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Death's Hourglass: Difference between revisions
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** The Discworld's "lifetimers" aren't just clocks. If a person's hourglass is broken, they immediately die or go catatonic, and Death doesn't normally control the flow of timers. He is merely supposed to help a timer's owner pass on when the sand runs out. (Fiddling with timers is usually a bad idea, as several characters discover the hard way.) Even Death has an hourglass, but it has no sand and cannot be damaged.
** Rincewind's hourglass is a particularly interesting one. It has a very odd shape and the sand within sometimes flows slower or even in ''reverse''. Even Death himself doesn't know when Rincewind's life is going to end.
** Death doesn't know when a lot of Discworld characters are going to die. It has to do with 'quantum' or something. In ''[[
** As the [[
{{quote|{{smallcaps|"The Hogfather gives presents. There's no greater present than a future." }}}}
** He does the same thing for the title character in ''[[
** It is explicitly stated that this is a ''mortal'' ability - many do it all the time, without even realizing. Death, under normal circumstances, cannot truly extend someone's life.
** In fact he doesn't add sand to anyone's life timers. In Reaper Man, it doesn't count because he wasn't Death at the time and could act as a human would to save lives. In [[Hogfather]] he isn't Death either, he's filling in for the Hogfather, who's job isn't to let people die, see above quote. In Mort, he doesn't give Mort more time, he turns the hourglass over. He doubles his lifespan, at the cost that now Mort knows exactly how long he has to live.
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=== Literature ===
* Discworld again: in ''[[
* In Piers Anthony's ''[[On a Pale Horse]]'', the Incarnation of Death carries an hourglass that shows how long he has to collect his next client's soul. Subverted in that Death can actually postpone a given death briefly if his schedule demands it, although Fate will intercede if he delays things too long.
** Make that a snazzy black watch; even an [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] has to keep up with the times.
** Time, [[Captain Obvious|naturally]], is the one to [[Title Drop|bear an hourglass]], but among its many powers ''is'' the ability to freeze time and thus prevent death. It never actually measures out lifespans, though book seven in the series states that each grain of sand within it does correspond to a human life.
** In [[For The Love Of Evil]], Lucifer torments Parry by telling him the exact time of his death.
* In the ''[[Left Behind]]'' book ''Kingdom Come'': While lacking the actual timepiece, citizens of the Millennial Kingdom know that "naturals" who stay unbelievers by the time they reach 100 will instantly die and go to Hell. The only way for "naturals" to avoid this fate is to [[Religion Is Right|accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.]] [[La Résistance|The Other Light faction]] sees [[God Is Evil]] because of this and has prepared for that contingency by having their teachings passed down to the next generation of its converts so that the generation that [[Final Battle|gets to confront God and Jesus by the end of the Millennium]] will be "assured victory" when [[Sealed Evil in a Can|Satan is released]]. [[Curb Stomp Battle|Unfortunately for them,]] [[You Can't Fight Fate|it didn't go as they hoped.]]
=== Live-Action TV ===
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