A Song of Peace is a Warhammer 40,000 quest with elements of Puella Magi Madoka Magica written by Swordomatic on Sufficient Velocity
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The protagonist is Pandora Cadmus, a natural-born daughter of the Emperor whose background borrows liberally from one Madoka Kaname. Having been unreachable since the 21st century, Pandora returns to the materium around the time of the fall of Cadia, finding the galaxy beset by horrors, humanity under the thumb of one of those horrors, and what's left of the Emperor unrecognizable as the man she considered her father. Yet, with the Imperium on the bring of annihilation, the Emperor names her his regent - whether she likes it or not.
A Song Of Peace provides examples of:
- The Ace: Every one of the Emperor's children was this to some extent or another. Mona, in particular, is a Master of All who, once she joins Pandora, only needs a single decade to effectively shatter the Inquisition.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Pandora's one of the most compassionate, reasonable people in the galaxy. She also can destroy entire armies and is unafraid to do exactly that.
- Cat Girl: Valeria, one of the Sensei, was a felinid.
- Competitive Balance: At the start of the quest, readers voted which of the Sensei they would be playing as.
Word of God has since stated that, while each option had different strengths, whoever the reader picked, the backstory would then establish that whichever sensei would have best complemented them died ages ago. Since Pandora, as a goddess and alpha-plus psyker with millennia of experience, is uniquely qualified to reform the Adeptus Telepathica, the siblings who could have reformed/replaced the Adeptus Mechanicus have died in the backstory, leaving her with a major problem she cannot neatly resolve. - Crapsack World: It's Warhammer 40,000, so, yes. Though Pandora remembers a time before the crapsack had fully set in.
- Curbstomp Battle: Pandora is literally a Warp Goddess, albeit not a major one. She is able to solo entire armies.
- Death by Origin Story: Several of the Sensei - and several of the surviving ones are imprisoned in places even Pandora can't reach.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: All the time. Pandora was raised in a liberal 21st century society, and is all too aware of what a dystopian horror the Imperium Of Man is.
- Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: As part of the backstory, Pandora managed to cause a scheme of Tzeentch to explode in his face. Neither side walked away unscathed.
- Dysfunction Junction: Most of Pandora's (surviving) family is this, thanks to several millennia's worth of trauma.
- Experienced Protagonist: Pandora is almost 40,000 years old, and has spent most of that time leading her own minor faction in the Warp.
- Expy: Of multiple Puella Magi Madoka Magica characters - Pandora and Lily in particular are expies of Madoka and Homura.
- Fascist, but Inefficient: The Imperium isn't just evil, it is an absolute mess at every possible level. A big part of Pandora's challenges involve just getting it to work.
- Gunboat Diplomacy: As reasonable and compassionate as Pandora may be, she still knows what kind of galaxy she lives in. Her attempts at diplomacy with the Tau and Asuryani both involve demonstrating that if things got violent, it would not go well for anyone opposing her.
- Happily Married: Officially or not, Pandora and Lily have been this for most of human History by now.
- In Love with Your Carnage: The head of the Officio Assassinorum appears to have fallen madly in love with Mona's superior assassination skills.
- Internal Reformist: Pandora struggles with being this, though at least she's not the only one.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Back in the 21st century, Tzeentch cursed Pandora so that her very existence would be forgotten - a curse that only broke around the start of the quest.
- Nay-Theist: Lucan, second-oldest of the Sensei, views the very existence of gods - even benevolent ones - as one of the major problems making the galaxy such a Crapsack World, given the power disparity between them and mortals.
- Only Mostly Dead: There's apparently enough of Sanguinius's soul left to act as adviser to Pandora... and possibly enough to resurrect him. This also applies to Liranda the Knight, the sensei whose ghost is retired on a random Knight World. She could also be resurrected but doesn't want to.
- Original Character: Every single High Lord and Sensei (the Emperor's natural-born children, who are given an entire backstory each).
- Pragmatic Hero: As regent of the Imperium Of Man, Pandora is forced to be this - she can't make the Imperium stop being monstrous all at once, any reforms she tries to enact require making compromises with other Imperial factions, and she has to split her attention between reforming the Imperium and protecting it. Several people outright tell her that making the Imperium worthy of saving is impossible, and she isn't actually certain they're wrong.
- Sealed Good in a Can: A few of the surviving Sensei are imprisoned - one in Commoragh, two in Solemnace. Kaldor Draigo, as per canon, is cursed to wander the Warp. Though with Pandora's teaching, the Grey Knights are able to recover him.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Extremely cynical setting. Highly idealistic protagonist who is all too aware of what sort of setting she's in.
- The Social Expert: Sanguinius's ghost assists Pandora in this capacity.
- Take a Third Option: When Pandora returns from her crusade in Segmentum Nihilus, she discovers that the High Lords Of Terra are preparing to launch a xenocidal crusade against the Tau of all people. She considers the option of outright vetoing the crusade (thus losing political capital), allowing it to happen (leading to the death of the Tau)... and ultimately decides to lead it herself and, instead of turning it into an exercise in genocide, turn into one in Gunboat Diplomacy. It actually ends up working even better than she hoped, thanks to the fortunate presence of Mona.
- We ARE Struggling Together: Pandora's job would be vastly easier if she could just get the people who should be her allies to cooperate. While she is fortunate enough to sign a peace treaty with the Tau and earn the respect of the Grand Provost Marshall, establishing an alliance between humans and Craftworld Eldar, getting the Adeptus Mechanicus to support her program, or not working at cross-purpose with her brother Lucan proves significantly more challenging.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Lucan, he just wants to destroy the cruellest regime imaginable and silence the laughter of bloodthirsty gods. Which is a good goal to have, but he tries to do it during the only time when sentient life can't afford the destruction of Imperium.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Imperium's doctrine holds that all aliens and mutants are to be exterminated. One of the first things Pandora does once she's in the big chair is order an end to the pogroms directed at minor alien species - though she justifies it by saying military sources are needed elsewhere. Later on, she also passes edicts to better protect the rights of abhumans.
