Discworld geography
Encyclopedia
This article concerns the fictional geography of Terry Pratchett
's Discworld
, featured in the novel series
of the same name. The Discworld is a flat disc on the backs of four elephants, who are in turn on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin.
. The central area of the Disc including the Cori Celesti is known as The Hub, a land of high, icebound mountains that serves as an analogue both to the Himalayas
and to Earth's polar regions (since, although the Disc has no poles as such, it is as far as possible from the Disc's edge and thus the sun). The areas closer to the Rim are warmer and tropical, since the Disc's sun passes closer to them in its orbit. At the Rim, a great, encircling waterfall (the Rimfall) sends the Disc's oceans cascading into space. The Last Hero
hints that the rocks jutting out from the Rimfall could be home to their own, as yet undiscovered cultures.
Cardinal directions within the Discworld are not given as North, South, East and West, but rather as directions relating to the disc itself: Hubward (towards the centre), Rimward (away from the centre) and to a lesser extent, turnwise (direction of the disc's rotation) and widdershins
(against the direction of the disc's rotation). The disc rotates clockwise.
comprising a large main region and a smaller Counterweight Continent, an island connected to an ice cap. The main region comprises the Unnamed Continent upon which most of the novels are set, and on the opposite side of the Circle Sea the Continent Klatch. The island continent of Fourecks is the smallest of the four, a parody of Australia, and the setting for the 22nd novel The Last Continent
.
, North Africa
). Its principal trading ports are Ankh-Morpork
, on the Sto Plains coast, and Al Khali and Ephebe on the Rimwards side. Discworld
civilization, which can broadly be defined as those countries that have invented the fork as well as the knife, is found around the Circle Sea's historic coasts. The countries around the Circle Sea are Ankh-Morpork
, Ephebe, Djelibeybi, Klatch, Omnia
and Tsort. The Circle Sea is the location of Leshp, an island that occasionally rises to the surface on a cushion of foul-smelling gas, before settling back to the seafloor once more. Leshp's last appearance sparked a near-war between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch in Jingo
.
Due to its unique position, Krull is one of the Disc's main centres of astronomical and astrological learning; indeed until recently, its high priest was also its chief astronomer. Krull possesses a magical University and, unlike the Unseen University
in Ankh-Morpork, the Krullians have no problem educating female wizards. Krullians are noted for their habitual nervousness and fatalism, the product of spending their lives overlooking a bottomless black abyss of infinity. On the Disc, the phrase "being on edge" is a reference to the Krullians.
The nation's capital is also called Krull (featured in The Colour of Magic
), and a local river is known as Hakrull river (mentioned in Mort
).
, and contains among other things the Sto Plains and Ramtops, as well as the more Eastern Europe
an lands around Überwald.
on the Discworld
. They are a land of rich black loam, upon which rests a great squat forest of cabbage
s. The cabbage has an almost mythic status among the people of the Sto Plains, and is an emblem of its largest and dominant city, Ankh-Morpork
. Most young people who leave the farming areas of the Plains for life in the big city would happily never see a cabbage again.
Although they have been an empire in the past, the Sto Plains currently exist as a loose collection of independent city-states, ruled over by a close-knit (and probably interrelated) ruling class. The Sto Plains could be thought of as being similar to Germany
prior to the unification of the states into the German Empire
, with no overall authority. According to Mort
the area was to be united in the coming decades. As reality was given a retcon
in the book, the Duke who united the Sto Plains was Mort, and he did it by diplomacy rather than conquest. In Soul Music, a footnote states various facts of the region:
, and while it does not exert any political power over its neighbors, its economic domination of the region (summed up by the phrase, "Attack us, and we'll call in your mortgages,") has meant that the smaller cities around it are essentially its satellites.
(approximately a half day's journey by horse
) and is first mentioned in the first Discworld
novel, The Colour of Magic
. That novel also refers to Psephopololis, which according to The Discworld Mapp
is the same place. The city is not to be confused with Pseudopolis Yard, the headquarters of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch
- which is a reference to Scotland Yard
. Pseudopolis possesses a school of magic, Braseneck College (a parody of Brasenose College, Oxford
), which is apparently in competition for prestige with the larger, older Unseen University
. As of Unseen Academicals
the aristocracy of the city appear to have undertaken an experiment in representative democracy, much to Lord Vetinari's amusement. (Braseneck is also similar to the British term for someone who has a certain cheeky courage (see also moxie
and chutzpah
) - brass neck e.g. "He's got a brassneck coming in here after what he has done")
Eric Thursley lives/lived at 13 Midden Lane (Faust Eric
). Charlie, a man with an extraordinary physical resemblance to Ankh-Morpork Patrician Havelock Vetinari
, ran a clothes shop there (The Truth
). Nobby Nobbs had an early career as an armourer in one of the Pseudopolis city militias. Curiously, (and this may be no more than a coincidence, although given Nobby's penchant for nicking and flogging anything not nailed down there may be a connection,) Pseudopolis always lost its wars at this period, because of an unaccountable shortage of weapons. John Keel, a city watchman, moved from Pseudopolis to Ankh-Morpork and was the mentor of the young Sam Vimes, (Night Watch.)
) and the birthplace of Leonard of Quirm.
According to the books, Quirm is a quiet and peaceful town, and for this reason is a popular holiday
destination, as well as where Morporkians go when they retire (including Lord Vetinari
's aunt, Lady Roberta Meserole). In this regard, it relates to Ankh-Morpork
as Eastbourne
relates to London
, or possibly as Spain
relates to the United Kingdom
. (Or even Greece as a description in Unseen Academicals
describes Quirm as having "strange water", which is the typical stereotype of the Greek Water Supply.)
The Quirmian language is occasionally mentioned in the books as being similar to French or Spanish, but the only substantial appearance of the town (in Soul Music
) had the inhabitants apparently speaking Morporkian (although the story is told from the perspective of Susan, who doubtless speaks fluent Quirmian). Spoken Quirmian is heard in Making Money
, where it is identical to French, and Italian is, in Maskerade
, spoken under the name of Brindisian. Quirm is famous for its floral clock
; a circle of flower
s, each of which opens its petals at a different hour. Quirm is also famous for its (blue-veined) cheese
. Quirm is a duchy
, ruled by the Rodley family. Members of this family seen in the books include Lord Rodley, an upper-class twit, in Mort
and Brenda Rodley, the swamp dragon-breeding dowager duchess in Guards! Guards!
. In Sourcery
, Quirm was destroyed by wizards during a magical war, but was presumably restored by Coin when he put everything back as it was before the war.
The Quirm College for Young Ladies is an educational institution located in Quirm. In the books, Susan Sto Helit
, Lady Sybil Ramkin and Miss Perspicacia Tick were educated there. The school's headmistress and founder is Miss Eulalie Butts (possibly a reference to Frances Buss
). It is explained that, as few of the Discworld
's higher-class schools (such as the Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild
School), see fit to admit female students (although the Assassins have since changed this policy), Miss Butts founded the College "on the astonishing principle that, since gels had nothing much to do until someone married them, they might as well occupy the time with learning things." (Soul Music
).
The school resembles a traditional English
independent girls' school, with an academic curriculum and a heavy emphasis on respectable and decent behaviour. The school's strong emphasis on decency reportedly makes it rather difficult to teach certain areas of Biology
. Students come out of that class "with the vague idea that they were supposed to marry a rabbit." (Soul Music
) Students at the school do not seem to be preparing for any particular profession. As the known universities
on the Disc are solely for wizards (who must be male - see Unseen University
), and most other higher education institutions on the Disc do not admit females, there is no clear lifelong aim for the school's alumni. Susan Sto Helit describes it as "an education in, well, education" (Hogfather
). It appears that those students who do not marry upon leaving school generally go into the teaching profession themselves, or become governess
es. Staff include Miss Butts, the Headmistress, Miss Delcross, the Biology
mistress and "Iron Lily", the gym mistress.
According to the books, Sto Lat is a sizable walled town in the Sto Plains, although eclipsed enormously both in size and influence by the neighbouring city of Ankh-Morpork
. Sto Lat is located about 20 miles from the city of Ankh-Morpork, to which it is connected by two clacks towers. It encompasses a large boulder emerging out of the Sto Plains like 'a geological pimple', left there by the retreating Ice Giants. The castle is built into this rock.
Its most recent king before the present monarch was King Olerve, who was shot with a crossbow by an assassin hired by the original Duke of Sto Helit, a thoroughly nasty man who staged a bid for the succession, thwarted only by Mort in Mort. At the end of Mort, Princess Keli became Queen.
Politically, Sto Lat is the capital of a kingdom ruled by Queen Kelirehenna, which includes Sto Helit, Sto Kerrig and the Eight Protectorates. Her authority is exercised through a Mayor. The kingdom was one of the first places outside Ankh-Morpork to adopt
its own stampings for the post.
Sto lat
is also a traditional Polish
song equivalent to Happy Birthday to You
("sto lat" literally means "hundred years").
Sto Helit is a duchy within Sto Lat, which was given to Mort in Mort, after he'd saved Queen Kelirehenna. After his death in Soul Music, his duchy apparently was passed to his daughter, Susan
. She works as a teacher now, but, apparently, as of Thief of Time
, she still is duchess of Sto Helit.
(Lancre) to the Himalayas
(the High Tops) to Appalachia
(Slice). They are the Disc's main magical conduit, as they lie like a metal rod across the centre of the Disc's magical field (indeed, the source of the field, the Cori Celesti, is technically part of the Ramtops), and are thus alive with unreality. Portals to various otherworlds dot the range's hidden crevices; "gnarly ground" compresses vast areas of land into tiny patches, and where witches, wizards, and godlike monks alike practice their arts within these secluded communities.
Due to a relative rarity of horizontal flat surfaces (vertical flat surfaces are plenty), kingdoms in the Ramtops tend to be small, isolated, and sparsely populated. Much of the economy is agrarian and communities largely consist of loosely affiliated groups of self-sufficient farms. The Ramtops are known for their harsh winters; snow drifts can rise up to fifteen feet during the worst storms. "Ramtoppers have 18 words for snow
," Pratchett says, "none of them printable."
Pratchett has mentioned that the name of the Ramtops comes from RAMTOP (i.e. top of RAM
, or random-access memory), a system variable in the ZX Spectrum
computer.
. It is the best-known of hundreds of tiny countries in the Ramtops, occupying a vertiginous shelf looking over the Sto Plains.
Lancre is based mainly on rural areas of Southern England with which Pratchett was familiar. In an article in Folklore entitled, ‘Imaginary Worlds, Real Stories,' Pratchett writes, "the kingdom of Lancre [...] I suspect is a somewhat idealised version of the little fold in the Chiltern Hills
where I grew up, stirred in with the western area of the Mendips where I spent a great deal of my adult life.". Pratchett has described the tiny country as "solid folklore
"; it is the place all the legends
of our world's countryside really happened. Ankh-Morpork serves a similar function for urban folklore, but not as blatantly. The name seems to echo Lancashire
and the associated witch trials in Pendle
in that county in the seventeenth century.
Part of the reason for this is that the Ramtops are a major earthing point for the Discworld
's magical field. Headless horsemen and walking trees are part of the landscape, as are witches
. Lancre is famous for witches, especially since the publication of The Joye of Snackes (an erotic cookbook) by "A Lancre Witch", i.e. Nanny Ogg
. Lancre also contains a gateway into the "parasite universe" of the elves
.
The other thing Lancre is famous for is young people going off and seeking their fortunes (usually in Ankh-Morpork).
Although most maps show Lancre to measure roughly 40 miles by 10 miles in size, its true area remains unknown—partly because of its mountainous terrain and the fact that it borders on the Ramtops, but also due to the warping effect of high level of background magic. Owing to this background magic, geography in certain areas of Lancre can take on additional properties that exist either outside, or in addition to, the conventional geographic dimensions.
Such areas include the Lancre Moors, where reality can become folded into deep troughs and ridges known as Gnarly ground. This can create the illusion that two points in space are adjacent, when in reality they are several miles apart, or vice versa. The effect, as mentioned in The Discworld Companion
is that Lancre contains more landscape than a kingdom of its apparent size should be able to contain. (A similar magical effect occurs in the Unseen University
Library, which has a diameter of 100 yards, but an infinite radius.)
"Gnarly Ground" can be detected by those with magical senses, or those with keen eyesight who observe how clouds and shadows appear to fracture as they pass across it. Flying over such areas is not for the faint-hearted and walking across it can be fraught with peril for the unwary.
Similarly, Lancre contains areas where the landscape echoes the state of mind of those who pass through it, leading confident travellers to find babbling brooks while, in the same place at the same time, disheartened travellers find deep valleys and raging mountain torrents.
Though it is not clear if the phenomenon is related to background magic, Lancre also serves as the physical location for (possibly two) independent gateways to a "parasite universe" inhabited by Elves
.
In times past, Elven incursions were common. Both gateways have been sealed from the Lancre side by standing stones made from thunderbolt iron, a form of meteor
ic ore which is one of the few sources of magnetism on the Disc; humans, but not Elves (except in exceptional circumstances), may pass through them.
The capital "city" of Lancre is Lancre Town, by dint of being slightly bigger than the other villages, and containing Lancre Castle.
Due to Elven incursions, Lancre Castle was built to an exaggerated scale in order to accommodate fleeing citizens.
Bad Ass is the home of Granny Weatherwax
. It got its name when a donkey, carrying the supplies of a group of settlers, stopped on a ford and refused to move, forcing them to build their town there. This is possibly a reference to the founding of Amsterdam, which according to legend was on the spot that two fishermen's seasick dog vomited upon reaching land. The valley occupied by Bad Ass overlooks a panorama of lesser mountains and foothills. From there, you can see to the edge of the world. In the long winter snows, the roads out of the village are lined with boards to reduce drifting and to stop travellers from straying. A narrow bridge over a stream leads to the village smithy, birthplace of Eskarina Smith.
, being home to Yeti and various Buddhist-style monastic orders, such as the History Monks
, which give the area the nickname "Enlightenment Country". They are also the closest thing the Disc has to a pole, and so are home to its equivalent of polar bear
s and walrus
es, mentioned in The Last Hero
.
than Lancre is.
Its name is German
for "over the woods," as a play on Transylvania
, (which is Latin
for "across the woods." In fact, this name was actually used for Transylvania in some documents from the 13th century.) The region is based less on the real Eastern Europe
, and more on the Hammer Horror stereotype of the area. In keeping with the Discworld
's affinity for narrative, Überwald's climate and conditions contrive to fulfil human expectations: for example, Überwaldian thunderclaps occur whenever someone makes a particularly forceful pronouncement. In The Truth
this phenomenon is referred to as "psycho
tropic weather
."
The spelling of the German-language word is certainly "Überwald." The usage in some of the books is uneven, but the later narratives use "Uberwald" exclusively. In Carpe Jugulum
, Pratchett writes:
The region was previously united under the rule of the Unholy Empire (a play on the Holy Roman Empire
), which had a two-headed bat as its symbol (a play on the double headed eagle). The Empire has long since collapsed leaving the area fragmented, chaotic, and under the rule of lore, not law (the two words pun when spoken with certain British accents).
