Unlike his predecessors, Ridcully seems to have had a very successful and above all, injury free career as Archchancellor. He finally put a halt to the traditional method of promotion simply by being indestructible. This is related to his habit of springing up behind would-be assassins, shouting loudly at them and banging their head repeatedly in the door. He is also known as Ridcully the Brown, possibly as a parody of J. R. R. Tolkien's wizards by color like Gandalf the Grey, Saruman the White or Radagast the Brown.