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* ChildrenAreInnocent: Mostly. Oddly enough, children can be "tainted" by their circumstances.
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* ChildrenAreInnocent: Mostly. Oddly enough, children can be "tainted" by their circumstances.circumstances, in which case they are not evil but are still treated as such by the system.
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It\'s one thing to say \"Im Death and I say this kid goes to Heaven.\" It\'s quite another to change the system so he doesnt have to make that kind of call.
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** Thanatos ''supposedly'' alters this rule at the end of his book, sending one so-called "tainted" soul to Heaven on his own authority, but in (chronologically) later books, children are still shown as being tainted by the sins of their birth.
*** Thanatos [[RetCon wants to change the rules but lacks the authority]]. Later books though allow him to to appeal to a higher power to change the rules.
*** Thanatos [[RetCon wants to change the rules but lacks the authority]]. Later books though allow him to to appeal to a higher power to change the rules.
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* ReallyGetsAround: Is there anyone Nox won't sleep with?
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* NobleDemon: Pretty much [[spoiler: Satan]] in a nutshell. His reason for [[spoiler: 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 original Incarnation of ''Good''.]]
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* NobleDemon: Pretty much [[spoiler: Satan]] in a nutshell. His reason for [[spoiler: 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 original previous Incarnation of ''Good''.]]
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* CueTheFlyingPigs[=/=]BrickJoke: [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Orlene]], when inside the body of one of the flying saucer hostages, has to tell the terrorists that the captain refuses to surrender control to them. The person she's possessing is too frightened to do so, so Orlene does it for her with the rather ballsy, "when God kisses Satan and the Incarnations applaud, maybe then". [[spoiler:And then it happens at the end, once she is made God(dess) and kisses Parry in thanks for him making it all possible.]]
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Removing wick to Did Not Do The Research per rename at TRS.
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* DidNotDoTheResearch: 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'', and thus could hardly be more opposite to Satan.
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Incarnations of Immortality is an eight-book fantasy series by 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.
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Incarnations of Immortality is an eight-book fantasy series by 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 EvilPlan (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.
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* NatureLover: Niobe in ''With a Tangled Skein''
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Could be foreshadowing. ;)
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* DidNotDoTheResearch: In ''Wielding a Red Sword'', Mym says that the closest equivalent to Satan in Hindu terms would be Shiva. No. No. No. And more no. While Shiva is "the Destroyer", he is also a beloved and heroic deity revered by all Hindus. He's the destroyer ''of evil'', and thus could hardly be more opposite to Satan.
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* DidNotDoTheResearch: In ''Wielding a Red Sword'', Mym says that the closest equivalent to Satan in Hindu terms would be Shiva. No. No. No. And more no. While 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'', and thus could hardly be more opposite to Satan.
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* ForgotICouldChangeTheRules: Played with. In the first novel, it isn't so much that Death forgot that he could change the rules; it's that he didn't know that he could (in fact, he didn't even ''know'' half of them), causing infant souls born under questionable circumstances to go to Purgatory and later triggering [[spoiler: an end to all death worldwide because he refused to take one soul]]. At the end of the book, he realizes that it's his prerogative to do what he damn well pleases as the Incarnation of Death, [[spoiler: and that all of Satan's rulesmongering didn't mean a damn thing. He also changes the rules regarding infant souls, sending one to heaven instead of Purgatory in the end.]] The last is [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] in later books, as Death is acting outside of ''his'' authority.
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** Though Death moves on to the afterlife naturally, with some implication that he gets to go to Heaven as a reward for his service. The previous officeholder of Evil, however, immediately gets damned and can thus be called upon by his successor.
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* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: In ''For Love of Evil'', Satan tries to meet up with the other Incarnations and make friends. With the exception of Chronos, they treat him utterly like crap, to the point of watching while Gaea [[RapeAsComedy has him raped by an ape]].
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* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: In ''For Love of Evil'', Satan tries to meet up with the other Incarnations and make friends. With the exception of Chronos, they treat him utterly like crap, to the point of watching while Gaea [[RapeAsComedy [[BlackComedyRape has him raped by an ape]].
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* GenderBender: Orlene getting temporarily turned into a man as described in ImAManICantHelpIt below. There's also Nicolai turning into a woman when he becomes an aspect of Fate.
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* [=~God's Hands Are Tied~=]: The fact that Satan's agents frequently interfere in the mortal world, while God apparently does nothing, is initially attributed to God and the Devil having made an agreement to leave the mortal world alone, which the Devil of course immediately broke but God still keeps. (This eventually turns out not to be true, but it's initially portrayed as a straight example of the trope.)
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* [=~God's Hands Are Tied~=]: GodsHandsAreTied: The fact that Satan's agents frequently interfere in the mortal world, while God apparently does nothing, is initially attributed to God and the Devil having made an agreement to leave the mortal world alone, which the Devil of course immediately broke but God still keeps. (This eventually turns out not to be true, but it's initially portrayed as a straight example of the trope.)
* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: Satan prevents Hitler's rise to power, and only JHVH and himself remembers this.
