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* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the original Red Alert 3. The vague UsefulNotes/ColdWar setting has been given a set date and heavily grounded in history, with all of the original faction's motivations, backstories and situations being extrapolated in great detail from the scraps of information given in the original campaigns. The goody-two-shoes Allies are PR-concious control freaks, Japan's ambitious plans were crushed embaressingly quickly, the Allies and Soviets have ground to a stalemate, and you don't get away with killing a US president scott-free. There is considerable exploration of the implications of the strange technology at play, extensive exploration of the history of how things went so wrong, parallels to the real-life Cold War, and the first Red Alert game is tied into the backstory. In both backstory and gameplay mechanics, Paradox looks at the source material and asks 'What would it be like if this was serious?' and the answers tend to go dark places.
to:
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the original Red Alert 3. The vague UsefulNotes/ColdWar setting has been given a set date and heavily grounded in history, with all of the original faction's motivations, backstories and situations being extrapolated in great detail from the scraps of information given in the original campaigns. The goody-two-shoes Allies are PR-concious control freaks, Japan's ambitious plans were crushed embaressingly embarrassingly quickly, the Allies and Soviets have ground to a stalemate, and you don't get away with killing a US president scott-free. There is considerable exploration of the implications of the strange technology at play, extensive exploration of the history of how things went so wrong, parallels to the real-life Cold War, and the first Red Alert game is tied into the backstory. In both backstory and gameplay mechanics, Paradox looks at the source material and asks 'What would it be like if this was serious?' and the answers tend to go dark places.
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None
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* ZeeRust: Every faction represents a different take on retro 'The World of Tomorrow!' concepts. The Order of the Talon is a fantastic spin-off of 17 to 19th century technology, the Soviets are in 1930s to 50s with DieselPunk, the Allies represent 1960s futurism, the Chinese embody 70s space opera and Atomic Age ideals, the Confederates veer into late 70s post-nuclear scavenger world as they try to rebuild a patriotic EagleLand using manpower and dilapidated conventional technologies, the Syndicate is 80s Cyberpunk, and the Empire a combination of 90s mecha anime and modern post-cyberpunk concepts. The Protectorate contains robotic units as envisioned in many ages, from [[TinCanRobot Tin Can Robots]] to drone swarms, Terminators, and a mechanised EldritchAbomination. The result is something of a MegaCrossover of retro-themed genres and universes colliding. To put things in perspective, the actual year the game takes place in is 1969.
to:
* ZeeRust: {{Zeerust}}: Every faction represents a different take on retro 'The World of Tomorrow!' concepts. The Order of the Talon is a fantastic spin-off of 17 to 19th century technology, the Soviets are in 1930s to 50s with DieselPunk, the Allies represent 1960s futurism, the Chinese embody 70s space opera and Atomic Age ideals, the Confederates veer into late 70s post-nuclear scavenger world as they try to rebuild a patriotic EagleLand using manpower and dilapidated conventional technologies, the Syndicate is 80s Cyberpunk, and the Empire a combination of 90s mecha anime and modern post-cyberpunk concepts. The Protectorate contains robotic units as envisioned in many ages, from [[TinCanRobot Tin Can Robots]] to drone swarms, Terminators, and a mechanised EldritchAbomination. The result is something of a MegaCrossover of retro-themed genres and universes colliding. To put things in perspective, the actual year the game takes place in is 1969.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Paradox_-_Kopie_6499.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[-[[YouCantFightFate You can't change the universe without repercussions...]]-] ]]
''Red Alert 3: Paradox'' is an ambitious project that seeks to expand the lore of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'', featuring an extensive [[TheSixties 1960s]] UsefulNotes/ColdWar world. Chock full of [[ShoutOut Shout-Outs]], [[HistoricalInJoke Historical In-Jokes]] and the unusual results of taking the wacky world of ''Red Alert 3'' completely seriously, the project aimed to flesh out the very-not-serious world presented in the game without losing any of its NarmCharm.
''Paradox'' was originally conceived as a GameMod, though due to engine limitations, it [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/red-alert-3-paradox/news/realtalk ceased production]] in 2014, with some of the assets from the mod to be released under Creative Commons attribution license. The lore continues to be developed and can be found [[https://red-alert-paradox-echoes-quantum-backup.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Alert_Paradox_Echoes_Quantum_Backup_Wiki here]] (which has also integrated the lore originally made for the unofficial expansions Echoes and Quantum; the original lore is preserved on [[http://paradox-modfanmadebackup.wikia.com/wiki/Paradox_Mod_Wiki a different wiki]]), and is being converted into a ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron IV'' mod.
