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Pictsies
From Discworld & Pratchett Wiki
| Pictsie | |
 | |
| Name | Nac Mac Feegle |
| Age | |
| Race | Pictsie |
| Occupation | |
| Looks | Small but very strong |
| Residence | |
| Death | |
| Parents | |
| Relatives | |
| Children | |
| Marital Status | |
| Books | |
| Cameos | |
Pictsies or Nac Mac Feegle are six inches tall, red-haired, and blue-tattooed. Some of their number have taken to wearing skulls of small animals as helmets. In size they resemble gnomes, but pictsies often protest (violently) if they are called such.
Contents |
Habitat
Pictsies live and operate as members of huge warrior clans. They have a hierarchical structure similar to bees, with one queen and hundreds of males (but without female "workers".) Pictsie clans live in rural areas, and make their living through stealing cows, sheep, eggs, and other things from barns and farmers. Pictsies are secretive, disguising their underground tunnels as rabbit holes or in burial mounds. We have encountered only a few clans so far:
- The Chalk Hill Clan. This is the clan to which Tiffany Aching was temporarily Kelda. It is home to the most well known pictsies, such as Rob Anybody, Daft Wullie and Big Yan.
- The Long Lake Clan. The Kelda is Big Aggie, and her daughter, Jeannie, came to marry Rob Anybody.
- Although it is not specifically mentioned, there is a clan up in the mountains, presumably the Ramtops, that William the Gonnagle is from.
No pictsie clans have been reported to operate in cities. However, some members of other species do know about the existence of pictsies: the Lancre witches Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, for example. Pictsies occasionally do business with other people; one time, Corporal Buggy Swires, the gnome Ankh-Morpork Watchman paid a pictsie clan a crate of whiskey in exchange for Morag, a highly trained buzzard (in Monstrous Regiment).
Personality and habits
All pictsies share one unusual belief. They believe that they are all already dead, and are in a sort of paradise world, where they are free to do whatever they please. By their own cheerful admission, the favorite activities of the feegles are: fighting, drinking, and stealing. They are fierce fighters, but somewhat lacking in intellect, as it is well known to the Feegles that one female has the brains of 100 males. They will fight anyone and anything, and one of the ways to select a group for a mission is simply to set them all fighting, and taking the last 50 or so still standing. They distrust the written word, believing that if your name is written down you can go to prison. In at least one clan, the pictsies' swords glow blue in the presence of lawyers. However, some clans, such as the Long Lake, have taken to writing, using their tiny scripts to "legally" get what can't be achieved by fighting or stealing. The Keldas of a clan also have unusual powers, called the "Hiddlins". It is partially because of this that they are given so much respect. Each clan also has a gonnagle, a sort of battle poet who makes noise so bad that it causes enemies pain.
Dialect and language
Feegles talk with a strong mountain brogue. Some of the more unusual words, and their equivilent meanings are:
- Big Wee Hag - Tiffany Aching
- Bigjobs - human beings.
- Big Man - chief of the clan (usually the husband of the Kelda).
- Blathers/blethers - rubbish, nonsense.
- Boggin - to be desperate, as in 'I'm boggin for a cup of tea.'
- Bunty - a weak person.
- Carlin - a weak person.
- Cludgie - the privy
- Coobeastie - Cow
- Crivens! - A general exclamation, ranging in seriousness and severity.
- Dinnae/didnae - do not/did not.
- Hag - Witch
- Haggins/hagglins - special witching powers.
- Hiddlins - special powers attributed to the Kelda.
- Ken - know.
- Pished - tired....or so we are told.
- Ships - Sheep
- Scunner/scuggan - an insult, fairly strong.
- Wailey - general cry of sadness or grief.
In the Long Lake clan, the dialect is much stronger and harder to understand.
List of known pictsies
This list does not include honorary members of clans, for example Horace the Cheese, but only "true" feegles.
Chalk Hill Clan
- Big Yan - biggest feegle.
- Daft Wullie - second in command.
- Fion - the old Kelda's daughter.
- Hamish the Aviator - scout and messenger.
- Rob Anybody - big man of the clan.
- No-As-Big-As-Medium-Jock-But-Bigger-Than-Wee-Jock-Jock - younger, apprentice Gonnagle.
- Old Kelda - Mother of Rob Anybody, Wullie and Fion, among others.
- William the Gonnagle - old Gonnagle.
- Wee Dangerous Spike - a younger, inexperienced Feegle.
Long Lake Clan
- Awf'ly Wee Billy Bigchin - very small gonnagle.
- Big Aggie - Kelda.
- Jeannie - New Kelda of Chalk Hill, married to Rob Anybody.
Pictsie clans have an important role in Carpe Jugulum, The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith.
