The Truth characters

Appears from the start

The estranged younger son of a rigid Ankh-Morpork noble family, who makes a modest living writing a hand-copied newsletter of city happenings for a few wealthy subscribers abroad. Earnest, stubborn, and privately at odds with his aristocratic upbringing, he stumbles into the invention of the printed newspaper and finds himself with a compulsion to report what is actually true, whatever the cost.

Appears from the start

A respectable, sharp young woman from a family of engravers who comes to work with William on the fledgling newspaper. Practical and quick to learn, she has a keen instinct for what makes a story and helps turn his venture into a real enterprise.

Appears from the start

The leader of a group of dwarf printers newly arrived in the city with a press and a supply of movable type. Blunt and businesslike, he is happy to print whatever pays, and his machine is what makes a daily paper possible.

Appears from the start

A vampire who works as the newspaper's picture-maker, capturing images with a device that uses a burst of light. A signed-up member of a temperance movement, he has forsworn blood, though the bright flashes his work requires are hazardous to his kind.

Appears from the start

The sharper, more calculating half of a pair of hired criminals known as the New Firm, brought into the city to carry out a discreet and illegal job. He does the thinking and manages his volatile partner.

Appears from the start

The large, violent half of the New Firm, prone to sudden rage and to consuming any substance he believes to be a narcotic. Dangerous and unpredictable, he provides the muscle for his partner's schemes.

Also known as The Patrician

Appears from the start

The calm, calculating ruler of Ankh-Morpork. As the paper grows, he becomes the subject of a scandal, accused of a crime the newspaper's reporting will either confirm or unravel.

Also known as Commander Vimes

Appears from the start

Commander of the City Watch, a hard-edged policeman deeply irritated by the arrival of a newspaper that prints things before he wants them printed. He and William repeatedly cross paths as the investigation into the Patrician's alleged crime unfolds.

Appears from the start

William's father, the cold and domineering head of an old aristocratic family, whose rigid views on class and order estranged his son. William avoids him, but the affairs of the city keep drawing the two together.

Appears from the start

A zombie lawyer, ancient and coldly correct, who is the city's most eminent legal authority and a fixture in its establishment. His careful hand can be found behind a good deal of Ankh-Morpork's discreet business.

Appears from the start

A notoriously smelly beggar and member of the city's ragged street community, who, with his associates, ends up entangled in the newspaper trade in his own chaotic fashion.