History Characters / DiscworldDeathAndCompany

[[AC:What can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the reaper man?]]

* BadassBaritone: Always described as having an impossibly deep voice. ''Maskerade'' specifies him as a bass. Therefore it shouldn't be a surprise that more than once in adaptations he's been voiced by Creator/ChristopherLee.
* BerserkButton: He takes the long view and doesn't lose his temper over most things. But he can be angered. (You don't want that). Hypocrisy can do it; hubris; obviously interfering with the balance of life and death; less obviously, cruelty to cats. He had a grudge against Rincewind for a while, due to the latter's tendency to ''not'' die on schedule, but eventually, he just comes to accept that Rincewind is a CosmicPlaything.

* ChessWithDeath: Anyone he comes to collect is free to challenge him to any game of skill, with chess being a popular choice. It's a waste of time, because he's not actually capable of losing legitimately, regardless of the fact that he can never remember "how the little horse-shaped ones move". On the other hand, when Granny Weatherwax challenges him to a hand of poker to settle the fate of a newborn child, he concedes the game to her as she has four Queens, whereas all he has are four "ones" (Ace beats Queen in most hand combinations in Poker).
** One recently deceased challenged him to a game of golf. Which turned out to be a terrible idea, as Death has had a ''lot'' of practice with his swing.

* CreativeSterility: Death can't create life, and he can only really copy things. He also doesn't quite understand the purpose of the things he makes or how they work, so he may build pipes but forget they're supposed to be hollow, make towels with no idea they're supposed to be fluffy and absorbent, or make a swing in a tree by removing the trunk, leaving the rest of the tree in place - still growing. [[note]]Funnily enough, the way he changes and maladapts the things he copies shows that what he's making isn't just facsimile but holds some spark of original component... even if it doesn't function properly (if it functioned properly it ''would'' be just a copy).[[/note]]
* DarkIsNotEvil: The Discworld is full of these, but he's definitely a standout given the combo of black cloak and compassion.

'''Death:''' '''Well...yes.'''\\

** According to Creator/TerryPratchett, he sometimes received very nice letters from [[TearJerker people who knew they were due to meet the Reaper]] (specifically, terminally ill children), and hope that Pratchett has got him right. Such letters caused the author to stare at the wall for a while.

* DeathsHourglass: Even ''Death himself'' has one - it's huge, intangible and completely empty of sand. Another noteworthy hourglass is the one belonging to Rincewind, which has been through so many bizarre magical catastrophes it doesn't look like an hourglass so much as a piece of modern art made out of silicon by a glass-blower with hiccups and schizophrenia. Nobody, not even Death, knows when it's going to run out. He keeps it on his desk.

* ManipulativeBastard: For someone who doesn't understand humanity very well to begin with, he gets ''very'' good at this as time goes by, manipulating Susan in ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'' to set her on the necessary track to solve the problem of the book - which was rather necessary, since the villain had gone to a place where Death explicitly cannot go. He did it so subtly that the Auditors, who are well practised at LoopholeAbuse, realised that they couldn't get him for involving someone else.

* PapaWolf: Has a soft spot for children, especially his adopted daughter Ysabelle. [[spoiler: During his battle with Mort he becomes even more furious when he believes that she has been seduced by Mort.]]
** This later extends to his granddaughter, Susan (though she's generally very capable of looking after herself), with it being indicated that his actions/the nature of his intervention in ''Literature/SoulMusic'' were driven by the fact that [[spoiler: the Music]] had upset Susan by [[spoiler: killing Imp/Buddy]].

* PowerOfRock: During ''Literature/SoulMusic''. Or rather, the inversion (CreativeSterility, remember?). Death can play only one note. [[spoiler: Specifically, the empty chord - the silence indicating there will be no more sound.]]

* TranquilFury: Since he doesn't really have glands for emotions as such, his anger - when he does get angry - tends to be of this variety. This is shown most spectacularly at the climax of ''{{Literature/Hogfather}}.''

[[AC:Squeak]]

* KnowWhenToFoldThem: The Grim Squeaker's Duty is said to be simpler than Death's - no ghosts, zombies, or related complications to deal with - because small rodents comply with this trope instead of raising a fuss.

