The Discworld has Loads and Loads of Characters, so here they will be grouped roughly by "series" most of which have their own character pages. Characters that mainly appear in only one book will be grouped at One Book Wonders, in hopefully alphabetical order.Once more for old times' sake... WATCH OUT FOR SPOILERS!
71-Hour Ahmed, Conina the Hairdresser, Coin the Sourcerer, Lobsang Ludd, Jonathan Teatime, Polly/Oliver Perks, Carcer Dun, The Amazing Maurice, Om, Glenda Sugarbean, Trev Likely, Juliet Stollop, Mr. Nutt, Pepe, Madame Sharn, Mr. Shine
Rincewind, The Librarian, Mustrum Ridcully, Ponder Stibbons, The Bursar, The Dean, Professor John Hix
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Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men
Tiffany Aching
A serious, lateral-thinking young witch in training, sensible and practical though prone to making mistakes due to her youth and inexperience. Matures both physically and emotionally with each book she's in. Her greatest allies are the Nac Mac Feegle or Wee Free Men, a tribe of Pictsies (little blue barbarians who were kicked out of Faerie for being too disruptive*
which when you consider that Faerie essentially is the Plane of Chaos means something
), and Granny Weatherwax.
Badass Bookworm: Tiffany gathers her most useful pieces of knowledge from books.
Cute Witch: A more traditional version of a witch but nevertheless.
Gender Rarity Value: And the smur... umm, the Nac Mac Feegle only have 1-2 females per clan anyway, the Kelda/Queen who gives birth to each generation of males and one girl who will be Kelda elsewhere.
"Ye ken I told ye there wuz times ye should [keep yer trap shut/listen to what I wuz sayin'/do somethin' sensible instead o' tha' foolish thing ye just did]?"
Tiffany's grandmother and possibly a powerful witch, even though she never used any overt magic (which to Granny Weatherwax just means that she was very good at her job indeed). Dies before the beginning of The Wee Free Men.
An arrogant young witch and leader of a coven of other young witches before Tiffany showed up and didn't become its leader in the same way that Granny Weatherwax isn't the leader of the Ramtops witches.
Alpha Bitch: Oh so much. Instead of learning witch-magic, she learns wizard-magic, which is about power.
Lovable Alpha Bitch: In a manner of speaking. Tiffany can more or less see through her snobby attitude to see a confused young girl beneath it. Also, in the Wintersmithshe instantly leaps to Tiffany's defense with a fireball.
Catch Phrase: Uses the word "literally" a lot and incorrectly.
Meaningful Name: Annagramma approaches being a proper witch entirely backwards.
Not So Different: Snubs Tiffany's heritage, but her own is no better despite her lies to the contrary.
Pride: Big time. Lightens up a little after Tiffany and the other younger witches nudge her in the right direction.
Roland
Heir to the Baron who owns the Chalk, Roland was abducted by the Queen of the elves and rescued by Tiffany. He never really got over this, and was Tiffany's potential but ultimately avertedLove Interest for a time.
Current Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. A thin, bearded man who dresses and lives in a Spartan manner (no, not like that), his uncanny knowledge of human nature and unparalleled talent for scheming has allowed him to make Ankh-Morpork one of the finest cities on the Discworld, through economic and cultural might rather than force of arms. So good at his job that the Assassins' Guild will not take out contracts on him, because if he was ever not in control, Ankh-Morpork would collapse. Fortunately, he is never, ever not in control, not even when he's arrested and locked in a dungeon cell. It's his dungeon cell, after all.Succeeded "Mad Lord Snapcase". He is not named until Sourcery, but Word Of God is that the Patrician in The Colour of Magic is him. It is possible Vetinari may not be entirely human, but this has yet to be proven.
The Anti-Nihilist: Very similar view to Vimes, but rather than confront injustice head-on, he prefers to change the world through subtle trickery and manipulation (or just terrifying it into behaving when needed.)
Anti-Villain: Well, sort of... He's generally on the same side as the heroes, but fulfills every other requirement for Bond Villainy but that one crucial point.
Awesomeness by Analysis: He instantly displays masterful juggling skills in Jingo ("A few melons are nothing after Ankh-Morpork") and can solve the Times' Sudoku puzzles in under 15 seconds.
The Assassins' Guild Diary reveals that this also applied to his student days, when he was the school's grandmaster at Stealth Chess: an extremely unpredictable, cutthroat variant which he practiced playing blindfolded.
Bad Ass: He usually doesn't even have to get his hands dirty, but when he does...
Berserk Button: Mimes visiting Ankh-Morpork can not expect to have a pleasant stay. This is seen by everyone else as one of the Patrician's most endearing features.
Big Good: somehow Vetinari has taken the stereotypical post of evil overlord and turn it into this trope
Bilingual Bonus: His last name is Romanian for "You Nostrils."
This is a coincidence; Word Of God says it's a joke on the Medici family of Italy (with 'veterinary' as opposed to 'medical'), hence why a young Downey gives him the insulting nickname "Dog-botherer".
