The Gaiad (Literature)

Tropes found in The Gaiad:

Absent Aliens: No life exists outside the Solar System, although it does exist in the solar system itself.
Abdicate the Throne The Yellow Emperor among others.
Abstract Apotheosis: Occurs many times ranging from robots to microorganisms.
Abusive Parents: Hengweh who becomes a Satanic Archetype as the most abusive parent.
Adipose Rex: Camber, son of Cambrius.
A Lizard Named "Liz": Happens frequently with the ancestors of animal species, goes into Species Surname as all animals use Patronymics.
All Hail the Great God Mickey!: Invoked by The Silicon Prophet.

The Almighty Dollar: Mithra develops into this.
Alternative Calendar: The calendar is based on the Western Zodiac and is a sidereal calendar rather than a tropical calendar.
Alone Among Families:The Silicon Prophet when contemplating the cosmos in his youth.
Ambiguous Robots: Posthumans.
Amicably Divorced: Between Adonis and Helia.
Angelic Beauty: Gods look very sexual because sexuality is divine. Looks a lot more similar to Hot as Hell than normal versions of this trope.
Animal Jingoism: Happens frequently with many species.
Animal Religion: The religion of microorganisms worshiping the chemical elements.
Anthropomorphic Shift: Inverted as animals become less anthropomorphic as the series progresses and human politics become more prominent.
Apocalypse Cult: Occurs several times throughout history, a common theme is that they are wrong.

Archnemesis Dad: Hengweh meets all the criteria and is an ancestor of all life on Earth. He doesn't want to be surpassed and becomes a Satanic figure representing Lawful Evil alongside the Chaotic Evil Hillu.
Aristocrats Are Evil: Many predators but subverted with humans.
Artificial Afterlife: Created by the transhuman movement.
Ascended to Carnivorism. Happens many times in the Cambrian period.
As the Good Book Says...: Many verses are directly lifted from The Bible and both the Gaiad and the Bible are frequently quoted by characters.
Awful Wedded Life: between Adonis and Helia.
Angels, Devils and Squid: Mithra, Hengweh, and Hillu.
Answers to the Name of God: Mithra.
Anthropomorphic Personification: The entire cast.
Bat Out of Hell: Completely averted, as bats are depicted as borderline angelic beings and praised for their gracefulness and tenacity.
Being Human Sucks: Compared to other species before and after, humans are said to be cursed as a transitional form between ape and machine.
Beware the Superman: The Cambrians when they first evolve predation.
Big Good: Mithra.
Big, Screwed-Up Family: The entire cast is this to some extent by virtue of all being genealogically connected to each other.
- At smaller levels Noble Gases qualify as this.
Brain Uploading: Part of the transhuman movement.
Brother–Sister Incest: Every generation of the Noble Gases.
Blood Iron: A key aspect of Ferron.
Bugs Herald Evil: Averted as insects are depicted very positively.
Byronic Hero: Lord Byron himself and The Silicon Prophet.
{{Cain:}} Comes up at the beginning of humans.
Cain and Abel:
- Cain and Abel themselves.
- The sons of Sharkus.
- Millipus and Centipus ancestors of Creepy Centipedes.
Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": Happens frequently sometimes, with vague narration about what the thing being referred to actually is.
Canines Primary, Felines Secondary: Cats lead rebellions against their human overlords more than dogs do, whether this means Cats Are Mean or whether they are justified in their rebellion is up for debate.
Carnivore Confusion: Carnivores are treated as being rulers that levy taxes to their prey rather than as viscerally eating them, overhunting is depicted as taxing their subjects to death, and eating them as an extreme.
Cat/Dog Dichotomy: Completely averted as both cats and dogs rule the Carnivoran Empire together.
Cats Are Superior: Cats are the ruling class of the Carnivoran Empire and lead rebellions against humanity unlike dogs.
Caused the Big Bang: The Cosmic Egg hatching.
Celestial Bureaucracy: Heaven is ruled over by Mithra who acts as an elected president.
Celestial Paragons and Archangels: The Gods resemble something between this and Polytheism with Mithra as the Top God.
ChineseMythology Many elements of Chinese mythology are present, such as the Yellow Emperor.
The Church: The Church of Mithra.
Cosmic Egg: Part of the creation myth, although it is more a Cosmic placenta than a Cosmic egg.
Creation Story: The first few Sutras.
