Magician (fantasy)
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A magician, also known as an archimage, mage, magus, magic-user, spellcaster, enchanter/enchantress, sorcerer/sorceress, warlock, witch, or wizard, is someone who uses or practices
Character archetypes
People who work magic are called by several names in fantasy works, and terminology differs widely from one fantasy world to another. While derived from real-world vocabulary, the terms: magician, mage, magus, enchanter/enchantress, sorcerer/sorceress, warlock, witch, and wizard, each have different meanings depending upon context and the story in question.[3]: 619 Archmage is used in fantasy works to indicate a powerful magician or a leader of magicians.[3]: 1027
Enchanters typically practice a type of imbued magic that produces no permanent effects on objects or people and are temporary, or of an indefinite duration, or which may require some item or act, to nullify or reverse. For example, this could include enchanting a weapon or tool to be more (or less) effective, enchanting a person or object to have a changed shape or appearance, creating illusions intended to deceive the observer, compelling a person to perform an action they might not normally do, or attempting to
The term sorcerer has moved from meaning a
Witch (an—often female—practitioner of witchcraft) and wicked (an adjective meaning "bad, evil, false") are both derivative terms from the word, wicca (an Old English word with varied meanings, including soothsayer, astrologer, herbalist, poisoner, seductress, or devotee of supernatural beings or spirits). L. Frank Baum combined these terms in naming the Wicked Witch of the West, and other witches in the Land of Oz. Baum named Glinda the "Good Witch of the South" in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In The Marvelous Land of Oz, he dubbed her "Glinda the Good," and from that point forward and in subsequent books, Baum referred to her as a sorceress rather than a witch to avoid the term that was more regarded as evil.[5] In modern fiction, a witch may be depicted more neutrally, such as the female witches (comparable to the male wizards) in the Harry Potter series of books by J. K. Rowling.
In medieval chivalric romance, the wizard often appears as a
Wizards can be cast similarly to the absent-minded professor: being foolish and prone to misconjuring. They can also be capable of great magic, both good and evil.[2]: 140–141 Even comical magicians are often capable of great feats, such as those of Miracle Max in The Princess Bride; although he is a washed-up wizard fired by the villain, he saves the dying hero.[8]
Other wizards, such as Saruman from The Lord of the Rings or Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter, can appear as hostile villains.[6]: 193
Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea explored the question of how wizards learned their art, introducing to modern fantasy the role of the wizard as the protagonist.[9] This theme has been further developed in modern fantasy, often leading to wizards as heroes on their own quests.[10] Such heroes may have their own mentor, a wizard as well.[3]: 637
In role-playing games
Magicians in
Appearance
Due to their traditional image as a
In fantasy, a magician may be shown wearing a
.Several
Terry Pratchett described robes as a magician's way of establishing to those they meet that they are capable of practicing magic.[15]
In the Dragonlance campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, wizards show their moral alignment by the colour of their robes.[16]
Magical implements
A magician's crystal ball is a crystal or glass ball commonly associated with clairvoyance, fortune-telling, or scrying.
In the
Education
Magicians normally learn spells by reading ancient tomes called grimoires, which may have magical properties of their own.[3]: 126 Sorcerers in Conan the Barbarian often gained powers from such books, which are demarcated by their strange bindings. In worlds where magic is not an innate trait, the scarcity of these strange books may be a facet of the story; in Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, Prince Rupert seeks out the books of the magician Prospero to learn magic. The same occurs in the Dungeons and Dragons-based novel series Dragonlance Chronicles, wherein Raistlin Majere seeks out the books of the sorcerer Fistandantilus. In JK Rowling's Harry Potter series, wizards already have skills of magic but they need to practise magic in Wizarding Schools in order to be able to use it properly.
Some magicians, even after training, continue their education by learning more spells, inventing new ones (and new magical objects), or rediscovering ancient spells, beings, or objects. For example,
Limits on magic
To introduce conflict, writers of fantasy fiction often place limits on the magical abilities of magicians to prevent them from solving problems too easily.[3]: 616
A common motif in fiction is that the ability to use magic is innate and often rare, or gained through a large amount of study and practice.