A talking raven, who is really the pet of a wizard, but has a job on the side as the Death of Rats's personal sidekick, translator and even occasional transport. Claims quite truthfully to be mainly in it for the eyeballs, and refuses on general principle to say [[Literature/TheRaven "the N-word."]] [[note]] [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant This "N-word" has nothing to do with]] NWordPrivileges. [[/note]]

* EyeScream: Quoth's openness about his appetite for the eyeballs of carcasses has given Susan many a Squicky reaction.

[[hardline]]

* FlatEarthAtheist: Literally. Her parents raised her as such to try and keep her away from her grandfather - not so much out of dislike towards him, as a desire to give her a normal life, especially after she demonstrated inclinations towards the occult (and since both her parents had seen what a human with Death's mantle could be like - her father, as Death's Apprentice - they were understandably scared witless). In her first appearance in ''Literature/SoulMusic'' she doesn't believe in all this "Death" nonsense despite the events occurring or the fact that her grandfather is Death himself, her father was his apprentice, and her mother is his adoptive daughter. She tries it again rather half-heartedly at the start of ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'', in respect to the Death of Rats and Quoth, but stops bothering.

* {{Irony}}: Of a curiously tragic sort. While she is more human than her grandfather, she is more cynical and condescending to them in comparison to him. Justified though in that she has a better view of humanity and their dark side, and so would rather not deal with them as much as he has to.
** She is also critical of her grandfather trying out new things and feels he should stick to his duty... while she herself tries new things. She does admit that it's personal: whenever her grandfather is sidetracked, which happens frequently, she's the only alternative to do her grandfather's job.

* RealityWarper: Not of the GameBreaker variety, but time and space have very fluid definitions to her and she moves around them in a different way than everyone else. Even resident badasses Albert and [[NeverMessWithGranny Nanny Ogg]] are creeped out and cautious around her. Mostly because sometimes she forgets about doors ...and walls. Of course, in Albert's case, that might have something to do with what happened after her father took on the Duty and became something ''worse'' than Death - specifically, what he nearly did to Albert.

[[folder:Albert / Alberto Malich]]

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: He seems to be a fairly harmless grumpy OldRetainer, but when he decides to reclaim his magic, he demonstrates that he's a force to be reckoned with - powerful enough, indeed, to take on Death on the mortal plane (whilst in the circle of the Rite of Ashe-Kente), being speculated to be as powerful as a Wizard could be without being a Sourcerer... but only if he'd had his staff. Unfortunately for him, the Librarian had hidden it.

* InstantDogEnd: Much like Nobby.
--> "Only an expert could get a rollup so thin and yet so soggy."

* RetiredBadass: He was head wizard back in the days when getting to the top meant vaporizing the guy above you, and then the guy above him... Many speculate that he was the most powerful a wizard could be without being a [[RealityWarper Sourcerer]], and the evidence seems to bear this out: he absolutely terrified the most powerful living wizards on the Disc when he went back to the world.

[[hardline]]

* DeathsHourglass: Everybody has a "lifetimer" and each is stylized to represent its owner. Late in the story, Mort has a close brush with Death and gets to see his own lifetimer -- turns out it's got a [[OhCrap lot less sand]] than he thought. [[spoiler: It gets turned upside down at the end, which is implied to give him the same number of years he's already had over again - though that still means that he dies relatively young.]]

* InsaneTrollLogic: He and Ysabell tried bringing Susan up "sensibly" in the hopes this would protect her from the weird aspects of her life. While this later is described as an approach compared to not teaching someone self-defense so they'll never get attacked, you can see their reasoning - Ysabell never had anything approaching a normal childhood (Death adopted her as a small child, then aged her up into a teenager on the grounds that would be easier to deal with - boy was he wrong about that - and the nature of Death's domain meant she never aged, being stuck at 16 for about 35 years), while Mort had a very frightening experience with how the mantle of Death can alter someone (he became a HumanoidAbomination towards the end of his apprenticeship, thanks to having all Death's power and detachment combined with all the nasty bits of humanity). Therefore, they probably thought that limiting Susan's exposure would keep her safe. It didn't turn out that way, but [[spoiler: they died before they found out]].

Death's coworkers, if you like, in the four horsemen of the Apocralypse - War, Pestilence and Famine. Due to reasons related to their business being much less common than Death's, they don't tend to show up as much. There's also a fifth member, Kaos, who left before they got famous.

