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* BewareTheSillyOnes: Why Ephebe keeps so many philosophers around. As Om observes, 99 out of every 100 ideas they come up with are complete rubbish, but the 100th tends to be an absolute humdinger. For instance, one minute they're wibbling on about beauty and truth, the next they're saying "incidentally, putting this mirror up on that tower would make for an interesting demonstration of optical principles", giving Ephebe their own death ray.
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* BewareTheSillyOnes: Why Ephebe keeps so many philosophers around. As Om observes, 99 out of every 100 ideas they come up with are complete rubbish, but the 100th tends to be an absolute humdinger. For instance, one minute they're wibbling on about beauty and truth, the next they're saying "incidentally, putting this mirror up on that tower would make for an interesting demonstration of optical principles", giving Ephebe their own death ray.ray with which to burn an approaching enemy fleet.
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** The teacher Didactylos's name comes from "didactic," meaning "apt to teach."
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** The teacher Didactylos's name comes from "didactic," meaning "apt to teach."teach". It also suggests the Greek for "two fingers" which is an allusion to the VSign, a rude gesture in Britain that fits with Didactylos's contrarian personality.
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* NoClearLeader: Near the end, an alliance of several [[EnemyMine normally mutually hostile]] nations gather their fleets for a combined attack on Omnia, but nobody seems to know who's in charge for the situation. The Ephebian admiral thinks he is, since he's avenging the attack on Ephebe; the Tsortean admiral thinks he is because he has the most ships; the Djelibeybian admiral thinks he is because he always assumes he's in charge of everything. In fact there's only one captain who doesn't think he is, and that's because he's captain of a one-man fishing boat from a tribe that had never had any contact with the outside world until he ran into the fleet and got swept up with them.
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* AtTheCrossroads: "the spirits of places where two ant trails cross"
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* AtTheCrossroads: "the spirits of places where two ant trails cross"cross".
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* BlueAndOrangeMorality: More or less all the gods have this, with concern for humans and, indeed, ethics, being a puzzling concept to them. Om even refers to small gods looking to make it big seeing humans as "prey" before immediately performing a VerbalBackspace. Om is the exception, eventually, with it being noted both by the narration and Om himelf that humanity - specifically, Brutha's IncorruptiblePurePureness - ends up rubbing off on him.
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* BlueAndOrangeMorality: More or less all the gods have this, with concern for humans and, indeed, ethics, being a puzzling concept to them. Om even refers to small gods looking to make it big seeing humans as "prey" before immediately performing a VerbalBackspace. Om is the exception, eventually, with it being noted both by the narration and Om himelf himself that humanity - specifically, Brutha's IncorruptiblePurePureness - ends up rubbing off on him.
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* TheChosenMany: The Prophets of Om (holy horns), of which there have been several, Brutha just being the latest. Explored, and subverted, since Om didn't actually chose ''any'' of them. Half the time he never even met or talked to them, and in one case the lengthy amount of things he said was actually no more than "hey, look what I can do". And then Brutha manages to single-handedly institute a cultural and religious revolution, managing to actually play the idea relatively straight.
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* TheChosenMany: The Prophets of Om (holy horns), of which there have been several, Brutha just being the latest. Explored, and subverted, since Om didn't actually chose choose ''any'' of them. Half the time he never even met or talked to them, and in one case the lengthy amount of things he said was actually no more than "hey, look what I can do". And then Brutha manages to single-handedly institute a cultural and religious revolution, managing to actually play the idea relatively straight.
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* TheCommandments: Which the Exquisition enforce. Part of the anticipation of the new Prophet is wondering what commandments he will give unto Omniasm this time. They're all made up, and in the end Om destroys the massive carving when he gets his power back.
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* TheCommandments: Which the Exquisition enforce. Part of the anticipation of the new Prophet is wondering what commandments he will give unto Omniasm Omnianism this time. They're all made up, and in the end Om destroys the massive carving when he gets his power back.
