Discworld One-Book Wonders / Characters

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Eskarina Smith

Wizards on Discworld have always born the eighth son of an eighth son. Esk was born the eighth child of an eighth son, but inherited the magical staff and powers of Drum Billet, a wizard from Unseen University. This caused quite a bit of confusion as to whether she was a Witch or Wizard (both have very different rules and powers — or to be more accurate, very different ways of using power), and under the tutelage of Granny Weatherwax, she journeys to Unseen University to seek her destiny.

She is accepted into UU as the first (and so far only) woman wizard. After an incredibly long absence in the books (34 books and 23 real world years), she returns in I Shall Wear Midnight where it is revealed she has grown up, has a son, and has developed time-travelling powers.

Achievements in Ignorance: Before her formal training, she (mostly through her staff) performs some pretty impressive tricks, like turning ale into milk, and then milk into apple brandy, mainly because she didn't know she couldn't.
Action Mom: Briefly alludes to having a son, most probably by Simon.
Body Surf: She learns how to Borrow animals from Granny Weatherwax, but discovers the hard way that if she stays in one body too long, she can't return to her body, the animal's mind starts to reassert itself and she eventually forgets that she's a girl.
Breaking the Glass Ceiling: She tries, but judging by later books it didn't really take. The Unseen University remains staunchly male-dominated and chauvinistic.
Character Development: She goes from a child with a marked lack of empathy and too much intelligence for her own good to a cool middle aged woman who serves as something of a mentor to Tiffany Aching (who was, in some ways, very similar to Esk when she first appeared) when she turns up in I Shall Wear Midnight.
Children Are Cruel: One of Esk's main flaws in the earlier parts of Equal Rites is her marked lack or empathy for others — she isn't vicious or nasty, but for a longest time she simply does not think to consider the feelings or well-being of anyone who isn't Esk herself. Perhaps the most notable example of this is her attitude after she's accidentally turned her brother Gulta into a pig; despite having recent experiences herself on how awful it is to be stuck in a body/shape not your own, she never feels bad for him and initially refuses to change him back because she's annoyed with him. Likewise, she thinks nothing of abandoning Granny Weatherwax in "forn parts" and never bothers to go looking for her. Still, there's no actual malice in Esk, she's just thoughtless. When her magic finally actually hurts someone (and someone she likes at that) she is shocked and appalled, and feels so guilty that she throws her staff away.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: She personally punches out creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions. Granted, they aren't physically very strong, but she was a nine-year-old girl trapped in an Eldritch Location, and she had to overcame her initial fear of them.
Empathic Weapon: Her staff, which used to belong to her predecessor and has a mind of its own. It towers over Esk and will defend her if she's in danger. She disguises it as a broom to avoid attention.
Little Miss Badass: She was born in a town called Bad Ass (which was named after a legendary "Disobedient Donkey"), and eventually fights off Eldritch Abominations.
Long Bus Trip: She was the protagonist of the third book, Equal Rites, and seemed to have dropped out of sight after her happy ending. Twenty years later, she appeared in I Shall Wear Midnight, an adult and a mother now, and aided Tiffany Aching in her battle with the Cunning Man.
Time Master: She developed these powers on her Long Bus Trip before her appearance in I Shall Wear Midnight.

Simon

A brilliant young wizard Esk meets at UU, who becomes the unwitting pawn of Things from the Dungeon Dimension as a means to cross over to the Disc.

Cerebus Retcon: He's portrayed as a clumsy, Sickly Neurotic Geek in his initial appearance in Equal Rites. As it turns out he's actually suffering from neuropathy due to the early stages of ALS.
Demonic Possession: Only demons would be light and fluffy and cuddly to what nearly gets him... the Things try to use him as a doorway.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's described in I Shall Wear Midnight as being so infirm and sick that he can barely walk or feed himself, yet is so incredibly brilliant that other wizards flock to his lectures of space and time and magic, making him the Disc's analogue of Stephen Hawking.
Put on a Bus: Like Esk, he dropped out of sight for about thirty books, going off with Esk to engineer new forms of magic in Equal Rites. Unlike her, he doesn't actually appear in I Shall Wear Midnight, but he is mentioned.
Sickly Neurotic Geek: Described in Equal Rites as being apparently prematurely allergic to everything.
The Smart Guy: Long before Ponder Stibbons, there was this guy. He's so smart there aren't words for the things he describes, because they haven't been invented yet, or because they're things that can't be put in words. Even wizards, who look down on discovery as a gross discourtesy and something that Shouldn't Be Done, are amazed and impressed by him, even if they have no idea what the hell he's talking about.
Verbal Tic: He stutters, and especially bad on words with "s" or "w" in them. And the English language has a lot of those. People find themselves finishing the words he pauses on out of pained sympathy.

Conina the Hairdresser

Daughter of the legendary Cohen the Barbarian and one of the many temple dancers he wooed through the years. From her mother she inherited gold-tinged skin, white-blond hair, a voice that can make "Good morning" sound like an invitation to bed, and a very good figure. From her father, she inherited sinews you could moor a ship with, muscles as solid as a plank, and reflexes like a snake on a hot tin roof. She also acquired from Cohen suitable heroic instincts (that is, strong urges to fight, kill, and steal) and an ability to use anything as a deadly weapon. These traits rather get in the way of the profession she really wants to have: hairdressing. Seen in Sourcery.

Badass Normal: Few people imagine how deadly a comb can be before they have met Conina.
Barbarian Hero: A female version, and just as badass as her father, though she doesn't particularly want to be.
I Just Want to Be Normal: She'd rather work with hair.
In the Blood: Barbarian hero instincts, to her great displeasure.
No Guy Wants an Amazon: All the guys want her, until they find out that she will attack everything around her by genetic compulsion.
Ship Tease: With Rincewind and the implication that something might have happened if she hadn't run into Nijel.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Eventually evolves in to this with Rincewind along with Nigel, openly snarking about his lack of ability as a wizard but still being concerned enough for him that the first thing she does after the apocralypse is averted is try to find him. This forces Coin to erase her memories of their adventure once she asks too many questions about what happened to him.
World's Most Beautiful Woman: Much like Juliet, she's at least a serious contender for the title. Every male character who sees her at least comments on her beauty.

