Background of the Study:
Introduction: –
Terry Pratchett was born in 1948 in Beaconsfield, Bucks, and decided to become a journalist after his first short story, ‘The Hades Business’, was published in Science Fantasy magazine when he was fifteen years old.
His first job was on the Bucks Free Press and he went on to work for various newspapers before becoming a publicity officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board in 1980. He became a full-time writer in 1987. His first novel, The Carpet People (1971), a humorous fantasy, was followed by The Dark Side of the Sun (1976) and Strata (1981). 1983 saw the publication of The Colour of Magic, which became the first in a long series of Discworld novels. BBC Radio Four serialised The Colour of Magic and Equal Rites (1987)and these brought him great popularity. There are now more than 30 books in this series, set in a surreal world on the back of four elephants that stand on the shell of Great A’Tuin, the sky turtle. The Discworld series is popular world-wide and has led to the production of much related merchandise. Thud! (2005), features Sam Vimes, who has to get home each evening to read his son a picture book – Where’s My Cow?. Where’s My Cow?, published in 2005, alongside Thud! The latest novel in the series is The Unseen Academicals (2009).Hailed as one of the greatest humorous satirists, Pratchett was one of few writers to write across the adult/child divide. His book, Truckers (1989), was the first children’s book to appear in British adult fiction best-seller lists.
Terry Pratchett wrote many novels for young readers, and the end-of-the-world novel Good Omens (1990) – in collaboration with Neil Gaiman. He also wrote several short stories, some of which are on Discworld themes. His books have sold over thirty-five million copies worldwide and have been translated into over thirty languages. ‘To say that Terry Pratchett is popular …’ writes Kate Saunders in the Sunday Express (2 June 1996), ‘ … is like saying the Arctic Circle is a bit nippy. He was awarded three honorary degrees, in 1999 by the University of Warwick, in 2001 by the University of Portsmouth, and in 2003 by the University of Bath. In 2009 he received a Knighthood.
Terry Pratchett was involved with the Orang-Utan Foundation, and visited Borneo with a film-crew to make the documentary Terry Pratchett’s Jungle Quest for BBC Television. He lived with his family in Wiltshire.
Terry Pratchett died in 2015, aged 66.
Significance of the Study
The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett is a humorous epic adventure. It takes place in the fantastical realm of Discworld, a flat, round land in an alternate universe. Discworld is held up by four elephants that ride on the back of Great A’Tuin, a giant turtle that swims through the cosmos.
Ankh-Morpork, the oldest city in Discworld, is on fire. Rincewind, a local wizard, and Twoflower, a visitor to the area, ride away from the city and meet Bravd and Weasel, two local warriors. In an extended flashback, Rincewind tells the warriors the story of how he and Twoflower met. Twoflower and his magical walking suitcase, known as the Luggage, arrive by boat in Morpork. A blind beggar takes them to the Broken Drum, a tavern frequented by thieves and barbarians. Rincewind is enjoying a beer at the tavern when he meets Twoflower and helps him communicate with Broadman, the owner of the Broken Drum. Twoflower, a clerk from Bes Palargic in the Agatean Empire, has saved up a lot of money to see the sights of Discworld. He pays Rincewind a hefty sum in solid gold coins to be his travel guide.
Rincewind attempts to run off with his advanced pay, but is detained by the town leader, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. The Patrician threatens to kill Rincewind if he does not fulfill his duties as Twoflower’s guide, so Rincewind reluctantly returns to the tavern. He heads upstairs to collect Twoflower, who has been sleeping while a fight rages downstairs. Excited to hear about a real barroom brawl, Twoflower unpacks his black picture box and takes several pictures of the scene. Ymor and Withel, local thieves, hear of Twoflower’s vast supply of gold coins and decide to rob him. While Rincewind and Twoflower are touring the city, Twoflower disappears and Rincewind runs into Withel. Rincewind escapes and tries to jump into the river, but the Luggage holds him back until he agrees to find Twoflower. Back at the Broken Drum, Twoflower convinces Broadman to buy an inn-sewer-ants polly-sea from him in order to protect the owner’s interests in the tavern. Ymor and Withel stand guard nearby, waiting for Rincewind to return with the Luggage. Rincewind and the Luggage storm the tavern, using coin-filled bags as grenades. He rescues Twoflower from the rafters while the Luggage attacks the ruffians, who run away in fear. As they leave, the Broken Drum bursts into flames, for Broadman has set it on fire. Withel attacks Rincewind and begins to choke him. Twoflower and Rincewind work together to escape Withel and leave the city. Much to Rincewind’s disgust, Twoflower reveals that Broadman had just paid the first inn-sewer-ants premium on the tavern.
