Unseen University’s motto: NUNC ID VIDES, NUNC NE VIDES (which would roughly translate as ”now you see it, now you don’t”)

The Unseen University is the place to go if you wish to become a wizard. There are other schools for magic studies too, like the Bugarup university in XXXX (motto: NULLUS ANXIETAS), but they aren’t as good (or at least that’s what the wizards at the UU claim). It’s located at the city of Ankh-Morpork between river Ankh and Sator Square. As it often is with magical buildings, UU is much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside and drawing an accurate floorplan is a true nightmare because you’d have to make a new one every couple of days. UU was founded by Alberto Malich about 2000 years ago to keep peace between wizards and force some rules on them because wizards tend to get along about as well as a sack full of cats.

Anyone can be a student at the UU as long as they belong to human race and are men (other species have their own schools of magic, I think, because I’ve never heard of any dwarf students for example). Females aren’t allowed (Eskarina was an exception, read Equal Rites), thus women capable of magic usually become witches (or nothing, sorry). There’s no real reason why women couldn’t be wizards except the fear that if given the chance, they’d be embarrassingly good at it. There are no age limits, but the students are usually 16 years old.

Wizards live in celibacy though that has no physical effect on their ability to do magic. Why to live in celibacy then if it has no effect? The reason is preventing the birth of new sourcerers ( the eighth son of an 8th son of an 8th son) because they tend to cause a lot of trouble. Sourcerers are kind of sources through which raw magic flows to Discworld (hence the name). They were more common in the old days and spend most of their time fighting each other. The missfired spells from that period are generally to blame for most of the weird stuff that goes on in Discworld (things such as sapient pearwood)

There are eight levels of wizardry in UU with the 8th level being the highest. It should be noted though that these days being a high level wizard doesn’t necessarily mean being a powerful one. Only a certain number of places exist per level and the higher the level, the less places there are. A place becomes vacant after the wizard holding it dies. Thus, progressing up the levels can take time. Wizards don’t have much patience and so the policy of dead men’s pointy boots have come to use: there’ll be no questions about how the boots were emptied. Because of this policy, most wizards live short and schizophrenic lives after getting a promotion. The current archchancellor, Mustrum Ridcully, seems to be an exception. In fact, because of his unkillability things are quite calm in UU and there hasn’t been any magical assasinations for a couple of years.

Wizard’s most important garment is his pointy hat. Without it they feel naked (and fear that people might mistake them as ordinary folk). Other typical garments for a wizard are pointy boots and a robe (dark red is popular). ”When it comes to glittering objects, wizards have all the taste and self-control of a deranged magpie.” That’s why the robe and the hat are usually covered in all sorts of glittery thingies, sequins or ankhstones for example. A good way to recognise a UU wizard is his staff. Staffs are used for storing magic and as weapons (and in the case of some of the senior wizards, as walking aids). They’re about 6 feet tall (180 cm) and usually made of wood (sapient pearwood is the most priced material) but there are exceptions. There’s often a knob at the top of the staff which has been an inspiration for a popular song, though wizards see nothing amusing about it.

There are eight orders in UU:
The Ancient and Truly Original Sages of the Unbroken Circle
The Hoodwinkers
Mrs Widgery’s Lodgers
The Ancient and Truly Original Brothers of the Silver Star
The Venerable Council of Seers
The Sages of the Unknown Shadow
The Order of Midnight
The Last Order (aka The Other Order)
The heads of these orders used to form the Council but after the events of The Light Fantastic, the archchancellor has appointed the members for it.

