Appearing alone in 1987's Equal Rites, 'crone' Esme Weatherwax is joined in Wyrd Sisters by 'mother' Nanny Ogg and 'maiden' Magrat Garlick, and together can be seen as a spoof on the Three Witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth, and a tongue-in-cheek reinterpretation of the Neopagans' Triple Goddess.
[2] Discworld Voodoo is considered to be an aspect of witch magic, combined with a sort of do-it-yourself religion, relying heavily on the power of belief.
Witches call this "cackling" and, to keep it at bay, they pay regular visits to one another to gossip and take tea, often travelling some considerable distance to do so.
Magrat's gentle personality allows her to serve as a mediator between the often-clashing Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, but she does occasionally display a strong temper herself.
In Witches Abroad Magrat was chosen to serve as a Fairy Godmother, but her inability to master the use of the wand (which had a tendency to reset to "pumpkins") prevented her from taking full advantage of the powers associated with this position.
Magrat is technically a better doctor than the other two witches, since she actually believes in herbalism while Granny tends to use whatever plant or bottle of coloured water comes to hand as a prop for her headology (in this case the placebo effect), as explained in Lords and Ladies.
Magrat renounces witchcraft shortly before her marriage, partially to prepare for her duties as queen, but mostly out of frustration with the way she is treated by the senior members of the Lancre coven and is supplanted by Agnes Nitt after the events of Maskerade.
Her absence from Maskerade seemed to confirm that Magrat had retired from her career as a witch, but after Princess Esmerelda's birth she was forced to assume the Mother role in the coven when Granny Weatherwax decided to temporarily step down during the events of Carpe Jugulum.
In The Shepherd's Crown, she is one of the people across the Disc who feels Granny Weatherwax's death when she dies of old age; she and Verence were attending a conference in Genua at the time.
She, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick fended off the clan of vampires, the de Magpyr, who threatened to take over Lancre, whilst at the same time fending off the rather forward romantic advances of the vampire clan's son, Vlad de Magpyr, who is fascinated with Agnes' dual mind, as it makes mind control over her difficult to impossible.
A very old witch who has been fortune telling for so long that she is no longer able to keep her mind in the present (as Granny Weatherwax puts it, she has a "detached retina in her second sight").
Since she often finds herself in areas where witches are unwelcome, she has a spring-operated hat that only grows a point when she wants it to, although her name still provides a fairly obvious clue as to her real profession ("Miss Tick" = "Mystic").
It is said by the villagers that great kings and princes had come for miles just to ask her for her advice and to seek justice from her, and that the names of everyone is woven into the cloth she weaves on her loom (her main source of income).
Miss Treason dies of old age during the events of Wintersmith, but as she, like all witches, knows the date and time of her death, she was able to enjoy her funeral ceremony the day before.
On the day of her death she comes out of her house to find: many Feegles who couldn't miss out on the ceremony (or apparently keep their mouths shut about it), a grave dug by said-Feegles, and many hysterical villagers (who are primarily concerned with Ms.
Mindful of her image to the very end, Miss Treason used the presence of the locals to give them one last show (i.e. walking into the grave, stopping her clock with her thumbnail to imply her death).
Her cottage (and her loom) was then passed down to Annagramma Hawkin, who, after a decidedly shaky start, has begun to fulfill her role properly, with assistance from Tiffany and the Boffo's catalogue.
Unlike many other witches, she tested details of spells and performed various other experiments (such as determining how many twigs you can pull from a broomstick's tail before it crashes), leaving several shelves of notes, recipes, and instructions in the cottage when Magrat inherited it.
Granny Aching was a friend of The Chalk Clan of Nac Mac Feegle (an army of tiny, blue, rowdy, drunken and vaguely Scottish ne'er-do-wells), and they have befriended Tiffany as the new "hag o' the hills".
Influenced by Mrs Earwig, she believed that witches should adopt a more professional form of witchcraft by employing 'higher MagicK' and using such tools as sacred circles, written spells, and 'real wands'.
Initially, she is unprepared for the real demands of being resident witch for a village; after Tiffany rounds up their peers, the other members of their makeshift coven, and they are each able to give Annagramma small crash courses in true witchcraft (medicine, etc.)
She admits to Tiffany, under pressure, that, unlike what her behavior might let people think, her family is quite poor, even for Lancre standards, not even having their own cottage (living in a rented one), nor do they have their own pig.
Generally a kind soul who is thoughtful of others' feelings, she gained new strength at the end of A Hat Full of Sky when bullied too much by Annagramma, due to her tendency of saying "Um" a lot.
Granny Aching was "as if the green downland had a soul that walked about in old boots and a smocking apron and smoked a foul pipe and dosed sheep with turpentine".
After the climax of the book, Letitia and Roland were married by Tiffany in an ancient marriage ceremony by fire, before they were 'officially' wed the next day by an Omnian priest.
She is the wicked witch mentioned in popular fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty, and met her end when she was pushed into the oven of her gingerbread house (à la Hansel and Gretel).
A gingerbread house appeared in The Light Fantastic, whose owner had been shoved into her own oven; however, this was a different witch (Goodie Whitlow) who met the same end due to narrative causality.
A witch living in Ohulan Cutash (a town fifteen miles away from Bad Ass), who makes her money by selling medicine (says Granny), with names like Tiger Oil, Maiden's Prayer and Husband's Helper.
After some initial confusion about whether being "foreign" means witchcraft is different, she assists the Lancre coven in getting rid of the Duc and getting Ella (who is hinted to be Mrs Gogol's daughter) into her rightful place on the throne.
When Esme was still a child, Lily left Lancre following rows with her family—and possibly some sort of scandal—and changed her name to Lady Lilith de Tempscire (fr.