Fanfic / Event Horizon: Storm of Magic

Event Horizon: Storm Of Magic is an ongoing Science Fiction/medieval fantasy/Crossover series by django with a seemingly simple basic premise: what if the fantasy worlds of Middle Earth, A Song of Ice and Fire, Warhammer and Avatar: The Last Airbender all took place on four separate planets in the same star system? And what if those those planets were all located in the Epsilon Eridani System, not too far (relatively speaking) from Earth?

This all sounds simple enough ... until events on all three worlds are shaken up by the arrival of visitors from Planet Earth. And not just any visitors, but an ultra-advanced and power-hungry multinational company from an advanced 22nd century Earth called ... The Company™. The end result is a story that blends some of our favorite medieval fantasy settings with a straight up Space Opera complete with spaceships, robots, and lasers ... as well as the writer's own injection of humor and great heaping helpings of sarcasm and pop culture references.

You can read and post comments on the original story thread in the Alien Space Bats board on AlternateHistory.com, here, or you can jump to the comment-free, "story-only" thread here. The series is also now available on FanFiction.Net and Archive of Our Own (links below).

Books

• Book 0 — Prologue: completed. The shortest of all the books, a general prologue to the entire series; recounts the Earth expedition's arrival in the Epsilon Eridani System aboard the starship U.N.S.V. Belo Horizonte. The Prologue can be found on fanfiction.net and AO3 here and here.
• Book 1 — Autumn's Frontier: completed. Recounts the events on "Planet EE-L4" (IE: Westeros) during the first nine-month period following the arrival of the Horizonte. Book 1 can be read on fanfiction.net here and AO3 here.
  • Spin-off: The Flying Northman: An Event Horizon Christmas Special: A spin-off takes place on the same planet around the same time as Book 4 that starts with the North's newest steam train, the Flying Northman. Despite being called "Christmas Special", this story has nothing to do with Christmas aside from snow and someone getting a toy train. Can be read here and here.
• Book 2 — Beautiful Horizon: Started on October 2015. Book 2 will take place at the same time as Book 1, but will focus exclusively on the events on "Planet EE-L5" (IE: Middle Earth). Can be read here on ff.net and AO3 here.
• Book 3 — Crimson EquinoX: published simultaneously with Book 2, features "Planet EE-L0" (IE: the Warhammer World).
• Book 4 — Winter's Frontier: features both the Avatar World, and a return to Westeros as Winter (and Chaos) arrives.

As of January 2017, the series is on hiatus while the author is doing another fanfic, CRIMSON DAWN: The Imperium Comes To 1984. As he hasn’t touched that story in over two years, it can be assumed that Event Horizon is a Dead Fic.

Not to be confused either with the 1997 Sci-Fi horror film Event Horizon, or with the tropes Moral Event Horizon or Despair Event Horizon.

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Provides Examples Of:

• Adaptation Personality Change: King Robert is much more of a jovial Large Ham than he was in canon as the author imagined this version of Robert being played by BRIAN BLESSED.
• Ad-Break Double-Take: One chapter of Book 1 ends with Izzy saying "Let's Rock!" and opening fire on a horde of Wights attacking Outpost B. This is how the next chapter opens.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause: the UN has one in place; The Company™ is constantly looking for ways to get around it.
• All Hail the Great God Mickey!: Arya Stark mistakes Michael Jackson for a powerful necromancer and shapeshifter after watching the music video for Thriller (wherein he conjures dancing zombies) and Moonwalker (wherein he transforms into a spaceship).
• Almighty Mom: Fred Kovacs' mother is the CEO of The Company™.
• Alternate Universe: Not only are Westeros, Middle Earth, and Warhammer World all located in the same star system in this universe (and only ten lightyears from Earth), but each individual world is also slightly different from canon. For example, this version of Westeros seems to combine elements from both the books and the TV show, as well as some original elements as well.
• All There in the Manual: The writer includes numerous background materials, "database entries", and footnotes that flesh out the details of The Company™, its technology, and the political and socioeconomic situation of 22nd century Earth.
• Amazing Freaking Grace: Used during a funeral in Book 1.
• America Takes Over the World: The Company™ and its competitors in the "space exploration and colonization sector" are all based on typical American mega-corporations. The background materials also state that the USA has annexed Canada. However, Chinese, Japanese, and German mega-corporations also seem to be major players in this setting.
