Discworld (world)
The Discworld is the fictional setting for all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels. It consists of a slightly convex disc (complete with edge-of-the-world drop-off and consequent waterfall) resting on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle, named A'Tuin, (similar to Chukwa or Akupara from Hindu mythology, though "world turtles" are common to many disparate cosmologies) as it slowly swims through space. The Discworld is a fantasy land in the Tolkien and Brothers Grimm mould, complete with witches, wizards, dragons, trolls, and dwarfs; however, over time it has largely evolved into its own distinct culture, as its denizens find more sophisticated ways to outgrow their narrative conventions. The Disc is heavily influenced by magic and, while having similarities to (and in some cases, based on) planet Earth, it (generally) conforms to its own laws of physics.
Great A'Tuin, the star turtle
Great A'Tuin is the Giant Star Turtle (species: Chelys galactica) who travels through space, carrying the four giant elephants (named Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon, and Jerakeen) who in turn carry the Discworld, and is introduced as such in nearly every book. The narration has described A'Tuin as "the only turtle ever to feature on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram." The substance it swims through is called aether, and may be identical to the ancient Greek mythical fifth element of the same name, or to the 19th century concept of luminiferous aether.
Great A'Tuin's gender is unknown, but is the subject of much speculation by some of the Disc's finest scientific minds. The sex of the World Turtle is pivotal in proving or disproving a number of conflicting theories about the destination of Great A'Tuin's journey through the cosmos. If (as one popular theory states) Great A'Tuin is moving to his (or her) mating grounds, (this is known as the "big bang" theory) then at the point of mating might the civilisations of the Disc be crushed or simply slide off? Attempts by telepaths to learn more about Great A'Tuin's intents have not met with much success, mainly because they did not realise that its brain functions are on such a slow timescale. All they've been able to discern is that the Great A'Tuin is looking forward to something (telepaths have also attempted to read the minds of the Elephants, who apparently feel 'incredibly bored', and have terrible back pains.) The other theory is that he/she came from nowhere and is going to keep walking through space to nowhere for ever (this is known as the "steady gait" theory, and is popular among academics). Faust Eric shows Great A'Tuin being made instantly from nothing, seemingly in support of the theory that it came from nowhere and would continue at a constant pace into nowhere; however, the events in The Light Fantastic, in which the Great A'Tuin attended the hatching of eight baby turtles, each with four baby elephants and a tiny Discworld of their own, would seem to support the Big Bang hypothesis. A combination of the two theories might be possible, with A'Tuin being among the first generation made by the Creator and subsequent generations being created through breeding.
The little turtles have since gone off on their own journeys. Whether this was the event the Great A'Tuin was looking forward to or merely one step towards its ultimate goal is unknown.
The Great A'Tuin frequently rolls on its belly to avoid asteroid and comet collisions, or even to snatch these projectiles out of the sky. This doesn't affect the Disc's population, other than to induce severe seasickness on anyone who happens to be looking at the night sky at that time. A'Tuin has been known to do more complex rolls and corkscrews, but these are rarer. This is similar to real-world turtles habit of rolling over with their fins in the air to protect them from sharks.
Due to the Great A'Tuin's travelling through the universe, the night sky of the Discworld, unlike that of our world, changes markedly over the course of decades, as the turtle departs older constellations and enters new ones. This means that astrologers must constantly update and alter their horoscopes to incorporate all-new zodiacs.
A tiny sun and moon orbit the Great A'tuin, both about 1 mile in diameter when described at the start of the series, but the description of their diameter is increased to at least 80 miles later in the chronicles. The moon is slightly closer to the Disc than the sun, and is covered, on one half, with silvery glowing plants, which feed the lunar dragons. The other half is burnt black by the sun. The moon rotates, and completes a full revolution in about a month; the full moon occurs when the luminescent side is completely visible from the Disc, the new moon when the dark side is shown. The sun's orbit is so complex that one of the elephants has to cock its leg to allow the sun to continue on its orbit.
A'Tuin is also orbited by a number of small "planets" made from the droppings of the elephants by giant dung beetles.
According to the wizards of Unseen University, chelys galactica are composed largely of the element chelonium, the properties of which are apparently known to them (they do tests to look for it in Roundworld in The Science of Discworld), but not to readers.
