Discworld Villains / Characters

open/close all folders

Rincewind and the Wizards series

Ymper Trymon

Villain of The Light Fantastic and the first proper Discworld Big Bad. He is one of the wizards of Unseen University.

Alas, Poor Villain: Cries out "Help me!" to Rincewind as he transforms into a Thing.
Ambition Is Evil: Downplayed. His constant effort to kill Galder Weatherwax certainly doesn't help, but at the time of The Light Fantastic it was downright expected of the wizarding hierarchy for backstabbing and plotting.
Boring, but Practical: Unlike other wizards, rather than using magic to find Rincewind, he just hires a hero (wizards, as a rule, don't like heroes) and sends her to find him.
Cloudcuckoolander: Of the more sinister bent. He believes stars are untidy and inefficient.
Control Freak: He likes to make things orderly, efficient, and straightforward, and dislikes things that don't follow those ideas.
Demonic Possession: Is possessed by the Things during the course of the book he appears in.
Eye Scream: During his climactic slugfest with Rincewind, in which the latter pushes right through his eye on into what had once been his brain.
Humanoid Abomination: Being possessed by Things From The Dungeon Dimensions can do that to you. Trymon was no exception.
Mad Mathematician: Trymon believes language should be replaced with an easily understood numerical system.
One-Winged Angel: Subverted/deconstructed. Despite being possessed by the Things, he still has a frail wizard body.
Seeking Ultimate Strength: Ymper Trymon is a 7th-level wizard of Unseen University who eventually climbs up to the rank of Archchancellor through a series of literally filling his dead predecessor's pointy shoes (which was actually legal at the time). However, he got even more unfettered after learning about Tome of Eldritch Lore the Octavo, and tried to obtain the "greatest concentration of magic on the Disc" for himself. It's not clear what plans he had aside from learning spells nobody before him ever had.
Squishy Wizard: Why the possessed Trymon could still be defeated by Rincewind. Rincewind is more physically fit than the average wizard.
Straight Edge Evil: He doesn't smoke or drink like his fellow wizards.
Uncanny Valley: There's something unspeakably off about him that gives other wizards, who habitually study Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, a case of the Screaming Willies. And that's before the Things get their tentacles into him.
Younger Than They Look: He's about the same age as Rincewind (they were in the same classes), but he doesn't look it.

Ipslore the Red

Villain of Sourcery. A former wizard from Unseen University who decided to use his Sourceror son to destroy the University, but then went even further overboard.

Abusive Parents: He forces his son Coin to commit evil deeds and uses magical Electric Torture when Coin tries to disobey. It’s implied he treated his first seven sons no better.
Chess with Death: More of a wager, but Death lampshades this trope when Ipslore tries negotiating with him at the beginning of Sourcery; Death is at least pleased that it isn't actual chess.
Color-Coded Wizardry: Ipslore the Red is a straight example.
Control Freak: He doesn't take no for an answer, at all.
The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: He starts with the redeeming quality of loving his wife, who died shortly before him, and his initial motivation is revenge for her death, which he blames on the Unseen University. Unfortunately, in the ten years between the prologue and the main story, he seems to have forgotten that, and is basically terrorising everybody in range of his wrath out of spite.
Disproportionate Retribution: Guilty of this on more or less a regular basis. Any defiance from Coin? Electric Torture. Get thrown out by Unseen University for breaking the rule of "no fathering children"? Murder many of his former colleagues via Coin (even those who likely weren't senior faculty at the time and therefore likely had nothing to do with the case), take over, terrorise Ankh-Morpork and eventually destabilise the Disc when reality starts to wear thin.
Empathic Weapon: Becomes one when he dies and his soul ended up in his wizard staff.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Had. He did genuinely love his wife, but ultimately got so absorbed in revenge that he becomes obsessed with power and never brings her up after the prologue.
Evil Sorceror: Evil? Check. Magic user? Check.
Hypocrite: Despite swearing revenge against the Unseen University for throwing him out, he ultimately ends up using the place as a stronghold and as a means of terrorising the non-magical world.
Loophole Abuse: In his dying moments, made a pact with Death that he'd never die so long as he was in his staff, provided Coin never threw it away (Death insisted on the rules that there be a loophole). So naturally Ipslore spent the next several years physically and emotionally abusing Coin to the extent he wouldn't function without being told what to do.
- There's two more abuses here. Ipslore makes a prophecy that Coin shall take revenge on the Unseen University and the whole world; when Death points out that such prophecies need some way to be averted (because "the lawmakers of Fate demand it"), Ipslore declares that the prophecy will be voided if Coin ever throws away his staff. Then he gives his staff to Coin and immediately transfers his soul into the staff. Death could easily reap Ipslore's soul, but doing so will destroy the staff — which will have the effect of making the prophecy impossible to break, since Coin won't be able to throw the staff away. On top of that, since Coin accepted the staff, destroying the staff requires destroying him, which would mess reality even further.
The Lost Lenore: His wife, who he did apparently genuinely love, died at least a short time before him. Unfortunately, The Dark Side Will Make You Forget and he treats their surviving son with contempt.
Magical Seventh Son: Eighth, but otherwise fits the trope. His son Coin, on the other hand, is the eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son.
Motive Decay: Thanks to a bad case of The Dark Side Will Make You Forget. He starts wanting to get revenge on UU for chucking him out for marrying (which he blames for getting his wife killed), then forgets this in the ten year gap between prologue and main story. When he returns via his son, Coin (who he's abused despite Coin being the only reminder of his deceased wife), he turns it into his own dictatorship, takes over Ankh-Morpork and lets the wizards terrorise the now-helpless citizens.
Rhetorical Question Blunder:
Ipslore: And what would humans be without love?
Death: Rare.
Smug Super: Very conceited about the nature and power of magic, which wasn't much of a problem when he was just human. Once he gets access to a sourcerer, on the other hand... any time someone suggests, or absently mentions, that the wizards are not maybe the be-all and end-all of reality, Ipslore goes after them.
Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Despite Sourcery still having quite a fair bit of humour to it, Ipslore is almost singlehandedly responsible for most of the book being Darker and Edgier than either Colour of Magic or Light Fantastic. Even after Death harvests his soul for good, the damage caused to the Disc still almost ends the world in two different ways and Rincewind ends up trapped in the Dungeon Dimensions.

Lord Hong

The Big Bad of Interesting Times. He is the Grand Vizier of the Agatean Empire.

The Ace: Deconstructed. He's excellent at everything he attempts, but only because his civilization is so stagnant that the standards for almost every activity have declined hugely.
Assassin Outclassin':
"Fetch me another tea girl. One with a head."
- Given this, it's unsurprising that he's eventually killed by a means no-one could possibly have predicted or planned for—Rincewind being randomly teleported away and replaced with a Barking Dog about to fire.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Twoflower knows Lord Hong has no idea his soldiers killed his wife, and as far as he's concerned that makes it worse.
The Chessmaster: Unfortunately for him, he and his usual opponents are so locked into this way of thinking that the Horde (who we are told think "The king and pawns rush up the board and set fire to the opposing rooks" is a good opening gambit) completely blind-sides and dominates him. He almost wins anyway, but it's due to sheer numbers after all his plans and strategies have failed.
Dramatic Irony: After tantalising himself with visions of what would happen when he takes over Ankh-Morpork, the narration notes the more likely outcome would be that the typical Morporkian would take him for a nob, and mug him.
Evil Chancellor: Is this and Rincewind and Cohen lampshade this.
Rincewind: Grand Viziers are always —
Cohen: — complete and utter bastards. Give 'em a turban with a point in the middle and it just erodes their moral wossname. I cut their heads off soon as I meet 'em, saves trouble later.
Evil Counterpart: Lord Hong is this with respect to Lord Vetinari, having the latter's magnificent bastardy and talent for Awesomeness by Analysis, but lacking his redeeming qualities and his clear insight into human nature, at least so far as guessing how the common folk will react to him or his plans. Of course, Hong considers peasants' nature to be less than human, so never saw any need to understand them in the first place.
Exact Words: Lord Hong promises an mole that he will never write or speak an order for his execution. He then folds an origami figure of the man... but doesn't have quite enough paper for a head.
Foreign Culture Fetish: He's fascinated with Morporkian culture, seeing it as cruder but also more dynamic than Agatean, and has an authentic Ankh-Morpork nobleman's costume made for when he plans to conquer it. He likes to admire his suit in the mirror when no one's around.
Klingon Promotion: Plans to kill the emperor and, once the civil war is over and done with, be the new emperor. Making it worse, all the other nobles have tacitly agreed on this fact, but still want to have the war anyway, because that's just how things are done.
Laser-Guided Karma: After everything's said and done, Death informs Mr. Saveloy that Hong found himself being met by several ghosts, who wanted to do a little "catching up"...
Ludicrous Gibs: Thanks to a well-timed teleportation spell, a lit cannon, and probably the intervention of The Lady.
The Man Behind the Man: He's the one organizing the rebels, mainly because otherwise they'd be too incompetent and spineless to actually rebel, thanks to the empire's societal decay.
Outscare the Enemy: He has a certain reputation.
[The Lord Chamberlain] risked looking up and found the point of Cohen's sword just in front of his eyes.
"Yeah, but right now who're you more frightened of? Me or this Lord Hong?"
"Uh... Lord Hong!"
Cohen raised an eyebrow. "Really? I'm impressed."
Scary Shiny Glasses: Wears one.
Self-Made Orphan: He killed his father. In a bizarre twist, however, Hong Senior didn't mind. In fact, he was proud of his son for keeping up the family tradition.
Smoldering Shoes: His final fate.
Smug Snake: A Chess Master of great skill who has mastered his culture's social system and rules... But when he comes up against people who don't follow those rules he is undone rather quickly.
Tempting Fate: Near the end when Twoflower stands up to Lord Hong because someone has to, "Whatever happens to them", the villain sneers "Yes, let everyone see what happens." Hong is then blown up by the Barking Dog sent back to counterbalance Rincewind, who had been whisked away by a teleport spell.
Visionary Villain: Hong wants to lift the Agatean Empire out of the stagnation it's in. This just happens to involve him murdering an awful lot of people on the way.

Andy Shank and the Ankh-Morpork United football team

Ankh-Morpork United in general

The football team that forms to rival the Unseen Academicals in the "new football". Their members include Andy Shank. who is described in more detail down below.

Bullying a Dragon: Poisoning the Librarian was short-term gain and serious long-term loss, even without the unintended side-effect of pissing off Mustrum Ridcully.
Cheaters Never Prosper: They're not all guilty of cheating, but those of them that do (namely by taking out The Ace for the rival team, poisoning the Librarian and attempting to stampede opposition out of the way) ultimately end up screwing themselves over in spite of the short-term gain.
Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: The United team's cheating does nothing but turn the crowd against them and give Trev his chance to shine. The team captain, Hoggett (who wanted to win fairly to prove a point) is furious at his out-of-control players for this.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Someone throwing a banana to the Librarian while on the field is reminiscent of real-world racist insults to black football players by throwing bananas at them. In this case, the banana happens to be poisoned (the Librarian being an orangutan and eating it immediately because of his species habits).
Everyone Has Standards: The captain, Hoggett, wants to knock the wizards down a peg as much as anyone, but the mob of cheating bullies he's saddled with disgusts him. He plays along with Glenda's gambit at the end just to deny Andy the victory, then lays him out once it's over.
Evil Old Folks: Not the team themselves, but one of their mothers helps them cheat with the help of a poisoned banana.
Jerk Jock: About half of their team is a bunch of cheating, underhanded muscleheads who do nothing but make the Insufferable Genius wizards look entirely justified in their tendency to look down on everyone.
Token Good Teammate: Downplayed on "token". Trev estimates that about half of the squad is actually a decent bunch, they just happen to be lumped in with a bunch of utter arseholes that draw more attention to themselves. The most prominent member, Hoggett, actually does try to play by the rules, is nothing but polite and respectful towards opposition, congratulates them on a game well-played... and punches Andy Shank in the face for being such a tool.
Worthy Opponent: Mr. Hoggett, captain. Despite the fact that his team contains a number of jerks, cheats, and Andy Shank, he tries to play a fair game, apologises to the ref for his team's illegal moves, and punches out Andy Shank for mucking up what would otherwise have been a fair and square game.

Andy Shank

The closest thing to a main Big Bad for Unseen Academicals, Andy Shank is a thug and football hooligan who leads plays against the Unseen University team.

Bad Boss: For a given measure of "boss", but he'll slash any of his Shove goons for minor slights.
Big Bad Wannabe: A dangerous threat to Trev and co., but not a threat to Vetinari or anyone who isn't actually scared of him.
Break the Haughty: He suffers a series of humiliations towards the climax.
Bullying a Dragon: Antagonising Nutt when they first met was one thing, as neither he nor his gang knew Nutt was an Orc that could essentially come Back from the Dead. The second time he's still not entirely aware of this, just mindful Nutt had a "close call"; however, once Nutt proves himself capable of disarming someone with ease without hurting them, before his species is revealed, Andy seems to antagonise him more and almost paid for it directly.
Determinator: The closest he gets to a redeeming trait. Andy will persist in a task — typically the attacking of other people — even when suffering from debilitating pain or having been knocked down by a punch.
Disproportionate Retribution: Slashes one of his "chums" on the face for saying that cheating is a bad idea.
Fantastic Racism: Against Nutt for being an Orc. Note this is after the revelation that this makes him potentially highly dangerous.
Faux Affably Evil: He affects an oily charm, but it's transparently hollow and he alternates from faux-chummy to murderous rage at the drop of a hat.
Hair-Trigger Temper: He can go from charming to murderous in milliseconds, and what sets him off is never entirely obvious.
Hate Sink: A loathsome bully and thug who'll conspire to inflict grievous bodily harm, push around his "friends" and mutilate for no good reason.
Ironic Echo: Andy Shank threatens Trev that if he plays in the big game he'll be carried out of the stadium, meaning to suggest that Trev will be too injured to walk. When Trev, and the rest of the victorious team, are carried out in triumph on the shoulders of the crowd, the narrator notes that Andy's prediction was technically correct.
Karma Houdini Warranty: It looks like Andy Shank is going to get away virtually unscathed, but then the Camp Gay Pepe decides to make sure he gets what's coming to him.
Meaningful Name: "Shank" can mean a stabbing weapon. Fittingly, he always carries a couple of blades.
Small Name, Big Ego: While he is a genuinely good footballer, he relies far too much on cheating and people at a low level being afraid of him. As he discovers painfully, Pepe isn't afraid of him and is more than capable of kicking his arse handily.
Smug Snake: Struts around like he's Carcer Dun, while sabotaging his own team through cheating. He pays for his arrogance dearly.

Witches and Tiffany Aching

Leonal Felmet and Lady Felmet

Dual antagonists of Wyrd Sisters. They killed King Verence of Lancre and usurped the throne.

