Incarnations of Immortality
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Incarnations of Immortality is the name of a seven-book fantasy series by Piers Anthony. The books are each focused upon one of seven supernatural "offices" (Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Good and Evil) in a fictional reality and history parallel to ours, with the exception that society has advanced both magic and modern technology. The series covers the adventures and struggles of a group of humans, called "Incarnations", who hold these supernatural positions for a certain time.
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Series synopsis
On a Pale Horse
First printing: New York: (Ballantine Books) Del Rey Hardbound Edition 1983, 249 pages.
In the early 21st century, Zane is living a pathetic life without money or employment. When a magic gem merchant cheats Zane out of an opportunity for romance, Zane decides to take his own life. As he starts to pull the trigger, he sees the spectre of Death (Thanatos) advancing on him. Startled he fires the gun and misses his own head while hitting Death right between the eyes. He is then visited by a woman who introduces herself as the incarnation of Fate, and insists that Zane must now assume the position of the man he has killed, since whoever kills Death must become the new Death. As Fate guides Zane downstairs, he gets his first view of a black sports car with the license plate reading "Mortis".. his Death Steed (Death rides a pale horse) who can assume the form of a black jet boat, a black jet plane, or a black jet car, as well as the form of a horse. Fate then departs and leaves Zane in the care of Chronos who then instructs Zane how to use his deathwatch, How Mortis changes form, how to use other instruments of the office, and exactly what his new duties are. This entails residing in Purgatory and visiting Earth to collect the souls of humans who are in a close balance of good and evil and cannot determine their eternal destination (Heaven or Hell) without help.
In the course of learning the job, he discovers that his coming into the office of Death was not accidental, but was manipulated by a powerful magician (Cedric Kaftan Jr.). Despite being a mortal, this magician has strong ties to the other Incarnations from Purgatory and reveals to Zane that the Incarnation of Fate arranged Zane's destiny for the magician's purpose. There is a prophecy which states that Luna Kaftan, the magician's daughter, is destined to go into politics and thwart the schemes of Satan, the Incarnation of Evil. Luna Kaftan is thus a target for the forces of Hell and is in need of supernatural protection. The magician, who has done a great deal of research, feels that Zane is the best candidate for the Incarnation of Death to fall in love with Luna and thus want to protect her.
The only way for the magician Kaftan to meet with Death without Satan's knowledge is to die with his soul in balance. The magician chooses to sacrifice his own life in order to introduce Zane to Luna and explain to Zane the circumstances which brought him into the office of Death.
The dead magician's plans however seem to go awry. Due to manipulation by Satan, Luna is also destined to die before she can fulfill the prophecy. The magician had used too much black magic for his soul to be in balance. In order to bring it into balance before committing suicide, he has transferred the excess evil on his soul to Luna's soul, whom he has assumed to be innocent of evil. However, Luna has a burden of evil on her soul already, and her father's scheme has put her on the course to Hell. To correct this, she volunteers to switch places with one of Death's other clients. By sacrificing her own life to save another, she manages to balance the evil on her soul.
Her actions play right into Satan's trap, who doesn't care whether she goes to Heaven or Hell, only that she dies and is no longer a threat to his plots. However, Zane has already fallen in love with Luna by this time, just like the magician had planned, and he refuses to take the soul of the woman he loves.
Now the motives behind the magician's choice of Zane are made clear to him when the other four Incarnations from Purgatory approach him and explain that they were all in on the plan. The previous Death could not be manipulated into betraying the duties of his office for love, so the Incarnations decided to replace him with a young, stubborn man like Zane, who could.
Because Luna's soul is next in the queue, Zane cannot take the souls of other mortals until he deals with hers. He refuses to do so, thereby going on strike and leaving dying mortals in agony, unable to be released by death. As this is not to Satan's advantage, he first tries to bribe Zane, then intimidate him into going back to work.
Zane, however, has had a conversation with Gaea, the Incarnation of Nature, who has demonstrated to him the absolute power each Incarnation wields in its own sphere of influence. Zane eventually realizes that the office of Death is unassailable by Satan and that he cannot be harmed within the sphere of that office. As an Incarnation, Satan himself has a soul and is subject to Zane's dominion. The conflict ends in a draw and Satan has no choice but to admit defeat.
