Line #114 Literature/LineOfDelirium


1	''Line of Delirium'' (''Линия грёз'', Liniya gryoz; can be also translated as ''Line of Reveries'' or ''Line of Dreams'', which are more appropriate titles) is a SpaceOpera trilogy written by the popular Russian science fiction author Creator/SergeyLukyanenko. The setting of the trilogy was influenced by ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'', although the only things that can be tied back to the game are the names of the alien races and several planets. The novels describe the 25th century, where humanity is living in a [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Universe]] still recovering from a devastating interstellar war and dealing with a radical new technology called aTan (anti-Thanatos) that allows a person to be [[ResurrectiveImmortality recreated in case of death]], essentially granting immortality to anyone willing and able to pay for it.
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3	The trilogy consists of two novels (''Line of Delirium'' and ''Emperors of Illusions'') and a novella (''Shadows of Dreams'') set before the events of the novels. The protagonist of both novels is a professional bodyguard named Kay Dutch ([=AKA=] Kay Altos, [=AKA=] Kay Ovald), whose life radically changes when he is hired by the founder and owner of aTan, the second most powerful man in the galaxy, to escort his teenage son and heir Arthur on a secret mission to a faraway colony. Not only is the entire [[TheEmpire Empire]] on their tail but also several alien races very interested in the boy and his mission.
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5	In ''Emperors of Illusions'', Kay finds out that their entire universe is nothing more than an illusion created for the benefit of one man, Emperor Gray. Or at least Kay thinks it's Emperor Gray [[spoiler: he was wrong, it's not Emperor Gray but Gray will get his own universe in the end]]. Rejecting the idea of another man controlling his fate, Kay resolves to do the impossible. He must kill an immortal.
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7	''Shadows of Dreams'' describes a small human colony hosting an interstellar regatta when a powerful alien warship enters the system, whose crew still believes they are at war with humans. With no help coming, the colonists have no choice but to prepare for a hopeless battle with an enemy they cannot beat.
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9	A fan translation of the first novel can be found [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13750724/1/Line-of-Dreams here]]. The second novel's translation is [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13799757/1/Emperors-of-Illusions here]]. The novella's fan translation can be found at [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13870664/1/Shadows-of-Dreams this link]].
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11	----
12	!! The trilogy contains examples of the following tropes:
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14	* AdventureFriendlyWorld: It's heavily implied that this was [[spoiler:Vyacheslav Shegal]]'s desire when making this world. Given what he does for a living, this may be true. The fact that it's a CrapsackWorld for a good number of people doesn't seem to matter.
15	** At the end of the second novel, [[spoiler:Tommy]] leaves to create one for himself.
16	* AgonyBeam: Algopistols emit a field that ramps up all the pain receptors in the human body up to eleven. The target dies after a few seconds of intense agony. It's called the weapon of losers.
17	* AIIsACrapshoot: The reason why [=AIs=] are illegal in the Empire. Kay's ship has an intelligence that approaches that of an AI. In fact, it may be too perfect an imitation, and the ship ends up [[spoiler:performing a HeroicSacrifice to help Kay and evade capture]].
18	* AlienAmongUs: The Darloks are master spies, and their agents are hidden throughout the other empires.
19	* TheAlliance: The Trinary Alliance between the humans, the Bulrathi, and the Meklar, formed after the Vague War.
20	** There is also the Darlok-Alkari Alliance in the first book, but it falls apart when the Alkari refuse to honor the agreement when the Empire declares war on the Darloks.
21	* AnarchyIsChaos: Averted on three planets in the Empire that don't have official governments (Jienakh, Rukh, and Taaran). For a good number of people on the planets, it's perfectly livable, especially if they have the protection of a powerful clan. The lack of laws on the planets means that any pleasures forbidden on other Imperial worlds are offered there. Kay mentions that even porn is filmed live here instead of the Imperial-approved computer-generated porn that is available everywhere else (although Kay admits that computer-generated porn is better). According to Kay, the Emperor ignores these worlds, for now. Once they become too much of a nuisance, the Imperial fleet will crush their resistance, take them over, go through the population with a fine-tooth comb to weed out the undesirables, and impose a legal government. The anarchy worlds will be reborn elsewhere on the periphery. As Kay puts it, "every decent house needs a garbage can, so that the refuse isn't all over the place".
22	* AntiMatter:
23	** Anti-helium has been frequently used during the Vague War for OrbitalBombardment.
24	** The Ultimatum is a heavy handheld weapon used by human forces during the Vague War. When fired, the weapon fires a laser that clears the path through the air between the Ultimatum and the target before the weapon fires a stream of anti-protons through the "corridor". All this takes a split-second and is highly destructive.
25	* ArbitraryWeaponRange: Some space weapons are described as being short-range. How arbitrary this is is unclear.
26	* ArmorIsUseless: Most heavy infantry weapons (especially those used during the war) can quite easily punch through even the toughest PoweredArmor. For most use, though, regular PoweredArmor is usually pretty good about stopping a plasma shot or two. Kay, though, manages to kill a soldier wearing PoweredArmor with a single plasma pistol shot by aiming at tiny slits between armor plates, cooking the soldier in his own shell. His wiser partner, realizing the skill it takes to do that, doesn't even try going for his gun and runs away, only to [[CombatPragmatist throw a stun grenade through the hatch]].
27	* AteHisGun:
28	** A common practice for discovered Darlok spies, although, strangely enough, they always shout the word "Darlok" before pulling the trigger.
29	** [[spoiler:Henrietta Fiscalocci, AKA Wanda Kahowski, after the plot to drive the Emperor crazy fails. She manages to pull the trigger just as Imperial soldiers are bursting into her home, having had the foresight to cancel her aTan beforehand]].
30	* BalanceOfPower: The Silicoids, due to their nature as living columns of rock, are obsessed with the idea of balance in all things. This also applies to interstellar relations. During the Vague War, they allied with those whose defeat would upset the balance (e.g. humans during the early days of the Empire).
31	* BearsAreBadNews: The Bulrathi are large ursine beings obsessed with hand-to-hand (or paw) combat, frequently going into battle without weapons. They frequently charge into battle on all fours, as they know that this tends to throw off most sentient beings who can't fathom another sentient being attacking on all fours, not to mention the psychological effect of a huge charging bear.
32	* {{BFG}}: Plenty, including a bazooka-sized anti-matter gun, a [[EnergyWeapon laser]] [[GatlingGood Gatling gun]], and the Excalibur tachyon rifle, which fires before the trigger is pulled (think about it).
33	* BigEater: Kay reveals that he became one in his mid-teens when his body began to restructure itself from that of a weakling to a true genetically-engineered super.
