Undead (Discworld) Zombies Mummies Vampires Werewolves

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, the undead are seen less as monsters, and more as characters with unusual cultural quirks.

1 Zombies

Zombies are the most basic kind of undead. Essentially, they are people who are dead, but haven't stopped moving. Unlike zombies in most folklore and horror fiction, they are not mindless, having the same personality they did when they were alive.

This personality tends to be obsessive in some way. A zombie can (usually) only be created if there is something more important to it than passing on. In this case, they may be summoned back by a voodoo practitioner, or simply refuse to leave. For instance, Mr Slant, head of the Guild of Lawyers, was executed for an unknown crime centuries ago, but refuses to die until his descendants agree to pay the firm for his defending himself at the trial.

If, for some reason, Death is prevented from carrying out the Duty, the result is a lot of aimless zombies. This has, however, only happened once without someone else taking up the role.

The most difficult thing about being a zombie is that your body has actually stopped living. This means bits are likely to drop off unless you take precautions. It also means you need to think about your autonomic processes, as they no longer happen automatically.

Noted zombies in the novels include: Baron Saturday, Mr Slant, Windle Poons and Reg Shoe.

2 Mummies

Mummies tend not to come back to life on the Discworld. There are only two cultures (Djelibeybi and Tsort) who really believe in mummification anyway, and they have both lost interest in it in recent years. Pyramids, however, describes an occasion when the dead of Djelibeybi did return to their bodies. Essentially they seemed much like zombies, only better preserved.

3 Vampires

On the Disc, all our world's vampire legends are true, even the contradictory ones. They just aren't all true for the same vampire.

The "default" Discworld vampire tends to fit the DraculaAlternate meaning: Dracula (orchid genus Dracula is a fictional character, arguably the most famous vampire in fiction. He was created by the Irish writer Bram Stoker in his 1897 horror novel of the same name. It is an epistolary novel, that is, told most stereotype. The craving for blood appears not to be a dietary requirement, but an addictionAddiction is an uncontrollable compulsion to repeat a behavior regardless of its negative consequences. A person who is addicted is sometimes called an addict . Many drugs or behaviors can precipitate a pattern of conditions recognized as addiction, which, and one which a growing number of vampires are beating, joining the ÜberwaldIn Terry Pratchett's fictional Discworld universe, berwald is a country on the other side of the Ramtops from Lancre and Ankh-Morpork. Its name is German for across the woods as a play on Transylvania, which is Latin for the same. In fact, this name was a League of Temperance. This, however, invariably leads to them developing an equally strong addiction to something else, such as politicsPolitics is the process and method of decision-making for groups of human beings. Although it is generally applied to governments, politics is also observed in all human group interactions including corporate, academic, and religious. Political science is or coffeeThis article discusses the coffee plant; for information on the beverage see coffee (drink). Coffea arabica Arabian Coffee Coffea benghalensis Bengal Coffee Coffea canephora Robusta Coffee Coffea congensis Congo Coffee Coffea liberica Liberian Coffee Coff. If they cannot feed these addictions they grow steadily more erratic, and suffer from hallucinationA hallucination is a false sensory perception in the absence of an external stimulus, as distinct from an illusion, which is a misperception of an external stimulus. Hallucinations may occur in any sensory modality visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory,s that may also affect those around them, before eventually reverting to type.

Other vampires are quite happy about reverting to type. When you live for centuries and instinctively see humans as prey, its very easy to decide that this means you're destined to rule by force, and there's a lot of vampire nobility in Überwald. The smarter ones don't oppress the peasants too much, realising that there's no sense in pushing them to the point of becoming a torch-bearing mob. Others are too arrogant to worry.

Vampires can create new vampires with their bite, but prefer not to except on special occasions. They can also, apparently, reproduce normally. It also seems to be possible to become a vampire simply by inheriting an old castle, or being married to someone who has.

A recent trend amongst younger vampires involves dressing in bright clothes, drinking blood from wine bottles, and staying up until nearly noon.

Noted vampires in the books include: Arthur and Doreen Winkins (the Count and Countess Notfaroutoe), the Dragon King at Arms, the Magpyr family, Lady Margolotta, Otto Chriek and Maladict.

4 Werewolves

There is some debate on the Discworld as to whether werewolvesA werewolf in folklore and mythology is a person who changes into a wolf, either by purposefully using magic in some manner or by being placed under a curse. In fictional treatments starting in the 19th century and in popular modern superstition this tran are undead or not. The general consensus seems to be "they're big and scary, they come from Überwald, and if you stab them with a sword they don't die. What more do you want?"

There are as many werewolf barons in Überwald as vampire ones, and for much the same reason. Many werewolves combine carnivorous animal instincts with the sort of nasty human sadism that real wolvesThe Wolf or Grey Wolf Canis lupus is a mammal of the Canidae family and the ancestor of the domestic dog. Wolves once had an almost worldwide distribution, but are now limited primarily to North America, Eurasia, and the Middle East. Their preference on h couldn't hope to understand. Others just make the best they can out of a life where, once a month, they find themselves stealing chickens.

A "true" werewolf is a human three weeks out of four, unless (s)he chooses otherwise, and a wolf the week of full moon. There are also yennorks, werewolves who cannot change, and are permenantly in human or wolf form. They usually find werewolf culture uncomfortable and leave to live in a village or pack, as appropriate.

This is where the other kinds of werewolves come from. Crossbreeding between yennorks and ordinary humans has resulted in various other forms of werewolf. The most obvious are the people who turn into wolf-men, rather than wolves, at full moon, but the spectrum ranges from people who have hairy palms and eyebrows that meet in the middle to creatures that look like feral wolf-human hybrids... except at full moon when they turn into wolves. Meanwhile yennork/wolf mating has led to some extremely intelligent wolves, and is possibly also the cause of the occasional "were-man", a wolf that turns into a wolf-man at full moon.

Noted werewolves in the books include Ludmilla Cake, Lupin (a were-man) and Sergeant Delphine Angua von Überwald and her family.

5 Banshees

Little is known about Discworld banshees. Only two have appeared in the books, and both, curiously, have been male. There appear to be two kinds of banshee, civilised and feral. They are tall, lean figures, who appear to be wearing long leather capes; actually folded wings. They have two hearts, and like most undead, tend to see things slightly differently from other people.

Banshees (or at least civilised ones) can apparently sense when a person is about to die and, as expected of them, will scream on the rooftops (although the banshee featured in the books, Mr Ixolite, has a speech impediment, and so slips a note under the door instead). Hearing the scream of a feral banshee also means you are about to die, but the connection is much more direct.

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