History Franchise / FactionParadox

* ParodySue: Mesh Cos in ''Of The City of the Saved...'' is ridiculously beautiful, intelligent, accomplished, talented, musical, elfin, politically savvy, charismatic, advanced, scientific, motherly, sexy and well-published, in addition to having created an AI that encompasses ''all of human technology''. She has casual nudist days.

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: At various times, Creator/LordByron, Creator/PercyByssheShelley, King George III, and Music/JohannSebastianBach have gotten caught up in a GambitPileup involving the Homeworld and the Faction's schemes. ** Literature/SherlockHolmes was a real but otherwise perfectly normal human, but Moriarty was [[spoiler: a scientist from the 21st century using stolen Faction technology given to him by the Celestis]].

** Father-Mother Olympia uses dual gender titles. (He-she started life as a woman, and hopes to become one once more, but there was [[NoodleIncident a bit of a cock-up]] involving Godfather Morlock.)

The Faction was once one of the Homeworld's ruling Houses, until illustrious leader [[PunnyName Grandfather Paradox]] became disenchanted with their diseased [[AGodAmI pretensions to immortality]] and separated from them, turning his House into a time-travelling, time-active, ritualistic death cult. The Faction is based in the beliefs of voodoo, picking up new members from all possible species and seeding necro-fetishism and atavistic horror across time and space -- rejecting both the immortality that the Houses sought and ridiculing the Laws of Time that they had laid down.

* ''[[Franchise/BerniceSummerfield Dead Romance]]''

* BigBad: Lolita, who single-handedly [[spoiler: consumes the Eleven-Day Empire]], hunts [[spoiler:Cousins Justine and Eliza]] throughout time and space, and, by the end, is considered to be an even greater threat to the universe than [[spoiler: Sutekh. Yes, that [[OmnicidalManiac Sutekh]].]] She is suggested in some sources (such as at least one story in the ''Book of the Enemy'') to be a GreaterScopeVillain manipulating both the Houses and the Enemy for her own end, although the short story ''Toy Story'' implies she may actually be a WellIntentionedExtremist who is sincerely worried about the ''real'' Enemy and is acting out a strategy devised by the [[EldritchAbomination Mother of Timeships]].

The Faction delights in creating temporal paradoxes, all the while seeking to [[TakeOverTheWorld tighten their hold over the universe]] and drown it into anarchic chaos, by pitting the main players in the [[ForeverWar Second War In Heaven]] against each other while remaining ambiguously neutral. On one side of this Time War are those pompous asses, the [[DecadentCourt Great Houses]] of the Faction's twin sun Homeworld. The Great Houses are essentially [[JustForFun/TimeLord an aristocratic race who spent their time sleeping in their laurels]] until a certain bearded renegade returned home, [[CassandraTruth bringing news]] of a great danger. Opposing them are the [[EldritchAbomination enemy]], a force so intricate and vast, it is pointless to even ''name''. It's not a specific army, or even a person... it's [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow something far, war worse]]. The battlefield is ''all of history''. And the battle prizes are the two most valuable territories: cause and effect.

[[caption-width-right:250: ''We aren't nice people''.]]

-->-- ''[[Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures Alien Bodies]]''

The Faction was once one of the Homeworld's ruling Houses, until illustrious leader [[PunnyName Grandfather Paradox]] became disenchanted with their diseased [[AGodAmI pretensions to immortality]] and separated from them, turning his House into a time-travelling, time-active, [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs ritualistic death cult]]. The Faction is based in the beliefs of voodoo, picking up new members from all possible species and seeding necro-fetishism and atavistic horror across time and space -- rejecting both the immortality that the Houses sought and ridiculing the Laws of Time that they had laid down.

