Death (Discworld)

Death appears in every single Discworld novel — to greater or lesser degree — except for The Wee Free Men and Snuff. In some of the novels, he is just a momentary humorous aside, whereas in others he has a more significant bearing on a plot point. The character of Death evolves over the progression of the novels, developing more across the earlier books with his character gradually stabilising in later ones. Death is the leading or an important central character in the following — in which he goes through significant character development — and these are considered to be the Death strand novels: • Mort — 1987 • Reaper Man — 1991 • Soul Music — 1994 • Hogfather — 1996 • Thief of Time — 2001 ==Character==

The books represent Death's hollow, peculiar voice with unquoted — since as a skeleton, he has no vocal cords — and his words seem to enter the head without involving the ears. Pratchett wrote that his voice was like two slabs of granite rubbing together, or the slamming of coffin lids. These descriptions became frequent in later novels. Death is not invisible, but most people's brains refuse to process who he is unless he insists. Generally, only magical people like witches and wizards, children, and cats can allow themselves to see him. Death can ignore things like walls because he is eternal and things that last mere centuries are not as real as he is. He can also adjust time for himself and others nearby. Death himself must collect some minimum number of souls, to keep the balance. His selection from ordinary deaths is worked out by a system called the "nodes" possibly based on the showiness of the death. A common thief incinerated by a dragon might qualify for example. He has shown up for at least two kittens, a swan, and a red flower-like sea creature. These events are usually of incidental importance within the story, so Death's appearance may be considered an in-joke rather than a plot device. He sometimes appears for characters in mortal peril. Rincewind has seen him on numerous near-fatal occasions. Similarly, in Thud!, Vimes has a near-death experience, for which Death appears, sitting in a deckchair reading a mystery novel as he waits to see if Vimes will die. He is fond of cats, who can see him at all times (he seems particularly furious when he once attends to a sack of drowned kittens), and curry, the consumption of which he describes as like biting a red-hot ice cube. Being a skeleton with no digestive organs, it is not revealed how he is able to partake of food and drink. Anyone who dines with him tends to become extremely focused upon their own meal, and merely notices Death's plate being full one moment and empty the next. He occasionally smokes a pipe, with the smoke drifting out of his eye sockets. He pays for goods and services with an assortment of copper coins, many turned blue or green with age, which he says he acquired . Death is fascinated by humanity. His interest is coupled with bafflement: it's a favorite point of Pratchett's that the habits and beliefs that are grown into instead of being rationally acquired are an essential part of being human. As Death is an outside observer, his imitations of humanity are intricate but marked by a fundamental lack of comprehension. When acting as a stand-in for the Hogfather (a figure similar to Santa Claus) he starts by greeting the children with from force of habit until reminded not to do so. He is especially intrigued by humanity's ability to complicate their own existence, and their ability to actually get up in the morning without going insane from the sheer prospect of what life entails (from his perspective). 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 of Reality. He has on a number of occasions bent the rules to allow a character extra life (e.g., the little girl rescued from the fire in Reaper Man, or the Little Match Girl in Hogfather). 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 he offers include chess, though he consistently has trouble remembering how the knights move, and another game (referred to by Death as "Exclusive Possession" in the book, presumably based on Monopoly), which the challenger lost despite having "three streets and all the utilities". Granny Weatherwax was able to play cards against Death in a successful bid to save a child's life, Granny's hand having four queens while Death's had only four "ones". (A hand of four aces would generally beat a hand of queens in poker, but Death chose to consider them low, giving the old witch a "wink" in the process.) In the same way that his granddaughter, Susan, has been described as "Helpfulness Personified" in terms of her personality, Death, by his own admission, could very well be described as 'Duty Personified' in terms of personality; in Hogfather, in a discussion with Albert, Death comments He does not cause people to die, nor does he concern himself with their goodness or badness in life; it is simply his job to collect their souls at the appointed time. In many ways, he epitomizes the bleakness of human existence. In Reaper Man, in which he is rendered temporarily mortal (or at least the imagination of being mortal, since his state of being "it/death" is, as mentioned in Discworld Noir, constant), 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; during his time as the Hogfather, he uses his new dual role to save a little match girl from dying of the cold by employing a loophole through giving her the gift of a future, thus allowing him to avoid the usual complications that arise from his breaking the rules. Despite his general lack of emotion, the Auditors of Reality are one of the few things actually capable of angering him. He also gets angry upon hearing of Rincewind: In Eric, for example, his eyes turn red at the mention of Rincewind. 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 quite a malicious character and followed Rincewind around wanting him to die after circumstances resulted in Rincewind missing his scheduled appointment. At one point he even deliberately stops a character's heart, though later in the book it was shown to have been the actions of Death's stand-in, Scrofula. By the time of Mort he had gained the sympathetic and humorous personality he has in later books. In later novels he has been used to examine developments in theoretical physics as, being supernatural, he is able to witness such events firsthand although, being a cat lover, he is not fond of the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, believing it cruel to the cats involved. ==Home==