Characterization Marches On: The reason that Pratchett hadto confirm that the first book's Patrician is, in fact, Vetinari is because that Patrician couldn't be more different than the spartan, sly, Manipulative Bastard of the later books.
Dissonant Serenity: Almost unfailing. Very occasionally somebody manages to surprise him.
Evil Versus Evil: Vetinari's Breaking Lecture in Guards! Guards! says so in as many words: There are always and only the evil people, but sometimes they are on different sides. It's currently gracing the page for Black and Gray Morality.
The Extremist Was Right: Vetinari's original plans to stabilise Ankh-Morpork, which included legalising the Thieves' Guild and winding down operations such as the Watch and the Post Office - which, odd as they sound, worked. Of course, now the city is functioning properly again, he can afford to wind all that stuff up again.
Hidden Depths: The reveal of his relationship with Lady Margolotta in The Fifth Elephant and subsequent books, after formerly being treated as basically asexual. He's also extremely competent in combat, as seen in Night Watch, and he's a master of stealth, having been trained as an Assassin. How good is he at stealth? He failed his Stealth final in Assassin school because the test taker marked him absent.
Morality Pet: Wuffles. Possibly replaced by Mr. Fusspot after it is revealed in Making Money that Wuffles has died.
Never Gets Drunk: In Unseen Academicals he drinks an entire room full of football hooligans- er, team captains, under the table. All it did was make him a few seconds slower in solving the next day's crossword puzzle. It also made him unusually talkative. "But I am drunk. Drunk as a skunk, in fact."
And he stubbed his toe.
Noble Demon: Takes this to an art form. Any Ankh-Morpork citizen will be happy to tell you that he's an evil, vicious, manipulative tyrant... but they'll have a great deal of difficulty explaining what's so bad about that.
Lampshaded; he got nicknamed "Dog-Botherer" when he was at the Assassins' Guild.
The Rival: He used to think this about the dog food seller who was the only one other than him to regularly win the Times crossword. Since she started writing them, she seems to be getting to him over the last few books. As of Snuff, she actually came up with one he couldn't solve and he grudgingly admitted that she had won, after what for him was a major rant.
Scars Are Forever: Has walked with a cane ever since being wounded in an attempted assassination in Men at Arms, though it's left unspecified how much of this is a deliberate act, and how much is a genuine disability that he just happens to be Bad Ass enough to ignore when required.
Vetinari Job Security: Trope Namer, obviously: you'd expect that a nicer person would make the city a better place, but no replacement can possibly measure up to his skill at juggling groups that don't get along well. One popular fan theory is that instead of raising up a protege to take over for him if he ever does actually die, he instead is trying to promote several characters to take over various elements of how the city will run—Vimes, Carrot, and Moist Von Lipwig being at least three. To make matters even more devious, none of them realize it, and quite a few think they're defying him
Wrong Genre Savvy: After tediously clearing up after several passing fads with dark secrets behind them (the dragon in Guards! Guards!, the movies in Moving Pictures, the living mall in Reaper Man, the Music With Rocks In in Soul Music, etc.), he attempts to have the printing press in The Truth closed down when he thinks it will become one. As it turns out, it is in fact part of a permanent change to how affairs work on the Disc - being Vetinari, he soon adapts, of course.
Xanatos Gambit: Plays a continuous one with Lady Margolotta: makes his coded messages almost unbreakable knowing that she reads them. If she doesn't or can't break them, great, she shouldn't be doing either. If she does both he'll know what she thinks is in them.
Xanatos Speed Chess: He claims to never have any real plans, instead steering emerging events to his advantage. Plans would just get in his way.
Lady Margolotta
Lady Margolotta is a vampire, who appeared mainly in The Fifth Elephant and very recently Unseen Academicals but has made a few cameos in other books. She lives in Uberwald and shuffles the political factions (dwarves, werewolves, trolls, etc.) there in much the same way that Vetinari does in Ankh-Morpork... only Uberwald is less civilized and possibly less predictable. She plays chess (and occasionally Thud) with Vetinari by the clacks system (the Discworld's version of the telegraph) and has been known to read his secret messages. The Patrician is aware of this, and purposely makes his coded messages almost unbreakable, so he'll know what she thinks is in them. It is quite possible that she knows that he does this, having most likely taught him as much as he taught her (either way, it's going to lead to a Gambit Pileup sometime in the future). Lady Margolotta also annoyed the hell out of Commander Vimes by saving his life, because Vimes hates vampires.
Anti-Villain: Like Vetinari, she escapes true villain status by happening to be on the hero's side. However, it's for entirely her own reasons rather than patriotism or morality, even the strange sort displayed by Vetinari.
Bait the Dog: When introduced, she seems pretty harmless, especially given her taste in colorful sweaters with bats on them. Vimes describes her as looking like "someone's mother". But then you find out that she is (almost?) as skilled a manipulator as Vetinari himself.
Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Averted. Although she spends most of The Fifth Elephant wearing a pink jumper, describing her as anything close to The Chick is bound to land you in a lot of trouble.
Noble Demon: Lighter on the 'noble' than Vetinari... but then again, he's something of a special case.
Our Vampires Are Different: Lady Margolotta, like several of the vampires in later books, has sworn off human blood, and considers animal blood a poor but necessary substitute, "like lemonade replaces vhisky, believe me."
Overly-Long Name: Margolotta Amaya Katerina Assumpta Crassina von Überwald, and thats just the short form...
Sugar and Ice Personality: A cynical and very manipulative ruler using control (and cigarettes) as an addiction replacement, who nevertheless does seem to care about Nutt (among others) beyond their usefulness as political pawns.
This is possibly a Shout Out to the original Dracula novel: the count speaks in a thick Hungarian accent when Jonathan Harker visits him, yet by the time he visits London it has almost disappeared.
The Von Trope Family: Margolotta (insert four pages worth of middle names/titles here) Von Uberwald.
A con-artist turned government employee, noted for his masterful people skills and for being so average in appearance as to be nondescript. Having been saved from the hangman's noose by Lord Vetinari, Lipwig was put to work revitalizing the Ankh-Morpork Post Office, and later the Royal Bank and the Royal Mint. Romantically involved with Adora Belle Dearheart, a fiercely independent, cynical, chain-smoking but beautiful golem-rights activist. Was essentially created as a way to have novels set in Ankh-Morpork without the Watch automatically taking over the plot.
Amazon Chaser: Moist loves Adora because she's dangerous. He says she looks more beautiful when considering violence.
Boxed Crook: Moist would rather live than be executed as a scam artist, but he's an adrenaline junkie, and he misses the thrill of the hustle so much it almost drives him crazy. He finds ways to make up for it, such as by pulling crowd-pleasing stunts at the Post Office and just being near his fiance.
The Face: Moist is this for the Post Office staff. It's what Vetinari hired him for; Stanley is thought of as weird even by other pin collectors and Groat is... odd, to put it charitably, but Moist knows how to sell an idea.
The Social Expert: "Everyone had their levers. For Groat, it was his position... Stanley, now... Stanley was easy." He can push Gilt's buttons in their media war but is wise enough not to do the same to Vetinari. Especially after the broom incident.
Genre Savvy: He doesn't believe in Genre himself, but he knows it backward and forward, and uses it against other people.
This was where his soul lived: dancing on an avalanche, making the world up as he went along, reaching into people's ears and changing their minds.
In Harm's Way: He does his best work when his life is in danger. Additionally, his fiance seems to be a sufficient source of danger for him, so much so that when she goes out of town on business, he takes up a number of dangerous activites (such as free climbing large buildings and Extreme Sneezing).
Lady Killer In Love: With Adora Belle Dearheart. However, despite admitting to having conned women, Moist is not an ardent womaniser.
Not So Different: Despairs that this might be true of Reacher Gilt. Genre Savvy readers have noted a similarity to Vetinari and think he might be training up his replacement, albeit with Vimes and de Worde there to keep him in line.
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Moist is an interesting study: He's probably second only to Lord Vetinari himself when it comes to cynicism and people-manipulation, but he utilizes this in the service of idealism. Even he doesn't quite understand how he keeps pulling it off.
Technical Pacifist: Of a different sort. He really does never lift a hand against anyone, and uses this to justify scamming people. His golem probation officer points out that the victims of his larger frauds were actually worse off than they would have been if he had simply mugged them. When he actually kills someone in self-defense, he promptly vomits.
The Auditors of Reality
To be an Individual is to live, and to live is to die.
The beings responsible for making sure that the universe works the way its supposed to. They find life untidy and make numerous attempts to kill everyone on the Disc.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Of Order - and Bureaucracy. (Possibly "Taxes". Because there are two things certain in life, and Death is already accounted for, right?)
Blue and Orange Morality: Though it mostly ends up boiling down to loathsome bureaucratic pettiness and a chronic lack of imagination. The Auditors are not presented sympathetically.
Evil Counterpart: To Death. Both are Anthropomorphic Personifications who exist to enforce some existential concept. But while Death feels compassion for humanity and the Disc, these bastards just want order. Absolute order.
Insane Troll Logic: Something is only alive if it has an independent existance. All living beings die in time. Any span of time is miniscule compared to the lifespan of the universe. Therefore, if an Auditor develops an individual identity, it instantly vanishes.
The book that introduced them implied that this happens because you have to be an individual to get the insane troll logic of it - and since the Auditors disappear when they realize they have an identity, they never manage to get to the point of realizing that their logic is not perfectly sound before going puff.
Everything about them screams Insane Troll Logic. They have no emotions or physical needs, yet they hate life forms specifically because of how annoying it is to record everything they do. And don't even ask how creatures with a Hive Mind can make jokes with each other...