Although Überwald has a large human population, they play a secondary role in the region's history. It is ruled by dwarfs
, vampires, and werewolves. Sergeant (later Captain) Angua of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is from an old aristocratic family of Uberwald werewolves. While there are indeed a number of human barons
, they all tend to be uninterested in politics, preferring instead to dabble in experiment
al surgery
and "Meddling In Things Man Was Not Meant To Wot Of
," each with the help of their personal Igors
.
From the 'Diet of Bugs' (a play on the Diet of Worms
) onwards garlic and silver were considered contraband
across Überwald until the events of The Fifth Elephant
; the undead simply promised they would not be needed. Apparently this system left something to be desired.
Überwald's economy is apparently based on mining. Though precious metals are plentiful, the most crucial mineral resource is fat
, which is believed to have been deposited by a fifth great Discworld-bearing elephant, which was dislodged from the back of Great A'Tuin and crashed into the ground around Überwald. Boiling fat rising to the surface is the reason for the country's many hot springs
.
Überwald effectively comprises two utterly distinct societies; the dwarfs, (who exist below in their cavernous cities and tunnels,) and everybody else, who live above on the surface. By tradition, the laws of the surface people do not apply underground, and vice-versa. Überwaldian dwarfs are far more hidebound and traditional than their cousins near the Sto Plains, which has led to a certain culture clash between the two. Überwald is the centre of Dwarfish history and politics; the Low King, the final arbiter of Dwarfish law, has his seat of power in the underground Überwald city of Schmaltzberg, (a double or even triple play on the Austrian town of Salzburg
: Schmaltz
means lard or fat in German, but can also mean 'excessive sentimentality').
Koom Valley is a location somewhere in Uberwald. Hundreds of years ago, the trolls and the dwarfs
met in a battle at Koom Valley in which each side apparently ambushed the other. Nowadays, dwarfs celebrate the Battle of Koom Valley Day, on the same day that trolls celebrate Troll New Year. Sometimes, in a city where both dwarfs and trolls live (e.g. Ankh-Morpork
), the two groups are careful enough to plan their celebratory marches so that they are on the same street. Some people (e.g. Susan Sto Helit
), after carefully studying history books, point out that the Battle of Koom Valley seemed to have been repeated several times. The name comes from the Welsh word cwm, which means "valley".
's unnamed main continent. The capital city is PrinceMarmadukePiotreAlbertHansJosephBernhardtWilhelmsberg. The recent history of Borogravia consists mainly of fighting wars with every other country in the area (most notably Zlobenia), for various ill-defined reasons. The current war with Zlobenia has gone on for so long that nobody can remember what it was about. Borogravia is a Duchy
, and as such is ruled by a Duke or Duchess. The ruler at the time of Monstrous Regiment
was Duchess Annagovia, who has achieved virtual godhood among the people. The Borogravians' principal god is (or rather was) Nuggan. Prayers to the Duchess generally ask for intercession with Nuggan. At some point (see Thief of Time
) Borogravia was noted for its chocolate
. However, since Nuggan disliked chocolate, this may no longer be the case. In Night Watch, it is mentioned in passing that Borogravia has invaded Mouldavia.
, is a principality
ruled by Prince Heinrich, who is described as tall, handsome, and smug. It has fought numerous wars with Borogravia, usually territorial dispute
s over the River Kneck, which forms the border
between the two nations and frequently changes its course after flood
ing. Zlobenia's soldiers wear blue uniforms. Borogravians call Zlobenians 'swede
eaters'. Heinrich has visions of making Zlobenia "the Ankh-Morpork
of the mountains", much to the amusement of Samuel Vimes
. Heinrich is also heir to the Borogravian throne after the death of the Duchess Annagovia. In Monstrous Regiment
he declares war against Borogravia to assert his claim.
downland
near Lancre, bearing a great resemblance to Pratchett's native Wiltshire
. The "soft" geology of the area is, according to some mountain witches, not conducive to the channelling of magic. In fact this is a misconception (the bones of the hills are flint
), and powerful witches can and do reside there, although the local baron has outlawed witchcraft, meaning they do not identify themselves as such. This law has since been repealed or at least ignored by the new baron since Tiffany Aching began openly practicing magic there. Home of Tiffany Aching
.
s, its bard
s, and its rain. Rain is the chief export of Llamedos; it has rain mines. Holly is the one plant that can grow in Llamedos's climate; everything else just rots. Llamedos is run by druids, who dot the land with stone circles used for computation. This is a lifetime job, since they frequently need upgrading. Llamedos is a fairly obvious parody of the British constituent country Wales
. Its annual bardic competition, the Eisteddfod, is still held in Wales. The name is a reference to Dylan Thomas
's radio play "Under Milk Wood
", for which he created the fictitious Welsh town of Llareggub ("bugger all" spelled backwards). Llamedos, accordingly, is "Sod 'em all", spelled backwards. The inhabitants tend to speak with a doubled-L accent, i.e. "Llots of lluck!" Homeland of Imp Y Celyn.
where Death
goes to work under the name Bill Door.
. It is in an area called the Swamplands, some distance from the Sto Plains/Ramtops locations of most of the books.
The name Genua is probably based on Genoa
, a city in Italy
. However, Genua bears a striking resemblance to the French
and Caribbean
-influenced American South, especially New Orleans. Local transport is by paddle steamer
with onboard gambling. The local witch, Erzulie Gogol, is a Voodoo mambo
complete with personal zombie
(in her case, that of the former ruler of the principality, Baron Saturday, who himself shares a name with a famous Voodoo god) and the local food is basically Cajun cuisine
, including gumbo
.
During the events of Witches Abroad the city was ruled by an evil fairy godmother
, Lily Weatherwax, (sister of Lancre witch Esme Weatherwax) though she went by the name Lilith de Tempscire. She was obsessed with fairy tales and thought she could force everyone to be happy if only she could get them to follow the logic of the "happy ending." Under her rule, innkeepers who were not fat and jolly or inclined to tell jokes were sent to the dungeon, and Genua's ruler, the Baron Saturday, was murdered so that his heir apparent, Ella, could be a neglected orphan, as the tales dictated. Soon, the city began to resemble a skewed version of Disneyland
. The name "Genua" therefore could also be an ironic echo of "genuine", which is exactly what Genua, at this time, was not. Eventually, thanks to the efforts of the Lancre Coven, Lily was deposed and sent to a dimension of endless mirrors, and Ella was able to assume her role as Baroness of Genua without, as Lily had intended, marrying a frog.
Genua was most likely established as a far flung colony
of the Morporkian Empire, thus explaining why it shares more similarities with Ankh-Morpork
/Sto Plains than its immediate neighbours Überwald and Muntab. The state first gained power under General Tacticus, who, having being sent there by the Morporkian Empire to stay out of the way, proceeded to declare war on Ankh-Morpork.
According to the novel Going Postal
, Genua is located approximately 2000 miles from Ankh-Morpork
by road, a journey of two months by stagecoach
. A faster method is to travel by flying broomstick, whereby the city can be reached in a single day, but unfortunately you will most likely blow your own ears off or possibly just freeze to death on the way.
stands upon is arbitrary and cultural rather than geographically evident. The continent includes the Circle Sea states of Ephebe, Tsort, Djelibeybi, Omnia, and the more rimwards territories of Howondaland, Tezumen Empire, Betrek, Smale, Klatchistan, and Muntab. It can be thought of as roughly equivalent to Africa in our world.
In the words of Terry Pratchett: "Not loosely based on Africa at all. Honestly."
ic states, and has a political system similar to the Ottoman Empire
. Its capital is Al Khali (popularly known as 'the Gateway to the mysterious continent of Klatch'), and it includes outlying regions such as Hersheba and Syrrit. Klatch is a commercial rival of Ankh-Morpork
— the book Jingo
depicts a brief war between the two mainly on economic land ownership grounds. It is also a common metaphorical boundary for anything considered genuinely "foreign", despite other areas of similar distance not being considered as such. There is some cultural mistrust between the Sto Plains and Klatch, as evidenced by the phrase "Pardon my Klatchian"
upon speaking a rude word.
Despite the tendency of Morporkians to see Klatchians as savages, Jingo
makes clear that Klatchians are technologically and scientifically far in advance of the Sto Plains. It is said that the Klatchians had 15 words for assassination before the rest of the world had caught on to the idea of hitting each other with rocks. This situation parallels that which existed between Europe and the Arab world throughout the Middle Ages
. The ruler of Klatch is called the Seriph (perhaps a play on caliph
and serif
). In Sourcery
, the Seriph was Creosote
, a rather vain and foolish man who was obsessed with poetry. A genie reportedly granted a great fortune to his grandfather, which was more or less squandered by modern times. It is unknown whether Creosote is still Seriph; the Prince Cadram and Prince Khufurah appeared in Jingo, but it is unknown whether they are relatives of Creosote. The "Klatchian Foreign Legion" parodies French military activities in North Africa
. The name is probably a play on "coffee klatsch"; a recognition of its most famous export, Klatchian coffee. The principal deity of Klatch is Offler, a crocodile-headed god.
Al Khali has been described by Rincewind
as "like Ankh
, only with sand instead of mud". It is bisected by the Tsort River. The city is noted for its wind, which blows from the vast deserts of Klatch, and has been described as "a gentle but persistent breeze". Notable features of the city include:
, brewed in Klatch and drunk only by the initiated in very small cups. Presumably an exaggerated version of Turkish coffee
, Klatchian coffee has a strong sobering effect, bringing the drinker "to the other side of sobriety". This state of sobriety is referred to as knurd ("drunk" spelled backwards; compare the entry in the Jargon File
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/K/knurd.html). Knurdness is described as the opposite of being drunk: not sober, which is merely the absence of drunkenness, but just as far away from sobriety in the opposite direction, resulting in a terrible, existential clarity. According to Sourcery
, being knurd strips away all the comforting illusions in which people usually spend their lives, letting them see and think clearly for the first time. This is a very traumatic experience, although it is noted that it sometimes leads to important discoveries. To counteract the effects of Klatchian coffee, in Klatch it is drunk with Orakh (a very violent alcoholic beverage made by mixing scorpion venom and cactus
sap and fermenting it in the sun for several weeks), possibly referring to Italian "expresso" coffee which is often drunk with "grappa", a very strong, often homemade, alcohol (although the name "Orakh" is presumably a reference to arak
). After a few screams, a lie down and a stiff drink, the occasional drinker will try never to be "knurd" again.
Although knurdness is a state usually only obtainable by drinking Klatchian coffee, Samuel Vimes
, one of the Discworld
's most notable characters, is described in Guards! Guards!
as being naturally two drinks short of actual sobriety. This makes him slightly knurd by default, which partially accounts for his depressive nature and tendency towards alcoholism
—he started out looking for a cure to knurdness. Once he starts drinking, however, he cannot stop and always gets the dosage wrong.
and Pyramids
the location of certain nations on the Klatchian coast can be determined; Djelibeybi separates Tsort and Ephebe, and Ephebe borders (an undetermined border in uninhabitable desert) Omnia.
, however also takes influences from Alexandria
and Minos
; the name is an Anglicization of the Greek concept of ephebos
. Ephebe lies on the hubwards shores of the Circle Sea on the Klatchian continent, widdershins of the Klatchian Empire, Tsort and Djelibeybi and turnwise of Omnia.
Ephebe has only been visited twice in the novels, in Pyramids
and Small Gods
. However, we know from Eric that in its early history, it fought a series of damaging wars against Tsort, with which it remains in a cold-war situation to this day. The disappearance of the Djel River valley in Pyramids briefly sparked a resumption of hostilities, which mostly involved highly reluctant soldiers hiding in wooden horses, waiting for the other side to take them into the city. This was quickly ended by the Djel's abrupt reappearance. In Small Gods, it was briefly invaded by Omnia; however, this occupation quickly collapsed and Ephebe launched a decisive counter-strike.
The country was heavily affected by the first temporal shattering mentioned in Thief of Time
, as a result of which the philosophers living there appear extraordinarily long-lived. Ephebe has a population of about 50,000, according to The Discworld Companion
. Much of this population is made up of slaves, who have steadfastly refused any efforts to give them more rights; they are quite happy with their guaranteed income and safety as slaves (and the possibility of owning slaves of their own).
As a democracy, Ephebe is unusual on the Discworld. Those citizens who are not disqualified by being foreigners, mad, poor or female, elect a Tyrant to run the city, who invariably turns out to be a criminal madman. They then elect another Tyrant, who is much the same. At the time of Small Gods (the role of which in the Discworld chronology is somewhat obscure), Ephebe was ruled by a small, fat man with skinny legs, who resembled an egg hatching upside-down. It is unknown whether he is still ruler.
According to The Discworld Companion, it does not have an economy. The people are perfectly happy living off the fish and olives farmed by the slaves, or the way Teppic described it in Pyramids, they made wine of everything they could stuff in a bucket and ate whatever couldn't crawl out of one, which gives time for Ephebe's major export: philosophy. For what it's worth (about one Ankh-Morpork
penny), the currency of Ephebe is the talent. Ephebe is a city of philosophers; some hardware merchants have taken to stocking towels, in case of clothing-challenged brilliant thinkers. The philosophers are noted for pondering the existence of gods, but carefully in case the gods get mad. Brawls between varying philosophical factions frequently erupt across Ephebe's many taverns, but Ephebe is on the whole a peaceful city, which ambles by from day to day (The New Discworld Companion). One of the philosophers Teppic met in Ephebe was instrumental in the building of a lighthouse
. Sadly, the proposed location for the lighthouse was deemed to be disruptive to the view of the harbour and so it was placed some distance inland. Sailors who find themselves stranded on the rocks of the harbour have considered the lighthouse a quite beautiful thing to look at whilst waiting to be rescued.
. Also called the Kingdom of the Sun and the Old Kingdom. Principal crops: melons, garlic and, since they are increasingly encroaching on the fertile agricultural land, pyramids. The name "Djelibeybi" is a pun lost on most people outside the UK
, South Africa
and Australia
, playing on "Jelly baby
", a popular gummi sweet in those countries. The joke is compounded when Pratchett says that "Djelibeybi" means "Child of the Djel" (its main river; the line is a parody of Herodotus
's famous claim that Egypt
was the "gift of the Nile
"). Djelibeybi is two miles (3 km) wide and 150 miles (241.4 km) long and is on the Circle Sea coast of Klatch. The ancient country of Ur lies to the Rimward of it. The kingdom is almost entirely underwater during the flood season, and both threatened and protected on either side by stronger neighbours (Tsort and Ephebe). It was once great, but all that now remains is an expensive palace, a few ruins and pyramids. The entire economic life of the country is, until after the events of Pyramids, devoted to building them. As a result, Djelibeybi is permanently bankrupt. The country has an enormous number of local gods, unknown to the world outside. Its ruler, the Pharaoh
, is also a god, although in human form. He wears a gold mask (the Face of the Sun) and during his official functions carries the Flail of Mercy, the obsidian Reaping Hook of Justice, the Honeycomb of Increase, the Asp of Wisdom, the Sheaf of Plenty, the Gourd of the Water of the Heavens, the Three-Pronged Spear of the Waters of the Earth, the Cabbage of the Vegetative Increase and the Scapula of Hygiene. Under the current ruler, Queen Ptraci I, it is quite likely that the mask has been sold and the money spent on plumbing.