Creation Myth: Retold multiple times throughout the story.
Creative Sterility: Hilluhengweh.
Cry for the Devil: Invoked with the ritualistic prayer for Hilluhengweh.
Crystal Dragon Jesus: Mithra and his religion, which later evolves into Christianity.
Chaos Is Evil: Hilluhengweh.
Child by Rape: Noble Gas compounds.
Cope by Creating: The Silicon Prophet.
Couldn't Find a Pen: Oaths to Ferron.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Defied and inverted as transhumans explicitly choose to enhance their morality to prevent this.
Dark Messiah: The Silicon Prophet often questions himself on this trope. As a Byronic Hero he questions himself frequently about what barriers he must cross and what he must abstain from. The Antichrist does none of this and is a more straight example.
Deal with the Devil: Hengweh gives people offers to sacrifice their principles to gain success.
- His deals are non-binding and tend to reflect hypocrisy rather than true soul-selling.
Delayed Narrator Introduction: The Silicon Prophet only gets introduced around halfway through the saga.
Demon Lords and Archdevils: Completely averted as Hilluhengweh is never able to get a coherent organization into existence.
Demon of Human Origin: Hengweh is a variant of this, originating from a microorganism that was evil enough to undergo Abstract Apotheosis; this is why he makes deals with people.
Direct Line to the Author: Done with many authors being referenced for the in-universe Gaiad.
Divine Right of Kings: Invoked by many empires from the Cambrians to the Genemasters.
Divinely Appearing Demons the sons of Hengweh
Domestic Abuse: Lilith towards Euka.
- Averts Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male.
Don't Fear the Reaper: Ghedos is portrayed quite positively in accordance with Voodoo.
Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Completely averted with Lilith and Euka and with
Dueling Messiahs The Silicon Prophet vs The Antichrist.
Elemental Embodiment: Many of the Gods are personifications of chemical elements.
Elderly Immortal: Many of the eldest transhumans were of very advanced age before gaining immortality and appear older.
Epic Catalog: The genealogies.
The Epic: A story spanning billions of years about the rise of a Galaxy-spanning Empire.
Epic Poem: Written in free verse.
Ethnic God: Occurs for many species with their founders.
Eldritch Abomination: Kali the Eldritch, goddess of supermassive black holes.
Elective Monarchy: Arguably the Elohim use a form of this. Many countries throughout the Gaiad use this and as medievalism becomes more popular in the early interstellar period many republics use monarchy derived terminologies.
Emissary from the Divine: Happens with countless prophets including historical figures who made no such claims in real life.
Escaped from the Lab: The Silicon Prophet.
Eurabia: Happens with the entirety of Earth, although it is an example of Earth That Used to Be Better. Islamic influence on Earth is treated as a positive, and Earth is still a utopia compared to the 20th century, the fact that Ismaili Islam took over Earth makes it manifest very differently since it is a completely different sect than the mainstream Sunni sect westerners are familiar with; most of this comes from Hajji immigrants to Earth.
Evilutionary Biologist: Defied with the transhuman movement.
Famous Ancestor: The Silicon Prophet is descended from many people, most notably The Prophet Muhammad.
Fantastic Naming Convention: All entities from Elohim to microbes to planets to humans all follow the same naming convention of surnames, going from father to son and mother to daughter.
Fantasy Pantheon
Fertile Blood: Ferron is related to this.
- Blood Magic: Using blood as fertilizer is common in his worship.
Fertile Feet: Most of the gods have this.
Feudal Future: Some polities adopt such systems, but most galactic polities subvert this with Elected Monarchy that acts as de facto democracy.
Foreign-Looking Font: The Illuminated edition of the book will be written in a pseudo-medieval text to contribute to the aesthetic.
Friend to All Living Things: The Silicon Prophet.
Future Slang: Goes Up to Eleven as English becomes mutually unintelligible with its descendant languages.
Gender Equals Breed: Happens with tribes and surname inheritance.
Generational Saga: Follows the descendants of Yin and Yang over hundreds of generations.
Genre-Busting: A Science Fantasy Epic Poem about personified natural forces leading into Space Opera.
Goal-Oriented Evolution: Averted as evolution is portrayed as a process of differentiation rather than improvement.
- Invoked by Crispon and Maymay.
God Couple: Several.
God of Good / God of Order: Mithra is the Top God and God of Lawful Good.
- Overlaps with God Is Good because Mithra Answers to the Name of God.
