History Podcast / FriendsAtTheTable

** In ''PALISADE'', ''An Impossible Ideal'' entails [[spoiler: [[SplitTheParty the Blue Channel temporarily splitting up]] to try and disarm the Stellar Combustor and investigate the depths of Chimera's Lantern at the same time.]] By the end of the arc, [[spoiler: Phrygian has sacrificed themself in order to permanently disarm every single Stellar Combustor (and thereby massively weakening the Principality's millennia-long grip on the galaxy), Brnine and Routine have been captured by the Pact, and Figure has escaped the control of the Witch in Glass by taking her place as the servant of Perennial - whose true motivation as wanting to "break the wheel" of colonisation and empire throughout the galaxy is finally revealed. What's more, the party discovers that Chimera's Lantern is a graveyard of sorts for Divines seeking sanctuary from the Principality, and is ruled over by the Chimeric Cadent - a fusion of multiple characters from ''Twilight Mirage''.]]

** ''A Mechanical Whine'' features Figure and Eclectic finally meeting the fake Gur Sevraq that the Principality has been deploying since the real Gur's demise in ''PARTIZAN''; [[spoiler: Gur's corpse is being puppeted by the Divine Future. Immediately after discovering this, [[DroppedOnABridge Figure dies (as a result of a mechanic from their playbook)]]]].

* PhraseCatcher: Everyone tends to refer to Marn as "a little guy", due to the fact she only comes up to the rest of the cast's waists. She's a carpana, or capybara-person, who are naturally small.

The first, third and fifth seasons are set in the fantasy setting Hieron, and are collectively called "Seasons of Hieron". These seasons were primarily played in ''Dungeon World'' along with other games used for holiday specials or finales. An interstitial prequel season played between Autumn and Winter in Hieron, called "Marielda", used ''Blades in the Dark''.

Tropes are broken down by season.

!!Works contained in this series:

[[folder:Season 1: Autumn in Hieron]]
Autumn in Hieron (originally titled 'Seasons of Hieron') is a game session run in the Dungeon World, set in a world that is starting to recover from a magical catastrophe known as the Erasure. After the first few episodes, the players split into two parties, pursuing two different goals.

Player characters:
* '''Hella Varal''' the fighter, a human who is evil and conflicted about it, played by Ali Acampora
* '''Fero Feritas''' the druid, a halfling who rejects the old world, played by Keith J Carberry
* '''Lem King''' the bard, a history loving orc who can perform pattern magic through music, played by Jack de Quidt
* '''The Great Fantasmo''' the wizard, a pompous but clever elf who used to teach in a university, played by Nick Scratch
* '''Hadrian, [[TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard Sword of Samothes, Defender of the Undying Fire, Officer of the Order of Eternal Princes]]''' the paladin, a human deeply devoted to the god Samothes, played by Art Tebbel
* '''Throndir''' the ranger, an elf who left his isolationist people after learning a terrible secret, played by Andrew Swan
The DM of both is Austin Walker.

!!Autumn in Hieron contains examples of:

* AmbiguouslyEvil: While many of the monsters and antagonists of the season are aligned with Samot, Samot himself doesn't seem to be that evil, to the point that [[spoiler:he resurrects Hadrian fully healed and in return demands not that the latter renounce Samothes for him, but simply that he ''think about it''. The Marielda season takes Samot further into WellIntentionedExtremist territory.]]
* AntiMagicalFaction: Hella and her home country of Ordenna have this attitude.
* ArcWords: You can never leave Nacre. [[spoiler: You can travel away, but if you've spent the night there it comes with you wherever you go.]]
* BoomStick: The Golden Lance has magitech guns that can disintegrate people.
* CallASmeerpARabbit: A magical bird that can split into a swarm of smaller birds is called a panther.

