear as part of their uniform, and which is a minor plot point in ''Cain's Last Stand''. Cain is also depicted as being hugely muscled, although given his daily chainsword practice regimen and feats with the weapon in-story that's not much of a stretch.

** Hypotheses aside, one of the few things we do know for sure about Cain's physical appearance is his imposing height -- Amberley in one book clearly states that Cain was just under two meters tall and invariably among the tallest in any group of people.

** Jurgen's melta is frequently used for this.

* [[Dying as Yourself]]: {{spoiler|Commissar Donal}}.

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: Although we recognize it also depends of his luck.

* [[Elite Mooks]]: The PDF in ''Cain's Last Stand''.

* [[Emergency Presidential Address]]: Played with, as the governor's speech [[Epic Fail|is a complete failure]] ([[Is This Thing On?|and not even rehearsed]]), demonstrating just how out-of-it the governor is (and with a name like Merkin [[George W. Bush|W. Pismire the Younger]], take a wild guess [[Take That|who he's supposed to be...]]).

* [[Field Promotion]]: Cain hands these out in ''Death or Glory'' and ''Cain's Last Stand''.

* [[Fiery Redhead]]: Kasteen and Magot.

* [[Fire-Forged Friends]]: The entire Valhallan 597th in general. Kasteen and Broklaw in particular.

* [[First-Name Basis]]

* [[Flower in Her Hair]]: Amberley sports one briefly in ''Duty Calls''.

* [[Food End]]: To date, six out of eight books have ended with a mention of food or drink. The exceptions are ''Cain's Last Stand'' and ''The Last Ditch''.

* [[A Friend in Need]]: Kasteen and Broklaw, at the end of ''Traitor's Hand''.

* [[Friend or Foe]]

* [[Gainaxing]]: A rare written example. On multiple occasions, Cain uses some variation of the word "undulating" to describe Mira in motion.

** Another mentions a woman running as setting off interesting oscillations in her uniform. [[All Men Are Perverts|This is while the ship they're on is exploding, mind you.]]

* [[Geo Effects]]

* [[Glamorous Wartime Singer]]: {{spoiler|Amberley Vail's disguise when Cain first met her.}}

* [[Gone Horribly Right]]: Cain explain chaos cults thusly in ''Cain's Last Stand'':

* [[The Greatest Story Never Told]]: The heroic exploits of Gunner Jurgen, acknowledged by few and told by none besides Cain himself.

* [[Happy Fun Ball]]: The Shadowlight. The core of it is naught but a slab of dark stone roughly the size of an Imperial data-slate. {{spoiler|It's really a psychic power-boosting [[Artifact of Doom]].}}

* [[Hard Head]]: Subverted, hard, in ''Duty Calls'', where a minor concussion puts Cain out of commission for three days and enlivens his life with nausea and dizziness after. He plays it up and down according to what looks useful, and other character are anxious to remind him that he does not in fact have a [[Hard Head]].

* [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: Averted. Cain tells {{spoiler|Emili}} that he prefers blondes {{spoiler|before he shoots her}}, and later falls for the blonde Amberley. He does admit that he finds Colonel Kasteen, the red-haired colonel of the Valhallan 597th, to be quite attractive, but never follows up on it because of how that would complicate their working relationship. Finally, in ''The Traitor's Hand'', Commissar Tomas Beije seems to be assuming that Cain is having an inappropriate relationship with Corporal Magot, who is also a red-head. He's very wrong; Magot's [[Psycho Lesbian|"preferences ran in an entirely different direction"]], and Cain "only has room for one lethally dangerous woman in [his] life."

** Techpriest Killian saving Cain in ''Echoes of the Tomb''.

** Cain clearly views the destruction of his escape pod during a landing where the passengers survived as this, gushing about the autopilot's great valor.

* [[Hollywood Tactics]]: The fresh-out-of-the-schola Commissar Forres seems more concerned with driving troops to show their valor and be willing to sacrifice themselves for the Emperor than actual efficient strategy. Kasteen calls her out on this, pointing out that using ''actual'' tactics tends to result in higher damage inflicted on the enemy while incurring fewer casualties, which in the long run counts more than just trying to show off one's courage.

* [[Human Shield]]: Cain's professed motive for saving many people is that they will be between him and the guns. This is subverted in ''Cain's Last Stand'', {{spoiler|where he thinks that everyone between him and Varan is one more person for Varan to turn against him}}.

