Ankh and Morepork

Small sketch, long story…

I’ve started checking out some of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels (after playing the first game, which is basically a hodge-podge of various characters and plot elements from the first dozen or so books)…

…And to be honest, what this picture depicts isn’t ALWAYS what springs to my mind whenever I read the name of Discworld’s oldest existing city (Ankh-Morpork). It’s more like every other time I read it that I think of the Egyptian symbol for Life and by New Zealand’s only native owl* (sans one letter) with a hyphen wedged between them.

Yep, bird people see things differently than other folks, especially when for them, a “stint” can mean a short period of time, but it can refer to a type of sandpiper.


*named for its call, also known as the Boobook and the Ruru. Just think: a little twist of circumstances might've given us a fictional city called Ankh-Boobook or Ankh-Ruru.