50 Fun Facts About Discworld

Who wrote the Discworld novels?

He published the first in 1983 and the 41st, posthumously, in 2015.

The Discworld rests on the backs of how many elephants?

They in turn stand on the back of the giant turtle Great A'Tuin, swimming through space.

What is the name of the giant turtle that carries the Discworld through space?

The other three names belong to the elephants; the turtle's sex is a matter of fierce scholarly debate.

How many novels make up the Discworld series?

The Colour of Magic opened it in 1983 and The Shepherd's Crown closed it in 2015.

What was the title of the first Discworld novel, published in 1983?

Colin Smythe published it in hardback with a first printing of just 506 copies.

How many copies were in the first British printing of the 1983 debut novel?

More than 80 million Discworld books have been sold since, in 37 languages.

What is the biggest city on the Disc, its corrupt mercantile capital?

It is run by the Patrician and its economy by the Guilds, on a system of one man, one vote.

Which cowardly, incompetent wizard was the first Discworld protagonist?

A spell lodged in his mind scares all the others away; he was born with a wizard's spirit and a sprinter's body.

Twoflower, the Disc's first tourist, is an insurance clerk from where?

His homeland is so rich in gold that a mere clerk is a millionaire by Ankh-Morpork standards.

The Luggage is made from which magical material?

It walks on hundreds of little legs and Twoflower gave it to Rincewind at the end of The Light Fantastic.

Pratchett said he unwittingly took his cowardly wizard's name from a column in which paper?

'Churm Rincewind' was a fictitious person in the early Beachcomber columns.

What is the name of Death's pale horse?

Death is a seven-foot skeleton who speaks in small caps; Albert is his butler and Quoth his raven.

Death appears in every Discworld novel except Snuff and which other?

Sometimes he has only a few lines, and his dialogue never carries quotation marks.

Which 1987 novel was the first to focus on Death, who takes on a human apprentice?

It is the fourth Discworld book; the apprentice later marries Death's adopted daughter Ysabell.

What is the name of Death's granddaughter, a key character in Soul Music and Hogfather?

She is the daughter of Mort and Ysabell and turns up again in Thief of Time.

The title of Reaper Man references which film?

Death, sacked by the Auditors for developing a personality, works as a farmhand for Miss Flitworth.

In Hogfather, the Auditors hire an Assassin named what to eliminate the Hogfather?

He pronounces it Teh-ah-tim-eh; the Hogfather brings presents on the 32nd of December.

The principal witch of the series lives in which small mountain kingdom?

Its entire army and civil service is Nanny Ogg's youngest son Shawn.

What do Discworld witches call the cunning psychology they prefer to magic?

Witches act as herbalists, nurses and adjudicators, using magic only when nothing else will do.

Nanny Ogg's murderous cat is called what?

Errol is a swamp dragon, Gaspode a talking dog and Wuffles the Patrician's elderly terrier.

Wyrd Sisters, the 1988 witches novel, mainly parodies which playwright?

A murdered king, a usurping duke with an ambitious wife and a troupe of travelling players do the heavy lifting.

Equal Rites, the third Discworld novel, introduced which character?

Its heroine Esk, a girl born an eighth son of an eighth son, was based on Pratchett's daughter Rhianna.

Sam Vimes is introduced in Guards! Guards! as captain of which force?

It is a hopeless gang of three, with Sergeant Colon and Nobby Nobbs, until Carrot arrives.

Carrot Ironfoundersson is a human raised by which people?

He is six foot six, a dwarf by adoption, and joins the Watch as an idealistic recruit.

What creature terrorises the city in Guards! Guards!?

A secret society summons it so a puppet king can 'slay' it; Lady Sybil's pet Errol ends up doing the job.

Which Watch member is a werewolf?

Detritus is a troll, Cheery a dwarf forensics expert and Reg Shoe a zombie and Dead Rights campaigner.

Vimes's 'boots theory' of socioeconomic unfairness appears in which 1993 novel?

The rich stay rich by buying boots that last ten years while the poor keep replacing cheap ones.

What noble title does Sam Vimes eventually hold?

He marries Lady Sybil Ramkin, who breeds swamp dragons, and rises reluctantly through society.

In the 2002 time-travel novel, Vimes is sent back and must assume whose identity?

The sergeant-at-arms who trained young Vimes was murdered by Carcer on arrival.

What is the first name of Lord Vetinari, the Patrician?

A former student of the Assassins' Guild, he was partly modelled on Machiavelli and despises street mimes.

The Librarian of Unseen University was magically turned into what?

He refuses to be turned back, finding the shape so convenient for his work, and says 'Ook'.

Who is the bombastic Archchancellor of Unseen University in the later novels?

His arrival settled the university's murderous succession habits and let the faculty develop.

What is Hex in the Discworld novels?

The semi-sentient thinking engine at Unseen University is tended by Ponder Stibbons.

Moist von Lipwig is put in charge of the city's Post Office in which novel?

Vetinari stages the conman's hanging first; Making Money sends him to fix the banks and Raising Steam to the railway.

In the Moist von Lipwig novels, the visual telegraph towers are known as what?

The Grand Trunk Company, chaired by Reacher Gilt, runs them against Moist's revived postal service.

Raising Steam, the 40th novel, introduces what to the Discworld?

The self-taught engineer Dick Simnel builds the first one, Iron Girder.

Small Gods tells the origin of which god and his prophet Brutha?

The great god is reduced to a tortoise with only one true believer left in the theocracy of Omnia.

Pyramids is set in Djelibeybi, the Disc's counterpart to which ancient civilisation?

The kingdom's name is a pun on jelly babies; the novel won the 1989 BSFA Award.

Tiffany Aching is how old in The Wee Free Men?

She is in her late teens by The Shepherd's Crown and defeats her first monster with a frying pan.

The Nac Mac Feegle, Tiffany Aching's guardians, speak in which dialect?

They are blue-tattooed, six inches tall, hard-drinking and described as picts.

Which Discworld book won the Carnegie Medal in 2001?

It was the first Discworld book marketed for children.

With whom did Pratchett co-write the 1990 novel Good Omens?

Baxter was his co-author on The Long Earth; Stewart and Jack Cohen on The Science of Discworld.

Who illustrated the Discworld covers until his death in 2001?

Paul Kidby took over and was painting The Shepherd's Crown cover when he heard Pratchett had died.

Pratchett was diagnosed with which condition in 2007?

He called it an embuggerance, donated to research and made BBC films about living with it.

In which year was Pratchett knighted for services to literature?

He had been appointed OBE in 1998, and later forged his own sword from iron he found near his home.

Who played Death in the Cosgrove Hall animated Discworld adaptations of the 1990s?

Richardson voiced Death in Sky's Hogfather; Jason played Albert there and Rincewind in The Colour of Magic.

The Watch, the 2021 TV series loosely based on the City Watch, premiered on which channel?

Richard Dormer played Vimes and Anna Chancellor Lord Vetinari; Rhianna Pratchett had long since left the project.

In 2016 fans petitioned IUPAC to name which new element 'octarine'?

IUPAC declined; the proposed symbol Oc was to be pronounced 'ook'.

Pratchett's first novel, published in 1971, was titled what?

He wrote it while a trainee journalist on the Bucks Free Press; Strata in 1981 first toyed with a disc-shaped world.

Before Discworld success, Pratchett was press officer for which organisation?

His patch contained three nuclear power stations, a job he took soon after Three Mile Island.