Lord Havelock Vetinari is a fictional character created by Terry Pratchett for his Discworld books and is the ruler of the city-state of Ankh-Morpork.
In the first book called The Colour of Magic, Rincewind is arrested by a character called the Patrician, ruler of Ankh-Morpork who tells him that he will kill him for counterfeiting unless Rincewind becomes a tour guide for the character Twoflower. The Patrician later hires assassins to murder Twoflower after being asked to do that by the leader of Twoflower’s home country. The Patrician isn’t given a name by the book.
In the book Mort, it’s mentioned that Ankh-Morpork has a political system called “one man, one vote, the Patrician was the man, so he had the vote” meaning that it was an absolute monarchy with the Patrician in charge.
In Sourcery, it turns out that The Patrician is named Lord Vetinari and that he is “unfair and unjust but he is unfair and unjust to everyone without fear or favour” and that the only living thing he loves is his dog Wuffles. At the beginning of the book, Lord Vetinari is transformed into an animal and locked up but he is turned back into a human by the end.
In the book Wyrd Sisters, it turns out that the Patrician kills anyone who might be related to the last king of the city so he can continue to rule it.
In Guards! Guards!, it turns out Lord Vetinari threatened every thief in the city and said that he would cut off their heads and kill their children unless they started a guild which would kill anyone who stole unless they were in the guild and which would pay Lord Vetinari to let them steal from everyone except for people who paid the Guild not to steal from them and which would have to pay a tax to Lord Vetinari. Lord Vetinari is then betrayed by his sidekick Lupine Wonse who locks Vetinari in his own dungeon with Captain Samuel Vimes. Vetinari tells Vimes he would never create a dungeon that he didn’t know how to escape so Vimes finds a secret passage but Vetinari remembers where in the dungeon he hid the key and escapes. After Wonse is killed, Vetinari tells Vimes that everyone is evil but there are some bad people on different sides but Vimes doesn’t believe him. After Vimes leaves, Lord Vetinari admits he thinks Vimes is a good person.
In the book, Men at Arms, it turns out that Lord Vetinari’s first name is Havelock
In the book Night Watch, it turns out that Havelock Vetinari is an orphan who was raised by his aunt and that he trained as an assassin paying attention to stealth and poison and killed the evil Patrician Lord Winder.