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Former Head of the Guild of Assassins, Dr (an honorific? Mr Downey becomes Dr Downey (later Lord Downey) on his elevation?) Cruces (viz. 'crucify' or 'excruciating') was driven mad by the appalling power inherent in the gonne after it had engineered the death of Edward d'Eath.

First encountered in Pyramids, Dr Cruces was an intelligent, well-educated (well - of course: the Guild of Assassins is the best education in Ankh-Morpork if you can get to graduation...) and powerful figure within the guilds and the city. He was a lean figure and was always softly-spoken, though with 'the pitch and spin that could make (his voice) be heard through a hurricane'.

But it is in Men at Arms that we really come to know Dr Cruces. He is the mentor to whom the frighteningly obsessive d'Eath turns, and is swiftly killed for his pains. Cruces takes up the gonne - and, for some reason, d'Eath's mania for reintroducing a royal family to Ankh-Morpork. He is chased by Sam Vimes and Carrot Ironfoundersson - then a corporal. And a good man - an important point this. 'Always pray that you face an evil man - a good man will cut you down with hardly a word'. Carrot, on the other hand, has a refreshingly direct approach to Cruces' blandishments.

Exit Cruces...

Enter Dr Downey as the newly-appointed Head of the Guild, and the time-honoured profession of exercising lethal prejudice continues with barely a hiccough.

"Cruces" means "crosses" in Spanish.

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