* CloningBlues:
** As mentioned below, Little Brother Edward is a clone of Creator/JohnnyDepp, originally designed to be a boytoy for a rich old lady. Between that, the various Depp characters that keep clashing in his head, and the general {{Mind Screw}}iness of Faction training, his state of mind is a ''little'' fragmented.
** The various iterations of Compassion that end up in the City of the Saved. And that's not even including the [[spoiler:one who [[GeniusLoci ''became'' the City]]]].

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: At various times, Creator/LordByron, Creator/PercyByssheShelley, King George III, and Music/JohannSebastianBach have gotten caught up in a GambitPileup involving the [[strike:Time Lords]] Homeworld and our own schemes. Literature/SherlockHolmes... well, for starters, was a real but otherwise perfectly normal human, but Jimmy Moriarty was [[spoiler: a scientist from the 21st century using stolen Faction technology given to him by the Celestis]]. Vlad Tepes (aka the man known as {{Dracula}}) fought [[OurMonstersAreDifferent Mal'akh]] and almost got snared into a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with the Celestis]]. We don't talk about [[UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk Rasputin.]] Oh, and Queen Charlotte is secretly a [[SpaceshipGirl timeship]].

* CoolGate: Our brand of these can be used to fold time and space in ways you would never guess...

** While her physical form (if she even has one in a way we could understand) is never described, the Mother of Timeships, who is suggested to have created herself, and only then retconned the Great Houses into existence because it suited her to give herself a causal origin, certainly qualifies.

* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Compare the Faction Paradox of the earlier Eighth Doctor and stand-alone novels to the Gallifrey's history-rapists in ''The Ancestor Cell''. They barely seem like the same organisation. Our creator, Lawrence Miles, openly chewed out ''The Ancestor Cell'' for derailing his plans on the War in Heaven. Instead of accepting another author destroying his image of Faction Paradox, he wound up creating his own standalone universe. And thus we were born...

** We fight freaking '''Sutekh''', the lord and master of this trope. With the original actor from "Pyramids of Mars", no less. Accept no imitations!

* LetsYouAndHimFight: The Homeworld and the Enemy's war is rather ''boring''. We prefer to sit in the backbenches and carefully scavenge what we want.

** The Cousins of the Faction turn their shadows, or "sombras que cortan" into living beings by grafting weapons on them, making them capable of slicing through rooms of {{Mooks}} while the Cousin themself remains calmly sitting. The single two exceptions to this are Cousins Shuncucker and Justine, who independently acquired Grandfather Paradox's shadow, which is an infinite {{Hammerspace}} containing an endless arsenal. Give that kinda weaponry to a couple of {{Reality Warper}}s. Watch [[HilarityEnsues hilarity ensue]].
** On the other hand, we do not show it, and often appear to possess no shadow at all, as seen when a certain Doctor once was infected by the Faction's biodata virus, causing his shadow to fade.
* LivingShip: All timeships are alive, nearly all are bred on the Homeworld. The older models do not communicate on the same level of reality as the War powers, but newer variations such as Marie, [[MeaningfulName Antipathy]], Lolita and the Remote hybrid Compassion walk and talk among us.

* MagicFromTechnology: Even ''we'' don't know whether our tech is true magic, or whether it's just ''very'' advanced.

* NightmareFetishist: Many of our members qualify. Incidentally, if you aren't one... may I ask what are you doing here?

* NotAsYouKnowThem: Chris Cwej. Former companion of the Doctor. In our little corner of the Cosmos, the Great Houses used him to serve as the template for their shocktroopers at various points in his life. This had ''very'' interesting effects on his personality and morality.

* RedSkyTakeWarning: The Eleven-Day Empire is a shadow copy of UsefulNotes/{{London}} under a blood-red sky, as if something was endlessly burning just past the horizon. [[SarcasmMode Enjoy your stay...]]
* RedshirtArmy: The Cwejen. We ''were'' trying to remold the Remote into our version of this, but, umm, something went amiss in the road. Hopefully, we can still make it work...
* RetGone: Continuity Needles do this to whoever they are stuck into, allowing Time to fill in the cracks (for example, reducing the target to an alias used by someone else). However, it's not recommended to use them on important historical figures. We're still cleaning up from when one managed to hit someone calling themselves [[UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton Jeova]].
* SapientShip: Timeships, lovely ships capable of time travel. Except when they happen to rebel. Or if they happen to be psychotic. Or just sort of really into tentacle sex.