With Satan's plot exposed, Purgatory changes Luna's destiny and she is free to return to life. Zane lifts his strike, and with Luna under his protection, Satan can no longer interfere with her fate through the means of death.
- Trivia
- One minor problem with the continuity of the series is that, throughout the rest of the novels, the official title for the Incarnation of Death is Thanatos and everyone recognizes this, both Incarnations, dead souls, supernatural beings, and mortals. However, in this first novel of the series, the title is simply Death, though Gaea (Nature) does call him Thanatos as her own pet name for him.
Bearing an Hourglass
Circa 40-50 years prior to the events of the first story (as evidenced by references to a politician's car going off a bridge), Norton - a man of about forty - is living a life of nomadic wandering when a ghost named Gawain asks him to father a child to his widow, Orlene, with whom Norton eventually falls in love. Gawain then asks Gaea, the Incarnation of Nature, to make the child in his own likeness so his bloodline would continue. Unfortunately, the child ends up dead due to a disease that runs in Gawain's family. Orlene then commits suicide.
Feeling down about the disastrous results of his affair with Orlene, Norton is approached by Gawain again, who offers Norton the position of Time (Chronos), where he must rule over all Earthly aspects of time. Gawain explains to Norton that Chronos lives backwards in time until the moment of the birth of the office holder's previous self, who is still living forwards. The ghost baits Norton, explaining to him that, by living backwards, he can continue to see Orlene, since she is still alive in the past. Norton accepts, and Gawain leads him to the spot where the future office holder of Time, Norton's predecessor, will pass the hourglass onto Norton.
Norton immediately starts literally living life backwards in time, though he can temporarily go forward in order to interact with others. However, when he is living backwards, he is not visible to mortals. Norton experiments with his hourglass, recognised by all the Incarnations as being the most powerful magical device in the universe, to halt and/or reverse time, travel many millions of years into the Earth's past, and work with the Incarnation of Fate, who needs his hourglass to help fix tangles in her threads of fate.
Because Norton lives backwards in time, his past is everyone else's future, making him an isolated character even among the other Incarnations. He also realises that this will make it impossible to have a relationship with the forward-living Orlene. He does, however, have an affair with Clotho, the youngest aspect of Fate. This is both awkward and intriguing to Norton since her past is his future.
Residing at his new residence in Purgatory, Norton is then visited by Satan, who informs Norton that while he can travel anywhere in time with his hourglass, he can not leave Earth. Satan claims to have the power to travel the whole universe, since evil permeates all of reality, and gives Norton some samples of this ability by having him travel to other planets where Norton gets involved in both a space opera and an epic fantasy adventure. Satan offers Norton the ability to have that power if Norton will grant Satan a favor; to go back in time 20 years and save a man from committing suicide.
Norton goes back in time to check out this young man, but after consulting with the other Incarnations, he is informed that this man is the current office holder of the Incarnation of Death (Thanatos) and that it is his attempted suicide that brought him to that position. This man is needed as Thanatos in order to protect his girlfriend, Luna Kaftan, from Satan's mischief so she can go into politics and fulfill a prophecy of thwarting Satan.
However, a relic Satan had given Norton turned out to be a demon in disguise. When Norton went back in time, the demon disembarked a few years in the past to prevent Luna from going into politics (the demon gives an incumbent politician an antidote to keep him alive so Luna doesn't take his place). Due to some of the limitations of the hourglass, intercepting this demon is difficult, but Norton eventually manages to stop it.
Not giving up, Satan tries one more time by trapping Norton on one of the other planets he had an adventure on. Not sure how to get back home, Norton starts toying with the hourglass, traveling all the way back to the beginning of the known universe and all the way to its end (from the big bang to the point where all matter became trapped in black holes) and realizes that, since in the Incarnations universe magic does not extend beyond Earth, his adventures on other planets were illusions created by Satan, and that Norton had, in fact, never left Earth.
Norton then finds out that the demon that created the illusion had been attached to him and, once again, disembarked at a point in the past, two years after the events of the first book, to begin a campaign to discredit Luna so she doesn't run for office. Norton then goes back in time to this point and uses his hourglass to show the world all the bad things that will happen if Luna doesn't get elected. As Norton is no longer fooled by Satan's illusions, Satan stops trying to exploit him.
