History Literature / Discworld

* SamuraiShinobi: PlayedForLaughs. The portrayal of Agatea causes all the Japanese and Chinese tropes to bleed together promiscuously and randomly. If it is viewed in the West as a [[WidgetSeries Weird Japanese Thing]], it will turn up in Creator/TerryPratchett's Agatea. In ''Literature/InterestingTimes'', the almost-hero Rincewind spends a lot of time evading warriors, guards and generally annoyed people who combine aspects of samurai, ninja, regular footsoldier and even sumo wrestler.

%%* GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Multiple times in every single book, just look at the tabs. For instance, much is made of the donkey/buttocks pun.

* MonsterModesty: Trolls mostly just wear a loincloth "to conceal whatever it was that trolls found it necessary to conceal". This is so much a part of their culture that male trolls will go to clubs to watch female trolls put on clothing. There's usually a riot by the second overcoat. There are four exceptions to this as of ''Literature/{{RaisingSteam}}'': Detritus, who wears a watch uniform, Chrysophrase and Thunderbolt, who wear suits, and Mr Shine (the Diamond King) who is completely clothed. Given that the last two are made of solid diamond their reflective nature in any sort of light has been listed as "Blinding", but it's also noted that Mr Shine has been in hiding in Ankh Morpork until his debut in ''Literature/{{Thud}}'' and he's consequently covered up to avoid being recognised. It would take a matter of seconds one surmises...

* SuccessSymbiosis: Commander Vimes pursues the law without favor, annoys the rich and power, upsets the finely-balanced alliances of the city's politics and generally makes a nuisance of himself to Lord Vetinari by thumping through his court like a bull in a china shop. This is exactly why Vetinari likes having him around.

** A variety of the deliberately-spaced phrase, "that was a pune, or play on words," often appear in the books whenever someone feels the need to emphasize said {{Incredibly Lame Pun}}s, ''particularly'' when they are already quite blatant to the audience and people around them.

** Pratchett likes to include [[RunningGag at least]] one silly pune, or play on words, per book.

* RainOfSomethingUnusual:
** On certain parts of the planet rains of fish are spotted occasionally, as a result of the Disc's BackgroundMagicField. When the field is exacerbated, one might encounter more exotic and dangerous things, like doorknobs.

* FantasyCounterpartMap: The great sprawling port city of Ankh-Morpork evolves over the series. Ankh-Morpork and its surrounding areas are, very deliberately, written to depict a FantasyCounterpartCulture of England in its various forms. If this wider area depicts England, then its biggest city becomes, by degrees, a version of UsefulNotes/London. The City Map makes this explicit: the River Ankh is a loop-for-loop copy of the River Thames as it flows through London. The isthmus of the Isle of Gods is in the same relative place, the same shape, and carries much the same landmarks, as the "Isle of Dogs" in London, for instance. The city's district names also have echoes of those in London: examples include "Dimwell" for Milwall, "Dolly Sisters" for Seven Sisters.

** Swamp dragons are unstable, UglyCute little runts that manufacture volatile chemicals in their insides for firebreathing purposes and are prone to exploding violently.

** Played with somewhat in ''Monstrous Regiment''. Plenty of people in Borogravia have practically religious faith in the Duchess, so much so that [[spoiler:[[DeityOfHumanOrigin she is actually ascending to godhood]], but in the rag-tag military unit of the viewpoint characters, even though everyone has to pay her lip service only Wazzer believes... and Wazzer believes so hard that it's often unsettling.

** Played with somewhat in ''Monstrous Regiment''. Plenty of people in Borogravia have practically religious faith in the Duchess, so much so that [[spoiler:[[DeityOfHumanOrigin she is actually on the edge of ascending to godhood]], or at least semi-godhood]], but in the rag-tag military unit of the viewpoint characters, even though everyone has to pay her lip service only Wazzer believes... and she believes so hard that it's often unsettling.

* ExposedEyeballsAsEyes: Blind Io is the chief of gods. The most notable characteristic of his is that he has a piece of cloth covering where his eyes should be, and he instead uses lots of floating eyeballs in order to see.

** This gets lampshaded and explained in-universe in ''Literature/ThiefOfTime'' [[spoiler:as a result of the Time Mons' attempts to fix time after it broke]].

