At the moment of his death, Ipslore transfers his essential being into the infant Coin's staff, preventing Death from collecting his soul (since damaging the staff to do so would kill Coin) and allowing him to influence his son.Įight years later, Virrid Wayzygoose, the Archchancellor-designate of Unseen University, is murdered by Coin before his induction, who then forces his way into the university's Great Hall. As the eighth son of a wizard, Coin is born a sourcerer, a wizard who generates new magic rather than drawing it from the world, effectively making him the most powerful wizard on the Disc. Bitter over this fate and the death of his wife, Ipslore vows to take revenge upon the wizards through his eighth son, Coin. There are many references to geasa in the text, which are idiosyncratic curses, vows or obligations placed upon a person (usually a hero, such as Cúchulainn in Irish mythology).ĭeath comes to collect the soul of Ipslore the Red, a wizard who was banished from Unseen University for marrying and having children, something forbidden for wizards. The rest of the novel deals with the sourcerer's plan to have wizards rule the Discworld, and the efforts of a small group – including Rincewind the Wizard, Nijel the Destroyer and Conina the Hairdresser, daughter of Cohen the Barbarian – to thwart those plans.
The first few pages of the novel deal with a sourcerer's father who cheats death by making a prophecy that Death must honour the alternative is to risk destroying the Discworld. To prevent the creation of sourcerers, therefore, wizards are not allowed to marry or have children. Since sourcerers are born the eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son, they are wizards squared. As eight is a powerful magical number on Discworld, men born as the eighth son of an eighth son are commonly wizards. On the Discworld, sourcerers – wizards who are sources of magic, and thus immensely more powerful than normal wizards – were the main cause of the great mage wars that left areas of the disc uninhabitable. Sourcery is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the fifth book in his Discworld series, published in 1988.
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