Here is a list of books and information (with a bit of spoilage) about the magical Incarnation world of Piers Anthony. The story belongs to him, but the list is mine. If you wish to connect to it, be my guest, but ask first.
Here are the books in order, and some of the characters within. I left spoiler space on the last book for those that like surprises and I also have the family tree on the bottom.
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Beware there are some Spoilers if you haven't read the books
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In the Incarnation world, magic works and Satan advertises on billboards. Death, War, Time and the other aspects of life are jobs held by mortals.
On a Pale Horse: The Book of the Incarnation of Death.
Bearing an HourGlass: The Book of the Incarnation of Time
With a Tangled Skein: The Book of the Incarnation of Fate
Wielding the Red Sword: The Book of the Incarnation of War
Being a Green Mother: The Book of the Incarnation of Nature
For Love of Evil: The Book of the Incarnation of Evil
And Eternity: The Book of the Incarnation of Evil
Spoiler Information on the Incarnation Family
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Characters:
Cedric Kaftan: Studied wetland reclamation and natural magic. A talent magician. Killed by a demon, taking the place of Niobe, his wife, the real target.
Junior Kaftan/ Magician: Son Cedric and Niobe, taught magic at a young age by his babysitter, a hamadryad. His father died and his mother became Clotho, so he was raised mostly by his father's family, and was almost like a brother to his cousin Pace. Junior and Pace tried to break the prophecy told to them but couldn't. Became a magician of the 32nd rank who enhanced stones, practitioner of the Black Arts. Wants Death to marry his daughter Luna, even arranging for Zane to be Death. Ends up filling out forms in Purgatory to determine where he goes, could take centuries.
Luna Kaftan: Daughter of the Magician, with a magical talent for painting. Took half his sin so that he won't go to hell and have his plans destroyed by Satan, whom Luna is suppose to stop in 20 years. Luna also learned some black arts from a demon, who rapes her, sort of. Knowing she was going to die, she took the place of a virgin sacrifice to the dragon to balance her soul and was killed, sort of. Death saves her and she becomes his Deathmaid.
Pacian Kaftan/Pace: Cousin to the Magician, possesses the singing magic of the Kafrans. Married Blanche, a schoolteacher to deliberately avoid the prophecy, but their child Brenda was the most beautiful child of her generation. Married Niobe, whom he had always loved.
Incarnations:
Chronos: Lives backwards and controls the timeline. He is the only person who is immune to paradoxes. His powers are in his Hourglass. His cloak is a barrier of time, which defends against physical attacks. Chronos gets the job by grabbing the Hourglass and lives backwards until the moment he is born. Chronos an older man in his 50s with a vandyke, last or first Chronos who was Satan's friend. Norton/Chronos took the office at Mars after the death of Orlene. Chronos an older man. Chronos an 8 year old boy, the man who was suppose to get the hourglass chickened out.
Death: Death handles a soul in balance. Deaths cloak and shoes make him Invulnerable to Heat, Cold, Penetration and Radiation. Shoes let him Walk on Water. Mortis is his horse/car/boat/limo that helps him move about, and he also has other devices that help him along, such as a switchblade scythe. Death always kills his predecessor, adding evil to his soul. Death's home looks like a handsome funeral home. Death served for 72 years, very tradition. His house smelled of myrrh and his doorbell was the knell of doom. Zane, a down and out bum who gambled his inheritance, broke a girl's heart who then killed herself, embezzled and killed his mother. After more bad luck, he went to kill himself but killed Death instead, and now replaced him in his job. His placement as Death arranged by the other Incarnations so he could fall in love with Luna and protect her. He learned his job and changed some rules, such as taking those who were kept alive longer than they wanted too by machines.
Fate: The three aspects of Fate inhibit one body, they take turns controlling it. Fate travels as a spider around the world using magical spider webs. Clotho: Young Aspect; Spins the Threads of Life and Collects the Stuff of Souls from the Void. Most often the lover of the male Incarnations. Lachesis: Middle Aspect; Measures the length of the Thread of Life. Atropos: Crone Aspect; Cuts the Threads of Life.
Clotho: Clotho, a young and pretty with alabaster skin and light colored hair. Daphne Morgan, voluptuous young woman with midnight black hair. Served for 26 years, left be with man she loves. Traded places with Niobe, prettiest girl of her generation. She starts/ends a 35 year love affair with Chronos. Niobe fell in love with Pace, then replaced by Lisa, a Hungarian refugee; Satan arranged for her to find true love from Hungry and left. Replaced with a young Oriental woman who was going to commit suicide. She left to marry the Samurai;
Lachesis: Lachesis, a middle aged and slightly plump. Helped Zane/Death assume office. Likes to go to restaurants. Thinking she messed up in attack from Satan, she retired, replaced by middle aged woman with talent for managing. New Lachesis, Satan arranged for her to inherit title and grand estate in Europe. Niobe returns to fate as Lachesis.
Atropos: 60ish woman who likes to Meddle, in service for 15 years when Niobe joins. Liked to go to orchestral recitals, opera and plays. Often taking Niobe's son Junior and his cousin Pace. She retired to be a grandmother to Pace and Junior. New Atropos, Satan arranged for great grandchildren to be orphaned. Replaced by an old black woman. Retired to help her daughter, replaced by Nicholai head a gypsy camp, daughter Tinka was helped by Orb greatly, and also became the guardian of Orb's daughter. Disguises himself as a woman when others visit.