34	* BigFancyCastle: The Imperial Palace on Terra is huge and full of splendor. The Emperor frequently summons various courtiers but fails to specify the meeting location, forcing them to run around the enormous grounds in search of him. Considering that much of the palace is located in Florida (only a small piece is on Cuba), it's obvious that it tends to put the sweating courtiers in their place.
35	* BirdPeople: Alkari are birds (they are excellent pilots, as they naturally think in three dimensions).
36	* BlindJump: Plotting a hyperjump is a luck-based affair. A rookie pilot can sometimes plot a more efficient course (i.e. faster and requiring less fuel) than an experienced navigator. No computer can guarantee an effective course. Theoretically, there's always a chance of a perfect course that is instantaneous and uses no fuel, but no one has ever been able to plot it.
37	** In the second novel, a private yacht receives Kay and Tommy's distress call, after they bail out of a ship traveling in hyperspace and end up in interstellar space. Kay knows that it would take days for a ship receiving the hyper-signal to reach them, but the yacht arrives an hour later and picks them up. The owner of the yacht is incredulous and can't stop talking about his perfect jump.
38	* BrainUploading: When a person first purchases aTan, he or she is implanted with a neural net, a mesh of organic implants in the brain that can upload the person's memories to the aTan servers via SubspaceAnsible. This is done at the moment of death, so that a newly-replicated body can then have the memories downloaded into it. [[spoiler:This is a lie, the memories are uploaded continuously. The end of the stream is what signals death to aTan. It is the person's soul that allows the replicated body to be fully alive instead of a lobotomized shell]]. Only Curtis van Curtis understands how the neural net works. Without him, it's just a collection of inert parts.
39	* BrotherSisterIncest: Kay and Lyka were best friends when they were children and had even wanted to marry before their colony world was invaded and their lives separated. When they meet decades later, one of the first things they do is sleep together. It's then revealed that [[spoiler:they were both [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke grown in the same test tube]] and share many of the same chromosomes]], making them ''at least'' as close as siblings. They know it, by the way, and don't seem to care.
40	* CasualInterstellarTravel: While most people can't afford to own their own ship, taking a trip to another planet is probably not much more expensive than buying a plane ticket. Many merchants, though, are able to afford at least a small cargo ship with a low-end hyperdrive. Travel times between stars can be measured in weeks, often days.
41	** In the second novel, it's mentioned that small ''Grasshopper''-class ships are mass-produced on Endoria and can be purchased fairly cheaply. Effectively, they are a tiny glass cabin on top of a hyperdrive disc and two plasma engines. No ArtificialGravity, weapons, or defenses. While mainly sold as in-system craft, they have enough fuel for a single hyperjump. In fact, many companies use these as the equivalent of a company car.
42	* CatFolk: The Mrrshan are marsupial cat-like creatures with three sexes (male, male-prime, and female). They are most known for their excellent wines. They normally live in trios. Humans, who live on their planets, tend to adopt Mrrshan family norms.
43	* TheCavalry: Just as Kay and Arthur are about to be turned into loyal Darlok spies ([[spoiler:actually, implanted with {{Puppeteer Parasite}}s that destroy the original personality]]), the entire Silicoid fleet (about 32,000 ships) arrives to rescue them, laying waste to the rest of the planet for no reason.
44	* CharacterNameAlias: In the second novel, after landing on Grail, Kay and Tommy introduce themselves as Literature/DavidCopperfield and Literature/OliverTwist, respectively. The spaceport official recognizes that something is strange and asks for their ID. Kay tells him that they are members of the Cult of Anonimists who are against being photographed (hence, no ID) and adds that even their names are taken from literary characters after seeing that the trick didn't work. Interestingly, this is the first time Kay's alias has a different first name. A character previously notes that, no matter the alias, Kay always keeps his first name.
45	* ChildHater: Kay does not deny his hatred of children, at least until he gets close to Arthur. Curtis van Curtis claims that this is because Kay himself never had a real childhood (his planet was invaded and his foster parents killed; he was bullied and raped by other kids in a shelter).
46	* CircusBrat: After escaping the orphanage where he was constantly beaten, swirlied, and raped, the teenage Kay ended up being taken in by a circus. He reflects that these were some of the happiest years in his life, and the carnies who took care of him and taught him their tricks, including two gay clowns who [[AllGaysArePedophiles never once tried to take advantage of the boy]].
47	* CombatPragmatist: Shivukim Ahhar is a Bulrathi, who normally prefer hand-to-hand combat to the point of [[HonorBeforeReason obsession]]. However, being a veteran of the Vague War resulted in Ahhar relying on a gun more than his paws, although he still refuses to wear armor. He only switches to his paws when he feels he has the decided advantage. His mistake is assuming that he has that advantage with Kay Dutch, who kills the massive bear with a single kick.
48	* CrapsackWorld: The entire universe, [[spoiler:possibly by design]].
49	* CrewOfOne: Imperial warships are designed with simplicity in mind ever since the Vague War, when ships frequently had to go into battle with only 5-6 people aboard. While crews are normally much larger, the design philosophy hasn't changed.
50	* DeathIsCheap: Averted, for the most part, despite the existence of resurrection technology, in large part because the procedure is ''extremely'' expensive, and the vast majority (96%) simply can't afford it (or can only afford it once). The very wealthy ones, though can sometimes get a little cavalier with their lives. The protagonist is a professional bodyguard who's used to putting himself between a gun and his employer. He has already died half-a-dozen times and is able to afford aTan because he comes highly recommended and tends to protect the very rich. However, even then, Curtis van Curtis tells him that, at the rate he's going, he won't be able to sustain his immortality for more then several years.
51	* DecliningPromotion: Early in the second book, the Emperor offers his top operative Vyacheslav Shegal a promotion to a chief of staff position. Shegal politely declines, pointing out that his place is in the field. [[spoiler:He's unable to do so at the end, when the Emperor seems to name him as his successor in his will]].
52	* TheDeterminator: Isabella Kal will go to any lengths and cross half the galaxy to get her hands on Arthur and the knowledge in his head.
53	** Nothing will stop Kay from completing his mission, especially since he gave his word to Arthur.
54	* DeusExMachina: Literally. While everyone sees God differently, to Curtis van Curtis he appears as a machine that can grant him every wish. [[spoiler:To Arthur, who died many times, usually painfully, God is a world of pain. Kay, an atheist, doesn't see God at all.]] The whole universe was created to fulfill one character's wish.
55	* DisproportionateRetribution: The [[TheEmpire Human Empire]] responds with the Sakkra taking three of its colonies by exterminating the entire race.
56	** The other aliens are still a little upset at this.
57	* TheEmperor: Emperor Gray has ruled the Human Empire since its founding thanks to aTan giving him effective immortality. He has no heirs, as there is no need for them. He is a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, although within the walls of his palace he picks and chooses which planetary laws and customs to follow.
