Some Discworld wizards designs

Honestly, one of the things that Terry Pratchett got absolutely correct when he wrote the Discworld books is that wizards are exactly like people who have worked in various niches of academia for 30+ years. Every single person who has spent more than 15 years in niche academia is completely batshit insane and ready to fight you to the death about increasingly ridiculous bullshit. Mustrum Ridcully is literally like if you took a man who had only researched a specific translation of a single book for 40 years and made him the Dean of a university.

Not as shaped as the guards fanart but somebody reblogged my old rincewind art so I also wanted to redraw my favorite worst wizard ever!!

also I think Mackenzie Crook would make a brilliant rincewind and used him as ref for my first fanart, I think I’m going to keep doing it

Hear me out: Untitled Goose Game in Ankh-Morpork...

Think of all the mayhem you could create.

(I really really want so bad this game/DLC to exist. So much potential. @house_house_ call me (or, better, call the Pratchetts)) Next drawing: the Post!

Edit because I can't edit the poll: it's meant to say "hang out in the library", obviously

To Ponder's relief, light dawned on Ridcully's huge face. "Oh, you mean he was like Professor Hayden. We used to have a name for him..." Ponder braced himself. "Snakes. Very keen on them, you know. Could talk for hours about snakes with a side order of lizards. Very keen." "I'm glad you feel like that, Archchancellor, because I know that a number of the students–" "And then there was old Postule, who was in the rowing team. Coxed us through two wonderful years." Ponder's expression did not change, but for a few moment his face went pink and shiny. "A lof of that sort of thing about, apparently," said Ridcully. "People make such a fuss. Anyway, in my opinion there's not enough love in the world. Besides, if you didn't like the company of men you wouldn't come here in the first place, I say!"

Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals

Ridcully being an ally. I suppose that makes the Unseen University an LGBT+ positive institution?

Ponder knew he should have never let Ridcully look at the invisible writings. Wasn't it a basic principle never to let your employer know what it is you actually do all day?

But no matter what precautions you took, sooner or later the boss was bound to come in and poke around and say things like, "Is this where you work, then?" and "I thought I sent a memo out about people bringing in potted plants," and "What d'you call that thing with the keyboard?"

And this had been particularly problematical for Ponder, because reading the invisible writings was a delicate and meticulous job, suited to the kind of temperament that follows Grand Prix Continental Drift and keeps bonsai mountains as a hobby or even drives a Volvo. It needed painstaking care. It needed a mind that could enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles in a dark room. It did not need Mustrum Ridcully.

Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent

Magnus Archives/Discworld crossover (a fic I will never write but always crave)

- Jon and Martin end up somewhere else. That somewhere else is ankh Morpork.

- there’s some hijinks and shenanigans and the fears get banished to the dungeon dimensions.

- I feel like Jon and Ponder Stibbons will be friends.

- Jon becomes a wizard, since knowing things and not doing magic is half of what it takes to be a wizard anyway. I feel like he would probably end up working in the library, and helping keep students away from the dangerous books.

- eventually I think he would end up a professor in his own right, maybe a professor of Catastrophic Literature, that feels fitting. He would have his own department, but in the way Wizards do, so he mostly hangs out with the librarian and the grad students in the library or high energy magic building. I feel like the way wizards approach academia would be good for Jon.

- also at unseen university Jon could openly talk about his experiences without judgement. Maybe commiserate with Rincewind.

- meanwhile Martin- I think if they were in the country Martin would become a witch, but in the city, I think he would end up working for the sunshine sanctuary for sick dragons and end up becoming friends with Sybil.

- he would absolutely end up bringing a dragon home, and Jon would be utterly charmed by it. Even if it does leave acid stains on his robes. It’s like the more pathetic version of a cat.

- Martin had kind of been hoping Jon would be the voice of reason about the dragons- but before he knows it they have three and they couldn’t be happier. (Though they could probably be a bit less singed.)

- I know Martin has his thing about burning and fire, but also I feel like the dragons are therapeutic for him.

I may add more thoughts later- I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts tho!!!

I’d recommend pairing the Librarian with the wizzard Rincewind for optimal disc-saving potential. (Spot Illustration by me, text from Sourcery, by Terry Pratchett)

Wizards and big dinners?

This item has to be a Discworld reference!

"This is a book about magic and where it goes and perhaps more importantly where it comes from and why, although it doesn't pretend to answer all or any of these questions." & "Perhaps more importantly, the ants used all the sugar lumps they could steal to build a small sugar pyramid in one of the hollow walls, in which, with great ceremony, they entombed the mummified body of a dead queen. On the wall of one tiny hidden chamber they inscribed, in insect heiroglyphs, the true secret of longevity. They got it absolutely right and it would probably have important implications for the universe if it hadn't, next time the university flooded, been completely washed away."

Equal Rites, Terry Pratchett

Opening and final lines.

The problem with Unseen University is that there’s no one to stop the chaos when it gets out of hand. The best we have is Ponder Stibbons, and we all know that under the right circumstances, he too will join in with all the vigor of a Boy Scout left alone with baking soda and vinegar.

doodle based on a scene from sourcery

He [Ridcully] smiled at her expression. 'What is your job, young lady? Because you are wasted in it.' It was probably meant as a compliment, but Glenda, her head so bewilderingly full of the Archchancellor's words that they were trickling out of her ears, heard herself say, 'I'm certainly not wasted, sir! You've never eaten better pies than mine! I run the Night Kitchen!' The metaphysics of real politics were not a subject of interest to most of those present, but they knew where they were with pies. She was the centre of attention already, but now it blazed with interest. 'You do?' said the Chair of Indefinite Studies. 'We thought it was the pretty girl.' 'Really?' said Glenda brightly. 'Well, I run it.' 'So who does that wonderful pie you send up here sometimes, with the cheese pastry and the hot pickle layer?' 'The Ploughman's Pie? Me, sir. My own recipe.' 'Really? How do you manage to get the pickled onions to stay so hard and crispy in the baking? It's just amazing!' 'My own recipe, sir,' said Glenda firmly. 'It wouldn't be mine if I told anyone else.' 'Well said,' said Ridcully gleefully. 'You can't go around asking craftsmen the secrets of their trade, old chap. It's a thing you just don't do. Now, I am concluding this meeting, although what it has in fact concluded I shall decide later.' —Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals

They’d reached the alley alongside the University that had been known informally as Scholars’ Entry for so many centuries that this was now on a nameplate at one end. A couple of student wizards went past.  The unofficial entrance to the University has always been known only to students. What most students failed to remember was that the senior members of the faculty had also been students once, and also liked to get out and about after the official shutting of the gates. This naturally led to a certain amount of embarrassment and diplomacy on dark evenings. Carrot and Angua waited patiently as a few more students climbed over, followed by the Dean.

Terry Pratchett, Jingo