Keli

Princess Keli
Name	Princess Keli
Race	Human
Age	over 40
Occupation	Princess
Physical appearance
Residence	Sto Lat
Death
Parents	King Olerve the Bastard (d)
Relatives	Duke of Sto Helit (d); second cousin Jamie
Children
Marital Status
Appearances
Books	Mort
Cameos	Soul Music, Going Postal, Raising Steam.

Princess Keli appears mainly in the book Mort. She is about sixteen years old when she becomes the Queen of Sto Lat after her father, the King, is killed by her uncle.

Mort, who is Death's apprentice, falls in love with her when he first sees her, party because Keli appears to be one of those rare mortals who can see him. This may be a natural talent in her, or it may be that Mort's own interest made him more visible, in the same way that Death's interest in Mort gave his apprentice the ability to see and recognize Death. Mort's infatuation with Keli causes him to spare her life a short time later on his first solo mission. Instead of taking Keli's soul, Mort "reaps" the assassin, whose soul he never interacts with, and who seems to drop altogether out of the story.

This deed has grave consequences. Even though Keli is alive, nobody seems to notice her. The reality in which Keli is dead is slowly taking over again. And Mort is fighting against time, with the help of Ysabell and the young wizard Cutwell.

In the end, Death, impressed by their stubborness, changes reality for them; Keli remains Queen of Sto Lat. Or, to be more specific, Her Supreme Majesty, Queen Kelirehenna I, Lord of Sto Lat, Protector of the Eight Protectorates and Empress of the Long Thin Debated Piece Hubwards of Sto Kerrig.

Although people of the Sto Plains like to think of themselves as having the most civilized history, Keli's distant ancestor had in fact been a barbarian raider who led a tribe and conquered the area now known as Sto Lat.

Queen Keli is also referenced in Soul Music and Going Postal, but makes no personal appearance.

It is interesting to note that while Keli was 16 years old when she first became queen in Mort, twenty four years later in Going Postal the mayor of Sto Lat, Joe Camels, refers to the queen as a 'nice girl' when she should be about 40. Perhaps she has just aged well. Or possibly this is some after affect of her life ending and then restarting, and she has remained ageless for a long time...

She is still alive and going strong at the time of Raising Steam, where she attends the ceremonial opening of the railway to the Sto states and takes a ride on the train.

Annotation

Ref. Mayor Camels referring to her as a "nice girl". He might have some of the laid-back egalitarianism of Scouser John Lennon, who wrote in a Beatles song Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, but she doesn't have a lot to say... (Her Majesty on LP Abbey Road) Or else the down-to-earth streak of the Australian politician who innocently placed a guiding hand on the lower Royal back and afterwards referred to her as a hell of a nice girl.

In the Discworld audiobook series, Nigel Planer reads Keli's lines in a "Klatchian" accent, and pronounces her name "Kay'-lee." Nevertheless, she is described in the novel as having slightly too many freckles to be conventionally attractive, not a trait noted among Klatchians. The freckles and complexion may have been inherited from one of her ancestors, a marauding tribal leader, who from his description seems to have been analogous to Roundworld Eastern Europeans, possibly Huns or Magyars. Her accent may be inspired by her other great ancestor, Queen Ezeriel, the Discworld version of Cleopatra.

Later reader Steven Briggs, however, reads Keli as the anglophone "Kelly."