Peter is the first child of Theresa and John Paul Wiggin and the brother of Ender and Valentine. After the Bugger Wars Peter went on to become the Hegemon of Earth. He was the mastermind behind the personas of Locke and Demosthenes.
Peter Wiggin
Early Life
The first-born Wiggin child, Peter's intellect showed great promise. Unfortunately, his personality proved to be too aggressive (or so he was told, in Shadows of the Giant, Graff tells him that he was not admitted for not being charismatic enough) for admission to Battle School after having had a monitor until the age of 5[1]. In an effort to achieve the same level of genius, but with more empathy, the International Fleet requested the Wiggins’ next child be a girl, who was named Valentine Wiggin. When Valentine also proved to be unsuitable to the fleet, the family was given permission to have a rare third child, Ender Wiggin[2]. Peter felt great jealousy towards Ender and tormented him whenever possible, culminating in a promise to kill Ender shortly before Ender went to Battle School. After Ender left, Peter continued to show violent, and even psychopathic tendencies, causing his family to move to North Carolina, in hopes that the outdoors would calm Peter down[3]. All appearances suggested the move was successful, with Peter appearing to be a model student in school and his taking long walks. However, Valentine continued to find evidence of cruelty, in the form of skinned animals[3]. After Ender splits into 3 parts 3000 years in the future, his soul gives up his Ender and Valentine bodies and resides in the Peter body he created accidentally. He has the memories and personality Ender believed he should have, but has Ender's soul.
Locke and Demosthenes
By studying publicly available information Peter was able to determine that the political alliance on Earth was very fragile. Never having given up desires of greatness, he convinced Valentine to help him write essays in an effort to influence world events. After several experimental identities they created their the alternative personas of Demosthenes and Locke. Peter, either to manipulate Valentine, or to ensure that the identities were complex, wrote the more reasonable Locke, while Valentine wrote the more belligerent Demosthenes. Slowly building an audience, the two personalities each became well known and succeed in helping Peter achieve his goal of becoming influential[3].
Following the end of the Third Invasion, Peter, in the form of Locke, negotiated a treaty which brought the conflict between the Second Warsaw Pact and the North American Hegemony. This led to Peter achieving his long sought after goal of becoming Hegemon[4]
Hegemon
Following the war, the authority of the Hegemon was reduced to being more symbolic than real. Various factions arose to challenge Peter's rule. With Bean's help, however, Peter was eventually able to accumulate enough power to give credible authority to his office. After rescuing Petra and seeing Achilles in Chinese custody, he gets a tip-off from what he is led to believe is Han Tzu concerning the whereabouts of Achilles. Acting on this, Suriyawong is sent to free Achilles and he is quickly put to work in the Hegemony. Though Peter's computer expert Ferrera and John Paul Wiggin were observing his every move, they found nothing. Then Theresa and John Paul get a warning from Bean telling them how Achilles had them fooled. They interpreted this and convince Peter to flee the Hegemony compound. He then goes back to the United States and with moral support from his parents, he denounces Achilles in a press conference. Near the end of Shadow Puppets, he then accompanies Bean to the compound to retrieve Bean's stolen embryos. The confrontation results in Suriyawong's betrayal of Achilles and his death at the hand of Bean. After Bean went into space he married Petra Delphiki. Late in life, Peter asked Ender to write his story, which became part of his second book (after The Hive Queen), The Hegemon.
Regenerated Life
Over 3000 years later, Ender's actions during an experimental trip created a body that looked like Ender's memory of Peter, and which contained the half (or slightly less than half) of Ender's aiua that contained his aggression. More a projection of Ender and Valentine's unforgiving memories of him than an actual manifestation of the original Peter, this version of him was far more vicious. With Ender's aiua divided into three bodies: Peter, Young Val, and Ender, one body couldn't survive; first it was Val who was dying, but when Ender's inmost self became interested in her work with Jane to find the Descoladores' home planet, Ender instead loses interest in his own body. The sixty-something year old body of Ender disintegrates, and the half of his aiua in Young Val goes into Peter, leaving Young Val's body for Jane's aiua. At the end of Children of the Mind, Peter travels around with Si Wang-mu to find the center of the Starways Congress, and eventually he marries her.
Notes
- In Shadow of the Giant, Peter was reluctant to let go of his fundings, and he was determined to be the last Hegemon.
Trivia
- Known E-Mail addresses
- Locke%espinoza@polnet.gov
Quotes
- "Ender, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know how it feels, I'm your brother, I love you." Ender's Game page 15 (soft cover)
- "Guaraná? It's my duty as an American to never drink Coke or Pepsi in a country that has an indigenous soft drink. Besides which, I like it." - Shadow of the Giant page 121
- "I'm here, Ender." - Shadow of the Giant
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