Lares and Penates

In Ancient Rome, these were the necessary Small Gods of the house and home, who needed to be propitiated and kept onside to ensure the smooth running of a happy home. Their memory survived in post-Roman Britain with the legends of shoe-repairing household elves, brownies and other fairy folk who if asked nicely and rewarded afterwards would do the chores as you slept. Or wreck the place if they felt they were not being appreciated.

As this is the Discworld where belief shapes form and calls abstract ideas into being, when a lot of unanchored belief was slopping around during the events of Hogfather This combined with the foetid imagination and magical talent of the Wizards to bring into being things like:

• • Verruca Gnome
  • Hair Loss Fairy
  • Eater of Socks
  • Electric Drill Chuck Key Fairy - something of a puzzler that might have strayed in from an adjacent dimension where electricity and chuck keys exist.
  • Stealer of Pencils
  • God of Indigestion
  • Towel Wasps
  • Cheerful Fairy (aka Gwendoline Smith) and the Blue Bird of Happiness (a hen, in fact, not a bluebird)
  • Glingleglingleglingle Fairy

Most, not all, ceased to exist once belief in the Hogfather was restored.