If Great A’Tuin was real I believe by now it would have been annoyed enough to throw us all off
Does Discworld have nutters who insist the world is spherical?
Yes, the Omnians. They’re a scathing critique of dogmatic hierarchical religions in general and Christianity or maybe more specifically Catholicism and the Spanish inquisition in particular. The zenith of their folly is depicted in Small Gods, where it’s revealed that not a single one among them except for one lowly initiate actually believes in their god anymore, having replaced him instead with blind obedience to their rituals and the bureaucracy of the church itself. The Discworld being what it is, their god is very much real but has been diminished to inhabiting the body of an ordinary tortoise and is unable to communicate with anyone except his sole remaining believer.
One of their ironclad declarations is that the Disc is spherical, a notion over which they are quite willing to torture people to death for questioning. Of course as we all know, the truth is the opposite. And yet, the turtle moves.
Much like how various strains of Christians now wear a cross, a literal execution device, the climax of the story explains why “modern” Omnians on the Disc are seen in the other books wearing little turtle pendants: Things culminate in the church leadership (or rather mostly their fantastically corrupt inquisition leader Vorbis) attempting to execute the only actual true believer of Om on a firebox shaped like a massive bronze turtle that’s a mockery of Great A’Tuin, the world turtle.
Small Gods is also a great introduction to Terry Pratchett, I highly recommend it to all!
Man, Terry Pratchett’s writing is so damn funny
FWIW though, that would only make sense if the moon was on the horizon. If the moon is directly overhead or close enough, it’d still get mostly shaded.
If it was at like a 45° angle, though, the shadow would look pretty oblong if the earth was truly flat.
What is the turtle resting on?
It’s swimming in space ocean.
That’s an excellent idea for sci-fantasy novel
You’re not tricking me… it’s invisible turtles all the way down
More importantly, is it male or female?
More turtles
Screw this, I’m going to live on the turtle.
The turtle moves!
But what’s the turtle on?
Space drugs.
Canonically it’s on horni
The turtle A’Tuin swims through space, it doesn’t need to stand on anything unlike the world and the elephants.
See the TURTLE of Enormous Girth
On his shell he holds the Earth.
His thought is slow, but always kind.
He holds us all within his mind.
On his back all vows are made;
He sees the truth but mayn’t aid.
He loves the land and loves the sea,
And even loves a child like me.The great A’Tuin if you look closely there should be a wizard and a tourist emerging just to the left.
I KNEW THERE WAS A SPACE TURTLE
took me a second to realize it wasn’t a weird old-timey sea plane
TIL that some people (similar to flat-earthers, I suppose) think that the moon is bowl-shaped
Ha. There’s no such thing as.
