Discworld

The Discworld is a comedic fantasy world, in the shape of disc balanced on the backs of four giant space elephants that in turn stand on the back of the great space turtle A'Tuin. The novels (standing at 40 volumes) frequently parody many other classic authors and also mythology, folklore and fairy tales. Often included are current cultural, technological and scientific issues, re-written discworld style.

The majority of the discworld novels are stand alone stories, with a number of common themes and characters. There are however a number of volumes that run together into story arcs, dealing with concurrent events and characters. The main characters running through these novels include:

Rincewind

The first main character in the Discworld series, Rincewind is a wizard wit no wizardly abilities at all, the original coward he is constantly thrust into adventures that he largely escapes through sheer luck. Rincewind is usually followed around by the luggage, a semi sentient very vicious, loyal chest that runs around on many small legs.

Death

Death could be considered to be one of the main characters in the Discworld series as he appears in nearly every book at some point, although sometimes just as a short cameo. He appears as a seven foot tall black robed skeleton carrying an even larger scythe and only talks in CAPITAL LETTERS. He has appeared as the central character in a number of stories along with his butler, Albert, his granddaughter Susan and Binky his pale Horse. In addition to Death himself, there is also the Death of Rats, a smaller version of Death who is shaped as a rodent (including robe and scythe).

The City Watch

There are a number of stories that feature the Ank-Morpork city watch as the main characters, including the transformation from a small gang into a fully equipped police force. The main characters in these stories are the commander Sam Vines, Nobby Nobbs, Seargeant Colon and Captain Carrot.

The Wizards

The Wizards of the unseen university are a strong thread through many of the Discword novels, and include the Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully, Ponder Stibbons and the Librarian, who was changed into an Orangutan and has never looked back.

Moist Von Lipwig

Moist is a professional criminal and con man who is forced into "going straight" and is put in charge of the Ank-Morpork post office. As he does such a good job, he is then put in charge of cleaning up the city's corrupt financial sector and goes on to organise the city's taxation system.