Ankh-Morpork
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| Ankh-Morpork (Modern Morporkian) Ankhius et Morporkia (Latatian, the Old Language) | |
 The shield is supported by two hippopotami and crested with a morpork holding an ankh. | |
| mottos: Quanti canicula ille in fenestra (Latatian: How much is that small dog in the window) Merus in pectum et in aquam (Latatian: Pure in heart and water) | |
| Official language | Morporkian is de facto |
| Patrician | Lord Havelock Vetinari |
| Area | Approx 50 mile² (130 km²) including surrounding fiefdom |
| Population | Approx. 1,000,000 (including surrounding fiefdom) |
| Establishment | Founded 2564 years before AM dating Modern city-state established 4th Grune 1688 AM |
| Currency | Ankh-Morpork Dollar |
| National anthem | We can rule you wholesale |
Ankh-Morpork is also the mercantile capital of the Discworld, and the books give an excellent flavour of a "working" quasi-medieval city. Even when it is under attack from a dragon, the vegetable carts still have to come in.
In The Art of Discworld Pratchett explains that the city is similar to Tallinn and central Prague, but adds that it has elements of 18th century London, 19th century Seattle and modern New York City. He also states that since the creation of The Streets of Ankh-Morpork, he has tried to ensure that the descriptions of character movements and locations in the books match the Ankh-Morpork map; this has allowed him, and fans of the series, to visualise the story more clearly. Ankh-Morpork is also referred to as "The Great [or Big] Wahoonie" on occasions, further increasing the bond with "The Big Apple", New York.
Geography
Ankh-Morpork lies on the River Ankh (the most polluted waterway on the Discworld), where the fertile loam of the Sto Plains (similar to Western Europe) meets the Circle Sea (the Discworld's version of the Mediterranean). This, naturally, puts it in an excellent trading position.Lying approximately equidistant from the cold Hub and tropical Rim, Ankh-Morpork is in the Discworld's equivalent of the temperate zone.
The name "Ankh-Morpork" refers to both the city itself, a walled city about a mile (1.6 km) across, and the surrounding suburbs and farms of its fiefdom.
The central city divides more or less into Ankh (the posh part) and Morpork (the humble part, which includes the slum area known as "the Shades"), which are separated by the River Ankh.
Ankh-Morpork is built on black loam, broadly, but mostly what it is built on is more Ankh-Morpork. Because of the nature of the Ankh-Morpork citizenry and the flooding of the River Ankh, they figured it was simply easier to build on top of the existing buildings when the sediment grew too high, rather than excavate them out. This has resulted in two things: First, many people own basements and have no idea they do. Second, there is a "cave network" below Ankh-Morpork made up of old streets and abandoned sewers – these "unknown basements" allow people to get around relatively unimpeded. The city's dwarf population have extended this into a complex network of tunnels, which has recently been made municipal property.
The River Ankh
Even before it enters Ankh-Morpork, the River Ankh is full of silt from the plains; by the time it gets to the seaward side of the city, "even an agnostic could walk across it".The citizens of the city are strangely proud of this fact, even going so far as to say that "it is easier to suffocate than drown in the Ankh." They also claim it to be the purest water on the Disc, as "Anything that's passed through so many kidneys has to be very pure indeed." Owing to the build-up of centuries, the bed of the river is higher than some parts of the city. When winter snows swell the flow, the low-rent areas of Morpork flood. In spring some parts of the river catch fire, and others sprout small trees. Wading birds are apparently uncommon, as their legs would be eaten away by the pollution. Such fish as are known to exist are decribed as looking like vaccuum cleaners, and explode when brought to the surface. There are a lot of microorganisms living in the river, which Mustrum Ridcully believed was proof that the water was safe to drink - as anything capable of supporting that much life had to be pure.
Although some cities have been invaded by barbarians approaching by river, there is small danger of this with the Ankh, since any invasion fleet would have to be preceded by a gang of men wielding shovels.
In the times when the city catches fire, the river gates are closed, and the river rises and smothers the flames. This also has an unfortunate side effect of destroying any remaining buildings that the fire missed.
In both Men At Arms and the computer game Discworld Noir, the Ankh is described as "the only river in the world on which you could draw a chalk outline".
