History Literature / IncarnationsOfImmortality

* TwelveCoinsPuzzle: Featured in the third book.

* AlternateHistory: Many minor details about the world are changed because of the existence of magic and divinities. Iraq and Iran are called Babylonia and Persia (but still have a war), India is a collection of unrelated sultanates, Islam is not mentioned (though Allah and Mohammed do receive very brief references in ''For Love of Evil''), and "pigskin" (football) uses magic as part of the game, is measured in feet instead of yards, and is an [[AuthorAppeal all-female game.]]
** Also, some historical events are changed in-series, up to and including [[spoiler: Satan manipulating Chronos into preventing UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and the Holocaust]].
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Pretty much the basis of the entire story.

* BestHerToBedHer: Asian Clotho in ''With a Tangled Skein''; she only falls in love with Samurai after he defeats her in combat and shows her her place.
** That being said, she was using the Sword of War in the fight, and was therefore literally incapable of losing. She forfeited the match so that Samurai wouldn't be humiliated in front of his students.

* ButIWouldReallyEnjoyIt: How Lilah tempts Parry into continuing his slide into evil.
* CelestialBureaucracy: Purgatory is like this.

* CloakOfDefense: TheGrimReaper's cloak and [[MaskOfPower mask]] render the wearer completely invulnerable. It is later revealed to be partly a MagicFeather - whoever holds the office of Death is [[CompleteImmortality immortal]] when they want to be, but they can also loan out the cloak.
* CoolCar: Death's shapeshifting horse/car, Mortis.
* CoolHorse: Two examples:
** Death's steed, Mortis.
** War's steed, Werre.
* CoolOldGuy: Two examples:
** Nicolai
** JHVH.

* DeathTakesAHoliday: ''On a Pale Horse'', naturally.
** At the end of ''...And Eternity,'' [[spoiler:Death briefly takes a holiday again - and so do all the other Incarnations, for one hour, while they all select a new Incarnation of Good.]]

* GodJob: How the Incarnations work.

* HighHeelFaceTurn: Lilah, ''twice''.

* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Vita from ''...And Eternity''.

* LouisCypher: Natasha - [[spoiler: Ah Satan, Backwards]]

* NatureLover: Niobe in ''With a Tangled Skein''

* {{Omniglot}}: The previous Mars before Mym.

-->'''Lachesis''': By the right of necessity. All mankind will be damned if we don't meddle.

* ReallyGetsAround: Is there anyone Nox won't sleep with?

* SapientSteed: Mortis.
* SassyBlackWoman: The African-American Atropos in ''With a Tangled Skein''.

* SympatheticPOV: The sixth book, which focuses on Satan.

* ThemeTable

* ToHellAndBack: After Cedric sacrifices himself to save Niobe, Niobe travels to Purgatory in an attempt to make a deal with death and bring her husband back to life, even if it means she must [[TakeMeInstead die in his place]]. Sadly, Death is not convinced that her "but I love him!" argument outweighs the fact that Niobe's survival is crucial to the betterment of mankind.
** ''All'' the Incarnations visit Hell at some point in their careers. Usually it's a trap, sometimes it's just to negotiate.

* XanatosGambit: By the end, things end up arranged so that Satan gets what he wanted regardless of whether Good or Evil ends up in charge of the world. [[spoiler:If Good wins, God gets replaced by someone who is going to do the job properly. If Evil wins, Satan gets to take over. Either way, Hell stops getting souls who don't deserve to be there.]]

* YouMustBeCold: Death gives Luna his cloak once.

* InformedAttribute: At the beginning of the series, Zane (Thanatos) is informed that the Incarnations have to be immortal so that they can focus on their jobs. However, of the 5 standard ones, this only counts for two of them (Fate and Nature - and it's unlikely to be a coincidence that they are the female Incarnations). Death can be killed by a client, War moves on to the afterlife if all War ceases, and Time is the worst of all - he specifically has only his regular lifespan to live out before he fades and is replaced. The aspects of Fate, on the other hand, stay in office as long as they like, and decide when the time is right for them to leave. Nature can feel when someone is becoming strong enough to take over, and chooses to allow the next office holder to claim the office, effectively stepping to the side.

** Niobe's parents married her to Cedric Kaftan. She protested at first, but then after living together for a while, and seeing what a good man he was, realized that she had fallen in love with him.

* CoolCar: Death's car, Mortis.

* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: The Incarnation Of War is accompanied by Famine, Conquest, Slaughter, and Pestilence.
** The Incarnation Of Death, of course. The first book lampshades it with its title being a paraphrase of the Bible: Death rides ''On a Pale Horse''.

* ArtisticLicenseReligion: In ''Wielding a Red Sword'', Mym says that the closest equivalent to Satan in Hindu terms would be Shiva. In actuality, while Shiva is "the Destroyer", he is also a beloved and heroic deity revered by all Hindus. He's the destroyer ''of evil'', the guy who kills demons, and thus could hardly be more opposite to the traditionally-held image of Satan (as to Satan himself in this series...[[NecessaryEvil it's complicated]]).

* TimeLoopTrap: One of Hell's key punishment forms, shown in ...And Eternity. The sinner is condemned to experience the consequences of their sins, one sin at a time, until each is repented.

** Also [[spoiler: the Asian Clotho in ''With a Tangled Skein ''; she is preparing to commit suicide when the Fates swoop in and make her Clotho.]]

'''Incarnations of Immortality''' is an eight-book fantasy series by Creator/PiersAnthony. It tells the story of [[GodJob mortals who assume various immortal offices]], becoming the AnthropomorphicPersonification of varying concepts. The first five books deal with that person's life as he or she assumes the office, as well as his or her first encounter with {{Satan}}, who attempts to use their lack of experience to his own advantage. The series was originally conceived as being only five books long, but by popular demand the author wrote three more. The sixth book tells the story of Satan, and offers a PerspectiveFlip on some of the events of the previous books. The seventh book deals with a reoccurring character trying to save her baby's soul, and in turn, becoming the Incarnation of good (God). The last book deals with how Nox, aka Night, assumed her Office and became heavily involved in Satan's XanatosGambit (explaining some plot from prior books along the way). By the end of the series, all of the Incarnations are related to one another somehow.

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Six out of the seven books have a "[Verb] [a/an] [Noun]" pattern for their titles:

* NobleDemon: Pretty much Satan in a nutshell. His reason for the war against God is that the system for determining whether a person goes to Heaven or Hell is flawed, and he gets ''too many good people.'' He makes a deal with the Archangel Gabriel to keep the war from harming mortals. He is friends with ''JHVH'', the previous Incarnation of ''Good''.

* SuccubiAndIncubi: Lilah and Jezebel. Not to mention the various male demons encountered, several of which attempt to rape female protagonists. [[spoiler:But for a subversion, note that the Angel Gabriel is severely tempted to have a sexual encounter in ''Under a Velvet Cloak'', and eventually does succumb after the victory over Erebus.]]

* HornyDevils: Lilah and Jezebel. Not to mention the various male demons encountered, several of which attempt to rape female protagonists. [[spoiler:But for a subversion, note that the Angel Gabriel is severely tempted to have a sexual encounter in ''Under a Velvet Cloak'', and eventually does succumb after the victory over Erebus.]]

** Similarly, the succubus "Lila" sent to seduce Mars in book 4 turns out to be much more than a low-ranking HornyDevil: she was "Lilah", the same succubus that turned Parry to evil, and was also the "Lilith" of folklore who rejected Adam because he refused to acknowledge her as an equal.

** Lilah because she's [[HornyDevils a succubus]].

* KarmaHoudini: At the beginning of ''On a Pale Horse'', Zane goes into a shop where an [[HonestJohnsDealership extremely dishonest shopkeeper]] sells magic stones. Zane was fated to win the love of [[UglyGuyHotWife an incredibly beautiful and rich woman]]>, but the shopkeeper tricks him into trading this destiny for a magical stone [[BlessedWithSuck whose powers are all but useless]]. The shopkeeper gets to marry this beautiful, rich, and loving wife, while Zane is so distressed by losing this chance at happiness that he is DrivenToSuicide. We never see this shopkeeper again, so his story ends with him RidingIntoTheSunset with the woman whose love he stole from Zane.

* KarmaHoudini: At the beginning of ''On a Pale Horse'', Zane goes into a shop where an extremely dishonest shopkeeper sells magic stones. Zane was fated to win the love of an incredibly beautiful and rich woman, but the shopkeeper tricks him into trading this destiny for a magical stone whose powers are all but useless. The shopkeeper gets to marry this beautiful, rich, and loving wife, while Zane is so distressed by losing this chance at happiness that he is DrivenToSuicide. We never see this shopkeeper again, so his story ends with him RidingIntoTheSunset with the woman whose love he stole from Zane.