History Literature / CiaphasCain

* {{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. [[AllMenArePerverts This is while the ship they're on is exploding, mind you.]]

* BuxomIsBetter: Evidently, the ''Warhammer 40000'' universe as told by Sandy Mitchell. Considering the main game has few women that aren't [[EvilIsSexy evil]], [[{{Squick}} monstrous]] [[SuccubiAndIncubi succubi]], or generally ([[FormFittingWardrobe facially]]) unattractive [[KnightTemplar nuns]], some might gain a new appreciation for the setting after reading his novels.

* BuxomIsBetter: Evidently, the ''Warhammer 40000'' universe as told by Sandy Mitchell. Considering the main game has few women that aren't [[EvilIsSexy evil]], [[{{Squick}} monstrous]] [[HornyDevils succubi]], or generally ([[FormFittingWardrobe facially]]) unattractive [[KnightTemplar nuns]], some might gain a new appreciation for the setting after reading his novels.

* WeaponOfChoice:
** Jurgen's meltagun.

* RareGuns: An in-universe example, in that twin-linked heavy bolters are not the standard turret armament on Chimera armoured transports, multilasers are. Downplayed, however, as forge worlds churn out ''billions'' of both, so not ''that'' rare. Also, the digital weapon Amberly uses is so rare in the Damocles region that nobody present even knows what it is until she uses it.

** Ciaphas and Cain are the names of well-known villains from Literature/TheBible. One possible translation of "Caiaphas", according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, is "rock that hollows itself out".

* UncannyValley: One of the short stories has a prostitute with elaborate tatoos all down her arms and legs. It looks attractively exotic... unless you notice that their primary purpose is to mask the fact her muscles are the wrong shape (she's a late-generation Genestealer hybrid).

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Although we recognize it also depends of his luck.

* AbsoluteCleavage:
** When Mira introduces herself, she is wearing a [[ErmineCapeEffect stylized outfit]] resembling a [[BlingOfWar garish military uniform]] that is cut a little too tight around the chest for her [[BuxomIsBetter endowment]][[note]] And being the daughter of a planetary governor, it was almost certainly deliberately tailored that way[[/note]] which she resolves by leaving the top several buttons undone. According to Cain, other items of her wardrobe tend toward being [[ImpossiblyLowNeckline low-cut]], so this is something of a stylistic theme with her.
** Rakel tends toward this as well, though with her it's (probably) accidental, the result of her clothing being a couple sizes too small.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: And a scale of something that isn't even fictional: one of the few problems with Sandy Mitchell's 40K-verse is that his armies are incredibly ''small''. The Valhallan 597th are around 1000 troopers total, which is not so bad except that if that is the standard, would mean that Cain has defended planets of billions with a force around 5,000 people at the highest. During the events of the fourth novel, for example, he mentions that a few regiments were liberating the entire star system, so perhaps 10,000 soldiers. For comparison, the [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Grande Armee]] was around '''800 000''' soldiers. In later books, the 597th has about 4,000 soldiers, so it's not so bad, but it's still bad. The American military in World War 2 had ten thousand-man divisions (typically composed of three brigades, each of three regiments, plus support formations), and that was when it had only a thirtieth of the planet's population of 2.5 billion. Especially aggravating because other Valhallan regiments in the fluff have over a MILLION soldiers.

* SeriesContinuityError: In the earlier stories an auspex operator sees a large amount of warp portals opening, but is puzzled by the lack of metal, which alerts Cain to the Tyranid presence, since bioships contain no metal. Thing is, Tyranids can't enter the Warp ''at all'' (and thank the Emperor for that, otherwise they'd have already eaten the galaxy instead of moving at sub-light speed. However, an entry in the Tyranid Codex ''does'' speculate that some Tyranid fleets have entered the warp through things like the Eye of Terror or the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath, which would explain the appearance of Tyranids during the Great Crusade (10k years before the attack of Hive Fleet Behemoth). Still, they don't have conventional warp travel).
** Though Tyranids do have a bio-ship (the [[http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Narvhal#.U7S2cXxOVdg Narvhal]]) that can create a kind of corridor of folded gravity, allowing Hive Fleets to move at FTL speed (though it's still much slower than Warp travel). What the operator was detecting may have been the bio-ships emerging from this gravity corridor.

