http://wiki.lspace.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Herowho&feedformat=atomDiscworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T14:55:39ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.40.0http://wiki.lspace.org/index.php?title=Cunning_Man&diff=31019Cunning Man2020-05-23T23:15:39Z<p>Herowho: </p>
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<div>The '''Cunning Man''' was, a thousand years ago, an [[Omnia|Omnian]] [[Wikipedia:Claude Frollo|witch-finder, who had fallen in infatuated with (and 'fascinated by') a powerful, young]] [[Witches|witch]] (as revealed by [[Eskarina Smith]]), a situation of opposites that he could not reconcile together. That witch, however, knew how evil the Cunning Man was. She was eventually burnt to death - not coincidentally by his co-religionists, but as she was being burned she reached through her bars and held him to her, trapping the Cunning Man in the fire as well. He survived, but his mind snapped. After his death, years later, The Cunning Man became a demonic spirit of pure hatred, able to corrupt other minds with suspicion and hate. <br />
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This spirit seems to do a perpetual tour of the Multiverse, appearing at random intervals of a few human generations to spread fear and loathing, hatred and mob violence against targets of convenience, like [[Witches]]. On [[Discworld (world)|Discworld]], he appears as a man (or humanoid shape) dressed in black clothing with a wide-brimmed black hat. There are no eyes in the featureless black face, only holes that lead all the way through to the back of the head, and the black-clad black body casts no shadow in direct sunlight. When he encounters the objects of his aggression, he attacks them with fulminating vituperation; otherwise, he operates in the subliminal domain, persuading the general population toward suspicion, hatred and violence against the objects of his own rage: Witches. The Cunning Man functions as a demonic spirit of pure rage, specifically against witches. He hates them simply for existing, and infests others with his hatred. His presence in the vicinity can be detected by those with knowledge of magic by his 'smell' (simply for lack of a better description). His hatred is so intense that it surrounds him like an aura and the minds of others, not knowing how to classify it, catalogue it as a foul stench of rot, powerful enough to turn the stomach.<br />
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Rather like the [[Hiver]], the spirit of the Cunning Man is capable of occupying a human body to carry out his agenda. It searches out the malicious as, in the words of [[Mrs Proust]], "poison will go where poison's welcome". In {{ISWM}}, he takes the body of the depraved killer, [[Macintosh]], from the [[Tanty]] in [[Ankh-Morpork]], and drives it to [[the Chalk]] in search of [[Tiffany Aching]]; like the young Witch he had become infatuated with a millennia ago, Tiffany is the leading witch of her generation, and the Cunning Man is motivated by, both, his desire to be united with the object of his infatuation (needing a powerful witch to fill the role), and by his own desire to possess a witch's power (by taking a witch as a host), something that Eskarina Smith describes that, should it ever happen, would be, to the Cunning Man's mind, something akin to a wedding. <br />
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Poisoning people against witches is quite easy to accomplish as they, by their nature, focus on doing the right rather than the popular thing (which is probably why the witch that the Cunning Man had fallen infatuated with didn't use her magic to try to escape at the risk of hurting innocents), and are thus always at risk of a backlash. The Cunning Man’s poison complicates Tiffany’s dealings with the dying Baron of the Chalk, his son, [[Roland]], and Roland’s new fiancée, the [[Letitia Keepsake|Lady Letitia Keepsake]], and many other people whose respect she has come to take for granted. Despite the fact that the vitriol stirred up against her leads to her imprisonment (in the dungeon of the castle, with the goats) she manages, with (or perhaps despite) the help of the [[Nac Mac Feegle]], to face the Cunning Man, without requiring the help of veteran witches [[Granny Weatherwax]] and [[Nanny Ogg]] (who would have had to kill her if the Cunning Man succeeded in possessing her). <br />
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Tiffany, fortunately, knows why the hare runs into the fire; the Cunning Man's cunning does not go that far. As [[Granny Weatherwax]] did many years before ( who also was once a young witch, but now still a powerful one), Tiffany destroys the latest manifestation of the Cunning Man; he will, sadly, be back. <br />
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==Annotation==<br />
The Cunning Man is possibly based on the [[Roundworld]] historical figure {{wp|Heinrich_Kramer|Heinrich Kramer}}, a German Inquisitor, although there has been a long tradition of the phrase "{{wp|Cunning_folk|Cunning folk}}" in parts of England and Wales. Certain Christian theologians and Church authorities believed that the cunning folk, being practitioners of "low magic", were in league with the Devil and as such were akin to the more overtly Satanic and malevolent witches. Partly due to this, laws were enacted across England, Scotland and Wales that often condemned cunning folk and their magical practices, but there was no widespread persecution of them akin to the Witch Hunt, largely because most common people firmly distinguished between the two: witches were seen as being harmful and cunning folk as useful.<br />
