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* GoingNative: The Human writer and poet Christopher Holm in ''People of the Wind.''
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* GoingNative: The Human writer and poet Christopher Holm in ''People of the Wind.'''' A number of humans and Ythrians on Avalon have gone native with each other.
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* WarriorPoet: Avalonians in general, especially Ythrians.
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**Subverted with Ythrians. They have the CloserToEarth and the HonorBeforeReason down. However they are a technically advanced race. They are called "uncivilized" in the original sense of not being urbanized, but are not uncivilized in any other sense.
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* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The Terran Empire is founded by a crew of [[RagtagBandOfMisfits desperate slaves]] captured by aliens raiding Terra. They first take over the ship in a mutiny. Then instead of fleeing home they visit the alien's planet to drop a nuke on them. Then they go back and organize an army of humans and found the Terran Empire to get even and make sure they will NeverBeHurtAgain.
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* MeaningfulName: The [[FounderOfTheKingdom founder]] of a planet settled partly by humans and partly by the [[BirdPeople winged, carnivorous, Ythrians]] is named David ''Falkayn.''
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* Planetville: Averted. Planets have highly developed cultures with their own local politics and factionalism.
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* Planetville: {{Planetville}}: Averted. Planets have highly developed cultures with their own local politics and factionalism.
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* PlanetOfOneCity: Averted. Planets have highly developed cultures with their own local politics and factionalism.
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* PlanetOfOneCity: Planetville: Averted. Planets have highly developed cultures with their own local politics and factionalism.
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* HumansThroughAlienEyes: The Earthbook of Stormgate which is supposedly a Ythrian record of the deeds of Van Rjn and Falkayn. Played with in that one of the chief writers is a human who has GoneNative.
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* HumansThroughAlienEyes: The Earthbook of Stormgate which is supposedly a Ythrian record of the deeds of Van Rjn and Falkayn. Played with in that one of the chief writers is a human who has [[GoingNative GoneNative.]]
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* GoingNative: The Human writer and poet Christopher Holm in ''People of the Wind.
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* GoingNative: The Human writer and poet Christopher Holm in ''People of the Wind.''
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* GoneNative: The Human writer and poet Christopher Holm in ''People of the Wind.
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* GoneNative: GoingNative: The Human writer and poet Christopher Holm in ''People of the Wind.
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* CoolVersusAwesome: The Terran Empire vs Avalon in ''People of the Wind''.
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* TheEpic: ZigZaged. While the whole history could be considered an epic and some individual stories can, others have more of a pulp-literature feel.
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* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Several
**The 'Tinerents on Aeneas are recognizably similar to Roma, to the point of having totem pets, much like the way Roma once had hunting hounds as the symbol of a chief(although in the case of the 'Tinerents, the "pets" turn out to be less innocuous).
**The 'Tinerents on Aeneas are recognizably similar to Roma, to the point of having totem pets, much like the way Roma once had hunting hounds as the symbol of a chief(although in the case of the 'Tinerents, the "pets" turn out to be less innocuous).
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* FounderOfTheKingdom: David Falkayn retires from his life as an IntrepidMerchant to lead the Ythrian-Human colony of Avalon.
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* PlanetOfOneCity: Averted. Planets have highly developed cultures with their own local politics and factionalism.
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* SpaceCossacks: Avalon is settled because of the decay of the Polesotechnic League.
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* WalkingTheEarth: The hero in ''Day of their Return'' spends his time doing this on the planet Aeneas.
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* TheClan: Notably Stormgate Choth which adopts the human writer Christopher Holm.
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* GoneNative: The Human writer and poet Christopher Holm in ''People of the Wind.
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* HumansThroughAlienEyes: The Earthbook of Stormgate which is supposedly a Ythrian record of the deeds of Van Rjn and Falkayn. Played with in that one of the chief writers is a human who has GoneNative.
