Great God Om

The Great God Om is an omnipotent, omnipresent (only within the boundaries of the Omnian church) god in the country of Omnia.

Om's temple resides in Kom, and his followers are known as Omnians. Unlike the major Discworld gods, who exist as a pantheon, Om is a monotheistic deity whose followers insist that he is the one and only true God. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Omnians also insist that the world is round. Omnianism is the one of the most spoken-about religions on the Discworld.The desert country of Omnia is a theocracy on the Klatchian continent. Omnia is ruled by the Cenobiarch. At one time the Cenobiarch was a very old man, and the country was actually ruled by his advisors, chiefly Vorbis. A major factor in Omnian affairs at this time was that very few people actually believed in Om, although they all believed in what the Quisition did to unbelievers.

What the Omnian Quisition (consisting of the Inquisition and the Exquisition) largely did was torture people, as evidenced by their unofficial motto, "Quius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum," which very roughly translates to "When you have their full attention, you have their hearts and minds." It is also attested by their use of the Torquus Simiae Maleficarum.

The Book of Om says that witches shall not be allowed to live, although this may be a mistranslation since it also says that they may be caught in traps of treacle. This has led some to believe the word may in fact be cockroaches. A theory has also been advanced suggesting that, in a later passage stating they bring lascivious dreams, the word might actually be translated as "boiled lobsters."

The reason for Omnianism's intolerance was not that Om was an intolerant god, but because he was largely an indifferent one. After spending some time trapped in the shape of a tortoise, his perspective was changed, and he allowed Brutha to turn Omnianism into one of the Discworld's more moderate religions, although they still insist Om is the only real god, or at least the only god worth worshipping.

Om now refuses to manifest directly and demands that his followers develop their own theology and ethics based on faith in his existence and his last few commandments, redacting the former Omnian creeds into a simple code of nonviolence and moral uprightness.

Omnianism now demands that Om triumph over gods not through military force but in the "marketplace of ideas". The church has thus become more evangelical in its methods, and you can see its followers going from door to door to convince unbelievers. Omnianism is proving popular with converts, because a god that doesn't actually do anything is somewhat comforting. Owing to Brutha's allowance of opposing viewpoints, the church also schisms every couple of weeks.