Susan Sto Helit (Discworld)

Susan Sto Helit is a fictional character who features in three of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels – Soul Music, Hogfather, and Thief of Time.

She is the daughter of Mort and Ysabell. Ysabell was the adopted daughter of Death and Mort was, briefly, Death's apprentice. They leave Death's ambit and become Duke and Duchess of Sto Helit. Susan is their only child.

Despite her tenuous relationship to Death, she is often called his granddaughter and she refers to Death as grandfather. Because of this link she has certain abilities: she can "walk through walls and live outside time and be a little bit immortal."

Her most obvious character trait is being sensible, an attribute carefully cultivated by her parents as a counterbalance to the influence of her grandfather. Initially, this manifested itself as a refusal to admit the supernatural side of the world (beyond basic magic) even existed. Latterly, however, she accepts she is part of the same world as the Hogfather and the Tooth fairy. She just wishes she wasn't. She can be relied upon to keep her head in a crisis, something she tends to view as a character flaw.

She is first introduced as a sixteen year old pupil at the "Quirm College for Young Ladies" in Soul Music, shortly after the death of her parents. After graduating — and despite being technically the current Duchess of Sto Helit — she begins a teaching career, first as a governess (in Hogfather) and then as a school teacher (in Thief of Time). She proves to be quite good at handling small children, a skill that is attributed to her sensible and practical nature.

This could also be due to her approach to children's problems. When a child complains about a monster in the cupboard or under the bed, most parents would go to great lengths to carefully explain to the child that there is no monster. Susan, on the other hand, simply hands the child an axe to beat up the monster, or goes and does it herself. Monsters from a large area have come to dread the fireplace poker she uses for this task.

In the Cosgrove Hall animation of Soul Music, Susan is voiced by Debra Gillet.

As of Thief of Time, she is rumoured to be in a relationship with Lobsang Ludd, the new anthromorphic personification of Time.

Mundane note: It is perhaps worth considering, when personifying Death, that England has another notable fictional personage with a granddaughter named Susan.