58	** While the rulers of the other races aren't called Emperors, they are equivalent in terms of political power and status. The ruler of the Silicoids is called the Foot of the Basis and always carries the name Sedimin no matter the individual. The ruler of the Meklar is called the Perfect One, implying he has achieved nigh-complete cyborgization.
59	* TheEmpire: The Human Empire is somewhere between a [[TheFederation Federation]] and this, having an Emperor but with colonies retaining many self-governing rights.
60	* EnergyWeapon: Many weapons described and mentioned in the novels are of this type:
61	** After being resurrected on Incedios, Kay and Arthur go to [=aTan=]'s weapon shop. Instead of his usual Bumblebee plasma blaster (which is restricted to military and bodyguards), he is forced to go with a civilian Convoy laser pistol. Officially, the Convoy is a less-than-lethal weapon that only leaves mild burns on the target. Unofficially, the weapon has a full-auto mode and a decent charge, meaning a series of laser pulses on full-auto can cut through a human body in 2 seconds.
62	** Other handheld laser weapons include Career (an obsolete Vague War pistol), Style (an old-but-reliable civilian pistol), Old Bob (a civilian rifle), Blitz-D (a high-powered army rifle), Chance (a six-barreled [[GatlingGood spinning]] heavy laser designed to take out whole army units, commonly known as "forest cutter").
63	* ExpendableClone: Kay plans to use [[spoiler:Tommy Arano]] this way when raiding the Imperial orbital station to rescue Arthur. He changes his mind halfway through.
64	* ExplosionsInSpace: Ships explode with bright flashes.
65	* FantasticFightingStyle: Synthesis-iodo is a style designed specifically for children, relying on the opponent's strength. With this technique, a twelve-year-old can easily break an adult man's fingers, for example.
66	** The Jen self-control technique allows a person to instantly and painlessly stop his or her heart in the manner of ancient fakirs but much faster. This is mainly used by aTan practitioners in order to evade capture and torture. However, the brain remains viable for several minutes after this, meaning that a prepared enemy can hook up the person to life-support machinery and keep him or her alive indefinitely (aTan is triggered by brain death).
67	* FantasticRacism: Despite several decades passing since the Vague War, many humans still feel uneasy about the aliens. The fact that TheEmpire is now allied with two of the most brutal races is not helping matters.
68	** Also, cloning and genetic engineering are illegal in TheEmpire, and any discovered clone is stripped of all rights and executed. Any discovered genetically-engineered person is forced to undergo "reduction" surgeries that equalize his or her abilities to a normal person. Even tweaking animal genes is considered illegal. Plants are fair game, though, as pointed out by Henrietta, who's growing apples that taste like strawberries in her garden.
69	* FateWorseThanDeath: It's stated that exiting hyperspace without decelerating first results in it entering normal space at a high percentage of the speed of light, sending the ship (and its crew) on a [[TimeDilation one-way trip into the future]] with no way back. As a rule, the crew is unable to adjust to the change (and the fact that their loved ones are dead), and suicides are common. [[spoiler:Admiral Lemak ends up suffering this fate thanks to Arthur]].
70	* AFatherToHisMen: Admiral Karl Lemak fought in the Vague War, so he knows the value of a soldier. When he loses two dozen men in an assault on his station (the rest have aTan), he makes sure to send the notices to their families personally.
71	** He is particularly skeptical about the attempts to replace highly-trained soldiers with Hunter droids, figuring that no programming can compete with experience and the ability to think on one's feet.
72	* FlyingSaucer: Alkari ships are saucer-shaped and are capable of seemingly-impossible feats thanks to their inertialess drives. They also claims to have been traveling the stars when humans were still figuring out how to fly to other planets. While not mentioned or suggested, it's possible that an Alkari scout ship visited Earth in the 20th century and started this trope.
73	* FutureImperfect: During his second arrival to Grail, Kay calls himself Literature/DavidCopperfield and Tommy Literature/OliverTwist. When the customs officer gets suspicious, Kay explains that the two of them belong to a cult of anonimists. Not only do they not carry any identification, but their names are borrowed from a book by Creator/MarkTwain about the [[Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomSawyer adventures of two close friends]], clearly confusing them for two titular characters from separate novels by Creator/CharlesDickens. The customs officer seems to accept that, including their statement about [[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy hitchhiking across the galaxy]].
74	* GeneralFailure: According to Emperor Gray and Admiral Karl Lemak, humanity's losses at the start of the Vague War can be attributed to the incompetence and bureaucracy of the old Earth government. After their coup, the war took a turn for the better, eventually. See HistoricalHeroUpgrade.
75	* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: [[spoiler:Kay Dutch]] is genetically-engineered to be stronger, faster, and smarter than most humans and some aliens. [[spoiler:Lyka Seiker]] is created in the same test tube but her abilities are mostly limited to mental (e.g. probability calculations).
76	* GeneticMemory: It's briefly mentioned that the Alkari have genetic memory.
77	* GoingDownWithTheShip: After [[spoiler:Arthur dooms Lemak's destroyer to a relativistic flight into the future, Lemak refuses to take the easy way out and shoot himself in the moments before it happens. He orders anyone with aTan to kill themselves, but very few can bring themselves to commit suicide (even if temporary). Lemak tells the ship's captain to do it, but the latter points out that he doesn't have aTan anymore]].
78	* GreatOffscreenWar: The Vague War is exactly that. Almost nothing is revealed about it, except that it involved humans fighting all known alien races (not necessarily at the same time) and surviving. It also marks the beginning of TheEmpire.
79	** The Tukai Conflict (sometimes called the Tukai Massacre) is another such war.
80	* HeroOfAnotherStory: Vyacheslav Shegal, a top agent of Shield, the Emperor's special forces, makes a brief appearance in the first novel but proves himself to be a formidable operative. The second novel reveals that he reports directly to the Emperor and that [[spoiler:the entire universe was created for him]].
81	* HeterosexualLifePartners: Kay and Tommy become this by the second novel, although it's more because Kay feels responsible for Tommy, and Tommy doesn't quite see the world as real. [[spoiler:In the end, Tommy ends up leaving this universe for a new one tailored to his innermost desires, while Arthur once again becomes Kay's companion]]. A girl asks Kay if Tommy and he are lovers. Kay explains that he's of the traditional orientation, while Tommy prefers to spend his time playing [[{{Cyberspace}} Virtual Reality]] games.
82	* HigherTechSpecies: The Psilons have technology that far surpasses that of the other known races. Their PoweredArmor allows three Psilon soldiers to completely level a city. They are the supposed inventors of the aTan technology ([[spoiler:this is a lie]]).