• Army of The Ages: Invoked, as this story features fantasy armies (usually at medieval or Renaissance level at best) butting heads with futuristic Colonial Marines from Earth.

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The After-Action Report for the Battle at the Black Gate proclaims no casualties on The Company™, although it laments that one of the mercenaries involved broke a nail.
• Automaton Horses: averted. The fact that horses are skittish and easy to panic is another reason why firearms and explosives are so lethally effective against medieval-level armies.
• Badass Army: The "United Nations Colonial Marines" accompanying The Company™'s colonization operation. The Company™ also begins supplementing the Marines with "native militias" hired from amongst each planet's local inhabitants but armed with modern weaponry.
  • Among the various native militias, the White Wolves, the Company's militia on Westeros (they're named for Jon's direwolf Ghost and have adopted him as their mascot), are one of the more badass ones. They stood their ground alongside battle-hardened UN Marines and held off an invading horde of wights and White Walkers while the Falcons were on their way.
  • It isn't long before the natives of all the planets begin "modernizing" their own armies, with special mention going to ... the First Army Of The North!
• Bait-and-Switch: It looks like Syrio Forel is going to sacrifice himself again, just like in the original story, and the author even warns readers ahead that "a fan favorite will die in this chapter". Instead, Syrio survives and Nymeria dies in his place.
  • When Dany finally meets Arya, it looks like Nimeria's death has caused the latter to become No One due to the shock. Turns out, it's just a joke.
• Big, Bulky Bomb: The Company™ makes an improvised one out of mining explosives and drops it on a Beastmen Warherd. And then they drop four more, just to be sure.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Robb and Ned have a discussion over whether the The Company™ has improved or worsened the lives of their people. Robb supports The Company™ as their ideas and technology have improved the lives of their people and allowed the North to modernize and industrialize into a modern nation with a well equipped army. Ned counters The Company™'s "help" has cause pollution in their lands and their people's culture and values are being threatened by The Company™'s greed.
• Brain Bleach: Everyone from Earth's reaction when they know about Cersei/Jaime. Daniel even tries to use the real thing: Brain Bleach™, a specialized product from The Company™ itself.
• Breakout Character: Robb Stark began as a minor character early on in Book 1, but lately has gone on to rise up and become one of the main protagonists driving the plot.
• Butt-Monkey: The Remnants of North Korea are treated this way by everyone. They insist they are still a super power and true rulers of Korea even though all the human nations of the Earth and the colonies have accepted that South Korea is the actual government of Korea while the North are just bitter exiles who now lived in Mars. Even their Blatant Lies of claiming the people living at Epsilon Eridani system are their descendants and thus the planets belonging to them are treated as a joke since they neither have the technology or resources to do so (a fact made clear when a North Korean rocket heading to Epsilon Eridani explodes before even leaving the Martian atmosphere).
• Captain Ersatz: Izzy is a direct copypaste of Vasquez from Aliens, right down to wielding a SmartGun and shouting out one of her lines.
• Casual Interstellar Travel: played with. Earth has Faster-Than-Light Travel, but voyages still take months, and space for passengers and cargo aboard starships is limited, so it's difficult for Earth to send reinforcements when the trouble starts.
• Celebrity Paradox: At least within this universe, the A Song of Ice and Fire, The Lord of the Rings, and Warhammer franchises never existed.
  • Instead, their place is taken up, respectively, by the Throne Of Blood series by Mexican writer Jorge R.R. de Martín, the The Ring of the Nibelung series by German writer Johan Roland Von Tolkynen, and the popular Warslammer 3000 game published by British developer Games Workspace (complete with tie-in comic 3,000 AD).
• Chekhov's Gun: An almost literal example: In one chapter, Fred Kovacs mentions carrying a futuristic "Shocktaser pistol" in his pocket for self-defense, Westeros being what it is. Several chapters later, sure enough, he employs it to great effect against the locals...
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Fred Kovacs seems inspired by a number of characters played by Chris Pratt.
• Cool Spaceship: the UNSV Belo Horizonte, the starship that brought The Company™ and the UN over to the star system in the first place.
• Cool Train: The Flying Northman, a steam locomotive featured in a spin-off Christmas Special. Also, the "Vactrain" hyper-speed maglevs frequently mentioned in the Earth chapters.
