The Last Hero characters

Also known as Ghenghiz Cohen

Appears from the start

The greatest hero the Discworld has produced, now Emperor of the Agatean Empire and thoroughly sick of it. He is very old, held together by diamond teeth and stubbornness, and he has outlived every enemy, every rival and the entire age that had a use for men like him. Ruling turns out to consist of paperwork and being comfortable, neither of which he can tolerate, and he has decided that if he is going to die he will do it while doing something worth a song.

Appears from the start

A young, classically trained musician of the modern sort, carried off by the Silver Horde to serve as their official bard and record their last deed. He is terrified, indignant, and entirely unqualified for the outdoors, and he has never in his life had to write about anything that actually happened.

Appears from the start

A member of the Silver Horde, extremely old, extremely rude, and the least reconciled of them all to the polite behaviour their years of imperial rule have required. He is delighted to be back on the road.

First appears in chapter 2

The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, a spare, quiet, unhurried man who governs the Disc's largest city by knowing more than anyone else in it. Presented with a threat that no army can address, he sets about finding the only kind of solution available and puts the right people in a room.

First appears in chapter 2

The Archchancellor of Unseen University, loud and practical, who is the one obliged to explain what will happen to the world if the home of the gods is destroyed. The answer is that the magic holding the Disc together goes with it, and that everything then stops.

First appears in chapter 2

A professional villain of the old school, the last working Dark Lord on the Disc, who keeps a dungeon, employs the traditional incompetent minions and always leaves the one exit the hero is supposed to find. He believes in the rules of his trade absolutely, including the ones that require him to betray his allies at the appropriate moment, and everyone involved knows it.

First appears in chapter 3

Ankh-Morpork's resident genius, kept in comfortable confinement by the Patrician because his inventions are too dangerous to be loose in the world. Gentle, distractible and interested in absolutely everything, he can design a flying machine capable of leaving the Disc and will then want to discuss the shape of the clouds.

First appears in chapter 3

Captain of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, immensely strong, straightforward and honest to a degree that other people find unnerving. He volunteers for a journey nobody is expected to return from, because someone has to go and because it does not occur to him to let anyone else do it.

First appears in chapter 3

A wizard of Unseen University who cannot do magic and has survived everything the world has thrown at him purely by fleeing it. He is selected for the expedition on the grounds that he is the Disc's leading authority on staying alive in impossible situations, which is not the compliment he would have chosen. He insists on bringing potatoes.

First appears in chapter 4

The orangutan keeper of Unseen University's library, who has no intention of being left behind and who takes the practical view that a voyage of this kind will need someone with four hands and a grip.