83	* HighPriest: The Patriarch of the Church of the Unified Will carefully maintains a SecretIdentity. No one, not even the Emperor, knows what the Patriarch looks like or if he's even male (despite the title). The Patriarch always wears black hooded robes that cover his entire body, and electronic equipment jams any nearby scanners. His vocal cords have been surgically altered to sound gender-neutral. Given the existence of aTan (and the Church's support the technology), it's entirely possible that the Church had the same Patriarch for centuries. Officially, the Patriarch has authority similar to that of the Emperor (but spiritual instead of political). Unofficially, the Church has never tried to impose its will on the Emperor.
84	* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Emperor Gray and Admiral Karl Lemak are seen as brave heroes who, in the time of great crisis for humanity, took the initiative to overthrow the inept Earth government and establish the [[TheEmpire Human Empire]]. Nobody ever mentions whether it is true or not.
85	** Judging by their characters and their dialogues, both are anti-villains at worst.
86	* HonorBeforeReason: The Bulrathi prefer hand-to-hand combat to a shoot-out.
87	* HumansAreAverage: It's mentioned by several aliens that human's aren't very remarkable compared to other races. They still can't figure out how humanity has managed to not only survive but also come out ahead during the Vague War, when all alien races were, at one point or another, were against them. Kay, though, points out that no one can hate quite like humans, and hate can be a very powerful emotion.
88	* HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace: While not technically scary, one must always take care to decelerate before exiting into real space lest one exit at a relativistic velocity.
89	* IHaveManyNames: Kay routinely changes his last name when necessary. His birth name is Kay Dutch. During the evacuation of his home planet, a senator's wife gives him her dead son's ID, so he is temporarily known as Kay Lacitis. At the orphanage on Altos, his last name is taken away, and he becomes Kay Altos. As his cover ID for the mission, he is known as Kay Ovald.
90	* ILied: After Kay and Arthur are captured by the Darloks and are about to be turned into loyal Darlok agents, Kay requests to meet with a Darlok agent he knows from his past, Ezsanti Kri Chesciafo (although Kay knew him as Bart Paolini). During the meeting, Kay asks Ezsanti to be awake during the procedure in order to learn what the Darloks really look like. Ezsanti agrees but only after Kay promises not to resist. During the procedure, Kay attacks the guards and Ezsanti. Just before killing him, Kay tells the Darlok to consider him a liar.
91	* ImmortalityImmorality: Avoided with the fact that resurrection via aTan is extremely expensive and must be paid in advance. Immorality stems from many people willing to go to any lengths to obtain the secret to aTan.
92	* ImmortalRuler: Emperor Gray is just as immortal as anyone else who can afford an aTan. It's just that his resurrections are paid for by the Empire.
93	* ImportedAlienPhlebotinum: The founder of the aTan Corporation claims that the technology was purchased by him from the Psilons, the most advanced race in the galaxy. [[spoiler:This is revealed to be false.]]
94	* InertialDampening: Present on all ships for all races but one. The Silicoids, being, effectively, columns of rock that float on self-generated EM fields, have no need for "gravicompensators" (until recently, their ships were little more than hulls being "manually" accelerated by the crew; they borrowed the idea of external engines and weapons from humans).
95	** Alkari research into causality has yielded inertialess drives as a side effect. Coupled with their natural affinity for three-dimensional thinking, this makes their ships the most maneuverable in the galaxy being able to turn and stop on a dime.
96	* InsectoidAliens: The Klackons are briefly mentioned several times. While the books make no mention of their appearance, their insectoid nature can be inferred from the ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' games.
97	* InvincibleHero: It's pointed out by Kay that the person, for whom this universe was created, ''has'' to be vulnerable to something. No one wants to be entirely invincible, as that would make life boring very quickly. Thus, even unconsciously, there has to be a way to kill him.
98	* KillItWithFire: Single-use pyrocharges are small tubes that, when broken, emit a powerful directed flame at the target. They were frequently used by Imperial terror groups during the Vague War and were so simple to manufacture they could be produced in spaghetti factories. [[spoiler:Henrietta uses a pyrocharge to kill one of the operatives left by Isabella Kal in her house]].
99	* Myth/KingArthur: The first novel intentionally references the myth several times, especially in regard to the names of the protagonists. Arthur even mentions that the "King Arthur" myth had a minor character named Sir Kay. Their destination is a place called Grail, where [[spoiler:Arthur wants to find God]].
100	* KingIncognito: Curtis van Curtis, the owner and president of the aTan MegaCorp, is unable to leave his luxurious residence on Terra without all his enemies learning this. So, he sends his only son and heir with a bodyguard to a remote planet under a false name.
101	** At the end of the second novel, Emperor Gray sneaks out of his palace, donning normal clothing, in order to [[spoiler:trade his aTan for a new universe]]. Nobody recognizes him until it's too late.
102	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Tommy Arano got into a car accident and lost his memory. At least, that's the story his parents told him. In fact, [[spoiler:he's an aTan clone of Arthur van Curtis whose memories were erased in an attempt to stop Arthur from reaching Grail. The memory wiping procedure triggered aTan, and another Arthur was created back on Terra with all the original memories. Tommy became a whole new personality and given to foster parents]].
103	* LizardFolk: The Melkar are reptilian in nature but have long ago replaced most of their organs with mechanical parts.
104	* TheMafia: The Family is an extremely powerful criminal organization based on planet Gorra, masquerading as a legitimate corporation. The hierarchy is reflected in the member titles: the head is the Father or Mother, his/her second is the Eldest Son/Daughter, etc. They have access to military-grade hardware, including top-secret developments. It's implied by Kay that the Family has connections to most crime in the Empire all the way down to street thugs and biker gangs. The head of the Family converses with the Emperor once a month. In the second novel, Gray asks the head of the Family to be one of the three witnesses to his revised will, the others being Curtis van Curtis and the Patriarch of the Church of the Unified Will.
105	** In the second novel, Emperor Gray muses on the existence and status of the Family. In the past, he has "cut off the head of the spider" three times, only for the it to grow back somewhere else later. Eventually, even he gave up trying to rid the Empire of organized crime. It's better to have a single all-powerful crime syndicate than can reign in their people and, occasionally, help the Empire in such ways that would never work or would take too long through legal means (e.g. the Family ended the civil war on Incedios in a matter of months through several acts of terror and large bribes to the right people, something that would take the Imperial Security Service years with all those regulations in place).
106	* MatterReplicator: A key component of the aTan technology. After a person who has paid for resurrection dies, a new body is replicated in the nearest aTan facility from the most recent matrix in the aTan database. It's not clear if [[ReedRichardsIsUseless replicators are used for other purposes]].
107	* MayDecemberRomance: In ''Emperors of Illusions'', Kay ends up sleeping with a girl in her teens on planet Tauri. Kay is in his 30s, although his physical body is younger thanks to aTan (there is still an almost 10-year difference between them). As Kay is leaving her room via window, he meets the girl's father having a smoke, who merely makes sure Kay hasn't hurt himself jumping from the window and asks that he take off in his flyer quietly.