  • One of the Earth chapters has a clandestine meeting between two Company executives (one of them being Fred's more competent sister) set inside a Vactrain, which have VIP compartments set aside for them.
• Crapsack World: Earth in the future has gotten worse as it faces various problems:
  • Due to overpopulation, unspoiled land is a precious and expensive commodity on Earth. Hence why the governments and corporations of Earth seek new planets to colonize to relieve the excess populous.
  • India and Pakistan were involved in a nuclear war which ended with Pakistan becoming a Rump state and most of its lands annexed by its neighbours while India becomes a Superpower and annexing or claiming their weaker neighbours. But the use of nuclear weapons have made much of the land irradiated.
  • Thanks to a combination of clean land being limited and heavy pollution, Earth can't or is limited in growing food and raising livestock on land, with most people on Earth eating Vat-grown Algae for meat and hydroponic vegetables while real meat and farm grown vegetables are expensive and a luxury imported from Space Farms and the colonies.
  • Most Governments of Earth are corrupt or are controlled by the Corporations. This is shown in the The Company™'s trial with the UN over their involvement in the Westeros Civil War where the CEO of The Company™ bribed, blackmailed and makes deals with most of the judges to side with the The Company™.
• Crossover: Between A Song of Ice and Fire, The Lord of the Rings, and Warhammer, and an original sci-fi Space Opera setting created by the writer.
  • A fourth planet in the system will feature yet another fantasy world, but, as yet, it's identity remains unknown... until the end of Book 1, when it's finally revealed to be the world from Avatar: The Last Airbender, shortly before Korra's comes to Republic City.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Littlefinger, as Melisandre offers him as a sacrifice to Tzeentch, who has disguised himself as R'hllor.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The Battle of the Red Fork, for the North and The Company™.
• Cyberpunk: most chapters set on Future Earth have this vibe, and especially the subplot set in Tokyo.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: All over the place with The Company™'s modern-day standards clash with Westerosi's, Middle Earth and Warhammer values: human rights, gender equality, democracy, etc. The Company™ actually discusses about it at one point on using this trope to gain more supports from Earth's.
  • Renly likes that Earth accepts homosexuals since he's gay but his brother Robert, despite liking their tech, finds the idea of women soldiers unacceptable and dismisses Loras being gay as nothing more than a phase.
  • When a group of Company™'s scientist go travelling at the Shire, the owners of the Green Dragon Inn, The Browns, have different views on them. While the daughter Robin is accepting of their ideas especially that there are three more worlds with life other than Middle-Earth and doesn't mind that two of the scientist are a lesbian couple, her mother Lady Lily, who is conservative and religious, is appalled and convinced their talk of other worlds is a lie and that they're servants of Morgoth (The Middle-Earth version of Satan).
• Deconstruction: what happens when various fantasy cultures and societies are rudely introduced to the "real world" and things like science and technology, politics, mass media, capitalism, and consumerism.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Tywin is killed by Fred instead of Tyrion in canon.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Robb and Ned's discussion on whether the North should break away from the Seven Kingdoms and formed their own nation sounds like the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum where Scottish voters were asked if Scotland should vote to leave or stay with the United Kingdom. In addition, the Northern independence movement bears some resemblance to the rationale behind the Confederacy's secession, right down to the colours of the military uniforms.
• Drop Ship: both The Company™ and the UN regularly use two kinds: the smaller "Falcon" shuttles for carrying personnel, and the enormous "Valkyrie" shuttles for hauling cargo... and occasionally, as makeshift bombers.
• The Empire: "The Empire" from Warhammer is featured prominently in all its glory, and is a rare heroic version of this trope.
• Encyclopedia Exposita: In between actual chapters, readers can find detailed timelines, maps, and "in-universe" news articles, database entries, email correspondences, official reports made by The Company™'s employees, and even legal documents.
• The Earth Man's Burden: Some of the members of the Company™ seem to have this attitude toward the locals and in later chapters, they actually discuss about using this trope to gather supports from Earth.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: One of the Nazgul is female. On a much, much worse scale, according to the reports Saruman had human women and men alike raped by Orcs- the women were the only ones found alive because the male victims were killed after fathering children on female orcs.
• Everything Is an iPod in the Future: The Company™'s technology is described by some of the native Westerosi as "shiny boxes crafted out of white-and-black metal".
  • Used Future: However, much of The Company™'s more mundane technology, particularly construction equipment, prefabricated buildings, and blast furnaces, seem to have this appearance.
