Death

Death is one of the most popular Discworld characters and makes an appearance in every Discworld book except The Wee Free Men. His steed is a great pale horse called Binky who is very much still alive. His hollow, peculiar voice is represented in the books by unquoted small caps; it is peculiar because since he is a tall skeleton, he has no vocal cords to speak with, and thus, speaks through other means. In The Colour of Magic (the first Discworld novel), and in Faust Eric, all direct written references to Death are proper nouns, thus, for example, "he" is written as "He". This is usually reserved for the Discworld gods and is not featured in any of the other novels.

Death is not invisible. Most people just refuse to acknowledge him for who he is, unless he insists. Under normal circumstances, only those of a magical disposition (e.g. witches and wizards), children and cats can see him, or allow themselves to see him. Death can of course ignore things like walls or magic spells that stand between him and his object: this is because he's much "realer" than they are. A castle might stand for centuries, but Death has existed for billions of years: to him, the walls of the castle are less substantial than a cobweb. However, he can only go where people can die, as shown in Hogfather.

It is also mentioned in The Colour of Magic that wizards and significant figures (e.g. kings) have the "privilege" of being collected by Death himself upon their death, rather than one of the lesser entities. Most other deaths are collected by another functionary, but with the exception of Mort and Susan (both acting as "authorized" replacements for Death), there has only been one "collection" described in the books by anyone other than Death, attempted of Rincewind the Wizzard by the anthropomophic personification of Scrofula. However, Death himself must collect some souls in order to keep the momentum of death going, worked out by a system described as the 'nodes'. These nodes seem handily to be most of the characters who die in the course of the novels, as Death almost invariably turns up whenever any character dies, sometimes (especially when taking bad characters' lives) replaced by the Death of Rats, mentioned below in this article. As well as wizards and kings, he has shown up for numerous ordinary people, at least two dogs, and once for an incredibly small sea creature, possibly a tube worm. He was present at the beginning of Time in one novel. He has also appeared even in situations where characters might potentially die. These events are usually of importance within the story, so Death's appearance may simply be considered a plot device. Death mentions in Guards! Guards! that he does personally collect the souls of ordinary people Sometimes. On special occasions.

Death is efficient but not cruel, and sees his job as a necessary public service. His task is not to kill, but to collect.

He is fond of cats (who can see him at all times) and curry (although he doesn't need to eat), which he tells Mort is like eating hot ice-cubes. He lives (although he doesn't need to live anywhere) in an extradimensional realm called Death's Domain. Within the domain, his home (although he doesn't need a home) looks like a normal upper-middle-class Victorian house with a garden, is well-tended, but is predominantly black and decorated with a skull and crossbone motif. It is called Mon Repos, and is much, much bigger on the inside, because Death has not quite mastered the art of scale. Similarly, because he does not quite understand real distance compared to perspective, the surrounding terrain is actually relatively close, but blurred to appear farther away. There is also a swing, created by Death for Susan, however it mainly further proves Death's non-understanding of traditional physics, as when He discovered that he had tied the two ropes on branches either side of the trunk, he simply removed the offending trunk as opposed to repositioning the ropes.

Death is fascinated by humanity, hence the above attempts at living beyond the role. This is also why he adopted an orphaned child named Ysabell (see below). When acting as a stand-in for the Hogfather he starts by greeting the children he meets in the course of his duties with Cower, brief mortals from force of habit, until reminded not to do so by Albert.

This fascination with humanity extends to the point of sympathy towards them, and he will often side with humans against greater threats (notably the Auditors). He has on a number of occasions bent the rules to allow a character extra life. Death has also indicated that he will oblige dying humans by playing a game with them for their lives (much like the personification of Death in The Seventh Seal), the games including chess (though he consistently has trouble remembering how the knights move) and a Discworld version of a popular board game (where someone lost despite having "three streets and all the utilities"). In one case, Granny Weatherwax was able to play cards against Death in a successful bid to save a child's life (Granny's hand had four kings, while he only had four 'ones'). In many ways, he is a character who epitomises the bleakness of human existence – in the book Reaper Man, in which he is rendered temporarily mortal, he becomes frustrated and infuriated with the unfair inevitability of death, a theme that continues through later books. In Soul Music he expresses misery at the fact that he is capable of preventing deaths but is forbidden to do so. Terry Pratchett even says in The Art of Discworld that he has received a number of letters from terminally ill fans in which they hope that Death will resemble the Discworld incarnation (he also says that those particular letters usually cause him to spend some time staring at the wall).

Death has developed considerably since his first appearance in The Colour of Magic. In this, he was actually quite a malicious character. At one point he deliberately stops a character's heart. By the time of Mort he had gained the sympathetic and humorous personality that would make him so popular. In more recent novels, he has been used to examine recent developments in theoretical physics as, being a supernatural being, he is able to witness such events firsthand.

War

He is an overly jolly and enthusiastic man, something like the less sadistic kind of gym teacher, in red armour. He is married to a former Valkyrie, who does his thinking for him. They have two sons (Terror and Panic) and one daughter (Clancy). Clancy appears to be six, and wears a hard hat and a pony club badge. (Terror and Panic are obviously the Discworld versions of Phobos and Deimos, in which case Clancy might be Harmonia).