108	** Kay is actually more attracted to (on an emotional and intellectual level) to an old lady living nearby.
109	** TheEmperor prefers the company of girls in their early teens. The parents usually consider it a privilege.
110	*** In the second novel, Kay uses this to get TheMole near the Emperor. The girl's mother, being old-fashioned, doesn't approve but can't refuse the Emperor.
111	* MechanisticAlienCulture: The Meklar were originally LizardFolk, but they have embraced machine-like thinking, viewing everything organic as inferior, and each of them begins replacing body parts with cybernetics soon after birth, becoming fully MechanicalLifeforms by the end of their natural life span.
112	** A number of humans have also embraced this philosophy and view the Meklar as ideal lifeforms, enhancing their bodies in similar ways. One of the antagonists, Marjan Mohammadi, is a professional bodyguard who has chosen to "enhance" herself in such a manner. This, of course, makes them incapable of using [=aTan=], which only works on organic matter.
113	** One of the Meklar does mention the disadvantage of utilizing only built-in weaponry instead of handheld weapons: it's much easier to design a better handheld weapon and give it to someone than try to upgrade a weapon built into your own body.
114	* MegaCorp: The aTan Corporation has a monopoly on the resurrection technology of the same name, a privilege granted by the Emperor only because Curtis van Curtis, the founder and owner of aTan, is the only one who knows how the technology works. All attempts to reverse-engineer it failed. The corportion has offices on every human world and several alien ones (at least those races that are able to use aTan and don't have any religious taboos against it). Curtis van Curtis literally has the power over life and death, and the aTan Corporation is often called "an empire within an empire". However, despite its power, the corporation has always offered only one service - resurrection in the 2 centuries of its existence. The second novel deals with the addition of a new service.
115	** Setico is another powerful corporation that constantly engages in corporate espionage against aTan, despite the fact that they are not competitors in any market.
116	* TheMilkyWayIsTheOnlyWay: Mostly played straight, until an Alkari mentions that their people are preparing to depart en masse for another galaxy, as they have given up trying to conquer this one.
117	* MindOverMatter: The [[SiliconBasedLife Silicoids]] emit and manipulate focused EM fields, which they use for locomotion (being columns of solid rock), intraspecies communication, and object manipulation. Their early spaceships were propelled by the combined efforts of the crew. They got the idea of adding external drives from other races.
118	* MonumentalTheft:
119	** Curtis van Curtis owns a lot of land on Terra where parts of his enormous palace are located (connected by portals). When walking through it, Kay notes a circular collection of standing stones, likely Stonehenge, right near van Curtis's wartime ship.
120	** Lyka Seiker's bath chamber is topped by the Art/SistineChapel's painted ceiling. She reflects that the reclining figure on the central panel always reminds her of Kay.
121	* MultiArmedAndDangerous: The Meklar have six limbs. It's not clear if they have always had them or only added them as part of the roboticisation process. The Hunter robots have identical limbs whose design was copied from the Meklar.
122	* MustHaveCaffeine: When visited by the Patriarch of the Church of the Unified Will, Emperor Gray personally pours coffee for him and offers to partake in the ancient coffee ceremony originating on the continent of America. The Patriarch points out that there has never actually been any coffee ceremonies in the past before inviting the Emperor to visit him for a ''tea'' ceremony and pointing out that these did exist.
123	* NeverMessWithGranny: Henrietta Fiscalocci (AKA Wanda Kahowski) is a retired SpaceMarine midwife, living on a paradise world. But mess with anyone under her wing, and she will blow your head off with any number of weapons she has around the house. She is not known as Wanda Blood throughout the alien worlds for nothing.
124	** [[spoiler:She's not just a midwife. She's the only female commander of an Imperial terror squad with the alien body count in the hundreds of thousands. The aliens are still officially at war with her]].
125	* NoBiochemicalBarriers: It's mentioned that, while considered taboo by most humans, certain people like to have sex with members of other races. Additionally, Mrrshan wines are renowned throughout the galaxy as the best. Also, during the Tukai Conflict, some human had the bright idea of importing fleas onto the Mrrshan homeworld of Fieras. The tiny bloodsuckers had since become the scourge of the furry Mrrshans.
126	* NoEndorHolocaust: Averted with a habitable world about to be settled by humans. A huge battle between the human and Alkari fleets takes place above the planet (Alkari prefer to fight near planets in order to make full use of their unparalleled maneuverability). After the battle, debris from thousands of destroyed ships either orbits or falls to the planet. The ground is radioactive from all the crashed reactors, missiles, and bombs, and some places are glassed. Nobody bothered to try to make the planet habitable again, preferring to find a new world.
127	* NomDeGuerre:
128	** While participating in the massacre of a seceding colony's population, Kay has earned the nickname "Measles" after pointing out that the measles virus has killed many more children than they're planning to.
129	** Wanda Kahowski, the only female commander of an Imperial terror group during the Vague War, is responsible for hundreds of thousands of dead aliens. Her brutal tactics have earned her the nickname "Wanda Blood" and the hate of most alien races.
130	* NotGrowingUpSucks: [[spoiler:Arthur]] has died so many times (over 70) and has always come back to his twelve-year-old body so much that he is no longer capable of turning into an adult (mentally), as his psyche is permanently scarred.
131	* NotUsingTheZWord: At some point in the Empire's history, all religions were merged into one, the Church of the Unified Will, which became the official church of the Empire. No one uses the term "God" anymore. Instead, "[[OhMyGods Will]]" is the preferred address. There are still local flavors of the one religion, differing from planet to planet. The Patriarch is usually fine with that, as long as these varieties don't violate the core tenets of the Church. Also, the Church doesn't have as much power as the previous religions did, in part because the merging of religions pushed more people away than it attracted. At the same time, the novella reveals that some of the old religions are still allowed, especially on remote frontier colonies. The events of the novella take place on a colony that follows the Eastern Orthodox Church.
132	* NumberedHomeworld: The [[SiliconBasedLife Silicoids]] number their colonies.
133	%%* OldSchoolDogfight
134	* OminousFloatingSpaceship: Gravity propulsion allows a ship to land or take off without using its primary plasma engines. However, in a subversion of this trope, hovering like this for a long time will quickly drain the ship's power and will also crush anything under the ship into fine powder.
135	* {{Omniglot}}: The primary reason for Kay's genetic engineering was to create a superior linguist. Among his qualities, Kay is able to absorb any language extremely quickly. His command of alien languages is impressive, and he once perfectly copies a famous singer's voice.
136	* OneFederationLimit: There is only one Empire in this 'verse, the Human Empire. The aliens may have a similar political structure but they don't call themselves empires. The other named governments are the Silicoid Basis (or Silicoid Foundation), the Mrrshan Territories, the Darlok Unity, and the Alkari Branch.
