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The Rose of the Prophet is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. Cover art and interior illustrations by Larry Elmore.
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The Rose of the Prophet series is set in Sularin, a fictional world ruled by a slate of twenty gods, each a facet of the central god, Sul. In the normal course of events, common to fantasy literature, the values of the gods balance each other out; however, as the series begins, the gods have turned away from the Sul and the world is in peril of falling apart.
The immortals, including the djinn who serve the royalty of the desert nomadic people (and often provide comic relief), have their own struggles as they try to maintain balance between the people they must obey and their master, Akhran, God of the Desert.
On the worldly realm, the wandering God, Akhran, commands two of his nomadic tribes to unite by the marriage of the children of the Sheiks. This is unfortunate, as the two tribes have been warring with each other for as long as memory; the bride Zohra must be tied up and gagged to wed the falling-down-drunk groom Khardan, and the wedding night notably involves the bride stabbing her would-be husband.1 Nonetheless, the people must unite to defeat more sinister forces. Getting mixed up in these events is an outlandish wizard Mathew, who poses as a woman to save his life and ends up as Khardan's second wife.
The novels were originally published in the United States by Bantam Spectra (the Science-Fiction division of Random House).
In Sularin, there are 21 Gods: Sul (the Truth) is the light of truth, and the other 20 are facets of the Truth. The nature of each God is informed by an icosahedral jewel composed of 20 triangular facets the 12 vertices of which represent divine philosophies (Good at the extreme closest to Law, Mercy, Faith, Charity and Patience; then Evil with Greed, Chaos, Impatience, Intolerance, and Reality). This structure creates three categories of God: Good (the five facets with Good at one vertex), Evil (the five facets with Evil at one vertex), and Neutral (the other ten facets).
Many of these Gods seem patterned after Earthly cultures.
The center of the 20-sided jewel, of which each god is a facet. Also used to mean the Sun, the Universe, the Jewel, and the God of Truth.
Nomad-God of Chaos, Impatience, and Faith. The series centers on his followers, who live more or less bedouinesque lives. Akhran wears practical riding gear and disdains formality. His realm seems to reflect a blend of Central Asian and Arabian nomadic cultures: his followers play baigha, which bears a striking resemblance to buzkashi, and drink qumiz, commonly transliterated kumis (fermented mare's milk), and their language contains basic elements of Persian (e.g., bale = yes, spahi = a kind of horseman), Arabic (e.g., use of the honorifics Hazrat and sidi to refer to respected figures), and more.
God of Reality, Greed, and Law. Quar, known occasionally as "the Lawful," wears stereotypical and ornate garb of a burnoose and silk turban. The main antagonist of Akhran. Can be analogized to "Babylon" per the Judaic tradition, with the connotation of moral and physical and material corruption.
God of Goodness, Charity, and Faith. Promenthas shares similarities with a standard Roman Catholic image of God: white beard, cassock and surplice, and hosts of angels and archangels. One of the few Gods to encourage independence and study of the natural world by limiting personal contact with divine entities (such as Immortals).
God of Evil, Intolerance, and Reality. Seems to be killed by Evren at the beginning of "Will of the Wanderer."
Goddess of Goodness, Charity, and Faith. Seems to die from exhaustion (from killing Zhakrin) at the beginning of "Will of the Wanderer."
"The Thief" God of Faith, Chaos and Greed.
Wealth-God of Faith, Mercy, and Greed.
Warrior-God (attributes unknown) who wears animal skins and a horned metal helmet.
God (attributes unknown) who sits in a tea-garden surrounded by cherry trees.
Meditative God (attributes unknown)
Underwater Goddess (attributes unknown) of the seas. Sailors throw golden rings into the sea as sacrifices to her; dolphins are considered her daughters and sharks her sons. She and Inthaban feud and their fights cause storms, according to superstitious sailors.
Water-God (attributes unknown) of distant seas. Sailors throw iron rings into the sea in order to appease him and his "sons," whales, so that he might not grow jealous of their treatment of Hurishta.
Demon-God of Evil (other attributes unknown), an enemy to Promenthas.
Goddess of the Ravenchai who lives on a cloudy mountain.
Law, Patience and Reality. God who ruled the Bas. Bas live like ancient Greeks. Focus on politics and technology, with a Government system of City-States.