. Its enmity with Ephebe began with the famous Tsortean War
, when King Mausoleum of Tsort kidnapped Queen Eleneor of Ephebe, leading to a siege that lasted for decades. To this day Tsort and Ephebe believe there is a place for giant wooden horses in combat. Tsort possesses a Great Pyramid, although pyramid-building has long been out of fashion and - no doubt because of the example of nearby Djelibeybi - modern Tsorteans scorn the things. Tradition claims Tsort was razed by the armies of Ephebe under Lavaeolus, and that it was home to the famed Tsortean Knot
until the Knot was undone — sliced in half — by Carelinus. The people of Tsort worship all manner of gods
, some of which seem to comprise all the bits the other gods had left over. The river Tsort bisects the desert rimwards of Al Khali.
ruled by the Cenobiarch, the head of the Omnian Church, from the Citadel in the capital city of Kom (a sort of cross between Jerusalem and the Vatican
, though its name is probably derived from either Qom
, or Om
a Bhuddist chant. There is also a connection to the Latin word 'Omnis
', meaning all or everything, ironic due to the nations unipolar outlook). When Omnianism was an intolerant religion it was known for its imperialism
, as it conquered neighbouring countries in the name of the Great God Om. After Brutha became the Cenobiarch, the country reversed directions, and became the home of a renowned theological college and library. These days it is known for the constant arguing amongst the clergy, as new interpretations of Brutha's teachings spring up every day. The currency of Omnia is the obol
.
, although the Tezumen Empire gives it Mesoamerica
n overtones as well. Howondaland is not so much a country as a blank patch on the map. Just as "darkest Africa" remained largely unexplored until the 19th century, "darkest Klatch" is largely unknown to most Discworlders. Exploration of the land has been hampered by the habit of explorers ending up nailed to trees. Its name is probably a play on Gondwanaland or perhaps a play on the expression "How on earth ...?" transformed into "How on the land... ?" There is also an echo of Lewis Carroll's "Wonderland" in the name. In some of the early Discworld novels (American publications) it is spelled "Howonderland."
The Great Nef is a vast desert on the Klatchian continent, noted mainly for containing the Dehydrated Ocean, an ocean consisting of dehydrated water. Dehydrated water is a peculiar substance found only in areas of high magical concentration. It resembles fine sand, but can be reconstituted into normal water by adding water. The Dehydrated Ocean is home to its own, unique, kinds of fish. The name "Nef" is a reversal of fen
, a type of wetland; "Great Nef" in particular may be a reference to the Great Fen, an historical wetland area in England in the area now known as The Fens and the subject of a restoration effort known as the Great Fen Project.
Only briefly mentioned in the books, Hersheba is a small desert kingdom rimwards of Klatchian empire, practically on the more-or-less vague boundary of Howondaland. The country is said to be ruled by a queen who lives forever (probably a reference to H. Rider Haggard
's She
). The nomadic tribes known as the D'regs occupy areas of Hersheba as well as Klatch. Depredations against Klatch by Hersheban D'regs, Hersheba by Klatchian D'regs and both sides by their own D'regs has led to the border being in a permanent state of war. The name is a play on Hershey bar
and also resembles Israeli Beersheba
; Pratchett initially suggested it as an alternative name for Djelibeybi, to aid American readers mystified by the pun.
Very little is known about the Theocracy
of Muntab. Its ruler is known as a Pash (Lu-Tze, the History Monk
, once had to make sure one of them choked on a fishbone). It is often used as a generic third-world country, as in "Eat your dinner, there are starving children in Muntab who'd be glad to have that!" It is more or less on the border between the continent of Klatch and the Unnamed Continent, and is located more or less rimwards of Borogravia. Muntab is known to be eager to emerge as a dominant nation in the modern world, and is suspected to have ambitions to conquer the hubward nations, most notably Borogravia. As a result, it figures into the famous political problem, the Muntab Question - most often quoted as "Where's Muntab?", but in serious political discussion is more likely to concern which side the more developed nations would fall in a war between Muntab and Borogravia. Muntab is very likely one of the nations in the Alliance that Borogravia is fighting in the novel Monstrous Regiment. Muntab's calendar counts down. No-one really knows why, but it's probably NOT a good idea to stay there to see for oneself what happens when the count reaches zero.
Nothing is known of Istanzia, although it is a state big enough to send an Ambassador to Ankh-Morpork for Commander Vimes to frighten: when in The Fifth Elephant
the Istanzian forces were reported to be making repeated armed incursions across the Slipnir river, Vimes's offer to arrange for the Istanzian Ambassador to "...go home in an ambulance" resulted in the Istanzian forces pulling back so far that they were "...nearly in the next country."
The Tezumen Empire is a jungle civilisation in the darkest depths of Howondaland that resembles the Aztecs. They are renowned as the most pessimistic and angst-ridden culture on the Disc; their writing is engraved on giant slabs of stone rather than more conveniently written on paper, the better to beat yourself to death against when finished. Large discs of precisely-carved stone with holes in the middle are used for almost every imaginable purpose except making wheels, a technology which they have not yet discovered. Before the events in Eric
, they worshiped the "feathered boa" Quezovercoatl, a parody of the Mesoamerica
n deity Quetzalcoatl
, but have since tired of gods and killed all their priests.
at the Hub. Its closest point to the Unnamed Continent is about 15 miles away but, as the channel is under an ice cap, it is often referred to as an isthmus
. The cultures of the Counterweight Continent are a play upon those of our world's Far East
, or at least Western perceptions of it. In a pun on the Orient
, it is also known as the Aurient, from the Latatian (Latin) word 'aurum' (gold
), meaning 'the place where gold comes from'.
, but was not explored: its main role was as the place from which Twoflower had come. It appeared in a brief segment of Mort
, and was the setting for most of Interesting Times
.
The Agatean Empire is similar to feudal Japan
or Imperial China, most obviously in the vast wall that surrounds it, and the belief that anyone from outside the Empire must be an invisible vampire ghost (probably a play on gwailo, lit. ghost man). The name is a pun on the term "Jade Empire," referring to ancient China
.
The crust of the Agatean Empire is composed largely of gold, octiron and other heavy metals. In Ankh-Morpork and its environs, the Empire is known as the Aurient - 'the place where the gold comes from' (a pun on Orient
and aurum, the Latin for gold
). Exchange rates between the Ankh-Morpork dollar and the Empire's currency, the rhinu, has never been established because the solid gold coins are worth significantly less on the Counterweight Continent than on the Sto Plains.
The Empire was founded by the Emperor One Sun Mirror thousands of years ago and until fairly recently it was ruled by a number of constantly fighting and somewhat psychotic noble families (the Hongs, the Sungs, the Fangs, the Tangs and the McSweeneys), all jockeying to be emperor. They viewed politics as similar to chess
; the goal was to put one's opponent in an untenable position, and the best way to do that was to take as many opposing pieces as possible. And it did not matter if you sacrificed your own pawns.
As in our own feudal Japan, the Emperor was seen as a god, and could do anything he liked. Given how nastily inventive a noble had to be to get to this point, this was not a good thing.
(In The Colour of Magic
and Mort
the Emperor was an idealistic young boy. However, by Interesting Times
he had been supplanted by an elderly man who was quite insane.)
During Interesting Times
, Cohen the Barbarian was declared Emperor, and started changing the system into one a no-nonsense barbarian could feel comfortable with. It was felt by many of the peasantry that he was the "preincarnation" of One Sun Mirror (because Agateans believe in a form of backward reincarnation
in which the soul's next life takes place chronologically earlier than its previous life). Since the events of The Last Hero
, it can be presumed Cohen is no longer Emperor. Details of his replacement are unknown, although it is implied that most of the duties of governance had already been assumed by his Grand Vizier Twoflower by the time of his intended-to-be death.
n culture, as seen in The Last Continent
. Like Australia, Fourecks is both a country and a continent. It consists largely of desert
land, which for some time remained unfinished. It was created some time after the rest of the Discworld
by the old man who carries the universe in a sack. Lu-Tze and other sources state that on Fourecks time and space are very twisted up, and there is a big time source right in the middle (probably the Red Rock, the Ecksian version of Uluru
). The continent's name is a play on Castlemaine
XXXX
, a Queensland
lager
that is semi-popular in Britain, and advertised there with adverts playing on Australian stereotypes. According to the books, they put XXXX on the maps because no-one knew what the place was called.
Both the flora and fauna of the continent is extremely dangerous, as Death's Library
attests. A book series known as "Dangerous Mammal
s, Reptile
s, Amphibian
s, Bird
s, Fish
, Jellyfish
, Insect
s, Spider
s, Crustacean
s, Grass
es, Tree
s, Moss
es and Lichen
s of Terror Incognita" extends at least into "Volume 29c Part Three", while a list of the harmless ones contains only "Some of the sheep." There are few poisonous snakes in XXXX, the explanation for this being that "most of them have been eaten by the spiders".
Due to interference by the wizards of Unseen University
while fleeing the bug-obsessed god of evolution during the creation of Fourecks, the entire continent was surrounded, for much of its history, with a huge anticyclone
which effectively prevented rainclouds from arriving or ships from leaving. Shortly before the permanent drought reached catastrophic proportions this was dissipated by Rincewind, although, as usual, he received no credit. Many Ecksians have since taken the opportunity to explore the Disc. According to Lu Tze, the relief barman everywhere now comes from Fourecks.
The indigenous population are very similar to Indigenous Australians
, with a strong mythology. Until recently, their main peculiarity was a tendency to attack anyone who talked about the weather (see below). There is also a population of Ankh-Morpork
ian settlers, from various shipwrecks. The capital of Fourecks is evidently Bugarup. The Archchancellor of the local magic college is named Bill Rincewind, possibly a relation of Unseen University's Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography
and trained coward. Other known settlements are Dijabringabeeralong, Cangoolie (a parody of Kalgoorlie) and Worralorrasurfa. Time and space appear more consistent in these areas.
An odd quirk of the Fourecksian government is that they immediately put their politicians in jail as soon as they are elected. According to the locals, "It saves time"
Just off the coast of Fourecks are the islands known as the Land of Fog or the Foggy Islands, home of the morporks (a reference to the English translation of New Zealand
's Māori
name "Aotearoa", the Land of the Long White Cloud) and Purdeigh's Island (or Purdeighsland), discovered by the explorer Sir Roderick Purdeigh, who somehow missed the continent itself.
). It also has a prison, in which the Prime Minister
resides. Another important feature of the city is the Old Brewery, where Roo Beer lager
is made. It has a huge billboard featuring a grinning kangaroo. The New Brewery is abandoned, because it was built on an "unsacred site" which made the beer flat.
There is also a university
for wizards, motto: Nullus Anxietas (no worries). The university is similar in some ways to Unseen University
in Ankh-Morpork
, although rather than an 800 feet (243.8 m) Tower of Art they have one that is thirty feet tall at the bottom, but a half-mile tall at the top.
Bugarup has a regular festival very similar to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
(female impersonators play a notable part). It is called the Galah, possibly after a local bird
(and also a play on "gala").
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
's Discworld
Discworld (world)
The Discworld is the fictional setting for all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels. It consists of a large disc resting on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle, named Great A'Tuin as it slowly swims...
, featured in the novel series
Discworld
Discworld is a comic fantasy book series by English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody, or at least take inspiration from, J. R. R....
of the same name. The Discworld is a flat disc on the backs of four elephants, who are in turn on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin.
Geography
The Disc itself is roughly 10,000 miles (16,000 km) wide, giving it a surface area two fifths that of the Earth. Its principal geographic feature - other than its flatness - is the Cori Celesti: a 10-mile-high (16 km) spire of rock that lies at the centre of the Disc and is the location of Dunmanifestin, the home of the Discworld's many godsDiscworld gods
The Discworld gods are the fictional deities from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. The Discworld, being a flat disc supported on the backs of four elephants on top of a giant flying turtle, exists in a region of the universe where reality is somewhat less consistent than it...
. The central area of the Disc including the Cori Celesti is known as The Hub, a land of high, icebound mountains that serves as an analogue both to the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
and to Earth's polar regions (since, although the Disc has no poles as such, it is as far as possible from the Disc's edge and thus the sun). The areas closer to the Rim are warmer and tropical, since the Disc's sun passes closer to them in its orbit. At the Rim, a great, encircling waterfall (the Rimfall) sends the Disc's oceans cascading into space. The Last Hero
The Last Hero
The Last Hero is a short novel, the twenty-seventh of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. It was published in 2001 in a larger format than the other Discworld novels and illustrated on every page by Paul Kidby.-Plot summary:...
hints that the rocks jutting out from the Rimfall could be home to their own, as yet undiscovered cultures.
Cardinal directions within the Discworld are not given as North, South, East and West, but rather as directions relating to the disc itself: Hubward (towards the centre), Rimward (away from the centre) and to a lesser extent, turnwise (direction of the disc's rotation) and widdershins
Widdershins
Widdershins means to take a course opposite the apparent motion of the sun, to go counterclockwise or lefthandwise, or to circle an object by always keeping it on the left...
(against the direction of the disc's rotation). The disc rotates clockwise.
Continents
There are four main continents on the Disc, along with a number of geographical and political regions and islands. The majority of the Disc's landmass is composed of a single supercontinentSupercontinent
In geology, a supercontinent is a landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton. The assembly of cratons and accreted terranes that form Eurasia qualifies as a supercontinent today.-History:...
comprising a large main region and a smaller Counterweight Continent, an island connected to an ice cap. The main region comprises the Unnamed Continent upon which most of the novels are set, and on the opposite side of the Circle Sea the Continent Klatch. The island continent of Fourecks is the smallest of the four, a parody of Australia, and the setting for the 22nd novel The Last Continent
The Last Continent
The Last Continent is the twenty-second Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. First published in 1998, it mocks the aspects of time traveling such as the grandfather paradox and the Ray Bradbury short story "A Sound of Thunder"...
.
Circle Sea
The Circle Sea is an almost landlocked body of water approximately halfway between the Hub and the Rim, opening at the Widdershins side into the Rim Ocean. The Circle Sea is analogous to the Mediterranean, in that it is bordered both by countries on the Sto Plains (Europe) and continent of Klatch (Middle EastMiddle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
). Its principal trading ports are Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
, on the Sto Plains coast, and Al Khali and Ephebe on the Rimwards side. Discworld
Discworld
Discworld is a comic fantasy book series by English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody, or at least take inspiration from, J. R. R....
civilization, which can broadly be defined as those countries that have invented the fork as well as the knife, is found around the Circle Sea's historic coasts. The countries around the Circle Sea are Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
, Ephebe, Djelibeybi, Klatch, Omnia
Omnia
Omnia may refer to:* Omnia , PaganFolk band from the Netherlands* Omnia Township, Cowley County, Kansas* Omnia, a fictional nation in the Discworld universe* Omnia, a fictional realm in the Sudeki universe...
and Tsort. The Circle Sea is the location of Leshp, an island that occasionally rises to the surface on a cushion of foul-smelling gas, before settling back to the seafloor once more. Leshp's last appearance sparked a near-war between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch in Jingo
Jingo (novel)
Jingo is the 21st novel by Terry Pratchett, one of his Discworld series. It was published in 1997. The rising of a previously submerged island and the subconstituent sovereignty dispute were inspired by the real-life island of Ferdinandea.-Plot:...