137	* OneHitKill: Kay fights two Bulrathi in the first book. He kills both of them with one strike (a different strike for each). He does the same with a Silicoid but only cripples the living column of rock.
138	* OnlyOneName: No one knows Emperor Gray's full name or even if it's his real name.
139	* OurSoulsAreDifferent: If the same person is resurrected more than once at the same time, only one of these bodies will be fully conscious. The others will remain in a zombie-like state (e.g. can eat, talk, answer questions but lacking will), despite having all the same memories. This is because, when a person dies, his or her "psi-factor" leaves the body and departs, unless an identical body is available. Needless to say, aTan received full Church blessing after this revelation.
140	** This information is kept from the general public, though, and a cover story is used instead.
141	** Only two other races in the galaxy have the "psi-factor", which means that no other race can use [=aTan=].
142	* TheParalyzer: Stunners are used by both civilians and the military to subdue targets without killing them. Naturally, the military models are more effective, while the civilian ones are only really good for scaring away gangbangers. It's not clear how they work, but a person hit by a stunner blast is knocked out for some time and has trouble regaining muscle control for a short while after waking up. There are no long-term effects, though. Stun grenades are also occasionally used to subdue a group of people.
143	* PardonMyKlingon: Among his [[{{Omniglot}} vast linguistic skills]], Kay has picked up quite a few alien insults from people who have fought them. He goads his Bulrathi teacher by using a phrase in Bulrathi he heard from an acquaintance without knowing its meaning. He then finds out that he gave the Bulrathi permission to lick his excrement.
144	* ParentalIncest: It's not uncommon for Mrrshan males to produce offspring with their own daughters. Of course, Mrrshans have 3 sexes, so the conception also requires a male-prime to participate.
145	* PintsizedPowerhouse: Whenever the Emperor leaves Terra, his shuttle is always accompanied by a wing of top-of-the-line fighters. It's stated that each of those fighters has enough firepower to take down a cruiser. It's also implied that Alkari fighters are also fairly powerful, as they tend to rely more on small, nimble craft than large, unwieldy capital ships.
146	* PlanetTerra: Earth has been renamed Terra. It appears to have happened some time during or after the Vague War, as Kay finds an old note dating back to the war that still uses the old name.
147	* PlasmaCannon: Plasma weapons are used as both handheld and shipboard weapons. The named handheld weapons include Bumblebee (medium-power plasma pistol, standard-issue officer sidearm), Bumblebee-M (modernized version with increased power and a higher charge), Condor (effective but heavy and bulky plasma submachine gun), Condor-ST (modernized version with a higher charge and longer range), Typhoon (obsolete Vague War-era plasma rifle), Hornet (heavy submachine gun with 2 independent charge packs for uninterrupted fire while reloading), Argument-17 (medium-power pistol with an intellectual circuit), Argument-36 (SwissArmyWeapon variant with an additional stung gun and [[EnergyWeapon Frickin Laser Beam]]), Cobra (army plasma rifle), Guardian (high-powered PoweredArmor-mounted plasma gun), and Diana (Guardian variant with a higher rate of fire).
148	* {{Plunder}}: In the novella, Captain Denis Ogarin reveals to the protagonist his backstory. After the Imperial forces crushed the fundamentalist rebellion on Ogarin's home planet, an unwritten rule of war meant that the victors were allowed to do whatever they wanted on the planet, even though a large portion of the population wasn't involved in the rebellion. One officer ends up murdering Denis's twin sister (who was only 12, by the way) just to be able to loot their home without any witnesses. Denis enlisted immediately after in order to find and kill the guy, but never found him.
149	* PoweredArmor: Used by most soldiers. The Psilons, being the most advanced race, have extremely-powerful power armor to the point that several soldiers can level a city.
150	** When storming an Imperial orbital base at Dogar, Kay wears the top-of-the-line Seraph armor that can emit a plasma shield. It's use is not defensive but offensive. Specifically, he uses it to [[ThereWasADoor make his own way]] through station bulkheads by simply walking at them and leaving a Kay-shaped hole in it. It drains a lot of power, though.
151	* {{Precursors}}: Averted. When jokingly suggested by Kay that Curtis van Curtis may have found LostTechnology left over from Precursors, the Silicoid leader Sedimin calmly points out that there have never been any Precursors. The Silicoids and the Darloks are the oldest galactic races but they don't qualify, especially since their technology isn't any more advanced that that of the other races.
152	* {{Privateer}}: Curtis Van Curtis, the second most powerful man in the Human Empire, used to be a privateer during the Vague War.
153	** It's stated that the privateers (who were issued one-man FTL-capable corvettes with a pair of anti-fighter weapons, a torpedo launcher, and a few grams of bottled AntiMatter for DeathFromAbove) had done more to help the war effort than the fleets.
154	* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Bulrathi are a race of these. Despite advanced technology, they still prefer to engage their enemies in melee and have even managed to figure out how to beat a Silicoid without weapons. It's never stated how a Bulrathi would fare against a Meklar, though.
155	** One of the worst insults one can give a Bulrathi include phrases like "your father brought up the rear of the company" and "[[YourMom your mother]] bathed in hot water".
156	** The Mrrshan have traits of this as well.
157	* PubertySuperpower: Kay Dutch is an illegal "super", with a preference for linguistics, although all his physical and mental qualities are at superhuman levels. He explains that he was a scrawny weakling until sixteen, at which point his body started its modifications.
158	* PuppeteerParasite: The [[spoiler:Darloks]] are revealed to be small snakes with tentacles that burrow into a sentient being's body and take over its functions. The original personality is destroyed. After death, the parasite and the host's brain rot in a matter of minutes, making autopsies inconclusive. [[spoiler:After the Empire finds out the truth, they start scanning peoples' upper backs and then blasting them with a stun gun if a parasite is detected]].
159	* ReactionlessDrive: Gravity propulsion is only used to take off and land on planets. It's safer for the environment than plasma engines but will crush anything under the ship. It's not clear if they're truly reactionless, as they're described as pushing against something.
160	* TheRemnant: In ''Shadows of Dreams'', a Psilon battleship from the [[TheGreatOffscreenWar Vague War]] days arrives to a small human colony, having spent the intervening century or so at relativistic speeds (its hyperdrive was damaged in the previous battle). Since the crew isn't aware that the war is long over and that the rest of their race have isolated their area of space and refuse to interact with outsiders, they intend to complete their original mission: to capture the military outpost that used to be where the colony is now. The colony has almost no means of defending itself, especially from the most advanced race in the galaxy. Later on, though, the protagonist realizes that the crew must be aware of how much time has passed and that their orders no longer make sense. And yet they fully intend to continue, possibly as a sort-of last hurrah (plus, the fact that there's a human colony there likely means that their side didn't win).
