Terry Pratchet's Thud!

 

Thud! Is a novel written by Terry Pratchet it details a fantasy world in which trolls exist and have defining features in the form of different rock types. Below I have the plot introduction and some of the main characters and their predominant characteristics. 

 

 

Story Introduction

 

Koom Valley? That was where the trolls ambushed the dwarfs, or the dwarfs ambushed the trolls. It was far away. It was a long time ago.
There has been a murder at the museum – a dwarf, found with a troll club by his body.  Just one dwarf, but if he doesn't solve the murder, Commander Sam Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch is going to see it fought again, right outside his office.

It is nearing the anniversary of Koom Valley.  Koom valley is where centuries ago the dwarfs ambushed the trolls or vice versa.  Nobody knows.  But the hate between them still continues, because it’s always been that way.

With his beloved Watch crumbling around him and war-drums sounding, he must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin and brave any darkness to find the solution. And darkness is following him.
Oh . . . and at six o'clock every day, without fail, with no excuses, he must go home to read 'Where's My Cow?', with all the right farmyard noises, to his little boy.
 

A departure from the light-hearted comedic tone of earlier Discworld books.  Still witty, but overall tone is more serious.  It gets angry.  It has sharp edges.  It’s not afraid to bite.  It makes you want to think – an maybe chuckle once in a while during it.  The comedy this time has met the tragedy.

 

The particulars of this case aren't the only thing Sam Vimes has to worry about, as he tries to manage the potential conflicts between his employees - especially the werewolf Sergeant Angua and his new vampire recruit - and the city seems to be sliding toward full-blown ethnic conflict.
 

 

 

After reading the book I have deduced which characters are my favourite and have provided me with the most inspiration for the project. I have taken the descriptions from the Terry Pratchet information site and detailed them below to give an accurate representation of their status, personality and description. There are a great range of characters from Trolls, Dwarves, Vampires among others. The two characters that I had the most interest in were Brick and Mr Shine as they are both trolls that have physical attributes which are defined by the type of character they are and their personalities. 

 

CHARACTERS

 

Lord Havelock Vetinari,

Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. He is depicted as the ruler of the city-state of Ankh-Morpork. Vetinari is sometimes said to have been based on the Italian statesman and diplomat, Niccolò Machiavelli, but in fact favours a subtly different (though equally pragmatic) form of administration

 

Grag Hamcrusher

A dwarfish leader – murdered. Hamcrusher was an influential, fundimentalist dwarf "grag", (preist) who came to Ankh-Morpork and began preaching the wholesale murder of trolls. He was found dead in his mine with a troll club lying next to him. He was actually killed by one of the other grags during a fight over the cube.

 

Ardent

Ardent (dwarf) is the chief liaison from the grags to the world above. He came up with the idea, after hamcrusher was killed, to bashed the body with helmcleavers club

 

Helmcleaver

Helmcleaver (dwarf) is the "daylight face" for hamcrusher and the other grag, he pays the miners and orders groceries, and such. He was near the cave when the four miners were killed, and wished dead the one who crawled over to the door and began hammering on it. The grags used his troll club givin to him by mister shine to obscure hamcrushers cause of death. He died out of fear of the Summoning Dark

 

Salacia "Sally" von Humpeding

A Lance-Constable and new recruit to the City Watch.  The first vampire to join up. Originally from Überwald, she travelled to Ankh-Morpork to join the city watch there. This coincided with the request by Lord Vetinari and the Ankh-Morpork Mission of the Überwald League of Temperance to Commander Sir Samuel Vimes to accept a vampire constable. Her name goes on for several pages (evolving long names is a well known vampiric hobby) and Sally is afflicted with the belief (which again seems to beset many Discworld vampires) that she can disguise secret messages by signing her name backwards as Aicalas. This is a reference to several Dracula movies in which the Count went under the alias "Alucard".

Sally was greeted with some suspicion by Commander Vimes, as he had previously held out against accepting a vampire, and was deeply disliked by Sergeant Angua, who as an Überwaldian werewolf felt that bad blood was involved. Her abilities as a vampire become of great use to the Watch, and she even manages to reach an understanding with Sergeant Angua. Sally is introduced in Thud!. She is revealed to be a spy for the Dwarf Low King (and probably lady M), but Vimes keeps her in the Watch anyway.