Death resides in an extra-dimensional realm called Death's Domain. His home there is a Victorian house with a well-tended garden in shades of black and a skull and crossbones motif. Its name is "Mon Repos", (Quirmian means "my rest"), and it is much larger inside than outside. Death has not mastered scale, not understanding real distance nor perspective either, so its surroundings are blurred and seem distant. Death adds a large golden wheat field to the grounds after the events of Reaper Man. A tree swing he built for his granddaughter Susan, swings through the trunk of the tree. The doors reach a height of several yards yet are only a few feet tall. He has a bathroom which he never uses, with a bar of bone-white, rock-hard soap and a towel rack with hard towels, not knowing that towels are soft and should be foldable. Plumbing confuses him, and the pipes are completely solid. He never sleeps and has a violin he tries to play. He notes in Soul Music that he can only play "an empty chord," the sound made at the end of everything to signify no more sound. Death's house is full of cats. He also sends cats to heaven where Maurice encounters Death. ==Death's gender==

The initial books did not pronounce themselves about the sex of Death, using the pronoun "it", although Ysabell called him 'Daddy'. In Mort, Death's pronoun is given as "he" and "his" without the special capital as in the earlier books. Also, when he goes to an employment agent, the agent refers to him as "Mister …", unable to recall his name to start. ==Relations and associates==

Death is both the servant and a part of the Old High One known as Azrael, the Death of Universes and ruler of all deaths. He can fly by just creating his own ground-level, and travel through time and across dimensions, sometimes leaving glowing hoofprints in his wake, but in all other respects is a perfectly ordinary horse. He is well-treated, and loyal to his master and Susan. He is shod by Jason Ogg, a Lancrastian blacksmith of mythical skill. Binky is not immortal, but while in Death's service does not age. Binky gained some of his powers by sharing one of Death's qualities: being so much "realer" than ordinary things such as walls, great distances, or time that he can simply ignore them. Death gave Susan a "My Little Binky" gift set for her third birthday. It was returned by her parents, who feared that it would make her a less "normal" child. The Death of Rats The Death of Rats, also known as the Grim Squeaker, 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 assist Death in other ways. His jurisdiction also seems to cover certain kinds of "ratty" humans, such as Mr Clete in Soul Music, Mr Pin in The Truth, and Mr Pounder in Maskerade. He was one of a disparate multitude of death-personifications created during Death's absence in Reaper Man. The Death of Rats fought and refused to be reabsorbed into Death himself upon the latter's resumption of his duties, and Death kept him around for company. The Death of Fleas also escaped resorption, but was not seen after Reaper Man. The Death of Rats resembles a murine skeleton walking on its hind legs, wearing a black robe, and carrying a tiny scythe, since his form took shape from the latent form of Death in Reaper Man, and he came into existence in the vicinity of Death's alter ego, Bill Door. The Death of Rats finds ways around the rules more easily than Death, and assisted Susan in Soul Music, Hogfather, and Thief of Time. He sometimes travels with a talking raven named Quoth, who acts as his translator. The Death of Rats, like Death, speaks in , but has a vocabulary consisting of words such as ', and ' when he laughs, although his speech could be interpreted from context in the same way as the Librarian's. In the mythology of the Changeling Clan of talking rats in The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, the Death of Rats was known as the Bone Rat. Quoth Quoth is a talking raven who accompanies the Death of Rats. He was named Quoth by his previous owner, a wizard with no sense of humour attempting to make a joke by referencing the famous line in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe — but Quoth refused to give in to this stereotype by saying "the N word" ('nevermore'). At times, he acts as steed and interpreter for the Death of Rats. He has a constant craving for eyeballs and frequently (and hopefully) mistakes various other small round objects for eyeballs, such as olives and walnuts. He was originally one of the ravens from Unseen University's Tower of Art, the magical properties of which gave him his ability to speak. He was first seen in Soul Music, then appeared in all novels involving Susan Sto Helit. Neil Pearson voiced him in the Sky One adaptation of Hogfather. New Death The New Death appeared in Reaper Man when he came to collect the old Death, then known as "Bill Door". The New Death was the old Death's replacement as a result of the plot by the Auditors of Reality to rid the world of sloppy thinking. The New Death came from human belief, but was quite different from the original, having been formed by modern Discworlders who thought of death as malevolent rather than a simple cessation of life. Though he had the usual black robe, he was larger and had only smoke beneath his robe rather than bones, and wore a crown to the disgust of the original Death. He rode the classic skeletal steed, in contrast to the special, but very real Binky. Instead of a scythe he wielded a weapon "which may, at some point in its evolution, have incorporated aspects of a scythe, in the same way a scalpel incorporated aspects of a stick". In place of a face or skull, the new Death had just his crown and was prideful, dramatic, cold, and cruel, the literal embodiment of humanity's fear of death. He chose to arrive exactly at midnight and appeared in a flash of lightning purely for the dramatic effect, which the old Death found degrading and rather excessive. When he cornered Bill Door, he mocked and beat him instead of finishing the job. Bill Door was disgusted and horrified by the New Death's callous attitude toward humanity, and his victory is the triumph of the compassionate "reaper man" over a tyrant who has no care for the harvest. The new Death was destroyed by Bill Door using the scythe he used on the farm; a humble garden tool, not the infinitely sharp implement of Death, but sharpened by his rage and the harvest. ==Rite of AshkEnte==