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[[Category:Discworld concepts]]<br />
[[Category:Supernatural entities]]<br />
[[Category:Tiffany Series characters]]</div>Herowhohttp://wiki.lspace.org/index.php?title=Hiver&diff=31018Hiver2020-05-23T23:11:48Z<p>Herowho: </p>
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<div>A strange organism in many ways. They are like bodiless minds, but incapable of thought. Normally, they cannot be seen. They can be faintly heard, with a sound like a swarm of flies, and animals can certainly sense them. They are parasitic; they take over the mind and body of other creatures. Hivers normally target powerful creatures, like tigers, and when attacking [[Humans]], aim for powerful ones such as [[Wizards]] and [[Monarchy|monarchs]]. The people and things a hiver consumes begin to become incredibly powerful, eventually dying insane. The reason why they do this seems to be because they're afraid of the whole universe. They are completely and utterly aware of everything around them, knowing every single blade of grass, seeing all the colours in a tree. They envy humans because, in comparison, we are nearly blind, with the amazing talent known as 'boredom'.<br />
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The chief source of information on Hivers is the book by [[Sensibility_Bustle|Sensibility Bustle]], sometime Professor of Magic, who set out to capture one. His work provides a good resume of what was known about them to that point, and since it trails off into dribbling, paranoid, incoherence, a good example of why they should be avoided. Research students at the Unseen University are advised to read it.<br />
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According to Prof. [[Poledread]], Hivers were formed in the first seconds of Creation. They are not alive, but have the ''shape'' of life. Most often they end up at the bottom of deep seas, or in the belly of volcanoes, or drifting through the hearts of stars. They have no body, no brain, no thoughts, but they do have the ability "to crave and to fear." They also have memory.<br />
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According to a Hiver, it is naked awareness. Without the limitations and protection of a "me", a self, it is under a relentless noonday sun of sensation. <br />
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The Hiver is in some ways similar to the [[Auditors]]. Unlike Auditors, they have no known cosmic function, though Bustle speculates that they may have been a driving force in evolution.<br />
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In fact, in the context of living things, a hiver becomes like a kind of hermit crab, or in the example given by Bustle, the [[Hermit Elephant]] of Howondaland. It seeks safety, in the strongest possible refuge. It is not a parasite, does not intend to consume its hosts, but in seeking to reinforce them by giving them the power to fulfil their wishes, it destroys them. <br />
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Tiffany may have been the first person on record to have communicated with one. In helping the Hiver, she gave it a story by which it could understand living things, and how it overlooked the most important part of human beings. She helped it find a point in the midst of its multitude of voices that it could call 'me', that could make the journey across the [[The_Desert|desert]]. <br />
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'''The Hiver and Tiffany'''<br />
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Tiffany is taken over by the Hiver twice. The first time she is caught unawares, at a moment when she says "See me", something she should not have done without learning how to protect herself. As [[Granny Weatherwax]] said, "She's learned how to [[Borrowing|Borrow]], has she? Or she's been Borrowed!" Although the Hiver sees the world through Tiffany, and she sees the world under its influence, there is still a part of her that it cannot reach. This part can write "Help me" in chalk on the dairy table without the rest of her being conscious of it. Something similar happened in the drome-dreams of {{WFM}}, when odd images came to her in the dream from herself, trying to wake herself up.<br />
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She evicts the Hiver twice. The first eviction is by surprise, when she again says "See me", and finds that the Hiver has been put outside her. It came straight back in, though, and a struggle ensued. Miss Level came into the room at that moment to reprimand Tiffany about something else, and the Hiver killed her instantly. With Tiffany stretched out on the floor like a dead person, the Feegles, who despite their intense earthiness, are magical creatures, find a way into the landscape of her mind, and it is her last refuge, the image of the old shepherding hut on the Downs. It is perilously close to the end, but the un-Hivered part of her communicates with the [[Nac Mac Feegle|Feegles]], the words appearing as chalk writing on the side of the old hut: Sheep's wool, Turpentine, Jolly Sailor. These three things are a tangible memory of [[Sarah_Aching|Granny Aching]], and in their inimitable style the Feegles fetch them. Strengthened by the scent-memory of these, the second eviction of the Hiver is through a rising up in Tiffany of that self that is the same as the Chalk Hills. This self has power, and grasps the Hiver and throws it out.<br />