 

Rhys Rhyson

The current Low King, or possibly Queen, of the dwarfs. He hails from Llamedos (the Discworld's Wales) and thus has a slight lilt to his accent. He is considered a moderniser who is interested in embracing new cultures and ideas. He has held council with the Diamond King of Trolls and is untroubled by (and indeed seems quite interested in) the new trends in feminisation. His tolerance was somewhat tested by Adora Belle Dearheart having removed four thousand priceless golems from territory that, by rights, belonged to him, but little seems to have come of it.

 

Reginald Shoe

Usually Reg Shoe,  is a zombie, and a Corporal in the Night Watch. He was introduced in Reaper Man and joined the Watch in Jingo. He died in the Ankh-Morpork Revolution that took place during now-Commander Vimes' first days on the Watch force, some thirty years before the present. (Details in Night Watch.) Reg died from several crossbow bolts to the chest, although it took him some time to realise this. Afterwards he became strongly interested in his own "Dead Rights" movement, spending the years between then and now on creating his "Fresh Start Club", preaching to the cemeteries of the city on how maltreated dead people are, and taking a job as an undertaker merely so that he can leave flyers for the Fresh Start Club on the inside of the coffins.

Reg was hired on to the force by Carrot Ironfoundersson, on the basis that if the authorities maltreated the dead, they needed some more expertise. Since then, the number of complaints doubled - all against Mr. Shoe, who claims it is all because of a lack of understanding of the demands of policing in a multi-vital society. While he spends most of his time outside it, Reg has a grave in the Small Gods cemetery next to the other important casualties in the revolution.

 

Nonetheless, he has proven a competent officer of the law. In The Fifth Elephant, he helps decipher the mystery of the Scone. In addition, Vetinari mentions receiving only good reports about him from Vimes, though this may be related to the fact that Vimes believes complaints prove that you're doing the job right.

 

Sam Vimes  

Leader of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.  A fictional policeman from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Vimes is depicted in the novels as somewhere between an Inspector-Morse-type 'old-school' British policeman, and a film-noir-esque grizzled, jaded detective. His appearances throughout the Discworld sequence show him slowly and grudgingly rising through the ranks of both police force and society. As of his latest promotion, his full name and title is: "His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh; Commander Sir Samuel Vimes": When serving as Ambassador for Ankh-Morpork, he is also referred to simply as "His Excellency", and is also nicknamed "Blackboard Monitor Vimes,", "Vimes the Butcher/Butcher Vimes" and "Vetinari's Terrier" (or hammer): According to his wife, Sybil, Vimes is recognised by many as Lord Vetinari's right-hand man.

 

Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson

Adopted by dwarfs as an infant after the deaths of his human parents, Carrot grew up down in the mines of the Copperhead mountains. He is "six feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders". His dwarfish name is Kzad-bhat, which, roughly translated, means "Head Banger", a logical nickname for a 6-foot-6-inch-tall (1.98 m) man living in a mine built by 4-foot-tall (1.2 m) dwarfs. He was quite surprised the day he was informed that he was human. His adoptive father thought that he ought to go and live amongst humans, and found him a job with the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch under the misapprehension that they were respected and respectable. Carrot was "barely 16-years-old" at this time.

Carrot joined the Night Watch while it was only a small group of misfits who ran from evildoers rather than arrest them (see Guards! Guards!). He had difficulty with this attitude, as his "old-fashioned" view of justice led him to arrest the leader of the entirely legal Thieves' Guild on his first day. He since has learned to understand the city a bit better. The city learned about him as quickly when he won in a fight against every miscreant in the Mended Drum tavern, including the then doorman Detritus the troll.

Captain Carrot has made quite a name for himself, rapidly and effortlessly coming to know all of the city's one-million population by name and tax papers. He is big on paperwork and organization and always (often to the dismay of his girlfriend, Angua) takes time to see all sides of a story before getting involved. When Sam Vimes planned to retire after his marriage to Lady Sybil Ramkin, Carrot was named his successor. He is not particularly skilled in comma placement and has a bit of trouble with the whole concept of "i before e". He is considered "the Disc's most linear thinker". For instance, as part of a murder investigation, he interviews Death. Carrot is also famous enough that there are action figures of him available (as seen in the novel Hogfather).

