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''See also: Discworld Magic '' Gods are everywhere on the Discworld; a crucial element of the world's peculiar ecology that gives Power To Belief and demands Resolution To Any And All Narratives . Gods exist in potentia in numbers uncountable, but the moment an event of any note occurs — say, two snails happening to cross at a single point — a god becomes tied to it and begins to manifest in the physical world. Most gods remain small and unknown, but a very few come to the notice of humanity, whose belief then shapes and strengthens them until they gather enough power to join the Disc's vast, unwieldy pantheon. Gods on the Discworld exist as long as people believe in them and their power grows as their followers increase. This is a philosophy echoing the real-world politics of the power of religion and is most detailed in the novel '' Small Gods ''. If people should cease believing in a particular god (say, if the religion becomes more important than faith) the god begins to fade and, eventually, will "die", becoming little more than a faded wispy echo. The major gods live in an Olympus -like mountain-top kingdom in the centre of the Discworld called ''Dunmanifestin'' ("Done Manifesting", since most of the Dunmanifestin gods tend to stay at home, mainly limiting their presence in the rest of Discworld to the occasional lightning bolt, as well as a pun on the traditional British house name ''Dunroamin''). This is probably caused by the massive size of Cori Celesti, the mountain upon which Dunmanifestin stands, as this mountain can be seen from anywhere on the disc on a clear day, and has likely made lasting impressions on most of the original myth-creators. Discworld Demons are also considered gods, more or less; Pratchett explains the difference between them as being essentially the same as that between "terrorists" and "freedom fighters". On the Disc, because all that is required for the creation of a god is sufficient belief, the line between mortality and godhood is blurred. Many very human characters, such as Mort , Susan Sto Helit , Lobsang Ludd , Jeremy Clockson , Moist Von Lipwig , and Pteppic have permanently or momentarily assumed the roles of gods, or at least of anthropomorphic personifications. Tooth Fairies and the History Monks are groups of humans who play godlike roles. Beings which are ''not'' considered gods or demons, but whom it is advisable to treat as such, include The Old High Ones, the Creator, Auditors, the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions and Death . GODS MENTIONED IN THE SERIES The total number of gods on the Disc is effectively infinite. Of those, the number powerful enough to fully manifest is unknown, but it is certainly enormous. Here is a list of most of the gods mentioned in the series to date Small gods Small gods are a special classification of deity unique to the Discworld, but with analogues in our world, particularly the Graeco-Roman concept of Numina . They are the gods of slightly significant places; the hair rising on the back of your neck as you enter a suddenly still glade. They do not manifest as great anthropomorphic titans of the sky but rather, if they are noticed at all, as a simple, faceless presence. There are two very different kinds, by far the most common being those who have yet to accumulate enough human belief to obtain any true power or purpose. There is an almost infinite number of these gods on the Disc; Pratchett compares their hidden ubiquity to that of bacteria in our world. The other, far rarer kind of small god is one that was once worshipped by large numbers of people across a vast area, but is all but forgotten now. Such a god may still have memory of its former days, but its identity will be almost completely lost, even to itself. A Household God on the Discworld is a small god that has a limited number of committed believers, perhaps only one, but nonetheless enough to manifest in a specific visible form. The Unseen University was plagued by a plethora of household gods in '' Hogfather '' when a surfeit of belief caused by the Hogfather's absence led to their uncontrolled random generation. It could be argued that the great god Om, having been reduced to just one true believer, was a household god for most of '' Small Gods ''. 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 . Djelibeybian gods The Ancient Egypt-like country of Djelibeybi has a large pantheon of gods and goddesses, as outlined in '' Pyramids '' (most of which were likely to have been invented by the High Priest Dios ). Paradoxically, many of them exclusively perform the same godly duties. They include:
Troll gods
Alohura The lightning goddess of the beTrobi people. Mentioned in '' The Colour Of Magic ''. Aniger Aniger is a minor goddess of squashed animals. She is a relatively recent addition to the Discworld pantheon, appearing only after some developments relating to the speed of carts and quality of roads. Since she is witnessed by thinking "Oh God, what was that I hit?", she may be an Oh God(dess), much like ''. Anoia The minor goddess of Things That Stick in Drawers, Anoia is praised by rattling a drawer and crying "How can it close on the damned thing but not open with it? Who bought this? Do we ever use it?". She also eats corkscrews. The Maccalariat family of Ankh-Morpork have been Anoians for five generations. She is not, strangely, part of the number of gods praised at the Temple of Small Gods, but instead has a freelance priestess who also serves for various other minor deities. Mentioned in '' Going Postal ''. '' Thud! '' refers to a painting of ''Anoia Rising From The Cutlery'' (probably a parody of Titian 's ''Venus Rising From The Sea''). Astfgl Astfgl is a Demon Lord, appearing in '' Eric ''. At the start of the book he has been made King of Hell, and his modern, go-ahead attitude is driving the other demons to distraction. By the end, thanks to the machinations of his more old-fashioned rival Vassenego, he has been "promoted" to Life President of Hell, a job that consists of writing "policy statements" while Vassenego rules in his stead. Astoria The Ephebian Goddess of Love, held in extremely low regard by the god Om and sister to the goddess Patina . She bribed Rhome of Tsort to steal and hide the Golden Falchion , in return she gave Elenor of Tsort to Rhome (this story is a parody of the beginning of the Trojan War; the Golden Falchion is the Golden Apple, Elenor of Tsort is Helen Of Troy , and Rhome is Paris (they are both names of European cities). Mentioned in '' Small Gods '' and '' Discworld Noir ''. Her name is a reference to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel . Bibulous The God of Wine and Things on Sticks. He appears