History Headscratchers / DiscWorld

** Krull was (very) briefly mentioned in ''The Last Hero''.

** The wizard who headed the Liberal Studies program got eaten by the Luggage, way back in ''The Light Fantastic''. Could be, the University council never ''did'' get around to appointing a replacement.

** Same place you get young [[StarWars Jedi]] from.

** There is a sort of continuity mention in ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'', when Ponder refers to certain staff being allowed to wear garters...

** Given the age gap between Stibbons and the rest of the faculty (not to mention the later sort-of-retcon that makes Ridcully and Granny Weatherwax roughly the same age), it's far more likely that he and Simon were peers. The epilogue to ''Discworld/EqualRites'' says that Simon became a master and teacher of these new magical theories, but it doesn't specify ''when''. He could be out in the field perfecting a different approach to Stibbons' right now.

** Not need to refer to a fanmade Timeline, just open the novel ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', it mentions Carrot is 16 when he arrives in Ankh-Morpork. In fact, on page 26 of the Paperback edition, in the scene when Carrot's adoptive father is sending him away, it says, ''"It's a terrible thing to be nearly sixteen and the wrong species."''

** [[Franchise/MenInBlack 'A thousand years ago we thought the world was a bowl. Five hundred years ago we knew it was a globe.]] [[Discworld/TheTruth Today we know it is flat and round and carried through space on the back of a turtle.' He turned and gave the High Priest another smile. 'Don't you wonder what shape it will turn out to be tomorrow?']]

** Didn't ''Discworld/NightWatch'' mention something that indicates they DO have condoms on the disc?
** ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'' was the book that made a big deal about them, as one of the more famous manufacturers, Sonky, was related to the plot.

** In ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'', there's a telling point where the Quirmian (French) gendarmes reveal that they all speak Morporkian but elect to use Quirmian among themselves as their first language. This makes Discworld "French" a language rather like Welsh on our world: people use "Morporkian/English" to communicate with the wider world, as the disparity betwen the two is so impossibly huge that nothing else is possible. (English: spoken by billions worldwide; Welsh -- spoken to varying degrees of fluency by half a million in a relatively confined geographical area). Speakers of the minority language may be militant and bloody-minded as to their right to speak it -- think modern Wales. And another good parellel to Quirm is Quebec, the thriving survival of French in North America. Try speaking English there, outside Montreal, and see how far you get. But the Quirmians, like the Welsh, speak their own language among themselves whilst being able to ''listen in Morporkian'', as has been said about Discworld dwarfs. Morporkian must be the English of the discworld, the common tongue. However, it also has its Chinese/Japanese competitor (Agatean) and its Arabic/Persian/Hindu (Klatchian) as serious linguistic rivals. Everything else, including "French", does appear to be a bit of a Welsh -- a minority language spoken only in its own small area.

** ''Discworld/ReaperMan'' covers it.

** She's definitely not his only kid. In ''Discworld/TheLastHero'' he mentions that he's got at least a half-dozen or so.

** Even the humans can rest assured that their eggs and dairy products will be delivered fresh, provided they [[Discworld/ThiefOfTime have the right milkman]].
** But when we first see Ankh-Morpork it is a crime ridden hell hole run by a long line of incompetent maniacs. Yet it already has a million people at the start of ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic''... how did this excellently planned infrastructure function in the pre-Vetinari days? Heck, the city doesn't even have an organised Merchant's Guild until Twoflower arrives! As for barges we are told time and again that the Ankh is barely water anymore by the time it reaches the sea and a lot of that is silt from the plains. Not great for a thriving river traffic. It's difficult to imagine the old school pre-Ridcully wizards lifting a staff to help bring in cargo, the Alchemists are jokes until ''Moving Pictures'' and the 'steampunk' aspects don't generally come in until fairly late in the series.
** The key error in this question is "planned". Why should it have to be planned? The city evolved, building on top of itself, and the infrastructure evolved with it. The city couldn't grow beyond the ability of the infrastructure to support it, though may have reached a precarious point where a shock to the system could upset things. See ''Discworld/NightWatch'' where Reg starts talking about planning food distribution through People's Warehouses, adding what is shown to be an unnecessary level of planning, and where the Revolution is shown to put a spanner in the works of the city of 30 years ago. If you don't believe this is possible without planning, go and read the Science of Discworld series and concetrate on the bits about emergent phenomena.

** The closest things we've seen were in ''Discworld/MovingPictures'' and ''Discworld/SoulMusic''... which implies that magical liberal arts are the domain of [[EldritchAbomination forces they'd rather not meddle in]].

** In ''Discworld/MakingMoney'', Dr. Hicks (later, Hix) called [[strike: necromancy]] Post-Mortem Communications a "fine art", because persuading the dead to stop by for a chat is largely a matter of theatrics.