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* [=~Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act~=]: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. To repay a debt to the Jewish God JHVH, Satan convinces Chronos through ReversePsychology to prevent Hitler's rise to power. While there is still a war that Germany starts, it is as the restored Holy Roman Empire, and the Holocaust never happens.
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* [=~Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act~=]: HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. To repay a debt to the Jewish God JHVH, Satan convinces Chronos through ReversePsychology to prevent Hitler's rise to power. While there is still a war that Germany starts, it is as the restored Holy Roman Empire, and the Holocaust never happens.
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Except the plan\'s not evil
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Incarnations of Immortality is an eight-book fantasy series by 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 EvilPlan (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.
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Incarnations of Immortality is an eight-book fantasy series by 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 EvilPlan 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.
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Can\'t be both.
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Incarnations of Immortality is an eight-book fantasy series by 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.
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Incarnations of Immortality is an eight-book fantasy series by 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 EvilPlan (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.
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* GambitPileup: Satan, various Fates, Norton as Chronos, Nox, and the Archangel Gabriel have all set up {{Xanatos Gambit}}s and {{Xanatos Roulette}}s, some hundreds of years long, to manipulate each other, the other Incarnations, and any mortal who might be useful in the final conflict, until everything finally comes crashing together in And Eternity. [[spoiler: Subverted in the end, everyone won. And I mean everyone. Except Erebus, but who cares about him, anyway?]]
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* GambitPileup: Satan, various Fates, Norton as Chronos, Nox, and the Archangel Gabriel have all set up {{Xanatos Gambit}}s {{plan}}s and {{Xanatos Roulette}}s, [[GambitRoulette Roulettes]], some hundreds of years long, to manipulate each other, the other Incarnations, and any mortal who might be useful in the final conflict, until everything finally comes crashing together in And Eternity. [[spoiler: Subverted in the end, everyone won. And I mean everyone. Except Erebus, but who cares about him, anyway?]]
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* {{Xanatos Gambit}}/{{Xanatos Roulette}}: Satan's standard MO, naturally. By the end, things end up arranged so that he 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.]]
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* {{Xanatos Gambit}}/{{Xanatos Roulette}}: Satan's standard MO, naturally. XanatosGambit: By the end, things end up arranged so that he 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.]]
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* ''Being a Green Mother'' featuring Orb as Gaia, the Incarnation of Nature
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* ''Being a Green Mother'' featuring Orb as Gaia, Gaea, the Incarnation of Nature
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* FisherKing: Gaia's feelings affect the planet. It rains when she cries, and her anger can cause earthquakes.
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* FisherKing: Gaia's Gaea's feelings affect the planet. It rains when she cries, and her anger can cause earthquakes.
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* VaporWear: Gaia (the one before Orb) and Lilah. Gaia because she [[InnocentFanserviceGirl doesn't really see the point in clothing]], Lilah because she's [[HornyDevils a succubus]].
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* VaporWear: Gaia Gaea (the one before Orb) and Lilah. Gaia Gaea because she [[InnocentFanserviceGirl doesn't really see the point in clothing]], Lilah because she's [[HornyDevils a succubus]].
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* DidNotDoTheResearch: In "On a Red Horse", Mym says that the closest equivalent to Satan in Hindu terms would be Shiva. No. No. No. And more no. While Shiva is "the Destroyer", he is also a beloved and heroic deity revered by all Hindus. He's the destroyer ''of evil'', and thus could hardly be more opposite to Satan.
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* DidNotDoTheResearch: In "On ''Wielding a Red Horse", Sword'', Mym says that the closest equivalent to Satan in Hindu terms would be Shiva. No. No. No. And more no. While Shiva is "the Destroyer", he is also a beloved and heroic deity revered by all Hindus. He's the destroyer ''of evil'', and thus could hardly be more opposite to Satan.
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* DidNotDoTheResearch: In "On a Red Horse", Mym says that the closest equivalent to Satan in Hindu terms would be Shiva. No. No. No. And more no.
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* DidNotDoTheResearch: In "On a Red Horse", Mym says that the closest equivalent to Satan in Hindu terms would be Shiva. No. No. No. And more no. While Shiva is "the Destroyer", he is also a beloved and heroic deity revered by all Hindus. He's the destroyer ''of evil'', and thus could hardly be more opposite to Satan.
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* DidNotDoTheResearch: In "On a Red Horse", Mym says that the closest equivalent to Satan in Hindu terms would be Shiva. No. No. No. And more no.
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* 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.
** 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.
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* TheRedSonja: 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.
** 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.
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----
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----
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** Possibly subverted, as both Orlene and Jolie were transformed into a ''specific'' man (the grown version of Orlene's child) to show what his genetic affliction would do to him.
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Tropes should be listed using their actual titles.
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* [[FoxChickenGrainPuzzle Demon Rapist Girl Puzzle]]: Same as the FoxChickenGrainPuzzle, three women and three demons, and if the demons outnumber the women at any point they'll be raped.
