Death (Discworld)

Death
Discworld character
A skeletal figure, wearing dark purple robes, with a scabbard at his waist and holding a scythe. A skeletal rat stands at his feet, also hooded in a purple robe.
Death as illustrated by Paul Kidby in The Art of Discworld.
First appearanceThe Colour of Magic (1983)
Last appearanceThe Shepherd's Crown (2015)
Created byTerry Pratchett
Portrayed byMarnix van den Broeke
Voiced byPeter Serafinowicz
Christopher Lee
Wendell Pierce
Ian Richardson
John Rowe
Michael Kilgarriff
Stephen Thorne
Rob Brydon
Nigel Planer
In-universe information
AliasBill Door (in Reaper Man)
SpeciesPersonification of Death
GenderGenerally depicted as male[1][2]
Affiliation
WeaponScythe
ChildrenYsabell (adoptive daughter)
RelativesMort (son-in-law)
Susan Sto Helit (granddaughter)

Death is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and a parody of several other depictions of the Grim Reaper across Europe. He is a black-robed skeleton who usually carries a scythe and on occasion a sword for dispatching royalty. His jurisdiction is specifically the Discworld itself; he being only a minion of Azrael, the Death of all things across the Universes — in much the same way as the Death of Rats is an infinitesimally small part of Death himself.

Pratchett explores human existence through his depiction of death, which became more sympathetic throughout the series as it progresses.

Death almost never kills anyone or anything[3] but — acting in the form of a psychopomp — he merely ensures that when lives comes to an end, they move on to where they believe they should go if they are sentient, which often involves a desert to be crossed.[4]

  1. ^ Kemp, Simon (March 18, 2015). "Terry Pratchett, Death and Grammar". Adventures on the Bookshelf.
  2. ^ Canon, Kiki V. (Spring 2018). "Not Cruel, Blessed, or Merciful: Pratchett, Gaiman, and the Personification of Death". Georgia Southern University.
  3. ^ [Death kills a butterfly in pique when Rincewind fails to die at the right time in the right place in The Colour of Magic + while duelling with his apprentice Mort at the end of the book Mort, he kills a number of people incidentally by breaking their lifetimers.]
  4. ^ Pratchett, Terry (1992). 'Small Gods'. Great Britain: Corgi. pp.98→101 + 353→355 + 379→381 - ISBN 0-552-13890-8