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->''Stories are important. People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way round. Stories... have evolved... The strongest have survived, and they have grown fat... Stories etch grooves deep enough for people to follow... A thousand wolves have eaten grandmother, a thousand princesses have been kissed... Stories don't care who takes part in them. All that matters is that the story gets told, that the story repeats.''
->-- '''TerryPratchett''' in ''Witches Abroad,'' describing the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality

''A world, and a mirror of worlds.''

The Discworld, a flat planet carried by four elephants standing on the back of a gigantic space-turtle, is the venue for [[KnightFever Sir]] TerryPratchett's long running fantasy series.

The first few books were a straightforward parody of HeroicFantasy tropes, but later books have subverted, played with, and [[LampshadeHanging hung lampshades on]] practically every trope on this site, in every genre, and many not yet covered, as well as parodying (and in some cases, [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructing]]) many well known films, books, and TV series. The humour ranges from simple wordplay to wry reflections on the absurdities of life.

While all of the Discworld books exist in the same ConstructedWorld, with the same continuity (and roughly in chronological order, with a few exceptions), many can be loosely grouped into different series, following some of Pratchett's recurring characters. These include Rincewind the incompetent "wizzard", The Ankh-Morpork City Watch (which are usually mystery novels), the Lancre witches (which lend themselves well to Shakespeare) and [[TheGrimReaper Death]]. Some books follow one-off protagonists who may or may not appear in supporting roles in other books.

In addition to the main characters, there is a large cast of recurring characters, including dodgy street trader [[CMOTDibbler Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler]] and [[AntiVillain benevolent tyrant]] Havelock Vetinari ('benevolent' in the sense that he's a much ''nicer'' tyrant than his predecessors). Villains have included sociopathic geniuses, {{eldritch abomination}}s, and the Auditors of Reality, [[ObstructiveBureaucrat cosmic bureaucrats]] who consider life too untidy to be tolerated.

As of October, 2009, there are thirty-seven books in the series, four of them young-adult, as well as several short stories. There are also [[SpinOff Discworld calendars, diaries, maps]], [[UniverseCompendium compendia]], three {{Video Game}}s[[hottip:*:Four if you include the ''Colour Of Magic'' 1986 text adventure]] and a pen and paper {{RPG}}, each with [[WordOfGod additional background information]] about the Disc. All the books have been adapted for the stage, two have become animated series, and two (technically three, as ''The Colour of Magic'' and ''The Light Fantastic'' were filmed as a single story under the former title, but the second is a direct follow-on) have become live-action {{Made For TV Movie}}s.

See also the [[Characters/{{Discworld}} character sheet]] for details on the more major of the series' LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, and the fan-run [[http://www.lspace.org/ L-Space Web]] for [[http://www.lspace.org/books/pqf/index.html quotes]], [[http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/index.html annotations]], and even a [[http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/ reading order guide]] for the uninitiated.
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!!!The main Discworld novels, in order of release. Brackets denote date of UK publication and main character(s) - standalone indicates that it is not currently part of a series.
* Discworld/TheColourOfMagic (1983- Rincewind the wizzard)
* Discworld/TheLightFantastic (1986- Rincewind)
* Discworld/EqualRites (1987- Granny Weatherwax the witch)
* Discworld/{{Mort}} (1987- Death)
* Discworld/{{Sourcery}} (1988- Rincewind)
* Discworld/WyrdSisters (1988- The Lancre witches, inc. Granny Weatherwax)
* Discworld/{{Pyramids}} (1989- standalone)
* [[Discworld/GuardsGuards Guards! Guards!]] (1989- The City Watch)
* Discworld/{{Eric}} (or [[strike:Faust]]Eric) (1990- Rincewind; originally published as an illustrated novel)
* Discworld/MovingPictures (1990- standalone/ wizards (subplot))
* Discworld/ReaperMan (1991- Death/Wizards)
* Discworld/WitchesAbroad (1991- The Lancre witches)
* Discworld/SmallGods (1992- standalone)
* Discworld/LordsAndLadies (1992- The Lancre witches)
* Discworld/MenAtArms (1993- The City Watch)
* Discworld/SoulMusic (1994- Death, Susan, Wizards)
* Discworld/InterestingTimes (1994- Rincewind)
* Discworld/{{Maskerade}} (1995- The Lancre witches)
* Discworld/FeetOfClay (1996- The City Watch)
* Discworld/{{Hogfather}} (1996- Death, Susan)
* Discworld/{{Jingo}} (1997- The City Watch)
* Discworld/TheLastContinent (1998- Rincewind/Wizards)
* Discworld/CarpeJugulum (1998- The Lancre witches)
* Discworld/TheFifthElephant (1999- The City Watch)
* Discworld/TheTruth (2000- standalone)
* Discworld/ThiefOfTime (2001- History Monks, Death, Susan)
* Discworld/NightWatch (2002- The City Watch)
* Discworld/MonstrousRegiment (2003- standalone)
* Discworld/GoingPostal (2004- Moist von Lipwig)
* [[Discworld/{{Thud}} Thud!]] (2005- The City Watch)
* Discworld/MakingMoney (2007- Moist von Lipwig)
* Discworld/UnseenAcademicals (Oct-2009 Rincewind/Wizards)
* Discworld/ScoutingForTrolls
* Discworld/RaisingTaxes (No date as yet- Moist von Lipwig)
** These last two are probably not going to be written by Pterry

