Pratchett's Countries

[Teppic]

The point about death (with a small d) is people go to where they believe they'll go to - this is mentioned in one book I think. So the Omnians walk around the desert, the sailors stay on a ghost ship, others are reincarnated. I don't think it's that inconsistent.

[The Mad Collector]

The point about death (with a small d) is people go to where they believe they'll go to - this is mentioned in one book I think. So the Omnians walk around the desert, the sailors stay on a ghost ship, others are reincarnated. I don't think it's that inconsistent.

I agree, this is a good example where the inconsitencies are actually internally consistent.

[rockershovel]

that's true.. and Miss Flitwick does not, initially, realise that she is dead and literally "dancing with death" at the harvest dance.

doesn't one of the female characters revert to a younger incarnation, that being the age she feels herself to be "inside"?

[Teppic]

That's in Mort isn't it, his first assignment when he meets a witch? Unless there are others in books I've yet to read which also have this idea...

[rockershovel]

checking back, Miss Flitwick's shade is taken back to her youth and reunited with the shade of her fiancee, who has been killed in an avalanche during a smuggling trip.

[Grumpy]

I've been thinking about the countries in the Discworld, and how they link to our own, and I saw that most of the Disc countries have a parallel one here, or a religion, or region, etc. Let me show you:

XXXX is Australia. (obvious)
Agetean Empire is China/Japan. (also obvious)
Djelibebi is Egypt. (obviouser)
Omnia seems to be Catholicism in the Middle Ages.
Ephebe is Greece, and therefore Tsort is Troy.
The Ramtops seem to be Tibet, or somewhere in the Himalayas.
Klatch is a bit like Arabia, or the Islamic religion on the whole.
Uberwald may be Romania, or somewhere near, possibly Transylvania.
Borogravia and Zlobenia are part of a large amount of small countries, possibly the Stans? (Uzbakistan, Afganistan etc.) I dont really know that one.
Ankh-Morpork is the Medieval representation of New York.
Quirm is France.
Genua is self-explanatory.

One thing I am stuck on; what are the cities on the Sto Plain? Sto Lat and the others. I thought they may be Italy, because it is a lot of city states, as was Italy in the middle ages, but I'm not sure. Anyone think they know?

If you do see one I've got wrong or missed out, please comment.

Think you've got it pretty much nailed, although I'm not sure about Borogravia and Zlobenia being part of the "stans". But there again, I don't know what else they could be really.

[rockershovel]

Uberwald is a cod-German version of Transylvania, which is in turn Latin for "beyond the forest". It's a sort of Hammer-horror version of the Carpathians and Central Europe generally.

Slobenia and Borogravia are the minor, perpetually warring states of the Balkans.

The Circle Sea is approximately the Mediterranean, and the countries around it are the Meditarranean states, more-or-less.

Ankh-Morpork is a generic European Renaissance-era city-state in the early books, although its later descriptions are increasingly Victorian in some ways. The jokes about US police depts ( "FABRICATI DEVS PUNC.. " "protect and serve" ) are just that, jokes.

the joke about the Agatean Empire being also known as Auriental = "where the gold comes from" is also a cod-Latin joke, "gold" in Latin being "aurum"

Agreed. Always seen Ankh-Morpork as a version of London; I wonder whether that's because I'm from London and everyone sees their own city in it, or whether the similarities are actually there.

Slobenia and Borogravia are obviously modelled on the Balkans, though the armies fighting seem more to be more English Civil War.

The two I can think of off the top of my head that the opening post missed out are Llamedos, which is obviously a Discworld Wales full of male singers and harp players, and Howondaland, Discworld's Congo.