*** Can be attributed to Vetinari's own character development, which is enormous. In the first books he cares for the city but not the people in it, turns the watch into a joke and uses bodyguards, uses the dungeon to torture mimes, keeps an innocent if dangerous man locked up and considers killing another, has outlawed the press, tolerates that Trolls are kept as dogs and Golems as property, threatens the guild heads and wizards with death. He called the world a sea of evil with only bad people in it, and hoped for no afterlife. In the later books even the Queen of Faeris know better than to harm his citizens, he elevated the watch and lost the guards, uses the dungeon as a saferoom, gives condemned criminals a chance to atone, is furious when people imply he traded in lives or had someone killed, supports the press, emancipates and integrates species, is friends with the head wizard and the assassins refuse to take a hit on him. Also he avoided a war through strategic surrender, brokered peace between Trolls and Dwarves, and refused to pursue economic dominance via Golems. He states that there should be no slaves, not even to instinct, and that people should be moral superiors to an cruel/uncaring God. Basically he went from TheCynic, PragmaticVillain and EvilOverlord to AntiNihilist, ReasonableAuthorityFigure and BigGood.

** In the Tiffany books, Roland is introduced in ''Literature/WeeFreeMen'' as a mildly bratty rich kid, then ''Literature/AHatFullOfSky'' describes him as "less of a twit than he had been. On the other hand, there had been such of lot of twit to begin with". ''Literature/{{Wintersmith}}'' builds on his ShipTease with Tiffany, gives him some angst due to his ailing father and wicked aunts, and even lets him be the hero for a moment. And ''Literature/IShallWearMidnight'' has him become rather stiff and pompous due to the pressures of taking on his father's role, before he unbends again, while firmly [[ShipSinking sinking the ship]].

** Remember when The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork was obese? [[note]]The first reference to Vetinari by name is in Sourcery, the fifth book Discworld novel overall, whereas "the Patrician" is first mentioned in Colour of Magic. Given young Vetinari's and Lord Snapcase's (the Patrician prior to Vetinari) characterisations in the novel Night Watch, it can be infered the "obese Patrician" is not Vetinari.[[/note]]

** Or when Vimes was a depressive alcoholic?

* NoPronunciationGuide: It's a running gag that nobody on the disc seems to get the hang of silent letters, so you'll have an upper-class father declare that Susan's [[Literature/{{Hogfather}} method of beating up bogeymen]] is very "persikological" (psychological), or Shawn Ogg wanting to tell a RousingSpeech to the townspeople [[Literature/LordsAndLadies to encourage them to fight the elves]] and "pussike" (psyche) them up.

* NobleTongue: The Quirmian language is basically French and aristocratic young women generally go to boarding school in Quirm. Also naturally in aristocratic use is the old Ankh-Morpork language of [[DogLatin Latian]].
* NobodyPoops: Averted; night-soil wagons provide an important clue in ''Thud!'', and ''Literature/TheWorldOfPoo'' takes the aversion to extremes. Mort can also testify that Binky subverts this trope a ''lot''. Harry King, called "King of the Golden River", made a living out of the fact that everybody poops.
* NonHumanHead: Gods are often noted as looking like humans wearing cheap Halloween masks. Offler the Crocodile-Headed God is the one seen most often, but in ''{{Literature/Pyramids}}'' the equivalent of the entire ancient Egyptian pantheon shows up.

** Ipslore the Red, from ''Literature/{{Sourcery}}'', is a horrifyingly [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] who tortures his own son into a living weapon and does not take no for an answer, eventually almost causing the end of the world ''twice''. Even his FreudianExcuse and initially legitimate grievance do little to mitigate this, as he becomes far worse than his perceived aggressors, targets people completely unrelated to his initial vengeance and will respond to any act of perceived defiance with maximum aggression.

** In Lancre, 90% of the civil service posts, along with every military position, is held by Shawn Ogg.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: All over the place. Pratchett was an inveterate reader and history buff, and Discworld features countless things that demonstrate history can be stranger than fantasy fiction. Just a few examples:
** A Senior Wrangler is a real thing. It is the student who gains the highest overall mark in mathematics at Cambridge University. (People who get Firsts are just Wranglers.) In fact, ''most'' of the bizarre practices and terminology at Unseen University are based on real UsefulNotes/{{Oxbridge}} examples.
** The "Clacks" system used in the later books is based on a system that was used in Europe during the Napoleonic wars. Semaphore towers were actually built, and the [[https://youtu.be/cPeVsniB7b0 first ever telecommunications scam]] happened on the French semaphore network.
** Prostitutes actually were sometimes referred to as seamstresses, often because that's how they would be recorded in censuses. "Seamstress" was a plausible explanation for many women who worked from home and had an irregular income.