History Literature / JohannesCabal

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** Cabal has a resigned one when he finds Umtark Ktharl's tomb and knows the warlock will soon rise-he pretty much just says "well, that's it, we're gonna die."

* ThisCannotBe: The adversary in "A Long Spoon", when Cabal escapes and faces him for a rematch. The narrator immediately lampshades that an immortal sorceror living in a realm of pure chaos really has no grounds to say "This is impossible" about anything.

* SummonBinding: Demon summoning rituals don't actually mind-control the demon but rather invoke their [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils infernal higher-ups]] for the authority to boss them around. When Johannes summons the devil Zarenyia, she cheerfully explains that she's a free agent who's bound only [[IGaveMyWord by her word]], so they [[DealWithTheDevil cut a deal with each other]] and begin an OddFriendship instead.

* HornyDevils: Succubus and similar demons appear in the series: "A Long Spoon" is about Johannes dealing with a devil (a demon non-affiliated with the legions of Hell) named Zarenyia who is a succubine and while she can shapeshift to appear like a normal (if beautiful) woman, her natural form is a sort of spider-centaur. Her sexuality and taste for murder are both played for laughs. When Cabal encounters a different succubus who doesn't like him as much in ''Fall of The House of Cabal'' she takes 'liberties' with him and he is disoriented and dazed in a rare fashion.

** Rufus Maleficarus has a name which roughly means "red-haired" and "bad", both of which he is.

** Cabal somehow moved his family house from where it originally was, all in one piece, to its new isolated location-its implied he hired magical beings but never explained.

Although necromancers like him are hunted down and burned on stake, Cabal is driven to find a cure for death- although "driven" is something of an understatement. Not an adventuerous sort by nature, he's also horribly pragmatic, so his quest for knowledge (which he'd be content to do in a lab and library) sees him travel to Hell, The Dreamlands, various fictional European countries, and a city of horrors called London.

The short stories are also harder to track down than that as many were written in magazines that subsequently ceased publication. In brief, there are "Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day", "Exeunt Demon King"[[note]]Both of which can be purchased as ebooks[[/note]], "The Ereshkigal Working"[[note]]Found in ''The Way of the Wizard'' anthology[[/note]], "The House of Gears"[[note]]Which can be read for free (or purchased) [[http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/new/new-fiction/the-house-of-gears/ here]][[/note]], "The Death of Me"[[note]]Free on Tor.com, [[https://www.tor.com/2013/09/10/the-death-of-me/ here]][[/note]], "Ouroboros Ouzo"[[note]]Also a purchasable standalone[[/note]], and" A Long Spoon"[[note]]Published on Tor.com, [[https://www.tor.com/2014/12/18/a-long-spoon-peter-joseph/ here]][[/note]].

* BlackComedy: Cabal is murderous, amoral and heavily armed but most of the bodies he or anyone else drops are more punch-lines than acts of horror due to the nature of the stories-Cabal is bad but he's better than the antagonists. Usually.

* DevilButNoGod: This is ambiguously true for the cosmology of the series. In ''Literature/JohannesCabalTheNecromancer'', {{Satan}} refers to himself as being a fallen angel (in line with Christian religion/mythology)and tortures the damned in FireAndBrimstoneHell, and Cabal seems to be believe that God exists, but [[GodAndSatanAreBothJerks doesn't like him either]] and believes that Heaven is [[HellOfAHeaven also unpleasant]], involving a loss of individuality. However, in a later book, ''Literature/JohannesCabalAndTheFearInstitute'', Cabal meets Nyarlathotep, who claims during a BreakingSpeech that there is no Satan/God/Hell/Heaven, and in reality, Satan is just one of his masks, and merely believes himself to be a separate entity, and for his amusement, Nyarlathotep likes to torture bad souls and give good ones the "gift" of a CessationOfExistence. This is seemingly born out by a scene where Cabal (admittedly while trapped in a LotusEaterMachine created by Nyarlathotep) has a vision of Satan and Hell and thinks he looks a lot like Nyarlathotep's human form. Although it is possible that Nyarlathotep was just saying this to MindRape Cabal, and there are indications that demons and devils exist independently of him, there's nothing that challenges Nyarlathotep's claims about God and Heaven.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: Applies only to Cabal's twitter account, where he complains occasionally about "the man Howard" publishing lies about his life and entreats his followers not to read them.

# ''The Fall of The House of Cabal'' (2016)

There are also several short stories, but the series is written in such a way that they are not necessary to follow the novels-any elements which appeared first in the stories and then in the novels is usually described well enough to preclude confusion and serve more as a CallBack or in-jokes.

The series consists of several novels and short stories. The novels are as follows:

* OutOfOrder:
** The series is not always written in chronological order-the first story written, ''Blustery Day'' takes place after ''Exeunt Demon King'' but ''also'' before-Exeunt Demon King is framed by Cabal telling a story of his past to someone in a period roughly after ''The Necromancer''. Likewise, "Ereshkigal Working" was published after ''Necromancer'' but takes place before it. The main reason for this is that Howard will often expand on things only briefly alluded to previously-Rufus Maleficarus first appears in ''Necromancer'' but its not the first time he met Cabal.
** "Ouroboros Ouzo" plays with this as Cabal is granted visions of his personal potential futures-he sees himself as a ghoul and as a mechanical butler, which are references to ''Fear Institute'' and "House of Gears" respectively.

* DevilButNoGod: This is ambiguously true for the cosmology of the series. In ''Literature/JohannesCabalTheNecromancer'', {{Satan}}} refers to himself as being a fallen angel (in line with Christian religion/mythology)and tortures the damned in FireAndBrimstoneHell, and Cabal seems to be believe that God exists, but [[GodAndSatanAreBothJerks doesn't like him either]] and believes that Heaven is [[HellOfAHeaven also unpleasant]], involving a loss of individuality. However, in a later book, ''Literature/JohannesCabalAndTheFearInstitute'', Cabal meets Nyarlathotep, who claims during a BreakingSpeech that there is no Satan/God/Hell/Heaven, and in reality, Satan is just one of his masks, and merely believes himself to be a separate entity, and for his amusement, Nyarlathotep likes to torture bad souls and give good ones the "gift" of a CessationOfExistence. This is seemingly born out by a scene where Cabal (admittedly while trapped in a LotusEaterMachine created by Nyarlathotep) has a vision of Satan and Hell and thinks he looks a lot like Nyarlathotep's human form. Although it is possible that Nyarlathotep was just saying this to MindRape Cabal, and there are indications that demons and devils exist independently of him, there's nothing that challenges Nyarlathotep's claims about God and Heaven.