History Literature / Pyramids

*** Unfortunately, most British readers like this Troper read that as Her-She-Ba' (Queen of Sheba, Bathsheba, etc).

* EnlargedAmphibian: Djelibeybi is so impoverished they couldn't even manage a plague of frogs, merely a plague of ''frog''. It was, however, a particularly big frog, which stunk up the palace when it died.

* YesMan: Endos the Listener is a variant, his job is to act as is the person who is talking is the most interesting person in the world.

-->For, as the world tumbles lazily, it is revealed as the Discworld-flat, circular, and carried through space on the back of four elephants who stand on the back of Great A'tuin, the only turtle ever to feature on the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, a turtle ten thousand miles long, dusted with the frost of dead comets, meteor-pocked, albedo-eyed. No one knows the reason for all this, but it is probably quantum.

*** Also, it may be a stretch, but [[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure like a certain other Dio]], [[spoiler:he is also involved in time manipulation, a fact which is not revealed until later]].

* AncientEgypt: Djelibeybi is a FantasyCounterpartCulture of this, turned UpToEleven.

* NephariousPharaoh: Dios the High Priest -- effectively the ruler of the kingdom, manipulating a succession of essentially benign but hopelessly confused Pharaohs [[spoiler:for seven thousand years]]. Pratchett offers a subversion of this idea, suggesting that the pharaoh is essentially a powerless figurehead and real power resides elsewhere in an [[UpToEleven Ancient Egypt]]-like country.

* UpToEleven: One of the poisons Teppic names is "Wasp Agaric". In our world, the Fly Agaric is a poisonous toadstool whose name reflects its use as an insecticide. Since a wasp is bigger and nastier than a fly, the Wasp Agaric is presumably that much nastier when used as poison.

* DramaticSitDown: Dios the High Priest is so shocked at a Djelibabian ruler ''not'' following the rituals that he sits down on a chair which happened to contain a model ship for the king's tomb. The ghost of the king notes that it's the first time he's ever seen Dios do anything comical. Later on he also has to sit down on the temple steps when [[spoiler:the entire pantheon is coming to life.]]

* ContemptibleCover: Even by the standards of the early Discworld book covers, Ptraci's boobs and butt on the cover (see page image) are incredibly blatant.

* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: Ptraci fears being thrown to the crocodiles for escaping from the late King's tomb. Later, any priest who says something the now-manifested gods might take offense at is thrown to the river's crocodiles by the other priests. Pteppic's mother was also killed by a crocodile, although not as a form of execution; she "took a midnight swim in what turned out to be a crocodile." When the Djel gods manifest and start tearing up the place, a crocodile-headed river god tries to bite off the snake-head of a rival river god.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Every camel, everywhere on the Disk. Having long ago figured out that showing off your intelligence in any significant way leads to being asked to ''do things'' (admittedly, either being a lab rat or used to sink boats, like dolphins), they're quite content to be contentious and disagreeable if it means all they have to do is walk around and eat stuff while they ponder theoretical physics.

* RunningGag: The statue of Hat, the Vulture-Headed God. Ptaclusp got it as part of a job lot, but now he can't find anyone who wants it. The only person who seems to like it is Hat himself.

* UltimateFinalExam: The final exam for students of the Assassins' Guild requires them to cross an extremely dangerous obstacle course in the rooftops over Ankh-Morpork, risking fatal falls and loosened handholds every step of the way. At the end is a target that must be inhumed in order to pass the test. [[spoiler: Pteppic tries to rebel against the DeadlyGraduation phase by firing his crossbow at the wall, but ends up hitting the target anyway thanks to a ricochet. It turns out the victim was just a dummy.]]

* NonHumanHead: Many of Djelibeybi's gods have animal heads.

* EvilChancellor: Dios is more of an evil priest than an evil chancellor, but the trope is referenced in describing him. "It is a fact as immutable as the Third Law of Sod that there is no such thing as a good Grand Vizier. A predilection to cackle and plot is apparently part of the job spec. High Priests are the same way. No sooner than they're given the funny hats, they start getting ideas about throwing virgins into volcanoes."

