History Literature / TheLordsOfCreation

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: The City That Is A Mountain is ''made'' of this trope.

Not to be confused with ''Lords of Creation'', a very weird [[TabletopGames role-playing game]] published in the mid-Eighties.

* ArchaeologicalArmsRace: This trope is name dropped when discussing the United states interest in the architectural ruins of mars.

* AdventurerArchaeologist: Lampshaded and played straight in ''The Courts of the Crimson Kings'' with earthling protagonist Jeremy Wainman.

* AllAnimalsAreDomesticated: DoubleSubverted The others are not happy about Marc Vitrac raising a great wolf pup as a pet, thinking it will turn on him when it grows up. However Marc is well aware of the history of domestication and has owned dogs before and knows how to break one to bridle.
** Decobstructed with Martian fauna where the GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke means that the surviving animals on the DeathWorld are more dangerous then they would be otherwise. Standout examples are feral engines and toolusing dinosaurs that are descended from hunting dogs.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Neanderthals of Venus are presented as undiluted vile and filthy creatures.
** Though they're only seen from the viewpoints of their enemies and/or victims.
** At one point a group of Neanderthals give their lives so the women and children can escape, and the main characters reflect that they might have misjudged them.

* AncientAstronauts: The titular Lords of Creation have been mocking about in the Sol System for thousands if not millions of years.
* ArtisticLicensePaleontology:
** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Lords of Creation]] seeded Venus with Earthly lifeforms two hundred million years ago, and have been coming back and adding new batches of Earthly life roughly every two million years since then, including human specimens only a few thousand years ago; with no mass extinction on Venus, dinosaurs coexist semi-peacefully with critters from every era since. The harsher Martian climate, coupled with extensive bioengineering, averts this.
** [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] InUniverse near the beginning of ''The Sky People'', when an actual palaeontologist examines some fossils (and the surrounding rock) and realizes that what she's seeing isn't possible.
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: the Invisible Crown of the Tollamune Emperors supplies its ''own'' awesomeness, but the official ceremony is pretty darn impressive.

* [[strike:Bamboo]] [[BambooTechnology Shamboo Technology]]: Space travel is EXPENSIVE, which means the Venusian colonists have to make do with bronze age materials for their equipment wherever they can.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: [[JustifiedTrope Justified,]] The combination of lower gravity and higher oxygen pressure on Venus allows insects to grow to the size of Chihuahuas.
* BiotechIsBetter: {{Discussed}}, given how resource poor Mars is, Biotechnology is an adequate solution and they've achieved things that Earth humans are only now learning from. Sill, it was Earthlings that developed space travel and showed up on the '''Martian''' doorstep.

* ChessMotifs: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that [[VariantChess atanj, the Martian chess-like game]] from which many a motif is drawn, is ''vastly'' more complex than mere Earthly chess. With ships, merchants, boycotters, bribes, the possibility of pieces defecting on their own, as many as eight players, and the use of dice, it's more like ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' in some ways.