The current faculty of UU (Or at least the ones that appear most frequently. I’m assuming that they’re pretty much the same folk in all the books, though that probably isn’t true. Unfortunately most of them are only known by the name of their, erm, job description so it’s hard to tell who is who. I’m also pretty sure that they form the Council of UU too.) They’ve appeared at least in Moving Pictures, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Interesting Times, Hogfather, The Last Continent, The Last Hero:
- Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully: The head of UU. His brother is Hughnon Ridcully, the Chief Priest of Blind Io.
- He left UU after becoming a 7th level mage at the incredible age of 27 in order to look after his family’s estates in the countryside. Ridcully was promoted to archchancellor because the faculty wanted a breather after there had been many very short reigns of archchancellors (they had a nasty tendency to suddenly die). They figured that as a country wizard he’d be quiet and easily manipulated. They couldn’t have been more wrong. Ridcully has a huge personality and a loud voice. He is a late-night man as well as an early-morning man (which is quite rare in wizards). He enjoys sports (hunting and fishing especially). Ridcully was in love with Granny Weatherwax in his youth.
- Bursar (his name is Dinwiddie): jumpy, nervous and insane (but only on the outside, he just lives in his own little world) Known for eating dried frog pills
- Dean (of Pentacles, I think): has the attitude of a teenager. He is, literally, a Great Wizard. Known for ”Born to Rune” and his pants, the Deans.
- Chair of Indefinite Studies (”Chair”)
- Lecturer in Recent Runes (”Runes”)
- Librarian: Got turned turned in to a orang-utan in a magical accident (The Light Fantastic). No one remembers what he was like before being an ape. It doesn’t really matter to him. In fact he resists all attempts to turn him back (probably because being able to sort books with your feet is kind of handy when working in a magical library). Says ”Ook!” a lot and likes bananas.
- Senior Wrangler: has a serious crush on Mrs Whitlow
- Stibbons, Ponder: ”creator” of Hex (not exactly, Hex pretty much built itself). He’s also , among other things, the Reader in Invisible Writings and the Head of Inadvisably Applied Magic. Probably the most sane one of the wizards. He is trying to find the Theory of Everything but late at night even the Theory of Anything would be nice.

Other Wizards:
- Cheesewaller, C. V.: the owner of Quoth (the raven on which the Death of Rats rides) (Soul Music)
- Coin: 10 years old, actually a sourcerer (the 8th son if an 8th son of an 8th son). Had a staff made of octiron which he inherited from his father Ipslore the Red (who was a wizard of course). (Sourcery)
- Cutangle: one of the many archchancellors at the UU. First to allow women there due to the events in Equal Rites. He apparently knew Granny Weatherwax in his youth (Equal Rites).
- Cutwell, Igneous: a wizard in Sto Lat. (Mort)
- Malich, Alberto (aka Albert): One of the greatest wizards who ever lived. He was afraid of dying and made special arrangements with Death. (appears at least in Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music and Hogfather)
- Poons, Windle: very old and nearly deaf, died at the ripe age of 130 years but Death didn’t come to pick him up, so he ended up ”living” (erm...) as a zombie (read Reaper Man, also appears in Moving Pictures)
- Simon: had some interesting theories of magic in Equal Rites
- Rincewind: a kind of an anti-hero. Wears a pointy head embroidered with the word ”Wizzard”.
- Rincewind’s a natural survivor (because he’s a coward and good at running) and an expert in languages. He never managed to pass any exams in UU. Of the 8th levels of wizardry he never achieved even the first (some say he can’t reach even the level zero which most people are born at). The reason why he goes on being a wizard is that deep down he feels that’s what he’s supposed to be. He’s also really good at saving the world by accident. Rincewind is the owner of the Luggage, a large chest made of sapient pearwood with hundreds of little legs that’s famous for attacking innocent creatures and jumping up and down on them. Rincewind used to work as the deputy Librarian but nowadays he’s, among other things, appointed as the Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography (he has certainly met a lot of it in his life) (The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Eric, Interesting Times, The Last Continent and The Last Hero, also a tiny role in Mort)
- Smith, Eskarina: 8 years old. The first (and last) female in UU (Equal Rites).
- Tugelbend, Victor: never actually graduated. Had a very succesful career in the moving pictures (Moving Pictures)

Other occult professions:
- Hedge wizards: a very honoured profession, talk to plants. Have nothing to do with UU
- Thaumaturgists: the ones doing the messy jobs, i.e. getting the ingredients for the spells
- Demonologists
- Shamans
- Witches
- Druids: believe for example in the unity of all, healing powers of plants and in the four forces of universe: charm, persuasion, uncertainty and bloody-mindedness. They build huge stone circles for computing purposes
- Technomancy: the term which old wizards use to refer to working with Hex.

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