Locaha

The local manifestation of Death in Nation. He has none of the sympathy and compassion exhibited towards the human race by Deaths in any other part of Pratchett's creations, and, in fact, has many aspects of a Trickster god who delights in playing terminal practical jokes and laying traps for unwary humans, such as Mau, who fall into his clutches. However, a shamaness such as Mrs. Gurgle knows the tricks and can get around him, as (in a manner reminiscent of Rincewind being despatched to Death's Domain in an OOB induced by a tribal shamaness, so as to rescue Twoflower in The Light Fantastic), she guides Daphne to enter his domain and rescue Mau. Like any other trickster god, Locaha will prey on the unwary without mercy, but respects those with the cunning to see through his traps and deceptions.

Having heard that Daphne had gone to the land of death to recall Mau, a head-hunting Raider put her to the test by asking her what colour the birds were in the land of Locaha, and how long one could stay there. The answer came from her unrehearsed: "There are no colours. There are no birds. The fish are silver, and as fast as thought" and (as long as) "the fall of a drop of water."

Locaha tells Mau, "There is only... what happens." That sounds disarmingly simple, since, as for what does not happen, "That happens, too. Everything that can happen must happen, and everything that can happen must have a world to happen in. That is why Imo builds so many worlds that there are not enough numbers to count them."

This is reminiscent of what is said to Tiffany Aching: "There is a place where all stories are true."

Mau said to Daphne, at their parting, that sometimes he thought he could see a little way into the world where the wave did not happen, and that if she went with her father, indeed, whatever she chose, there would be two new worlds, and that perhaps sometimes, on the edge of sleep, they would see the shadow of the other world.