161	* ResurrectedForAJob: Kay is secretly resurrected by Curtis van Curtis on Terra in order to hire him ([[AnOfferYouCantRefuse not that Kay has much of a choice]]) to deliver his son and heir to Grail. Van Curtis was specifically looking for a professional bodyguard who is killed without paying for [=aTan=].
162	* ResurrectionTeleportation:
163	** Resurrection for humans is commonplace, and the moment anyone dies, that fact instantaneously spreads through the whole universe (OurSoulsAreDifferent) and they can be cloned again immediately in the respawn chamber. Made into a plot point many times:
164	** The prime motivation for the main character to work for the CorruptCorporateExecutive is that if he doesn't, he will eventually die and then resurrect in his own private chamber to be [[FateWorseThanDeath tortured to death infinite amount of times]].
165	** At one point the party is trapped by Silicoids - their only way to escape is to kill themselves and respawn, except they can't do that, because the moment they try they'll be reduced to a BrainInAJar.
166	** At another point the party attempts to bypass some sector of space by coming close enough to be under jurisdiction of a respawn point on the other side and then killing themselves so that they will be transported there.
167	* SacrificialLamb: When Kay asks Lyta Seiker for help in storming an Imperial orbital base, she gives him several operatives, including a pair of twins whose self-preservation instincts have been suppressed. Nobody expects them to return. They don't.
168	* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: TheEmperor usually tries ''not'' to do this, although, in his palace and the surrounding grounds, he can arbitrarily pick laws from any of the Empire's planets (or, if no existing laws apply, then he goes with one of the anarchy worlds). The Prostration is an annual ritual involving the Emperor visiting all the planets in the Empire and ritualistically prostrating himself upon exiting his ship. It was started when he tripped and fell and tried to save face by starting a new ritual. In the second novel, he forgets to prostrate himself and simply tells the ruler of the planet that he's changing the ritual.
169	** Additionally, for practical reasons, Gray has never tried to be a tyrant, understanding that an interstellar empire can't be held together by a single person. Instead, he acts as a unifier and a symbol, while planets retain a large degree of autonomy and elect representatives to the Imperial Senate.
170	* SiliconBasedLife: The Silicoids are sentient columns of rock capable of levitating and manipulating objects with focused EM fields. They communicate with each other using the same fields. For talking with other races, they vibrate their entire bodies.
171	** They are the only race who cannot be infiltrated by the Darloks.
172	* SmartGun: The Argument 17 and the polycharger Argument 36 are noted to be somewhat autonomous due to "Intellectual Circuitry". [[spoiler:This ends up getting Kadar killed, as he aims his Argument 36 at Kay, only for Henrietta to point a weapon at him. He tries to quickly point the gun at her, only for the intellectual circuit to stubbornly try to keep aiming at Kay, giving Henrietta the opening to shoot him. They are also, apparently, programmed to automatically avoid shooting children]].
173	* SpaceIsCold: Surprisingly averted. When jumping out into space in PoweredArmor (not in a proper EVA suit), Kay's main concern isn't air, it's overheating, since armor was never meant to spend a long time in vacuum, so cooling has never been an issue.
174	* SpiderTank: Hunter droids have six agile limbs whose design was copied from Meklar mechanical bodies. They are extremely fast and have machine-level reaction time, as well as three independent turrets. [[spoiler:However, no one bothered to program them to fight someone with a tachyon weapon, capable of hitting the target ''before'' being fired]].
175	* StateSec: The Imperial Security Service has offices on every planet of TheEmpire. Its authority supersedes that of local governments. In fact, the novels don't show them as evil but as a typical government security and intelligence agency. The main antagonist is a high-ranking ISS official, but she is actually acting outside the normal structure, and her actions are seen by some as treasonous. There is some InterserviceRivalry between the ISS and the military.
176	* StealthInSpace: No known way to hide a ship in space is mentioned. Kay at one point has his ship equipped with a decoy that generates his ship's energy signature when detached. This does not fool TheEmpire for a second, as the decoy has a much smaller mass than the ship. They have the decoy destroyed anyway in order to avoid confusion.
177	* SuperSoldier: Kai Dutch reveals that he was created as one of these in secret, as genetic engineering is illegal in TheEmpire. For the first 15 years of his life, he was a weakling and constantly bullied (and raped). Once he hits 16, he hits a huge growth spurt and develops superhuman strength, speed, reaction time, and analytical powers. However, even when he has to fight a Meklar hand-to-hand (normally a death sentence to any non-Meklar), he has a doctor (working for TheMafia) give him tons of "enhancements" and a "battle cocktail" that turns him into a killing machine that can survive a few minutes against a Meklar.
178	* SwissArmyGun: "Polychargers" are handheld weapons that can be switched to different modes, from a PlasmaCannon to a stun gun. The Argument-36 model also features intellectual circuits designed to aid in targeting, which can be also programmed to avoid hitting allies.
179	* SyntheticPlague: Plenty have been used during the Vague War by all sides (although they're useless against the Silicoids), especially by the Meklar, who are masters of bio-warfare despite being cyborgs. When Kay and Arthur end up on Incedios, they find out that the planet is in the middle of a civil war with the liberal use of the doom virus and bio-terminator.
180	* TeacherStudentRomance: Sort of. The main character of ''Shadows of Dreams'' lives on a small colony and dreams of leaving. By the time he realizes he's not going anywhere, all the eligible women are already married. The only single woman is his former high school teacher, who is twenty years his senior. He is not exactly thrilled with the prospect.
181	* TechnicalPacifist: Vsevolod Martyzenski is a famous weapons designer, responsible for a large number of [[BuffySpeak things that kill people]]. He is also a pacifist, who regularly attends peace rallies, only to come back to his lab upset after numerous attempts to beat him up and design an even deadlier tool of war. It is rumored that his employers deliberately organize a peace rally whenever he has a designer's block.
182	* TemporalParadox: The Excalibur tachyon rifle fires about a second before the trigger is pulled. Doesn't break causality, as it fires if and ''only'' if the trigger is pulled. Which can be a little frustrating, such as when Kay pulls the trigger already knowing he missed.
183	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: After Kay and Arthur are captured by the Darloks and taken to one of their colonies to be turned into loyal spies, the Silidoids arrive to rescue them and bring their entire fleet (about 32,000 ships), laying waste to the planet.
184	* ThereWasADoor: The Seraph PoweredArmor has an active defense mode, which covers its outer surface with plasma. One way to use it is to melt through walls and bulkheads, which is what Kay does several times when assaulting the Imperial base at Dogar. In one case, This is used to surprise an enemy when Kay steps through a wall while the Meklar on the team bursts through the door.
185	* TimeDilation: A real danger if a ship drops out of SubspaceOrHyperspace without decelerating first, meaning the ship will end up traveling at relativistic speeds. Decelerating ''after'' dropping out will result in decades or even centuries passing outside the ship. The Psilon battleship in the novella had its hyperdrive damaged during a battle with humans and was forced to retreat by accelerating to near-light speeds. Thus, its crew still believes that the Psilons are at war with humans.
