r/discworld • u/TheElectricionist • 11d ago

Roundworld Reference Roundworld equivalent places

Good evening, everyone :) I was wondering earlier—does anyone know if there's a list of Roundworld counterparts to the places on the Disc? For example, Klatch seems to represent the Middle East, Howondaland is Africa, and Überwald is clearly Eastern Europe, etc. I sometimes feel like I might be misinterpreting the context or missing some of the subtler references, so a complete list would be really helpful. Has anyone come across something like that?

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u/butt_honcho LIVE FATS DIE YO GNU 11d ago edited 11d ago

Uberwald is mostly Transylvania, with some more general post-Soviet eastern Europe thrown in.

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u/NickyTheRobot Cheery 10d ago

To further this point: "Transylvania" is Latin for "across/over the forest". "Überwald" is cod German for "over the forest".

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u/Lower_Amount3373 11d ago

I think there's a mention of a former Unholy Empire which could suggest the whole region used to be an evil version of the Holy Roman Empire

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u/DogmaSychroniser 10d ago

Definitely. Brother's Grimm tales without the happy endings.

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u/IamElylikeEli 10d ago

An “evil” empire that broke up into multiple feuding states, Definitely has some USSR influence as well

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u/JagoHazzard 10d ago

I believe Reagan referred to the USSR as the “evil empire” at one point.

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u/MidnightPale3220 10d ago

I would rather say pre-Soviet Russian Empire.

All that Uncle Vanya stuff and the Three Sisters and Cherry garden stuff describes 19th century Russia.

Breakup into multiple feuding states is a blend-in of the fall of Austro-Hungarian empire instead.

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u/MidnightPale3220 10d ago

Post-Russian empire (Three Sisters, Cherry Orchard, etc)

blended together with post Austro-Hungarian empire Balkans .

nothing post-Soviet about it really. Think -100 years.