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Granny Weatherwax brings Tiffany back to herself, putting her back to the work of her daily chores, sifting among the voices which speak in her to find the one which is really Tiffany, needling her to bring her un-self-pitying Third Thoughts to the top.<br />
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Tiffany is shocked to see what she has done: the cruelty to [[Petulia_Gristle|Petulia]], the tormenting of [[Brian_("A_Hat_Full_of_Sky")|Brian]], the theft from [[Mr_Weavall|Mr Weavall]], the "killing" of [[Level|Miss Level]]. All the Hiver did was give power to thoughts or wishes that were in her, and she fears that these are the real her. Granny shows her how these possibilities are in everyone, and that they were unleashed because the important bit of her, the bit of her which the Hiver could not reach, was shut away. "Learnin' how not to do things is as hard as learning ''how'' to do them. Harder maybe."<br />
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Tiffany knows that there is a bit of the Hiver in her, and a bit of her in the Hiver. Each knows something about the other. She knows that they have not been thinking about it the right way, but does not yet know what that would be.<br />
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Something worries away at her Third Thoughts. The Hiver gives power to your wishes. In fairy stories, people are always being given three wishes. "What is the third wish?" She asks one person after another. At the last moment, she finds Granny, who tells her that the third wish is to undo the damage that has been caused by the other two. Make this not have happened.<br />
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Through her connection with the Hiver, Tiffany realises that although it seems to be bent of attacking her, it is not inherently evil. When it comes the third time, she catches it in a real shamble, the first she has ever made, but also says to it, "Welcome. You are safe here." Through its connection with her, it has also learned from her. It has not come to attack her, but has come with a wish of its own.<br />
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In its relationship with Tiffany, it realises what it wants is to learn how to end, to be shown how to die. In this, it is not unlike [[Lady_LeJean|Lady LeJean]], the Auditor who tasted life. <br />
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Accompanied by the irrepressible [[Rob_Anybody|Rob Anybody]], Tiffany finds in herself a way to show the Hiver through the dark door, and to set it on the way across the desert. She tells it a story in which it can believe. She says that this is what she is doing, and does not tell any lies. In helping the Hiver to find its 'me' she gives it a name, not unlike that of Miss Level's house-ghost [[Oswald (ghost)|Oswald]], in this case Arthur. She crosses the threshold of the dark door herself to help the Hiver cross. When Rob Anybody says to her that he would not trust the scunner, she says there is part of her in it. She would trust that.<br />
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At the end of her encounter in Wee Free Men with the [[Fairyland|Queen of Fairyland]], having seen the Queen transform through many monstrous shapes, but still not letting go of her, Tiffany saw her as she was, small and grey, like a monkey. Telling her to go, and not to touch her land again, she said to the Queen, "But I hope there's someone who will cry for you. I hope the King comes back." There is an echo of this in the {{W}}, where she would herself cry later for the Wintersmith who wanted to be human. You can say "No fight, no blame", but it is more than that.<br />
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==Annotation==<br />
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In {{wp|Alan_Garner|Alan Garner}}'s fantasy novel, ''The Moon of Gomrath'' (1962), there is a sentient being, taking the native form of a nebuluous black cloud with two glowing crimson eyes, which will possess and inhabit the body of any living creature until that creature dies under the intensity of the spirit posessing it. This creature then looks for another host, and carries on serially possessing living creatures. This may be a version of an old Celtic spirit of evil, rather than something invented by Garner. <br />
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Garner's "Brollochan" is to all other intents and purposes identical with the Hiver, in purpose, practice and result. (Although the souls of the Brollochan's victims are forced into Anbarn, the Celtic hell: with the Hiver, some shreds of sentience and independence live on). The only things that defeat the Brollochan are the witches - an altogether darker and more malevolent creation in Garner's world - and the Elves, who have more in common with Tolkien's vision than Pratchett's (although Elves in Garner's world are dwarf-sized). In a Celtic exorcism, the Brollachan is forced from the body of Susan (heroine and in all but name, an apprentice white witch) and the noise is like that of thousands of flies...<br />
