Moist von Lipwig
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Moist von Lipwig is a character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. He is the protagonist of the novel Going Postal and is set to star in the upcoming Discworld novel Making Money.
A former conman, now Ankh-Morpork's Postmaster General, Moist von Lipwig was invited to take up his new position of his own free will by the Patrician (the offered alternatives being hanging or suicide, again of his own free will), and managed to revive the Post Office by applying the principles of the con to honest work. He wears a golden suit with a wingèd cap when on duty, and, without it, looks like someone you wouldn't really notice. He is in something approaching a relationship with Adora Belle Dearheart. As of January, 2006, he is set to star in the forthcoming novel Making Money. As a confidence trickster in a book which sometimes can be said to criticise the unfettered free market, his name could be meant to mock the views of Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises.
He seems to have a very minor cameo in Thud!. When Commander Vimes notices that the Ankh-Morpork Post Office has issued two different sets of stamps commemorating the battle of Koom Valley (one in which the Dwarfs are winning the battle, the other the Trolls) he makes an angry remark about "That pea-brain at the Post Office," which may also refer to Stanley. Presumably he is talking about Lipwig, who as Postmaster for Ankh-Morpork has the authority to commission stamps. This would indicate there's no love lost between the Watch Commander and the Postmaster of Ankh-Morpork (which makes sense, since Vimes is a career copper and von Lipwig is a slippery con-artist). Interestingly, during Men at Arms, Vimes briefly muses about how the Post Office used to run efficiently, obviously meaning that his sentiment has changed since Moist's appointment as postmaster, for the obvious reasons.
His most notable trait is that he is unnoticeable. He is unrecognisable and uses this to his advantage by donning a selection of easily removable distinguishable features. He's about twenty or thirty and between 5ft 9 and 6ft 2 according to the numerous descriptions handed in to various watches across the plains; however, it's revealed in Going Postal that he's actually 26 (or so he says).
He's an expert forger and uses a wide range of inks and papers that he stores in what he calls "Mr. Robinson's Box"; he uses these supplies to make the post office stamps nearly impossible to forge. He seems to have tendencies towards kleptomania as he just can't help helping himself to items left lying around by honest if careless businessmen.
von Lipwig bears at least a passing resemblance to James Bolivar "Slippery Jim" diGriz from Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series; the name "Moist" could be read as a nod to "Slippery Jim". Like von Lipwig, diGriz is a genius con man pulled unwillingly (at first) into service by his government. Each also has a similar well-defined morality regarding their choice of crime and targets; however, von Lipwig learns to his dismay in Going Postal that seemingly "victimless" crimes against faceless institutions nonetheless leave their own trail of victims.
