Brutha thought: the worst thing about Vorbis isn’t that he’s evil, but that he makes good people do evil. He turns people into things like himself. You can’t help it. You catch it off him.
‘You know,’ [Urn] said, turning to Simony. ‘Now I know Vorbis is evil. He burned my city. Well, the Tsorteans do it sometimes, and we burn theirs. It’s just war. It’s all part of history. And he lies and cheats and claws power for himself, and lots of people do that, too. But do you know what’s special? Do you know what it is?’
‘Of course,’ said Simony. ‘It’s what he’s doing to—’
‘It’s what he’s done to you.’
‘He turns other people into copies of himself.’
The black-on-black eyes stared imploringly at Brutha, who reached out automatically, without thinking … and then hesitated.
HE WAS A MURDERER, said Death. AND A CREATOR OF MURDERERS. A TORTURER. WITHOUT PASSION. CRUEL. CALLOUS. COMPASSIONLESS.
‘Yes. I know. He’s Vorbis,’ said Brutha. Vorbis changed people. Sometimes he changed them into dead people. But he always changed them. That was his triumph.
Terry Pratchett
Small Gods (1992)
Bonus: Urn selected a short crowbar from his belt and inserted it between the grille and the stonework. Give me a foot of good steel and a wall to brace … my … foot … against – the grille ground forward and then popped out with a leaden sound – and I can change the world …