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Perhaps TP read Garner in his childhood and this is an unconscious borrowing: or like Garner, he has gone back to the same root sources in Celtic myth, which explain the similarities between the two creations? As TP himself put it, when the ignorant accused him of plagiarising JK Rowling: "Look, we're all [[fishing from the same stream|fishing from the same stream]] here here!"<br />
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[[Category:Supernatural entities]]<br />
[[Category:Discworld concepts|Hiver]]<br />
[[Category:Tiffany Series characters|Hiver]]<br />
[[de:Schw&auml;rmer]]</div>Herowhohttp://wiki.lspace.org/index.php?title=The_Chalk&diff=31017The Chalk2020-05-23T23:08:44Z<p>Herowho: </p>
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<div>{{Nation Data<br />
|title= The Chalk<br />
|picture=White_horse.jpg|The White Horse<br />
|established= not very<br />
|motto= <br />
|neighbours= [[Lancre]], [[Ohulan Cutash]], [[Octarine Grass Country]]<br />
|features=<br />
|population= unknown; probably < 1000<br />
|size= probably <5000 sq.mi. (13000 sq.Km.)<br />
|capital= <br />
|towns and villages= [[Twoshirts]]<br />
|government= Autocracy (Barony), current ruler: [[Roland|Roland de Chumsfanleigh]] <br />
|notablecitizens= The [[Baron]], [[Sarah Aching]], [[Tiffany Aching]], [[Nac Mac Feegle]]<br />
|imports= Manufactured goods<br />
|exports= Wool, cheese, lamb<br />
|anthem= <br />
|books= [[:Category:Tiffany Series|Tiffany Series]]<br />
}}<br />
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==Geography==<br />
If you float down the [[Lancre River]] on a [[Book:Wintersmith|log]] or something, and survive, you will come out in the downland near the upper reaches of the [[Ankh (river)|Ankh]]. Part of this area is a shelf of unbroken grassland with some glacial anomalies on rippling hills rising on one side to the [[Ramtops|mountains]]. This area is also known as The Wold.<br />
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==Geology==<br />
The name is not fanciful. Fathoms of chalk that once settled from an ancient sea underlie the thin turf. The locals say that in those days the creator made animals out of stone; sometimes they find one. Buried randomly in the chalk are lumps of flint, only fist to football- sized, resulting from some igneous or magical disaster during its formation. (Or possibly driven into the chalk very forcefully in some more recent [[Mage Wars|Wizards' war]].)<br />
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== Landmarks ==<br />
The Chalk's most known land mark is the 'White Horse'. The Chalk's 'White Horse' is not unlike the [[Roundworld]]'s [[wikipedia:Uffington White Horse|Uffington White Horse]], situated on the upper slopes of White Horse Hill in the English civil parish of Uffington, (in the county of Oxfordshire, historically Berkshire.) <br />
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==Government==<br />
The region is a feudal autocracy. Most of the land is owned and all of it ruled by the Barons de Chumsfanleigh (pronounced Chuffley - it's not their fault, they were born with it - cf. the English 'Marquess of Cholmondeley', pronounced 'Chumley'). They became barons by cutting off the heads of other people who thought they owned it, but those were in far off days and now they own it not because of swords but because of owning the right piece of paper stating that they do. [[Roland]], who in the first three books of the series is heir to the Baronacy, has what is normally a red-with-embarrassment, full-of-awkward-silences relationship with [[Tiffany Aching]]. He becomes Baron in the fourth, and marries [[Letitia Keepsake|Letitia]].<br />
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Tiffany provided nursing care to the old Baron during his final illness and heard his last testament before he died. The old Baron recalls the informal arrangement he had with [[Granny Aching]], by which she would act as the check and balance on his absolute rulership of the Chalk, generally by giving him a damn swift and hard kick up the arse if she thought he was getting it seriously wrong. The outgoing Baron then charged Tiffany with keeping their joint family tradition going by being prepared to do ''exactly'' the same for Roland if she ever felt he needed advice or grounding.<br />
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==Economy and Society==<br />
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The thin turf, with almost no subsoil, supports sheep and little else. Wool, cheese, lamb and mutton support a scattered population of family sheep ranches (although these are likely to be owned, feudally, by the local [[Baron|Liege]]). There are villages, such as [[Twoshirts]], but these appear to be on the borders of the Chalk and serve as points for entry and exit. Every so often, a herd is assembled for sale and slaughter, and drovers such as [[Seth Petty]] lead it on foot to faraway Ankh-Morpork. These days, the Chalk is now served by rail: a main line out of the city stops at Twoshirts. It remains to be seen what this will do to the droving trade. <br />