Carrot's main talents are his genuine interest in and liking for people (particularly when contrasted with his boss and friend, Sam Vimes who "doesn't like anybody") and his charisma and "supernatural likability". He is often shown to be able to get people to do things no one else could force them to do, simply by assuming that they will; for example, he has great success in his outreach programs to at-risk Ankh-Morporkian youth by treating them like boy scouts. When he directly commands someone, they find it supremely difficult to disobey (even Vimes is shown on one occasion as being susceptible to this power). However, he prefers not to utilize this extreme of his power except in dire emergencies.

Carrot is often thought of as non-threatening, which is a dangerous conclusion if you are the unlucky person who disappoints his honest nature. People think of Carrot as being simple, however their mistake is in confusing "simple" with "stupid". Carrot's simplicity is his cunning. In Soul Music, Carrot adds supplementary questions to the quiz machine in the Mended Drum, asking players who was responsible for recent crimes and frequently making arrests as a result. Carrot often sees the bright side of life. When Angua, a werewolf, tells him that her brother Andrei is stuck in wolf form and is forced to live as a champion sheepdog, Carrot notes that at least he's a champion. Carrot has also promised Angua that, should she ever follow in her brother Wolfgang's murderous footsteps, he will be the one to stop her.

While it is common knowledge that Carrot is the true heir to the throne of Ankh-Morpork, he doesn't acknowledge it, and has even hidden evidence of his royal heritage. The Patrician, Havelock Vetinari, considers him useful for this reason as well as others, as it means that any attempt to start a revolution under the claim of being true heir is impossible, and that if anyone complains that only a king has the authority to do something he does, he can simply refer to Carrot.

Carrot himself never uses his royal powers or acknowledges his royal heritage. After having learned about it (Men at Arms), he confides in Vetinari that he wants the people to obey the law because it's the law, not because "Captain Carrot is good at being obeyed", and that he is content with his job of ringing a bell and yelling that all's well "provided of course that 'all is well'."

Carrot does, however on rare occasions, hint at his royal powers to make things happen. In Jingo, Lord Vetinari gives Sam Vimes the title of Duke, something only a King can do, while Carrot is present—Vetinari goes so far as to say that he "had been reminded" that Vimes could have that title. In The Fifth Elephant, when faced with the defection of most members of the Watch under Sergeant Fred Colon, (then an Acting-Captain), Carrot puts his (plain and battered) royal sword on a desk in plain sight and reminds Watch members that they had taken an oath to the King, and that the King had not relieved them of it.

Carrot is a stereotypical "perfect" policeman; totally honest, law abiding and determined to be friends with everyone. People of all species can't help wanting to behave well in his presence. He has an attitude of loving everyone. His philosophy of love for everyone has caused distress for Angua. She worries that his love toward her is equal to that he gives everyone else and not special. While he would place the welfare of the public above hers (and his own), when she was in danger he travelled to the rim of the Disc to save her.

Carrot's attitude towards his relationship is considered particularly unusual. During Jingo, Angua is kidnapped on a Klatchian ship and the watch pursues them. Carrot does not stand at the front of the ship fraught with worry but, sensibly, gets some sleep so he will be ready to rescue her when they catch up. Although Sam Vimes and the ship's captain see the sense of this, they can't believe that someone in love could be so sensible.

In The Art of Discworld Pratchett says that Carrot has a bright future ahead of him, "should Lord Vetinari not survive the next assassination attempt." He also notes that, although most people envision Carrot as Arnold Schwarzenegger, he is actually modeled after Liam Neeson. In both the Discworld computer game and the BBC Radio production of Guards! Guards! he speaks with a Welsh accent. His character is also reminiscent of Constable Benton Fraser from Due South (who also has a wolf companion).

