Welcome to the Discworld & Pratchett Wiki. Have fun, contribute and be warned articles may contain nuts and spoilers to the plots of the books.

From Discworld & Pratchett Wiki

The Discworld is the setting of most of the books by Terry Pratchett. It is a magical world in the shape of a disc which - as in certain well-known ancient cosmologies - is mounted on top of four Giant elephants which are standing on a giant turtle. Another (possibly better) description would be "like a geological pizza but without the anchovies". The Discworld universe operates through the effects of Narrativium, which explains its fundamental properties.

The turtle's name is A'Tuin, more often known as the Great A'Tuin. At least, that is the name some people gave the large turtle. It is unknown what the turtle calls itself. The sex of the turtle is also unknown, but there are some scientists on the Disc who have devoted their whole lives to finding that out (it would be an important matter should the Star Turtle ever find a mate).

Because of the world being a disc, the "usual" directions such as north or west do not apply and are unheard of. Instead the directions are hubwards (toward the center of the Disc), rimwards (toward the edge of the Disc), turnwise (along the direction of the Disc's spinning) and widdershins (counterturnwise). The Disc's full spin cycle takes 800 days, where each year contains two summers, two winters and so on (see also Discworld calendar).

The disc is about 10,000 miles across and about 30 miles thick at the Rim, but a lot thicker at the Hub. At the center of the disc a large mountain (Cori Celesti) reaches into the sky, whereas at the Rim a large amount of water continuously flows over it (Rimfall). How this status can be maintained without running out of water is unknown, but probably is also caused by the Narrativium. The Rim is partially surrounded by a fence called the Circumfence, keeping people and ships from dropping off the world. Four major continents reside on top of the Disc: the main (unnamed) continent, Klatch (the continent), the Counterweight continent, and XXXX. Major oceans are the Rim Ocean and the Circle Sea. There are some other islands and archepelagoes such as the Brown Islands.

The Moon that circles around the Discworld can only do its complete course if one of the elephants will occasionally lift a leg and let it pass beneath. It is the same for the Sun. It should be noted that the Sun is also a flat disc, and much smaller than the Discworld. The Moon is likewise a small disc, and emits its own light instead of reflecting sunlight.

This article is a stub. Please expand it.