Magician (fantasy) - Names and Terminology

Names and Terminology

People who work magic are called by several names in fantasy works, and the terminology differs widely from one fantasy world to another. While derived from real world vocabulary, the terms "wizard", "witch", "warlock", "enchanter/enchantress", "sorcerer/sorceress", "magician", "mage", and "magus" have different meanings depending on the story in question.

The term archmage, with "arch" (from the Greek arché, "first") indicating "preeminent", may be used for a powerful magician, or a leader of magicians. One of the first uses of the word in modern fantasy was in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea fantasy setting (1964).

When a writer uses more than one term for reasons other than sex-based titles, it is to sharply distinguish between two types of magic. The precise nature of what the distinction is differs from writer to writer, and the usage can vary between works. 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 except for being inferior in skill and training.

Within a given work, such distinctions are important, depending on how the writer defines them. Steve Pemberton'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 "magicians" which specifically refers to the summoners of demonic agents.

In role-playing games, the types of magic-users are far more clearly delineated and named, in order that the players and game masters may know the rules by which they are played. In the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson invented the term "magic-user" as a generic term for a practitioner of magic (in order to avoid cultural connotations of terms such as "wizard" or "warlock"); this lasted until the second edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, where it was replaced with "mage" (later to become "wizard"). The exact rules vary from game to game.

In Dungeons and Dragons, a wizard or mage is a character class, distinguished by their ability to cast certain kinds of magic and their weak combat skills; subclasses are distinguished by their strength in some areas of magic and their weaknesses in others. Sorcerers are distinguished from wizards as having an innate gift with magic, as well as possessing blood of a mystical or magical origin. In GURPS, magic is a skill that can be combined with others, such as combat, though in most campaigns, the ability "magery" is required to cast spells.

Some names, distinctions, or aspects may have more of a negative connotation than others, depending on the setting and the context. (See also Magic and Magic and religion, for some examples).