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* [[FoxChickenGrainPuzzle Demon Rapist Girl Puzzle]]: Same FoxChickenGrainPuzzle: Presented as the FoxChickenGrainPuzzle, a Demon-Rapist-Girl Puzzle, with three women and three demons, and if the demons outnumber the women at any point they'll be raped.
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* SignsOfTheEndTimes: Plague, earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions are all the result of singing the Llano of Chaos, which ends all living things within weeks of it being sung. Although one could argue that these are less ''signs'' of the end and more the ''cause''.
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I\'m not sure where you got that from. The way I remember it, it was suggested that God tuned out because the previous incarnations made the mistake of selecting a perfect, sinless mortal to be God. (How they found such a person is a mystery) Since he had no sin himself, he couldn\'t relate to ordinary humans, who were sinful, so he stopped being interested. Basically, his flaw was in being flawless.
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** [[spoiler: In God's defense, it's also hinted that He might have distanced Himself from mortal affairs because, being omniscient, He felt everyone's sorrows too deeply when He did pay attention and could've gotten burned out by this over the centuries. He'd once been human too, after all, and humans can only take so much.]]
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* BetterTheDevilYouKnow: After [[spoiler: Parry abdicates his position as Satan]], the other Incarnations agree that they vastly preferred him to his replacement.
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: Mostly because He's actually a good guy. He just happens to occupy the office of Evil.
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: Mostly because He's actually a good guy. He just happens to occupy the office of Evil.
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Eliminating some strikethrough formatting.
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* [[strike: FoxChickenGrainPuzzle]] [[FoxChickenGrainPuzzle Demon Rapist Girl Puzzle]]: Same as the FoxChickenGrainPuzzle, three women and three demons, and if the demons outnumber the women at any point they'll be raped.
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* [[strike: FoxChickenGrainPuzzle]] [[FoxChickenGrainPuzzle Demon Rapist Girl Puzzle]]: Same as the FoxChickenGrainPuzzle, three women and three demons, and if the demons outnumber the women at any point they'll be raped.
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* ElectricTorture: Luna gets this. They zap her bared nipples, but it's made explicit that it's very painful.
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* ElectricTorture: Luna gets this. They Her kidnappers strip her topless and then zap her bared nipples, but it's nipples. It's made explicit that it's very painful.
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Incarnations of Immortality is an eight-book fantasy series by 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.
The books and the incarnation featured in them are, in order:
* ''On a Pale Horse'' featuring Zane as Thanatos, the Incarnation of Death
* ''Bearing an Hourglass'' featuring Norton as Chronos, the Incarnation of Time
* ''With a Tangled Skein'' featuring Niobe as Clotho and Lachesis (at different times), aspects of the Incarnation of Fate
* ''Wielding a Red Sword'' featuring Mym as Mars, the Incarnation of War
* ''Being a Green Mother'' featuring Orb as Gaia, the Incarnation of Nature
* ''For Love of Evil'' featuring Parry as Satan, the Incarnation of Evil
* ''...and Eternity'' featuring mysterious stuff about God, the Incarnation of Good
* ''Under a Velvet Cloak'', which is largely a prequel to the main series, featuring Kerena as Nox, the Incarnation of Night
----
!!The series makes use of the following tropes:
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: In ''For Love of Evil'', Satan tries to meet up with the other Incarnations and make friends. With the exception of Chronos, they treat him utterly like crap, to the point of watching while Gaea [[RapeAsComedy has him raped by an ape]].
** BullyingADragon: His retaliation against Gaea turns out to be hitting Europe with ''the Black Death'' [[SinsOfOurFathers after she retires and is replaced with an inexperienced successor]], which ends up nuking most of Europe and teaching Satan a lesson in uncontrolled revenge.
* 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 WorldWarII and the Holocaust]].
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Pretty much the basis of the entire story.
* ArrogantKungFuGuy: The martial arts master Samurai in With A Tangled Skein.
* BreastAttack: Through electrocution.
* CelestialBureaucracy: Purgatory is like this.
* ChekhovsGunman: Quite a few. Most notably Orlene, who serves only to set up Norton into [[DeathByOriginStory becoming Chronos by dying]], then becomes the main character of "...And Eternity."
** Nicolai appears in "Being a Green Mother" as someone Orb meets during her travels (and is left to find a rich adoptive family for Orlene), but in "...And Eternity" he becomes an aspect of Fate.
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Mostly. Oddly enough, children can be "tainted" by their circumstances.
** Thanatos ''supposedly'' alters this rule at the end of his book, sending one so-called "tainted" soul to Heaven on his own authority, but in (chronologically) later books, children are still shown as being tainted by the sins of their birth.
*** Thanatos [[RetCon wants to change the rules but lacks the authority]]. Later books though allow him to to appeal to a higher power to change the rules.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The Incarnations of good and evil gain power by how many people believe in them. When religions fade away, so do their respective Incarnations of good and evil.
* CompletelyMissingThePoint: When Zane was still human, he was a photographer. He discovered how to take pictures of people's auras. He became depressed when his customers ignored the beautiful auras and only bought his photos because a side-effect of the aura-capturing technique was that the [[SexSells subject appears naked]].
