Sourcery

Sourcerer, n. (mythical). A proto-wizard, a doorway through which new majik may enterr the world, a wizard not limited by the physical capabilities of hys own bodie, not by Destinie, nor by Deathe. It is written that there once werre sourcerers in the youth of the world, but not may there by nowe and blessed be, for sourcery is not for menne and the return of sourcery would mean the ende of the Worlde ... If the Creator hadd meant menne to be as goddes, he would have given them wings. SEE ALSO: the Apocralypse, the legende of thee Ice Giants, and thee Teatime of the Goddes.

Ipslore the Red was thrown out of Unseen University some time ago. He subsequently started a family, and he had eight sons. Each of the first seven were really powerful wizards, but the eighth, the eighth son of an eighth son, a wizard squared, was a sourcerer. Someone who brought magic into the world, the sort of magic that was violently powerful and hard to control. Ipslore sent this son into the world with an octiron staff and a Destiny - to rule all wizards, to wear the Archchancellor's hat, and to wreak vengeance upon the discworld. (I never said that Ipslore was sane.)

But the Archchancellor's Hat had other ideas. It managed to get itself stolen, and taken all the way to Klatch, to the palace of the Seriph of Al Khali. Rincewind is involved. The Luggage... is the Luggage. Beware the ratty-looking wizard who can't spell, for trouble follows behind him wherever he goes. On hundreds of little legs....

*In a truly magical universe everything has its opposite. For example, there's anti-light. That's not the same as darkness, because darkness is merely the absence of light. Anti-light is what you get if you pass through darkness and out the other side. On the same basis, a state of knurdness isn't like sobriety. By comparison, sobriety is like having a bath in cotton wool. Knurdness strips away all illusion, all the comforting pink fog in which people normally spend their lives, and lets them see and think clearly for the first time ever. Then, after they've screamed a bit, they make sure they never get knurd again.

Poor Rincewind has to save the world again, of course. Poor little weasel. Surrounded by danger on every side, (ie, Conina the Hairdresser,) and beset by that terrible streak of inner cowardice, Rincewind always manages to survive, somehow, and save the day. Just, not his day...