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Never shall I be returning to the lower deeps! No longer can they hold me! Thine sparkling jewel did free me of them for eternity. No, now the Lord of the Underworld hath dominion over the upper realms. Darkness and death will I spew forth and the lust for slaughter will crawl into each pitiful creature's mind.
~ Hobb

Hobb is an overarching antagonist of The Deptford Mice and The Deptford Histories books, and is the main antagonist in the second novel of the latter trilogy, The Oaken Throne.

He is an ancient evil being, the most powerful and feared of a trio known as the Raith Sidhe which also consists of his consort Mabb and the shapeshifting trickster Bauchan. Long ago these terrible deities of bloodshed and war were worshipped by rats and many other creatures, but were usurped in the late 17th century by the living god Jupiter. Hobb himself has been trapped for over a thousand years in an oak tree, while Mabb and Bauchan are awaiting his escape and quietly plotting their return to power.

Appearance[]

Hobb takes the form of a huge rat with great horns protruding from his forehead. He has a mass of red hair which curls like a mane about him. His tail is forked and he has cloven hooves.

Biography[]

In The Oaken Throne, Wendel Maculatum, high priest of Hobb, called his master from the Pit via a blood sacrifice using the power of the magical silver acorn amulet, symbol of the Starwife, queen of the squirrels. It had been stolen from Ysabelle, the maiden chosen to become the new Starwife. Slowly, the god of the rats rose upward, and Ysabelle was cursed to be his first victim. For three nights, Hobb bellowed beneath the ground, announcing his ascent to bring terror and doom upon the world. On the third occasion, his massive form broke through the ground at Greenreach, to the horror of everyone there including his own followers. At the time, Morwenna, the treacherous squirrel who was priestess to Mabb, was wearing the silver acorn which she had taken from Ysabelle. This led to her inadvertently becoming her lord's first victim as the curse, in fact, was on whoever wore the silver acorn, rather than Ysabelle in particular. Hobb blew fire onto Morwenna and she was incinerated.

Thinking quickly, Ysabelle brought the silver acorn pendant to the Starglass, cleaning it of the blood that had sullied it. Having formally accepted the Starwifeship and all the powers along with it, Ysabelle turned her attention back to Hobb. Knowing that he was lured by an acorn, she used all the magic she could muster to make one his prison. Hobb screamed in agony as he shrank down and his very being was trapped within an ordinary acorn. It was planted and over the centuries grew into a massive oak tree. Hobb was sealed within every splinter of its timbers, and as long as any piece of it remained, he could not return.

A thousand years later, the oak tree fell in a fierce rainstorm, and the squirrels of Greenreach became concerned that it was a bad omen. It is heavily implied that Hobb will escape his prison at last and the Raith Sidhe's eventual return to power will be the subject of a final book in The Deptford Mice series that has yet to be written.

Quotes[]

Prince of the Despairing Dead am I! Heir to the inner void which was and will come again. Cast thy petty nets elsewhere, squirreling, for thy reign is ended!
~ Hobb to Ysabelle.
Witch! What hast thou done?
~ Hobb as he is defeated by Ysabelle.

Trivia[]

  • Hobb governs a portion of the Rat Zodiac, which is used in-universe by the followers of the Raith Sidhe. Signs in the House of Hobb include The Peeler (16 February - 11 March), The Bloodybones (12 March - 19 April), The Glutted Sack (20 April - 18 May), and The Claw (19 May - 5 June).
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