Trouble is, they can produce an effect but have no control over it. Pyramids (1989 — standalone). In still later books Brindisi became an Expy of both Italy and Spain. 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 putting up a front. Take Over the City: Many villains desire to conquer Ankh-Morpork.
The Kingslayer: "Old Stoneface" Vimes, ancestor of the current Vimes, chopped the King's head after he was sentenced to death by a tribunal for his horrific crimes. They seem to have retreated to fantasy but can show up under certain circumstances which always involve a lot of belief and/or magic. For the Auditors, three is a preferred number, because when three of them work together, each one can be monitored by the other two. The only safe place to be when Detritus fires it is a hundred feet or more behind him. Rock Monster: Trolls are definitely made of rock, although their personalities are not particularly monstrous. The common/official explanation is that it interferes with their magic, but as per the book Sourcery, it's more likely to be a measure to prevent wizards from having descendants, because the eighth son of a wizard (himself an eighth son of an eighth son) is a dangerous super-wizard, and it's considered better to prevent wizards from having kids at all than to risk it. Not that it bothers them at all. Temporarily banished from a dorm room say crossword. Gem Tissue: The Diamond King of the Trolls isn't just a flowery regal title. Though most trolls have solid mountainous physiques, there's also Chalky (implied to come from chalk plains) and Brick (who was born in the city). It's both the Home of the Gods and the focal point of the Disc's Background Magic Field, hence why Magic Compasses point towards it. There's also a lot of Anachronism Stew mixing up eras of the same city; for instance, a Globe style permanent theater was a new and iffy idea that had never been tried before when the city opera house across the street was already centuries old. He is, in fact, more in tune with objective reality than the average man on the street; a sort of inverse psychosis if you will. The Wizards of UU can do this so well that they look more like what they're pretending to be than the real thing does.
She ends up having serious complications during the childbirth, though both she and the baby fully recover. Temporarily banished from a dorm room say crossword puzzle crosswords. Serious Business: - Humor, as far as the Fools' Guild is concerned. Invented Invalid: In later city watch books, the City Watch gives an allowance of days off for three grandmother's funerals per year. Part of the reason that the Fools' Guild is so spectacularly bad at being funny is because they religiously follow, in Gormenghastian tradition, the essays on punning, wit, jokes and humor written by Monsieur Jean-Paul Pune, who was run out of Quirm due to a combination of the (even more intense, at the time) literal-mindedness of his fellows and his own heavily implied ineptitude at actually being funny. In The Compleat Discworld Atlas, the plethora of small countries and states in the Far Überwald area are explicitly likened to the states that emerged after the fall of the USSR as a sort of "Russian Confederation", and are seeking to form a common economic and trading area.
There are also rules for Cripple Mr. Onion. Temporarily banished from a dorm room say crossword clue. The floor of the temple of the Ichor God Bel-Shammaroth is covered in perfectly tessellating octagons, something which is impossible in any universe which adheres to euclidian or euclidian-adjacent conventions of geometry. Lampshade Hanging: Just about every book not only includes a lot of Trope Play, but a lot of Genre Savvy characters who will know just what's going on, and will be in no way shy about stating it. Angels, Devils and Squid: Gods, demons, and the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions. He turns up as a Special Constable, and takes down two of the three Dwarf assassins without thinking about it, despite the fact that they surprised him by coming directly through the wall. The Unwitting Comedian: Bouncy Normo, the funniest clown who ever lived.
Noah's Story Arc: There's an Urban Legend about the founding of Ankh-Morpork that tells how a wise man foretold a Great Flood, gathered his family and hundreds of animals into a big ship, and rode it out. Supposedly true for the undead, though Windle Poons manages it in Reaper Man. This is actually a real "sport". Later, he adopted a more consistent canon, but those early stories have still have a hard time fitting with it. Girls with Moustaches: All dwarfs, openly female or not, have long, flowing beards. You Can't Kill What's Already Dead: - Zombies are much more resilient and stronger than humans, with watchzombie Reg Shoe taking a crossbow bolt through the chest and only complaining of the puncture holes in his armor. There are plenty of Psychos For Hire, and if they're titled at all, they're just plain old "killers". 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 Thud!
Vetinari will often tell whoever he's talking to to look out a nearby window at what Ankh-Morpork has to offer, in the hopes that they will see Ankh-Morpork the way he sees it, as a great city all things considered, but usually they get sidetracked by fog obscuring the view or a dog peeing in an alley or something equally pointless. Painting the Medium: Has its own page. If they can draw a bead on him with a crossbow, they pass. Lucky Seven: Inverted — eight makes many appearances as an occult number, most of them bad.
Or when Death seemed to actively cause people to die rather than merely collect their souls? Being really old school barbarian heroes, they occasionally forget what order to do it in and Cohen has to remind the rest of the Horde which things to rape, and which to burn down. Their jaws are permanently stuck open, and they like to hang out on tall buildings as their primary foodstuff is pigeons (unlike regular trolls, who eat rocks). However, when the door is opened, the rush of warm air gets rid of the condensation and the formula. But if he goes back to the world, he starts aging again (except on Hogswatchnight). Eccentric Exterminator: Any rat catcher so far, they almost become rats themselves as is the case of Maskerade or you're at the point that you're the same size as the rats like Wee Mad Arthur, this is just scratching the surface mind you, with out getting into all the The Pied Piper of Hamelin refrences.
Literal-Minded: Most, if not all, books will have one or more of these characters, useful for hanging lampshades on metaphors and similes. Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Like many Police Procedurals, the City Watch stories never make it easy to collect information. She is, incidentally, a very safe dotty old lady; the regulars have apparently adopted her as a sort of unofficial mascot, and at least a couple of thieves who robbed her subsequently turned up without a drop of blood left in their bodies... ). Magic-heavy areas also completely and utterly play with the laws of physics, making the entire world plausible. Beware the Nice Ones: - Mustrum Ridcully and the wizards of UU may look like harmless, slightly overweight, cheerful old men. He's even lampshaded this, saying that what he needs is a support group where he can stand up and say, "My name is Sam and I'm a really suspicious bastard. Contrast his temperament in Raising Steam, where he crows like a madman after "defeating" her and forcing her to retire. Nanny Ogg and Greebo. The Cunning Man, antagonist for I Shall Wear Midnight, targets witches that catch his attention while believing them all in need of purging. Even one of the latter can potentially invert this trope. It was also home to the second-largest library in the world before the Omnians burnt it to the ground in Small Gods. This gets lampshaded and explained in-universe in Thief of Time as a result of the Time Mons' attempts to fix time after it broke.
This is explicitly due to narrativium. It's... the other one. Living Structure Monster: Unseen University is explicitly described as a building complex that throughout its two-thousand year history has absorbed so much ambient magic that it is practically a living thing with emotions and a degree of sentience. On the other hand, its most famous resident, Leonard of Quirm, is a clear Expy of Leonardo da Vinci, one of the most famous Italians in history.