The Disc
The Disc itself is roughly 10,000 miles 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 great, 10-mile-high spire of rock that lies at its exact centre and is the point of origin for its standing magical field. The Cori Celesti is also the location of Dunmanifestin, the home of the Disc's many gods, a nod towards Mount Olympus. The area including the Cori Celesti is known as the The Hub, a land of high, icebound mountains that serves as an analogue both to the Himalayas, to Roundworld'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), and to Roundworld's Scandinavia - the Hublanders share many features with our vikings. Polar bears are known as "Hubland bears" on the Disc, while the Disc's equivalent of the aurora borealis (here produced by the Disc's magical field, rather than by magnetism) are known as the "aurora coriolis." 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 and widdershins (relation to the direction of the Disc's spin).
The areas closer to the Rim are warmer and tropical, since the Disc's sun passes closer to them in its orbit. Technically, the fact that the Disc's sun, like Earth's, passes from solstice to equinox once a year should mean that the Rim would be alternately scorched desert and frozen wasteland rather than the balmy tropical region it is presented as, and the seasons generally would be significantly more pronounced than on Earth. It has been theorised that the standing magical field equalises the sun's energy across the Rim (the "slow light phenomenon").
At the Rim, a great, encircling waterfall (the Rimfall) sends the Disc's oceans cascading into space. Pratchett is evasive about how the water eventually returns to refill the oceans, only saying, "Arrangements are made." The mist from the plunging waters creates the Rimbow, an eight-colour (the eighth is octarine) double rainbow consisting both of light and of magic.
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 supercontinent comprising a large main region and a smaller Counterweight Continent connected by a narrow isthmus. The main continent comprises the unnamed Continent upon which most of the novels are set, and Klatch, akin to Africa. The island continent of Fourecks is the smallest of the four. On these continents a large number of countries, kingdoms, cities and towns can be found; the most widely mentioned in the books being Ankh-Morpork, Lancre, the Klatchian Empire and Überwald. In the Discworld Companion, Pratchett writes "there have been other continents, which have sunk, blown up, or simply disappeared. This sort of thing happens all the time, even on the best-regulated planets." [1]
Magic
See also: Wizards (Discworld), Witches (Discworld) and Discworld gods
Magic is the principal force on the Discworld, and operates in a similar vein to elemental forces such as gravity and electromagnetism on our own world. The Disc's "standing magical field" is basically the local breakdown of reality that allows a flat planet on the back of a turtle to even exist. The force called "magic" is really just a function of the relative absence of reality in the local area, much in the same way that we describe absence of heat as "coldness." Magic warps reality in much the same way as gravity warps space-time. Areas with larger than normal quantities of background magic tend to display unusual qualities, even for the Disc. Very high quantities of magic can knock a hole in reality, leading to an invasion by Lovecraftian monstrosities from the Dungeon Dimensions, or, almost as bad, the world of the Elves. On the Disc, magic is broken into elementary particulate fragments in much the same way that energy and other forces are in quantum physics. The basic unit of magic is the thaum, but the thaum is in turn made up of particles known as "resons" (literally, "thingies") or reality fragments. These are in turn composed of five "flavours": up, down, sideways, sex appeal and peppermint (see quarks).
In the opening books, the number eight (the number of the eighth colour and colour of Magic octarine) is extremely magical on the Disc, and should never, ever, be spoken by a wizard, especially in certain places. Doing so may allow the ancient dungeon dimension creature "Bel-Shamharoth the sender of eight" to break into our dimension. On the other hand, eight turns up in many places one would expect the number seven in our world (e.g. the Discworld week contains eight days, not seven). After The Colour of Magic, both the colour and the number eight no longer appeared as dangerous; this is possibly due to the destruction of the temple of Bel-Shamharoth by Rincewind during the book.
The Disc's magical field is centred on the Cori Celesti. Everyday natural forces, such as light and magnetism, are muffled by the power of the Disc's magical field, and rather than a magnetised needle, navigators on the Disc use a compass with a needle of the magical metal octiron, which will always point towards Cori Celesti. Light is so oddly affected by magic that, as it passes into the Disc's atmosphere, it actually slows down from millions to hundreds of miles an hour, so that, as the Disc has no horizon, it is actually possible to see days into the past from some of the higher mountain peaks. One odd effect of this is that the Disc has time zones, when, as a flat world, it shouldn't. Another effect is that, as reported in Thud!, the red- and blue-shifting of light becomes noticeable when traveling at speeds of merely a hundred and twenty miles per hour.