• Evil Laugh: Theon has one while he's unleashing his Gatling gun's dakka onto the Lannisters' army, screaming about how he's now killed more men than his uncles combined.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: The Company™ is a ruthless and amoral organization, but at least they're on our side against the more downright omnicidal factions like Mordor, the Forces of Chaos, and the White Walkers.
• Eviler than Thou: The Company™ pulls a rather impressive one on Tywin Lannister just before they kill him.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Saruman in this setting and his experiments in creating Uruk-Hai.
• Expy: The Company™ seems to be heavily inspired by Weyland-Yutani and the historic British East India Company.
• Fantastic Science/Functional Magic: The discovery of the existence of magic has been of enormous interest to The Company™, who is now working on developing the science of "thaumaturgy" and with the goal of applying it to their technology.
  • Clarke's Third Law: Several of The Company™'s scientists speculate that "magic/thaumic energy" is just another form of "dark energy", and thus "magic" might be similar to the same Applied Phlebotinum that The Company™ already uses to power their Faster-Than-Light Travel. This relationship has yet to be confirmed.
• Fantasy Gun Control: Inverted. A major plot point is the impact of introducing firearms into societies that have never had them before.
  • Also invoked in-universe, as it's illegal for The Company™ to introduce the societies they encounter to weapons advanced to a significant degree (anything automatic, for example). The Company™ proves to be very good at finding loopholes, and sometimes manages to invoke Godzilla Threshold to temporarily lift these laws.
• False Flag Operation: during the Battle Of The Red Fork, Fred and VENI take advantage of the chaos and confusion to secretly kill off several noblemen (including Tywin and Kevan Lannister) and destroy ammunition depots while making it look like it was someone else.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Already existent in the original canon of each story, but exaggerated in this story, usually for parody purposes. The Lannisters take the cake for very clearly developing along the lines of A Nazi by Any Other Name.
• Fictional Political Party: The Mass Exodus Party on Earth. In spite of deriving its name from the Exodus, it's a secular party whose membership comes from various religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. It firmly belives in the Earth Man's Burden.
• Future Food Is Artificial: Most food the people of Earth eat are hydroponic vegetables and meat substitutes grown from algae, with real meat being a luxury for the rich. Hence the UN marines at Epsilon Eridani are excited to eat real bacon and eggs rather than artificial ones and one Company™ employee decides to indulge in eating real fish as it's not everyday he can get the real deal.
• Gatling Good: The North's secret weapon that bring them victory in the Battle of the Red Fork. Curb-Stomp Battle ensures.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: courtesy of The Company™'s employees from other parts of Earth, including Gratuitous Japanese and Gratuitous German.
• Hauled Before a Senate Subcommittee: At the end of Book 1, The Company™ is made to explain their actions before the U.N. Security Council, who then decide whether these actions were legal, or whether they had overstepped their boundaries.
• Heel–Face Turn: Krash and Lunk defect and surrender to Gondor, Rohan and The Company™ after the Nazgul unfairly blame them for Osgiliath being destroyed by bombs left by the retreating Gondorian army and orders their death. After Mordor is seemingly destroyed, Krash and Lunk become the new leaders of the Orcs and appear at Aragorn's crowning as King.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Robb has one when he witnesses how much damages his army's caused after the Battle of the Red Fork. Theon's reaction to the whole thing doesn't help, either.
  • UNCDF Marine Kyra Lynn has one after her squad raids Saruman's breeding pits and realizes how the Uruk-Hai are created. She then goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Human Aliens: It's discussed In-Universe how there alien races with incredible resemblance to humanity. Some chalk it up to "convergent evolution", or how the conditions for life and create similar, if unrelated species.
• Human Sacrifice: Par for the course on EE-L0, being practiced by the Druchii and Chaos, among others. After being influenced by Tzeentch, Melisandre does this to Littlefinger at the end of Book 1 on EE-L4.