as a large, overly-merry man in a toga. In Tsort he is also known as ''Smimto'', and ''Tuvelpit'' in Ephebe. He never gets a hangover (those are part of Bilious' portfolio), but he does get the unpleasant side-effects when Bilious takes a hangover cure. The effects of this link, should either ever drink Time-reversed Alcohol such as vul-nut wine, is undiscovered. He appears in '' Hogfather '', '' The Last Hero '', and is mentioned (under his other identities) in '' Small Gods ''. Bilious The "Oh God of Hangover s". His reason for being is to feel the after-effects of drinking, instead of the god Bibulous (the Discworld's Bacchus ). He is one of the characters who appears during the events of '' Hogfather '', due to there being a lot of unused belief floating around. Thanks to the wizards of the Unseen University Bilious' symptoms are reversed for a time and he is able to help Susan on her quest (and make Bibulous feel thoroughly miserable. After all, everyone knows a good hangover cure has got to involve a lot of humorous shouting, ekcetra, and this one was made by wizards). While most of the beings created in ''Hogfather'' disappeared at the end, it is possible he remained because of the belief that Violet (a Tooth Fairy ) had in him, in which case he may have begun a relationship with her, and started a career as a temp-worker for gods that want a holiday. Blind Io Blind Io is the current king of the gods. Io means "I see", and in nature he is seemingly an amalgam of Odin and Zeus , with elements of Thor — seen primarily in his use of a number of different hammers (seventy, actually, as detailed by Om in '' Small Gods ''). He is completely Blind in the traditional sense but instead has countless eyes, which seem to have a mind of their own, orbiting his head. He was eventually compelled to get rid of his raven messengers because of their species' instinctual desire for devouring eyeballs. He lives in Dunmanifestin where he and the other gods play games with the lives of mortals. Besides the hammers he also, apparently, uses a "double-handled axe", or at least has one as a symbol. This is probably a reference to the Double-''headed'' Axe used by Zeus. Blind Io is a thunder god. Actually, Io is the only thunder god on the Disc. He goes by many names and appearances to make sure he keeps the optimal amount of followers. This is not really unfair because all the other gods use the same trick. He also has an apparent monopoly on the natural phenomenon of thunder, as detailed by Om in '' Small Gods '', who stated that Lightning was allowed for common use by all deities but thunder was strictly regulated. The '' Discworld Companion '' claims that he is not native to the Disc, but was forced to leave another reality in undisclosed circumstances. Ceno A "rather liberal" god in the opinion of Constable Visit-the-Infidel-with-Explanatory-Pamphlets , "not big on commandments". His followers died out fighting some of the most gruesome wars in the history of the Unnamed Continent. An excerpt from the Cenotine "Book of Truth" was the Chem of the Golem Dorfl, until Carrot Ironfoundersson purchased him and set him free by replacing it with the receipt of the purchase. Czol 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 ''. Errata The Goddess of Misunderstandings. This little known goddess was the cause of the Tsortean Wars, not, as most people believe, Elenor. Understandably not the most liked goddess, Errata wasn't invited to many weddings, one of which was Peloria and Theta's. She was not pleased, and so devised a plan for revenge. She had Neoldian forge a golden Falchion with "For the Strongest" engraved on it. This caused a fight between almost 80 different war gods. Luckily Neoldian had also engraved "Batteries Not Included" on the falchion, which fortunately for Errata, caused an argument between Patina , who thought the sword was a subtly observed metaphor for the hopelessness of existence, and Cephut , who thought it was a big knife. In the end it became so heated that Astoria bribed Rhome of Tsort to steal and hide the falchion just to shut her sister up. In return, Astoria gave Elenor to Rhome and the resulting extra-marital confusion blew up into the Tsortean Wars. The whole story is a parody of the Trojan War . Mentioned in '' Discworld Noir ''. Fate One of the Discworld's most implacable gods, and very difficult to understand. He looks like a pleasant, middle-aged man, but his eyes are starry voids. It is possible (although difficult) to bargain with him, but proverbially impossible to cheat him, although this has been done at least once. He is known to play games against The Lady using mortals as pawns, and always plays to win. His Temple is situated in the Gods' Quarter of Ankh-Morpork . It's a small, heavy, leaden temple, where hollow-eyed and gaunt worshippers meet on dark nights for predestined and fairly pointless rites. He is said to come from a world other than the Disc. He appears in '' The Colour Of Magic '', '' Mort '', '' Interesting Times '' and '' The Last Hero ''. Fedecks Fedecks is the Messenger of the Gods, the Ephebian version of Hermes . His name is a pun on FedEx . There was previously a golden statue in the Ankh-Morpork Post Office which may have portrayed him. If so, he appears as a radiant figure in a winged hat, winged sandals and a winged fig leaf. He is mentioned in '' Small Gods '' and '' Discworld Noir '', and the statue appears in '' Going Postal ''. Flatulus The Ephebian God of the Winds. He is mentioned in '' Small Gods '' and '' Discworld Noir '', and appears in '' The Last Hero ''. Foorgol The Ephebian God of Avalanches. Mentioned in '' Small Gods ''. Glipzo The Howondalandish tribe of this Goddess believed that their ancestors resided in the Moon. After a signal from their ancestors (an unusually large flare from the Moon) they were urged to kill anyone who didn't believe in Glipzo. Three years later the tribe was destroyed by a rock falling out of the sky, as a result of a star exploding a billion years before. Mentioned in '' The Last Hero ''. God of Evolution The paradoxical God of Evolution appears briefly in '' The Last Continent '', where he is found 'sculpting' animals. Since he hasn't figured out reproduction yet, he makes every animal unique. Although no-one believes in the God of Evolution, he survives thanks to his own strong belief. He does not believe in ''himself'', because he is an Atheist , but he believes in what he does. During events detailed in ''The Last Continent'', he briefly takes on Ponder Stibbons as an apprentice, but scares him off when he reveals his most perfect creation to be the cockroach. He subsequently appears in '''', where he is inadvertantly responsible for a lot of confusion. Herne the Hunted The