.
Rim
The most notable nation to lie on the Rim (it actually juts slightly over it) is Krull, an island kingdom whose economy is largely based on the capture and salvage of nautical wreckage as it heads towards the Rimfall. To aid in this, the Krullians constructed the Disc's largest manmade object; the Circumfence, a great net that extends across a third of the Disc's perimeter. Now in disrepair, it is still maintained by the occasional guardian, such as Tethis the sea troll.Due to its unique position, Krull is one of the Disc's main centres of astronomical and astrological learning; indeed until recently, its high priest was also its chief astronomer. Krull possesses a magical University and, unlike the Unseen University
Unseen University
The Unseen University is a school of wizardry in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. Located in the city of Ankh-Morpork, the UU is staffed by a faculty composed of mostly indolent and inept old wizards. The university's name is a pun on the Invisible College...
in Ankh-Morpork, the Krullians have no problem educating female wizards. Krullians are noted for their habitual nervousness and fatalism, the product of spending their lives overlooking a bottomless black abyss of infinity. On the Disc, the phrase "being on edge" is a reference to the Krullians.
The nation's capital is also called Krull (featured in The Colour of Magic
The Colour of Magic
The Colour of Magic is a 1983 comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, and is the first book of the Discworld series. Pratchett has described it as "an attempt to do for the classical fantasy universe what Blazing Saddles did for Westerns."...
), and a local river is known as Hakrull river (mentioned in Mort
Mort
Mort is a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. Published in 1987, it is the fourth Discworld novel and the first to focus on the Death of the Discworld, who only appeared as a side character in the previous novels...
).
Unnamed Continent
The unnamed continent is the one on which most of the books are set. It is essentially the equivalent of EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and contains among other things the Sto Plains and Ramtops, as well as the more Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an lands around Überwald.
Sto Plains
The Sto Plains are the rough analogue to Western EuropeWestern Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
on the Discworld
Discworld (world)
The Discworld is the fictional setting for all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels. It consists of a large disc resting on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle, named Great A'Tuin as it slowly swims...
. They are a land of rich black loam, upon which rests a great squat forest of cabbage
Cabbage
Cabbage is a popular cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea Linne of the Family Brassicaceae and is a leafy green vegetable...
s. The cabbage has an almost mythic status among the people of the Sto Plains, and is an emblem of its largest and dominant city, Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
. Most young people who leave the farming areas of the Plains for life in the big city would happily never see a cabbage again.
Although they have been an empire in the past, the Sto Plains currently exist as a loose collection of independent city-states, ruled over by a close-knit (and probably interrelated) ruling class. The Sto Plains could be thought of as being similar to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
prior to the unification of the states into the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
, with no overall authority. According to Mort
Mort
Mort is a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. Published in 1987, it is the fourth Discworld novel and the first to focus on the Death of the Discworld, who only appeared as a side character in the previous novels...
the area was to be united in the coming decades. As reality was given a retcon
Retcon
Retroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
in the book, the Duke who united the Sto Plains was Mort, and he did it by diplomacy rather than conquest. In Soul Music, a footnote states various facts of the region:
- Principal export: Cabbages
- Flora: Cabbages
- Fauna: Things that eat cabbages and do not mind not having any friends
Ankh-Morpork
The principal city of the Sto Plains is Ankh-MorporkAnkh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
, and while it does not exert any political power over its neighbors, its economic domination of the region (summed up by the phrase, "Attack us, and we'll call in your mortgages,") has meant that the smaller cities around it are essentially its satellites.
Pseudopolis
Pseudopolis, (its name translates to "fictitious city,") is the nearest major city to Ankh-MorporkAnkh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
(approximately a half day's journey by horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
) and is first mentioned in the first Discworld
Discworld
Discworld is a comic fantasy book series by English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which, in turn, stand on the back of a giant turtle, Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody, or at least take inspiration from, J. R. R....
novel, The Colour of Magic
The Colour of Magic
The Colour of Magic is a 1983 comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, and is the first book of the Discworld series. Pratchett has described it as "an attempt to do for the classical fantasy universe what Blazing Saddles did for Westerns."...
. That novel also refers to Psephopololis, which according to The Discworld Mapp
The Discworld Mapp
The Discworld Mapp is an atlas that contains a large, fold out map of the Discworld fictional world, drawn by Stephen Player to the directions of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs...
is the same place. The city is not to be confused with Pseudopolis Yard, the headquarters of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch
Ankh-Morpork City Watch
The Ankh-Morpork City Watch is a fictional police force within the Discworld series of books by Terry Pratchett. It is based in the city-state of Ankh-Morpork on the Discworld. The Watch was originally two units, the Day Watch and the Night Watch which were combined after the events of Men at Arms...
- which is a reference to Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
. Pseudopolis possesses a school of magic, Braseneck College (a parody of Brasenose College, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
), which is apparently in competition for prestige with the larger, older Unseen University
Unseen University
The Unseen University is a school of wizardry in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. Located in the city of Ankh-Morpork, the UU is staffed by a faculty composed of mostly indolent and inept old wizards. The university's name is a pun on the Invisible College...
. As of Unseen Academicals
Unseen Academicals
Unseen Academicals is the 37th novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. The novel satirises football , and features Mustrum Ridcully setting up an Unseen University football team, with the Librarian in goal. It includes new details about "below stairs" life at the university...
the aristocracy of the city appear to have undertaken an experiment in representative democracy, much to Lord Vetinari's amusement. (Braseneck is also similar to the British term for someone who has a certain cheeky courage (see also moxie
Moxie
Moxie is a carbonated beverage that was one of the first mass-produced soft drinks in the United States. It continues to be regionally popular today....
and chutzpah
Chutzpah
Chutzpah is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad, but it is generally used negatively. The Yiddish word derives from the Hebrew word , meaning "insolence", "audacity". The modern English usage of the word has taken on a broader meaning, having been popularized through vernacular use in...
) - brass neck e.g. "He's got a brassneck coming in here after what he has done")
Eric Thursley lives/lived at 13 Midden Lane (
Eric (novel)
Eric, also known as Faust Eric, is the ninth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. It was originally published in 1990 as a "Discworld story", in a larger format than the other novels and illustrated by Josh Kirby...
). Charlie, a man with an extraordinary physical resemblance to Ankh-Morpork Patrician Havelock Vetinari
Havelock Vetinari
Havelock Vetinari, Lord Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, is the fictional ruler of the city state of Ankh-Morpork in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, a series of over thirty books describing a parallel universe whose main world has reflections of - even more or less subtle jokes about - our...
, ran a clothes shop there (The Truth
The Truth (novel)
The Truth is the twenty-fifth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, published in 2000.The book features the coming of movable type to Ankh-Morpork, and the founding of the Discworld's first newspaper by William de Worde, as he invents investigative journalism with the help of his reporter Sacharissa...
). Nobby Nobbs had an early career as an armourer in one of the Pseudopolis city militias. Curiously, (and this may be no more than a coincidence, although given Nobby's penchant for nicking and flogging anything not nailed down there may be a connection,) Pseudopolis always lost its wars at this period, because of an unaccountable shortage of weapons. John Keel, a city watchman, moved from Pseudopolis to Ankh-Morpork and was the mentor of the young Sam Vimes, (Night Watch.)
Quirm
Quirm is most significant as the location of the Quirm College for Young Ladies (formerly attended by Susan Sto HelitSusan Sto Helit
Susan Sto Helit , once referred to as Susan Death, is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. She is the "granddaughter" of Death, the Disc's Grim Reaper, and, as such, has "inherited" a number of his abilities...
) and the birthplace of Leonard of Quirm.
According to the books, Quirm is a quiet and peaceful town, and for this reason is a popular holiday
Holiday
A Holiday is a day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observance is warranted. It is generally an official or unofficial observance of religious, national, or cultural significance, often accompanied by celebrations...
destination, as well as where Morporkians go when they retire (including Lord Vetinari
Havelock Vetinari
Havelock Vetinari, Lord Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, is the fictional ruler of the city state of Ankh-Morpork in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, a series of over thirty books describing a parallel universe whose main world has reflections of - even more or less subtle jokes about - our...
's aunt, Lady Roberta Meserole). In this regard, it relates to Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
as Eastbourne
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town and borough in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. The town is situated at the eastern end of the chalk South Downs alongside the high cliff at Beachy Head...
relates to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, or possibly as Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
relates to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. (Or even Greece as a description in Unseen Academicals
Unseen Academicals
Unseen Academicals is the 37th novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. The novel satirises football , and features Mustrum Ridcully setting up an Unseen University football team, with the Librarian in goal. It includes new details about "below stairs" life at the university...
describes Quirm as having "strange water", which is the typical stereotype of the Greek Water Supply.)
The Quirmian language is occasionally mentioned in the books as being similar to French or Spanish, but the only substantial appearance of the town (in Soul Music
Soul Music
Soul Music is the sixteenth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, first published in 1994. Like many of Pratchett's novels it introduces an element of modern society into the magical and vaguely late medieval, early modern world of the Discworld, in this case Rock and Roll music and stardom, with...
) had the inhabitants apparently speaking Morporkian (although the story is told from the perspective of Susan, who doubtless speaks fluent Quirmian). Spoken Quirmian is heard in Making Money
Making Money
Making Money is a Terry Pratchett novel in the Discworld series, first published in the UK on 20 September 2007. It is the second novel featuring Moist von Lipwig, and involves the Ankh-Morpork mint and specifically the introduction of paper money to the city...
, where it is identical to French, and Italian is, in Maskerade
Maskerade
Maskerade is the eighteenth novel in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. The witches Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg visit the Ankh-Morpork Opera House to find Agnes Nitt, a girl from Lancre, and get caught up in a story similar to The Phantom of the Opera.-Plot summary:The story begins with...
, spoken under the name of Brindisian. Quirm is famous for its floral clock
Floral clock
A floral clock or flower clock is a large decorative clock set into a flower bed in a park or other public recreation area.The floral clock was a form of carpet bedding set onto an operational clock-face, invented in 1903 by John McHattie of Edinburgh Parks in Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh and...
; a circle of flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s, each of which opens its petals at a different hour. Quirm is also famous for its (blue-veined) cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
. Quirm is a duchy
Duchy
A duchy is a territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess.Some duchies were sovereign in areas that would become unified realms only during the Modern era . In contrast, others were subordinate districts of those kingdoms that unified either partially or completely during the Medieval era...
, ruled by the Rodley family. Members of this family seen in the books include Lord Rodley, an upper-class twit, in Mort
Mort
Mort is a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. Published in 1987, it is the fourth Discworld novel and the first to focus on the Death of the Discworld, who only appeared as a side character in the previous novels...
and Brenda Rodley, the swamp dragon-breeding dowager duchess in Guards! Guards!
Guards! Guards!
Guards! Guards! is the eighth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, first published in 1989. It is the first novel about the City Watch. The first Discworld computer game borrowed heavily from Guards! Guards! in terms of plot.-Plot:...
. In Sourcery
Sourcery
Sourcery is the fifth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, published in 1988. On the Discworld, sourcerers - wizards who are sources of magic, and thus immensely more powerful than normal wizards – were the main cause of the great mage wars that left areas of the disc uninhabitable. Men born the...
, Quirm was destroyed by wizards during a magical war, but was presumably restored by Coin when he put everything back as it was before the war.
Quirm College for Young Ladies
The Quirm College for Young Ladies is an educational institution located in Quirm. In the books, Susan Sto Helit
Susan Sto Helit
Susan Sto Helit , once referred to as Susan Death, is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. She is the "granddaughter" of Death, the Disc's Grim Reaper, and, as such, has "inherited" a number of his abilities...
, Lady Sybil Ramkin and Miss Perspicacia Tick were educated there. The school's headmistress and founder is Miss Eulalie Butts (possibly a reference to Frances Buss
Frances Buss
Frances Mary Buss was a headmistress and an English pioneer of women's education.The daughter of Robert William Buss, a painter and etcher, and his wife, Frances Fleetwood, Buss was one of six of their ten children to survive into adulthood...
). It is explained that, as few of the Discworld
Discworld (world)
The Discworld is the fictional setting for all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels. It consists of a large disc resting on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle, named Great A'Tuin as it slowly swims...
's higher-class schools (such as the Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild
Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild
The Ankh-Morpork Assassins' Guild is a fictional school for professional killers in Terry Pratchett's long-running Discworld series of fantasy novels...
School), see fit to admit female students (although the Assassins have since changed this policy), Miss Butts founded the College "on the astonishing principle that, since gels had nothing much to do until someone married them, they might as well occupy the time with learning things." (Soul Music
Soul Music
Soul Music is the sixteenth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, first published in 1994. Like many of Pratchett's novels it introduces an element of modern society into the magical and vaguely late medieval, early modern world of the Discworld, in this case Rock and Roll music and stardom, with...
).
The school resembles a traditional English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
independent girls' school, with an academic curriculum and a heavy emphasis on respectable and decent behaviour. The school's strong emphasis on decency reportedly makes it rather difficult to teach certain areas of Biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
. Students come out of that class "with the vague idea that they were supposed to marry a rabbit." (Soul Music
Soul Music
Soul Music is the sixteenth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, first published in 1994. Like many of Pratchett's novels it introduces an element of modern society into the magical and vaguely late medieval, early modern world of the Discworld, in this case Rock and Roll music and stardom, with...
) Students at the school do not seem to be preparing for any particular profession. As the known universities
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
on the Disc are solely for wizards (who must be male - see Unseen University
Unseen University
The Unseen University is a school of wizardry in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. Located in the city of Ankh-Morpork, the UU is staffed by a faculty composed of mostly indolent and inept old wizards. The university's name is a pun on the Invisible College...
), and most other higher education institutions on the Disc do not admit females, there is no clear lifelong aim for the school's alumni. Susan Sto Helit describes it as "an education in, well, education" (Hogfather
Hogfather
Hogfather is the 20th Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, and a 1997 British Fantasy Award nominee.The Hogfather is also a character in the book, representing something akin to Father Christmas. He grants children's wishes on Hogswatchnight and brings them presents...
). It appears that those students who do not marry upon leaving school generally go into the teaching profession themselves, or become governess
Governess
A governess is a girl or woman employed to teach and train children in a private household. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not on meeting their physical needs...
es. Staff include Miss Butts, the Headmistress, Miss Delcross, the Biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
mistress and "Iron Lily", the gym mistress.
Sto Lat
Sto Lat, ruled by Queen Kelirehenna, is located about 20 miles from Ankh-Morpork.According to the books, Sto Lat is a sizable walled town in the Sto Plains, although eclipsed enormously both in size and influence by the neighbouring city of Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
. Sto Lat is located about 20 miles from the city of Ankh-Morpork, to which it is connected by two clacks towers. It encompasses a large boulder emerging out of the Sto Plains like 'a geological pimple', left there by the retreating Ice Giants. The castle is built into this rock.