Nature: Nature controls the weather, she also controls sex drives and can restore a soul. Green Mother/Gaea wears clothes of mist or of leaves, and can assume any form she wishes. When first took office she created the Black Plague (part of Satan revenge). Nature retires and gives the job to Orb, daughter of Pace and Niobe, with the musical magic of the Kaftans. First heard the Llano, the magic songs of nature, when a child. Has a magical harp that will not suffer the touch of a dishonest person. Travel the world in search of the Llano, including traveling with gypsys and with a carnival in India. Falls in love with Mym the Mime aka Pride, and she became pregnant. Continuing to search for the Llano, she gave her daughter and her magic ring to Tinka. Travels with Death's band, the Living Sludge, where she falls in love with Natasha. Upon learning the Llano, she becomes Nature.
Assistants include Hypnos: Incarnation of Sleep. Eros: Incarnation of Love. Phobos: Incarnation of Fear. Deimos: Incarnation of Terror?. Hope: Incarnation of Hope.
War: War is final refuge against oppression and wrongdoing. Glory and gory, honor and horror are closely related. War's office ends when there is a period of no war. His power is within his Red Sword. Mars in Greek armor with an ornate golden helmet. War, a stuttering giant in Roman-like armor. Knows all martial arts maneuvers. War/Pride of the Kingdom: a stutter who left his kingdom because he didn't want to rule, escaped to a traveling carnival as an acrobat. Fell in love with Orb, giving her a magical snake ring. Forced to return to his kingdom and marry a princess of a neighboring kingdom. The Red Sword picked Pride to be the next War. Rapture leaves him and he finds a new love with a siren as well as a concubine.
Assistants include Famine: a very emaciated man (almost skeletal) in a black cloak. Conquest: large, hearty man in a white cloak; Slaughter: man with ragged slashes across his face that drips fresh blood in a blood red cloak. Pestilence: man with a face made of a squirming mass of maggots in a dirt brown cloak.
Nox: Incarnation of Night, Secrets, Dreams and All Things Hidden. Oldest of the Incarnations (and only original one). daughter of Chaos, brother/husband Erebus, Incarnation of the Darkness between Earth and Hades. Her children were the original Incarnations of Air, Day, Fate, Death, Retribution, Dreams and others. Took Gawain II to raise as her own. Biggest Spoilers. . . . . . Jolie: Wife of Perry, killed by Soldiers of the Cross, and made a ghost (thought without much evil, her death creates great evil). She is able to enter the bodies of others, and one time she used a body of another to make love to Perry. While Perry became Satan, she remained asleep until he sang for Orb. She now visited Satan using Gaea's body, as well as one of she staff members. She is also a spy, looking for a replacement for Good.
Evil: Beelzebub
, the Lord of the Flies, in charge of records; Asmodeus, the King of Devils, in charge of organization. Since he was loyal to Lucifer, he was fired and replaced with Ozymandias; Mephistopheles, most sophisticated and devious of the Lord of Hell; Lucifer; Perry, was bought as a baby to be a blood sacrifice, became a young sorcerer and married Jolie. Hunted down life other sorcerers in France. Jolie was killed by Soldiers of the Cross, and Perry hides as a singing monk as Brother Grief, then joins the Franciscans, then the Dominicans to battle evil, and became a driving force behind the Inquisition. Knew of evil than another one in the world, but once Jolie planted a seed of evil (in Perry's mind at least), Lilah was sent to corrupt him. Perry tricks Lucifer and becomes the new evil, Satan. The other Incarnations humiliated Satan when he asked for help, so he vowed revenge on them all (except Chronos who remained his friend for many years). Satan created the Black Plague. Satan proved he was all Evil, trying to help lost souls and trying to talk to God. Satan holds Hellethons, advertises, and cheats in getting souls. Loved Orb so much he sang a hymn, damning himself. New Evil took over, a fat middle aged, was on death row for rape-murder of little girl. Fate helped Satan regain his office.Good: JHVH, Hebrew Incarnation of Good, befriended Satan. Satan helped him once, doing great good which the other Incarnations never knew about. God the Incarnation of Good, took many of JHVH's worse traits, like Pride. Spent centuries contemplating his own greatness. He was too good, never understood human weakness. Incarnations voted to see who would replace him, only Satan nominated a female, who was a bastard, an adultress, rapist, and a suicide. God was replaced by Orlene, who has the natural magical talent to see the aura of others. Loves music, and has the magical musical talents of the Kaftans. Has a magical ring Sning (Snake Ring), which she gives to Norton as a present. Married the ghost Gawain and was impreganted by Norton. But Gawain made deal with Gaea to put some of his genes into the baby, which caused the baby to die with sin. Some of babies sin went into the mother, who killed herself. Using the body of a young protitute names Vita, Orlene as a spirit and Jolie looked for a cure for Gawain II. They needed something from each major Incarnation: Death, a blank soul to replace fatal flaw; Time, a grain of sand to reverse time; Fate, a thread of life to realign the one spoiled; War, a seed to create violence inherent in man; Nature, a tear to restore animation; Evil, a curse to put the fear of evil into the soul; Good, a blessing. During the tests to get the items, Orlene's powers grew, including able to help a damned soul. She then became the Holy Ghost and God kisses Satan.
Assistants include: Gabriel, Angel who works for JHVH and God; It was he was tried to stop Satan from taking over as Incarnation of Good, and set up the Kaftan family. He tried to do as much of God's work as he could, he included television and crafts to heaven.
| +-------------+-------------+ | | -+-? ?-+- | | | Sean-+- | | | | Blanche-+-Pacian-+-Niobe/Clotho/Lachesis-+-Cedric Kaftan | | | | | | Brenda-------------+-----Magician Kaftan | | | | | Luna-+-Death/Zane | | +----+ | #-Rapture | / Jolie---Perry/Satan---Orb/Nature-+-Pride of the Kingdom/War-#-Ligeia | | Lila-+-Gawain the Ghost---Orlene/Good-+-Norton/Chronos | | | | +----------------------+ +--+--+ | | | Gawain II Boy Girl Return to Books, TV and Movie lists