* CulturalPosturing: Martians, antagonists and protagonists, are very fond of pointing out how advanced they were while Earth humans were hunter-gatherers. The problem is that they haven't moved beyond that.
* DeathWorld: Venus and Mars are this to earthlings. They don't all die and the native humans have adapted somewhat but EverythingTryingToKillYou is in full effect.
* DarkSkinnedBlonde: Teesa and the rest of the Cloud Mountain People have olive skin and light blonde hair. The Venusians of Kartahown and its surroundings are mostly dark-haired, but some are either this or DarkSkinnedRedhead.
* DeadlyDecadentCourt: The City That Is A Mountain is ''made'' of this trope.
* DesertPlanet: PlayedWith, as Mars is much colder and drier than Earth but the people have adapted to it and there are several varieties of cold and dry.
* DesertPunk: Mars combines this with BioPunk.
* DomesticatedDinosaurs: With a liberal dose of {{Cyborg}} thanks to NeuralImplanting. It's routine to the point that a non-specialist can carry out the operation.
* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Oh yes, the StockDinosaurs have survived and differentiated into much larger species thanks to the low gravity and high oxygen.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin / NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Two pirate vessels in ''Crimson Kings'' are called "Robbery With Armed Violence" and "Insensately Vicious Plunderer".
* ExoticEquipment: It's mentioned that the [[ActionGirl Teyud]] and [[AdventurerArchaeologist Jeremy]] have physical differences that they need to work around, which only tests their inventiveness. The Martian scientist who examines him later seems rather squicked out by these differences though.
* {{Fartillery}}: The methane-powered living rifles of the Martians probably count; things like this are expected when you base your ordinance off of biotech.
* FrazettaMan: The Wergu, which are [[AllCavemenWereNeanderthals Neanderthals]] by all appearances.
* GivingRadioToTheRomans: The Venusians get bows and arrows, plus steel-smelting technology from the humans. {{Discussed}} as there's some concern about exactly where this is going to lead. Some of the native priest cast don't like it, and sic a mob on some humans who are caught photographing a sacred site.
* GunsVsSwords: Lampshaded in the prologue of the first book. The first pictures from Mars show the inhabitants are armed with firearms and swords. Some speculate that it's due to a code of honor, but it's pointed out that it would give the cheaters too much of an advantage. It turns out Martians use biotechnology guns that are slow to reload, so they need to [[TheMusketeer have a backup weapon handy in the interim]].

* HumanChess: ''Atanj'', the Martian version, see above.

* IKEAErotica: Happens due to the nature of the Martian language. ''"I request more energetic intromission, emphatic tense!"'' is the closest you can get to talking dirty.

* JungleOpera: The entirity of the Venus book is a send up to this genre as it is others.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: All the science fiction writers gathered to watch the Mars probe images in the second novel's prologue.
** A justified example: ''New Frontier'' is this universe's version of ''Franchise/StarTrek'', and is fundamentally somewhat different due to differences in world culture, but is [[TropeMaker every]] [[TropeCodifier bit]] [[FountainOfMemes as]] [[TropeOverdosed influential]] as it is in our world.

* LostWorld: The ''entire planet'' of Venus.
* UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}: Explicitly still "our" Mars, though with more water imported by the Precursors. Things like gravity and the damage the sun can do to you still apply, as does the orbital period for working out people's ages.
* MarsWantsChocolate: {{Inverted}}; martian spices are one of the reasons NASA still has funding for their missions.
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Christopher Blair]].
* TheNativeRival: Downplayed as the native is the younger brother of the female protagonists mate. His death means the younger brother moves up in position. Then the earth protagonist arrives and his position is threatened. He does end up hooking up with a female from earth though.

* NubileSavage: Teesa of the Cloud Mountain People.
* OnceGreenMars: PlayedWith, as are so many tropes. There used to be much more ecological diversity on Mars, but the Lords of Creation failed to check in and it slowly became the desert that it is now.
** A lot of the brown color comes from the grass that is one of the reasons for the main reasons for the continued breathable atmosphere. It's a bedrock for the planet's entire ecology.
* OrganicTechnology: Deconstructed. Martians rely on this, in the absence of major metal and fossil fuel resources. Almost all technology more complicated than a sword is biological, to a very high level, with living guns (recharging after firing takes time, which is [[ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge why swords are not obsolete]]), living engines to supplement the sailpower of desert-crossing wheeled ships, rugs that crawl onto your feet to warm them, giant creatures that eat rocks and [[BowelBreakingBricks vomit road-paving material]]. However, Stirling points out that it requires food and oxygen, as well as being less durable than metal. It is useful enough that some of it has been imported by Earth.
* OurBetterIsDifferent: For Martians people strive to achieve Harmony, which is where everyone is subservient and answerable to the authority of the Crimson Throne and there is no banditry or wastefulness.
** This is hard for the Western block humans to wrap their heads around but easier for eastern block humans.

* PositionOfLiteralPower: {{Justified}} as the leaders of non earth planets have their authority typed to ancient machinery that recognizes them as on site administrators to the systems.