Coin the Sourcerer

The son of the renegade wizard Ipslore the Red, Coin is in fact Ipslore's eighth son — and since Ipslore was the eighth son of an eighth son, this made Coin a sourcerer. Unlike wizards, who draw on the magic around them, Coin generates his own power, making him an obscenely powerful magic-user. Raised by his father's spirit bound to his staff, Coin takes over Unseen University to elevate wizards to their rightful place in the world (as seen by Ipslore), setting up the plot of Sourcery

Abusive Parents: Isplore the Red. Despite being dead and existing only within Coin's inherited staff, he's still very capable of magically torturing Coin whenever he shows signs of reluctance. "You know what happens to boys who are bad..."
Apocalypse Maiden: As an all-powerful sourcerer with abilities that can potentially end the world, this is a given.
Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: In the end, Coin realizes that he's too powerful to live on the Disc, and instead creates his own world to live in.
Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Becomes Archchancellor by incinerating his rivals.
Children Are Innocent: On his own, Coin is just a confused, sheltered child. It's only from his evil father's influence that he does evil deeds.
Child Mage: A particularly extreme example.
Creepy Child: He doesn't mean to be, but a combination of unimaginable power and Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour (as demanded by Ipslore) does make him seem deeply unsettling to those around him. He becomes rather less creepy once free of his father's influence.
Does Not Know His Own Strength: Once he's free of his father's influence, when he laments to the Librarian that he still can't help warping reality for his own convenience. This leads the Librarian to advise him, "Ook"^note.
Evil Sorcerer: Subverted. Coin's not evil, just hopelessly dominated by his father.
Extreme Doormat: Has elements of this; having lived his life having decisions made for him, he doesn't know how to think for himself.
Goo-Goo-Godlike: Manifested his powers during infancy; by the time he's 10 years old, Coin is the most powerful force on the entire Disc.
Magical Eighth Son: The source of his power, as the eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In his bid to ensure that everyone on the Disc forget the events of Sourcery, he winds up reflexively erasing the memories of Conina and Nijel, the two people on the Disc who had the means and cared enough about Rincewind to try and find him. This winds up being the tipping point that convinces him to leave the Disc entirely, no longer believing he'd be able to stay without his sourcery inevitably destroying it.
Reality Warper: Unfortunately, this spells bad things for the Disc, especially since he can't actually stop. Luckily, it means that he's his own Reset Button.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: Tellingly, they fade to their normal colour as Ipslore starts losing control over Coin.
Tyke Bomb: Raised to be this by his father...
- Defusing The Tykebomb: ... but starts to change after encountering Rincewind, being intrigued by the way that Rincewind (who's no threat to him in any way, shape, or form) challenges him not with any great magical spells or artefacts, but with half a brick in a sock. His father Ipslore insisting that Coin kill Rincewind despite him representing no threat is the point Coin loses all respect and fear of Ipslore.
Wizard Duel: His way of introducing himself to the wizards of Unseen University. It doesn't end well for his opponent. Rincewind challenging him to one of these with half a brick in a sock actually contributes towards Defusing The Tykebomb, as Rincewind is no threat to him whatsoever.

Azrael

Azrael is one of the Old High Ones of the Universe, he's possibly the Universe itself. He is the Death of the Universe, Death of the Discworld is merely an aspect of himself as are all lesser deaths. He's only appeared in one book, Reaper Men.

Benevolent Boss: He eventually overrules the Auditors and reinstates Death.
Bold Inflation: Like Death, he talks in bold. However, his one word is much larger, often taking up either an entire page, or a good chunk of it.
Celestial Bureaucracy: He's the ultimate Death and he outranks the Auditors of Reality.
Pet the Dog: Agrees with Death that the Reaper should have compassion and mercy towards the living, and gives him his job back.
Powers That Be: Of a variant. He's not a god, but one of the Old High Ones, who the ones gods and anthropomorphic personifications answer to.
Secret Test of Character: It's implied that letting the Auditors fire Death was one of these.
Time Abyss: He's as old as the Universe himself, and he has a clock that tells Time what it is.

Brutha

Originally a simple novice (both 'a novice who is no more than a novice' and 'a novice who is not too quick'), Brutha was The (unwitting) Chosen One of Om by the sheer virtue of being the god's one and only true believer... that is, he really believes that Om exists, and doesn't just perform rituals and recite prayers to score points. After a series of misadventures with the god (who had been turned into a tortoise), he became the Eighth Prophet of Omnianism.

All-Loving Hero: With one exception of wishing his grandmother dead as a kid, Brutha loves and tolerates and forgives everyone. He even apologises to Vorbis when he realises he's about to die via god-to-the-head, and this is while Vorbis is torturing him.
Character Development: Starts off as innocent and unquestioning in the doctrines of his faith, but after talking to his god (he's the only one who can), studying other philosophies, and examining his religion's scriptures, he decides that his religion is not as accurate or as holy as he was once led to believe. This allows him to challenge Om and his commandments at the end of Small Gods.
The Chosen One: The Eighth Prophet of Omnianism, and the only one Om actually chose.
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The only reason why Om still has a physical form and is not just some forgotten wisp is because of Brutha's unquestioning belief in the existence of his god. When Om saves Brutha from being burned alive, the surge of belief from the audience returns Om to his full glory.
Dark and Troubled Past: He was raised by his grandmother, who is the reason for his unflinching faith... because she quite literally beat it into him, on the logic he'd almost certainly have done something during the day to "deserve" it. Vorbis, on hearing about her, figures if she hadn't been a woman would've made a terrific Exquisitor.
Dreadful Musician: Brutha's excused from singing because he can't sing, sounding more like a disappointed vulture turning up late to a meal.
Gentle Giant: He's a big lump.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: He's initially described as a 'big dumb ox', but then Took a Level in Badass and revolutionizes his religion into a more tolerant and less smite-happy one. He even attempts to redeem Vorbis' soul when he dies — and the tone of the scene, while ambiguous, suggests he'll probably eventually succeed.
Never Learned to Read: Though due to his photographic memory he can replicate a book from the memory of its' appearance without understanding the words on it.
No Historical Figures Were Harmed: His stout build, outward simplicity and Hidden Depths are similar to the Dumb Ox, Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Photographic Memory: Brutha's greatest ability. He can memorize entire libraries.
Punny Name: It sounds like "brother" with a non-rhotic accent. This is lampshaded by Vorbis when he uses it as a bit of an excuse to buy Brutha's silence by promoting him straight to Subdeacon, so there won't be an awkward period of calling him "Brother Brutha" after he's ordained.
Reasonable Authority Figure: After the climax of the book, it's up to him to decide how to reform Omnianism. Many members of the Church did terrible things out of a desire to conform: while punishment would be just, Brutha says he'll reform the Church "the hard way" — not just preaching mercy, but showing it. The subsequent century under a good man of simple faith changes the followers of Om entirely.