Alas, Poor Villain: Duke Felmet is a murderer and a nutter through-and-through, but he has enough sympathetic traits to make his death ultimately a little bit sad. At least until it becomes clear he's absolutely thrilled to have become a ghost. This is thoroughly averted with his wife; the best you can say about Lady Felmet is that she didn't die a coward.
- Verence says that most of the torture devices in Castle Lancre were installed by Lady Felmet.
- Lady Felmet herself considers him to be "worse" than the rest of the cast — not because he was evil, but because he was too cowardly to be as bad as he could have been.
- He is clearly struggling with a lot of subconscious guilt over killing Verence, going by his obsessive hand-scrubbing and his Villainous Breakdown during the climax.
- His insanity is clearly only exacerbated by his extremely-villainous wife, and going by the "truthful" version of the play during the climax, she was the one who pushed him into it. It seems very unlikely that Felmet actually wanted to become king; the ambition was entirely on Lady Felmet's part.
Aristocrats Are Evil: Lady Felmet might just be one of the most psychotically evil and unhinged of Prachett's villains, which is certainly saying something. Leonal is also evil, but he's hampered by insanity, and not nearly as vile as his wife.
Ax-Crazy: Leonal. "The duke's mind ticked like a clock, and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo." Lady Felmet makes him look positively tame by comparison.
Bad Boss: Lady Felmet proposes killing some well-meaning but stupid guards. Leonal, in a relatively rare moment of sanity, has this overruled because they only have so many staff to spare.
Card-Carrying Villain: Lady Felmet. Granny Weatherwax tries to Mind Rape her by "showing her her True Self" — and it doesn't work, because she's already well aware she's a villain, and she's proud of it.
Lady Felmet: Well, old woman, I've seen exactly what I am, do you understand, and I'm proud of it! I'd do it all again, only hotter and longer! I enjoyed it, and I did it because I wanted to!
Cloud Cuckoolander: Felmet, as a mad duke, counts as this, and this is before his killings start. His wife, not surprisingly does most of the manipulation and bloodwork.
The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: The Felmets claim that Verence died of natural causes. Absolutely everyone in the kingdom knows they're pulling this, but in Lancre they actually do consider assassination to count as natural causes for a king so they don't care. The ones that do protest find out that falling onto one's own dagger can be contagious.
Deadpan Snarker: Duke Felmet tries, occasionally, to be this, but finds it hard to do when his subjects are largely made up of people who Do Not Understand Sarcasm.
"I'm not sure I made your orders clear, sergeant," said the duke, in snake tones.
"Sir?"
"I mean, it is possible I may have confused you. I meant to say 'Bring me a witch, in chains if necessary,' but perhaps what I really said was 'Go and have a cup of tea.' Was this in fact the case?"
The sergeant wrinkled his forehead. Sarcasm had not hitherto entered his life. His experience of people being annoyed with him generally involved shouting and occasional bits of wood.
"No, sir," he said.
Died Happily Ever After: Duke Leonal is quite happy being a ghost.
Dies Differently In The Adaptation: In the animated version, Lady Felmet, rather than being attacked by the animals of the forest, is instead tangled up in roots and vines animated by the kingdom of Lancre itself. While a crowd of animals appear before her, they do nothing more than give her contemptuous and judgmental looks as she's dragged off to an unknown but certainly lethal fate.
Earn Your Happy Ending: Leonal is a particularly strange example of this. After spending the entire novel driven to mutilate himself out of guilt and tormented by his sinister wife, he finally stands up to her, stabbing her to death before committing suicide to escape his madness. It was a prop knife so none of it stuck, but when he happens to die moments later from a slip and fall he soon comes back as a ghost. He's overjoyed at the chance to spend his afterlife haunting the castle, free from both his bride and his guilty conscience.
Faux Affably Evil: Leonal occasionally goes into this — he can be quite polite on occasion, but he is transparently mad and prone to violence.
Heel Realization: Defied. Granny attempted to invoke this, but Lady Felmet is fully aware of how evil she is and is in fact proud of it.
Hidden Depths: Felmet seems to be weak and cracked in the head and entirely under his wife's thumb, but there is a core of frozen madness that approximates sanity, meaning that he has lucid moments, including one where he stands up to Granny Weatherwax and deconstructs the witches plan to pull the Rightful King Returns, pointing out that any King they installed in his place would live in fear of being deposed in turn. If the boy returns in what he presumes to be a decade and a half, so be it — he'll be well-ensconced by then.
Karmic Death: Lady Felmet wouldn't have been killed by the angry kingdom if she had not escaped her imprisonment.
Lady Macbeth: Lady Felmet, for obvious reasons.
Last Villain Stand: Lady Felmet charges at the animals of the kingdom straight on despite her low chances of survival.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: They could have ruled for a long while had they not made the Lancre witches their enemies.
No Name Given: Lady Felmet is only known by her title. Her first name is never stated.
No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Felmet finds himself in charge of a kingdom of Apathetic Citizens and loathes it. He takes to making the witches his rivals, to his eventual downfall.
Pragmatic Villainy: Lady Felmet proposes killing some of the guards for idiocy, but Leonal overrules this because it would mean killing a large number of their staff.
Sarcasm-Blind: When Felmet is given the Fool's handkerchief, he assumes it's a dagger, and when the Fool sarcastically points this out, he compliments him. This causes the Fool to realize Felmet really is on the verge of insanity.
These Hands Have Killed: Leonal starts mutilating himself because he can't get the imaginary blood off his hands.
Torture Technician: Lady Felmet had the castle's dungeons filled with all sorts of unpleasant torture devices, and is just about to use them on Nanny Ogg when Magrat and Granny Weatherwax show up.
Villainous Valor: See Last Villain Stand above.

Lilith Weatherwax

A fairy-godmother and villain of Witches Abroad. She's Esme's older sister.

Alas, Poor Villain: For a given measure of "dead". Despite everything she does and tries, Esme still tries to save her from being sucked into the mirrors and fails, badly injuring herself in the process.
All Crimes Are Equal: In Lilith's Genua, thieves are beheaded on the first offence under the logic that while cutting their hands off keeps them from stealing again, cutting their heads off keeps them from thinking of stealing again.
And I Must Scream: Trapped inside a mirror doesn't sound a pleasant fate.
Aristocrats Are Evil: Somewhere between leaving home and becoming a fairy godmother, she acquired a title. She muses that it only took travelling one hundred miles, in a world where people hardly leave their home towns, to become a Lady.
The Big Bad Wolf: She warps reality so it'd be like fairy tales. One tragic example involves making a wolf think more like a human so it will be a better villain (talking, opening doors, showing human-like cunning and so on). The wolf suffers horribly, stuck between species, and begs for a Mercy Kill.
Break Them by Talking: Combined with "No More Holding Back" Speech. Granny gives both to Lilith at the same time (pointing out why Lilith isn't suited to being evil and why Granny could do so much better, but doesn't).
Crapsaccharine World: What she turned Genua into; a shimmering and beautiful city-state with clean streets, clean walls, and clean smiles on all the people's faces. Because nobody would dare frown. Or not whistle while they work. Or not be cuddly and adorable...
Devour the Dragon: Lily eventually feels that she needs her magic for more important things than keeping the Duc human.
Enemies Equals Greatness: She actually loves that there's a Voodoo witch in the local swamp that's vowed to destroy her. When Nanny and Magrat claim they'll move there to bide their time for revenge she couldn't be happier; having people hate you is almost like a kind of worship.
Esoteric Happy Ending: In-Universe. Many of Lily's 'stories' end this way, at least the ones that have happy endings.invoked
Evil Counterpart/Evil Twin: Is this to Granny Weatherwax. It's outright stated that she and Esme have many of the same beliefs (a need for respect, a willful nature, the need to put themselves apart from the communities they serve, the obsessive need to win every conflict), but without Granny's inflexible moral compass. So she actually does the horrible, unspeakable evil things that Granny only thinks about doing... and what is worse, does not think such things are evil.
Evil Is Hammy: Subverted, to Granny's immense rage. Lily spent her whole life convinced that she was the good sister who was putting the needs of others over her own, and, so convinced of her own martyrdom, thus made herself a very understated and sinister foe. To Granny, who knew for a fact who was the good sister and who was the bad, this is almost a greater sin than any of Lily's actual wrongdoing, because Granny would have at least enjoyed it, making whole banquets of her surroundings and being bad enough to even top the legendary Black Aliss, who (when in Lily's role) could keep multiple stories going at once in the same place.
Fairy Devilmother: Despite being technically a godmother, this is what she truly is: who cares less for the well-being of others and more for making things like stories. (Or possibly a godmother like a godfather — do as she says and you won't get hurt.)
Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The Discworld itself is already one, but under Lilith, Genua became a Fairytale Kitchen Sink.
Fatal Fireworks: When transforming one creature into a different creature isn't direct enough, it seems her preferred way of attacking someone is to throw magical fireworks at them. Appropriate for someone who rules over her universe's equivalent of Disneyworld.
Felony Misdemeanor: She regards things like theft as a minor nuisance, nothing compared to the true evil of people not following the stories.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Granny Weatherwax wanted to be the irresponsible evil one, but because her elder sister, Lily, beat her to the punch on that she felt forced to be the responsible good one. When both sisters are witches, you can see how this complicates family relationships.
Forced Transformation: Lily turning the footmen, who we spent a while getting to know and sympathize with, into beetles. And stepping on them.
Former Teen Rebel: She used to be one, when she was younger.
Genre Savvy: Lily is very familiar with the way stories work, and she's not afraid to abuse that knowledge.
The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Taken to its most extreme between Lilith and Esmerelda.
The Good Guys Always Win: Invoked. Lily is confident of her victory because she knows good always triumphs over wickedness; unfortunately for her, she's wrong about which part she plays.
Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: Granny vs. Lilith. The personalities are a bit unusual for the roles they take in this battle (and it's revealed that Granny was meant to be the evil one), and Lily thinks she is the good one.
Happiness Is Mandatory: Lilith turns Genua into a sparkling clean city full of blankly smiling citizens by dint of torture and execution. This could be read as a Take That! to Disney World.
Happy Ending: Subverted, with Lily murdering and ruining people's lives to get to what the stories demand. Then played straight, releasing the city from her grip lets everyone relax and party.
Humanity Ensues: Turns some animals human, though the only one who really benefits is The Duc. Most remain unable to talk and firmly stuck in the animal mindset.
Light Is Not Good: Lily dresses all in white and thinks of herself as a creator of happy endings. She's still a wicked tyrant.
Long-Lost Relative: Was kicked out of her home when she was young due to her using magic to cause trouble. It was so far back that Nanny Ogg, Granny's childhood friend, has no memory of her.
Magic Mirror: It's specified that using one mirror for magic is fine, but Lily stands between two of them...
The Man Behind the Man: Doesn't actually rule Genua or make herself the center of all the stories that she manipulates, which she thinks makes her humble even though she still clearly makes all decisions of any consequence in the kingdom. Her sister directly compares it to being a circus ring-master; all the important acts happen around her, but she's the one in center stage.
Obliviously Evil: Lilith genuinely doesn't seem to realise she's become a tyrannical ruler and thinks that she's a benevolent witch, using stories to help ensure happy endings.
Palantir Ploy: Lilith can use her magic mirrors to scry through any reflective surface in the world. Subverted, as her inability to find what she wants to look at through any method other than manually scrolling through all available reflective surfaces makes it a bit Awesome, but Impractical.
Sore Loser: Must be a family trait.
Strong Family Resemblance: Looks frighteningly like her sister, just maybe a little less harsh and better taken care of. The final confrontation with her sister happens in a room full of mirrors and the narration has trouble keeping straight which reflections of the sisters are just reflections and which are one another.
Tautological Templar: Due to her mistaken belief that she's the good one, she thinks everything she does is good for everyone.
Theory of Narrative Causality: Lilith tries to order people's lives according to fairy-tale logic, twisting events so that they unfold according to the time-honoured patterns of stories. She thinks she's making the world a better place and giving people their happy ending, but really everyone would have been happier if she'd left them alone.
This Is My Name on Foreign: "Tempscire," Lilith's new last name, is "Weatherwax" in French.
Trampled Underfoot: Deliberately invoked on some coachmen by Lily, who turns them into beetles and stomps on them for failing her. Also the fate of the Duc, when he reverts to frog form and fatally encounters Baron Saturday's descending foot.
Utopia Justifies the Means: Lilith feels fully justified in using totalitarian methods to create a fairy tale kingdom.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Lilith thinks she's the kind fairy godmother who's giving everyone a happy ending, to the point where she invokes happy fairytale endings at sword-point. You'll live happily ever after or else.

The Elf Queen

Big Bad of Lords and Ladies, The Wee Free Men and the second The Science of Discworld book, and also an important player in The Shepherd's Crown. She invaded Lancre when the walls between the universes weakened, and Roundworld when the wizards weren't paying attention. In her spare time she kidnaps human children.

Achilles' Heel: Like the other elves, she's highly vulnerable to iron due to it interfering with her ability to see magnetic force lines.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A curious mix of this and Obliviously Evil. Thanks to her glamour powers she excels in making others believe she is a kind, just, fair and loving person — and, as is particularly noticeable in The Wee Free Men, this is also what she believes herself to be, even while repeatedly demonstrating that she is none of these things.
Can't Argue with Elves: She and other elves invoke this by placing a glamour to make humans feel inferior to them.
Creative Sterility: Elves don't learn. What don't learn can't live, what don't live can't grow.
Dramatically Missing the Point: When the wizards try creating Shakespeare, she assumes they're trying to get rid of human imagination. It's more the opposite — they want to encourage it.
Eldritch Abomination: The Elf Queen comes pretty close. From what Nanny Ogg says, the King is far closer. He even looks the part.
Evil Is Petty: Part of being an elf. Just before going to fight Magrat, she alters her appearance to look like the "ideal" Magrat, the one she wishes she looked like (and, apparently, how Verence has always seen her) just to further twist the knife in. Granny takes note and nods in acknowledgement as one expert in "professional nastiness" to another.
The Fair Folk: One of them. "No-one ever said elves are nice..."
The Final Temptation: She tries bribing Rincewind into giving up on helping Roundworld humans develop imagination, but it fails because Rincewind's one and only desire (aside from some nice boredom) is potatoes. She's utterly baffled and irritated by this, and storms off without giving him so much as a packet of crisps.
Given Name Reveal: In the very last book, her name is revealed to be Nightshade.
Glamour Failure: Literal, when Magrat defeats the Queen and sees her real self, not the image she projects — a rather small and pathetic figure of alien proportions.
Heel–Face Turn: Gradually, over the course of The Shepherd's Crown.
Lady in Red: This is the image she projects through glamour. In The Science of Discworld, she changes to Evil Wears Black.
Meaningful Name: Nightshade's common name, belladonna, translates to beautiful lady.
Never Learned to Read: Elves don't read. They get other people to do the reading for them.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- She hits Magrat with the full force of her glamour, stripping away the witch's ego... and revealing the iron-hard core beneath.
- She and her elves invaded Roundworld, inadvertently leading to mankind having imagination, and Shakespeare. In fact, in trying to stop the wizards, she only helps them.
No Name Given: Until the very final book, The Shepherd's Crown.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Granny Weatherwax verbally eviscerates the Elf Queen. The Queen tries to fire back... and Granny just laughs in her face.
Granny: I'm better than you. And madam, that ain't hard.
Redemption Equals Death: In The Shepherd's Crown, a Humiliation Conga courtesy of the usurper Peaseblossom, being kicked out of Fairyland nearly breaks her, and Tiffany's refusal to kill a helpless enemy and careful demonstration of how Good Feels Good slowly makes her undergo a Heel–Face Turn... and then in the final battle she gets herself killed trying to protect Tiffany.

Salzella

The Big Bad of Maskerade. He works at the Opera House.

Deadpan Snarker: He takes it so far he almost becomes the Meta Guy who subsists on Black Comedy.
Doing It for the Art: In-Universe example: Salzella tells Mr. Bucket this is the reason why anyone produces opera, as it makes no money. It turns out he's lying through his teeth, as he's stealing all the profits and actually hates opera with a passion.
Dude, Not Funny!: In-universe example. Salzella makes several jokes about people who have just been murdered; Mr. Bucket finds them distasteful. Once it was revealed that Salzella was the one committing the murders, it becomes a bit Harsher in Hindsight.
Falling Chandelier of Doom: Tries to invoke this but was thankfully thwarted in the attempt.
Frame-Up: Part of his plan involved framing Walter for all the crimes he did by impersonating as Walter's alter ego The Ghost.
Hypocritical Humor: Gives a long Final Speech about how ridiculous opera conventions like the long Final Speech are. This comes not long after he claims to be the Only Sane Man, using multiple exclamation marks (a sure sign of madness).
Kick the Dog: When we first meet him, Salzella appears to be a fairly normal guy, if with a very cynical sense of humour. However, his true colours shine through a bit when he mocks Agnes for her weight behind her back.
Lampshade Hanging: Just listen to his death rant:
"... and the worst thing about opera is the way everyone takes... such!!! ... a!!!! long!!!!! time!!!!! ... to!!!!! ...argh...argh...argh...." (dies).
Only Sane Man: Salzella believed himself to be this but it becomes clear that he is very wrong: "You don't know what it has been like, I assure you, being the only sane man in this madhouse!!"
You Are Fat: Makes a number of fat jokes behind Agnes' back, and about former famous opera singers who were enormously proportioned. When Doctor Undershaft rhetorically asks what happened to all those great, and very large opera singers, Salzella says nastily, "Didn't the climate change?"

The Magpyrs

A family of vampires who are the villains of Carpe Jugulum. They consist of the Count de Magpyr, the Countess, and their adult children, Vlad and Lacrimosa, as well as the (currently deceased) Old Count.