* SkeletonsInTheCoatCloset: Aside from the masks, we often wear full bone battle armour. From Yssgaroth-tainted Homeworld agents' skeletons.

** Abso-freaking-lutely '''EVERYONE.''' If you aren't capable of [[RealityWarper violating the basic structure of reality]] with a [[{{Invocation}} few muttered words of power]] and a raised eyebrow, then the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast War in Heaven]] might just be a ''teensy'' bit out of your league. We're looking at you, Sontarans.
** We ''laugh'' at people who try to have a go at them with "mere" matter-based technology. ''[[UniverseCompendium The Book of the War]]'' lumps everything like this -- from the mightiest [[CoolStarship starships]] to the most exotically vicious nanoprobe infection -- under the heading of "Burlesque Devices". After all, why bother [[Franchise/StarTrek replicating]] a fortification when you can just tweak the substrata of the universe to ensure that ''a base was always there to begin with?'' Or why fight an enemy when you can just alter his biodata so that he has ''always'' lost this fight? [[SarcasmMode Aren't Time-Active wars fun?]]
* SummonBiggerFish: Accelerating the evolutionary cycle of the Fendahl had some... unforeseen consequences. Like creating an evolutionary niche for [[GoneHorriblyRight the thing that eats the Fendahl]].
* TemporalParadox: Our goal is to burn the entire structure of time. Wanna join in?

* TimeyWimeyBall: We want it to ''shatter'', and the causality chain to ''snap''.
* TwinThreesomeFantasy: Again, ''Warlords of Utopia''. The twins, or rather, [[spoiler: the two different versions of the same woman]] are the ones to suggest it.

** ''Interference, Books 1 and 2'', where we ''really'' go to town on the Doctor's timeline by getting his Third self killed before his [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders appointment on Metebelis 3]].
** Then there's our last appearance in the Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures, ''The Ancestor Cell'', where Gallifrey [[EarthShatteringKaboom falls]], giving [[LastOfHisKind Eight]] a bad case of TraumaInducedAmnesia and causing him to [[WalkingTheEarth walk the earth]] for the next several books while his TARDIS regrows itself. Unfortunately, all this resulted from [[spoiler: Eight blowing up said TARDIS, which also [[{{Retcon}} undid the previous Wham Episode]] and cleansed himself of our Paradox virus]].

** What are the Enemy, anyway? Different writers have different opinions and the official editorial policies is "We're not telling". In the early days this came in the form of never showing the Enemy directly, but after that proved limiting, ''The Book of the Enemy'' introduced the alternative possibilities of throwing a bunch of different possible identities of the Enemy at the reader in different stories, with no clue as to how they might fit with each other as part of a larger picture. Is there a "true" Enemy using fronts and decoys? Is the Enemy an alliance of all these beings? Is the Enemy's identity constantly being rewritten while their role in the War remains constant? Who knows!

* AnotherDimension: The Yssgaroths' home Universe. It's also postulated that the Yssgaroth are in fact the result of the two universes interacting, or maybe even just a mental reaction to the interaction of matter and hostile anti-matter. As no-one's ever been near one and come back in one piece, no-one really knows.

* AGodAmI: Various entities and factions claim to be gods, or "the closest thing to gods in the universe". DependingOnTheWriter this varies from their being SufficientlyAdvancedAliens with delusions of grandeur to being, for all intents and purposes, [[PhysicalGod correct]]. These include the Great Houses, the Celestis and the Osirians (who are, of course, the Ancient Egyptian Pantheon InSpace), as well as specific individuals such as Lolita, Compassion and Auteur.

