# Discworld and Female Wizards
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 16, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915 "2011-03-16T14:04:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/1 "2011-03-16T14:04:14Z")
So, I’ve recently started reading Pratchett for the first time, and am currently on his third Discworld book, _Equal Rites_. One of the major premises, of course, is that young Eskarina Smith is the first female wizard on Discworld…
Except she’s not. In the very first book, we are introduced to Marchesa, a 15-year old “wizard of the fifth level” and Hydrophobe, from Krull. And, of course, she’s female.
Based on [this Discworld timeline](http://www.lspace.org/books/timeline/dw-timeline.html), the events of _The Color of Magic_ are concurrent with Eskarina’s apprenticeship to Granny Weatherwax in _Equal Rites_. So it wasn’t a case of _Equal Rites_ being set prior to _The Color of Magic_.
Was this apparent discrepancy ever resolved? Kind of a lame thing to get hung up on, perhaps, but there ya go.
---
### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/2 "2011-03-16T14:25:29Z")
What discrepency? The past is mutable on Discworld, and “The Colour of Magic” is barely in continuity as it is.
---
### Author:  [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/3 "2011-03-16T14:53:35Z")
If you get hung up on this sort of thing, reading Pratchett is not going to be very satisfying for you.
---
### Author:  [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/4 "2011-03-16T15:09:47Z")
I figure Pratchett probably wrote The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic as a standalone and then the whole Discworld thing mushroomed in ways that were utterly unexpected. I wouldn’t be surprised if he forgot about such a minor character by the time he got to Equal Rites.
---
### Author:  [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/5 "2011-03-16T15:13:26Z")
I find that the first two books are kind of ignored with respect to continuity. Has Krull been referred to again the books?
---
### Author:  [@\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Undecided_Adrian)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/6 "2011-03-16T15:22:56Z")
Many aspects of the first books are ignored or changed later on, for example there’s a patrician in Sourcery, I think, who doesn’t fit with the later timeline.
Unless you argue that the events of Thief of Time were the cause of all that.
But don’t get hung up on that, you have all the best books still before you!
---
### Author:  [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/7 "2011-03-16T15:30:54Z")
I don’t think so, and there’s a bunch of other stuff that I don’t think reappeared again (hydrophobes in general, the stone circle druids, the dragon riders)
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/8 "2011-03-16T16:07:11Z")
It all has to do with quantum and the Trousers of Time.
---
### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/9 "2011-03-16T16:42:09Z")
> [@Caffeine.addict](#):
>
> I find that the first two books are kind of ignored with respect to continuity. Has Krull been referred to again the books?
Nearly the entire Rincewind series seems far apart from the other books, with the set of wizards at UU after Sourcery as a slight connection.
---
### Author:  [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/10 "2011-03-16T17:00:01Z")
I usually mentally divide Discworld into two eras: Post-_Sourcery_, when most things are consistent within continuity, and pre-_Sourcery_, when most things aren’t. Then I just assume that when Coin reset the world at the end of _Sourcery_, he messed some things up.
---
### Author:  [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/11 "2011-03-16T17:28:43Z")
Concur about continuity not being strict in the first books.
Also, my take is that there being no female wizards is not necessarily a law of (super)nature but rather a convention collectively enforced by wizarddom and witchdom. Marchesa would have studied not at UU but at a Krullian school.
---
### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/12 "2011-03-16T17:58:14Z")
> [@Caffeine.addict](#):
>
> I find that the first two books are kind of ignored with respect to continuity. Has Krull been referred to again the books?
Yes. Death goes there in _Mort_ to see how he enjoys fly-fishing.
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/13 "2011-03-16T19:38:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I don’t think so, and there’s a bunch of other stuff that I don’t think reappeared again (hydrophobes in general, the stone circle druids, the dragon riders)
Wasn’t there something about stone-circle druids in _Soul Music_? Something like, Imp’s family were druids, and so the troll didn’t trust him at first because of the things druids did with stone?
---
### Author:  [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/14 "2011-03-16T20:01:08Z")
Fair enough, I suppose, on the lack of continuity. It just struck me as odd, is all, since the adventures of Rincewind and Friends were still fresh in my mind when I started _Equal Rites_.
---
### Author:  [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/15 "2011-03-16T22:04:12Z")
Not coincidentally, there was a small, wrinkly, bald smiling man calmly sweeping the steps as Marchesa passed.
---
### Author:  [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/16 "2011-03-16T22:13:07Z")
Those dang monks.
---
### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/17 "2011-03-16T22:20:44Z")
People kept noticing all kinds of continuity errors like that one. So PTerry wrote a novel specifically designed to resolve all of them. The premise is that someone has been messing around with the timeline, which sometimes causes later events to happen before earlier events. It’s called _The Thief Of Time_, and it comes a lot later in the series. It isn’t something he planned when he wrote the earlier books.
---
### Author:  [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/18 "2011-03-16T23:29:05Z")
> [@'\[Undecided](#):
>
> Adrian;13578356’]Many aspects of the first books are ignored or changed later on, for example there’s a patrician in Sourcery, I think, who doesn’t fit with the later timeline.
> Unless you argue that the events of Thief of Time were the cause of all that.
>
> But don’t get hung up on that, you have all the best books still before you!
IIRC **Sourcery** introduces Vetinari as the Patrician (prior to that I’m not even sure Patricians had a name except their title. Anyone remember another Patrician’s name outside of Vetinari?). Doesnt Vetinari get polymorphed to a frog or newt in **Sourcery**? Been a while since I last reread it.
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/19 "2011-03-16T23:33:19Z")
I don’t think Havelock is the Patrician in _Sourcery_. If he is, it’s down the other trouser leg.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2011, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915/20 "2011-03-17T00:26:11Z")
The Vetinari in _Sourcery_ is pretty much the Vetinari of the rest of the series, complete with Wuffles. But I do think there’s an out-of-character Vetinari who’s having a birthday party at one point in another book. Death joins a conga-line winding through the palace. Vetinari’s mentioned, but not shown.
Other Patricians include Mad Lord Snapcase, Homicidal Lord Winder, Deranged Lord Harmoni and Laughing Lord Scapula. Snapcase and Winder make appearances in _Night Watch_.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discworld-and-female-wizards/574915.md?page=2)