Famine

Famine is, as his name suggests, permanently hungry (or at least, permanently eating, although this may be merely to ensure others go hungry). While he enjoys good food, he also enjoys salad cream sandwiches. Amongst the personality traits he has picked up from humans is arrogance.

Pestilence

His sense of self has led to a sense of self-preservation. Beyond that, his most notable personality trait is an annoyance with soap, although he likes hospitals, which gather sick people together. In early appearances he spoke in italics (representing a voice that sounds contagious), but this was dropped by Thief of Time.

Kaos (aka Ronnie Soak)

An anthropomorphic personification of Chaos, originally spelled with a "K". Fifth horseman of the Apocralypse who left before they became famous (a play on the fifth Beatle), known for his disruptive behaviour whenever the horsemen attempted to interact with mortals, a parody of various stories of temperamental rock stars. Rides a chariot rather than a horse and wields a sword so cold that it has negative heat – it radiates cold, symbolizing in general Kaos' power to reverse entropy and violate laws of probability.

His abandonment of the Four Horsemen coincided with a decreasing sense among humans of the nature of the unpredictable Kaos from which the universe sprang as their world became increasingly civilized; was persuaded to return to power in a new form by Lu-Tze, one of "his creatures" (an individual naturally defiant of odds and of the way things ought to go), after learning how to exist in a symbiotic rather than hostile relationship with order, and also that the vastly increasing complexity of civilisation and laws only made their effects more widespread and unpredictable. In Thief of Time, changes from the ancient Kaos of old to a slicker, altogether more modern and mathematicaly complex Chaos (Pratchett uses the butterfly effect and fractals as recurring themes leading up to this). His intervention is decisive in giving the other four horsemen the power to defeat the "overwhelming odds" of the Auditors, for whom he holds a special hatred and whom he refers to as "The Law".

The Death of Rats

The Death of Rats is not, strictly speaking, a personification in his own right but rather an aspect of Death allowed an independent existence. His purpose is to usher on the souls of dead rodents, and occasionally rodent-like humans, as well as assisting Death in other ways (he drew Death's attention to interference by the Auditors, demonstrating improbable statistics by using a machine that measured how often a piece of toast dropped butter-side-down). He was one of a disparate multitude of Deaths (down to the Death of Microorganisms) created during Death's absence in Reaper Man. Upon Death's resumption of his duties, he reabsorbed the identities of all the millions of Deaths into himself. The Death of Rats, however, refused to be reabsorbed and, rather than insist, Death relented, because he liked the company. The Death of Rats resembles a rodentine skeleton on its hind legs, wearing a black robe and carrying a tiny scythe.  He seems to find it easier to think his way around the Rules than Death, and has assisted Susan in Soul Music, Hogfather and Thief of Time. He rides a talking raven named Quoth who also acts as his translator (and says he's "in it for the eyeballs"), and may carry the Death of Fleas, a small Entomomorph (just like Anthropomorph, but referring to insects), which also managed to escape reabsorption. However, the Death of Fleas has not been seen since Reaper Man.  In Maskerade the Death of Rats took the soul of the Opera House's ratcatcher, who then got reincarnated as a rodent. The ratcatcher protested that he did not believe in reincarnation, and got the answer "reincarnation believes in You."  The Death of Rats, like Death, speaks in small caps, but has a vocabulary consisting of words such as Squeak and Snh, the second used when it laughs, although its speech can be interpreted much like the Librarian's.  In the mythology of the Clan (from The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents) the Death of Rats is known as the Bone Rat.

Ysabell

She is the adopted daughter of Death, who saved her as a baby when her parents were killed in the Great Nef desert (no explanation has been given as to why he did this, Ysabell said that 'He can't feel pity, but he may have thought it'). When first encountered she is a sixteen-year-old girl with silver hair and silver eyes who, it transpires, has been sixteen for thirty-five Discworld 'years' (no time passes in Death's Domain). When Mort first encountered Ysabell, he was given the impression of "too many chocolates". She also has a fixation for the colour pink.  Ysabell first appeared in The Light Fantastic, where she met Rincewind, and was surprised to learn that he was not actually dead. This situation might not have lasted very long if the Luggage had not intervened. During the events of Mort it became clear that Ysabell was competent in carrying out the work of her father including 'The Duty' and 'doing the nodes'. Before Mort arrived she shared her home with Albert, Death's manservant.

