Warlocks and Sorceresses?

Perhaps you could either:

• Carefully pick them to convey just the right nuance, e.g. witch implies a folksy magic, whereas conjurer implies a particular approach to magic.
• Make something up that fits your cultural setting, e.g. all magic users are priests, or Fey, or red haired.
• Go for something transparent and gender free , such as Adept, Mage.

I suspect, however, that you are in love with the term "Warlock". If so, suggest you just use "Witch" as the female eqivalent, and make it your own. If later you change your mind, global find/replace is your friend.

Actually the different titles for magicians have to do with the kind of magic they practice and degree of skill. "Warlock" sounds cool but it's a very inexact, sort of lay term; it use to mean specifically the magician who takes part in military actions, usually but not always a male. I don't know if you want to get that technical about it, but you can consider having designations for types of magic and not gender-- I know plenty of male witches who call themselves... er, witches. "Sorcery" is more practiced by men than women but again it's a TYPE of magic rather than a blanket term for all magicians or gender specific. It's derived from the word "sortilege" which is what a sorcerer does-- he sorts through augries as an act of divination. A "wizard" is someone who's at a greater degree of knowledge, i.e., "wise". (and so on)

Anyway, you might want to think up some sort of new term or stick with what you've got-- these are just my comments. In my futuristic novel all magicians are called "workers" because they "work magic".

Scarlett 156 I don’t suppose you would have a link to what the distinctions between the different magic users terms are? I haven’t seen it defined that precisely before and am very curious, I always thought it was a case of author’s preference.

Think of what practicioners would call themselves - is warlock a pejorative term to them used only by outsiders? Would they call themselves Summoners, Binders, Demon Wrestlers? Warlock originally meant something like "oathbreaker."

Same goes for women - are they Enchantreses, Sorcerers, Witches?

How organized are they? How rare are they? How do common people react to them? How do nobles react to them? Is fear mixed with practicality? Is there a religious stigma?

Are you getting info from historical sources, or are you using the terms as defined by an RPG?

All of these questions can help you find the right naming convention for your magicians.

Good luck!

I use 'wizard' for both sexes - why not call the women warlocks as well? It's your fantasy world.

I always cringe when I watch Harry Potter (yeah, the movie - I haven't read the book) and the male magicians are all wizards and the females are all witches.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you, R. Scott. So far I've jusy been calling them 'magicians', and using words like Adept, Apprentice, etc, to distinguish levels of skill.

However, I still feel like maybe I should have a special name for them, to separate them from 'stage' magicians. My magicians use types of magic that are a bit different to those normally associated with sorcerers, witches, warlocks, etc. I haven't thought of any cool names yet, though.

Maybe you could use certain worlds for specific magic types. For example, people who use earthly ingredients to make potions are witches, whether they be male or female (although they may be more comonly female). Warlocks may use stones or incantations to wield magic, and may be female too, but more commonly male. Then you can have sorceresses and sorcerers who practice a completely different type of magic.

I hope some of these ideas help!

In some beliefs, "warlock" is used to designate one who uses magic for dark/evil purposes. I believe this is the case in Wicca, for example, though I'd have to look it up to be certain. (No offense to anyone if I'm incorrect.) Now I've gotten curious, so I will look it up... I'll edit this in a bit.

Okay, further research (from Google, which has a page with info from several different sites.). "Warlock" is from an Old English (or Scottish, depending on your source) term meaning "Oath breaker." or "traitor." It may have been used for those who used their magic for evil or chaotic purposes, which would break the intent of using magic, or one who turned in their fellow magic users as witches. Wiccans, Pagans, and others who practice any form of magic do not generally use the term; a male witch is simply called a witch.

If any of that's incorrect, someone more knowledgeable will hopefully correct me

That being said, in your story you could use whatever term you like; however, if you choose the term "warlock", it may not have the meaning you intend to some of your readers.

Scarlett_156 said:

Actually the different titles for magicians have to do with the kind of magic they practice and degree of skill.

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Um, not really if we're talking about Western magic.

The modern occult tradition is (a) not unanimous on naming conventions, (b) largely a Modern synthesis anyway, so not archetypal, and (c) apparently ineffective by standards of most fantasy and legend, so - unlike, say martial arts - has no firm claim to objective validity.

The Medieval tradition, thanks to persecution and social division, was not monolithic. At the lower end of the intellectual spectrum, the division was unclear between science and medicine on the one hand, and magic on the other. At the higher end, magic and special prayer were somewhat blurred. Then you have the hidden powers of plants and minerals, which may or may not be magical, plus an ongoing debate about whether all magic involves demons or not. Thus it's not clear how different kinds of magic users would have referred to themselves.

However, it is fairly clear what names were used by the rest of the society to refer to magic users. Alas, their usage slipped a long way from the origins of the word.

For example, according to Magic in the Middle Ages (Canto) (Paperback)
by Richard Kieckhefer - an academic text citing original sources - "necromancy" usually referred to any magic involving demons, even though the word itself refers to - roughly - "divination by ghost". The same went for "sorcery", and so on.

So, if you pedantically use the etymological meanings for different sorts of magician, the chances are you'll end up with a lot of different sorts of diviner.

If you go further back to Late Antiquity, it's fairly clear who the witches are, but you'll get into a real knot trying to unravel the difference between a priest and a magician.

Honestly, this way lies a lot of time wasted on something other than writign your novel.

Unless you're emulating the Middle Ages (if so, read Kieckhefer), or writing from the POV of a particular modern tradition (Wiccan/Golden Dawn/Masonic/Rosicrucian/etc) just make up something which fits your world and no other.

