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A magician (also known as a magic-user) is someone who uses or practices magic. Magicians are most commonly found in works of fantasy, such as mythology, legends, folklore, fantasy-themed works of fiction, and role-playing games. In modern fantasy, a magician is more often seen as a practitioner of magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources, rather than the sleight-of-hand magic used by most popular magicians.

Historically, many writers who have written about fictional magicians, and many readers of such works, have believed that such magic is possible -- in William Shakespeare's time, witches like the Weird Sisters in Macbeth and wizards like Prospero in The Tempest (or Doctor Faustus in Christopher Marlowe's play) were widely considered to be real -- but modern writers, and readers, usually deal with magic as imaginary.

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.)

For a combination of reasons, including those above, authors of fantasy fiction have often muddled the meaning of each of the terms (especially when the target audience is children), often using whatever term felt to be the most accurate, but the least controversial, though this is not always the case. (See Harry Potter for an example.)

Names and terminology

People who work magic are called by many names in works of fantasy, and the terminology differs widely from one fantasy world to another. While derived from real world vocabulary, "wizard", "witch", "warlock", "enchanter/enchantress", and "sorcerer/sorceress", have within a work of fantasy the meaning the writer invests in them. A variation on the word magic (magician, mage, magus, or even "magic-user"), is typically used as a neutral term to indicate any practitioner of magic. The term archmage may be used to indicate a powerful magician, or even a leader of magicians.

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."

The term "wizard" is more often applied to a male magic-user, as in Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea, just as a "witch" is more often female, as in Andre Norton's Witch World. In Witch World, a man who, anomolously, showed the same abilities as the witches was termed a warlock. The term "warlock" is sometimes used to indicate a male witch in fiction.

However, either term may be used in a unisex manner, in which case there will be members of both sexes bearing that title. If both terms are used in the same setting, this could indicate a gender-based title for practicers of identical magic, such as in Harry Potter, or it could indicate that the two sexes practice different types of magic, as in Discworld, or perhaps indicating something else entirely.

Enchanters generally practice a type of magic that produces no physical effects on objects or people, but rather deceives the observer or target, creating illusions. Enchantresses, in particular, practice this form of magic, often to seduce.

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

Terms derived from more specific magics, such as voodoo, alchemy, or necromancy, generally remain closer to their real-world inspirations. Fantasy necromancers often work magic that has something to do with death, although the exact connections vary widely from work to work.

Magic-user is a term used in role-playing games as a generic term for anyone who can work magic.

Traits of Magicians

A common motif in fictional magic is that the ability to use it is innate and often rare. In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, it was limited to non-humans — even Aragorn, whose hands heal, has some elven blood — but in many writers, it is reserved to a select group of humans, as in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels, or Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy universe. This is often a secretive or persecuted group.

Magic in some stories may be the exclusive ability of magicians; which would mean that non-magician characters, no matter how learned, cannot actually cast spells. In such instances, magic could be inherited, or perhaps it is a random ability appearing in some children, or the result of some other unique effect or situation.

Magical practicioners on the Disc (of the Discword series) are rare, and often innate (with exceptions - the eight son of an eight son must become a wizard, even if the son is a daughter), and do require some form of training (again, with exceptions - see Sourcery). Also, magical practicioners on the Disc treat the use of magic not unlike the use of nuclear weaponry - it's okay for people to know that you have it, but everyone will be in trouble if it gets used.

Education

A common trait of magicians is that, no matter how spontaneously their abilities manifest, they must learn to use them. Occasionally the term is used for people with innate abilities, but the typical magician is surrounded by books in his tower owing to his studies.

When the magician is not the main character, this may not be visible, but magician protagonists from Ursula K. LeGuin's Ged in A Wizard of Earthsea to Harry Potter have gone to wizardry schools. Others have taken on the roles of apprentices.

Another means of learning can be books -- weighty, ancient tomes, often called grimoires. Conan the Barbarian's sorcerer foes often gained powers from such books, whose strangeness was often underscored by their strange bindings. In worlds where wizardry is not an innate trait, the scarcity of these strange books may be a factor; in Poul Anderson's A Midsummer Tempest, Prince Rupert seeks out the books of the magician Prospero to learn magic.

In fantasy role-playing games

Dungeons & Dragons

Wizard

In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the wizard is one of the base character classes. A wizard is an arcane magic user, and weak in mêlée combat. Wizards spend several years studying magic.

The magic system--where wizards memorize spells which they then forget when they cast them--was heavily influenced by the The Dying Earth stories and novels of Jack Vance.

See also

• List of magicians in fiction
• Wise old man

• Fictional magicians