History Literature / Imajica

Written by Creator/CliveBarker, ''Imajica'' is the story of five dominions that make up the system of the Imajica. Earth is the fifth separate and unlike the other four.

John Furie Zacharias, alias Gentle, is left empty and purposeless after his breakup with Judith, until a meeting with Pie, a shapeshifter who's neither man nor woman, that starts Gentle on a pilgrimage thru the dominions to find out who he is.

Judith too begins craving to explore these new worlds. Soon, they are all drain into a power-play between the mysterious Sartori, a cabal of mages who wish to keep the dominions secret and a being who may very well be God.

* AbusiveParents: And how![[spoiler: Gentle to Sartori and Judith in a way, Gentle's parents and maybe Charle's parents too, tough the last one is up to debate]].

* AllLovingHero: In the last third of the book, Gentle, Well he was pretty nice to begin with, but he's really ready to love anybody in the universe even if you tried to kill him several times over.

** EyeScream: [[spoiler: Quaisoir gets her eyes ripped of by Dowd]]

** OrificeInvasion: Dowds primary weapon is an insect swarm that tends to do just that.

* AnimateDead: Several troughout the book. While some magic wielders use it exactly like you would expect from a {{Necromancer}}, other occurances seem closer to MindScrew.

* TheAntagonist: Sartori to Gentle [[spoiler: it later gets subverted the hell and back]].
* TheAntichrist: Hinted at [[spoiler: the baby of Sartori and Judith looks like that, but it's subverted when it's a nice little girl who comes to the world]]
* {{Antihero}}: Gentle is a womanizer, hedonist and a copycat artist.

* AttractiveBentGender: Pie looks like what you would consider beautiful, be it a men, a women, your mother...

* BarredFromTheAfterlife: For some reason, The souls of the dead are aimlessly wandering among the dominions. They shouldn't.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Many character fall under this trope but most prominently Pie. He's nice, good looking for everyone, but if pissed off you're as good as dead.
* BigBad: Sartori? Hapexamendios? None of them? It's played with until the end. [[spoiler: Hapexamendios is the one]]
* BiggerIsBetter: The first dominion is rumored to be one enormous city. [[spoiler: It is, and it's actually the body of God himself]]
* BigScrewedUpFamily: BIG time dear god!
* BiTheWay: Played with, Pie has sex with men and women alike. But he's not exactly human to begin with so he probably doesn't get the difference.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Yes the Imajica is finally one again, yes Gentle finally finds Pie and they reunite for eternity. But countless lives where lost in the process, and cleaning up the mess in the first dominion (and in the others too) will take ages]].

* BlackComedy: Has shades of this, despite the shitload of people dying around them, some characters can't help it but point out the fun of these deadly situations.
* BlindObedience: Doesn't seem like that at first, but [[spoiler: Pie to Gentle]].

* BreakTheCutie: Seems to happen to Judith at first but she's stronger than that mind you.

* ChekhovsGunman: You'd think he's just a minor character with no power or relevance whatsoever, but [[spoiler: Clem fulfills this role twice!]].

* ClearMyName: [[spoiler: Gentle, once he remembers his past]]

* CivilWar: And how! Mid-way trough the book, things get really messy.

* CombatPragmatist: Pie uses everything at disposal to ensure the safety of the people in his party.
* CosmicEntity: God of course.
* CrazyAwesome: The maestros. Gentle admits to himself that they are at best not completely here and at worst psychotic arsonists. Doesn't stop them from being dangerously efficient mind you.
* CrazyPrepared: In a sense, most of the maestros qualifies for this. They tend keep a high number of protection spells up the all-time.

* DesignatedAcceptableTargets: Chances are that once you learn that the [[spoiler: eurethmecs feed on innocence (usually in a similar form of reaping young girls, just worse)]], you won't give a shit about them anymore.

* DramaticSitDown: [[spoiler: Once Sartori finally understands that he was created to fulfill the reconciliation, he sits down in the middle of the circle, puts the stone back in place and takes the place of Gentle he just wounded. Precisely with the intent to stop the Reconciliation. ItMakesSenseInContext]].

* EldritchAbomination: The creatures inhabitating the In Ovo.
* EmbodimentOfVirtue: In a book that references UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} several times, along withCchristian symbols, it had to befall on someone. [[spoiler: It's Gentle. And Sartori is the EmbodimentOfVice... For a time that is, the roles get blurry as the plot goes on]].