186	* TortureAlwaysWorks: Played straight and averted. While they're not used too often, the [[StateSec Imperial Security Service]] and the military have established procedures for third- and fourth-degree interrogations. Third-degree interrogations involve anything from TruthSerums to physical harm, while fourth-degree interrogations go beyond that and, basically, involve the person being vivisected while alive and conscious. [[spoiler:Arthur]]'s body and mind are conditioned enough that he goes through these without even a whimper.
187	* TortureTechnician: Marjan Mohammadi is an expert on extracting information using less-than-ethical methods. She appears to enjoy this part of her job.
188	* TouchOfDeath: Kay's Bulrathi trainer teaches him the one weak point on a Bulrathi's body, the sigmoid gland. A powerful strike there will trigger a flush of pleasure hormones which end in death in a matter of seconds. The trainer, not being TooDumbToLive, has protected his sigmoid gland with an implanted armor plate. Unfortunately for him, Kay knows about other {{Pressure Point}}s (called "reflex points") on a Bulrathi's body and kills him that way. Curtis van Curtis reveals that he also knew about them from his Vague War days and was occasionally tempted to show the old Bulrathi how wrong he was. Kay ends up killing [[spoiler:Shivukim Ahhar]] using the first method.
189	* TransferableMemory: aTan has vast databanks collecting clients' memories in real-time. When the signal stops, this indicates death. If the person has paid off his or her aTan, a new body is created from a previously-scanned template, and the memories are downloaded into the brain up until the moment of death. If the resurrection has not been paid in advance, then the person's memories and the body template are purged from the database (i.e. KilledOffForReal). It is possible, although illegal, for the aTan operators to record and watch the memories of the resurrected. This becomes a plot point in the first novel.
190	* UnrealisticBlackHole: A collapsar generator is a[[ArbitraryWeaponRange short-range]] ship-to-ship weapon whose main advantage is the fact that no shield can stop it. It creates a short-lived singularity in the target, usually resulting in a OneHitKill. However, the generator can be detected pretty far away, and most ship weapons have a far greater range.
191	* UnusualUserInterface: While wearing PoweredArmor, Kay controls its systems with his chin.
192	* UrsineAliens: The Bulrathi are more-or-less directly lifted from the ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' series.
193	** [[Creator/SergeyLukyanenko Lukyanenko]] did expand on their culture, considering the version he used from the first ''Master of Orion'', which didn't provide much background. In the books, the Bulrathi are a ProudWarriorRace culture, who value hand-to-hand (or paw, if you want to be technical) combat over standard warfare. They also have [[VocalDissonance falsetto voices]], making them good tenors (when they're not ripping your head off). In fact, their obsession with direct combat leads to them developing a method to defeat the [[SiliconBasedLife Silicoids]]' natural DeflectorShields (most races just shoot at them) using their high-pitched voices in a manner similar to how a singer can shatter a crystal glass with her voice. They are also stated to be scavengers, preferring to eat something that has been dead for days. In terms of clothing, they generally wear skirts (sometimes metal skirts), since their tough hides can handle almost anything an unarmed human can do to them. A human gift shop on their homeworld has a display of "authentic" Bulrathi armor, except the experienced protagonist immediately assumes it's fake, since it covers far too much body for the HonorBeforeReason Bulrathi.
194	* VestigialEmpire: The Alkari were the first race to achieve interstellar flight (even though they are not the oldest race). But by the second novel, the Alkari Branch (also known as the Alkari Union) consist of only eleven planets.
195	* VocalDissonance: The Bulrathi are huge {{bears\|AreBadNews}}... with falsetto voices, described by the main character as a quirk of evolution. They do make good tenors, though, when they are not ripping your head off. Interestingly, they have managed to adapt this into a weapon against the [[SiliconBasedLife Silicoids]], by creating a high-pitched resonance that disables their organ that generates EM fields.
196	* VoiceChangeling: The computer on Kay's ship in the first novel constantly changes its voice. When asked by Tommy, Kay explains that the computer is still deciding its identity (e.g. male or female, child or adult).
197	* VoiceOfTheLegion: The [[SiliconBasedLife Silicoids]] normally communicate via EM waves. In order to communicate with other races, they vibrate their entire bodies, which generates sound that sounds like a chorus is talking.
198	* WaveMotionGun: Kay's ship in the second book is armed with a black hole generator, one of the most devastating ship-to-ship weapons in the galaxy. Highly illegal, they cannot be simply mounted on just any ship and have to have ships built around them. That's only done for a single operation, after which they are destroyed. The one Kay has purchased was sold to him by someone, who wanted to make a quick buck instead of scrapping the ship. Still, Kay has to be careful, when approaching Imperial planets, as any ship carrying a black hole generator is vaporized without warning due to the danger to the planet. Anarchy worlds are the only ones that don't care. The weapon collapses the gravity at a single point within the target until a singularity is formed, tearing the target apart from the inside. It's entirely unaffected by shields or armor but has a very short range.
199	* WeaponizedExhaust: Kay's ship uses its plasma engines to incinerate two Hunter robots sent to guard it. Maybe standing next to its engines is not such a great idea. It then switches to its gravity drive and pushes out the hangar doors.
200	** An unintentional example just before the start of the first novel. When landing on Kailis using gravity drives (they push against the ground), he accidentally kills a girl who sneaked onto the landing field in order to offer Kay some local drugs. The novel starts with Kay waking up to the girl's brother about to kill him with an AgonyBeam.
201	* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Human cloning and [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke genetic engineering]] are illegal in TheEmpire. Any discovered clone is immediately destroyed. Needless to say, they have no rights. Genetically-engineered people are forcibly "reduced" to a normal person's level.
202	* WorthyOpponent: the immensely-advanced Psilons take no prisoners. The rare exception is an enemy who is able to kill many Psilon soldiers singlehandedly. Such enemy is enslaved instead.
203	* YouAreAlreadyDead: One favorite tactic of the Bulrathi is to hit a prisoner with a special strike to the liver, let them go, and have them suddenly die in a few days.
204	* YouCantFightFate: Alkari faith is based around the concept that the fate of the universe and everything in it has been set at the moment of the universe's creation, which they call the Damned Moment (apparently, they don't agree with quantum mechanics). Their research into causality has resulted in them proving that the universe was indeed created by an omnipotent being. They also managed to find the so-called Probability Zone, which exists outside the universe and would create a new universe if the Alkari move their stars there, a universe not bound by the same fate as this universe.
205	* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: During the Vague War, the Empire actively used terror squads to attack alien races. When signing the peace treaty, the aliens have pointed out that they remain at war with any member of these squads still alive. Those who survived live under fake identities.

Context Literature / LineOfDelirium