Above Good and Evil: They claim to be Above Good and Evil.
Acquired Poison Immunity: The de Magpyrs have built up a tolerance to, among other things, garlic, holy water, sunlight, and OCD. This actually ends up backfiring on them, when they realise that their weakness to holy symbols is dependent on them recognising the symbols, and their training has given them a very broad knowledge of holy symbols, many of which are common geometric figures.
Affably Evil: Count de Magpyr insists that he is Affably Evil and talks like a self help guru. His attempts at being friendly and affable lead to him being a far greater horror than his genuinely Affably Evil uncle.
Assimilation Backfire: The Magpyrs suck Granny Weatherwax's blood and attempt to turn her. She survives the experience without becoming a vampire; the Magpyrs aren't so lucky, however, as feeding on Granny Weatherwax has allowed her to turn them. By the end, they're craving tea instead of blood and even talking like her.
Classical Movie Vampire: Count von Magpyr pointedly doesn't look like this. The Old Count pointedly does.
Contractual Genre Blindness: They consciously avoided this and took care to eliminate their weaknesses, but their attempts backfired, see above. The Old Count, on the other hand, took care to abide by it (and Nanny quickly picked up on the fact that he was much smarter than the new Count).
Daywalking Vampire: They have gotten rid of their sunlight problems with the power of positive thinking.
Dehumanization: They don't think much of humans in general. Vlad seems to make an exception for Agnes, at least to the degree that he finds her interesting, but the way 'the arrangement' works shows they don't have much stock in other people's personhood. This sets them up as a foil to the Old Count, who killed people but still considered them people and holds no ill will against Worthy Opponents who got the better of him.
Even Evil Has Standards: The Count, to a little extent. When Lacrimosa mentions they should put Granny out of her misery, she likens it to when the Count said the same thing about her cat. The Count clarifies that what he really meant was for her to stop what she was doing to it.
Fully-Embraced Fiend: The Old Count, of the Noble Demon variety. When the Count tells the town of Escrow that the Old Count's bodycount was way worse than his, the villagers point out that the Old Count, while a monster, was unapologetic about it and treated them with respect. He certainly never expected them to be grateful for 'only' going so far like the Count does.
Genre Savvy: They train themselves to overcome vampire weaknesses, and mock the old count for his Hammer Horror style Genre Blindness — easily-opened curtains, objects easily broken into holy symbols and stakes, copious holy water, etc. Subverted however, when it turns out the Old Count is far more Genre Savvy than his offspring. He deliberately allows humans to exploit his weaknesses so that, being an easily dispatched villain and giving the village boys something to feel good about, he is never Killed Off for Real.
Heel Realization: The Count outright asks the villagers of Escrow to look at him, and then at the newly-resurrected previous Count, believing that the comparison will convince them that he's the better of the two. But Villainous Breakdown ensues when he realizes that being Genre Savvy is considered far, far worse than the old Count's intentional use of the Villain Ball. Vlad gets this too, presumably, since he genuinely believes that the alternative for Escrow that his father offers is better than what it used to be.
I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Vampire mind control and mind reading doesn't work well on Agnes (because Perdita interferes). Vlad finds that fascinating.
Industrialized Evil: The orderly and systematic blood-draining that takes place in the villages surrounding the Magpyr estate horrifies Agnes more than anything else the vampires do.
Noble Demon: The Count views himself as this, but he's horribly wrong. The Old Count, on the other hand, is a textbook example.
Our Vampires Are Different:
- Thanks to the Count training them with a little exposure at a time, the Magpyrs are not affected by traditional vampire weaknesses such as garlic, holy symbols, holy water, and sunlight.
- Also, the vampires of the Magpyr family turn into flocks of magpies instead of bats.
- They're also capable of conventional reproduction, as Vlad and Lacci were both born as vampires.
- Separately, their ancestors include a Looks Like Orlok vampire, and a Humanoid Abomination of hunched shadows suggesting almost a beak.
Pragmatic Villainy: The Count occasionally objects to his daughter's sadistic habits, but not for altruistic reasons. They discuss the phoenix, concluding that it's absurd for a bird to burn. After all, Lacrimosa tried with a chicken — the count says that she really should have killed it first because at least then it would've been quieter.
Reminiscing About Your Victims: The Count and Countess have a textbook example when they recall their honeymoon.
Countess: And we met such lovely people. Do you remember Mr and Mrs Harker?
Count: Very fondly. I recall they lasted nearly all week.
- The Old Count inverts this and reminisces about some of the people who have killed him in front of their descendants — demonstrating that unlike the Count and Countess, he genuinely respects humans.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The Count uses his wealth to establish his own idea of order in his hometown.
Villainous Breakdown: The Magpyrs go through this, as their idea of what "modern vampirism" is about gets stripped away, leaving the bloodthirsty, power-hungry monsters at their core.
Your Vampires Suck: The Magpyrs practice this In-Universe toward their fellow vampires.

The Wintersmith

The antagonist of Wintersmith, a god who falls in love with Tiffany Aching when she accidentally interrupts the dance symbolising the seasons.

Alas, Poor Villain: Even though he doesn't truly die, Tiffany feels genuinely awful having to put him down...
Almighty Idiot: It turns out that for all his power, he's sorely lacking in knowledge about what being human means. He tries to learn, but even that comes across as rather literal, assuming that a human being is such because of how their mind develops.
An Ice Person: Fitting the name, his body is made of ice.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: As the personification of winter, his POV is a little skewed and definitely nonhuman, though unlike the Elves and Auditors of Reality he is portrayed somewhat sympathetically throughout.
Elemental Powers: As befits an ice god, he controls snow and ice. The Summer Lady, fittingly, serves as his opposite.
Endless Winter: Creates one of these.
Humanoid Abomination: The Wintersmith becomes more human over time, but it's not really supposed to. Note the 'it.' Thus, it never quite makes it.
Mayfly–December Romance: The centuries old godlike being falls in love with Tiffany, a mortal teenager who accidentally took the place of the Summer Lady in the Dark Morris.
Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: He's genuinely unaware of the destruction he inflicts for most of the book.
Monster-Shaped Mountain: Girl-shaped icebergs, rather; he creates multiple icebergs in the shape of Tiffany as a grand gesture to try and impress her.
Obliviously Evil: He genuinely doesn't realise he's killing people with his actions, and when he does realise his Blue-and-Orange Morality kicks in, thinking that an end to human suffering would be a mercy.
Snowlem: The Wintersmith's attempts to create a man ends up with this. He has the various elements (Iron enough to make a nail, etc.), but they are stuck together haphazardly into a mostly-snow body.
Stalker with a Crush: Tragic example; thanks to his Blue-and-Orange Morality and Tiffany accidentally interfering with the Dark Morris, he believes she is the Summer Lady and tries to impress her, in the process causing chaos.
Villainous Legacy: I Shall Wear Midnight reveals that the chaos he caused, and Tiffany's trying to rectify it all, woke the Cunning Man up and painted a target on Tiffany's back.

The Cunning Man

The antagonist of I Shall Wear Midnight, the Cunning Man is a witchfinder who becomes a spirit of pure hatred and continues his work around the Disc, targeting witches every few decades and seeking to wipe witchcraft out.

As Long as There Is Evil: Being an evil spirit that feeds on hatred, it’s impossible to get rid of him permanently, and while he can be banished, he will be back again eventually.
Burn the Witch!: Did this in life, until it karmically backfired when a witch pulled him onto a pyre she'd been tied to and severely injured him.
Evil Is Not a Toy: Much to the surprise of anyone who deliberately seeks to be possessed, he doesn't grant them power and has them wishing for their death.
Evil Smells Bad: The aura of corruption which surrounds him, which makes everyone in the vicinity hate witches, can be detected directly by the magically-inclined, and is interpreted by their brains as a foul stench.
Freudian Excuse: A small one, in that the witch he tried to rescue attempted to burn him along with her. This didn't kill him, but did leave him severely injured. With that said...
Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Eskarina Smith acknowledges his past, but still views him as irredeemably evil and a monster.
Hate Plague: He serves as this wherever he goes.
Hate Sink: A former witch hunter who goes around persecuting them and turning communities against them, while also engineering deaths and snapping the necks of innocent creatures for no reason but his amusement.
Heel–Face Door-Slam: He was seriously considering freeing a beautiful witch he was about to burn and fleeing with her. The witch, however, knew who he was and what he'd done, so she pulled him onto the pyre with her. It didn't kill him, but it was a good try.
Humanoid Abomination: Although once a particularly fanatical witchfinder, after his death he’s become an incredibly powerful evil spirit that spreads his own maddening hatred (which in itself is so strong that it manifests as a horrific stench of decay) to anyone he comes into contact with, can possess others to further affect the physical world and has holes in place of his eyes, which considering the significance of eyes being the Windows of the Soul in the Discworld universe only reveals how his hatred has extinguished what little humanity he had.
Kill the Host Body: If he manages to possess someone, then killing the host will be the only way to stop him.
Kill It with Fire: Tiffany manages to defeat him by luring him into a field and tiring them out through a prolonged chase, before having Preston set the field on fire and leaving the Cunning Man, now too winded to save himself, to be immolated in the resulting blaze.
Kick the Dog: When possessing a criminal, who had a canary as his Morality Pet from the Tanty, the Cunning Man snaps its neck for no practical reason beyond his own amusement.
Knight Templar: Hates witchcraft and will wipe it out, regardless of who he hurts.
The Power of Hate: What kept him going after his body gave out.
Resurrected Murderer: In life, The Cunning Man was a sadistic witch-finder who would hunt and have witches burnt alive. He met his end when he ended up burned alive with one of his victims. The Cunning Man is now a malevolent spirit who continues to kill witches.
Undead Abomination: The evil spirit of a long dead witchfinder that can corrupt others with his sheer unrelenting hatred of witches, manifests as a man with holes in his head in place of eyes, is accompanied with an ungodly stench of rot, which is the only way the mind can comprehend the sheer hatred he exudes, and cannot be permanently killed.
Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Though the Tiffany Aching books aren't all laughs, the Cunning Man is easily the vilest villain in the series and almost singlehandedly the reason why I Shall Wear Midnight is so dark.
Was Once a Man: He was human until The Power of Hate kicked in.

Death series

The Duke of Sto Helit

An antagonist in Mort (though not the antagonist). The Duke is the Evil Uncle of Princess Keli, who aims to kill her and take over the Kingdom.

Cain and Abel: The Cain to the King's Abel; fittingly enough, the Duke kills the king (through an assassin he hired).
Didn't See That Coming: He adapts well to it, but he's taken aback by Keli surviving his assassin and almost being crowned.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Mort and Death fight and accidentally smash his life-timer, killing him via sudden heart-attack.
Evil Uncle: To Princess Keli; best shown when he comforts her after her father's death (which he orchestrated, no less), then plots to kill her as well.
Faux Affably Evil: Despite his polite façade, he's an Evil Uncle to the core.
Karma Houdini: The duke was one in the original timeline, going on to be known in history as a successful King and unifying the Sto Plains under one single kingdom. However, he dies of a sudden heart attack, subverting this.
Visionary Villain: He has the aim of uniting the various duchies and small kingdoms of the Sto Plains into one large, single kingdom that lasts for a hundred years. When he dies, Mort and Keli are given this task to ensure the timeline remains more or less on course.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He was thoughtful enough to give the assassin that killed the King a packed lunch. Said lunch is poisoned.

The New Death

The secondary antagonist in Reaper Man, the New Death is the replacement sent to kill "Old" Death by the Auditors of Reality and take his place.

A God Am I: In its brief existence, it counters Death's anger as such, showing that if it doesn't regard itself as a deity, it at least thinks of itself as something along those lines:
Death: A crown?! I never wore a crown!
New Death: You never wanted to rule.
Awesome, but Impractical: It's noted that its skeletal horse is not, in fact, something pleasant for most to ride on, as it would give you no end of arse-ache and can't eat anything.
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: A standard for the Discworld; the New Death's malevolence is based on the fact that modern people tend to treat death as more fearful and less of a natural occurrence than people in the past.
Dark Is Evil: To contrast the Death we know and love.
Don't Fear the Reaper: Averted with a vengeance — unlike the regular Death, this incarnation is malicious, cruel and views all life as something to dominate and rule over as a king. Humanity's imagination of how Death should look like is to blame, it seems.
The Dragon: To the Auditors in Reaper Man, though he only appears towards the end.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The New Death is unable to understand why Miss Flitworth would give up some of her own time on the earth to give Death a chance to defeat it.
In the Hood: Like Death, it has a hooded robe. Unlike Death, there is seemingly nothing underneath.
Painting the Medium: Unlike Death, who speaks in block capitols with no quotation marks, to represent his impossibly deep voice and lack of vocal chords, New Death speaks in italics (whether to represent a more raspy voice, or just to signify that it's Bad News and needs watching is unclear).
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: It and "Old" Death trade these back and forth throughout their fight.
Rule of Drama: Unlike Death, who occasionally has dramatic moments, New Death downright relishes the opportunity to show off and terrorise. It deliberately arrives at midnight, accompanied by thunderbolts. Death, being Genre Savvy, exploits this to maximise the time he has to prepare.
Shout-Out: Its described appearance borrows a few cues from the Witch-King of Angmar, though the Witch-King himself borrows a few cues from the depiction of Death of Paradise Lost.
Showdown at High Noon: Played with; Death's battle against the New Death of Men takes place at midnight rather than high noon, and Death is unamused at his counterpart's ham-handed attempt at "drama".
When the Clock Strikes Twelve: This is when the new Death will turn up. The new Death deliberately chose this time in order to heighten what Death dismissively refers to as "drama".
Would Hurt a Child: Unlike "Old" Death, this one actively takes pleasure from harvesting the souls of children.

The Music

The primary antagonist in Soul Music, the Music chooses Imp y Celyn, a wannabe musician from Llamedos, to become the Disc's first rockstar... at a price.

Artifact of Doom: The guitar that Imp buys from The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday, through which the Music manifests itself. It takes over Imp and doesn't like anyone else touching it. Or Imp touching any other instruments.
Be Careful What You Wish For: Imp swears that "one day soon, everyone will say that he was the greatest musician in the world". Presumably, this is why the Music chose him: because he didn't consider the implications of "soon" and "was"...
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The Music keeps Imp alive even when his lifetimer runs out, but as Death notes, it will eventually kill him. Because that's part of the deal: Imp will live fast and die young.
Deal with the Devil: Imp gets to go down in history as the greatest musician of all time. But in exchange, he will have to die young.
The Power of Rock: It is the Power of Rock.
Voice of the Legion: In the animated adaption.
You Cannot Kill An Idea: Death and Susan save Imp from it, but it's still out there, and finds someone else. Because it's Music With Rocks In It, and it's here to stay...

Mr Clete

A secondary antagonist in Soul Music, Mr Clete is the Secretary of the Musicians Guild and constantly making efforts to kill the Band with Rocks In.

Almighty Janitor: He wields a lot of power in the Musicians' Guild despite being just its secretary, to the point that he can call assassinations on unlicensed musicians.
Animal Motifs: Frequently compared to a rat by the narrative (even if he never actively uses the comparison or likeness himself) to highlight his unpleasantness.
Annoying Laugh: "Hat, Hat, Hat". Ridcully is quick to mock it in the climax.
Big Bad Wannabe: Clearly assumes he's the brains in the Guild, and while a threat to the Band, he's clearly unprepared for the interference of Susan Sto Helit or Ridcully in his would-be murder attempts. He's also not the chief antagonist — that falls to The Music.
Disproportionate Retribution: His entire vendetta against the Band is itself over-the-top, and eventually he keeps trying purely because their survival seems to anger him. This vendetta angers him so much that when his underling Satchelmouth says he liked the Band, he throws him to his apparent death; Satchelmouth survives, while Clete does not.
Dreadful Musician: Despite being in the Musicians Guild. Justified in that even musicians need someone to run the numbers and keep things going.
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humour: He laughs at things nobody else finds funny.
Evil Is Petty: While Ankh-Morpork guilds are known to enforce membership fees seriously, Clete takes it a step further with his pursuit of the Band with Rocks in and subsequent attempts to kill them.
Hate Sink: Even if he might not be "evil" at the start, he's an unsympathetic, petty character; the book highlights this by comparing him to a rat spreading the plague in that neither is inherently evil and just a natural result of something, but both are still loathsome on a fundamental level. What differentiates Clete from a rat is that he is petty and malicious, contrasting The Music which is just trying to survive.
Jerkass: Even before attempted murder, he's unsympathetic and unpleasant.
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Mr. Clete just starts out as an Obstructive Bureaucrat, who wants to stop The Band from performing music without a Guild license. Over the course of the novel, as The Band becomes more and more famous, he becomes increasingly obsessed with them, seeing their popularity as a threat to the entire Musicians Guild, and attempts several times to have them killed. He eventually loses it completely, leading to his own death.
Necessarily Evil: Mr. Clete is not, in as many words, an evil person. He's just the logical result of having organised guilds everywhere. Without him, the Musician's Guild would just be a bunch of broke musicians who never pay their fees. With that said, the book's comparison to a plague rat shows he's still pretty disgusting regardless.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: Starts this way by just blocking the Band from performing, then goes overboard.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Starts as an Obstructive Bureaucrat, ends as a Bad Boss willing to murder his own employees.
Undignified Death: Post-death, in that it's not Death who collects him, but the Death of Rats. Clete ranks as so inhumanly petty, mundane and loathsome that he's closer to a rodent than a human being.

