Flob

Flob is one of a fixed set of names - Ib, Pib, Pob, Flob, Flab - used by Companion-Invigilator Quellery to designate whichever small imps answer his conjurer-contracted summons from Hell. The name does not identify an individual demon; it identifies a slot in a working set, filled by whatever creature the summons brings forward. When an imp bearing the name Flob is killed, the name is reassigned to a fresh demon pulled from Hell without ceremony or distinction. Flob's entire narrative presence in Pretenders to the Throne Of God spans roughly two chapters and consists of being summoned as a replacement, deployed on a menial or expendable task, and dying in the line of duty.

What gives Flob significance beyond that narrow span is what the name's interchangeability reveals about Quellery's operational philosophy and, by extension, about the economics of Hell-servitude as the novel depicts it. The imps are miserable in Hell and resent their posting Above, serving under compulsion rather than loyalty; they are tools that Quellery names, loses, and replaces with the same casualness a man might note the replacement of a broken peg. The practice is not cruel in the theatrical sense but indifferent in a way the text flags explicitly, making the imps a small but pointed illustration of how the novel treats Hell's inhabitants: as labour, not as characters.

The Term

Meaning

In the usage of Companion-Invigilator Quellery, "Flob" is one of five fixed labels - Ib, Pib, Pob, Flob, Flab - assigned to whichever imps answer his conjurer-contracted summons from Hell. The names denote functional positions in a working set rather than individual identities; the text treats them as interchangeable, reassigning a name to a replacement demon as soon as the previous bearer is killed - ch 12, ch 33. An outside reader might assume each name belongs to a distinct demon, but the books make clear that the labels outlast the entities and the entities do not outlast the labels.

Usage

Quellery alone speaks these names, calling them aloud as operational shorthand when deploying his imps on tasks such as distracting snipers or delaying a hostile crowd - ch 12, ch 33. The register is purely utilitarian: the names are issued as commands to fill a gap, not as acknowledgements of a servant's existence. The narrator highlights the practice with a flat, unemphasised remark, drawing attention to its regularity rather than its cruelty - ch 12. What the naming convention reveals about Quellery is a temperament that treats Hell-servants as equipment, substituting one unit for another without grief or recognition.

History

Pretenders to the Throne Of God

Flob is one of the small imps bound to the Companion-Invigilator Quellery through conjurer-contracted servitude, summoned to perform menial and expendable tasks during operations conducted Above. Quellery uses a fixed set of names - Ib, Pib, Pob, Flob, Flab - for whichever demons answer his summons, a practice the text highlights with the remark that "He always calls his imps the same thing" - ch 12. The names are interchangeable labels rather than identities; when one imp dies, another is called from Hell and given the same name without ceremony. The imps themselves are miserable in Hell and resent their posting Above, serving under compulsion rather than loyalty - ch 33.

During the assault on the wall defenders in Chapter 12, Quellery sends Ib, Pib, and Pob to distract the enemy; all three are killed by snipers. Flob is then summoned as a replacement to fill the gap in the working set - ch 12. By Chapter 25 the surviving imps are described roosting on Quellery's shoulders, a detail suggesting they travel with him between tasks and are kept in close, if cramped, proximity - ch 25.

In Chapter 33, a mob of looting Carcer civilians attacks Quellery while he works on linking and tuning a network of sigils. His imps are ordered to delay the pack, and two of them - Pib and Flob - are killed in the scrum - ch 33. Quellery then re-summons replacement imps, assigning them the names Pib and Flob, returns to the streets, and completes the remaining two sigils until the net is linked and tuned - ch 33. The death of the original Flob resolves the earlier question of whether the replacement summoned in Chapter 12 would survive: it did not - implied, ch 33. The fate of the entities themselves after death is not described; the practical implication is that they simply cease to be available and a fresh demon from Hell is pressed into the vacant name-slot - implied, ch 33.

Relationships

• Companion-Invigilator Quellery - the conjurer who binds and names the imps. The relationship is one of contract and compulsion: Quellery summons, commands, and discards; the imps serve under the terms of conjurer-contracted servitude, resenting their posting Above. Across the book the bond never personalises - Quellery reassigns names to replacements in the same breath as he completes the operational task (linking and tuning a network of sigils) without pausing over the loss of the creature that bore the name - ch 33.
• The other imps (Ib, Pib, Pob, Flab) - unnamed as individuals, the imps travel together in close physical proximity, roosting on Quellery's shoulders between tasks - ch 25. Their mutual relationship is not elaborated; they function as a pack under the conjurer's direction, miserable together in their enforced service.

Notable Quotes

"He always calls his imps the same thing" - narrator's remark, Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 12

Tags

1. imp · #conjurer-servant · #summoned-creature