The Luggage's Origins...

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Quatermass

Sergeant-at-Arms
Dec 7, 2010
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#1
Now, Terry Pratchett never shied away from basically taking everything he could from all sorts of fantasy sources to poke fun at, so I just had this weird revelation.

Is it me, or is the Luggage basically a domesticated form of a Mimic from Dungeons and Dragons?

Mimics have appeared in a lot of fantasy games since. Final Fantasy games, for example, have a number of Mimics throughout its instalments, Borderlands 2's DLC Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep brings in its own version of Mimics (along with other fantasy tropes, which will probably end up in the upcoming Tiny Tina's Wonderlands game), and, well, the less said about the horror of Mimics in the Dark Souls games, the better.

But when you think about it, the Luggage resembles a treasure chest, has a bad habit of nomming on people (aside from its owner), and is more intelligent than it really should be. And considering Terry Pratchett puts a lot of Dungeons and Dragons tropes and creatures into The Colour of Magic, especially with the tabletop RPG the gods are playing with the mortals of the Discworld, well, who's to say the Luggage wasn't inspired by a Mimic?

So, thoughts?
 

RathDarkblade

Moderator
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Mar 24, 2015
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#2
For anyone who hasn't played D&D -- here's what a mimic looks like. And here is the wiki-article. You're welcome. :)

To be honest, I don't think so. The Luggage may look like a Mimic, but it is not a shape-changer. A Mimic can shape-change into anything it wants. The Luggage can't.

They share one or two things (e.g. lulling a person into a sense of false security, beating him/her down and eating him/her), but that's where it stops.

A Mimic isn't loyal to anyone. It cannot walk anywhere on hundreds of little legs. And it doesn't do laundry. =P

I wouldn't be surprised if Pterry took some bits of the Mimic (e.g. its teeth, the luggage shape, the fact that it can eat people) and dialled it down a little. But that's where it stopped.

Besides, I'm sure that Pterry said something about the Luggage's origins: he saw a woman wheeling along a suitcase in an airport, except the case's wheels wouldn't behave. ;)
 
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Tonyblack

Super Moderator
City Watch
Jul 25, 2008
30,841
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Cardiff, Wales
#4
I have also heard that the Luggage is rather like Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Calot" character, "Woola", from the John Carter books - a pet that seldom left his side and always found John no matter how separated they became.
 

Quatermass

Sergeant-at-Arms
Dec 7, 2010
7,736
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#5
For anyone who hasn't played D&D -- here's what a mimic looks like. And here is the wiki-article. You're welcome. :)

To be honest, I don't think so. The Luggage may look like a Mimic, but it is not a shape-changer. A Mimic can shape-change into anything it wants. The Luggage can't.

They share one or two things (e.g. lulling a person into a sense of false security, beating him/her down and eating him/her), but that's where it stops.

A Mimic isn't loyal to anyone. It cannot walk anywhere on hundreds of little legs. And it doesn't do laundry. =P

I wouldn't be surprised if Pterry took some bits of the Mimic (e.g. its teeth, the luggage shape, the fact that it can eat people) and dialled it down a little. But that's where it stopped.

Besides, I'm sure that Pterry said something about the Luggage's origins: he saw a woman wheeling along a suitcase in an airport, except the case's wheels wouldn't behave. ;)
I dunno, I'm sure some enterprising Dungeons and Dragons player could have found a way to make a Mimic their pet. I mean, if RA Salvatore could create a heroic Drow in Drizzt Do'urden, someone has surely turned a Mimic into a pet...

And Mimics can move around. Hell, while I don't know exactly how they do it in Dungeons and Dragons, they can move around (the Forgotten Realms wiki seems to claim they do so like a snail or a slug). And in Dark Souls...well, they have arms and legs. So it's not as much of a stretch as your post implies.
 

RathDarkblade

Moderator
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Mar 24, 2015
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#6
All right, you've played a lot more D&D than I have, Q. I bow to your expertise. :)

(Oh, and I used the wrong link -- whoops! Here is what a mimic looks like, along with stats and whatnot). ;)

Still, it doesn't change two or three simple facts:

1. A Mimic, by definition, is a shape-changer. The Luggage ... isn't. ;)

2. Again by definition, a Mimic is Neutral. It doesn't care about law or chaos, good or evil. It just is. And it isn't loyal to anyone. ;) The Luggage is loyal, both to Twoflower and to Rincewind.

Now, I'm sure that someone, somewhere, may have found a way to make a Mimic into their pet. (Brian, the Rules Lawyer from The Knights of the Dinner Table, probably has). But if we go by the official rules, a Mimic is a monster -- full stop.

And finally ...