The power of belief
With reality spread as thin as it is on the Disc, it is not surprising that events are easily affected by human expectations. Such a world is not governed by physics or logic but by belief and narrative resolution. Essentially, if something is believed strongly enough, it is true. Our world has jokes about treacle mines and drop bears; the Disc has treacle mines and drop bears. In our world, lemmings don't actually rush en masse off cliffs, but on the Disc they do, because that is what people believe (actually, since mass suicide would seriously foul up natural selection, they tend to abseil down them instead). This acts as a useful energy saver in both wizard and witch magic. For example, if you wish to turn a cat into a human, the easiest way is to convince him, on a deep level, that he is a human.
More significantly, it is also belief that gives the gods their powers. Discworld gods start off as tiny spirits, and gain power as they gain believers. A similar effect has led to the "reification" of mythological beings symbolising abstract concepts, such as Death. In Hogfather, the assassin Mr. Teatime tries to kill the patron of Hogswatch by using an old magic that involves controlling a person with a part of their body (in this case, the teeth collected by the Tooth Fairies), in order to stop children from believing in him, and almost succeeds.
On the Disc, if a story or legend is told often enough and believed by enough people, it becomes true. This is known as the law of narrative causality. Dragons, as Terry Pratchett explains, do not breathe fire because they have asbestos lungs, they breathe fire because that is what dragons do. On the Disc, if a witch goes bad, she will inevitably build a house of gingerbread and lure children to their doom, only to be thrown into her own oven. If a miller has a fourth son, he will invariably leave him only his cat, and that cat will then of course lead the boy onto fame and fortune. A hero will win only when outnumbered. Million-to-one chances to escape certain death are routinely successful and they "crop up nine times out of ten". Witches often employ narrative in their magic, but consider it ethically tricky since it is interfering with free will. This is the source of Granny Weatherwax's hatred of fiction. The habit of many Discworlders to take metaphor literally has combined with the power of belief to produce some very odd areas. The Place Where The Sun Does Not Shine, for instance, is a deep crevasse in Lancre, incidentally located between a rock and a hard place.
The Disc's nature is fundamentally teleological; its basic composition is determined by what it is ultimately meant to be. Its primary element, out of which all others spring, is known as narrativium, the elemental substance of Story. Nothing on the Disc can exist without a Story first existing to mold its destiny and determine its form. This is, perhaps, a take on the fact that nothing can ever happen on the Disc unless it is written in a story by Terry Pratchett (see metafiction).
Populace
See List of Discworld characters for a list of characters from the novels.
The Discworld is populated by numerous classic fantasy and mythological races as well as humans. While humans are typically the main inhabitants of the major cities there are many other races that have left their traditional domain and integrated with other, sometimes hostile, species. Pratchett has different characteristics for some of these races when compared to other noted authors.
- Dwarfs (other definitions)
- Trolls (other definitions)
- Golems (other definitions)
- Gnomes (other definitions)
- Undead (other definitions)
- Elves (other definitions)
- Werewolves (other definitions)
- Fauna of the Discworld
- Discworld gods
Calendar
The Discworld calendar was first defined in a footnote in The Colour of Magic, and has been expanded upon in later novels and The Discworld Almanak (2004). It has numurous oddities, the chief of which is its length.
The calendar is based on a Great Year, or Astronomical Year, defined as the time it takes for the Disc to revolve once on the backs of the elephants. This lasts 800 days and contains two of each season (Midsummer occurs at a given point when the sun passes directly overhead, midwinter when it passes perpendicularly. However most people, especially farmers, consider four seasons to be a year, so an Agricultural Year of 400 days is used for most purposes.
The agricultural year is divided into 13 months:
- Ick (16 days) (the "Dead Month")
- Offle (32 days)
- February (32 days)
- March (32 days)
- April (32 days)
- May (32 days)
- June (32 days)
- Grune (32 days)
- August (32 days)
- Spune (32 days)
- Sektober (32 days)
- Ember (32 days)
- December (32 days)
Each week has eight days: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Octeday.[2]
Hogswatchnight
The first of Ick is Hogswatchday, the Disc's New Year, and the winter solstice from the perspective of Ankh-Morpork. In the Astronomical Year the second midwinter (the year's midway point) is called Crueltide, but to people using the Agricultural Year this is the same festival.
The 32nd of December, or the day before the New Year, is known as Hogswatchnight. Traditionally associated with pig-killing, to ensure there is enough food for the rest of the winter. Many Hogswatch traditions are parodies of those associated with Christmas, including a decorated oak tree in a pot, strings of paper sausages, and, of course, a visit by the Hogfather. By tradition, witches do not leave the house on Hogswatchnight. No-one knows why, but that's not the point, this is true of a lot of Hogswatch traditions. Nanny Ogg gets around this tradition by inviting the rest of the town in instead.