* FreudianExcuse: Antipathy has ''issues'' with that Compassion woman. Issues that he likes to express in [[AGodAmI less than]] [[IncestIsRelative healthy ways]].

* RetGone: Continuity Needles do this to whoever they are stuck into, allowing Time to fill in the cracks (for example, reducing the target to an alias used by someone else). However, it's not recommended to use them on important historical figures. We're still cleaning up from when one managed to hit a certain UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton.

%%* AndIMustScream: "Created me."

* ApatheticCitizens: The Broken Remote. [[spoiler: They were a branch of our Remote colonists until they were brainwashed by the Homeworld into accepting a steady diet of reality TV, docudramas and the like. As a result, any potential worth in them was complete and utterly spoiled.]]

* BackdoorPilot: Both ''Alien Bodies'' and ''The Adventuress Of Henrietta Street'' were, in some ways, this, for us. ''Of the City of the Saved...'' was also this for the City of the Saved series of short story collections. (Yes, we ''do'' actually have a spin-off of our own.)
* BackFromTheDead: This is what Anubis tried to do to Osiris. It... [[CameBackWrong didn't quite work]], instead re-creating Horus through fusion of Osiris' timeline with Faction Paradox member Cousin Eliza.

** Godfather Auteur is introduced as a delusional CloudCuckooLander MadArtist who babbles pun-laden GratuitousFrench, and sits around in his prison cell writing nonsensical RealPersonFic about the War in Heaven itself, insisting that what he writes is just as real as the physical world. Here is the wrinkle: [[RealityWarper he is ''right'' about that]], even if he might not be ''quite'' as all-powerful as he makes it out. And a lot of his "eccentric madman" façade may be ObfuscatingInsanity, to boot, judging by his demeanour [[ItMakesSenseInContext after he dies]].
* BigBad: Lolita, who single-handedly [[spoiler: consumes the Eleven-Day Empire]], hunts [[spoiler:Cousins Justine and Eliza throughout time and space]], and, by the end, is considered to be an even greater threat to the universe than [[spoiler: Sutekh. Yes, that [[OmnicidalManiac Sutekh]].]] She is suggested in some sources (such as at least one story in the ''Book of the Enemy'') to be a GreaterScopeVillain manipulating both the Houses and the Enemy for her own end, although the short story ''Toy Story'' implies she may actually be a WellIntentionedExtremist who is sincerely worried about the ''real'' Enemy and is acting out a strategy devised by the [[EldritchAbomination Mother of Timeships]].

* BloodKnight: Cousin Justine, who keeps getting distracted from [[spoiler: rebuilding the Faction]], by whatever fight comes her way.
* BloodMagic: Biodata magic, which can be drawn from blood or, in being lacking said substance, any other body part. Typically, the persons performing the rituals add some of their own blood to the ceremony as well.

* CardCarryingVillain: The "Evil Renegade" chose that name for ''himself''. According to Chris Cwej, anyway. And to be fair, this is after the Great Houses got his hands on him, and he doesn't quite remember it all. In fact, many of the Cwejen have started a cult around their Pale God of the number 7...

* ClarkesThirdLaw: The main issue between the Homeworld and the Faction is that they cannot agree on exactly ''what'' in the name of the Grandfather Faction Paradox uses: tech or magic. We believe that the barriers protecting the Faction's home dimension are ''loa'', voodoo spirits, while the Homeworld ''thinks'' they are merely manifestations of the laws of the Universe at work. Quite honestly, many doubt [[MindScrew there's a truth to it all]]. Including us.

** As mentioned below, Little Brother Edward is a clone of Creator/JohnnyDepp, originally designed to be a boytoy for a rich old lady. Between that, the various Depp characters that keep clashing in his head, and the general {{Mind Screw}}iness of Faction training, his state of mind is, shall we say, a ''little'' fragmented?
** The various iterations of Compassion that end up in the City of the Saved. And that's not even including the [[spoiler:one who [[GeniusLoci BECAME the City]]]].