* CrisisOfFaith: Hadrian has this towards the end of the season as he learns more unpleasant things about his god.
* CursedWithAwesome: The inhabitants of Nacre are cursed to reanimate as zombies when killed and ghosts when killed again, but remain mentally the same, effectively gaining extra lives without any mental degradation. As ghosts they can only be killed by voluntarily dying, by a few forms of magic, or by Ordennan steel. The people of Nacre see it as a blessing, while most outsiders (including the player characters) consider it a curse. [[spoiler: The empress plans to spread the condition to the entire world.]]
* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler: Hella makes a deal with the god of death, the former emperor of Nacre to kill his son in exchange for not dying herself. Surprising everyone else in the group, she actually does it instead of reneging.]]
* DeathTakesAHoliday: The god of death used to literally go on vacation to the city of Nacre, but mortals continued dying as usual until he gave up his godhood to save the city from a disaster and people there started turning into intelligent undead instead of dying.
* DetectEvil: Hadrian has a power to do this, but it detects not objective evil but what his god considers evil.
* EvilCounterpart: Tabbard is one to Hadrian, right down to having the same titles, only with Samot instead of Samothes.
* ExpendableAlternateUniverse: Fantasmo casts Dispel Magic on a window into another universe, accidentally destroying the entire universe. It was treated as disturbing and upsetting but not all that traumatic for an entire universe being destroyed.
* GhostPirate: Captain Brandish and his crew are mostly zombie or ghost pirates since being killed by Hella before the game started. [[spoiler: Brandish is actually an undead privateer, working for for an entire nation of sapient undead.]]
* IWasJustPassingThrough: Fantasmo looks out for his friends, though he if asked he would brush it off as being strategic to maintain the well-being of his traveling companions.
* KillTheGod: [[spoiler: Inverted by Hella, who killed the empress of Nacre only for her to inherit her father's position as the god of death.]]
* OurElvesAreDifferent: The elves of the setting have mostly started to live shorter after the Erasure, and the snow elves live in xenophobic isolation.
* OurOrcsAreDifferent: The orcs of the setting mostly operate out of the New Archives, a scholarly organization dedicated to collecting, cataloging and studying artifacts and history from before the Erasure.

* PhysicalGod: The gods in the setting have physical forms, as seen when the god of death was known for taking vacations in the city of Nacre. [[spoiler: The god Samot shows up in person at the end of the season.]]
* SoulCuttingBlade: Hella's sword can kill ghosts, or keep those killed from reanimating to begin with. Ordennan steel can similarly harm spirits.
* TakenForGranite: Samot's pala-din are soldiers transformed from humans to living statues. Hadrian narrowly avoids the same fate.
* TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: When fighting a Word Eater, a creature that steals words to make their concepts part of itself, Fantasmo tells it his motive for becoming a wizard, tricking it into eating the word [[spoiler: Ignorance]].
* TwistedChristmas: The [[ChristmasEpisode Holiday Episode]] was notably more grim than the main series (which is not all that upbeat itself). It begins with the party investigating a brutal murder on the dawn of the holiday High Sun Day (the equivalent of New Year's Day) and ends with [[spoiler: the killer revealed to be a grieving man who was manipulated into the deed by Hadrian's boss with promises of redemption, Hadrian snapping the killer's neck after telling him everything would be all right, and his boss getting disintegrated by the Golden Lance. Furthermore, it starts snowing heavily in Velas, where it has not snowed in decades, starting a winter that many would be completely unprepared for and die from.]]
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Fero's primary power is this. He usually transforms into birds or a cougar.

* ArcWords: We could have made them look like anything, but we made them look like us.

* ComicBookFantasyCasting: Austin's vision of Ibex is modeled after venture capitalist [[https://www.fastcompany.com/3037933/the-visible-man Tristan Walker]] (no relation).

* FirstChurchOfMecha: The Diaspora reveres the Divines in some ways like gods. [[spoiler: The Iron Choir worships the "dead metal", a mostly inactive Divine containing a life giving artifact.]]
--> '''Ibex:''' You know, there's a thing -- I don't like [=OriCon=] very much, you know that, but there's a ''thing'' about it that I like a lot, which is that you recognize that your Riggers are just ''Riggers.'' They're just ''machines,'' they're just ''very advanced machines.'' We got it in our head that these things are ''gods,'' man.

