History TearJerker / SmallGods

* How Om finally persuaded Brutha that he really was Om. Brutha believes that Om watches everything, and Om remembers a summer day when Brutha told his aunt that he wished she was dead. Oddly poignant.

* General Fi'irt's DespairEventHorizon, as the campaign to attack Ephebe goes underway, and another member of LaResistance who knows his name is being tortured by by the inquisitors. He wonders if he's ever prayed to Om, as he can't remember anymore after all of the war he's waged in the name of the church. He believes firmly in the the cause of the resistance, yet has enough religion left to fear that it's damning his soul regardless. [[spoiler: And then he ends up dead at the hands of the Inquisitors himself, although he at least gets a happy-ish ending when he appears before Death and feels good enough about himself to cross the desert]].

* Brutha's death (of extreme old age), where he meets Death at the beginning of the desert crossing, then discovers that [[spoiler:TautologicalTemplar Vorbis]] has spent the entire hundred years since his own death[[note]]though, as Death notes, '''[[AC:time is different there. More personal. A hundred years can pass like infinity]]'''.[[/note]] cowering there, too afraid to move or pass on, trapped in an IronicHell entirely fitting his vile deeds. Even ''Death'' offers the opinion that he's getting what he deserves. But Brutha feels otherwise, [[spoiler: taking his enemy's hand to guide him across the last desert]].

* General Fi'irt's DespairEventHorizon, while DrowingMySorrows as the campaign to attack Ephebe goes underway, and another member of LaResistance who knows his name is being tortured by by the inquisitors. He wonders if he's ever prayed to Om, as he can't remember anymore after all of the war he's waged in the name of the church. He believes firmly in the the cause of the resistance, yet has enough religion left to fear that it's damning his soul regardless. [[spoiler: And then he ends up dead at the hands of the Inquisitors himself, although he at least gets a happy-ish ending when he appears before Death and feels good enough about himself to cross the desert]].

** Also a Crowning Moment of Awesome: one thing everyone agrees about Vorbis is that his superpower -- the real evil that he commits -- is that he makes other people become like him. Most other people, apparently... but not Brutha.
*** Ah, but he ''did'' make Brutha more like him. For all his faults, Vorbis possessed many of the EvilVirtues. His time with Vorbis turned the humble and fairly simple Brutha into an enlightened and charismatic leader who changed the world.

** It's implied that ''all'' gods end up like this. Forgotten forever, but remembering - and driven away from any new sources of belief by the envious proto-gods. Mortals have it easy.

* The Small God whom Om speaks to in the desert. All it can do is to recite a disjointed MadnessMantra about its former glory, but it no longer knows its own name. And Om would have ended up exactly like it, if not for Brutha.

* Brutha's death (of extreme old age), where he meets Death at the beginning of the desert crossing, then discovers that [[spoiler:TautologicalTemplar Vorbis]] has spent the entire hundred years since his own death[[note]]though, as Death notes, '''[[AC:time is different there. More personal. A hundred years can pass like infinity'''.[[/note]] cowering there, too afraid to move or pass on, trapped in an IronicHell entirely fitting his vile deeds. Even ''Death'' offers the opinion that he's getting what he deserves. But Brutha feels otherwise, [[spoiler: taking his enemy's hand to guide him across the last desert.]]

* Brutha's death (of extreme old age), where he meets Death at the beginning of the desert crossing, then discovers that [[spoiler:TautologicalTemplar Vorbis]] has spent the entire hundred years since his own death[[note]]though, as Death notes, '''[[AC:time is different there. More personal. A hundred years can pass like infinity.[[/note]]''' cowering there, too afraid to move or pass on, trapped in an IronicHell entirely fitting his vile deeds. Even ''Death'' offers the opinion that he's getting what he deserves. But Brutha feels otherwise, [[spoiler: taking his enemy's hand to guide him across the last desert.]]

* Brutha's death (of extreme old age), where he meets Death at the beginning of the desert crossing, then discovers that [[spoiler:TautologicalTemplar Vorbis]] has spent the entire hundred years since his own death[[hottip:*:though, as Death notes, '''[[AC:time is different there. More personal. A hundred years can pass like infinity.]]''' cowering there, too afraid to move or pass on, trapped in an IronicHell entirely fitting his vile deeds. Even ''Death'' offers the opinion that he's getting what he deserves. But Brutha feels otherwise, [[spoiler: taking his enemy's hand to guide him across the last desert.]]

* Brutha's death (of extreme old age), where he meets Death at the beginning of the desert crossing, then discovers that [[spoiler:TautologicalTemplar Vorbis]] has spent the entire hundred years since his own death[[hottip:*:though, as Death notes, '''[[AC:time is different there. More personal. A hundred years can pass like infinity.]]''']] cowering there, too afraid to move or pass on, trapped in an IronicHell entirely fitting his vile deeds. Even ''Death'' offers the opinion that he's getting what he deserves. But Brutha feels otherwise, [[spoiler: taking his enemy's hand to guide him across the last desert.]]

* Brutha's death (of extreme old age), where he meets Death at the beginning of the desert crossing, then discovers that [[spoiler:TautologicalTemplar Vorbis]] has spent the entire hundred years since his own death cowering there, too afraid to move or pass on, trapped in an IronicHell entirely fitting his vile deeds. Even ''Death'' offers the opinion that he's getting what he deserves. But Brutha feels otherwise, [[spoiler: taking his enemy's hand to guide him across the last desert.]]

--> II. Here And Now, You Are Alive.

* I forgot.

* Brutha's death (of extreme old age), where he meets Death at the beginning of the desert crossing, then discovers that TautologicalTemplar Vorbis has spent the entire hundred years since his own death cowering there, too afraid to move or pass on, trapped in an IronicHell entirely fitting his vile deeds. Even ''Death'' offers the opinion that he's getting what he deserves. But Brutha feels otherwise, [[spoiler: taking his enemy's hand to guide him across the last desert.]]
--> '''Brutha''': Yes. He's Vorbis. But I'm me.

* Brutha's death (of extreme old age), where he meets Death at the beginning of the desert crossing, then discovers that CompleteMonster TautologicalTemplar Vorbis has spent the entire hundred years since his own death cowering there, too afraid to move or pass on, trapped in an IronicHell entirely fitting his vile deeds. Even ''Death'' offers the opinion that he's getting what he deserves. But Brutha feels otherwise, [[spoiler: taking his enemy's hand to guide him across the last desert.]]

* But I'm Me.
*
--> One: This is not a game.
-->Two: You are not dead yet.

* But I'm Me.