* CoolCar: Death's car, Mortis.
* CoolHorse: Death's steed, Mortis. War's steed, Werre.
* CoolOldGuy: Nicolai and JHVH.
* CuteGhostGirl: Molly Malone, Jolie, and Orlene.
* 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.]]
* ElectricTorture: Luna gets this. They zap her bared nipples, but it's made explicit that it's very painful.
* EveryoneIsRelated: The Incarnations make a pretty big tangle.
* FisherKing: Gaia's feelings affect the planet. It rains when she cries, and her anger can cause earthquakes.
* [[strike: FoxChickenGrainPuzzle]] [[FoxChickenGrainPuzzle Demon Rapist Girl Puzzle]]: Same as the FoxChickenGrainPuzzle, three women and three demons, and if the demons outnumber the women at any point they'll be raped.
* GambitPileup: Satan, various Fates, Norton as Chronos, Nox, and the Archangel Gabriel have all set up {{Xanatos Gambit}}s and {{Xanatos Roulette}}s, some hundreds of years long, to manipulate each other, the other Incarnations, and any mortal who might be useful in the final conflict, until everything finally comes crashing together in And Eternity. [[spoiler: Subverted in the end, everyone won. And I mean everyone. Except Erebus, but who cares about him, anyway?]]
* GodJob: How the Incarnations work.
* [=~God's Hands Are Tied~=]: The fact that Satan's agents frequently interfere in the mortal world, while God apparently does nothing, is initially attributed to God and the Devil having made an agreement to leave the mortal world alone, which the Devil of course immediately broke but God still keeps. (This eventually turns out not to be true, but it's initially portrayed as a straight example of the trope.)
* TheGodsMustBeLazy: Or in {{God}}'s case, [[spoiler: zonked out on his own Divine Presence.]]
** [[spoiler: In God's defense, it's also hinted that He might have distanced Himself from mortal affairs because, being omniscient, He felt everyone's sorrows too deeply when He did pay attention and could've gotten burned out by this over the centuries. He'd once been human too, after all, and humans can only take so much.]]
* GoneHorriblyRight: Lucifer sent Lilah to [[GoSeduceMyArchnemesis turn Parry, leader of the Dominicans and his deadliest foe, to evil]]. He succeeded...and Parry promptly overthrew him. Remember, Prince of Darkness, EvilIsNotAToy.
* GoSeduceMyArchnemesis: In addition to Lucifer's attempt in book 6, described above, in book 4, Satan tries sending Lilah to seduce and corrupt the new Mars. Once again, it ends up backfiring.
* TheGrimReaper: Subverted, as it's only a costume Thanatos wears.
* HaveYouSeenMyGod: The Christian God, who is the current Incarnation of Good, is inattentive because [[spoiler:He is contemplating His own goodness to the exclusion of all else. In ''...and Eternity'', He is impeached and replaced by a new God.]]
* [=~Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act~=]: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. To repay a debt to the Jewish God JHVH, Satan convinces Chronos through ReversePsychology to prevent Hitler's rise to power. While there is still a war that Germany starts, it is as the restored Holy Roman Empire, and the Holocaust never happens.
* TheHecateSisters: Fate
* HighHeelFaceTurn: Lilah, ''twice''.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Vita from ''And Eternity''.
* HornyDevils: Lilah and Jezebel.
* 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 it's title being a paraphrase of the bible: Death rides ''"On a pale horse"''.
* IHateYouVampireDad: Plays a ''major'' role in the events of ''Under a Velvet Cloak'', which leads to all the Incarnations being affected in some way.
* ImAManICantHelpIt: In ''And Eternity'', Orlene is transformed into a man and immediately becomes an aggressive, misogynistic, testosterone-charged boor, attempting to rape her friend Jolie. Upon having her female form restored, she and Jolie are horrified and conclude that "Men have passions that women do not", and that the reason all men are not constantly overwhelmed with violent lust is that "they have learned control".
* IncrediblyLamePun: Because [[spoiler: Orlene]] is a ghost when she assumes the Office of Good, Vita points out that this makes her a Holy Ghost.
* InterruptedSuicide: [[spoiler:Zane is interrupted by Thanatos and kills him, claiming the office.]]
** 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.]]
* LivingMacGuffin: Luna. Niobe to a lesser extent, before she stops being a chess piece and starts playing.
* LivingMotionDetector: Zane fights a demon like this in the first book.
* LoopholeAbuse: (Spoilers for the end of ''And Eternity'') [[spoiler:AintNoRule that says a ghost can't hold office as an Incarnation. The rule only limits eligibility to those who remain in the mortal realm, which includes the ghosts.]]
* LoveRedeems: [[spoiler: After falling in love with Orb, Satan [[strike: tries to resign his position]] kills himself, thereby abdicating the Office of Evil. It doesn't stick, because everyone prefers Satan to his replacement and the Incarnations fish him out of his cell.]]