* LostTechnology: Weight was created by an ancient super-tech artifact, which the Chime is later sent to locate. The Rapid Evening faction exists to make sure much of the lost technology it stays lost.
* {{Mecha}}: Multiple forms. The [=OriCon=] has Riggers the size of smaller buildings, the Diaspora has the the sapient, powerful and individually unique [[SuperRobot Divines]], and Apostolos has large Colossi and small [[MiniMecha Hoplites]].
* MechanicalAbomination: To some extent all Divines qualify, with each having unique powers and sort of BlueAndOrangeMorality. [[spoiler: Rigour is essentially an ancient man-made elder god, complete with its reemergence from [[DugTooDeep deep in the ice]] thousands of years after [[ExplosionPropulsion being blasted into the planet]] from the distant detonation of [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill hundreds of star systems]] leading almost immediately to it killing scores of workers and enthralling the survivors.]]
-->''The sound came from beneath the ice, or from the ice, or within the ice. The distinction is no longer important.''
* MegaCorp: [=OriCon=] is run by them, despite keeping some trappings of its previous communist government.

* MythologyGag: The Chime's ship is named the ''Kingdom Come'' as a direct nod to the vessel of Captain Brandish.
** The Panther, Jace's custom Rigger, splits into a swarm of birdlike fragments like [[CallASmeerpARabbit the Hieronian animal of the same name.]]
** Art's character's religious background once again includes [[spoiler: a pantheon of similarly-named beings which include a patron of teaching, relaxation, and wolves.]]

* StarfishAliens: Early on in the faction game, [[ChekhovsGun it is established]] that "a true alien" may dwell on the planet Sigilia, in contrast to the [[RubberForeheadAliens more familiar]] "aliens" like Apostolos or the designer genetics of Kalliope. Come the finale, we get the payoff: [[spoiler:[[GeniusLoci It's Sigilia.]]]]

* SuperRobot: The Divines have common powers such as opening portals to other Divines, or individual abilities such as reading minds or uploading to and physically reshaping machines. The former is acknowledged as "as close to [[MagicFromTechnology space-magic]] as [the setting] gets."

* TwistedChristmas: The second [[ChristmasEpisode Holiday Episode]] does not involve a holiday in-universe, but is still fairly grim. It is a flashback of how the Golden War ended, and though the protagonists won [[spoiler: Jace and Addax turn on each other, and Sokrates's hopes of a grand alliance after the war don't pan out]].
** While the episode was not made on a holiday, the Liberty & Discovery flashback episode is incredibly dark and involves an in-universe holiday. [[spoiler: It is about one of the first rebellion attempts against Rigour, and ends with the rebellion crushed. After he fails, Liberty & Discovery's first and only candidate is left for dead with only a wreathe made by one of his companions who died in the rebellion.]]
---> [[spoiler:''And it holds you in its hand, and it looks at you.\\
And the Liberty & Discovery system shuts down. And Righteousness shuts down.\\
And you're a person in a machine. And it's not even '''your''' machine.\\
How could it have been? You are '''small.''' You are so small that '''this doesn't matter.'''\\
There is a galaxy that is so much larger than you, that one small… '''rebellion…''' does '''nothing.'''\\
You are '''insignificant.''' You aren't the spruce, you aren't the pine, you aren't the fir. You aren't the cedar.\\
'''You are a walnut, and you will be cracked.''''']]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Ibex is arrogant, ruthless manipulative and opportunistic, but genuinely does want what's best for the sector. [[spoiler: He eventually cedes power to Aria, believing that she could help people more than he could.]] His Divine, Righteousness, practically runs on this.
* WhamLine: In the aftermath of the fight with [[spoiler: Detachment]], [=AuDy=]'s ability to resist connecting to the Mesh breaks down.
-->'''Austin:''' This isn't the first time you've been online, [=AuDy=]. And it ''really'' rushes back to you. A looong time ago. Before you knew there was the Golden Branch Sector.\\
'''Jack/[=AuDy=]:''' As I was being manufactured?\\
'''Austin:''' No. Well, I guess ''someone'' built you. [[spoiler: We haven't quite figured out how they build Divines yet.]]

* ComicBookFantasyCasting: Here Austin finally describes Samothes as looking like a slightly older Creator/SendhilRamamurthy.