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* BirdPeople: Ythrians, which are a carniverous eaglelike race. The author considered them a puzzle in how to make a winged creature capable of carrying a sentient brain and came of with the solution of an organ which pumps oxygen into their wings. Ythrians are often WarriorPoets who talk much of HonorBeforeReason(deathpride in their tongue). They live in a tribal society which governs it's affairs with a loose judicial system similar to Medieval Iceland, and they are obsessed with territory because of the needs of hunting. They divide up the planet Avalon with the human colonists the Ythrians usually getting the heights and the humans the valleys.
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* {{Expy}}: Nicholas van Rijin = [[Theatre/HenryIV Sir John Falstaff.]]
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* DidNotGetTheGirl: "The Star Plunderer" features the founding of the empire -- told by the narrator whose girlfriend left him to become empress. In "The Rebel Worlds" Dominic Flandry falls very deeply in love with Kathryn MacCormac, the wife of the rebel Admiral Hugh MacCormac, and for once in his relations with women does not want a passing affair but a lifetime together - but though far from indifferent to Flandry's charms, she remains loyal to her husband and finally goes off to share the failed rebel's exile far outside the Empire, leaving Flandry heartroken. Accidentally or not, in both of these Anderson works the name of the forever lost girl is Kathryn.
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* DidNotGetTheGirl: "The Star Plunderer" features the founding of the empire -- told by the narrator whose girlfriend left him to become empress. In "The Rebel Worlds" Dominic Flandry falls very deeply in love with Kathryn MacCormac, the wife of the rebel Admiral Hugh MacCormac, and for once in his relations with women does not want a passing affair but a lifetime together - but though far from indifferent to Flandry's charms, she remains loyal to her husband and finally goes off to share the failed rebel's exile far outside the Empire, leaving Flandry heartroken.heartbroken. Accidentally or not, in both of these Anderson works the name of the forever lost girl is Kathryn.
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* DidNotGetTheGirl: "The Star Plunderer" features the founding of the empire -- told by the narrator whose girlfriend left him to become empress. In "The Rebel Worlds" Dominic Flandry falls very deeply in love with Kathryn MacCormac, the wife of the rebel Admiral Hugh MacCormac, and for once in his relations with women does not want a passing affair but a lifetime together - but though far from indifferent to Flandry's charms, she remains loyal to her husband and finally goes off to share the failed rebel's exile far outside the Empire, leaving Flandry heartbroken. Accidentally or not, in both of these Anderson works the name of the forever lost girl is Kathryn.
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* DidNotGetTheGirl: "The Star Plunderer" features the founding of the empire -- told by the narrator whose girlfriend left him to become empress. In "The Rebel Worlds" Dominic Flandry falls very deeply in love with Kathryn MacCormac, the wife of the rebel Admiral Hugh MacCormac, and for once in his relations with women does not want a passing affair but a lifetime together - but though far from indifferent to Flandry's charms, she remains loyal to her husband and finally goes off to share the failed rebel's exile far outside the Empire, leaving Flandry heartbroken.heartroken. Accidentally or not, in both of these Anderson works the name of the forever lost girl is Kathryn.
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* DidNotGetTheGirl: "The Star Plunderer" features the founding of the empire -- told by the narrator whose girlfriend left him to become empress. In "The Rebel Worlds" Dominic Flandry falls very deeply in love with Kathryn MacCormac, the wife of the rebel Admiral Hugh MacCormac, and for once in his relations with women does not want a passing affair but a lifetime together - but though far from indifferent to Flandry's charms, she remains loyal to her husband and finally goes off to share the failed rebel's exile far outside the Empire, leaving Flandry heartroken. Accidentally or not, in both of these Anderson works the name of the forever lost girl is Kathryn.
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* DidNotGetTheGirl: "The Star Plunderer" features the founding of the empire -- told by the narrator whose girlfriend left him to become empress. In "The Rebel Worlds" Dominic Flandry falls very deeply in love with Kathryn MacCormac, the wife of the rebel Admiral Hugh MacCormac, and for once in his relations with women does not want a passing affair but a lifetime together - but though far from indifferent to Flandry's charms, she remains loyal to her husband and finally goes off to share the failed rebel's exile far outside the Empire, leaving Flandry heartroken.heartbroken. Accidentally or not, in both of these Anderson works the name of the forever lost girl is Kathryn.