• Humiliation Conga: The Lannisters suffered from this after their defeat at the Battle of The Red Fork. The Cavalry charge that should have won them the battle was their downfall as the Stark Army had Gatling Guns, which kill or maimed the majority of the Lannisters nobility, routed their army and Jaime and Tyrion getting captured by the Starks. Tywin is shot and bleeds to death by Fred and VENI, who Tywin thought was helping them assassinate Robb and Ned when in truth Tywin was their real target. Tywin's inner circle including his brother are also assassinated to ensure the new Lord of Casterly Rock, Tyrion, will not have any experienced advisors to help him rule, forcing him to rely on The Company™ for help. To add insult to injury to Tywin's legacy, his unfavorite son Tyrion inherits his title and signs an unfair reparation treaty with The Starks, his favorite son Jaime loses his right hand and his incestual affair with his twin sister Cersei exposed, confirming Stannis' accusation that her children are not Robert's children, where Jaime, Cersei and their children are exiled to the Warhammer world with Joffrey getting the worse treatment with him not only losing his crown but also locked up in a Company™ mental institute for being an insane war criminal for life, the Westerlands losing some of their lands to the North and Riverlands due to the treaty and Tywin, Amory and Gregor's decapitated heads being presented as gifts to The Martells by the Company™.
• I Need an Index by Monday: Being a parody of modern corporate culture, The Company™ has these tropes in spades.
  • Army of Lawyers: As if the UNCDF Marines they brought along weren't bad enough, The Company™ plans to unleash their attorneys upon the helpless natives. God help those poor, poor Westerosi!
  • Bad Boss: The consensus is that Fred is either this, or a Pointy-Haired Boss.
  • Bob from Accounting: Most Company™ employees who aren't one of the main four or five characters seem to be this trope.
  • Conservation of Competence: fortunately, Fred's ineptness seems to be countered by his assistant Daniel and, later on, by VENI.
  • The Dilbert Principle: In spite of the management's seeming ineptness, The Company™'s engineers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, and soldiers seem more than capable of meeting any challenge these planets throw in their way.
  • Office Golf: on the Moon no less - during an important scientific expedition to Planet EE-L4's moon, Fred challenges his co-workers to a golfing tournament. Not surprisingly, VENI wins.
• In-Universe Nickname: Tyrion Lannister is now "the Halfdude".
• Innocently Insensitive: While at a local StarBux Coffee shop, Bronn complements a Waitress from Earth as a "delightful serving wench". Naturally, the waitress is offended, while Daniel and Tyrion quickly explain to Bronn that calling a woman "wench" is considered rude and politically incorrect on Earth.
• Insistent Terminology: "thaumic energy" for "magic" and "thaumaturgy" for "the science of magic".
• In Spite of a Nail: Renly and Stannis still end up fighting for the Iron Throne. Only this time Stannis is already crowned King after Cersei and her children were exiled due to the truth of her children's real father comes to light.
• Interservice Rivalry: Between The Company™ and the UN. While both organizations want to help the humans of the Epsilon Eridani system and prepare it for colonization for humans on Earth, they each have different goals and agendas. The UN and their marines want to ensure the expedition's personnel are protected and the culture and sovereignty of the inhabitants of Epsilon Eridani respected. Unfortunately, some of the bad members of The Company™ are exploiting the locals for their long term goals which includes manipulating leaders, making secret black ops mission behind the UN's back and even assassinating people who are a threat to their goals.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While some people (both good guys and bad guys) act like jerks to The Company™, they all have a point that The Company™ is arrogant to claim the Epsilon Eridani planets as their own when it never was in the first place and despite the help they gave to the people living there, The Company™ is only interested in gaining power and profit.
• Jurisdiction Friction: The UN Marines takes orders from the UN and not The Company™, unless it involves the protection of the colonies.
• Lensman Arms Race: Thanks to The Company™ manufacturing and selling firearms locally, warfare quickly leaps from roughly Medieval and/or Renaissance levels, to roughly Napoleonic and/or The American Civil War levels within the space of a year. However, as was the tragic case in Real Life, many generals' and noblemen's attitudes and tactics haven't quite caught up with the new technology yet, leading to a huge slaughter.
• The Little Detecto: "Thaumometers" (IE: magic detectors), developed by The Company™ to, well, detect magic and "measure levels of background magic". According to Fred and Daniel, they look like Geiger Counters.
• Loophole Abuse: Under UNASEC rules, The Company™ cannot sale automatic weapons to the natives but old guns like the breech loading Martini–Henry rifle and the semi-automatic M1-Garand can be sold since under their definition, an automatic weapon is a gun that fires bullets non-stop by holding the trigger. Thus The Company™ was able to sell Robb Stark's Northern Army Gatling guns since they are hand crank weapons and not automatic.