** Cain is an expert player of 'Regicide' the 40k version of chess.

* TheSquadette: The Valhallan 597th regiment Cain finds himself working with in the novels contains remnants from the [[AmazonBrigade all-female Valhallan 296th]].

** In the first book, this is the attitude the male soldiers of the pre-597th amalgamated regiment have to their female counterparts after the two regiments have been merged. Even Broklaw has this attitude towards Kasteen (at least partly because he resents her being promoted above him on a technicality). Cain naturally spends the first act resolving this.
** The female members of the 597th, including their Colonel, get this from a Tallarn regiment in ''The Traitor's Hand''.

** It's implied that Cain's official biography is this compared to his memoirs that we read. Then again, "I strode forth against the xenos in the name of the Emperor" reads a lot better to imperial audiences than "I looked for a way to escape danger, then fraked that up too."

** ''The Last Ditch'' makes fun of the Tyranid Pyrovore aka ''the'' worst unit in the game.

%%* TalkingInYourDreams

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: And a scale of something that isn't even fictional: one of the few problems with Sandy Mitchell's 40K-verse is that his armies are incredibly ''small''. The Valhallan 597th are around 1000 troopers total, which is not so bad except that if that is the standard, would mean that Cain has defended planets of billions with a force around 5,000 people at the highest. During the events of the fourth novel, for example, he mentions that a few regiments were liberating the entire star system, so perhaps 10,000 soldiers. For comparison, the [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Grande Armee]] was around '''800 000''' soldiers. In later books, the 597th has about 4,000 soldiers, so it's not so bad, but it's still bad. The American military in World War 2 had ten thousand-man regiments, and that was when it had only a thirtieth of the planet's population of 2.5 billion. Especially aggravating because other Valhallan regiments in the fluff have over a MILLION soldiers.

* ''The Last Ditch'' (2012) 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 that casts new light on an old foe.

* HandCannon: Cain deconstructs the usefulness of the Bolt pistol in ''The Last Ditch'', noting that it uses physical rounds which can be eaten up fairly quickly, while the laspistol he favors can be recharged and by pretty much any means. In addition, he points out that its appeal among Commissars is mostly due to it being loud and flashy. In a footnote, Amberley says that this partly why Orks are [[MoreDakka attracted to Bolters]], but she also notes that a Commissar would take offense to being compared to an Ork.

* HandCannon: Cain deconstructs the usefulness of the Bolt pistol in ''The Last Ditch'', noting that it uses physical rounds which can be eaten up fairly quickly, while the laspistol he favors can be recharged and by pretty much any means. In addition, he points out that its appeal among Commissars is mostly due to it being loud and flashy. In a footnote, Amberley says that this partly why Orks are [[MoreDakka attracted to Bolters]], but she also notes that a Commissar would take offense to being compared to an Ork.

--->'''Cain''': It was a tough call for me to make, but unfortunately that goes with the [[NiceHat hat]].

* NiceHat: As a commissar, he gets a one as part of his uniform.

* HypocriticalHumor: Anything Beije says, ever.

* InsultBackfire: The Guardsmen characters constantly use "cogboy" as a mildly derogatory term for Tech-priests. In ''Death or Glory'' we find out that the Tech-priests themselves use "cog" as a compliment for someone who is essential to the the smooth running of things but frequently not acknowledged. Given the Tech-priests assigned to the Guard are mechanics, most of them probably don't even know it's derogatory.

* MaleGaze: It goes with the narration being from Cain's particular perspective. One book had an assassination attempt foiled purely because he was looking the right direction while covertly checking out Colonel Kasteen's behind.
* MaliciousSlander: Stupid Beije.

%%* MatterOfLifeAndDeath

** As might be expected from him, Cain takes full advantage of this trope in ''The Traitor's Hand'' when he needs to get past a barricaded group of Slaaneshi cultists guarding a Daemon-summoning ritual. By chance a group of Chaos Space Marines in service to Khorne have the same goal and choose this exact moment to show up. Cain decides to hang back and let them break the barricade for him and distract the cultists. Unsurprisingly, Bejie calls him out on this and calls him a coward, to which he calmly suggests Bejie lead the way. Beije [[HypocriticalHumor doesn't take him up on this offer]].