 

Captain Angua Von Uberwald

Captain Delphine Angua von Überwald, a Werewolf, first appeared in Men at Arms. Angua is a member of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, originally hired as part of an affirmative action plan by Havelock Vetinari. Her physical beauty led coworkers to predict that criminals would be lining up to be arrested by her, but Angua's surprising strength and tough attitude soon made her one of the most feared officers on the Watch.

In the 1999 computer game Discworld Noir, and the 2001 books-on-tape version of Men at Arms, her name is pronounced "An-gyoo-uh" with a hard "g". Terry Pratchett writes on the terrypratchettbooks.com forum: "it's Ang as in Anger, u as in you, a as in a thing."

Angua comes from a family of werewolves. She is the daughter of a Baron and Baroness of Überwald, and has two brothers, Wolfgang and Andrei. Her sister, Elsa, is deceased, killed by Wolfgang, who disguised it as an accident. Both Andrei and Elsa were "Yennorks", werewolves that are stuck in one form (Andrei always appeared to be a wolf, and Elsa a human). Angua and Wolfgang are the only children in their family with shape-shifting ability, known as "bi-morphs". Wolfgang is extremely violent and enjoys killing, even eating, "inferior" humans. Angua, preferring vegetarianism, rebels against the traditional werewolf lifestyle of her parents and brother and leaves Überwald. Andrei manages to slip away as well and enjoys a career as a talented sheep herder.

After moving to Ankh-Morpork, Angua soon became the first woman to join the ranks of the City Watch. She met Corporal Carrot Ironfoundersson in the Watch, and the two soon fell in love. Since recovering from his initial surprise (which involved drawing his sword), Carrot has not seemed bothered by the fact that Angua is a werewolf. However, Angua often worries that their different backgrounds and needs will eventually doom the relationship.

One of Angua's closest friends in the Watch is Cheery Littlebottom the dwarf. In Feet of Clay, Angua helps encourage Cheery to "come out" as a woman (dwarf society expects both male and female dwarves to behave in an indistinguishable way), even lending her dresses and make-up. At the same time, Angua conceals her true nature as a werewolf from Cheery because she knows her new friend hates and fears werewolves. Throughout the book Angua debates with herself over whether it would be best to just return to Überwald and live among other werewolves. In the end, she decides to stay in Ankh-Morpork.

Angua has also made friends with Gaspode, a matty, hairy canine who gained and lost the talent of human speech in Moving Pictures. He then regains it by the time of Men at Arms by sleeping too near the Unseen University's High-Energy Magic building. Gaspode flirts with Angua constantly and has helped her out on missions many times.

In The Fifth Elephant, Watch Commander Sam Vimes is sent to Überwald on a diplomatic mission. Lord Vetinari chooses Angua to be a member of the Watch team that will accompany him, but Angua has already left for Überwald on business of her own. Carrot, assisted by Gaspode the dog, sets out after her. This is the first Discworld book to reveal much about Angua's background, and her parents and brother Wolfgang all figure in the story. Angua's relationship with actual wolves also provides much tension. Wolfgang plays a significant role as the leader of a violent werewolf movement in Überwald. Ultimately, Vimes kills Wolfgang in a violent confrontation in the city square. Angua is gratified to hear this, as Wolfgang threatened her and anything she cared for while he remained alive.

The fact that the Watch now has a werewolf has become common knowledge throughout Ankh-Morpork, but that hasn't affected Angua's privacy substantially, as, for obvious reasons, it is generally assumed to be Nobby Nobbs; Carrot, Vimes, Vetinari and Angua herself all play along, mostly rather amused. However, in The Truth, it is revealed in passing that several members of the Ankh-Morpork aristocracy, as well as the lawyer Mr Slant, are well aware of her nature, and in Making Money, Moist von Lipwig also figures this out upon seeing Angua in her werewolf form with Nobby standing beside her and recognizing her hair. Though the widespread recognition of the werewolf presence in the Watch has not inconvenienced Angua on a human level, it has led to a growing sophistication within the city's criminal underworld in evading capture. The first recorded use of a scent bomb is by Carcer, at the beginning of Night Watch, when he killed Sergeant Stronginthearm. Several references to scent bombs have been made since, most notably their usage by William de Worde in The Truth.