The Rite of AshkEnte — also written as '''Ashk'Ente or Ash'Kente' — was an ancient magic ritual that summoned and bound Death in a circle and prevented him from leaving until invited to do so by the summoning wizard. This may have been wishful thinking on the part of the wizards as, in Eric, Death appeared outside the circle, behind the wizards, and in Reaper Man'' a wizard commented that he believed Death only stayed in the circle for the look of the thing. The Rite is not tuned to Death himself, but rather to whoever happened to be performing his duties — Mort (then as Death's apprentice) was almost forced to respond to the summons, until Ysabell's intervention, and Susan Sto Helit (his granddaughter) was summoned and subsequently bound in The Hogfather. The rite does not appear to apply to Death himself, although he may just appear out of politeness. Since Death was professionally involved in almost everything going on everywhere, the Rite was usually performed to question him on otherwise inexplicable phenomena. This was usually done only when all other avenues were exhausted, as most powerful wizards were quite old and therefore unwilling to attract the attention of Death. Death hated being summoned, because he was always summoned at the "worst possible time", such as when at a party. The Rite also caused Albert's affiliation with Death; while he was still Archchancellor of Unseen University, Albert attempted to become immortal by performing the Rite backwards, reasoning that this would banish Death from him, but instead it transferred Albert to Death's realm, where he decided to remain on the grounds that time did not pass in Death's realm and he was thus essentially immortal. There were twelve ways to perform the Rite, but eight of them caused instant death, and might summon Death in the "usual" manner, and the ninth is very hard to remember. This left three ways to safely summon death: Although the Rite could be performed by a couple of people with three small sticks and 4 cc of mouse blood, or even with a fresh egg and only two small sticks, the wizards (Ridcully excepted) preferred to do it the old fashioned way, with heavy equipment consisting of numerous drippy candles, octograms on the floor, thuribles, and similar paraphernalia. They felt it was not "proper" wizardry if it wasn't showy enough. The Rite has been used several times In the Discworld books: • In The Light Fantastic, Death was summoned to be asked about the recent mass wave of magic that had apparently done nothing, revealing that the Octavo had taken action to prevent the eighth spell dropping off the Disc so that all eight spells could be used to prevent the imminent destruction of the world. Death later returned to collect one of the high-ranking wizards present at the Rite as his time had run out. The wizard, realising his time was near, locked himself in a room sealed both magically and physically against all ills. A later book notes that doing so probably made him more likely to be found by Death. • In Mort, Albert, briefly returned to the world, summoned Death, who was having a holiday, to let him know that Mort, his apprentice, was doing a terrible job as his replacement. It almost summoned Mort instead. • In Eric, Death was asked about an occult disturbance that turned out to be Rincewind. Death appeared outside of the binding octogram and walked into it only at the insistence of the gathered wizards. • In Reaper Man, when Death was forced to retire by the Auditors, an Auditor appeared in Death's place to inform the wizards of the situation and when they asked about the sudden abundance of life force, assured them that 'normal service' would resume shortly. • In Soul Music, when Death had again taken a break from work, the Rite instead summoned his granddaughter Susan, who was filling in. • The Rite is also used in the computer game Discworld 2. The game requires the player to find not only the three small sticks (of equal length) and 4 cc of mouse blood mentioned above, but also dribbly candles, a vile stench, and some glitter. During the ritual, the wizards perform an off-key version of "Day-O (Banana Boat Song)" and Death appears behind them, fresh from vacation, wearing a cork hat. ==Appearances in other media==