God of Hunted Animals. Herne appears as a small figure with floppy rabbit ears, small horns and a good turn of speed. He has the unfortunate job of being the constantly terrified and apprehensive god of all small furry creatures whose destiny it is to end their lives as a brief, crunchy squeak. He is a parody of Herne The Hunter and is mentioned in '' Wyrd Sisters '' and appears in '' Lords And Ladies ''. Hoki the Jokester A nature god usually found haunting the deep woods of the Ramtops, in which he manifests himself as an oak tree or a flute playing half-man, half-goat figure. Thought of by many gods and people alike as a bloody nuisance and a bad practical joker, he was eventually banished from Dunmanifestin for pulling the old exploding mistletoe joke on Blind Io . Hoki parodies various characteristics of Loki and Pan , and is mentioned in '' Mort '', '' Equal Rites '' and '' The Last Hero ''. Hyperopia The Goddess of Shoes. She has a small following that gathers in the Temple of Small Gods and worships the Sacred Lace of Hyperopia. Mentioned in '' Reaper Man '' and '' Discworld Noir ''. Named after the technical term for Long-sightedness . Ikebana The Goddess of Topiary, worshipped by the Militant Servitors of Ikebana. Mentioned in '' Discworld Noir ''. She is named after the Japanese art of formal flower arranging. Jimi The god of beggars. The Ankh-Morpork Beggars' Guild has a statue of him. Mentioned in '' Men At Arms ''. The Lady The Goddess Who Must Not Be Named. She is constantly opposed to Fate , and she is just as difficult to understand, although where he is implacable, she is capricious. Since everyone believes in her, she does not need to be worshipped, and would regard such a thing as taking her for granted. Her favour instantly disappears if she believes someone is relying on her, or calls her by name (though it is stated in '' The Colour Of Magic '' that she is attracted to the sound of dice). Attempts to worship her by some members of the Guild of Gamblers led to their deaths within a week. Her appearance is hard to determine. After witnessing her in person, Rincewind and Twoflower were not able to agree upon what she had looked like, other than that she "appeared to be beautiful" and had green eyes. Her eyes are her defining feature: No Discworld God can change the nature of their own eyes, and hers are emerald green, without iris or pupil. When playing games with mortals, The Lady never sacrifices a pawn, and doesn't play to win, but rather plays not to lose. Rincewind, who refuses to believe his continued survival against the odds is anything other than coincidence, is one of her favorites. The old shopkeeper who sells the magic guitar to Imp Y Celyn in Soul Music may also be the Lady, as her eyes are briefly described as flashing bright, solid green. The Lady appears in '' The Colour Of Magic '', '' Interesting Times '' and '' The Last Hero ''. She is, of course, Lady Luck. Lamentatio The Goddess of Interminable Opera. She is one of the many gods and goddesses recognised in the Temple of Small Gods. Mentioned in '' Discworld Noir ''. Libertina The Goddess of the Sea , Apple Pie, Certain Types of Ice Cream and Short Lengths of String. Her name and appearance suggest the Statue Of Liberty . She appears in '' The Last Hero '' and she may or may not be the same person as the Sea Queen, who appears in '' Small Gods ''. Moon Goddess This Druidic Goddess fancies drinking mead from a silver bowl in the company of young virgins, among other things. The Druids of Skund Forest celebrate the Rebirth of the Moon (a ceremony dating back thousands of years) by sacrificing a young virgin to the Moon Goddess. The virgin, dressed in a ceremonial white robe and golden torc, is led by a precession of trumpets and percussion instruments to a large and flat stone altar, situated in the centre of a circle of standing stones, where she is summarily sacrificed, using a knife. Mentioned in '' The Light Fantastic '', when Rincewind, Twoflower, and Genghiz Cohen the Barbarian save the sacrificial virgin, who then complains of "seventeen years of staying home Saturday nights down the drain". Neoldian The Blacksmith of the Gods. He forged the Golden Falchion and engraved it with the words "For the Strongest - Lagunculae Leydianae Non Accedunt" (Batteries Not Included). He also repaired Leonard Of Quirm 's 'Kite', enabling it to return safely back to Ankh-Morpork . A parody of Hephaestus . He is mentioned in '' Discworld Noir '' and appears (but is not named) in '' The Last Hero ''. Nuggan Nuggan is the locally worshipped monotheistic and omnipotent God of Borogravia , but elsewhere he is known as the God of Paperclips, Correct Things in the Right Place in Small Desk Stationery Sets, and Unnecessary Paperwork. He usually sports a fussy little moustache. His holy writ (the ''Book of Nuggan'') is a Living Testament, into which more material is added on a regular basis. All believers regularly add pages to the ring binder Appendices, which then eventually fill with more commandments, usually Abominations unto Nuggan. By the time of ''Monstrous Regiment'', his commandments were becoming rather nonsensical — among his ever-growing list of Abominations were Cat s, the colour Blue , Dwarfs , Oyster s, Mushroom s, Chocolate , Garlic , Babies , Cheese , the smell of Beet s, and Ear s. He is also very opposed to the Clacks system, as it intereferes with the prayers of the faithful. His existence is the basis for '' Monstrous Regiment '' and he appears in '' The Last Hero ''. He is now dead because belief has switched to his abominations, similar to the events leading to Om's weakening in '' Small Gods ''. Offler Offler is a Crocodile god originating from Klatch and is worshipped in most hot lands with great rivers, and even other parts of the Discworld where the people have never even seen any crocodiles. He is described as having developed a greater degree of Common Sense than the other gods in his long existence, leading him to take a more pragmatic approach to most problems than others do, such as limiting his list of Abominations to a few undesirable foods so as to attract more worshipers. He might be inspired by the Ancient Egyptian crocodile god Sobek . Offler speaks with a Lisp because of his crocodile mouth which is not ideal for human language. His followers are called Offlians, and the first month of the Discworld Calendar , Offle, is also named after him. The traditional sacrifice to Offler when praying is composed mainly of Sausage s, (this is possibly a reference to a crocodile and a string of sausages in a traditional Punch And Judy show). The sausages are fried, allowing the "true sausagidity" to ascend to Offler by means of smell, while the clergy eat the "earthly shell" of the sausages, which the clergy claim taste like ash, as Offler has eaten their essence. Atheists and non-Offlians are suspicious of this claim. Offler was described as 'trigger-happy' by a priest when he struck the golem, Dorfl, with lightning after the golem doubted the gods. Om Om is an Omnipotent , Omnipresent (only within the boundaries of the Omnian church) god in the country of Omnia . His temple resides in Kom, presumably the capital, and his followers are known as Omnians. Unlike the major Discworld gods, who exist as a pantheon, Om is a monotheistic deity whose followers insist that he is the one and only true God. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Omnians also insist that the world is round. Omnianism is the most oft-mentioned religion in the '' Discworld '' series. The desert country of Omnia is a Theocracy on the Klatch ian continent. Omnia is ruled by the Cenobiarch. At the time of ''Small Gods'' the Cenobiarch was a very old man, and the country was actually ruled by his advisors, chiefly Vorbis . A major factor in Omnian affairs at this time was that very few people actually believed in Om, although they all believed in what the Quisition did to unbelievers. What the Omnian Quisition (consisting of the Inquisition and the Exquisition) largely did was torture peeople, as evidenced by their use of the ''Torquus Simiae Maleficarum'' ("The Monkey Wrench of Witches"; a reference to the real world . The verse is rendered as "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" in the KJV ; but the word translated as "witch" is sometimes claimed to actually mean "poisoner". The reason for Onianism's intolerance was not that Om was an intolerant god, but because he was largely an indifferent one. After spending some time trapped in the shape of a Tortoise in '' Small Gods '', his perspective was changed, and he allowed Brutha to turn Omnianism into one of the Discworld's more tolerant religions, although they still insist Om is the only real god, or at least the only god worth worshipping. Om now refuses to manifest directly and demands that his followers develop their own theology and ethics based on faith in his existence and his last few commandments, redacting the former Omnian creeds into a simple code of nonviolence and moral uprightness. Omnianism now demands that Om triumph over gods not through military force but in the "marketplace of ideas". The church has thus become more Evangelical in its methods, and you can see its followers going from door to door to convince unbelievers. Owing to Brutha's tolerance for opposing viewpoints, the church also Schism s every couple of weeks. Many modern Omnians are given names like 'Smite-The-Unbeliever-With-Cunning-Arguments', 'Visit-The-Infidel-With-Explanatory-Pamphlets' and 'Mightily-Praiseworthy-Are-Ye-Who-Exalteth-Om'. This in contrast to older Omnians, who were given bloodier names. The names parody Puritan "slogan names" like "O-Be-Joyful", "Fear-the-Lord" and "Job-Raked-Out-of-the-Ashes". (The ancestor of Samuel Vimes , Suffer-Not-Injustice, is also named in the Puritan manner, based as he is on the very Puritanical Oliver Cromwell ). Omnianism as a whole is Pratchett's parody of the less admirable aspects of Christianity: In earlier times, The Inquisition , and later intrusive doorstep Evangelism . The treatment can be seen as ambivalent, however; one of the more sympathetic characters in the Discworld is Mightily Oats, from Carpe Jugulum , portrayed as an Omnian priest who has begun to doubt his faith thanks to the absence of his god and the bloodless, seemingly pointless nature of his commandments, and secretly longs for the old "fire" of the bloodthirsty Omnian prophets. Mightily Oats' conversations with Granny Weatherwax constitute a dissection of the social and psychological role of modern liberal Christianity, and ends with Mightily Oats finding some measure of faith in the nature of his faith itself and of "holiness" if not in his faith's tenets. Interestingly, Mightily Oats loses his "holy tortoise of Om", a holy symbol based on the form Om took in his long sojourn in tortoise (replacing the "holy horns" of Om's original form as a mighty bull), and to replace it Jason Ogg makes him an amulet of a Double-headed Axe to symbolize his moment of true faith, when he managed to slay a Vampire with an ordinary Hatchet that his faith transformed into a holy weapon. Probably intentionally, the symbol of a "double-headed axe" has often been one way of referring to the symbol of the Cross . ''See also Aum '' Orm The Great God of the Strict Authorized Ormits. He can usually be found residing in one of the Nether Hells. As of the Year of the Cobra there are only two known worshippers left; a boy (Arthur Loudorum) and his mother. The correct worshipping of Orm seems to consist of sacrificing a goat within a double circle with occult runes, a sprig of herbs and a rope of skulls. It is said that, as a punishment for not worshipping him, Orm comes in the night, winds out your entrails on a stick and sucks out your eyeballs. Mentioned in '' Pyramids ''. Patina The Ephebian Goddess of Wisdom, a Portmanteau of Pallas and Athena , as well as a play on the word Patina . She is shown holding a penguin (this is due to an incompetent sculptor getting a statue wrong), a parody of Athena's owl. She is mentioned in '' Small Gods '', appears in '' The Last Hero '' and is the sister of Astoria . Petulia The Ephebian Goddess of "negotiable affection," worshipped by Ladies Of The Night . Mentioned in '' Small Gods ''. P'tang P'tang The god of a small primitive island tribe with only 51 worshippers. P'tang P'tang looks like a Newt and isn't that smart. Appears in '' Small Gods ''. Quezovercoatl While being basically a demon of relatively low rank, Quezovercoatl (also known as The Feathered Boa ), was the god of Human Sacrifices in the Tezuman Empire 's state religion. He appears in '' Eric '' and is described as half-man, half-chicken, half-jaguar, half-serpent, half-scorpion and half-mad (a total of three homicidal maniacs). Because his physical form was some six inches tall in real life, he had relied on appearing in visions to guide his followers. Conversion was probably sped by the bloodthirsty nature of his religion and the fact that the Tezumen were at the time worshipping a stick. Eventually he was forced into appearing physically by Astfgl, whereupon he was trampled by The Luggage . After some time spent worshipping the Luggage, to no avail, the Tezumen finally killed off their priests and settled for atheism. His name is pun between the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and the word "overcoat". Reg The God of Club Musicians. Mentioned in '' Soul Music ''. Seven-Handed Sek Possibly a parody of