Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork is the title for the head of the city state of Ankh-Morpork in the fictional Discworld series. The Institution's history Ankh-Morpork used to be run by kings, until King Lorenzo the Kind (a characterisation both accurate and wrong because Lorenzo was "very kind" to chidren, i.e a pedophile) was executed by Stoneface Vimes, an ancestor of Ankh-Morpork City Watch Commander Samuel Vimes. The ensuing revolution eventually brought about the institution of Patricians as rulers of the city. A Patrician has almost absolute power over the affairs of the city and works together with the leaders of the city's Guilds, who are the ones who elect him in the first place. Eligible for election are members of rich and influential families of merchants. Unfortunately, almost all of the people who have held the post through the years did not prove to be much different from a king, except from the fact that power was not given automatically to their descendants. They were despotic, opressive and fairly often mad. Lord Havelock Vetinari The Discworld novels, as well as this article, are mainly about the current Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Havelock Vetinari, who has proved to be quite different from his predecessors. Early years Lord Vetinari was born in the extremely powerful Vetinari family (a word play on the real life family of the Medici) and raised by his aunt. As a youth he enrolled in the Assassin's Guild which, apart from teaching its students how to kill other people for money, also gives them an excellent education. Lord Vetinari was particularly interested in the classical arts and camouflage. He graduated from the Guild with exceptional marks. Rise to power Lord Vetinari succeeded Mad Lord Snapcase, which had been as mad as his name suggests. One of Vetinari's earliest actions and a sample of his way of running the city was to legalize Guilds such as those of the Thieves or the "Seamstresses" (hem, hem!) which had been active but outlawed for years. Their leaders became esteemed members of society and their members insured and licenced. Eventually, lawlessness was not eliminated so much as organised. Nowadays, for a modest fee, an Ankh-Morpork citizen may walk the streets confident that he will not be mugged more than a few times per year. Vetinari's golden rule Lord Vetinari's genius political thinking and his running of the city can be summarised in his belief that what people wish for most is for things to stay the same. This does not mean that there are absolutely no changes, however; the Vetinari family motto is Si non confectus, non reficiat (If it ain't broke, don't fix it). Staying in power While he is quite unpopular, like his predecesors, contrary to them he is distrurbingly sane and still alive. He manages this by being equally disliked by all power-wielding groups in the city, but not more than each of these groups dislike all of the others and by carefully arranging matters so that a reality which includes him as Patrician is slightly better than one which does not. Other reasons for the Patrician's continued rule is his mastery of diplomacy and manipulation of the human nature, his distant and menacing air, his everpresent calmness and composure which puts other people off their ease and of course his very, very good skills as an Assassin. Appearance, habits and miscellaneous Lord Vetinari is currently in his fifties. He is tall, thin and dresses all in dusty black. His appearance has been likened to that of a predatory flamingo, if one existed. He lives and works in the Patrician's Palace, which used to be the Royal Palace. He sits on a plain wooden chair at the feet of the Golden Throne of Ankh (much like the Steward of Gondor in the Lord of the Rings novels) and accepts auditions in the Oblong Office (a reference to the White House's Oval Office. He has never been seen asleep, but presumably does so in a spartan chamber next to his office. Strangely enough, Vetinari has no lust for power. The sole reason for him ruling the city is that he is fiercely loyal to it. He also has no exploitable vices, barring his intense dislike of pantomime to the extent of outlawing all practice of it within the city walls and subjecting perpetrators to being suspended upside down in a scorpion pit on the walls of which is the notice "Learn the words". Bibliography If you wish to read more about Lord Vetinari, the Discworld novels which currently feature him are: Sourcery, Guards! Guards!, Moving Pictures, Reaper Man, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Interesting Times, Soul Music, The Fifth Elephant, The Truth, and The Last Hero. External Links A Special Kind of Person, one of the best and most comprehensive web sites concerning Lord Vetinari. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.