Grydscaen is a cyberpunk series of novels, short stories and manga by Natsuya Uesugi which share a common Techno Dystopia setting, The City.
The main series is comprised of ten volumes:
- Retribution
- War
- Alliance
- Insurrection
- Desecration
- Metropolis
- Atonement
- Union
- Honor
- Imperium
Along with ten short stories:
- "Beginning" aka "Inception", a prequel to Retribution.
- "Utopia" AKA "Dreams In Perfect", the backstory of Ameliano Dejarre.
- "Sheer"
- "Dark"
- "Scout"
- "Idol"
- "Legacy"
- "The Seal Maker"
- "Tribute"
- "Dissonance"
And several manga:
- Psycho Dive
Grydscaen provides examples of the following tropes:
- After the End: Set after a Great War on the setting's planet.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Post-Fusion Kedek energy was used in super bombs during the Great War of the setting and is the source of psychic powers.
- Brain/Computer Interface: Specialized brain-computer interfaces known as Jacks can be implanted in a psychic's head, allowing a psychic great influence over computer systems while hacking.
- Body Horror: Jacks are installed by drilling a hole in the temple of the skull and injecting nanomachines which then build the physical hardware and connections throughout the brain.
- Alternative Calendar: Takes place in the year 2055 After Colony.
- Cast Full of Gay: The vast majority of the characters in the series are gay, bisexual and transgender males.
- Cyborg: Widespread. An extreme example is Jees, a Trance Channeler on the Mendelson Research Colony, who has been so heavily altered by nanomachines that it does not need food or waste disposal.
- Dreaming of Times Gone By: Trance Channelers are a type of psychic who can perceive the entire timestream including the past.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Due to their unique perception of the timestream, Trance Channelers can see the future and predict events.
- Emergency Transformation: Nanomachine "Right-to-Survive" programs turn the person they are run within into various degrees of cyborg.
- Fantastic Drug: The setting feature many interesting and unique drugs, most of which related to the enhancement and stabilization of Codess power.
- Fantastic Nuke: The Great War in the setting's past was fought with post-Fusion Kedek Bombs.
- Mecha: Frames are robotic vehicles frequently piloted by psychics, with a variety of weapons from sword modules to futuristic rifles. Later in the series, Frames are rendered capable of teleporting with their psychic pilots.
- Playing with Fire: A radioactive drug called Fire Neurocyne allows psychics to manipulate and create fire with their minds.
- Power Levels: Codess powers have different levels representing a given psychic's power. Psi-Synch devices are frequently used within the setting to increase a psychics power level at the risk of killing them.
- Power Incontinence: A psychic can lose control of their powers and cause massive damage, which is known as "going Psi Crit". The fact that many psychics are used as unwilling test subjects makes this a genuine threat.
- Psychic Powers: The setting contains an exhaustive number of psychic powers known as Codess, which ranges from telepathy to time manipulation. Many of these powers are usually limited to specific types of psychics who were born with them.
- Psychic Teleportation: A common psychic skill that is frequently uses by psychic characters for surprise attacks and to evade capture. Teleporting long distances drains a psychic's power, hence the longer the distance teleported, the higher a psychic's Codess level needs to be.
- Psychic Starship Pilot: Exaggerated. Control of Space shuttles, Frames, even Computer systems can be facilitated by psionic powers in the setting.
- Space Station: The setting has many space stations and space colonies. For example: The La Paz Space Station and the Mendelson Research Colony.
- Space Plane: Psionically pilotable space shuttles are used by the Mendelson Research Colony for transport between the colony and the planet of the setting.
- Telepathy: Many psychics can communicate directly mind-to-mind, which is known as Sending. Lock-Sending can only be received by another specific psychic, much like encrypted text.
