Differences between witches, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards...

Or they just like the portrayal.

First, they are all "magic-users". Second, despite this agreement we must recognize that people have their own idiosyncrasy to each term.

For me, there's two ways: The way I use them, and the way my dream-world uses them.

The way I use them is standard D&D-style. Sorcerers utilize innate ability. Wizards/Witches utilize disciplined study. Warlocks act as conduits for powerful arcane entities, neither possessing the discipline to be a wizard nor the natural talent to be a sorcerer and so using the power from someone or something else and claiming it as their own.

The way my dream-world uses them is odd... —>Mages are untrained magic users. They may have a lot of magical power or they may have almost none. It doesn't matter, they are a "mage." —> Witches and Wizards have begun training. They start to harness and control their magic, but are still "novices." Also, this training can be either academic or personal. —> Sorcerers have predominate control of their powers. They are neither "novice" nor "expert." They are, for all purposes, "average"-level magic-users. —> Warlocks have sought not merely to utilize their magic but to understand it. If being a "Sorcerer" means you have a "Magic-using high-school diploma or equivalent" then being a "Warlock" means that you have at the absolute bare-bones minimum a "Magic-using college degree."

Now, as to the "sources" of the "magic" used...I never saw that as relating to the title of the magic-user. It seems quite clearly connected to the Specialization of the magic-user (or at least the purpose of the spell itself). I mean, both a sorcerer and a wizard could use either demonic or elemental magic. A warlock, a shaman, and a druid could all cast the same healing spell or they could all cast their own healing spells which the others wouldn't think about. The magic comes from X, Y, or Z. Who cares about this? The title of the magic-user just tells us how they use and/or access the magic: do they rely on their ability, their study, or some form of channeling to perform their spells?

Only two pages? Might as well leave two coins...

• Witch: Appointed or elected community figures, even if the community is a hidden one. May be serve a special role of protection/guidance/medicine or even an expected thing most mature adults in the group can grow into, lots of varied story potential there. Derives magical abilities through ritualized routines and special ceremonies to keep favor from spirits, gods, fae, ect. Likely to make use of the eye of a newt, sex magic, ect. May want to study the actual "witch" cultures yourself but Gruntilda from Banjo-Kazooie, The Charmed Ones, Witch Hazel of Looney Tunes and the ladies from Thirteenth Warrior are some quick references.
  • In this sense, some guys like houngans are technically of this mold but if you are using them or other modern religious priest types that do not refer to themselves as witches, don't refer to them as witches and downplay the similarities, unless you want to be a jerk, show that your character is a jerk, that kind of thing. Divination and fortune telling might fit here too.
  • Warlock: Find a witch group, figure out if there are any members who have been disgraced, condemned or demonized. Skin walkers are by far the most popular warlock/evil witch in the media I am familiar with...when witches are not trouble makers in general.
• Wizard: Self employed most likely, might be a knight errant or local handyman/exterminator. Might not be loosely affiliated with a group of like minded individuals or dependents though. Whether they have natural magical power or not they should largely be innovators of their own style rather in line with a super strict ritual system, barring extreme circumstances. For good examples, start with the original wizard, Odin. Merlin and Gandalf are good references too.
• Mage: Combination of magi, Mazda worshipers, and sage, wise scholar. Most likely to be by the book types, spending a lot of time in the library as well as in labs and the field doing tests to further their knowledge bases. Might be friendly with local alchemists/yogis/public servants or there may be a schism between them. May or may not be religions but should definitely be academic. May or may not have natural power but should probably probably the most mundane of this list in the eyes of the public. Masquerades could be tricky for them functionally but not too much socially. Giles of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Fire Emblem's mages (try Path Of Radiance/Radiant Dawn), and Circle of Magic.
• Sorcerer: Honestly the ones I know the least about. This is why I would portray them similarly to mages(you did not ask about). They have rigorously studied their craft but being a sorcerer is specifically appointed title or job (usually). Sorcerers would likely be highly specialized in destructive, transformation inducing and generally impressive looking magic meant to make big things happen and have jobs revolving around tasks like keeping natural disasters in check, keeping your magical continent flowing, being an emissary to foreign powers, defending the land from hostile invaders, policing other magic users and stuff. Reference Doctor Strange, The Sorceress from the 2002 series-Skeletor being an Evil Sorcerer, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Thulsa Doom.
  • A variations on the evil sorcerer naturally being the necromancer, who plays with the departed for his own benefit.