• Ludd Was Right: While Ned appreciates what The Company™ has done to improve the lives of his people, he is still cautious with all the new technology The Company™ has given them with the fear it might destroy their land, culture and traditions.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Used word-for-word during the Battle of Outpost B, describing Wights struck by rifle grenades.
• The Magic Versus Technology War: With The Company™ and the UN on the "tech side", and the hostile native factions like Mordor and Chaos on the "magic side".
• Meaningful Name: The assassin the Lannisters send after Brandon Stark is named "Thomas Catspaw." A "cat's paw" is someone sent to do another's dirty work.
• Medieval Stasis: played with. While many of the native peoples like in Westeros or on Middle Earth were definitely stuck in this trope before, The Company™ is now introducing advanced technology from Earth, though with both beneficial and harmful effects.
  • Modern Stasis: however, this trope seems to be in effect on Earth: while they have hyper-advanced technology, much of Earth's pop culture, politics, fashion, and social attitudes seem to be stuck somewhere between The '80s and 20 Minutes into the Future.
• MegaCorp: The Company™... yes, they've even managed to trademark the name "The Company".
• Mini-Mecha: The "HULK units" ("Heavy Utility-Lifting/Konstruction" unit) employed by The Company™ for construction and mining... and occasionally, for defense as well.
• Mood Whiplash: Dany comforts Robb, telling him she is sorry for the men he lost at the Battle of Red Fork, and that their deaths were not in vain as they were able to stop Tywin's campaign and avenge her family, easing Robb's conscious. Then a drunk Fred comes along and ruins it by glorifying how many were killed thanks to the guns The Company™ sold them, and then makes a sales pitch to them without any respect for the dead. Naturally, both of them are pissed off with Fred.
• Must Have Caffeine: Robb takes a liking for coffee after being introduced to it by The Company™. However, he doesn't like the coffee chain style coffee as it's too sweet for his taste.
• Mythology Gag: at one point, Robb Stark asks his father "can you imagine what would have happened if [The Company™] had never come?" and proceeds to list all the awful things that did actually happen in the original series.
  • Although set on the world of Warhammer Fantasy, Book 3 seems to borrow some elements from the other Warhammer too.
  • Two Orcs in Mordor's army have a philosophical discussion pondering the origins of their race - something that J.R.R. Tolkien himself never fully explained.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: This universe's version of the Lannisters seems to be going overboard with this trope, complete with a "Lannister Salute", soldiers dressing up like Imperial Prussia, and Tywin openly discussing establishing a "thousand year dynasty" as well as invading the Riverlands to acquire more "living space".
• N.G.O. Superpower: The Company™ is determined to use their futuristic science, technology, and business to dominate all of the worlds of the Epsilon Eridani System. Only time will tell if they succeed...
• No New Fashions in the Future: The clothing styles of The Company™ have been described by one reviewer as "2014 in SPAAACE".
• Numbered Homeworld: Justified in-story: The planets were only recently discovered by Earth, and so until the UN assigns an official name, each world is known by a number designating the star system and the planet's position within it. For example, Westeros is located on "Planet EE-L4" (Epsilon Eridani, L4 Lagrangian Point), while the Warhammer world seems to be set on "Planet EE-L0" (Epsilon Eridani, Lagrangian "Zero Point").
• Oh, Crap!: Jaime when he realizes he cannot see Robb's direwolf anywhere. Cue surprise attack.
• Outside-Context Problem: for everyone:
  • The Company™ didn't know that those four planets ten lightyears away that it was trying to colonize would turn out to be inhabited - by humans no less and with magic and sorcery.
  • Sauron, who until then was winning against Gondor, certainly wasn't expecting the "Sky-People" coming to Gondor's aid.
  • The Forces Of Chaos are a severe example of this trope to everyone not originally from the Warhammer World.
  • Lampshaded by Varys who mentions to Illyrio Mopatis that the arrival of the "Sky-People" has derailed all of his plans.
  • Also lampshaded by Tzeentch, who notes that this changes everything, but unlike the others, he actually enjoys this and is enthusiastic about all these new opportunities, being a god of change after all.
• Predatory Business: The Company™ and their competitors have been known to try to discredit each other in whatever business they're in.
• Product Placement: Done in jest, for products of both fictional in-universe companies (like, well, The Company™) as well as real life brands like Starbucks and Apple. Of course, it's stated that many of these real life brands are now owned by The Company™...