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* DidNotGetTheGirl: "The Star Plunderer" features the founding of the empire -- told by the narrator whose girlfriend left him to become empress.
* EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes: One of the Dominic Flandry stories ended with Flandry successfully killing a Merseian agent who'd been stirring up rebellion on a Terran world. Then Flandry wondered if the agent had some children who couldn't understand why their father hadn't come home.
* EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes: One of the Dominic Flandry stories ended with Flandry successfully killing a Merseian agent who'd been stirring up rebellion on a Terran world. Then Flandry wondered if the agent had some children who couldn't understand why their father hadn't come home.
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* DidNotGetTheGirl: "The Star Plunderer" features the founding of the empire -- told by the narrator whose girlfriend left him to become empress.
empress. In "The Rebel Worlds" Dominic Flandry falls very deeply in love with Kathryn MacCormac, the wife of the rebel Admiral Hugh MacCormac, and for once in his relations with women does not want a passing affair but a lifetime together - but though far from indifferent to Flandry's charms, she remains loyal to her husband and finally goes off to share the failed rebel's exile far outside the Empire, leaving Flandry heartroken. Accidentally or not, in both of these Anderson works the name of the forever lost girl is Kathryn.
* EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes: One of the Dominic Flandry stories ended with Flandry successfully killing a Merseian agent - a giant aquatic minster able to smash a human with one blow, who was also a very intelligent and capable schemer - who'd been stirring up rebellion on a Terran world. Then Flandry wondered if the agent had some children who couldn't understand why their father hadn't come home.
* EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes: One of the Dominic Flandry stories ended with Flandry successfully killing a Merseian agent - a giant aquatic minster able to smash a human with one blow, who was also a very intelligent and capable schemer - who'd been stirring up rebellion on a Terran world. Then Flandry wondered if the agent had some children who couldn't understand why their father hadn't come home.
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* CrushBlush: In "Lodestar." van Rijn mentions Falkayn to Coya, and then teased her with being red-shifted.
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* DidNotGetTheGirl: "The Star Plunderer" features the founding of the empire -- told by the narrator whose girlfriend left him to become empress.
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*** Not really, as he is on the bar sinister side. "You see, my father walked into this sinister bar...."
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* NotAGame: used on van Rijn in "Lodestar"
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* ThePardon: Extorted in "The Man Who Counts"
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* NobleSavage: Played with with some of the aliens.
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* SpaceWestern: in the sense that a lot is about frontier development.
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* MerchantPrince: Nicholas van Rijn is the head of the Solar Spice and Liquors Company, one of the several conglomerates that make up the Polesotechnic League, an interstellar trading group more powerful than any planetary government. Van Rijn is a classic self-made man, and he is more powerful and influential than many ''actual'' princes.
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* BlueBlood: There are a lot of titled characters in the Flandry stories. He's an aristocrat himself.
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* BlueBlood: BlueBlood:
** David Falkayn in the ''Polesotechnic League'' stories is actually an aristocrat on his home world.
** There are a lot of titled characters in the Flandry stories. He's an aristocrathimself.himself.
* BoldExplorer: David Falkayn is an aristocrat who would rather be out exploring new worlds than sitting in comfort on his home planet.
** David Falkayn in the ''Polesotechnic League'' stories is actually an aristocrat on his home world.
** There are a lot of titled characters in the Flandry stories. He's an aristocrat
* BoldExplorer: David Falkayn is an aristocrat who would rather be out exploring new worlds than sitting in comfort on his home planet.
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* GuileHero: Nicolas van Rijn, very much. Large and fat--though strong and fast--he takes great joy in outthinking and outwitting his enemies.