* RoyalBlood: {{Justified}} by the Invisible Crown and the Ruby Throne, which scan your DNA and ''kill'' you if you don't have the Tollamune genome. Given that the instrumentalities of both are vital to keeping Mars viable in the long term, the Tollamunes themselves have come to regret the system.
** Venus has a similar if more diffuse system.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Martian Demotic is an extremely precise, detailed, and ''blunt'' language.

* SpareToTheThrone: {{Enforced}} Mars court politics is such that courtiers want the stagnation to continue over a new and vital monarch, additionally as the Genome must be kept "pure" any possible half bloods are usually aborted. Also having an heir before your a hundred is seen as being unconfident of your position.
** Teyud's mother went through hell and high water to ensure she was born.
* SpiceOfLife: The martian language does not distinguish between spices and what terrans would call 'hard drugs'.
* StatuesqueStunner: Common among high caste female Martians. Anyone under six feet is treated with scorn.
* StockDinosaurs: The species that flourished on Venus happen to be all the popular ones, like triceratops.
* StonePunk: Venus's Hat, being transplanted into a plant full of giant man-eating monsters can't do much for technological development.
* Swashbuckler: Mars has quite a few of these
* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: A [[PlanetOfHats hat]] of the Martians thanks to the grammar of Demotic.
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: UpToEleven in Martian Demotic. A human Eastern-bloc ambassador nearly suffers a nasty fate when he refers to their "fraternal aid" to the Martian Emperor, implying a blood relationship where none exists.

* UniversalTranslator: Deconstructed, the NeuralImplanting used to break through the language barrier could have driven the target haplessly mad if it had gone wrong. Mark is not happy when he finds out.
* UsefulNotes/{{Venus}}: Like Mars, it has all the basic features of the actual Venus, up until about two hundred million years ago.
* VenusIsWet: PlayedWith, the entire planet is covered in jungles, but there are different types of jungles along with flood plains and mountains and more.
* VerticalKidnapping: [[OhCrap "'''FERAL ENGINES!'''"]]
* VestigialEmpire: The Tollamune emperors once ruled all of Mars. By the time of the story they are reduced to ruling the territory around their capital at Olympus Mons, where all the old court officials and functionaries continue, though largely without actual functions.

* Fartillery: The methane-powered living rifles of the Martians probably count, things like this are expected when you base your ordinance off of biotech.

* GivingRadioToTheRomans: The Venusians get bows and arrows, plus steel-smelting technology from the humans. {{Discussed}} as there's some concern about exactly where this is going to lead. Some of the native priest cast don't like it.
* GunsVsSwords: Lampshaded in the prologue of the first book. The first pictures from Mars show the inhabitants are armed with firearms and swords. Some speculate that it's due to a code of honor, but it's pointed out that it would give the cheaters too much of an advantage. It turns out Martians use biotechnology guns that are slow to reload, so they need to have a backup weapon handy in the interim.

* DeathWorld: Venus Mars are this to earthlings, they don't die and the native humans have adapted somewhat but EverythingTryingToKillYou is in full effect.

* DesertPlanet: PlayedWith, Mars is much colder and drier than earth but the people have adapted to it and there are several varieties of cold and dry.
* DesertPunk: Mars combines this with BioPunk
* DomesticatedDinosaurs: With a liberal dose of {{Cyborg}} thanks to NeuralImplanting. It's routine to the point that a non-specialist can carry out the operation

* AliensNeverInventedDemocracy: Downplayed as the "aliens" are all human transplants, but earth is the only planet with any form of democracy. Mars has a centuries old stagnant monarchy and Venus is just clawing it's way out of tribalism.

* BiotechIsBetter: Discussed, given how resource poor Mars is, Biotechnology is an adequate solution and they've achieved things that Earth humans are only now learning from. Sill, it was Earthlings that developed space travel and showed up on the '''Martian''' doorstep.

* GivingRadioToTheRomans: The Venusians get bows and arrows, plus steel-smelting technology from the humans. There's some concern about exactly where this is going to lead.