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With government working at the Baron's pleasure, and physical separation of the populace preventing local co-operation, there is very little organised society. Life goes on in very small groups, families or a few neighbours. The conclusion of {{ISWM}} suggests improvements in governance and organisation are under way. Tiffany is owed a few favors by the Chumsfanleighs, and instead of the fifteen gold pieces offered by the old Baron, she extracts promises for a school (which she has already begun), apprenticeships and scholarships and a hospital to be supervised by [[Preston]] when he is trained by Dr [[John Lawn|Lawn]].<br />
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Magic isn't a common topic on The Chalk. Oh, the world still runs on magic, and the effects are still seen, but the shepherds seem resigned, and they concern themselves with the shearing or the lambing, according to the season. [[Witches]] appear, as elsewhere, but they adapt to the sparse population mixed with the [[Nac Mac Feegle]]. They are charged more with the care of the land and the sheep than the few humans, and they advise the Pictsies. The Pictsies depend on a ''hag'', as they call a witch, for their rare interaction with humans. They have their own appropriate magic, and don't ask much but advice from the witch. The practice of anything ''called'' witchcraft is prohibited by the Baron and old custom. This is largely ignored these days, but anything too showy or blatant - such as Tiffany's employment of the Feegle, ''Sorcerer's Apprentice'' style, to clean Mrs Petty's slovenly and ill-kept cottage - will attract negative attention, even in these liberally-minded times. <br />
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Witches have to do what needs to be done, and on the Chalk, that's more likely to do with sheep or Feegles than people. They're there, just the same, just in case.<br />
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==People==<br />
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* The Aching family of [[Home Farm]] have been tenant farmers on the Chalk for time out of mind.<br />
** [[Sarah Aching]] - former hag of the Nac Mac Feegle, famous for her skill with sheep.<br />
** [[Joe Aching]] - Tenant of Home Farm, father of Tiffany.<br />
** [[Tiffany Aching]] - Sarah's granddaughter, the new hag and Witch of the Chalk.<br />
** [[Wentworth Aching]] - Brother of Tiffany, only son of Joe Aching<br />
* The [[Baron]] - feudal lord of the Chalk.<br />
* [[Nac Mac Feegle]] - fairies, sort of. Drunken, foul-mouthed, thieving Pictsies (but fun guys).<br />
* [[Roland]] - the Baron's son and heir.<br />
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==Culture==<br />
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* '''Yan Tan Tethera'''<br />
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Like rural folk around the Multiverse, the shepherds of the Chalk use a counting system that has served them for centuries regardless of a lack of [[Teacher|schoolteachers]] or [[Travelling Librarians|arithmetic texts]]. Some say it came with nomadic shepherds from [[&Uuml;berwald]], but the Pictsies use it too. It's simple and tends to sound like a skipping rhyme so children learn it quickly and it's not bad for counting sheep when you don't have a lot of sheep or anything else. There are many similar versions (like the one that goes ''hickory, dickory, dock...'') but the clues suggest the Chalk's version resembles this one:<br />
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{|<br />
<br />
|- <br />
! !! !! !! !!<br />
<br />
|-<br />
|1. Yan . . . ||6. Sethera . . . ||11. Yanadick . . . ||16. Yanabum ||<br />
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|-<br />
|2. Tan . . . ||7. Lethera . . . ||12. Tanadick . . . ||17. Tanabum ||<br />
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|-<br />
|3. Tethera . . . ||8. Hovera . . . ||13. Tetheradick . . . ||18. Tetherabum ||<br />
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|-<br />
|4. Methera . . . ||9. Dovera . . . ||14. Metheradick . . . ||19. Metherabum ||<br />
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|-<br />
|5. Pip . . . ||10. Dick . . . ||15. Bumfit . . . ||20. Jiggit ||<br />
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|}<br />
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If there are more sheep, you must start over on someone else's fingers. (The other person may be imaginary. After a long time out on the grass with just the sheep, you probably have an [[Imaginary Friend|imaginary friend]].) If many people will be needed, each full set of digits may be recorded by making a scratch or cut (or {{wp|Vigesimal|score}}) somewhere.<br />
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==Annotation==<br />
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Chalk (viewed as a millions-upon-millions of year old graveyard for small sea creatures) is also used as a recurring image in the first {{SOD1}} book: partly as a metaphor for the process of evolution on [[Roundworld]], and partly as a visual image for [[Rincewind]] to get gloomy and existential about.<br />
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[[Category:Locations]]<br />
[[Category:Discworld geography|Chalk,The]]<br />
[[de:Kreideland]]</div>Herowho