On the way to Chirm, Rincewind and Twoflower encounter an angry troll, which has been sent by one of the gods to thwart their progress. In the ensuing chaos, the men are separated in the surrounding woods. Rincewind climbs a tree to escape a pack of wolves and is captured by the tree’s dryads in retaliation for the damage he causes to their tree. The dryad’s leader, Druellae, informs Rincewind that Twoflower has wound up at the Temple of Bel-Shamharoth, an abandoned building dedicated to the worship of a hideous tentacled creature known as the Sender of Eight. Using the old magic that is forbidden for use by wizards, the dryads perform a ritual to observe Twoflower’s encounter with the Sender of Eight. While watching Twoflower from a shaft of magical octarine light, Rincewind notices that Hrun the Barbarian, a hero of Discworld, is also at the temple. Hrun has spotted the gold inside the Luggage and plans to steal it. He has followed the Luggage to the temple, unaware of the Luggage’s loyalty to Twoflower. While the dryads are distracted by the vision, Rincewind escapes by running into the shaft of light and is magically transported to the temple. He begs Twoflower and Hrun not to say the number between seven and nine. When Kring, Hrun’s magical talking sword, utters the number eight while in the temple, the multi-tentacled, one-eyed Sender of Eight appears and attacks the three men. During the scuffle, Rincewind picks up Twoflower’s picture box and wields it at the beast. A bright flash from the box’s light attachment of octarine-filled salamanders upsets the creature so much that it slithers away. The temple succumbs to the ravages of time and crumbles as the men escape.
Rincewind, Twoflower, and Hrun head to Quirm. Along the way they stop near the Wyrmberg, a magical mountain community. The citizens of the Wyrmberg use the magic to summon dragons, which they use as protection. Liessa, daughter of the Lord of the Wyrmberg and rightful heir, sends several dragons to capture the three travelers. As they flee from Liessa’s dragons, Rincewind, Twoflower, and Hrun are separated. Rincewind is knocked from his horse and wakes up to find that Twoflower and Hrun have been captured. Kring, Hrun’s magical sword, promises to help Rincewind rescue his companions. The wizard and the sword encounter K!sdra, a dragonrider from the Wyrmberg, who has been assigned to kill Rincewind. With Kring’s help, Rincewind attacks K!sdra, who says he will reunite the wizard with his friends at the Wyrmberg. Upon arriving at the Wyrmberg, Rincewind discovers he is expected to surrender, which he refuses. Assuming that Rincewind has come to fight, Lio!rt, Liessa’s brother, challenges the wizard to mortal combat while hanging from the ceiling of the dragon’s roost. Rincewind fights bravely with Kring’s help, cutting Lio!rt on his chest. When a ceiling hook breaks during the battle, Rincewind ends up dangling from the ceiling.
Meanwhile, Twoflower and Hrun are imprisoned in the Wyrmberg dungeon, awaiting their fate. Liessa comes to see Hrun and tells him that she needs a warrior to perform three tasks for her. If Hrun can fulfill all three tasks, she will marry him and he will become Lord of the Wyrmberg. The first task is killing her brothers, who also seek to rule the Wyrmberg. While Liessa is preoccupied with Hrun, Twoflower is taken to another cell. He sits fantasizing about dragons, then realizes he is not alone. Much to his surprise, Twoflower discovers that his childhood fantasies have combined with the Wyrmberg’s magic to call forth a dragon, which he names Ninereeds. The dragon helps him escape, and the pair wind up meeting Greicha, the dead Lord of the Wyrmberg. No longer restricted by time and space, Greicha is able to tell Twoflower that he will rescue Rincewind. Twoflower mounts Ninereeds and they fly off to find Rincewind. They catch Rincewind just as he is falling from the cavern ceiling.
Hrun follows Liessa’s orders and challenges her brothers, Lio!rt and Liartes, to mortal combat. The brothers choose to fight with dragons, much to Hrun’s dismay. An unarmed Hrun manages to defeat both brothers by knocking them out cold, which effectively kills their imagination-fueled dragons. Despite Liessa’s instructions, Hrun refuses to kill the men, saying it is unfair to kill someone who is unconscious. Liessa presents Hrun’s final test by removing her clothes. As the couple enjoys a cup of wine, Ninereeds dives in and grabs Hrun, who is none too pleased about leaving Liessa. As the dragon soars higher, the air thins and Twoflower passes out. Ninereeds disappears and Liessa swoops in on her dragon and snatches Hrun.