History
According to legend, the first city of Ankh-Morpork was founded thousands of years ago by twin brothers who were raised by a hippopotamus (an allusion to the myth of Romulus and Remus). It is in memory of this that the hippo is the royal animal of Ankh. One legend has it that if danger ever threatens the city, the eight stone hippopotami guarding the Brass Bridge will come to life and run away. Another legend claims that many centuries ago, the Disc flooded. An ark was constructed, containing two of every animal. When the accumulated dung of forty days and nights was dropped over the side, they called it Ankh-Morpork.The original city was little more than a walled keep, surrounding the Tower of Art, a building of mysterious origin and which may even predate the Disc itself.
At one point it had an empire, similar to the Roman Empire, that covered half the continent including the neighbouring country of Klatch. These were the days of the "Pax Morporkia," another reference to Rome and their Pax Romana.
The empire was largely the creation of General Tacticus (an obvious pun or play on words, and a reference to Tacitus), the greatest military mind in history. Tacticus refused to accept that the Empire was growing too big to control, and was finally shipped off to be king of Genua. As king he decided that the greatest threat to Genua was the Empire, and declared war on it (a probable reference to Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, who served under the Emperor Napoleon but later, as King of Sweden, allied with France's enemies).
This was a Golden Age, ruled by the Kings of Ankh, who are recalled in legend as wise, noble and fair. The line died out approximately 2000 years before the present, giving way to real kings who were realistically corrupt and peverse and ultimately leading to the collapse of the empire.
Shortly before this, however, the mage Alberto Malich had founded Unseen University in the Tower of Art, and Ankh-Morpork continued as a service town for the wizards.
Royalty became extremely debased and the later kings of Ankh-Morpork are recalled in history as power-mad and corrupt, or just mad; some are mentioned by name in Men at Arms:
- Queen Alguinna IV
- King Artorollo (a contemporary of Alberto Malich)
- King Cirone IV
- Queen Coanna
- King Loyala the Aaargh (Had a 1.13 second rule from coronation to assassination) - The Discworld Companion
- King Ludwig the Tree (Known to issue royal proclamations on the need to develop a new type of frog and similar important matters, and also responsible for the city motto "Quanti Canicula Ille In Fenestra") - The Discworld Companion
- King Paragore
- King Tyrril (ruled circa AM 907)
- King Veltrick III
- Webblethorpe the Unconscious
Under the Patricians the city has become the mercantile and political capital of the Discworld, so much so that the Sto Plains operates under a new Pax Morporkia, which operates not on the principle of "If you fight, we will kill you," but on the principle of "If you fight, we will call in your mortgages." The current Patrician has opened the city to dwarfs, trolls, gnomes, humans from across the Disc and even the undead, making a truly multicultural society, with both the advantages and problems that suggests. (The current Patrician's own, typically pragmatic, view on multiculturalism is "Alloys are stronger.")
In recent years, the city has seen numerous changes. Most notable are: the rise of the semaphore network (the "clacks"), the invention of the newspaper (with the help of the iconograph), and the revitalisation of the City Watch and the Ankh-Morpork Post Office.
In "Thud!" Treacle has been (re)discovered, suggesting the possibility of the Treacle Mines reopening. Additionally, the description of the dwarfs mine sign for 'Mine' corresponds to the real life symbol used by the London Underground, implying that an underground train system might be implimented to solve Ankh-Morpork's congestion problems.
Civic symbols include Morporkia, a woman in a cabbage-spangled cloak and an old-fashioned helmet, carrying a shield with the civic coat of arms and a toasting-fork symbolising "something or other" (compare Britannia, Columbia).
Institutions
The primary engines of Ankh-Morpork's economy are the guilds, many of which have assumed roles which in real-world cities would be assumed by government agencies. Their apprenticeship programs are the city's main form of education, and their laws and protections are the city's main form of personal security. The most obvious examples of thes are the Thieves' Guild, which, by regulating the crime trade, acts as the city's main law enforcement agency, and the Assassin's Guild, which is considered the top educational establishment on the Disc. There are hundreds of guilds, for every conceivable profession, from clowns to butchers, and each has its own strictly maintained laws and trading practices.Recently, the city's current ruler, Lord Vetinari, has begun to reassert the power of the state, by reintroducing formerly decrepit government agencies such as the City Watch, the Post Office, and most recently, the Royal Mint.