Kill All Humans!: And non-human sentience. And non-sentient life. All life current and in potentia, in fact. It's untidy.
Light Is Not Good: Not light per-se, but given that their job is to keep the universe working, one would think they wouldn't hate its inhabitants as much as they do.
Sense Freak: Every now and then, they'll step down from being lifeless concepts into living bodies, and whenever they do, they immediately discover that life is both far more untidy than they thought and more addictive than they ever could have foreseen. Their reactions to food and colours stand out. And then they discover the price one inevitably pays for living, which is where I come in.
Weaksauce Weakness: Several. Chocolate, for one. And dreams. Hell, even being human for very long functions as Mind Rape for them, and eventually causes a Heel Face Turn, insanity or death. Between these, all 700 that take on human form in Thief of Time die before the book ends.
World of Silence: Their ideal world is a variation of this. Though they'd probably find silence too noisy. Emptiness would be best of all.
Adora Belle Dearheart
The cynical, chain-smoking, and severe head of the Golem Trust. She is also Moist's fiance, and assisted him with the restoration of the post office by employing him Golems. Fiercely devoted to causes and doesn't take crap from anyone. Mostly because she can drive a stiletto heel through their shoes... and through other parts.
Broken Bird: Does not account for all her behaviour, but she didn't deserve any of what was to done to her family.
Tsundere: Type A. Moist is a born risk-taker, and his fiancee's nature gives him the thrill he needs in life.
William de Worde
The truth has got its boots on. And it's going to start kicking.
A scribe who comes from a wealthy family, William is making his own way by sending newsletters to leaders of various other countries. He is pulled into the newest technological advancement of the Disc, movable type. With the assistance of a shed filled with Dwarves, the attractive daughter of an engraver, and a vampire/photographer, he begins the Disc's first newspaper, the Ankh-Morpork Times. Reappears in Monstrous Regiment doing on-the-site reporting in Borogravia. As of Unseen Academicals, he seems set to become the Disc's first sports announcer.Although he does not directly appear, mention should also be made of Making Money, in which Moist von Lipwig observes that William was a young man who "somehow managed to write as though his bum had been stuffed with tweed."
Badass Bookworm: He's a professional scribe before throwing his lot in with the newspaper Dwarfs and his pursuit of the truth allowed him to gain the respect of Sam Vimes and Havelock Vetinari.
Blue Blood: He's part of a fairly influential family.
Intrepid Reporter: Considering he's running the first newspaper on the Disc...
Jerkass: Towards the Watch, and sometimes in general - he's a snob at heart, and doesn't always recognize when he's acting like one.
Not So Different: At one point while he's ranting about his father's arrogant, selfish behavior, Otto cheerfully says "But you make up for it in other vays!" earning him a Death Glare.
Uncle Pennybags: Averted. William deliberately turns down a life of luxury living off his family fortune to avoid this trope.
Upper Class Twit: He's trying so hard to avoid it that he sometimes falls into it by accident. He wasn't born into poverty, he chose it, and he can always opt out (unlike people who are actually poor) - it's when he forgets this fact that he acts like a jerk, usually.
“Well Done Son” Guy: When he was first introduced. He gets over it soon enough.
Sacharissa
The aforementioned engraver's daughter, who is William de Worde's partner at The Times. She does much of the journalist field work after William de Worde gets settled in at the newspaper, and as a reporter she receives a couple of cameos in newer Discworld books (Going Postal, Making Money). As of Going Postal, she appears to be married (presumably to William).
The Maiden Name Debate: Part of the "appears to be married" is that she refers to herself by her maiden name while Moist von Lipwig notes the wedding ring on her finger.
The iconographer (photographer) at the Times. A native of Uberwald who moved to the Big Wahooni (Ankh-Morpork, that is), Otto is a card-carrying member of the Black Ribbon society (vampires who have sworn off human "b-vord"). He has the slightly crazed edge of a born killer who has found something else to divert his energy — namely, taking iconographs. Unfortunately, as vampires are sensitive to bright light, he tends to be turned to dust by his own flash when he takes pictures... but fortunately, a drop of blood on his remains will restore him immediately. Otto has started wearing a small container of blood to make sure he auto-resurrects on the job. Made short appearances in Thud! and Monstrous Regiment.
Blinding Camera Flash: Exaggerated. Whenever he takes a flash photo, it results in (at best) him screaming in pain on the ground or (at worst) his demise until blood is poured on his ashes. In later books, he's found filters and other ways around this.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He looks and acts like a small, meek iconographer, but he is still a vampire, with all the abilities that implies.
Funny Foreigner: Deliberately goes for this vibe. It's better than the torches and pitchforks, after all.
Looks Like Orlok: Paul Kidby tends to portray him like this. William suspects he deliberately cultivates this image (see below).
Obfuscating Stupidity: He acts in a stereotypical vampire fashion tailored specifically for his profession (i.e. a pocketed vest in black silk with tails) and speaking in Vampire Vords so that people see him as more amusing than threatening.
