“So you don't know whether you were a man or a woman in life. No and I don't see why it matters. Humans are so tedious. Oh, you have dangly bits. Congratulations, you're going to put on armour and swing a sword about. Oh, you've ended up with the other kind. Too bad-time to either have babies or become a nun.” HumanityGender DiscriminationVespertine Book:Vespertine Source: Vespertine
“Is it true that spirits can’t remember anything about their human lives?” “Yes,” it answered tartly. I had never considered before now that someone would have needed to speak to a spirit to learn that information. I had always merely accepted it as one of the Clerisy’s teachings. “So you don’t know whether you were a man or a woman in life.” “No, and I don’t see why it matters. Humans are so tedious. Oh, you have dangly bits. Congratulations, you’re going to put on armor and swing a sword about. Oh, you’ve ended up with the other kind. Too bad—time to either have babies or become a nun.” MenHumansGenderWomanLolNunSpiritsBruhVespertine Book:Vespertine Source: Vespertine
“If there's one thing I can always rely on, it's the reassuring dependability of human idiocy. Give your kind a century or so, and they'll happily repeat the exact same mistakes that nearly wiped them all out a few generations before.” Human StupidityMaking The Same MistakesVespertineHuman Idiocy Book:Vespertine Source: Vespertine
“Humans simply love inventing superstitions and then getting killed because of them. Or better yet, using them as an excuse to kill other humans.” PersecutionSuperstitionReligious PersecutionVespertine Book:Vespertine Source: Vespertine
“I absorbed its deathly visage, trying and failing to match it with the voice in my head. The revenant had devoured the populations of entire cities; it was also the entity who ordered me to eat my pottage. ‘I’ll have you know that I’m very good-looking by undead standards,’ the revenant remarked, after I had stared for a long time without speaking. I frowned in annoyance.” FunnyVespertine Book:Vespertine Source: Vespertine
“I felt the revenant tense and knew before she spoke that it was Mother Dolours. “I fear that an age of saints and miracles isn’t something to celebrate, Sister Marie. The Lady sends us such gifts only in times of darkness. Do you recall the writings of Saint Liliane?" The sister was silent a moment. Then she murmured, “And so the silent bell wakens to herald the Dead; and the last candle is lit against the coming night...” I stained to hear more, but their voices had dwindled as the passed outside the hall, leaving a cold lump in my stomach and the lingering image of a single, steady candle flame slowly burning itself down, the only remaining light to hold off the dark.” LightDarknessFantasyImportanceCandleSaintsVespertineTimes Of Darkness Book:Vespertine Source: Vespertine
“And so the silent bell wakens to herald the Dead; and the last candle is lit against the coming night...” DarknessCandleDeadVespertineTimes Of DarknessMargaret RogersonThe Lady Book:Vespertine Source: Vespertine