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expand a little; mention the names of some of the novels, so people can (maybe) find them
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# The Polesotechnic League period (25th century). Most of the stories set in this period feature IntrepidMerchant Nicholas van Rijn, and/or his protege David Falkayn.
# The Terran Empire period (31st century). Most of the stories set in this period feature Imperial Intelligence agent Dominic Flandry.
# The Terran Empire period (31st century). Most of the stories set in this period feature Imperial Intelligence agent Dominic Flandry.
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Most of the stories set in this period feature IntrepidMerchant Nicholas van Rijn, and/or his protege David
#
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!!! The Terran Empire period (31st
Most of the stories set in this period feature Imperial Intelligence agent Dominic
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Most of the Technic History stories have been re-released in {{omnibus}} editions.
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moved to namespace
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The Technic History is a SpaceOpera setting featured in many short stories and novels written by Creator/PoulAnderson from the 1950s through to the 1980s.
It spans many centuries of future history, but most of the stories are set in one of two periods:
# The Polesotechnic League period (25th century). Most of the stories set in this period feature IntrepidMerchant Nicholas van Rijn, and/or his protege David Falkayn.
# The Terran Empire period (31st century). Most of the stories set in this period feature Imperial Intelligence agent Dominic Flandry.
Not to be confused with Anderson's Psychotechnic League series, an entirely separate future history deliberately named in a parallel fashion.
!!The Technic History provides examples of:
* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Dominic Flandry is kidnapped by an alien race, who assert that they are far more civilized than the Terran Empire, as they would never betray an oath or otherwise be dishonest (except to other, lesser, races, like humans). He soon has the entire leadership of the planet backstabbing each other, noting that their refusal to admit that they, too, can betray each other if the price is right, is what enabled him to succeed in destroying them.
* BittersweetEnding: Lots. Especially the Dominic Flandry stories; Flandry succeeds, but [[CartwrightCurse loses any woman he truly loves]], feels guilt at hurting the feelings of the others, and in one story is troubled by the contrast between several honest, decent rebels, who are ''at best'' going to be locked up for the rest of their lives, and the decadent, despicable Emperor. The prequel novel had a back-cover blurb which summed up:
-->Though through this and his succeeding adventures he will struggle gloriously and win (usually) mighty victories, Dominic Flandry is essentially a tragic figure: a man who knows too much, who knows that battle, scheme, and even betray as he will, in the end it will mean nothing. For with the relentlessness of physical law the Long Night approaches. The Terran Empire is dying...
* BlueBlood: There are a lot of titled characters in the Flandry stories. He's an aristocrat himself.
* CanonWelding: The Nicholas van Rijn stories and Dominic Flandry stories weren't, originally, part of the same universe. But a bit of prodding by fans, and he wrote some bridging so that now they are.
* ChivalrousPervert: Nicholas van Rijn. If you are an attractive woman, expect to have him make constant references to your looks as well as many passes. But should danger appear, you couldn't have anyone better at your side.
* CombatPragmatist: Nicholas van Rijn frequently uses sneaky methods. On one occasion, he taunts an alien prince into biting his behind; the alien prince realizes too late that human biochemistry is toxic to his people.
* EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes: One of the Dominic Flandry stories ended with Flandry successfully killing a Merseian agent who'd been stirring up rebellion on a Terran world. Then Flandry wondered if the agent had some children who couldn't understand why their father hadn't come home.
* FeudalFuture: The Terran Empire is more recognisable as using this trope, but the late Polesotechnic league is more literally feudal.
* FloatingWater: Justified in one of the Flandry novels, with an artificial zero-g environment.
* GoodIsNotNice: Nicholas van Rijn from the Polesotechnic League novels is a greedy, sloppy, cynical, womanizing corporate executive. He also constantly saves his employees from death and disaster, often with an elaborate BatmanGambit that involves using evolutionary psychology to psychoanalyze whatever alien race is giving their interstellar trading company trouble. He is also merciful towards his enemies and tries to create win-win situations for them.
