History Literature / GalacticMilieu

* [[BrainInAJar Brain Without A Jar]]: Jack the Bodiless' natural form is of a disembodied brain.

* AliensAreBastards: [[LongTitle ...and Are Trying to Assimilate Our Race into a Hive Mind in Which We Will Lose All Our Individuality]] -- The Rebels believe this.

* RaceAgainstTime: Unifex gives Rogi until the end of the year to finish writing his tell-all memoirs. [[spoiler:This is because Unifex, whose intervention was implied to be the only reason Rogi has not yet been brought into Unity or even metapsychic coadunation (which if happened prematurely with Rogi would have [[TheWorldIsNotReady disastrously revealed everything he knew and witnessed to a Galactic Mind not yet ready for it]]), will not live past the end of the year, and wanted to make sure that the full story of the Remillards, warts and all, are finally revealed to the galaxy which is now ready for it]].

* RaceAgainstTime: Unifex gives Rogi until the end of the year to finish writing his tell-all memoirs. [[spoiler:This is because Unifex, whose intervention was implied to be the only reason Rogi has not yet been brought into Unity or even metapsychic coadunation (which if happened prematurely with Rogi would have [[TheWorldIsNotReady disastrously revealed everything he knew and witnessed to Galactic Mind not yet ready for it]]), will not live past the end of the year, and wanted to make sure that the full story of the Remillards, warts and all, are finally revealed to the galaxy which is now ready for it]].

* TeleportationSickness: Breaking between the barrier between normal space and hyperspace on the opposite ends of faster-than-light travel incurs pain proportional to the ratio (the ''displacement factor'', "df") between the real-space travel distance and the total length of subjective time spent in hyperspace. Operants who know the mitigator program have this pain drastically lowered, and thus can endure higher df. [[spolier:Unifex uses the mitigator when he cuts short Rogi's vacation on Denali and brings him directly back to his New Hampshire office via one d-jump; he learned that from Creyn [[Literature/SagaOfTheExiles six million years ago]]]].

* TeleportationSickness: Breaking between the barrier between normal space and hyperspace on the opposite ends of faster-than-light travel incurs pain proportional to the ratio (the ''displacement factor'', "df") between the real-space travel distance and the total length of subjective time spent in hyperspace. Operants who know the mitigator program have this pain drastically lowered, and thus can endure higher df. [[spolier:Unifex uses the mitigator when he cuts short Rogi's vacation on Denali and brings him directly back to his New Hampshire office via one d-jump; he learned that from Creyn [[LIterature/SagaOfTheExiles six million years ago]]]].

** Marc, Jack, and Diamond Mask are officially recognized by the Galactic Milieu as Paramount Grand Master operants. [[spoiler:Denis]]/Fury Is the unofficial fourth, although imperfectly trained and hampered by its dual nature. Mental Man doesn't count, as they were produced artificially and murdered en masse before they were "born". Two more are found in the Pliocene Exile series: Aiken Drum, who unwittingly shares the Remillard genome and magnified his own capabilities in a unique way; and Felice, who is easily the most powerful operant seen in the combined series, explicitly an entire magnitude more powerful than Marc wearing full 600x cerebroenergetic armor.

** Keiren O'Conner and Victor Remillard make their money by unscrupulous use of their metapsychic powers.

* AssimilationPlot: Metapsychic humanity is to be evolved to "coadunation," in essence an altruistic racial unity, though not a HiveMind. Ordinary humans without operant abilities are allowed to remain separate so long as they don't become recidivist criminals, though the definition of "crime" is continually adjusted downward; those who won't get with the program are exiled, imprisoned, lobotomized or euthanized (and exile later stops being an option), and nonpsychic humanity is being slowly bred out. Operants are brought into coadunation, period; after the end of the Metapsychic Rebellion, there's no option B except for [[spoiler: Rogatien Remillard, who is allowed to remain the last Metapsychic Rebel in exchange for services rendered]].

* {{Nepotism}}: An accepted part of Milieu politics.

%%* [[BrainInAJar Brain Without A Jar]]: Jack the Bodiless' natural form is of a disembodied brain.

