Questions tagged [discworld]
For questions about Discworld, a series of comic fantasy books by Terry Pratchett.
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Did Ankh-Morpork have an army and city walls?
Did the city of Ankh-Morpork have city walls? And a military force? How would it defend itself from invasions?
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Is the Unseen University's librarian trying to say 'book'?
Early on in the series the librarian at the Unseen University is transformed into an orangutan (not a monkey).
From then on, they only say "Ook" with various inflections and changes in ...
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Does the sun orbit Great A'Tuin or the Discworld?
The Discworld is lit by a tiny 'sunlet' which orbits the disc at a rate of once per day, but is this miniature sun orbiting the disc itself, or around Great A'Tuin?
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Where under the Discworld are the four elephants located?
The Discworld rests on the backs of the four World Elephants; Tubul, Jerakeen, Berilia and Great T'Phon.
The Discworld series is a continuous history of a world not totally
unlike our own, except ...
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Terry Pratchett book quote where a character talks about being good to people because they hate people
I've been looking for this quote for ages.
This is a Terry Pratchett book
a character (maybe Granny Weatherwax?) talks about not liking / outright disliking people in general
and this dislike is ...
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In the Discworld books, is "Sto Helit" a pun?
As a long-time fan of the Discworld books, I think I'm up on almost all the puns and references in them. However, one has never quite fit for me. Ever since I first read Mort lo these many years ago, ...
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What does Pratchett's "poets notwithstanding" joke mean?
In Terry Pratchett's Equal Rites, he writes the following passage:
Esk, in fact, moved through the fair more like an arsonist moves through a hayfield or a neutron bounces through a reactor, poets ...
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Are there any gay characters in Terry Pratchett's Discworld?
Are there any openly or identifiably gay characters in Terry Pratchett's Discworld?
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Do we know when Small Gods is set, compared to the majority of Discworld novels?
Small Gods portrays a time of great change in the Omnian religion, when the
This later Omnianism is clearly well-established by the time of Carpe Jugulum as evidenced by the Quite Reverend Mightily ...
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Why do Igors (but not Igorinas) lisp when they speak?
In the Discworld universe, when an Igor (which is basically a parody of Adam from Frankenstein) speaks, they generally speak with a lisp (pronouncing "s" as "th").
In Monstrous ...
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Can witches see octarine?
In many of the Discworld books focusing on wizards, it is often mentioned that only wizards can see octarine, which is the color* of magic. However, I cannot recall it being mentioned in any of the ...
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Equation in "Men at Arms" by Pratchett
Could someone with an early edition of Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett, first published by Victor Gollancz Ltd in 1993, please answer with Detritus' equation?
In the scene where Detritus the troll is ...
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What kind of witch is Tiffany Aching?
In Terry Pratchet’s Discworld universe, he has five books that focus on Tiffany Aching, a trainee witch.
She has a mix of non-magical and magical powers.
Non-magical powers:
First Sight
Second, Third,...
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What accent do trolls in Discworld have?
“Dis der Riot Act and you’ve all got to read it, right?
“Boys, if dere was a PhD in bein’ fick, youse wouldn’t be able to find a pencil.”
These are a couple of quotes from Detritus, the Troll in the ...
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Did Terry Pratchett ever explain the inspiration behind the Luggage?
The Luggage is one of the iconic Discworld characters, but did Terry Pratchett ever explain where the inspiration came from for the sociopathic walking trunk with internals that seem to act like the ...
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In Men at Arms, why announce Edward was caught?
At Vimes' wedding at the climax of Men at Arms, as the shooter flees the tower, Carrot suggests that in order to catch the criminal they would need to announce that Edward was caught and visit the ...
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How does The Fools Guild make its money?
In the Discworld series, the city of Ankh-Morpork has numerous professions (including criminal professions) managed and regulated by guilds. For most of these it's pretty easy to work out their income ...
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Terry Pratchett book with a lawyer dragon and sheep
I was talking to someone today who mentioned starting a Terry Pratchett book a few years before.
They said that it was about a dragon who was a lawyer and involved sheep. They think that it is ...
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What is a "shilicashe?"
On page 138 of my edition of The Light Fantastic, Cohen the Barbarian tells Twoflower and Rincewind about trolls, and tries to say a word that I cannot at all identify (emphasis added):
"Trollsh ...
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Discworld quote about an "old couple" who having said everything to each other, can finally go about living their lives
There was a quote about an old couple (I believe it was Death and the character played by David Jason, I forget his name), who having lived together for a long time, and having said everything, are ...
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In Soul Music, where do the corn fields behind Death garden come from?
In Soul Music, Susan explores multiple times the area surrounding Death's cottage. Everything is how we are used to know it, with the predominance of black and the constant feeling that things are odd ...
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Who are these Discworld wizards from this picture?
I haven't read many of the novels about wizards yet and would like to know who they are.
[Image by Paul Kidby]
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What does the ending of Monstrous Regiment mean?
I didn't fully understand Discworld "Monstrous Regiment".
Polly is going back to war, presumably, but then what was the point of the book from Jackrum? If she was just going to blackmail people then ...
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What was the inspiration for the 'draco vulgaris'?
Is the draco vulgaris (first described in Guards! Guards! (1989) inspired by the pseudodragons found in Dungeons and Dragons?
I recently learned about them and find many similarities:
small winged ...
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What does this quote in Small Gods refer to?
In Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett, the following quote appears:
It was something he shared with tortoises. Watch any tortoise walking,
and periodically it will stop while it files away the ...