Rincewind, Twoflower, and the Luggage tumble into the Circle Sea and are rescued by a slave ship. The men escape from the ship in a small boat and get caught in the current near the Rimfall, the Edge of Discworld. Tethis, a sea troll that patrols the area, finds Rincewind and Twoflower trapped in the Circumfence, a system of ropes and pulleys that marks the Edge. He takes them into his shack at the Edge and offers them a place to stay until a salvage fleet arrives. Afraid he might be sold into slavery, Rincewind attacks Tethis to no avail. A lens-shaped flyer powered by water-hating wizards arrives to take Rincewind and Twoflower to Krull, a nearby kingdom. The lens is commanded by Marchesa, a fifth-level wizard well aware of Rincewind’s lack of magical skills but still in awe of his ability to survive. Upon docking in Krull, Twoflower and Rincewind are taken to their prison cell, an ornate room full of local delicacies. Garhartra, the Guestmaster, greets the men and says their stay will be comfortable, but short, as they are to be sacrificed. Rincewind attempts to attack Garhartra with a bottle of wine but the Guestmaster uses his magic to pin Rincewind against the wall.
After Garhartra leaves, Rincewind and Twoflower discover that the frog they rescued at the Edge is actually the Lady, a Discworld goddess. She tells them that their sacrifice is supposed to ensure the safety of the Potent Voyager, a spaceship that will be launched that day. When Garhartra returns to collect Rincewind and Twoflower, the enchanted bottle breaks on his head and the men flee. They find a room containing uniforms for the Potent Voyager chelonauts, who show up unexpectedly. Rincewind and Twoflower knock the chelonauts out cold and put on the uniforms. At the launch, the Arch-astronomer of Krull learns that Rincewind and Twoflower have escaped. When Rincewind and Twoflower arrive at the launch disguised as the chelonauts, the Arch-astronomer suspects something is wrong and prepares to attack.
Before he can do so, the Luggage enters the arena, having wreaked havoc all over the Edge in its quest for Twoflower. The Krullian magicians cast many spells on the Luggage, only angering it further. From his perch on the launch pad with Rincewind, Twoflower calls to the Luggage and discovers that Tethis is inside the chest. Soldiers advance on the men, and Tethis and Twoflower climb inside the ship to escape. As the Krullians get closer, the Potent Voyager is jostled and the hatch closes, trapping Tethis and Twoflower inside. The ship moves down the rails and launches over the Edge, leaving Rincewind behind. Rincewind falls off the launch page and ends up in a tree at the Rimfall, where a demon posing as Death attempts to convince him to die.
The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett is a humorous epic adventure. It takes place in the fantastical realm of Discworld, a flat, round land in an alternate universe. Discworld is held up by four elephants that ride on the back of Great A’Tuin, a giant turtle that swims through the cosmos.
Ankh-Morpork, the oldest city in Discworld, is on fire. Rincewind, a local wizard, and Twoflower, a visitor to the area, ride away from the city and meet Bravd and Weasel, two local warriors. In an extended flashback, Rincewind tells the warriors the story of how he and Twoflower met. Twoflower and his magical walking suitcase, known as the Luggage, arrive by boat in Morpork. A blind beggar takes them to the Broken Drum, a tavern frequented by thieves and barbarians. Rincewind is enjoying a beer at the tavern when he meets Twoflower and helps him communicate with Broadman, the owner of the Broken Drum. Twoflower, a clerk from Bes Palargic in the Agatean Empire, has saved up a lot of money to see the sights of Discworld. He pays Rincewind a hefty sum in solid gold coins to be his travel guide.