Teppic

Pteppicymon XXVIII, slightly squeamish newly graduated assassin and the unwilling Pharaoh of the ancient kingdom of Djelibeybi in Pyramids.

Abdicate the Throne: Immediately looks to do this at the end of the book, and is quite relieved to find out that Ptraci is his half-sister and thus a viable alternative.
Blade Enthusiast: As an assassin, he is naturally covered in them and very good with them. He mostly just uses them as climbing aids, however.
Cunning Linguist: He's casually multi-lingual, thanks to an Assassin's Guild education. However, the marks for at least some of those languages are safely buried in the guild's vaults, much to his relief.
Dark Is Not Evil: He wears black as an assassin and he's one of the nicer characters in the series.
Deadpan Snarker: Usually when he's feeling particularly put upon or around Ptraci. The two are not mutually exclusive, until they find out that she's his half-sister — she's still somewhat interested in pursuing it, and it's hinted that the feelings don't go away, but the thoroughly Morporkified Teppic firmly steps on it.
The Good King: He tries, somewhat ineffectually, to be a good reformist King. Unfortunately, the very nature of Djelibeybi resists change until the titular pyramids are destroyed, most of the common people aren't entirely comfortable with Teppic's attempts to Take An Interest and Set Them At Their Ease, and everyone's too scared of/too used to listening to Dios' "interpretations" of royal proclamations that nothing he says really sinks in. He is also utterly determined to get back into Djelibeybi after it vanishes to save it, even though he hates the place, out of a sense of duty.
I Need No Ladders: Thanks to being a highly skilled edificeer. Of his assassin skill-set, it's the talent he uses most.
Missing Mom: She went for a late night swim in "what turned out to be a crocodile".
Nice Guy: For a fully-trained assassin, he's very good-natured (and somewhat squeamish), and genuinely wants to be The Good King (though he's not particularly happy about being King in the first place).
Odd Friendship: With Chidder. Teppic is fundamentally a principled man who won't kill under any circumstances and has a sense of reluctant duty. Chidder is a smuggler/pirate with no principles whatsoever and an implied casual aversion to killing, who sees a vanishing kingdom as an opportunity to use it as a tax haven. However, they share an essential good nature and a tendency to look out for their friends.
Roofhopping: Assassins were doing parkour before it was cool, and Teppic is particularly good at it.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: He was sent to become an assassin in the first place precisely because the kingdom was so impoverished that they couldn't afford to have royals just lazing around. After, he tries to reform the kingdom, and eventually leaves the throne to someone who can, after saving it from destruction (and neatly preventing yet another war between Ephebe and Tsort in the process).
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: A dominant characteristic — he refuses to kill what he believes to be a helpless victim at the end of the Guild exam (it turns out to be a dummy, and his attempt to fail with flair ends up as a trick shot), he rescues Ptraci at risk to his own life (because Dios is mad enough in his own way to have him thrown to the crocodiles for rescuing someone the King had condemned), and he risks his own life to get back to Djelibeybi and save the kingdom.
Semi-Divine: As part of being one of the Kings of Djelibeybi. When he becomes King, he's briefly omniscient, grass grows where his feet touch the ground for a short while (and then again when Djelibeybi is trapped in a pocket dimension), though it seems to disappear entirely when he abdicates the throne.
Servile Snarker: Somewhat to Ptraci after he abdicates the throne. It doesn't really change much of their dynamic.
Stepping-Stone Sword: Mostly what he uses his extensive knife collection for.
Stranger in a Familiar Land: His now thoroughly Morporkian attitudes end up in a Culture Clash with those of the Old Kingdom. While some Djel traits linger, he finds them increasingly absurd, and as he points out on more than one occasion, while he started in Djelibeybi he now really comes from Ankh-Morpork. As a result, he's quite relieved to find a Spare to the Throne.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: He can't bring himself to kill the presumed victim in the final exam of the Assassin's Guild (but his attempt to fail with flair ends up as a trick shot which pierces what turns out to be a dummy), and while he's a capable fighter, he's rather opposed to killing. Ironically, he ends up with what is probably the highest kill count in the series, taking out approximately 1,300 undead ancestors (to their great relief) and an entire pantheon of gods.
Try to Fit That on a Business Card: As pharaoh, he has an incredibly long list of titles which Dios insists be read out in full every time his name is given.

71-Hour Ahmed

D'reg and police chief of Al-Khali. Something of a Foil to Vimes. Featured in Jingo.

Badass Normal: No powers, just a good shot, an intelligent mind, and Assassins' Guild training.
BFS: He carries a large curved sword on his back. It's big enough that Ahmed is practically its concealed owner.
Combat Pragmatist: Ahmed, as noted below, will do whatever he needs to do in order to dispense justice.
Covered with Scars: He has "the most crowded face Vimes had ever seen".
Cowboy Cop: Much like Vimes, he trusts nobody and doesn't follow all the rules and orders exactly. Unlike Vimes, he's not quite willing to arrest the Prince. He's willing to help, though...
Deadpan Snarker: Frequently, once he drops the act, to the point where every other word is a piece of sardonic commentary.
Face of a Thug: Something that aids his efforts to get people to underestimate him, with it being noted that he has a face covered in scars and a beard that looks like he was trying to eat a hedgehog. Needless to say, he's much, much less thuggish than than he pretends to be.
Funny Foreigner: As a form of Obfuscating Stupidity. While actually a very intelligent foreigner, he plays up Klatchian stereotypes (i.e. offering various people camels in exchange for their wives) when in Ankh-Morpork, and Morporkian mannerisms while in Klatch, because "everyone knows foreigners are a bit stupid."
The Gadfly: He enjoys winding up Vimes, and, indeed, most people around him with his Funny Foreigner act (but especially Vimes).
Good All Along: At first he seems to be a criminal who killed prince Khufurah and who proceeded to kidnap Angua through trickery. Then he's revealed to be a Klatchian head copper who actually saved the prince and whose actions were to lure Vimes into desert to stop prince Cadram, the true culprit.
Good Is Not Nice: He's a chief policeman of Al-Khali, but he's very manipulative and pragmatic — which, in the latter case, often means not bothering to follow the same Thou Shalt Not Kill rule as Vimes (though as he points out, Vimes' beat is a single city, where he has plenty of back-up and a more or less functioning justice system to work with, while Ahmed is all alone in the vast desert with only sword and camel for company).
Majored in Western Hypocrisy: He went to the Assassins' Guild school, basically a posh British-style boarding school "with all the knobs turned up to eleven, especially the one marked 'violence'", which takes a lot of international students. As he dryly observes, after seven years at a school for young gentlemen, life among the D'regs held no fears for him. Vimes is surprised despite himself when Ahmed mentions it. The thickly-accented Morporkian that Ahmed spoke when first introduced turns out to be just part of his act.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: If you know the story behind it, his name is. Klatchian tribes are supposed to give anyone three days (72 hours) of hospitality no matter what, so the question becomes (as Vimes asks): What happened in that last hour?
Obfuscating Stupidity: The reason for his Funny Foreigner act.
Pragmatic Hero: Like Vimes, he's zealously dedicated to the pursuit of justice. Unlike him, however, he doesn't follow Thou Shalt Not Kill rule and is willing to break Sacred Hospitality. See also Shadow Archetype below. While he broke his peoples' tradition of sacred hospitality by killing a man before the crucial three days were up, Ahmed observes that he waited until he was satisfied that the other man had committed the crime of poisoning a well and basically rendering the area around said well uninhabitable, and also observed that he was satisfied that the other man would have killed him if he didn't kill the other man first.
Sacred Hospitality: Averted. It's a very important clue to his odd nickname, and a very good reason why you should be extremely careful around this guy.
Shadow Archetype: Just like Vimes, he's struggling to bring justice to a lawless region. But since he has only a sword and a camel, and a couple of million square miles to cover, he can't afford Vimes' scruples, something that even Vimes grudgingly acknowledges.

