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Death

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Death
Death Illustrated by Christopher Stryjewski a.k.a. whtmnk
Death Illustrated by Christopher Stryjewski a.k.a. whtmnk
Name Death
Age as old as the death of the first living thing
Race Anthropomorphic personification
Occupation releasing the spirits of dead beings
Looks Skeletal, Talks like this
Residence Death's Domain
Death nearly, in Reaper Man
Parents
Relatives Grandaughter Susan Sto Helit
Children Adopted Daughter Ysabell, son-in-law Mort
Marital Status Never Married
Books Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather, Thief of Time
Cameos Nearly every other Discworld book.

Death is the anthropomorphic personification of death on the Discworld. He appears as the traditional Grim Reaper, with a skeletal body, a black robe and a scythe (or sometimes a sword for royalty) and Talks like this . Death appears for the first time in the first novel, The Colour of Magic, and reappears in all of the stories that take place in the Discworld universe, with the exception of The Wee Free Men, a Tiffany Aching young adult book.

Death had an apprentice named Mort and an adopted daughter named Ysabell, who later got married and left him to become the Duke and Duchess of Sto Helit. Sometimes he visits Susan Sto Helit, his grand-daughter through them. When not out and about, Death lives alone in Death's Domain with his manservant Albert and, since the events of Reaper Man, the Death of Rats. Also members of the household are the famed pale horse, named Binky, and at times Quoth the talking raven.

He is fond of kittens, Binky, Susan, Albert, curries and life (without which he would be useless). He strongly dislikes the Auditors, and at times has seemed to resent Rincewind's unpunctuality, though at other times he has seemed more amiable toward him. He sticks by his duty and very rarely interferes in human affairs, because of The Rules. He has, however, been known to persuade Susan to act in his stead, not always by straightforward means; she occasionally reflects that he may have learned a bit more about human behavior than he lets on.

While of course in a sense he is there for every death, he need only personally attend to relatively few in order to keep things running. Death is however a caring individual and likes to keep an eye on things he does not necessarily need to, and he gets quite upset when people (mostly those freshly severed from their bodies) accuse him of killing them. He argues that he simply allows them to leave this world and enter the next, and empirical evidence (such as the results of his various voluntary and involuntary sabbaticals) seems to bear this out.

Every living individual has a book in the great Library of Death, and an hourglass-shaped lifetimer in a room that exists for the purpose. The look of each one seems to be personalized, and they keep on writing themselves or pouring sand through until the associated person dies. The books remain; the lifetimers apparently pop out of existence.

Death has a major role in Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather and Thief of Time. As a member of the Four Horsemen of the Apocralypse, he plays an obligatory role in Sourcery and Thief of Time.

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