Mage (fantasy)

A magician, also known as an enchanter/enchantress, mage, magic-user, archmage, sorcerer/sorceress, spell-caster, warlock, witch, or wizard, is someone who uses or practices magic derived from supernatural, occult, or arcane sources. Magicians are common figures in works of fantasy, such as fantasy literature and role-playing games, and enjoy a rich history in mythology, legends, fiction, and folklore.

Character archetypes

In medieval chivalric romance, the wizard often appears as a wise old man and acts as a mentor, with Merlin from the ''King Arthur'' stories being a prime example. Wizards such as Gandalf in ''The Lord of the Rings'' and Albus Dumbledore from '' Harry Potter'' are also featured as mentors, and Merlin remains prominent as both an educative force and mentor in modern works of Arthuriana. Other magicians, such as Saruman from ''The Lord of the Rings'' or Lord Voldemort from ''Harry Potter'', can appear as hostile villains. Villainous sorcerers were so crucial to pulp fantasy that the genre in which they appeared was dubbed " sword and sorcery".

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 protagonist. This theme has been further developed in modern fantasy, often leading to wizards as heroes on their own quests. Such heroes may have their own mentor, a wizard as well.

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 or evil. Even comical wizards 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.

Appearance

Wizards are often depicted as old, white-haired, and with long white beards majestic enough to occasionally host lurking woodland creatures. This depiction predates the modern fantasy genre, being derived from the traditional image of wizards such as Merlin.

In the ''Dragonlance'' campaign setting of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game, wizards show their moral alignment by their robes.

Terry Pratchett described robes as a magician's way of establishing to those they meet that they are capable of practicing magic.

Limits

To introduce conflict, writers of fantasy fiction often place limits on the magical abilities of wizards to prevent them from solving problems too easily. In Larry Niven's ''The Magic Goes Away'', once an area's mana is exhausted, no one can use magic. 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.

Magic can also require various sacrifices or the use of certain materials, such as gemstones, blood, or a live sacrifice. Even if the magician lacks scruples, obtaining the material may be difficult.

The extent of a wizard's knowledge is limited to which spells a wizard knows and can cast. Magic may also be limited by its danger; if a powerful spell can cause grave harm if miscast, wizards are likely to be wary of using it. 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.

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. 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.

Names and terminology

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 ''wizard'', ''witch'', ''warlock'', ''enchanter/enchantress'', ''sorcerer(ess)'', ''druid(ess)'', ''magician'', ''mage'', and ''magus'' have different meanings depending upon context and the story in question.

The term ''archmage'' is used in fantasy works as a title for a powerful magician or a leader of magicians.

Reasons for distinguishing magicians

In the ''Enchanted Forest Chronicles'', Patricia Wrede depicts wizards who use magic based on their staves and magicians who practice several kinds of magic, including wizard magic; in the ''Regency'' fantasies, she and Caroline Stevermer depict magicians as identical to wizards, though inferior in skill and training.

Mike Resnick's ''The Times & Life of Lucifer Jones'' describes the distinction thus: "The difference between a wizard and a sorcerer is comparable to that between, say, a lion and a tiger, but wizards are acutely status-conscious, and to them, it's more like the difference between a lion and a dead kitten." In David Eddings's ''The Belgariad'' and ''The Malloreon'' series, several protagonists refer to their abilities powered by sheer will as "sorcery" and look down on the term "magician", which specifically refers to summoners of demonic agents.

In role-playing games, the types of magic-users are more delineated and are named so that the players and game masters can know which rules apply. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson introduced the term " magic-user" in the original ''Dungeons & Dragons'' as a generic term for a practitioner of magic (in order to avoid the connotations of terms such as ''wizard'' or ''warlock''); this lasted until the second edition of ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'', where it was replaced with ''mage'' (later to become ''wizard''). The exact rules vary from game to game. The wizard or mage, as a character class, is distinguished by the ability to cast certain kinds of magic but being weak in combat; subclasses are distinguished by strengths in some areas of magic and weakness in others. Sorcerers are distinguished from wizards as having an innate gift with magic, as well as having mystical or magical ancestry. Warlocks are distinguished from wizards as creating forbidden "pacts" with powerful creatures to harness their innate magical gifts.

''Enchanters'' often practice a type of magic that produces no physical effects on objects or people, but rather deceives the observer or target through the use of illusions. Enchantresses in particular practice this form of magic, often to seduce. For instance, the Lady of the Green Kirtle in C.S. Lewis's ''The Silver Chair'' enchants Rilian into forgetting his father and Narnia; when that enchantment is broken, she attempts further enchantments with a sweet-smelling smoke and a thrumming musical instrument to baffle him and his rescuers into forgetting them again.

The term ''sorcerer'' is more frequently used when the magician in question is evil. This may derive from its use in sword and sorcery, where the hero would be the sword-wielder, leaving the sorcery for his opponent.

''Witch'' also carries evil connotations. L. Frank 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.

Gender-based titles

''Wizard'' and ''warlock'' usually refer to a male, while ''witch'' can refer to any gender but is more often ascribed towards women. But not always, there are some cases of (especially wizard) being used as unisex titles.

Traits of magicians

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. In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, it is mostly limited to non-humans, though some people gain small amounts and become known as sorcerers (wizards being powerful spirits). In many writers' works, it is reserved for a select group of humans, such as in Katherine Kurtz's ''Deryni'' novels, JK Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' novels or Randall Garrett