!!!The young adult Discworld novels:
* Discworld/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents (2001- standalone)
* Discworld/TheWeeFreeMen (2003- Tiffany Aching the trainee witch)
* Discworld/AHatFullOfSky (2004- Tiffany Aching)
* Discworld/{{Wintersmith}} (2006- Tiffany Aching)
* Discworld/IShallWearMidnight (Date not announced- Tiffany Aching)

!!!Children's books:
* [[Discworld/{{ptitleuzqe5td1}} Where's My Cow?]] (2005 - The City Watch; tie-in with ''Thud!'')

!!!Illustrated novels:
* [[strike:Faust]]Discworld/{{Eric}} (1990- Rincewind; also available in paperback novel format)
* Discworld/TheLastHero (2001- Rincewind, The City Watch; republished with more illustrations)

!!!Other:
* ''{{GURPS}} Discworld'' {{RPG}} and ''GURPS Discworld Also''
* ''Discworld/TheScienceOfDiscworld I-III''
* ''Discworld/NannyOggsCookbook''
* ''Discworld/TheFolkloreOfDiscworld''
* The Mapps
** ''The Streets of Ankh-Morpork''
** ''The Discworld Mapp''
** ''A Tourist's Guide To Lancre''
** ''Death's Domain''
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!!!''Discworld'' is the TropeNamer for:
* FertileFeet
* KlatchianCoffee
* LiesToChildren
* TheoryOfNarrativeCausality
* ThunderboltIron
* {{Uberwald}}
* UnequalRites
* VetinariParadox
* WantonCrueltyToTheCommonComma

