John Keel

John Keel was a sergeant (possibly sergeant-at-arms) in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch during the last days of the reign of Lord Winder.

In Night Watch Vimes and Carcer are sent back in time to the day Keel first came to town. Carcer joined with two other thugs and murdered Keel, who in the original timeline had overcome the two.

Keel had a large scar and a damaged eye from this attack, which, mysteriously, Vimes acquired after falling back in time (A fact that Lu-Tze speculated was evidence of the idea of the self-correcting history). Vimes assumed Keel’s identity, and fulfilled his place in history, though slightly differently.

Keel’s gravestone is in the Small Gods’ Cemetery, and is the second best-maintained of all the graves of the dead of the Glorious Revolution (The first being the grave of Reg Shoe, who takes care of the maintenance of his resting place himself). Every 25th of May it is decorated with lilac and a hard-boiled egg.

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