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* BenevolentDictator:
** Due to the way nations work in this setting, any person who objects to their Hive's decisions can renounce their citizenship and join another Hive (or even none at all). If a Hive wants to keep or increase its political power, it must make decisions that the majority of its populace supports, or they'll begin leaving in droves. The Masonic Empire, with its autocratic Emperors, can therefore prove that they have the support of their people by the fact that they have the largest population of any Hive. Mycroft describes Emperor Cornel MASON as the world's father, stern and iron-willed but a reassuring presence through his stability (though he's a self-acknowledged UnreliableNarrator).
** The Humanists are run by an unusual form of democracy in which anyone may vote for anyone else, and how much power that person wields is determined by the percentage of the people who voted for them. 50 years ago the leading figure in government had received 7% percent of the vote, with the remaining 93% divided among more than 500 senators. But President Ganymede, a beloved public figure, received an unprecedented 63% of the vote in the last election, and therefore possesses 63% of the powers of government, giving him near-unilateral power by consent of the governed. As Mycroft says, "It was a revolution ... a transition from republic to dictatorship in fifty years without a single drop of blood. Detractors call it a cult of charisma, but Humanists themselves use ''aretocracy'', rule by excellence."
** Due to the way nations work in this setting, any person who objects to their Hive's decisions can renounce their citizenship and join another Hive (or even none at all). If a Hive wants to keep or increase its political power, it must make decisions that the majority of its populace supports, or they'll begin leaving in droves. The Masonic Empire, with its autocratic Emperors, can therefore prove that they have the support of their people by the fact that they have the largest population of any Hive. Mycroft describes Emperor Cornel MASON as the world's father, stern and iron-willed but a reassuring presence through his stability (though he's a self-acknowledged UnreliableNarrator).
** The Humanists are run by an unusual form of democracy in which anyone may vote for anyone else, and how much power that person wields is determined by the percentage of the people who voted for them. 50 years ago the leading figure in government had received 7% percent of the vote, with the remaining 93% divided among more than 500 senators. But President Ganymede, a beloved public figure, received an unprecedented 63% of the vote in the last election, and therefore possesses 63% of the powers of government, giving him near-unilateral power by consent of the governed. As Mycroft says, "It was a revolution ... a transition from republic to dictatorship in fifty years without a single drop of blood. Detractors call it a cult of charisma, but Humanists themselves use ''aretocracy'', rule by excellence."
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crosswicking a new trope
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* TestOfPain: Traditionally, aspirants to the throne of the Masonic Empire undergo weeks of ColdBloodedTorture to prove they have the willpower and the integrity to be good rulers. Among other things, Emperor Cornel MASON had his left foot hacked off piece by piece with a cleaver. 25th-century medicine regrew it just fine, but he suffers from a psychosomatic limp that manifests whenever he's stressed, as it never felt quite right again.
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* DisasterDominoes: The first book begins with the theft of a Seven-Ten List, a newspaper editorial of the ten most important people in the world. One thing leads to another, and the fourth book is about World War III.
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* MadeASlave: As part of the DeliberateValuesDissonance, slavery has made a comeback in the form of the Servicer program, in which people convicted of serious crimes such as murder are sentenced to a lifetime of slavery. This is supposedly a humane alternative to prison. The twist is that, instead of a single master, they serve the public: ''anyone'' who needs an extra pair of hands with anything is entitled to demand them from a Servicer. Servicers are not paid, are forbidden from owning property, and eat only what food they can scrounge or their masters compensate them with.
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** Kosala is cheating on her husband Vivien with the Anonymous, [[spoiler:her husband Vivien.]]
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* GenderNeutralWriting: In-universe, Martin writes this way, as is normal for the setting, but averted by Mycroft.
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* ABoyAndHisX: Parodied with the chapter title, "A Boy And His God."
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* UnitedEurope: Played with. UsefulNotes/{{The European Union}} is one of the Hives, and mostly acts as a single government, but individual countries or "nation-strats" still have some influence. Also, "European" is now something of an ArtifactName: although most European Hive members we see are from current EU countries such as Spain, Greece, and Poland, it is also stated that nations from Canada to Mongolia are a part of it. Its role has somewhat shifted into being a Hive for most[[note]]Most East Asians are in the Mitsubishi Hive[[/note]] people who still care strongly about their nationality.
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* SuddenlySignificantCity:
** Ingolstadt, Germany, a city which currently has less than 150,000 people, became the capital of the Gordian Hive when its governance was transferred to the Brillist Institute.
** Alexandria, Egypt, is not as small (it currently has about 6 million people), but it became the capital of the world's largest governing body, the Masonic Empire, due to its ancient history.