!!!Tropes that are not specific to one character (or group of characters) ''and'' appeared in three or more books (anything else should go in those pages, since otherwise half the tropes on this site would be listed):
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Death's scythe, Carrot's sword, and Inigo Skimmer's palm knife. Especially Death's scythe, which is described as "proverbially sharp" and can [[PaintingTheFourthWall cut the dialog]] ''in the book'' when it's swung.
* AllTrollsAreDifferent: The trolls are actually made of stone, instead of turning to stone. They sometimes go dormant for long periods of time and are mistaken for rocks.
* AmusingAlien: The Luggage.
* AristocratsAreEvil: While there a few good ones in the books, the aristocrats of Ankh-Morpork are generally a bunch of blithering idiots who are as incompetent in politics as they are in [[ModernMajorGeneral military matters]].
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking
* AWorldwidePunomenon: Pratchett likes to include at least one silly pun a book.
* BoltOfDivineRetribution: Gods tend to throw these at people who annoy them, particularly atheists.
* {{Characterization Marches On}}: Remember when the The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork was obese? Or when Death seemed to actively cause people to die rather than merely collect their souls?
* CharacterDevelopment: Or rather, ''setting'' development. Over the course of the series, Ankh-Morpork goes from a WretchedHive locked in MedievalStasis to a bustling SteamPunk CityOfAdventure.
* CityOfAdventure: Ankh-Morpork
* ClassicalMovieVampire
* ContinuityNod
* CrazyPrepared: Commander Samuel Vimes has set up numerous traps at his home and office to deal with those pesky Assassins, to the point that some of the more mean-spirited instructors have begun sending out students to do "mock assassinations." If they can draw a bead on him with a crossbow, they pass. Good luck.
**[[MagnificentBastard Lord Vetinari]] doesn't need to be Crazy Prepared, he is Crazy Informed.
*** But ''also'' Crazy Prepared -- he reinforced his own dungeon door so it was lockable from ''inside,'' just in case he ever got thrown in there and needed to hold off an angry mob.
* DeFictionalization: A number of board/card games appear in the novels, and several of them have been given real life versions, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thud_(game) Thud!]] being one example. Several of these (Thud! included) may or may not qualify as VariantChess.
** There are also rules for [[http://cripplemronion.info/ Cripple Mr. Onion.]]
* ExcuseMeComingThrough: An important element of the Law of Narrative Causality, complete with lampshade and two guys carrying a pane of glass.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Most cultures in the series have some real-life equivalent, often to create an AnachronismStew fantasy setting.
* FantasyGunControl
* FantasyPantheon: The gods play games with the lives of men and toss bricks and lightning bolts at athiests.
* FlatWorld
* FluffyTamer: Lady Sybil Ramkin and her dragons. Nanny Ogg and Greebo.
* FootnoteFever: They show up in most of the books to provide often-humorous clarification or deeper history on some topics.
* FridgeBrilliance: Thank goodness for [[http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/index.html the Pratchett File]].
* FriendlyNeighbourhoodVampire: all the members of the League of Temperance, who only drink animal blood taken from slaughterhouses.
* FurAndLoathing: Averted. Even though the books mention fur comes from animals, they do not look down on anyone for wearing it.
* GenreSavvy and DangerouslyGenreSavvy
* TheGrimReaper: Death put in at least one appearance in every single Discworld novel except ''The Wee Free Men''.
* HilarityEnsues: Just about every page.
* HorseOfADifferentColor: Vermine, "a more careful relative of the lemming" with black and white fur much prized by royalty and nobility for [[RequisiteRoyalRegalia lining their robes]].
** Its fur is also much prized by the vermine itself; the selfish little bastard will do anything rather than let go of it.
* HoldYourHippogriffs
* IfYouKnowWhatIMean: the novels make fairly heavy usage of innuendo and oblique references to disguise more adult subjects, either for humor (drinking songs like "A Wizard's Staff Has A Knob On The End" and "The Hedgehog Song") or for delicacy (King Lorenzo the Kind is only described as being "very fond of children" in the series itself - this is plainly doubletalk for "sadistic pedophile").
* TheIgor: An entire family of them that does henching and mad science professionally. They also pioneer surgical techniques and do it almost recreationally; one of them has a pet dog made up of the pieces of many other pet dogs, and isn't too broken up about it when Scraps gets killed off because it's only a matter of time until the next thunderstorm.
* JerkassGods: Most of the gods are fairly weak and mundane, but some of the more powerful ones view human life as a game for them to manipulate.
* MadeOfPhlebotinum: This {{verse}} can seem ordinary enough at first glance, until it's pointed out that, without heavy duty magic involved, a flat world on the back of a giant turtle that swims through space should be utterly impossible.
** The magic is so thick that it 'slows down light' to create timezones on the disc. Magic heavy areas also completely and utterly play with the laws of physics, making the entire world plausible.
* {{Magitek}}: Due to his job before writing, Pratchett likes to compare magic to nuclear physics. And then there's...[[MagicalComputer Hex]].
* MillionToOneChance: Invoked whenever someone needs a long shot to happen. Most notable in ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', where the Watch is trying to make an impossibly difficult shot, then deliberately makes things even ''harder'' to raise the odds to exactly 1,000,000 to 1.
* MisfitMobilizationMoment: The reformation of the [[strike:Night]] City Watch, particularly in ''[[{{Discworld/MenAtArms}} Men-At-Arms]]''.
* ModestRoyalty: Carrot is the last living descendent of the royal line. He denies it to anyone who asks, perhaps due in large part to Vimes's influence, but he does make use of near-supernatural royal charisma and occasionally drops by Vetinari's office to make gentle suggestions that are surprisingly often accepted.