Set . There is a charity school run by the Spiteful Sisters of Seven Handed Sek in Ankh-Morpork. Skelde In the depth of Skund Forest he is referred to as the Spirit of the Smoke. Local tribesmen believe you must first see Skelde before you can become a Sorceror. Mentioned in '' The Light Fantastic ''. Sweevo The God of Cut Timber who prohibited the practice of panupanitoplasty among his followers, even though in actuality very few of his followers knew what panupanitoplasty was (he didn't have a clue, either, but did it because it worried his worshippers). A minor deity mentioned in several novels, including '' The Last Hero ''. Tak The creator god of the Dwarfs . The dwarvish creation myth states that Tak first "wrote himself", then "wrote the Laws," then "wrote the World", then wrote a cave and a geode. The geode hatched and from it emerged two brothers. One went into the cave and became a dwarf, the other left the cave and became a man. Here earlier forms of the myth differ from later forms; in the earlier version, Tak notices that the geode is striving to become alive, and as reward for the service it had given, makes it into the first Troll ; in a later, reedited version (written by dwarfs as propaganda), the geode comes alive of its own accord and was left to wander the world without purpose. Though the dwarfs believe in Tak, they don't worship him; he left as soon as he created the world and doesn't demand eternal loyalty or followers. Tak is first mentioned in '' Thud! ''. Topaxi A spirit known to the Shaman s of Skund Forest as Topaxci; the God of the Red Mushroom. Elsewhere he is known as Topaxi; the God of Certain Mushrooms, Great Ideas that you Forgot to Write Down and Will Never Remember Again, and of People who Tell Other People that 'Dog' is 'God' Spelt Backwards and Think that this is in Some Way Revelatory. He is mentioned in '' The Light Fantastic '' and appears in '' The Last Hero ''. Ukli The God of a Howondalandish tribe which wiped out the nearby N'tuitif tribe at his signal (an unusually large flare from the Moon). Shortly after, this tribe was also wiped out by another tribe who worshipped the goddess Glipzo . Mentioned in '' The Last Hero ''. Umcherrel In the depth of Skund Forest he is referred to as the Soul of the Forest. Local tribesmen believe you must first see Umcherrel before you can become a Spirit Master. Mentioned in '' The Light Fantastic ''. Ur-Gilash Thousands of years ago this god was a major competitor against Om. The god now being completely forgotten by humans, only Om recalls the existence of Ur-Gilash. Now a Small God, which is the fate of all gods who lose their believers, he may have been encountered by Om while the tortoise-god was crossing the desert with Brutha. Om and Brutha came across a small god who knew genuine god-speech, which was such a rarity that given the location, Om reasoned that it was once Ur-Gilash himself. Mentioned in '' Small Gods ''. Urika The Goddess of Snow, Saunas and Theatrical Performances for Fewer than 120 People. Her name is probably a parody of the word Eureka, and the Swedish celebrity Ulrika Jonsson . She appears in '' The Last Hero ''. Vometia The ancient Ankh-Morporkian goddess of being sick. "To make an offering to Vometia..." means exactly what you think it does. Mentioned in '' The Last Hero ''. Wilf Featured in '' The Discworld Almanak '', Wilf is the god of Astrology . Few people believe in him or worship him any more, so, in an attempt to keep belief in astrology going, he personally writes the horoscopes for the Almanak every year. Zephyrus The God of Slight Breezes. Mentioned in '' The Colour Of Magic '' and '' Discworld Noir ''. ANTHROPOMORPHIC PERSONIFICATIONS The difference between "god" and "anthropomorphic personification" in the Disc's pantheon is unclear; essentially it appears to be that a "god" is a being assigned a wide range of roles and powers by human belief, while personifications embody concepts and things that would exist whether people believed in them or not. Belief shapes how a personification manifests, not what it does. There are a number of ambiguities. For example, Death is certainly a personification (since living things die whether or not people believe they do), as are his fellow Apocalytic riders Kaos , War, Pestilence and Famine; while Fate and The Lady can be viewed as both gods and personifications, since the concepts they personify arguably would vanish if people ceased to believe in them. The Auditors of Reality The Auditors of Reality are Supernatural Entities and celestial Bureaucrats . They make sure that Gravity works, file the appropriate paperwork for each Chemical Reaction , and so forth. The Auditors hate Life , because it's messy and unpredictable, which makes them fall behind on their paperwork; they much prefer barren balls of rock Orbit ing Star s in neat, easily predictable Elliptical paths. They ''really'' hate Humans and other sentient beings, who are much more messy and unpredictable than other living things. The Auditors are not gods, at least not in the Discworld sense. Gods on the Disc derive their existence from human belief, something that the Auditors find inherently repulsive. Belief and imagination are the ultimate mess: They shape and reform the physical world in almost infinitely varied and complex ways. Where the Auditors see a fragment of carbonaceous chondrite heated by the friction of atmospheric entry, imagination sees a falling star. Where the Auditors see a random cleft in granite, imagination sees a dark cave haunted by monsters. To the Auditors, this is infuriating; after all, how can one catalogue or quantify a dragon, a basilisk, poetry or Justice? The Auditors existed long before humans and would be quite happy to exist without them. Fortunately for humanity and every other living thing, the Auditors can't simply wipe out life, because that's against the Rules; the Auditors can't break the Rules because, in a certain sense, they ''are'' the Rules. Unfortunately, a exists in the Rules which allows the Auditors to influence humans into doing what they cannot do directly; in several of the ''Discworld'' novels, the Auditors hire humans to perform tasks that will make the world less "messy", paying them with the gold they created out of thin air using their abilities to manipulate reality. Being personifications of a concept, the Auditors have no fixed shape. When they manifest in the world, however, they almost always appear as empty grey cowled robes, an appearance which conveys drabness and dullness rather than danger. They are, in a sense, similar to the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions in that they represent a higher abstract principle hostile to ordinary mortal life, but from the opposite