The core team of Paradox also worked on VideoGame/BloodCrusher2, an indie retro shooter with rogue-like elements. The Paradox wiki also features the totally self-indulgent fic by the creator of the mod, FanFic/ARedLetterDay, a CrossOver with ''Franchise/MassEffect''.
----
!! The story provides examples of:
* AdaptationExpansion: The basic idea is to expand the material and explore its implications while remaining true to its campy core.
* AKA47: Many of the vehicles distinctly resemble real world ones with different names and unusual features. The Mastiff tank is clearly a King Tiger, the Cardinal is a Huey, the Achilles a streched Avro Arrow, the Ranger a jeep, and so forth. Most of the weapons are similarly renamed, though weapons from before 1927 usually keep their names as a nod to the point of divergence.
* AlienSpaceBats: Soviets traveled back in time in an already alternative timeline without UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and ThoseWackyNazis to kill UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein to make a new timeline where they can finally win WorldWarThree. Team Paradox changed the outcome of THAT timeline's third world war again for its own story.
* AllNationsAreSuperpowers: Either you are part of a power bloc or your country has super power status outright.
* AllTheoriesAreTrue: Every theory and scientific idea of the mid 20th century is viable in this setting.
* AlternateHistory: Time travel plot and killings of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein aside, the time before 1927 went at times and places differently too:
** The formation of the Order of the Talon and Cult of the Black Hand in the 11th century.
** Japan never invaded the rest of Asia. This is because the Battle of Kumamoto Castle ended with a Shinobi running up the castle wall and opening its doors, changing the entire war scenario. The new government decided to not spend resources on invasions and went along with trading with America and Europe without being influenced much.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Unit headers with listed key features usually do this for RuleOfFunny.
* TheBackwardsR: The logo swaps several letters in the word PARADOX with Cyrillic letters that are visually similar. The result would read ''rdyadaozh''.
* ACommanderIsYou:
** Allied Nations: Technical. Low cost efficiency but pin-point accuracy and many useful effects.
** Soviet Union: JackOfAllStats. All-arounders capable of specializing into offensive, defensive, or support roles depending on which upgrade paths are taken.
** Empire of the Rising Sun: Ranger. Lots of light but very fast units capable of mounting hit and run attacks, transforming to get in or out of danger, and good at maneuvering and expanding.
** Confederate Revolutionaries: Guerrillas. Stealth generators, tunnels, traps and good infantry but (initially) bad vehicles.
** Order of the Talon: Elitist. Units are slow and rather expensive but possess extreme armour. They also improve themselves on every veterancy rank with new weapons or abilities.
** Atomic Kingdom of China: Turtle. Weak units overall without even veterancy but absurdly powerful defenses, out of which some are mobile.
** Mediterranean Syndicate: Economic/Ranger. Long-ranged units that specialise in urban warfare and benefit from an immense economy.
** Electrical Protectorate: Spammer. Massive amounts of instantly-made units without armour or veterancy drown the enemy in fire.
* CastFromHitPoints: Barkhausen overdrive as well as the Kirov and Dreadnaught secondaries carrying over from the original game. The Chinese ore collector exposing it's atomic core also tends to self-damage with radiation.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Tracers are shared between power blocks or suppliers, so Allied-aligned powers fire red, communist powers fire a sickly yellow-green, and anyone buying from the Syndicate, such as the Confederates, GLA and International Inc, fire gold. The Japanese stick to blue, the Order to greys, and the Protectorate to whites and purples. China [[DeathRay doesn't use bullets at all]], but their beams are their house colour, by default a bright green.
* CrapsackWorld: Three world wars, a UsefulNotes/ColdWar and five new super powers, two of them planning to get rid of everyone else. It is mainly a current age TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}. Also goes hand in hand with WorldOfBadass.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the original Red Alert 3. The vague UsefulNotes/ColdWar setting has been given a set date and heavily grounded in history, with all of the original faction's motivations, backstories and situations being extrapolated in great detail from the scraps of information given in the original campaigns. The goody-two-shoes Allies are PR-concious control freaks, Japan's ambitious plans were crushed embaressingly quickly, the Allies and Soviets have ground to a stalemate, and you don't get away with killing a US president scott-free. There is considerable exploration of the implications of the strange technology at play, extensive exploration of the history of how things went so wrong, parallels to the real-life Cold War, and the first Red Alert game is tied into the backstory. In both backstory and gameplay mechanics, Paradox looks at the source material and asks 'What would it be like if this was serious?' and the answers tend to go dark places.
* EnemyExchangeProgram: Classic for ''Command & Conquer'', Engineers and variants can capture enemy buildings so their commander can make use of them.
* GenderIsNoObject: Played realistically straight. Allied, Chinese, Soviet, Syndicate and even some minor faction infantry have sometimes randomised gender with only slightly changed armour and fitting voices. The Imperial Japanese do not do this, for obvious reasons.
* GrayAndGreyMorality: Everyone has corpses in the basement, but most factions at least try to be moral. Most.
* InsistentTerminology: The word ''laser'' does not exist in universe; the word ''spectrum'' is used instead, leading to spectrum beams, spectrum designators, electrospectrum plasma channels, and so forth. Using the word ''laser'' in a suggestion is a good way to show you haven't been paying attention. In-universe, some scientists insisted that the term L.O.S.E.R. ('''L'''ight '''O'''scillation by '''S'''timulated '''E'''mission of '''R'''adiation") is more accurate, but it never caught on due to [[FunWithAcronyms obvious reasons]]. Also, every mention of kevlar was replaced with Kwolek, after the inventor of kevlar.
* LensmanArmsRace: Allies, Soviets and Syndicate are the main players for this. Not that everyone else is far behind. At the beginning of [=WW2=] in 1949, jet fighters were still experimental and most infantry ran around with bolt-action rifles. Horses were as common as trucks. By the end in 1955, everyone had assault rifles, the Allies were hiding behind rips in space-time, the Soviets were fielding tanks the size of houses and could make them invicible shortly, VTOL jet fighters were the norm, and jet packs and lightning guns were being employed. Then the Cold War arms race started...
* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: The [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/red-alert-3-paradox Moddb page]] had a rather humorous flash imitating an eternally loading loading bar, which loads anything from normal stuff to utter nonsense, then either the loaded part keeps falling out, regress back or just spills out.
* TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay: In-lore as well as an actual Wiki rule.
* NeverHurtAnInnocent: The Allies, Soviets, Talon, Confederates and sometimes the Empire actively try to get civilians out of war zones. The other times the Empire attacks civilian villages for moralic shock value. The Syndicate only do it when it suits their money-based goals. The Protectorate and Atomic Kingdom don't bother with evacuation.
* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: Until the Chinese broke it. The technology still hasn't spread to any of the other factions yet.
* PunkPunk: Every human faction except the Confederates are some kind of PunkPunk. The wierdness comes because they are all '''different''' sorts.
** Allied Nations: RaygunGothic. Retro-futuristic designs, vacuum tube computers. Extensive laser, wave and advanced physics theories based weaponry.
** Soviet Union: DieselPunk. Big, powerful, utilitarian. Creative use of reliable and simple technologies like electricity and magnetism. Major space program.
** Empire of the Rising Sun: [[{{Nanomachines}} Nano Punk]] / PostCyberPunk. Superior design and engineering. Automated precision manufacturing on microscopic scale. Research into psionics.
** Mediterranean Syndicate: CyberPunk. Circuits, cyborgs, powered armour. Very commercial mindset and a large budget.
** Order of the Talon: ClockPunk / SteamPunk. Adepts of mechanics and metallurgy. Potential evidence of supernatural religious power.
** Atomic Kingdom of China: AtomPunk / SpaceOpera. Mastery of cheap nuclear energy. Orbital habitats, teleportation, segregated caste of clone workers/soldiers.
** Technocratic Combine: Decopunk. Retro-futuristic technologies, Art Deco and Streamline Moderne aesthetics, pulp and noir influences, and World War 1 tactics.
** Industrial Guild: Not themed after a specific type of punk, but grabs and holds a large variety of themes into a blender. Heavily industrialized factory-cities, neovictorian stylings, Gilded Age safety standards.
** Cyberbolivaran Forum: Transistor Punk. Wires, late 60s electric displays, and gauges reading how far until you're in the red.