Jonathan Teatime

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/teatime.png

The villain of Hogfather, is the personification of terrifying or just plain badass. He's one of the Assassins' Guild scholarship boys, taken in because both his parents died when he was young and they felt sorry for him. As Lord Downey put it, "Perhaps we should have wondered a bit more about that."

Ax-Crazy: He has a wonderful mind, like a shattered mirror — all facets and rainbows, glittering and sparkling. But ultimately, you can't get around that it's something broken.
Beware the Silly Ones: He has very childish mannerisms and his frustration with his underlings can be comical... but he's also a complete psychopath who will kill anyone he feels like the moment he no longer needs them and nearly becomes a Reality Warper.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Teatime kills nearly everyone who works with him the moment he no longer needs them.
Crazy-Prepared: He spends his free time working out how to kill mythological figures, which comes in handy. Perhaps subverted in the fact that he spends his spare time planning to kill supposedly fictional or metaphorical characters simply because he has literally nothing else to do with his spare time. He's insane, and magically supplemented. 'Nuff said.
Dissonant Serenity: When he finally dies, Teatime's ghost merely pretends to play dead before quickly giving up when Death calls him out, all while smiling crazily before fading away.
Dragon Their Feet: While working for the Auditors of Reality as part of their plan, he survives their defeat to have a final showdown with Susan and Death.
The Dreaded: The Assassin's Guild is scared of him, and by the end of the story, all his hired minions are scared to death of him.
Double Jump: Somehow. He's got a magical item as a glass eye. Discworld magic. Being able to Double Jump is the least of his abilities.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
- His main plan fails because he couldn't comprehend that Banjo's morals would win out against fear of him or temptation of whatever he wants.
- He fails to understand the children wouldn't see him as the good guy for fighting Death, instead of the monster he really is. This is why Susan is able to throw the 'monster killing' fireplace poker through Death to kill him.
Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He's very young, golden-curled, and handsome (apart from his disturbing eyes). He's also a Psychopathic Manchild and The Sociopath who will stab someone to death as casually as other people talk about the weather.
Faux Affably Evil: Despite his politeness, it's readily apparently that Teatime is neither benevolent nor the picture of perfect sanity.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Started out as an orphan taken in by the Assassin's Guild — and at the start, it's mentioned that Lord Downey would later reflect that in retrospect, they should have wondered a bit more about that. He then became a murderous psychopath with an extremely high bodycount and ultimately comes very close to becoming a Reality Warper and existential threat to the world itself.
Glass Eye: One of his eyes is glass. It's implied - though never outright stated - to be enchanted. Given that Discworld magic, even under the best possible conditions, is a total crapshoot, willingly having that magic inside his skull shows how insane he is.
Graceful Loser: Though he fights like hell throughout the book, his ghost goes with Death willingly with little more than an attempt at peekaboo.
Handicapped Badass: Missing an eye, but he has a glass eye substitute which pushes him up to the level of Empowered Badass Normal.
The Heavy: The Auditors of Reality may have commissioned his services, but Teatime is the one moving the plot and thought up the way to kill the Hogfather.
Horrifying the Horror: Lord Downey, the head of the Assassin's Guild, is very much disturbed by his excessive and wanton murder. In fact, Lord Downey's inner monologue while conversing with Teatime states he'd feel safer with something between between him and his own subordinate.
Humans Are the Real Monsters: Despite featuring alongside multiple dangerous magical beings, Teatime stands out as considerably worse than any in the book he features in, being willing to threaten children and pointlessly violent even when it doesn't suit his goals. This is highlighted when the poker enchanted by belief to be harmful against monsters passes through Death harmlessly, but kills Teatime stone dead, which the subsequent conversation between Death and Susan points out.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How he ultimately meets his end, when Susan throws a poker enchanted by belief at him.
Kick the Dog: One of the first things we learn about him is that he nailed someone's dog to the ceiling to stop it from barking.
Laughably Evil: Though his main crimes are played seriously by the narrative, his frustration with his underlings and childish mannerisms are sometimes comedic in nature.
Pretentious Pronunciation: Despite the spelling, his name is pronounced Teh-ah-tim-eh. Calling him 'teatime', like the time of day, is one of the few things that really irritates him.
Psycho for Hire: This guy is a mad man, and he was given the task of killing the Hogfather. Even in his "mortal" assignments, he was pointlessly brutal, killing servants because he was being "thorough".
Psychopathic Manchild: Oh boy, this guy kills people the very moment they stop being useful to him, all while maintaining a childish immaturity. The effect is rather creepy, to say the least.
- This is even a plot point, as most of the robbers he brought along eventually succumb to their childhood fears weaponized against them by the Tooth Fairy's country, while Teatime is immune due to being 'in touch with [his] inner child'.
Reality Warper: What Teatime would've become had his plan succeeded: by being able to control what every child (and by that point, adult) on the planet believes, Discworld's belief shaping reality rule would allow him to reshape it however he pleases.
Red Right Hand: His differently colored eyes (one black, one blue), which are the trope image.
Self-Made Orphan: Heavily implied.
Slasher Smile: Mr. Teatime really, really enjoys his job.
The Sociopath: Mr. Teatime sees things differently from people; he sees people as things. His Fatal Flaw is also one of the common weaknesses of real life sociopaths: he has next to no impulse control.
Stealth Hi/Bye: His tendency to suddenly show up with no warning or even apparent means of arriving unnoticed scares the crap out of everyone. Justified since he's part of the Assassin's Guild, which teaches members how to be stealthy and put others in awe of them.
Stupid Evil: Teatime immediately kills anyone who stops being of use to him, with no thought to the long-term consequences or even whether or not this person might become useful again later. If he'd survived the mission, the Assassins and Thieves would likely have had him killed just because of all the incredibly valuable experts he went through. Combined with The Sociopath: he's physically incapable of thinking of people as anything beyond 'assets' beyond the moment and has incredibly poor impulse control. It's anything but a justification for him, but quite a justification for Downey not particularly minding that he dies.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Teatime's nature becomes disturbingly plain when Downey reproaches him for the enthusiasm with which he inhumed not only the client, but two servants and a guard-dog who might have been in the way. Teatime made very sure his client was dead. He even checked for breath with a mirror while the man's head was several feet from his body.
"Uh-Oh" Eyes: Doubly so when you remember that on Discworld nothing can change the person's eyes...
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Pretty much everybody he employs. Doesn't matter if they're potentially useful down the line.

City Watch series

Lupine Wonse

The leader of The Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night and an antagonist of Guards! Guards!. His society planned to use a dragon for their attempt to take over Ankh-Morpork.

And I Must Scream: The Dragon turns him into its servant through hefty Mind Rape, to the point that he begs for an Assassin to kill him.
Bad Boss: The odd Pet the Dog moment aside, he's generally demeaning to the Brethren and considered killing some of them once they were no longer of use.
Break the Haughty: Bringing a dragon to Ankh-Morpork and it taking over the town and threatening to eat everything, including him, renders him into a terrified slave.
The Butler Did It: His day job was, at least at the start of the book, the Patrician's secretary.
The Cat Came Back: Was tormented by Vetinari this way after the Dragon was dealt with.
The Cynic: His view of humanity is very disappointing and petty, which offends even the Dragon.
Disney Villain Death: Carrot throws a book at him after interpreting Vimes' order literally and Wonse is knocked down, falling to his death.
Evil Counterpart: Is this to Vimes. While both grew up in the Shades and are both terribly cynical, Vimes is able to find some hope and righteousness to hold onto, which eventually gets him a happy ending; Wonse develops manipulative and condescending tendencies that backfire on him badly and leave him alone, enslaved and desperate enough to destroy Ankh-Morpork.
Evil Is Not a Toy: The Dragon eventually turns on Wonse and seizes control of events to become the Big Bad of the book. He still doesn't learn his lesson after this.
Hypocrite: He moans that the city is run by idiots and aims to change this... by replacing them with people just short of him in terms of intelligence.
Hypocritical Humour: From his own internal monologue: Do away with the cold inhumanity of the Patrician and bring about an age of enlightenment and kindness, where people like Brother Dunnikin will be roasted over slow flames if he has anything to say about it, which he will.
Ignored Epiphany: Once he actually succeeds in summoning the Dragon it quickly dominates and enslaves him, reducing Wonse to a state so miserable he's implicitly surreptitiously begging the head of the Assassins' Guild to kill him. After the Dragon is defeated, he's so far gone that in the last moments of his life he's trying to summon another one.
In the Hood: Exploited in his guise as Supreme Grand Master.
Mouth of Sauron: Is reduced to this once the Dragon gets a hold of him.
Pet the Dog: While an unrepentant schemer with little regard for most of his underlings, he does chip in money for an injured co-conspirator to get better. He also chastises Vimes for startling the head of the Teacher's Guild and leaving him a bit emotionally shaken.
Post-Climax Confrontation: While Vimes and Wonse do face off on a few occasions, their final confrontation is after the Dragon is dealt with, with the Palace Guard providing a final roadblock.
Rightful King Returns: He and his secret society attempted to invoke this and discussed the trope in general.
Sanity Slippage: The dragon's hold over him does this to his mind. He attempts to summon a second dragon despite the first fairly easily turning Ankh-Morpork into its personal fiefdom and Wonse into its miserable slave.
Smug Snake: Vastly overestimates his ability to control the Dragon and thinks he can do a better job of running Ankh-Morpork than Vetinari can.
The Starscream: The first of many that would seek to overthrow Lord Vetinari. He temporarily succeeds, but then the Dragon usurps him... leading to Wonse trying to summon another dragon to deal with the first one.
Summon Bigger Fish: Was going to summon a second dragon after the first one turned on him, but Vimes stopped him.
Surrounded by Idiots: Wonse frequently has this reaction to his own subordinates, who are generally as thick as a plank.
Villainous Breakdown: It started when the Dragon took over Ank-Morpork, and is in its final stages in his last battle with Vetinari and Vimes.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Was planning on this with some of the Brethren, but the Dragon saved him the bother.

The Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night

The various people assembled by Lupine Wonse for his secret society to overthrow Lord Vetinari. Their ranks were filled by those who were so far down the Ankh-Morpork food chain that even Vetinari's network of spies failed to take notice.

Antiquated Linguistics: The oath of loyalty sworn by them, especially what happens if they break faith, is full of obscure and antiquated words; the Supreme Grand Master takes the fact that none of them have asked what any of the words mean as a sign of their stupidity:
- There's a running joke that they're all in mortal fear of having their figgin taken out and toasted on a spike, without any of them being entirely sure what a figgin is. (A footnote tells us it's a pastry filled with raisins, and the guards enjoy some later on - the sole survivor of the Brethren flees in terror when they ask if he wants his toasted.)
- Other words in the oath include welchet ("a type of waistcoat worn by certain clock-makers"), gaskin ("a shy, grey-brown bird of the coot family") and moules ("a game of skill and dexterity, involving tortoises"). The oath, when one doesn't know the meaning of the words in it, sounds much more menacing than it actually is.
Be Careful What You Wish For: The members of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night just wanted what was coming to them. They didn't realise that, in a case of Exact Words, this meant they'd die.
Death: Congratulations.
Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Colon comes across the rota for the building they hire. Their name stands out like a sore thumb compared to a life-drawing class and a pottery team.
Didn't Think This Through: It's noted that in stealing from the University, the Brethren have angered both the Thieves Guild and the wizards (pre-Ridcully's tenure, so they were still vicious bastards even after the events of Sourcery); indeed, the Librarian ends up cluing Vimes in on what might have happened during his own investigations.
Disproportionate Retribution: Brother Watchtower has the Dragon incinerate his brother-in-law's cart out of spite, while Brother Doorkeeper targets a vegetable seller for irritating him.
Dumbass Has a Point: When Wonse berates them for not doing their job properly, he is called out by them for not actually telling them what they need to do. He (mentally) admits that this is one of the few times they're right.
Epic Fail: Brother Doorkeeper's passwords are so common that he lets in a member of a different secret society, who doesn't realise the mistake until the meeting is well underway.
Evil Is Petty: A lot of their grievances, while driven by their being at the bottom of the Ankh-Morpork hierarchy, are less about "oppression" and more frustration that other people are better off than they are. For one, Brother Watchtower has the Dragon incinerate his brother-in-law's carriage out of spite, while Brother Doorkeeper targets a vegetable seller for irritating him. This is, in fact, entirely the reason Wonse recruited them — he wanted easily-led idiots with "stomachs full of bile" who could be talked into doing what he said.
Evil Smells Bad: Brother Dunnikin smells horrible because of his halitosis.
The Guards Must Be Crazy: Brother Doorkeeper isn't a great doorkeeper, and accidentally lets the wrong society member in.
Imperfect Ritual: The Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night are trying to summon a dragon, and the cult leader orders the brethren to find magical objects to sacrifice. They come up with really low grade magical junk, like a still-fizzing letter from a bar's sign and an amulet the Snake Oil Salesman swore was magical (though, oddly enough, for once he seemed to be telling the truth). As Wonse wearily says, if they get a dragon eight inches long, they'll all know why. It actually doesn't seem to cause any problems except that they can only summon the dragon for a few seconds at a time before the magic runs out.
Insane Troll Logic: Their definitions of "oppression" fall into this combined with Disproportionate Retribution.
Karmic Death: As (sym)pathetic and "down the food chain" as they may have been, their death by incineration was fully deserved given their terrorising the city, especially those that had wronged them.
Maximum Fun Chamber: The Oath of the Brethren is basically this; that nobody questions it is taken by Wonse as a sign of the group's stupidity. Results in a Brick Joke when Brother Fingers mistakes an offer for a toasted pastry as a threat of torture.
Oh, Crap!: The entire group has this reaction when the Dragon lands on the roof, although they don't actually know what's happened until after the event.
Only Known by Their Nickname: All of them, with the exception of the Supreme Grand Master (Lupine Wonse) and Brother Fingers (Bengy Boggis).
Rightful King Returns: They're oddly knowledgeable about this despite otherwise being relatively stupid.
Secret Circle of Secrets: Played for Laughs in that they're not the only secret society in Ankh-Morpork, and subsequently the members of the various groups go into the wrong secret meetings on at least two occasions.
Shout-Out: Their name seems to take inspiration from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Smarter Than You Look: Brother Watchtower is noted by Wonse to actually be quite intelligent, or at least less stupid than the rest of the group, and Wonse thus keeps an eye on him.
Sole Survivor: Brother Fingers is the only one of the five not to be incinerated by the Dragon; he had gone out to order pizza for the group and happened to not return before the Dragon killed the others. What happened to him afterwards is anyone's guess.
Uncertain Doom: It's unknown if Brother Fingers survived running into the Shades out of sheer terror.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Wonse secretly planned to inflict this on at least some of them after the conspiracy was completed. The Dragon saved him the bother.

The Noble Dragon

The other main antagonist of Guards! Guards!. A dragon summoned by the Brethren as part of their scheme.

Artistic License – Biology: Lampshaded multiple times throughout the story, with some discrepancies explained scientifically and others explained by magic.
The Dog Bites Back: The "dog" in this case is angry when you use it as a pawn, grant it freedom temporarily and then imprison it again.
Dragon Ascendant: Quite literally, when it usurps Wonse.
Dragons Prefer Princesses: This trope is examined when discussing the dragon's diet; the reason Dragons like to eat members of royal blood isn't just taste, but a display of dominance. Humans are expected to sacrifice the most important members of their species to show just how little they matter to the Dragon in question. This is all explained during a dinner the Dragon is having with Ankh-Morpork's civic leaders, just as they're realizing they're being served extremely fattening food. To save their own necks the various community leaders all decide the closest thing Ankh-Morpork has to a princess would be it's richest woman, Sybil Ramkin.
Even Evil Has Standards: Upon examining Wonse's mind, it is horrified by some of the things humans have inflicted upon one another in the name of "morality".
Evil Is Not a Toy: In this case, it is the "evil" someone tried using as a toy.
Karma Houdini: It technically gets a happy ending by flying away with Errol, despite burning multiple people alive and eating at least two on-page.
Maybe Ever After: Flies off into the sunset with Errol. It's unclear how long it can last in this world without a constant stream of magic, if it will turn into a normal Swamp Dragon without it or possibly just vanish. Vimes expresses uncertainty that the two dragons might have gotten a happy ending, asking, "What happens when the magic fades away?" only for Sybil to point out that humans seem to get along fine without it.
Mind Rape: Inflicts this upon Lupine Wonse to a horrifying degree, even if it is deserved to some extent.
Pet the Dog: It does seem to genuinely love Errol.
Samus Is a Girl: Assumed to be a male throughout most of the book, but turns out that it's actually a female.
She Is the King: The aforementioned twist under Samus Is A Girl is disguised by the fact that she chooses to call herself King. Possibly a result of her mind being influenced by Wonse, who wanted to be King himself.
Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Is a massive, hulking dragon like you'd see out of a Fairy Tale but winds up falling in love with the puny swamp dragon. They ride off together, their happy relationship mirroring the book's protagonist Sam Vimes forming a similar relationship with Sybil Ramkin.
Trademark Favorite Food: Despite being hungry "All the time" according to Wonse, the Dragon only eats once a month, as eating is also a display of its power over the humans it rules. When it does eat, it demands to only eat the most important and well-connected members of the city.