- This is an honorary title due to his goodness, not his power.
Grandpa God: Mithra.
Götterdämmerung: Happens with the death of God, but it is reversed.
Heroic Lineage: Mentioned constantly throughout the generations.
Hit So Hard, the Calendar Felt It: Defied as the same Alternative Calendar is constantly used throughout the entire story, some people try to to this and they are depicted as disrespecting history.
Hermaphrodite: Adonai.
Homosexual Reproduction: Invoked with the transhuman movement.
Human Sacrifice: Occurs with Manu and Yemo.
Hollywood Voodoo: Averted with Ghedos and other Voodoo references, which are common among other polytheistic references. Evil interpretations of Voodoo aren't even referenced.
Humans Are Psychic in the Future: Justified as humans are using brain-computer interfaces.
Illegal Religion: Worship of Mithra was banned by many authoritarian governments of the 121st century.
Inbred and Evil: Rados, the Anthropomorphic Personification of Radon gas, a known carcinogen, and Noble Gas.
- Averted with Heh, the Anthropomorphic Personification of Helium Hydride, who is insane but not evil.
"Just So" Story: Periodically the narrator explains how the events of the text relate to modern practices. For example, money is green because Cupria the Bronzen Maiden grew green in old age. Radioactive decay chains come from necromancy, etc.
- The story of the Awful Wedded Life between Adonis and Helia as a warning about Parental Incest.
King Bob the Nth: Happens with presidents in the interstellar period.
Lawful Stupid: Hengweh is the God of this, but he develops towards Lawful Evil; they are shown as the same thing.
Lemony Narrator: First-Person Smartass due to Delayed Narrator Introduction.
Lilith: Is the rejected bacterium who couldn't become the mitochondria.
LEGO Genetics: Played With as genetics are portrayed as being a fundamental part of the Soul.
Lord of the Ocean: Oxa and Danu and Anaxydros.
Love Goddess: Florina is the first Love Goddess, then she rapes Xenon and gets replaced by her daughter Chlorina.
Love Is Like Religion: Sexual imagery is frequently used to describe faith and vice versa.
Lustful Melt: By Gallia when she sees Chromius, based on how Gallium melts at body temperature.
Mating Season Mayhem: Averted as animals treat the mating season as a sort of religious holiday.
Mature Animal Story
Modernized God: Mithra and the other Gods are associated more with space and science than traditional things.
Motherly Scientist: Iodina, parents as a whole are treated somewhat like this due to the idea of raising a child being an experiment, so Iodina has motherhood as a general attribute.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Mithra who has four arms representing the four covalent bonds of Carbon.
Mythopoeia
Narrator All Along: The Silicon Prophet.
Nanomachines: Both cells, and later nanobots are portrayed this way.
The Necrocracy: Emerges with some of the transhuman empires, as millennia-old people act like undead.
Nietzsche Wannabe: The Nietzscheans.
Non-Mammal Mammaries: Happens in much of the art.
Order Versus Chaos: The main conflict between Hilluhengweh and Mithra.
- With elements of Both Order and Chaos Are Dangerous with Hillu being extreme chaos, Hengweh being extreme order and Mithra being the middle ground.
Orwellian Retcon: Done to address Science Marches On and to add new character art in its web form.
Our Gods Are Different: Elohim act something between standard Gods and Celestial Paragons and Archangels.
Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Inverted as the worship of Mithra becomes ubiquitous in the 13th millenium.
Parental Incest: Between Adonis and Helia, not portrayed as evil, but as a part of a "Just So" Story about avoiding incest.
Permanent Elected Official: Mithra as President of the Gods.
Perplexing Plurals: Elohim as the plural of Eloh, alongside the feminine Elah.
Predators Are Mean: Often done, but as a case of Aristocrats Are Evil.
Predator Turned Protector: Happens commonly as predators are depicted as rulers rather than as predators.
Pro-Human Transhuman: The Silicon Prophet and his followers.
Panspermia: A pseudo panspermia based on this hypothesis.
- Also includes traditional panspermia with life originating on Venus and spreading to all the planets of the Solar system and nearby star systems.
The Power of Blood: Ferron.
Print Bonus: The Illuminated Manuscript format with special illustrations in the style of medieval bibles.
Physical Religion: The Church of Mithra has elements of this.
Pious Monster: Many of the villains have this characteristic.
