Coin

Coin is one of the main antagonists of Sourcery, the fifth book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy series. The son of fellow Discworld villain Ipslore the Red, Coin is the Sourcerer around which the plot of the story revolves: apparently driven to return Wizards to their "rightful place" as commanders of society, he is initially believed to be behind every act of villainy performed over the course of the story; however, Coin's nature is far more complicated than first appearances suggest...

The Nature of Sourcerers
Magic, like many forces on the Disc, operates to the Law of Narrative Causality in that it tends to follow the patterns of stories to a slavish degree: the eighth son of an eighth son will always become a wizard, eight being a potent magical number in the Discworld series. The equation often ends there, as most wizards are too preoccupied with mastering their arts and surviving the rigors of magical politics to take much of an interest in sex. However, should an eighth son of an eighth son be so inclined to expand the family, his children will all be born with great magical potency: the eighth son of the eighth son of the eighth son will be born a wizard squared - a Sourcerer.

Sourcerers are figures of legend widely feared for their abilities, and with very good reason: wizards cast spells by drawing on the Disc's ambient magic, often limited by how much they can safely access and utilize at once. Sourcerers, on the other hand, are sources of new magic: they naturally generate their own ambient magic and can utilize it in almost any way they please, granting them the ability to warp reality at will. More dangerously, other wizards can also draw on this Sourcerous magic, finding it more powerful than common ambient magic - often driving them to intercontinental violence in pursuit of their ambitions. During the Mage Wars, wizards drawing upon wild magic and Sourcery bombarded each other with spells regardless of collateral damage, often leaving areas uninhabitable or even unreal; in some cases, it was bad enough to get the attention of the Dungeon Dimensions.

Fortunately, Sourcerers are not invincible, nor are they immune to normal human foibles: those of them who don't die in combat often lose interest in the world and mysteriously vanish in pursuit of their own private obsessions. Nonetheless, Sourcerers are feared by most wizards as active threats to reality and possible harbingers of the Apocralypse. In particular, the wizards of Unseen University are taught the necessity of using their magic with great caution - if at all - and that sex diminishes their control over magic (a lie intended to prevent the births of further Sourcerers). However, not all wizards accepted the teachings...

Ipslore The Red
Some generations prior to the start of the novel, the sequence began again: a perfectly ordinary man had eight sons, the eighth of which eventually got married and had eight sons. The eighth of these eventually grew up to become Ipslore the Red, one of the most powerful wizards of Unseen University; normally the story would have ended there, with the wizard spending his days on study and the murderous ascent through the ranks of the faculty.

However, against all expectations, Ipslore fell in love. Gaining notoriety for his growing infatuation with matters of the heart, he eventually left the university in disgrace: caring little for the opinions of his fellow wizards, he settled down, married the object of his affections, and started a family. As expected, his sons all grew up to be powerful wizards in their own right. However, Ipslore was still a maverick teacher even in his exile, and continued preaching his doctrine of reckless magic and matters of the heart to his sons - ultimately leading to arguments in which all seven of them were banished from Ipslore's presence.

It was here that Coin was born as the eighth son of Ipslore's family, the first Sourcerer to have walked the Disc in centuries. However, Ipslore's beloved wife died of a heart attack shortly afterwards, and all his magic couldn't save her; mad with grief, the aged wizard swore revenge on Unseen University for rejecting him and rejecting love, vowing to teach Coin how to return magic to its rightful place in the world. To that end, at the very moment of his death, he bound his soul to his famous octiron staff and bequeathed it to Coin, intending to advise his son from beyond the grave.

However, Death demanded one stipulation in return for this immortality: if Coin were to ever voluntary cast aside the staff, Ipslore would lose his immortality and Death would claim him. Ipslore accepted, secure in the belief that no wizard would ever give up his staff.

The New Archchancellor
Though the events of Coin's life prior to the start of the story remain unknown, it can be presumed that Coin spent most of his childhood being taught and advised by Ipslore: his father taught him the art of magic, but also taught him his increasingly-demented philosophy of magical supremacy, slowly moulding him into the perfect means of enacting his megalomaniacal ambitions.

At ten years old, Coin is finally sent out to Ankh-Morpork to meet with the wizards of Unseen University: killing the Archchancellor-elect prior to his inaugural dinner, he then bursts in on the dinner itself and challenges the startled wizards to a contest of magic - with the winner claiming the position of Archchancellor. Amused at the child wizard's demands, Skarmer Bilias demonstrates his mastery of eighth-level wizardry by conjuring "Maligree's Wonderful Garden," a timeless utopian pocket reality - though he can only manage a Garden about two feet wide. Unimpressed, Coin briefly expands the spell to encompass the entire banqueting hall, before promptly disintegrating Bilias with a single spell.

Astonished by this display of power, the wizards reluctantly make Coin their new Archchancellor.