Myria LeJean

An Auditor of Reality who incarnates in a human body to assist their plan to destroy Time, only to find certain complications in that plan.

A Good Way to Die: Eventually decides that she's unable to take humanity, and commits suicide by diving in a vat of chocolate. While Death and Kaos think it's a waste, they do concede it's an impressive way to go.
Humanity Ensues: A consequence of spending too much time as a human, humanity begins to follow, with all the benefits and drawbacks. She commits suicide, but finds she's become human enough to gain a soul.
Meaningful Rename: Susan renames her "Unity".
The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Initially she assumes she can just get the body she pilots to do what it's told. Turns out the body has slightly more veto power than she presumed. It eats, breaths and sleeps when it damn well wants to.
Rogue Drone: It doesn't take her very long to start developing as an individual, and turn on her fellow Auditors.
Sense Freak: Auditors have all manner of senses, but taste isn't one of them. Even the mildest substances, like toast, are enough to knock her for a loop.
Spanner in the Works: Coming to the conclusion that the glass clock is wrong, she begins covertly sabotaging it as best she can.
Uncanny Valley: A consequence of her body being made to order by the Auditors, who create her to be beautiful... then start removing imperfections, giving her an unsettling and clearly inhuman appearance which creeps the hell out of an Igor.

Ronnie Soak

A milkman in Ankh-Morpork who has the uncanny ability to always deliver his wares at the exact same time for everywhere.

In fact, Ronnie is actually Kaos, the Fifth Horseman, who quit before they were famous.

Black Eyes of Evil: When he gets serious, his eyes turn completely black.
Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Well, he didn't just get a horse. He got a chariot. And he quit the band long ago, before they hit the big time.
Immortal Immaturity: Just a bit human in his actions. Lu-Tze, long used to handling these sorts of personalities, gets him into a massive strunt when he figures out his identity.
Insistent Terminology: He's not an "anthropomorphic personification", thank you. He's an avatar.
Mundane Utility: He's been using his powers to make milk, and keep it cool.
The Older Immortal: He came first, before even Death himself, because death requires life, and Ronnie was there before all that started.
Sdrawkcab Name: Soak is just his actual name backwards. Lu-Tze thinks this is the sort of arrogant stupidity of a god (or vampire) who honestly, genuinely thinks this will fool people.
Unperson: Edited out of the holy books of Omniasm that actually mention him, helped by the fact the guy who wrote down his one appearance being a bit of a weirdie (and the paragraph immediately following Kaos's appearance has the Mushroom Samba really kick in), allowing the next edition to make some "creative translations" when it came time to revise.
We Used to Be Friends: Split up with the other Horsemen over "creative differences" (mention was made of fights over who was getting enough credit, damages to hotel rooms...) He's still hurt about it, but keeps up on what the old gang are doing.

Lobsang Ludd

A foundling raised in the Guild of Thieves until a chance meeting with a history monk resulted in him being wiped from the Guild's collective memory and taken to be trained in the mountains in abilities he was only barely aware he had. However, Lobsang is apparently "a smart boy" and there's no teaching a smart boy. Compared to other characters in Thief of Time (and Pratchett characters in general), Lobsang is rather a blank slate. Of course then you discover that he's actually half of a whole person who is also the son of the personification of time and ends up becoming Time itself in the end, and suddenly he doesn't seem quite so standardised any more.

Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: At the end of Thief of Time, he becomes Time's Anthropomorphic Personification.
Birds of a Feather: He and Susan are hinted to have a Relationship Upgrade at the end of the book, due to this trope.
Blank Slate: Suffers from "dull protagonist" syndrome until his upgrade. As the spoilered section in his summary explains, this is intentional.
Composite Character: Literally, In-Universe, after the Split at Birth matter is resolved (he remains mostly Lobsang, albeit with more depth, on the grounds that Lobsang had much happier memories than Jeremy did).
I Just Want to Be Normal: Technically he just wants to stay partly normal, he could "just know" absolutely anything he wanted to know at any given instant because he is Time itself personified and sees all potential possibilities, but he claims he has to do things "the right way round" to stay partly human.
Impossible Thief: Uses his time-splicing abilities to commit thefts without being seen.
"Not So Different" Remark: He is described In-Universe as, in a number of ways, being a lot like Susan Sto-Helit, what with their both being too clever by half, being prone to arrogance before growing out of it (both of which Susan had grown out of by this point), and being half-human, and trying to keep as much of their humanity as they can.
Split at Birth: Him and Jeremy Clockson, a socially inept and supersane (which is just as bad as being crazy) individual, are the same person, born twice because their/his/whatever mother freaked out a little bit during childbirth, and when Time herself freaks out strange things tend to happen. It comes out to the same thing in the end, and after they merge, the result is more Lobsang with more depth than a true composite — this being explained In-Universe as being because Jeremy had a pretty miserable life.
Thieves' Guild: Was in the Guild of Thieves before he got up and taken to the monastery.
Tomato in the Mirror: He's quite alarmed to discover he's not exactly human.

Polly/Oliver Perks

A young girl in the war-torn country of Borogravia, Polly Perks eventually goes against the religious abominations against women fighting and wearing men's clothing to try and find her brother, who had marched into battle a year before. Polly, as Oliver Perks, quickly grasps the basics of being a soldier, even in a motley squad consisting of two unusually close 'friends', an Igor, a troll, a vampire, a religious fanatic, a wet-behind-the-ears commander, and a legendary and mysteriously long-tenured sergeant. Oh, and Shufti too.

