Literature / SporeWiki Fiction Universe

The Spore Wiki Fiction Universe is a large Science Fantasy Shared Universe set in the 29th century, and revolves around the civilisations of the "First Gigaquadrant", a large cluster composed of several galaxies (there were originally around thirty of them, until the Annihilation). Originating from Spore fan fiction, the Spore Wiki Fiction Universe eventually became a science fiction world in its own right. It is located here and anyone can join and become a new writer.

Stories are usually revolved around major wars and conflicts occurring in the universe (which happen all the time). Sometimes, there are "sidestories" tied to the events of said wars. The "war stories" are usually united in story arcs, which will usually all have the same protagonists (or antagonists, in case of The Great Uprising and the War of Ages). The largest ones so far are:

• The War of Ages, a Space Opera / Science Fantasy setting revolved around the battle of mortal civilisations with the Legion of the Deathmarch and the Xhodocto. The very first story in the Spore Wiki Fiction Universe and the largest one. Eventually ended with Master Kroc and other heroes descending into Inferno and sealing Kamik'Shi (god of said Legion and Xhodocto), being frozen within their home realm.
  • Second Coming, the sequel to the War of Ages. Revolved around the Cult of the Deathmarch and other demonic forces trying to reawaken the Xhodocto and unleash them on the universe again. Eventually, they succeeded, and the Xhodocto destroyed most of the universe.
  • Tantummodo Mortem, the sequel to the Second Coming, revolved around the third coming of the Xhodocto, who are now present in mortal husk bodies. The main plot involves a group of warriors infiltrating Xhodocto space to weaken them from inside out.
• Galaxies at War, the longest running saga on the wiki, involving the civilisations of the Cyrannia Cluster (though also branches out into other galaxies from time to time). The saga includes factions such as Rambo Nation, the Republic of Cyrannus, the Cognatus and the Cyrannian Empire.
• Perils of Ottzello, a story of survival of the Ottzello Galaxy's species against various foes, in a similar way to the Galaxies at War.
• Chronicles of Andromeda, detailing the revival of the namesake galaxy. Begins with a galaxy-spanning war caused by ancient and mystical artifacts and the manipulation of an Eldritch Abomination or two, and chronicles A new Alliance's rise to prosperity and galactic dominance.
• Conflicts of Borealis, the story of the Borealis Galaxy's races as they set their differences aside to fight off the Big Bad Ensemble around them, all while trying to save themselves from Time Master Zargoth of the Vyro'Ralza.
• Realities Altered, a group of stories that depict "what-if" scenarios, featuring alternate timelines based on the past, present and future of the community's fiction. The two largest stories are Dysnomia and the Mirror Universe.
• The Legacy, a group of stories detailing the distant future of the wiki, anywhere from a thousand years away, to several billion and even to the end of the universe itself.
• The Great Xonexian Shism - A conflict of seismic proportions between the various powers of the Xonexi Cluster and the Delpha Coalition of Planets. Notable in that both sides involve large-scale conflict between factions that are widely considered galactic heroes.

There are still many more stories in the Spore Wiki, varying in style and size.

While originally there was only the Fiction Universe. A growing core of writers and interests spawned a number of alternate settings that may or may not be related to the original Onuris Universe. The full list of universes and settings include:

• The Onuris Universe is the primary fiction universe. Originally the location of dozens of galaxies most of which were annihilated during the (unsurprisingly named) story of the Annihilation. Originally a deeply crapsack world that once went as far as to be submerged within Hell itself, it has become a World Half Full as the fading prevalence of the Xhodocto's armies allowed the surviving galaxies to begin restoring themselves. While originally home to dozens of galaxies, stories now focus on the The Milky Way, Bunsen, Andromeda, Quadrant Galaxies, Cyrannus, Cyranai, Mirus, Borealis and Kraw galaxies. At one time the story branched ito other universes such as Universe 66501 and the Draconizane Universe as well as higher dimentions such as the five-dimensional Taldar realm.
• Dysnomia is Andromeda taken to Warhammer 40,000-extreme levels of depressing and foreboding. Set one hundred years from the present, the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth is gone, empires such as the Brood of War and the former Divinarium have decayed into criminal collectives and there is not much to do for anyone who is not a citizen of what's left of the Draconid Imperium or the Dominion of the Xhodocto other than hide, be miserable, make out a meagre existence or get killed horribly by demons. And even if you were lucky enough to live in the Imperium, your home nation is beset on all sides by The Legions of Hell, there is an obscene divide between rich and poor what's left of the economy is dominated by two criminal syndicates too powerful and too integrated into society for any one empire to take them down without making things worse.
• Mirror Universe is an alternate reality where the good guys are now evil and the gigaquadrant is ruled over by the Gigaquadrantic Hegemony led by President Apollo's evil counterpart Emperor Aedanius the First. With oppressive regimes, an all-seeing Orwellian security force of machines and a spymaster not above manipulating Hegemony-loyal politicians to increase his standing, the Mirror Universe is very easily proving that the Onuris Universe just wasn't crapsack enough.

A Fantasy themed Spin-Off known as the SporeWiki Fantasy Universe also exists.

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This Shared Universe gives examples of the following tropes:

A-F

• Abnormal Ammo: A lot of. Things shooting chemicals, strange particles, biological creatures, nanobots, Demonic Energy et cetera.
• Above Good and Evil: While perceived as evil, Kamik'Shi is said to be a "neutral" god, as he is incomprehensible to mortals. Same for the Xhodocto and, to lesser extent, other "omnipotent" species such as the Isio'Nar and Mali'Nar. This also greatly applies to the Ultraterrestrials and on an even larger scale, the One God.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Melee weapons which vibrate at high frequencies (aka vibroweapons) and blades heated to several thousand degrees are the most common examples. A more specific example are the Malcaeum's blades.
• Action Girl: Many. Empress Ramashe (she is called the "warrior princess", after all), Gala Mevri, Keldar, Caranye, Aoirtae etc. Also, some factions (such as the Radeons, the New Republic and the Galactic Empire) have many females in their military.
• Advanced Ancient Humans: The Ashtar and the Pamântians achieved interstellar travel long before the beginning of civilization in Egypt.
• The Aesthetics of Technology: Part of the Rule of Cool foundation.
  • As a homage to Star Wars, the Cyrannus Galaxy has similar Raygun Gothic overtones.
  • Invoked by the Draconid Imeprium's older vessels, as much like modern aviation philosophy the Draconis more frequently update the interior than they do the exterior as time goes by. As such despite looking identical on the outside, a newly-refurbished cruiser can easily outclass the same model fitted with equipment that was cutting-edge seventy years ago.
  • Inverted by the French, who use tanks, small arms and starfighters that look straight from them modern day but are just as effective in combat as anything the top Gigaquadrant powers can design.
• Alien Arts Are Appreciated:
  • Averted. Perception between different races means even things like alien TV programmes would look like random jargon. How would we appreciate art made by a species using polarised vision, the same way they do?
  • Basileus and Draconis play it straight. They share similar cultural tastes and the Imperium has a thriving trade in "cultural articles". There are times however when what one species considers beautiful another considered ghastly.
• Alien Blood: While most of the alien species have red blood like humans, some of them do not. The best example is (corporeal) Xhodocto, which blood is molten superheavy metal.
• Alien Geometries: The Taldar's realm, the Sequencium or Vyronia. They are fifth-dimensional beings and so is their home.
• The Alliance: Seven Starr/Onuris Alliance is the best example, although there are more examples, like the Cyrandia Alliance, the Ibis Galaxy Alliance, or the villainous example, the Xiivon Council. In later years, the Mou'Cyran Accords have also come to personify this trait.
• All Men Are Perverts: The primary reason the Radeons (being the holier-than-thou religious types) can barely stand being around humans. Also the main reason (along with humanity's general habit of waging wars and being dicks) for building a BFG on a moon in Alpha Centauri, pointed conveniently towards Sol.
• Alternative Calendar: Overlaps with Universal Universe Time and Standard Time Units. The Milky Way and Borealis galaxies still use the earthdate while the Cyrannian galaxy has used a calendar twice as long as the Earth one since its inception, meanwhile Andromeda has been converting to using the dating system used by the Draconid Imperium, probably the most peculiar of the knwon calendars. While it still adheres to a twelve-month system, each month is thirty days long and uses month names with little verbal comparison to our own. Oh yeah and one year is 1.15x the length of an Earth year.
• Amnesiac God: Kithworto. Despite being aware of his powers, he has no memory of his various past incarnations.
• Ancient Astronauts: It is implied several alien species - both godlike and mundane - have visited Earth in the past. Some species had their own instances of this. The Draconis are one particular mundane case: It's hard to tell how many species they uplifted and how many cultures they influenced in their long history.
• Ancient Order of Protectors: The Grand Inquisition and its predecessors are a long line of secret orders tasked with fighting a low-profile war against the Mali'Nar and their servants. The Inquisition of Drakon and Grand Inquisition however focus more on the servants of the Xhodocto.
• Ancient Tradition: zig-zagged: The Draconid Imperium has several underground outposts on Earth which so far appear to be research stations dating back to around 1400 B.C. However there might be some evidence of Ancient Conspiracy going on as stories such as Studies in the Deep and Secret of the Alps hint of the occupants doing more than observational research.
• And I Must Scream: The fate of the leader of the Wranploer, General Volim, who was trapped in Chaos and cursed with complete immortality, meaning he was alone, under eternal torture from Santorakh and incapable of killing himself.
• Apocalypse How:
  • Most nations can inflict X-2 damage. The Xhodocto have done X-5 and are perfectly capable of doing Z.
  • The Neutron Effusion Device destroys stuff by decoupling atomic bonds. When detonated on a planet, said planet will effectively disintegrate into nothing in minutes.
• Applied Phlebotinum: Shidium for Zazane. A source of energy, a material to make their weapons and technology from, a gas for the grenades... The uses of Shidium are limitless.
• Art Evolution: There is a huge difference between content made by users in 2009 to 2011 to what they have made in the last year. This has also led to retcons of entire story arcs.
• Artistic License – Economics: Several nations classify as post-scarcity and generally follow the utopian formula.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The Krassio have became a race of Omnipotents after the Xhodocto trascended its status. One race has ascended to a higher plane existence taking the place of another one who has ascended to an even HIGHER plane of existence.
• Ascended Extra: Gorf, originally a joke character, has since become canon and part of several stories.
• Anti-Hero: The Cyranai Hivemind, despite their benevolent intentions, are not afraid of attacking innocent civilizations and assimilating them into the titular Hive Mind. Of course, it's kind of hard to blame them when they're essentially trapped in a small galaxy where their only neighbours are a nation of cruel, manipulative geniuses.
  • It is also hinted that one of the reasons the Hivemind assimilates weaker civilizations is that they take pity on them, and see the fate of being assimilated into a hive mind but for the most part retaining individuality better than becoming an unwitting slave of the Bisistar.
• Attack Its Weak Point: All Zazane have a weakspot on the back of their heads, where they do not have their crests protecting it. Corruptus demons also possess weakspots on their entropic hearts, which are bulbous, spherical organs usually located on their chests.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: There are several hyperpowers in the gigaquadrant that you do not want to disturb. This is the common result of empires who challenge the DCP, the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus or the Draconid Imperium. Medusa Heimdall learned the hard way that not even having one of the single most poweful navies in recent years can save you.
  • To sum it up, Medusa organised an operation to claim the single most massive factory complex in Andromeda. In doing so however the entire inner rim took up arms and kicked her out. They then proceeded to chew up the Tyranny's colonies in Northern Draco which culminated in the complete erasure of Invictus. If that wasn't bad enough, there is strong implication the AGC has sent an invasion force right for Demogorgon Prime!
  • At the dawn of its existence, the Cyrannian Empire issued a "get out or we kill you all" ultimation for colonies in Cyrannus owned by extragalactics. For those who stayed, to say it was a Curb-Stomp Battle is an understatement.
  • The Great Xonexian Schism is a perfect example of what happens when two giants proceed to fight each other.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Tiamat. It was armed with a primary weapon that could quite literally unmake a small spot of reality but was so unreliable and expensive to build that by the end of Attero Dominatus, the consensus was that an armada built for an equivalent cost would have been a thousand times more useful.
• Badass Army:
  • Special mention goes to the Draconid Imperium's Blood Dragon Guard - Despite lacking cybernetics or genetic engineering, they are so dangerous that one empire advised using nothing less than their own their own resident Super Soldiers should conflict ever arise.
• Badass Pacifist: Most politician characters fit into this. Such as Alexandre Valery or Apollo, who have changed history with speeches or radical political policies without personally killing anyone.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Quite uncommon, and often Played for Drama. Examples include the Annihilation, the end of the Great Cyrannus War and the fake ending of the Second Borealis Galactic War.
• Balkanize Me: Frenzy Space. After the death of Tyraz Breek the Brood of War collapsed into hundreds of petty territories, where warlords and other new heads of state engage in an interstellar free-for-all. Were that not bad enough, much larger powers from outside the region have taken an interest in gaining territory for themselves.
• Berserk Button: The Grox are a collective berserk button on the Delpha Coalition of Planets and the Civilisation. This has died out after the defeat of the Meta-Empire, though.
  • Kicath don't enjoy being ordered around.
  • Comparing Arkarixus to Regnatus is a terrible idea.
  • The Unified Nation of Ottzello's Loron and Da Rogue Boyz's Loron'Kikra all have a berserk button on each other's existence, though in their case it's Played for Laughs.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • After Admiral Kaios rescued Alessia Ultanos from a mix of slavery and torture, out of horror at what he'd done - he normally feels nothing about it, Uriel Ultanos is so furious he almost crushes the head slaver's neck in his hand.
  • Horders are a race of Gentle Giant creatures who never attack first. They are also the strongest race on the Brood of War. Angering one causes it to go on an Unstoppable Rage, which even the Zazane have difficult controlling.
• Big Bad: This title is contested depending of the fiction writer, as each story arc usually possesses its own Big Bad. However, it's not unheard of these Big Bads joining forces.
  • The Xhodocto for the War of Ages and Second Coming.
  • Tyrómairon for Galaxies at War.
  • Zargoth for Perils of Ottzello and Conflicts of Borealis.
  • Master Br'klakkon for Chronicles of Andromeda.
• Big Bad Duumvirate:
  • Falrik Zaarkhun and General Volim are the most famous pairing for their almost single-handed control of Borealis' criminal underworld.
  • Volkarus Khaxvis and Master Br'Klakkon are the current Big Bad duo for Andromeda.
• Bigger Is Better: Deconstructed. Although larger spaceships such as those of the Drakodominatus Tyranny are capable of carrying more armor and weapons than others, they are easily out-maneuvered by smaller ships, which can turn the tides of battles.
• Big Good: Apolithanatár for the Cyrannus Galaxy. Though many expected him to be a haughty and dispassionate god, he was revealed to be a deeply caring and peace-loving individual devoted to the victory of Light over the Darkness of Tyrómairon.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Most Essence-based lifeforms have extremely weird biologies. For example, the Malcaeum of the Corruptus have shown to have nothing inside their bodies but liquified Entropic Energy.
• Black Comedy:
  • The suicide of Venoriel's husband is used to drive home how much of an unbearable woman she is.
  • Sollow has somehow perfected the art of self-mutilation as a form of expression.
  • From the look of Insomnia, Santorakh is perhaps the (god) king of dark comedy.
• Blasphemous Boast:
  • After becoming a Physical God though Descendion and keeping the Imperium alive, Uriel has come to completely discard Drakon because where was he when Andromeda burned?
    "Drakon did not save you, I did!"
  • After absorbing the power of the Andromedan Artifacts, Master Br'Klakkon gets completely drunk with power. Declaring himself to be more powerful than even the highest Nars and promising to remake reality.
    "I have become stronger than Sanktanaars themselves."
  • Being a Flanderization of might-makes-right warrior cultures, the Iteok Khereg believe themselves to be stronger than even the Xhodocto. This is more P Layed For Laughs as the Iteok are a minor civilisation by Gigaquadant standards who are constantly duped into being used as Cannon Fodder by actual supernaturals with promises of power.
• Blessed with Suck: What happens when an individual can harness a dangerous Essence, such as Descension Energy, Demonic Energy or Entropic Energy, but cannot control it properly. Effects range from insanity to self-destruction.
• Brainwashed:
  • Races enslaved by the Grox are always brainwashed with the use of helmets.
  • Downplayed with the Cyranai Hivemind. Those part of it are only brainwashed when actively working in something - or in "working mode". Otherwise, they are perfectly normal individuals.
• The Bridge: This one was obvious given how much emphasis is put on navies. Its prominence however varies with the story. Vessels of the Draconid Imperium, Draconizane Dominion and the Unified Andromedan Navy avoid putting the bridge at the top of front of the ship and Instead install "command rooms" at the very core of the vessel. Also most meetings between individuals on starships are more likely to happen in a dedicated briefing room (for official business) or a common area of sorts (for personal vessels).
  • The bridge of the advanced Presidio-class Star Cruiser used by the nations of the Mou'Cyran Accords actually moves throughout the ship depending on the situation.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Kan'Kun destroyed the Xhodocto Eye Kakia, but has been missing since.
• Bullying a Dragon: Happens often, mostly involving mortals or Badass Normals challenging supernaturals.
  • The Iteok once tried invading the DCP. They only got as far as they did because the DCP played with them before stomping them flat.
  • Don't kidnap Alessa Ultanos or threaten her life, or her daddy (or one of his Physical God friends) will ruin your life.
  • Many have often mocked, insulted or shamed Kezoreg for being an abomination or a stupid kid despite the fact said stupid kid can toss around tanks.
  • The Kraw Empire tried to exile most of the foreign powers that had settled their galaxy. Many on their list however were centuries ahead of them and controlled vast swathes of territory such as the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth yet the Kraw attitude was "get out or face our wrath".
  • The Tyrekian Dominion did this with extra Too Dumb to Live a few months later. They reasoned attacking the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus for territorial gain was suicide, yet the Draconid Imperium (who are by many measures as advanced and extensive as the Empire) was deemed a juicy target.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Empress Minarela of the Regellis Star Empire. Her reaction to Admiral Tai'Rex attempting to attack the New Cyrannian Republic was goofy and silly in nature, yet she is competent enough to have her entire empire remain hidden from public knowledge for several years, and become one of the most powerful civilizations of Quadrant 89.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Largely justified since the majority of aliens use words for such analogues they they came up with. Words such as "butter", "fruit" and "coffee" still get used for the sake of the reader understanding.
• Canon Discontinuity: The usual fate of fiction done by inactive users is either being retconned out of existence or being given to someone else to take care of it, often with massive reworks. One notable example is the Tyrekan Dominion.
• Canis Latinicus: High Dracid (the main language of the Draconid Imperium) sounds vaguely Latin-esque, with some evidence that these languages are (courtesy of Draconis Ancient Astronauts) related. Several species of the Cyrannus Galaxy (the Libertus and the Basileus, to be precise) also use Romanesque names both for people and places, although Cyrannian Basic itself (if a couple of gratuitous Cyrannian phrases are any indication) isn't exactly similar to Latin (it does sound vaguely Romance, though).
• The Chessmaster: The Bisistar Domain is an entire nation of Chessmasters. Some of their commanders have single-handedly subjugated entire civilizations using nothing but strategic thinking and elaborate planning. It is also hinted that several of those subjugated civilizations are not even aware that they're being manipulated.
• Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Averted. The most prominent human faction with territory and influence in almost every galaxy? France.
• City of Gold: The various skyscrapers of the Draconid Imperium's metropoli are described as "spires of gold and glass." The Obvia'Atra's Fluffy Cloud Heaven was potentially even more abundant in gold decoration and while more of a fortress than a city, the interior of the bastion of the Sons of Hedon was positively smothered in patterned gold.
• City Planet: The Kicath are especially fond of this trope. There are also a couple by others, such as the Empire of Cyrannus' Orbispira, the New Republic's Coruanthor, and the Kingdom of Agethime's Aquoshire.
• City Noir:
  • Most Kicathian metropoli fit this trope. They always build high, prefer plain grey or silver and for some reason enjoy sites where it is constantly raining. Also the local police force are more likely to kill criminals on sight than detain them and give them a fair trial.
  • It's possible UNO cities also fit this given that crime and prostitution is not only shrugged at, but actually encouraged thanks to The System.
• Civil War:
  • "house wars" in the Draconid Imperium are when the aristocracy stop being civil in their power games and start throwing nukes and turbolasers around. So far there have been three big ones.
• Combat Tentacles: The favorite means of combat of all Corruptus demons. The chimera Vorius also fights by turning parts of his body into tentacles.
• Cosmic Horror Story: The short story "Destinies in time". Considering the influence of demonic beings, the whole universe during the War of Ages and the Second Coming arcs could come under this. Another example is the "The Ancients' Legacy" arc of the Second Borealis War.
• Conspicuous Consumption:
  • Falrik Zaarkhun was very prone to this, what with the Iron Fist's interior being plated in gold. Depending on the story the Draconid Imperium appears to be either this or Simple, yet Opulent.
  • Played with by the Sons of Hedon before their change in loyalty: whose armour, weapons and fortifications were infamously gaudy and smothered in gold. Their visual opulance had nothing to do with apparent wealth, they simply enjoyed living in such opulence due to the warped tastes of their dynast, the "anything I want I get" treatment of Drakodominatus Overseers and were one of the favoured Overseer legions of the Tyrant.
• Crapsack World: While the Gigaquadrant as a whole is hardly crapsack, some individual galaxies such as Ottzello, pre-Second War Borealis and Dysnomia Andromeda certainly qualify.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Draconid Imperium's following of Drakon's Path is a subversion as it contains a mix of Christianity (churches, one god and a messianic figure) and Confucianism (sacred texts treated as a guide). Other religions play it more straight.
• Cruel Mercy: Commander Tonbas Credavan believed this was a more severe punishment for the Kralgon Emperor, with the latter even asking for death as a dying wish. Being surrounded by psychopathic supersoldiers, Loron and a chronic cannibal however, Tonbas' words go ignored and the Emperor got his wish.
  • This was the fate of General Volim at the hands of Kolossus. Forced to spend eternity drifting in the interuniversal void immune to hunger, asphyxiation, death or thirst while being constantly forcefed the corpses of his own dead children. Most of the heroes believed that this punishment was just too cruel even for Borealis' answer to Atilla the Hun.
    • When a different group (with some veterens) encounter him in Santorakh's realm they discover that he had become Santorakh's personal plaything, learning that Santorakh's tortures and influence had eventually turned him into a tortured mass of scarred flesh wishing only for death.
  • In one of the Furia Ex Deus short stories, Uriel uses an And I Must Scream device to effectively immortalise a would-be assassin for this very reason because the man did not fear execution.
  • Kolossus himself was "cursed" by Mac with the same affliction the latter had been living with after the former's defeat. Becoming "sub-immortal", he was depowered to the point where two of his most powerful servants could theoretically destroy him if they were so inclined. And given one is an obscenely self-centred Social Darwinist with is own case of A God Am I and powers to boot, this period was a nightmare for him.
• Cultural Posturing: Any specist empire tends to think this of themselves. Most notably the Basileus, Bisistar and Draconis. Tahars will think this to anyone who is not an atheist.
• Cyberspace: The Andromedan Virtual Network and the Theian Technocracy's Afterworld Engine. The finale of the first act of Tantummodo Mortem took place inside a simulation of the interior of the Xhodocto intelligence Xharn.
• Damsel out of Distress: Aoirtae is captured by an Inquisitor during the Cyrannian Cold War and taken to an Imperial slave colony. As she is being dragged away, she unleashes the power within, throwing off her captors and rescuing herself just as her friends arrive to save her.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Extremely common as a backstory. For example, Falrik Zaarkhun's villainy was caused by him being mistreated by his poor mother and later barely escaping the government when they decided to genocide the poor population.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • When most of the users are in their mid-to-late teens the original game is very tame compared to what happens in this Crapsack universe.
  • The Realities Altered history Dysnomia manages to be even darker and edgier than most of the rest of the fictionverse.
• Deadpan Snarker: Most of the characters have their moments, but special mention should probably go to the Loron and TIAF, where it's hard to find a time when they're not snarky.
• Decadent Court: While characters can be examples of Reasonable Authority Figure, the aristocracy of the Draconid Imperium tends to be this in general. Deconstructed however in that the system has long been designed to take advantage of the power games in play to keep the Imperium a competitive power.
• Death World: The Mendel homeworld is notable for not only being home to several Kaiju sized beasts that make a habit of devouring whole cities, but three of the top 10 deadliest creatures in their galaxy are native to their world.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance:
  • A given in a setting where Xenofiction is the norm. In New Dawn for instance, where Tiny, the Dumb Muscle Mighty Glacier of the New Dawn's crew bites a Brotherhood soldier in half. He's only doing what he learned as a slave of the Gros and triggers revulsion in the other crew members. All except for Tarsus, who muses he'd like to do something similar to the backstabbing Ice Queen Sida'kuul who is primarily the reason WHY the Brotherhood are running around her city trying to gun the New Dawn's crew down. For Draconis, feasting on your enemy isn't an abhorrent act.
  • For a time, the Kraw Galaxy was awash with a wave of "Draconidophobia", a term for when the member states of the Kraw Federation lived in paranoid fear the Draconis would invade civilized space and enforce their rule upon them. An eerie analogue of McCarthyism as the species of the Kraw Galaxy are deeply passionate about democracy - something they believed the Draconid Imperium was not. The Kraw species could not for the life of them understand how the Imperium lasted so long as a constitutional monarchy.
  • For the Hollywood Atheist Tahar, the idea of becoming an advanced civilization and still holding on to values that one can consider religious is almost mind-blowing. As a result, they tend to label any empire that is not athiest as "primitive". Yes, even that Higher-Tech Species they just bumped into.
  • Zazane believe in purity of form. As a result, most are averse to any kind of genetic augmentation or cybernetics. This stretches to aliens. If you're an alien cyborg or supersoldier expect to be berated harshly for your cowardice in agreeing to such enhancements.
  • The Aeoneonatrix are devoutly religious in their pursuit of vanquising evil. Having a Physical Religion where their patron diety is said to be the most benevolent being in existence who believes in only the triumph of good over evil, most Aeoneonatrix wouldn't think twice about giving him their soul, in fact it's a core aspect of the induction to their religion. Unfortunately other civilizations aren't so lenient with the use of one's soul, and it often baffles the Aeoneonatrix why so many would rather not give the ultimate gift or the most benevolent thing ever. However their patron's pursuit is more Utopia Justifies the Means than any of them realise.
  • To the Draconis, people who smile with any teeth showing are giving them a Slasher Smile. No exceptions or middle ground.
  • Kicath hold a very absolutist view of the universe. And settle for nothing less than total eradication when their empires are slighted. This strict view of the universe however makes diplomacy difficult.
• Depraved Bisexual: Kol Daren. He desires the annihilation of all life that didn't come from him. While he rapes women to make them hosts for his spawn, cases of man-on-man are purely for kicks.
• Determinator: You don't get well known in the gigaquadrant unless you're willing to shake off literally everything to emerge triumphant.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In a universe where regular mortals fight eldritch abominations on a regular basis, it's to be expected. The earliest and most famous example was when Master Kroc fought and defeated the setting's counterpart of Satan and trapped him in a sword in the end of the War of Ages.
  • Several wars and eras seem to conclude with fighting or somehow casting down a being of godlike power.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The Asgord Genocide started because Emperor Aoblix of the ULE was petted against his will by an Asgord.
• Doom Troops: Several militaries have their soldiers fitted with cybernetics or wearing body armour or Powered Armour that could be considered intimidating.
  • Soldiers in the Imperial Talon Navy are highly-trained Faceless Goons in the literal sense that where you'd normally have a face, you get a blank metal plate. Talon Marines take it further by donning SPARTAN-style power armour dialed up to 11. The Blood Dragon Guard take a different approach in that their armour is both ornate and menacing. Both branches of the Guard are painted in a rather menacing-looking crimson.
  • The marines of the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus wear specialised uniforms to incite intimidation in their opponents and keep citizens in line. Compared to other examples however, this is as far the dread goes.
  • This was the point of the Overseers of the Drakodominatus Tyranny: Each division genetically bred, trained and equipped to instill maximum fear into the Tyranny's enemies. They'll even further reinforce this trope by fighting psychotically on the battlefield.
  • The Agents of both the Kicath Empire and Remnant: When a squad of agents step onto the battlefield, its a cue for the enemy to start thinking twice about holding ground.
  • The Grand Inquisition and its evil counterpart. The former goes for the more ecclesiastical - but still intimidating - "holy warriors of judgement" look (including dragon-headed helmets) while the latter goes for the more traditional "blackened spiky armour of doom" look. But both are designed to instil intimidation and doubt into anyone facing them.
• Divine Right of Kings: Various cases from being ordained by a religion to gods ruling empires
  • The Draconizane Dominion holds that their God-Emperor Kordan Rex was hand-picked as Zr'An'Kar's herald. An invoked trope because Zr'An'Kar turned up several times in Kordan's life to further encourage him to ever greater heights of dominance.
  • Depending on who you ask, the Paragon of the Draconid Imperium was either the chosen by Drakon, a mortal angel, or an incarnation of said god. Various cults of the Paragon take it further, asserting the figure to be a Physical God in their own right.
  • The various incarnations of the Church of Spode believe their heads of state are chosen by The Messengers, angels who serve the omnipotent Dei'Nar. On more than one occasion however, said head of state is in power because of The Coup (such as Tadjamad or Jaharic). Simply believing their ascension is what the Messenges had intended.
  • According to Zazane mythology, Zagdala Breek was the chosen champion of the deity Vaxal Myraad, being the first ever Descended Being. Deconstructed as both Zagdala and the Breek Bloodline inspire revulsion and dread among Zazane. Something plenty are glad to see the back of after the death of Tyraz Breek.
  • Played dead straight with the Rambo Royal Family. A celebrated lineage whose right to rule is thought to come from the Atlantica.
  • Warlord Hez'Kalka. An interlocutor between the Xhodocto and their mortal subjects, he is the closest thing to a chosen master of the Deathmarch even after Anzilanarus was inserted above him into the infernal hierarchy.
  • Tyromairon looks to be establishing this, founding a solid cult of personality with his rule that marks him as the best thing to ever happen to the Cyrannus galaxy. Being an unfrozen Precursor (although he keeps that quiet), he's something of a secret God-Emperor.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him:
  • The Annihilation dropped a bridge ON THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.
  • Some fictions (such as the Ravenrii) have not even been given the dignity of an explanation as to their dissapearence.
• Dyson Sphere: Expect to find them in every empire above Type I in the Kardashev Scale. Most examples being of the "dyson swarm" variety.
• Earth Is the Centre of the Universe: Due to Earth's importance in the universe, this is actually considered by some. Aside from a few exceptions however, humans are usually not very major.
• Elaborate Underground Base: Plenty have been seen, with purposes including biolabs, warehouses, sanctuaries, military bases and outposts. Three very notable underground complexes include the Senate house on Orbispira's moon Corunnia, Tyrómairon super-secret Oikoumene lair in the very core of Orbispira and the Imperial Palace on Alcanti
• Energy Beings: The Eloa'Nar require some form of body to exist in realspace, either their own or someone else's. In other realms such as Inferno or Purgatory, this is not such an issue.
• The Empire: Although most factions will be described as an empire at some point and hold empire-like tendencies, prominent examples of The Empire include:
  • The Delpha Coalition of Planets: An Orwellian state ruled by an immortal God-Emperor complete with widespread manipulation the truth, encouraged loyalty, an all-encompassing surveillance body and expectations of supreme obedience. They mellowed out since the Great Xonexian Schism when the immortal council was overthrown from within. A Villain with Good Publicity as despite its obviously oppressive society, it is held in very high regard for its war against the forces of the Xhodocto.
  • The United Lanat Empire: Former masters of the Mirus galaxy before turning inward and facing assimilation into the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus. At best a despotic regime that put its significant military to good use.
  • The Galactic Empire of Cyrannus: Easily one of the setting's most characteristic examples. A military dictatorship ruled by an emperor that no one realises is an immortal godbeing with an enormousness military force, penchant for superweapons and a complete disregard for international relations that make it the most easily recognisable power wanting to taking over the universe. The Second Great Cyrannus War saw it engaged in a conflict against practically everyone in known space.
  • The Zoles Imperium: A militaristic monarchy known for its millennia-long war against piracy in the Borealis Galaxy. It has long promoted itself as a bastion of order and peace in a galaxy frequently overrun with pirates, crime lords and Eldritch Abominations.
  • The Divinarium: Known also as the Holy Empire of the Divinarium is a Church Militant state fond of launching crusades with ambitions of spreading the word of Spode. It is also an extremely collectivist society with an almost omniscient surveillance bureau that knows everything about everyone.
• Eternal English:
  • A precursor civilization can be around for millions of years. Whether a site is six million years old or sixty million years old, a character with a fair understanding of that language can decipher whatever inscription they find.
  • Averted with Dracid, as both Common and High variants are prone to linguistic drift. It just takes a lot longer for the High variant to change considerably.
• Evil Chancellor: Vesperon Maltris was revealed to be this at the end of the New Dawn era. Alexandre Valéry whe nhe was prime minister of France was of the "evil prime minister" variety, understanding he had the real power of the French Republic. Both of these try to play up the look of a respectful gentleman to the public and the leaders they serve.
• Expy:
  • Emperor Wormulus II. A mystical psychic leader of The Empire, immortal and immensely powerful. He have created his clones from his own flesh and blood to help him to rule his empire, but eventually, they have rebelled against him, and only by the sacrifice of the greatest hero of the empire the rebels were defeat. Where we have seen this before?
  • The fictionverse is dominated by expies to an extent. The Borealis Galaxy as a whole is a huge expy to Mass Effect.
• Family-Unfriendly Death:
  • The death of Empress Helenia of the FRA.
  • The execution of former Draconid prefect Tervos Valocanus was particualrly grisly.
  • The Domiantus are experts at executing people in the most gruesome way possible.
• Fantastic Racism: Quite a considerable amount due to differing cultures and a whole lot of Cultural Posturing.
  • The Cyrannian Empire mixes this with Cultural Posturing by telling its citizens that Cyrannus is a bastion of order and civilisation while the rest of the universe is overrun with uneducated barbarians. But they pale compared to the Absolute Xenophobe Basileus society. Where a single Basileus might expect you to find it an honour to be standing before them.
  • Humanity gets a very rough time of this. Not just because they are seen as naive puny argumentative and irrational, some blame humanity as a whole for reawakening the forces of the Xhodocto. Some species act supremely baffled how humanity managed to gain hyperpower status in under 700 years.
  • Many Zazane look down on anyone weaker than they are. Not that hard when the average Zazane is three metres tall, built like a house, and raised in a way that encourages that kind of physique.
  • To the Niaka like Xeron and Xerkea, all Wranploer are power-hungry jerks. No exception.
  • The crown-prince of Fantastic Racism so far is High King Rambert. Whether it's believing all the Heer Stekeveel would run to the Hutter Kingdom given half the chance or believing that Xonexi is a spiraling pit of anarchy, division and bloodshed. Barring a few exceptions, Rambert seems almost blissfully unaware of how offensive he is being.
  • During Tzhrhokia, Kies' extreme paranoia painted all Draconis as barbaric slaver imperialists.
• Fiction 500: House Aknatazan are by far the wealthiest aristocratic family in Kicathian society. And if the Conspicuous Consumption by the Draconid aristocracy is anything to go by, the Imperium's various praetors could be their own Fiction 500.
• Fictional United Nations: The Xonexi Board of Six was formed at the end of the Great Xonexian Schism to keep the peace.
• Flanderization:
  • When introduced, Kalcedia Myran was a sniper who gained romantic fixation with her targets. Ever since it was revealed she moonlit as a prostitute on her-off days however its gotten to the point where she could be considered a bigger Lovable Sex Maniac than Hachiman.
  • Agent Nu has just gotten more and more insane thanks to Santorakh. He's now the only present-day Kicath seen so far with a visible sex drive.
• From Nobody to Nightmare:
  • Falrik Zaarkhun: Born into one of the billions of financially struggling Heeyorian families in Ottzello, a cull enforced by his government traumatised him and he rose to become no only one of the richest men in Borealis, but also its most powerful crime lord.
  • Volkarus Khaxvis. Originally a mid-ranking officer of the Khaxvis Resurgence, an opportune Descension by Tyraz and numerous subsequent grabs for power has made him one of the most dangerous entities in Andromeda. With his alliance with Br'Klakkon, he borders on Physical God status.
  • Maleus: Before he converted to the Congregation he was an admiral of little note. After the Inquisition of Drakon offed him, his soul spent who-knows-how-long drifting in Inferno before escaping only to be empowered by a Doomstone as a reward and get an invitation to join the Xhodocto Dominion's Eternal Circulus. Effectively giving him command over every Dominion mortal or descended below the Eternal Circulus.
  • Vesperon Maltris: As if a commoner holding the second highest position in an empire where lineage is everything wasn't concerning enough (for the aristocracy at least), he's been plotting for control of the galaxy since the Andromeda War. His machinaations were pivotal components of New Dawn and The Shattering and for a time he succeeded.
  • The French Empire is a national example: They rose from mediocre Orion Arm power to leading superpower so fast that much older civilisations, the Kicath in particular, are terrified of their potential.
• Future Slang: "Shyrak", "Houseless", "slag-sucker" and "Frak", to name a few. Although many of these words are new to us but are often old to the species that coined them. Familiar slang still gets thrown about though.

G-L

• Gargle Blaster:
  • Kicathian "death drinks". While most Kicath drinks are pretty strong, the easiest way to describe these particular drinks is "flavoured benzene".
  • Draconid wine, while not as lethal as a Kicathian death drink, can still hit you like a brick unless you have a very powerful liver or a lot of mass. While no specific alcohol content has been given, some users have imagined it is on-par with Absynth.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: The huge numbers of genetically-engineered supersoldiers aside, there is the Dominatus "Ultima serum", designed to turn any living thing into a hulking and supremely-adaptable superbeing (so long as you beat the one-in-a-million odds of survival) that can grow in power by consuming biomass.
  • The Rades were such savants with genetics that their technology and even architecture appears to consist of both inorganic components and organic tissue.
  • One Andromedan biotech firm provides Rades-derived technology that allows you to morph yourself any way you wish, which includes gaining increased muscle mass and growing extra arms.
• Gentle Giant: The Horder, a species of vaguely cow-like creatures members of the Brood of War. They are completely passive, laidback and very hard to anger. The Borealis Galaxy's Herame are nearly twice the size of a Horder and are one of the friendliest species in the galaxy.
• God of Good: Verezuon, Volzara, Carmetego.
• Good Is Not Nice: Several protagonist characters have gone to a few extremes to get the job done.
  • Empeor Wormulus II united the Grimbolsaurians under one regime and has had progress in mind ever since. He also has this rather nasty habit of landing his 140+km starship on the capital city of his defeated enemies in order to rub in how wrong they were to declare war on the DCP.
  • The Cleanser is an ascended and self-proclaimed crusader of good. It just so happens he pursues his goal of peace by by mind raping his enemies with torturous and guilt-trip inducing imagery until they beg for mercy and promise to change their ways.
• The Great Wall: The spacetime barrier around the Cyrannia Cluster. The only way in or out is thought naturally-occurring wormholes. Metric shields and barriers in general serve a similar purpose.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality:
  • Andromeda War: Both the TIAF and the Draconid Imperium have light qualities, they have also commited acts of massive and questionable devastation.
  • The Great Xonexian Schism, as every power fighting in it cannot be clearly defined as good or evil.
• Groin Attack:
  • How Triarch Jahric defeated the the High Prophet of Disdain. Somehow it was very effective against a cyborg fish.
  • Exagerated in the Tantummodo Mortem arc. Kezoreg kills Dreamy Kalcedia by smashing her groin so hard he smashes right through it.
• Hegemonic Empire: If a major power is not outright The Empire or The Federation, it is very likely this.
  • The Draconid Imperium would have counted as The Empire due to Cultural Posturing, slavery in all but name, an immense military force and an apathetic aristocracy. It just happens to be really good at looking attractive: Holding a heroic reputation like the DCP, a reputation for skilled diplomacy and a mission to keep on very friendly terms with everyone while expanding though a policy of good deals, friendly posturing and being deeply embedded in universal trade.
  • The French Empire acts similarly to the Imperium minus half of the vices. Beyond the core "Metropolitan" territories in the Milky Way it exists as more The Federation but still has a sovereign for life with some ambitions of at least political hegemony over known space.
  • The Pan-Andromedan Ecumene is this for Andromeda itself as well as outlying territories, being a union of Inner Andromeda's major civilisations and their related territories in order to create a more unified Andromedan civilsiation. Because of the disproportionate amount of influence the Draconid Imperium holds within the council of highlords, some consider it the hegemonic empire of a hegemonic empire.
  • The Polar Crystal Alliance exists much like the Pan-Andromedan Ecumene, acting as both a unifying entity and government body over the Borealis Galaxy. Like the Ecumene, it is considered The Empire by detractors who accuse the Polar Council races of having a disproportionate amount of power.
• Hollywood Tactics: Mostly true for ground battles where the action typically focuses on specific characters. Vehicles such as tanks or aircraft are generally assumed to be in the background battle, leaving the main characters to kill off the infantry and bosses. Space battles can play it straight, where the strategy is often to blow up as many ships as possible, forcing the enemy to retreat or sending a boarding party to face the Big Bad
• Homage:
  • The Cyrannus and Quadrant Galaxies bear a good visual resemblance to the universes of Star Wars and Star Trek respectively. A few noteworthy incidents include
    • Apollo being abducted by the Neraida Gigamatrix and turned into one of them a la Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
    • Supreme Admiral Zillum's Super Star Destroyer was dubbed The Executor.
  • Cold Relays allow quick and easy travel throughout Borealis. Built by a race of precursors to which interstellar life has grown to be dependant on. Sound familiar?
  • During the Ice Age arc, Billig's arm was implanted with the AI duplication of Falrik Zaarkhun's mind. And it eventually took him over.
  • Dysnomia itself shares many traits with Warhammer 40,000, Devil May Cry and Hellsing. The main protagonist appears to be a blend of both Alucard and Dante, particularly their love for Guns Akimbo, demonic heritage (with Dante), a penchant for long red coats and bearing a similar hat to Alucard. Also he's as much of a Jerkass as Dante himself.
  • The Andromeda War's Battle for Alcanti pits the demonically-empowered Volkarus Khaxvis against Uriel Ultanos in the latter's throne room. Subverted in that it was a Curb-Stomp Battle and Tyraz ended up fighting Volkarus while Uriel lay bleeding out on the floor. The story the media were given however, played out exactly like the famed final duel of the Horus Heresy.
  • The Ryderallo Monster was a dead ringer to the Cloverfield monster.
• Humanoid Abomination: The Xhodocto have taken human forms occasionally.
• Humans Are Morons: A human tribe awakened the Xhodocto from their slumber, unleashing them into the universe once more.
• Humans Are Special: Averted but then later played straight: Until the rise in prominence of the Orion League and the Allied Terran Republic, humans had very little prominence. Come the Great Xonexian Schism however, and a new leading political power on the universal stage emerged: France.
• Humans Are Warriors: The French fought a war with half of the Mirus Galaxy, with no support from Andromeda, against at least 3 warrior races, and achieved their surrender.
• I'm a Humanitarian: The Loron as a whole are very prone to cannibalism, to the point they hardly even care about it. Character examples include the Wranploer Billig and the Kicath Incognito.
  • Draconis are mostly fine with cannibalism. They used to do it more prior to spaceflight.
  • The Orgaat culture thrives on it, needing it to keep their genetics stable, and to evolve new traits as they devour others.
• Hyperspace Lanes: Andromeda and Cyrannus both have official "hyperlane" networks criss-crossing them. With Andromeda having a hyperlane ring through its key inner systems. France, the DCP and the TIAF have hyperlane networks thoughout their territories.
• Implacable Man: The Perterrent, the blob-like abomination from Distant Planet, was notable for being able to overcome any obstacle (except lava). Putting a wall in front of it? It'd just break it down by forcing itself against it hard enough.
• Interspecies Romance: Romance between aliens is, surprisingly, not very common but existing cases are often very notable. Tyraz Breek (Zazane) has been in a relationship with Lezia (Asgord) and Iovera (Radeon). There is also implied romance growing between Apollo (Libertus) and Ramashe (Rambo Serindia).
• It Amused Me: Santorakh's reasoning for most of the things he does (when he's not being Ax-Crazy). It can easily cross into For the Evulz or Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humour. The entire arc of Tantummodo Mortem set within Insomnia is a perfect display of just what the horseman of famine does in his spare time.
• I Was Just Joking: Invoked by the Mechanic after his ascension in the Second Borealis War.
  The Mechanic: This is all great, I can feel the power...heheheh...HAHAHAHAA...nah just kidding.
• Japan Takes Over the World:
  • The capital of Earth is apparently Tokyo.
  • Taken a step further with the Yamato Interstellar Commune - A union of Far Eastern nations with Japan on top ruling an interstellar empire. Complete with affinities in genetic engineering and advanced computing technology.
• Kill the God: A common theme in fiction stories includes the destruction, either temporary or permanent, of one or more god-like entities. Examples include the War of Ages and its sequels, the Andromeda War and the Second Borealis Galactic War.
• Large and in Charge: Leaders of "might makes right" style species are often gigantic compared to other members of their species. The trope itself can be divided into four major categories:
  • Descended beings such as Kordan Rex, Kol Daren, Volkarus and the servants of Shu'Wokerama and Angazhar all became large due to the reality-bending nature of descension.
  • Some such as Pyrak Yannor, Volkarus, the Dominatus and the Head Overseers were enlargened through genetic engineering.
  • "Full" demons and godlike entities such as Shu'Wokerama, Shu'Ulathoi and the Xhodocto Horsemen are all positively enormous. One theory being that mortal minds perceiving them as gigantic to comprehend the immense power they have over reality.
    • Angazhar is the iconic example: He has at times resembled a giant demonic eyeball that takes up most of Inferno's sky.
  • Others such as Clericarch Iovera, General Zillum and Genreal Volim, Agent Nu and Kithworto just happen to be naturally tall.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Played for Laughs when Baptarion Light makes a textbook comment during the Second Borealis Galactic War in a fight against Skhánaróton-01. Only to be pulled back into reality moments later.
  Baptarion: One thing I don't like about this war is how all our enemies are always one-man armies. Can't we fight normal aliens for once? Or rather, not fight at all?
  Xerkea: Less whining more killing that thing.
• Legacy Character: The Draconis are a legacy species: History Reawakens and various ancient art indicates the first Draconis were more like Snake People.
• Lightning Bruiser: Supersoldiers and Essence-powered beings tend to be this, displaying tremendous amount of power while still being incredibly fast. A prime example of this are Kicath Agents, who are built not unlike super advanced tanks and can run at very high speeds. Agent Tau, the fastest Agent of all, has a maximum sprint of 221mph.
• Lovecraftian Superpower: Extremely common with users of malevolent essences. Entropic Energy users are all known for being able to sprout seemingly infinite amounts of tentacles out of their bodies.

M-S

• Mad God: While the Mali'Nar qualify, the Xhodocto Santorakh is the prime example of this trope. He's an omnipotent entity with reality-destroying powers, and he's completely bonkers.
• Magic by Any Other Name: Essence is this. It is explained and is generally working under some rules, but still. Ultraterrestrials' powers can also qualify:
  • Elemental Energy : one of the most common essences, used by many species. Tropes: Life Energy, Green Thumb, Petal Power, Holy Hand Grenade, Mind over Matter
  • Chaos: Power of the Void, Reality Warper
    • Demonic Energy: Black Magic, Playing with Fire, The Dark Side
    • Entropic Energy: Black Magic, The Virus, Demonic Possession
    • Descension Energy: Bad Powers, Good People, Magma Man, Unstoppable Rage
  • Celestial: White Magic, Holy Hand Grenade, Brainwashing for the Greater Good, Jedi Mind Trick, Light 'em Up
    • Mystic: White Magic
    • Psionic Energy: Mind over Matter, Psychic Powers, Shock and Awe
  • Chronoscopic Energy: Time Master, Gravity Master
    • Dark Chronoscopic Energy: Power of the Void, The Dark Side
• Man in the Machine: The Purgatory Guard wear sets of Powered Armour that, in the event of the wearer being killed, will stand up again and keep fighting.
• The Masquerade: Tyrómairon has taken great steps to ensure that his identity as an Oikoumene is unknown in the eyes of the public. Ever since their creation the Grand Inquisition (and its previous incarnations) have been working diligently to make sure that gods, demons and supernatural artifacts are not public knowledge.
• Mega City: City Planets aside, the Draconid capital of Minos'Drakon is home to over 450 million people, not counting the commuter belt.
• Mile-Long Ship: Most superadvanced empires field warships that are measured in kilometres.
• Master Race: Dominatus, although only numbering a million, believe they are the master race, with super intelligence and super strength to boot. The Wranploer also used to see themselves as this. The Basileus are more blatant at it as while the Galactic Empire preaches that life in Cyrannus is superior to the life forms of the "Outer Gigaquadrant" (with one or two exceptions), with the Capricynae perhaps a step up, the Basileus consider themselves superior to other Capricynae.
  • Downplayed with the Draconis, smug bastards as they are. Although they will look down on those without a lineage from the Crown Worlds, "Draconis" is actually more of a mantle held by a mix of species that share values and the top spot of the social pyramid. It's possible to become one but a rare thing to hear about.
• Meaningful Name: Barring shout-outs we have:
  • Vorius. an amorphous blob that eats people
  • Volkarus. "Volk" being a german word for "folk", which for a time was his favourite meal.
  • The Cyrannian Empire's core worlds grand mandator is named Ceasarius. Three guesses as to the kind of person he is.
  • Uriel means "light of God" in Hebrew. Pretentious, but he is seen as Andromeda's best hope for a united Andromeda.
  • This was intended for Invictus (Latin: unconquerable), but became rather ironic given what happened to it.
  • The Empyrean Guard are the personal guard of the draconid paragon (who is the head of a cult of personality) and the garrison of the related palace.
  • For that matter Paragon, while a corruption of the Dracid word, is no less meaningless given the fact paragons are generally prime specimens of physical and mental condition.
  • The Cretacea family, before a major retcon were known as the Cretaceous family.
  • Tyrómairon. He's about as ancient and enigmatic as his name implies.
  • Eolania Iovera Menoraim. "Vera" is Latin for "true" and Russian for "faith", while "Menoraim" is a play on Menorah, a Jerwish symbol; all these meaning apply as she is the High Priest of the persecuted Proud Scholar Race.
  • There are plenty of in-universe examples of this going on too.
    • Old Fordan is built on this. Names aren't given, they are earned. "For'Dan'Ta" itself translates roughly as "kindred". Hel'Bre'K's name means either "Champion of the Ancients" (less likely after his age was retconned from 2000 years to 126) or "Blade of Woe". Fitting given his his reputation as a One-Man Army and tendency to descend into an Unstoppable Rage.
    • Hachiman was named by his parents after a Japanese war spirit revered by his former clan. He prefers being called "Hachi" though.
    • Paragavatus in High Dracid translates as "master king". Seems apt for a Hegemonic Empire.
    • Uriel again, as his and his father's name is a corruption of an ancient word from ancient times on Alcanti that meant "peacekeeper".
    • Apolithanatár, the powerful Oikoumene Lord of Light, is said to mean "Eternal Starlight" in an ancient Oikoumene tongue.
    • Some figures have noted how bizzarely similar Tyraz's name sounds to "tyrant". Particularly due to the rather grisly form of governance he practiced as the Zazane emperor.
• Mega City: Numerous examples in all flavours, as many of the larger empires support very large urbanised populations. Minos'Drakon - one of the most prominent examples - has a population comparable to that of the United States in its metropolitan area alone. And unlike other examples (like Paris or Araveene City) it doesn't span an entire continent.
• MegaCorp: The Borealis Consortium Network was at its height the most powerful business venture in the first gigaquadrant. Even after its collapse you have PMCs like the Soltako Armed Military who not only had armies, but also their own ships, weapon industries and R&D divisions.
  • Thanks to a big part of its of its aristocracy being CEOs or major shareholders, the Draconid Imperium is filled with these.
• Mighty Glacier: Larger creatures with no cybernetics or Essence tend to be this. An example of this trope played straight are the Cold Loron, who are tougher than regular Loron but slower in speed.
• The Mole: Primarch Matheoward Alvarie during the Andromeda War, who was secretly working for Master Br'klakkon.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Spinkers have shark-like teeth which they constantly shed over their lives. They have an average of 60 teeth on their mouths in 3 rows, and since they can live nearly 900 years, some Spinkers can shed over a million teeth over their entire lifespans. Mendel can have anywhere from 50-55 teeth, and two large tusks in their jaws as well.
  • The Unfathomable, an Eldritch Abomination residing in the Chaos realm of Tangent, is described by Kithworto as being 'a million rows of a million teeth' with a size that 'made the universe appear like the eye of a needle'.
• Mysterious Past: Characters with backstories like these turn up, often appears with Time Abyss, The Dreaded or Sealed Evil in a Can type characters. The Draconid Imperium is an empire so old that not even its own historians can tell you everything.
• Nanomachines: It is generally agreed that most empires have some degree of nanotechnology and it has been used as a plot point such as the short story Morphis Rises to the Nanohorde crisis. It's most significant users are the Unified Nation of Ottzello (UNO) though "The System"; a nanotech colony in every citizen which can do everything from healing wounds, increasing intelligence and bestowing super strength...to telling you exactly what to do at any given moment, which includes committing crimes up to and including murder and assassination.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: The Dracogonarious are a rare benevolent example. Their bites, however, are known to be as potent as an Earth saltwater crocodile, and they are not afraid of using them.
• Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy: The Ambrosan Society is a loosely organised collective of the First Gigaquadrant's rich and powerful elite. Who by the beginning of the 27th century had a vice-like hold on the Draconid Imperium.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: During Tantummodo Mortem, Apollo provoked Santorakh to attack him, causing him to damage the infrastructure of the megaconstruct Draynia to the point it was destroyed. Apollo's team's exact mission was destroying the place in question.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Carmetego delivered one against Shu'ytrogarva during Dreams of Destruction after being revived by the Onuris team. He erupted out of the demon's back while he was in the air, wrapped his tail around him, crash-landed with him from a height of over 50 meters and broke every bone of his body in revenge for previously having shattered him.
• Non-Action Guy: Captains of Cyrannus factions almost always prefer spaceship combat over ground battles, being safe from being in the front lines and instead leading their fleets into war.
• Nonhuman Humanoid Hybrid: There are multiple. The most known example is Kezoreg Breek, who has a Zazane father, an Asgord mother and inherited blood from a Xhodocto, making him a three-way hybrid. Other examples include Empress Maryah (Spinker/Dracogonarious), Kol Daren (Driz Zazane/Ottzelloan Zazane), the entire Draconizane race (Draconis/Zazane) and Iovera's kids (Radeon/Zazane).
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: The Zazane are well known for their females having large breasts, even though they are draconian creatures. Justified that they are aliens and their breasts are indeed used to nurse their young, and they are classified as synapsids (reptilian with mammalian traits).
• No Biochemical Barriers: Zig-zagged. Most aliens can breathe, eat, drink and kiss in atmospheres presumably different from their homeworld. Although they might all be wearing rebreathers so sophisticated they're practically invisible to the naked eye. Most aliens can eat alien food and drink too with no adverse effects (justified by the Civilisation who promote foodstuffs engineered to be edible to a wide variety of species). However interspecies hybrids have been shown to be impossible without the use of science or divine intervention.
  • Handwaved with ascended/descended beings in that they don't follow the common laws of nature anyway.
  • Kicath however are a straight-up aversion; water acts like bleach to their silicon-based biologies. So most foodstuffs are deadly.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: When most factions regularly face off against galactic-level threats, the odd occasion where such characters turn to a smaller scale problem become this.
  • Wrath Of The Imperium is a series of short stories where military assets of the Draconid Imperium face off against much smaller-scale empires. A single fighter drone becomes a Boss Fight and Elite Mooks like Talon Marines become The Dreaded when facing a technologically inferior opponent.
  • In a heist gone south for one Andorian smuggler, a single cruiser may as well have been a heavily armed battleship. In the wars of the Gigaquadrant however, such ships are often quickly fodder.
  • A semi-canon story recounts a preindustrial Drodo physician records studying the corpse of a Draconis. While the species does not stand out; largely non-psychic and not nearly as physically large or strong as something like a Loron, to the 5ft tall physician however, "dragon" is an entirely appropriate label.
• No-Sell: High-level supernaturals often display this when attacked by conventional weapons, even weapons designed to destroy starships.
• Nothing Is Scarier:
  • The third variation is used during the Second Borealis Galactic War, when the PCA team investigates a Borealis Grox shipyard. They arrive to it, expecting a major fight, only to find it devoid of life...except there was something in there, and it knew they were there.
  • During Tantummodo Mortem, the same shipyard appeared as part of Arkarixus' nightmare. Cue Oh, Crap! from the team's Borealis War veterans.
• Not What I Signed on For: A reborn Oniron Voxis, after realising that House Khaxvis was far far worse than he imagined, Managed to survive the destruction of Volkarus flagship return to the Imperium and sign up to Wraith Legion to become "Soredus".
• Omniglot: Most Kicath are fluent in five or six foreign languages, mostly out of preference as Kicathian is horrendously complicated.
• Only Sane Man: Tonbas Credavan is a comparative this the bulk of the elite team in the War Of Cleansing Flames. While not the only one, when you have a horde of the Rogue Boyz warbosses, Kalcedia Myran, Nu and Billig for much of the focus, he's pretty much the only one with a straight screw in.
• Our Angels Are Different: You can find three different kinds of angels in the fictionverse: the Obvia'Atra, the Vi'Navitum and the Thoi'olerthae.
  • The Obvia'Atra were Jerkass, Narcissist archangels with a complete Lack of Empathy and disregard for all mortal life.
  • The Vi'Navitum are a race responsable for seeding universes with life and once worked together with the Vyro'Narza to imprison the Xhodocto. However, when humanity freed the Xhodocto, the Vi'Navitum grew to become spiteful, aggressive beings who would rather cleanse all life in this universe rather than anything else.
  • The Thoi'olerthae are feminine wisp-like Energy Beings who can see into the minds of all creatures capable of dreaming and act as their guardian angels. Of the three "angel" races, the Thoi'olerthae are the only genuinely benevolent one and the only one to care for mortals.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Most of the universe is populated by reptiles or synapsids, a good half of them are dragonlike. The four most prominent examples are the Dracogonarious, Spinker and Draconis and Zazane.
  • Draconis are big, intelligent and quite often centuries old. While they look like your typical western dragon, they can't breathe fire but are the second-strongest of the four.
  • Zazane are super-strong, aggressive, yet despite those wings they can't fly and their biology is laced with noticeable traces of Applied Phlebotinum. Said Phlebotinum is however killing them over the course of several generations.
  • Dracogonarious are most likely to be found in a labatory or a scientific expedition and are the most "scholarly" variation of the four you can get. They can also potentially outlive a Draconis.
  • Spinkers are the warriors of the Indoctrinate collective, can be quite tempermental and are in line much more with sharks than dragons. Due to their serpentine tails, batlike wings, horns and clawed feet, they're more like half-shark-half-dragon.
• Our Dwarves Are Different: Togunda are nomadic asteroid miners, known for being short, grump and combative, but, unlike most Dwarves, derive much of their culture from Maori and South Polynesia.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: At up to twelve metres tall, Dominatus are perhaps the largest sapient beings in the gigaquadrant, Justified in that their bodies are a good part cybernetics and internal reinforcement. Serving them are the Overseers, who are cloned from kidnapped templates of other gigaquadrant species and dosed with a Super Serum that can make them up to literally ''twice'' as tall as normal. Bear in mind that most spacefaring species measure roughly two-and-a-half to four mentres tall, and there are plenty who are even taller.
• Outside-Context Problem: Enough of these have happened that the concept has gotten somewhat predictable, but there are incidents where even societies thoroughly familiar with an invasion from the Legions of Hell get caught with their pants down.
  • The Gigaquadrant's first encounter with the Draconizane involved Tyraz's flagship being attacked by an armada with considerable firepower. Who boarded the Ghost of the Warrior, kidnapped an Andromedan highlord with barely any hint as to why, leaving without a trace hint of just where they went or why Tyraz was so special to them.
  • The Aetomarchis arriving on an ancient Alcanti. Not only was he the first case of a Zazane in the First Gigaquadrant hundreds of thousands of years before anyone would know what one was, he introduced a completely alien form of energy that lingers in the biology of an entire species to this day.
  • The Mali'Nar practically thrive being outside context. Most think only of themselves so a general motive is impossible to find. The more powerful Malis are capable of transforming entire planets or redefining the laws of physics just because they feel like it.
  • The basis of the Holy Shadow War is this. Thousands of planets across the Gigaquadrant are suddenly dealing with a Zombie Apocalypse with no clear sign as to why or how this is happening. While solutions for how to stop it never got very far beyond beyond vapourising the crap out of everything.
• Perky Female Minion: Hellhuntress Telfinne fit this trope perfectly. She was an insane psychotic murderous demoness... who really wanted a hug.
• Physical Religion: Any religion based around any of the godraces. They still get unbelievers to them, for some reason.
  • The Aeoneonatrix's religion is also like this. Though he has appeared in multiple stories some users do not consider the Cleanser (the patron god of the Aeoneonatrix) to be existent in canon. The same goes for anyone worshiping a member of the League of Patrons.
  • The Spore Cult if certain events on the Universal Discussion board are to be accepted as canon.
• Planet of Hats: A fair number of examples because it is easier to portray. Often Proud Warrior Race Guy (eg. Zazane). Natives of the Kraw Galaxy are typically extreme examples of this (sometimes bordering on Scary Dogmatic Aliens ).
• Portal Network: The Divinarium uses portals for prett-ymuch any kind of travel while the Draconid Imperium has littered its territory with wormholes.
• The Power of Love: Tyraz's affections for Iovera give him the strength he needs to stab Master Br'Klakkon right in the face and finally bring an end to the Andromeda War.
• Precursors: Most galaxies have a bunch of them.
  • The Draconid Imperium may count as a living example due to acting as Ancient Astronauts to mankind and potentially lots of other races as well as creating numerous sapient races across Andromeda and the Milky Way.
• Private Military Contractors: Those litter the Arm of Wildness of the Borealis Galaxy, introduced by the Borealis Consortium Network to create a system of culling the weak in favor of the strong. They are not associated with any empires and cause war in the name of whoever hired them. As such, the Polar Crystal Alliance considers being a mercenary a galactic crime.
• A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: Quite a few and often the rise of such people is largely happenstance rather than prophecy. And given the wide-spectrum morality of the setting, we have both good and evil examples of this.
  • Emperor Wormulus II, who managed to unite the warring Grimbolsaurian factions, lead them in an age of stellar expansion and has guided the Delpha Coalition of Planets to become one of the most powerful factions in the modern Gigaquadrant who are well on the path to transsapients.
  • Apollo was the last president of the United Republic of Cyrannus prior to the formation of the Galactic Empire, and has been noted as a legendary politician, diplomat and force for order and peace. After several years on the run from the Empire, he returned to the Gigaquadrantic stage as the founding father of the New Cyrannian Republic and later, the massive intergalactic alliance known as the Mou'Cyran Accords, proving that one does not need to be the most physically powerful to change the cosmos.
    • That is until Tyrómairon came along and merged the URC and its chief rival the Confederacy of Allied Systems like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle into an even bigger hyperpower. Also being an ultraterrestrial the Empire is slowly (and secretly) being spoonfed the technology of the Oikoumene.
  • Uriel Ultanos. His actions during two (could end up as three with the coming Gigaquadrantic Conflicts) devastating wars have given several aliens the impression he is Andromeda's best chance of becoming a unified galaxy. Given his Badass Normal credentials include a reputation as a godslayer and being a charismatic speaker they might have a point.
  • Clericarch Iovera. With the collapse of the Second Masaari Crusade she led a group survivors (who had fled Tadjamad's rule out of protest) back to Andromeda and unified what was left after Tadjamad's death to create the Divinarium. And the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth? Yeah that was her proposal. Also she has godlike power over reality.
  • Aaand then there's Tyraz Breek. Born into a family in exile and treated like unwanted property because he was short (for Zazane short = weak), he took the throne of the Zazne Empire after his brother expired but only shortly before the Andromeda War did he decide on reformation, creating the more egalitarian Brood of War. Fifteen years on the Brood are one of the big three AGC members and the Zazane are becoming far more tolerant of non-Zazane.
  • Falrik Zaarkhun, while being a scheming sore and manipulative bastard of a Heeyorian, did create the largest and most propserous corporate consortium in Borealis, powerful enough to not only take on the Polar Crystal Alliance but set himself and Volim up as the foremost galactic power while also arguably creating a militaristic golden age with newer and more advanced weapons eclipsing older ones every month. His goal? No more governments, no more tyranny and no more nationalistic prejudice. Shame that all that corrupt capitalism fostered the very dystopian attitudes he wanted to wash away.
  • The Valader. While other examples are political leaders, The Valader was a warrior who had spent many years honing his psionic abilities. In the finale of the Psionic Lord Ascends here he he becomes Singul'Aren, the single most powerful user of Psionic energy in all of reality and a de facto leader for all those imbued with Psionic Energy to follow. His is a more classic tale in that he did eventually fight an ultimate evil in the end.
• Protectorate: If you're going to take over the galaxy, avoid trying to get rid of Apollo, Chaneonix won't like you. Uriel Ultanos is another example as despite already having a personal army, Andromeda's most feared and respected supersoldier and several Physical Gods have pledged to protect him. Including Kithworto.
• Puny Earthlings: Compared to 21st century terrans, most alien species are considerably bigger and stronger than we are. Some species, particularly in Mirus, have an outward disdain for how puny we are compared to them. Subverted and then played straight in that humans have evolved a little and that there are near-humans out there who are also bigger and/or stronger than we in the 2000s could ever dream of.
• Pyrrhic Victory: While the Xhodocto have never completely succeeded in destroying the First Gigaquadrant, every one of their attacks have resulted in catastrophic damage to the universe as a whole, with entire regions of space destroyed and trillions of lives lost. To say the Xhodocto are not a threat and never win at all is a very grave mistake.
• Psychopathic Manchild:
  • The Kralgon Emperor, especially by the mid-2790s. While before he was the most prone of UNOL to swearing, in becoming one of the leaders of the Ultimate Sovereignty of Ottzello he went completely off-the-rails and acting like he can do whatever the hell he likes without repercussions. Until the Omega Commander declares You Have Outlived Your Usefulness with the Emperor screaming that as the Commander's creator it has no right to do this.
  • The Loron could be considered an entire species of psychopathic man-children.
• Ragnarök Proofing: Precursor ruins can be millions of years old but remain explorable. Perhaps justified in that they are often built by Sufficiently Advanced Aliens.
  • While it is unspecified how long it's been abandoned, many of the systems in the Draconid Imperium's Elaborate Underground Base in the Alps still work. Their computers remained intact enough for a French expedition to download thousands of years' worth of data. Potentially justified as the Imperium uses Data Crystals for its computers instead of silicon microchips.
• Rape as Backstory: Dolgan Tuchaki was taken away by space pirates during her teenager days and was used as a sex slave for several decades, until she eventually snapped and became a villainous Hair-Trigger Temper Ice Queen. She got better, though.
• Rent-a-Zilla: On multiple occasions, characters and locations have been attacked by huge building-sized monsters such as the Dark Five and the Ryderallo Monster.
• The Republic: The United Republic of Cyrannus basically personified this, before being turned into The Empire. However, the formation of the New Cyrannian Republic a few years later once again epitomised an idealised republic.
• Ring World Planet:
  • Altranaya, a Sufficiently Advanced Alien -built ark in the Cyrannus Galaxy is the most prominent example but other torus structures have been seen. Fósepíst, another Oikouneme-buit artificial structure is significant in that it is a very wide contiguous surface.
  • Elysion is a pair of Bishop rings built by the Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth. Unlike the above two examples, it was built by modern races and not left behind by engimetic precursors
• Reference Overdosed: The entire universe would probably qualify, since nearly every nation of the Gigaquadrant probably has some reference or basis on other sci-fi series.
• Retcon: Plenty of them. Notable ones include those applied to new fictions, especially ones that start out as "too powerful" or deemed so by the community.
  • The Xhodocto have undergone major retcon a number of times before, going from being Always Chaotic Evil Legions of Hell to be morally ambiguous forces of nature beyond mortal and immortal understanding.
  • The Xarik-Radux (pronounced Kuh-Zar-Ick Reh-Duh-Kuz by the way) were originally a Scary Dogmatic Alien race in the Fiction Universe itself before they were retconned into interdimensional monsters which are part of another work with very little in relation to the SporeWiki Universe itself.
  • Tyrómairon was retconned from a rebelling, jealous evil-doer to a scheming, complex mastermind. In fact, most of Cyrannian's fiction had at least one major retcon in its history.
• Rule of Funny: The reason the Loron are not considered a terrible fiction is because of how funny they are.
• Running Gag: To lighten the often miserable tone, there are a few running jokes going around.
  • Hachiman can't seem to get very far without tripping over his own feet and hitting something.
    • In the story Distant Planet, him trying to speak with the indigenous life always results in him either being poked or thrown about.
  • Kalcedia has trouble discerning between sexual innuendo and normal speech.
    Kalcedia: It's all warm and sticky!
    Agent Nu: Quit with the sexual innuendo!
  • Kezoreg often makes either rude or immature comments, they're either blanked or he gets a mean stare.
  • Mortikran, a 4-metre tall sharkman and his fetish for mammals.
  • Sollow, being dead and having an advanced healing factor, was quite abusive to his own body, one time going as far as stabbing one of his own knives into his head to signify how much he didn't want to go somewhere.
  • Loron are easily fooled or stumped, even the experienced leaders like Fre'kloar.
    • Both Loron and Loron'Kikra cannot settle on which is the "copycat dumbo". Fights between Loron characters and their 'Kikra clones often devolve into a mix of fighting and even more insulting than normal.
  • The IRC channel has its own series of running gags. Including:
    • Kalcenia Myran approving of anything even remotely sexual.
    • Xhodocto characters often like to express their rage at something recent, often when it involves something cheerful or pleasant.
    • Banter between characters often involves on giving an order, and another resisting along the lines of "fight me!" or telling them to go away.
• Sanity Slippage: Most descended characters go through this. One of the most noteable is Volkarus Khaxvis who slowly decayed from a cunning and eloquant insurgent into a power-crazed madman with delusions of godhood over the course of three years.
• Saving the World: Along with Kill the God, saving the galaxy is an overall plot of a number of larger stories.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Falrik again. Grand House Valocanus often manage this when their members aren't staring down immortals or Honour Before Reason / Screw the Money, I Have Rules! types.
  • House Aknatazan. Helps that the family is by far the richest-known Kicath aristocratic house and has a history of giving birth to Physical Gods.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Alexandre Valery sticks out as one: Other heads of state might prefer some form of Costume Porn. The French Emperor has a fondness for a tailored navy-blue number and a Waistcoat of Style.
• Shining City: Minos'Drakon, Orbispira and several cities on the Rambo Capital (suich as Tirithsillania) are the most prolific named examples. Orbispira however is more of a Shining Planet given it is urbanised from pole-to-pole and from crust-to-core. Hyperborea could also count on similar lines to Orbispira, given that it is an artificial construct built around the Kormacvar homeworld.
• Shout-Out: By the bucketload.
  • During his exodus from Cyrannus, President Apollo managed the affairs of the Republic Remnant from a ship dubbed Colonial One.
  • General Zillum, after a crushing defeat by Republic forces during the Great Cyrannus War, had his body rebuilt by Tyrómairon in a secret lair becoming his most prized asset.
  • Continuing on with the Star Wars theme, Tyrómairon himself gave a similar speech to that of Emperor Palaptine at the end of their respective wars. Announcing the foundation of a galactic empire of unrivaled extent.
  • "Butter! That'll go great with my Grand Slam!", said by an ill-fated soldier of the TIAF.
  • During the Firestorm arc of the Andromeda War, the Brood of War relied on the expertise of one Commander Yarick to lead their forces to victory.
  • There was a time when several users were in the grip of loving the video game Dota 2. Many lines said by Dota heroes were mimicked by numerous characters over a two-month period.
  • My Little Pony references have also managed to make their way into fiction.
  • After Volkarus was crippled in a fight against Tyraz, his first act upon realising how much he had been deformed was to scream out Tyraz's name Kirk-style.
  • Larnus Vontarion devised a battle tactic that involved warp-hopping close to your oponent's ship and unleashing a full broadside. Not too dissimilar to a maneuver devised by Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation during his career.
• Single-Biome Planet: Most worlds have little variation in their landscapes.
• Skyscraper City: The universe has no shortage of them and the various metropoli occupy all levels of the spectrum between Shining City and Wretched Hive.
• Slave Brand: After learning that Medusa was responsible for the fact Alessa had spent several weeks as a slave servant in some minor empire, Uriel has the slavemaster who owned her branded with a mark that identifies him as both a slave and guilty of acting against the crown.
• Slave Collar: Slaves to the Gros wear helmets that are surgically fused against their craniums while slaves in the Draconizane Dominion wear thopse of the Shock Collar variety. Less barbaric are the registration ships the Draconid Imperium implants within its "sub-citizens"
• Sleeps with Everyone but You: Poor Hachiman, right now he's the only person in the universe Kalcedia wouldn't open her legs for. Ever. Word of God states that due to opposing essences, Kalcedia would be unable to sleep with Hachiman due to her being a case of Bad Powers, Good People and him being a God of Good. The resulting interaction would be like matter and antimatter.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Fairly cynical since most of the First Gigaquadrant's greatest powers boast massive armies of ruthless, well-equipped soldiers and each warship is armed with enough firepower to annihilate any Earth nation on their own. The cynical part? Gunboat Diplomacy is very popular in the setting. Several of these powers are not averse to taking entire planetary poulations as slaves sometimes with Cool and Unusual Punishment to boot. You either submit to their demands or stay the hell away from them. Where are the nice-guy idealists? With factions like this, often the only way to beat these ruthless powers is to be ruthless yourself. So (with a few exceptions) most empires that try to be nice to everyone tend to stay largely ignored by the superpowers. The most notable exceptions include the New Cyrannian Republic and Rambo Nation, both of which tend to conduct themselves with the utmost decorum while retaining their place as universal powers.
  • At least one user has pointed this out that the most successful empires in the First Gigaquadrant take every opportunity and not holding back. The rest, with the aforementioned exceptions, fading into obscurity.
• Sociopathic Soldier: Overlaps with Colonel Kilgore and General Ripper. Either way, there are plenty of examples of soldiers and officers in the Gigaquadrant who in theory are better off in a psychiatric hospital, not on the frontlines or in charge of a military outfit.
• Space Cold War: While briefly allied against the Cyrannian Imperial State during the New Cyrandia Wars, the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus and the New Cyrannian Republic became locked in a decade-spanning cold war, with both sides working to undermine the other for control of the Cyrannus Galaxy and the mantle of galactic governance. When the tensions expanded beyond Cyrannus, civilisations such as the Polar Crystal Alliance opened up their own front against the Empire in Borealis. In the fraught astropolitical climate however, both the Republic and the Empire's interactions with other powers were often carried out with an eye to the opposing side.
  • There is a consensus among the community that the Empire has been in a state of cold war with the Draconid Imperium some twenty years before hostilities between the NCR and the Empire reached Cold War like tensions.
• Space Elves: Many examples exist, most fit in either Type I or II and combine with dinosaurs. Due to creative tenancies, a number tend to border on the freakishly-tall side. Prominent examples include:
  • Radeons: Lithe, long-lived psychic mystics who live in shiny crystal spires, highly spiritual and compared to their neighbors, prefer diplomacy or espionage to frontline warfare.
  • Capricornians but Libertus and Basileus in particular: Tall humanoid raptors. The former are (in the New Cyrannian Republic at least) peace-loving, see democracy as the most noble form of government and ultimately wish for a universal community where everyone gets along. Libertus in the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus and Basileus however tend to demonstrate a superiority complex.
  • Danann-Danú: Elves in the truest sense who are members of the Allied Terran Republic. Lithe, beautiful, potentially immortal, and the Terran Republic's president is perceived as wise, graceful and haughty.
  • Arguably some humans (such as the French or the Japanese) have become this after modifying themselves to be nigh-immortal and extremely good-looking even when they're nearly a hundred years old.
  • Rovegar: Very tall fairy-like beings who life off life-force and display phenomenal psychic power.
• The Spymaster: Mentracus; the super-secret leader of the Draconid Imperium's Royal Intelligence Agency. So secretive that no-one knows who (or what) the hell he is.
• Starship Luxurious: The Iron Fist could be described as a two kilometre long Nero's Palace with enough firepower to glass a planet on its own. Warships of the Draconid Imperium and Galactic Empire of Cyrannus are stated to be luxuriously decorated as a status symbol of their respective empires. While it is suggested the Empire takes a modernist approach, the Imperium prefers to outfit its interiors to look like the inside of a five-star art nouveau hotel.
  • If the Iron Fist wasn't fancy enough with its walls of nanongineered solid gold, the interior decorators of the RASC Worldfather's Grace (The personal starship of Uriel Ultanos) are comparable to combining Versailles and Buckingham Palace.
• Start X to Stop X: Kol Daren believes that all the suffering and trauma in the universe is caused by mortals being selfish jerks. How does he plan to solve all this? Simple: Slaughtering every single living thing in the universe in the most sadistic and gruesome way possible.
  • The Tahar Empire reached the conclusion that any and all forms of religion spur nothing but ignorance, stupidity, intolerance and will always hold society back. Their plan to rectify all this is to aggressively abolish the concept of religion with the belief that their outlook on the universe is the only right one. They completely dismiss anyone who might suggest an alternative view.
• Status Quo Is God: Largely averted save for the Xhodocto and the Corruptus: If things ever went their way there would be no universe for there to be fiction in. This has unfortunately led to an apparently incurable case of Villain Decay for the Xhodocto themselves.
  • This has the opposite effect on Admiral Torrent. His uncanny ability to escape capture means no matter how hard police forces try they will never catch him and making him an ever-present threat to the galaxy.
• Strawman Political: Before reworks made after the original creator left, the races of the Kraw Galaxy could each be considered strawmen for various sociopolitical views.
  • The Kraw believe that a democracy is the ideal form of government and that anything else is an impediment to personal freedom. And they would hold picket protests for just about everything.
  • While most KG individuals are atheist, Tahar combine Hollywood Atheist with Insufferable Genius. They see any mention of the metaphysical as an affront to the laws of the universe and if they don't have an explanation for an observation, said observation is a mistake. This reaches egregious levels when the people they're trying to disprove are centuries ahead of them.
  • The Komorian Theocratic Empire is a clear mockery of Western Christian doctrine, complete with an obliviousness to the contradiction of an all-loving deity who punishes all non-believers by casting them into hell.
  • The Hakonians are trans-sapient with the opinion that machines are superior to organic life to the point where they consider nature (as in plants and animals) being obsolete in favour of a machine age. Their love of robotics is topped off by their preference for unit designations over more typical names.
  • The Iteok Khereg are horrifying brutes with a sadistic love for killing and are all-too-happy to brag about being able to take on gods. While passing themselves off as warriors, it is pretty clear they have no concept of honour considering they happily eat alien babies.
  • The Dagorian Mercenarium is profit motive taken to the extreme, where being broke is considered a perfectly good reason for being murdered and where the most powerful man in the mercenarium is also the richest.
  • Before being retconned into an "expand or die" society, the Tyrek were an imperialist and expansionist power whose population get complacent if their empire is not expanding though conquest fast enough for their liking. To the point where the Tyrek Emperor would declare war just for the prospect of new territory to appease his people for a bit.
• Scary Dogmatic Aliens: A fair few.
  • What reinforces the Black-and-Gray Morality of the fiction universe is there's the imperialist (DCP, Draconid Imperium) social darwinist (Brood Of War, Fordan Empire), and Church Militant (Divinarium) empires as the good guys.
  • The most common type of Dogmatism so far is Fundamentalism: Cogsangui, Ernai, Minga, Devourer's Chosen, Mahanayans, and, of course, Radeons. Second most common type is Conquistadorism: DCP, Junction, Zazane, and most of the Grox empires aren't the only examples. Communism is present as well with, partially, Zazane and Radeons. Nazism so far is the rarest hat on SporeWiki, the only major example being Basileus.
• Stronger with Age: As Loron get older, they get bigger and grow new features such as harder skin and wings. Levarcor and Zi-Jittoram grow continuously in size, strength and intelligence thoughout their lives, with elders becoming nightmarishly powerful.
  • Being a reincarnation of an evil god, Kithworto's potency with life and death energy increases continuously as he gets older. Since his current incarnation is older than the universe thanks to spending untold billions of years wandering though Hell, the only things that genuinely threatened him are the Xhodocto themselves or a demon trying to take over his mind.
  • The potency of an Eloa'Nar's ability to warp reality increases exponentially as they age, with truly ancient Nars such as Divin-Ra being capable of completely replacing the known rules of reality in any given area with their own with their presence alone.
• Stuff Blowing Up: This sums up big part of the wars' content. Ranging from vehicles blowing up, buildings blowing up, starships blowing up, people blowing up, etc.
• Stupid Good: The Second Borealis War was a big offender. There have been numerous times where the group have fallen for obvious diversions and traps. This is reflected in-universe in "Changing History" when the extragalactic powers start pointing out the Polar Crystal Alliance's incompetence. The Alliance's reaction however, was to argue among themselves and blame the Zoles for everything.
  • The Asgord Genocide started because of a cultural misunderstanding between the Asgord and the Tralor. That misunderstanding being that the Tralor consider unsolicited physical contact (like petting, which to the Asgord is a form of greeting) akin to rape.
• Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Varies: A lot of stories involve empires that are comparable to each other while some stories (such as the Asgord Genocide or the Second Borealis Galactic War) have the protagonists squaring off against technology they may have trouble understanding at the best of times and at the very worst it is completely beyond their comprehension.
• Sufficiently Advanced Bamboo Technology: The Draconid Imperium has this in spades: They have (among other things) AI-capable CPUs that look like gemtones, power armour more fitting for a knight errant than a Space Marine, palaces and bunkers alike with designs straight from a 17th century architectural catalogue and shield generators set into jewelry. yet have for a long time been a Higher-Tech Species.
  • Many Atlantica artifacts appear to be made from stone or otherwise have a Mayincatec look to them.
• Super-Soldier: Played so straight. The basic infantry of practically any main fictional empire is like this by human standards, from the Zazane of the Brood of War, to the Draconis of the Draconid Imperium, to the Kicath of the Kicath Empire among countless others. Exaggerated by said races as well, with the Niddan Ho, Blood Dragons, and Kicath Agents as well as the overseers of the Drakodominatus Tyranny. Meets Our Giants Are Bigger with the Dominatus themselves.

