Everyone knows that wizards live in towers and witches live in cottages. Even when travelling, there is always an expectation that they are on some grand, important quest, and they always carry the gravitas of someone of great importance. But what if they're not? What if they're a humble mage, no tower to their name or grand quest to embark on, just whatever possessions they can carry with them and no goal in mind except the road ahead of them? If that's the case, then you might just have run into a Wandering Wizard.
A Wandering Wizard (or Wandering Witch, Wandering Warlock, etc.) is a practitioner of magic who, rather than settle down in one place, travels across the world, offering their magical services in return for coin, lodgings, supplies, or simply out of the goodness of their hearts. While other magic users might take to the road in pursuit of a goal or to accomplish a quest, for this character, the road is the goal. Once their magical services are no longer needed, they are on to the next place, rarely spending much time in one location. In more formalized institutions, the journey might be part of a wizard's education, usually coming between apprenticeship and being a fully-fledged wizard.
In terms of appearance, wandering wizards usually wear something resembling the Robe and Wizard Hat attire, but might be modified to be more practical for travelling, often with a Magic Staff. Some are part of caravans or have their own wagons containing their worldly possessions, but many stick to what they can carry on their backs. It's also not uncommon for a wizard of this kind to be traveling with an apprentice.
The wandering wizard can be seen as the wizardly equivalent of a Knight Errant, though unlike a knight, there is no expectation for the wizard to be honorable or noble. See also Walking the Earth if something specific drove them to take up this lifestyle. If this wizard is part of a group of people like him rather than a lone actor, then they're part of a Wandering Culture.
Like Wizard Classic, this trope may be originally inspired by stories of Odin, who was known to spend much time wandering Midgard, visiting kingdoms and discussing supernatural affairs with kings, chieftains, and magical beings in the hopes of gaining more knowledge. Examples where the wizard is spending time traveling around before settling may be derived from Journeymen
, a medieval term used for an artisan who has finished their education but not gained the experience to be considered a master in their art. Contrary to what you might assume, "journeyman" does not actually mean someone who's on a journey; the word comes from journée, meaning "daily" or "relating to daily life" in French.
See also Magical Homeless Person. Contrast Wizard Workshop, unless the workshop is somehow mobile.
Examples:
- Fairy Tail:
- The titular guild has two downplayed examples, as while the guild is a place all its members come back to from their adventures, these two are away the longest and rarely come home to roost for very long: Mystogan, whose personal mission is to close portals to the parallel world of Edolas all over the land; and Gildarts, who takes jobs so hard that they take years to complete.
- The Big Bad Zeref is a Walking Wasteland who wanders aimlessly to keep as few people from suffering his deadly, uncontrollable magic. He's eventually revealed to be The Emperor on another continent, but rarely goes there on account of said magic and leaves managing the empire to his servants.
- Witch Hat Atelier: Qifrey has permanent lodging in the titular Atelier, but he is still introduced as one in the first chapter, being a traveling witch who happens to stop by the main character's village and help them repair a damaged magical contraption. Later, he explains to his students that some witches enjoy helping people so much that they spend their entire lives traveling the roads.
- The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan: Nova Shine is a downplayed example of this. He calls himself a magical mercenary and journeys from town to town making ends meet by performing magical odd jobs for random citizens. He only moves to avoid his parents discovering where he is, and only does so every few months (if not years), rather than every few days or weeks.
- The Belgariad: Belgarath the Sorcerer has spent eons wandering the world, usually shaping the course of history on behalf of the god Aldur and the Light Prophecy. His daughter Polgara has also done her fair share of wandering and magic, but having to be the "auntie" to her sister's descendants over 1200 years has limited her ability to roam.
- In Can I Crossdress My Way Out Of This Arranged Marriage?, a High Fantasy LGBT romance web novel, wandering mages travel from town to town casting spells mostly acting as healers. They appear mostly off-screen and perform magical Gender Confirmation on Zago by way of a transformation spell. This event helps protagonist Anrik realise she herself is also a trans woman and not a guy in disguise after all, she didn't realise other trans people existed til then.
- The Name of the Wind: Ben the Arcanist speaks disparagingly of "traveling arcanists" who haven't graduated Wizarding School but sell their haphazard medical and magical skills from caravans. At best, they're Hedge Mages of limited skill; at worst, they're con artists.
- Slayers:
- Lina Inverse travels the lands looking for fun and treasure. Partly to kill bandits and take their loot for herself, partly to stay well clear of her big sister, Luna, who is far more powerful than Lina and owes her a grudge for selling magically created pictures of Luna in the bath. She has an assortment of traveling companions from time to time.