%%* RoyallyScrewedUp: The Remillards are humanity's new First Family and have a couple of definitely screwed up individuals - Victor, who tries to blow up three thousand operants, and [[spoiler: the Hydras, who commit a series of gruesome murders.]]

%%* WhamLine - See {{Cliffhanger}}.

* BadassBiker: young Marc rides a CoolBike during his college days.
* BadassFamily: The Remillards rarely ever work together as a whole, but they're all pretty badass.

%%* [[BrainInAJar Brain Without A Jar]]: Jack the Bodiless.

** Marc Remillard and [[spoiler: Cyndia Muldowney, who is his half sister although neither of them are aware of it at first.]]

* CainAndAbel - Rogi and Don a little in Intervention, considering Rogi was toying with killing his brother, and also a little Denis and Victor, although the prime example is [[spoiler: Marc and Jon at the end of the Rebellion.]] Also [[spoiler: prenatal Marc and his twin Matthieu: they were found trying to strangle each other to death in the womb.]]

* ChekhovsGun: A throwaway line from the first book, that parents are generally immune to their children's psychic powers. [[spoiler: this comes back in a ''big'' way when the Remillards attempt to exorcise Fury from Denis.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Laura Tremblay. In a rather Squicky way too.]] Also, [[spoiler: Teresa, who doesn't take young Jack's decomposition well.]]

%%** Hydra
%%** Mental Man

* FramingDevice: Uses a framing device of an autobiography written by Uncle Rogi, the [[ForWantOfANail nail]] who constantly diverts human history while passing unnoticed.
* GooGooGodlike: Jack and Marc both have enormous metapsychic power as babies- Marc believes that Jack and Teresa summoned him to Earth in a metaconcert when Jack was a ''five-month foetus''.

* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Jack and Diamond are both killed. Although this is obvious once you see their death dates on the family tree. Unifex also dies at the end of Magnificat, again pointed out by family tree.]]
* HumansAreSpecial: Special dispensation given to humanity to make sure they don't kill themselves before entering galactic society. Where upon they become better at everything than everyone within 70 years of contact.

* KissingCousins: Adrienne refers to Caroline and Dougie in ''Jack the Bodiless'', and she herself is trying to hide her crush on Marc. Paul and Teresa are cousins, sharing Don as a grandfather. [[spoiler: The Hydras.]]

** [[spoiler: Via a StableTimeLoop through the Literature/SagaOfTheExiles Marc Remillard is actually leading both the Literature/GalacticMilieu and the Rebellion against it.]]

** at the very end of ''Intervention'' when Rogi [[spoiler: addresses Atoning Unifex as Marc.]] Unless you figured it out before then.
** Also a bit of a [[spoiler: LukeIAmYourFather]] moment (although the readers already know) when Rogi announces to Cloud and Hagen [[spoiler: that the suspiciously familiar Lylmik is actually their six-million-year old father, still in the process of atoning for his past sins.]]

* RoyallyScrewedUp: [[spoiler: The Hydras.]] And Victor.

** Hydra
** Mental Man
* FiveManBand: Fury and Hydra after [[spoiler: Gordo's]] death
** Fury- BigBad
** [[spoiler: Maddy]]- TheDragon
** [[spoiler: Quint]]- EvilGenius (this is the weakest comparison, but they're undoubtedly much cleverer than the last two)
** [[spoiler: Parni]]- TheBrute (even described as brutish at the beginning of ''Diamond Mask'')
** [[spoiler: Celine]]- TheDarkChick

* {{Satan}}: Marc Remillard is referred to as both Abaddon and The Angel of the Abyss towards the end of the Rebellion. [[spoiler: Also rather curiously inverted in his later incarnation as Atoning Unifex, who resembles God far more than the devil. He goes so far as to remind Rogi that he is not, when asked if he can foresee the time of the latter's death. "Moi, je ne suis pas le bon dieu, j't'assure!" ]]

* GrayAndGreyMorality: Both the Rebels and the Unity are portrayed as having their good points.

* {{Asexuality}}: Marc believes he is asexual for several years. Anne also shows absolutely no interest in any romantic relationship.