** The small village of La Trimouille, France, becomes a notorious party town after Ganymede, the wealthy heir to its ancient dukedom, becomes President of the Humanists and hosts his influential parties there.
** Yangon, Myanmar, is hardly mentioned during the series, but ends up being an impromptu site to host [[spoiler:J.E.D.D. Mason's global peace conference]].
** Ingolstadt, Germany, a city which currently has less than 150,000 people, became the capital of the Gordian Hive when its governance was transferred to the Brillist Institute.
** Alexandria, Egypt, is not as small (it currently has about 6 million people), but it became the capital of the world's largest governing body, the Masonic Empire, due to its ancient history.
** The small village of La Trimouille, France, becomes a notorious party town after Ganymede, the wealthy heir to its ancient dukedom, becomes President of the Humanists and hosts his influential parties there.
** Yangon, Myanmar, is hardly mentioned during the series, but ends up being an impromptu site to host [[spoiler:J.E.D.D. Mason's global peace conference]].
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* ArtInitiatesLife: This is a big portion of Bridger's powers, coupled with a large dose of all around [[RealityWarper reality warping]]. Not only can he bring toys to sentience or sapience, but with some exceptions for physics, he can make real anything he draws. This even includes creating a panacea by drawing a tube of medicine and designating it as such (and hypothetically being able to wipe out all life by doing the opposite).
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* ArtInitiatesLife: This is a big portion of Bridger's powers, coupled with a large dose of all around [[RealityWarper reality warping]]. Not only can he bring toys to sentience or sapience, sapience (for a long but limited time, which can be repeated), but with some exceptions for physics, he can make real anything he draws.draws (permanently). This even includes creating a panacea by drawing a tube of medicine and designating it as such (and hypothetically being able to wipe out all life by doing the opposite). Even outright magical artifacts are within his power to make, such as resurrection potions or Hermes' winged sandals. Bridger has a "No-No Box" filled with things he knows to absolutely never make real, which includes things like a black rubber ball (which he pretends to be a black hole), a doomsday device from a comic book, and representations of religious figures.
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** The fact that Mycroft Canner is still alive and mostly at large (though under supervision) is also something everyone in the know is sworn to keep a secret, cosidering the terror everyone was experiencing all over the world during the two weeks of his murder rampage. Nobody quite knows what would happen should the public find out that Mycroft was not, in fact, executed on the spot. As story progress shows, the fears of the world's leaders are not unreasonable: [[spoiler:Once Mycroft's situation becomes knows, riots break out in the streets worldwide and random Servicers are lynched by mobs because from afar they vaguely look like Mycroft Canner.]]
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** The fact that Mycroft Canner is still alive and mostly at large (though under supervision) is also something everyone in the know is sworn to keep a secret, cosidering considering the terror everyone was experiencing all over the world during the two weeks of his murder rampage. Nobody quite knows what would happen should the public find out that Mycroft was not, in fact, executed on the spot. As story progress shows, the fears of the world's leaders are not unreasonable: [[spoiler:Once Mycroft's situation becomes knows, riots break out in the streets worldwide and random Servicers are lynched by mobs because from afar they vaguely look like Mycroft Canner.]]
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* GratuitousGreek: Mycroft, who is Greek, addresses [[spoiler:J.E.D.D. Mason]] with a title that is spelled out using Greek letters. In later books, epithets of ancient Greek gods also appear in their original language.
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* GratuitousGreek: Mycroft, who is Greek, addresses [[spoiler:J.E.D.D. Mason]] with a by the title that is ''Anax'' (Lord), spelled out using in the original Greek letters.as Ἄναξ. In later books, epithets of ancient Greek gods also appear in their original language.
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* SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: It's mentioned as soon as Bridger's introduced that the products of his miracles are already being studied in labs and scientists vetted by Thisbe and kept ignorant of their origins (to avoid the threat of TheyWouldCutYouUp). At least one disease has already been eradicated by scientific replication of one of Bridger's antidotes. [[spoiler:By the fourth book, with Bridger's existence public and the Utopians given his surviving relics, they've managed to work out a purely technological version of his resurrection potion, which doesn't work as well as the original but nonetheless succeeds in bringing Kosala back from the dead and undoing the crushing injuries that killed her. The end of the book is hopeful that his healing potions can be copied as well, and perhaps even the ArtInitiatesLife power that made all his relics in the first place.]]
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* CompleteTheQuoteTitle: ''Too Like the Lightning'', the first book of the series, derives its title from a passage in ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'': "It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,/Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be/Ere one can say “It lightens.” While in the original context, Juliet is expressing doubt about Romeo's constancy, in the context of the novel, it serves to raise questions about the novel's utopian setting and/or shocking events which threaten its continued utopianism.