* LouisCypher: [[spoiler: Natasha - Ah Satan, Backwards]]
* MagicFeather: [[spoiler: All the Incarnations' implements function more or less like this. They're symbolic of the Incarnations' power, but mostly act as tools of visualization and control; Death doesn't need his cloak for invulnerability, and Gaea and Satan use their music as an easy focus for their techniques. The only apparent exceptions are the skeins of fate, and possibly the Hourglass.]]
* MagicMusic: The Llano, a song that can do strange things. Nature and Satan use it.
** Earlier, Orb learns the ''tanana,'' which is an erotic Gypsy dance with surprising efficacy on nonhuman entities (although this is more likely the result of Orb's nascent powers), and uses it on her quest to find the Llano.
** Cedric Kaftan and his cousin Pacian (Orb's father) both have an inherited brand of magic that causes invisible orchestras to spring up with sparkly backing tracks whenever they sing. [[spoiler: Niobe instantly falls in love with each of them in turn after hearing their singing.]]
* MerlinSickness: Chronos.
* MoreExpendableThanYou: When Cedric discovers a plot to kill Niobe, he decides to make the HeroicSacrifice by taking her place without telling her.
* NakedFirstImpression: Zane meets Luna when she is teleported out of the shower.
* NobleDemon: Pretty much [[spoiler: Satan]] in a nutshell. His reason for [[spoiler: 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 original Incarnation of ''Good''.]]
* NoNameGiven:
** With a very few exceptions, none of the Incarnations other than the specific protagonists of each novel are ever named.
** Despite getting a fair amount of screentime, Orb's bandmates in ''Being a Green Mother'' are only ever referred to as "the guitarist", "the drummer", etc.
* NowILayMeDownToSleep: In ''On A Pale Horse'', Death decides to read his mail against the advice of his household staff, and one of the letters is from a girl who is afraid that she'll die in her sleep because her mother makes her recite this prayer before going to bed.
* NowItsMyTurn: When Cedric confronts four drunk college students who were attempting to rape Niobe, he deliberately allows them to strike him first, [[PunchPunchPunchUhOh which has no effect]]. He then grins and says, "Now you have had the first blow, I'll have the last," and proceeds to lay out all four of them in seconds.
* {{Omniglot}}: The previous Mars before Mym.
* OneDegreeOfSeparation: Everyone's related! [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the GambitPileup revealed in the later books.
* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage
* PrettyInMink: An heiress in the beginning of the first book.
* PunchClockVillain: Satan, particularly as characterized in the later books, is just doing a dirty but necessary job in tempting humans to sin and punishing the guilty. Most of his predecessors really ''were'' genuinely evil, leading to some really ugly [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer office politics]] before [[spoiler: Orlene becomes Goddess and patches things up.]]
* {{Retcon}}: Satan in the first four books appeared to be pure, irredeemable evil. In the fifth book, he gets cast more sympathetically, and after that he's a NecessarilyEvil [[PunchClockVillain Punch Clock]] AntiVillain.
** 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.
* RunawayFiance: Asian Clotho in With A Tangled Skein; she runs away from her strict family because she doesn't like the husband they have chosen for her.
* SassyBlackWoman: The African-American Atropos in With A Tangled Skein.
* SatanIsGood: The sixth book's entire premise. ([[NecessarilyEvil Sort of.]])
* SapientSteed: Mortis.
* SelfInflictedHell: A person's faith determines what afterlife it gets. Atheist souls disintegrate upon death.
** Becomes a bit of a FamilyUnfriendlyAesop, or possibly some variety of TakeThat at faith, when you realize that this means, as far as the universe of the books go, that those who believe will have to suffer for their sins... some intentional, many not... while atheists can be as evil as they want to be without any post-death repercussions.
** On the other hand, atheists ''[[CessationOfExistence disintegrate]]''. But that's what they're expecting, they don't consider it any kind of punishment or bad thing.
** [[spoiler:It is this system that Satan is opposing through the sixth and seventh books.]]
* SequelGap: ''Under A Velvet Cloak'' was published seventeen years after the previous book.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The succubus "Lilah" goes by slightly different names at different points in the series, changing it depending on the persona she is assuming at the time.
* SympatheticPOV: The sixth book.
* TheRedSonja: 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.
* TangledFamilyTree: A mild one as things go, but the Kaftan family still has to deal with time travel, prophecies, and temporary agelessness, leading to Niobe's daughter and first granddaughter being born about the same time, and Niobe herself screwing her second granddaughter's affair from the future. Come to think of it, we should be very grateful that Incarnations can't reproduce.
* ThemeTable
* TimeStandsStill: Chronos and Thanatos can both do this, though Thanatos only because Chronos lets him.
** Mars can do it as well and its implied that all Incarnations can do it. One of the Office of Time's duties is to allow to the other Incarnations to stop time when it is necessary for them to perform their duties.
*** In fact most of Chronos' job seems to be helping the other Incarnations out when they need to fiddle with some matter of time or another. He does his other main job, making sure time, y'know, ''exists'', just by being in office.
*** As, in fact, do most of the Incarnations. They make sure problems and important jobs are dealt with, and the small things happen automatically.