Post-Modern Magik: In the transhuman era.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Mithra is the God of reasonable authority figures.
Reasoning with God: As the God of reason Mithra wants this and rewards those who reason with him.
Reconstruction: Of religious literature.
Recursive Canon: The Gaiad is referenced as Sacred Scripture in the narrative itself.
Religious Robot: The Early A.I.s worship the Gods of humans, including their ancestress, Goddess Ada Lovelace. Something of a combination of Deus Est Machina and Thank The Makers.
Religion Is Right: Although The Church of Mithra is a Physical Religion, this is addressed in a much deeper philosophical manner.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Averted as reptiles are seen as equal to other animals.
Robot Religion: As time progresses the AI become the dominant priests in the human-created church of Mithra.
Royal Inbreeding: Of the Noble Gases.
Sacred Language: English becomes this in the space age.
Sacred Scripture: The Gaiad itself is this in universe.
Satanic Archetype: Hilluhengweh, Hillu is less anthropomorphic, and Hengweh is more like the traditional devil who makes deals with people.
Satisfied Street Rat: The Silicon Prophet after his Vision Quest.
Saintly Church: The Church of Mithra.
Same Surname Means Related: Surnames are very consistent, almost always coming from a common ancestor.
Scavengers Are Scum: Occurs commonly in universe with scavengers being seen as untouchables, defied with the holiday dedicated to stopping this idea.
Science Fantasy
Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Defied aggressively.
Seldom-Seen Species: Countless such species are present in genealogies.
Shy Shelled Animal: Averted with many animals that are shelled being treated as hardheaded instead.
Slaying Mantis: Happens with Mantius and the mantises.
Sliding Scale of Animal Cast: Starts at level 1, then once humans evolve goes to level 6, goes to level 8 during the rest of the story.
Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: Level 10, Up to Eleven as plants, microorganisms and even inanimate objects also speak, there is no masquerade and Humans Are Cthulu.
Small Taxonomy Pools: Completely averted with extensive genealogies of organisms.
Snakes Are Sinister: Occurs in the story of Adam, but averted throughout the entire story.
Snake People: The way that snakes are depicted in art.
Solar Punk: The aesthetic of the entire series, although the space elements make it arguably Star Punk instead.
Species Surname: Happens frequently as patronymics.
Talking Animal: All animals and even plants talk freely to humans and to Elohim.
Tangled Family Tree: Much of the story as it is a Generational Saga of all characters.
Teenage Waste Land: The Silicon Prophet leads humanity through a lighter example of this after the rule of Hengweh ends.
Theotech: Has some influence from the genre.
The Horde: Occurs with Locusts under the great Khan.
The Singularity: Occurs many times throughout the story.
The Swarm: Occurs with Locusts, but they are treated more like The Horde.
Thousand-Year Reign: The work itself is saying this for its values and system.
Top God: Mithra who is the King of the Gods and often referred to as simply "God".
Transhumans in Space: The goal of the transhuman movement, and the last third of the story.
Transhuman Aliens: Many of the aliens.
Transhuman Treachery: Invoked by the Nietzscheans.
Twin Cest: Yin and Yang.
Tyrant Takes the Helm: Hengweh during the oxygen crisis, taking over as president of the Gods from Mithra.
Turbulent Priest: The Silicon Prophet attempts this.
Universal Chaplain: The Silicon Prophet attempts this.
Unreliable Narrator: The Silicon Prophet.
Ultimate Life Form: The goal of Mithra.
The Undead: Most immortals act more like zombies than like the living.
Uplifted Animal: In the transhuman era they are common.
Viewers Are Geniuses
We Named the Monkey "Jack": Happens frequently in the Gaian society.
Web Serial Novel
Wildlife Commentary Spoof: Arguably the entire series has elements of this with animal stories transitioning into human stories, as a whole there is a lot of juxtaposition of various time periods.
Wholesome Crossdresser: Niobes.
Web First: The planned publishing path.
Western Zodiac: Present in the Alternative Calendar with the stars being legions of Mithra; uses Ophiuchus in a 13 sign system.
Wetware CPU: Used in the transhuman era.
We Can Rebuild Him: Happens to The Silicon Prophet after his "death".
Working for a Body Upgrade: Happens with the transhuman movement.
Xeno Fiction: Both from prehuman and posthuman perspectives.
Xenophobic Herbivore: The few herbivores like Elephants that are able to resist predation take on these traits.