Slasher Smile: That worryingly intense smile - normally reserved for vampires about to eat you - is instead used as a default (if slightly crazed) expression.
Unskilled, but Strong: At the end of The Truth, when Otto faces down a gang of William's father's enforcers using "proper fisticuffs" (rather than vampiric means, which would probably have been messier), he is a hilariously inept fighter, but having a vampire's strength and stamina means he still wipes the floor with them.
Vampire Vords: Exaggerated for effect, like most of his stereotypical-vampire traits.
We Need a Distraction: At one point, William De Worde takes advantage of the aforementioned Blinding Camera Flash to get past some watchmen, noting that a vampire writhing and screaming in pain is always the center of attention.
Lu-Tze
The not-exactly-holy, wrinkly, smiling little man who debuted in Small Gods, appears in Night Watch and co-stars with his pupil in Thief of Time. He may also have shown up in Going Postal as a background cleaner in a temple, and anytime a sweeper is mentioned, it may be him. He follows the Way of Mrs. Cosmopolite and thinks that "Rule One" Needs More Love. And if you annoy him too much, you will abruptly learn why he's Shrouded in Myth.
Lobsang Ludd: You said that it would be in Ankh-Morpork! Lu-Tze: Yeah, but I have years of experience and cynicism! You're just talented!
For Want of a Nail: His shtick - he prevents wars by selling nails and horseshoes in convenient spots, putting compost heaps in the right places, and making sure that single pieces of machinery are faulty. The senior History Monks' respect from him largely derives from the subtlety with which he can alter the timeline.
Ice Cream Koan: The Way of Mrs. Cosmopolite, composed of the mundane, common-sense sayings of an Ankh-Morpork landlady. As such, they are as exotic to Lu-Tze as Zen koans are to Westerners, but still work as a form of wisdom for him. A lot of it comes down to her sayings being coincidentally similar to the profound wisdom of the order's founder, but with a more practical bent that gives him an edge.
My Greatest Failure: The first time a glass clock was built, he failed to stop it from happening.
Not So Stoic: He rarely lets his wrinkly smiling old man image drop, but Lobsang can get to him.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Another major part of his shtick, with the additional wrinkle that everyone knows he's doing this, and just tries to guess how he's tricking them. Nobody ever figures out in time, though.
Old Master: Rule One: "Never act incautiously when confronted by a little bald wrinkly smiling man!"
Rule Nineteen: "Remember never to forget Rule One!"
Gaspode was a fairly normal stray until Moving Pictures. Then he suddenly found himself thinking. He found this vastly irritating, and was vaguely relieved when he went back to normal after the Holy Wood incident was over. But then he slept near the University's trash heaps a few times too often and suddenly found that his little problem was back. Now he roams the city, using his talents in new and creative ways. He's extremely cynical and has pretty much every doggy skin disease known to dogkind and a few others as bonuses. The laconic description of Gaspode was provided by Vimes in The Fifth Elephant: The Corporal Nobbs of the canine world. As far as he's concerned, the only real advantage to being a thinking, talking dog is that he can remember when the guilds throw out their kitchen trash. Often seen leading the beggar Foul Ole Ron by a leash.
Compelling Voice: Due to the Weirdness Censor, people tend to think anything he says is their own thought. Hence, "Cor, I'm a bastard, aren't I?" "Give the cute little doggy some sausages," and "Sergeant Quirk... you got an itchy bottom. Prickle, prickle, prickle." Furthermore, being able to speak human automatically gives him this power over other dogs.
The Dragalong: Angua and Carrot have both gotten him mixed up in really big messes.
Genre Savvy: Though Gaspode knows all about heroic wonder dogs, he never manages to pass for one himself.
Talking Animal: Thanks to eating stuff out of the University's garbage.
Weirdness Censor: He abuses it shamelessly. Most people, when they hear him, immediately think "Dogs can't talk" and decide that what they heard must have been their own thoughts. ("Give the nice dogs some sausages.") In Men at Arms, he used it for some hilariously Cool and Unusual Punishment.
The Canting Crew
A group of beggars even other beggars look down on. They include:
Altogether Andrews, who has nine personalities inhabiting his body (none of whom answer to "Andrews," but apparently altogether make up the individual of that name).
Arnold Sideways, who has no legs and gets about on a little wheeled cart, but carries a boot on the end of a pole for the purpose of kicking people.
Coffin Henry, who has a spectacular cough and an even more spectacular collection of skin diseases, and carries a sign saying For sum muny I wunt follo you home. Coff Coff.
The Duck Man, who is on the whole the sanest and most educated member of the Crew (as opposed to Altogether Andrews, who is in part the sanest and most educated), except that he's never seen without a duck on his head. And if you ask him why, he'll act like you're the odd one for seeing ducks where ducks aren't.
