The Colour of Magic: Difference between revisions

* [[Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser]] (Bravd and the Weasel, and the whole opening chapters with Ankh-Morpork burning. The initial characterization of Death as an actively malevolent being who directly kills people was also taken from here. The name of the city Ankh-Morpork is only coincidentally similar to Leiber's Lankhmar, though; Pratchett has denied being consciously influenced).

* [[Dragonriders of Pern|Pern]] (The Dragons of the Wyrmbeg, especially since the riders use exclamation marks in their names in a similar way to how McCaffrey's Dragonriders use apostrophes)

* [[H.P. Lovecraft]] (Bel-Shamharoth's temple)

* [[Michael Moorcock]] The concept of the Eternal Hero and the Companion to Champions. Rincewind as an incompetent ''Elric'' who can neither cast spells nor use weapons. The Black Sword that sucks souls to Hell - here a sword that drags people into a Hell of boredom and ennui as it grabs the ear of the listener and ''will not let go''. Capricious and chaotic Gods playing with human life for kicks.

* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]: The Agatean Empire here seems mainly based on Japan (both the fact that it is closed to outsiders and has only one port, like Tokugawa-era Japan, and Twoflower's tourist stereotype seems mainly based on Japanese tourists). However, its naming conventions are based on Aztec names rendered literally into English.

* [[Fantastic Measurement System]]: Rincewind measures the Wyrmberg's magical field in (milli)Primes. In every other book it's (milli)thaums. This was explained in the Discworld Companion as being two competing measurement systems, like Fahrenheit and Celsius.

** This may be based on the colour of the afterimages one sees after looking into a bright light.

* [[Flat World]]: The introduction of the Discworld.

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Noted in-universe when Rincewind has an inner monologue of exposition about Bel-Shamharoth and how wizards never say the number between seven and nine because "you'll be eight alive" as the saying goes. (The Discworld Companion later [[Lampshaded]] the way that apparently saying 'ate' doesn't summon Bel-Shamharoth despite sounding identical to 'eight').

* [[It Runs on Nonsensoleum]]: An ocean-based hovercraft works by having hydrophobes, who don't hate but ''loathe'' water, stare at it and repel it with their loathing. They're very expensive, Rincewind says. Have to be trained on dehydrated water.

* [[Magical Land]]: The whole Disc to some extent, but some regions such as the area around the Wyrmberg are particularly magical. However, this is because they are suffering from the magical equivalent of nuclear fallout from a war at the dawn of time between the gods and the First Men.

* [[Magic Sword]]: Kring, Hrun's (and later Rincewind's) talking sword.

** One paragraph particularly stands out, when Rincewind is surprised that dryads still exist. His monologue mentions that it's thought that only trolls and elves survived the "coming of men to the Disc" and that gnomes and pixies have died out. Later books instead state that there are no elves on the Disc and gnomes and pixies are very much still there.

*** Considering how badly Rincewind did at University, he may simply have misremembered his history lessons. For that matter, the lessons themselves could've been wrong, given how many other things the UU wizards are clueless about.

*** Rincewind notes to himself that he's never seen Hrun outside of Ahnk-Morpork before, and when Hrun is out doing the heroing thing he's very different from the drunken lout Rincewind has previously seen. It's quite possible that swamp dragons are extinct apart from being kept as pets and he's never noticed them in cities because on arrival in any city Hrun goes into the first tavern and drinks until he runs out of money or bartender's patience.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: The epic descriptions of Great A'tuin, the elephants and the Disc. This is often briefly recapped at the start of later novels, but ''The Colour of Magic'' has such descriptions throughout (particularly called-back at the end, where Tethys holds Rincewind over the Edge and he sees them for himself).

[[Category:Buddy Picture]]

[[Category:The Colour Of Magic]]