- Trivia
- During Norton's adventures as Chronos, he is assisted by a snake ring named Sning that knows everything but can only answer yes or no questions with squeezes. While all the Incarnations in these books have someone or something to help assist them, Sning is a unique situation because he is not part of the office but was actually a gift given to him by Orlene.
With a Tangled Skein
Set around the time of World War I, a young Irish (around 21-23) woman named Niobe has a marriage arranged for her by her parents. Her husband-to-be is a teenage boy (16-17) named Cedric Kaftan. She considers him too immature for her, but can find no way out of the marriage. Although Niobe at first hates being married to a "child", Cedric's good nature, kind heartedness, and desire to make his wife happy and safe win her over, and she soon falls madly in love with her husband. Cedric shows that he is a prodigy when it comes to magic by easily casting spells that seasoned wizards find difficult if not impossible. With some prodding and nurturing from his wife as well as from his mentor, Cedric accepts a scholarship to attend college and hone his magical abilities. As he matures and finds his niche in magic and wetland studies, he and Niobe have a child.. Cedric Jr. With a bright future certain, and wizardry greatness assured, life in the Kaftan house was happy indeed. Sadly a few years later, Cedric learns of a plot to kill Niobe. Seeing no way to avert it, He leaves school, goes home to Niobe, hastily puts his affairs in order, and sets in motion the only way he can save his wife's life..... by taking her place. On the fateful morning, Cedric wakes up to make love to his wife one last time, kisses her goodbye and goes into the woods to face his destiny. Awakened by gunshots, Niobe learns her husband is assassinated as part of a plot by the agents of Satan. She learns not only of the plot, but that she, and not her husband, was the real target. Upon learning this Niobe's hatred for having her husband's life cut short make her vow to make Satan pay.
She is invited to join the Incarnation(s) of Fate, three women sharing one physical body. Eager to thwart Satan's plans and to avenge Cedric, she leaves her child with Cedric's cousin and becomes Clotho, the youngest aspect of the three Fates. The three Fates weave the tapestry of life and have disposition over the length of human lives and the pattern they produce. Clotho, the youngest, spins the threads from the substance of Void; Lachesis, the middle aspect, measures the threads and Atropos, the oldest, cuts the thread of each individual human. When she takes the aspect of Clotho, Niobe must journey to the edge of the Void without aid from the other Fates and replenish her stock of thread-material.
Because Incarnations do not age, Niobe spends many years as Clotho. She frequently visits her son, who has befriended Cedric's younger cousin, Pacian. Because her lack of aging would be noticed, she takes the form of the grandmotherly Atropos, pretending to be a concerned family friend. One day, the Fates take the two boys to a fortune teller, who gives them disturbing news -- each of the boys will have a daughter who will oppose a tangle in the threads of life. However, one of the girls is fated to marry Death, and the other is fated to marry Evil.
Niobe leaves the office of Clotho and returns to mortal life in order to marry Pacian, who has matured while she was in office. She gives birth to a daughter they call Orb, at around the same time that her son, who is now a powerful magician, has a daughter called Luna. The two girls grow up together under the magician's protection. At one point the girls and Niobe go on a quest for powerful artifacts that will enhance their natural talents, and Satan takes the opportunity to send demons against them. Although one of the girls is to marry him, he is not interested in a wife who is not evil. Niobe helps the girls to get through safely, though, and Satan's plot comes to nothing.
One year after the events of On a Pale Horse, the middle-aged Niobe is asked to join the Incarnation of Fate once again, this time as Lachesis. Satan has arranged to have all three women leave the office at the same time, thus making the Incarnation of Fate inexperienced in all three aspects simultaneously. The current office-holders hope to use Niobe's previous experience as aspect of Fate as an ace in the hole to prevent Satan's current plot from coming to fruition.