Foul Ole Ron, whose speech is incomprehensible ("Millennium hand and shrimp!") and whose smell is so strong it's taken on a life of its own (and sometimes goes to parties without him and read poetry - he's outclassed by it). In more recent appearances, he has been accompanied by Gaspode, acting in the capacity of "thinking-brain dog".
They appear in Soul Music (where Death, trying to get away from it all, spends some time in their company), Hogfather (where they are among the recipients of the stand-in Hogfather's attempts at an equitable distribution of Hogswatch), and The Truth (where they are hired by The Times as newspaper vendors, and play a role in the newspaper's big scoop). Foul Ole Ron and Coffin Henry both appear, individually, in Where's My Cow?.
Crazy Sane: Implied to be the case for the Duck Man. He finds everyone's persistent fixation on ducks around him quite bewildering.
Flanderization: Foul Ole Ron, actually. In Men at Arms, he's shown to be capable of passing a warning from Queen Molly of the Beggars' Guild onto Sam Vimes in the midst of all his muttering. In later books, he's utterly incapable of speaking a coherent sentence without Gaspode around to translate for him.
Talkative Loon: All of them to some degree, but especially Foul Ole Ron.
Voices Are Mental: Altogether Andrews' voice changes depending on who's speaking.
Twoflower
Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos was lightning, he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting 'All gods are bastards.'
The co-protagonist of the first two Discworld books and also of the later book Interesting Times. Twoflower is the Discworld's first tourist. He's a naive and harmless little man from the Agatean Empire, who happens to be fabulously wealthy by the standards of all other cultures on the Disc. Rincewind spends quite a while following Twoflower around, trying to collect a few gold pieces for his trouble, translating for him (since Twoflower doesn't speak Morporkian), and trying not to let him get killed. Twoflower, though he tosses fistfuls of gold around like pebbles, definitely gets his money's worth when it comes to hiring Rincewind, because he is very good at getting into the worst sorts of trouble. He is badly dressed, rich and utterly un-streetwise, optimistically determined to talk to everyone and get iconographs (the Discworld equivalent of photos, painted by a tiny imp in a box) of everything... and as always, accompanied by his Luggage (which eventually becomes Rincewind's Luggage).
The Fool: He gets through all the chaos of the first couple of books cheerfully and obliviously unhurt.
The Good Chancellor: He becomes Grand Vizier in Interesting Times; if he stays the way he is, it can only be assumed he's a good one.
He does end up betraying his liege, but considering he did it to save the Discworld...
Hidden Depths: We don't discover until Interesting Times that he has a family, by which time he's a widower with two daughters and an enormous grudge under his sunny exterior.
Be afraid. Be very afraid. Twoflower's Luggage is every traveler's dream: it's made of (ridiculously expensive) sapient pearwood, it looks like a wooden trunk on legs, and it follows him everywhere like a big wooden guard dog. The Luggage also is invitingly full of gold, has a near-bottomless capacity, and seems to be able to magically clean Twoflower's laundry. Thieves look at it with great interest... until they discover (usually much too late) that the Luggage has big teeth, it's impervious to magic, it's prone to violent psychosis, and it is quite happy to eat anyone or anything that gets in its way. Twoflower later bequeathes it to Rincewind, who views it as something of a mixed blessing.
Animate Inanimate Object: In the first book, it is often described as "opening its lid threateningly" or "it turned and faced them, despite the fact it had no face with which to face them with." Right near the end of The Colour of Magic, it spits out Tethis, the sea troll, at Rincewind's feet, after which it "manages to project a smug expression." It can stare without eyes and has a tongue for some reason.
Chest Monster: One with no brain, and a homicidal attitude towards anything that threatens its master.
Clingy MacGuffin: Being made of sapient pear wood, and having a definite personality of its own, the Luggage straddles the line between this and The Cat Came Backuntil it meets a mate.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It has saved children from a burning tower and is quite courteous to ladies.
Genghiz Cohen the Barbarian
Cohen the Barbarian is exactly what you'd get if Conan the Barbarian was a skinny old man. He's a bazillion years old with all the hallmarks of age, including a bad back, bunions, no teeth (till he gets new ones made from troll teeth, i.e. diamonds), and a very long beard. Cohen is, however, not to be underestimated. In a profession with an extremely short life expectancy, Cohen is still looting temples, rescuing maidens, and pillaging villages... and he has gotten very, very good at it over the years. In Interesting Times and The Last Hero, Cohen is seen at the head of the Silver Horde, a terrifying pack of barbarian warriors who are all as old as he is, but haven't let age stop them.
Badass Grandpa: The fact is that if you manage to live to that age in a profession like Barbarian Hero, you're probably really good at staying alive.
Genre Savvy: He calls it "The Code", and it's what ensures heroes win, villains lose (but escape for the sequel) and everyone winds up happy. He knows it inside out and backwards.
Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Be very careful about saying things like "I'd rather die before..." and so forth in front of Cohen. He'll always take you at your word.
