The Lady
| The Lady | |
 | |
| Name | "The Lady" "She-who-shall-not-be-named" "The 'Million-to-One' Chance--and all of the other chances as well" "The One who will desert you when you need Her the most--and sometimes She might not" |
| Race | Anthropomorphic personification |
| Age | |
| Occupation | Goddess |
| Physical appearance | Completely Green eyes |
| Residence | Cori Celesti |
| Death | |
| Parents | |
| Relatives | |
| Children | |
| Marital Status | Unknown |
| Appearances | |
| Books | The Colour of Magic, Interesting Times, The Last Hero |
| Cameos | |
"The Lady", also known as; "She-who-shall-not-be-named... The 'Million-to-One' Chance - and all of the other chances as well... The One who will desert you when you need Her the most - and sometimes She might not...", is none other than the Anthropomorphic personification of Luck, as well as the single most powerful goddess on the Discworld, all for the simple reason that (although She has no worshippers and the only temple ever erected to Her was destroyed purely by chance) everybody hopes and prays that She exists and that She'll smile on them. Her suitors can be distinguished by their distinctive repetitive prayer; "please-oh-please-oh-please-oh-please."
She's definitely a lady, but She'll quite happily leave Her escort and go blow on whomsoever's dice She pleases. If you think She won't be there for you, chances are She will (or won't), but say Her name out loud and you'll probably never see Her again, though you might. She has eyes of bright green, not that her eyes are green in the sense that you or I might have brown or blue eyes, but bright green from edge to edge: no whites, no pupils, just green. In the Discworld, it is not possible for deities to change the nature of their eyes.
The Lady is the eternal rival of Fate. She is one of the few characters in the series who can, or have, upset Fate's powers over the board when they play games with the lives of people down on the Discworld. While Fate is implacable, The Lady is capricious: Fate plays to win, the Lady plays not to lose. Often Her playing pieces do not appear very powerful. She has never sacrificed a pawn before, or at least, so she has declared. One of Her 'favourites' appears to be Rincewind, for the simple reason that he is convinced, no matter how much evidence to the contrary he comes across, that he has survived everything simply as a coincidence, or just because the world hates him and that luck has played positive no part... (Oh Stercus... I said it.)
While it is speculated that The Lady may possibly be the consort of Fate, this isn't too likely, given that they are bitter rivals (but, then again...). The Lady actually shares more in common with Kaos than She does with Fate. Both Kaos and The Lady have exhibited the use of Probability in their approach to what they each do, they have even been connected with the imagery of 'a very special butterfly', also known as the 'Butterfly effect': In Interesting Times, The Lady, when She was beginning a new game against Fate, released a small butterfly from Her hand.
Notes
- The Lady is based on the semi-real Roundworld equivalent of the Ancient Roman Goddess, Fortuna, Goddess of Luck, also known as "Lady Luck"--and Roman counterpart of Tyche, the Ancient Greek Goddess of Luck.