direction of Law rather than Chaos (see Michael Moorcock 's Eternal Champion series). The History Monks classify the Auditors and the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions as the same class of being, dhlangs or evil spirits, but see the Auditors as the most dangerous, at least according to Lu-Tze , who names them the "Enemies of Mind". The Auditors have no discerning characteristics among themselves and function as a collective; when one speaks, it speaks for all of them, and each Auditor works uniformly with countless numbers of other Auditors. When discussing matters and making choices they work in groups of three. One to agree, one to disagree and one to mediate the two, thus covering all angles of possible debate to find the best solution. In the rare cases when an Auditor appears to develop an individual personality (such as using a personal pronoun to refer to itself or experiencing an emotion) it instantly ceases to exist. This happens because, as far as the Auditors are concerned, to have a personality is to be a living being with a beginning and an end, the intervening time between which seems infinitely small to entities who have experienced eternity. This does not seem to have any impact on the rest of the Auditors except maybe as an example to be avoided, because another Auditor immediately takes the place of its vapourised colleague. Interestingly, the primary opponent of the Auditors' plans for eliminating life is Death . Death does not see himself as the enemy of life, but rather an integral part of it, giving rest to the old and weary, and ensuring that the world doesn't become completely stuffed with life. He has also, over the millennia of performing his function, developed a certain fondness for the humans he ushers into the World Beyond . This conflict is all the more fascinating because Pratchett has hinted (in '' The Discworld Companion '') that Death and the Auditors may be related beings. The Auditors are the executive arm of the Old High Ones, the eight beings who create and shape the universe. Death ultimately answers to the eighth of the Old High Ones, Azrael, the death of universes. The animosity between Death and the Auditors is possibly a reference to Benjamin Franklin 's famous maxim, "In life, only two things are certain, death and taxes." The Auditors of Reality have appeared in the ''Discworld'' novels ''''. Bogeyman ''See: Undead (Discworld) '' The Creator The Discworld Creator appears in '' Eric ''. He is a little rat-faced man with a put-upon voice made for complaining with, who created the Discworld while the main universe was being built, and it was obviously on a budget. It is clear that World Creation is purely a mechanical function and doesn't call for godlike attributes. He was not responsible for creating the entire universe, and is somewhat disparaging of it, describing the Big Bang as "showy". After creating the Discworld, he left behind his personal Grimoire , the '' Octavo ''. This was, apparently, typical absent-mindedness; he says he once created A World and completely forgot the fingles. No-one noticed, because they evolved there and didn't know there ''should'' be fingles, but they could tell there was something missing somewhere, and it caused them deep psychological problems. Rincewind is believed to have had a hand in creating humans on the Discworld, as described in '' The Last Continent '', when he met the Creator he dropped a prawn sandwich into a rockpool, and he believes that this may have kick started evolution, and isn't happy about it (possibly because this was the first good thing to happen to Rincewind, and he wasn't there to see it). In '' Eric '', the sandwich is of a different type (egg and cress). The various aspects of the Creator's act of Creation are remembered vaguely by the spirits of the Octavo , who spend a great deal of time arguing over which event was the true act of Creation. They are described in mythological terms but seem more mundane than they might appear -- the Cosmic Egg is described as "rubbery", for example -- and it is only later that we learn how mundane these events appeared when the Creator actually performed them. (The Cosmic Egg being, for instance, the egg in Rincewind's sandwich.) It is strongly implied that the Creator's physical appearance is a reference to Terry Pratchett himself, and he is a self-parody of Pratchett's own act of creation in writing the novels. The Creator of XXXX The Creator of XXXX is not the same Creator who made the rest of the Disc. As described by "Scrappy" the kangaroo (a manifestation of a Trickster), after the world was made, there was a big space in an ocean with nothing in it, so another Creator added on another continent. Kangaroos are apparently a kind of signature--he includes them in every place he creates. The Creator is described as being an old aborigine man, with skin as black as space and deepset eyes. He wears just a loin cloth, and carries a spear, a leather sack that contains the universe (according to legend), and a boomerang--described as being a large, heavy, gently curving object that does not return on account of being stuck in the ribcage of what it was thrown at. He doesn't speak unless he has to, and only speaks in a whisper when he does--and the ground rumbles slightly at even that. As described in The Last Continent, he doesn't dare raise his voice in "the shadow world" lest he raise mountains as well. Death ''See main article: Death (Discworld) '' The Death of Rats The Death of Rats is not, strictly speaking, a personification in his own right but rather an aspect of Death allowed an independent existence. His purpose is to usher on the souls of dead rodents, and occasionally rodent-like humans. He was one of a disperate multitude of Deaths (down to the Death of Microorganisms) created during Death 's absence in '' Reaper Man ''. Upon Death's resumption of his duties, he reabsorbed the identities of all the millions of Deaths into himself. The Death of Rats, however, refused to be reabsorbed and, rather than insist, Death relented, because he liked the company. The Death of Rats resembles a rodentine skeleton on its hind legs, wearing a black robe and carrying a tiny scythe. He seems to find it easier to think his way around the Rules than Death, and has assisted Susan in '' Soul Music '', '' Hogfather '' and '' Thief Of Time ''. He rides a raven named Quoth and may carry the Death of Fleas; a small Entomomorph (just like Anthropomorph , but referring to insects), which also managed to escape reabsorption. However, the Death of Fleas has not been seen since '' Reaper Man ''. The Death of Rats, like Death, speaks in 's. The Hogfather The Discworld's version of Father Christmas or Santa Claus . He wears a red, fur-lined