The name is a pun on "hogwash", Hogmanay and Watch Night.
In the Omnian religion, Hogswatchnight is called the Fast of St Ossory. Omnians celebrate with fasting, prayer meetings, and the exchange of religious pamphlets.
Usage
The calendar in general use in the Sto Plains and Ramtops ("Ankh-Morpork years") uses the agricultural year, and counts from the founding of Unseen University. Years and centuries are also given names by the UU's astrologers. 2005 AM, for instance, is the Year of the Prawn, the fifth year of the Century of the Anchovy. The majority of the Discworld novels are set in the 20th century AM, the Century of the Fruitbat, with the later ones entering the 21st, the Century of the Anchovy.
Other calendars count from various other events, and different schools of astronomy give the years different names. The Theocracy of Muntab has a calendar that counts down, rather than up. The reason for this is unknown, but people are very nervous about it reaching zero.
Communication and travel
Since their development around the time of The Fifth Elephant, clacks towers have been one of the principal means of communication around the Disc. This massive network of semaphore towers stretches out across the Unnamed Continent and allows a message to be sent from Ankh-Morpork to Genua in a few hours where it would take two months by coach.
The Post Office, detailed alongside the clacks towers in Going Postal, went through a time of disrepair before Moist von Lipwig turned it into a successful enterprise. The use of mail coaches allows letters to be delivered around the Unnamed Continent, with different cities and organisations having their own set of stamps.
Extensive travel is rare on the Discworld, with many people living in one area for their entire lives. While the city of Ankh Morpork attracts many immigrants, these seldom return home and instead send letters, and possibly money, back to their relatives. Much of the travel that does occur takes place by coach, although services can be somewhat sporadic and unpredictable, especially in less populated areas. Travel by river boat is also known.
The Disc's magic users and non-human races frequently have their own unique methods of travel. For instance, dwarves have vast underground networks of navigable tunnels with wagonways and canals; gnomes and pictsies can fly on the backs of birds; and banshees and vampires can fly unaided. Witches often fly using broomsticks. These allow skilful operators to fly high enough to clear mountains, and, in one quite-likely unrepeatable event, overtake the night. Magic carpets are not unheard of, and wizards have one of the most spectacular methods of transportation: seven-league boots. However these are mainly spectacular when something goes wrong. It can be tricky using an artifact that relies on you putting one foot 21 miles in front of the other. The groin strain is tremendous.
Other Discworlds
Other discworlds known to exist in the Discworld universe include Bathys, a water world which is home to sea trolls; a world with a tree in the center whose roots form mountain ranges; and an unnamed world ringed by a giant serpent. The last two are clear references to different aspects of Norse mythology.
One of Pratchett's earlier novels, Strata, features a different disc-shaped world.
Other dimensions
The Discworld exists at a point near the very edge of the universe's reality spectrum. From here, the fabric of reality is gossamer and thin, and excessive pushing can and often does break holes into other, often far less hospitable, domains. The most dangerous of these domains are the Dungeon Dimensions, a region beyond reality itself, whose inhabitants (inspired by the formless horrors of HP Lovecraft) wait to swamp our reality with all the force "of an ocean warming itself against a candle." A number of minor universes attach themselves tangentally to the Discworld, particularly Death's Domain, the home of the Disc's Grim Reaper, from which he descends to do his job, and the parasite universe of Fairyland, home of the sociopathic and vicious Elves. The Dark Desert is a region that, according to the Omnian religion, souls cross to pass into the next world. Death frequently takes souls here, and in recent books, it seems to have become the afterlife of choice for most Discworlders, not just Omnians. The Disc also has a Hell, similar to that described by Dante, (though rather than "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here", the sign above its gates reads "You Don't Have To Be Damned To Work Here, But It Helps!!!") and, like Milton's Hell, its capital is Pandaemonium. Various Underworlds have also been glimpsed, similar to Hades or Annwn. Another universe connected to the Disc is Roundworld (our own universe), initially created by the wizards of the Unseen University as a zone where the laws of magic did not apply. L-Space, a dimension that connects every library and book depository in the universe, is a natural outgrowth of the fact that knowledge is power, power is energy, energy is mass, and mass warps space.
Notes
- ^ http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/discworld/dollar.html
- ^ GURPS Discworld, Steve Jackson Games, 1998. ISBN 1-55634-261-6