Night Watch characters

Also known as Commander Vimes, Duke of Ankh

Appears from the start

Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch and Duke of Ankh, a powerful man who has never stopped thinking of himself as a copper on the street. Married to Lady Sybil, who is about to give birth, he is defined by the law and by hard memories of a poorer, more brutal city.

Appears from the start

A cheerful, casually vicious killer whom Vimes is hunting through the city. He murders without hesitation or remorse and treats it all as a great joke, which makes him more dangerous than any calculating criminal.

Appears from the start

A raw young lance-constable in the Night Watch of an earlier, harsher Ankh-Morpork: naive, idealistic, and eager to do right in a force riddled with graft. He is Vimes's own younger self.

Appears from the start

A younger, leaner version of the future sergeant, here a steady junior watchman in the old Night Watch, already inclined to caution and a quiet life.

Appears from the start

Here a scrawny, light-fingered street child who runs errands and picks pockets around the edges of the Watch, a young version of the future corporal.

Appears from the start

An earnest, hot-blooded young revolutionary who paints slogans and dreams of a fairer city, throwing himself into the coming uprising with more passion than sense.

Appears from the start

A watchful, precise young student of the Assassins' Guild, observing the city's unrest with detached, calculating interest. He is the young Havelock Vetinari.

Appears from the start

The head of the tyrant's secret police, the Unmentionables, a cold and methodical zealot who believes crime can be read in the measurements of a person's body and who uses torture as routine procedure.

Appears from the start

The Patrician of this earlier Ankh-Morpork, a paranoid and unstable tyrant whose cruelty and fear are pushing the city toward open revolt.

Also known as The Sweeper

Appears from the start

An unassuming old man with a broom who turns up where he is least expected. He is in truth a monk of an order devoted to keeping history flowing along its proper course.

Also known as Mossy Lawn

Appears from the start

A resourceful back-street doctor, unlicensed and unsentimental, who treats the poor and the injured without asking too many questions.