"Religions of the Discworld The world depicted in Terry Pratchett's ""Discworld"" series of novels has a lively and complex religious life. The Discworld has numerous gods, multiple afterlifes, several organised religions and religious orders, and a variety of demons. 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 appears in our own, more mundane corner of existence. Because reality on the Disc is so fragile and malleable, belief has a tendency to take on"
"the backs of four elephants, who in turn rest on the back of the gigantic world turtle Great A'Tuin. In the Discworld novel ""Small Gods"", the Great God Om manifests as a tortoise. In ""The Grapes of Wrath"", John Steinbeck uses the tortoise as an emblem of the resolve and persistence of the ""Okies"" that travel west across the US for a better life. Ursula K. Le Guin's novel ""The Lathe of Heaven"" introduces a person whose dreams involuntarily become reality. The novel eventually features sea turtle aliens. There is a character called the Mock Turtle in Lewis Carroll's ""Alice's"
"over with their shell down to protect themselves 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"
"Flora and fauna of the Discworld Terry Pratchett's fictional Discworld has a large number of creatures and plants unique to it or its parasite universes (such as Fairyland or Death's Domain). A big cat with a unique black and white check coat, the ambiguous puzuma is the Disc's fastest animal. Due to the Disc's standing magical field, which slows down light to approximately the speed of sound, the puzuma can actually achieve near-light-speed. Therefore, seeing a puzuma in motion means it isn't there. Puzumas commonly die from complications caused by Sangrit Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle; they lose concentration because they cannot"
"Dwarfs (Discworld) Dwarfs 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 and brandishing axes. However, they have many unique qualities. Dwarfs originate from the Ramtops and Überwald, but many have moved down to the Sto Plains (Ankh-Morpork is now the largest dwarfish colony on the Disc outside of Überwald). Incidentally, Pratchett uses the plural ""dwarfs"", not Tolkien's ""dwarves"", and ""dwarfish"" instead of ""dwarven"". Dwarfs are shorter"
"It is one of the few series where orcs are featured as the main characters. In Terry Pratchett's ""Discworld"" series, Orcs are a race that is close to extinction. They were originally bred (or made) from men and not goblins, as was commonly believed, in order to be used as weapons in a Great War, 'encouraged' by whips and beatings. To date only one living Orc, called Nutt, has been shown as a primary character, although it has been indicated that there are others that exist in the wilds of far Uberwald. The brutal reputation and legends of Orcs reflects"
"is known as the ""steady gait"" theory, is that he/she came from nowhere and is going to keep swimming through space to nowhere forever. ""Eric"" shows Great A'Tuin being made instantly from nothing, seemingly in support of the ""steady gait"" theory; 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. The little turtles have since gone off on their own journeys. Whether this was the event the Great A'Tuin was"
"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 the Discworld version of the popular ""Big Bang theory"" states, Great A'Tuin is moving from the Birthplace to the Time of Mating, then at the point of mating the civilizations of the Disc might be crushed, simply slide off, or else the entire world will end. The hypothesis is that all stars in the sky are obviously also worlds carried by giant turtles, and that when all the turtles"
"species of Mesozoic ginkgo has been named ""Ginkgoites weatherwaxiae"" in Granny Weatherwax's honour. Granny Weatherwax Esmerelda ""Esme"" Weatherwax (also Granny Weatherwax or Mistress 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. She is one of the ""Discworld"" series's main protagonists, having major roles in seven novels. She is a very powerful witch, and is reckoned to be more powerful than the most well-known witch on the Discworld, Black Aliss (real name: Aliss"
"Elves (Discworld) In Terry Pratchett's ""Discworld"" novels, elves are of a race that lived before the Iron Age, and were banished by steel weapons. Elves on the Discworld are based on the nastier kind of fairy-folk in European (and other) folklores rather than elves as portrayed in most modern (post-Tolkien) fantasy fiction. They are native to the Disc, but now live in a parallel world, sometimes called Fairyland. During certain times of the year, such as Mid-Summer, the walls between Fairyland and ordinary reality become thin, allowing the elves (and other fae creatures such as unicorns, Jenny Greenteeth and, before"
