Pob

Pob is one of five imps - collectively designated Ib, Pib, Pob, Flob and Flab - bound in conjurer-contracted servitude to Companion-Invigilator Quellery, an operative of the Aggregate-of-Humanity. The imps are miserable in Hell and resentful of their postings Above, yet remain answerable to their conjurer's summons and carry out tasks under duress. Quellery's habit of addressing all five by the same name, regardless of which imp answers, draws weary exasperation from colleagues and underscores the disposability with which the Aggregate's operatives treat their infernal assets.

In Pretenders to the Throne Of God, Pob's arc spans two brief but revealing episodes. The imp is first deployed as a decoy during a siege - one of three imps sent to draw sniper fire from a wall while siege engineers recalibrate their targeting - and is killed almost immediately, only to be replaced without comment. Pob's second appearance is as a warning system: the imp materialises to alert Quellery that a single unseen individual is tracking the Companion-Invigilator's movements through occupied ground. In both scenes, Pob exists purely as an instrument - expendable in the first, barely more than a sensory extension in the second - and the narrative gives no further account of the imp's fate after death or the resolution of the surveillance threat the imp identifies.

The Term

Meaning

Pob is not a personal name in the way an outside reader might initially assume. It is one element of a fixed collective designation - Ib, Pib, Pob, Flob and Flab - applied to all five imps in Quellery's service, and the five share the designation interchangeably. The books do not establish whether the individual imps possess distinct names beyond the collective string or whether "Pob" corresponds to any particular imp's individual identity. What is made explicit is that Quellery always calls them by the same name, treating the designation as a single label for the group rather than addressing any one imp personally - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 12.

Usage

Quellery uses the name as a summons, calling any of the five into service without distinguishing between them. Those around him observe the habit with weary exasperation, reading it as a tell of Quellery's indifference to his bound assets rather than a feature of the imps' own nature - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 12. The imps themselves do not use the name in speech; when Pob speaks, it does so in a thin voice delivering functional warnings, not self-identification - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 33.

History

Pretenders to the Throne Of God

Pob is one of the imps bound in conjurer-contracted servitude to Quellery, a Companion-Invigilator of the Aggregate-of-Humanity. The imps share a collective designation - Ib, Pib, Pob, Flob, and Flab - and Quellery always calls them by the same name, a habit noted with weary exasperation by those around him - "He always calls his imps the same thing" - ch 12. Though miserable in Hell and resentful of their posting Above, the imps remain answerable to their conjurer's summons and carry out tasks under duress - ch 33.

Pob's first appearance in the book is during the first artillery exchange of the siege in which Aspel's engines - poor siege pieces designed for street-clearing rather than wall-battering - are repositioned for accurate fire. Quellery sends Pob alongside Ib and Pib, each bearing sigil-marked cloth, to draw the attention of the wall defenders and keep them occupied while Aspel recalculates targeting solutions - ch 12. The gambit is immediately fatal: snipers on the wall kill Ib, Pib, and Pob before they can complete their distraction, and Quellery summons Flob as a replacement - ch 12. What becomes of the killed imps after death is left unresolved.

Pob reappears in a later scene when the Companion-Invigilator is moving through occupied ground and senses scrutiny. The imp materialises to warn its master, announcing in a thin voice, "Watched, watched," to convey that a single unseen individual is tracking Quellery's movements - ch 33. The warning causes Quellery to pick up his pace. The identity of the watcher, and whether that individual reported Quellery's presence to any authority, remains unknown.

Relationships

• Companion-Invigilator Quellery - The conjurer who holds the binding contract. Quellery treats all five imps as interchangeable tools, summoning them without individuality and replacing a killed imp without mourning or comment. The relationship is purely contractual and one-directional: the imps serve under duress, and Quellery exercises the summons without regard for their preference or survival - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 12, ch 33.
• Ib, Pib, Pob, Flob and Flab - The other four imps bound in the same collective servitude. They share a designation, a conjurer, and a disposition of misery and resentment. In the siege scene, Pob, Ib, and Pib are killed together as a single disposable unit and Flob is summoned as a direct replacement, illustrating the interchangeability Quellery imposes on them - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 12.
• Aspel - The siege engineer whose targeting recalibration Pob's deployment serves. The imp is caught up in Aspel's operations purely as a tactical decoy, with no personal connection to the Cohort-Monitor - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 12.

Notable Quotes

"He always calls his imps the same thing" - unnamed observers of Quellery, Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 12

"Watched, watched" - Pob, Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 33

Tags

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