Information and Explanations

Occasionally, some point may come up regarding the series that needs further explanation or information. These points may be about formatting, protocol, or anything else that does not fit the other categories of the site. At this point, these thoughts will be presented blog style, but may develop organization as time goes on.

Angels

The “Angels” of the Hidden Angels Series are people with a special set of recessive genes that enhance psychic abilities. These abilities mainly fall into only a few categories: sensing at a distance (clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc.), mind reading/projection of thoughts (telepathy), moving objects with the mind (psychokinesis), teleportation, bringing things to life (animation), the ability to move through time or sense coming events (chronomancy and divination/scrying), mind control, enhanced personal creativity/genius/inventiveness, and the ability to create or access a pocket universe. All other abilities shown are either manifestations or combinations of these base manifestations of psychic power.

Sticky Genes

Matthew West came into the Hidden Angels universe with a complex of genes that he refers to as “sticky genes.” They are engineered genes that are passed down in every gamete produced by those who have them. This means that even if they are only on one side of the genome, where the likelihood would produce half the gametes with, it will still be passed to every offspring. These special genes produce the following:

Although the psychic or “Angelic” power genes are recessive, because of the stickiness, the genes are passed down to every child in a family. Thus, if two people who have the sticky genes on one side each get together and have children, all children will be Angels.

Monkey Muscle

The monkey muscle gene complex mentioned above allows for the development of a denser, stronger type of muscle within the human body. It is a dominant set of genes, but requires epigenetic, that is external, factors to trigger this set of genes. If a child or young adult is put under severe physical stress, these genes will produce enzymes and coding for the denser muscle fibers. These muscles do require quite a bit more energy, even at rest, so people with the monkey muscle genes activated will tend to eat more than others and burn more calories. In an energy poor environment (food scarcity), this can be a problem; however, if food is always available, the denser and stronger muscle can be a lifesaver in battles or other dire situations.

Thought Quotes

In the first chapter of the first volume, there is an extensive conversation that uses asterisks (*) instead of quotation marks. A reader asked about this usage. The answer is that this conversation is not spoken, but telepathy. This has been the convention in a number of science-fiction books I have read in the past. This convention will appear a number of times throughout the series since telepathy is one possible power that the Angels may express.

Lord This and the Honourable That

If one is not familiar with the protocols and styles of British and other nobility and royalty, some of the rules and usages might be confusing. For instance, one of the characters in the series is Lord Francis Campbell. He is a younger son of the Duke of Argyll. As the younger son of a British duke, his style is Lord Francis, using his first name. His elder brother, John, uses one of their father’s courtesy titles, since he is the heir. So he is known as the Marquess of Kintyre and Lorne, or more informally addressed as Lord Lorne. There are actually small variations in the way a Marquess would be addressed versus the son of a duke using the courtesy title, but I don’t think that has come up yet in the series. The point here, though is that the non-inheriting son of a duke or marquess is called Lord (First Name) in direct address, as was the case with Winston Churchill’s father, Lord Randolph Churchill.

A title holder or heir using a courtesy title will be called Lord Y or Lord X of Y where X is the family name and Y is the associated place name for the title. So, to give a real example, there was a twentieth century British Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden who was created Earl of Avon with the subsidiary title of Viscount Eden, of Royal Leamington Spa in the County of Warwick. So, from that time until his death, Anthony Eden was addressed as Lord Avon. His son, during this time, was addressed as Lord Eden.

Non-inheriting sons of an earl or less are styled, “The Honourable.” So, another character in the series is Lord Francis Campbell’s maternal uncle and Royal Navy Captain, The Honourable Sir Sidney Kentigern Godolphin, younger son of the Earl Godolphin. He had earned a knighthood before he was introduced in the series, thus the “Sir.”

So, that is a brief overview in case anyone was wondering why Lord Francis was Lord Francis when everyone else who was “Lord” somebody was using a title or last name.

German vs. English

In the table of titles posted in the characters section, I used German place names for the titles in the Holy Roman Empire (HRE), but I believe in the books that I usually use the English. The two most glaring examples are Franconia/Franken and Swabia/Schwaben. I also use Churfürst in the table, which is an older German version of “Prince-Elector.”

The Germans also had separate terms for ruling prince versus the son of a ruler. The ruling prince is a Fürst. This is also seen in the title Kurfürst/Churfürst for (ruling) prince-elector.

Fürst vs. Prince vs. Infante

In English, if one is speaking of the son of a king who will inherit, a younger son, or of a ruling prince from somewhere like Liechtenstein, one uses a single term, “Prince.” As explained partially in the previous note, that is not true in other languages. In German, a ruling prince was a Fürst. The heir apparent might be called the hereditary prince, while his younger brothers would be called “Prinz.”

Of course, in other languages, there were other rules. In Spanish and Portuguese, the heir apparent of a king was the “prince,” but his younger brothers would be termed “infante.” They did not distingish between a ruling prince and a prince as heir apparent to a king. So, in the first volume, there is Prince José and his brother Infante Carlos.

In France and Italy, as in English, they had only the one term, “Prince,” to cover all three conditions. However, in France, they would add a term to sons or grandsons of a king: fils-de-France and petit-fils-de-France, respectively.