* PropagandaMachine: The Soviets might be the most obvious, but they aren't the only ones. The Allies initally started running their humanitarian programs as one of these to draw small nations to their cause. The Empire has massive state-run media, both sides of the Chinese Civil War lied to their population constantly, the North Vietnamese use theirs to whip their soldiers into a frenzy, and the Cult of the Black Hand like to set these up to pit people against each other.
* ReferenceOverdosed: Almost every unit and lore is a ShoutOut to something else.
* RetroUniverse: Each faction embodies a retro style as mentioned under PunkPunk but attitudes and technology are modern and border on SchizoTech, respectively. There also is a Wiki Rule named "Law of Crimson Skies" which requires people both real and InUniverse to be culturally sensitive in terms of {{Double Standard}}s against genders, races and religions.
* RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman: A lot of future US presidents are involved in the Confederate Revolutionaries, Nikita Khrushchev is a lowly grain farmer, Mikhail Gorbachev was a Soviet RedShirt who was unceremoniously killed, and so forth, though many figures in the lore have similar professions but just work for different organizations. And Richard Nixon actually IS a car salesman.
* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: Everyone is fairly quick with training troops, making vehicles and building structures. The Electrical Protectorate ignore build times almost altogether. This is usually {{Handwave}}d by the factions using advanced construction methods like nanomachines or secretly bringing pre-build units on the battle field from outside the battle.
* RuleOfCool: It is firmly established that anything which doesn't violate the base lines of the universe (free energy and FasterThanLightTravel among them) is allowed. Added twist being that when it's '''not''' made cooler by violating every other rule of the universe, there is no reason for it to be scientifically wrong in the first place.
* SatireParodyPastiche: All three of them as follows:
** Satire: Industrial excess, warfare, supression of human rights and blind following of ideologies (and fighting others) simply for assuming of being right and everyone else being wrong.
** Parody: Scifi works from the 1950s up to modern day, eastern and western alike across all media.
** Pastiche: Works of all genres in all media and way too many to count them all. The most notable are ''Franchise/StarTrek, Film/BladeRunner, Film/MinorityReport, Franchise/{{Gundam}}, Film/SuckerPunch, Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' and all Vietnam themed films.
* ScaleOfScientificSins: The Allies have committed sins one and two, the Empire and Syndicate have done one through three, and the Protectorate ''is'' the first sin. Even the Confederates and their PAWI tech clock in with number two, as does China with a lot of its tech as well as doing genetic engineering. Note that three through six are well within the Allies' reach and four through six for the Empire and Syndicate... they just haven't done it yet. The Soviet Union and Order of the Talon seem to be the only major factions with a clean slate here, and that's mostly through not ''having'' the tech to do it rather than the will. As far as the minor factions go, Red China developed cloning technology and genetic engineering thus reviving the dead in new bodies, while Blue China can revive the dead (or rather produce zombies) with deliberate usage of crude cybernetics. Green China condemned them for both but keeps using cloning tech.
* ShoutOut: Has its own [[ShoutOut/RedAlert3Paradox page]].
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Some factions, such as the Soviet Union and Order of the Talon, believe that the Paradox world is on the cynical end of the scale and try to be good guys through the lens of a cynical world. Others, such as the Allied Nations and Confederate Revolutionaries, believe that the Paradox world is on the idealistic end and behave as good guys through the lens of an idealistic world. Where exactly the Paradox world ''does'' fall on the scale is largely left to the viewer's imagination. According to the April 17 paradoxcast, the Paradox world is very cynical. That being said, the wiki still maintains the Unit Lore shouldn't be TOO bleak. While one or two units [[TheWoobie can be completely tragic]], the lore on the whole must be closer to Red Alert style BlackComedy, '[[CrossesTheLineTwice even if it's so black]], light cannot escape its surface'.
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: All of the characters from the original Red Alert 3 (or the characters borrowed from other Command and Conquer games) have either been killed or otherwise reduced to a state of non-importance. The sole execeptions are the commandos.
* TakeThat: The various ''Uprising'' units, [[GameBreaker overpowered as they are]], are not canon in ''Paradox'', mainly because in-lore they are worth nothing.
* TechnoBabble: Tries to avoid it when it can; if a basis in real world science can be established, it is much preferred. However, the sheer ''weirdness'' of the setting means this isn't always possible.
* WashingtonDCInvasion: Played with, as Washington DC is being invaded ''by Americans''.
* WeWillWearArmorInTheFuture: Everyone armours at least some of their infantry up. The Talon get a pass because they are knights, though.
* WhamEpisode: The April 17 paradoxcast, which included the first hints of what the eventual campaigns will include, ranging from what was described as the Normandy landings [[RecycledInSpace on the moon]] to an Allied mission '''inside a human body.''' This latter revelation met with a FlatWhat from the community.
* WorldOfBadass: All heroes are this, many non-hero units are this, many other non-hero units can be this if they try and every important commander is pretty much a ColonelBadass or FourStarBadass in their own right.
* WorldWarThree: Paradox takes place after it with big parts of the world in ruins or under reconstruction and its three major players (Allies, Empire and Soviets) economy and military wise exhausted, thus opening space for 5 new super powers.
* YellowLightningBlueLightning: Soviet lightning blasts are blue-white, and purple at high levels, but when the Protectorate throw around electricity it is yellow.
* ZeeRust: Every faction represents a different take on retro 'The World of Tomorrow!' concepts. The Order of the Talon is a fantastic spin-off of 17 to 19th century technology, the Soviets are in 1930s to 50s with DieselPunk, the Allies represent 1960s futurism, the Chinese embody 70s space opera and Atomic Age ideals, the Confederates veer into late 70s post-nuclear scavenger world as they try to rebuild a patriotic EagleLand using manpower and dilapidated conventional technologies, the Syndicate is 80s Cyberpunk, and the Empire a combination of 90s mecha anime and modern post-cyberpunk concepts. The Protectorate contains robotic units as envisioned in many ages, from [[TinCanRobot Tin Can Robots]] to drone swarms, Terminators, and a mechanised EldritchAbomination. The result is something of a MegaCrossover of retro-themed genres and universes colliding. To put things in perspective, the actual year the game takes place in is 1969.
----
[[caption-width-right:350:[-[[YouCantFightFate You can't change the universe without repercussions...]]-] ]]
''Red Alert 3: Paradox'' is an ambitious project that seeks to expand the lore of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'', featuring an extensive [[TheSixties 1960s]] UsefulNotes/ColdWar world. Chock full of [[ShoutOut Shout-Outs]], [[HistoricalInJoke Historical In-Jokes]] and the unusual results of taking the wacky world of ''Red Alert 3'' completely seriously, the project aimed to flesh out the very-not-serious world presented in the game without losing any of its NarmCharm.
''Paradox'' was originally conceived as a GameMod, though due to engine limitations, it [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/red-alert-3-paradox/news/realtalk ceased production]] in 2014, with some of the assets from the mod to be released under Creative Commons attribution license. The lore continues to be developed and can be found [[https://red-alert-paradox-echoes-quantum-backup.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Alert_Paradox_Echoes_Quantum_Backup_Wiki here]] (which has also integrated the lore originally made for the unofficial expansions Echoes and Quantum; the original lore is preserved on [[http://paradox-modfanmadebackup.wikia.com/wiki/Paradox_Mod_Wiki a different wiki]]), and is being converted into a ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron IV'' mod.
The core team of Paradox also worked on VideoGame/BloodCrusher2, an indie retro shooter with rogue-like elements. The Paradox wiki also features the totally self-indulgent fic by the creator of the mod, FanFic/ARedLetterDay, a CrossOver with ''Franchise/MassEffect''.
----
!! The story provides examples of:
* AdaptationExpansion: The basic idea is to expand the material and explore its implications while remaining true to its campy core.
* AKA47: Many of the vehicles distinctly resemble real world ones with different names and unusual features. The Mastiff tank is clearly a King Tiger, the Cardinal is a Huey, the Achilles a streched Avro Arrow, the Ranger a jeep, and so forth. Most of the weapons are similarly renamed, though weapons from before 1927 usually keep their names as a nod to the point of divergence.
* AlienSpaceBats: Soviets traveled back in time in an already alternative timeline without UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and ThoseWackyNazis to kill UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein to make a new timeline where they can finally win WorldWarThree. Team Paradox changed the outcome of THAT timeline's third world war again for its own story.
* AllNationsAreSuperpowers: Either you are part of a power bloc or your country has super power status outright.
* AllTheoriesAreTrue: Every theory and scientific idea of the mid 20th century is viable in this setting.
* AlternateHistory: Time travel plot and killings of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein aside, the time before 1927 went at times and places differently too:
** The formation of the Order of the Talon and Cult of the Black Hand in the 11th century.
** Japan never invaded the rest of Asia. This is because the Battle of Kumamoto Castle ended with a Shinobi running up the castle wall and opening its doors, changing the entire war scenario. The new government decided to not spend resources on invasions and went along with trading with America and Europe without being influenced much.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Unit headers with listed key features usually do this for RuleOfFunny.