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* GodsNeedPrayerBadly
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* GodsNeedPrayerBadlyGodsNeedPrayerBadly:
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* HistoryRepeats: A common problem with Ephebian democracy. The Tyrant is elected because he has been determined to be eligible by dint of not being either a liar, a criminal, a madman, a foreigner or [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers a woman]]. Then, once he's in office, he's found to be at least one of these things, kicked out, the Ephebians vote for a new bloke, who... is also either a liar, a criminal, a madman, a foreigner or a woman.
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* HistoryRepeats: A common problem with Ephebian democracy. The Tyrant is elected because he has been determined to be eligible by dint of not being either a liar, a criminal, a madman, a foreigner or [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers a woman]].woman. Then, once he's in office, he's found to be at least one of these things, kicked out, the Ephebians vote for a new bloke, who... is also either a liar, a criminal, a madman, a foreigner or a woman.
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** Simony may refer to Simon the Zealot, a follower of Jesus Christ who wanted to wage war on the Roman occupiers
*** Or, more likely, the ecclesiastical crime of selling church offices and favours, signifying the religious corruption throughout Omnianism
*** Or, more likely, the ecclesiastical crime of selling church offices and favours, signifying the religious corruption throughout Omnianism
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** Simony may refer to Simon the Zealot, a follower of Jesus Christ who wanted to wage war on the Roman occupiers
*** Or,occupiers, or, more likely, the ecclesiastical crime of selling church offices and favours, signifying the religious corruption throughout OmnianismOmnianism.
*** Or,
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* MonsterShapedMountain: The wind god has rather crude sense of humor, as demonstrated by the shape of an eroded rock pillar that Om points out to Brutha as a desert landmark.
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* MonsterShapedMountain: The wind god has a rather crude sense of humor, as demonstrated by the shape of an eroded rock pillar that Om points out to Brutha as a desert landmark.
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* OddJobGods: Om mentions he knows a goddess of lettuce. He actually praises her ingenuity; it's such a specific niche that she'll never be all that powerful, but it also means nobody cares enough to challenge her for it and she can fit herself into the mythology of whatever major god is dominant at the moment as a lessor spirit.
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* OddJobGods: Om mentions he knows a goddess of lettuce. He actually praises her ingenuity; it's such a specific niche that she'll never be all that powerful, but it also means nobody cares enough to challenge her for it and she can fit herself into the mythology of whatever major god is dominant at the moment as a lessor lesser spirit.
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* PhotographicMemory: Brutha, to the point that he has NoInfantileAmnesia. He remembers everything ever since, to the extent that [[spoiler:he can copy out books he's only seen once despite not being able to read them himself.]] He doesn't forget a thing until [[spoiler: he's about to die, 100 years later the main plot]].
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* PhotographicMemory: Brutha, to the point that he has NoInfantileAmnesia. He remembers everything ever since, to the extent that [[spoiler:he can copy out books he's only seen once despite not being able to read them himself.]] He doesn't forget a thing until [[spoiler: he's about to die, 100 years later after the main plot]].
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* MindlessSheep: Used as a metaphor to explain the unfortunate state of the Church of Om, which could be described as {{Dark Shepherd}}s at best and more accurately as totalitarian [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalists]].
-->The merest accident of microgeography had meant that the first man to hear the voice of Om, and who gave Om his view of humans, was a shepherd and not a goatherd. They have quite different ways of looking at the world, and the whole of history might have been different.
-->For sheep are stupid, and have to be driven. But goats are intelligent, and need to be led.
-->The merest accident of microgeography had meant that the first man to hear the voice of Om, and who gave Om his view of humans, was a shepherd and not a goatherd. They have quite different ways of looking at the world, and the whole of history might have been different.
-->For sheep are stupid, and have to be driven. But goats are intelligent, and need to be led.
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** This is the [[Literature/ReaperMan second book]] where someone paraphrases the last recorded words of Lawrence Oates. ("I'm just going out. I may be some time.") The line will [[RuleOfThree reappear again]] in ''Literature/SoulMusic''.
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* Didactylos living in a barrel and carrying a lantern to look for a good man (as well as his generally irrevant attitude to authority) is meant to evoke the Greek philosopher Diogenes.
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