Edward d'Eath

The Big Bad of Men at Arms. Edward is an Impoverished Patrician who, having fallen on hard times, decides that it is time the Rightful King Returns.

Accidental Murder: He was only meaning to give Beano a Tap on the Head, but caves his head in.
Affably Evil: Most of the time, he's genuinely quite nice and polite.
Anti-Villain: Edward isn't a malicious or mean person in the slightest, just desperate to try and restore what he thinks is best for society based on a misguided and idealistic view of monarchy.
Bad Boss: He orders one of his few remaining servants tortured for a minor cock-up. The family has no torturer (they can't afford one), but the servant tortures himself of his own free will.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: It may seem easy to mock him given his reduced circumstances and stammer-like pauses, but he ends up graduating from the Assassin's Guild postgraduate course with full marks, which is no mean feat.
Dead All Along: From around the moment he first gets his hands on the gonne. The narration states that what carried on for a while longer wasn't really Edward. Dr Cruces had actually killed him about a third of the way through the story.
Impoverished Patrician: He’s the thirty-seventh Lord d'Eath and has to borrow money to pay for even a simple funeral for his father. His primary motivation is rage over these circumstances, and thus it's this trope itself that gets the plot going.
My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction to having killed Beano by accident. It led to him confessing to Cruces, who is implied to have listened kindly at first... then he too got his hands on the Gonne.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: His family name is d'Eath and he's an assassin. As the narration points out, it was a foregone conclusion, really.
Nothing Personal: Beano the Clown is pretty miffed when he hears this from Edward, since for him it is pretty personal.
Painting the Medium: Edward unnerves his fellow nobles because he thinks in italics. Such people, the narration asserts, need watching. Preferably from a distance.
Red Herring: It turns out Edward d'Eath, despite all the foreshadowing surrounding his unstable mind and, you know, family name, only ever killed one person during the story, and that was quite by accident. The real villain of the story is the gonne itself, and more to the point Dr. Cruces, who takes up d'Eath's cause after murdering him with it.
Rightful King Returns: Much like Wonse before him, though unlike Wonse, Edward’s sincere in his belief and actually had found the "rightful" king.
Verbal Tic: Tends to s-peak with odd pau-ses in his words, as if his brain and mouth aren't entirely in sync with one another.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: He genuinely believes bringing the monarchy back is a good thing, seeing Vetinari as a tyrant holding the aristocracy back; throughout the book, he expresses regret for his actions and didn't actually mean to kill anyone. Dr Cruces eventually came to the same conclusion.

Dragon King of Arms

The Big Bad of Feet of Clay. He is a vampire who works as the Ankh Morpork's herald, tracing genealogies and making coat of arms.

But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Part of what drives Vimes to rage is that Dragon didn't know who Mrs Easy and her grandchild were and probably doesn't care that they died as collateral damage due to his machinations.
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Dragon King of Arms loves his heraldic wordplay. This becomes important later, as it turns out one of these "jokes" was a vital clue.
Fantastic Racism: The final straw in him writing off the possibility of restoring Carrot to the throne was the fact that he was romantically involved with the werewolf Angua. Dragon King Of Arms respects the authority of a good bloodline but is too disgusted at the idea of such blood being "tainted."
Faux Affably Evil: Most apparent when meeting with Vimes for the first time, where he's polite but nevertheless clearly up to something.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Subverted. Vimes claims to have put holy water in the wick of the candle that was lighting the room in which he confronted Dragon, but is implied to be bluffing. Played straight when it turns out Vimes was stalling until Dorfl, the Golem that the Watch just befriended, can get in position to attack. After Dragon spent the entire book mistreating the golems and even using one as disposable muscle it's a fitting end.
Hypocrite: Is a classist prick who assigns value to people based on their bloodline and makes it clear he finds the task of making coats of arms for the Nouveau Riche to be beneath him. Despite this he has no interest in putting Captain Carrot on the throne despite him being the man directly descended from kings, in large part because Carrot would choose to help the underclass than prop up the aristocracy, as well as his romantic connection with the werewolf Angua. He attempts to make Nobby Nobbs the king instead, showing that the worldview he claims to be so devoted to is just an excuse to look down on and belittle others.
Karma Houdini: Vimes was worried that Dragon would get away with what he did due to how influential he was but he managed to subvert the trope. See below.
The Killer Was Left-Handed: Played with. As the book continues it becomes clear that the villain has to be able to fly. This actually isn't a smoking gun that it usually is in fiction (Vimes even has a rant about how stories that pull this trope conveniently ignore the millions of other people it would logically apply to), and it's pointed out that it's at best circumstantial evidence because Discworld has other beings capable of flight (such as say, other vampires).
Laser-Guided Karma: Vimes, upon realising that Dragon is too influential for Vetinari to punish, uses a candle to burn the genealogies which Dragon has worked on for centuries. Since Dragon's influence in the city primarily comes from his ability to flatter the wealthy and powerful and prove their "superior" lineage, this directly takes away much of the influence that was implicitly keeping Vetinari from just executing him.
Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: Dragon King of Arms (whose long life grants him a certain perspective on these things) reflects:
Men said things like "peace in our time" or "an empire that will last a thousand years," and less than half a lifetime later no one even remembered who they were, let alone what they had said or where the mob had buried their ashes.
Obviously Evil: Made apparent in his second scene if not the first. It's part of the reason the book's a howdunnit rather than a whodunnit.
Nouveau Riche: Uses his position to create coats of arms to anyone rich enough to afford his services and helps people with money but no title find "creative" views of their lineage that lead to them becoming lords. He makes it clear he sees this practice as beneath him but it allows him to form very close connections with almost all of the city's most wealthy members.
Our Vampires Are Different: In a possible case of Early-Installment Weirdness, he seems to be the only shown vampire in discworld with wings in his humanoid form — though Dragon is exceptionally old, it's repeatedly noted that the Disc has many different kinds of vampire, and the Magpyrs have an ancestor whose passing description resembles that of Dragon.
Rightful King Returns: Subverted. Like d'Eath before him he is very interested in restoring the monarchy to power. But he's smart enough to know that Carrot being a genuinely good-hearted and warm person would ultimate use his power to help the underclass and undermine the elitest class structure Dragon directly benefits from. From his perspective the "rightful" king is one who's dumb enough to do whatever he's told by the upper-crust of Ankh-Morpork and obey every order given. Whether he actually has royal blood is of trivial importance.
Smug Snake: He actually showed Vimes a vital clue early on in the story.
Verbal Tic: Dragon, ahaha, King of Arms.

Prince Cadram

The Big Bad of Jingo. He is the head of Klatch, who seeks to unify the country by starting a war against Ankh-Morpork.

Affably Evil: A genuinely affable man with a vision for Klatch, who nevertheless won't hesitate to murder his own brother for the war effort, to say nothing of violently suppressing large parts of his country when they'd rather not get with his program.
Batman Gambit: Pulls one on Vimes, as pointed out by Ahmed. Vimes is renowned for being straight as an arrow and would refuse to accept what seems like a very poor (and racist) attempt at a cover-up and would blame his own people, giving Cadram all the legitimacy he needs.
Deadpan Snarker: Gets some brilliant jabs in at Rust's racist views.
Even Evil Has Standards: He's appalled by Rust's sheer mind-boggling stupidity, even though that stupidity is helping him get causus belli.
Villain with Good Publicity: To the point that Vimes initially refuses to believe that he's responsible — though that's more to do with the fact that he refuses to jump on the racist wagon with Rust and the like. Unfortunately, Cadram was counting on that.

Wolfgang Von Uberwald

One of the two villains of The Fifth Elephant, Wolfgang served as the more obvious of the two Big Bads. He’s a dangerous werewolf, and Angua's brother.

All Animals Are Dogs: Werewolves, as beings stuck between humans and wolves, are very doglike, to the point of disliking the words 'bath' and 'vet'. This gets him killed in the climax when Vimes shoots a signal flare and he catches it with his mouth.
Ax-Crazy: Partly because he doesn't bother trying to control his violent nature as a werewolf and partly because he has been brought up by a family of Fantasy Nazis.
Batman Gambit: Wolfgang and the other Game-playing werewolves employ this trope to put Sleeps and Skimmer right where they want them. Used against him in the climax, when Vimes kills him by playing off his dog-like instincts to get him to catch a powerful firework in his mouth.
Big Bad Duumvirate: With Dee.
Convenient Escape Boat: Subverted and Invoked, because werewolves really are very clever.
Danger Takes a Backseat: Wolfgang's pack are fond of a low-tech variant, waiting under a tarp in a rowboat for an unsuspecting quarry to climb aboard.
Determinator: Even after falling off a waterfall in a life-and-death struggle with a very large, very clever wolf called Gavin, and Gaspode (who, though small, has a street fighter's knack for the Groin Attack), he isn't finished yet, leading to the Post-Climax Confrontation.
Dragon-in-Chief: In theory, he's the heir to the family while his mother and father rule. In practice, though his mother is the brains, Wolfgang is the leader.
The Dreaded:
- To most people in Uberwald, since he's a nigh-unkillable sadistic psychopath rendered even harder to actually hurt by the fact that silver isn't mined in Uberwald, leaving only fire as a weakness. Even his own mother, who thinks he's as thick as a sack of potatoes, is too scared to assert herself.
- Insofar as he's actually afraid of anyone, he's afraid of Angua, and for good reason — she off-handedly remarks that she could always send him away howling, and intends to break up his 'Game'. This means taking on his entire pack, albeit with Gavin's help (Gavin, by the way, is a wolf). In their one on-page fight (admittedly while Wolfgang wasn't in the best of shape) she kicks the crap out of him and sends him running, getting only scratches in return. The only thing she's afraid of is what he might do to Carrot.
Evil Counterpart:
- To Angua, most prominently, to the point where she uses him as an example of why she's so flighty and so scared of going bad, and Vimes compares the two of them, noting that they're poised the exact same way... except that Angua's default is 'flight', and Wolfgang's is quite different. He’s quite literally what she would be if she lost her conscience.
Faux Affably Evil: Behind the sometimes-polite and cheerful façade is a sadistic murderer who takes pride in hurting others and hunting people like sport. Best shown when he pretends to be sporting with Vimes in offering him a chance to win four hundred crowns, then quickly shows his angry side when Vimes brings up Angua.
For the Evulz:
- Unlike Dee, who had a tragic if misguided motivation for the plot, Wolfgang just joined in because it would see trolls and dwarfs killing each other en masse and he found such a prospect funny.
- Even after incapacitating Carrot, he proceeds to break his arm for sadistic amusement, then beat him further.
- The Post-Climax Confrontation serves no practical benefit beyond his own amusement, and he may well have been able to survive the political impact of his attempted coup, but he was just that keen on killing more people.
Groin Attack: From Gaspode. Until he's killed, it's the one thing aside from Angua's beating that actually seems to hurt him/slow him down — or at least, make him jump straight up.
Hate Sink: A sadistic murderer who killed his own sister for not being a "pure blood" werewolf and conspires to upset the political landscape not because of misguided motives, but because he finds the prospect of war amusing.
Just Toying with Them: Wolf and his cronies like to play with their food. As Angua points out, not even Vimes would have stood a chance if they'd just rushed him at once instead of giving him a "lead" and harassing him one at a time. Luckily for Vimes, they didn't know he had reinforcements coming.
Karmic Death: Vimes kills Wolfgang with the distress flare from the clacks tower that his pack killed the operators of — the one the men never had a chance to use. Also counts as a Death by Irony. He's an Übermensch undone by his own base instincts, namely that a dog can't resist fetching a stick... even when it's dynamite.
Kill It with Fire: Fire and silver are the typical ways to dispatch werewolves, though the latter is forbidden from being mined under the official status quo. Vimes takes this to heart and launches a flare at Wolf, expecting him to catch it in his mouth.
Kingpin in His Gym: Wolfgang likes to give his muscles an airing.
Meaningful Name: He's a wolf named Wolfgang. Made even more obvious in that his nickname is "Wolf".
Never Heard That One Before: When Vimes comments on Wolfgang having that name while being a werewolf.
"Not So Different" Remark: After Wolfgang's disappearance, Vimes explains to Sybil why he keeps his guard up by describing Wolfgang as a "bottle covey" — someone who does not quit no matter how soundly he has been trounced. Sybil remarks that it sounds like someone she knows well.
Post-Climax Confrontation: His last confrontation with Vimes happens after the plot has been solved.
Putting on the Reich: Wolfgang and Co have this appearance when dressed (rare as it may be), and the attitudes.
Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Not him, but it's apparently a common birth defect in werewolves. He and Angua had a human-shaped sister and a wolf-shaped brother; Wolfgang killed the former and chased off the latter.
Shapeshifter Swan Song: Downplayed — when Wolfgang comes back the last time, he seems to be having trouble controlling his transformations, and is wobbling around the halfway point between man and wolf.
Stupid Evil: Though he's undeniably cunning and extremely powerful, Wolf is far too self-assured of his own success and ultimately makes attempts to harm his enemies even when it really isn't in his best interests.
Tempting Fate: A subtle example appears in Wolfgang's chosen symbol of a wolf's head biting a mouthful of lightning bolts. Granted, they're not literal fireworks, but symbolically it rates as this trope.
Undignified Death: He's offed by the fact that his instincts compelled him to play fetch with a signal flare, a fate anybody would find laughable and pathetic.
Would Hurt a Child: Combined with Would Hit a Girl. He murdered his young sister, implied to have just been an infant, for not being a "pure" werewolf.

Dee

The other of the two villains in The Fifth Elephant. Dee is the Ideas Taster for the Low King.

Boomerang Bigot: Dee hates the fact that there are dwarfs who are openly female. The primary reason is that Dee is envious they could do it while she can't.
Evil Chancellor: Though it might not be immediately apparent, unlike most chancellors in the Disc.
Motive Rant: Dee gives one complaining to Rhys about how they should have kept the old ways but the old ways have fallen to the wayside as more and more dwarves openly admit that they are female. Dee caps this of with "I can't!".
Tragic Villain: Unlike her co-conspirator, Dee is motivated by tragic self loathing.
Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Dee outs herself as female at the end of her Motive Rant.
Villainous Breakdown: At the end, Dee is confirmed to have done it all specifically because of the growing Dwarf Femininity movement in Ankh-Morpork.
Wham Line: Near the end of the book, the words "I can't!" turn the nature of the Evil Plan on its head. In that one short sentence, it shows that while the conspiracy was perpetrated by traditionalists, it also showed that envy was a significant factor too.
You Are What You Hate: Dee is revealed to be this during the climax.

Carcer Dun

The Big Bad of Night Watch, he's a Serial Killer being pursued by Vimes.