** As far as I know, Angua actually is her surname. Her first name is Delphine, though she's only ever referred to as such by her parents in ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant''. Calling her parents "Von Uberwald" is probably more of an honorific, just like Richard in Shakespeare's Richard III is known as "Gloucester" until he's crowned (since he's the Duke of Gloucester).

** Did you miss ''Discworld/SoulMusic''? Also, since when is rock music a prerequisite for goths?

* Does everyone who dies meet Death (or an appropriate associate) or not? I can find many quotes, some bordering on BadassBoast, that suggest so, but then there's ''Discworld/{{Mort}}'', which directly implies that he doesn't have to personally pick up everyone as long as he picks up some of them.

* In Discworld/MakingMoney, Topsy Lavish pulls a very clever ploy where she leaves all her shares in the bank to her dog, leaves the dog to Moist von Lipwig, and then files a contract with the Assassins' Guild to kill Moist if the dog suffers an unnatural death. Not only does this set the plot in motion by ''forcing'' Moist to accept the responsibilities he was ducking, but in a way it also protects him. The Assassins won't kill the dog, because that's not going to look good on anyone's resume, and they won't kill ''Moist'' because you can't have two contracts out on a single individual. Apparently even if the first contract is ''conditional''. Is it just me or is this the best form of Assassination Insurance ever? If you are a rich and powerful individual (and thus a likely target for Assassination) simply take a contract out on yourself with some ridiculous conditions. Or, if having yourself inhumed is against Assassin rules, get someone to do it for you. I'm surprised the nobles of Ankh-Morpork ever fear the Assassins if this sort of situation can be arranged. And they certainly know the Guild's rules well enough; most of them were educated there.

* So, anyone knows the double meaning of ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'', and why does the latest book has it for a title? I've read it and wonder if I've missed something other than Vimes randomly taking a pinch of snuff here and there.

* Leonard is specifically described as "not, in fact, all that old" but merely [[YoungerThanTheyLook old-looking]] in ''Discworld/MenAtArms''. ''The Art of Discworld'' states that he was a contemporary of Nanny Ogg (and that they had a bit of a fling), who in ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'' turns out to have had a sketch done of her as a young woman, which Granny estimates was sixty years ago. So Nanny is probably at least 76. It's possible, although not stated, that Leonard did the sketch of Nanny (the "doodle, doodle, doodle" phrase she uses describing the young artist who did the sketch is also used in ''Discworld/MenAtArms'' in reference to Leonard). Also, due to the events of ''Discworld/WyrdSisters'', all the characters who were in Lancre at the time are fifteen years younger than those who weren't. If we assume Leonard did the sketch of Nanny, he'd probably be at least ninety, which he's explicitly stated not to be ("he would probably still look about the same at the age of ninety"). Even if he didn't do the sketch, you'd have to assume she was a fair bit older than him when they had their fling, but if he ''did'' do the sketch (seventy-five years ago!) then something is hinky. Unless Granny's estimate was very uncharitable, perhaps.

------>'''Death''': [[AC: Because then there will be nothing. Because I won't exist.]]\\

** Not need to refer to a fanmade Timeline, just open the novel ''GuardsGuards'', it mentions Carrot is 16 when he arrives in Ankh-Morpork. In fact, on page 26 of the Paperback edition, in the scene when Carrot's adoptive father is sending him away, it says, ''"It's a terrible thing to be nearly sixteen and the wrong species."''

** [[CrowningMomentOfFunny "Let others boast of martial dash, for we have boldly fought with cash. We own all your helmets, we own all your shoes, we own all your generals, touch us and you'll lose."]]

** The meta-answer is that Creator/TerryPratchett is OneOfUs, and those mentions of Quantum are not just a throw-away. You might like to start by reading up on Heisingbergs Uncertanty Principle, and Schrodingers Cat. Also consider the famous Double Slit experiment. Shine a beam of light at a barrier (such as a piece of card) with 2 thin slits in, onto a screen behind. Because light is a wave, two sets of 'ripples' extend from the back of the slits. Projected onto the screen you see a interference pattern where these two ripple cross. Now fire a series of single photons, 1 at a time at the barrier. You end up with the same interference pattern, indicating that a single photon can ''go through both slits simultaneously''. That's not the cool bit. If you then set detectors up to watch this happen ''it stops happening'' - being observed changes the thing observed. DW belief is a sort of observation. Now go and read the books. Really, what's stopping you?

** But I've also read the theory that the title refers to Carott as the "clean" kind of hero who is taking the torch from the barbars.

** OK! As said before, the Discworld runs on [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality narrativium]]. But then, the thinking here is kind of the point of Discworld (not to mention the point of these WildMassGuessing and ItJustBugsMe pages.) As Pratchett says, you take something absurd or bizarre and think about it seriously. "If Death rides a pale horse, where does he keep it? What does he call it?"