Badass Bookworm: The fact he wrote and memorized most if not all of Ankh-Morpork's laws makes his power pretty scary. Also, aside from fire, he fears nothing.
Determinator: All zombies are this. In his case, it's powered by the fact that he simply refuses to pass on until his descendants cough up the money to pay back his legal fees (he defended himself at the trial for his own execution, which he lost), and he will wait as long as he has to; forever, if need be.
The Dragon: Slant has been the 'face' and executive officer in at least two plots to overthrow Vetinari, and was involved the one involving the death of Lord Winder in Night Watch.
The Dreaded: To all members of the legal professions in Ankh-Morpork.
Nerves of Steel: Only fire has the ability to even partially unnerve him.
Lord Ronald "Ronnie" Rust
Ankh-Morpork's leading aristocrat (Vetinari doesn't count, and as for the current Duke of Ankh...) Rust is a starched, snobbish and ridiculously pompous individual with an abiding and entirely mutual hatred towards Sam Vimes. Led Ankh-Morpork during the brief war with Klatch in Jingo where he displayed all the military genius you might expect. Apparently dated Sybil Ramkin in her youth.
Born Lucky: Veterans of battles that he's led claim that arrows meant for him will always kill another one of his soldiers.
It's suggested this is another aspect to his Weirdness Censor, and that Rust is simply failing to notice he could ever get hit.
Characterization Marches On: His first appearance in Men at Arms notes that Rust is one of the nobles who managed to adapt to the changing times, whereas his latter appearances suggest he's anything but. There's also his much kinder, considerate treatment of d'Eath in the same book, but that may be because he's generally nicer to fellow members of the upper class.
General Failure: In Jingo, where he all but single-handedly destroys the Ankh-Mopork war effort on his own.
Spanner in the Works: While at the same time forcing his Klatchian counterpart's hand with his premature invasion, saving the city itself from an invasion that happened in an Alternate Universe.
The Neidermeyer: As Captain of the Treacle Mine Road Watch House in Night Watch. After he gave orders to open fire on civilians, Vimes (as Keel) knocked him out and claimed to be removing him from command due to temporary insanity.
A never quite succesful peddler of well, anything he thinks will make a profit, but mostly his only theoretically edible sausages-inna-bun. Has numerous counterparts in every nation on the Discworld, including Cut-Me-Own-Hand-Off Dhblah (Omnia), Disembowel-Meself-Honorably Dibhala (Agatean Empire), etc.
Catch Phrase: "And that's cutting me own throat". Most of his counterparts have similar Catch Phrases.
Characterization Marches On: When we meet Mr. Dibbler in the earlier books he is a smarmy amoral vendor who will sell anything. As the series he becomes the happless "least successful businessman in Ankh Morporkh" whose ONLY skill is selling his inedible sausages.
Failure Is the Only Option: No matter what he tries, it never quite succeeds in the long term. Only the sausages last. Perhaps because flies won't go near them.
Lethal Chef: Or, as Nanny Ogg's Cookbook puts it: "No visit to Ankh-Morpork is complete without a taste of one of CMOT Dibbler's famous sausages-inna-bun. After that, it is often completed very, very quickly."
Loophole Abuse: Supplemental material for the series reveals that he's the founder and sole member of the Guild of C.M.O.T. Dibblers. Presumably there was some financial or political benefit in applying for this status, immediately before Vetinari closed the loophole. Or it's possible even the Merchants didn't want him.
Overly-Long Name: "C.M.O.T." doesn't just stand for his Catch Phrase; his full name is Claude Maximillian Overton Transpire Dibbler.
Stable Time Loop: In Night Watch a time-travelling Vimes gives the young Dibbler his own Catch Phrase from the future. It does take him a while to get the hang of it - "buy this sausage or I'll cut my own throat!"
Rhys Rhysson
The Low King of the Dwarves
Ambiguous Gender: Like with all Dwarfs naturally, but it's implied that Rhys may be a woman.
Igor
It'th a pleathure to be commanded in a clear, firm, authoritative voithe, mithtreth..Not so much one individual as an entire clan of individuals from Uberwald, who are a parody of the archetypal hunchbacked servants of monsters and mad scientists.
Creepy Good: They are (usually) good guys, but tend to creep out a lot of people, due to their Mix-and-Match Man prowess.
Door Judo: An Igor will always open the door right before a visitor knocks.
Hypercompetent Sidekick: In spite of their namesake archetype, Igors are actually extremely efficient at accomplishing whatever task they are assigned. If anything happens to Go Horribly Wrong, it's usually the fault of their less sensible masters.
If You Die I Call Your Stuff: The price for accepting an Igor's medical assistance is to serve as an organ donor after death so that the Igors can use any intact organs to help someone else down the line. You're free to refuse, and if you do the Igors will quietly and politely never serve you or your family again. Igors do this with their own organs as well, with young Igors implanting organs from their ancestors into their bodies.
If an Igor says he has his grandfather's eyes (or nose, or hands, or whatever), he means it literally.