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* CompleteTheQuoteTitle: Two examples.
** ''Too Like the Lightning'', the first book of the series, derives its title from a passage in ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'': "It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,/Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be/Ere one can say “It lightens.” While in the original context, Juliet is expressing doubt about Romeo's constancy, in the context of the novel, it serves to raise questions about the novel's utopian setting and/or shocking events which threaten its continuedutopianism.utopianism.
** The title of Book 3, ''The Will to Battle'', comes from Thomas Hobbes's ''Leviathan'', which is most famous for its [[HobbesWasRight beliefs that authoritarianism is the only way to secure peace]]. The full sentence is "For war consists not in battle only, or the act of fighting, but in a tract of time, wherein '''the will to''' contend by '''battle''' is sufficiently known." Although many characters are trying to PreventTheWar, the title hints at Hobbes's belief that the world was, in this sense, already at war. Hobbes's beliefs are discussed in-story several times [[spoiler:mainly through his "conversations" with Mycroft. His belief that the war was unavoidable also turns out to be [[HobbesWasRight correct]] when Atlantis is destroyed at the end of the book.]]
** ''Too Like the Lightning'', the first book of the series, derives its title from a passage in ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'': "It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,/Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be/Ere one can say “It lightens.” While in the original context, Juliet is expressing doubt about Romeo's constancy, in the context of the novel, it serves to raise questions about the novel's utopian setting and/or shocking events which threaten its continued
** The title of Book 3, ''The Will to Battle'', comes from Thomas Hobbes's ''Leviathan'', which is most famous for its [[HobbesWasRight beliefs that authoritarianism is the only way to secure peace]]. The full sentence is "For war consists not in battle only, or the act of fighting, but in a tract of time, wherein '''the will to''' contend by '''battle''' is sufficiently known." Although many characters are trying to PreventTheWar, the title hints at Hobbes's belief that the world was, in this sense, already at war. Hobbes's beliefs are discussed in-story several times [[spoiler:mainly through his "conversations" with Mycroft. His belief that the war was unavoidable also turns out to be [[HobbesWasRight correct]] when Atlantis is destroyed at the end of the book.]]
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* ConvictionByContradiction: Papadelias, the cop who brought Mycroft in after Mycroft's two-week-long murder rampage, has known for years that there is something off about Mycroft's case, based mostly on how Mycroft seemed to be in two places at the same time while commiting his crimes. Every time they run into each other, he quizzes Mycroft on the timeline, trying to find discrepancies. Mycroft always has a correct and plausible answer. [[spoiler:Papadelias is right, though. Mycroft is hiding his lover and partner in crime Saladin, who committed half the murders.]]
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* ConvictionByContradiction: Papadelias, the cop who brought Mycroft in after Mycroft's two-week-long murder rampage, has known for years that there is something off about Mycroft's case, based mostly on how Mycroft seemed to be in two places at the same time while commiting committing his crimes. Every time they run into each other, he quizzes Mycroft on the timeline, trying to find discrepancies. Mycroft always has a correct and plausible answer. [[spoiler:Papadelias is right, though. Mycroft is hiding his lover and partner in crime Saladin, who committed half the murders.]]
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* TitleDrop: The title of the series, ''Terra Ignota'', is dropped by Vivien Ancelet at the beginning of book three, ''The Will to Battle''. Ancelet tells Ockham Saneer to plead ''terra ignota'' in the upcoming trial because what the O.S. did was, while morally questionable and murder by most Hive's laws, strictly speaking for the protection of the Humanist Hive. Pleading ''terra ignota'' means saying "I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. Arm thyself well for this trial, young polylaw; here at the law's wild borders there be dragons."
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* TitleDrop: The title of the series, series as a whole, ''Terra Ignota'', is dropped by Vivien Ancelet at the beginning of book three, ''The Will to Battle''. Ancelet tells Ockham Saneer to plead ''terra ignota'' in the upcoming trial because what the O.S. did was, while morally questionable and murder by most Hive's laws, strictly speaking for the protection of the Humanist Hive. Pleading ''terra ignota'' means saying "I did the deed, but I do not myself know whether it was a crime. Arm thyself well for this trial, young polylaw; here at the law's wild borders there be dragons."
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Added trope "Unconventional Formatting"
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* UnconventionalFormatting: In addition to TranslationPunctuation and CapitalLettersAreMagic, described above, there are also two instances of the text being divided into two columns, with the left column containing a long speech and the right column describing the actions of other characters during that speech.