%% * ClusterFBomb: Fucking Antipathy.
* ConspiracyKitchenSink: Xenomorphs killed President Kennedy, forcing the Faction to intervene and save his life. (Only to kill him later on their own terms in 1967.)

* CoolMask: The Faction uses ''bone'' masks. From animals that ''never existed''. And by animals, we may or may not mean the corrupted corpses of our Homeworld brethren from a timeline in which the Yssgaroth warped them into hybrid monsters. Add the full [[GorgeousPeriodDress gorgets and headdresses]]. Beat that. We ''dare'' you.

* {{Crossover}}: Obverse books had been doing Franchise/IrisWildthyme short story collections for a while, so she popped up at a few points in ''A Romance In Twelve Parts''. Probably to give us a little [[ColbertBump publicity boost]]. She's always so nice like that.
** ''The Adventure Of The Diogenes Damsel'' is a Big Finish Audio starring Bernice Summerfield, part of her line of audios, which features the Cwejen, time-duplicates of Cwej who were introduced and given that name in ''The Book of the War''. There are references throughout the audio to "The War" and one of the Time Lord characters wonders whether Bernice is associated with "The Faction". And this was the Bernice audio released immediately after one written by our creator, Lawrence Miles.

* CultColony: The Remote. You can't deny the idea of a follower cult based on TV programs might be CrazyEnoughToWork!

* DealWithTheDevil: Standard operating procedure for the Celestis. [[FateWorseThanDeath Don't fall for it. Just... don't.]]

** We of the Faction have been characterized as monsters, AffablyEvil, or even downright {{Anti Hero}}ic protagonists, depending on which book you're reading. ''[[Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures The Ancestor Cell]]'', for instance, was our infamous appearance, changing us hugely from what Master Miles intended us to be in the first place, making us mutilate Gallifrey's history ForTheEvulz rather than gaining control of the Universe. On the other hand, [[ItAmusedMe it seems like a fun idea altogether]].
** The Great Houses too, of all people. The (logically extremely rare) pariahs of their society who secretly want to nurture the lesser races and rebel against the cold logical approach tend to show up with alarming regularity in the non-Miles books.

* DownerEnding: ''This Town Will Never Let Us Go'' ends with [[spoiler:the total cultural stasis of humanity until the Earth's destruction.]]

** The ''loa'' spirits that protect the Eleven-Day Empire are low-ranking sorts. Much like a certain gentleman, [[spoiler: Azathoth, for the curious]], they have been implied to be physical embodiments of the laws of the Universe. The Unkindnesses may or may not be a specific kinds of loa.
** And of course, our less fortunate neighbors: [[OurVampiresAreDifferent the Yssgaroth]].
** Given various characters' reactions to her true face, [[spoiler: Lolita]], who might just also be [[spoiler:the Enemy, given that she is described as 'a new kind of history']].
** While her physical form (if she even has one in a way we could understand) is never described, the Mother of Timeships, who is suggested to have created herself, and only then retconned the Great Houses into existence because it suited her to giver herself a causal origin, certainly qualifies.

** The interior world of Lolita is described in, shall we say, ''vivid'' terms by the War King (and, to top it all off, every inch of it is inhabited by [[GeniusLoci Lolita's consciousness]], of course.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The War King is only ever referred to by his title of office, even after [[spoiler: he actually loses his power and becomes trapped inside Lolita]].
* EvilCounterpart: The Faction and the Homeworld, or, as some may know them, [[spoiler: the Time Lords.]] Of course, your mileage may vary on who's the benevolent side and who's the good side, even if the Faction are the ones with [[DarkIsNotEvil all the skulls…]]