They learn that Satan plans to cause political turmoil in the UN by having one of his minions plant a stink-bomb. They are forced to waste time by investigating the likely minions one by one, but in the meantime Satan is offering aging political candidates a chance at eternal youth in exchange for their resignation from office. He plans to replace them with his own minions, who would work against Luna. The three Fates realize that their inexperience is a liability, so they seek help. They learn that Niobe's son, the magician, can help them -- unfortunately, he is now in Hell. Satan cannot prevent them from searching for the magician, but he can make the quest very unpleasant and one of them must risk her own soul in the process. Niobe is worried that Satan will cheat, so she arranges for the Incarnation of War to supervise the contest.
Niobe leaves the Fates' collective body and goes to Hell. She must beat Satan's challenge - a puzzle-maze - in order to get the answers she is looking for. At the end, she finds her son, but Satan has cast an illusion over him. She puzzles out the answer anyway -- that Satan's plot can be stopped by the Atropos aspect of Fate. Atropos can cut short the lives of Satan's minions, making his plot futile. Niobe wins the game and is allowed to leave Hell freely.
Wielding a Red Sword
Mym, an Indian prince, defies his father's plans for an arranged marriage, instead joining a travelling circus. He meets Orb, who teaches him to overcome his own handicap of a terrible stutter through song. He is soon discovered, and his father arranges for him to marry another. After fighting against this for days on end, he finally realizes that the girl chosen by his father is worth loving, and so concedes to the marriage. However, a plot to separate him from her results in his decision to become the incarnation of War.
Through the course of living as Mars, his new bride takes up a life of her own and decides that she doesn't need him anymore. Satan arranges, subtly, a demoness for his new companion, hoping to get Mars in his debt that way. In the end, this backfires and he ends up with two loves in his life.
His ultimate goal was to use his position to ameliorate some of the suffering being caused by war on Earth, and is surprised by Satan's encouragement. Soon he realizes the subtle importances of human war and conflict, and defies Satan by allowing the act of war to continue on Earth.
Mym learns that his resposibility as War is not to promote war and voilence, but to make sure that conflicts are handled fairly.
Trivia
While every other incarnation is called by their Greek name (Thanatos, Chronos, Gaea, Atropos/Lachesis/Clotho), the incarnation of War is consistently named Mars, who is the Roman god of war, rather than Ares, the Greek equivalent.
Being a Green Mother
It is discovered that young Orb, the cousin of Luna, has the gift of conjuring natural music that emanates from things in nature. She sets off on a quest for a magical song known as the Llano, a song supposed to be the most beautiful imaginable. During the beginning of her search, she meets and helps a young gypsy girl who was blind, teaching her song and dance as such most men never see. She also joins up with a circus for a short time, meeting there the man that would later become War, and realizing after his unwanted departure that she is pregnant with his child. Upon having his child, she takes the baby, the young Orlene, to her gypsy friend with the understanding that the woman would find her daughter the best possible home.
Later on, she joins up with a rock and roll band. Her magical singing allows them to lose their drug addictions, and they quest together until she is approached by her grandmother, Niobe, in the guise of Fate. She is told that she has been selected to fill the role of Nature (Gaea), but that a prophecy foretells that she may one day be married to Satan.
Satan, attempting to fulfill the prophecy, kidnaps Orb and attempts to use magic to compel Orb to marry him. She frees herself with the help of Natasha, a man who has also been seeking the Llano and has learned much of it. Natasha continues to teach her the Llano as they defend themselves from Satan's attacks. Orb learns that the Llano has the power to control Nature and that she must learn it in order to assume her position. She also finds herself falling in love with Natasha and decides to marry him.
All is not as it seems, however, as Natasha reveals that he is Satan in disguise ("Natasha" is "Ah, Satan" backwards) and he has been attempting to court her according to the terms of an agreement he made with Fate: he will be allowed to court Orb without interference from the other Incarnations, but everything he says to Orb must be a lie, or part of a greater construct of lies, until he proposes marriage, when he must reveal the truth.
Orb rejects Satan's proposal, and demands that he teach her the final part of the Llano, the Song of Chaos, which she needs to become Gaea. He does so, but warns her that it is a powerful weapon and its effects are unpredictable. She sings the Song of Chaos and it results in devastation on a global scale. Satan then tells her that the only thing that he knows that might reverse its effects is the Song of Chaos itself. She tries singing the song three more times, and each time only results in more destruction. The destruction came in the form of the four elements - Fire, Air, Earth, and Water - so if she sings the song a fifth time, it would appear in the form of the fifth element, Void, and erase the Earth from existence. Thus, the Song of Chaos is Gaea's ultimate weapon against Satan; by destroying the world when there is more good than evil, she can bring about God's ultimate victory.