• Punch-Clock Villain: Some of the bad guys are shown to be not really bad. Krash and Lunk are two Orcs who are just doing their job and sincerely believe their homeland Mordor is defending themselves from human and elvish invaders. The same can be said about Kevan Lannister, whose the only good leader within Tywin's inner circle and only joined Tywin's campaign out of loyalty to his brother and their family. Too bad his kindness isn't enough for The Company™ to kill him to deprive Tyrion of any experience leader to help him rule as the new Lord of Casterly Rock.
• Puppet King: The Company™'s ulterior motives behind "rescuing" Daenerys Targaryen and taking her to their colony to be influenced and/or indoctrinated into supporting their agenda.
• The Purge: The Company™ takes advantage of the numerous wars going on across all of the planets to secretly kill off any native leaders they see as an obstacle to their goals.
• Putting on the Reich: Once they start modernizing, the Lannisters take on a vaguely Imperial Prussia / Nazi Germany-like feel to them. See A Nazi by Any Other Name above.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Emperor Karl Franz from Warhammer World. Even the people from Earth are impressed by him.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech/What the Hell, Hero?: After the hearing of the UNSC at the end of book 1, the Company™'s CEO (Fred's mother) calls Fred out on all the disasters he's caused throughout the book.
• Recycled In SPACE: Book I: Autumn's Frontier is so far shaping up to be "Game of Thrones with robots and lasers." Only time will tell what Books II and III have in store for The Lord of the Rings and Warhammer...
• Retro Universe: The story begins in 2154, but The Company™, the UN, and Earth in general is all over the place in terms of technology, politics, pop culture, clothing styles, and social values, ranging from The '80s, to The Present Day, to 20 Minutes into the Future, and beyond. And now that they're trying to bring this culture to planets that are still in Medieval Stasis, well, we can safely expect even more of an Anachronism Stew.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After her Heroic BSoD after seeing a girl pregnant with an Uruk-Hai from being raped by orcs in Saruman's breeding pits, it's implied that Kyra Lynn goes on one, culminating in her shooting and killing Saruman's mortal body with one of his reverse-engineered magical rifles while he was dueling Gandalf.
• Rock Beats Laser: Downplayed. The Company™ possesses superior technology, but inferior numbers (only a few hundred Company™ personnel on each planet versus millions and millions of natives). This, together with political pressure from the UN to only use military force in self defense, is the main reason The Company™ is "holding back".
• Running Gag: At least each planet has someone who looks like Sean Bean.
• Samus Is a Girl: At least one of the Nazgul is female. And a Depraved Homosexual (or Depraved Bisexual) at that.
• Shout-Out: has its own page.
• Shown Their Work: Apart from the existence of magic and some Applied Phlebotinum (like the Faster-Than-Light Travel), most of The Company™'s tech is portrayed pretty reasonably, with explanations on how they work. Ships and space stations have to generate Artificial Gravity through rotation; Faster-Than-Light Travel is still "slow", taking months for voyages between stars; there is no sound in space; and Frickin' Laser Beams are portrayed pretty accurately.
• Smug Snake: The Beastmen, Chaos Warriors and Dark Elves at first believe they can defeat the Sky People(who they see as upstart humans) with their magic, superior strength and their Gods... until the The Company™ blows them up with their advanced weaponry.
• The Starscream: Littlefinger finally gets his comeuppance when he's betrayed by one of his underlings, who has ambitions of his own.
• Steam Never Dies: Justified. The Company™ builds a network of steam-powered railways for Westeros and The Empire because coal is much more abundant on these planets than oil, the infrastructure required to extract oil is expensive, and because The Company™ is not willing to share their more advanced futuristic technology just yet. Rule of Cool is the other main reason.
• Take That!: The Company™ frequently mentions an "Alpha Centauri Incident" that sounds like a deconstruction of James Cameron's Avatar.
  • During a New Years radio interview with a representative of The Company, Herr Domenech Belleville, when the subject of a tv adaptation Jorge R.R. de Martín's Throne Of Blood books comes up, Belleville mentions hoping the TV adaptation will help speed up writing process on the books.
  I mean, the guy's a great writer, but seriously, how long has he been working on the next book now?

  • The same chapter mentions The Company suing people for making replicas of The Iron Throne, over the copyright... despite their only claim to the "copyright" being the fact the only publicly available photo of it at time being taken and uploaded by one of their employees.
