Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chattering Order of St. Beryl

2010-10-08T11:28:50Z

155.136.80.37:

'''''St. Beryl of Krakow''''' was an early (5th Centuary) Christian martyr. Forcibly married to the pagan Duke Casimir, Beryl maintained her all-important virginity by ceaselessly talking to him and incessantly chattering on, until ''he'' went down with a headache.

Eventually he couldn't stand the eternal wittering any more and had her executed, but she died a virgin, which in Christian eyes was the all-important thing and which secured her a sainthood.

The Chattering Order of St. Beryl are an order of [[nuns]] dedicated to emulating her example, and whose members are commanded to chatter, natter, and rabbit on about every last little thing that comes into their heads for every second of every waking hour. Sister [[Mary Loquacious]] is a Living Rule of the order.

She is also a practicing Satanist, as this order of nuns has been very thoroughly and completely infiltrated and compromised over the years. Like most Satanists, she is not especially evil in herself, much though she diligently strives to be, but she plays a part in the baby-swapping that finally delivers [[Adam Young]] to [[Tadfield]]...

The Sisters are allowed half an hour's respite on Tuesdays, when they may be silent and, if they wish, play table-tennis.

The Sisters play a key role in {{GO}}.

==Annotation==
Comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore created the '''''Leaping Order of St Beryl''''' first for their 1960's TV programme, ''Not Only...But Also'', and expanded the sketch for their 1967 film ''Bedazzled''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedazzled_%281967_film%29]. In the film, Peter Cook's Satan tempts Dudley Moore's Stanley, playing on his love for unattainable cafe waitress Margaret (Eleanor Bron). Stanley sells his soul to be with Margaret for ever by her side in perfect peace and harmony. Satan obliges... by turning them both into nuns in the same convent. Here, the Sisters are urged to emulate Beryl by praying and praising God whilst simultaneously perfoming acrobatic flips on the trampoline...

The original 1967 movie, very good in parts and in others patchy, is ''under no circumstances'' to be confused with any alleged remake coming out of Hollywood and starring the exceedinlgy wooden Liz Hurley in the Peter Cooke part, Gods and Demons help us.

[[Category:Good Omens]]

Hastur

2010-10-08T11:26:24Z

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Hastur is a Duke of Hell who becomes trapped in an answering machine. He later escapes when a telemarketer phones, and promptly devours the entire staff of the telemarketing office (unintentionally spreading a "wave of low-grade goodness" throughout the population). Hastur is generally accompanied by [[Ligur]] on his journeys to [[Roundworld]] and is the taller of the two.

==Annotation==

On [[Roundworld]] Hastur (The Unspeakable One, Him Who Is Not to be Named, Assatur, Xastur, or Kaiwan) is a fictional character in the {{wp|Cthulhu_Mythos|Cthulhu Mythos}}. Hastur first appeared in Ambrose Bierce's short story ''Haïta the Shepherd'' (1893) as a benign god of shepherds. August Derleth, who came after Lovecraft, attempted a new vision of the Cthulu Mythos where the unspeakable gods of old, who would have far predated Christianity, became the reference points for Christian evil and Satanism. ''Lloigr'', formerly a group noun for a whole race of demonic beings (interestingly, eponymous with the Welsh word for England...) becomes a single discrete Demon. Hastur is given pride of place as one of the dreaded Ten (Dukes of Hell), who may be summoned by Satanists at the Black Mass using a formula later written, in full, in Shea and Wilson's cosmic trip '''''Illuminatus!'''''.

Lloigr = Ligur as Hastur's sidekick....

'''''Illuminatus!''''' uses the almost Bursar-speak mnemonic ''A boy has never wept nor dashed a thousand kim'' to idenify the Ten Dukes of Hell, who are Asmodeus, Belial, ''Hastur'', Nyarlathotep, Wotan, Niggurath, Dholes, Azathoth, Tindalos and Kadith.

[[Category:Good Omens characters]]

Aziraphale

2010-10-08T11:25:23Z

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An angel of Heaven. There are three things people always assume upon meeting Aziraphale: 1) that he is English, 2) that he is very intelligent, and 3) that he is gayer than a tree full of monkeys high on nitrous oxide. However, heaven is not in England and angels don't have genders unless they try, very, ''very'' hard. But one out of three isn't bad.

