Synonyms for Spells and Spellcraft?

I might come back with synonyms later but for now I just warn caution. I can't account for anyone else but I find it irksome when there are "sorcerers" and "wizards" with clearly distinct abilities and types of magic. I think these words are better used as synonyms or as cultural terms for similar things, not as separate and specific styles or types. Your usage of "adept" leaves no confusion however.

 

You could just find cool sounding words and use that regardless of meaning or connotation.
"Anima" is basically just a term from Jungian psychology that means a person's feminine side. And "mana" originally meant "prestige" in Maori.
The word itself doesn't matter much once you create the association between the term and the action.
The reason why people use "spell" is because it has an automatic association.

I tried looking at a thesaurus for "spell" and found jinx, hex and charm. Those could work. You could go with "casting". Or maybe a word meaning "building" like forge, form, sculpt, etch, shape, carve or mold.

So, there's some ideas.

I disagree. When you say "wizard" that usually can only mean magic. Someone could be an adept for a lot of things.

 

'Chord' sounds kind of cool. Should work. I've heard plenty of songs made out of little more than one chord, and modern pop music seems to use even less than that. Programmed beats don't require chords, knowledge of how music works is optional.

 

That isn't what I meant; I oppose defining nearly interchangeable magic terms as specific and separate entities. Ie: wizard and magician, sorcerer and mage. I think they should be used interchangeably or as cultural words; ie, tribal societies have more naturalist "mages" that are typically called shamans.

 

I see where you're coming from. I think using sorcerer, wizard and whatever as separate types of magic-users is a role-playing game thing that sort of integrated itself into different mediums.

However, I think if there is a clear distinction between a mage who shoots fireballs and a mage who enchants objects with little to no overlap between the two, it's logical that society would develop distinct terms like sorcerer and enchanter. Kind of like how a doctor and a nurse are two different professions even if they work in the same field.

 

Sure, whatever. What I'm trying to say is that the specific word doesn't matter that much. Like how the word "mana" is used differently in fantasy fiction compared to what the word actually means.

 

I like it when generic terms like wizard and mage are thrown out in favor of words more specific to the setting.