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Wizards Vs. Warlocks

Graylorne

Archmage
My witches are more like district nurses. They dabble in herbs, simple illnesses, pregnancies etc. They are guilded to the temple of Healing, just like healers and chirurgeons. My set up of magic has nothing to do with the traditions either.

Re. warlock in modern times: I've noticed that several wicca sites use the term for one who has broken his oath to his own coven, like in the original meaning of 'oathbreaker'. An ex-member, so to say. I don't know if this is widespread usage, though.
 

Gurkhal

Auror
As I understood it, a wizard is generally supposed to possess great knowledge or wisdom in addition to their abilities, whereas a witch or warlock is marked by malicious intent and driven not by a a love for anything all that honorable, but rather by a purely selfish desire for-

...Well, yeah. That's a pretty good example actually. Jedi = wizards, Sith = warlocks.

Could well be. I'm drawing my stuff form what I learnt when I studied religion in school, and there I was told what the terms witch and warlock have been used for in historical times. So to historical say there were good witches would be like saying there were murderers who never harmed anyone or stalkers who respected privacy.

How the term witch is used today is an entirely differet matter, of course.
 

Queshire

Auror
I'd say religion would be a bad thing to base these things off of, what with Christianity only being 2000 and change years old, while those that could be identified as witches or warlocks being much older. One thing I read, (though admittedly it was in a fictional story, so it may not be accurate) the original term was Bad Magic or what not while it was when the Bible was translated to English that it became Witch or whatever.

Personally I'm fervently against a black and white morality. That's just me though, I don't like it when some things are seen as inherently good and others as inherently bad, which is always a big theme in my works.
 

SeverinR

Vala
They are what you make them.
But an option:

Mage-standard magic user, not specifically for combat.
Warlock-battle mage? more oriented towards war?
Wizard- more a level of competence then different scope of study.
Enchanter; studies and creates magic instruments
Illusionist: creates illusions.
Elementalist; specializes in use of the elements for magic.

But as I said at the start, the titles can be anything you make them to be, even nothing more then synonyms.
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
I really like the English words Wizard and Warlock, Witch sounds great too but in my Fantasy stories (most of them, not written in English) I call my magical characters Magas, which can be translated to English as female Mages.

You can define what a Wizard is and what a Warlock is according to your own worlds, but in my opinion, a Warlock sounds like they would be more powerful than Wizards and also more skilled particularly in combat, war, military strategies and destructive magic in general.

Maybe I feel that way because the word Warlock starts with war, who knows, but it would be great =)

The word Warlock appears sometimes in the Harry Potter series, but it's never explained what is really the difference between a Warlock and a Wizard.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
I use mage as a gender-neutral term to describe magic-users in general; there are several distinct categories under that heading.

Elementals - those who manipulate the elements: earth, fire, wind and water.
Necromancers - those who deal with biological magic; includes raising the dead and healing the living.
Conjurers - those who conjure.
Illusionists - those who create illusions.
Enchanters - those who enchant.
 

Gurkhal

Auror
I'd say religion would be a bad thing to base these things off of, what with Christianity only being 2000 and change years old, while those that could be identified as witches or warlocks being much older. One thing I read, (though admittedly it was in a fictional story, so it may not be accurate) the original term was Bad Magic or what not while it was when the Bible was translated to English that it became Witch or whatever.

Personally I'm fervently against a black and white morality. That's just me though, I don't like it when some things are seen as inherently good and others as inherently bad, which is always a big theme in my works.

I don't see why religion would be a bad thing to base it off, and Christianity is not the oldest religion that condems sorcery even if it within the Western world is mostly known one. I can't say that I'm for black and white morality, but there's always some black areas.

In my own works I like magic to be mysterious and dangerous, which is a theme for my writing. All power carries danger with them.

Anyway for me warlock has a more malovelant and sinister feel to it than wizard does. I would actually rather see that a title like sorcerer, warlock, wizard etc. has more of a moral judgment in them and is less of a job description. But maybe that's just me.
 
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Zenke

Scribe
In terms of D&D wizards are more ranged based spell casters, where as warlocks are more melee orientated spell casters. Warlocks can wear armor without casting penalties. I'm not sure how they differ in spells, although warlocks are usually evil in D&D. They were removed in the 3.5 rules i guess because they were considered redundant.

When i use magic, i just call my casters mages, but if i were going to use wizards and warlocks, Wizards would be well learned, very powerful spell casters who could probably kill you before you blink, where as warlocks would be like a battle mage, charging into battle in armor and using spells and weapons to smash his foes, and would probably be the only people who could face off against wizards, besides other wizards, and vice versa.
 
The word Warlock appears sometimes in the Harry Potter series, but it's never explained what is really the difference between a Warlock and a Wizard.
Actually, it is.
"Warlock is a very old term that has two meanings: to describe a wizard of unusually fierce appearance or as a title denoting particular skill or achievement. It originally denoted one learned in duelling and all martial magic or was given as a title to a wizard who had performed feats of bravery (as Muggles are sometimes knighted).[1] It is sometimes incorrectly used as interchangeable with the term "wizard.""-Fandom
 
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