- Zelgadis Greywords is looking for a cure to his chimerical condition, wanting to be fully human again, and is Walking the Earth to find it.
- Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun is a novice mage who seeks to spread her family's unique brand of justice and pacifism.
- Naga the White Serpent (often hinted to be Amelia's older sister Gracia Ul Naga Seyruun) is just looking for kicks, though she'll take the odd job here and there to finance her travels, once even hired by bandits to fight Lina until Lina explained to her that they were bandits.
- Tolkien's Legendarium:
- Gandalf from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings spends his time in between world-saving adventures wandering Middle-earth, occasionally serving as mentor to princes or advisor to lords, and occasionally being just a strange old man who stops by the Shire to cause some ruckus. Few know that he's actually an angelic spirit in human form.
- The Blue Wizards, only mentioned in appendices and letters, are also said to spend their time wandering Middle-earth, though they hang out in the distant East, where they incite rebellions against Sauron.
- Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina: Thanks to a fascination of a traveling witch, Niké, Elaina, after passing her sorcery exam and training from Fran, the Ashen Witch, explores the world where she meets different kinds of people and witnesses new places.
- A Wizard of Earthsea: Ged is forced into life as a traveling wizard because the shadow beast he summoned keeps hunting him if he stays in any one place for too long.
- "The Wizard" by Black Sabbath is about a wizard who walks about the world, fighting off evil powers and demons with his spells. He never talks, only walks as he spreads his magic. According to Geezer Butler, the song was based on Gandalf because he'd been reading Lord of the Rings at the time.
- Norse Mythology: As noted above, Odin is fond of traveling among mortals disguised in a plain gray cloak and a wide-brimmed hat, using his spear as a walking stick. Wherever he goes, he tends to use his magic to mess with mortals, either as a Secret Test of Character or just for his own amusement.
- Basic Dungeons & Dragons allows magic users to either settle into a stronghold or to remain travelling. The travelling magic users are known as magus, with the benefit of either assisting research, and getting a set of followers.
- Warhammer Fantasy:
- The Silver Wheel are an informal order of hedge mages, wise women and other low-skilled practitioners who live in rural areas or wander around the Empire, exchanging recipes and charms when they meet. Unfortunately (and unbeknownst to many of them), they're actually dedicated to Tzeentch, and their ultimate purpose is to increase the grip of Chaos on the Empire by subtly introducing dark magic to their spells, adding warpstone to potions, etc.
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: When the classroom portion of an apprentice wizard's training is complete, they're turned loose to travel, seek out new magic, fight enemies of the Empire, and so on, so as to prove they have both the expertise and the maturity to become full Magisters. In Doylist terms, it also gives apprentice wizard Player Characters a reason to go on unsupervised adventures.
- Dragon Age:
- By necessity this is how some mages, labeled Apostates, have to live. As the Templar Order are tasked with hunting down any and all mages not part of the Circe of Magi. They need to move from place to place, as staying in one location can be dangerous for them. Not that it stops them from helping others, but they tend to help other mages on the run as the Muggles are religiously (and sometimes racially) motivated to rat them out to the nearest Templar to either take them away, or take them out.
- Dragon Age: Inquisition: Solas travels the world not out of necessity, but because he genuinely enjoys traveling, and because he's searching for a way to bring back the glory of the Elves, lost because of him, which would destroy the current world.
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- K'rhid Tia, the guildmaster of the Arcanists' Guild, is constantly traveling the world to conduct research into arcanima, a school of magic that derives power from shapes and formulas most commonly drawn through aetherically conductive ink. He rescued K'lyhia from slavery during his travels and set her on the road toward becoming the Foreseer of the guild. But his constant absences have left Thubyrgeim in charge of the guild as its acting guildmaster.
- X'rhun Tia is one of the last living red mages, a lost art that combined the expertise of black and white magic without using the aether of the land. He becomes a wanderer fighting wrongs wherever he goes after the fall of Ala Mhigo. During the Red Mage questline, the Warrior of Light becomes his student, using red magic to fight a shadowy group of assassins known as the Cabal across Eorzea.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Trixie Lulamoon is an entertainer, but she is a travelling mage, it just so happens that her magic is more aimed at entertainment than practicality. In the show, she largely shows up as a minor antagonist and later supporting cast, but in the comics she's shown to be a bit of a Hero of Another Story who can and does help ponies with their problems while out on her travels. Even after becoming supporting cast, she spends the time between her appearances on the road, and only stars in episodes when she stops by Ponyville to visit Starlight.
- Thundarr the Barbarian: Princess Ariel is a sorceress (do NOT call her a wizard!) who wanders the post-apocalyptic world with her friends Thundarr the barbarian warrior and the monstrous but good-natured Ookla the Mok.