"the turtle also show up in King's novel ""It"", where the turtle represents the opposition to the terror that is It. Turtle is a character who figures prominently in Barbara Kingsolver's novels ""The Bean Trees"" and ""Pigs in Heaven"". She is a Cherokee child whose adoptive mother, Taylor Greer, so nicknamed her because Turtle grabs onto Taylor and will not let go. Taylor explains, ""In Kentucky where I grew up, people used to say if a snapping turtle gets hold of you it won't let go till it thunders."" In the books by Terry Pratchett, the Discworld is carried on"
"gripping and balancing atop a large ball. The ball is a living, though temporarily separable, portion of the Polarian's body. David Brin's ""Uplift"" Universe includes a wheeled species called the g'Kek, which are described in some detail in the 1995 novel ""Brightness Reef"". In 1996's ""Infinity's Shore"", a g'Kek is described as looking like ""a squid in a wheelchair."" The g'Kek suffer from arthritic axles in their old age, particularly when living in a high gravity environment. A 1997 novel in the ""Animorphs"" series, ""The Andalite Chronicles"", includes an alien called a Mortron, composed of two separate entities: a yellow"
"wizards of Unseen University, ""Chelys galactica"", and thus Great A'Tuin, are composed largely of the fictional element chelonium, the properties of which are apparently known to them (they do tests to look for it in Roundworld [the Discworld analogue of Earth] in ""The Science of Discworld""), but not to readers. The Disc itself is described as roughly 10,000 miles wide, giving it a surface area two-fifths that of the Earth, which would make it roughly the size of the Pacific Ocean. In addition to its flatness, Pratchett gives it another principal geographic feature; Cori Celesti, a great, 10-mile-high spire of"
"thus fulfilling his original mission. The book finishes with Carrot and Angua returning to Ankh-Morpork. Carrot takes back his old rank of captain, returning Colon to his duties as a sergeant and ordering him and Nobby to gather the rest of the Watch together. The Fifth Elephant The Fifth Elephant is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the 24th book in the ""Discworld"" series. It introduces the clacks, a long-distance semaphore system. The novel was nominated for the Locus Award in 2000. The Ankh-Morpork City Watch is expanding; there is now a Traffic department with traffic cameras implemented"
"to stone by sunlight like Tolkien's trolls; Discworld Furies have physical similarities to the Furies of Greco-Roman myth, but have different roles. In the list below, Discworld races are followed by the real-world inspiration for them. Pratchett has also created a variety of other fictional life on the Discworld. Like the sentient species, these also have a real-world connection, although most of these connections take the form of slight changes to existing real-world animals, as shown in the .303 bookworm, which is a worm that evolved differently due to the danger of consuming magic books, or the hermit elephant, which"
"is an elephant who has evolved hermit crab-like living conditions. The Discworld's Unnamed Continent's fictional 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 numerous 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"
"the four Animal Spirit guides, each representing one of the four elements. Taking the form of large sculpted lantern barges, they consist of a Tiger (representing Fire), an African Elephant and her calf (representing Earth), a Sea Turtle and its offspring (representing Water), and a Great Horned Owl with her owlets (representing Air). Moving across the lagoon and changing color to the music, the Animal Spirits begin to leave their lanterns one by one and take to the sky in an astral form, bringing the lotuses to life and heralding the arrival of the Temple Lotus. After the animal spirits"
"Granny Weatherwax Esmerelda ""Esme"" Weatherwax (also Granny Weatherwax or Mistress 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. She is one of the ""Discworld"" series's main protagonists, having major roles in seven novels. She is a very powerful witch, and is reckoned to be more powerful than the most well-known witch on the Discworld, Black Aliss (real name: Aliss Demurrage), who is responsible for any number of witcheries in fairy tales, such"
"World Turtle The World Turtle (also referred to as the Cosmic Turtle or the World-bearing Turtle) is a mytheme of a giant turtle (or tortoise) supporting or containing the world. The mytheme, which is similar to that of the World Elephant and World Serpent, occurs in Hindu mythology, Chinese mythology, Scientology and the mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The ""World-Tortoise"" mytheme was discussed comparatively by Edward Burnett Tylor (1878:341). The World Turtle in Hindu mythology is known as ""Akupāra"" (Sanskrit: अकूपार), or sometimes ""Chukwa"". An example of a reference to the World Turtle in Hindu literature is"
"Tiffany Aching Tiffany Aching is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's satirical ""Discworld"" series of fantasy novels. Her name in Nac Mac Feegle is Tir-far-thóinn or ""Land Under Wave"". 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"", ""I Shall Wear Midnight"" and ""The Shepherd's Crown"". Tiffany grows up over the course of the series, from nine years old in ""The Wee Free Men"" to being in her late teens in ""The Shepherd's"