A Mother to Her Girls: The epilogue shows her as a sergeant in the Borogravian army, displaying much the same tough-but-fair demeanour to the new recruits as Jackrum before her.
Action Girl: She's a soldier.
Big Sister Instinct: Younger, technically, but not by much. She joins the army to try to find her mentally disabled brother Paul, who has been drafted.
Combat Pragmatist: She's fairly effective in close-quarters combat because she knows that manners are for suckers.
- Groin Attack: How she deals with Prince Heinrich's unwanted advances, an incident that acquires international fame.
Knight in Sour Armor: Not as clear an example as Vimes or Granny, but she's got the beginnings of this. Of course, war will make a cynic out of almost anyone — everybody in her regiment has means of coping, and this is hers.
Meaningful Name: Very, very heavily lampshaded. It gets to the point where just implying you're thinking about possibly mentioning it annoys her.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Aside from acting like a dim, wet-behind-the-ears lad, it's part of her approach to combat — and how she learned the basics in the first place. If people think you're stupid or clumsy, they think you're funny and harmless.
Only Sane Woman: Compared to her fellow soldiers, she's a shining beacon of sanity.
Overshadowed by Awesome: She's a competent enough soldier, but it's hard to stand out when you're next to a troll, a vampire, and Sergeant Jackrum. She even predicts that this will happen to her in the history books, given the fact that one of her squadmates basically gets made into a minor deity's avatar.
- Though the end of the book implies that she's becoming something of a sequel to Jackrum, who spends much of the book as her Stealth Mentor. She may not be quite as physically badass just yet, but on the other hand she's a quick-thinker, adept at picking up Jackrum's methods, and has picked up one or two tricks about fighting a modern war....
The Smart Guy: She's probably the most observant and socially intelligent of the recruits (bar possibly Maladict), and certainly the most introspective.
Sweet Polly Oliver: Lampshaded in that her real name is Polly and her male pseudonym is Oliver. She comes to regret choosing the name in the end.
The Watson: To various members of her regiment, but especially to Jackrum.

Sergeant Jackrum

Jackrum is a famous figure in the little nation of Borogravia, a career sergeant who has used every trick possible to stay in the army, serving its interests and doing what little can be done to keep the hapless recruits alive. Sergeant Jackrum is a Living Legend on both sides of the border (and in pretty much every other country nearby, come to that), but there's one little secret that Jackrum has managed to keep.

Ambiguous Gender: It's left unclear after The Reveal what Jackrum actually identifies as, even after confirmation that she gave birth to a son, William, and refers to herself as his mother. On the one hand, this could be simply revealing her gender, or it could just be a statement of fact, the female pronouns fitting a society that has a firm gender binary. The narration encourages the ambiguity, being very careful not to use any pronouns in Jackrum's dialogue or dialogue tags, and while Polly later refers to Jackrum as 'him', that could just be her keeping the secret.
Becoming the Mask: When she sadly points out that she couldn't go and live with her son, who she left with her grandmother to raise, as it would horrify her son to have some "fat ol' biddy banging on his back door and gobbing baccy juice all over the place and telling him she's his mum", Polly suggests that Jackrum just keep the lie she's lived going by instead claiming to be his father instead, as that kind of appearance and behavior is acceptable in a man.
"Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: One of the reasons High Command hasn't been able to make an honorable discharge stick: Jackrum's got dirt on most of them.
Brawn Hilda: Self-described as being "never an oil painting", and from the kind of place where men and women alike favoured partners with the ability to do things like lift a pig under each arm, and the day after her boyfriend William went off to war, she was doing just that before she decided to join him.
Combat Pragmatist: Jackrum lives by the principle that dying honorably is what the enemy wants you to do: why oblige them?
Dirty Business: The Sergeant shows no pleasure, but no hesitation, when it comes to doing terrible things to the enemy. The implication is that the 'little lads' are being shielded from the very worst of the war.
The Dreaded: Nobody in Borogravia or Zlobenia wants to go up against Jackrum.
Exact Words: "On my oath, I'm not a violent man!" is one of Jackrum's favourite sayings, despite deploying extreme violence against his enemies during the book. It comes off as Hypocritical Humour, but as Jackrum is actually a woman, this is technically a true statement. Polly lampshades it towards the end.
A Father to His Men: Or so Jackrum loudly and repeatedly asserts. Actually, she's more of a Mama Bear.
Honor Before Reason: Oddly enough, for someone who's otherwise completely without scruples, there are certain very specific lines he won't willingly cross. The main one is anything to do with spying, actual or perceived, right down to a severe reluctance to camouflage himself (concealing oneself as a sentry is a different matter) and even when he does join everyone else in being disguised as a tree, the narration notes that he even seems to have buffed up his buttons. This is also why he dislikes skirmishers — pre-modern snipers.
Lady Looks Like a Dude: Thanks to being a natural Brawn Hilda and so obese that no one would necessarily notice barring very close examination.
Manipulative Bastard: He may be relatively Book Dumb (though how far that is true is unclear, considering his Obfuscating Stupidity and extremely detailed blackmail records), but you can't deny that he knows how to play
My Country, Right or Wrong: Jackrum may be one of the saner people in the Borogravian army, but is still fiercely dedicated to his insane country and its stupid wars, even though it hasn't a snowball's chance in Hell of winning. At the end, he remarks on the trope, reckoning that it's come to its natural end.
No Indoor Voice: Comes in two flavors, Jolly Sergeant and Furious Sergeant. Neither of which is quiet.
Obfuscating Stupidity: He's very good at playing 'Sergeant Big Jolly Fat Man' when he wants to, which he does to steer officers and to manipulate William de Worde.
Old Soldier: Has grandchildren and a middle-aged son, has been in the army for anywhere between 50 and 60 years (even Jackrum isn't actually sure how old he is) and is still probably the most feared hand-to-hand combatant in the region. Unusually, the downsides of this, such as being set in his ways and disdaining modern innovations such as camouflage as spying are noted throughout the book and at the end, he recognises this and decides it's his time to bow out gracefully.
- However, it's also worth noting that he's not shy of exploiting said modern methods if necessary — when blackmailing the High Command, he references William de Worde (who the squad met) and the clacks in terms of how quickly that material can be sent far and wide, and on bequeathing Polly his little black book of blackmail, includes William's business card.
Reasonable Authority Figure: By Borogravian standards, which admittedly are not terribly high.
Sergeant Rock: To a great many officers who ended up as members of the Borogravian High Command, largely thanks to Jackrum's mentorship — which, in the process, means that Jackrum also has a lot of dirt on them.
Stealth Mentor: He mentors all of the recruits to one degree or another, and Polly notices that he modulates his approach based on who he's dealing with — the more fragile Wazzer and Igorina get a gentler, fatherly approach, while the tougher ones (Polly included) get pushed to see if they'll push back. In Polly's specific case, it becomes clear over the course of the book that Jackrum has correctly identified his natural successor.
Someone to Remember Him By: She gave birth to a son, William Junior, a few months after her boyfriend was killed at Sepple. She left him with her grandmother and he grew up to be a respected armorer.
Stout Strength: The Sergeant is obese but quite strong.
Sweet Polly Oliver: Surely you didn't think Polly was the first? Jackrum was so sick of the treatment she got on the family pig farm that, when her boyfriend William went off to join the army, she decided to run away and join it with him. When he got killed, she stayed on for not having anywhere else to go.