* BadassGrandpa: Or Badass Great Great Uncle -- Rogi. And Denis is a BadassGrandpa. [[spoiler: Especially as Fury.]]

The Galactic Milieu Series by Creator/JulianMay describes the struggle of the most powerful of the human metapsychics and their interaction with a galactic confederation of exotic beings.

The series is tightly linked to the Literature/SagaOfTheExiles by the same author.

!!Provides Examples Of:
* AbusiveParents

* ArtisticLicenseBiology - EvolutionaryLevels towards the "goal" of Unity.
* {{Asexuality}} - Marc believes he is asexual for several years. Anne also shows absolutely no interest in any romantic relationship.

* AliensAreBastards [[LongTitle And Are Trying To Assimilate Our Race Into A Hive Mind In Which We Will Lose All Our Individuality]] - The Rebels believe this.
* ArrangedMarriage - Denis and Lucille marry because they know their offspring will be very powerful metapsychics; they don't actually like each other much at the time. It works out though.
* TheAtoner - [[spoiler: Marc Remillard, who goes through the Pliocene time-gate after the Rebellion, and eventually guides the Duat Galaxy into Unity and founds the Galactic Milieu, becoming a Lylmik, and naming himself Atoning Unifex. In ''Magnificat'', after six million years, he says to the other four Supervisors that his atonement is still incomplete, although they don't appear to know what he means as they constantly ask him how he comes across all his information.]]
* BadassBiker - young Marc rides a CoolBike during his college days.
* BadassFamily - The Remillards rarely ever work together as a whole, but they're all pretty badass.
* [[BadassGrandpa Badass Great Great Uncle]] - Rogi. And Denis is a BadassGrandpa. [[spoiler: Especially as Fury.]]

* BigGood - Atoning Unifex, who created the Milieu and guided it to its present state. [[spoiler: Meaning Marc Remillard is arguably the BigGood ''and'' the BigBad.]]
* BigScrewedUpFamily - The Remillards. Most of them are good guys, but their internal problems drive virtually the entire plot.
** By the end of 'Magnificat', Marc can be said to be responsible for the death of a whole lot of family members. [[spoiler: Four siblings: Matthieu, Maddy, Jack, Cyndia. On the executive focus team, who die at the end of the Rebellion, are his uncles Severin and Adrien, his aunt Catherine, and his theoretical father-in-law, Rory Muldowney. And on Jack's side are Paul and Dorothea, his father and his sister-in-law.]]

* [[BrainInAJar Brain Without A Jar]]: Jack the Bodiless.
* BreadEggsMilkSquick - Jack to Diamond on their first wedding anniversary: "You change into something comfortable. I'll put away your flask of algiprote purée and set the table and grow a digestive tract."
* BridalCarry - Jack carries Dorothée out of the deep-driller like this in the end of ''Diamond Mask''. They get married later.

* TheCasanova - Paul. The darker consequences of his affairs are given a lot of attention.
* ChekhovsGun - A throwaway line from the first book, that parents are generally immune to their children's psychic powers. [[spoiler: this comes back in a ''big'' way when the Remillards attempt to exorcise Fury from Denis.]]
* AChildShallLeadThem - Quite narrowly averted with Dorothée, who becomes Dirigent of Caledonia at twenty, although the age of majority in the Milieu is sixteen.
* {{Cliffhanger}} - At the end of ''Diamond Mask''.

* ChildProdigy - Marc and Jack, who later become [[TeenGenius Teen Genii]] as well. Also Dorothée, who actually refers to herself as this as a five-year-old.
* CoolMask - [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Diamond Mask]].
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass - Rogi.