* [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face]]: In ''The Last Ditch'', "Jinxie" Penlan accidentally discharges her lasgun while using its buttstock to try to unjam another weapon. Fortunately it hits an ork (Who then crashes its flier into the middle of a swarm of orks), so it works out for her in her typical fashion.

* [["I Know What We Can Do!" Cut]]: At the climax of ''Cain's Last Stand''. Cain tells them what they can do, tells us that they opposed it, but does not tell the reader until he actually does it: {{spoiler|he calls up Varan and proposes a meeting to discuss surrender terms. Specifically, terms for ''Varan's'' surrender}}.

* [[I Meant to Do That]]:

** Most notably in ''Fight or Flight''.

** The melee fight at the end of ''Death or Glory''.

** A number of Cain's achievements involve things turning out better than expected for him, and then not correcting people who believe that he planned it that way.

* [[If I Wanted You Dead...]]: The [[Big Bad]] of ''Duty Calls'' says so to Cain.

* [[Impossibly Cool Clothes]]: Mira owned a dress that was pretty much only held up by static cling. In Amberley's footnotes, she said that she used to own one of those, but it was wrecked in a firefight. She never bothered to replace it, because the few places you could hide a gun in a dress like that were rather uncomfortable.

* [[Lantern Jaw of Justice]]: Most of the covers have Cain's [[Commissar Cap]] obscure the top half of his head, leaving only his [[Judge Dredd]]-esque chin to inspire the masses.

* [[Last Stand]]: Cain's gotten at least two of them in the same location... and he seems a bit annoyed that people keep calling them that.

* [[Leeroy Jenkins]]:

** Cain considers Lt. Sulla to be one, worried that in her eagerness to smite the enemies of the [[God-Emperor]] she is going to get herself and ([[It's All About Me|more importantly]]) Cain killed. He also holds this opinion about Sisters of Battle, considering them [[Knight Templar|so fanatical]] as to be unreliable at holding to a plan, saying the best you can do is [[Giving Someone the Pointer Finger|point at the enemy]], yell "[[Berserk Button|Heretic!]]", and let them [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|do their thing]].

** Brought up in ''The Traitor's Hand'', when Cain claims that the Imperium needs its generals but can always get another commissar. Zyvan disagrees: "Not like you, Ciaphas," a comment which genuinely surprises Cain.

*** Similarly, in ''Duty Calls'' Cain expresses surprise that a psyker tried to assassinate '''him''' rather than Zyvan or the planetary Arbites chief. Amberley notes he doesn't seem to realize he's so popular with the [[Imperial Guard]] that his death would seriously damage morale.

* [[My Friends and Zoidberg]]: Cain's [[Fake Ultimate Hero]] reputation causes him to regularly apply this to ''himself'' in his narration.

{{quote|'''Cain''': This was a job for Zyvan's tame psykers, and no business of honest men. Or me.}}

* [[Old Retainer]]

* [[Our Zombies Are Different]]: {{spoiler|They can still talk and think and shoot lasguns, though they believe that loyalists are only following the False-Emperor rather than the "[[Plaguemaster|True-Emperor]]"...}}

* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: The ''shadowlight'' from ''Duty Calls'' is so ominous, it's never referred to with a capital letter and always in italics. This changes in ''Cain's Last Stand'', where they actually use Caps as Shadowlight (might be ShadowLight)

* [[Percussive Maintenance]]: Apparently the most reliable way to fix the resolution on a hololith. If you're particularly good at it, it may mean you have a religious (i.e., [[Machine Worship|techpriest]]) vocation.

* [[Politically-Incorrect Villain]]: [[Unknown Rival|Beije]] is a textbook case of a secondary character who goes from a minor obstacle for the heroes to deeply unlikeable after spouting off at the mouth.

* [[Porn Stash]]: Jurgen is almost never without at least one "porno slate".

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Lord General Zyvan telling the [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|Administratum]] people that if they aren't happy with his decisions they can bitch about it to the Tyranids.

** [[In-Universe]], "scumsucker" is apparently a ''very'' serious insult, at least in the hive Cain ([[Unreliable Narrator|may or may not]]) be from.

** Attempted by an orc in ''Death or Glory'', didn't work because he's an orc and Felicia just stepped out of his way (on a mecha, that is).

* [[Rare Guns]]: An in universe example in that twin-linked heavy bolters are not the standard turret armament on Chimera armoured transports, multilasers are. However as forge worlds churn out ''billions'' of both, not that rare.