cloak, and rides a sleigh pulled by four wild boars, Gouger, Rooter, Tusker and Snouter. In earlier times he gave households pork products, and naughty children a bag of bloody bones. Earlier than that, he was a winter god of the death-and-renewal kind. The modern version is a jolly toymaker, with vestiges of the earlier myths (such as his Castle of Bones, a vast palace of ice which has nothing notably bony about it, except for the suggestion of a protruding femur or scapula here and there) still clinging to him. The Hogfather is one of a number of beings that hover on the boundary between "god" and "personification", yet probably is best thought of as the latter, since people still receive presents at Hogswatchnight, even if they no longer believe in him. The Hogfather was first mentioned in '' Reaper Man '' and dealt with extensively in '' Hogfather ''. Kaos, aka Ronnie Soak An Anthropomorphic personification of Chaos , originally spelled with a "K". Fifth horseman of the apocalypse who left before they became famous, known for his disruptive behavior whenever the horsemen attempted to interact with mortals, a parody of various stories of temperamental Rock Stars . Rides a chariot rather than a horse. Wields a sword so cold that it has negative heat – it radiates cold, symbolizing in general Kaos' power to reverse Entropy and violate laws of Probability . His abandonment of the Four Horsemen coincided with a decreasing sense among humans of the nature of the unpredictable Kaos from which the universe sprang as their world became increasingly civilized; was persuaded to return to power in a new form by Lu-Tze , one of "his creatures" (an individual naturally defiant of odds and of the way things ought to go), after learning how to exist in a symbiotic rather than hostile relationship with order, and also that the vastly increasing complexity of civilisation and laws only made their effects more widespread and unpredictable. In '' Thief Of Time '', changes from the ancient Kaos of old to a slicker, altogether more modern and mathematical Chaos . His intervention is decisive in giving the other four horsemen the power to defeat the "overwhelming odds" of the Auditors, for whom he holds a special hatred and whom he refers to as "The Law". When not heralding the destruction of all that is (or saving it from the Auditors), he runs a very fine dairy, using his super-cold sword and his ability to move outside of time to be able to sell any dairy product in existence, perfectly fresh, perfectly cold, and always arriving at precisely 7:30 a.m. simultaneously at every household in the city to sell his wares. Known for being the only person punctual enough to please Jeremy Clockson 's preternatural awareness of time. Jack Frost Leaves frosty tracings on icy windows. Can draw anything, but happens to really like fern patterns. Mentioned in '' Hogfather '', when the newly created Verruca Gnome (a household god that went around dispensing foot warts) convinced him to branch out from ferns, feathers, and paisley. Old Man Trouble Comes 'round your door if you ain't got rhythm and you ain't got music. It's best if you don't mind him. Mentioned in '' Soul Music '' and '' Hogfather '' as one of the gods who, having lost his purpose, has truly gone insane. A reference the old Ira Gershwin tune. Soul Cake Duck The Discworld's version of the Easter Bunny , it comes on Soul Cake Tuesday. The Sandman Pretty much the same as our world's Sandman, he puts people to sleep; though he's probably better at it, since he doesn't take the sand out of the sack first. Mentioned in '' Soul Music '' The Summoning Dark The Summoning Dark, which has so far only been seen in '' Thud! '', is the deadliest of the Dwarf s' minesign; it summons an entity described by Lord Vetinari as a quasi-demonic entity millions of years old and later as being of pure Vengeance . Prior to unleashing destruction on the world -- usually in the form of the Battle Of Koom Valley -- the Summoning Dark must select a champion, since it has no physical form and cannot interact directly with the world. In ''Thud!'', the Summoning Dark selects Samuel Vimes as its champion, but thanks to the strength of Vimes' own moral code, embodied by a similar entity introducing itself as "The Watchman", and later referring to itself as the "Guarding Dark", the Summoning Dark fails and is apparently incapacitated. Time Not a god, but, like Death , an anthropomorphic personification of an eternal process. Originally a dark-haired woman who resided in a palace of glass, she had an affair with the founder of the History Monks , Wen the Eternally Surprised, which led to the birth of two sons, or, more accurately, two different versions of the same son. One, Lobsang Ludd , eventually became a History Monk himself under the tutelage of Lu-Tze ; the other, Jeremy Clockson , became a brilliant if socially malajusted clockmaker. The Auditors eventually fooled Jeremy into constructing a truly accurate clock, which halted the passage of time. Able to move outside of time, both "brothers" eventually met and fused, becoming the new personification of Time, allowing history to recommence from where it had left off, and their mother to go on a long honeymoon with Wen. Appeared in '' Thief Of Time .'' Tooth Fairy Unlike our concept of the Tooth Fairy , the Discworld Tooth Fairy is operated as a franchise. Tooth collection is subcontracted to ordinary young women who walk the streets at night with money, ladders and pliers. (The pliers are necessary in case the tooth collector finds herself without the correct change - a second tooth can be taken to balance the books.) The Tooth Fairy lives in an unreal place shaped by the idea of a child's painting. The entity that became the Tooth Fairy personification was originally the ''first'' Bogeyman . The bogeyman's stated purpose in establishing this was to prevent the teeth from falling into the wrong hands, as they could be used to control the children. It seems that centuries of watching children had given it a (slightly creepy) affection for them. The role is eventually delegated to Banjo Lilywhite by Susan Sto Helit . Appears in '' Hogfather ''. THE ICE GIANTS Similar to the Jotun s of Norse Mythology , the Ice Giants are apparently necessary for the Apocralypse. When this came close to occurring during the events of '' Sourcery '', the Ice Giants, described as huge beings made of ice with tiny, coal-like eyes and riding tame glaciers, hurtled down towards the civilised world. They spoke with a pronounced Nordic accent. Nowadays seemingly redundant, they engage in small conflicts with the Gods on the smallest pretext, currently their refusal to return the Lawnmower . THE OLD HIGH ONES These are beings far more powerful