Pyramids recap

Teppic, prince of the ancient river kingdom of Djelibeybi, trains as an assassin in cosmopolitan Ankh-Morpork, but on qualifying he learns that his father, the god-king, has died and he must return to take the throne. At home he finds true power held by Dios, the immensely old high priest who rules through rigid tradition. Pressed to build the largest pyramid ever for his dead father, Teppic clashes with Dios and rescues a condemned handmaiden, Ptraci. Djelibeybi's pyramids store time, and when the vast new pyramid flares it wrenches the whole kingdom out of the world into its own dimension, where every god the people ever believed in becomes real and runs riot. Teppic, caught outside, fights his way back and, with Ptraci and the builder Ptaclusp, destroys the Great Pyramid to bring the kingdom home. Dios is hurled into the distant past to repeat his service forever. Teppic abdicates in favour of Ptraci, his half-sister, who becomes queen and finally opens the kingdom to the modern world.

Teppic, prince of the ancient, tradition-bound river kingdom of Djelibeybi, is completing his training at the Assassins' Guild in the great city of Ankh-Morpork, far from home. He passes his final practical examination and qualifies as an assassin, having grown used to a modern, cosmopolitan world. On the same night, back in Djelibeybi, his father, King Teppicymon XXVII, dies, and Teppic learns that he must return home to take the throne as the kingdom's new god-king.

Home again, Teppic finds that real power lies with Dios, the ancient high priest who governs every act of the god-king according to unbreakable tradition. Teppic is expected to preside over his father's elaborate funeral and to commission the largest pyramid the kingdom has ever built, a project undertaken by the builder Ptaclusp and his sons. Meanwhile the dead king's spirit remains trapped and aware inside his mummified body. Teppic balks at one custom in particular and rescues a handmaiden, Ptraci, who was to be entombed with the king, setting himself against Dios and the whole machinery of tradition.

The Great Pyramid raised for the dead king is far larger than any before it, and pyramids in Djelibeybi store and release enormous quantities of time. When the new pyramid is completed and flares, it warps space so violently that the entire kingdom is twisted out of the ordinary world into a dimension of its own. Cut off, Djelibeybi finds that all the gods its people ever believed in have suddenly become real and walk the land, quarrelling and causing chaos. Teppic, who was outside the kingdom with Ptraci when it vanished, must find a way back in, while Dios's true, ancient nature and the pyramid's role in preserving the kingdom's frozen way of life come to light.

Teppic returns to the displaced kingdom and, with Ptraci, the builder Ptaclusp, and others, works out that the Great Pyramid must be destroyed to release its stored time and let Djelibeybi rejoin the world. They succeed in discharging and collapsing it; the pocket dimension folds away, the manifested gods vanish, and the kingdom returns to reality. Dios, caught in the pyramid's final flare, is flung thousands of years into the past, to the founding of the kingdom, doomed to begin his endless service over again. Teppic, now king, recognizes that Djelibeybi cannot go on frozen in time. He abdicates in favour of Ptraci, who is revealed to be his half-sister and who becomes queen, opening the kingdom to the outside world and ending the age of pyramids. His father's restless spirit is finally laid to rest.

Pyramids ends with Djelibeybi freed from the weight of its own past. Teppic and his allies determine that the enormous new Great Pyramid, which had twisted the kingdom out of reality, must be destroyed, and they collapse it to release its hoarded time. The pocket dimension unravels, the many gods that had become physically real disappear, and Djelibeybi returns to the ordinary world. Dios, the ancient high priest who had ruled through tradition and secretly renewed his own life inside the pyramids for millennia, is caught in the structure's last flare and thrown thousands of years back to the kingdom's founding, condemned to live out his service from the beginning again. Teppic, having become king, concludes that the kingdom cannot survive by clinging to its rituals. He steps down and hands the throne to Ptraci, the rescued handmaiden who proves to be his half-sister; as queen she opens Djelibeybi to trade and new ideas, ending its isolation and its age of pyramid-building. His father's restless spirit is finally laid to rest, and Teppic departs, leaving a kingdom beginning to rejoin the wider Disc.