History Literature / CiaphasCain

* PreInsanityReveal: One of Amberley Veil's retinue is a permanently combat-drugged lunatic named Simeon who flinches every time he sees Cain's commissar uniform. When Cain asks what his deal is, she tells him he was in a PenalLegion, snapped under pressure and started executing men for failing to salute a superior officer... while on the receiving end of an artillery barrage. Cain nods sympathetically, but notes that preventing that sort of breakdown is why they have commissars in the first place. [[spoiler:Veil then says Simeon ''was'' the commissar.]]

** In ''The Greater Good'', when the Mechanicus finally comes clean about their Genestealer breeding/research program, one character at the conference points out that all the original implantees were male. [[spoiler:Female prisoners scheduled for conversion to servitors were turned over to the implanted men so more hybrids could be produced, it's implied via rape.]] Though uncomfortable at the measures taken to study the Genestealers none of the Imperials at the table have any real problem with this [[spoiler:although a visiting T'au diplomat is clearly appalled. He's even more horrified when he admits that the gain might be worth the horrible cost, only to learn the AdMechs don't care at all about the people and only think of their output]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In ''The Emperor's Finest'', the assembled military leaders of the Serendipita system discuss possible threats related to the joint Astartes/Mechanicus expedition to a genestealer-infested space hulk taking place in their space. They agree that the Astartes themselves are probably safe, but a.) the Mechanicus tend to be ''way'' too crazy about the prospect of archeotech to take proper precautions, and b.) the Astartes salvage crew also includes a large number of chapter serfs which are entirely human. ''The Greater Good'', set 60 years later, reveals that they were right to be worried on both counts.

* FunWithAcronyms: One of Amberley's footnotes explains the slang term "fungs" as a phonetic pronunciation of [=FNGs=], or [[NewMeat "Frakking New Guys"]]. She then says that Cain told her that the Guard uses a lot of [=TLAs=] like that. [=TLAs=] meaning "Three Letter Abbreviations", which, she's ''almost'' certain he was pulling her leg... ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-letter_acronym He wasn't.]])

** [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush Governor Merkin W. Pismire the younger's]] address.

** ''The Last Ditch'' makes fun of the Tyranid Pyrovore aka ''the'' worst unit in the game. To wit, Cain takes out a huge Tyranid swarm by killing the pyrovores instead.
* TakingTheBullet: In ''Echoes of the Tomb'' Magos Killian, shoves Cain out of the way of a Necron Gauss Rifle. Cain has to watch as the Magos vaporized, while clutching his hand that lost two fingers.

* TanksButNoTanks: In ''Duty Calls'', A news report claims Cain used a tank to stop what was essentially the Hindenburg carrying an awful lot of promethium from crashing into a city. In reality, he used a Chimera (an APC). However, the Chimera's multi-role design and the Imperial Guard using slight variants on the same chassis for every common tracked vehicle in their arsenal muddies the issue a bit. In the game an APC is considered a tank, which gives them the very ability he used.

* ''[[http://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/dead-in-the-water-mp3.html Dead in the Water]]'' (2011): While on a mission to reconquer a Feral World lost to the Imperium during the Heresy, Cain is sent on a mission to find a missing patrol and investigate reports of unusually well-armed rebels. While on it, he stumbles on a secret about the world of Achipelaga he would rather have left lost to the ages...

* EmergencyPresidentialAddress: Played with, as the governor's speech [[EpicFail is a complete failure]] ([[IsThisThingOn and not even rehearsed]]; he seemed under the impression it ''was'' the rehearsal), demonstrating just how out-of-it the governor is (and with a name like Merkin [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush W. Pismire the Younger]], take a wild guess [[TakeThat who he's supposed to be...]]).

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: This is a plot point in ''The Last Stand''. The book's BigBad is an extremely powerful psyker who can overwrite your mind and turn you to Chaos just by looking at you. He even has a retinue of ''Sisters of Battle'' that he corrupted in this manner.