* TheEpic: Several adventures to complete one big quest that will change the whole universe? Check. Lots of different characters who go trough their own trials? Check. [[spoiler:Meet God? Check. Kill him? Check that too]].
* EroticEating: One of the most literal example ever. Judith discovers a book were two lovers eat each other in what she considers a terrific fashion. She laters enjoys it herself.

* EvilCounterpart: Played straight at first, it then gets subverted the hell and back.

* FailedFutureForecast: [[spoiler:The Boston bowl]]
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: ALL of them. But most prominently [[spoiler: Huzzah]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: You'd think dying puts an end to most of your problems right? Not when your spirit wanders aimlessly for all eternity. It's one of the plot points that something stops souls from having peace. Also [[spoiler: Celestine, being kept in a hidden basement mumified for centuries after being raped by God and giving birth to the child]].

** More subtly, Tick Raw's reaction when seeing Gentle. The acute reader will remark that Tick isn't so much upset by Gentle's lack of manners, but rather because he was expecting another personnality.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: The autarch. No one even knew he existed at first. He ends up as the ruthless ruler in three of the five Dominions. [[spoiler: It helps that he's Sartori]]
* {{Gendercide}}: It is rumored that there were Godesses spread across the Imajica once, but they were all wiped out by Hapexamendios.
* GlassCannon: Gentle once he gets the pneuma. He's able to lay waste in epic proportions but on the other side you can just hit him with a stick and he's out.

* GodIsEvil: Played with, until the end it's unclear what he really wants.
* GroinAttack: It's a world of over-powered mages and creatures sure, but kicking one's groin can still be safely considered one of the best attack.
* GuardianAngel: Pie seems to fulfill this role for gentle at first (he's not very good at it sadly), later, [[spoiler: it's Clem and Tay who fulfill this role]].
* HappilyMarried: Gentle and Pie. They don't stay together for long tough.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Interesting example here as it goes both ways, once Gentle [[spoiler: takes the role of the messiah he acts as the all-loving one and, well, Jesus Christ himself. But fighting Sartori along the way makes him dangerously close to the Antichrist at times. Sartori goes exactly the other way around, making you wonder who is the messiah and who is the bad guy in the first place]]

* ItsPersonal: Gentle and Judith both feel empty, hence the moment they understand there is an other world out there, they both seek it with desperation to find a purpose. Also, Gentle again [[spoiler: when Sartori tries to kill him outright, he shows that their definitely clones by showing him the same courtesy]].
* KnightTemplar: Suprinsingly averted most of the time. Despite having tons of power (well, he is God after all), we rarely see Hapexamendios using them. They may have been used to drive off the Godesses at one point, but it's unclear how exactly he managed to do that. There is one moment near the end of the book where a character who could fit this role is met. And that's about it.
* KungFuJesus: [[spoiler: Gentle]] takes the mantle of the messiah, spreading love everywhere. Doesn't stop from throwing people out of the window tough.
* LikeAGodToMe: Sartori was this to Lucius [[spoiler: And he still is, tough Lucius now calls himself Chicka Jackeen]]
* MadeOfIron: Dowd. Alright, he's not exactly human to begin with, but he shrugs off enough that others around him wonder how could anyone take that much punishment.

* MindRape: Courtesy of Little Ease. [[spoiler: Later leads to a SplitPersonalityMerge]]
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Sartori's hat. Enemy? slay him. A revolution? Let them burn this city and themselves to rebuild it. A competent sidekick whose loyalty was never in question? Sure, kill him too.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Gentle, once he learns how Judith and Sartori where born]].

* NumberedHomeworld: The Dominions. People on Earth do not know of the others though.
* OneWordTitle:

* QuestForIdentity: One of the major idea in the book. It's the reason why Gentle starts travelling trough the dominions, why Judiths wants to go after him. [[spoiler: And later, for Judith and Sartori, find out if they are just empty clones or more than that]].

* RitualMagic: Severely downplayed. There are rituals to perform for some spells that's true. But every Maestro admits that they are disappointingly simple. When the ritual itself is impressing, it just means that the one performing it has no idea of how the spell works.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Special case as it's done by Gentle's pneuma, filled with his wrath. Himself immediately regrets it and tries to stop it.

* SanitySlippage: More a roller-coaster than a slippage actually, it goes up and down while doing strange figures in the middle. Worst offenders being Gentle and Sartori.

* ShiningCity: Yzordderrex is rumored to be this. And later [[spoiler:it's the MegaCity of the First Dominion that seems to be this. Seems is the important word here]].

