Talk:Magic (Discworld)

Is it possible that the 8-based magic system is based on valence electrons?

I really really doubt that. It's far more likely that the use of eight is just a parody of our world's habit of giving mystical significance to the number seven: seven classical planets, seven notes in the musical scale, seven colours of the rainbow (the Discworld has eight of course), seven days of the week, lucky seven, seven seas, seven wonders of the world, seventh heaven, seven deadly sins, seven sacriments, and of course, seventh sons of seventh sons, which Pratchett parodies in Sourcery.

Female wizards
I'm sure there was a female wizard in the Colour of Magic. Didn't she command that flying disc with the hydrophobes on? Had some powerful magical artefact, too (a staff maybe?), and actually knew that Rincewind was completely incompetent. Haven't read it in a while... Vimescarrot 21:56, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

"Real world" discussion
I personally think that this article can use more ... commentary regarding the "real world", i.e. why Terry Pratchett as an author chose to do something, as opposed to the "in-world" rationale for why something happens; apart from anything else, I notice there's no reference of any kind to the fact that Terry Pratchett didn't want magic to become a deus ex machina of "A wizard did it" proportions, which I'm pretty sure was one of his reasons for making, say, the "law of Conservation of Reality". --Yar Kramer 00:27, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Duplication
There is some duplication here. I think this article should be split into two; the bits dealing with intrinsic magic and the power of belief really belong in Discworld (world), while this article's main focus, the different types of magic users, should be its main topic. Serendipodous 10:28, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

I've created a new article Wizards (Discworld), to house this article's wizard material, merged the witch and fairy godmother material with Witches (Discworld), and merged the material about the Old High Ones with their entry in Discworld gods. The material on intrinsic magic has been merged with the magic section of Discworld (world) Serendipodous 08:33, 5 April 2006 (UTC)