Fictional Worlds

An eighth son of an eighth son is automatically a wizard.

If a wizard happens to have an eighth son, this child will be a "wizard squared" or "Sourcerer", as he generates his own magic and can therefore do just about anything with no effort.

Wizards grade magical ability in a series of levels, the highest of which is eight.

Like the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the UU Library features chained books – although at Oxford this is done to protect the books from the students, whereas at UU it is done to protect the students from the books.

The high concentration of magical lore has warped the Library interior into a locus of L-Space where the concepts of distance and direction are only vaguely defined

Within L-Space the Library contains every book ever written, possibly written, unwritten and yet to be written. Since the contents of all libraries are in L-Space, it is possible to enter a Library in one city and exit in another. Access to libraries of other times or other realities is restricted to the Librarian himself. People entering the deeper parts of the library usually carry chalk, until the chalk turns into something else.

The wizards are referred to by their offices, rather than names.

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.

Ridcully has shown the occasional flash of magical skill.

the most important thing about magic is knowing when not to use it

Professor of Revolvings

Senior Wrangler

Lecturer in Recent Runes

Chair of Oblique Frogs

Chair of Indefinite Studies

Lecturer in Creative Uncertainty

Reader in Esoteric Studies

Professor of Applied Anthropics

Professor of Extreme Horticulture

Professor of Dust, Fluff, and Miscellaneous Particles

Lecturer in Vindictive Astronomy

Professor of Recondite Architecture and Origami Map-Folding

Prehumous Professor of Morbid Bibliomancy

Posthumous Professor of Morbid Bibliomancy

"The Total Library"

all libraries in the multiverse being connected in "L-space", effectively creating a single, semi-universal, library

Memory Alpha, (from the Star Trek episode "The Lights of Zetar")

a planet

Borges's story "The Library of Babel"

the best-known lost library may be the Library at Alexandria

disasters destroy libraries

Encyclopedia Galactica

universe consists of an enormous expanse of interlocking hexagonal rooms

the order and content of the books is random

four walls of bookshelves

the books contain every possible ordering of just a few basic characters

the library also must contain, somewhere, every coherent book ever written, or that might ever be written, and every possible permutation or slightly erroneous version of every one of those books

the library must contain all useful information, including predictions of the future, biographies of any person, and translations of every book in all languages

the "Crimson Hexagon" and its illustrated, magical books

since all books exist in the library, somewhere one of the books must be a perfect index of the library's contents

Batropes are lightweight and combine the strength of rappelling ropes with the flexibility of a bungee cord.

grapple (or line) gun

Batcable

The highest function of ecology is understanding consequences. Pardot Kynes (voice heard by his son during a dying hallucination)

Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them. Duke Leto Atreides

The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his own pretensions. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man. from Collected Sayings of Muad’Dib by the Princess Irulan

Anything outside yourself, this you can see and apply your logic to it. But it’s a human trait that when we encounter personal problems, these things most deeply personal are the most difficult to bring out for our logic to scan. We tend to flounder around, blaming everything but the actual, deep-seated thing that’s really chewing on us. Jessica speaking to Thufir Hawat

Do you wrestle with dreams? Do you contend with shadows? Do you move in a kind of sleep? Time has slipped away. Your life is stolen. You tarried with trifles. Victim of your folly. Dirge for Jamis on the Funeral Plain, from Songs of Muad'Dib by the Princess Irulan

Muad'Dib could indeed see the Future, but you must understand the limits of this power. Think of sight. You have eyes, yet cannot see without light. If you are on the floor of a valley, you cannot see beyond your valley. Just so, Muad'Dib could not always choose to look across the mysterious terrain. He tells us that a single obscure decision of prophecy, perhaps the choice of one word over another, could change the entire aspect of the future. He tells us "The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door." And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning "That path leads ever down into stagnation." from Arrakis Awakening by the Princess Irulan

What do you despise? By this you are truly known. from Manual of Muad'Dib by the Princess Irulan.

Science is made up of so many things that appear obvious after they are explained. Pardot Kynes

Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error. The last thought of Liet Kynes before he died

Prophecy and prescience — How can they be put to the test in the face of the unanswered questions? Consider: How much is actual prediction of the "wave form" (as Muad'Dib referred to his vision-image) and how much is the prophet shaping the future to fit the prophecy? What of the harmonics inherent in the act of prophecy? Does the prophet see the future or does he see a line of weakness, a fault or cleavage that he may shatter with words or decisions as a diamond-cutter shatters his gem with a blow of a knife? Private Reflections on Muad'Dib by the Princess Irulan

To save one from a mistake is a gift of paradise. Stilgar to Jessica

The vision made him want to freeze into immobility, but this, too, was action with its consequences. Said of Paul Muad'Dib

The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future. from Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib by the Princess Irulan

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late.

It occurred to Paul then that he had seen his own dead body along countless reaches of the time web, but never once had he seen his moment of death.

The eye that looks ahead to the safe course is closed forever.

It was a time of sorceresses whose powers were real. The measure of them is seen in the fact they never boasted how they grasped the firebrand.

Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, "I am not the kind of person I want to be." It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied.

Try looking into that place where you dare not look! You'll find me there, staring out at you!

Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree.

behind any use of power over another the ultimate assumption remains: "I feed on your energy."

Do not be trapped by the need to achieve anything. This way, you achieve everything.

There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without destroying themselves.

He is the fool saint, The golden stranger living forever On the edge of reason. Let your guard fall and he is there! The Ghola's Hymn

If you need something to worship, then worship life — all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!

Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self, dealt with a few strange ideas, then submitted to the instruments of Time. What can we say of this? I occurred. I am not . . . yet, I occurred.

Often I must speak other than I think. That is called diplomacy.

Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually, they lose touch with reality... and fall.

You do not take from this universe. It grants you what it will.

When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual.

I hear the wind blowing across the desert and I see the moons of a winter night rising like great ships in the void.

I will be known for kindliness more than for knowledge. My face will shine down the corridors of time for as long as humans exist.

Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating

Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred.

the Kwisatz Haderach cannot forget

Good government never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.

If you believe certain words, you believe their hidden arguments. When you believe something is right or wrong, true or false, you believe the assumptions in the words which express the arguments. Such assumptions are often full of holes, but remain most precious to the convinced.

Babel Problem

achieving wrong combinations from accurate information

inner outrage against the complacently powerful

humans can endure only in a fraternity of social justice.

Religion is the encystment of past beliefs: mythology, which is guesswork, the assumptions of trust in the universe, those pronouncements which men have made in search of personal power, all of it mingled with shreds of enlightenment. And always the ultimate unspoken commandment is "Thou shalt not question!" But we question. We break that commandment as a matter of course.

The work to which we have set ourselves is the liberating of the imagination, the harnessing of imagination to humankind's deepest sense of creativity.

Any path that narrows future possibilities may become a lethal trap.

there exists no intransigent opposites except in the beliefs of men

Men must want to do things of their own innermost drives.

Some actions have an end but no beginning; some begin but do not end. It all depends upon where the observer is standing.

Not knowing what you said, you said it.

The one-eyed view of our universe says you must not look far afield for problems. Such problems may never arrive. Instead, tend to the wolf within your fences. The packs ranging outside may not even exist.

It is said that the only fear we cannot correct is the fear of our own mistakes.

Often there's no need to tear off an arm to remove a splinter.