* True Love Auto Correct: The supremely attractive Judith feels a great attachment to her husband Charlie Estabrook despite his lack of apparent charms and her hating a lot of things about him. Later, when she meets Charlie's brother Oscar Godolphin, it turns out that the attachment was entirely due to the brothers' similarities [[spoiler: because Judith is an artificial person programmed to be Oscar's perfect woman. Her actual programming was "to serve the men of the Godolphin line in perpetuity".]].
* TragicAIDSStory: A subplot introduces an openly gay male couple who are friends of the Christ-like protagonist Gentle. One of the gay men, Taylor Briggs, dies of AIDS near the beginning of the story, while his partner Clem survives and goes on to help the protagonist. It is mentioned in passing that both men were in a lot of open relationships during the 1970s and "slept around" a lot, back before [=HIV=] became public knowledge; but only Taylor, the party animal, contracted [=HIV=] while his partner was plain lucky and never did, something for which Clem feels SurvivorGuilt. SubvertedTrope in that both men had been lovers for a long time and their love and relationship are depicted in a very positive light. Later on, Taylor returns as a ghost and reunites with Clem. At the end of the story, after the Reconciliation of all five realms, when all the souls of the dead of Earth and the other four Dominions are free to travel on to... somewhere else, before he departs Taylor asks his lover not to forget him but to go on with his life.

* UnintentionalBackupPlan: Well, Sartori forgetting everything wasn't exactly in the plan of [[spoiler: God]]. He still somehow manages to get trough with in the great scheme of things.
* UnstoppableRage: Played with, Gentle launches a pneuma shortly after [[spoiler: the death of Huzzah]], but immediately regrets it. But the pneuma itself, fueled by his fury starts rampaging trough the city.

* CollectibleCardGame: The book spawned its own. With artworks by no one else than CliveBarker himself.

Written by Creator/CliveBarker, ''Imajica'' is the tale about the five dominions that make up the system of the Imajica. Earth is the fifth and is separated from the other four, which are unlike our own.

Follow John Furie Zacharias, alias Gentle, is left empty and purposeless after his breakup with Judith. But his meeting with Pie, a shapeshifter who's neither man nor woman, brings him to undertake a pilgrimage trough the dominions to find out who he is. Judith herself soon starts craving for this new world, and they are all soon in the middle of a power-play between the mysterious Sartori, a cabal of mages who wish to keep the dominions secret and a being who might be god himself.

Follow John Furie Zacharias, alias Gentle, who undertakes a pilgrimage trough the dominions to find out who he is.

Warning, this story involves psychology, drugs, lots of (strange) sex, gore and god himself. But hey! It's Creator/CliveBarker.

* TheImmodestOrgasm: Judith, to a tantric level.

* EmbodimentOfVirtue: In a book that references Jesus several times, along with christian symbols, it had to befall on someone. [[spoiler: It's Gentle. And Sartori is the EmbodimentOfVice... For a time that is, the roles get blurry as the plot goes on]].

* EroticEating: One of the most literal example ever. Judith discovers a book were two lovers eat eachother in what she considers a terrific fashion. She laters enjoys it herself.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: God allmighty]] manages to fry himself with his own fireball.

* {{Jesus}}: In universe he tried to achieve the reconciliation but failed.

Tropes found in ''Imajica'':

Written by Creator/CliveBarker, '''''Imajica''''' is the tale about the five dominions that make up the system of the Imajica. Earth is the fifth and is separated from the other four, which are unlike our own.

* CollectibleCardGame: The book spawned it's own. With artworks by no one else than CliveBarker himself.

* ShiningCity: Yzordderrex is rumored to be this. And later [[spoiler: It's the MegaCity of the First Dominion that seems to be this. Seems is the important word here]].

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Kind of happened a first time when the fifth dominion lost it's connection to the others. [[spoiler: could also happen to ALL the dominions if the reconciliation is completed... Although no one really knows what's going to happen next]].

* TrueLoveAutoCorrect: The supremely attractive Judith feels a great attachment to her husband Charlie Estabrook despite his lack of apparent charms and her hating a lot of things about him. Later, when she meets Charlie's brother Oscar Godolphin, it turns out that the attachment was entirely due to the brothers' similarities [[spoiler: because Judith is an artificial person programmed to be Oscar's perfect woman. Her actual programming was "to serve the men of the Godolphin line in perpetuity".]].

