The Last Continent characters

Appears from the start

The Discworld's least effective wizard, dumped by a misfiring spell on the last continent, a hot red land at the Rim of the world where it has not rained in living memory. He can perform no magic, runs from everything, and has an unmatched instinct for being in the place where something terrible is about to happen. Here he is a stranger with the wrong accent, no water, and a growing suspicion that the continent itself wants something from him.

First appears in chapter 3

The orangutan keeper of Unseen University's library, who falls seriously ill and begins changing shape without control, turning into chairs, books, deckchairs and other objects at random. The cure requires his true name, the one he had before he was an orangutan, and nobody at the University can remember it or has ever thought to ask.

First appears in chapter 6

The Archchancellor of Unseen University, who prefers doing something loudly to considering it quietly, and who takes personal charge of the search for the one wizard who might know the Librarian's name. He is robust, decisive, and largely unaffected by finding himself somewhere impossible.

First appears in chapter 6

A kangaroo who takes an interest in Rincewind almost as soon as he arrives, talks, and is plainly not simply a kangaroo. He appears when he chooses, disappears the same way, and keeps telling Rincewind that the continent has a problem and that Rincewind is the one who is going to fix it.

First appears in chapter 8

The University's youngest wizard and the only one who reliably thinks before acting. He is the member of the faculty who asks where they are, how they got there and how they are supposed to get back, and who is generally answered with a suggestion that he stop worrying and have lunch.

First appears in chapter 8

A senior wizard of Unseen University, elderly, self-important and in permanent low-level dispute with the Archchancellor about everything, including which of them is being unreasonable. He is nevertheless one of the first to volunteer when the Librarian's life is at stake.

First appears in chapter 20

The housekeeper of Unseen University, who runs the domestic side of the place with an authority the faculty has never dared to test. Formidable, particular about standards, and entirely unbothered by wizards, she is swept along with the expedition and turns out to adapt to strange surroundings rather better than any of them.

First appears in chapter 22

A god who lives alone on a remote island, where he designs living creatures one at a time and assembles them himself, with a particular enthusiasm for beetles. Courteous, absent-minded and genuinely delighted to have visitors who appreciate craftsmanship, he has never once considered that his creatures might be able to make more of themselves, which is why the work is taking him so long.

First appears in chapter 26

The last continent's most tireless street trader, selling meat pies of undisclosed content at prices that rise with the customer's evident desperation. His patter, his stock and his commercial philosophy are recognisable to anyone who has been sold food in Ankh-Morpork.

First appears in chapter 46

The Archchancellor of Bugarup University, the last continent's own college of wizardry, which is run on lines that would horrify Unseen University and works perfectly well. Practical, sunburnt and unceremonious, he shares a surname with a certain visiting wizard from the other side of the world.

First appears in chapter 52

A brewer in Bugarup, matter-of-fact and unimpressed by wizards, who ends up helping Rincewind for reasons that have more to do with the drought than with him. The continent's beer, and the water it is not being made with, is very much her problem.