The Amazing Maurice

Maurice is a talking cat, with a cat's ego and self-interest, and something of a feline equivalent of Gaspode who has a softer heart than he's willing to admit even to himself. Title character of The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.

Accidental Murder: How he learned to speak — he ate one of the Clan, not that any of them knows it. It's haunted him ever since, even though there's no reasonable way he can be held responsible (he was, after all, just an ordinary cat), and he's always extremely particular about making sure what he's about to eat can't talk — and even more particular about reminding people that he does this, to the occasional annoyance of the Clan. When he finally makes an anguished confession, Peaches and Dangerous Beans are basically, "so what?"/"oh, that explains what happened", pointing out that he was nothing more than an ordinary cat and can't be held responsible.
Anti-Hero: He's a cat, after all.
Balancing Death's Books: When he and Dangerous Beans were killed by Spider, he gave up one of his nine lives so that Death would spare Dangerous Beans.
Cats Are Mean: He believes this, but tries to subvert it whenever possible.
Cats Are Snarkers: This one, however, he doesn't bother to subvert.
Cats Have Nine Lives: He's down to six.
Deadpan Snarker: One of the snarkiest in the series — Cats Are Snarkers, after all.
Expy: At first glance, and indeed at second glance, he can come across as one for Gaspode the Wonder Dog; Maurice's Origin Story is similar to Gaspode's second origin (normal stray animals made intelligent from exposure to magical garbage), they're both, on the whole, smarter than the humans they hang out with and use similar tactics in manipulating said humans, and they are both masters of snide and sarcastic comments. As the story goes on, however, it turns out that despite similar set-ups and many shared personality traits, the two animals are actually very different when it comes down to it — where Gaspode is ultimately a pessimist who loves to wallow in self-pity and set himself up as a tragic hero, Maurice has a more positive outlook on life and is a lot more unashamedly a self-centered Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
Fake American: In the audiobook version, Stephen Briggs reads Maurice's lines in a faux-American accent, giving him a casual "used car salesman" voice.
Hidden Heart of Gold: Demonstrated when saving Dangerous Beans by Balancing Death's Books with one of his nine lives. He doesn't like to let it show — after all, he does have a reputation to maintain.
Let's Get Dangerous!: Spider uses his Psychic Powers to try and tear Maurice's mind apart, in much the same way that the Queen of the Elves did to Magrat in Lords and Ladies. In much the same way, this was a very bad idea. For one thing, Spider is ultimately a collective of rats. For another, Maurice, is, ultimately, a cat. And cats are predators.
Talking Animal: Thanks to eating a talking rat.

Harry Dread

One of the last Dread Lords on the Disc, and an old adversary of sorts to Cohen the Barbarian.

Affably Evil: He has, at least, got the politeness and cultured part of being properly evil down, because that's part of the general description.
Apple of Discord: He tries doing this, as is obligatory, but it doesn't work. The Horde still congratulate him for giving it a go anyway.
Big Bad Wannabe: He's not the Big Bad of The Last Hero, he's not even a threat, and a description of his career provides illumination: He's crap at being a threat. He is to villainy as Dibbler is to free enterprise. When he was young, he started with Shed of Doom and just a badly tempered donkey as his Evil Steed. He grew to managing dungeons, cursed temples and Doom Pits (profiting until the third act, when the hero beats him while he escapes to try another day).
Card-Carrying Villain: It's part of the Code when you're a dread lord.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Also part of the Code. He's obliged, expected even, to betray people at a moment's notice. The Horde don't mind. They actually appreciate some proper old-school villainy.
Enemy Mine: Joins the Horde on their quest with the full expectation that he will attempt to betray them for no readily apparent gain anyhow. Which he does. Repeatedly.
Evil Counterpart: To the Silver Horde, just with villainy instead of barbarianing.
Evil Old Folks: Exact age unknown, but he's in the same ballpark as the Horde, and has been villaining all his life.
Friendly Enemy: With the Silver Horde, despite decades of mutual attempts at killing one another. They're just happy to have someone around who still follows the Code.
Genre Savvy: He knows what the role of a proper Dread Lord is, and follows it willingly, even when it bites him in the arse, such as hiring idiotic henchmen, having his minions wear outfits that easily disguise heroes, and getting jailers who make breaking out of cells a dawdle.
Last of His Kind: Harry is one of the last Dread Lords, because like the Horde his kind are rapidly phasing out in a modernising fantasy world. And also newer heroes keep killing all the others, rather than playing by the Code.
The Napoleon: As the art shows, old Harry is not a physically imposing dark lord.
Small Name, Big Ego: Harry likes to puff himself up, but even his own attempts at that reveal he's been an almost-ran his entire evil career.

Bashfull Bashfullson

A young and very liberal dwarven grag, Bashful was of some help to Sam Vimes during all that Koom Valley business.

Ambadassador: He's a close advisor to the Low King and Diamond King, and he has a strong reputation within dwarven communities. He's also proficient in a form of dwarven martial arts (as opposed to their usual technique a.k.a. drunken brawling).
Badass Bookworm: His primary vocation is as a loremaster, but he's also skilled in dwarven martial arts.
Barefisted Monk: Bashful's position as grag makes him the closest to a priest that Discworld dwarves have. He also doesn't carry an axe, which is incredibly odd for a dwarf, but it doesn't mean he can't defend himself with a martial art that he describes as 'like carrying an axe without an axe'.
Category Traitor: As a sort-of religious figure, he offends the more traditional grags because he exposes his face, carries no axe, and speaks multiple languages, including trollish. As he himself puts it, he doesn't need to "hate trolls to be a dwarf."
Minored in Ass-Kicking: As a loremaster, he is very knowledgeable in all dwarven lore, including the parts about ancient dwarven martial arts.