Mort

He is first seen as the overly-thoughtful son of a farmer in the Octarine Grass Country, near the Ramtops. Having proved himself unworthy as a scarecrow he is chosen by Death to be his apprentice. Mort is described as being very tall and skinny, with muscles like knots in string. He has a shock of bright red hair, and looks as if he is made entirely of knees. Mort starts off at the bottom, learning to accept his position while mucking out the stables, and trying to ignore Ysabell, Death's adopted daughter. When Death feels in need of a break, Mort takes over The Duty. Unfortunately for Mort, his feelings for a teenage princess get in the way of his job and he starts off a chain reaction of events. Reluctant to tell his master he tries various methods to fix the situation, including the appointment of a wizard to help people recognise the queen.  After fighting and losing to Death, Mort was given an extra lease of life when the Grim Reaper turned over his Lifetimer. This allowed him to stay in the world of the living.  After the events of Mort, Mort leaves Death's service and marries Ysabell. The couple are given the title of Duke and Duchess of Sto Helit, and later become the parents of Susan Sto Helit. They subsequently meet their end after a freak accident sends their carriage plunging into a ravine. They had turned down an offer from Death to extend the duration of their existence on the grounds that it wouldn't be the same as actually lengthening their lives.

Albert

Alberto Malich founded the Unseen University and tried to perform the Rite of AshkEnte backwards in order to gain immortality - reasoning that a spell that brings Death to you, performed backwards, would keep him away from you. It worked, in a way, since Malich was sent to Death's Domain, where Time does not flow the same as it does on the Discworld. Death now employs him as his butler. As of his acceptance of the position, "Albert" had 91 days, three hours and five minutes of Time left on the Disc, most of which he spent shopping and using the soap and bath at the Young Men's Reformed Cultist of the Ichor-God-Bel-Shamharoth's Association (Death is not very good at making plumbing).  There was a statue of Alberto in the hallway of Unseen University, inscribed (apart from the usual student scribbles) with "We Shall Not See His Like Again". This, of course, turns out to be entirely wrong. After the destruction of the statue in Mort, and the wizards' belief that the returned Albert was the statue, it is suggested that a new one be built in a very secure place, such as the dungeon.  When Death is missing in Soul Music, Albert tries to find him on the Disc but gets robbed and his life-timer (hourglass of life) is broken. After this incident, Albert has approximately 5 seconds left, and thus cannot return to the world of the living anymore, as Death cannot make his life longer. The remaining sand is now kept in a bottle in Albert's bedroom.  While Death and Albert seem to get on, it is a fragile relationship. In Mort, Albert returns to the world to help Death, but seems ready to attack him when it looks like he has his former job as Archchancellor back. He also seems not to trust Death with his life-timer, which is why he takes it with him in Soul Music. Frequently, Albert finds himself trying to keep Death "on course" when his master becomes too human. He and Susan do not get on very well.  Albert is also a highly idiosyncratic cook, believing everything needs to be fried to get rid of the germs, including porridge.

Susan

Despite her lack of a genetic link with Death, she has inherited certain of his abilities: she can "walk through walls and live outside time and be a little bit immortal."  Her most obvious character trait is being sensible, an attribute carefully cultivated by her parents as a counterbalance to the influence of her grandfather. Initially, this manifested itself as a refusal to admit the supernatural side of the world (beyond basic magic) even existed. Latterly, however, she accepts she is part of the same world as the Hogfather and the Tooth fairy. She just wishes she wasn't. She can be relied upon to keep her head in a crisis, something she tends to view as a character flaw.  She is first introduced as a sixteen year old pupil at the "Quirm College for Young Ladies" in Soul Music, shortly after the death of her parents (who, unfortunately, Death couldn't spare; his offer to let them live out eternity in his Domain was refused). After graduating -- and despite being technically the current Duchess of Sto Helit -- she begins a teaching career, first as a governess (in Hogfather) and then as a school teacher (in Thief of Time). She proves to be quite good at handling small children, a skill that is attributed to her sensible and practical nature.  This could also be due to her approach to children's problems. When a child complains about a monster in the cupboard or under the bed, most parents would go to great lengths to carefully explain to the child that there is no monster. Susan, on the other hand, simply hands the child a suitable weapon (such as an axe or broadsword) with which to assault the monster, or goes and does it herself. Monsters from a wide area have come to dread the fireplace poker she uses for this task, although as word of Susan has quickly spread among the city's resident monsters, she lately has only needed to deal with newcomers.  Her approach in other areas is also unusual. For example, in her role as a governess she has found that her charges' reading progress has been greatly enhanced by using interesting books which are slightly too difficult for them, and which therefore present something of a challenge. Parents may, however, have reservations about her choice of General Tacticus' Campaigns as a reader, since it may be argued that the ability to spell 'disembowelled' is not necessarily needed by children under ten.  As a schoolteacher she is sufficiently successful to have parents clamouring to have their child included in her class. Her approach to history and geography, often subjects which children find rather dull, has particularly captured her class's attention. The occasional need to remove from their children's clothing dried-in bloodstains or ground-in swamp mud is generally seen by parents as more than compensated for by the broad education being received - a child's description of one of the classic battles from Ankh-Morpork's long history, for example, might be sufficiently vivid and detailed to make the parent think that the description could not have been improved upon if the child had actually seen the battle at first hand.  Though Susan was previously in love with rocker Imp Y Celyn ("Soul Music"), as of Thief of Time, Susan is rumoured to be in a relationship with Lobsang Ludd, the new anthropomorphic personification of Time.