History FanFic / OrderInChaos

* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: The Vorlon, big time. They actually showed up in person only in a flashback, but the Orieni worship them as their Living Gods. If you ask the Centauri and the Minbari, however, they will point out they're this trope.

* HegemonicEmpire: The Orieni Empire has shades of this, as the government of the member worlds is left to the locals, who are ''very'' happy of being Orieni citizens and only complain that their races lack native Blessed (telepaths) to serve as their governor and representative in the Council of Hierophants. The only reason they aren't ''fully'' one is why they lack their own telepaths: the Orieni ''killed them all'' and [[OrwellianEditor altered historical records to make it appear they never had them in first place]].

-->'' "There are…rumblings amongst the Houses."''

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: The Centauri Royal Court is even ''worse than in the series'', as [[AllThereInTheManual the Royal Navy reaction to one of their stunts forced them to clean their act]].

* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: HaHaHaNo. OK, let's explain this: the short version is that Centauri 'Republic' is an empire with an hell of a DeadlyDecadentCourt, while the actual authority of the Orieni Empire is not the [[AuthorityInNameOnly Emperor of Orien]] but the [[TheTheocracy Council of Hierophants]].

* FrickinLaserBeam: Both sides make heavy use of lasers as long range weapons.

* ASimplePlan: The initial Centauri plan is to smash through Djost's defences and attack Orien, and fails due the sheer might of Djost's defences, the incompetence of the Centauri House Militia commanders (and of some Royal Navy admirals), and [[WeAreStrugglingTogether general bickering]], with the Orieni losing sleep in the search of whatever sucker punch had been hidden by the first failed assault (it took them a while to realize that yes, the first assault force could really was ''that'' incompetent). The Orieni initial plan is to let the Centauri smash themselves against Djost's defences before bypassing the Centauri border defences through neutral Usuuth space and hitting them hard enough to force them to surrender and give up the border area, but it fails due inadequate logistics, the sheer numbers of the Centauri, running in some actually competent Centauri admirals, and their Drazi allies proving themselves too incompetent to distract any meaningful segment of the Royal Navy (that in fact took ships from the Drazi border to reinforce the frontlines).
* SpaceFighter: A lot: the Drazi use the old Dragon and the more recent Adder-class fighters (both outmatched by the Centauri, but the latter in lesser measure), the Centauri have the Glaive light fighter for interception and dogfights and the Phalan assault fighter to [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin attack enemy ships]] with either a bigger plasma weapon or missiles depending on the version, and the Orieni have the Templar interceptor for combat against other fighters and covering the Hunter-Kllers. All of them are outmatched by the Minbari-made Tishat (the predecessor of the Nial), who has superior speed, greater manouverability, ludicrous firepower (the fighter-mounted fusion cannon outguns the anti-ship plasma gun of the Phalan and is faster-firing. The Tishat has ''[[NoKillLikeOverkill two of them]]''), and that annoying stealth ability that prevents enemy weapons from locking on it.

* TheFundamentalist: Both Centauri and Orieni are 'soft' version of this: both see their respective religions as the right one and consider everyone else stupid or misguided for not venerating the Great Maker (Centauri) or the Living Gods (Vorlon), but the Centauri ''don't care'' of other people's religion as long as they don't try to impose them on the Centauri themselves, and the Orieni won't actively force you to convert, only preach and bring peace and order. Of course there are some more straight version, like a certain Orieni archbishop who had the Centauri priests of an occupied planet executed (incidentally, there had been a surge into military resistance from the civilians).

* WorthyOpponent: The crews of Centauri and Orieni explorers have this relationship. This [[JustifiedTrope has a very good reason]]: in the ''BabylonFive'' universe HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace on the HyperspaceLanes, and leaving established jump routes is insanely dangerous, but explorer ships ''do this on a regular basis to discover new routes''. Kinda difficult not respecting someone with that kind of balls...

* HomeByChristmas: Both sides (and especially the Centauri Houses) expect a short, victorious war, ending with the conquest of Orien after one or two serious battles (Centauri expectations) or the crippling of the Centauri Republic with the absorption of part of it (Orieni expectations). Of course they're wrong, and the GenreSavvy Surizeen, Minbari ambassador to the Orieni Empire, has only one thing to reply when told it will be a short war:

* RecycledInSPACE: Has strong overtones of the Western Front of WorldWarOne.

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: Centauri infighting is so great and infamous that it facilitated the initial Orieni defence of Djost beyond their wildest dreams (to the point that the Orieni believed the utter incompetence of the initial attack force was a cover for something ''bad'', and it took them a while to realize that it was true idiocy at work), and House Syma actually ''launched a coup to try and seize the throne'' when the emperor died of old age. The last finally exhausted what patience the Royal Navy still had, and their RoaringRampageOfRevenge put an end to this through sheer terror of a repeat performance.

Tropes:

* PathOfInspiration: The Orieni religion has realized that the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Vorlon]] [[AncientAstronauts visited their ancestors]] and introduced [[TouchedByVorlons telepaths]] among them and many other races, and worship them as the Living Gods, and consider a mission to submit all sentient races and make them worship the Vorlon too, [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans even if they have to kill many of them to educate the rest]]. Also, at least according to the Centauri, the Orieni exterminates telepaths among their subject races (some Orieni have noticed the lack of telepaths among their subject races, and are either genuinely puzzled or take it as a sign that they're the master race).

* PragmaticVillain: Lord Josem Refa. Inventing the [[ColonyDrop mass driver]] and using it to [[spoiler: [[KickTheDog quell an insurrection on an allied world they had occupied after taking it from the Orieni]]]]? He'll brag about it. Violating ''[[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Vorlon]]'' neutrality to attack the Orieni core worlds from behind? [[NoJustNoReaction Better blowing up Centauri Prime themselves: the result is the same]]

** AwesomeYetPractical: An aspect of logistics is mapping hyperspace routes, [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace an insanely dangerous action if there is one]].