Married, with Wizard

[skip.knox]

I was working on background for my Camp NaNoWriMo next month, specifically on a group of wizards. They reside in something like a library / monastery / university. As I was working through exactly those details, it hit me: there are no married wizards.

I'm sure the Present Company will instantly spring forward with counter-examples, and I'll be glad to hear of them, but the normal image is that the wizard is not only single, he's not even involved. The only thing rarer than a wizard's wife is probably a female wizard. ;-)

The problems are obvious. Married people, regardless of gender, tend to be settled. It's the single person who can move about freely, and in most stories, a wizard must be free to be trotted in and out of the story at need. It's a little bit like why the Farmboy of Destiny is so often an orphan.

But it's worth thinking about how wizards might be married and how that might add to a story. Three models come to mind for my own context. One is the university professor; more specifically, the professor of the Franco-Germanic type, post-Reformation and pre-20thc. A man of prestige and weight in a community was almost by definition married. It conferred respectability. Once we get to the 20thc we get the eccentric professorial bachelor, but that's a different trope.

A second model is the guild master. Here again, in most European cities, the master was by definition married. In many cities, you couldn't even attain mastership as a bachelor. Whereas the professor lives in the university, or nearby, the guildsman merely needs to live in the city, but the guild provides a point of contact, serves as drinking club, and so on.

The third model is the international merchant. These guys, especially in the Central Middle Ages, usually resided at home with the famiglia but would, from time to time, journey to another city in order to transact business. Some of these guys traveled very widely, by land and sea, and could be gone months or even years. Yet, again, they were usually married, though often not until pushing thirty.

With the first two models we have communities of wizards, or we could have. That is, it could be a wizardly university and a wizardly guild, though it would be possible for either to be a "normal" guild, but that it has a wizard in it.

Anyway, I think there's room for the married wizard. That can lead to all kinds of interesting developments. The wizard's spouse could also be a wizard. The kids might be (now we're getting into the Invincibles). Life in the neighbors could get ... interesting. A wizardly courtship could be fun, and a wizardly break-up could be even more fun. Growing up wizard in itself would make a good story.

I admit the above is a little random, but I hope it sparks some ideas in someone else.

 

[Spider]

Interesting thoughts, though I was thinking Harry Potter while reading this. In those books, two wizards who get married will have "pure-blood" children, while a wizard who married a muggle (someone without magic) will have "half-blood" children. There aren't really any advantages to being "pure-blood," though some feel that they are more superior to others.

 

[Saigonnus]

I can think of a couple examples of "wizards" getting married, or having relationships. Zedd from the "sword of truth" had a steady relationship with Addy. Richard from the same also had a relationship with the mother confessor Kahlen (both a sort of magic-user).

Another example is Polgara the Sorceress married to Dernik the smith in "the Belgariad" by David Eddings.

I do think it's not exactly common in literature, but nor is it completely unheard of having a wizard in a relationship with another person in an intimate fashion.

 

[Malik]

Billy Crystal as Miracle Max in The Princess Bride.

 

[ThinkerX]

Hmmm...

Pug, from Fiests 'Rift War' series was married twice. So were a couple other not so prominent wizards in that series.

Some of the wizard types in Kerr's 'Devery' series were married.

The wizard Varthulokar (sp?) in Glen Cooks 'Dread Empire' series had a wife.

A married (widowed) wizard features prominently in one of LeGuins later 'EarthSea' books.

Saddling a wizard with a spouse is one of the few good, legitimate ways to curtail the the really powerful mages. (Have to put off saving the world until the castle is renovated, and what were the kids up to this time?)

In my own writing...

Toki eventually settles down, gets married and has a couple of kids.

Lysander was married to a half elf, though the relationship was somewhere between 'lukewarm' and 'chilly' (she eventually leaves him).

Doctor Isabella Menedez, from 'Labyrinth', was married at least three times.

-0-0-0-

That said...reading through Erikson's 'Malazan' series, it appears that very few of the major characters, wizard or not, are married.

As pointed out, Gandalf is single...though he's also not really human, either.

The same is true of many other fantasy wizards.

 

[Ireth]

I have a mage character whose power manifested in middle age (a few months after he turned 38), and he got married to his lycanthrope girlfriend a few months after that. At present, their two-year-old son has potential to become a mage as well, though it remains to be seen whether he will. I also have a few younger (17 and 22, respectively) mages who have mage parents and extended family.

 

[skip.knox]

Ah, Miracle Max is a great one. He's not only married, he's retired! How does a wizard retire? For that matter, how does a wizard set up shop in the first place? Hang out a shingle and wait for clients? Do the wizardly equivalent of ambulance chasing? *chortle*

 

[Mara Edgerton]

Ooh, thanks for a thoughtful post, Skip Knox! I like the historical models you use for illustration.

From a world building point of view, I look at this issue both through the lens of what we need our wizards to be able to do (do we require them to be free of family ties so they can move around?) and from the cultural lens (how are the unmarried looked upon in the society we're creating?)

For the latter, I suspect our answers have much to do with our own cultural influences, subconscious or otherwise. For example, the medieval world many people imagine when they think of fantasy was dominated by Catholicism, which gives tremendous respect to those who opt for a celibate religious calling. In Jewish culture, on the other hand (then and now) this would be all but unheard of because of the enormous emphasis on marriage and family, with no special place granted for celibates. And so on through whatever cultures or pocket cultures you choose to draw from.