A good fictional magic system - IMvHO - should reflect your themes and further your story. It doesn't have to stand up to the sort of scrutiny or heavy use that an RPG magic system would.

Personally, I've just never really liked the term warlock. Always struck me as a low-level sorceror. And since Harry Potter I've come to loath the term wizard.

I prefer mage or magi, sorceror, spellcaster, alchemist, and for women sorceress and enchantress.

Personally, I've always thought this was a "six of one thing and a half-dozen of another" problem. I know, setting the right tone is important. But far more important than this is writing a great, compelling story.

Also, in this day and age, one can write the whole story and call their wizards or whatsits whatever one wishes. Then, one can go to the "Edit" pul-down menu to select "Replace".

How do you know what the right flavor of name will be until you've got the rest of the thing made?

Write the story. Worry not on this small issue. As you go, you will probably experiment with multiple names until one sticks in your craw as the correct flavor of mystical moofti-ism.

Don't use warlock; it's not a male witch. It's used that way now, thanks to Bewitched, but it originally was used for an oath-breaker, and that's literally what it means. In addition, you'll piss off the Neo-Pagan community if you use it.

There are plenty of terms to toss around:
mystik, magician, sorceror, sorceress, warlock, witch, wise woman, shaman, witch doctor, witch, etc.
there are ofcourse other terms you could toss around or make up.
For instance, Robert Jordan calls all of his magicians "channelers", and has them sorted into a "guild" called Aes Sedai. You could always toss up terms like Enligtened, Talented, <insert random giberish>, and other things that are based on real words like Magi, or Maia or something. There are tons of phrases that can be created.

I will never forget being subjected to the "horror" movie called Warlock.

Dreadful, awful, terrible.

The title character bit off another man's tongue during a kiss, then fried it up in an omelette. It could only have been more evil if he had killed a puppy after his breakfast.

R. Scott Kennan said:

I'm about to start a fantasy story, and I'm stuck on what to call my magic-users.

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I don't call mine anything. They're just individual people, and I *show* what they can do. If you really need a collective, you could call them the Users, or the Makers, or even the Tricksters, if it's by someone who doesn't like them much.

As an average joe and fairly voracious reader, I come into every fantasy story understanding that I'm entering a unique world uniquely imagined by the author. It's your world. Call your men warlocks and your women sorceresses, and not one rational person will ever give you guff over it.

Medievalist said:

Don't use warlock; it's not a male witch. It's used that way now, thanks to Bewitched, but it originally was used for an oath-breaker, and that's literally what it means. In addition, you'll piss off the Neo-Pagan community if you use it.

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Can't have that. They'll go all anti-mojo on you.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm by no means a medievalist (and my apologies if someone hit this already and I passed it over), but I think "wizard" was the original counterpart term to "witch" in the old Germanic Beowulf-type days. The etymology is the same as the word "wise" -- so both terms originally applied to wise, shamanistic type figures in iron age germanic communities.

So if you want to use "warlock," it may be better not to use "witch" -- I don't know where the association of these two words came from, but it seems like a bad link-up...

The neoPagan community has promoted the idea that "Warlock" means oathbreaker, or someone untrustworthy, but there's been a lot of specualtion that this is incorrect. If you read some of the old Norse eddas, you'll see the word "vardlokker", which is used to mean a singer of spells or caller of spirits. The Old English word "waerloga" does mean "oath-breaker", but there is a Scottish version of the word that translates into "cunning man". Invariably, as Lisa mentioned, use "warlock" and the fluffy Wiccans will be up in arms.

Scarlett156 said:

Actually the different titles for magicians have to do with the kind of magic they practice and degree of skill. "Warlock" sounds cool but it's a very inexact, sort of lay term; it use to mean specifically the magician who takes part in military actions, usually but not always a male.

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Scarlett, I've never heard of this before and I've been studying the occult for around twenty years. Do you have a source for this so I can do some further reading?

In Old English law texts, the cognate of warlock is used for an oath-breaker; in magic texts in Old Norse it's used for a bond-breaker, both in terms of spoken bonds (oaths) and the bonds of spirits of the dead. Usually, the bonds that are broken are that of speech/silence and of the spirit/grave.

Lisa, are you familiar with some of the popular interpretations of "warlock" that link it to the idea of shapeshifting, particularly werewolf-y stuff? I've often wondered if there was any documented historical credence to that theory, or if it's just wishful thinking on the part of the lycanthropic community.

Thank you, Lisa! I always die a little inside when someone uses warlock as a title for a magic user. I know Charmed did it, but they used it so infrequently I forgave them.

Warlock is just a traitor. A human, non-magic person who can't keep an oath.

Witch, Wizard, Practicioner, Novice, Journeyman, Adept, High Priest/Priestess, Sorceress (I've used it myself, although in a dark magick connotation) Sorcerer, Wise Woman/Man, and Shaman are all acceptable to me.

Magician is someone who pulls a rabbit from a hat. They might perfer Illusionist or prestidigitator (did I spell that right?)

How about dewin? That's the Welsh for wizard.

PattiTheWicked said:

Lisa, are you familiar with some of the popular interpretations of "warlock" that link it to the idea of shapeshifting, particularly werewolf-y stuff? I've often wondered if there was any documented historical credence to that theory, or if it's just wishful thinking on the part of the lycanthropic community.

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I'm not, but I haven't worked much with ON, for, oh, about five years or so. It's not something I can think of in OE either.