Glenda Sugarbean

The head of Unseen University's Night Kitchen, a practical and down-to-earth young woman who bakes the best pies in the world. Also has repressed anger issues and a habit of unleashing it on anyone who earns her wrath, up to and including Lord Vetinari.

Boring, but Practical: Her approach to life. At first.
Girls Love Stuffed Animals: A teddy bear with three eyes, due to a sewing mishap.
Improbable Age: Though numbers aren't given, she's the same age as Juliet, so probably in her earlier twenties, and she's running one of the largest and best kitchens in the world.
- The night kitchen, anyway, which is considered somewhat lower in rank, probably equivalent to what the Night Watch was to the Day Watch before the end of Men at Arms, and has far fewer staff, with its main function being to fulfill any wizardly desire for late night snacks. Plus, she is the latest in what's apparently a long line of master chefs. Vetinari considers a Sugarbean's baked goods to be worthy of note, so just being one is probably enough to scoot you to the head of the line in a kitchen.
Mama Bear: It runs in the family.
My Beloved Smother: She's not an actual mother, but she has a natural instinct to act like a loving, but controlling mother to just about everyone she meets. She's usually (but not always) smart enough to suppress this instinct when around people who are older, wiser or more powerful than she is — but she goes full-force mother hen towards Juliet, to the point where people mistake her for being Juliet's actual mother even though they're the same age.
- It's more than hinted that she got this character trait from her own mother (Vetinari notes it's a trait passed down through families, and usually in the female line), and part of her Character Development is to overcome this part of herself.
Plucky Girl: She marches into the Patrician's Palace and harangues Vetinari. And gets away with it! Twice! And the second time he's with Lady Margolotta.
Supreme Chef: Vetinari himself has referred to her cooking as art.
Tall Poppy Syndrome: Suffered from this early on, but ultimately subverts it once Pepe points it out (he refers to it as "the crab bucket") and she starts to recognize it all around her.
Thinks Like a Romance Novel: She is self consciously addicted to cheap romance novels.
The Unfettered: A major part of her Character Development is realizing that all the unwritten rules of social behavior... are more "suggestions", and if you ignore them with enough confidence, people have no idea how to respond. This leads to her multiple Crowners, including when she tells off Margolotta AND stares her down. Successfully! Cause she ignored the fact that she was "supposed" to be terrified. Even Vetinari finds this hilariously awesome.
Younger Than They Look: Is mistaken for Juliet's mother at one point, although her attitude probably had a lot to do with it.

Trevor "Trev" Likely

Technically employed downstairs at Unseen University, but prefers to spend his time at football or kicking his tin can around, which he has miraculous control over. Son of legendary footballer Dave Likely, and rather smarter than he looks.

Benevolent Boss: He's noted as being a decent boss — while he doesn't do much in the way of actual work, he's kind to his subordinates, who, truthfully, probably need kindness more than supervision, and he's a big brother figure to Nutt, who sorely needs one.
Big Brother Instinct: He's very protective of Nutt, even going out of his way to teach him elocution at the start of the book. Glenda is initially baffled by this, since Nutt is very well-spoken and Trev has the vocabulary and diction of a working class ex-street kid, then realises that Trev's actually doing it to protect Nutt from those who might react badly to a posh accent and long words — something shown to be a warranted fear.
Book Dumb: Not learned or intellectual, but he's fairly intelligent, has a good amount of street smarts, is a shrewd reader of people, and has picked up surprising random facts.
The Charmer: Describes himself as a "Face" of the street, and is a genuinely easy-going and charming guy who knows how to get along with people and has a way with the ladies... though not with Glenda, with whom he has a history. He wanted it to be more of a geography, but she refused.
I Gave My Word: To his old mum not to play football.
The Mentor: To Nutt, taking over from Lady Margalotta, of all people - she taught Nutt how to be more than he was, encouraging him to explore and learn academically and technically, while Trev teaches him how to navigate the real world.
Refused the Call: Repeatedly, as he promised his mum he wouldn't play after his father died playing football. Eventually, he gives into the inevitable, by becoming a player.
Roboteching: With a tin can. Ponder even pulls out a magic-meter to try to figure out how he's doing it.
"It's all about the spin."
Smarter Than You Look: As is established very early on when Glenda thinks through his elocution lessons for Nutt, Trev is a good deal more intelligent than he seems, especially in terms of street smarts and reading people (though considering that he's spent a fair amount of time around Andy, this is probably a matter of survival).
Turn Out Like His Father: Apparently, his mother was afraid he would, as she forbade him from playing football. "Turn out" in this case meaning "killed whilst playing football"

Juliet Stollop

The Disc's first supermodel, but for dwarf fashion (she's human). Plays Juliet to Trev's Romeo with rival football teams as the feuding families.

Brainless Beauty: Though she eventually learns to make a decent pie. Also played with—Glenda eventually realizes that she's spent their entire friendship swooping in and taking over whenever Juliet struggles with something even a little bit, and maybe Juliet wouldn't be quite so brainless if she got to handle things on her own more often. (Juliet's still definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer, though.)
Chainmail Bikini: What she's modelling is closer to chainmail lingerie.
The Ditz: Well, usually...
Dumb Is Good: Short on brains (most of the time), but very sweet-natured.
Hidden Depths: Though definitely a Brainless Beauty for the most part, she isn't quite as innocent and ignorant as she seems, and certainly not as innocent and ignorant as Glenda thinks.
Meaningful Name: She is the "Juliet" of a very Romeo and Juliet like romance with Trev.
Smarter Than You Look: Overlapping with Too Dumb to Fool — while she looks, and comes across as being, completely brainless, she's surprisingly perceptive and a reasonably capable cook.
Too Dumb to Fool: She may be kind of an idiot, but she often shows herself as being surprisingly perceptive despite this.
Verbal Tic: When on the defensive, she has a tendency to end her sentences with "Din't it?" or "Din't I?"
World's Most Beautiful Woman: Or at least a serious contender for the title.

Mr. Nutt

A "goblin" employed downstairs at Unseen University at the behest of Lord Vetinari, who is keeping him safe for Lady Margolotta. A fast learner and extremely skilled and diligent at everything he does and talks even more "nobby" than the wizards upstairs.