* 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.
* TwelveCoinsPuzzle: Featured in the third book.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Zane, while not exactly ugly, is average at best, while Luna is one of the most beautiful women of her generation. Zane was also destined to marry a comparably beautiful and rich woman before a shady salesman tricked him into giving up this destiny.
* VaporWear: Gaia (the one before Orb) and Lilah. Gaia because she [[InnocentFanserviceGirl doesn't really see the point in clothing]], Lilah because she's [[HornyDevils a succubus]].
* VillainousBreakdown: Satan in ''Wielding A Red Sword'' when [[spoiler: Mars threatens to start World War III and the Apocalypse early.]] Satan may have been faking, though.
* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Niobe for her generation, her daughter Orb for her generation, and her granddaughter (via her son) Luna for ''her'' generation.
* {{Xanatos Gambit}}/{{Xanatos Roulette}}: Satan's standard MO, naturally. By the end, things end up arranged so that he 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.]]
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: The office of Death is transferred this way. This is also one of the ways the office of Evil can be transferred.
* YouMustBeCold: Death gives Luna his cloak once.
----
The books and the incarnation featured in them are, in order:
* ''On a Pale Horse'' featuring Zane as Thanatos, the Incarnation of Death
* ''Bearing an Hourglass'' featuring Norton as Chronos, the Incarnation of Time
* ''With a Tangled Skein'' featuring Niobe as Clotho and Lachesis (at different times), aspects of the Incarnation of Fate
* ''Wielding a Red Sword'' featuring Mym as Mars, the Incarnation of War
* ''Being a Green Mother'' featuring Orb as Gaia, the Incarnation of Nature
* ''For Love of Evil'' featuring Parry as Satan, the Incarnation of Evil
* ''...and Eternity'' featuring mysterious stuff about God, the Incarnation of Good
* ''Under a Velvet Cloak'', which is largely a prequel to the main series, featuring Kerena as Nox, the Incarnation of Night
----
!!The series makes use of the following tropes:
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: In ''For Love of Evil'', Satan tries to meet up with the other Incarnations and make friends. With the exception of Chronos, they treat him utterly like crap, to the point of watching while Gaea [[RapeAsComedy has him raped by an ape]].
** BullyingADragon: His retaliation against Gaea turns out to be hitting Europe with ''the Black Death'' [[SinsOfOurFathers after she retires and is replaced with an inexperienced successor]], which ends up nuking most of Europe and teaching Satan a lesson in uncontrolled revenge.
* 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 WorldWarII and the Holocaust]].
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Pretty much the basis of the entire story.
* ArrogantKungFuGuy: The martial arts master Samurai in With A Tangled Skein.
* BreastAttack: Through electrocution.
* CelestialBureaucracy: Purgatory is like this.
* ChekhovsGunman: Quite a few. Most notably Orlene, who serves only to set up Norton into [[DeathByOriginStory becoming Chronos by dying]], then becomes the main character of "...And Eternity."
** Nicolai appears in "Being a Green Mother" as someone Orb meets during her travels (and is left to find a rich adoptive family for Orlene), but in "...And Eternity" he becomes an aspect of Fate.
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Mostly. Oddly enough, children can be "tainted" by their circumstances.
** Thanatos ''supposedly'' alters this rule at the end of his book, sending one so-called "tainted" soul to Heaven on his own authority, but in (chronologically) later books, children are still shown as being tainted by the sins of their birth.
*** Thanatos [[RetCon wants to change the rules but lacks the authority]]. Later books though allow him to to appeal to a higher power to change the rules.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The Incarnations of good and evil gain power by how many people believe in them. When religions fade away, so do their respective Incarnations of good and evil.
* CompletelyMissingThePoint: When Zane was still human, he was a photographer. He discovered how to take pictures of people's auras. He became depressed when his customers ignored the beautiful auras and only bought his photos because a side-effect of the aura-capturing technique was that the [[SexSells subject appears naked]].
* CoolCar: Death's car, Mortis.
* CoolHorse: Death's steed, Mortis. War's steed, Werre.
* CoolOldGuy: Nicolai and JHVH.
* CuteGhostGirl: Molly Malone, Jolie, and Orlene.
* 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.]]
* ElectricTorture: Luna gets this. They zap her bared nipples, but it's made explicit that it's very painful.
* EveryoneIsRelated: The Incarnations make a pretty big tangle.
* FisherKing: Gaia's feelings affect the planet. It rains when she cries, and her anger can cause earthquakes.
* [[strike: FoxChickenGrainPuzzle]] [[FoxChickenGrainPuzzle Demon Rapist Girl Puzzle]]: Same as the FoxChickenGrainPuzzle, three women and three demons, and if the demons outnumber the women at any point they'll be raped.
* GambitPileup: Satan, various Fates, Norton as Chronos, Nox, and the Archangel Gabriel have all set up {{Xanatos Gambit}}s and {{Xanatos Roulette}}s, some hundreds of years long, to manipulate each other, the other Incarnations, and any mortal who might be useful in the final conflict, until everything finally comes crashing together in And Eternity. [[spoiler: Subverted in the end, everyone won. And I mean everyone. Except Erebus, but who cares about him, anyway?]]
