Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki - User contributions [en]

Veltrick I

2010-11-24T04:08:14Z

64.121.62.37:

The founder, patron and inspiration behind the very first [[Ankh-Morpork City Watch]]. Veltrick I set up the Watch with the intention of it becoming an efficient and loyal police force and militia. Unfortunately, he was assassinated by his son four days after the Watch was established, with the connivance of the then-Empress of Sto, and the new monarch set aside his father's plan for efficient police.

The only things that survived the brief reign of Veltrick I are the continued physical existance of the Watch, and, crucially, a handful of the original issue of Watch badges. Most are in various City museums and it is believed the only original watch badge still active today is no. 177 - held in the Vimes family, the current holder being Sir [[Samuel Vimes]], Commander of the Watch and Duke of Ankh.

==Annotations==

The establishment of the Watch by a head of state who was immediately assassinated parallels the Roundworld history of the U.S. Secret Service, founded by President Lincoln on April 14, 1865, the very day of his death. (Not their fault; initially, their duties were concerned solely with apprehending counterfeiters, not bodyguarding federal officials.)

[[Category:Discworld characters]]

Talk:Gnomes

2010-11-20T17:07:24Z

64.121.62.37: /* New spin on gnomes vs. pictsies */

Thank you whoever added the clarification about the Nomes of the Bromeliad series. It had slipped my mind. ~ vsl

That seems to have been [[User:Jogibaer|Jogibaer]], actually; [[User:vsl|vsl]]'s comment was 30 Aug 2005. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:34, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Whoops... discreetly drawing a veil. Couldn't remember if it was one of mine or not but it felt like it - actually somebody else's... (fetches coat and leaves quietly)--[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 19:49, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

No need to rush off; vsl might have signed it properly, too. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 21:07, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

== Swires first appearance ==

"[[Buggy Swires]], first appearance as a Watchman in Jingo)." - This sentence reads a bit ambiguously. I'm pretty sure Swires' first appearance was {{TLF}} as the first gnome we meet (after Rincewind earlier thinks they're extinct). He's just called "Swires", but we can assume it's Buggy? Does this sentence say that Buggy's first appearance ''as a watchman'' was in Jingo, or his first appearance ever?

Also a thought re. Buggy Swires and Wee Mad Arthur living solitary existences away from the beehive-like society of the [[Pictsies|nac mac Feegle.]] If a typical Feegle clan has one fertile [[Kelda|Queen]], and only one "drone" gets to be her husband and father of the next generation of Feegles, this leaves thousands of Feegle playing out a existence parellel to workers and drones within the Hive. We must sidestep the great unspoken - and possibly taboo - topic of whether sexual frustration (whether consciously realised or not) adds to the characteristic propensity to violence of the species, although this is tempting to consider if you think deeply about the Feegle.

There are species of bees that will either live solitary lives or exist in far smaller looser communities than that of the honeybee. The bumblebee is a prime example. Could Swires and Wee Mad Arthur be, in effect, "bumblebee" versions of the Feegle? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee] The bumblebee lives in more modest communities of no more than fifty individuals. Other bee species genuinely live more solitary lives, only seeking out others during the mating season: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee#Solitary_and_communal_bees]. So who knows, there may be "keldas" of the same inclination as Swires and Arthur out there - as TP writes ferociously independent and strong female characters, such a one might be actively seeking for the right Pictsie and her quest might well lead her to Ankh-Morpork...--[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 23:50, 29 January 2008 (CET)

Or are the Gnome jewellers just filling another niche like urban rat-catching or piloting buzzards? They seem adaptable. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:34, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Like their Roundworld avatars, the Gnomes probably have their drunken thieving louts (Gordon Highlander rejects,) and their fine machinists, shipbuilders (SHIP, not SHEEP,) and engineers and somewhere, some upright Presbyterian barley farmers. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 23:00, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

There is a female gnome that appears with a baby during 'Theatre of Cruelty', which would seem to suggest that they are a separate species which lacks the eusocial behavior of the Feegles.

== New spin on gnomes vs. pictsies ==

With the release of ''I Shall Wear Midnight'', it has become apparent that gnomes and pictsies are ''not'' the same species, any more than humans and dwarfs are. Wee Mad Arthur is clearly identified as a Feegle raised by gnomes, who retains certain Feegle-ish tendencies due to heredity. This largely disqualifies him as a valid example of "gnomish" behavior, and goes a long way to resolve the uncertainty as to how the two races are related.