Angua assists Vimes in another diplomatic mission in Monstrous Regiment, and is mentioned in Going Postal as being difficult for criminals in Ankh-Morpork to avoid. Angua also appears in a supporting role in Thud!, where she gains a rival in the form of the Watch's first vampire officer, Sally. Angua is an extremely practical and level-headed person. While not as cynical as Commander Sam Vimes, she balances out Carrot's naïveté (although she occasionally wonders if he's really as innocent as he appears). In human form, Angua is a strict vegetarian. In wolf form, she has a tendency to go after chickens, but she is always careful to go back and slip some money under the door the next day.

Though she is deeply committed to Carrot, even likening herself to being his dog (or as she puts it in Jingo, a wolf that lives with humans) it hasn't stopped others with romantic interest; there is tension with a wolf named Gavin in The Fifth Elephant, and she receives a marriage proposal from the small mutt Mr. Fusspot in Making Money.

In the events of I Shall Wear Midnight it is noted that Angua has been newly promoted to Captain. Captain Carrot arrests Tiffany Aching after a disturbance in the King's Head involving the Nac Mac Feegles, who are defeated by Wee Mad Arthur, another Feegle, (the rat catcher from Feet of Clay who rescues Sgt Colon from the King Golem, although he was referred to as a gnome in the original novel). Wee Mad Arthur has now joined the watch, and he tells Tiffany that she shall be escorted by his colleague, Captain Angua. Subsequent ("main" as opposed to young-adult) novels also refer to her by this rank.

In the 2010 Sky television adaptation of Going Postal, Angua was played by Ingrid Bolsø Berdal.

 

Brick

Brick is a young Gutter troll in the novel Thud!. He is described as being emaciated by troll standards, having a texture and pattern to his hide that makes him resemble a brick wall (due to being made of "metamorphorical rock," and having been born in Ankh-Morpork). To make himself look tougher he wears a belt of rubber skulls, although the effect is somewhat spoiled by the skull with a red nose. He is so down and out that even his lichen is fake. Samuel Vimes, upon seeing him, classifies him as the loser's loser. Brick regularly used troll drugs scrounged from the few gutter trolls who didn't always throw things at him when they saw him, and was generally considered to have sunk somewhat lower than the gutter.

Brick becomes involved in the Discworld mythos when he falls through a basement floor into a dwarf tunnel, whereupon he witnesses a Dwarf beating another dwarf in the head with a Troll club. He takes part in a street "fight" where he strikes Commander Vimes, breaking his ribs; before Brick can hit Vimes again, he is attacked by A.E. Pessimal (whom Brick mistakes for a gnome), and Detritus takes him into custody. Upon his release he searches out Mr. Shine. Brick later is brought back to the Watch by the same. Eventually, Sergeant Detritus of the City Watch takes in Brick and seems to unofficially adopt him. Detritus was convinced of Brick's potential after Brick was found still conscious, and, what's more, still walking after having a few mugs of a potent troll beverage, the name of which translates to Big Hammer.

Brick appears to have been made a watchman at the end of Thud!, as he and Lance-Constable Sally are on guard at the cave of the kings. Later, in an inner monologue, he says that Detritus tells him he can aspire to be a 'lance-constable' one day, a rank that makes much money and comes with a shiny badge.

He was mentioned in the novel Snuff by Lady Sybil and she mentions Sgt. Detritus did in fact adopt him.

“Certainly, we need to talk to you,” said Carrot. “Do you want a lawyer?”
“No, I ate already.”
“You eat lawyers?” said Carrot.
Brick gave him an empty stare until sufficient brain had been mustered.
“What d’y’call dem fings, de kinda crumble when you eat dem?” he ventured.
Carrot looked at Detritus and Angua, to see if there was going to be any help there.
“Could be lawyers,” he conceded.
“Dey go soggy if you dips ‘em in somfing,” said Brick, as if undertaking a forensic examination.
“More likely to be biscuits, then?” Carrot suggested." (198)

 

Sergeant Detritus

Detritus began as a hired thug and later a "splatter" at the Mended Drum. In Moving Pictures, he was used by C.M.O.T. Dibbler as hired muscle in his takeover of Century of the Fruitbat Pictures. While in Holy Wood, Detritus met and fell in love with another troll, called Ruby, who insisted that he get a better job than hitting people for money. Detritus' relationship with Ruby has been mentioned infrequently since; in Thud! they are described as 'happily married-but-childless.' Over the course of that novel, Detritus takes the severely drug-dependent young troll, named Brick, under his wing, the implication being that Detritus and Ruby want children.