* CoolHorse: They also have impressive, reality-defying steeds, but they're not as smart as Binky. They get nicked toward the end of ''Sourcery'', which puts the three out - they're the ''horsemen'', not the ''one horsemen and three pedestrians of the Apocralypse''.

[[/folder]]

* TheDreaded: as the Grim Reaper, everyone has an instinctual fear towards him for his responsibility in life's end' even his own family keeps their distance from him for his job. Death, however, doesn't end life; he takes life away only when it's ended on its own terms.

* DesignatedVillain: InUniverse; as the Grim Reaper, humanity has an instinctual fear towards him because they believe he's responsible for killing people and portrayed him as a monster to be feared. Death, however, is actually a benign figure and hates the belief that he kills people. Death isn't responsible for how people die, he just picks up the pieces and helps them reach the appropriate afterlife.

* ItRunsInTheFamily: All that death business flows down to her from ''both'' sides of the family tree.

* BerserkButton: He takes the long view and doesn't lose his temper over most things. But he can be angered. (You don't want that). Hypocrisy can do it; hubris; obviously interfering with the balance of life and death; less obviously, cruelty to cats. He had a grudge against Rincewind for a while, due to the latter's tendency to ''not'' die on schedule, but eventually, he just came to accept that Rincewind was a CosmicPlaything.

* ChessWithDeath: Anyone he comes to collect is free to challenge him to any game of skill, with chess being a popular choice. It's a waste of time, because he's not actually capable of losing legitimately, regardless of the fact that he can never remember "how the little horse-shaped ones move". On the other hand, when Granny Weatherwax challenged him to a hand of poker to settle the fate of a newborn child, he conceded the game to her as she had four Queens, whereas all he had is four "ones" (Ace beats Queen in most hand combinations in Poker).

* TheComicallySerious: His very serious-minded inability to really ''get'' human ideas is somewhere between hilarious, a little tragic, and oddly cute. Often, his cameo appearances consist of him just being in the area, not even having to do something, just speaking in [[AC:The Voice]], while the laughs come from the audience knowing what the characters don't.

* ChessWithDeath: Anyone he comes to collect is free to challenge him to any game of skill, with chess being a popular choice. It's a waste of time, because he's not actually capable of losing legitimately, regardless of the fact that he can never remember "how the little horse-shaped ones move". On the other hand, when Granny Weatherwax challenged him to a hand of poker to settle the fate of a newborn child, she had four Queens, whereas all he had is four "ones" (Ace beats Queen in most hand combinations in Poker).

* LiteralMinded: He has difficulty with metaphors and slang and the like, so it it just takes him a bit of a run-up to understand them.

%%* ExactWords: He uses this a lot, sometimes deliberately so.

[[IHaveManyNames The Stealer of Souls, Defeater of Empires, Swallower of Oceans, The Ultimate Reality, Harvester of Mankind,]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking "Picker-Up of Unconsidered Trifles"]], etc. Tall, bony fellow with a black robe and a scythe, [[AC: talks like this all the time.]] You'll know him when you see him... and you will. Most people, however, aren't aware that they're doing so, unless they're users of magic, dead/about to die or, for some reason, cats. Has developed a fondness for humans (and cats) over the centuries. He appears in more Discworld books than any other character (all of them except ''Literature/TheWeeFreeMen'' and ''Literature/{{Snuff}}'').

* ChessWithDeath: He hates it when someone invokes this, because he can never remember [[AC:how the little horse-shaped ones move]]. It's also a time waster, because he's not actually capable of losing legitimately. On the other hand, when Granny Weatherwax challenged him to a hand of poker to settle the fate of a newborn child, she had four Queens, whereas...
--> '''Death:''' [[AC:All I have is four ones.]]

'''Death:''' [[AC: Well...yes.]]\\

'''Death:''' [[AC: Er, when the pain is too much to bear.]] ''({{Beat}})'' [[AC: Even as I say it, I realise that this isn't the answer you were looking for, however.]]

'''Death:''' [[AC: Rare.]]

* ExactWords: He uses this a lot, sometimes deliberately so.
* GodJob: In the words of Mort, his one-time apprentice, [[AC: Death is whoever does Death's job.]]

* LiteralMinded: [[AC:I am nothing but literal-minded]], as he puts it in ''Hogfather''. That said, he has some grasp of metaphor, exaggeration and outright lies, it just takes him the occasional run-up.