Annoying Laugh: His distinctive "haha", the laugh of a right bastard who thinks the whole thing is funny, and it's everyone else's fault for not laughing along.
Ax-Crazy: He'd kill you for your watch rather than ask you the time.
Book Dumb: Not implied to be very literate, but still very good at reading people.
Combat Pragmatist: Much like Vimes, he won't bother with a straight-up fight.
Crazy-Prepared: Carries at least three knives.
Cop Killer: In the present day, he kills at least three police officers, one of whom was off duty and didn't even recognize him. In the past, he murders a few more.
Determinator: Vimes bregrudingly admits that Carcer's a determined bastard, as shown in their final fight where he continues to make an effort to fight back despite his leg being buggered.
Dragon-in-Chief: Technically, he's always in a position of subservience to someone else; first to Findthee Swing as a sergeant in the Particulars, then briefly to Lord Snapcase as Captain of the Palace Guard. It's fairly clear that he follows their orders for exactly as long as it's in his own interest and while Swing and Snapcase are bad enough, the main plot is about Vimes having to drag Carcer back through time.
Evil Counterpart: It's heavily implied that if Vimes was to ever allow himself to become The Unfettered, then he might wind up like Carcer.
Expy: A demented, psychopathic Jean Valjean, with Vimes as his Javert. Even brought home when he insists his initial crime was stealing a loaf of bread (Vimes objects on the grounds Carcer would never just steal the bread. He'd kill the baker, their family, and anyone who happened to be nearby).
Faux Affably Evil: The polite and chummy façade is surprisingly convincing, right until he stabs you — or unless you make sure to have a good look in his eyes...
For the Evulz: His main motivation.
Good Angel, Bad Angel: According to Vimes, he has two bad angels and they're egging each other on.
I Am Not Left-Handed: Part of the reason Night Watch even happens is because Vimes thinks he's disarmed Carcer of his two knives. Carcer was carrying three.
Kick the Dog: Just before the Post-Climax Confrontation, he eats the hard-boiled egg left at Keel's grave.
Obliviously Evil: Occasionally gives off this impression, but it's probably an act given his random displays of cruelty.
Psycho for Hire: If you manage to get a leash on him, although it probably won't stick and you'll definitely regret it.
Psycho Knife Nut: Carcer is a deeply evil, violent man who is never unarmed.
Psychopathic Manchild: As mentioned by Vimes:
He'd stand there amid the carnage, blood on his hands and stolen jewellery in his pocket, and with an expression of injured innocence declare, 'Me? What did I do?' And it was believable right up until you looked hard into those cheeky, smiling eyes, and saw, deep down, the demons looking back.
Serial Killer: He likes killing, that's for sure. He graduates from this trope into (indirect) mass-murder by trying to stoke the conflict in Ankh-Morpork.
Shadow Archetype: He provides a good idea of what Vimes might be if he let his nihilism and berserker tendencies take over.
The Sociopath: Carcer doesn't seem to choke on guilt or regret for his numerous murders.
Straw Nihilist: Carcer is said not to be insane but rather too sane, in that he can do whatever the hell he wants because he knows that laws and things are just arbitrary lines the normal folk draw in the sand to pretend they're safe. Needless to say, Vimes does not take this well.
The Unfettered: As a contrast to Vimes being The Fettered.
Villainous Valour: For all his flaws, he isn't a coward and will fight like hell even when he's suffering from a debilitating injury to his leg.

Captain Findthee Swing

The Captain of the Cable Street Particulars or the "Unmentionables", Swing comes into conflict with Vimes-as-Keel throughout Night Watch.

Ax-Crazy: Though hidden by a veneer of general oddness and fake civility, he's completely nuts. Vimes' narration notes that he went about reaching psychotic thuggery "the long way".
Bad Boss: When the Cable Street Watch House is burning down and a torturer is struggling to free himself after Vimes has restrained him and forgotten to loose his bonds before setting the place ablaze, Swing stabs his own underling. It's implied he was trying to cover up any hint of what he'd been doing.
Bald of Evil: Balding rather than fully bald, but nevertheless fits the trope nicely in all other senses.
Cold-Blooded Torture: He never does the torture himself, but will willingly have it carried out on anyone who fails a craniometrics exam; as the narrative puts it, "And from such figures he could, infallibly, tell that you were devious, untrustworthy, and congenitally criminal. After you spent the next twenty minutes in the company of his staff and their less sophisticated tools, he would, amazingly, be proven right". The results are so disgusting that young!Vimes is vomiting and Vimes-as-Keel opts to Mercy Kill a few of the victims immediately.
The Dilbert Principle: Swing is the person least suited to policing, never mind a city as rotten and uncontrollable as Ankh-Morpork. So naturally, he's put in a position of authority, pushing an ever more ragged city further and further until people finally snap.
The Dragon: Seems to fill this role with Lord Winder.
The Dreaded: Much like Vorbis, he commands the obedience of a gang of thugs and torturers by scaring the crap out of them. Even the Ankh-Morpork army know better than to question Swing or his thugs. Carcer is still able to exploit this even after Swing's death.
Faux Affably Evil: Despite his polite demeanour, he's by far one of the nastiest characters Vimes encounters. Lampshaded when Vimes describes him as "polite as hell" but nevertheless gets a weird vibe from him, even before he sees the torture cells.
Greater-Scope Villain: Technically this to Carcer — while Carcer's the primary antagonist of the book, Swing is one of the biggest reasons, if not the biggest, why past!Ankh-Morpork is such a shit place to live. Nevertheless, he mostly stays in the background at least to begin with.
Hate Sink: Unlike Carcer, Swing is shown to be nothing but repulsive, cruel and hateful based entirely on his pointless definition of evil, and even his underlings are not spared from his cruelty.
Horrible Judge of Character: Suffice it to say that Swing is very much not the expert in detecting criminals he thinks he is. For one, he has multiple innocent people tortured because he thinks they're criminals, then hires the Obviously Evil Carcer Dun into the Unmentionables because he "absolutely couldn't be a criminal if he tried".
Karmic Death: Vimes-as-Keel kills Swing with his own measuring ruler.
Knight Templar: Swing has a hideous case of Black-and-White Insanity; anyone who fits his horrendously wrong definition of a criminal is tortured, and anyone he views as on his side is viewed as good, even if the person in question is an Obviously Evil Serial Killer.
Lean and Mean: Noted to be quite lean, and most of the other tropes should describe the "mean" part of him pretty thoroughly.
A Nazi by Any Other Name: Though not going quite as far as to discuss racial purity, Swing's invention of craniometrics is sadly very much Truth in Television and was employed by the Nazis in their eugenics programmes. The Unmentionables also dress themselves very much like the Gestapo of Nazi Germany and enforce the Fascists Bedtime.
Never Heard That One Before: When he first introduces himself to Vimes, he invites him to make a joke about his name, with no humour behind it.
Not So Above It All: Despite being a horrifying villain with absolutely no redeeming traits, he does get one amusing moment post-demise, when he tries to use craniometrics on Death and fails miserably as it's, well, Death.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: He and the Unmentionables seem like a bunch of try-hard losers, more obsessed with being intimidating than effective, with their ridiculous but showy weapons even assassins laugh at. Then we see his Torture Cellar... and then Swing himself turns out to actually be a pretty damn good swordsman who fights with a no-frills, kill-the-other-guy style.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: The man claims he's working for the good of the city, but is so clearly suffering from Black-and-White Insanity that it's not true. That he also kills his torturer indicates he's well aware he's done horrible things and he wants to avoid the evidence getting out.
Obliviously Evil: He honestly doesn't seem to get why Vimes, or indeed anyone, might be horrified at the things he's done, even trying to justify it as he's attacking Vimes.
Police Are Useless: He's part of the reason the Ankh-Morpork police are the way they are. He outlawed weapons, reasoning this would reduce crime. Except for the fact only law-abiding people would obey this law. The criminals of Ankh-Morpork couldn't believe their luck. Theft skyrocketed, but Swing didn't bother doing anything about this, preferring to arrest all those weaponless people taking their aggravation out on the police.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: Surprisingly played straight in that he puts up much more of a fight than his lackeys do, with Vimes being genuinely surprised that he can actually use his ridiculous cane sword.
Secret Police: The head of them.
Slashed Throat: How he dies.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: A prolific torturer who never raises his voice.
Sword Cane: Proves to be surprisingly efficient with one to Vimes's surprise.
Torture Cellar: The Cable Street Watchhouse has one of these.
Truth in Television: Unfortunately, "craniometrics" like Swing's was a real (and horribly flawed) measure of determining someone's moral nature, employed by the Nazis (among others) in their eugenics schemes.
2 + Torture = 5: Captain Findthee Swing uses craniometrics to determine whether someone was a criminal or not. And funnily enough, after a short stay in the care of his much more direct underlings, he would inevitably be proven right.
Verbal Tic: Swing's unusuallypaced... speech pattern is something Vimes picks up on in their first encounter.
Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The Discworld series isn't all laughs, but Swing is by far one of the reasons that Night Watch is among its darkest stories, and he’s never played for laughs, at least before his death.
Villain Takes an Interest: After his first meeting with Vimes-as-Keel, he attempts to recruit the man into the Unmentionables. Vimes, disgusted by such a notion, deliberately pretends to actually be tempted so that Rust will block such a move out of Reverse Psychology.

Lord Snapcase

The Patrician before Vetinari, replacing Homicidal Lord Winder. Didn't prove to be much better than his predecessor, ruling the city until everyone got fed up of him, and hung him up by his figgin. Only appears in Night Watch.

Bait the Dog: He got the seamstresses on his side by saying he'd give them a guild. He didn't.
The Caligula: Not at first, but by the end he'd gone completely underpants-on-head insane. Like the real life one, he made a horse a councilor, which is given the old Discworld twist with the caveat that it was still better than some of his other councilors.
Fat Bastard: Said to have the same sort of chubbiness common to all Patricians sooner or later (it's the high-class eating and dining).
Meet the New Boss: Homicidal Lord Winder is replaced by Mad Lord Snapcase, who's every bit as insane and rotten as the man he's replaced, just better at hiding it until he got what he wanted, and the city of Ankh-Morpork doesn't get any better under his rule. The upper crust of Ankh, watching his appointment, even quote the phrase in Latatian.
Nice to the Waiter: Before the Glorious Revolution of the 25th of May, Snapcase was already building a reputation as the man of the people, because he asked regular folk what they did for a living, and waved from his fancy carriage. Of course, once he got into power, he turned out to be a mad, frivolous, lying bastard who treats everyone like crap, with no regard for the man in the street.
Noodle Incident:
- Hung up by his figgin, they say. A figgin is a small cake, so either there's some bizarre linguistic drift going on, or there really is some horrifying element to a man being suspended alongside a teacake.
- Related to that, the breaking point for Ankh-Morpork which led to said suspension was him forcing old Spooner Boggis to eat his own nose. Exactly what, if anything, prompted this is unclear.
Posthumous Character: He's been dead some time by the start of The Colour of Magic, the citizens of Ankh-Morpork eventually reaching their breaking point with him. He appears in Night Watch, which shows the beginning of his rule.
Smug Snake: Zig-Zagged.
- As demonstrated in his on-page appearances in Night Watch, with even his new secretary privately thinking that he's a smug prick as he pontificates on why he kept said secretary (who worked for his predecessor) on. In that respect, he's clearly a discount Vetinari.
- On the other hand, he's also smart enough to recognise the sheer threat that Vimes-as-Keel potentially presents, pointing out that in about a week, Vimes went From Nobody to Nightmare. At first, he was a new Watch Sergeant, then he gained the absolute loyalty of the City Watch and a fair chunk of the Regiments, took over a quarter of the city, neatly cut off the rest of it from its main supply lines, comfortably thwarted every attempt to dislodge him including with actual siege engines, and razed the Particulars to the ground. And he could just as easily turn on Snapcase (and would), so Snapcase does the practical thing and tries to have him discreetly killed. His colleagues are appalled at his behaviour, even the Head of the Assassins Guild, finding it to be fundamentally wrong. But none of them suggest his reasoning is incorrect.
Red Baron: Remembered as "Mad" or "Psychoneurotic" Lord Snapcase.

Grag Ardent

An extremist Dwarven grag, or wise-man, who is the Big Bad of Thud! and Raising Steam.

Ambiguous Situation: The death of Hamcrusher is one — Ardent reported to Helmclever that Ham had died when the other grags killed him for trying to destroy the device, which they would view as worse than murder (dwarves in general think destroying a book or words constitutes a serious crime). Ardent is certainly willing to kill loyal subordinates and definitely exploited Hamcrusher's death and defiled his body to sell the cover story, but whether he's the one that landed the killing blow is unclear, and the book even notes that as the grags all wear face-concealing robes, it'd be almost impossible to ID the killer.
And Your Little Dog, Too!: Sends men to Vimes' house to kill his wife and son as an extremely ill-thought out attempt to dissuade Vimes from pursuing him.
Bad Boss:
- To poor, poor Helmclever. And to the miners who found the Cube under Empirical Crescent, who Ardent and Hamcrusher had murdered by dark guards so they couldn't speak about what they found.
- In Steam, he punishes anyone who tries to flee with death, and couldn't give a damn about the lives of the dwarfs he radicalises and persuades to launch suicide attacks.
Common Knowledge: He's skilled at the in-universe form via "everybody knows" and "stands to reason". He uses it to poison others' opinions and spread his philosophy.
Dragon-in-Chief: In Thud!, he technically serves Grag Hamcrusher and the other more venerable grags who accompanied him to Ankh-Morpork to find the Cube of Koom Valley, but it's pretty clear he exerts a lot of power over them instead and is the one truly leading the expedition after Hamcrusher's death. He was also pretty quick to establish himself after Hamcrusher bought the farm.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His sole redeeming trait. He held Albrecht Albrechtsson, a fellow dwarven "deep downer", as a dear friend, and in Raising Steam tries to persuade him to his side. Once Albrecht defies him, Ardent spares him execution and has him imprisoned in reasonably good condition, bringing him books and food.
Evil Former Friend: Becomes this in Raising Steam to Albrecht Albrechtsson, who turns his back on Ardent and refuses to work with him. Ardent, while imprisoning him for defiance, spares him and treats him better than most of his prisoners.
Fantastic Racism: Against Trolls, big time. He believes hatred of trolls is central to the dwarven identity. Raising Steam makes this expand towards goblins, humans and basically anything he deems "non dwarf".
From Nobody to Nightmare: If he was telling the truth, he started Thud as an "assistant" to Hamcrusher and the other venerable grags, but then took advantage of Hamcrusher's death to become de facto leader of them. By the time of Raising Steam, he's the outright leader of the extremists.
Hate Sink: He's so bigoted, hateful and petty that even his one redeeming trait of sparing Albrecht Albrechtsson doesn't really do much to alleviate him of this status.
Kick the Dog:
- To frame a troll for the death of Hamcrusher, Ardent ordered Helmclever to bash in Ham's skull with a club he was gifted by Mr Shine, Diamond King of Trolls. When Helmclever refused, Ardent took the club out his hands and did the work himself, sullying Helm's gift and traumatising him. Sending a suicide squad to attack Vimes's family was similarly cruel, and also pointlessly antagonistic.
- In Steam, he orders a follower to attack a wedding between a human male and a female dwarf in remote Llamedos, resulting in two deaths including the bride. There's no reason for this except petty spite.
Knight Templar: In his eyes, deviating from the word of Tak — as he alone interprets it — is enough to merit death.
Non-Action Big Bad: Is an interpreter of dwarf law, not really a warrior. Grag Bashfullsson is able to defeat him relatively easily using a type of martial art at the end of Thud! even though Ardent has grabbed an axe from a dark guard and Bashfullsson is unarmed. His coup in Raising Steam is undone pretty much just by Rhys managing to make it back to Uberwald on Iron Girder, at which point what little support he has left dissolves and he's taken into custody.
No True Scotsman: A really bad case of this. He deems any attempt to modernise dwarf culture a heretical offence and will have it punished mercilessly, and is similarly remorseless about punishing any dwarf that dares to be feminine.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He claims to be willing to do the acts he does for the benefit of all dwarves, but given how quickly he'll have them murdered even if they're loyal to him, this is obviously bullshit.
Oh, Crap!: In Thud!, when Carrot discovers evidence that supports Ardent's claim that a troll got loose in the mine and killed Hamcrusher. This is because Ardent had made it up in order to try and cover up the fact that one of the other grags had murdered Hamcrusher and so really wasn't expecting there to be evidence suggesting a troll was in the mine that he had not already planted.
Opportunistic Bastard: He may not have killed Hamcrusher himself... but he sure as hell took advantage of the death to rise the ranks and terrorise people, in the process desecrating his old boss's body.
Pet the Dog: His sole redeeming trait; in Raising Steam, he spares the life of Albrecht Albrechtsson despite the latter openly defying him, when Ardent would have killed many for much less. He also has him treated reasonably well as a prisoner.
Renegade Splinter Faction: By Raising Steam even most of the Dwarf fundamentalists think his faction is just insane. Unfortunately they have the loyalty of the Delver troops and just enough popular support to seize power in the absence of the King.
Rogues' Gallery Transplant: One of the few Discworld villains to survive out of his first book, Ardent started as a Watch villain but became a direct threat to Moist von Lipwig in Raising Steam. This wasn't too jarring a transition, as both work in Ankh-Morpork, and the Watch play a major supporting role in Steam.
Smug Snake: For all his plotting and smug sense of superiority, he’s quickly reduced to ranting and raving when his plans begin to come undone. Even when he manages to oust Rhys Rhysson while the Low King is away in Ankh-Morpork in Raising Steam, the strain of trying to hold his powerbase together while Rhys is speeding along on Iron Girder back to Uberwald to reclaim his throne sends Ardent into near hysterics.
Stupid Evil: Ardent is not good at keeping his enemies placated, and one reason he fails is because he pisses off everyone. Special mention goes to trying to assassinate a child to scare the parent from investigating... no prizes for guessing how that works out.
Took a Level in Jerkass: He was never "nice", but he somehow becomes even more unpleasant in his second appearance, becoming much more active in his attempts to kill the king and anyone he disagrees with.
Ungrateful Bastard: After his first defeat, which happened just after he attempted regicide directly, the Low King pardons him for his crimes. This does squat to stop Ardent scheming to depose him again.
Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Not so much in Thud, which got dark in several places (partly because of him), but more in Raising Steam; the book is generally Lighter and Softer, until Ardent's reign of terror and insane fundamentalism comes into play.
Villainous Breakdown: Once in each book. In Thud, he goes nuts when he hears the Device and attempts a suicide attack on Rhys, which fails. In Raising Steam he goes to hysterics when the plans fall to pieces, then quiet defiance and terror for his life.
Would Hurt a Child: Orders his followers to kill Young Sam. The attempt fortunately fails.

