Re: CHAT: what fruit bat?

On Fri, 4 Jan 2002 kam@CARROT.CLARA.NET wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 02, 2002 at 08:15:09PM +1100, Tristan Alexander McLeay wrote:
> > On Wed, 2 Jan 2002, Joe Hill wrote:
> >
> > > No, Djelibabi is egypt, Tsort is rome.
> >
> > >From _The Discworld Companion_:
> >
> > `*Tsort.* A desert kingdom on the continent of KLATCH. A neighbour of
> > DJELIBEYBI and an historical enemy of EPHEBE. Tsort is known for the
> > silent marshes of the Tsort river [sic] and the GREAT PYRAMIDS... The
> > ancient city of Tsort was put to torch by, it is thought, the armies of
> > Ephebe...'
> >
> > If I'm not very much mistaken, Ephebe is greek. I admit I don't know my
> > history very well, but I don't think the Greeks ever put Rome to torch (or
> > destroyed it in any other way). And I can't remember the Pyramids of
> > (ancient) Rome, either. ;). But yes, Djelibeybi is _also_ egyptian.
> >
> > Tristan
>
> No pyramids in Tsort afaik, the pyramids are in Djelibeybi ("child of the
> river Djel") a fertile river valley much like ancient Egypt which is
> the main subject of the book "Pyramids". Djelibeybi separates Ephebe
> (more or less Ancient Greece) from Tsort which seems to be a conflation
> of Rome and Troy (fair enough seeing as the Romans claimed to have come
> from Troy). Ephebe features mainly in "Small Gods" where it's pragmatic
> approach to knowledge is contrasted with Omnian fundamentalism. Small Gods
> and I think Pyramids both seem to be set some centuries before most of
> the other novels. In one book (Eric, I think, not one of his best)
> Rincewind gets blatted backwards and forwards in time and at one point
> finds himself at the Discworld's equivalent of the Trojan war, which is
> between Ephebe and Tsort.
Are you saying that Terry is wrong? I was quoting from a book written by
him. What you have to remember is that Djelibeybi is old. Very old. When
the pyramids where being built, it was much, much larger, so some of the
pyramids originally built in Djelibeybi might've moved into Tsort as it
grew larger. And while we often can see points of comparison between the
Disc and Earth, this isn't alway the case---after all, the Disc is just
another planet and you can't expect *everything* to be the same.
   Of course, I think there is a more recent copy of the _Dw. C._ out by
now, so it may have been updated...

> Oh, and he should get the prize for the most minimalist of conlangs, should
> he not? Ook? Eek!
SQUEAK! SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK! ;P

Tristan