With Arthur's case eliminated from consideration, that leaves us with Buggy Swires, the "Swires" from TLF (possibly a relative?), and the performers from 'Theatre of Cruelty' as true examples of Discworld gnomes. Arthur's foster parents were shoemakers, and apparently quite sedentary by nature; this, together with gnomes' role in crafting Hex's more delicate components, suggests that most true gnomes are craftsmen of some sort. As Arthur's aggressiveness prevented him from fitting in among his foster family, it also appears that gnomes are less violent than Feegles: a fact that explains why the gnome family victimized in 'Theater of Cruelty' didn't simply trounce their oppressor a lot sooner, Feegle-fashion. They presumably lack the Feegles' fairy-folk ability to move between dimensions, else they could never have been held captive by Slumber in the first place.

If gnomes are not pictsies, this reconciles the presence of a gnome female with a (single) baby in TOC: they are ''not'' eusocial like the Feegles, with a more conventional sex ratio and breeding pattern. Presumably, gnomes are the species which Pterry had in mind, in claiming that tiny men who visit Ankh-Morpork soon go looking for tiny women. The presence of miniature animals in TOC also suggests that gnomes have bred tiny dogs scaled to their own proportions, whereas pictsies have only recently begun crude attempts at livestock-rearing (snails).

Talk:Sourcerer

2010-11-14T22:02:41Z

64.121.62.37:

Apologies, just trying to make a tidy job of it... it does seem incredible that a magical event of this magnitude, that while it was raging would have changed the look of the entire world, did not attract the attention and active participation of the Witches, but nothing has so far been said about this aspect... Even if the later magic of Coin, to restore everything to exactly "as good as old" (with no doubt the History Monks being involved at some point, as this is their trade) left the events of Sourcery as just a hazy half-fogotten dream to most non-magical people, the Witches would not have been so easily fooled; they would remember EXACTLY what happened... apologies if an attempt to make sense of this omission spilled over into speculation.--[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 15:41, 14 May 2007 (CEST)

The Lancre Witches, along with the rest of Lancre, were on a fifteen-year sabbatical in other dimensions at the time, and presumably didn't even notice. ({{WS}})...--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 16:23, 14 May 2007 (CEST)

Possibly the absence of the Lancre witches is also the reason witches as a whole didn't involve themselves in the conflict: many of those who weren't on a 15-year hiatus may have opted not to take a stand on the issue, without first knowing Granny Weatherwax's opinion on the subject.

:"It is Rommel's good fortune that he led the Afrika Korps, a German army with, uniquely, no SS component"

:More than mere good fortune: Rommel made it explicitly clear that he would not have any SS men in Africa. On the other hand, in 1944 in France Rommel, necessarily, had several Waffen-SS divisions reporting to him, and some (notably the 2nd SS "Das Reich") committed atrocities during that period.[[User:Solicitr|Solicitr]] 16:58, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

Gamblers' Guild

2010-11-14T17:51:23Z

64.121.62.37:

[[Image:Excretus.jpg|250px|left]] Motto: EXCRETUS EX FORTUNA (''Shit out of luck'')

The Gamblers' Guild House is built on the [[Street of Alchemists]], opposite the Guild House of the [[Alchemists' Guild|Alchemists]]. Given that the Alchemists blow their building up periodically, visitors to the Gamblers sometimes ask why they choose to remain sited here when there is such a high chance of being blown up. They are politely asked if they read the sign on the way in.

The panels on the gamblers' coat of arms (a sabre, an octagon, a turtle, a crowned A, a sceptre, a chalice, a coin and an elephant) represent the eight suits of the classic [[Ankh-Morpork]] pack of cards.

Presidents are chosen (how else?) by the draw of a card. The current president is [[Scrote Jones]], although a leading member called [[Doc Pseudopolis]] (named on the basis that one should never play cards against a man named after a city) represents the guild in the [[Rats Chamber]] in ''Feet of Clay''.

The Guild's chief function is to regulate the use of marked cards, shaved dice, and other tried-and-true means of tilting the odds in a gambler's favor. Not ''banning'' them, mind, but ensuring that these cheating methods meet with Guild standards: if two Guild members play against one another, their respective tricks should cancel each other out, and victory defaults to the luckiest and most skilled. Non-Guild players are unfair game.

Gamblers revere but ''never'' call on [[The Lady]], as it is well-known that luck deserts those who ask for it, but often unexpectedly aids those who don't look for it. A sub-sect of gamblers who ''really'' didn't get it set up a religious cult worshipping The Lady. They were all broke and/or dead within weeks.