* MercifulMinion: In the first novel, a riot breaks out on the ship he's assigned to. In the aftermath he can't have anyone executed (since it would destroy morale, and more importantly make him likely to suffer an "accident" on the battlefield) but the captain wants blood (he was in a relationship with one of the military police killed in the riot). So Cain lets the captain hold a tribunal (the defendants of which are found guilty) and sentences them to "death" by transferring them to a penal legion to die in battle. [[spoiler:Later on, Cain is press ganged by Amberley into going on a highly dangerous recon along with the most "expendable" soldiers she can find. Guess who she picks.]]

** In ''The Traitor's Hand'' it becomes a major source of conflict when another Commissar becomes convinced that his more laid-back style is evidence of actual corruption. The man ends up interfering in operations several times as a result, nearly dooming the world they're defending in the process, and ends up bringing Cain before a tribunal on formal charges. Said tribunal calls said commissar an idiot and Cain himself has to call in favors to save the man from the fallout.
** It's also often mentioned (and shown) that [[MiniMecha Sentinel]] pilots have a pretty ''laissez faire'' approach to discipline and orders, disobeying the letter of their superiors' messages if they think they have a better idea and speaking rather more informally than is considered proper on official channels. Cain notes that this is endemic to most Sentinel pilots, and cracking down on them to bring them in line would restrict their effectiveness as recon and fast attack specialists; therefore, smart officers (and commissars) tend to look the other way in most cases.

* MistakenForAnImposter: PlayedForLaughs--one of the few instances in Cain's later career where his name doesn't immediately evoke awe in the person he's introducing himself to is a moment when the other person thinks he's joking.

** Another example is partially acknowledged by Amberley. Cain is extremely useful as an asset to the Imperium as a whole but competent heroes (whether or not their reputation is deserved) aren't especially rare. Ironically, Jurgen, as a blank, is far more rare and valuable (at least, to the Inquisition).
* MortonsFork: Amberly and Zyvan explain to Cain that this is the situation on Gravalax in ''For The Emperor''. On the one hand, Gravalax isn't strategically valuable enough to justify getting into a protracted war with the T'au, so they want to avoid tensions escalating. On the other hand, the Imperium can't allow the T'au to simply annex Gravalax, since that would only embolden them to try conquering worlds that are even more valuable to the Imperium if they believe the humans won't put up a fight.

* NarrativeProfanityFilter: A variation. The pornographic tapestries in a Slaaneshi brothel in ''The Traitor's Hand'' are left undescribed, other than one Guardsman wondering aloud if a scene depicted is even anatomically possible. Cain says it isn't and that even if it was, it would be against regulations.

* TheNeidermeyer: Assidiously averted by Cain to avoid UnfriendlyFire; played to the hilt by Beije. Notably, however, Beije only adheres to the strict ''religious'' protocols of his office. He's never seen abusing his troops, his Colonel respects him, and he keeps up with the men in combat well enough. He is simply, in Cain's words, "green-eyed jealous." [[spoiler:which is foreshadowing for the story's ''real'' villain, who is green-eyed and petty to the extreme, far more so than Beije could ever be]].

* NoTimeToThink: During the WireDilemma, he is forced to guess because all the wires are the same color.

* NotQuiteDead: A footnote in one of the books reveals that Cain has been listed as "killed in action" so many times that the Munitorum eventually gave up trying to keep track and decided to keep him on the payroll regardless--even long past his ''confirmed'' death and burial with full military honors. And even then they aren't sure he's actually dead. Of course, Vail isn't speaking...

** Between them, the techpriests and Administratum functionaries in ''Caves of Ice'' are well on their way to forming one before Kasteen gets annoyed and declares martial law (and Cain offers to shoot anyone who complains about it).

%%* OldRetainer
* OneRiotOneRanger: In ''The Devil You Know'' the Guard sends just Cain to save a flagging war, although Jurgen still tags along and Cain wrily notes that the supply drop he arived with was probably more useful. He ends up wiping out the invading force almost singlehandedly through the usual cascade of unlikely events. His main given reason for seeking assignment with the 597th is because in his days as an independent Commissar command kept doing stuff like this too him.

*** In ''Caves of Ice'', the administrator of a mining facility protests that Kasteen's defense plan presents an unacceptable risk of damage and demands that an alternative strategy be formulated; Kasteen responds that the administrator is welcome to ''"step outside and ask the orks to go away, if she thought that would help."''