A common limit invented by Jack Vance in his The Dying Earth series, and later popularized in role-playing games is that a wizard can only cast a specific number of spells in a day.[3]: 385 In Larry Niven's The Magic Goes Away, once an area's mana is exhausted, no one can use magic.[3]: 942
The extent of a magician's knowledge is limited to which spells a wizard knows and can cast.[18] Magic may also be limited by its danger; if a powerful spell can cause grave harm if miscast, magicians are likely to be wary of using it.[2]: 142 Other forms of magic are limited by consequences that, while not inherently dangerous, are at least undesirable. In A Wizard of Earthsea, every act of magic distorts the equilibrium of the world, which in turn has far-reaching consequences that can affect the entire world and everything in it. As a result, competent wizards do not use their magic frivolously.[18]
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the Law of Conservation of Reality is a principle imposed by forces wanting wizards to not destroy the world, and works to limit how much power it is humanly possible to wield.[citation needed] Whatever your means, the effort put into reaching the ends stays the same. For example, when the wizards of Unseen University are chasing the hapless wizard Rincewind in the forest of Skund, the wizards send out search teams to go and find him on foot. The Archchancellor beats them to it by using a powerful spell from his own office, and while he gets there first by clever use of his spell, he has used no less effort than the others.[citation needed]
Magic may require rare and precious materials, such as rare herbs or flowers (often selected by prescribed rituals), minerals or metals such as mercury, parts of creatures such as the eye of a newt, or even fantastic ingredients like the cool of a soft breeze on a summer's day. Even if the magician lacks scruples, obtaining the materials in question may be difficult.[19] This can vary by fantasy work. Many magicians require no materials at all;[3]: 617 or those that do may require only simple and easily obtained materials. Role-playing games are more likely to require such materials for at least some spells for game balance reasons.[20][self-published source?]
Use of magic in society
Nevertheless, many magicians live in pseudo-medieval settings in which their magic is not put to practical use in society; they may serve as mentors, act as quest companions, or even go on a quest themselves,[3]: 1027 but their magic does not build roads or buildings, provide immunizations, construct indoor plumbing, or do any of the other functions served by machinery; their worlds remain at a medieval level of technology.[21]
Sometimes this is justified by having the negative effects of magic outweigh the positive possibilities.
In other works, developing magic is difficult.[
At other times, magic and technology do develop in tandem; this is most common in the
The powers ascribed to magicians often affect their roles in society.[
In the magic-noir world of the
In the series Sorcerous Stabber Orphen human forms of life should have only been capable of acquiring divine magic powers through individual spiritual development, whereas the race of human magicians with inborn magical ability ended in conflict with pureblood human society, because this race appeared as a result of an experiment of mixing humans with non-human sentient Heavenly Beings that acquired magic powers not through spiritual development, but through deep studying of laws of nature and by falsely causing the world’s laws to react to actions of the Heavenly Beings as to actions of Divinities.[23] In the Harry Potter series, the Wizarding World hides themselves from the rest of the non-magic world, because, as described by Hagrid simply, "Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone’d be wantin’ magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we’re best left alone.”
References
- ^ "The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo by Marie Spartali Stillman". ArtMagick. Archived from the original on 2016-03-08. Retrieved 2013-10-16.
- ^ ISBN 0871161958.
- ^ ISBN 0312198698.
- ISBN 0812695887.
- ISBN 070060832X.
- ^ ISBN 0691012989.
- ^ ISBN 0786419261.
- ISBN 0898799279.
- ISBN 0425052052.
- ^ Fike, Justin. "The Role of Wizards in Fantasy Literature". The Victorian Web. Archived from the original on 2013-10-16. Retrieved 2013-10-16.
- ISBN 0880387165.
- ISBN 0786928867.
- ISBN 0970844204.
- ^ Paterson, Tony. "Mysterious gold cones 'hats of ancient wizards'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
- ^ Marcio, Kneidinger (1948-04-28). "Analysis". Terry Pratchett's Discworld. L-Space Web. Archived from the original on 2013-06-07. Retrieved 2013-10-16.
- ISBN 0880384522.
- ^ Benvenuto, Raffaella (2006). "Italian Fairies: Fate, Folletti, and Other Creatures of Legend". Journal of Mythic Arts. Endicott Studio. Archived from the original on 2013-10-16. Retrieved 2013-10-16.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ a b c Kern, Michael. "The Limits of Magic". The Victorian Web. Archived from the original on 2013-10-16. Retrieved 2013-10-13.
- ISBN 0898794161.
- ISBN 9781442105935. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
- ISBN 0553295284.
- ^ Krug, Kurt Anthony (2018-07-27). "There's Something About Harry: A Look Into Jim Butcher's Character Harry Dresden". The Strand Magazine. Retrieved 2019-01-18.
- ISBN 9784864728799.
External links
- Patricia Wrede, "Magic and Magicians", Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions