Small Gods: (Discworld Novel 13) (Discworld Novels)

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Syceus, a Titan born of Gaia, found refuge from Zeus’s wrath when Gaia transformed him into a fig tree, shielding him from harm. Nothing Is Scarier: Om, wandering around the Citadel, gets a brief glimpse into one of the torture pits. Mercifully, we don't get a description, but it's enough to terrify him. The Corrupter: Vorbis is noted at least twice to have a tendency to make those around him more like himself. Saying Too Much: Initially, Om keeps reining himself in during conversation with Brutha, since he doesn't want to give away some of the major details about his chenolialism. Pedophile Priest: Defied. Brother Nhumrod may suffer from demons and voices that tempt him in that direction, but he makes sure that his thoughts stay inside his head.

In a hundred years we'll all be dead, but here and now we are alive" becomes the cornerstone of Brutha's philosophy. Beneath the temple, Urn and sergeant Fergmen made their way through the tunnels of the citadel using the kind of nonchalant walk which would draw detailed and arrow-sharp attention to them in seconds. Fortunately, the guards were all above ground at the ceremony."

Almighty Janitor: Lu-Tze literally acts like a janitor, while secretly tweaking the timeline to avoid a war. His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools -- the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans -- and summed up all three of them in his famous phrase, 'You can't trust any bugger further than you can throw him, and there's nothing you can do about it, so let's have a drink.” Heel Realization: Vorbis finally gets this after death, realizing that he'd never actually been following the commandments of a god—that the only voice he'd ever heard came from his own head. The Ephebian philosophers previously appeared in Pyramids (which caused a Continuity Snarl mentioned in Thief of Time since the books are set a century apart).

Non-Mammal Mammaries: Or the male equivalent, considering eagles shouldn't have certain anatomical features on the outside. The first adventure in the Folio Society editions of ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ series, Enid Blyton’s The Enchanted Wood features Jonathan Burton’s enchanting illustrations and a new introduction by Michael Morpurgo. Beware the Silly Ones: Why Ephebe keeps so many philosophers around. As Om observes, 99 out of every 100 ideas they come up with are complete rubbish, but the 100th tends to be an absolute humdinger. For instance, one minute they're wibbling on about beauty and truth, the next they're saying "incidentally, putting this mirror up on that tower would make for an interesting demonstration of optical principles", giving Ephebe their own death ray.

Red Herring: The desert lion seems like it'll be important later, but really only exists after the initial encounter to provide a punchline.

No other library anywhere, for example, has a whole gallery of unwritten books - books that would have been written if the author hadn't been eaten by an alligator around chapter 1, and so on. Atlases of imaginary places. Dictionaries of illusory words. Spotter's guides to invisible things. Wild thesauri in the Lost Reading Room. A library so big that it distorts reality and has opened gateways to all other libraries, everywhere and everywhen...” Omnia is a theocracy based on the Seven Books of the Prophets of Om, collectively known as the Septateuch. The Discworld is flat and is orbited by its sun, but Omnian doctrine says that the world is round and orbits the sun. Omnians believe in a single god, Om, though the Discworld has many gods, including the billions of Small Gods who exist as points of desire searching for believers. Om was once a Small God, but managed to speak to a shepherd, gained believers (despite the shepherd being stoned to death) and took over from Ur-Gilash as the God of what became Omnia. In Omnian tradition there is a new Prophet every two hundred years. Superstitious Sailors: The sailors have a number of superstitions and ritual practices, most notably a taboo against killing dolphins. Almost all of these turn out to be justified as they are part of a system of obeisance to the vindictive Sea Queen, who is enraged by killing dolphins. Judgement of the Dead: Whenever characters die, they find themselves in a desert. They encounter Death, who tells them that their judgement awaits at the end of the desert. Characters find themselves in perfect clarity, and usually use the walk to reflect upon their life.In such instances, you need an acolyte, and fast. Enter Brutha, the Chosen One - or at least the only One available. He wants peace, justice and love - but that's hard to achieve in a world where religion means power, and corruption reigns supreme . . . Jerkass Gods: Again, all of them. Things like mercy, fairness and justice are too human for most of them to get their heads around, and that's the smarter ones. Ones like the Sea Goddess will kill anyone who's nearby, just because they're in a bad mood. Caligula's Horse: When Vorbis announces his plan to promote Brutha straight to Archbishop, the other clerics are surprised but note that precedents exist, such as... Ossory's ass.

What Happened to the Mouse?: Used for drama, when Om starts thinking about his past, and remembers his old arch-enemy, Ur-Gilash, and realises he has no idea what happened to the guy. He can barely remember what he did, some sort of spider-like god if he remembers correctly. Then, later on, Om and Brutha take refuge in a temple with a very spidery look to its artwork... The Chosen Many: The Prophets of Om (holy horns), of which there have been several, Brutha just being the latest. Explored, and subverted, since Om didn't actually chose any of them. Half the time he never even met or talked to them, and in one case the lengthy amount of things he said was actually no more than "hey, look what I can do". And then Brutha manages to single-handedly institute a cultural and religious revolution, managing to actually play the idea relatively straight. Straight Edge Evil: Vorbis is an ascetic; aside from being celibate, he only consumes water and dry bread (he actually waits until the fresh bread dries). That on the whole, and by and large, if a man lived properly, not according to what any priests said, but according to what seemed decent and honest inside, then it would, at the end, more or less, turn out all right. You couldn't get that on a banner. But the desert looked better already. Exact Words: Vorbis swears up and down that the Ephebians killed the preacher Omnia sent. When Brutha starts questioning this story, Vorbis tries using these to say that while they didn't kill him exactly, their not listening to him did. Brutha points out this means he was actually killed by the Inquisition on his return.

Belief itself is the food of the gods.’ Unassuming novice Brutha has been chosen to hear the word of the Great God Om. However, Om – more usually known for appearing as a monstrous bull or a majestic swan – has fallen on hard times. It turns out that commanding unwavering respect is rather more difficult from the body of a small, scrawny tortoise. Still, Brutha might be the lowest rung in the Omnian church, but he is a true believer – surely that will be enough to dismantle hundreds of years of torture-fuelled corruption and avoid a holy war? Otherwise, Om will face the fate of all small gods, in which case even an endless diet of lettuce will start to look attractive. Madness Mantra: The small god Om meets keeps repeating "I", "as you may dream of", and "greater glory", even as Om asks if it can recall its own name. Om is deeply disturbed.