Aziraphale was the original owner of the flaming sword, and was meant to use it to guard the eastern entrance to the Garden of Paradise. However, pitying Adam and the pregnant Eve, Aziraphale gave the sword to the humans. It finally ends up in the hands of [[War (Good Omens)|War]], one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Aziraphale has been a 'field agent' for Heaven for thousands of years, and due to being more in touch – and having more in common – with his [[Anthony Crowley|opposite number]] than with his colleagues in Heaven, he has developed a rather flexible Arrangement with Crowley.

He runs a bookshop in London, where he only sells a book when he absolutely must. He is an expert on prophecy books, and possesses a few copies that have inscriptions dedicated to him.

[[Category:Good Omens characters]]

Famine

2010-02-12T08:33:00Z

155.136.80.37:

{{Character Data
|title= Famine
|photo=
|name= "''Famine''"
|age=
|race= [[Anthropomorphic personification]]
|occupation= Personification of Famine<br>[[Four Horsemen|Horseman of the Apocalypse]]
|appearance=
|residence=
|death=
|parents=
|relatives=
|children=
|marital status= Unknown
|books= {{TLF}}, {{S}}, {{IT}}, {{TOT}}
|cameos=
}}

Famine is an important [[anthropomorphic personification]], and one of the [[Four Horsemen]] of the [[Apocralypse]]. Naturally, Famine's appearance is that of a starving man and He is always hungry even though he eats large amounts of food quite fast. When bored, He goes around eating up the food stocks in pubs. Likewise His horse looks like a toastrack.

Famine has obligatory appearances in {{S}} and {{TOT}}. Unlike [[Death]] and [[War]], and like [[Pestilence]], Famine's existence is down to humanity. Natural droughts are never as bad as man-made ones. For this reason, Famine has picked up the human trait of arrogance: the arrogance to, for example, over-use the land for farming.

[[Category:Discworld characters]]
[[Category:Supernatural entities]]
[[de:Hunger]]

Squernt

2009-12-17T12:14:24Z

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"'''Squernt'''" is a [[Cumhoolie]] word meaning "the feeling upon finding that the previous occupant of the privy has used all the paper", thus invoking mild despair at the state of the world.

[[Category:Discworld culture]]

Disorganiser

2009-10-21T07:37:34Z

155.136.80.37: Redirected page to Dis-organiser

#REDIRECT [[Dis-organiser]]

Holy Wood Magic

2009-05-06T12:02:16Z

155.136.80.37: category

'''Holy Wood magic''' features in [[Book:Moving Pictures|Moving Pictures]], and it's power can be harnessed through a different way of thinking. Regular magic takes requires a tremendous amount of energy to sustain something, so when it fizzles out of existence after a fraction of a second, Wizards see it as failure. [[Victor Tugelbend]] realizes that Holy Wood magic does not have to work for long, just long ''enough''. Things fashioned from Holy Wood magic are destroyed and created several times a second (funnily enough, this is how the universe works according to [[Book:Thief of Time|Thief of Time]]). This causes the apparition to flicker, but it is solid and can be interacted with, and this method takes much less magic to keep going.

As long as the "caster" concentrates on believing it, then it shall be. The magic also has to stick to moving pictures convention, as shown by the wizards crashing through a barn in a shower of chickens, despite the barn containing nothing but cabbages.
Victor took advantage of this to arrive in the nick of time (as heroes generally do in the clicks), but realised that he still had to play fair - he couldn't sit down and have a snooze for 20 minutes, ''then'' get up and arrive in the nick of time.

The magic comes from the power of dreams, and it builds up if there is no-one to worship [[Oswald|the guardian]] who usually keeps it under control. An excessive build-up can cause parodies and a weakening of reality. Things from the [[Dungeon Dimensions]] used this last point to get a foothold in the universe and climb through. The abhorrations also had to obey the rules of moving pictures - while they could see and interact with things, they couldn't hear (as 'soundies' had not been invented), and were afraid of fire (as [[Octo-cellulose]] is highly inflammable).

[[Category:Discworld concepts]]