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How big is the Circumfence barrier?
In The Colour of Magic, it is shown there is a net on the edge of the Disc when
How big is this net? In The Light Fantastic on page 13 it mentions ships falling off the world, so I guess it isn’t ...
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What term is being referred to with "reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits"?
In The Colour of Magic, on page 46 of my copy, Twoflower says this word:
“Reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits?”
What term is being referred to above?
It seems to be like “in-sewer-ants-policy”,...
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Did the characters in Moving Pictures not know about cameras like Twoflower's?
In Moving Pictures, video-cameras are invented... But they're essentially the same thing as Twoflower's camera which only took one picture at a time but Twoflower probably could've asked it to paint ...
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Correlation with trilogy of movies in Discworld timeline?
I was reading the timeline of "Discworld" on L-space, and I noticed this at the bottom of the page.
Anyone note the years and their correlation with a certain trilogy of movies?
Which trilogy are ...
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What's the target audience of Discworld and how was it pitched for a publishing house?
I'm not in the publishing area, but recently I've been reading up on middle grade and YA literature and the importance of target audiences, etc and then I started wondering about the Discworld series.
...
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What specific works of fantasy were parodied in The Colour of Magic?
This question about magic in Discworld set me thinking a bit. The earliest books in the series are qualitatively different from the later volumes. The Colour of Magic is an episodic tale, parodying ...
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Pronunciation of "Teatime"
Mr. Jonathan Teatime's name is, as specified in the book Hogfather, pronounced "Teh-ah-tim-eh".
But since there's no marks of pronunciation included, its pronunciation is still under question.
The ...
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Terry Pratchett's Discworld: is there an inconsistency in the treatment of magic?
In The Colour of Magic, we learn that:
"Can't tell you. Don't really want to talk about it. But frankly," he
sighed , "no spells are much good. It takes three months to commit
even a simple one ...
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Why doesn't anyone remember the Eight Great Spells?
In Interesting Times, Arch-Chancellor Ridcully says that Rincewind is not technically a wizard because he failed at the University and has never performed any "great services to magic". Rincewind ...
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What's the pyramid joke?
In The Light Fantastic, after talking about the dimensions of the Pyramid of Tsort, it says
All in all, it was a lot of effort to go through just to sharpen a razor.
What's the joke here?
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Who is the little girl in Raising Steam who blocks the railway meant to be a reference to?
In Raising Steam, about 80% of the way in, a girl named Edith and her brothers intentionally block the railway so as to be able to save the train and be heroes.
“I dare say you do, but I don’t think ...
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Why does Moist von Lipwig pull this trick against Reacher Gilt?
At the end of Going Postal, Moist von Lipwig makes a bet that his post office can deliver a message to a town thousands of miles away before the Grand Trunk company can. Immediately before the race ...
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Is Angus from Small gods really a small god?
In Pratchett's novel Small Gods, there is this character, Angus. Because he saves St. Ungulant from the lion attack it is clear that he is not only fictional (as opposed to what we could think when ...
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Why did this happen to Maurice from Pratchett's novel?
In the Pratchett's book The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, there is a moment when
the intelligent cat Maurice
After that, Maurice wakes up and
How is that possible? I think it is not ...
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Why did Pratchett name Maurice Maurice?
In the Czech translation of Pratchett's book The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (which I read) the name of the cat is Mauric.
Also, there is a word from the translator at the beginning of ...
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Do we have any evidence that there were plans for an Ankh-Morpork Underground?
I'm going to have to add details and quotes later for this as I don't currently have access to the books, but I remember noticing some things I thought were foreshadowing for an underground system in ...
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Why does Detritus not become disabled in daylight?
It is established in novels such as The Light Fantastic and Moving Pictures that Discworld trolls turn to stone in daylight, or at least become disabled, and become active at night. This does not seem ...
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What should this conversation between Tiffany Aching and Preston mean?
At the end of the book I Shall Wear Midnight, this strange conversation takes place:
I don't understand what Tiffany means by that. Of course, I got the message that
but still why ‘Listen’? That ...
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Why is “Equal Rites” misspelled on two pages?
In the HarperTorch paperback of Equal Rites the title of the book is misspelled on the heading of two different pages as "Equal Rights” (I don’t have the book with me at the moment). This seems likely ...
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Who said "One person, one vote. I just happened to be the person voting"?
This quote is probably misquoted, but I remember this as a Blake's 7 quote from Servalan. However, I have also read elsewhere a similar quote from Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
Is there a quote like ...
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What happened to Fred Colon's sugar lumps?
In "The Fifth Elephant" Acting Captain Colon (normally known as Sergeant Fred Colon) is obsessed about missing sugar lumps. During the course of the story more and more sugar lumps go missing.
It ...
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Which Discworld book has the Chief of Police engaging in a war?
The Chief of Police becomes the head of the army. He crosses a sea to do "battle", but when he gets there they all call the war off. Which book is that?
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What does the city name Ankh-Morpork in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels mean?
I would assume that someone has asked this question before but I haven't found any discussion about the name of Ankh-Morpork. Ever since I read my first Discworld book, I kept wondering about this ...
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Is Vorbis a God?
This question relates to Vorbis in the 13th Discworld novel, Small Gods. Reading beyond this point will spoil the ending.
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Who is depicted on this image showing major Discworld characters?
Source: https://twitter.com/PaulKidby/status/857882705165524992.
I only recognize Twoflower the Tourist, Death, the Luggage and the Librarian. However, I'm only a couple of books in the series, so I'...
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