Rincewind attempts to run off with his advanced pay, but is detained by the town leader, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. The Patrician threatens to kill Rincewind if he does not fulfill his duties as Twoflower’s guide, so Rincewind reluctantly returns to the tavern. He heads upstairs to collect Twoflower, who has been sleeping while a fight rages downstairs. Excited to hear about a real barroom brawl, Twoflower unpacks his black picture box and takes several pictures of the scene. Ymor and Withel, local thieves, hear of Twoflower’s vast supply of gold coins and decide to rob him. While Rincewind and Twoflower are touring the city, Twoflower disappears and Rincewind runs into Withel. Rincewind escapes and tries to jump into the river, but the Luggage holds him back until he agrees to find Twoflower. Back at the Broken Drum, Twoflower convinces Broadman to buy an inn-sewer-ants polly-sea from him in order to protect the owner’s interests in the tavern. Ymor and Withel stand guard nearby, waiting for Rincewind to return with the Luggage. Rincewind and the Luggage storm the tavern, using coin-filled bags as grenades. He rescues Twoflower from the rafters while the Luggage attacks the ruffians, who run away in fear. As they leave, the Broken Drum bursts into flames, for Broadman has set it on fire. Withel attacks Rincewind and begins to choke him. Twoflower and Rincewind work together to escape Withel and leave the city. Much to Rincewind’s disgust, Twoflower reveals that Broadman had just paid the first inn-sewer-ants premium on the tavern.
On the way to Chirm, Rincewind and Twoflower encounter an angry troll, which has been sent by one of the gods to thwart their progress. In the ensuing chaos, the men are separated in the surrounding woods. Rincewind climbs a tree to escape a pack of wolves and is captured by the tree’s dryads in retaliation for the damage he causes to their tree. The dryad’s leader, Druellae, informs Rincewind that Twoflower has wound up at the Temple of Bel-Shamharoth, an abandoned building dedicated to the worship of a hideous tentacled creature known as the Sender of Eight. Using the old magic that is forbidden for use by wizards, the dryads perform a ritual to observe Twoflower’s encounter with the Sender of Eight. While watching Twoflower from a shaft of magical octarine light, Rincewind notices that Hrun the Barbarian, a hero of Discworld, is also at the temple. Hrun has spotted the gold inside the Luggage and plans to steal it. He has followed the Luggage to the temple, unaware of the Luggage’s loyalty to Twoflower. While the dryads are distracted by the vision, Rincewind escapes by running into the shaft of light and is magically transported to the temple. He begs Twoflower and Hrun not to say the number between seven and nine. When Kring, Hrun’s magical talking sword, utters the number eight while in the temple, the multi-tentacled, one-eyed Sender of Eight appears and attacks the three men. During the scuffle, Rincewind picks up Twoflower’s picture box and wields it at the beast. A bright flash from the box’s light attachment of octarine-filled salamanders upsets the creature so much that it slithers away. The temple succumbs to the ravages of time and crumbles as the men escape.
Rincewind, Twoflower, and Hrun head to Quirm. Along the way they stop near the Wyrmberg, a magical mountain community. The citizens of the Wyrmberg use the magic to summon dragons, which they use as protection. Liessa, daughter of the Lord of the Wyrmberg and rightful heir, sends several dragons to capture the three travelers. As they flee from Liessa’s dragons, Rincewind, Twoflower, and Hrun are separated. Rincewind is knocked from his horse and wakes up to find that Twoflower and Hrun have been captured. Kring, Hrun’s magical sword, promises to help Rincewind rescue his companions. The wizard and the sword encounter K!sdra, a dragonrider from the Wyrmberg, who has been assigned to kill Rincewind. With Kring’s help, Rincewind attacks K!sdra, who says he will reunite the wizard with his friends at the Wyrmberg. Upon arriving at the Wyrmberg, Rincewind discovers he is expected to surrender, which he refuses. Assuming that Rincewind has come to fight, Lio!rt, Liessa’s brother, challenges the wizard to mortal combat while hanging from the ceiling of the dragon’s roost. Rincewind fights bravely with Kring’s help, cutting Lio!rt on his chest. When a ceiling hook breaks during the battle, Rincewind ends up dangling from the ceiling.
Meanwhile, Twoflower and Hrun are imprisoned in the Wyrmberg dungeon, awaiting their fate. Liessa comes to see Hrun and tells him that she needs a warrior to perform three tasks for her. If Hrun can fulfill all three tasks, she will marry him and he will become Lord of the Wyrmberg. The first task is killing her brothers, who also seek to rule the Wyrmberg. While Liessa is preoccupied with Hrun, Twoflower is taken to another cell. He sits fantasizing about dragons, then realizes he is not alone. Much to his surprise, Twoflower discovers that his childhood fantasies have combined with the Wyrmberg’s magic to call forth a dragon, which he names Ninereeds. The dragon helps him escape, and the pair wind up meeting Greicha, the dead Lord of the Wyrmberg. No longer restricted by time and space, Greicha is able to tell Twoflower that he will rescue Rincewind. Twoflower mounts Ninereeds and they fly off to find Rincewind. They catch Rincewind just as he is falling from the cavern ceiling.
