Description
Whereas Magicians (qv) are the grass-roots societally embedded tupe of spellcasters, Wizards are the kind that use substantially more intellectual, academic and aristocratic backgrounds. Becoming a Magician can be affordable, becoming a Wizard is extremely expensive. Thus only one in about 2500 people in the Kingdom, “over-all” will be some sort of Wizard. Wizards have bigger ego’s, their spells gravitate more towards combative, and they need much luxuries, emenities, resources, tools and servants. Wizards are all trained at magical Guild, Univrsities, Acadamies and Colleges and are organizes in houses. Wizardry ethos is organized in about 10-15 higher orders, abbreviated with a color, i.e. Orange, Omber, Black, Grey, Green, Blue, Gold, Purple, Red, White and Gold. Wizards are more prone to Paradox than Magicians.
In theoretical terms there is no difference between “Magicians” and “Wizards”. In most cases Wizardry and Magician magic overlap. In practice there is a clear distinction in cultural and societal terms. Magicians and Wizards are also conceptually related to Sorcerors.
A magician uses feats of trickery, sleight of hand and arcane spells. Arcane spells use ‘generic’ formulaic metaphysical principles to manifest ‘evocations’.
Wizards are grandiose, charismatic, intellectual, confident and more visible than “mere” Magicians. A wizard is a arcane spellcaster that emphasizes an as wide collection as spells in a spellbook or library as possible, allowing access to as versatile a range of highly specialized spells as the mind can muster. Learning these arcane spells is a pursuit based on political power in the Guilds (or Universities, Chantries, etc.), material resources, intellectual ability, many years of academic study, courage and ambition. Wizards are thus nearly always grandiose and terrifying figures.
– The type of spells and rituals commonly learned by Wizards tend to be more theatrical and expensive that those learned by Magicians. Sorcerors can learn a wide selection of both magician and wizard spells, but imprint them deeper.
– Most Magicians evolve to become Wizards in later careers, though that transition is rarely a respectable. Sorcerors tend to get stuck as sorcerors. Few sorcerors (also) become wizards or magicians and vice versa. Magicians tend to be more practical, urban and middle class, while Wizards are more commonly associated with being divorced from common society, aloof and more ecclectally upper class intellectual. Sorcerors tend to be regarded more as solitary eccentrics, dabblers, artists and dangerous types “who couldn’t hack it in formal academic environments”. Magicians tend to learn many spells superficially for flexibility – Wizards learn less powerful spells for excellence and impact – Sorcerors learn less spells and have magical reserves allowing them to cast these spells over and over.
Magicians learn spells through study. They learn spells through lengthy imprinting, memorize spells (vancian magic) and cast them. In most cases after casting a spell, the spell is depleted. Magician spells tend to be fast cast, narrowly defined, inflexible.
Magicians have a practical relationship with the supernatural and the mundane. While met with some suspicion in most places, it is generally safe in the Kingdom to be known as a magician.
Magicians tend to be 60% male and 40% female, due to the slightly patriarchal preference. Wizards tend to be 75% male and 25% female. Sorcerors are about 50% male and 50% female.
Magicians are almost as versatile and varied as Witches, but clearly Magicians Magic is more powerful and robust than mere witchcraft. While most witches rely on extensive rutal and ethnic communities, Magicians are more prone to be wellconnected in cities or culturally modern environments. Wizards tend to heavily lean towards academia and schools of wizzardry.
Entry requirements for becoming Magician are median, but do not involve excessive amounts of money. Low level Magicians are easily mobile figures who don’t need elaborate work spaces. This makes Magicians well suited as support artillery for adventurous types. Magicians tend to always be required to be versed in several vocational skills, such as copperworker, runesmith, woodcrafter, jeweler, bookmaker, alchemist or the like. 80% of Magicians learn their craft from a master (and this may very well be a Wizard) or mentor, and only a 15% or less learn their craft in academia. A small percentage of Magicians is heredetary or self-taught.
Prominence: Wizards are uncommon. Wizardry is an extremely expensive path to follow. There are less than 5000 wizards in the six Kingdoms, most of which are either human or elf. There are substantially more Magicians (160.000 in the six Kingdoms). Most Wizards are either human, elf or a mix of the two. There are next to no Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome, Humanoid Wizards (several hundred at most).