* KillTheGod: The Killing of the King-God Samothes By The Traitor Prince Maelgwyn.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: In Hieron, people become ghosts not out of any personal connection with how they died, but basically from sheer luck:
--> Most folks will tell you that ghosts come from extreme circumstances; a traumatic death, an unavenged betrayal, a depraved killing. They couldn’t be more wrong. See, I know the man what moves a soul after the body goes. He ain’t leavin' behind those that have been wronged. Ghosts ain’t about ''quality'' of death, they’re about ''quantity.'' See, sometimes that old boy gets very busy, can’t keep up with ‘em. Maybe a war is on, maybe it’s a flood or a fire. Too many lives to process, and some are bound to slip through the cracks. After all, the truth is, ''all'' death is traumatic. But, don’t get me wrong. Every now and then, a ghost ''does'' [[GhostlyGoals want a little revenge.]] But that ain’t supernatural -- that’s just ''numbers.''
* OurGodsAreDifferent: They're born from the powerful impulses of other beings -- Samol created Severea and Samothes when he saw the land lonely and its creatures vulnerable, and Nothing created Tristero after Samol's birth made it afraid it had done something wrong.
* OverlyLongName: The Rector and College of the Last Living Spirits, in Memoriam, For Their Service Awarded the Grace and Wisdom of Our Proctor, Originality Alive. [[SomeCallMeTim Most Marieldans know it better as "Memoriam College."]]

* WhamLine: By midway through The Valentine Affair, it's become clear that [[LemonyNarrator the narrator]] is no ordinary person -- ordinary people don't profess to [[spoiler: know the god of death]] -- but he makes his true nature a little plainer here:
--> There ain't much that should scare folks like Samothes and Samot, like [[NatureSpirit Severea]] and [[DontFearTheReaper Tristero.]] These are, these are powerful beings, not like you. They squabble over concepts the way families argue about bills. They live in palaces of gold and fire and wind, castles they built with their own hands and ingenuity. So you should be asking yourself: what makes a thing like that afraid? [[spoiler: What makes a thing like ''me ''afraid?]]
** When Hitchcock says to Rector Sabinia "I think there's an evil copy of you in this book," she replies [[spoiler: "What makes you think she's [[HumanoidAbomination the bad one]]?"]]

* {{Hobbits}}: The halflings of Rosemerrow.
* LayeredWorld: This season reveals that the Hieron the main characters hail from is actually just the surface of the world, with numerous copies of Hieron in the form of "strata and lamina" beneath the surface - the vast majority of which are still completely inhabited. [[spoiler:Each time the gods of Hieron used their power of Reconfiguration to remake the world, a new lamina was added on top of the previous one. Ever since the death of the original Samothes during the events of the Marielda season, however, they haven't been able to use Reconfiguration anymore.]]

* OurGodsAreDifferent: The origins of Galenica/Samaantine (whose origin is not discussed in Marielda) are revealed here -- the Shield of Our Will was born [[spoiler: from mortal need, as Nothing tore apart the eastern islands of Hieron.]]

* TwistedChristmas: The third [[ChristmasEpisode Holiday Episode]] is back to Hieron's holiday of High Sunday, and continues the trend of holiday episodes ending in tragedy. It is the story of a number of other nonhuman or otherwise marginalized merchants [[spoiler: including Red Jack]] and trying to make a living in [[spoiler: post-Samothes]] Marielda. [[spoiler: While things go alright for a while, their earlier success makes the neighborhood more desirable, which leads to the group getting broken up and driven out by wealthy humans acting on racism and a desire to own the now valuable property.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Mother Glory, the gnoll alpha, wants what is best for her people (who have historically been wronged by the halflings), but her preferred methods are extremely violent.
** Also [[spoiler: Arrell and the Disciples of Fantasmo plan to fight the Heat and the Dark by placing people in solitary pocket dimensions where they can spend a potential eternity researching how to save the world.]]