"to defend their community and their work from an evil Tyrannosaurus Trux, named D-Structs. Dinotrux and Reptools share a symbiotic relationship with one another. For example, larger Ty provides smaller Revvit with safety, shelter and security, who in turn fixes and maintains Ty when needed. In UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will publish the series soon on DVD. Dinotrux Dinotrux is an American computer-animated web cartoon. It features a fictional prehistoric world inhabited by hybrid characters that are part dinosaur and part mechanical construction vehicle. The larger Dinotrux are accompanied by Rotilian Reptools who are"
"to refer to apes, particularly chimpanzees, gibbons, and gorillas. Author Terry Pratchett alludes to this difference in usage in his ""Discworld"" novels, in which the Librarian of the Unseen University is an orangutan who gets very violent if referred to as a monkey. Another example is the use of Simians in Chinese poetry. The winged monkeys are prominent characters in ""The Wizard of Oz"". Monkey is the symbol of fourth ""Tirthankara"" in Jainism, Abhinandananatha. Hanuman, a prominent deity in Hinduism, is a human-like monkey god who is believed to bestow courage, strength and longevity to the person who thinks about"
"The Fifth Elephant The Fifth Elephant is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the 24th book in the ""Discworld"" series. It introduces the clacks, a long-distance semaphore system. The novel was nominated for the Locus Award in 2000. The Ankh-Morpork City Watch is expanding; there is now a Traffic department with traffic cameras implemented using iconograph technology and a wheel clamping team, and the clacks are beginning to replace homing pigeons for communications between officers. The Watch is also investigating the theft of the replica Scone of Stone (a parody of the real-life Stone of Scone) from the"
"book and was only fully explained in ""Alien Planet"". In his Expedition, Barlowe clearly states that he wanted to represent the most impressive, most appealing animals of the planet. There are millions of species who are not represented in detail, even though they have to be an essential part of Darwin IV's ecosystem. Barlowe refers to them as the 'microflyers', tiny animals and plants living in the atmosphere of the planet like plankton lives in the oceans of Earth. Most animals represented in both the book and the movie belong to one of two essential groups: the floaters and the"
"fresh coat of paint and even new curtains (a joke on real world's rock band's habit of ""redecorating"" their hotel rooms, in the sense of thrashing them). Dwarfs (Discworld) Dwarfs 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 and brandishing axes. However, they have many unique qualities. Dwarfs originate from the Ramtops and Überwald, but many have moved down to the Sto Plains (Ankh-Morpork is now"
"Lord Vetinari Lord Havelock Vetinari, Lord Patrician (Primus inter pares) of the city-state of Ankh-Morpork, is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's ""Discworld"" series, a series of forty-one books describing a parallel universe whose main world has reflections of our Earth. He is depicted as the ruler of the city-state of Ankh-Morpork. Vetinari is sometimes said to have been based on the Italian statesman and diplomat, Niccolò Machiavelli, but in fact favours a subtly different (though equally pragmatic) form of administration. Lord Vetinari was born into the extremely powerful Vetinari family (a pun, or play on words, on the real-life"
"Ankh-Morpork Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which features prominently in Terry Pratchett's ""Discworld"" fantasy novels. Pratchett describes this biggest city of Discworld as the corrupt mercantile capital of the Discworld. In ""The Art of Discworld"" Pratchett explains that the city is similar to Tallinn and central Prague, but adds that it has elements of 18th-century London, 19th-century Seattle and modern New York City. He also states that since the creation of ""The Streets of Ankh-Morpork"", he has tried to ensure that the descriptions of character movements and locations in the books match the Ankh-Morpork map; this has allowed him, and"
"to that, there may not only be one King and Queen. However, due to the elves' lack of imagination and creativity any Kings and Queens of the Elves tend to be similar. Elves (Discworld) In Terry Pratchett's ""Discworld"" novels, elves are of a race that lived before the Iron Age, and were banished by steel weapons. Elves on the Discworld are based on the nastier kind of fairy-folk in European (and other) folklores rather than elves as portrayed in most modern (post-Tolkien) fantasy fiction. They are native to the Disc, but now live in a parallel world, sometimes called Fairyland."