* RoyalBlood: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the Invisible Crown and the Ruby Throne, which scan your DNA and ''kill'' you if you don't have the Tollamune genome. Given that the instrumentalities of both are vital to keeping Mars viable in the long term, the Tollamunes themselves have come to regret the system.

* VerticalKidnapping: [[OhCrap "FERAL ENGINES!"]]

But once contact has been made and permanent scientific studies begin, oddities begin to creep up. For one thing, the humans of Venus are entirely ''too'' human to be a product of parallel evolution -- a conclusion reinforced by the simultaneous discoveries that some tribes speak a language clearly descended from Indo-European, and that only two hundred million years ago the planet was an uninhabitable acid-veiled hothouse, becoming Earthlike practically in the blink of an eye as far as the cosmic timescale goes.

* AllAnimalsAreDomesticated: DoubleSubverted The others are not happy about Marc Vitrac raising a greatwolf pup as a pet, thinking it will turn on him when it grows up. However Marc is well aware of the history of domestication and has owned dogs before and knows how to break one to bridle.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Neanderthals of Venus are presented as undilutedly vile and filthy creatures.

* BigCreepyCrawlies: [[JustifiedTrope The combination of lower gravity and higher oxygen pressure on Venus allows insects to grow to the size of Chihuahuas.]]
* BiotechIsBetter: Discussed, given how resource poor Mars is Biotechnology is an adequate solution and they've achieved things that Earth humans are only now learning from. Sill, it was Earthlings that developed space travel and showed up on the '''Martian''' doorstep.
* ChessMotifs: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that [[VariantChess atanj, the Martian chesslike game]] from which many a motif is drawn, is ''vastly'' more complex than mere Earthly chess. With ships, merchants, boycotters, bribes, the possibility of pieces defecting on their own, as many as eight players, and the use of dice, it's more like ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' in some ways.

* CulturalPosturing: Martians, antagonist and protagonist, are very fond of pointing out how advanced they were while Earth humans were hunter-gatherers. The problem is that they haven't moved beyond that.

* DomesticatedDinosaurs: With a liberal dose of Cyborg thanks to neural implant. It's routine to the point that a nonspecalist can carry out the operation
* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Oh yes, the StockDinosaurs has survived and differentiated into much larger species thanks to the low gravity and high oxygen.

* ExoticEquipment: t's mentioned that the [[ActionGirl Teyud]] and [[AdventurerArchaeologist Jeremy]] have physical differences that they need to work around, which only tests their inventiveness. The Martian scientist who examines him later seems rather squicked out by these differences though.

* UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}: Explicitly still "our" Mars, though with more water imported by the Precursors. Things like gravity and the damage the sun can do to you still apply, as does the orbital period for working out peoples ages.

* OnceGreenMars: PlayedWith as are so many tropes. There used to be much more ecological diversity on Mars, but the Lords of Creation failed to check in and it slowly became the desert that it is now.
** A lot of the brown color comes from the grass that is one of the reasons for the main reasons for the continued breathable atmosphere. It's a bedrock for the ecology.
* OrganicTechnology: Deconstructed. Martians rely on this, in the absence of major metal and fossil fuel resources. Almost all technology more complicated than a sword is biological, to a very high level, with living guns (recharging after firing takes time, which is [[ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge why swords are not obsolete]]), living engines to supplement the sailpower of desert-crossing wheeled ships, rugs that crawl onto your feet to warm them, giant creatures that eat rocks and [[BowelBreakingBricks vomit road-paving material]]. However, Stirling points out that it requires food and oxygen, as well as being less durable then metal. It is useful enough that some of it has been imported by Earth.

** The Moon doesn't seem to be inhabited, nor Mercury or the larger gas giant moons.

* StonePunk: the Hat of Venus

* AlternateHistory: Explored in the chapter breaks, people have suspected the mars and venus were inhabited for centuries. Worldwide the political situation on earth is less volatile after life is discovered on the other planets. bug things have moved to earth and mars.

* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: A [[PlanetOfHats hat]] of the Martians thanks to Demonic
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: UpToEleven in Martian Demonic. A human Eastern-bloc ambassador nearly suffers a nasty fate when he refers to their "fraternal aid" to the Martian Emperor, implying a blood relationship where none exists.
* TransplantedHumans: To both Venus and Mars, combined with HumanSubspecies. Given that the main Terrens are all scientists this is Discussed to Jove and back. The juries still out on the other planets in Sol.
* UsefulNotes/{{Venus}}: Like Mars it has all the basic features of the actual Venus minus the transplanted life.
* VenusIsWet: PlayedWith, the entire planet is covered in jungles, but there are diffrent types of jungles along with flood plains and mountains and more.

* PlanetaryRomance: ''lots'' the series could be called this meets RealLife
** The Moon doesn't seem to be inhabited, nor does mercury or the larger gas giant moons.

** ''[[WesternAnimation/IceAge Scrat]]'' of all rodents has a cameo on Venus, believe it or else.

* ChessMotifs: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that [[VariantChess atanj, the Martian chesslike game]] from which many a motif is drawn, is ''vastly'' more complex than mere Earthly chess. With ships, merchants, boycotters, bribes, the possibility of pieces defecting on their own, as many as eight players, and the use of dice, it's more like ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' motifs in some ways.
* CosmicHorrorStory: Downplayed but it's there, the Sol system has been the playground of an alien species. Telescopes have picked up superstructures in the Galexy, we aren't alone indeed.

* GunsVsSwords: Lampshaded in the prologue of the first book. The first pictures from Mars show the inhabitants are armed with firearms and swords. Some speculate that it's due to a code of honor, but it's pointed out that it would give the cheaters too much of an advantage. It turns out Martians use biotechnology guns that are slow to reload, so they need to have a weapon handy in the interim.
* HumansAreWhite: Nope the americans are ethnically diverse and the eastern bloc has representatives on the planets, neither of the human protagonists are white.

* HumanSubspecies: The Venusians ''are'' human, or can at least breed with Earthlings. The Martians have genetically engineered themselves to hell and gone into a FantasticCasteSystem but are still close enough to find humans attractive. There are even some Neanderthals around!
** Though most Martians see humans as a race of uncultured, gluttonous dwarves that practically ooze sweat.

* UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}: the planet is explicitly this still mars though with more water imported with by the Precursors. Things like gravity and the damage the sun can do to you still apply, as does the orbital period for working out peoples ages.

* OnceGreenMars: PlayedWith as are so many tropes. There used to be much more ecological diversity on Mars but the Lords of Creation failed to check in and it slowly became the desert that it is now.

* AdventurerArchaeologist: Lampshaded and played straight in ''The Courts of the Crimson Kings''.
* AllAnimalsAreDomesticated: The others are not happy about Marc Vitrac raising a greatwolf pup as a pet.

** [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the Lords of Creation seeded Venus with Earthly lifeforms two hundred million years ago, and have been coming back and adding new batches of Earthly life roughly every two million years since then, including human specimens only a few thousand years ago; with no mass extinction on Venus, dinosaurs coexist semi-peacefully with critters from every era since. The harsher Martian climate, coupled with extensive bioengineering, averts this.

* DesertPunk: Mars.
* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs

* FrazettaMan: the Wergu.

* HumanAliens: The Venusians ''are'' human, and the Martians have genetically engineered themselves to hell and gone but are still close enough to find humans attractive.
** Though most of them see humans as a race of uncultured, gluttonous dwarves that practically ooze sweat.

* LawyerFriendlyCameo: all the science fiction writers gathered to watch the Mars probe images in the second novel's prologue.

* UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}

* PlanetaryRomance: ''lots''.

** RodentsOfUnusualSize are found in the caverns under Olympus. Mind you, the "unusual" size is ''small''.

* SingleBiomePlanet: Averted sort of; Mars has several ''varieties'' of "cold and dry", for example.

