LogFAQs > #906070948

YOUHAVENOHOPE posted...

gives meaning to the different terminology

The real problem is that different terms mean different things in different settings.

In D&D, there's a mechanical difference between a Wizard and a Sorcerer. In Xanth, there's no such thing as Wizards, and magic users are either referred to as Magicians (if you're male) or Sorceresses (if you're female), and your magic is innate and very specific/unique. In White Wolf's Mage: the Ascension game, magic users are almost all referred to as Mages, and "Wizard" is mostly a somewhat derogatory term used to refer to one specific group of Mages (the Order of Hermes, who have a very medieval European, ritualistic view of magic). In Discworld, Wizards are what we'd think of as stereotypical fantasy magic users, but Sorcerers (or Sourcerers) are people who literally bleed magic and are like walking gods.

In the real world, we tend to have a few stereotypes about Wizards (robe, pointy hat, staff), Witches (black hat, broom, old crone w/warts, caldrons, etc), and so on. But a lot of terms don't necessarily mean much of anything (ie, a Sorcerer can be pretty much anything).

So what one word for magic-user means in one setting doesn't always mean the same thing in other settings. The different uses of "Enchanter" might be the most obvious, but there are a lot of other cases where things differ.


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