pyramids

In Civilization and Civilization II, the Pyramids are a Wonder of the World. Although they are called by the same name, they have very different effects.

In the first game, the Pyramids convey the power to switch forms of government with no penalty of anarchy, and to switch to forms of government not yet discovered. This could be very handy, as the civlization that built the pyramids could switch to Communism and greatly reduce corruption.

The creators of the game deemed this power to powerful, and in the second game switched the pyramids to working as a granary in every city, which is still very useful.

In both games, the Pyramids require pottery and 200 resource shields to build. In the first game, the pyramids expire with the invention of communism, but in the second, they don't expire at all.

In both games, the pyramids are thought to be a useful thing to build, although obviously for different reasons. In the first, the reduction of communism will allow Civilizations, especially far flung empires, to make more money and get more science. In the second, the pyramids allowed cities to easily grow to much larger populations. However, on higher levels, getting large cities is not always a desirable thing because of Civil Disorder.

Teppic is a young assassin-in-training in Ankh-Morpork and the son of Djelibeybi's pharao. It is a county that is very poor, because every pharao who has died gets a fsckin' big pyramid, and of course everyone is trying to build a bigger one. Of course the pharaos are also gods (just like in ancient Egypt; Mr. Pratchett is making fun of it the whole book) and have to do certain things like controlling the sunrise and the sunset. Teppic's father dies one morning when he's believing the sun will not rise. A few moments after he hit the ground from his balcony the sun rose, however.

Now that the pharao is dead, Teppic returns from Ankh-Morpork and becomes the new one. He has some problems with the godlike life style and his "prime minister" Dios. Though Teppic is the pharao, everybody is doing what Dios tells them, because he has been the highest priest for a very long time.
Though the deceased pharao didn't want a pyramid to be built for him his son wants the architects to build one that is bigger than all the others before. Pyramids are bit different in Djelibeybi than here, they store the time that has passed during the day and release it at night. That's way the mummys don't get older. ;) This new pyramid is so big that Djelibeyby's suddenly flushig into another dimension.

A few quotes:

"All assassins had a full-length mirror in their rooms, because it would be a terrible insult to anyone to kill them when you were badly dressed."

"The Ephebians made wine out of anything they could put in a bucket, and ate anything that couldn't climb out of one."

"There was not a lot that could be done to make Morpork a worse place. A direct hit by a meteorite, for example, would count as gentrification."

There is also a kick-ass dialog between Teppic and a, oh sorry the, sphinx. Teppic has to answer her riddle, which is of course "What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?". Teppic doesn't know the answer, but after a conversation about the riddle, the sphinx is irritated and Teppic is able to pass her.

The book's very funny (e.g. "the greatest mathematician ever: You Bastard, a camel") and it is definitely worth reading if you're a Discworld fan and perhaps even if you're not.