* ForegoneConclusion: The fate of Sutekh; given that he's based on [[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars}} that other story]] kinda has to end up stuck in that pyramid sooner or later.
* FreudianExcuse: The one known as Antipathy has... issues... with that Compassion woman. Issues that he likes to express in, shall we say, [[AGodAmI creative]] [[IncestIsRelative ways]].
* FutureMeScaresMe: Grandfather Paradox is ''everyone's'' evil future self. Possibly. Like the Enemy, the ''what'' of the Grandfather is never as important to the series as the how and the why.
* GambitPileup: You'd better believe it, sweetheart. A multitude of sufficiently advanced scheming cutthroat organizations, ''plus'' timey wimey tech and zero scruples about using it? This trope, [[UpToEleven if you're lucky.]]

** Cousin Cá Bảy Màu, a regular 21st century human, is sometimes he and sometimes she.

* GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel: ''Warlords of Utopia'' is about every single Earth where Hitler won versus every Earth where the Romans won. ''And it's awesome.''
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Homeworld operative Devonire spent much of his career hunting down the Grandfather's severed arm, to use as a bargaining tool against us. Finally given the knowledge that the arm has no ritual significance to the Faction, and that we were in fact in possession of it all along, he nevertheless sought to obtain it and present it to us out of sheer monomania. The fact that the arm was later tested for veracity and revealed to be ''his own'' left him rather... unstable, and with his reputation (in tatters) and his arm (cut off later, by himself, in a wild fit of paradox anxiety) gone forever.

* GrandfatherParadox: The leader of our Faction was once a perfectly normal [[JustForFun/TimeLord Homeworld]] agent who once decided to kill his grandfather. The results were not pretty, leading him to become a [[ParadoxPerson living paradox]] and the {{Anthropomorphic Personification}} of [[FutureMeScaresMe all the potential evil and despair in the Universe]].
* GratuitousFrench: One of the quirks of Godfather Auteur is peppering in French asides in his speech. It is blatantly a façade, since he's a Homeworlder himself and didn't grow up ''anywhere'' on Earth.

** Lolita also arguably qualifies within ''The Book of the War'', which seems to make little of her despite the major role (and blatant evilness) of the character as revealed in other media. In fact, it is sometimes suggested that whatever the Enemy really are, they are a big shiny distraction from Lolita's own masterplan.

** Grandfather Paradox is implied to be one, though it's difficult to tell as he hasn't actually ever ''[[TimeyWimeyBall existed for at least 200 years.]]''
** The newer-style [[LivingShip timeships]] like those of Lolita's ilk are a more straightforward, if relatively reasonable, example of this trope. It's also implied that the Great Houses, especially the ones who are [[BlueAndOrangeMorality less than sympathetic to humanity's problems]], are moving in this direction, being described more as "forces of history" than actual people.

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Almost every single one of the major players in the War. The Great Houses are [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial most definitely not]] the race you call the Time Lords, the Imperator is not Morbius, the Evil Renegade / Grandfather Halfling is definitely not the man you call the Doctor, the War King is certainly not the madman you know as TheMaster, the prison planet is not Shada and the Great Houses' timeships are ''certainly'' not [=TARDISes=]. Given that the Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures novels ''do'' name things exactly as they are, and frequently touch on the exact same themes and events, the key is there for those willing to look.

** While her physical form (if she even has one in a way we could understand) is never described, the Mother of the timeships, who is suggested to have created herself, and only then retconned the Great Houses into existence because it suited her to giver herself a causal origin, certainly qualifies.

* ALoadOfBull: Justine meets a Minotaur on the prison planet. However, he points out that only the mythical beast from Crete is the Minotaur. All similar creatures are just [[InsistentTerminology men with bull's heads]].

* DarkActionGirl: Any female Faction operative. Notable individuals include Cousins Octavia, Shuncucker, Justine, and Eliza. Also, from the Homeworld, Lolita.
* DeadpanSnarker: Plenty to go around, the worst offenders being Lady Lolita and Godfathers Avatar and Morlock. The War King occasionally delves into this, to the point that it's extremely hard to imagine him without an eyebrow raised.

