Genua
| Genua | |
 | |
| Established | |
| Motto | |
| Neighbours | |
| Geographical Features | Sits at the mouth of the Vieux River, lots of swamp land, yellow brick road to the city |
| Population | |
| Size | |
| Capital | |
| Type of government | Monarchy, current ruler: Baroness Ella Saturday |
| Notable Citizens | Erzulie Gogol, Baron Saturday, Bengo Macarona |
| Imports | Hopes and dreams |
| Exports | Prawns, potted shrimp, cooks |
| National Anthem | |
| Books | Witches Abroad |
Genua is a country across the main continent from Ankh-Morpork, past the Ramtops and Überwald. Genua as a country makes its money by taxing the Vieux River traffic in a manner that cannot be called piracy, because it's the government doing it.
History
Genua may have been a colony of the Morporkian Empire in its early history, shown by its mixed race population and language.
At some point the royal family of Genua died out due to inbreeding over the generations, which had become so bad that the last male heir kept trying to breed with himself. With the line extinct Genua requested that Ankh-Morpork nominate a suitable new king. They rewarded their most successful general Tacticus, making him a duke and sending him to Genua. As the new king of Genua his first act after assuming the throne was to declare war on the biggest rival: Ankh-Morpork. This led to the downfall of the Empire of Ankh-Morpork.
In more recent times the city was ruled by Baron Saturday regarded by some as a wicked ruler, but able to get away with it due to his good looks and charming smile. Chaotic though his rule may have been, most people remember it with fondness when the Baron was overthrown and replaced by the Duc and the fairy godmother Lilith. Under the tyranny of Lilith Genua became a fairy tale city, clean, tidy and full of happy people (if they wanted to stay alive that is). As Nanny Ogg put it "why do they need all these guards all over the place when everyone is so quiet and well behaved?". Theft was punished by decapitation, but so was the crime of 'not fitting it' as toy makers were locked up for not singing while they worked and innkeepers were imprisoned for not being fat enough.
This all came to an end with the arrival of Granny Weatherwax who defeated her sister and allowed Ella Saturday, daughter of the late baron, to rule the kingdom without magical interference.
Genua was also a member of the 6 Nation Alliance that went to war against Borogravia when it destroyed the clacks towers, cutting communications across half the disc.
Location and geography
Genua is also often mentioned colloquially as the location that is far from Ankh-Morpork but on the same continent, for example, "Send a clacks all the way to Genua to order a pint of prawns" (The Truth). Genua is near the Rim of the Disc, and therefore has a warm, wet, sunny climate that would have been called "tropical" on a Roundworld. Much of Genua is swamps at the mouth of the Vieux River.
Genua is said to be two weeks' travel away from Ankh-Morpork. As this was in the context of a fast mail coach taking on the Clacks to deliver a message there, this raises a contradiction with what information can be extrapolated fromThe Discworld Mapp. The Discworld Mapp is internally inconsistent and the distance between Ankh-Morpork and Genua can be estimated at either 3,200 miles or 4,000 miles. (See The Discworld Mapp talk-page). If the fastest mail coach can only do 70-120 miles per 24-hour period, the journey time is 45 - 57 days at 70mpd, 26 - 33 days at 120mpd. This is dependent on factors such as state of road, fatigue of horses, availability of replacement horses, good maintenance of coach, necessary stops, wear and tear on drivers, bandit activity, et c. Even at a surely unsustainable 120mpd, it still takes no less than 26 days - which even allowing for an eight-day week is over three weeks. At a median 95mpd, journey time is 34 - 42 days, or 4-5 eight-day weeks. Unless for part of the journey, the mail coach is ferried on a river boat (speeds?) then this is not consistent information.
Alternatively, in Thief of Time, Susan's class of children learning about time difference between geographical locations on the Disc learn that there is close to three hours time difference between Genua and Ankh-Morpork. With the Speed of Light on the Disc said to be around 600 mph (unless it is slowed by going through a magical field), then this would put Genua at roughly 1,800 miles from Ankh-Morpork in a straight line. This puts the time of travel by this calculation at an absolute minimum of 15 days which sneaks in just under the 2 Disc weeks but discounts geography, sociology and the inherent unreliability and madness of horses.
Culture
Genua is a country of cooks and carnivals. It is said that in Genua there is not much to cook, so the cooks learn to turn anything and everything into a gourmet meal. Ingredients that might make an Ankh-Morporkian or a Lancrastian feel ill include: whiskery things, tentacled things, snake's head (animal product, not name of a plant), dead leaves, things dredged out of mud. The annual carnival is called Fat Lunchtime, where there is costumed dancing and drinking on the streets on the night of Samedi Nuit Mort.
Notable citizens
- Devious Collabone
- The Duc
- Erzulie Gogol
- Baron Saturday
- Ella Saturday
- Lily Weatherwax
- Lady Roberta Meserole
- Hometown of Bengo Macarona
Books
Genua has a major role in Witches Abroad. It is also mentioned in Feet of Clay and visited by the class of Susan Sto Helit in Thief of Time
Annotations
Genua draws many characteristics from New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A, and is also partly based on Disney's Magic Kingdom. It also is the German name of the Italian town of Genoa.