* [[Realpolitik]]: The Tau justification for partially occupying the planet in ''For The Emperor'' is the protection of their trading interests. Cain doesn't buy it, as the Imperium has used a similar justification to gain a foothold before taking over. Of course, it's his job to shoot anyone rude enough to point this out.

** Also, he's told that the Imperium are desperately keen to avoid having to defend Gravalax from outright invasion by the tau, as it would be a drawn-out war of attrition for a largely insignificant backwater, and a drain on resources needed to fight the tyranids and necrons, in contrast to the rhetoric that the Emperor's mighty forces will defend his territory anywhere in the galaxy.

** Beije never did well at it, possibly because he was enthusiastically tackled by everybody whether or not he had the ball.

* [[Seeking Sanctuary]]

** That, and he knows he can't simply resign his commission with the commissariat. If he were to attempt it, they would shoot him, and not even a planetary governor would be able to stop them.

* [[Sensor Suspense]]

** The fourth book has this, when he's in an escape shuttle that's being attacked by an Orcish fighter (since it most likely has very close ranged weapons its appearance on the pod's radar is the same as it would be for a missile).

** Also present in ''The Emperor's Finest'', which sees Cain boarding a space hulk alongside a chapter of Space Marines.

* [[Serious Business]]: Among the Valhallans; snow-sculpting, snow forts, [[Snowball Fight|Snowball Fights]]... pretty much anything involving snow and/or the killing of Orks.

* [[Shadow Archetype]]: Lady General Jenit Sulla, to a certain extent. In battle, she's everything Cain is: decisive, (presumably) a deft hand with weapons and charismatic enough to get people to follow her into certain death. Both of them achieve high position and a fair amount of fame. Personally, she's everything Cain is ''not'': selfless, dutiful and loyal. She does from selflessness what Cain does for manipulation. And the best part? ''[[Hoist by His Own Petard|He created her]].'' It's just after their first conversation in ''For The Emperor'' that she begins her climb towards glory, spurred on by his ([[Motivational Lie|fake]]) confidence in her. And she does it by imitating him.

{{quote|'''Sulla:''' "I just asked myself what the commissar would have done."

* [[Ship Tease]]: Some of the later interactions between Kasteen and Broklaw seem to indicate that they've taken a liking to each other. Cain [[Jossed|Josses]] any such implication between himself and Kasteen... assuming that he's telling the truth and [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|Cain was the one who actually wrote that bit]].

* [[Shout-Out]]: [[Ciaphas Cain/Shout Out|Enough that it has its own page]].

* [[Shrug of God]]: Sandy Mitchell says he doesn't know whether Cain is the [[Dirty Coward]] he claims to be, or is selling himself short.

* [[Single Biome Planet]]: The Valhallans are ice-worlders and have a habit of setting their air-conditioning to levels that makes the breath visible. Being assigned to Simia Orichalcae, the iceworld in ''Caves of Ice'', brings them evident joy.

{{quote|"Perhaps one owed him money..."}}

* [[Shaggy Search Technique]]: Most of Cain's most pivotal discoveries are made when he tries to run away from something else. Another notable practitioner of this is "Jinxie" Penlan, who discovered an ambull tunnel in ''The Caves of Ice'' by falling through the floor into it and [[Noodle Incident|once triggered a landmine by throwing away an empty food tin]].

* [[Snowball Fight]]: With an Ork WAAAGH! due in a day or so, the Valhallans decide to spend their down-time having one. You can't really blame them, since its been a long while since the ice-world soldiers have found themselves in natural snow.

* [[Sociopathic Hero]]: [[Cold Sniper|Maxim Sorel]], who ends up stabbing a man to death in a brawl simply "because he didn't see any reason not to". Following the court-martial for the above infraction he is sentenced to death by taking on a suicide mission alongside Cain. This does not stop Sorel saving Cain's life and makes him {{spoiler|one of two convicts out of the original five who do not go rogue or get subverted by the enemy}}.

* [[So Proud of You]]

* [[Sour Supporter]]: Kolfax in ''Death or Glory''.

* [[Stiff Upper Lip]]: Cain manages to successfully convince others he has this. (See also [[Pre-Mortem One-Liner]].)

* [[The Stoic]]: Jurgen. When Cain writes an emotive scene where they're stuck in a corner, about to torn apart by ravening hordes of tyranids, Jurgen will placidly comment "Bit of a mess", as if he's offering Cain a sandwich. This also makes Cain keep his cool, as the commissar can hardly appear less composed than his aide. Also, Malden the Psyker, from the third book.

