Undead (Discworld)
|
|
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, the undead are seen less as monsters, and more as characters with unusual cultural quirks.
| Contents |
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 but have 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 releasing someone's soul from their body, the result is many 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. A zombie can remain active even if its flesh is lost to wear, tear and rot. Since this is very inhibitive to social acceptance, most zombies apparently use some artificial methods of preservation, however.
Noted zombies in the novels include: Baron Saturday, Mr Slant, Windle Poons and Reg Shoe.
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.
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. Some of their usual weaknesses, such as their sacrephobia (fear of holy symbols) and their reactions to sunlight and garlic can be removed or abated by lengthy conditioning, as demonstrated by Count Magpyr.
The "default" Discworld vampire tends to fit the Dracula stereotype. The craving for blood appears not to be primarily a dietary requirement, but an addiction, although vampires are reported to have at least some need for extra "hemo-goblins", in other words, hemoglobin supplements. The addiction is one which a growing number of vampires are beating, joining the Überwald League of Temperance. This, however, invariably leads to them developing an equally strong addiction to something else, such as politics or coffee. If they cannot feed these addictions they grow steadily more erratic, and suffer from hallucinations that may also affect those around them, before eventually reverting to their natural addiction to blood.
Other vampires are satisfied with consuming on human blood. 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, or tend to see the whole business as a very complicated, relatively stylized hunting sport. Like any civilized hunter (or so they think), these (most notably the old Count Magpyr, who returned from the dead so often his coffin had a revolving lid) give their quarry ample opportunity to kill them, but only in ways that do not exclude their return. Vampires of this ilk usually keep large collections of holy water, stakes (complete with anatomical diagrams detailing the position of the heart), metal decorations easily bent into a holy symbol and very clean windows covered by easily pulled-aside drapes.
Vampires can create new vampires with their bite, but prefer not to except on special occasions, instead generally using some unrevealed influence on the victim that induces docility and/or subservience. 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. A Mr. Bleakley is referred to in several City Watch books as a prospective officer, although the Commander has never agreed and probably never will.
Werewolves
There is some debate on the Discworld as to whether werewolves 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?" However, regardless of whether or not they are technically undead, inhabitants of the Discworld generally lump werewolves into the same category and treat them in the same fashion.
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 human trait of sadism that real wolves 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 permanently 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.
Banshees
Little is known about Discworld banshees. Only two have appeared in the books, and both 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.
Noted banshees in the books include Mr. Ixolite (civilised), and Mr. Gryle (feral).
Bogeymen
While not technically undead, ranging more into the realm of the personification, bogeymen are frequently lumped into this category in much the same way as werewolves. Bogeymen are manifestations of the fears, both childish and primal, that humans, and especially children, have. They are probably therefore created and sustained by the people who fear them (belief has considerable power on Discworld), giving ample reason for them to keep in their usual line of work. Because one of the usual standbyes for children wanting to get rid of bogeymen is to put their own heads under the pillow/blankets, bogeymen are prone to become extremely confused on matters of personal existence if a blanket, pillow or even a handkerchief is laid over their own head. Bogeymen do not seem to have a fixed perceptible shape, usually being able to appear before any normal person as one of the things they fear the most, although they do have some physical form which is usually obscured by the images they create. The only one revealed so far looked like a small, wizened monkey. For some unknown reason, quite a lot of bogeymen seem to frequent Biers, the unofficial bar for the undead in Ankh-Morpork.
What is allegedly the original bogeyman eventually became the Discworld Tooth Fairy, in the end turning its run into what might be called a small corporation. In short, people, usually women, are employed to walk the streets at night with money, ladders and pliers (No more change means an extra tooth must be taken to balance the books) and given certain powers of unnoticeability and intangibility to remain undetected.