Deccan Ribobe

Deccan Ribobe
Name	Deccan Ribobe
Race	Human
Age	unknown (elderly)
Occupation	High Priest
Physical appearance
Residence	Holy Wood
Death	1985 UC (Autumn)
Parents
Relatives
Children
Marital Status
Appearances
Books
Cameos	Moving Pictures

Deccan Ribobe was the last High Priest of the Boke of the Filme in Holy Wood. He lived in a crude driftwood hut on the beach, by the now buried Door keeping the fire lit and chanting three times a day to keep the Holy Wood Guardian awake. As the last Keeper Of The Door, he learned the ways from previous priest Tento (who had learned from Meggelin), but was so busy with the rituals that he could not find and train a successor. He had always hoped that one day some young adventure would come along, or someone would be shipwrecked and then he could explain to the about the chanting and the fire, and pass his duty onto a successor as it had been passed on to him.

Fisherman from the next bay would bring him fish to eat, but didn't stick around. Deccan did find time to chronicle his daily activities in the book, even if it did read in a mindlessly repetitive fashion.

One morning Deccan Ribobe failed to wake up, and after Death had come to claim him, sand started to trickle slowly away from the door, and the magic of Holy Wood to leak out into the Discworld.

His body was later found by Victor Tugelbend as was the book, which Victor and Gaspode used to help them unravel the dark secret of Holy Wood.

Annotation

A similar predicament to that of Deccan is the fate that befalls the character Desmond Hume [1] in the US TV series LOST. Stranded on an island he sits in a forgotten bunker, known as the Hatch and must type a code into the computer every 108 minutes, having been told by his now deceased predecessor that failure to do so will result in the end of the world due to the electromagnetic energy trapped beneath the bunker.

Like Deccan, Desmond cannot leave the site or look for help or another to take his place, as he can only travel for 54 minutes before he must return to enter the code. Also like Deccan he must perform his duty on blind faith that something bad will happen if he fails to enter the code. Both are eventually vindicated: Death helpfully confirms to Deccan what will happen now he’s died, while Desmond finally allows the timer to run out, resulting in the sky turning purple as a shrill humming noise and violet-white light envelops the entire island, causing the Oceanic 815 survivors and the Others alike on opposite sides of the island to collapse in pain.