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* HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier: Due to the taboo on learning another Hive's language, many characters do this to keep sensitive information from one another. For example, early on in ''Seven Surrenders'' a conversation between the president of the Humanist Hive and his security officer takes place in Spanish, allowing the president to explain a pertinent personal matter without the other people present knowing what was said.
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* RealityHasNoSubtitles: Invoked by narrator Mycroft, who refuses to translate Latin due to his reverence for the Masons, but defied by in-universe editor 9A, who provides translations anyway.
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Alphabetical rearranging and added trope "Long-Lived"
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* ArtInitiatesLife: This is a big portion of Bridger's powers, coupled with a large dose of all around [[RealityWarper reality warping]]. Not only can he bring toys to sentience or sapience, but with some exceptions for physics, he can make real anything he draws. This even includes creating a panacea by drawing a tube of medicine and designating it as such (and hypothetically being able to wipe out all life by doing the opposite).
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* ArtInitiatesLife: This is a big portion of Bridger's powers, coupled with a large dose of all around [[RealityWarper reality warping]]. Not only can he bring toys to sentience or sapience, but with some exceptions for physics, he can make real anything he draws. This even includes creating a panacea by drawing a tube of medicine and designating it as such (and hypothetically being able to wipe out all life by doing the opposite).
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* LongLived: Not as long as some examples but definitely present. Thanks to [[WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture anti-aging drugs and genetic modification]], characters as old as 38 are said to look like older adolescents, 90 is considered young for retirement, and the oldest character in the series is still working at 165, though this is noted to be unusual.
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Added trope "Animal Motifs"
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* AnimalMotifs: A surprisingly large number of characters are compared to dogs.
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Added tropes "Gratuitous Greek" and "Greek Chorus"
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* GratuitousLatin: The Masons use Latin as their special tongue, and all the Masonic offices and rules have solemn Latin names. It adds to the Mason's ancient, mystical aura. Due to the taboo on learning other Hive's languages, most of the Latin spoken in Terra Ignota is presented without TranslationConvention. (Translations are tacked on in parentheses, in-universe unauthorized, by 9A for the sake of readability).
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* GratuitousGreek: Mycroft, who is Greek, addresses [[spoiler:J.E.D.D. Mason]] with a title that is spelled out using Greek letters. In later books, epithets of ancient Greek gods also appear in their original language.
* GratuitousLatin: The Masons use Latin as their special tongue, and all the Masonic offices and rules have solemn Latin names. It adds to the Mason's ancient, mystical aura. Due to the taboo on learning otherHive's Hives' languages, most of the Latin spoken in Terra Ignota is presented without TranslationConvention. (Translations are tacked on in parentheses, in-universe unauthorized, by 9A for the sake of readability).
* GratuitousLatin: The Masons use Latin as their special tongue, and all the Masonic offices and rules have solemn Latin names. It adds to the Mason's ancient, mystical aura. Due to the taboo on learning other
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* GreekChorus: While Mycroft is narrating, he interrupts himself from time to time with what he imagines a future reader would say, as well as various dead people, most notably [[spoiler:Thomas Hobbes]]. The trope name is uniquely accurate, since Mycroft is Greek.
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Added trope "Big Brother is Watching"
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* BigBrotherIsWatching: Everyone wears a device called a tracker, which has several purposes: in addition to smartphone-like functions, it also monitors people's heart rates to detect emergencies, checks their location to ensure they aren't venturing into any off-limits areas, and sends this data to the flying-car system to help address their transportation needs.
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Added trope "United Space of America"
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* UnitedSpaceOfAmerica: Strongly inverted. The principal governmental models are French Enlightenment philosophy and the Roman Empire (admittedly, these were also major influences on the US). The Hive capitals are located in Europe, North Africa, Asia, and South America (and the Moon). No characters are stated to be American. The only American locations that enter the plot are the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and [[spoiler:Klamath Marsh Secure Hospital in Oregon]]. Justified because [[spoiler:many American cities, including New York and Washington, were destroyed in the Church Wars, and the United States was implied to have started them in the first place.]]
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Added trope "Prevent the War"
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* PreventTheWar: Many characters try to do this, in different ways.
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Added trope "Darkest Africa"
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* DarkestAfrica: Played with thanks to an UnreliableNarrator. Most of Africa is in the "Great African Reservation," which is described in-universe as a dangerous and violent place filled with primitive governments. While it is true that Africa is less peaceful than the majority of the world in this future, some of the narrator's prejudice against it is simply because [[DeliberateValuesDissonance public religion and gender are still allowed there]]. Furthermore, in book 4 we find out that [[spoiler:the "primitive governments" are actually ''geographic nation-states,'' and they make up the largest remnant of the UsefulNotes/{{United Nations}}. They help the Utopians on multiple occasions.]]