Film In the 2022 international co-production CGI-animated film of The Amazing Maurice – adapted fairly directly from the 28th Discworld novel of 2001, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents – Death is voiced by the noted British actor and comedian Peter Serafinowicz alongside Hugh Laurie as the titular cat of equally prodigious capabilities. Television Animated In the Cosgrove Hall 1997 animated adaptations of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters (and the Welcome to the Discworld pilot based on an extract from Reaper Man), Death was voiced by Christopher Lee. In Soul Music, the voice actors are: • Albert – Brian Pringle • Susan Sto-Helit – Debra Gillett • Mort – Neil Morrissey • Ysabell – Melissa Sinden • Quoth the Raven and the Death of Rats are uncredited. Live-action In the 2006 Sky One adaptation of Hogfather he was voiced by Ian Richardson. The actor who played the physical Death in Hogfather was Marnix van den Broeke, a tall Netherlander. In the 2008 Sky One adaptation of The Colour of Magic, van den Broeke reprised the physical role, with Christopher Lee returning to the voice the character, after the death of Richardson. In the 2021 series The Watch, Wendell Pierce voiced Death. Radio Death has been voiced in all five BBC Radio adaptations of Discworld novels. Geoffrey Whitehead played the part in the adaptation of Mort, and also in Episode 1 of Eric. John Rowe played him in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, and Michael Kilgarriff voiced Death in Episode 4 of Small Gods. In both Guards! Guards! and Wyrd Sisters, Death is credited as being played by himself (in Guards! Guards! he is actually voiced by Stephen Thorne, who also played Sergeant Colon). Computer games Death has appeared in various other media: in the Discworld game series he is voiced firstly by Rob Brydon and later by Nigel Planer. Theatre Death has also been played by numerous actors in amateur stage productions of Wyrd Sisters, Mort, Soul Music, and Hogfather, as well as various other plays based on the novels. Internet culture After his death in March 2015, Pratchett's daughter Rhianna wrote in three tweets from her father's Twitter account: Fans launched a tongue-in-cheek petition on Change.org, requesting for Death to return Pratchett to life because, "Terry Pratchett turned Death from a figure of hate into a much loved and sometimes welcomed character. No-one else cared about you Death. You owe him!" ==Associates of Death in other media==

The Death of Rats The Death of Rats appeared in the animated Soul Music and the radio play The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, but no voice credit was given for either. In the Hogfather TV series the voice was credited to Dorckey Hellmice (an anagram of Michelle Dockery who played Susan Sto Helit in the same TV series), while in the Discworld 2 game, the voice is credited as Katherine the Crocodile. The Death of Rats also appears in Discworld Noir. Albert In Cosgrove Hall's 1996 animated Soul Music, Albert was voiced by Bryan Pringle. In BBC Radio 4's 2004 adaptation of Mort, he was voiced by Philip Jackson. In Sky One's live-action version of Hogfather, Albert was played by David Jason. Albert also makes an appearance in the computer game Discworld 2: Missing Presumed...!?, voiced by Nigel Planer. ==See also==