The Salvation War: Difference between revisions

* [[Body Horror]]: Due to an undiscovered biological mechanism, the Angels are immune to cancer, despite the fact that they [[Healing Factor|heal quickly]] and are essentially immortal. However, those who survived {{spoiler|the nuking of the Incomparable Legion of Light and thus the subsequent radiation bath}} have had this mechanism destroyed. The result is {{spoiler|that the survivors are less "angel" and more "angel-shaped lumps of cancerous tissue". None of them survived.}}

* [[Bond One-Liner]]: Bill Clinton gets one of these in the third chapter, {{spoiler|upon killing a succubus. With a shotgun.}}

** A literal example occurs later, when {{spoiler|the YAL-1 that finishes Uriel explodes just after the Angel of Death dies from a laser to the head, due to a catastrophic rupture caused by the physical strain of trying to turn enough to keep the beam on target}}.

* [[Break the Cutie]]: Mentioned by name regarding one of the drug-addicted prostitute angels at Michael's club.

** Chances of a third book are low however, due to a person creating a torrent of the first two books, resulting in Stuart being unable to sell the series in dead tree form. (Along with all motivation to finish writing the series)

* [[Fragile Speedster]]: A harpy noted that attacking the human fortifications was utterly insane, since the harpies traded protection for speed and the ability to fly. Not that the hardier demons on the ground were doing much better.

** After some discussions about George Washington's [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Public_Law_94-479 rank and seniority]), GEN Petraeus may be looking at either a seventh star or a rather convenient reading of the relevant law, considering that he ''is'' the ''de facto'' "Supreme Allied Commander, Earth ''and'' (parts of) Hell"...

** Major General (and thus Three Star Badass) Asanee, inspired by a real-life person, who pretty much headbutts the Thai Third Army into shape in a matter of minutes with her sheer badassery, and ''only'' playing second fiddle to GEN Petraeus.

** {{spoiler|The entire city of Tel Aviv being sacrificed by the Israeli prime minister so that the human alliance won't suffer a serious fracture.}}

* [[Hollow World]]: [[Word of God]] says that both Heaven and Hell are hollow worlds, where the inhabitants live on the inside of the planet. This was inspired by the common usage that people live "on Earth" and "in Heaven" or "in Hell" together with classical "Golden Age" science fiction that featured hollow worlds. However, the trope is subverted since Heaven and Hell are not so much hollow as complex multi-dimensional shapes (like klein bottles) that have an inner surface but no outer surface. Digging down from Hell doesn't lead to an infinity of rock, it merely brings the digger out somewhere else in Hell.

* [[Humans Advance Swiftly]]: The real kicker for the baldricks and the angels. To beings who were effectively immortal, checking every couple of hundred years was sufficient to make sure the easily-slaughtered cattle were still easily killable, as in thousands of years of technological development mankind went from hitting each other with bronze swords and spears and riding chariots to hitting each other with steel spears and pikes and riding warhorses with couched lances. Two hundred years ago, smoothbore line-of-sight cannons were the most powerful weapon that mankind could field. Then in a single century mankind jumped to using tanks, missile artillery, jets, and nuclear weaponry. That jump is so mind-boggling that the baldricks spend a significant amount of time simply figuring out what happened when they weren't looking.

* [[Humans Are Bastards]]: Subverted. On the battlefield, according to the demons, human are ruthless killing machines. They just won't stop until the opposing army is ''annihilated''. Still, they're also incredibly nice with their prisoners of war, by demonic standards of course. However, Micheal fears that humanity will not be so forgiving to Heaven, since Yahweh basically betrayed them. He figures that the humans didn't really like the Baldricks, but they ''hate'' the angels. The author's said that Michael, aware of lower angelic fertility, fears that angelic casualties on the level the demons suffered during the Curbstomp War would be an extinction event.

** Just came up in the invasion of Heaven as of Chapter 65 of ''Pantheocide'', albeit with more emphasis on the "bruiser," explained [http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?p=3312725#p3312725 here].