than gods (who are, from their point of view, only slightly more troublesome versions of human beings) who control the workings of the Multiverse . There are eight of them, according to '' The Discworld Companion '', and they are not worshipped on the Discworld , the general populace being unaware of their existence. They are only very Ambiguously referred to in some of the Discworld religions and the most that Discworld scholars have learned is that eight 'entities' exist. There is no single word that can effectively explain their role; which seems to be to observe in a dynamic way, in order for the observed events to actually be able to happen (think the old Zen Koan "''If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear, does it make a sound?''"). It might be simpler to say the universe exists because they believe in it. Virtually nothing is known about their role in Discworld affairs, except that, in prehistory, they substantially reduced the amount of magic on the Discworld and made humans smaller, owing to the strain the Sourcerers were putting on the fabric of reality in their war on the gods and each other. Death is their servant, and it is likely that The Creator and Time are as well. They are also the apparent employers of The Auditors of Reality, although they seem to ignore the Auditors' recent tendency to break their own rules. Presumably they have their reasons. They may be derived from the Great Old Ones in the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft . It has also been theorised that they are a reference to The Endless from the comic book '' The Sandman '', of whom there are ''seven'', and who occupy roles similar to those attributed to The Old High Ones. The Endless were created by Neil Gaiman , with whom Terry Pratchett has collaborated in the past (see '' Good Omens ''), and the two frequently reference each others' work. Only one has been mentioned in the books so far, Azrael . The other seven - if they have names - have not been revealed. Azrael Azrael, also known as the Great Attractor and the Death of Universes, is apparently not a worshipped god on the Discworld, but he exists nonetheless, and is an entity of enormously unthinkable scope and size. While there are many 'Deaths' for different worlds (who are themselves divided into Deaths for different creatures) in the ''Discworld'' novels Azrael is their ruler. All other Deaths are aspects of him (a similar relationship as The Discworld Death has to the Death Of Rats ). When he appears, it is as a figure so immense as to make a supernova a mere gleam in his eyes and he takes a whole page to say YES. He also appears to be the keeper of what is logically the opposite of a clock, in that it tells Time what it is, and not the other way around. Azrael's connection with the personification of Time (currently the combination of Lobsang Ludd and his temporal double Jeremy Clockson ) is unknown. In the revised version of '' The Discworld Companion '', Azrael is described as one of The Old High Ones . Azrael clearly has a personality and a concept of Mercy like his servant, the Death Of The Discworld . He appears in an integral role (although not particularly often) in '' Reaper Man '' and overrules the Auditors' wishes, allowing the Discworld Death to take out his own merciful bending of the rules for a personal case. THE DARK GODS Although Pratchett never makes the connection explicit, the dark gods of the Necrotelecomnicon are probably creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions that have found a way to survive in our universe. If that's the case, than they cannot be seen as gods per se, or even as demons, since their existence is not dependent on human belief; nor can they be placed on the same moral spectrum as gods or demons, since, as they are completely lacking in vitality, they are neither good nor evil, but the opposite of both. Rather than being generated by human belief, they instead represent the aspects of reality that are truly unknowable and hostile to the attempts of human belief to shape it into recognizable forms. Bel-Shamharoth Bel-Shamharoth is also known as the "Soul-Eater," the "Soul-Render," or the "Sender of Eight." The inner dimensions of his eight-sided temple disobey a fairly basic rule of architecture by being bigger on the inside than on the outside, like many other Discworld buildings. It is quite disgusting, full of tunnels covered with unpleasant carvings and disjointed skeletons, and lit by a violet light almost black. The eight-sided crystals set at intervals shed a rather unpleasant glow that does not light the room, rather emphasizing the darkness. The floor is covered with eight-sided tiles (impossible with regular octagons, which do not Tessellate , but possible for some irregular eight-sided figures, and hyperbolic octagons) and the walls slope to create eight-sided corridors. Even the stones can sometimes be seen to have eight sides. All routes lead to the centre, where an intense violet light illuminates a wide room with eight walls and eight passages. In the room, there is a low, eight-sided altar and a huge stone slab, also eight-sided, and slightly tilted. Under that is a black tentacled creature with an enormous eye and thousands of suckers and tentacles and mandibles: Bel-Shamharoth. The temple is long since abandoned, worship of the Sender of Eight being a decidedly short term prospect. These days he is mostly remembered in the name of the Young Men's Reformed Cultists of the Ichor God Bel-Shamharoth Association. His likeness is etched on the cover of the Octavo . Terry Pratchett is well known for his references to, and parodies of the works of other authors, and indeed Bel-Shamaroth is one such- he bears many similarities to Cthulhu of H. P. Lovecraft 's Cthulhu Mythos . Yog-Sothoth is another of HPL's entities, who is refered to as "the eater of souls" in Shea and Wilson's Illuminatus! , also in that work Yog-Sothoth is imprisoned in a castle of 5 sides, not 8. With these, along with the hyphenated name coincidence, one could suggest that Yog-Sothoth is also partial inspiration for Bel-Shamaroth. '' Moving Pictures '', however, also lists a more direct parody of Yog-Sothoth -- the 'outerdimensional' entity Yob Sodoth, recognisable by his cry of "Yerwhatyerwhatyerwhat!" Other Dark Gods mentioned in the series include The Insider (Mentioned in '' Equal Rites ''. A parody of the H.P. Lovecraft short story " The Outsider ") and '''C'hulagen''' (Mentioned in '' Equal Rites .'' The name is likely a Portmanteau of Cthulhu and Hooligan ). The computer game '' Discworld Noir '' features a parody of Nyarlathotep , the Crawling Chaos, named '''Nylonathetep''', the Laddering Horror. |
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