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Interesting example here as it goes both ways, once Gentle [[spoiler: takes the role of the messiah he acts as the all-loving one and, well, Jesus Christ himself. But fighting Sartori along the way makes him dangerously close to the Antechrist at times. Sartori goes exactly the other way around, making you wonder who is the messiah and who is the bad guy in the first place]]

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Eurethmecs, despite traveling trough worlds with hundreds of species, no one seems to fully understand these.

* ArtImitatesArt: Gentle is talented enough to create perfect copies of famous paintings. [[spoiler: No wonder it's that easy for him, he managed to create a copy of him and Judith as well]]. [[spoiler: It gets subverted at the end, when after 700 years of existence, Gentle starts to work on his own true piece of art : A cartography of the reunited Imajica]].

* EnemyMine: kind of, [[spoiler: between Gentle and Athanasius. The later tried to kill the former. But they are both ready to set aside their differences to prepare the reconciliation]].
* TheEpic: Several adventures to complete one big quest that will change the whole universe? Check. Lots of different characters who go trough their own trials? Check. [[spoiler: meet God? Check. Kill him? Check that too]].

* TheDragon: [[spoiler: Dowd kinda filled that role for Hapexamendios for a time. In the end, it seems more like the Eurethmecs are demoted to this, tough we never see them in action]].

* {{Determinator}}: Judith, Gentle, the godesses count probably too.

* DoesNotLikeMagic: The tabula Rasa is here to make sure that no one in the fifth dominion uses any.

* FromBadToWorse: "Let's make the reconciliation happen". Hard enough when a lot of people are actively trying to avoid just that. Then it becomes "Let's make the reconciliation happen [[spoiler: before the Autarch turns the whole fifth dominion into a wreck]]". And then it still gets worse: [[spoiler: Maybe the reconciliation itself is going to obliterate all the dominions]].
* FromNobodyToNightmare: The autarch. No one even knew he existed at first. He ends up as the ruthless ruler in three of the five dominions. [[spoiler: It helps that he's Sartori]]

* GoodIsNotNice

* NotSoDifferent: Well, apart from the physical ressemblance of a few characters, it also gets debatable who is the good and the bad one.
* NumberedHomeworld

* PrisonEpisode: In the third dominion, when searching for Athanasius, Gentle and Pie end up stuck in a prison surrounded by not-that-friendly water.

* RitualMagic: Severly downplayed. There are rituals to perform for some spells that's true. But every Maestro admits that they are disappointingly simple. When the rituel itself is impressing, it just means that the one performing it has no idea of how the spell works.

* ShiningCity: Yzordderrex is rumored to be this. And later [[spoiler: It's the MegaCity of the first empire that seems to be this. Seems is the important word here]].

* YouMonster: Sartori gets that remark often. And in an interesting example, gentle himself, once he [[spoiler: takes the role of the Messiah]], seems to be seen like that by Judith.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: The Autarch. Good luck tricking him.

* TrueLoveAutoCorrect: The supremely attractive Judith feels a great attachment to her husband Charlie Estabrook despite his lack of apparent charms and her hating a lot of things about him. Later, when she meets Charlie's brother Oscar Godolphin, it turns out that the attachment was entirely due to the brothers' similarities [[spoiler: because Judith is an artificial person programmed to be Oscar's perfect woman]].

** Also doubles as a [[spoiler: WhamLine]] the first time it's said.

** Also doubles as a WhamLine the first time it's said.

* BeAsUnhelpfulAsPossible: Pie knows something about Gentle, but despite the latter's efforts, he never breaks Pie open. [[spoiler: Actually subverted, Pie would love to tell him everything, but due to the magic he used to make Gentle forget his past, every time he talks Gentle loses consciousness]].

** Also, Facing your own failures. [[spoiler: Or in this case, not be able to and rather wipe your own memories]].

* AbusiveParents: A subtle one, but [[spoiler: Gentle to Judith when he created her definitely qualifies]].

* FateWorseThanDeath: You'd think dying puts an end to most of your problems right? Not when your spirit wanders aimlessly for all eternity. It's one of the plot points that something stops souls from having peace.

* MindRape: Courtesy of Little Ease. [[spoiler: Later leads to a SplitPersonnalityMerge]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Gentle, once he learns how Judith and Sartori where born]].

* BarredFromTheAfterlife: For some reason, The souls of the dead are aimlessly wandering among the dominions. They shouldn't.

* TheCaligula: Sartori. Randomly burning down places where enemies could be hiding is the sane part.