* TheBackwardsR: The logo swaps several letters in the word PARADOX with Cyrillic letters that are visually similar. The result would read ''rdyadaozh''.
* ACommanderIsYou:
** Allied Nations: Technical. Low cost efficiency but pin-point accuracy and many useful effects.
** Soviet Union: JackOfAllStats. All-arounders capable of specializing into offensive, defensive, or support roles depending on which upgrade paths are taken.
** Empire of the Rising Sun: Ranger. Lots of light but very fast units capable of mounting hit and run attacks, transforming to get in or out of danger, and good at maneuvering and expanding.
** Confederate Revolutionaries: Guerrillas. Stealth generators, tunnels, traps and good infantry but (initially) bad vehicles.
** Order of the Talon: Elitist. Units are slow and rather expensive but possess extreme armour. They also improve themselves on every veterancy rank with new weapons or abilities.
** Atomic Kingdom of China: Turtle. Weak units overall without even veterancy but absurdly powerful defenses, out of which some are mobile.
** Mediterranean Syndicate: Economic/Ranger. Long-ranged units that specialise in urban warfare and benefit from an immense economy.
** Electrical Protectorate: Spammer. Massive amounts of instantly-made units without armour or veterancy drown the enemy in fire.
* CastFromHitPoints: Barkhausen overdrive as well as the Kirov and Dreadnaught secondaries carrying over from the original game. The Chinese ore collector exposing it's atomic core also tends to self-damage with radiation.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Tracers are shared between power blocks or suppliers, so Allied-aligned powers fire red, communist powers fire a sickly yellow-green, and anyone buying from the Syndicate, such as the Confederates, GLA and International Inc, fire gold. The Japanese stick to blue, the Order to greys, and the Protectorate to whites and purples. China [[DeathRay doesn't use bullets at all]], but their beams are their house colour, by default a bright green.
* CrapsackWorld: Three world wars, a UsefulNotes/ColdWar and five new super powers, two of them planning to get rid of everyone else. It is mainly a current age TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}. Also goes hand in hand with WorldOfBadass.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of the original Red Alert 3. The vague UsefulNotes/ColdWar setting has been given a set date and heavily grounded in history, with all of the original faction's motivations, backstories and situations being extrapolated in great detail from the scraps of information given in the original campaigns. The goody-two-shoes Allies are PR-concious control freaks, Japan's ambitious plans were crushed embaressingly quickly, the Allies and Soviets have ground to a stalemate, and you don't get away with killing a US president scott-free. There is considerable exploration of the implications of the strange technology at play, extensive exploration of the history of how things went so wrong, parallels to the real-life Cold War, and the first Red Alert game is tied into the backstory. In both backstory and gameplay mechanics, Paradox looks at the source material and asks 'What would it be like if this was serious?' and the answers tend to go dark places.
* EnemyExchangeProgram: Classic for ''Command & Conquer'', Engineers and variants can capture enemy buildings so their commander can make use of them.
* GenderIsNoObject: Played realistically straight. Allied, Chinese, Soviet, Syndicate and even some minor faction infantry have sometimes randomised gender with only slightly changed armour and fitting voices. The Imperial Japanese do not do this, for obvious reasons.
* GrayAndGreyMorality: Everyone has corpses in the basement, but most factions at least try to be moral. Most.
* InsistentTerminology: The word ''laser'' does not exist in universe; the word ''spectrum'' is used instead, leading to spectrum beams, spectrum designators, electrospectrum plasma channels, and so forth. Using the word ''laser'' in a suggestion is a good way to show you haven't been paying attention. In-universe, some scientists insisted that the term L.O.S.E.R. ('''L'''ight '''O'''scillation by '''S'''timulated '''E'''mission of '''R'''adiation") is more accurate, but it never caught on due to [[FunWithAcronyms obvious reasons]]. Also, every mention of kevlar was replaced with Kwolek, after the inventor of kevlar.
* LensmanArmsRace: Allies, Soviets and Syndicate are the main players for this. Not that everyone else is far behind. At the beginning of [=WW2=] in 1949, jet fighters were still experimental and most infantry ran around with bolt-action rifles. Horses were as common as trucks. By the end in 1955, everyone had assault rifles, the Allies were hiding behind rips in space-time, the Soviets were fielding tanks the size of houses and could make them invicible shortly, VTOL jet fighters were the norm, and jet packs and lightning guns were being employed. Then the Cold War arms race started...
* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: The [[http://www.moddb.com/mods/red-alert-3-paradox Moddb page]] had a rather humorous flash imitating an eternally loading loading bar, which loads anything from normal stuff to utter nonsense, then either the loaded part keeps falling out, regress back or just spills out.
* TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay: In-lore as well as an actual Wiki rule.
* NeverHurtAnInnocent: The Allies, Soviets, Talon, Confederates and sometimes the Empire actively try to get civilians out of war zones. The other times the Empire attacks civilian villages for moralic shock value. The Syndicate only do it when it suits their money-based goals. The Protectorate and Atomic Kingdom don't bother with evacuation.
* NuclearWeaponsTaboo: Until the Chinese broke it. The technology still hasn't spread to any of the other factions yet.
* PunkPunk: Every human faction except the Confederates are some kind of PunkPunk. The wierdness comes because they are all '''different''' sorts.
** Allied Nations: RaygunGothic. Retro-futuristic designs, vacuum tube computers. Extensive laser, wave and advanced physics theories based weaponry.
** Soviet Union: DieselPunk. Big, powerful, utilitarian. Creative use of reliable and simple technologies like electricity and magnetism. Major space program.
** Empire of the Rising Sun: [[{{Nanomachines}} Nano Punk]] / PostCyberPunk. Superior design and engineering. Automated precision manufacturing on microscopic scale. Research into psionics.
** Mediterranean Syndicate: CyberPunk. Circuits, cyborgs, powered armour. Very commercial mindset and a large budget.
** Order of the Talon: ClockPunk / SteamPunk. Adepts of mechanics and metallurgy. Potential evidence of supernatural religious power.
** Atomic Kingdom of China: AtomPunk / SpaceOpera. Mastery of cheap nuclear energy. Orbital habitats, teleportation, segregated caste of clone workers/soldiers.
** Technocratic Combine: Decopunk. Retro-futuristic technologies, Art Deco and Streamline Moderne aesthetics, pulp and noir influences, and World War 1 tactics.
** Industrial Guild: Not themed after a specific type of punk, but grabs and holds a large variety of themes into a blender. Heavily industrialized factory-cities, neovictorian stylings, Gilded Age safety standards.
** Cyberbolivaran Forum: Transistor Punk. Wires, late 60s electric displays, and gauges reading how far until you're in the red.
* PropagandaMachine: The Soviets might be the most obvious, but they aren't the only ones. The Allies initally started running their humanitarian programs as one of these to draw small nations to their cause. The Empire has massive state-run media, both sides of the Chinese Civil War lied to their population constantly, the North Vietnamese use theirs to whip their soldiers into a frenzy, and the Cult of the Black Hand like to set these up to pit people against each other.
* ReferenceOverdosed: Almost every unit and lore is a ShoutOut to something else.
* RetroUniverse: Each faction embodies a retro style as mentioned under PunkPunk but attitudes and technology are modern and border on SchizoTech, respectively. There also is a Wiki Rule named "Law of Crimson Skies" which requires people both real and InUniverse to be culturally sensitive in terms of {{Double Standard}}s against genders, races and religions.
* RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman: A lot of future US presidents are involved in the Confederate Revolutionaries, Nikita Khrushchev is a lowly grain farmer, Mikhail Gorbachev was a Soviet RedShirt who was unceremoniously killed, and so forth, though many figures in the lore have similar professions but just work for different organizations. And Richard Nixon actually IS a car salesman.
* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: Everyone is fairly quick with training troops, making vehicles and building structures. The Electrical Protectorate ignore build times almost altogether. This is usually {{Handwave}}d by the factions using advanced construction methods like nanomachines or secretly bringing pre-build units on the battle field from outside the battle.
* RuleOfCool: It is firmly established that anything which doesn't violate the base lines of the universe (free energy and FasterThanLightTravel among them) is allowed. Added twist being that when it's '''not''' made cooler by violating every other rule of the universe, there is no reason for it to be scientifically wrong in the first place.
* SatireParodyPastiche: All three of them as follows:
** Satire: Industrial excess, warfare, supression of human rights and blind following of ideologies (and fighting others) simply for assuming of being right and everyone else being wrong.