* PaintingTheMedium: [[AC:His distinctive method of speech.]] (Described as sounding "like lead slabs falling on a marble floor.") He also speaks without quotation marks, indicating he is not speaking in the traditional sense.

* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: The Stealer of Souls, Defeater of Empires, Swallower of Oceans, Thief of Years, The Ultimate Reality, Harvester of Mankind, the [[AC:All right, all right. I can see myself in.]]

* MeaningfulName: Mort is Latin (and French too) for death. It's [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]], naturally, when Mort tells Death his name. [[AC:What a coincidence.]]

* TheProblemWithFightingDeath: Has an epiphany on this in ''Literature/TheColourOfMagic'', where after repeatedly trying and failing to claim Rincewind's soul he decides to just wait for Rincewind's fate to end.

[[hardline]]

[[hardline]]

* Main/Irony: Of a curiously tragic sort. While she is more human than her grandfather, she is more cynical and condescending to them in comparison to him. Justified though in that she has a better view of humanity and their dark side, and so would rather not deal with them as much as he has to.

%%%%% Like how?
%%%* ExactWords: He uses this a lot, sometimes to his advantage.

* PetTheDog: He is sympathetic as he can be to the people he meets at the end of their lives. [[spoiler: In the case of Renata Flitworth and Granny Weatherwax, two women of strong will, he gave them the luxury of not telling them they’ve died until sometime after their deaths have already occurred. In Literature/TheTruth, he counsels and consoles Mr Pin, a criminal who had no clue of the wickedness he’d been doing. And in Literature/{{Hogfather}} he takes eagerly to the role of Father Christmas and its duties: socializing with people, giving gifts and setting things straight; he is somewhat regretful about not being able to do it forever.]]

* PetTheDog: He is sympathetic as he can be to the people he meets at the end of their lives. [[spoiler: In the case of Renata Flitworth and Granny Weatherwax, two women of strong will, he gave them the luxury of not telling them they’ve died until sometime after their deaths have already occurred. In Literature/TheTruth, he counsels and consoles Mr Pin, a criminal who had no clue of the wickedness he’d been doing. And in Literature/Hogfather he takes eagerly to the role of Father Christmas and its duties: socializing with people, giving gifts and setting things straight; he is somewhat regretful about not being able to do it forever.]]

* InsistentTerminology: He makes it very clear to Mort that he isn't responsible for the deaths. He only organises their souls and places them in the right afterlife. He specifically mentions that there is a key difference between death and killing.

* PaintingTheMedium: [[AC:His distinctive method of speech.]] (Described as sounding "like lead slabs falling on a marble floor.")

* PettheDog: He is sympathetic as he can be to the people he meets at the end of their lives. [[spoiler: In the case of Renata Flitworth and Granny Weatherwax, two women of strong will, he gave them the luxury of not telling them they’ve died until sometime after their deaths have already occurred. In Literature/TheTruth, he counsels and consoles Mr Pin, a criminal who had no clue of the wickedness he’d been doing. And in Literature/Hogfather he takes eagerly to the role of Father Christmas and its duties: socializing with people, giving gifts and setting things straight; he is somewhat regretful about not being able to do it forever.]]

* {{Adorkable}}: Often. Particularly when he's trying to be serious outside his day job.

* CharacterDevelopment: Even leaving aside EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, ''Literature/SoulMusic'' develops how much he's changed from how he was in ''{{Literature/Mort}}'', with a time-travelling Susan noting that he's a ''much'' more forbidding figure than the grandfather she's come to know. That said, during that conversation, as in ''{{Literature/Mort}}'' itself, his {{Adorkable}} nature is revealed to be not ''that'' far beneath the surface.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: [[spoiler: In ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'', when she goes to the Tooth Fairy's realm, she becomes normal because Death and his powers don't exist there. This leads to the minions of the book's BigBad getting the drop on her.]]

* FriendToAllChildren: Despite being a haughty, judgmental and sarcastic {{Jerkass}} even at the best of times, she genuinely gets along with any and all children she meets, maybe because they in many ways share her strange and surreal world. It makes her an excellent nanny, and an very good schoolteacher.

[[folder: Quoth the Raven]]

** Some of the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch, Colon and Nobb particularly, are among those immune, on the grounds they've seen far more disturbing things in their line of work. So they just politely refer to him as "Your Lordship".