* [[Strictly Formula]]: Said formula being old Victorian and early 20th-century juvenile adventures such as the [[Tom Swift]] series. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|Not that that's a bad thing]].

* [[Stylistic Suck]]: This pops up in multiple ways:

* [[Tall, Dark and Handsome]] / [[Tall, Dark and Snarky]]: Cain passes himself off as the former in public but is at heart the latter, as his memoirs amply demonstrate.

* [[Talking in Your Dreams]]

* [[Tarot Motifs]]

* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: At one point in ''The Traitor's Hand'', a World Eater Chaos Marine gets killed "with satisfying thoroughness" by two krak missiles and a lascannon blast, any individual one of which would be enough on its own.

** ''The Traitor's Hand'', once as a quotation, once by Beije - see [[Malicious Slander]].

* [[Tomboyish Ponytail]]: Jenit.

* [[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]]: The plot of ''Death Or Glory''.

* [[Tsundere]]: Sulla, in ''For The Emperor'', starts by showing oposition and dislike of Cain's decisions on the regiment -- in front of other officials -- but she eventually asks him privately, in a rather nervous and shy way, for a chance to show her value as a soldier. Cain of course takes the oportunity to act magnanimously, [[Manipulative Bastard|and get one more person disposed to cover his back]], which make Sulla all the happier.

{{quote|I'm sure most of the men in the galaxy are familiar with the sinking feeling that accompanies the words 'Do you think you could do me a little favour, darling?', but when the woman doing the asking is an inquisitor it's even less wise than usual to say, 'No.'}}

* [[Unfriendly Fire]]: Cain's main justification for treating the troopers well is avoiding this. He also suspects Colonel Mostrue, his first commander, of attempting [[The Uriah Gambit]] from time to time. In ''Duty Calls'', he comes to suspect that some of the PDF ''did'' try this. {{spoiler|He's right - and they had orders.}}

* [[Unwanted False Faith]]: Cain never found out, but one of the Tallarn witnesses to a battle where he beat down a Daemon Prince wrote a book about the experience and started a minor branch of the Imperial faith that worships him as a physical manifestation of the Emperor's will.

* [[Upper Class Twit]]: Cain's opinion of nobility in general and planetary governors in particular. It's played with throughout the series, but especially with Mira in ''The Emperor's Finest''; while she's certainly arrogant, pushy, dense, and condescending, she's also capable of handling herself in a firefight, among other things.

* [[The Vamp]]: Emeli.

* [[Verbal Judo]]: In ''For the Emperor'', Cain defuses a riot just about to begin, when everyone's attention happens to focus on him so that he can't just sneak out, by confusing the participants by suddenly starting to give orders to clean up the mess.

* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|Why Did It Have to Be Necrons?]]: Necrons are to Cain what snakes are to [[Indiana Jones]], and with good reason.

* [[Wire Dilemma]]: In ''The Traitor's Hand''.

* [[Woman Scorned]]: Taken to extremes in a manner only the ''40K'' universe could in the third novel.

* [[The Worf Effect]]: Whenever Cain ends up facing Tyranids or their Genestealer agents, he will ''always'' make a reference to the time he was on the space hulk ''Spawn of Damnation'' and saw Space Marines in Terminator armour get shredded by a bunch of purestrains, as a shorthand of reminding himself and the readers of how dangerous they are. <ref> This only applies to accounts set chronologically after aforementioned adventure in the space hulk, of course.</ref>

** To the surprise of exactly no-one but the Tallarns and their commissar, the girl goes after him at the first opportunity. To the surprise of no one, Magot easily beats the warp out of the Tallarns' best fighter. ''He'' then gets in trouble because Magot has a higher rank than him.

* [[You Are in Command Now]]

* [[Your Favorite]]: At the end of ''Caves of Ice'', Cain has spent the last several days helping Amberley deal with the aftermath of {{spoiler|his discovery, and destruction, of the Necron tomb}}. The last night before he leaves, he takes the liberty of ordering food, because she's been busy; he gets her ackenberry sorbet, which he indicated "hadn't been hard to remember" was one of her favorite foods. (Amberley, editing as usual, puts an abrupt end to Cain's narrative at this point, because though she admits that Cain continues for several more paragraphs, "[[Sexy Discretion Shot|it only covers personal matters of no interest to anyone else.]]")

* [[You're Not My Type]]: In "The Beguiling," Cain uses this as a [[Bond One-Liner]] when he shoots a chaos cultist who tried to seduce (and allow a demon to possess) him.

 

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[[Category:Literature]]