* EvilCounterpart: The Faction and the Homeworld, or, as some may know them, [[spoiler: the Time Lords.]]

[[AC:Creator/BBVProductions: The Faction Paradox Protocols]]
* ''The Eleven-Day Empire''
* ''The Shadow Play''
* ''Sabbath Dei''
* ''In the Year of the Cat''
* ''Movers''
* ''A Labyrinth of Histories''

** In the Faction Paradox Protocols audios, [[HistoricalDomainCharacter the French spy]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevalier_d%27Eon Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont]] is treated as male by her peers for simplicity's sake. There is some debate over how her life actually unfolded and where she would have fallen on the gender spectrum, but as history would prove, she preferred life as a woman — which Cousin Justine [[DeliberateValuesDissonance is quick to take offense to]].

** Auteur's writing clearly awards him ''some'' RealityWarper abilities, but how seriously should his boasts of omnipotence be taken? Is he really the "Author of the Spiral Politic", or just an ordinary Homeworlder who's discovered a creative (but fallible) use of the Observer Effect?

* BigBad: For the audios: House Lolita, who single-handedly [[spoiler: consumes the Eleven-Day Empire]], hunts [[spoiler:Cousins Justine and Eliza throughout time and space]], and, by the end, is considered to be an even greater threat to the universe than [[spoiler: Sutekh. Yes, that [[OmnicidalManiac Sutekh]].]]

** The titular Faction, as a group, sometimes come across as the cosmic equivalent of cosmic edgelords trying too hard to be cool and radical. While this may be true in the sense that [[AlwaysABiggerFish other cosmic factions are way beyond them]], they are however still ''extremely'' dangerous to {{Muggle}}s.

* AGodAmI: Various entities and factions claim to be gods, or "the closest thing to gods in the universe". DependingOnTheWriter this varies from their being SufficientlyAdvancedAliens with delusions of grandeur to being, for all intents and purposes, [[PhysicalGod correct]]. These include the Great Houses, the Celestis and the Osirians (who are, of course, the Ancient Egyptian Pantheon InSpace), as well as specific individuals such as Lolita, Compassion and Auteur.

* GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel: ''Warlords of Utopia'' is about every single Earth where Hitler won versus every Earth where the Romans won. ''And it's awesome.''

* AGodAmI:
** The Great Houses in general, but it's the Celestis that really buy into their own hype.
** The Osirians. It helps that countless civilisations worship them as gods.
** Compassion gets a nice helping of this trope, too.

* ActionSurvivor: From the audios, Cousins Justine and Eliza after the destruction of [[spoiler: the Eleven-Day Empire]].

* AGodAmI:
** The Great Houses in general, but it's the Celestis that really buy into their own hype.
** The Osirians. It helps that countless civilisations worship them as gods.
** Compassion gets a nice helping of this trope, too.

** The Enemy (possibly; even ''we'' aren't sure). Most certain for the Unkindnesses. [[MindScrew Depends upon what you think the Enemy is, of course]].
** The ''loa'' spirits that protect the Eleven-Day Empire. Much like a certain gentleman, [[spoiler: Azathoth, for the curious]], they have been implied to be physical embodiments of the laws of the Universe.

* GeniusLoci: The City of the Saved, a galaxy-wide citadel containing every single human to ever exist and billions of fictional characters to boot, actually is [[spoiler: the incarnation of Compassion that became a TARDIS during the Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures]].

* HiddenVillain: [[spoiler: Cousin Antipathy]] in ''Of The City of the Saved...''

* {{Intersex}}: Marrane in ''Of The City of the Saved...'' is both intersex and genderqueer.

* {{Hermaphrodite}}: Marrane in ''Of The City of the Saved...'' is both intersex and genderqueer.