As a result of Ruby's insisting he improve himself, he joined the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, and made friends with the dwarf, Cuddy, in Men at Arms. When Corporal Carrot formed the Ankh-Morpork City Militia, Detritus was promoted to Acting-Constable and it was during this time that he discovered his natural leadership abilities, as he was able to 'recruit' a large number of able-bodied men and trolls into the Militia and eventually into the reformed City Watch. When we next see Detritus in Feet of Clay, he has already made Sergeant, and by Night Watch he was heading up the Watch's training academy. He accompanied Samuel Vimes to Überwald for the negotiations in Bonk, in The Fifth Elephant, and was temporarily appointed 'cultural attache' by Vimes.

While Detritus does not have much imagination and was originally not highly regarded even by other trolls, he has become fairly intelligent by troll standards, especially since the end of Men At Arms when Cuddy made a clockwork cooling helmet which reduces the effect heat has on the conductivity of Detritus' silicon brain. Before having the helmet Detritus was considered one of the stupidest trolls on the Disc, which is saying something due to average troll intelligence. The helmet stopped working completely in the desert heat of Jingo, but has been repaired by the time of The Truth. Like all trolls, he becomes extremely intelligent as the temperature drops, once almost developing a grand unified theory of everything in several hours when locked in a 'Pork Futures' warehouse. This is unfortunately a nearly fatal experience, as the ideal temperature of operation for troll brains is also very close to the optimum point of troll death.

In contradiction to his species preference, his weapon of choice is not a club, but rather a converted siege-crossbow. Originally, this fired a blunt-but-enormous metal bolt, but after further modifications he made it to shoot a large bundle of wooden bolts at once and renamed the bow as the 'Piecemaker'(c.f. Colt Single Action Army, also known as the Peacemaker). Due to the various forces they are under, the bolts, once fired, quickly become an expanding cloud of high-speed burning wooden shrapnel, resembling less a crossbow and more a blunderbuss. The first time it was fired, it removed several archery targets, the bunker wall behind them, and a flock of seagulls directly above Detritus. Samuel Vimes appreciates its intimidation factor, but otherwise discourages its use except under extreme circumstances. As Vimes himself put it after a single shot from Piecemaker ripped a castle's gates to shreds, "Ye, Gods, Detritus. That's not a weapon. That's a national emergency." Vimes also once had to 'remind' Detritus that "When Mr safety catch is not on, Mr Crossbow is not your friend."

 

 

Mr. Shine

Mr. Shine is the current Diamond King of trolls. His crystalline structure allows him to maintain a cool internal body temperature, making him far more intelligent than the average troll. When travelling, he must conceal himself in a cloak because his appearance is blinding to most eyes, as well to increase his own safety by concealing his valuable body. He was instrumental in preventing a dwarf-troll conflict in ‘Thud’.

 

 

Cheery Littlebottom 

Sergeant Cheery Littlebottom is a forensic alchemist for the City Watch and one of the first dwarfs to be openly female, pronouncing her name as Cheri. (Angua helps encourage Cheery to "come out" as a woman (dwarf society expects both male and female dwarves to behave in an indistinguishable way), even lending her dresses and make-up). She now often wears a leather skirt and has slightly raised iron heels on her boots while on duty. Her surname translates in Dwarfish as Sh'rt'azs ('shortrear'). Her family lives in Überwald, except for her late brother Snorey who died in a gas explosion somewhere under Borogravia. She is introduced in Feet of Clay and appears in all subsequent Watch novels, most notably The Fifth Elephant. Cheery was promoted to Sergeant shortly prior to Thud!.

 

Thud! Characters [Online] Available From: http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/List_of_Pratchett_characters Date Accesssed: 30/03/2015