** Likewise, Ptraci is strongly implied to be a virginal concubine.

* AuthorityInNameOnly: Teppic may be the king, but over the course of his [[spoiler:seven thousand year]] career as High Priest and Chief Minister, Dios had gathered all actual power to himself. Every royal declaration made by Teppic, even something as trivial as 'I do not want to have chicken for dinner' is ignored in favor of whatever Dios decides, by everyone.
* AutopsySnackTime: Gern eats his lunch while mummifying King Teppicymon XXVII- or most of it, anyway, because he puts it down in the wrong place and the king ends up being stuffed with a piece of paper and half a leftover sausage.
* BaitAndSwitch: Teppic's father tells an ancestor, recently freed from his pyramid, that he hates pyramids. The ancestor tells him that he does not, seeming to imply Teppic's father is obligated to be in favour of pyramids. He then clarifies that what he means is that what Teppic's father feels for pyramids is a ''mild dislike'' - if he hasn't been trapped in one of the damn things for a few thousand years, he can't know what it is to truly ''hate'' them!

* BestServedCold: When Teppic parts the Djel, he leaves a lot of confused crocodiles wondering where the hell the water's gone in their wake... and a lot of people seeing those crocodiles and thinking maybe now is as good a time as any to pick up the nearest pile of stones and get some payback for centuries of crocodile-related grievances.

* CatsAreMean: Dios insists cats must be worshipped, but Teppic can't help but feel if he has to worship cats they should be elegant looking creatures, not the vicious, yellow-eyed little bastards who claw him the minute he gets near.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Teppic's father is a little confused in life. Namely, he's convinced he's a seagull, which ends up being what kills him. [[spoiler:After death he finds he can reason much more clearly.]]

-->'''Guard''': Put down your weapons.
-->'''Pteppic''': What, ''all'' of them?
-->'''Guard''': Yes.
-->'''Pteppic''': This could take some time.
-->'''Guard''': And keep your hands where we can see them!
-->'''Pteppic''': We may be at something of an impasse there.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Or to phrase it another way, the Fate After Death for almost every single person who has been mummified in Djelibeybi. As a result of the rather convoluted belief system of the Djelibeybians, all of them are dead in the practical ways, but [[BarredFromTheAfterlife unable to pass on]]. Instead, they remain bound to their bodies, which are then methodically dismantled and sealed up in tombs ''for all eternity''.
** Approaches AndIMustScream for one particularly-unfortunate mummy, whose sarcophagus lid was so well-secured that he ''couldn't get out''.
** You could argue that [[spoiler:Dios's ultimate fate is this as well; forced to relive the same 6000 year life over and over, for eternity]]. That said, he isn't aware of it - or, it seems, particularly bothered by it.

** Like the real Egypt, Djelibeybi has several different gods for the same thing (in the real world, due to Egypt assimilating Greek, Hittite etc gods alongside their original ones). So this means that they all fight for who gets the job of moving the sun around, with a nearby priest acting as a sports commentator to describe it.

* UnfortunateNames: Camels have insults as names, such as You Bastard, Evil-Smelling Bugger and Bloody Stupid.

* RegentForLife: Dios has been the real power behind the throne for as long as anyone can remember. [[spoiler:For all of eternity, in fact.]].

* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: King Teppicymon XXVIII, Lord of the Heavens, Charioteer of the Wagon of the Sun, Steersman of the Barque of the Sun, Guardian of the Secret Knowledge, Lord of the Horizon, Keeper of the Way, the Flail of Mercy, the High-Born One, the Never-Dying King. And on formal occasions, it's considered necessary to repeat the entire thing every time he's referred to.
* UltimateFinalExam: The final exam for students of the Assassins' Guild requires them to cross an extremely dangerous obstacle course in the rooftops over Ankh-Morpork, risking fatal falls and loosened handholds every step of the way. At the end is a target that must be inhumed in order to pass the test. [[spoiler: Pteppic tries to rebel against the DeadlyGraduation phase by firing his crossbow at the wall, but ends up hitting the target anyway thanks to a ricochet. And it turns out the victim was just a dummy.]]

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: [=IIb=] likes the word "quantum". Apparently it means "add another nought".