Goblin Smuggling Conspiracy — Unmarked Spoilers

A conspiracy that serve as the main antagonists in Snuff.

Gravid Rust

The son of Lord Ronald Rust and head of the conspiracy.

Bad Boss: Aside from all the events of Snuff which make this a whopping understatement, he's implied to be the previously-mentioned son of Lord Rust who shot his servant for mixing up his left and right boots.
Fantastic Racism: He seemed to view the goblins as cheap and exploitable slave labour.
The Ghost: Literally never appears in person, but still manages to be loathsome.
Hate Sink: Especially impressive on Pterry's part, since he never appears in person. Gravid is pointlessly cruel, petty and stupid, inspiring revulsion even in his own subordinates.
Smug Snake: So goddamn smug that even Stratford hates him.

The Magistrates

Local magistrates who act as the de facto lawmakers in the region despite not having any actual legal standing.

Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: As far as they are concerned, they are the legal power and the laws of Ankh-Morpork have no standing over them. Vimes takes serious issue with this.

Stratford

The Dragon to Gravid Rust.

Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed, he has no problem with the evil he or his boss does... But apparently Gravid really is that insufferable, and Stratford immediately volunteers evidence against him once caught.
The Heavy: As his boss never appears, Stratford is the main antagonist and the one overseeing the trafficking. This also makes him especially loathsome.
Impostor Forgot One Detail: The act of "innocent crewman on a ship" might have fooled somebody who wasn't Vimes, but Vimes notes that an actual sailor would've been better prepared for the roughness of the river, whereas Stratford keeps being knocked over.
The Nondescript: An associate has difficulty ascribing any memorable features to Stratford, but notes to Vimes this is only until he gets angry, "and then he looks like Stratford."
Stupid Evil: He might have lived — since goblins weren't considered sapient and the law doesn't apply retroactively, but he just had to try and make an attempt on Sam's family. Willikins took him out effortlessly.
Would Hurt a Child: See Stupid Evil above. After Vimes gets the better of him, Stratford manages to escape and sneaks aboard the riverboat to attempt to murder Young Sam in the night.

Ankh-Morpork villains (William de Worde, Moist von Lipwig)

The New Firm

A pair of crooks consisting of Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip. They were hired to discredit Vetinari in The Truth in a plot to overthrow him.

Bad Habits: Mr. Pin dresses as an Omnian priest as a disguise, while Mr. Tulip dons a "Vestigial" Virgin's habit.
Bantering Baddie Buddies: They were designed as a homage to several other examples on this list. They engage in banter inspired by Pulp Fiction, and are collectively referred to as The New Firm in reference to Neverwhere's Old Firm. They're quite violence-prone, and Pin is smarter than drug- (and not-drug-) addled Tulip, though Tulip does have a surprisingly extensive knowledge of art.
Bond Villain Stupidity: Genre Savvy Mr. Tulip notices something is wrong when Mr. Pin fails to kill Mr. Slant (with fire, from which even a zombie would be hard-pressed to come back), especially when Pin mutters something about "I think I shall let you live today."
Brains and Brawn: Pin is the brains, Tulip is the brawn (outside of his encyclopaedic knowledge of art).
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Mr. Tulip believes, but he doesn't believe in anything in particular, which causes something of a problem after he dies.
Cluster Bleep-Bomb: Played with. Somehow Mr. Tulip actually pronounces the dash.
Death Equals Redemption: It helps if Death gives you a little post-mortem therapy to help with the redemption. However, as Mr. Pin finds out too late, redemption is only possible if you're sincere about your regret for your crimes...
Fake High: Mr. Tulip never seems to get his hands on real drugs, but that doesn't stop him from claiming it keeps his mind sharp.
Freudian Excuse: Something very bad happened to Mr. Tulip as a child.
Hidden Depths: Due in part to his terrible childhood, where the only thing of any value in his village was the decorations in the church, Mr. Tulip has an excellent knowledge of art history and value. He can also gauge a gem's worth by sight.
Horrifying the Horror: A mutual version occurs when the New Firm visits Biers, the city's bar for the undead, in hopes of intimidating a werewolf into helping them track down Vetinari's terrier, Wuffles. Mr. Tulip's behavior has one of the residents asking if he's human, especially after he smashes a glass bottle against his head simply because he no longer needed it and putting it on a table was too much trouble. On the other side, when Mr. Pin asks the half-man, half-wolf to shift forms, the werewolf just gets bigger and hairier. The New Firm leave without their werewolf and feeling shook up — whilst the undead in Biers can be heard locking the door behind them, because they do not want Mr. Tulip coming back.
London Gangster: They fit the archetype, describe themselves as "the New Firm" and Ankh-Morpork is part London in its conception.
Madness Mantra: As Mr. Pin goes progressively crazier from his dose of negative light showing him all the people he's killed waiting for him on the other side of death, he starts frantically muttering how he "wasn't born to fry." He is reincarnated as a potato, which is promptly made into crisps and chips.
Narrative Profanity Filter: Played with. At first it seems as though Mr Tulip's use of "——ing" is a 19th-century-style censoring of the F-word, but it turns out that what he's saying is actually just a glottal stop and then "Ing!" When Sacharissa decides to try out swearing, she clearly can't reproduce the glottal stop correctly.
Nuns Are Spooky: Mr Tulip briefly disguises himself as a Nun, and he's pretty spooky... but Sacharissa claims that the nuns who taught at her school were far worse.
Poor Communication Kills: The New Firm is much less effective than they should be because their employers neglected to mention a lot of things. They are not —ing happy about this.
Reincarnation: Pin and Tulip both get this after death. Mr Tulip ^note comes back as a woodworm in William's antique desk, happily enjoying fine works as he did in his previous life. Mr Pin^note is reincarnated as a potato in his former likeness that was destined to fry. To further add to the Disc's twist on this, both also happen to be reincarnated to a point in time before their deaths.
Sanity Slippage: Pin starts losing it after Otto took a picture using forces he probably shouldn't be messing with, and he got an eyeful of everyone he'd ever killed waiting for him on the other side of death.
Shout-Out:
- Mr. Pin has "'Not a Nice Person at All' done in pokerwork on his purse", Mr. Tulip at one point elaborates on "get[ting] medieval on his arse" at some length (see under Noodle Implements), and Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip discuss foreign food at one point, including "what they call sausage-in-a-bun in Quirm." When discussing whether or not people will take a dog's word as evidence, Mr. Slant points out "A dog has personality. Personality counts for a lot."
- They call themselves the "New Firm," which has to be a reference to Neverwhere's "the Old Firm" (where there's a New, there must be an Old), though the characters themselves and the general idea behind them are based on a common archetype, not direct Expys.
Sir Swearsalot: Subverted with Mr Tulip, who doesn't —ing swear. He just says "—ing" a —ing lot.
Small Name, Big Ego: Mr. Tulip and Mr. Pin, big time. They believe they are absolutely the latest, greatest thing in crime and that Ankh-Morpork's underworld is full of lily-livered amateurs. While they're moderately intelligent, running a scheme that would have worked if not for The Times (Vimes' hands were tied by politics) and Tulip is a dangerous fighter, they're pawns in the hands of more powerful players and never catch on that Ankh-Morpork is to evil and corruption what guns are to bullets and the only reason the city's criminals no longer try to upset the status quo is that is they're up against two of the most fearsome forces on the Disc: Vetinari's intelligence and Sam Vimes's dedication to the law.
The Stoner: Mr. Tulip wants to be one, to the end of snorting just about every powder he gets his hands on. Unfortunately for him he can't actually tell what is a drug and what isn't.
In a street where furtive people were selling Clang, Slap, Chop, Rhino, Skunk, Triplin, Floats, Honk, Double Honk, Gongers, and Slack, Mr. Tulip had an unerring way of finding the man who was retailing curry powder at what worked out as six hundred dollars a pound.
Straight Edge Evil: In contrast to Mr. Tulip, who will snort anything he believes will get him high, Mr. Pin considers his body a temple: he doesn't drink, and his only vice is the occasional cigar. (He doesn't consider killing people a vice.)
Verbal Tic: Mr. Tulip's got a ——ing bad one. It's implied for most of the book that the word is censored, but it turns out he's actually pronouncing it that way.
Villainous Breakdown: Mr. Pin. Big time. All because of Otto taking a picture that involved forces he probably shouldn't be messing with. The effect it had on Mr. Pin was scary, to say the least.
Villainous BSoD: Mr. Tulip, after Death shows him his life "as it flashed before other people's eyes".

Lord de Worde

The mastermind of the plot to overthrow Vetinari in The Truth.

Abusive Parents: Lord de Worde was not one for defiance, and William was a particularly defiant son, though he never laid a hand on him personally. He had people to do that for him.
Bad People Abuse Animals: Mentioned as having his butlers leave poisoned food out for stray dogs.
"Begone" Bribe: William pays his father a generous estimate of what it cost to raise him in order to sever any remaining ties between them. The money isn't the thing, as Lord de Worde has gold in his DNA, but instead is based on the Dwarfish tradition in which betrothed dwarves buy one another from their parents (covering the costs of raising them) to symbolise their independence. Lord de Worde refuses to accept it, telling William to keep it with his blessing, as William has proved that he is "most certainly a de Worde."
Berserk Button: He is one to William.
Calling the Old Man Out: Eventually done by William to his father.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Lord de Worde is horrified to learn that the New Firm tried to kill William. It doesn't stop him from trying to ship William to another continent to stop his interference, but it's the thought that counts.
Foreshadowing: In one meeting of the Committee To Unelect The Patrician, the lead shadowy figure says the novel's Arc Words ("A lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on"). This is a major hint to the reveal that Lord de Worde is the Big Bad.
Gone Horribly Right: Part of his raising in William instilled a conviction to not telling lies. Needless to say, it backfired on him spectacularly.
Graceful Loser: After his final confrontation with William, he tells his son to keep his "Begone" Bribe with his blessing, because he is "most certainly a de Worde."
Karma Houdini: Despite being responsible for the Committee to Un-Elect the Patrician, and the crimes of Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip, he's allowed to go into exile, a comparatively minor sentence given he still has his money. However, it is noted that if Vetinari were to investigate, really investigate, he'd likely find out the truth quickly enough, and then those responsible would be... dealt with.
Lean and Mean: When finally seen out of the shadows, he's mentioned as being quite thin. He's also a total bastard.
Let's Get Dangerous!: Interestingly, even though it's specifically said that he never gets his hands dirty with violence — he has men for that — he seems to be pretty good with a sword in the final confrontation. Of course, facing a vampire, that doesn't help him very much... William does mention several times that the one thing the de Wordes are expected to excel at is charging into battle.
Like Father, Like Son: William doesn't appreciate the comparison. They're both arrogant, single-minded, stubborn jerks. Where they are different, however, is that William tries not to be — and weaponises it to good ends.
"Not So Different" Remark: William and his father, as noted by more than one character.
William: Of all the bone-headed, stubborn, self-centered, arrogant—
Otto: But you make up for it in other vays.
William: I meant my father.
Oh, Crap!: About the only time his composure breaks is when William points out his crimes count as treason, and that's a capitol offense if he were found out.
Parental Favoritism: William was the spare to the first-born, Rupert, who got the classical education at the Assassin's Guild while William was shipped off to the cheaper boarding school for idiots, even though as a de Worde he could've afforded to send them both.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Classist, and racist in both the Fantastic and regular sense. About the only thing he's not is sexist.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The sort of person who feels the law is for other, poorer people, and if someone tries to make them apply to him will either kill them or buy their way out of trouble, a strategy less likely to work in Vetinari's Ankh-Morpork. He's lucky his son caught him out rather than Vimes, for whom this sort of mentality is a sore spot.
So Proud of You: A warped version of this at the end when he tells William to keep his "Begone" Bribe and goes anyway, because he is "most certainly a de Worde". William is not exactly happy about this.
Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: After he figures out the plot against the Patrician, William gives his father some of the jewels taken from Mr. Pin, essentially repaying the cost of raising him and buying himself out of the family, but Lord de Worde tells him to keep it with his blessing because William is "most certainly a de Worde".

Reacher Gilt

Big Bad of Going Postal. Gilt is the new head of the Grand Trunk, the company that runs the Clacks.

Always Someone Better: Moist thinks this at first glance, when he and Gilt recognise each other for what they are, thinking in awe that he would gladly apprentice himself to Gilt to learn how to do stuff like the three card trick with whole banks. The main sticking point, however, is that Gilt is a bastard and Moist, conman though he may be, is not. In the end, Moist turns out to be this, out-gambitting and destroying Gilt with nothing more than words. Gilt acknowledges this by sending Moist his Pirate Parrot.
Animal Motifs: He's frequently likened to a hungry tiger.
Eyepatch of Power: Wears one as part of the whole "pirate" getup.
Faux Affably Evil: His polite act is almost always an act, and it's noted by several characters that despite his calling people "friend", they're horribly unnerved.
Humans Are the Real Monsters: Gilt's Igor comes to this conclusion, being particularly unnerved by him even after working with werewolves and vampires. As Igor comes to think of it, "at least in Uberwald a monster had the decency to look like one".
I Die Free: Opts to walk into the pit of spikes rather than become a Boxed Crook, though it's possible he didn't look down.
Meaningless Meaningful Words: Like any conman, he's good at stringing people along with utter bullshit. At one point, Moist sees some particularly meaningless guff of his printed out in the newspaper, and thinks of the skill at how decent words could be stripped of all meaning by Gilt ("though "synergistically" had probably been a whore from the start").
Pirate: Dresses like a high-class buccaneer as one as a part of his act.
Pirate Parrot: Not actually a pirate, but he dresses like one and keeps a cockatoo called Alphonse, which says "Twelve and a half percent!" repeatedly^note12.5% is 1/8th — pieces of eight. He gives it to Moist after deciding to flee Ankh-Morpork before getting captured by Mr. Pump.
Pragmatic Villainy:
- When a subordinate comes to him and inadvertently allows a spy to follow him to Gilt's house, Gilt... has his Igor escort the subordinate home and ensure he gets into bed safely. Then he has his banshee assassin kill him some time later, so as to minimise suspicion and leave no proof. Vetinari still believes he's responsible, but doesn't actually have anything he can act on.
- Notably averted by his live-action counterpart, who is very much Stupid Evil.
Refuge in Audacity: The man dresses like a pirate and openly admits he's not trustworthy, causing everyone to trust him and think of Gilt as a Lovable Rogue.
Villain Respect:
- A very brief one, but he and Vetinari both play Thud and share a glance when Horsefry, one of Gilt's stupider associates, dismisses it on the grounds that "the dwarfs always win" (when one Thud expert in the next book remarks that among the best players, the feeling is that the balance is actually marginally in favour of the trolls), one that the narrative sums up as, "I may hate you and your personal philosophy to a depth not previously believed possible, but I will at least give you the credit of not being Crispin Horsefry."
- Mixed with Graceful Loser, but he acknowledges Moist's victory as the superior conman by sending him his Pirate Parrot.

Mr Gryle

The Dragon to Reacher Gilt in Going Postal, Gryle is a wild banshee and Gilt's head assassin.