** Parody: Scifi works from the 1950s up to modern day, eastern and western alike across all media.
** Pastiche: Works of all genres in all media and way too many to count them all. The most notable are ''Franchise/StarTrek, Film/BladeRunner, Film/MinorityReport, Franchise/{{Gundam}}, Film/SuckerPunch, Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' and all Vietnam themed films.
* ScaleOfScientificSins: The Allies have committed sins one and two, the Empire and Syndicate have done one through three, and the Protectorate ''is'' the first sin. Even the Confederates and their PAWI tech clock in with number two, as does China with a lot of its tech as well as doing genetic engineering. Note that three through six are well within the Allies' reach and four through six for the Empire and Syndicate... they just haven't done it yet. The Soviet Union and Order of the Talon seem to be the only major factions with a clean slate here, and that's mostly through not ''having'' the tech to do it rather than the will. As far as the minor factions go, Red China developed cloning technology and genetic engineering thus reviving the dead in new bodies, while Blue China can revive the dead (or rather produce zombies) with deliberate usage of crude cybernetics. Green China condemned them for both but keeps using cloning tech.
* ShoutOut: Has its own [[ShoutOut/RedAlert3Paradox page]].
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Some factions, such as the Soviet Union and Order of the Talon, believe that the Paradox world is on the cynical end of the scale and try to be good guys through the lens of a cynical world. Others, such as the Allied Nations and Confederate Revolutionaries, believe that the Paradox world is on the idealistic end and behave as good guys through the lens of an idealistic world. Where exactly the Paradox world ''does'' fall on the scale is largely left to the viewer's imagination. According to the April 17 paradoxcast, the Paradox world is very cynical. That being said, the wiki still maintains the Unit Lore shouldn't be TOO bleak. While one or two units [[TheWoobie can be completely tragic]], the lore on the whole must be closer to Red Alert style BlackComedy, '[[CrossesTheLineTwice even if it's so black]], light cannot escape its surface'.
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: All of the characters from the original Red Alert 3 (or the characters borrowed from other Command and Conquer games) have either been killed or otherwise reduced to a state of non-importance. The sole execeptions are the commandos.
* TakeThat: The various ''Uprising'' units, [[GameBreaker overpowered as they are]], are not canon in ''Paradox'', mainly because in-lore they are worth nothing.
* TechnoBabble: Tries to avoid it when it can; if a basis in real world science can be established, it is much preferred. However, the sheer ''weirdness'' of the setting means this isn't always possible.
* WashingtonDCInvasion: Played with, as Washington DC is being invaded ''by Americans''.
* WeWillWearArmorInTheFuture: Everyone armours at least some of their infantry up. The Talon get a pass because they are knights, though.
* WhamEpisode: The April 17 paradoxcast, which included the first hints of what the eventual campaigns will include, ranging from what was described as the Normandy landings [[RecycledInSpace on the moon]] to an Allied mission '''inside a human body.''' This latter revelation met with a FlatWhat from the community.
* WorldOfBadass: All heroes are this, many non-hero units are this, many other non-hero units can be this if they try and every important commander is pretty much a ColonelBadass or FourStarBadass in their own right.
* WorldWarThree: Paradox takes place after it with big parts of the world in ruins or under reconstruction and its three major players (Allies, Empire and Soviets) economy and military wise exhausted, thus opening space for 5 new super powers.
* YellowLightningBlueLightning: Soviet lightning blasts are blue-white, and purple at high levels, but when the Protectorate throw around electricity it is yellow.
* ZeeRust: Every faction represents a different take on retro 'The World of Tomorrow!' concepts. The Order of the Talon is a fantastic spin-off of 17 to 19th century technology, the Soviets are in 1930s to 50s with DieselPunk, the Allies represent 1960s futurism, the Chinese embody 70s space opera and Atomic Age ideals, the Confederates veer into late 70s post-nuclear scavenger world as they try to rebuild a patriotic EagleLand using manpower and dilapidated conventional technologies, the Syndicate is 80s Cyberpunk, and the Empire a combination of 90s mecha anime and modern post-cyberpunk concepts. The Protectorate contains robotic units as envisioned in many ages, from [[TinCanRobot Tin Can Robots]] to drone swarms, Terminators, and a mechanised EldritchAbomination. The result is something of a MegaCrossover of retro-themed genres and universes colliding. To put things in perspective, the actual year the game takes place in is 1969.
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