Ankh-Morpork

Ankh-Morpork is a fictional city-state which features in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. As cities go, it is on the far side of corrupt and polluted, and is subject to outbreaks of comedic violence and brou-ha-ha on a fairly regular basis. It is home to the Unseen University, a centre of magical learning.

History

According to legend, the first city of Ankh-Morpork was founded thousands of years ago by twin brothers who were raised by a hippopotamus (an allusion to the myth of Romulus and Remus). It is in memory of this that the hippo is the royal animal of Ankh. The original city was little more than a walled keep, surrounding the Tower of Art, a building of mysterious origin.

Related Topics:
Hippopotamus - Romulus and Remus

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At one point it had an empire, similar to the Roman Empire, that covered half the continent including the neighbouring country of Klatch. These were the days of the "Pax Morporkia," another reference to Rome and their (Pax Romana).

Related Topics:
Roman Empire - Klatch - Pax Romana

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The empire was largely the creation of General Tacticus (an obvious play on words), the greatest military mind in history. Tacticus refused to accept that the Empire was growing too big to control, and was finally shipped off to be king of Genua. As king he decided that the greatest threat to Genua was the Empire, and declared war on it.

Related Topics:
Tacticus - Play on word - Genua - Declared war

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This was a Golden Age, ruled by the Kings of Ankh, who are recalled in legend as wise, noble and fair. The line died out approximately 2000 years before the present, leading to the collapse of the empire.

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Shortly before this, however, the mage Alberto Malich had founded the Unseen University in the Tower of Art, and Ankh-Morpork continued as a service town for the wizards.

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Royalty became extremely debased and the later kings of Ankh-Morpork are recalled in history as power-mad and corrupt. Some are mentioned by name in Men at Arms:

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• Queen Alguinna IV
• King Cirone IV
• Queen Coanna
• King Loyala the Aaargh (Had a 1.13 second rule from coronation to assassination) - The Discworld Companion
• King Ludwig the Tree (Known to issue royal proclamations on the need to develop a new type of frog and similar important matters, and also responsible for the city motto "Quanti Canicula Ille In Fenestra")- The Discworld Companion
• King Paragore
• King Tyrril (ruled circa AM 907)
• King Veltrick III
• Webblethorpe the Unconscious

The last and worst - the euphemistically-remembered Lorenzo the Kind (the full extent of whose infamy is not revealed, save that he was said to be "very fond of children" and had in his dungeons "machines for...") - was overthrown in the Ankh-Morpork Civil War of 1688 (dating from the founding of UU). The question of what to do with the deposed king (no judge would try him) was settled when he was executed by the then Commander of the City Watch, Suffer-Not-Injustice Vimes. Known as "Old Stoneface," his regicide resulted in his being banned from bearing arms. Afterwards "Old Stoneface" (an ancestor of the current City Watch Commander Samuel Vimes) and his Ironheads attempted to introduce democracy, but the people voted against it. After "Old Stoneface" himself was overthrown, Ankh-Morpork reverted to a non-hereditary oligarchic system, where the leaders are still ruthless tyrants, but don't have the audacity to invoke divine right. The Patrician rules the city, and operates a specialised form of "One Man, One Vote" democracy: the Patrician is the Man, and he has the Vote.

Related Topics:
Vimes - Democracy - Oligarchic - Patrician

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Under the Patricians the city has become the mercantile and political capital of the Discworld, so much so that the Sto Plains operates under a new Pax Morporkia, which operates not on the principle of "If you fight, we will kill you," but on the principle of "If you fight, we will call in your mortgages." The current Patrician has opened the city to dwarfs, trolls, gnomes, humans from across the Disc and even the undead, making a truly multicultural society, with both the advantages and problems that suggests. (The current Patrician's own, typically pragmatic, view on multiculturalism is "Alloys are stronger.")

Related Topics:
Political capital - Dwarfs - Trolls - Gnome - Undead - Multicultural - Alloys

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In recent years, the city has seen numerous changes. Most notable are: the rise of the semaphore network (the "clacks"), the invention of the newspaper (with the help of the iconograph), and the revitalisation of the City Watch and the Ankh-Morpork Post Office.

Related Topics:
Semaphore - Clacks - Iconograph - City Watch - Ankh-Morpork Post Office

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Civic symbols include Morporkia, a woman in a cabbage-spangled cloak and an old-fashioned helmet, carrying a shield with the civic coat of arms and a toasting-fork symbolising "something or other" (compare Britannia, Columbia).

Related Topics:
Coat of arms - Britannia - Columbia

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