The Ace: He's extremely good at his job, described as being able to beat a vampire in seconds while leaving behind so little trace that not even a werewolf can track him.
Achilles' Heel: Banshees have to close their eyes when they scream, and have extremely fragile necks in contrast to their other bones. Though this isn't what kills him.
Ambiguously Human: Initially, it's not exactly clear what he is, with even Gilt's Igor not being sure and getting the creeps around him.
Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: He's easily distracted by shiny things, like Moist's golden suit.
Ax-Crazy: Gryle would never blackmail someone, because he'd prefer to save time by killing them right now. He would be considered insane "by the usual human standards", though presumably banshee standards are different.
Big Eater: Eats seven feral pigeons in one night, which comes back to bite him later.
Bizarre Alien Biology: Banshees have two hearts, extremely strong chest muscles (since they can fly), and surprisingly fragile necks.
The Dragon: To Reacher Gilt, as his chief assassin.
*Drool* Hello: He reveals himself to Stanley by dropping a half-eaten pigeon on his head.
Hoist by Their Own Petard: Part of the reason Stanley is able to overpower him, and later Moist is able to outthink him, is because he's partially driven by instinct, but also because he made the tremendous mistake of eating a feral Ankh-Morpork pigeon. He's going half-mad from food poisoning by the time Moist gets to the post office.
The Food Poisoning Incident: Manages to poison himself by eating Ankh-Morpork pigeons, which are described as effluent on wings.
Horrifying the Horror: He's able to make an Igor feel uneasy, who have usually Seen It All and are completely unfazed by anything from Uberwald.
Idiot Ball: Gryle grabs it with both hands during the assassination attempt on Moist. First of all he eats seven pigeons on the way there and gives himself food poisoning. Despite presumably living in a city overrun with pigeons for some time, he's apparently forgotten how to curb that instinct, and berates himself for doing so. Worse, he then blatantly announces his presence to Stanley for absolutely no reason, giving Stanley time to react and hit him with a sack of pins. Both these decisions are jarringly out of character, as acting the same way on any of his numerous other missions would almost certainly have gotten him killed. It's possible that the sheer number of pigeons around the old Post Office building contributed to this.
Instant Messenger Pigeon: Contacted by messenger pigeon, though the pigeons never come back afterwards on account of his appetite.
Ludicrous Gibs: He's reduced to these after Moist shoves him into the Sorting Engine. The sight makes Moist vomit.
Monstrous Cannibalism: Mr. Gryle ate his grandmother. He gnawed her bones. Presumably this is normal behaviour for a banshee.
My Instincts Are Showing: He can't stop himself from eating pigeons, even though he knows he'll regret it later.
Our Banshees Are Louder: On the Disc, banshees seem to be skeletal, winged, humanoid creatures that evolved in some rainforest. Their scream does predict your death, but only because it means they're about to kill you.
Professional Killer: Works as one for Gilt, though unlike most Discworld assassins, he doesn't seem to be associated with the Guild.
Roar Before Beating: Feral banshees scream before killing someone, though you'd think it'd be easier for them to stay silent and take their prey by surprise. What makes it even worse is that they have to close their eyes while doing it, which makes them very vulnerable.
Terse Talker: Mr. Gryle doesn't do small talk. Or even beat around the bush.
Trademark Favourite Food: He really likes pigeons.
Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Plans to go and throw up over a busy street. Whether that's out of convenience or sadistic pleasure isn't clear.
Worf Had the Flu: One of the reasons he was able to be defeated was because he was suffering from food poisoning at the time.

Cosmo Lavish

The main antagonist of Moist von Lipwig during Making Money.

Always Someone Better: Cosmo is actually an intelligent and competent Chessmaster outside of his obsession with Vetinari, but Vetinari still makes him look like an idiot child. Compare and contrast their ways of subtly threatening someone. Cosmo makes a few oblique references to the past, making it clear he remembers what this person did and what they would not like to come out. Vetinari, on the other hand, chats about genuinely completely unrelated topics, well aware that the person he's talking to knows exactly what he has over them without having to say a word about it.
Big, Screwed-Up Family: He is part of one; the Lavishes hate each other only slightly less than they do the lower classes.
Body Horror: As a part of Cosmo's attempts to mimic Lord Vetinari, he wears a copy of the Patrician's ring that is much too small for his hand. The blood supply to his finger is so severely compromised that the finger eventually becomes gangrenous, only being unnoticed because of the gloves Cosmo wore. We don't get a proper description of the result, but it has "green mushrooms" and Moist notes the "colors" and the "wriggling things", and the stench causes a bystander to throw up. Moist tricks Cosmo into exposing the ring to direct sunlight, and the special properties of the metal it's made of cause the ring to get super-hot and burn his finger clean off (saving his life from further gangrene and resulting septicaemia).
Butterfly of Transformation: Cosmo invokes this as he's psychologically breaking down.
Comically Small Bribe: Cosmo offers Moist $10,000 for Mr. Fusspot, even though he'll get twice that every year for watching him plus a lot of other perks. He later explains to the other Lavishes that this was meant to be insultingly small; Moist would worry about their inevitable attempt at a takeover if they did nothing, but now he thinks they're just idiots.
Conspicuous Gloves: Cosmo Lavish wears gloves to hide the ring he wears, both because it's stolen property and because it's made of stygium, a metal that glows white-hot in sunlight.
Fascinating Eyebrow: Cosmo attempts to train himself to emulate Vetinari's use of this, complete with a special device. The results are less than ideal. He ends up in the "Vetinari ward", where members have eyebrow-raising competitions. He even wins one.
Fat Bastard: A key way of distinguishing Cosmo from Vetinari. This causes problems on account of Cosmo's replica ring being too small for his finger.
Hollywood Restraining Order: Has one against his sister Pucci:
Cosmo: ... and you are forbidden to come within fifteen yards of me. I have an injunction.
Pucci: And you're not allowed to be within twenty yards of me, so you broke it first.
I Just Want to Be You: Cosmo towards Vetinari (see below).
Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Cosmo Lavish is plotting to overthrow Lord Vetinari by becoming Lord Vetinari. His plans to achieve this go as far as to steal the Patrician's boots and jewelry, and copy his manner of dress and facial hair at all times. Later, we find there is an entire ward of a hospital devoted to people who think they're Vetinari.
Meaningful Name: A meta-version for his family name, Lavish: the adjective of 'lavish' means 'sumptuously rich, elaborate or luxurious', and the Lavish family are definitely that. Also, he is named after a luxury item: i.e. Cosmo = Cosmopolitan, a cocktail that is generally regarded as sophisticated; for added PTerry trademark wordplay, cosmopolitan is also a term meaning worldly-wise and experienced in the world at large.
Napoleon Delusion: In the end, Cosmo is taken to a lunatic asylum which has a whole ward full of people who also think they're Vetinari.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Cosmo's attempt to bribe Moist with a bank certificate is exactly what gives Moist the idea of paper money.
"Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers one to his entire family, pointing out that the predicament they're in is their fault, and that contrary to their snobbish beliefs, his stepmother Topsy was actually a lot better at all this than they were.
Replaced with Replica: Cosmo pays a lot of money to get his hands on Vetinari's stuff, including clothing. When he wants Vetinari's Sword Cane (supposedly made from the iron contained in the blood of a thousand men), his assistant has one made instead, as getting the real is too hard and because the one he makes is closer to Cosmo's idea of the sword Vetinari would have. The ring Cosmo gets is also a replica.
Room Full of Crazy: Cosmo's journal full of attempted signatures looks a lot like one: "Vetinari Vetinari Vetinari Vetinari Vetinari Vetinari Vetinari Vetinari Vetinari Vetinari Vetinari".
Sanity Slippage: Has a big one during the climax.
Worthy Opponent: For all that he and his stepmother Topsy hated each other, Cosmo clearly respected her, even — nay especially — after she successfully screwed him and his sister over from beyond the grave, to the point of openly defending her to the rest of his family. He regarded her as "cunning, devious, ruthless and merciless" — all the hallmarks of a true Lavish — and considered that his father had chosen his wife well. (Topsy, for her part, clearly did not regard Cosmo this way.)

Villains from other books (one-shots)

Dios

Big Bad of Pyramids. Dios is a High Priest among High Priests in Djelibeybi.

Anti-Villain: One of the more morally grey Discworld villains. He is completely devoid of personal malice or desire for gain, being a fully Well-Intentioned Extremist who simply wants tradition to persist forever. In pursuit of that vision, however, he does commit some pretty horrendous actions, such as ordering Ptraci's execution, or having the hand of a labourer cut off after Teppic unwittingly shook hands with him.
Bald of Evil: He's got no hair on his head, and while not actually evil per se, he is the antagonist of the book.
Creature of Habit: He can't fathom doing things differently, to the point where he stands in the exact same spot every day, next to the throne. The floor has been worn down so that an imprint of his feet is visible.
Death Glare: Gives such a potent one when looking for Ptraci that Teppic is surprised the walls didn't melt.
Determinator: It's implied he's holding off dying of old age by nothing more than sheer force of will.
Doublethink: He's well aware of the various contradictions in the Djel worship systems (some of which he actually invented), but he whole-heartedly believes in all them anyway.
Dramatic Sit-Down: Is so shocked when Teppic refuses to follow the rituals he sits down on a chair that happened to have a model ship on it. And again when the entire pantheon appears in Djelibeybi.
Evil Chancellor: More an evil priest but the trope is referenced in describing Dios, though unlike other examples of this trope on the Disc, he isn't malicious.
The Fog of Ages: At the very end, when it's revealed just how old he is, he actually hesitates as he tries to think about his family, which he presumes he must have had at some point.
Gag Nose: He's apparently got a huge conk on him, which apparently lends itself to High Priesthood.
Rage Against the Heavens: When the gods of Djelibeybi start showing up, he's actually outraged, planning to go give them a Severe Talking To.
Stable Time Loop: Turns out to be stuck in one. When the energy in the pyramids is unleashed, Dios is sent back to the past when Djelibeybi is founded with no memory and does all the same things that led to the present.
Strange-Syntax Speaker: As Pteppic notes early on, Dios never ever uses the past tense, referring to even Djelibeybi's long-deceased rulers in the present tense.
Time Abyss: As a result of the Stable Time Loop, it's impossible to know how old he truly is, and even he's forgotten.
Twisting the Words: Any time his majesty King Pteppicymion XXVII, Lord of the Heavens, Charioteer of the Wagon of the Sun, Steersman of the Barque of the Sun, Guardian of the Secret Knowledge, Lord of the Horizon, Keeper of the Way, the Flail of Mercy, the High-Born One, the Never-Dying King issues any kind of declaration, Dios "interprets" it for him. Usually in a way completely at odds with what Teppic actually said, but no one dares contradict Dios.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Why is Dios manipulating generations of kings? Is it greed? Megalomania? For the Evulz? No, it's for the kingdom; he sincerely believes following tradition for eternity is the right thing to do.

Vorbis

Villain of Small Gods, Vorbis is head of the Exquisitioners of the Omnian Church.

And I Must Scream: Vorbis's final fate — an eternity in the absolute silence of his own mind, all alone with himself — is subverted when Brutha mercifully takes him to the afterlife.
Bad Boss: On realizing there's a secret tunnel from the Ephebian library, Vorbis tells a captain to take some men to examine the tunnel, which will almost certainly be filled with deadly traps.
Bald of Evil: He deliberately shaves his head.
Black Eyes of Evil: He has this. It's said that it has something to do with his coming from a tribe living deep in the desert, a Shout-Out to Dune.
Church Militant: Vorbis is this. Ultimately he cares more about his personal power and the power of the church than the god it was supposed to be dedicated to. Part of what makes him frightening is how completely unaware he is of this; he believes he's following the commands of his god all the way to end, until he passes to the desert and finally learns that he's only been hearing himself. And now that's all the company he'll ever have...
The Corrupter: Vorbis is noted at least twice to have a tendency to make those around him more like himself.
Death Equals Redemption: In a manner of speaking..
Didn't See That Coming: Someone acting contrary to his expectations seems to be the easiest way to get an actual emotional reaction from Vorbis — first when Didactylos doesn't remain defiant in the face of certain, eventual death and decides to recant his work, and later when Brutha nearly slaps him in front of everyone but doesn't.
The Dreaded: Outright called such, and with good reason, what with being the head of the Exquisition. Even his own underlings find themselves disturbed by Vorbis, and at one point the occupying force in Ephebe loses the fight against an uprising in part because of the simple fact that Vorbis isn't there to terrify them into fighting harder.
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humour: On the rare occasions Vorbis cracks a joke, they're completely lacking in actual humour, but everyone laughs like their lives depend on it. Which they do.
For the Evulz: That he would turn a supposedly helpless tortoise on its back just to see what would happen horrifies Om, and not just because he's the tortoise in question. Om reasons that if a man will turn a tortoise on its back, he'd do the same to the universe if given half a chance.
Heel Realization: Vorbis finally gets this after death, realising that he'd never actually been following the commandments of a god—that the only voice he'd ever heard came from his own head.
Humans Are Bastards: Why he approves of Punch-Clock Villains working in the torture cellars, because he feels it proves everything he thinks about other people utterly right.
Hypocrite: Among the many objects declared anathema by Omnian doctrine are mirrors, but Vorbis has no problem using a pair as part of his plan.
Kick the Dog: Commits several.
- Turns Om (whom he believes to be only a tortoise) on his back and props him with pebbles to ensure that he cannot right himself, just to see what would happen.
- Later forces the captain of the ship he's sailing on to harpoon a porpoise, because sailors generally believe that killing a porpoise is bad luck, a foolish superstition that must be overcome in the fundamental truth of Omnian doctrine. The sailors are right; Om is forced to make a bargain with the local sea goddess to spare him and Brutha. Later the ship does indeed sink as a direct result of Om's bargain (though a bit of bad luck and timing was involved), though after Om, Brutha, Vorbis and Simony have all disembarked.
Lean and Mean: His asceticism seems to emphasize how much of a genuine fanatic he is, while his power could doubtless have let him get away with being a hypocritically pleasure-seeking Adipose Rex.
Nothing Personal: A brief glimpse into the mind of one of the Exquisition has this as his reason he finds Vorbis so disturbing — most of the Exquisition are either Punch Clock Villains or people who want to hurt other people for a living. Vorbis has people horrifically tortured to death on the grounds that they've sinned, but doesn't even grant them the dignity of hating them for it. ^note
Obfuscating Disability: Vorbis pulls a chilling example of this on Brutha as they are about to leave the desert.
Pet the Dog: A man comes to Vorbis bringing word of the proto-tank being built, hoping that it would earn the release of his incarcerated father. Vorbis outright states that he knows that he would be in league with the rebels if not for his father... and nonetheless orders that the father be released. It appears for a moment that he is Baiting the Dog by asking an inquisitor if they know where the man lives, but never follows up on it. Then again, Vorbis may simply not have gotten around to it. He was rather busy from that point until he died.
- Then again, it may simply be a case of Pragmatic Villainy, since screwing over someone who is bringing you useful information will quickly stop people from bringing that information to you.
The Plan: Vorbis's plans, among other things, include invading Ephebe by sending the Omnian fleet to attack Ephebe directly — and getting burned by a giant Ephebian magnifying glass — partly as a justification to his main plan to cross the desert, helped by several expeditions that left caches of food and water along the way. Pratchett referred to it as "planning your counter-attack before your attack." If the first attack works, excellent. If not, it sets up the second. Vorbis may be the most frightening villain Pratchett has ever created, because he is essentially what Vetinari would be if he were actually evil and sadistic.
Schmuck Bait: Very fond of using it. People are noted to be afraid of asking him what he's thinking about in case the answer is "you".
Straight Edge Evil: Despite some characters suspecting that he enjoys a luxurious life behind closed doors, he genuinely lives like an ascetic, consuming nothing but water and stale bread. (If given fresh bread, he waits for it to get stale.) It's one of the signs that he truly believes in the Omnian Church.

Characters / Discworld Villains

Rincewind and the Wizards series

Ankh-Morpork United in general

Andy Shank

Witches and Tiffany Aching

Death series

City Watch series

Gravid Rust

The Magistrates

Stratford

Ankh-Morpork villains (William de Worde, Moist von Lipwig)

Villains from other books (one-shots)

Previous

Index

Next

Characters / Discworld Villains

Edit Locked

Rincewind and the Wizards series

Ankh-Morpork United in general

Andy Shank

Witches and Tiffany Aching

Death series

City Watch series

Gravid Rust

The Magistrates

Stratford

Ankh-Morpork villains (William de Worde, Moist von Lipwig)

Villains from other books (one-shots)

Previous

Index

Next