3. A Mimic won't do your laundry. =P I'm pretty sure Pterry put that in, just for laughs. :)
 

Quatermass

Sergeant-at-Arms
Dec 7, 2010
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#7
All right, you've played a lot more D&D than I have, Q. I bow to your expertise. :)

(Oh, and I used the wrong link -- whoops! Here is what a mimic looks like, along with stats and whatnot). ;)

Still, it doesn't change two or three simple facts:

1. A Mimic, by definition, is a shape-changer. The Luggage ... isn't. ;)

2. Again by definition, a Mimic is Neutral. It doesn't care about law or chaos, good or evil. It just is. And it isn't loyal to anyone. ;) The Luggage is loyal, both to Twoflower and to Rincewind.

Now, I'm sure that someone, somewhere, may have found a way to make a Mimic into their pet. (Brian, the Rules Lawyer from The Knights of the Dinner Table, probably has). But if we go by the official rules, a Mimic is a monster -- full stop.

And finally ...

3. A Mimic won't do your laundry. =P I'm pretty sure Pterry put that in, just for laughs. :)
TBH, I've probably played as much Dungeons and Dragons as you have. Which is to say none at all. Well, unless playing Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance counts, and I'm sure that there'd be a panoply of people who'd claim that doesn't count. Thankfully, I am enough of a self-aware pedant to concede the point...in this case.

However, I do have a number of the game books as source materials for my own writing, I consult wikis in addition, and not only have I played the aforementioned game, but I have read the first few Legend of Drizzt books, though Mimics don't appear in those so far. So while I am not an expert per se, I have a fair knowledge of fantasy gaming/story tropes.

1. That you know of. It can certainly shift its internal dimensions. Who's to say it can't shift its exterior dimensions, but loves acting as luggage for the sheer schmuck bait schadenfreude value? Especially after the sheer, apocalyptic amount of magic thrown at it in the finale of The Colour of Magic?

2. Loyalty aside, I think the Luggage would count as Chaotic Neutral. Or maybe, to take a leaf out of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands' marketing, it's Chaotic Great. Also, since when did being a monster stop any enterprising game player from trying so anyway? I mean, that's the point of Pokemon, World of Final Fantasy, and a number of similar games, to say nothing of games where a main character tames what is normally a monster (FL4K from Borderlands 3, for example, has tamed a number of normally hostile creatures). If it hasn't happened yet in someone's tabletop RPG session somewhere in the world...then that means its well overdue...

3. Good point, but maybe a Mimic can learn. :p
 

=Tamar

Lieutenant
May 20, 2012
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2,900
#8
A nitpick: the Luggage changes shape internally. It isn't just bigger on the inside. Sometimes it has visible teeth and tongue, sometimes it just looks like a normal wooden trunk. Sometimes it's full of neatly folded clean laundry. Sometimes it's full of gold (and probably jewels).
Externally, its feet change size - they are extruded and then pulled in. It has had a piercing done. It is usually barefooted but has shown up wearing high heels. Did it produce its own, or was it given them?
I know nothing of Mimics.
 
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RathDarkblade

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Mar 24, 2015
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#9
A nitpick: the Luggage changes shape internally. It isn't just bigger on the inside. Sometimes it has visible teeth and tongue, sometimes it just looks like a normal wooden trunk. Sometimes it's full of neatly folded clean laundry. Sometimes it's full of gold (and probably jewels).
Externally, its feet change size - they are extruded and then pulled in. It has had a piercing done. It is usually barefooted but has shown up wearing high heels. Did it produce its own, or was it given them?
True. :) In TLF, it shows gold and jewels inside. In TLC, it is wearing high heels (after the *ahem* "girls" give it some and call it "Trunkie"). *snigger*

I know nothing of Mimics.
Quoting from wikipedia:

"In the D&D role-playing game, the mimic is a type of fictional monster. It is portrayed as being able to change its shape to disguise its body as an inanimate object, commonly a chest. The mimic has a powerful adhesive that holds fast to creatures that touch it, allowing the mimic to beat its victims with its powerful pseudopods."

The mimic is so named because it can mimic objects made of wood or stone. Apart from bludgeoning greedy adventurers, it can also chow down on them. (Mwa ha ha...) :devil:
 

=Tamar

Lieutenant
May 20, 2012
11,961
2,900
#14
I seem to recal pTerry saying something about inventing the Luggage when he was a dungeon master as a way to trick players into putting their stuff in it, as with a bag of holding, and then it running away.
 

Quatermass

Sergeant-at-Arms
Dec 7, 2010
7,736
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#15
I seem to recal pTerry saying something about inventing the Luggage when he was a dungeon master as a way to trick players into putting their stuff in it, as with a bag of holding, and then it running away.
Ah, if that was true, it'd be hilarious.
 

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