* ThatMakesMeFeelAngry: The [[PlanetOfHats hat]] of the Martians.
* TransplantedHumans

* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld: Used by the Earthling explorers on Venus and, in slightly more fantastical airship form, by the Martians.

** Teesa's dead former mate, [[EarthsChildren Jondlar]].

* HumanAliens: the Venusians ''are'' human, and the Martians have genetically engineered themselves to hell and gone but are still close enough to find humans attractive.
** Though most of them see humans as race of uncultured, gluttonous dwarves that practically ooze sweat.

* LostWorld: the ''entire planet'' Venus.

* OrganicTechnology: Deconstructed. Martians rely on this, in the absence of major metal and fossil fuel resources. Almost all technology more complicated than a sword is biological, to a very high level, with living guns (recharging after firing takes time, which is [[ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge why swords are not obsolete]]), living engines to supplement the sailpower of desert-crossing wheeled ships, rugs that crawl onto your feet to warm them, giant creatures that eat rocks and [[BowelBreakingBricks vomit road-paving material]]. However, Stirling points out that it requires food and oxygen, as well as being less durable then metal. It is useful enough however that some of it has been imported by Earth.

As scientific observation of our nearest planetary neighbors intensifies during the early 20th century, it becomes clear that both worlds have oxy-nitrogen atmospheres much like our own. By 1948, the possibility of life on both is so strong that the Space Race kicks in early and ''keeps going'', radically altering political history from that point on as the ColdWar begins to lose importance and military spending is diverted to exploration. And when the Russians finally land a probe on the surface of Venus in 1962, the first image its cameras send back is of a dinosaur-infested jungle. And the ''second'' image is of ''[[NubileSavage a beautiful blonde woman]] in a FurBikini being chased by a savage horde of neanderthals''.

** The title "In The Court of the Crimson Kings" is a shout-out to the band Music/KingCrimson, and their album [[Music/InTheCourtOfTheCrimsonKing "In the Court of the Crimson King"]]?

** How about the band KingCrimson, and their album "In the Court of the Crimson King"?

* ChessMotifs: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that [[VariantChess atanj, the Martian chesslike game]] from which many a motif is drawn, is ''vastly'' more complex than mere Earthly chess. With ships, merchants, boycotters, bribes, the possibility of pieces defecting on their own, as many as eight players, and the use of dice, it's more like DungeonsAndDragons motifs in some ways.

Not to be confused with ''LordsOfCreation'', a very weird [[TabletopGames role-playing game]] published in the mid-Eighties.

** ''[[IceAge Scrat]]'' of all rodents has a cameo on Venus, believe it or else.

* SomewhereAPalaeontologistIsCrying: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that the Lords of Creation seeded Venus with Earthly lifeforms two hundred million years ago, and have been coming back and adding new batches of Earthly life roughly every two million years since then, including human specimens only a few thousand years ago; with no mass extinction on Venus, dinosaurs coexist semi-peacefully with critters from every era since. The harsher Martian climate, coupled with extensive bioengineering, averts this.
** [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] InUniverse near the beginning of ''The Sky People'', when an actual palaeontologist examines some fossils (and the surrounding rock) and realizes that what she's seeing isn't possible.

Two months later, when the American Viking probe tells us about [[TheRedPlanet the canal-building biotech-using humanoid Martians]], the race to land on both worlds shifts into high gear.

* TheRedPlanet

* OrganicTechnology: Deconstructed. Martians rely on this, in the absence of major metal and fossil fuel resources. Almost all technology more complicated than a sword is biological, to a very high level, with living guns (recharging after firing takes time, which is why swords are not obsolete), living engines to supplement the sailpower of desert-crossing wheeled ships, rugs that crawl onto your feet to warm them, giant creatures that eat rocks and [[BowelBreakingBricks vomit road-paving material]]. However, Stirling points out that it requires food and oxygen, as well as being less durable then metal. It is useful enough however that some of it has been imported by Earth.

* IKEAErotica: Happens due to the nature of the Martian language. ''"I request more energetic intromission, empathic tense!"'' is the closest you can get to talking dirty.