Hrun follows Liessa’s orders and challenges her brothers, Lio!rt and Liartes, to mortal combat. The brothers choose to fight with dragons, much to Hrun’s dismay. An unarmed Hrun manages to defeat both brothers by knocking them out cold, which effectively kills their imagination-fueled dragons. Despite Liessa’s instructions, Hrun refuses to kill the men, saying it is unfair to kill someone who is unconscious. Liessa presents Hrun’s final test by removing her clothes. As the couple enjoys a cup of wine, Ninereeds dives in and grabs Hrun, who is none too pleased about leaving Liessa. As the dragon soars higher, the air thins and Twoflower passes out. Ninereeds disappears and Liessa swoops in on her dragon and snatches Hrun.
Rincewind, Twoflower, and the Luggage tumble into the Circle Sea and are rescued by a slave ship. The men escape from the ship in a small boat and get caught in the current near the Rimfall, the Edge of Discworld. Tethis, a sea troll that patrols the area, finds Rincewind and Twoflower trapped in the Circumfence, a system of ropes and pulleys that marks the Edge. He takes them into his shack at the Edge and offers them a place to stay until a salvage fleet arrives. Afraid he might be sold into slavery, Rincewind attacks Tethis to no avail. A lens-shaped flyer powered by water-hating wizards arrives to take Rincewind and Twoflower to Krull, a nearby kingdom. The lens is commanded by Marchesa, a fifth-level wizard well aware of Rincewind’s lack of magical skills but still in awe of his ability to survive. Upon docking in Krull, Twoflower and Rincewind are taken to their prison cell, an ornate room full of local delicacies. Garhartra, the Guestmaster, greets the men and says their stay will be comfortable, but short, as they are to be sacrificed. Rincewind attempts to attack Garhartra with a bottle of wine but the Guestmaster uses his magic to pin Rincewind against the wall.
After Garhartra leaves, Rincewind and Twoflower discover that the frog they rescued at the Edge is actually the Lady, a Discworld goddess. She tells them that their sacrifice is supposed to ensure the safety of the Potent Voyager, a spaceship that will be launched that day. When Garhartra returns to collect Rincewind and Twoflower, the enchanted bottle breaks on his head and the men flee. They find a room containing uniforms for the Potent Voyager chelonauts, who show up unexpectedly. Rincewind and Twoflower knock the chelonauts out cold and put on the uniforms. At the launch, the Arch-astronomer of Krull learns that Rincewind and Twoflower have escaped. When Rincewind and Twoflower arrive at the launch disguised as the chelonauts, the Arch-astronomer suspects something is wrong and prepares to attack.
Before he can do so, the Luggage enters the arena, having wreaked havoc all over the Edge in its quest for Twoflower. The Krullian magicians cast many spells on the Luggage, only angering it further. From his perch on the launch pad with Rincewind, Twoflower calls to the Luggage and discovers that Tethis is inside the chest. Soldiers advance on the men, and Tethis and Twoflower climb inside the ship to escape. As the Krullians get closer, the Potent Voyager is jostled and the hatch closes, trapping Tethis and Twoflower inside. The ship moves down the rails and launches over the Edge, leaving Rincewind behind. Rincewind falls off the launch page and ends up in a tree at the Rimfall, where a demon posing as Death attempts to convince him to die.
Literature Sample of The Color of Magic
Collection Sample
The Color of Magic
Prologue
In A distant and secondhand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was
never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part…
See…
Great ATuin the turtle comes, swimming slowly through the interstellar
gulf, hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs, his huge and ancient shell pocked
with meteor craters. Through sea-sized eyes that are crusted with rheum and
asteroid dust He stares fixedly at the Destination.
In a brain bigger than a city, with geological slowness, He thinks only of the
Weight.
Most of the weight is of course accounted for by Berilia, Tubul, Great
T’Phon and Jerakeen, the four giant elephants upon whose broad and star-tanned
shoulders the Disc of the World rests, garlanded by the long waterfall at its vast
circumference and domed by the baby-blue vault of Heaven.
Astropsychology has been, as yet, unable to establish what they think about.
The Great Turtle was a mere hypothesis until the day the small and secretive
kingdom of Krull, whose rim-most mountains project out over the Rimfall, built
a gantry and pulley arrangement at the tip of the most precipitous crag and
lowered several observers over the Edge in a quartz-windowed brass vessel to
peer through the mist veils.