Its most recent king before the present monarch was King Olerve, who was shot with a crossbow by an assassin hired by the original Duke of Sto Helit, a thoroughly nasty man who staged a bid for the succession, thwarted only by Mort in Mort. At the end of Mort, Princess Keli became Queen.
Politically, Sto Lat is the capital of a kingdom ruled by Queen Kelirehenna, which includes Sto Helit, Sto Kerrig and the Eight Protectorates. Her authority is exercised through a Mayor. The kingdom was one of the first places outside Ankh-Morpork to adopt
Going Postal
Going Postal is Terry Pratchett's 33rd Discworld novel, released in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2004. Unlike most of Pratchett's Discworld novels, Going Postal is divided into chapters, a feature previously seen only in Pratchett's children's books and the Science of Discworld series...
its own stampings for the post.
Sto lat
Sto lat
"Sto lat" is a traditional Polish song that is sung to express good wishes, good health and long life to a person. The song's author and exact origin are unattributed. The song is sung both at informal gatherings or at formal events, such as weddings...
is also a traditional Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
song equivalent to Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
"Happy Birthday to You", also known more simply as "Happy Birthday", is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth...
("sto lat" literally means "hundred years").
Sto Helit
Sto Helit is a duchy within Sto Lat, which was given to Mort in Mort, after he'd saved Queen Kelirehenna. After his death in Soul Music, his duchy apparently was passed to his daughter, Susan
Susan Sto Helit
Susan Sto Helit , once referred to as Susan Death, is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. She is the "granddaughter" of Death, the Disc's Grim Reaper, and, as such, has "inherited" a number of his abilities...
. She works as a teacher now, but, apparently, as of Thief of Time
Thief of Time
Thief of Time is the 26th Discworld novel written by Terry Pratchett, a 2002 Locus Award nominee.-Plot summary:The Auditors are upset because the human race are living their lives in - what the Auditors consider to be - an unpredictable way...
, she still is duchess of Sto Helit.
The Ramtops
The Ramtops are the Discworld's principal mountain range. Across their vast extent, from the Hub to the Rim, they incorporate elements from virtually every noted mountain range on our world, from the Scottish HighlandsScottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
(Lancre) to the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
(the High Tops) to Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
(Slice). They are the Disc's main magical conduit, as they lie like a metal rod across the centre of the Disc's magical field (indeed, the source of the field, the Cori Celesti, is technically part of the Ramtops), and are thus alive with unreality. Portals to various otherworlds dot the range's hidden crevices; "gnarly ground" compresses vast areas of land into tiny patches, and where witches, wizards, and godlike monks alike practice their arts within these secluded communities.
Due to a relative rarity of horizontal flat surfaces (vertical flat surfaces are plenty), kingdoms in the Ramtops tend to be small, isolated, and sparsely populated. Much of the economy is agrarian and communities largely consist of loosely affiliated groups of self-sufficient farms. The Ramtops are known for their harsh winters; snow drifts can rise up to fifteen feet during the worst storms. "Ramtoppers have 18 words for snow
Eskimo words for snow
The "Eskimo words for snow" claim is a widespread misconception alleging that Eskimos have an unusually large number of words for snow. In fact, the Eskimo–Aleut languages have about the same number of distinct word roots referring to snow as English does...
," Pratchett says, "none of them printable."
Pratchett has mentioned that the name of the Ramtops comes from RAMTOP (i.e. top of RAM
Ram
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
, or random-access memory), a system variable in the ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
computer.
Lancre
Lancre is situated in the Ramtop mountains, about 500 miles Hubwards of the city of Ankh-MorporkAnkh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
. It is the best-known of hundreds of tiny countries in the Ramtops, occupying a vertiginous shelf looking over the Sto Plains.
Lancre is based mainly on rural areas of Southern England with which Pratchett was familiar. In an article in Folklore entitled, ‘Imaginary Worlds, Real Stories,' Pratchett writes, "the kingdom of Lancre [...] I suspect is a somewhat idealised version of the little fold in the Chiltern Hills
Chiltern Hills
The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.-Location:...
where I grew up, stirred in with the western area of the Mendips where I spent a great deal of my adult life.". Pratchett has described the tiny country as "solid folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
"; it is the place all the legends
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
of our world's countryside really happened. Ankh-Morpork serves a similar function for urban folklore, but not as blatantly. The name seems to echo Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
and the associated witch trials in Pendle
Pendle
Pendle is a local government district and borough of Lancashire, England. It adjoins the Lancashire boroughs of Burnley and Ribble Valley, the North Yorkshire district of Craven and the West Yorkshire districts of Calderdale and the City of Bradford...
in that county in the seventeenth century.
Part of the reason for this is that the Ramtops are a major earthing point for the Discworld
Discworld (world)
The Discworld is the fictional setting for all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels. It consists of a large disc resting on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle, named Great A'Tuin as it slowly swims...
's magical field. Headless horsemen and walking trees are part of the landscape, as are witches
Witches (Discworld)
A major subset of the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett involves the witches of Lancre. They are closely based on witches in British folklore and a slightly tongue-in-cheek reinterpretation of the Triple Goddess....
. Lancre is famous for witches, especially since the publication of The Joye of Snackes (an erotic cookbook) by "A Lancre Witch", i.e. Nanny Ogg
Nanny Ogg
Gytha Ogg is a character from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. She is a witch and member of the Lancre coven.- Personality :The character of Nanny Ogg is based on the Mother stereotype of the Triple Goddess myth...
. Lancre also contains a gateway into the "parasite universe" of the elves
Elves (Discworld)
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, elves are extradimensional inhuman monsters.Elves on the Discworld are based more on the nastier kind of fairy-folk in European folklores than elves as portrayed in most modern fantasy fiction. They are not native to the Disc, but come from a "parasite...
.
The other thing Lancre is famous for is young people going off and seeking their fortunes (usually in Ankh-Morpork).
Although most maps show Lancre to measure roughly 40 miles by 10 miles in size, its true area remains unknown—partly because of its mountainous terrain and the fact that it borders on the Ramtops, but also due to the warping effect of high level of background magic. Owing to this background magic, geography in certain areas of Lancre can take on additional properties that exist either outside, or in addition to, the conventional geographic dimensions.
Such areas include the Lancre Moors, where reality can become folded into deep troughs and ridges known as Gnarly ground. This can create the illusion that two points in space are adjacent, when in reality they are several miles apart, or vice versa. The effect, as mentioned in The Discworld Companion
The Discworld Companion
The Discworld Companion is an encyclopaedia of the Discworld fictional universe created by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs.The book compiles a precise definition of words, lives of historical people, geography of places and events that have appeared in at least one Discworld novel, map, diary,...
is that Lancre contains more landscape than a kingdom of its apparent size should be able to contain. (A similar magical effect occurs in the Unseen University
Unseen University
The Unseen University is a school of wizardry in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. Located in the city of Ankh-Morpork, the UU is staffed by a faculty composed of mostly indolent and inept old wizards. The university's name is a pun on the Invisible College...
Library, which has a diameter of 100 yards, but an infinite radius.)
"Gnarly Ground" can be detected by those with magical senses, or those with keen eyesight who observe how clouds and shadows appear to fracture as they pass across it. Flying over such areas is not for the faint-hearted and walking across it can be fraught with peril for the unwary.
Similarly, Lancre contains areas where the landscape echoes the state of mind of those who pass through it, leading confident travellers to find babbling brooks while, in the same place at the same time, disheartened travellers find deep valleys and raging mountain torrents.
Though it is not clear if the phenomenon is related to background magic, Lancre also serves as the physical location for (possibly two) independent gateways to a "parasite universe" inhabited by Elves
Elves (Discworld)
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, elves are extradimensional inhuman monsters.Elves on the Discworld are based more on the nastier kind of fairy-folk in European folklores than elves as portrayed in most modern fantasy fiction. They are not native to the Disc, but come from a "parasite...
.
In times past, Elven incursions were common. Both gateways have been sealed from the Lancre side by standing stones made from thunderbolt iron, a form of meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
ic ore which is one of the few sources of magnetism on the Disc; humans, but not Elves (except in exceptional circumstances), may pass through them.
The capital "city" of Lancre is Lancre Town, by dint of being slightly bigger than the other villages, and containing Lancre Castle.
Due to Elven incursions, Lancre Castle was built to an exaggerated scale in order to accommodate fleeing citizens.
Bad Ass is the home of Granny Weatherwax
Granny Weatherwax
Esmerelda "Esme" Weatherwax is a fictional character from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. She is a witch and member of the Lancre coven. She is the self-appointed guardian of her small country, and frequently defends it against supernatural powers...
. It got its name when a donkey, carrying the supplies of a group of settlers, stopped on a ford and refused to move, forcing them to build their town there. This is possibly a reference to the founding of Amsterdam, which according to legend was on the spot that two fishermen's seasick dog vomited upon reaching land. The valley occupied by Bad Ass overlooks a panorama of lesser mountains and foothills. From there, you can see to the edge of the world. In the long winter snows, the roads out of the village are lined with boards to reduce drifting and to stop travellers from straying. A narrow bridge over a stream leads to the village smithy, birthplace of Eskarina Smith.
Hublands
The lands around the Hub, also called the High Tops, are icy, mountainous and cold. They are also the areas closest to the Cori Celesti, and so are crackling with magic. They are roughly equivalent to Earth's HimalayasHimalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, being home to Yeti and various Buddhist-style monastic orders, such as the History Monks
History Monks
The Order of Wen the Eternally Surprised, better known as the History Monks, and also sometimes referred to as THE Fighting Order of Wen, the Men In Saffron and No Such Monastery , is a highly secretive religious organisation in the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett, based in the Monastery of...
, which give the area the nickname "Enlightenment Country". They are also the closest thing the Disc has to a pole, and so are home to its equivalent of polar bear
Polar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
s and walrus
Walrus
The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...
es, mentioned in The Last Hero
The Last Hero
The Last Hero is a short novel, the twenty-seventh of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. It was published in 2001 in a larger format than the other Discworld novels and illustrated on every page by Paul Kidby.-Plot summary:...
.
Around the Ramtops
The countries in the foothills of the Ramtops retain the rural, agrarian character of the mountains, but possess their own unique cultures.Überwald
Überwald (ˈyːbɐvalt) is a region located near the foot of the Ramtops, farther from Ankh-MorporkAnkh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
than Lancre is.
Its name is German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
for "over the woods," as a play on Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, (which is Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for "across the woods." In fact, this name was actually used for Transylvania in some documents from the 13th century.) The region is based less on the real Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, and more on the Hammer Horror stereotype of the area. In keeping with the Discworld
Discworld (world)
The Discworld is the fictional setting for all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels. It consists of a large disc resting on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle, named Great A'Tuin as it slowly swims...
's affinity for narrative, Überwald's climate and conditions contrive to fulfil human expectations: for example, Überwaldian thunderclaps occur whenever someone makes a particularly forceful pronouncement. In The Truth
The Truth (novel)
The Truth is the twenty-fifth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, published in 2000.The book features the coming of movable type to Ankh-Morpork, and the founding of the Discworld's first newspaper by William de Worde, as he invents investigative journalism with the help of his reporter Sacharissa...
this phenomenon is referred to as "psycho
Psyche
- Psychology :* Psyche , a concept of intangible self* Psyche , a periodical on the study of consciousness* Soul in the Bible, or psyche , spirit or soul in philosophy and theology- Art :...
tropic weather
Weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...
."
The spelling of the German-language word is certainly "Überwald." The usage in some of the books is uneven, but the later narratives use "Uberwald" exclusively. In Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum ) is a comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, the twenty-third in the Discworld series. It was first published in 1998....
, Pratchett writes:
The region was previously united under the rule of the Unholy Empire (a play on the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
), which had a two-headed bat as its symbol (a play on the double headed eagle). The Empire has long since collapsed leaving the area fragmented, chaotic, and under the rule of lore, not law (the two words pun when spoken with certain British accents).
Although Überwald has a large human population, they play a secondary role in the region's history. It is ruled by dwarfs
Dwarfs (Discworld)
Sam leighton is dwarf kingDwarfs in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are similar to the Dwarves of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, to which they largely started out as a homage, and dwarves in other fantasy novels. They are short, stocky, bearded metal-workers, generally seen wearing chain mail...
, vampires, and werewolves. Sergeant (later Captain) Angua of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is from an old aristocratic family of Uberwald werewolves. While there are indeed a number of human barons
Victor Frankenstein
Victor Frankenstein was born in Napoli, is a Swiss fictional character and the protagonist of the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, written by Mary Shelley...
, they all tend to be uninterested in politics, preferring instead to dabble in experiment
Experiment
An experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...
al surgery
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
and "Meddling In Things Man Was Not Meant To Wot Of
Frankenstein's monster
Frankenstein's monster is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The creature is often erroneously referred to as "Frankenstein", but in the novel the creature has no name...
," each with the help of their personal Igors
Igor (Discworld)
The Igors are a recurring set of characters in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of novels. They are members of a clan of servants from the region of Überwald, all of which are named Igor.-Origins:...
.
From the 'Diet of Bugs' (a play on the Diet of Worms
Diet of Worms
The Diet of Worms 1521 was a diet that took place in Worms, Germany, and is most memorable for the Edict of Worms , which addressed Martin Luther and the effects of the Protestant Reformation.It was conducted from 28 January to 25 May 1521, with Emperor Charles V presiding.Other Imperial diets at...
) onwards garlic and silver were considered contraband
Contraband
The word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold....
across Überwald until the events of The Fifth Elephant
The Fifth Elephant
The Fifth Elephant is the 24th Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. It introduces the clacks, a long-distance semaphore system. The novel was nominated for the Locus Award in 2000.-Plot summary:...
; the undead simply promised they would not be needed. Apparently this system left something to be desired.
Überwald's economy is apparently based on mining. Though precious metals are plentiful, the most crucial mineral resource is fat
Fat
Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...
, which is believed to have been deposited by a fifth great Discworld-bearing elephant, which was dislodged from the back of Great A'Tuin and crashed into the ground around Überwald. Boiling fat rising to the surface is the reason for the country's many hot springs
Hot Springs
Hot Springs may refer to:* Hot Springs, Arkansas** Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas*Hot Springs, California**Hot Springs, Lassen County, California**Hot Springs, Modoc County, California**Hot Springs, Placer County, California...
.
Überwald effectively comprises two utterly distinct societies; the dwarfs, (who exist below in their cavernous cities and tunnels,) and everybody else, who live above on the surface. By tradition, the laws of the surface people do not apply underground, and vice-versa. Überwaldian dwarfs are far more hidebound and traditional than their cousins near the Sto Plains, which has led to a certain culture clash between the two. Überwald is the centre of Dwarfish history and politics; the Low King, the final arbiter of Dwarfish law, has his seat of power in the underground Überwald city of Schmaltzberg, (a double or even triple play on the Austrian town of Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
: Schmaltz
Schmaltz
Schmaltz or schmalz is rendered chicken, goose, or pork fat used for frying or as a spread on bread, especially in German and Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. Also is very common in Ukrainian cuisine Schmaltz or schmalz is rendered chicken, goose, or pork fat used for frying or as a spread on bread,...
means lard or fat in German, but can also mean 'excessive sentimentality').