Politics
The succession of the Patrician is normally either by assassination or revolution. It has been known for Patricians to resign, but it is very much the exception.Power is to some degree shared with the many Guilds of Ankh-Morpork (including legalised Thieves, Assassins and "Seamstresses") and the surviving nobility. They form a sort of city council, but the Patrician has the only vote at meetings.
The current office-holder is Lord Havelock Vetinari, a former Assassin.
The nearest surviving relative of the former royal family seems to be Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson, technically a dwarf. However, he has gone to some effort to keep this as quiet as possible. The origin of Corporal Cecil Wormsborough St. John (Nobby) Nobbs remains shrouded in mystery. At one point he was identified as being a descendant of de Nobbes, the Earl of Ankh (and therefore the next in line), but this was (probably) a deliberate deception.
A Patrician has almost absolute power over the affairs of the city and works together with the leaders of the city's Guilds, who are the ones who unofficially elect him in the first place. Eligible for election are members of rich and influential families. Unfortunately, almost all of the people who have held the post through the years proved once in office to be little different from a king, except that power did not pass automatically to their descendants. They were despotic, oppressive and fairly often mad. Past Patricians have included:
- Mad Lord Snapcase (preceded Vetinari)
- Homicidal Lord Winder (preceded Snapcase)
- Deranged Lord Harmoni
- Laughing Lord Scapula
- Frenzied Earl Hargath
- Nersh the Lunatic
- Giggling Lord Smince
- Olaf Quimby II
Education
Ankh-Morpork does not appear to have anything approaching a public education system. Many children from poorer backgrounds are educated at dame schools, similar to the institutions in Victorian England of the same name; Sideney (in Hogfather) and Samuel Vimes (in Thud!) were educated at dame schools. At the other end of the scale, the Assassins' Guild provides an education in the style of British public schools to more privileged young Morporkians. Havelock Vetinari and Lord Downey were educated there. Others attend boarding schools outside Ankh-Morpork, such as the Quirm College for Young Ladies.
Anthem
We Can Rule You Wholesale is the national anthem of Ankh-Morpork; it is a parody of the song Rule Britannia.
It was not written by a native Ankh-Morporkian, but by the visiting vampire Count Henrik Shline von Überwald (born 1703, died 1782, also died 1784, 1788, 1791, 1802, 1804, 1807, 1808, 1821, 1830, 1861, finally staked 1872). His inspiration came from his observations that Ankh-Morpork's chief means of defence was not warfare but corruption, bribery and mercantile tactics, since most of the weapons used against the city were actually made there in the first place.
The anthem is particularly noteworthy for being the only one that has a second verse officially consisting of incoherent muttering. Count von Überwald had also observed that any group of people singing their country's national anthem never remembers how the second verse goes anyway, so he decided to make things easier for Ankh-Morpork. The anthem's sentiments are of course summarised in the new Pax Morporkia: "If you fight, we'll call in your mortgages. And incidentally that's my pike you're pointing at me. I paid for that shield you're holding. And take my helmet off when you speak to me, you horrible little debtor."
In formal occasions, the anthem is supposed to be performed by a large soprano singer wearing a sheet and holding a torch in one hand and a fork in the other.
The lyrics of the anthem are as follows:
"When dragons belch and hippos flee
My thoughts, Ankh-Morpork, are of thee
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.
Morporkia! Morporkia!
Morporkia owns the day!
We can rule you wholesale
Touch us and you'll pay.
We bankrupt all invaders, we sell them souvenirs
We ner ner ner ner ner, hner ner hner by the ears
Er hner we ner ner ner ner ner
Ner ner her ner ner ner hner the ner
Er ner ner hner ner, nher hner ner ner (etc.)
Ner hner ner, your gleaming swords
We mortgaged to the hilt
Morporkia! Morporkia!
Hner ner ner ner ner ner
We can rule you wholesale
Credit where it's due."
The final part of the anthem is usually sung much louder than the rest of the second verse, since the singers want to show they know the words . . .