* DoNotAdjustYourSet - The start of the Rebellion is broadcast on TV across the galaxy, and every psychic is involved in the end.
* DrivenToSuicide - [[spoiler: Laura Tremblay. In a rather Squicky way too.]] Also, [[spoiler: Teresa, who doesn't take young Jack's decomposition well.]]
* EarthShatteringKaboom - [[spoiler: climax of the Metapsychic Rebellion.]]
* EccentricMentor - Rogatien has many flaws, but he [[spoiler: reduced Parni to ash at Jack and Diamond's wedding, and he did kill Fury.]]
* EvilutionaryBiologist - Marc Remillard is obsessed with creating a new HumanSubspecies of metapsychic paramounts through careful application of eugenics.
* FamilyDisunion - The Remillards get together for Christmas 2078... [[spoiler: and the Dynasty try to exorcise Denis, who is unknowingly Fury.]]
* FetusTerrible

* FiveManBand- Fury and Hydra after [[spoiler: Gordo's]] death

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith - Jack finds it easier to interact with ordinary humans when he's wearing a human shape.
* FramingDevice - Uses a framing device of an autobiography written by Uncle Rogi, the [[ForWantOfANail nail]] who constantly diverts human history while passing unnoticed.
* GooGooGodlike - Jack and Marc both have enormous metapsychic power as babies- Marc believes that Jack and Teresa summoned him to Earth in a metaconcert when Jack was a ''five-month foetus''.
* GratuitousFrench

* GrayAndGreyMorality - Both the Rebels and the Unity are portrayed as having their good points.
* GreenEyedMonster

* [[spoiler: TheHeroDies - Jack and Diamond are both killed. Although this is obvious once you see their death dates on the family tree. Unifex also dies at the end of Magnificat, again pointed out by family tree.]]
* HumansAreSpecial - Special dispensation given to humanity to make sure they don't kill themselves before entering galactic society. Where upon they become better at everything than everyone within 70 years of contact.

* HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace - The grey limbo, not to mention the pain barrier required to get there.
* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty - The Remillards' self-rejuvenating gene kicks in at slightly different ages for them all, but (with the obvious exception of Jack) they do grow to adulthood normally and then just stop aging. Anne's aging is said to have stopped in her early forties.
* IcyGrayEyes - Marc has gray eyes of the cold and strong-willed variety. [[spoiler: Unifex often likes to have gray eyes in the bodies he creates for himself as well.]]
* ImprobableAge - Some of the really powerful humans (Marc, Jack and Dorothée) are admitted to the Concilium at sixteen. This is because they're all extremely powerful paramount metapsychics and mentally far beyond most adults.
* InsufferableGenius - Jack a little, before he learns to be tactful about it.
* InsatiableNewlyweds - Marc takes a few months off Rebel business just after he and Cyndia marry. He doesn't recover until Cyndia tells him she's pregnant.
* InVinoVeritas - Rory Muldowney confronting Paul about Laura[[spoiler:'s suicide]]

* IAmNotMyFather - For several years in his early adult life Marc tries to convince himself he is asexual. One of his main reasons is his disgust at his father's womanising.
* IHaveManyNames - Rogi devotes a couple of paragraphs to this for Dorothea Macdonald at the beginning of Diamond Mask: among her names and nicknames are Dee, Dody, Doro, Dodo, Dorrie, Dorothée, and later Diamond, Diamond Mask, and Illusio.
* KissingCousins - Adrienne refers to Caroline and Dougie in ''Jack the Bodiless'', and she herself is trying to hide her crush on Marc. Paul and Teresa are cousins, sharing Don as a grandfather. [[spoiler: The Hydras.]]
* LittleMissBadass - Fifteen-year-old Dorotheé is trying to hunt down the Hydras.
* {{Mafia}} - Psychic mafia no less. Connor runs this in Intervention.
* TheMagocracy - The Concilium is limited to operants.
* MasqueradeBall - In ''Diamond Mask''. Dorothée gatecrashes and uses it as an opportunity to probe Remillards.
* MeaningfulName - [[spoiler: Yes, Atoning Unifex is the primary instigator of Unity in ''two'' galaxies, and is definitely atoning for something.]]
* MirrorMatch

* {{Nepotism}} - An accepted part of Milieu politics.
* OlderThanTheyLook - People are able to be rejuvenated to make themselves look young again. Additionally, many of the Remillards are also self-rejuvenating. Rogi is a hundred and fifty or so at the end of the books but he hasn't aged past his fifties.
* OmniscientMoralityLicense - [[spoiler: Atoning Unifex knows what's destined to happen because he lived through it; it's his job to make sure everything that must happen ultimately leads to the coadunation of humanity.]]