Koom Valley
Koom Valley is a location somewhere in Uberwald. Hundreds of years ago, the trolls and the dwarfs
Dwarfs (Discworld)
Sam leighton is dwarf kingDwarfs in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are similar to the Dwarves of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, to which they largely started out as a homage, and dwarves in other fantasy novels. They are short, stocky, bearded metal-workers, generally seen wearing chain mail...
met in a battle at Koom Valley in which each side apparently ambushed the other. Nowadays, dwarfs celebrate the Battle of Koom Valley Day, on the same day that trolls celebrate Troll New Year. Sometimes, in a city where both dwarfs and trolls live (e.g. Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
), the two groups are careful enough to plan their celebratory marches so that they are on the same street. Some people (e.g. Susan Sto Helit
Susan Sto Helit
Susan Sto Helit , once referred to as Susan Death, is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. She is the "granddaughter" of Death, the Disc's Grim Reaper, and, as such, has "inherited" a number of his abilities...
), after carefully studying history books, point out that the Battle of Koom Valley seemed to have been repeated several times. The name comes from the Welsh word cwm, which means "valley".
Borogravia
Borogravia is located Rimwards of Überwald, on the DiscworldDiscworld (world)
The Discworld is the fictional setting for all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels. It consists of a large disc resting on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle, named Great A'Tuin as it slowly swims...
's unnamed main continent. The capital city is PrinceMarmadukePiotreAlbertHansJosephBernhardtWilhelmsberg. The recent history of Borogravia consists mainly of fighting wars with every other country in the area (most notably Zlobenia), for various ill-defined reasons. The current war with Zlobenia has gone on for so long that nobody can remember what it was about. Borogravia is a Duchy
Duchy
A duchy is a territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess.Some duchies were sovereign in areas that would become unified realms only during the Modern era . In contrast, others were subordinate districts of those kingdoms that unified either partially or completely during the Medieval era...
, and as such is ruled by a Duke or Duchess. The ruler at the time of Monstrous Regiment
Monstrous Regiment (novel)
Monstrous Regiment is the 31st novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. It takes its name from the anti-Catholic 16th century tract by John Knox, the full title of which is The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regimen of Women....
was Duchess Annagovia, who has achieved virtual godhood among the people. The Borogravians' principal god is (or rather was) Nuggan. Prayers to the Duchess generally ask for intercession with Nuggan. At some point (see Thief of Time
Thief of Time
Thief of Time is the 26th Discworld novel written by Terry Pratchett, a 2002 Locus Award nominee.-Plot summary:The Auditors are upset because the human race are living their lives in - what the Auditors consider to be - an unpredictable way...
) Borogravia was noted for its chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
. However, since Nuggan disliked chocolate, this may no longer be the case. In Night Watch, it is mentioned in passing that Borogravia has invaded Mouldavia.
Zlobenia
Zlobenia with its capital Rigour, a parody of RigaRiga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, is a principality
Principality
A principality is a monarchical feudatory or sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a monarch with the title of prince or princess, or by a monarch with another title within the generic use of the term prince....
ruled by Prince Heinrich, who is described as tall, handsome, and smug. It has fought numerous wars with Borogravia, usually territorial dispute
Territorial dispute
A territorial dispute is a disagreement over the possession/control of land between two or more states or over the possession or control of land by a new state and occupying power after it has conquered the land from a former state no longer currently recognized by the new state.-Context and...
s over the River Kneck, which forms the border
Border
Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, sovereign states, federated states and other subnational entities. Some borders—such as a state's internal administrative borders, or inter-state borders within the Schengen Area—are open and...
between the two nations and frequently changes its course after flood
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
ing. Zlobenia's soldiers wear blue uniforms. Borogravians call Zlobenians 'swede
Rutabaga
The rutabaga, swede , turnip or yellow turnip is a root vegetable that originated as a cross between the cabbage and the turnip; see Triangle of U...
eaters'. Heinrich has visions of making Zlobenia "the Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
of the mountains", much to the amusement of Samuel Vimes
Samuel Vimes
Samuel "Sam" Vimes is a fictional policeman from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. As of his latest promotion, his full name and title is; "'His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh; Commander Sir Samuel Vimes": When serving as Ambassador for Ankh-Morpork, he is also referred to simply as...
. Heinrich is also heir to the Borogravian throne after the death of the Duchess Annagovia. In Monstrous Regiment
Monstrous Regiment (novel)
Monstrous Regiment is the 31st novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. It takes its name from the anti-Catholic 16th century tract by John Knox, the full title of which is The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regimen of Women....
he declares war against Borogravia to assert his claim.
Chalk
The Chalk is an area of rolling chalkChalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
downland
Downland
A downland is an area of open chalk hills. This term is especially used to describe the chalk countryside in southern England. Areas of downland are often referred to as Downs....
near Lancre, bearing a great resemblance to Pratchett's native Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
. The "soft" geology of the area is, according to some mountain witches, not conducive to the channelling of magic. In fact this is a misconception (the bones of the hills are flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
), and powerful witches can and do reside there, although the local baron has outlawed witchcraft, meaning they do not identify themselves as such. This law has since been repealed or at least ignored by the new baron since Tiffany Aching began openly practicing magic there. Home of Tiffany Aching
Tiffany Aching
Tiffany Aching is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's satirical Discworld series of fantasy novels.Tiffany is a trainee witch whose growth into her job forms one of the many arcs in the Discworld series. She is the main character in The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, and I...
.
Llamedos
Llamedos is a land noted for its druidDruid
A druid was a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic western Europe, during the Iron Age....
s, its bard
Bard
In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...
s, and its rain. Rain is the chief export of Llamedos; it has rain mines. Holly is the one plant that can grow in Llamedos's climate; everything else just rots. Llamedos is run by druids, who dot the land with stone circles used for computation. This is a lifetime job, since they frequently need upgrading. Llamedos is a fairly obvious parody of the British constituent country Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. Its annual bardic competition, the Eisteddfod, is still held in Wales. The name is a reference to Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
's radio play "Under Milk Wood
Under Milk Wood
Under Milk Wood is a 1954 radio drama by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, adapted later as a stage play. A movie version, Under Milk Wood directed by Andrew Sinclair, was released during 1972....
", for which he created the fictitious Welsh town of Llareggub ("bugger all" spelled backwards). Llamedos, accordingly, is "Sod 'em all", spelled backwards. The inhabitants tend to speak with a doubled-L accent, i.e. "Llots of lluck!" Homeland of Imp Y Celyn.
Octarine Grass Country
The Octarine Grass Country is an area of rich farmland which, thanks to its proximity to the Ramtops, also happens to be saturated with magic—so much so, in fact, that it is possible to grow re-annual crops; crops that germinate and grow the spring before you plant them. This is the homeland of Mort. The Octarine Grass Country predominantly features in Reaper ManReaper Man
Reaper Man is a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. Published in 1991, it is the 11th Discworld novel and the second to focus on Death. The title is a reference to Alex Cox's cult movie Repo Man.-Plot:...
where Death
Death (Discworld)
Death is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and a parody of several other personifications of death. Like most Grim Reapers, he is a black-robed skeleton usually carrying a scythe...
goes to work under the name Bill Door.
Beyond the Sto Plains
Far beyond the Sto Plains and the Ramtops, yet still on the Unnamed Continent, lie a number of disparate cultures, most of which have only been mentioned briefly in the novels; these include Brindisi, a very Italianate culture, and No Thingfjord, a Nordic culture of ice and interminable sagas.Genua
The most notable region beyond the Sto Plains is the small city of Genua, a Morporkian-speaking nation that bears some resemblance to New Orleans. Its most significant appearance in the books is in Witches AbroadWitches Abroad
Witches Abroad is the twelfth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, originally published in 1991.-Plot:Following the death of Witch, Desiderata Hollow, Magrat Garlick is sent her magic wand, for Desiderata was not only a witch, but also a Fairy Godmother. Having given the wand to Magrat, she...
. It is in an area called the Swamplands, some distance from the Sto Plains/Ramtops locations of most of the books.
The name Genua is probably based on Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, a city in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. However, Genua bears a striking resemblance to the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
-influenced American South, especially New Orleans. Local transport is by paddle steamer
Paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...
with onboard gambling. The local witch, Erzulie Gogol, is a Voodoo mambo
Mambo (voodoo)
Mambo is the term for a female High Priest in the Vodou religion in Haiti. They are the highest form of clergy in the religion, whose responsibility it is to preserve the rituals and songs and maintain the relationship between the spirits and the community as a whole...
complete with personal zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
(in her case, that of the former ruler of the principality, Baron Saturday, who himself shares a name with a famous Voodoo god) and the local food is basically Cajun cuisine
Cajun cuisine
Cajun cuisine is the style of cooking named for the French-speaking Acadian or "Cajun" immigrants deported by the British from Acadia in Canada to the Acadiana region of Louisiana, USA. It is what could be called a rustic cuisine — locally available ingredients predominate, and preparation...
, including gumbo
Gumbo
Gumbo is a stew or soup that originated in southern Louisiana during the 18th century. It consists primarily of a strongly-flavored stock, meat or shellfish, a thickener, and the vegetable holy trinity of celery, bell peppers, and onions...
.
During the events of Witches Abroad the city was ruled by an evil fairy godmother
Fairy godmother
In fairy tales, a fairy godmother is a fairy with magical powers who acts as a mentor or parent to someone, in the role that an actual godparent was expected to play in many societies...
, Lily Weatherwax, (sister of Lancre witch Esme Weatherwax) though she went by the name Lilith de Tempscire. She was obsessed with fairy tales and thought she could force everyone to be happy if only she could get them to follow the logic of the "happy ending." Under her rule, innkeepers who were not fat and jolly or inclined to tell jokes were sent to the dungeon, and Genua's ruler, the Baron Saturday, was murdered so that his heir apparent, Ella, could be a neglected orphan, as the tales dictated. Soon, the city began to resemble a skewed version of Disneyland
Disneyland Park (Anaheim)
Disneyland Park is a theme park located in Anaheim, California, owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division of the Walt Disney Company. Known as Disneyland when it opened on July 18, 1955, and still almost universally referred to by that name, it is the only theme park to be...
. The name "Genua" therefore could also be an ironic echo of "genuine", which is exactly what Genua, at this time, was not. Eventually, thanks to the efforts of the Lancre Coven, Lily was deposed and sent to a dimension of endless mirrors, and Ella was able to assume her role as Baroness of Genua without, as Lily had intended, marrying a frog.
Genua was most likely established as a far flung colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
of the Morporkian Empire, thus explaining why it shares more similarities with Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
/Sto Plains than its immediate neighbours Überwald and Muntab. The state first gained power under General Tacticus, who, having being sent there by the Morporkian Empire to stay out of the way, proceeded to declare war on Ankh-Morpork.
According to the novel Going Postal
Going Postal
Going Postal is Terry Pratchett's 33rd Discworld novel, released in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2004. Unlike most of Pratchett's Discworld novels, Going Postal is divided into chapters, a feature previously seen only in Pratchett's children's books and the Science of Discworld series...
, Genua is located approximately 2000 miles from Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
by road, a journey of two months by stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
. A faster method is to travel by flying broomstick, whereby the city can be reached in a single day, but unfortunately you will most likely blow your own ears off or possibly just freeze to death on the way.
Continent of Klatch
The continent of Klatch consists of that part of the Discworld's super continent that is rimwards of the Circle Sea. Like the distinction between Europe and Asia, the difference between Klatch and the unnamed continent that Ankh-MorporkAnkh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
stands upon is arbitrary and cultural rather than geographically evident. The continent includes the Circle Sea states of Ephebe, Tsort, Djelibeybi, Omnia, and the more rimwards territories of Howondaland, Tezumen Empire, Betrek, Smale, Klatchistan, and Muntab. It can be thought of as roughly equivalent to Africa in our world.
In the words of Terry Pratchett: "Not loosely based on Africa at all. Honestly."
Klatch
The continent's principal nation, also called Klatch, is a large multi-ethnic empire rimwards to turnwise of the Circle Sea. It resembles medieval ArabArab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
ic states, and has a political system similar to the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. Its capital is Al Khali (popularly known as 'the Gateway to the mysterious continent of Klatch'), and it includes outlying regions such as Hersheba and Syrrit. Klatch is a commercial rival of Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
— the book Jingo
Jingo (novel)
Jingo is the 21st novel by Terry Pratchett, one of his Discworld series. It was published in 1997. The rising of a previously submerged island and the subconstituent sovereignty dispute were inspired by the real-life island of Ferdinandea.-Plot:...
depicts a brief war between the two mainly on economic land ownership grounds. It is also a common metaphorical boundary for anything considered genuinely "foreign", despite other areas of similar distance not being considered as such. There is some cultural mistrust between the Sto Plains and Klatch, as evidenced by the phrase "Pardon my Klatchian"
Pardon my French
"Pardon my French" or "Excuse my French" is a common English language phrase ostensibly disguising profanity as French. The phrase is uttered in an attempt to excuse the user of profanity or curses in the presence of those offended by it under the pretense of the words being part of a foreign...
upon speaking a rude word.
Despite the tendency of Morporkians to see Klatchians as savages, Jingo
Jingo (novel)
Jingo is the 21st novel by Terry Pratchett, one of his Discworld series. It was published in 1997. The rising of a previously submerged island and the subconstituent sovereignty dispute were inspired by the real-life island of Ferdinandea.-Plot:...
makes clear that Klatchians are technologically and scientifically far in advance of the Sto Plains. It is said that the Klatchians had 15 words for assassination before the rest of the world had caught on to the idea of hitting each other with rocks. This situation parallels that which existed between Europe and the Arab world throughout the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. The ruler of Klatch is called the Seriph (perhaps a play on caliph
Caliph
The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the ruler of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah. It is a transcribed version of the Arabic word which means "successor" or "representative"...
and serif
Serif
In typography, serifs are semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. A typeface with serifs is called a serif typeface . A typeface without serifs is called sans serif or sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning “without”...
). In Sourcery
Sourcery
Sourcery is the fifth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, published in 1988. On the Discworld, sourcerers - wizards who are sources of magic, and thus immensely more powerful than normal wizards – were the main cause of the great mage wars that left areas of the disc uninhabitable. Men born the...
, the Seriph was Creosote
Croesus
Croesus was the king of Lydia from 560 to 547 BC until his defeat by the Persians. The fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Hellenes, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least," J.A.S...
, a rather vain and foolish man who was obsessed with poetry. A genie reportedly granted a great fortune to his grandfather, which was more or less squandered by modern times. It is unknown whether Creosote is still Seriph; the Prince Cadram and Prince Khufurah appeared in Jingo, but it is unknown whether they are relatives of Creosote. The "Klatchian Foreign Legion" parodies French military activities in North Africa
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
. The name is probably a play on "coffee klatsch"; a recognition of its most famous export, Klatchian coffee. The principal deity of Klatch is Offler, a crocodile-headed god.
