about: death
This fanlisting is the TFL.Org listed fanlisting for the Discworld character of Death.
From Wikipedia.Org:
Death is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Discworld's Death is a parody of several other personifications of death, such as the Grim Reaper. Like most of them, he is a black robed skeleton carrying a scythe and a sword, for kings (It's the rules, he once told Mort). Unlike many of them he has a personality beyond this.
Death is one of the most popular Discworld characters, and makes an appearance in all but one of the Discworld books. His steed is a great white 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 of, and thus, speaks through other means. In the first book, The Colour of Magic, 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 dropped after this novel.
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.
It is also mentioned in The Colour of Magic that wizards and significant figures (e.g. kings) have the "privilege" of, when they die, being collected by Death himself, 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 a demon named 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 and at least two dogs. 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.
Personality
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). 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 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.
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. Death's inability to interact comfortably with humans often seems to meet the DSM definition of autism.
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. 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.
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.
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.
During Reaper Man Death was replaced by The Auditors, during which time a slew of new Deaths appeared to take up the slack. One of these, the Death of Rats, was allowed to remain in existence after Death's return (along with the Death of Fleas), filling a sidekick-like position. Death of Rats is usually accompanied by a talking raven named Quoth, who takes the role of Death of Rats's steed and says he's "in it for the eyeballs".
Ysabell, Death's adopted daughter, first appears in The Light Fantastic, and has a significant role in Mort. In this novel Mort is given the job of Death's apprentice, and he and Ysabell get married. Their child is Susan (below).
Death's granddaughter Susan is first tapped to fill in for him during the events of Soul Music, and is again called in Hogfather. She also plays an important role in Thief of Time. She would give it all up if it weren't for Binky, below.
Death's domain has a "groundskeeper" named Albert. He is not dead, but instead was brought to Death's domain when he performed the Rite of AshkEnte backwards. He entered the land of Death with around three months left before he was due to die. Subsequent trips to the Disc on errands for his master have left him with a mere five seconds.
Death frequently works with War, Pestilence and Famine, the other three Horsemen of the Apocralypse. Like him they have become more human than their roles require (Death himself explains this; in 'Thief of Time', he says that 'form defines function', implying that they are, in essence, 'human by extension'). In Thief of Time, Kaos, the Fifth Horseman, was introduced. However he left before they became famous and now works as a milkman.
Binky is Death's steed. He is a real horse; Death tried a skeletal steed, but kept having to stop and wire bits back on. Death also had a fiery steed, but that one repeatedly set his barn on fire.
Binky is more intelligent than most horses and is a pure, milky white. He can fly, as well as travel through time and across dimensions, sometimes leaving glowing hoofprints in his wake (his only limitation is that he cannot go to places where people cannot die), but is in all other respects a perfectly ordinary horse. He's well-treated, and loyal to his master or whoever's filling in at the time. His shoes are made by Jason Ogg, the Lancrastian blacksmith of mythical skill, and he is likely effectively immortal in the same fashion as Albert.
"My Little Binky" (see My Little Pony) was a gift given to Susan Sto Helit, Death's granddaughter, for one of her early birthdays. Her parents returned the gift, fearing that this would make her a less "normal" child.
© 2006 Edie / Anthropromorphic Personficiation
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