Terry Pratchett's "Eric" Trivia Quiz

Answer: A 13-year-old demonologist

After hurling through the dimension back to the Disc, Rincewind was relieved to find that he had landed on a solid surface with his body intact, but he found himself inside a magic circle that had been constructed by a pushy demonologist named Eric. Rincewind soon realized that the beard Eric was wearing was a disguise, and instead of being 87 years old as he claimed, Eric was actually a "nearly fourteen"-year-old boy.

The fact that his mother called him to wash his hands and come down for breakfast was also a dead giveaway.

Answer: Aztec

Eric had a few demands, the first of which was to be the Ruler of the World. Despite Rincewind's insistence that he didn't have the power to grant wishes, Rincewind discovered that his fingers suddenly had magical power, and he was able to take Eric and the parrot to the sky over the Disc so that Eric could survey his realm.

But Eric decided he wanted tribute from his subjects, so when Rincewind snapped his fingers, they next ended up in the jungles of Klatch in a land with jaguars, pyramids, obsidian knives, and sacrifices to the god Quezovercoatl - yes, a parody of the Aztec Empire.

Answer: The Fountain of Youth

Ponce da Quirm bore a striking resemblance to Ponce de Leon. He told Rincewind that he had spent his entire life looking for the Fountain of Youth, which made Rincewind almost ask him why he just didn't enjoy his life rather than waste it conducting the search. Da Quirm was with a group of explorers when he was captured, but the others had "found religion", leaving him to be the one who was supposed to be sacrificed to Quezovercoatl.

Answer: The Luggage

You would think that the Demon King Astfgl would be happy that the Tezumen had brought "death and destruction to thousands of moderately blameless people", but he wasn't happy about losing potential converts. So he ordered the imp Quezovercoatl to appear to the Tezumen and get them to give up their bloodthirsty ways, but while the Tezumen had tall statues devoted to Quezovercoatl, in reality he was only six inches tall, and he ended up being squished by The Luggage.

The Tezumen made The Luggage their new god, but we found out that they later gave up worshiping idols and turned atheist.

Answer: A horse

The Tsort Empire turned out to have a lot in common with Troy, and the wooden horse - well it was like the Trojan Horse. When they climbed out of the horse, Rincewind noted that the builder had a sense of humor because the exit was the horse's rear end.

When they exited the horse, they were surrounded by Tsortean soldiers who thought they were part of an Ephebian invasion force. They were able to get away thanks to the appearance of another wooden object, The Luggage.

Answer: Odysseus

When Rincewind and Eric were brought before Lavaeolus, he was sprawled out in a chair, tossing sandwiches at The Luggage. He wasn't surprised to hear that The Luggage was made of magic wood nor that Rincewind and Eric were from the future. He did ask if Rincewind had the results of any horse races but wasn't surprised when Rincewind said no. Rincewind didn't know who Lavaeolus was so when they were alone, Eric explained it to him and told him about Lavaeolus's ten year journey to get home. "Kept getting lost, did he?" asked Rincewind.

Answer: Elenor of Tsort

Elenor of Tsort bore a strong resemblance to Helen of Troy. Well, a resemblance in her story at least - physically, however, she was described as being plump, faded and having a bit of a mustache. When Rincewind told Eric who she was, Eric said "Don't be silly.

She looks like my mum". Lavaeolus was a bit dismayed to find that instead of pining away during her imprisonment, she seemed to have adapted rather well; she had at least seven children. Elenor explained that the siege had taken a long time, and King Mausoleum had been "very kind". Exasperated that he had wasted time trying to rescue her, Lavaeolus responded, "Couldn't you, you know, have slipped us a note or something? Or invited us to one of the christenings?"

Answer: Lavaeolus

As Rincewind and Eric were leaving the Tsort Empire, Eric pointed out that the name Lavaeolus meant "Rinser of winds". Eric told Rincewind that he didn't know if that meant that Lavaeolus was Rincewind's ancestor, but Rincewind thought he was and wished he had told Lavaeolus not to get married or visit Ankh-Morpork.

Answer: An egg and cress sandwich

The creator, who emphasized that he was "a" creator, not "the" creator, was a "little, rat-faced man... with a pencil behind one ear". He had offered Rincewind a sandwich, and while Rincewind was pleased to get an egg and cress sandwich, he was disappointed to find out that it had no mayonnaise on it.

After the universe came into being, Rincewind ended up throwing the sandwich away after a couple of bites, and it was there on the beach that bacteria began to breed on the sandwich. Pratchett noted that "if only there had been some mayonnaise, life might have turned out a whole lot different".

Answer: Duke Vassenego

Duke Vassenego was described as "one of the oldest demons... If he didn't actually invent original sin, at least he made one of the first copies". Vassenego had used Rincewind to distract Astfgl; while Astfgl went chasing after Rincewind, Vassenego organized the plot to overthrow him.

When Astfgl finally caught up with Rincewind in the underworld, Vassenego informed Astfgl that "the Council" had met and promoted him to Supreme Life President of Hell, and that he'd have a new and improved office where he would spend his time planning and documenting the "full, authoritative, searching and in-depth analysis" of the role of demons - basically a lot of busy work to keep him out of their way. Vassenego let Rincewind and Eric return to their world because "it's always a good thing to let a few tales spread".