Desperate, she turns to the other Incarnations for help. Chronos tells her that he can go back in time and stop her from singing the Song of Chaos, but he needs the consent of all the other incarnations in order to do it. The only one who objects is Satan, who says that he will only give his consent if Orb agrees to marry him (even though allowing the world to end brings about his final defeat). Orb, faced with the impossible choice hinted at in the prophecy, declares "God help me, but I do love Satan" and agrees to the wedding.
Chronos changes the past, and Orb honors her agreement. The wedding takes place in Hell, and Satan puts on a grand ceremony. After exchanging vows, the two each sing a song. Orb sings a section of the Llano which is meant to evoke romantic love, but Satan, surprising everyone, sings a variation of the hymn Amazing Grace - and vanishes. Having fallen in love with a good woman, Satan can no longer continue to hold the office of the Incarnation of Evil.
For Love of Evil
Parry, an orphan, is taken in and adopted by a kindly wizard who teaches him the benefits of white magic and how it can be used to help others. A musician and adept white magician, Parry plans on following in his fathers footsteps when he encounters a young woman who is living on the streets named Jolie. Taking her in Parry and his father begin to teach Jolie the ways of wizardry and they begin to fall in love. With his fathers blessing Parry and jolie wed and are about to start a life of bliss when they are attacked by crusaders of Christianity. Parry's father is killed in the attack and he and Jolie shape shift to birds to escape. Sadly before they can make it to safety, jolie is shot through the heart, and once they regain human form, Parry watches as his wife dies in his arms. Vowing vengeance, Parry thinks the best way to escape from the villagers is to hide in plain site, so he joins a monastary for sanctuary as well as a means to destroy the enemy from within. Soon after joining the Franciscan monks, Parry discovers that a new order, the Dominicans, are being formed with the express purpose of rooting out evil and heresy. Because of his keen mind and magical prowess (which he uses in secrecy), he becomes a feared inquisitor. During one of his many trips to stop Lucifer's campaign of Evil, Parry succumbs to the temptation of his ghostly wife Jolie inhabiting a physical body, thus violating his oath of celibacy.
As retribution, Lucifer sends forth Lilah (alternately known as Lilith), a demoness, to corrupt him. By using the toehold of his broken oath of celibacy and his own feelings of sexual desire and guilt, Lilah corrupts Parry to Evil. His intense desire for Lilah eventually leads him to corrupt the Inquisition itself. Upon his deathbed, Lucifer attacks Lilah and Parry with his last vestige of strength manages a surprise attack against Lucifer saving Lilah. Lucifer, taken off guard, succumbs. As a severely weakened Parry lay dying with only moments to live, Lilah tells him to claim the office before it finds Lucifers successor, as well as to name the age (25) he would like to assume. Parry not understanding what she's asking of him and wanting to honor this last wish before he succumbs to death, does as Lilah requests, and is suddenly transformed to the new Incarnation of Evil and takes the name Satan.
It is then explained that if no one claims the office, the office seeks out the most qualified person for that position. So if Parry hadn't claimed the office as Lilah had told him, it would have found the most evil person on earth to take Lucifer's place.
In "For Love of Evil", several scenes from the previous books (as is the case with all the books in the series with respect to their incarnations) are shown from Parry's point of view. Parry also does not believe himself to be evil, but is simply fulfilling his function as an Incarnation.
It is rather ironic that Parry is not actually evil, he merely wishes to find a way to better facilitate seperating good people from bad by using temptation. In fact, in the universe of "Incarnations of Immortality" Parry, as a personal favor to Yawheh (AKA JEHOVAH), takes steps to prevent the Holocaust from happening.
Upon taking office, Parry approached the other Incarnations in good faith, but was rebuffed and/or humiliated by them, since they assumed being the incarnation of evil he was a natural trickster who couldn't be trusted. This led to his enmity with many of their successors (or predecessors, in Chronos' case).