Inexplicably Identical Individuals/Planet of Steves: It's hard to tell Igors apart if you haven't memorized the visible scar patterns. The fact that they're all named Igor (Igorina for the girls) doesn't help. Despite this, Igors instinctively know which Igor you're talking about when you mention an Igor to them.
The Medic: Igors are very good at organ transplants.
Opt Out: Igors serve their masters loyally... right up until the angry mob arrives. (Hey, nobody put being burned at the stake in the contract, all right?)
What's interesting about this is that Igors are capable of speaking without a lisp. They just do it because it's expected of them.
Stealth Hi/Bye: An Igor will always appear behind his master when called for, even if there's no possible way for them to do this without being noticed. Some masters have done extensive tests.
A Storm Is Coming: Igors can tell this. Since so many of them work for mad scientists, it's a useful skill.
Leonard of Quirm
A somewhat old but talented painter, as well as a brilliant inventor (the Discworld's version of Leonardo da Vinci). Leonard invented the Discworld's first firearm in Men At Arms, but had no idea how dangerous it would prove to be. Because good-hearted Leonard keeps coming up with dangerous ideas, the Patrician keeps him in a solitary apartment and makes sure he has enough pencils, paper, and toys to keep him quietly occupied.
Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: His ideas are brilliant, but he has a lot of them. So many they tend to crowd a bit. He could probably have escaped his "prison" a hundred times over if he ever set his mind to it, but he's never focused for very long (and he likes it in there, anyway).
He could definitely break out; he designed it himself - for the purpose of keeping everyone other than Vetinari out.
At one point Vetinari muses that he would despair over the fate of the world if Leonard ever focussed on something for more than half an hour.
Cloud Cuckoo Lander: He is one of those people who are impossible to imprison, since he "lives in his own head". And his head is an interesting place.
Leonard: Because it's submerged in a marine environment, I call it the Going-Under-The-Water-Safely Device.
Keeping The Enemy Close: He's not a villain as such, just unconsciously very dangerous: an amiable old man who is brilliant and naive enough to invent all sorts of misusable devices (implied at one point to include nuclear bombs, which he thinks could be useful in civil engineering "when the mountains get in the way.") Lord Vetinari has him locked in a cell in the palace with a supply of art materials to keep him occupied.
Omnidisciplinary Scientist: He's fascinated endlessly in the most impossible detail by everything in the world.
Reed Richards Is Useless: Invoked. His designs could revolutionize the entire disc, but because they're so dangerous, Vetinari keeps him under lock and key where they can't do any damage.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: He doesn't seem to notice the military applications of his inventions unless they are pointed out. And when he does notice them, he's usually of the belief that nobody would be crazy enough to actually use them that way.
Chrysophrase the troll
Ankh-Morpork's most famous "Legitimate Businessman". Is mentioned several times but doesn't make a real appearance until Soul Music, and later on, Thud!. Known to take an interest in horse racing and has recently gotten out of the drug trade business.
Early-Bird Cameo: In The Light Fantastic, Rincewind encounters a troll named Krysoprase. The Discworld Companion states that this is Chrysophrase before he came to Ankh-Morpork, the name difference attributed to a troll's bad spelling.
Loan Shark: Offers this service. In Wyrd Sisters, we learn that the penalty for late payments is having your limbs torn off, so owing 'An arm and a leg' isn't a metaphor. In Soul Music, when the Band With Rocks In flee the outdoor festival with money Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler's borrowed, Cliff fears that even throwing themselves off the Disc's Rim won't save them.
Neighbourhood Friendly Gangsters: Chrysophrase helps Vimes prevent riots on Koom Valley Day by revealing a drug lab, because the drug manufactured there would cause homicidal insanity, and later death. Chrysophrase wants stable business, which is rather hard with dead customers.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Most trolls are not known for their intelligence, but Chrysophrase, even without the benefit of cold-enhanced thought processes, is smarter than most human criminals in the city. He intentionally uses Hulk Speak to throw people off their game even though he's fully capable of speaking normally.
Shout Out: To Meyer Wolfscheim from The Great Gatsby, as both wear cufflinks made of teeth (respectively human and troll)- the joke being that troll teeth are made of diamond.
Mightily Oats
An Omnian reverend who oversaw the christening of Emerelda Margaret Note Spelling of Lancre in Carpe Jugulum. He gets name dropped in several other books.
Good Shepherd: In the very best traditions of Brutha before him, Reverend Oats takes up a personal crusade to help the helpless and give aid to those in need.
Overly-Long Name: Well he's an Omnian, it pretty much comes with the territory for The Quite Reverend Mightily-Praiseworthy-Are-Ye-Who-Exalteth-Om Oats.
Took a Level in Badass: Originally something of a milquetoast, when confronted with vampires and having to defend his faith against the challenges of Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax, he quickly grows into his position and takes several levels in badass, taking down a powerful master vampire by turning an ordinary wood cutting axe into a holy symbol.
