Commonwealth Saga: Difference between revisions

[[File:Misspent-Youth-Commonwealth-3165746-3_3417.jpg|frame|If only everyone could spend their youths as [[Floating Head Syndrome|giant floating heads]].]]

 

 

 

 

Tropes specific to one of the books should be listed on that book's page. Use this page for tropes that describe the Commonwealth Saga as a whole.

 

* [[Absolute Xenophobe]]: The Primes are this. Primes exist as sentient, immobile "immotiles" that control vast armies of sub-sentient "motiles" and battle each other for resources and out of paranoia. You can guess what happened when they started building nukes. Also, the moment one of them {{spoiler|discovers wormhole technology}}, it exterminates all others and starts building a vast fleet in order to kill off every single living thing in the universe, other than itself. Its own psychology and lack of imagination prevent it from realising the utter futility of its endeavour until it is far too late for it.

* [[Alien Kudzu]]: The Primes flood local waters with their base cells, which are essential to reproduction; these invasive organisms kill off most other things that are in the water with them.

** It ends up utterly ''hating'' a certain species of fish for persistently eating its base cells.

* [[All Planets Are Earthlike]]: Averted. Wormhole technology allows the ever present [[Mega Corp|CST]] to use its exploration wormholes to scout new solar systems for "H-congruous" planets capable of supporting human life. The Commonwealth spans a vast amount of space, and most intervening systems between H-congruous planets are untouched completely by humans.

* [[Always Gets His Man]]: Paula Myo fits this trope to a T. Genetically engineered to be an incorruptible super-cop, she has been working for the Serious Crimes Directorate for centuries, and in all that time has only failed to solve ''one'' case. Which she is still pursuing, after a century and a half. {{spoiler|When circumstances force her to decide between arresting the [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] perpetrator and saving the human race from extinction, she suffers a near-fatal nervous breakdown.}}

* [[Augmented Reality]]: Humans can control objects, send messages, and watch emailed videos in their minds thanks to digital implants.

** Several particularly rich and/or tech-savvy humans keep an expanded consciousness that inhabits the computer systems in their home (or whatever local computer processors they're around).

** Not to mention the Silfen, who have three circular sets of razor-sharp teeth (but otherwise come off as space elves).

* [[Bizarre Human Biology]]: Genetic modification allows the realization of a lot of things.

* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: The Silfen, who are largely incomprehensible to humans and have no problem stranding people in weird parts of the universe. It's not entirely clear they understand why this is bad.

* [[Casual Interstellar Travel]]: with trains (and a [[Portal Network]]).

* [[Electronic Eyes]]: [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Virtually]] all citizens of the commonwealth have Virtual Vision, giving them an [[Augmented Reality]] display over their normal vision.

* [[Eternal English]]: Justified. Regeneration allows essentially eternal life - so the centuries old aristocracy maintains the general vernacular.

* [[The Federation]]: The Commonwealth.

* [[Hive Mind]]: Prime Immotiles control their Motile minions via radio receivers implanted into each one, making each Immotile into an intellect spread across a vast number of individual bodies.

* [[Horde of Alien Locusts]]: The Prime.

** While most people accept a clone with a previous memory file as being the same person, the older generations who remember actual mortality don't put as much stock in them, regarding them as just that - a clone with a previous memory. Note that the difference between this and a memorycell is that the memorycell most certainly IS the same person, because it was recording that person's life right up until their death.

*** Well, leaving aside the issue of whether "souls" exist. It's certainly the same person to all outward appearances, though.

* [[Space Amish]]: Ozzie, sometimes. Also, some planets with eccentric owners.

** Also, The Hive, a world where everyone is geneteically programmed to have proficiency in a certain field (ie, doctors, police officers, etc.) The planet is described as beind kept in a [[Medieval Stasis]] of approximately the early 20th century.

* [[Space Elves]]: The Silfen, who are almost physically identical to traditional elves and were the [[Ancient Astronauts|inspiration for elf legends]] (those legends were specifically of [[The Fair Folk]] and their morality proves to be [[Blue and Orange Morality|alien]] in a somewhat similar fashion).

* [[Space Is an Ocean]]: A spaceship is built for exploration (because their wormhole technology doesn't reach far enough). {{spoiler|Then a whole fleet is built for defence and deterrence against spacefaring aliens, and even arkships in case the war goes wrong}}. Somewhat [[Justified Trope|justified]] because the first one was conceived by 21st century astronauts, and they [[Lampshade Hanging|acknowledge]] the fact that the design of both the ships stems from 20th and 21st century science fiction. In the ''Void Trilogy'' (set 1500 years later in the same verse), spaceships are comparable to nowadays ships, in terms of use, design, and diversity.

* [[Starfish Aliens]]: A stranded alien Path Wanderer is too alien for anyone to communicate with or relate to, until Ozzie discovers it communicates with ultraviolet visual signals.

* [[Starfish Language]]: See above.

 

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[[Category:Literature]]