Almighty Janitor: His official job title is "Candle Dribbler."
Awesomeness by Analysis: Pretty much his trademark; he reads books, he learns, he thinks and then he does, and most often he succeeds brilliantly. A flabbergasted Ponder Stibbons refers to him as "a polymath."
Charles Atlas Superpower: Well, he spent his childhood chained to an anvil, although it seems he overestimates the extent to which his surprising strength is due to this trope.
Dark and Troubled Past: Perhaps best described by this exchange between him and Trev:
Nutt: When I lived in the dark of the forge, I used to lift weights. The tongs at first, and then the little hammer and then the biggest hammer, and then one day I could lift the anvil. That was a good day. It was a little freedom.
Trev: Why was it so important to lift the anvil?
Nutt: I was chained to the anvil.
Expospeak Gag: All the time. It helps that, as one person observes, he talks "like a retired theologian."
Fantastic Racism: Nobody, bar Trev, is initially really very well-disposed to the poor guy. It sucks to be an orc.
Hyperactive Metabolism: When he got "killed" and sent to the hospital, he promptly came back to life... then was so hungry he ate all the pies Glenda left out.
Orc Raised by Elves: Mr. Nutt actually is an orc and was raised by humans and Friendly Neighborhood Vampires. He's a stand-up guy, although in this case, it's questionable whether orcs actually were Always Chaotic Evil to begin with.
Our Orcs Are Different: They're magically modified human super soldiers.
Raised by Wolves: He spent the first seven years of his life chained to an anvil, and after that, he was pretty much raised by books. So you can't blame him for sometimes sharing Too Much Information and using language that flies over almost everyone's heads.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He speaks like a dictionary, to the point where most of his peers have no idea what he's talking about (and several of them think he's insulting them).
Sophisticated as Hell: On occasion, especially once he finally figures out Ankh Morpok's football hooligan culture.
Spock Speak: Since he was given a very extensive education in a lot of advanced literature, he tends to speak in this manner by default. It tends to alienate the much more straightforward and, well, lower class individuals he lives with, so he often has to repeat himself in a more "dumbed down" fashion. At the start of the book, the very working class Trev Likely is giving him elocution lessons, which seems to both reader and Glenda to be ridiculous... until both reader and Glenda realise that Trev's doing it to protect Nutt.
Super-Soldier: As an orc, he was created to be one. He pushes his talents in other directions, though.

Pepe

An incredibly campy dwarven fashion designer, and Madame Sharn's partner. Behind the camp, he's a self-described bastard and old bugger. As a result, while he's a bit of a romantic, he's also not above responding to evil with knives in dark alleys where better people would stop at just words.

Always Camp: Though it's really an act.
Ambiguously Gay: It's left up to individual readers to decide whether he is a straight man whose father bullied him for his natural effeminacy or if he truly is homosexual... and then there's the incredibly complicated dwarven gender-identity issues to confuse things even more...
Camp Gay: He's plays up the stereotype of the "mincing, feminine, flighty, homosexual fashion designer" because it's expected.
Camp Straight: If you figure he really is heterosexual and merely acts so camp for much the same reason that a human weapons maker in Ankh-Morpork legally changed his name to Stronginthearm and claims to be a dwarf. Namely, it's what everyone expects and so he's playing to the stereotypes to get more business.
Converting for Love: To being a dwarf, which is almost like a religion.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: When he finally gets upset enough to intervene... he deals with Andy. Permanently.
Good Is Not Soft: At the end of the book, when everything is said and done, except for Andy still being free and waiting to get his revenge on Nutt... Pepe jumps him in an alleyway, ambiguously blinds him (theories ranging from "cut over both eyelids to "cut out an eye"), and then tricks him into rubbing raw lemon into the wounds. Dear God.
Interspecies Romance: It's made quite blatant that he and Madame Sharn are sexually involved, so much so that Pepe "converted to being a Dwarf" to be with her.
Real Men Wear Pink: Yes, he's a mincing, campy, highly talented fashion designer and model-spotter. But he's also ruthless, viciously skilled with a knife, and wickedly cunning, as proven when he ambushes and mutilates Andy at the end of the book.

Madame Sharn

The owner of a dwarven fashion house and self-declared female dwarf. Whether or not she's actually female is anyone's guess, but then dwarfs have rather different gender roles anyway.

Ambiguous Gender: Calls herself Madam Sharn, wears comparatively feminine gear and uses female pronouns... but, like all female dwarves, she's got a huge bushy beard, and she acts in a lot of fairly masculine ways. It's simply impossible to tell for certain whether she's simply a female with a biologically masculine appearance trait and a personality somewhere between The Lad-ette and the Tomboy with a Girly Streak, or somewhat haphazardly transgender. The author leaves it to the readers' imagination; the closest the text comes to an actual explanation is a "queen" pun.
Big Beautiful Woman: By dwarf standards, assuming that she's actually female — though, dwarf gender identity being what it is, it's really impossible to know for sure.
Breast Plate: She wears one, of course, since it's expected of a female dwarf. In fact, her business is based on the idea of making these, since dwarf ladies want to be more feminine but still would never dream of simply not wearing armor.
Chainmail Bikini: Her business's new venture is creating these, although they're intended as underwear. The big selling point is that they've found a way to make one that doesn't chafe.
Depraved Homosexual: Subverted; she and Pepe come across this way (he scolds her for laying it on a bit thick), but they're actually fairly decent.
"'A whole box of chocolates is not depraved. Besides, you slid out the card between the layers, which confused me. I did not intend to eat the bottom layer. I did not want the bottom layer. It was practically assault."
Drag Queen: References the trope with her attitude and apparel, but may fail on the fundamental point, since she could actually be female. This is the Discworld, and it wouldn't be the first time we've seen a female drag queen there.
Lady Drunk: Conducts herself in that way, although as the above tropes indicate, nobody's really sure what she actually is.
Victoria's Secret Compartment: Which is why she, unlike many dwarfs, likes the new paper money better than the traditional gold — the paper money is much warmer and more comfortable against her skin.

Didactylos

An ill-tempered Ephebian philsopher that appeared in Small Gods and is referenced in several other books.

Mathematician's Answer: His theory on the origins on life is technically correct, but fails to actually address the point.
Didactylos: "Things just happened, what the hell?"
Meaningful Name: Didactylos is a multi-level pun. Literally it means two fingers, and is a reference to the British V sign that's used to indicate defiance to authority, contempt, or derision, and the word didactic, which means to teach in a condescending way, all of which well encapsulate Didactylos' personality.
Shout-Out: He's a blend on numerous famous philosophers, from Diogenes - living in a barrel and carrying around an unlit lantern in search of "an honest man" to Archimedes - persecuted for his cosmological theories.

Characters / Discworld One-Book Wonders

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