* HumansAreWarriors: "That race still bears the chromosomes of conquerors. There are still brave men in the Empire, devoted men, shrewd men ... with the experience of a history longer than ours to guide them. If they see doom before them, they'll fight like demons."
* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The Dominic Flandry series has many examples of "barbarians" -- primitive alien species given spaceships and high-tech weaponry by more a advanced civilization, generally for use as expendable mercenaries and deniable proxies.
* IntrepidMerchant: Nicholas van Rijn, and his protege David Falkayn.
* ItIsBeyondSaving: Dominic Flandry has noted that he's just doing his best to stave off the inevitable collapse of the Empire.
* TheJeeves: Dominic Flandry's valet, Chives.
* KlingonsLoveShakespeare: The alien Adzel (who looks like a large centauroid dragon) is a Buddhist (which naturally he learned about from humans). He spent some time on Earth studying human culture.
* LastOfHisKind: The character [[spoiler:Aycharaych, recurring archvillain of the Dominic Flandry stories, is the last survivor of his long-lived, telepathic species]]. But he keeps it a secret for a long time.
* MixedMetaphor: Nicholas van Rijn, along with [[{{Malaproper}} malapropisms]], often mixed metaphors. Particularly appealing was his reference to forcefully seeking something he wanted "like a bulldozer going after a cowdozer."
* PatronSaint: Nicholas van Rijn swears by Saint Dismas (the Good Thief, appropriately), and has expressed the intention of burning candles in offering (to which another character responded "The Saint had best get it in writing").
* PlanetTerra: The Dominic Flandry stories refer to Terra and the Terran Empire.
* SpaceOpera
* SpiceOfLife: Nicholas van Rijn, something of a throwback to the spice traders of the Dutch East India days, is president of the Solar Spice And Liquors Company.
* StandardSciFiHistory: With an emphasis on Step 3, "Interstellar exploration and colonization", and Step 5.3, "Decline and Fall of the Empire".
* StoutStrength: Nicholas van Rijn.
* TalkingYourWayOut: Dominic Flandry. Kidnapped by an alien race, who just assumes he is a decadent worthless low level agent, he soon has the entire leadership of the planet backstabbing each other.
* WholePlotReference: ''The Game of Empire'' is, as aknowledged in the Author's Note, a {{Gender Flip}}ped, [[RecycledInSpace space opera version]] of ''{{Kim}}''.
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It spans many centuries of future history, but most of the stories are set in one of two periods:
# The Polesotechnic League period (25th century). Most of the stories set in this period feature IntrepidMerchant Nicholas van Rijn, and/or his protege David Falkayn.
# The Terran Empire period (31st century). Most of the stories set in this period feature Imperial Intelligence agent Dominic Flandry.
Not to be confused with Anderson's Psychotechnic League series, an entirely separate future history deliberately named in a parallel fashion.
!!The Technic History provides examples of:
* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Dominic Flandry is kidnapped by an alien race, who assert that they are far more civilized than the Terran Empire, as they would never betray an oath or otherwise be dishonest (except to other, lesser, races, like humans). He soon has the entire leadership of the planet backstabbing each other, noting that their refusal to admit that they, too, can betray each other if the price is right, is what enabled him to succeed in destroying them.
* BittersweetEnding: Lots. Especially the Dominic Flandry stories; Flandry succeeds, but [[CartwrightCurse loses any woman he truly loves]], feels guilt at hurting the feelings of the others, and in one story is troubled by the contrast between several honest, decent rebels, who are ''at best'' going to be locked up for the rest of their lives, and the decadent, despicable Emperor. The prequel novel had a back-cover blurb which summed up:
-->Though through this and his succeeding adventures he will struggle gloriously and win (usually) mighty victories, Dominic Flandry is essentially a tragic figure: a man who knows too much, who knows that battle, scheme, and even betray as he will, in the end it will mean nothing. For with the relentlessness of physical law the Long Night approaches. The Terran Empire is dying...