Al Khali has been described by Rincewind
Rincewind
Rincewind is a fictional character appearing in several of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. He is a failed student at the Unseen University for wizards in Ankh-Morpork, and is often described by scholars as "the magical equivalent to the number zero". He spends just about all of his time...
as "like Ankh
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
, only with sand instead of mud". It is bisected by the Tsort River. The city is noted for its wind, which blows from the vast deserts of Klatch, and has been described as "a gentle but persistent breeze". Notable features of the city include:
- The RhoxieThe RoxyThe Roxy was a fashionable nightclub on Neal Street in London's Covent Garden, known for hosting the flowering British punk music scene in its infancy.-Brief history:...
: The Seriph of Al Khali's resplendent palace, in the centre of the city. Surrounded by an artificial paradise, it contains the Seriph's harem and courtiers. However, it was heavily damaged during the events of Sourcery, and it is unknown whether it was repaired. However it was mentioned in Pyramids as being "down the coast". - The soakSoukA souq is a commercial quarter in an Arab, Berber, and increasingly European city. The term is often used to designate the market in any Arabized or Muslim city, but in modern times it appears in Western cities too...
: A bazaar highly spoken of by Cohen the Barbarian. A series of alleys, frequented by the criminal underclass. - The Temple Frescoes: Famous frescoes of people involved in sexual acts. Tours leave hourly from the Square of 967 Delights (Khalians are meticulous about things that interest them).
Klatchian coffee
A strong, nearly magical coffeeCoffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, brewed in Klatch and drunk only by the initiated in very small cups. Presumably an exaggerated version of Turkish coffee
Turkish coffee
Turkish coffee is a method of preparing coffee where finely powdered roast coffee beans are boiled in a pot , with sugar according to taste, before being served into a cup where the dregs settle...
, Klatchian coffee has a strong sobering effect, bringing the drinker "to the other side of sobriety". This state of sobriety is referred to as knurd ("drunk" spelled backwards; compare the entry in the Jargon File
Jargon File
The Jargon File is a glossary of computer programmer slang. The original Jargon File was a collection of terms from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI Lab and others of the old ARPANET AI/LISP/PDP-10 communities, including Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Carnegie Mellon...
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/K/knurd.html). Knurdness is described as the opposite of being drunk: not sober, which is merely the absence of drunkenness, but just as far away from sobriety in the opposite direction, resulting in a terrible, existential clarity. According to Sourcery
Sourcery
Sourcery is the fifth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, published in 1988. On the Discworld, sourcerers - wizards who are sources of magic, and thus immensely more powerful than normal wizards – were the main cause of the great mage wars that left areas of the disc uninhabitable. Men born the...
, being knurd strips away all the comforting illusions in which people usually spend their lives, letting them see and think clearly for the first time. This is a very traumatic experience, although it is noted that it sometimes leads to important discoveries. To counteract the effects of Klatchian coffee, in Klatch it is drunk with Orakh (a very violent alcoholic beverage made by mixing scorpion venom and cactus
Cactus
A cactus is a member of the plant family Cactaceae. Their distinctive appearance is a result of adaptations to conserve water in dry and/or hot environments. In most species, the stem has evolved to become photosynthetic and succulent, while the leaves have evolved into spines...
sap and fermenting it in the sun for several weeks), possibly referring to Italian "expresso" coffee which is often drunk with "grappa", a very strong, often homemade, alcohol (although the name "Orakh" is presumably a reference to arak
Arak
Arak may refer to:* Arak, Iran, a city in Markazi Province, Iran* Arak County, an administrative subdivision of Markazi Province Iran* Arak, Russia, a village in the Tabasaran rayon of Dagestan, Russia...
). After a few screams, a lie down and a stiff drink, the occasional drinker will try never to be "knurd" again.
Although knurdness is a state usually only obtainable by drinking Klatchian coffee, Samuel Vimes
Samuel Vimes
Samuel "Sam" Vimes is a fictional policeman from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. As of his latest promotion, his full name and title is; "'His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh; Commander Sir Samuel Vimes": When serving as Ambassador for Ankh-Morpork, he is also referred to simply as...
, one of the Discworld
Discworld (world)
The Discworld is the fictional setting for all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels. It consists of a large disc resting on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle, named Great A'Tuin as it slowly swims...
's most notable characters, is described in Guards! Guards!
Guards! Guards!
Guards! Guards! is the eighth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, first published in 1989. It is the first novel about the City Watch. The first Discworld computer game borrowed heavily from Guards! Guards! in terms of plot.-Plot:...
as being naturally two drinks short of actual sobriety. This makes him slightly knurd by default, which partially accounts for his depressive nature and tendency towards alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
—he started out looking for a cure to knurdness. Once he starts drinking, however, he cannot stop and always gets the dosage wrong.
Klatchian coast
From the novels Small GodsSmall Gods
Small Gods is the thirteenth of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, published in 1992. It tells the origin of the god Om, and his relations with his prophet, the reformer Brutha...
and Pyramids
Pyramids (Discworld)
Pyramids is the BSFA winning seventh Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, published in 1989.-Plot summary:The main character of Pyramids is Teppic, prince of the tiny kingdom of Djelibeybi. Djelibeybi is the Discworld counterpart to Ancient Egypt....
the location of certain nations on the Klatchian coast can be determined; Djelibeybi separates Tsort and Ephebe, and Ephebe borders (an undetermined border in uninhabitable desert) Omnia.
Ephebe
Ephebe is largely the Discworld analogue of Athenian GreeceClassical Athens
The city of Athens during the classical period of Ancient Greece was a notable polis of Attica, Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. Athenian democracy was established in 508 BC under Cleisthenes following the tyranny of Hippias...
, however also takes influences from Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
and Minos
Minos
In Greek mythology, Minos was a king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every year he made King Aegeus pick seven men and seven women to go to Daedalus' creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by The Minotaur. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in Hades. The Minoan civilization of Crete...
; the name is an Anglicization of the Greek concept of ephebos
Ephebos
Ephebos , also anglicised as ephebe or archaically ephebus , is a Greek word for an adolescent age group or a social status reserved for that age in Antiquity....
. Ephebe lies on the hubwards shores of the Circle Sea on the Klatchian continent, widdershins of the Klatchian Empire, Tsort and Djelibeybi and turnwise of Omnia.
Ephebe has only been visited twice in the novels, in Pyramids
Pyramids (Discworld)
Pyramids is the BSFA winning seventh Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, published in 1989.-Plot summary:The main character of Pyramids is Teppic, prince of the tiny kingdom of Djelibeybi. Djelibeybi is the Discworld counterpart to Ancient Egypt....
and Small Gods
Small Gods
Small Gods is the thirteenth of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, published in 1992. It tells the origin of the god Om, and his relations with his prophet, the reformer Brutha...
. However, we know from Eric that in its early history, it fought a series of damaging wars against Tsort, with which it remains in a cold-war situation to this day. The disappearance of the Djel River valley in Pyramids briefly sparked a resumption of hostilities, which mostly involved highly reluctant soldiers hiding in wooden horses, waiting for the other side to take them into the city. This was quickly ended by the Djel's abrupt reappearance. In Small Gods, it was briefly invaded by Omnia; however, this occupation quickly collapsed and Ephebe launched a decisive counter-strike.
The country was heavily affected by the first temporal shattering mentioned in Thief of Time
Thief of Time
Thief of Time is the 26th Discworld novel written by Terry Pratchett, a 2002 Locus Award nominee.-Plot summary:The Auditors are upset because the human race are living their lives in - what the Auditors consider to be - an unpredictable way...
, as a result of which the philosophers living there appear extraordinarily long-lived. Ephebe has a population of about 50,000, according to The Discworld Companion
The Discworld Companion
The Discworld Companion is an encyclopaedia of the Discworld fictional universe created by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs.The book compiles a precise definition of words, lives of historical people, geography of places and events that have appeared in at least one Discworld novel, map, diary,...
. Much of this population is made up of slaves, who have steadfastly refused any efforts to give them more rights; they are quite happy with their guaranteed income and safety as slaves (and the possibility of owning slaves of their own).
As a democracy, Ephebe is unusual on the Discworld. Those citizens who are not disqualified by being foreigners, mad, poor or female, elect a Tyrant to run the city, who invariably turns out to be a criminal madman. They then elect another Tyrant, who is much the same. At the time of Small Gods (the role of which in the Discworld chronology is somewhat obscure), Ephebe was ruled by a small, fat man with skinny legs, who resembled an egg hatching upside-down. It is unknown whether he is still ruler.
According to The Discworld Companion, it does not have an economy. The people are perfectly happy living off the fish and olives farmed by the slaves, or the way Teppic described it in Pyramids, they made wine of everything they could stuff in a bucket and ate whatever couldn't crawl out of one, which gives time for Ephebe's major export: philosophy. For what it's worth (about one Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
penny), the currency of Ephebe is the talent. Ephebe is a city of philosophers; some hardware merchants have taken to stocking towels, in case of clothing-challenged brilliant thinkers. The philosophers are noted for pondering the existence of gods, but carefully in case the gods get mad. Brawls between varying philosophical factions frequently erupt across Ephebe's many taverns, but Ephebe is on the whole a peaceful city, which ambles by from day to day (The New Discworld Companion). One of the philosophers Teppic met in Ephebe was instrumental in the building of a lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
. Sadly, the proposed location for the lighthouse was deemed to be disruptive to the view of the harbour and so it was placed some distance inland. Sailors who find themselves stranded on the rocks of the harbour have considered the lighthouse a quite beautiful thing to look at whilst waiting to be rescued.
Djelibeybi
Djelibeybi is based on the cultures of Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
. Also called the Kingdom of the Sun and the Old Kingdom. Principal crops: melons, garlic and, since they are increasingly encroaching on the fertile agricultural land, pyramids. The name "Djelibeybi" is a pun lost on most people outside the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, playing on "Jelly baby
Jelly baby
Jelly babies are a type of soft confectionery that look like little babies in a variety of colours. There are currently several brands of jelly babies, most predominantly Trebor Bassett , Rowntree , Norfolk Manor, and Haribo.Jelly babies were launched by Bassett's in 1918 in Sheffield...
", a popular gummi sweet in those countries. The joke is compounded when Pratchett says that "Djelibeybi" means "Child of the Djel" (its main river; the line is a parody of Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
's famous claim that Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
was the "gift of the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
"). Djelibeybi is two miles (3 km) wide and 150 miles (241.4 km) long and is on the Circle Sea coast of Klatch. The ancient country of Ur lies to the Rimward of it. The kingdom is almost entirely underwater during the flood season, and both threatened and protected on either side by stronger neighbours (Tsort and Ephebe). It was once great, but all that now remains is an expensive palace, a few ruins and pyramids. The entire economic life of the country is, until after the events of Pyramids, devoted to building them. As a result, Djelibeybi is permanently bankrupt. The country has an enormous number of local gods, unknown to the world outside. Its ruler, the Pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
, is also a god, although in human form. He wears a gold mask (the Face of the Sun) and during his official functions carries the Flail of Mercy, the obsidian Reaping Hook of Justice, the Honeycomb of Increase, the Asp of Wisdom, the Sheaf of Plenty, the Gourd of the Water of the Heavens, the Three-Pronged Spear of the Waters of the Earth, the Cabbage of the Vegetative Increase and the Scapula of Hygiene. Under the current ruler, Queen Ptraci I, it is quite likely that the mask has been sold and the money spent on plumbing.
Tsort
Tsort: A mythical place (no books have yet been set there, with the possible exception of the events portrayed in Eric where Rincewind and Eric Thursley appear briefly), the Disc's analogue to ancient TroyTroy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
. Its enmity with Ephebe began with the famous Tsortean War
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
, when King Mausoleum of Tsort kidnapped Queen Eleneor of Ephebe, leading to a siege that lasted for decades. To this day Tsort and Ephebe believe there is a place for giant wooden horses in combat. Tsort possesses a Great Pyramid, although pyramid-building has long been out of fashion and - no doubt because of the example of nearby Djelibeybi - modern Tsorteans scorn the things. Tradition claims Tsort was razed by the armies of Ephebe under Lavaeolus, and that it was home to the famed Tsortean Knot
Gordian Knot
The Gordian Knot is a legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem solved by a bold stroke :"Turn him to any cause of policy,...
until the Knot was undone — sliced in half — by Carelinus. The people of Tsort worship all manner of gods
Discworld gods
The Discworld gods are the fictional deities from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. The Discworld, being a flat disc supported on the backs of four elephants on top of a giant flying turtle, exists in a region of the universe where reality is somewhat less consistent than it...
, some of which seem to comprise all the bits the other gods had left over. The river Tsort bisects the desert rimwards of Al Khali.
Omnia
Omnia is a desert theocracyTheocracy
Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
ruled by the Cenobiarch, the head of the Omnian Church, from the Citadel in the capital city of Kom (a sort of cross between Jerusalem and the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
, though its name is probably derived from either Qom
Qom
Qom is a city in Iran. It lies by road southwest of Tehran and is the capital of Qom Province. At the 2006 census, its population was 957,496, in 241,827 families. It is situated on the banks of the Qom River....
, or Om
Om
Om is a sacred syllable of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.OM and similar may also refer to:-Music:* Om , a stoner metal band* Om , a 1965 album* OM , a 2006 album* Om...
a Bhuddist chant. There is also a connection to the Latin word 'Omnis
OMNIS
OMNIS is the Malagasy government organisation, operating under the auspices of the Ministry of Energy, responsible for:...
', meaning all or everything, ironic due to the nations unipolar outlook). When Omnianism was an intolerant religion it was known for its imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
, as it conquered neighbouring countries in the name of the Great God Om. After Brutha became the Cenobiarch, the country reversed directions, and became the home of a renowned theological college and library. These days it is known for the constant arguing amongst the clergy, as new interpretations of Brutha's teachings spring up every day. The currency of Omnia is the obol
Obolus
The obol was an ancient silver coin. In Classical Athens, there were six obols to the drachma, lioterally "handful"; it could be excahnged for eight chalkoi...
.
Deepest Klatch
Howondaland is the Discworld's principal "jungle" region. It lies on the Klatchian continent, and is the Disc's rough analogue to Sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
, although the Tezumen Empire gives it Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n overtones as well. Howondaland is not so much a country as a blank patch on the map. Just as "darkest Africa" remained largely unexplored until the 19th century, "darkest Klatch" is largely unknown to most Discworlders. Exploration of the land has been hampered by the habit of explorers ending up nailed to trees. Its name is probably a play on Gondwanaland or perhaps a play on the expression "How on earth ...?" transformed into "How on the land... ?" There is also an echo of Lewis Carroll's "Wonderland" in the name. In some of the early Discworld novels (American publications) it is spelled "Howonderland."
The Great Nef is a vast desert on the Klatchian continent, noted mainly for containing the Dehydrated Ocean, an ocean consisting of dehydrated water. Dehydrated water is a peculiar substance found only in areas of high magical concentration. It resembles fine sand, but can be reconstituted into normal water by adding water. The Dehydrated Ocean is home to its own, unique, kinds of fish. The name "Nef" is a reversal of fen
Fen
A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...
, a type of wetland; "Great Nef" in particular may be a reference to the Great Fen, an historical wetland area in England in the area now known as The Fens and the subject of a restoration effort known as the Great Fen Project.