* PowerLevels

* PowerPerversionPotential - It's explicitly stated that metapsychic powers are used by many operants to enhance sex, to the point where an encounter between Jack and Diamond Mask is eventually performed purely through metacreative stimulation while Jack is in brain form.
* PsychicPowers - In spades in all the books.
* RageAgainstTheHeavens - The books centre around Humanity's place in the already well established Milieu, who at least initially have the power of life and death over the entire human race.
* [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld Really Millions Of Years Old]]- The Lylmik, especially Unifex, take the form of relatively young humans on occasion.
* TheReveal

* RoyallyScrewedUp - [[spoiler: The Hydras.]] And Victor.
* {{Satan}} - Marc Remillard is referred to as both Abaddon and The Angel of the Abyss towards the end of the Rebellion. [[spoiler: Also rather curiously inverted in his later incarnation as Atoning Unifex, who resembles God far more than the devil. He goes so far as to remind Rogi that he is not, when asked if he can foresee the time of the latter's death. "Moi, je ne suis pas le bon dieu, j't'assure!" ]]
* ScreamingBirth - averted when Teresa gives birth to Jack: she's the calmest one there.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections - If anyone ''did'' object, Atoning Unifex would have squashed them quickly, [[spoiler: because the Remillards need to be the leaders of humanity when everything melts down.]]
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney

* SquishyWizard - Even powerful human operants are vulnerable when exhausted or off their guard.
* StableTimeLoop - See Mirror Match. [[spoiler: Even more generally, Marc Remillard, one of the near-ultimate evolutions of humanity, goes back in time and, by his manipulation, ensures that he and the other Remillards will be born on schedule.]]
* SurpriseIncest - Paul's affair with Laura Tremblay [[spoiler: produces Cyndia, and she and Marc find out a couple of years into their marriage that they're actually half-siblings. They don't really care.]]
* TangledFamilyTree - Mostly because of the incest. Don is Denis' father, and thus the ancestor of the Dynasty, but he's also the father of Annarita Latimer, making Teresa his granddaughter, and she marries Paul. [[spoiler: Paul is also the grandfather both ways of Hagen and Cloud.]] There's a family tree printed in each book. It gets complicated.
* TakingYouWithMe - [[spoiler: Teresa attempts to drag Jack along with her when she suicides.]]
* ThreatBackfire - a poor choice of words version: Marc tells Jack, a six-month-old baby, that certain knowledge would scare the crap out of him. Jack replies, succinctly, "Diapers."
* TwinTelepathy - Quite literally with Rogi and Don.
* TwistedChristmas - The Dynasty [[spoiler: perform the operation to get rid of Fury, who is residing inside Denis, on Christmas Day.]]
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil

* UnreliableNarrator - Averted. The prologue explains that the narrator's unique position means he's the only person who can tell the full and true tale to the galaxy.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans

* VillainousIncest - [[spoiler: The Hydras are first cousins, and after Gordo's death are all cheerfully screwing each other.]] Although considering all the other incest in the books treated with a reasonable degree of sympathy (more cousins, siblings, half-siblings, and [[spoiler: Victor and Denis being abused by their father as babies and becoming a monster and the core personality of Fury, respectively]]), this doesn't come off as particularly remarkable.

* WhamLine - See {{Cliffhanger}}.
* WhatMeasureIsANonSuper: Non-operant humans have no voice in their own government; while the majority of humanity is strongly opposed to Unity and supports the rebellion, only the operants matter (and a firm majority of operants back Unity). Even the Intervention was done by the request of a metaconcert of operants; no one else was asked if they wanted to be taken over by the Simbiari.

* GrayEyes - Marc, of the cold and strong-willed variety. [[spoiler: Unifex often likes to have gray eyes in the bodies he creates for himself as well.]]

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Marc Remillard is willing to do anything, up to and including incest and murder, to protect humanity from the Unity that the Galactic Milieu is imposing on them.

* FiveBadBand- Fury and Hydra after [[spoiler: Gordo's]] death