The anthem was actually written in 1999 by Pratchett (words) and Carl Davis (music), for the BBC Radio 3 programmme The Music Machine. It was performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the soprano was Clare Rutter. It was also performed at that year's Proms by the Prommers' Orchestra and Chorus.
Public holidays
| Date | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 Ick | Hogswatch Day (New Year, Christmas) |
| 28 April | The Creator's birthday |
| 1 May | May Day (also called May Blossom Day) |
| 25 May | The Twenty-Fifth Of May (commemorates the last Ankh-Morpork revolution, but only if you participated) |
| 6 Grune | Patrician's Day (in reality Stephen Briggs' birthday) |
| The first Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after the last half moon in Sektober | Soul Cake Days |
| 31 December | Hogswatch Eve |
| 32 December | Hogswatchnight |
Real-world connections
Ankh-Morpork was twinned with the town of Wincanton in Somerset, in the south-west United Kingdom on the spherical planet Earth (known in the Discworld books as Roundworld) on the 7th December 2002 [link]. The town is home to a Discworld shop called [The Cunning Artificer] which is named after a street in Ankh-Morpork. However due to legal reasons, the twinning is not officially displayed on the road sign. Fans however have added stick-on notices to some of the signs [link].
Many details of Ankh-Morpork appear to have been inspired by Fritz Leiber's fictional city Lankhmar, the most obvious being the similar names of the two cities, the similar-sounding titles afforded to the respective rulers (a Patrician for Ankh-Morpork, a Patriarch for Lankhmar), the browned-iron equipment that characterises both sets of city guards, some conspicuous buildings (Tower of Art, Rats Tower), the similar names of associated countries (in particular; Klatch and Klesh) and what may be termed a certain general atmosphere. This resemblence is most marked in the earliest Discworld books, and becomes increasing diluted as the series moves away from parody into satire.
Lankhmar's only Patriarch to feature prominently in one of Leiber's stories was Glipkerio Kistomerces. Like Ankh-Morpork's Lord Vetinari, Glipkerio is described as tall, thin ("emaciated" is the word most frequently used), and dressed in black. After which resemblence ceases, as "Glippy" is an inept ruler, a hopeless sadist and an extreme physical and moral coward.
External links
- [Discworld & Pratchett Wiki]
- [The L-Space Web], possibly the definitive Discworld web site
- [When Dragons Belch and Hippos Flee], an Ankh-Morpork roleplaying site, where you can be your favorite character.
References
- Pratchett, Terry (1983). The Colour of Magic. Colin Smythe.
- Pratchett, Terry (1989). Guards! Guards!. Gollancz.
- Pratchett, Terry (1993). Men At Arms. Gollancz.
- Pratchett, Terry (1996). Feet of Clay. Gollancz.
- Pratchett, Terry (1997). Jingo. Gollancz.
- Pratchett, Terry (2000). The Truth. Gollancz.
- Pratchett, Terry (2002). Night Watch. Gollancz.
- Pratchett, Terry & Briggs, Stephen (1993). The Streets of Ankh-Morpork. Corgi.
- Pratchett, Terry & Briggs, Stephen (2003). The Discworld Companion (3rd ed.). Gollancz.
- Pratchett, Terry & Pearson, Bernard (2004). The Discworld Almanak. Doubleday.
- Pratchett, Terry & Kidby, Paul (2004). The Art of Discworld ISBN 0575075112. Gollancz.
| The Discworld | |
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| Characters: | Albert - Angua - Carrot Ironfoundersson - Cohen the Barbarian - Fred Colon - Death - Detritus - Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler - Gaspode - Greebo - Igor - Bloody Stupid Johnson - Leonard of Quirm - The Librarian - Lu-Tze - The Luggage - Mort - C.W.St J. Nobbs - Susan Sto Helit - Rincewind - Twoflower - Havelock Vetinari - Samuel Vimes - The Witches - Ysabell - Discworld gods - more... |
| Locations: | Ankh-Morpork - Agatean Empire - Borogravia - Death's Domain - Dungeon Dimensions - Ephebe - Genua - Klatch - Lancre - Muntab - Quirm - Sto Lat - Überwald - Unseen University - XXXX - more... |
| Other: | Calendar - City Watch - Clacks - Guilds - Magic - Post Office - Stealth Chess - Minor Discworld concepts |
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