• Technology Porn: Downplayed. The Company™ comes bearing all kinds of cool and flashy tech from 22nd century Earth, from robots to plasma weapons, but at the end of the day, it's actually the more mundane Earth technology that's having the most profound impact on the natives' lifestyles.
• Technology Uplift: The Company™ selling technology to the natives has vast and far-reaching effects across all worlds. Especially modern firearms.
• Think of the Children!: Said by Lady Lily Brown of the Shire as she finds the The Company™'s tech and culture appalling.
• Those Were Only Their Scouts: Thus far, The Company™'s presence in the star system amounts to only a single starship with a few hundred personnel onboard, with a "light security force" of only a single platoon of UNCDF Colonial Marines. But more are on their way. A lot more.
• Trade Snark: Officially, it's The Company™.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Played with. The natives, using mainly horses or else just walking, take months to get anywhere, but The Company™'s futuristic dropships are able to travel anywhere on a planet within hours (though it still takes days to travel between planets).
• 20 Minutes into the Future: The first three books are set over a single nine-month period between late 2154 and mid 2155. At least within this universe, the year 2154 on Earth seems to correspond to the year 298 A.C. on Westeros, T.A. 3018 on Middle Earth, and 2520 I.C. on the Warhammer world.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Books 2 and 3 are published together, interspersed with each other. It's hard to tell which book the "Earth" plotline belongs in, but its chapters are diced up as well.
• United Nations Is A Super Power: In large part thanks to UNASEC's ("United Nations Administration for Space Exploration & Colonization") domination of interplanetary trade and customs. The main military forces from Earth featured in this story are the UNCDF ("United Nations Colonial Defense Forces").
• Unobtanium: Nexus-8 Androids are made of an alloy outright called "Phlebotinum," which gives VENI, VIDI, and VICI unparrallelled strength and durability.
• Villain Protagonist: The Company™ is either this, or Anti-Hero at best. Yeah, they engage in a lot of unethical business practices, but they also oppose the omnicidal factions like Chaos and Mordor, and they've introducing a lot of social and technological progress to these worlds as well.
• War for Fun and Profit: Not necessarily the "fun" part, but definitely the "profit" part, given that the Company is selling weapons and supplies to both sides of the Stark-Lannister war.
• We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: Justified. The Company™ only brought limited machinery with them from Earth, so every hundred native laborers they can hire frees up one of their machines to do something else more important.
• Wham Episode: Book 1's two-part epilogue. Tyrion begins to plan for the Westerlands' revenge against the North, The Company™ gets Dorne to ally with them by giving them the decapitated heads of Gregor Clegane, Amory Lorch, and Tywin Lannister, Jaime and Cersei and their children are exiled to the Warhammer World ... and Tzeentch, Lord of Change, arrives in Westeros and tricks Melisandre into believing he's R'hllor. And then the dragons are born thanks to The Company™'s Magitek, except Drogon seemingly dies at birth while Dany's child is a girl named after Kahl Drogo.
• Wham Line:
  • Book 1, chapter 106:
  Fred:: I guess Tywin Lannister doesn't shit gold after all.
  • Book 1, chapter 111 has two:
  The CEO: My name is Adrienne Kovacs, and I am the CEO of the The Company™.
  Fred: Yeah, sorry, forgot to mention my mom's joining us today.
  • Book 1, Epilogue II:
  Dr. Chakwas to Dany: But... first, I must ask, have you thought of a name for your daughter?
• What the Romans Have Done for Us: The Company is a ruthless, borderline-imperialist conglomerate, but they do bring modernity and social progress to the planets they exploit.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Theon asks Robb this when Jaime challenges Robb to a one-on-one fight. Robb replies that sometimes you cannot just use bullets... although a little deception always helps. Cue Grey Wind taking Jaime from behind, attacking his exposed leg and opening him for getting his hand chopped off by Robb.
• A World Half Full: Despite how much a crapsack world Earth has become, there's no more world hunger, sexism is a thing of past (except in Saudi Arabia), the current Pope is a woman, there is no more hatred between people of different races, nationalities or religion, Korea is finally united under South Korea, humanity has made contact with aliens, technology is very advanced and humanity are colonizing new planets to help ease Earth's overpopulation.
• World of Snark: In full effect in this story.

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