The early astrozoologists, hauled back from their long dangle by enormous
teams of slaves, were able to bring back much information about the shape and
nature of A’Tuin and the elephants but this did not resolve fundamental
questions about the nature and purpose of the universe.
For example, what was A’Tuin’s actual sex? This vital question, said the
astrozoologists with mounting authority, would not be answered until a larger
and more powerful gantry was constructed for a deep-space vessel. In the
meantime they could only speculate about the revealed cosmos.
There was, for example, the theory that A’Turn had come from nowhere and
would continue at a uniform crawl, or steady gait, into nowhere, for all time.
This theory was popular among academics.
An alternative, favored by those of a religious persuasion, was that A’Tuin
was crawling from the Birthplace to the Time of Mating, as were all the stars in
the sky which were, obviously, also carried by giant turtles. When they arrived
they would briefly and passionately mate, for the first and only time, and from
that fiery union new turtles would be born to carry a new pattern of worlds. This
was known as the Big Bang hypothesis.
Thus it was that a young cosmochelonian of the Steady Gait faction, testing
a new telescope with which he hoped to make measurements of the precise
albedo of Great ATuin’s right eye, was on this eventful evening the first outsider
to see the smoke rise hubward from the burning of the oldest city in the world.
Later that night he became so engrossed in his studies he completely forgot
about it. Nevertheless, he was the first.
There were others…
The Sending of Eig ht
Prologue
The Discworld offers sights far more impressive than those found in universes
built by Creators with less imagination but more mechanical aptitude.
Although the Disc’s sun is but an orbiting moonlet, its prominences hardly
bigger than croquet hoops, this slight drawback must be set against the
tremendous sight of Great A’Tuin the Turtle, upon Whose ancient and meteor
riddled shell the Disc ultimately rests. Sometimes, in His slow journey across the
shores of Infinity, He moves His country-sized head to snap at a passing comet.
But perhaps the most impressive sight of all—if only because most brains,
when faced with the sheer galactic enormity of A’Tuin, refuse to believe it—is
the endless Rimfall, where the seas of the Disc boil ceaselessly over the Edge
into space. Or perhaps it is the Rimbow, the eight-colored, world-girdling
rainbow that hovers in the mist-laden air over the Fall. The eighth color is
octarine, caused by the scatter effect of strong sunlight on an intense magical
field.
Or perhaps, again, the most magnificent sight is the Hub. There, a spire of
green ice ten miles high rises through the clouds and supports at its peak the
realm of Dunmanifestin, the abode of the Disc gods. The Disc gods themselves,
despite the splendor of the world below them, are seldom satisfied. It is
embarrassing to know that one is a god of a world that only exists because every
improbability curve must have its far end; especially when one can peer into
other dimensions at worlds whose Creators had more mechanical aptitude than
imagination. No wonder, then, that the Disc gods spend more time in bickering
than in omnicognizance.
On this particular day Blind Io, by dint of constant vigilance the chief of the
gods, sat with his chin on his hand and looked at the gaming board on the red
marble table in front of him. Blind Io had got his name because, where his eye
sockets should have been, there were nothing but two areas of blank skin. His
eyes, of which he had an impressively large number, led a semi-independent life
of their own. Several were currently hovering above the table.
The gaming board was a carefully carved map of the Discworld, overprinted
with squares. A number of beautifully modeled playing pieces were now
occupying some of the squares. A human onlooker would, for example, have
recognized in two of them the likenesses of Bravd and the Weasel. Others
represented yet more heroes and champions, of which the Disc had a more than
adequate supply.
Still in the game were Io, Offler the Crocodile God, Zephyrus the god of
slight breezes, Fate, and the Lady. There was an air of concentration around the
board now that the lesser players had been removed from the Game. Chance had
been an early casualty, running her hero into a full house of armed gnolls (the
result of a lucky throw by Offler) and shortly afterward Night has cashed his
chips, pleading an appointment with Destiny. Several minor deities had drifted
up and were kibitzing over the shoulders of the players.
Side bets were made that the Lady would be the next to leave the board. Her
last champion of any standing was now a pinch of potash in the ruins of still¬
smoking Ankh-Morpork, and there were hardly any pieces that she could
promote to first rank.
Rincewind shrugged. “In our tongue it is called reflected-sound-as-of-
underground-spirits. Is there any wine?”