* GodJob: How the Incarnations work.
* [=~God's Hands Are Tied~=]: The fact that Satan's agents frequently interfere in the mortal world, while God apparently does nothing, is initially attributed to God and the Devil having made an agreement to leave the mortal world alone, which the Devil of course immediately broke but God still keeps. (This eventually turns out not to be true, but it's initially portrayed as a straight example of the trope.)
* TheGodsMustBeLazy: Or in {{God}}'s case, [[spoiler: zonked out on his own Divine Presence.]]
** [[spoiler: In God's defense, it's also hinted that He might have distanced Himself from mortal affairs because, being omniscient, He felt everyone's sorrows too deeply when He did pay attention and could've gotten burned out by this over the centuries. He'd once been human too, after all, and humans can only take so much.]]
* GoneHorriblyRight: Lucifer sent Lilah to [[GoSeduceMyArchnemesis turn Parry, leader of the Dominicans and his deadliest foe, to evil]]. He succeeded...and Parry promptly overthrew him. Remember, Prince of Darkness, EvilIsNotAToy.
* GoSeduceMyArchnemesis: In addition to Lucifer's attempt in book 6, described above, in book 4, Satan tries sending Lilah to seduce and corrupt the new Mars. Once again, it ends up backfiring.
* TheGrimReaper: Subverted, as it's only a costume Thanatos wears.
* HaveYouSeenMyGod: The Christian God, who is the current Incarnation of Good, is inattentive because [[spoiler:He is contemplating His own goodness to the exclusion of all else. In ''...and Eternity'', He is impeached and replaced by a new God.]]
* [=~Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act~=]: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. To repay a debt to the Jewish God JHVH, Satan convinces Chronos through ReversePsychology to prevent Hitler's rise to power. While there is still a war that Germany starts, it is as the restored Holy Roman Empire, and the Holocaust never happens.
* TheHecateSisters: Fate
* HighHeelFaceTurn: Lilah, ''twice''.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Vita from ''And Eternity''.
* HornyDevils: Lilah and Jezebel.
* 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 it's title being a paraphrase of the bible: Death rides ''"On a pale horse"''.
* IHateYouVampireDad: Plays a ''major'' role in the events of ''Under a Velvet Cloak'', which leads to all the Incarnations being affected in some way.
* ImAManICantHelpIt: In ''And Eternity'', Orlene is transformed into a man and immediately becomes an aggressive, misogynistic, testosterone-charged boor, attempting to rape her friend Jolie. Upon having her female form restored, she and Jolie are horrified and conclude that "Men have passions that women do not", and that the reason all men are not constantly overwhelmed with violent lust is that "they have learned control".
* IncrediblyLamePun: Because [[spoiler: Orlene]] is a ghost when she assumes the Office of Good, Vita points out that this makes her a Holy Ghost.
* InterruptedSuicide: [[spoiler:Zane is interrupted by Thanatos and kills him, claiming the office.]]
** 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.]]
* LivingMacGuffin: Luna. Niobe to a lesser extent, before she stops being a chess piece and starts playing.
* LivingMotionDetector: Zane fights a demon like this in the first book.
* LoopholeAbuse: (Spoilers for the end of ''And Eternity'') [[spoiler:AintNoRule that says a ghost can't hold office as an Incarnation. The rule only limits eligibility to those who remain in the mortal realm, which includes the ghosts.]]
* LoveRedeems: [[spoiler: After falling in love with Orb, Satan [[strike: tries to resign his position]] kills himself, thereby abdicating the Office of Evil. It doesn't stick, because everyone prefers Satan to his replacement and the Incarnations fish him out of his cell.]]
* LouisCypher: [[spoiler: Natasha - Ah Satan, Backwards]]
* MagicFeather: [[spoiler: All the Incarnations' implements function more or less like this. They're symbolic of the Incarnations' power, but mostly act as tools of visualization and control; Death doesn't need his cloak for invulnerability, and Gaea and Satan use their music as an easy focus for their techniques. The only apparent exceptions are the skeins of fate, and possibly the Hourglass.]]
* MagicMusic: The Llano, a song that can do strange things. Nature and Satan use it.
** Earlier, Orb learns the ''tanana,'' which is an erotic Gypsy dance with surprising efficacy on nonhuman entities (although this is more likely the result of Orb's nascent powers), and uses it on her quest to find the Llano.
** Cedric Kaftan and his cousin Pacian (Orb's father) both have an inherited brand of magic that causes invisible orchestras to spring up with sparkly backing tracks whenever they sing. [[spoiler: Niobe instantly falls in love with each of them in turn after hearing their singing.]]
* MerlinSickness: Chronos.
* MoreExpendableThanYou: When Cedric discovers a plot to kill Niobe, he decides to make the HeroicSacrifice by taking her place without telling her.
* NakedFirstImpression: Zane meets Luna when she is teleported out of the shower.