* [[Like a Badass Out of Hell]]: Humanity goes the "Takes Over" route, with some help from not-yet-dead compatriots.

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: And how! The Characters page lists most of the major characters, but there are many, ''many'' minor characters.

* [[Magic A Is Magic A]]: In the effort to scientifically justify them, Baldrick/Angelic abilities follow specific rules, particularly portals. For example, portals can only be opened ''between'' dimensions (i.e. from Hell to Earth, or Earth to Heaven, but not from Earth to another point on Earth) and require a "beacon" to focus the portal on (either a human Nephilim, an angel, or a Baldrick).

{{quote| '''President Bush''': "Okay, ladies, gentlemen, ''Karl''."}}

* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: Michael after a first-hand look at the Hell-like prison camp he convinced Belial to build (tricking him into thinking Yahweh had given the orders).

* [[Nay Theist]]: [[Zig Zagging Trope|Played with]]: After a full book of war on hell with everyone confident that Heaven is next, late in ''Armageddon'', the Catholic Church reconciles their beliefs with the reality of Yahweh's dogma by saying that Jesus' lessons are the truths of a God that just doesn't happen to be the one in charge... leading them to excommunicate Yahweh. Since then they've converted to a [[Church Militant]] and the Vatican has fielded several light mechanized brigades, which GEN Petraeus has tasked as reserve brigades for armies' headquarters.

** And by the end of ''Pantheocide'', it seems that they were right.

** [[Giant Flyer|Wyverns]] are nonsapient, have wings instead of forelimbs, and are able to breathe fire. Belial's breed of wyverns is sometimes used in war, and a much larger gold subvariant is used as Satan's personal aerial escort.

** Hydras are seemingly nonsapient, with seven heads and prehensile tails. They are commanded by the demon Minos at the gate where second-life humans come from; they wrap their tails a certain number of times around a newly-deceased human as instructed by Minos (this number determines where in Hell the human will land) and throw them into the Hellpit.

** [[Our Gods Are Greater|The Rest Of Our Gods Are Probably Not Going To Be All That Great]]: Stuart has confirmed the existence of the Aesir (Norse gods) and the Baals. There is also the faction that kept Julius Caesar from being tormented in Hell.

** [[Our Orcs Are Different]]: They're the native inhabitants of Hell. They aren't as smart as humans but they're still sapient. They are used by the demons as slaves. Their native language, uniquely, is immune to the demons' (and presumably angels') tongues ability.

** "Sometimes?"

{{quote| '''A messenger told that he had "nothing to fear":''' That's what they all say... before they kill the bringer of bad news.}}

** There's also kitten, who aside from the telepathy is inspired by a real person, down to the lack of capitalization in her name; the original ''Armageddon'' thread actually has a post where one of the board members informed the author of kitten's existence and traits, which were mostly imported into the story.

** Private Joanna Cassidy, owner of "ample" breasts which were, according to Aeanas were: "unappealing things, the breasts of a peasant woman with a litter of babes to feed" just happens to have the same name as the actress who, among other things, voiced the infamously busty Jessica Rabbit.

** There's also the depiction of the Israeli military as both disturbingly incompetent and only appearing successful due to having mostly faced opponents that ''somehow'' managed to be even ''worse''. They manage not to cock up the raid that takes the Minos Gate (though unfortunately also killing Second-Lifers who had just arrived and had yet to regain consciousness), but in universe they also have a reputation for reckless both on the road and with their fire "discipline," and the Navy... '''oh boy'''. The cliffhanger that was the disappearance of the nuclear submarine ''Tekuma''? Sure, the ''Tekuma'''s communications officer is a traitor ''and'' the submarine's only human connection with the outside world, but on General Command Headquarters' end it turned out that {{spoiler|an earlier watch at GCHQ had not updated the submarine's contact report since early in their watch, so when the watch shift changed the subsequent staff removed it (as outdated) from the plotting board, but then when the shift changed again, the staff after them didn't realize that the ''Tekuma'' was no longer on the board}}. As the classically-trained but hapless [[Author Avatar|General Marosy]] put it:

{{quote| "I've heard of things like that happening. I never thought I would actually be present to see one. If somebody was to write that into a novel, nobody would believe it. Yet you imbeciles have done it, not once but twice? Give me strength. Have you people learned nothing in the forty years since you last pulled something like that off? Then you just shot up a ship belonging to your only ally. Now, you've mislaid a nuclear-armed submarine?"}}

* [[Talking the Monster To Death]]: The messenger demon send to Russia gets shot up but survives, which is followed by a local politician starting to recite Putin speeches about how awesome Russia is. Even the military commander pities the messenger.

* [[Tank Goodness]]: The awesomeness of tanks and the deadly efficiency and effectiveness of mechanized warfare are repeatedly brought to notice, and tank tactics are detailed realistically. That effectiveness is magnified by the fact their enemies have no clue as to what they are and how to fight them. The tanks appearing in the story are all [[Real Life]] machines of course; they're already good enough for fighting the baldricks, without needing to adapt as much as infantry(who needed new, heavier weapons) or air power(which had some problems being deployed to hell, since jets couldn't take the dust & grime).

** There's also Lieutenant Midyan Yitzchak, who {{spoiler|tricks the captain and crew of the ''INS Tekuma'' into launching nukes at no less than five cities. Four ''Arab capitals'' are saved, Tel Aviv is not}}. Worse yet, as of chapter 48 he's the submarine's communications officer, making him the only connection between ''Tekuma'' and the outside world {{spoiler|other than the ships or submarines now hunting ''Tekuma''}}.

** Also includes the infiltrator at [DiMO(N)], who was behind {{spoiler|its headquarters being targeted for the Leopard Beast attack}}.

* [[Tower of Babel]]: Near the end of Pantheocide, Petraeus muses on how the Tower of Babel story where Yahweh cursed humans with multiple languages was an attempt to prevent them from uniting against him, similar to what they were doing right now.

* [[Tranquil Fury]]: The Soldiers in the PLFH (particularly Aeanas) experience this when they come across the [[Moral Event Horizon|demonic merchants who sell human children as delicacies]]:

{{quote| "The people on Earth had been cheering their armies on, and still were in some senses, but the film of the battlefields in Hell had stunned them. Especially the scenes along the Phlegethon River with the piles of mangled Baldrick corpses that went on for square mile after square mile. For perhaps the first time, they realized the incredible disparity of firepower that had existed between the human armies and the Baldricks. The sight of the dead where the Baldricks had tried to fight tanks with bronze tridents had changed opinions in a subtle but very marked way. Humans now pitied the Baldricks who had stood so little chance and had died not even understanding what it was that was killing them. It was rumored that change in attitude was also causing trouble in Hell, with the refugees from the pit unable to understand why the newly-dead from Earth should be sickened by the slaughter they'd inflicted."}}

** It's also a problem for those in charge of training the new demon auxiliary military units. Demons, used to marching in large infantry formations and a lifetime of backstabbing, have absolutely no concept of supporting fire. To demons, they don't see why they should stay behind and put themselves at risk to help a rival unit that can steal all the glory.

** Also applies between modern humans and those who were so pious as to get into Heaven -- when COL Stevenson's new unit (Spearhead Battalion, 3rd Armored Division) kills off the resident angel in a village, the new "native chief" is one such human... who promptly requests to be allowed to carry out daily reverence to Yahweh:

{{quote| '''Benedict:''' We have much to be thankful for. We live in comfortable homes that are ours to keep. No soldiers come to burn them down in the night. We have our fields to tend and our crops to grow and they do not get trampled down or stolen. We have clothes to wear, all we need to eat and much more besides. We live our days in peace. Truly, is this not the Paradise we were promised?}}