Only briefly mentioned in the books, Hersheba is a small desert kingdom rimwards of Klatchian empire, practically on the more-or-less vague boundary of Howondaland. The country is said to be ruled by a queen who lives forever (probably a reference to H. Rider Haggard
H. Rider Haggard
Sir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. He was also involved in agricultural reform around the British Empire...
's She
She (novel)
She, subtitled A History of Adventure, is a novel by Henry Rider Haggard, first serialized in The Graphic magazine from October 1886 to January 1887. She is one of the classics of imaginative literature, and with over 83 million copies sold in 44 different languages, one of the best-selling books...
). The nomadic tribes known as the D'regs occupy areas of Hersheba as well as Klatch. Depredations against Klatch by Hersheban D'regs, Hersheba by Klatchian D'regs and both sides by their own D'regs has led to the border being in a permanent state of war. The name is a play on Hershey bar
Hershey bar
The Hershey's chocolate bar is a flagship chocolate bar described as "The Great American Chocolate Bar" manufactured by the Hershey Company, invented by Logan Hall and Zach Phillips. Hershey Milk Chocolate and Milk Chocolate with almonds and peanuts were both introduced in 1894...
and also resembles Israeli Beersheba
Beersheba
Beersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....
; Pratchett initially suggested it as an alternative name for Djelibeybi, to aid American readers mystified by the pun.
Very little is known about the Theocracy
Theocracy
Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
of Muntab. Its ruler is known as a Pash (Lu-Tze, the History Monk
History Monks
The Order of Wen the Eternally Surprised, better known as the History Monks, and also sometimes referred to as THE Fighting Order of Wen, the Men In Saffron and No Such Monastery , is a highly secretive religious organisation in the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett, based in the Monastery of...
, once had to make sure one of them choked on a fishbone). It is often used as a generic third-world country, as in "Eat your dinner, there are starving children in Muntab who'd be glad to have that!" It is more or less on the border between the continent of Klatch and the Unnamed Continent, and is located more or less rimwards of Borogravia. Muntab is known to be eager to emerge as a dominant nation in the modern world, and is suspected to have ambitions to conquer the hubward nations, most notably Borogravia. As a result, it figures into the famous political problem, the Muntab Question - most often quoted as "Where's Muntab?", but in serious political discussion is more likely to concern which side the more developed nations would fall in a war between Muntab and Borogravia. Muntab is very likely one of the nations in the Alliance that Borogravia is fighting in the novel Monstrous Regiment. Muntab's calendar counts down. No-one really knows why, but it's probably NOT a good idea to stay there to see for oneself what happens when the count reaches zero.
Nothing is known of Istanzia, although it is a state big enough to send an Ambassador to Ankh-Morpork for Commander Vimes to frighten: when in The Fifth Elephant
The Fifth Elephant
The Fifth Elephant is the 24th Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. It introduces the clacks, a long-distance semaphore system. The novel was nominated for the Locus Award in 2000.-Plot summary:...
the Istanzian forces were reported to be making repeated armed incursions across the Slipnir river, Vimes's offer to arrange for the Istanzian Ambassador to "...go home in an ambulance" resulted in the Istanzian forces pulling back so far that they were "...nearly in the next country."
The Tezumen Empire is a jungle civilisation in the darkest depths of Howondaland that resembles the Aztecs. They are renowned as the most pessimistic and angst-ridden culture on the Disc; their writing is engraved on giant slabs of stone rather than more conveniently written on paper, the better to beat yourself to death against when finished. Large discs of precisely-carved stone with holes in the middle are used for almost every imaginable purpose except making wheels, a technology which they have not yet discovered. Before the events in Eric
Eric (novel)
Eric, also known as Faust Eric, is the ninth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. It was originally published in 1990 as a "Discworld story", in a larger format than the other novels and illustrated by Josh Kirby...
, they worshiped the "feathered boa" Quezovercoatl, a parody of the Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
n deity Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl is a Mesoamerican deity whose name comes from the Nahuatl language and has the meaning of "feathered serpent". The worship of a feathered serpent deity is first documented in Teotihuacan in the first century BCE or first century CE...
, but have since tired of gods and killed all their priests.
Counterweight Continent
The Counterweight Continent is situated on the opposite edge of the Discworld from the Unnamed Continent and Klatch. It is smaller than these other two landmasses but acts as a counterweight because its crust is made up largely of gold and octiron, both dense, heavy metals. It is (roughly) comma-esque in shape, and the tip of the comma extends all the way up to the ice capIce cap
An ice cap is an ice mass that covers less than 50 000 km² of land area . Masses of ice covering more than 50 000 km² are termed an ice sheet....
at the Hub. Its closest point to the Unnamed Continent is about 15 miles away but, as the channel is under an ice cap, it is often referred to as an isthmus
Isthmus
An isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas usually with waterforms on either side.Canals are often built through isthmuses where they may be particularly advantageous to create a shortcut for marine transportation...
. The cultures of the Counterweight Continent are a play upon those of our world's Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
, or at least Western perceptions of it. In a pun on the Orient
The Orient
The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
, it is also known as the Aurient, from the Latatian (Latin) word 'aurum' (gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
), meaning 'the place where gold comes from'.
Agatean Empire
The Agatean Empire is the home of Twoflower and the Luggage. The country was first mentioned in the very first Discworld novel The Colour of MagicThe Colour of Magic
The Colour of Magic is a 1983 comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, and is the first book of the Discworld series. Pratchett has described it as "an attempt to do for the classical fantasy universe what Blazing Saddles did for Westerns."...
, but was not explored: its main role was as the place from which Twoflower had come. It appeared in a brief segment of Mort
Mort
Mort is a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. Published in 1987, it is the fourth Discworld novel and the first to focus on the Death of the Discworld, who only appeared as a side character in the previous novels...
, and was the setting for most of Interesting Times
Interesting Times
Interesting Times is the seventeenth novel in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.The opening lines explain that the title refers to the phrase "may you live in interesting times".-Plot summary:...
.
The Agatean Empire is similar to feudal Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
or Imperial China, most obviously in the vast wall that surrounds it, and the belief that anyone from outside the Empire must be an invisible vampire ghost (probably a play on gwailo, lit. ghost man). The name is a pun on the term "Jade Empire," referring to ancient China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
The crust of the Agatean Empire is composed largely of gold, octiron and other heavy metals. In Ankh-Morpork and its environs, the Empire is known as the Aurient - 'the place where the gold comes from' (a pun on Orient
Orient
The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
and aurum, the Latin for gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
). Exchange rates between the Ankh-Morpork dollar and the Empire's currency, the rhinu, has never been established because the solid gold coins are worth significantly less on the Counterweight Continent than on the Sto Plains.
The Empire was founded by the Emperor One Sun Mirror thousands of years ago and until fairly recently it was ruled by a number of constantly fighting and somewhat psychotic noble families (the Hongs, the Sungs, the Fangs, the Tangs and the McSweeneys), all jockeying to be emperor. They viewed politics as similar to chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
; the goal was to put one's opponent in an untenable position, and the best way to do that was to take as many opposing pieces as possible. And it did not matter if you sacrificed your own pawns.
As in our own feudal Japan, the Emperor was seen as a god, and could do anything he liked. Given how nastily inventive a noble had to be to get to this point, this was not a good thing.
(In The Colour of Magic
The Colour of Magic
The Colour of Magic is a 1983 comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, and is the first book of the Discworld series. Pratchett has described it as "an attempt to do for the classical fantasy universe what Blazing Saddles did for Westerns."...
and Mort
Mort
Mort is a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. Published in 1987, it is the fourth Discworld novel and the first to focus on the Death of the Discworld, who only appeared as a side character in the previous novels...
the Emperor was an idealistic young boy. However, by Interesting Times
Interesting Times
Interesting Times is the seventeenth novel in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.The opening lines explain that the title refers to the phrase "may you live in interesting times".-Plot summary:...
he had been supplanted by an elderly man who was quite insane.)
During Interesting Times
Interesting Times
Interesting Times is the seventeenth novel in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.The opening lines explain that the title refers to the phrase "may you live in interesting times".-Plot summary:...
, Cohen the Barbarian was declared Emperor, and started changing the system into one a no-nonsense barbarian could feel comfortable with. It was felt by many of the peasantry that he was the "preincarnation" of One Sun Mirror (because Agateans believe in a form of backward reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
in which the soul's next life takes place chronologically earlier than its previous life). Since the events of The Last Hero
The Last Hero
The Last Hero is a short novel, the twenty-seventh of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. It was published in 2001 in a larger format than the other Discworld novels and illustrated on every page by Paul Kidby.-Plot summary:...
, it can be presumed Cohen is no longer Emperor. Details of his replacement are unknown, although it is implied that most of the duties of governance had already been assumed by his Grand Vizier Twoflower by the time of his intended-to-be death.
Fourecks
EcksEcksEcksEcks or Fourecks (previously known as XXXX or Terror Incognita) is clearly influenced by AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n culture, as seen in The Last Continent
The Last Continent
The Last Continent is the twenty-second Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. First published in 1998, it mocks the aspects of time traveling such as the grandfather paradox and the Ray Bradbury short story "A Sound of Thunder"...
. Like Australia, Fourecks is both a country and a continent. It consists largely of desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
land, which for some time remained unfinished. It was created some time after the rest of the Discworld
Discworld (world)
The Discworld is the fictional setting for all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels. It consists of a large disc resting on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle, named Great A'Tuin as it slowly swims...
by the old man who carries the universe in a sack. Lu-Tze and other sources state that on Fourecks time and space are very twisted up, and there is a big time source right in the middle (probably the Red Rock, the Ecksian version of Uluru
Uluru
Uluru , also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. It lies south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; by road. Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park....
). The continent's name is a play on Castlemaine
Castlemaine Perkins
Castlemaine Perkins is a brewery located in Milton, Brisbane, Australia. It is a wholly owned entity of the Japanese-controlled Lion Nathan company.-History:...
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX is a brand of Australian beer brewed in Milton, Brisbane by Queensland brewers, Castlemaine Perkins. It enjoys wide popularity in the state of Queensland, where it is commonly found on-tap in pubs and bars....
, a Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
lager
Lager
Lager is a type of beer made from malted barley that is brewed and stored at low temperatures. There are many types of lager; pale lager is the most widely-consumed and commercially available style of beer in the world; Pilsner, Bock, Dortmunder Export and Märzen are all styles of lager...
that is semi-popular in Britain, and advertised there with adverts playing on Australian stereotypes. According to the books, they put XXXX on the maps because no-one knew what the place was called.
Both the flora and fauna of the continent is extremely dangerous, as Death's Library
Death's Domain
Death's Domain is a book by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs, illustrated by Paul Kidby, fourth in the Discworld Mapp series. It was first published in paperback by Corgi in 1999. It was the second in the series to be illustrated by Kidby...
attests. A book series known as "Dangerous Mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s, Reptile
Reptile
Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...
s, Amphibian
Amphibian
Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...
s, Bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s, Fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, Jellyfish
Jellyfish
Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. Medusa is another word for jellyfish, and refers to any free-swimming jellyfish stages in the phylum Cnidaria...
, Insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s, Spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
s, Crustacean
Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s, Grass
Grass
Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...
es, Tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s, Moss
Moss
Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...
es and Lichen
Lichen
Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium...
s of Terror Incognita" extends at least into "Volume 29c Part Three", while a list of the harmless ones contains only "Some of the sheep." There are few poisonous snakes in XXXX, the explanation for this being that "most of them have been eaten by the spiders".
Due to interference by the wizards of Unseen University
Unseen University
The Unseen University is a school of wizardry in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. Located in the city of Ankh-Morpork, the UU is staffed by a faculty composed of mostly indolent and inept old wizards. The university's name is a pun on the Invisible College...
while fleeing the bug-obsessed god of evolution during the creation of Fourecks, the entire continent was surrounded, for much of its history, with a huge anticyclone
Anticyclone
An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon defined by the United States' National Weather Service's glossary as "[a] large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere"...
which effectively prevented rainclouds from arriving or ships from leaving. Shortly before the permanent drought reached catastrophic proportions this was dissipated by Rincewind, although, as usual, he received no credit. Many Ecksians have since taken the opportunity to explore the Disc. According to Lu Tze, the relief barman everywhere now comes from Fourecks.
The indigenous population are very similar to Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
, with a strong mythology. Until recently, their main peculiarity was a tendency to attack anyone who talked about the weather (see below). There is also a population of Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
ian settlers, from various shipwrecks. The capital of Fourecks is evidently Bugarup. The Archchancellor of the local magic college is named Bill Rincewind, possibly a relation of Unseen University's Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography
Rincewind
Rincewind is a fictional character appearing in several of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. He is a failed student at the Unseen University for wizards in Ankh-Morpork, and is often described by scholars as "the magical equivalent to the number zero". He spends just about all of his time...
and trained coward. Other known settlements are Dijabringabeeralong, Cangoolie (a parody of Kalgoorlie) and Worralorrasurfa. Time and space appear more consistent in these areas.
An odd quirk of the Fourecksian government is that they immediately put their politicians in jail as soon as they are elected. According to the locals, "It saves time"
Just off the coast of Fourecks are the islands known as the Land of Fog or the Foggy Islands, home of the morporks (a reference to the English translation of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
's Māori
Maori language
Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
name "Aotearoa", the Land of the Long White Cloud) and Purdeigh's Island (or Purdeighsland), discovered by the explorer Sir Roderick Purdeigh, who somehow missed the continent itself.
Bugarup
Bugarup is the apparent capital or principal city of Fourecks. It has a harbour, with an opera house that looks like an open box of tissues, or as if it is about to set sail (see Sydney Opera HouseSydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
). It also has a prison, in which the Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
resides. Another important feature of the city is the Old Brewery, where Roo Beer lager
Lager
Lager is a type of beer made from malted barley that is brewed and stored at low temperatures. There are many types of lager; pale lager is the most widely-consumed and commercially available style of beer in the world; Pilsner, Bock, Dortmunder Export and Märzen are all styles of lager...
is made. It has a huge billboard featuring a grinning kangaroo. The New Brewery is abandoned, because it was built on an "unsacred site" which made the beer flat.
There is also a university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
for wizards, motto: Nullus Anxietas (no worries). The university is similar in some ways to Unseen University
Unseen University
The Unseen University is a school of wizardry in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. Located in the city of Ankh-Morpork, the UU is staffed by a faculty composed of mostly indolent and inept old wizards. The university's name is a pun on the Invisible College...
in Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which prominently features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brouhaha on a fairly regular basis...
, although rather than an 800 feet (243.8 m) Tower of Art they have one that is thirty feet tall at the bottom, but a half-mile tall at the top.
Bugarup has a regular festival very similar to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
The Sydney Mardi Gras is an annual LGBTQI pride parade and festival in Sydney, Australia, and draws in thousands of visitors from around Australia and overseas...
(female impersonators play a notable part). It is called the Galah, possibly after a local bird
Galah
The Galah , Eolophus roseicapilla, also known as the Rose-breasted Cockatoo, Galah Cockatoo, Roseate Cockatoo or Pink and Grey, is one of the most common and widespread cockatoos, and it can be found in open country in almost all parts of mainland Australia.It is endemic on the mainland and was...
(and also a play on "gala").