* BlueBlood: There are a lot of titled characters in the Flandry stories. He's an aristocrat himself.
* CanonWelding: The Nicholas van Rijn stories and Dominic Flandry stories weren't, originally, part of the same universe. But a bit of prodding by fans, and he wrote some bridging so that now they are.
* ChivalrousPervert: Nicholas van Rijn. If you are an attractive woman, expect to have him make constant references to your looks as well as many passes. But should danger appear, you couldn't have anyone better at your side.
* CombatPragmatist: Nicholas van Rijn frequently uses sneaky methods. On one occasion, he taunts an alien prince into biting his behind; the alien prince realizes too late that human biochemistry is toxic to his people.
* EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes: One of the Dominic Flandry stories ended with Flandry successfully killing a Merseian agent who'd been stirring up rebellion on a Terran world. Then Flandry wondered if the agent had some children who couldn't understand why their father hadn't come home.
* FeudalFuture: The Terran Empire is more recognisable as using this trope, but the late Polesotechnic league is more literally feudal.
* FloatingWater: Justified in one of the Flandry novels, with an artificial zero-g environment.
* GoodIsNotNice: Nicholas van Rijn from the Polesotechnic League novels is a greedy, sloppy, cynical, womanizing corporate executive. He also constantly saves his employees from death and disaster, often with an elaborate BatmanGambit that involves using evolutionary psychology to psychoanalyze whatever alien race is giving their interstellar trading company trouble. He is also merciful towards his enemies and tries to create win-win situations for them.
* HumansAreWarriors: "That race still bears the chromosomes of conquerors. There are still brave men in the Empire, devoted men, shrewd men ... with the experience of a history longer than ours to guide them. If they see doom before them, they'll fight like demons."
* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: The Dominic Flandry series has many examples of "barbarians" -- primitive alien species given spaceships and high-tech weaponry by more a advanced civilization, generally for use as expendable mercenaries and deniable proxies.
* IntrepidMerchant: Nicholas van Rijn, and his protege David Falkayn.
* ItIsBeyondSaving: Dominic Flandry has noted that he's just doing his best to stave off the inevitable collapse of the Empire.
* TheJeeves: Dominic Flandry's valet, Chives.
* KlingonsLoveShakespeare: The alien Adzel (who looks like a large centauroid dragon) is a Buddhist (which naturally he learned about from humans). He spent some time on Earth studying human culture.
* LastOfHisKind: The character [[spoiler:Aycharaych, recurring archvillain of the Dominic Flandry stories, is the last survivor of his long-lived, telepathic species]]. But he keeps it a secret for a long time.
* MixedMetaphor: Nicholas van Rijn, along with [[{{Malaproper}} malapropisms]], often mixed metaphors. Particularly appealing was his reference to forcefully seeking something he wanted "like a bulldozer going after a cowdozer."
* PatronSaint: Nicholas van Rijn swears by Saint Dismas (the Good Thief, appropriately), and has expressed the intention of burning candles in offering (to which another character responded "The Saint had best get it in writing").
* PlanetTerra: The Dominic Flandry stories refer to Terra and the Terran Empire.
* SpaceOpera
* SpiceOfLife: Nicholas van Rijn, something of a throwback to the spice traders of the Dutch East India days, is president of the Solar Spice And Liquors Company.
* StandardSciFiHistory: With an emphasis on Step 3, "Interstellar exploration and colonization", and Step 5.3, "Decline and Fall of the Empire".
* StoutStrength: Nicholas van Rijn.
* TalkingYourWayOut: Dominic Flandry. Kidnapped by an alien race, who just assumes he is a decadent worthless low level agent, he soon has the entire leadership of the planet backstabbing each other.
* WholePlotReference: ''The Game of Empire'' is, as aknowledged in the Author's Note, a {{Gender Flip}}ped, [[RecycledInSpace space opera version]] of ''{{Kim}}''.
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