He also attempted to meet with the Incarnation of Good to find out how to best sort out which souls belonged in Heaven and which in Hell (Parry had no desire for souls that didn't belong in Hell to be there), but was not successful. The Incarnation of Good was too busy contemplating his own greatness to pay any attention (and in the novel "And Eternity" was voted out of office and replaced by mutual agreement of the other six Incarnations).
It was also discovered that Lucifer, not Satan, ordered Cedric Kaftan killed.
...and Eternity
In the seventh novel of the series, three women - the ghost of Jolie, the ghost of Orlene (daughter of Orb), and a human prostitute named Vita - question the usefulness of a God who refuses to intervene with the evil doings of Satan. As Satan is not honoring the covenant to not interfere with human life, they feel God's need to honor it is no longer required. They go to visit him in Heaven, and discover that he has not been paying attention to human affairs for thousands of years, instead consumed with the contemplation of his own greatness. They begin a campaign to oust the current Incarnation of Good (God) and replace him. To do so, they must have the approval of all Incarnations... including Satan. But why would Satan agree to replace a God who is allowing him to get away with huge amounts of Evil? Thus the ultimate battle between Good and Evil is fought.
In the end, after considering many people, Orlene is chosen as being good enough for the office of Good, while still willing to pay attention to the details of mortal lives, feeling that not every "sin" as things were determined by the current God is truly bad enough to cast so many into hell. Being, in a strange way, the stepdaughter of Satan himself, he truly wants the best for her and so agrees to approve her as the new God(dess!)
Under a Velvet Cloak
Co-authored with Stephen Smith. It was to be marketed in late 2004, but publishers were not interested in continuing the Incarnations of Immortality series even though they sold well. Anthony did complete this novel and it features Nox, the Incarnation of Night.
Themes
Incarnations uses its premise to ponder questions regarding the nature of life. As each character goes from a mortal life to the "office" of an Incarnation, they are forced to contemplate their actions on a daily basis. Each incarnation may use their office, within limits, as they see fit. This system humanizes what would otherwise be impersonal forces, leading to both extensive considerations of the effects of the incarnation's work and the impact it has on humans.
Another humorous side of Incarnations is the portrayed magic/technology duality. Most series emphasize one or the other means of understanding and manipulating the world, but in Incarnations each method is equal in usefulness and respect. This leads to a number of amusing parallels, such as competition between automobile and magic-carpet manufacturers. By the future time period of Norton, magic is refered to as the Fifth Fundamental Force, with its own primary particle, the Magicon (similar to a graviton).
A third theme of Incarnations is the multigenerational human story between the Incarnations. Previous characters repeatedly appear in later novels, and by the final novel, every major character is related by blood, marriage, or affair. See the family tree below.
Family tree
Cedric--------+--------Niobe------------+------------Pacian--------+--------Blanche | | | | Ligeia*Mym*Orb+Parry+Jolie | | Lila* | *Lilith | | Rapture* | | | | | | Gawain+Orlene*Norton | | | | | Gawain II | | | Magician Cedric Jr.----------------+------------------------Blenda | Luna*Zane
Note: Colors used are from the covers of the books.
Zane (Death/Thanatos) is Husband to Luna Kaftan (Niobe's Grand Daughter).
Norton (Time/Chronos) is the lover of Orlene (Who Becomes Goddess) as well as the lover of Niobe (once she becomes Clotho).
Niobe (Fate/Clotho/Lachesis) is Orb's (Mother Nature) Mother, and Grand Mother to Luna (Death's wife), and Orlene (Goddess).
Mym (War/Ares or Mars) is father to Orlene (Goddess).
Orb (Mother Nature/Gaea) is mother to Orlene (Goddess).
Parry ((D)Evil/Satan) is married to Orb (Mother Nature), and Step Father to Orlene (Goddess).
Orlene (Go(o)d/Goddess) is Nature's Daughter, War's Daughter, Fate's Grand Daughter, Time's Lover, Evil's Step Daughter, and Deaths Cousin in Law.
Its interesting to note that in order for the male incarnations to retire from their offices, they must die, while the women can just resign their offices to someone else.