* NobleDemon: Pretty much [[spoiler: Satan]] in a nutshell. His reason for [[spoiler: 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 original Incarnation of ''Good''.]]
* NoNameGiven:
** With a very few exceptions, none of the Incarnations other than the specific protagonists of each novel are ever named.
** Despite getting a fair amount of screentime, Orb's bandmates in ''Being a Green Mother'' are only ever referred to as "the guitarist", "the drummer", etc.
* NowILayMeDownToSleep: In ''On A Pale Horse'', Death decides to read his mail against the advice of his household staff, and one of the letters is from a girl who is afraid that she'll die in her sleep because her mother makes her recite this prayer before going to bed.
* NowItsMyTurn: When Cedric confronts four drunk college students who were attempting to rape Niobe, he deliberately allows them to strike him first, [[PunchPunchPunchUhOh which has no effect]]. He then grins and says, "Now you have had the first blow, I'll have the last," and proceeds to lay out all four of them in seconds.
* {{Omniglot}}: The previous Mars before Mym.
* OneDegreeOfSeparation: Everyone's related! [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the GambitPileup revealed in the later books.
* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage
* PrettyInMink: An heiress in the beginning of the first book.
* PunchClockVillain: Satan, particularly as characterized in the later books, is just doing a dirty but necessary job in tempting humans to sin and punishing the guilty. Most of his predecessors really ''were'' genuinely evil, leading to some really ugly [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer office politics]] before [[spoiler: Orlene becomes Goddess and patches things up.]]
* {{Retcon}}: Satan in the first four books appeared to be pure, irredeemable evil. In the fifth book, he gets cast more sympathetically, and after that he's a NecessarilyEvil [[PunchClockVillain Punch Clock]] AntiVillain.
** 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.
* RunawayFiance: Asian Clotho in With A Tangled Skein; she runs away from her strict family because she doesn't like the husband they have chosen for her.
* SassyBlackWoman: The African-American Atropos in With A Tangled Skein.
* SatanIsGood: The sixth book's entire premise. ([[NecessarilyEvil Sort of.]])
* SapientSteed: Mortis.
* SelfInflictedHell: A person's faith determines what afterlife it gets. Atheist souls disintegrate upon death.
** Becomes a bit of a FamilyUnfriendlyAesop, or possibly some variety of TakeThat at faith, when you realize that this means, as far as the universe of the books go, that those who believe will have to suffer for their sins... some intentional, many not... while atheists can be as evil as they want to be without any post-death repercussions.
** On the other hand, atheists ''[[CessationOfExistence disintegrate]]''. But that's what they're expecting, they don't consider it any kind of punishment or bad thing.
** [[spoiler:It is this system that Satan is opposing through the sixth and seventh books.]]
* SequelGap: ''Under A Velvet Cloak'' was published seventeen years after the previous book.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The succubus "Lilah" goes by slightly different names at different points in the series, changing it depending on the persona she is assuming at the time.
* SympatheticPOV: The sixth book.
* TheRedSonja: 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.
* TangledFamilyTree: A mild one as things go, but the Kaftan family still has to deal with time travel, prophecies, and temporary agelessness, leading to Niobe's daughter and first granddaughter being born about the same time, and Niobe herself screwing her second granddaughter's affair from the future. Come to think of it, we should be very grateful that Incarnations can't reproduce.
* ThemeTable
* TimeStandsStill: Chronos and Thanatos can both do this, though Thanatos only because Chronos lets him.
** Mars can do it as well and its implied that all Incarnations can do it. One of the Office of Time's duties is to allow to the other Incarnations to stop time when it is necessary for them to perform their duties.
*** In fact most of Chronos' job seems to be helping the other Incarnations out when they need to fiddle with some matter of time or another. He does his other main job, making sure time, y'know, ''exists'', just by being in office.
*** As, in fact, do most of the Incarnations. They make sure problems and important jobs are dealt with, and the small things happen automatically.
* 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.
* TwelveCoinsPuzzle: Featured in the third book.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Zane, while not exactly ugly, is average at best, while Luna is one of the most beautiful women of her generation. Zane was also destined to marry a comparably beautiful and rich woman before a shady salesman tricked him into giving up this destiny.
* VaporWear: Gaia (the one before Orb) and Lilah. Gaia because she [[InnocentFanserviceGirl doesn't really see the point in clothing]], Lilah because she's [[HornyDevils a succubus]].
* VillainousBreakdown: Satan in ''Wielding A Red Sword'' when [[spoiler: Mars threatens to start World War III and the Apocalypse early.]] Satan may have been faking, though.
* WorldsMostBeautifulWoman: Niobe for her generation, her daughter Orb for her generation, and her granddaughter (via her son) Luna for ''her'' generation.
* {{Xanatos Gambit}}/{{Xanatos Roulette}}: Satan's standard MO, naturally. By the end, things end up arranged so that he 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.]]
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: The office of Death is transferred this way. This is also one of the ways the office of Evil can be transferred.
* YouMustBeCold: Death gives Luna his cloak once.
----