* HeroesWantRedheads: Averted. Cain tells [[spoiler:Emeli]] that he prefers blondes [[spoiler:before he shoots her]], and later falls for the blonde Amberley. He does admit that he finds Colonel Kasteen, the red-haired colonel of the Valhallan 597th, to be quite attractive, but never follows up on it because of how that would complicate their working relationship. Finally, in ''The Traitor's Hand'', Commissar Tomas Beije seems to be assuming that Cain is having an inappropriate relationship with Corporal Magot, who is also a redhead. He's very wrong; Magot's [[PsychoLesbian "preferences ran in an entirely different direction"]], and Cain "only has room for one lethally dangerous woman in [his] life."
-->'''Amberley''' (in footnote): [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Which I choose to take as a compliment...]]

* AnachronicOrder: The first three books are in chronological order, the fourth is a prequel, the fifth takes place between books two and three, the sixth takes place in the [=WH40K=] universe's "present day" long after the events of the rest (although the last three all focus on his part in a single larger story), the seventh takes place between book four and book one, and the eighth (which notably involves his second campaign on a specific world when the story of his first trip there has yet to be published) takes place after the third, but still half a century before the sixth, the ninth taking place less than a decade before the sixth and the tenth taking place several years after the eighth. The short stories are in equally random order, with two taking place before book four (Including Cain's first act of alleged heroism), one taking place somewhere between books four and seven, one taking place immediately before book seven, and one taking place roughly a decade before book six, and several that have so few reference points that one cannot reliably tell what decade they took place in. In-story, the Cain Archive Amberley is editing the stories from is described by her as "consisting merely of a single dataslate, stuffed full of files arranged with a cavalier disregard for chronology, and to no scheme of indexing that I've been able to determine despite prolonged examination of the contents." (For example, in ''The Emperor's Finest'', Amberley notes that Cain had not yet written about the immediately preceding events, chronicled in the short story ''Echoes of the Tomb'', which Mitchell wrote seven years earlier.) Also, the editing and release of Cain's memoirs is done at Vail's sole discretion, such as expanding upon {{Plot Hole}}s in previous books (''Duty Calls'' was used to resolve a dangling plotline in ''Death or Glory''). If the novels are divided into groups of three (which the Omnibus editions do) each trilogy is in chronological order, with each of the latter two following Cain's (often peripheral) involvement in a single larger plot.

* BuxomBeautyStandard: Evidently, the ''Warhammer 40000'' universe as told by Sandy Mitchell. Considering the main game has few women that aren't {{evil|IsSexy}}, [[{{Squick}} monstrous]] {{succubi|AndIncubi}}, or generally ([[FormFittingWardrobe facially]]) unattractive [[KnightTemplar nuns]], some might gain a new appreciation for the setting after reading his novels.

** Colonel Kasteen doesn't take crap from anyone, but is especially short with [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Obstructive Bureaucrats]]:

-->"Commissar Donal sends his regards."

** Colonel Kasteen doesn't take crap from anyone, but is especially short with ObstructiveBureaucrats;

* HideYourLesbians: Cain is fully aware that Magot and Grifen are lesbians, but occasionally goes considerably out of his way to not notice they're a couple. It's possible he does so the maintain PlausibleDeniability to avoid [[InappropriatelyCloseComrades having to break them up]], as he does much the same thing for a heterosexual couple in the 597th as well.

* HideYourLesbians: Cain is fully aware that Magot and Grifen are lesbians, but occasionally goes considerably out of his way to not notice they're a couple.

** In ''The Greater Good'', when the Mechanicus finally comes clean about their Genestealer breeding/research program, one character at the conference points out that all the original implantees were male. [[spoiler:Female prisoners scheduled for conversion to servitors were turned over to the implanted men so more hybrids could be produced, it's implied via rape.]] Though uncomfortable at the measures taken to study the Genestealers none of the Imperials at the table have any real problem with this [[spoiler:although a visiting T'au diplomat is clearly appalled]].

* LovingDetails: see LoveAtFirstSight.

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* ''The Omnibus'': Contains all the short stories from "Fight or Flight" to "The Three Questions".