"Wintersmith Wintersmith is a comic fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, set in the Discworld and written with younger readers in mind. It is labelled a ""Story of Discworld"" to indicate its status as children's or young adult fiction, unlike most of the books in the ""Discworld"" series. Published on 21 September 2006, it is the third novel in the series to feature the character of Tiffany Aching. It received recognition as a 2007 Best Book for Young Adults from the American Library Association. In 2013 folk-rock band Steeleye Span collaborated with Pratchett, a fan of the band, to"
"thrive) and pantropy (genetically altering humans to thrive on marginally habitable worlds). Humanity has also become the custodian of The Winslow, an immortal, indestructible, sentient small fuzzy alligator-like creature that usually doesn't do anything more than say ""Hi!"", and is highly sought after by other species for various reasons. However, the chaotic nature of human expansion into space has resulted in two Great Checks: a powerful alien intelligence known as Lord Thezmothete, who prevents humans and other species from exploiting pre-spaceflight civilizations; and the emergence of the Law Machines, intelligent robots that enforce the law in all places. The Law"
"in ""Herr Goering's Artefact"" and the life of the survivors in ""Three Weeks of Bliss"". Deep One The Deep Ones are creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. The beings first appeared in Lovecraft's novella ""The Shadow Over Innsmouth"" (1931), but were already hinted at in the early short story ""Dagon"". The Deep Ones are a race of intelligent ocean-dwelling creatures, approximately human-shaped but with a fishy, froggy appearance. They regularly mate with humans along the coast, creating societies of hybrids. Numerous Mythos elements are associated with the Deep Ones, including the legendary town of Innsmouth, the undersea"
"or more ""monsters,"" but these are not mythical creatures, rather being some type of ferocious predator. Monsters have included snakes, and adders (from ""Redwall"", ""Doomwyte"", and ""Triss""), large carnivorous fish such as pike, and sharks (from ""Marlfox"", ""The Bellmaker"", ""Triss"", ""Lord Brocktree"", and ""Mossflower""), a plesiosaur-type creature (from ""High Rhulain""), a wolverine (from ""Rakkety Tam""), a scorpion (from ""Mariel of Redwall"") and a giant sea serpent (from ""Salamandastron"" and ""High Rhulain"" though mentioned very very briefly in the latter), along with an eel (from ""Mossflower"", ""The Taggerung"", ""The Long Patrol"", ""Outcast of Redwall"", and ""The Sable Quean""), a giant lobster"
"books, television programs, and movies. Sun Wukong (the ""Monkey King""), a character who figures prominently in Chinese mythology, is the main protagonist in the classic comic Chinese novel ""Journey to the West"". The television series ""Monkey"", the literary characters Monsieur Eek and Curious George are all examples. The winged monkeys are prominent characters in ""The Wizard of Oz"". However, pop culture often incorrectly labels apes, particularly chimpanzees, gibbons, gorillas and orangutans as monkeys. Terry Pratchett makes use of the distinction in his ""Discworld"" novels, in which the Librarian of the Unseen University is an orangutan who gets very violent if"