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

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Mad Scientist: Urn has shades of this. He does care about morality... when he takes the time off his researches to think about it.

Running Gag: Everyone who notices Om for the first time remarks, "There's good eating on one of those." 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). The goddess Czol was an ancient goddess of Thut before that land sank under the sea some 9,000 years ago. One does not ask about her. Mentioned in Going Postal. May be somehow related to Mrs. Cake. The city of Ankh-Morpork has a Temple of Small Gods, which provides spiritual solace to those who, while they may accept the idea of a deistic presence in the universe, don't really have a clue what it might be. Its cemetery is the favoured burial ground of the City Watch.

Simony, who refuses to believe in the existence of the gods even when they're speaking to him personally. Om likes him because atheism that militant is basically the same as religious belief from the point of view of a god — they're thinking and talking about the gods as frequently and as strongly as believers, if not more so.

The first book in the Discworld series - The Colour of Magic - was published in 1983. Some elements of the Discworld universe may reflect this. Chess Motifs: Brutha becomes a bishop, which (the narrative reminds us) moves diagonally to crop up in unexpected places. Painting the Medium: When Om regains his full power, he begins speaking in numbered verse, like a holy text. Life in this world,” he said, “is, as it were, a sojourn in a cave. What can we know of reality? For all we see of the true nature of existence is, shall we say, no more than bewildering and amusing shadows cast upon the inner wall of the cave by the unseen blinding light of absolute truth, from which we may or may not deduce some glimmer of veracity, and we as troglodyte seekers of wisdom can only lift our voices to the unseen and say, humbly, ‘Go on, do Deformed Rabbit . . . it’s my favorite.’ ” Last night there seemed to be a chance. Anything was possible last night. That was the trouble with last nights. They were always followed by this mornings.”

Contains examples of:

I know about sureness,' said Didactylos. 'I remember, before I was blind, I went to Omnia once. And in your Citadel I saw a crowd stoning a man to death in a pit. Ever seen that?' Tank Goodness: Urn invents what is possibly the Disc's first one in the Moving Turtle, though see also Eric. 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. Urn gives this to Simony when he states he wants to let Brutha die and become a useful martyr for Simony's war against the Church of Omnia.