Coat of Arms by [[User:Knmatt|Matt Smith]]
[[Category:Guilds]]
[[de:Spielergilde]]

Book:Equal Rites/Annotations

2010-09-11T23:48:14Z

64.121.62.37:

== Annotations ==

* "She prided herself on her unrivaled knowledge of the properties of Ramtops herbage - none knew better than she the many uses of [[earwort]], [[Maiden's Wish]] and [[Love-Lies-Oozing]]" - Granny is much more of a herbalist here than in {{WA}}, where Magrat claims that Granny just gives people colored water to make them feel better (Granny makes this claim herself in this book, but Magrat implies that Granny does this because Granny doesn't know more about herbs). Possibly she learned herbalism before she'd figured out Headology, or she uses them to cure animals and/or fellow witches, saving the colored water for those who'll believe in its power.

* "...smelling of anti-moth herbs" - a silly reference to mothballs?

* Granny Borrows bee minds in this book. In [[Lords and Ladies]] she specifically says this is very difficult, but manages to do it for the "first time" there. Could be another of those mistakes in time referenced in [[Thief of Time]], or perhaps she could only ''observe'' bees' minds at this point, and learned to direct a whole swarm via Borrowing later.

* "You know that. Esk didn't." - Pterry seems to address the reader quite a bit in the book. J.R.R. Tolkien used the same literary device in ''The Hobbit''.

* "All wizards knew ... the important thing about moving something from A to Z, according to basic physics, was that at some point it should pass through the rest of the alphabet." - [[Ponder Stibbons]] finally manages to overcome this rule when he teleports [[Rincewind]] in {{IT}}

* "...wizard of the third rank or above" - Is 'rank' another word for 'level' here? (Presumably so, given that they're synonymous with each other.)

* "His Adam's apple..." - I wonder how this Discworld phrase originated? Or is it Translation Convention at work?

* "According to the standard poetic instructions one should move through a fair like the white swan at evening moves o'er the bay" - a reference to the Irish folk song {{wp|She_Moved_Through_the_Fair|She Moved Through the Fair}}, which has slightly different lyrics.

* "The lodgings were on the top floor next to the well-guarded premises of a respectable dealer in stolen property because, as Granny had heard, good fences make good neighbors." - reference to the Robert Frost poem {{wp|Mending_Wall|Mending Wall}}

* "There are two ways of getting into Unseen University [...] The first is to achieve some great work of magic, such as the recovery of an ancient and powerful relic or the invention of a totally new spell" - this line shows that [[Ridcully]] didn't just make up this possibility when he presented it to [[Rincewind]] in {{IT}}

* Granny makes references to several witches, but doesn't mention [[Nanny Ogg]], even though we later discovery that Nanny and Granny are lifelong friends. (Perhaps she felt that Esk was far too young to be subjected to "The Hedgehog Song"?) Nanny won't make her first appearance until {{WS}}.

* Even though some of the action takes place in the Unseen University [[Library]] and the Librarian is present, then-assistant librarian [[Rincewind]] is conspicously absent. But given his unwilling tendency towards adventuring, it could be he's off somewhere interesting, moving at high speed.

* "Fiftysevenfiftysevenfiftysevenwell?" - one of the frequent [[57]] references in TP's work

* And of course the open and veiled references to the old English folk song '''''The Two Magicians''''', which, as Granny Weatherwax would darkly mutter, refers to ''goings-on'' (as most folk songs eventually do). In the song, a wizard pursues a witch, with ''carryings-on'' in mind, but she eludes and fights him by continual transformations of herself, to which he responds by continual transformations of ''him''self...

"She became a trout, a trout all in the brook;

But he became a feathered fly, and catched her with his hook!"

Possibly the best version was done by electric folkies '''''Steeleye Span''''' on the LP '''''Now We Are Six'''''.

Three variants of the lyrics and a discussion of the themes (male magic versus female) can be found here:- [http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/martin.carthy/songs/thetwomagicians.html]

And a brilliantly good animated performance of the song may be seen here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNcULrEV9kU]. Watch. Appreciate! This is good.

== Roundworld References ==

Direct references to [[Roundworld]]:

* {{wp|Steven_Speilberg|Steven Spielberg}}, popular filmmaker
* {{wp|Gormenghast_%28castle%29|Gormenghast}}, a foreboding fictional castle

[http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/equal-rites.html| ''Equal Rites'' Annotations - The Annotated Pratchett File]

[[Category:Annotations]]