T-Z

• Tailor-Made Prison: The Realm of Absolution, owned by the Church Militant Grand Inquisition has neurosleep pods, which force you into a deep vegetative state (hovering between alive and braindead) until you die naturally. Their purpose is to contain powerful individuals who are either too dangerous to be conscious or cannot die (sometimes both).
• Technology Levels: The "Tier Scale" used to rate a civilization's size and technological advancement. It was retconned to emphasise that the level of technology a civilization can possess is largely dependent on the amount of energy it has at its disposal.
• The Tokyo Fireball: Alvanti's northern mountain range was obliterated by a hyperlaser beam, creating a shockwave that covered a hemisphere. The planet is on its way to recovery.
• These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Plenty from the godraces and tier 1/0 civilisations. The card is more cleverly played by the Draconis during The Great Expedition. For whatever reason a spacetime construct in Andromeda's core was made for, both the Draconis and the Seven Starr explorers who found it agree it must never be touched until the death of the last black hole in the universe.
• Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket: Medusa Heimdall, Dominatus Tyrant is literally a legacy of ashes, having failed in all of her diplomatic endeavors. Surprisingly enough, she has an IQ of 1250.
• Translator Microbes: For the most part it is automatically assumed everyone possesses a universal translator. The only real mention of translators is the AGC telepathic translator, said to be a directional translater that translates your speech based on who you want to speak to.
  • Averted in the early stages of Dark Mirror, instead where the only people who could understand each other were either telepathic (thus able to interpret the speaker's intentions) or were designated translators.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: Uriel XVI's full address by 2814 was His most Esteemed Royal Majesty Paragavatus Uriel XVI of the Bloodline Vecartus, Patriarch and Scion of the Royal House Ultanos, Binder of Grand House Vossus and Royal House Ultanos, 510th Master-King of the Draconid Imperium, Highlord of the Pan-Andromedan Ecumene, Unifier of the Celestial Halo, Divine Guide of the Lifefather's Essence In Corporea, Dread-Bane of the Dominatus and He that Holds in Unison the Seven Galactic Domains of the Most Sublime Imperium. It is suggested this kind of thing is par the course for Draconid aristocracy.
• Ultimate Show Down Of Ultimate Destiny: The Imperial Civil War was a battle-royale between the fanfiction empires and wiki-exclusive fictions, it ended with all the fanfiction empires either destroying each other or leaving the universe entirely. Needless to say they won't be coming back.
• Unnecessarily Large Vessel: As mentioned in Mile-Long Ship, most empires field several-kilometre-long warships it's become an arms race as to who can build the biggest. The Forces of the Xhodocto take it one step further with their cruisers measuring at least eighty kilometres.
• Ungovernable Galaxy: Most galaxies in the setting will have a sizable chunk of their space either unexplored and a haven for pirates or occupied by a rival to the primary superpower. Played very straight with the Cyrannus Galaxy in the last few decades: The Galactic Empire of Cyrannus defied this for a time, but a successor to the Old Republic emerged and managed to secure a solid third of the galaxy including a chunk of the core in as little as four years.
  • Exaggerated for a long time with the Borealis Galaxy: No matter what was done by the Zoles Imperium, most of the galaxy was overrun with marauders, doomsday cultists and pirates. That was until the Forces of Order offed Falrik Zaarkhun and General Volim, undisputed leaders of the criminal underworld.
  • Justified with the Andromeda Galaxy. Although the Highlords represented the bulk of space in the Pan-Andromedan Ecumene, getting anything done often involved gaining majority support from the more numerous Council of Lords, who represented the hundreds of other nations under the banner. Large chunks of Andromeda are also inaccessible due to hostile occupation. Both the Dominion of the Xhodocto and the Vartekian Empire claim entire segmenta to themselves so at best the Ecumene has a tenuous hold beyond the inner rim.
• Unobtanium: Several materials depending on the tier level of the faction in question, but the award goes to neutron degenerate matter: When refined it can be used to make the densest and most resillient ship armour imaginable. But because it can only be found in the heart of neutron stars, it is unreachable by all but the most advanced civilisations in the First Gigaquadrant.
• Vast Bureaucracy: It is not unheard of for the central government offices in larger empires to rival in scale to medium-sized cities.
• Verbal Tic: Members of the Varkorus race always groan or retch before each sentence. No exceptions.
• Villain Decay: Despite several attempts to repair their reputation, the Xhodocto's constant failures to annihilate the universe have gotten to the point where newer fiction doesn't take them seriously anymore. Somewhat justified in the fact that if they did succeed the way they wanted, there would be no more fiction. Period.
• Villain with Good Publicity - While he does rule Cyrannus with an iron fist, it's hard to deny that the galaxy is far more prosperous and peaceful under Tyrómairon rule. Then again, maybe that's what he intended?
• Wave-Motion Gun:
  • Project: Terminus, a Death Star esque superweapon that fires a really, really, really big hyperlaser.
  • While it didn't outright destroy planets, Project Armageddon was designed to fire a beam that flash-froze entire planets.
  • Most capital ships of the Draconid Imperium have a large front-mounted cannon that the ship is built around. The largest count as this.
• Wetware CPU:
  • Cephalodian computers are indistinguishable from plant life. Theian computers are a subversion in that part of the system uses a host brain.
  • The Kicath Empire's Agent version V is essentially a robot with a transplanted Kicath brain.
• We Will Use Manual Labour in the Future: Pretty widespread but it seems to vary from empire to empire. Obviously Evil empires such as the Wranploer Legion, Drakodominatus Tyranny and Panathera Slaver Guild will treat slaves as dirt or lower although some less black-and-white empires (such as the DCP) do it as well. In some cases such as the Brood of War or Draconid Imperium, what could be classed as a slave is merely a citizen with a few less rights.
• Wine Is Classy: The drink of choice for most Draconis. Most grand houses own several vineyard and reputed to have at least one variety of wine to their name.
• The World Is Not Ready:
  • Taking some kind of pity during the Asgord Genocide, the Girdo Empire offered quantum replicators and subspace weapons to the Kraw empire with the request that they are used in moderation. A few weeks in however, and the Kraw are using subspace weapons like no tomorrow. Right here, the Girdo Emperor appears to the Kraw Leadership to tell them to stop or the Girdo would take their stuff back by force.
  • The Andromedan Galactic Commonwealth uses this trope within itself to prevent careless use of the Highlord Council's most advanced technology by minor members.
• The Wall Around the World: The Cyrannia Cluster is surrounded by a precursor-made barrier that prevents any kind of travel in or out. The only routes of access are the odd naturally-occurring wormhole. There is also the Demon Wall, a Negative Space Wedgie around the gigaquadrant that emerged during the Annihilation and separated it from the rest of the universe.
• Weird World, Weird Food: Among more traditional forms of livestock, Draconid cuisine uses Big Creepy-Crawlies in various soups, stews, roasts and desserts. A good Orgaat meal, however, is usually their enemies.
• The Worm That Walks: Shu'wokerama is a conglomeration of Shu'lorangar demons, who are in turn conglomerations of Shu'olerthae demons. Vorius is a giant mass of flesh made out of the bodies he has assimilated.
• Xanatos Gambit: Tyrómairon's involvement in the Great Cyrannus War. Whichever side won, he would have control of Cyrannus.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: The Loron and the Sons of Urzgov.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Brotherhood sought to "liberate" Andromeda from the rule of the AGC. Specifically by means of theft, assassination and Using a reality-warping superweapon left behind by The four precursor powers and commanded by a power-mad AI to lay waste to a large part of Segmentum Exterioris.
• Zombie Apocalypse: This was the point of the Holy Shadow War. Several Corruptus demons originated form the reanimated corpses of former servants such as Errbots and Marinoxidiz.

Agent Nu: C'mon, I have a point. Where is Kithworto when you need him? Seriously?
Agent Tau: Stop trying to break the fourth wall, Nu. Doesn't work.