* MuggingTheMonster: Usually [[{{Werewolf}} Angua]], but has happened to others enough that the robber at the beginning of ''Discworld/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'' had to go through a little checklist before he'd try to attack the coach.
** Also used some by Casanunda in Carpe Jugulum.
* NoodleIncident: Several Ankh-Morpork-based books make references to "what happened to Mr. Hong when he opened the Three Jolly Luck Take-Away Fish Bar on the site of the old fish-god temple in Dagon Street on the night of the full moon." (The implication is something very nasty involving an EldritchAbomination.)
* NoPronunciationGuide: In Discworld/InterestingTimes, one of the Xian soldiers mimes out Rincewind's name with a turning/winding motion. However, he has an ancestor in ''[[strike: Faust]] Eric'' called 'rinser of winds'. Hmm.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Frequently.
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Swamp dragons are unstable, UglyCute little runts which manufacture volatile chemicals in their insides for firebreathing purposes and are prone to exploding violently. Noble dragons are your typical fantasy dragon, but have all disappeared for some reason.
* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Except they are really against admitting their gender in public. Oh, and they spell it "Dwarfs".
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: ''All'' vampire myths are true in Discworld, but don't necessarily apply to any given vampire.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: They have great regenerative capabilities, are only truly vulnerable to silver, can switch freely between wolf and human form unless they are in the light of the full moon (which renders them wolves), and they struggle with conflicting sets of instincts and thought processes after changing. They're considered undead on the basis of, "They're big and scary, they come from {{Uberwald}}, and they don't die when you stick them with a sword, what more do you want?"
* PaintingTheFourthWall: Death [[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: who talks like this ]]
has his own font, as do Golems in some books; Carrot's letters and their "ballistic approach to grammar"; the Auditors talk outside of dialogue (One thinks, one speaks like this); particularly odd looking signs might actually appear in the books as poorly drawn handwriting; etc etc. Pratchett doesn't as much paint the fourth wall as much as he uses a nice wallpaper and hangs an attractive painting off it.
* PimpedOutDress: Naturally, ladies of stature will wear one when appropriate. Four notable examples are the vermine-trimmed coronation dress [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses Princess Keli Sto Lat]] wears in ''{{Discworld/Mort}}'', the dress Granny Weatherwax steals to infiltrate the ball in ''Discworld/WitchesAbroad'' and the one she wears to infiltrate the opera in ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'', and the gaudy dress Cheery Littlebottom wears in ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'' to show she was embracing her gender. Lady Sybil inverts this by having the rank suitable to wear such dresses, and clumping around in tweed and galoshes.
* PlayingWithATrope: If it's possible for a creator's ''entire body of work'' to serve as a MostTriumphantExample, this is it.
* PragmaticVillainy: Vetinari does not really rule his realm with an iron fist. He has the novel idea of maintaining control by making people actually WANT him in charge, or at the very least, make removing him from power an unsavory prospect.
* PrettyInMink: When some characters want to glam up their appearance.
* RuleOfFunny: Explicitly mentioned several times.
* SandIsWater: The Dehydrated Ocean.
* SanityBall: Let's just say there are several bouncing around.
* SecurityBlanket: Weapon of choice against Bogeymen. Because of the nature of belief, they are tricked into thinking that things under blankets (like scared children hiding under the covers) don't exist... so if you put a bogeyman under a blanket, it causes severe, crippling existential questions.
* ShoutOut: So very many that the fandom collected them into [[http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/index.html The Annotated Pratchett File]]. (Written before wikis.)
* SlasherSmile: Carcer. Mr. Teatime. Vimes. The werewolves in Uberwald. Death (by dint of having no other option while using the scythe).
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Played with. The tone of the books and most of the characters are definitely on the cynical side -- the idealistic ones tend to be portrayed as naive, dumb or [[ObfuscatingStupidity putting up a front]]. However, the universe itself is idealistic: the good guys do triumph, almost always in a BigDamnHeroes way. This is explicitly due to [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality narrativium]].
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: In the later novesls, Vetinari has a rare Thud! board in his viewing room and plays a friend by clacks.
* TWordEuphemism: Lots, from the vampires' refrain of "the B-vord", Mr. Tulip's repeated use of "---ing", Quoth the Raven's "N-word", and Moist Von Lipwig's tirade against Reacher Gilt in ''[[{{Discworld/GoingPostal}} Going Postal]]''.
* TalkingAnimal: Usually due to the magical equivalent of radioactive waste.
* ThoseTwoGuys: Fred Colon and Nobby Nobbs.
* TitleDrop: Several of the books contain their title phrases at least once.
* TropeOverdosed: So very, very much.
* WikiWalk: Leonard of Quirm, the wizards of the university, and some many other characters are fond of these.
* WizardingSchool: Unseen University, which exists as much to keep the current wizards out of trouble as it does to raise the next generation of them. There's also Bugarup University in Xxxx, and, just recently, Brazeneck University in Quirm, with references at least one more in Pseudopolis and possibly many others.
* WizardsLiveLonger: Barring [[KlingonPromotion fatal accidents]], most wizards live well past their nineties, even with their horrible BigEater habits. A wizard who lives past fifty can expect to live past one hundred.
* AWorldwidePunomenon: So many puns...
* WriterOnBoard: Some people have complained that they think Terry Pratchett's personal beliefs and philosophies intrude too much into the later books. YourMileageMayVary.
** Not entirely surprising for a satirical series, though.
* YourVampiresSuck: An entire book on this trope, before it ends with "Classic vampires are awesome."
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