No right or wrong there, by the way. Just pointing out different cultural takes on the issue of refraining from marriage. And that's another wrinkle we can add to world building, whether we're dealing with wizards or the general populace: how do people look at the unmarried? Is celibacy some special vocation--religious or otherwise--or something outside the norm?

*Puts on her thinky cap.*

Meanwhile, yay for Miracle Max and, um, Mrs. Miracle Max!

 

[Snowpoint]

I had an idea for magic that Required 2 people. You could take it a step further and say only married couples working together can make real magic happen.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

In our world we have wizard families that fall along 3 social strata - Great Houses, the ruling families; the Houses Major, the blue bloods; and the Houses Minor, the servant class. The bloodlines are jealously guarded by the matrons of the Houses, with little ability to rise in station. The goal of marriage is to breed magically powerful children to carry on the family name. All marriages are arranged by the matrons, though illegitimate children do happen and are acceptable if they prove to be powerful enough to justify the minor scandal.

 

[AnnaBlixt]

I deal with this problem in my current WIP. My order of wizards live in a castle, like an academy. Part of their task is to preserve the magic throughout the ages, depite being few in number due to the high risks of magical pregnancies and the high death rate of, well, 2-year olds who discover they can summon fire.

In my mind, it would be fairly easy to find a mate for a male wizard, and they do tend to marry in my world. They are also encouraged to ... well ... sow some wild oats on the side, to make more mages. It is considered an honor in this world, for a woman to marry a mage and/or carry magical children, despite the risks, and it is considered completely socially acceptable for a male wizard to have many mistresses, openly. Often this is even accepted by the mage's wife. The wife or mother of mages will be set for life and can come and live in the castle with them.

It's more complicated for the female wizards.
Firstly, due to the high risks of magical pregnancies, the elders encourage them to have few children in order to keep the women alive and safe and contributing to the work at the academy. If you kill one woman to produce one child, very little is gained for the order.
Secondly, it is no easy task to get a midevial guy to want to marry a supremely powerful wife dealing in the supernatural and the godlike ... and who is also reproductively challenged. Yeah, I know, a lot of guys would probably want to marry Wonderwoman, even if she was sterile, but still ... I think it's easier to find Batman a wife.

Hence, the female wizards in my world tend to have short-term relationships, excersise birth control, and have one or a few children only if it is required of them. It might be required if the female mage has a rare or very strong power. They are then usually provided a male wizard to have a child with, usually someone who complements their magical talents. The care for the magical children of the castle is communal among the female wizards, as the death-rate of women carrying those children is high.

It's a very very unequal society of mages. ;-) But then again, my magic system is supremely unfair to the women to start with. Hehe. But what kind of story would it be if everyone was happy, safe and content? ;-)

 

[wordwalker]

Very well worked out, AnnaBlixt; I can see it all happening just that way. And it is unfair, but then sex tends to be sexist.

...the high death rate of, well, 2-year olds who discover they can summon fire.

The baby Firestarter survived because her parents treated "fire training" like amped-up toilet training from the start. "Do you like Teddy's face burned up like that? Bad, BAD baby!"

Edit: on the other hand, speaking of superheroes, there's a reason modern retellings of Superman say he slowly gained his powers as he grew up. But the closer you tie the power to biology and its more uncontrollable sides, the nastier some parts of it get.

 

[Saigonnus]

2-year olds who discover they can summon fire.

If magic is so prevalent, why is it that they haven't come up with a way (whether by spell, device or whatever) to prevent children that young from accessing their powers? Does the high mortality rate serve some purpose in society?

I would think a device could be fashioned that not only detects those able to use magic but functions only on those that have the capability of magecraft and prevents the underaged mage from even tapping into his/her power on their own. That way, the high-mortality rate would disappear and the "teacher" or parent could remove it easily for when they are actually teaching them how to control their power.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

If magic is so prevalent, why is it that they haven't come up with a way (whether by spell, device or whatever) to prevent children that young from accessing their powers? Does the high mortality rate serve some purpose in society?

I would think a device could be fashioned that not only detects those able to use magic but functions only on those that have the capability of magecraft and prevents the underaged mage from even tapping into his/her power on their own. That way, the high-mortality rate would disappear and the "teacher" or parent could remove it easily for when they are actually teaching them how to control their power.

Which is an interesting idea, but then how would you stop the non-magical population from using it to disable adult mages? Sounds like a coup in the making, to me.

 

[Saigonnus]

Which is an interesting idea, but then how would you stop the non-magical population from using it to disable adult mages? Sounds like a coup in the making, to me.

It could be made that only a mage can put it on another, and can be taken off at will by ANY mage (so long as they know the "formula" that is) even by the one wearing it. That would prevent ordinary folks from using to any advantage against mages.

It is only a "training" doohickey not a collar to collar mages. The "formula" for removing them could come with their "graduation" so to speak, that way even another mage couldn't take that sort of advantage. I am sure (and it might make an interesting plot device) that an independently instructed mage (home-schooled as it were) could be abused in that fashion by their mentor, who doesn't allow them to use their power at all.