* ComicBookFantasyCasting: A lot of it compared to earlier seasons.
** Grand Magnificent looks an awful lot like Creator/RandallPark.
** ⸢Signet⸣ is modeled after Yuga Yamato.
** Massalia d'Argent bears some resemblance to actress Fan Bingbing.
** Morning's Observation is modeled after rapper Music/LilPeep.
** Declan's Corrective looks like "a very specific picture of Creator/BenicioDelToro."
** Multiple Castlerose assassins are encountered in bodies named for and modeled after famous musicians, like [[Music/DukeEllington the Duke,]] [[Music/FreddieMercury Mister Fahrenheit,]] and [[Music/DavidBowie the Thin White Duke.]]
* ContinuityNod: Despite it being thirty-thousand years after the events of COUNTER/Weight, the Beloved Dust's opposite numbers in the Beloved Ivy include Masalia D'Argent, who establishes that [[{{Atlantis}} the Apostolosians]] are still around. [[spoiler:So're [[TheMenInBlack the Rapid Evening]] -- their undercover operatives in the Fleet supply [[TheTeaser the cold open narration.]]]]
** The cargo of the ''Holiday Gambit'' that kicked off Quire's Glassed Age? [[spoiler: It's the Gnosis virus.]]
** Irene Klipsch-Dove, a.k.a. [[spoiler:the woman who created several early Divines]], went on to write a guide to outsmarting sapient machines.
** In the scene where [[spoiler:the Doyenne describes the canvas]], [[MusicalPastiche the music turns]] to the opening notes of [[https://notquitereal.bandcamp.com/track/the-long-way-around "The Long Way Around"]] on the pivotal phrase:
--> For all of their beauty, for all of their impossibility, for all of their power, we could only have ever made them ''look like us.''

* OverlyLongName: The Fleet's counterpart for what the Autonomous Diaspora once called a Candidate is "Excerpt"; their names are lines from the Resonant Orbit's canon, typically abbreviated to one word. Aside from ⸢Signet⸣, there's also Empyrean's pilot ⸢Blooming⸣ [[labelnote:Full name]]''To The Prince We Offered Twelve Thousand Flowers, Blooming In An Untouched Field''[[/labelnote]] and Gumption's operator ⸢Covenant⸣.[[labelnote:Full name]]''Under Starlight Covenant Was Etched Into Flesh And Steel''[[/labelnote]]

* StarfishAliens: ''[[LastOfHisKind Acre]] [[TimeMaster Seven]].''

* WhamEpisode: Things rapidly escalate in the penultimate story of both games in the first half of the season.
** In the ground game's Sculpture City arc: Grand Magnificent draws the ire of his patron from the Fleet in the form of [[spoiler:multiple Castlerose agents being sent to kill or capture him]], Even participates in [[spoiler:an attempted coup]], and Gig learns a brief history of Quire [[spoiler:before being used by the planet to broadcast a message about the Divine Independence, whose heart serves as the impetus for a gunfight]]. By the end of it all [[spoiler:most of the group is badly wounded, the Doyenne has been taken from the city, and the Fleet's ambassador Alekhine has revealed himself as an Independent and stolen the Glass body Grand built]].
** In the space game's Privign arc: Tender manages to [[spoiler:use her already-unusual Architect powers in physical reality]], Fourteen discovers who contracted them to kill Tender [[spoiler:and where The Sky Reflected In Mirrors came from]], Signet learns the truth of the Iconoclasts [[spoiler:and the nature of Quire's fifth moon]], the extent of the New Earth Hegemony's engagement with the Fleet turns out to be [[spoiler:comparatively minor]], the last Excerpt of the first third-generation Divine Privign is revealed to have been [[spoiler: Satellite's ancient and embittered predecessor]], the extent of [[spoiler:how badly Independence twisted Quire during its Blooded Age]] is laid out in stark detail, and [[spoiler:a collection of individuals on the By-and-By, including Open Metal and Robin's Song, have taken the Cadent Under Mirage into "protective custody" as a coup against Empyrean]].
** And then "godspeed, glory" happens.

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: The purple Western dragon Fero meets is a shape of the god Samol, who is Hieron (That is, the world). He's quite friendly and hasn't eaten people [[spoiler:since Marielda]].

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Several, as even many of the antagonists in the series are simply searching for a way to prevent Hieron's eventual destruction by the Heat and the Dark.
** Arrell, continuing on from the previous season.
** The stars, who are attempting to cover all of Hieron in "star stuff" - a substance that can survive the Heat and the Dark but is toxic to all life on Hieron.
** Alyosha, who is using Samothes' forge to create the New Spring by converting the Heat and the Dark into less harmful, but still often dangerous and destructive, plantlife.
** [[spoiler:Samot, during his final stand, comes to the realisation that gods such as himself are inherently dangerous to the people of Hieron thanks to their power of Reconfiguration, and attempts to utterly destroy Hieron in order to erase every last trace of the gods.]]

* AlternativeCalendar: The Divine Calendar, which organizes months as constellations, with each year comprising 10 months made up of 50 25-hour days.
* AncientConspiracy: Two are espoused and worked over during the Microscope game.
** Apostolos was assimilated into the Divine Principality [[spoiler:as Stel Apostolos thanks to a fake Apokine sent by the other heads of the Principality.]]
** Progressive Asterism, the other half of the Church of Asterism, was formed [[spoiler:thanks to Pique Nideo hijacking and perverting the teachings of the Prophet Logos K'antel.]]
* BalanceOfPower: This is essentially how the Divine Principality keeps its form. The Many-Stars Thesis allows for minor conflicts between entities within the Stels but such is the structure that the entire foundation of the empire has yet to be fully shaken. Come PARTIZAN though...

* ContinuityNod: Several elements from the previous sci-fi seasons return in new forms.
** The descendants of [=OriCon=] and the Autonomous Diaspora return in the Divine Clash era as the Orion Combine and the Divine Collaborate. [[spoiler:[=OriCom=] sells out the Collaborate and becomes Stel Orion, one of the Divine Principality's great powers.]]
** Apostolos returns, as part of a war against the Principality. [[spoiler:They also become assimilated into the Principality as Stel Apostolos.]]
** The descendants of the Golden Branch aka the society of Counterweight and beyond, return as the Branched.
** The outro to the entire Road to PARTIZAN is delivered by [[spoiler:Keen Forrester Gloaming, former intercessor for the Rapid Evening in the Twilight Mirage.]]

* ForeverWar: The Unbroken War, specifically the war against the Branched, which has been going on for hundreds of years.

* HostileWeather: The Perennial Wave is likened to being like a tide; it ebbs and flows, allowing some hours for advanced technology to function and then fade away once more.

* MinovskyPhysics: The Perennial Wave, to such a devastating effect that it knocks down the technological level of ''the entire galaxy'' to pre-Counter/WEIGHT levels. Strangely, Divines remain unaffected by the Wave.
* {{Nanomachines}}: How the Perennial Wave works.

* SuperRobot: Worship of Divines have become literal, with them being the focal point of the Divine Principality being enshrined in the Many-Stars Thesis and the resulting church of Asterism.

* AlternativeCalendar: The Divine Calendar.
* AncientConspiracy: The purpose of the Curtain of Divinity is to [[spoiler:rein in the Principality's most tyrannical institutions along with uphold the Tranquil Princept's oath to Autonomy Itself, the so-called True Divine. The oath is meant to keep the Scutum-Centaurus arm of the galaxy free of the Principality until Autonomy Itself deemed the Principality an equitable society. This goal puts them at odds with Pact of Necesarry Venture.]]

* ContinuityNod: Besides the ones already detailed in the Road to PARTIZAN, several concepts/characters from previous sci-fi seasons return, including:
** Clementine's mech is the Panther aka the ''actual'' Panther, the one piloted by Jace Rethal in the Golden War that served as backstory to COUNTER/Weight.
** Figure A, [[spoiler:the predictive robot assistant for Crystal Palace, detailed in Twilight Mirage,]] is found in the Divine Past.
** Gucci Guarantine, Clementine's rival, pilots [[spoiler:a modified mass-produced Independence mech.]]
** Up to the north, there is an important dig to try and locate something hidden underneath the ice...
** The Divine Future has shown up in a previous season. Originally, it was [[spoiler: Zeal]].

* FirstChurchOfMecha: Literalized in the bluntest way possible, compared to previous sci-fi seasons. People now actively pray to the Divines, either seeing them as reflections of the Divine Principality's attributes or as actual, walking representations of God's aspects.

* MinovskyPhysics: The Perennial Wave, as noted in the Road to PARTIZAN, has knocked down technology levels in the ''entire galaxy'' to pre-Counter/WEIGHT levels.

* WhamEpisode: Episode 28 - The Storm Over Cruciat.
** After having spent the Kingdom game exerting their influence within Partizan, Millennium Break scores its biggest victory yet [[spoiler:by teaming up with Cas'alear Rizah and the Stormbreakers to take over Cruciat, the capital city of Stel Kesh in Partizan. Dahlia, the Glorious Princept and the other half of the Principality's CivilWar, extends a treaty with Millennium Break. The players pool their Drive clocks to formally establish Millennium Break as a faction in Partizan. Exeter Leap fulfills his Drive and leaves the party. And Clementine Kesh and Gur Sevraq have their final confrontation atop Fort Icebreaker, taking each other into the ocean....]]

* AntiMagicalFaction: The Glim Macula, previously a specialist anti-magical branch of the police force of Sapodilla (largest and most sophisticated city in Sangfielle), have ended up taking over the city in all but name over the last decade or so. Their stated goal is to get rid of all the supernatural strangeness in the region and return it to normalcy, and their strict definition of “normalcy” (which includes physical, metaphysical, and religious criteria) has made life in Sapodilla difficult for anyone insufficiently so (unless they’re rich and powerful enough to get away with it — the Glim Macula are ''police'', after all).

* ContinuityNod: As is typical for the Divine Cycle. Notably, this season has plenty of nods to ''Twilight Mirage'', as it takes place on a planet on the edge of the titular location.
** [[spoiler: The Iconoclasts return, having been sealed away after the events of ''Twilight Mirage'' and only recently released (unwittingly) by the Principality.]]
** The Chimeric Cadent - the being who chased the fledgling Principality off of Palisade thousands of years ago - is [[spoiler: a fusion of multiple characters from ''Twilight Mirage'', including Signet and the Waking Cadent.]]
* EldritchAbomination: The Five Afflictions - unnatural creatures that rampage across Palisade and act as a threat to every other faction on the planet.

* WhamEpisode:
** Roughly halfway through the season, ''An Impossible Ideal'' entails [[spoiler: [[SplitTheParty the Blue Channel temporarily splitting up]] to try and disarm the Stellar Combustor and investigate the depths of Chimera's Lantern at the same time.]] By the end of the arc, [[spoiler: Phrygian has sacrificed themself in order to permanently disarm every single Stellar Combustor (and thereby massively weakening the Principality's millennia-long grip on the galaxy), Brnine and Routine have been captured by the Pact, and Figure has escaped the control of the Witch in Glass by taking her place as the servant of Perennial - whose true motivation as wanting to "break the wheel" of colonisation and empire throughout the galaxy is finally revealed. What's more, the party discovers that Chimera's Lantern is a graveyard of sorts for Divines seeking sanctuary from the Principality, and is ruled over by the Chimeric Cadent - a fusion of multiple characters from ''Twilight Mirage''.]]
** Then the next downtime arc following the above, ''Honesty and Integrity'', radically alters the status quo of the setting thanks to some incredible dice rolls and clever manipulation of the game's mechanics by the players. [[spoiler: We get the first and final "on-screen" appearance of Dahlia, whose audience with Brine leads to the latter killing the former and stealing their personal Divine after hearing their horrific plans for the future of the galaxy. Then, just as things seem utterly hopeless for Brnine, after having assassinated the leader of the Pact of Free States on their own flagship, they're teleported back to the ''Blue Channel'' by Figure and his new Perennial-based magic (but leaving Routine's fate unknown as he gets left behind). To top it all off, Brnine gets a RelationshipUpgrade with a newly-radicalised Gucci.]]
-->'''Janine''': Hey, guys, remember when Millennium Break [[spoiler: saved the galaxy but then [[RefugeInAudacity also ripped out the emperor's spine in the same weekend?]]]]

* GutturalGrowler: The Divine Motion.

* {{Bishonen}}: Ephrim is described as being perfectly androgynous and very pretty.