Perry Rhodan: Difference between revisions

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Over time (over the course of the entire series so far, more than three thousand years pass in-universe), Earth and its colonies evolve into a major power in their own right while other space-faring races lose some of their traditional influence. It is revealed that all the various human races of the Milky Way galaxy - such as Terrans and Arkonides (who had founded a short-lived colony called Atlantis on Earth roughly 8,000 B.C.) - are closely related and technically part of one species. They are descendants of the Lemurians, the First Mankind, who fled Earth 50,000 years ago during a galactic war with an alien species and settled in Andromeda.

Several major outside threats are faced and eventually defeated, alien races are discovered and befriended as allies, then a ''successful'' invasion of extragalactic origin forces the Terrans to flee along with their homeworld. That event kind of marks the turning point towards events of more 'cosmic' significance and contact with high-tech civilizations and cosmic entities far ahead on the [[Abusing the Kardashev Scale For Fun ~~And~~ Profit|Kardashev Scale]]...and I've only covered the issues up to about #700-#800 yet.

Several major outside threats are faced and eventually defeated, alien races are discovered and befriended as allies, then a ''successful'' invasion of extragalactic origin forces the Terrans to flee along with their homeworld. That event kind of marks the turning point towards events of more 'cosmic' significance and contact with high-tech civilizations and cosmic entities far ahead on the [[Abusing the Kardashev Scale For Fun and Profit|Kardashev Scale]]...and I've only covered the issues up to about #700-#800 yet.

A freeware video game was also made. To be found [http://www.perry-rhodan-game.de/index.php?lang=en here].

[[Perry Rhodan ~~(Literature)~~/Characters|There is a character sheet for more details.]]

[[Perry Rhodan/Characters|There is a character sheet for more details.]]

[[Perry Rhodan ~~(Literature)~~/Recap|There are summaries for the arcs of the series.]] (work in progress)

[[Perry Rhodan/Recap|There are summaries for the arcs of the series.]] (work in progress)

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=== Tropes used in the ''Perry Rhodan'' series include: ===

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* [[Artificial Gravity]] - Of course. (''Anti''-gravity technology is regularly used in lifts and vehicles as well.)

* [[Artificial Human]] and [[Mechanical Lifeforms]] - Sometimes justified by adding a token organic component to their otherwise-computer brains, sometimes played dead straight.

* [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence]] - Too many examples to list, both individual cases and whole species. Practically the basis for the struggle between different "ascended" cosmic alien powers that is underlying the series setting.

* [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]] - Too many examples to list, both individual cases and whole species. Practically the basis for the struggle between different "ascended" cosmic alien powers that is underlying the series setting.

** Basically anyone or anything can ascend under the right circumstances: {{spoiler|Rat-like space-vermin}} (Seth-Apophis), {{spoiler|sentient potted plants}} (It), {{spoiler|alien museum guards}} (Seelenquell), you name it.

** In fact, ascended beings can ascend again (matter source/sink). And again (cosmocrats/chaotarchs).

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* [[Humans Are Special]] - Played straight at the beginning, where songs could almost be written about how Terrans are competent and benevolent in comparision to the other races and how they have the most promising future. Downplayed later.

* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]] , The Uleb (aka The Time Police) hides their facilities inside hyperspace itself.

* [[Immortality]] - [[Touched By Vorlons|Granted to Perry Rhodan and other cast members by a]] [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] [[Touched By Vorlons|early in the series]], though the numbers have long since been whittled down. Other individuals or species encountered may also be immortal or at least have significantly extended lifespans.

* [[Immortality]] - [[Touched by Vorlons|Granted to Perry Rhodan and other cast members by a]] [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] [[Touched by Vorlons|early in the series]], though the numbers have long since been whittled down. Other individuals or species encountered may also be immortal or at least have significantly extended lifespans.

* [[Inertial Dampening]] - Ships routinely accelerate at hundreds of kilometers per second squared (ten thousands of Gs), so this is about the universe-wide default.

* [[Kill All Humans]] - Early in the series, the Posbi race (''Pos''itronic-''bi''ological robots) introduced itself by going on a rampage to exterminate every intelligent species that wasn't like them. They got better (and are now Terra's allies), but from time to time similar motivations pop up elsewhere.

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* [[Spin-Off]] - Atlan, the immortal Arkonide, got his own spin-off series. Twice. Probably because he is an [[Action Hero]] and way more popular than Rhodan himself.

* [[Stealth in Space]] - Deflector shields

* [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] - Plenty, although they tend to remain Powers That Be in the background. (The ''really'' advanced ones are beings [[Ascend to A Higher Plane of Existence|ascended to a higher plane of existence]] and implied to plan on a timescale of millions of years and thus have trouble with quick responses.)

* [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] - Plenty, although they tend to remain Powers That Be in the background. (The ''really'' advanced ones are beings [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|ascended to a higher plane of existence]] and implied to plan on a timescale of millions of years and thus have trouble with quick responses.)

* [[Teleporters and Transporters]] - Teleportation is a known [[Psychic Powers|psionic power]] in the universe, and matter transmitters are commonplace. Most of the latter require both a sender and a receiver, but the 'transform cannon', a fairly widespread weapon, is essentially a transmitter used to teleport fusion bombs. (It cannot directly penetrate modern shields, however, and it's strongly implied that the rematerialization process is imperfect, thus it isn't used for transporting troops.)

* [[Throwaway Country|Throw-Away Planets]]. And on at least one occasion, a throw-away ''galaxy''.