edited 7th Sep '13 11:30:29 AM by Cider

A wizard is a male witch, and a witch is a mortal mage (as opposed to an immortal one); a sorcerer is an evil wizard (as witches are never evil) and a warlock is a sorcerer who has killed another mage in order to steal magic, breaking the First Oath: to never kill another mage.

In the northwest, any wizard will be called a sorcerer even if he is not technically one, while a southeastern wizard will be assumed to be a warlock by any witch he comes into contact with; there are historical reasons for this.

An immortal mage is called a demon unless clearly a saint, while a god is something that was never mortal to begin with. Most immortals became such after using large amounts of magic.

edited 19th Sep '13 2:37:57 PM by nekomoon14

In my setting, a witch, wizard or sorcerer is a mage who favors one of the three primary approaches to spellcasting.

A witch casts from instinct and emotion, eschewing studied weaves and patterns in favor of getting in tune with the fabric of magic itself, thus shaping potentially powerful but inherently chaotic magics. Sometimes the result is amazing, sometimes it falls flat, sometimes the spell does something else entirely.

A sorcerer channels brute force through simple weaves, creating straightforward but energy-inefficient quick-and-dirty effects. Sorcerers risk burning themselves out quickly through feedback effects, but they do tend to get results...as the saying goes: If brute force doesn't do the trick, maybe you're not using enough of it.

A wizard takes the methodical, slow-and-steady approach, carefully shaping weaves and patterns according to arcane geometries and carefully channeling just the right amount of power. Wizard spells tend to be precise, energy-efficient and safe, but they also take a lot longer to prepare and cast than those of mages following other schools of thought.

Note that any mage can use all three approaches, it's just that some strongly favor one over the others.

Warlocks in that setting aren't necessarily spellcasters. A warlock is any mortal creature, magical or mundane, who has entered into a pact with a fiendish patron. This is generally regarded as a Very Bad Idea by anybody who knows anything about fiends.

As an example of how this plays out in-universe:

Tessa, the main character, starts out as a student of magic, having learned only a few minor exercises and cantrips. She is a wizard by inclination, preferring to study a situation and make careful preparations rather than rushing in. When thrown into an unfamiliar and dangerous situation, she is forced to rely on other methods. She lacks the raw power for sorcery, but she does have good instincts and a 'feel' for the weave, and surprises herself by pulling off some fairly impressive feats of witchcraft under stress.

She self-defines as a wizard (well, student wizard), but those who only know her under stressful conditions would probably consider her a witch.

Daeron Marentis, the primary antagonist, is a stunted mage. He has never received any proper training (in his homeland, magic is considered to be inherently evil and ruthlessly persecuted, spanish-inquisition-style) but has, through trial and error (and some surprisingly scientific experimentation), learned to produce some sorcerous effects. When cornered by his enemies he is desperate enough to accept the aid of a fiendish patron who saves Daeron's life in return for 'a few small favors'.

Daeron is a (weak) sorcerer, although he would have a talent for wizardry if he ever got some proper training. He is also a warlock due to his faustian deal.

edited 20th Sep '13 5:05:21 PM by MattStriker

Witch is a word that originates from a word meaning Spellcaster or Enchanter.

Mage, Magus or Magician is a word for an ancient group of Astrologers and Astromancers(gains power from the stars).

A Warlock is a Traitor or Oathbreaker.

A Wizard is a Wiseman.

A Sorcerer is a Caster of Lots in the original language.

A Medium is a Necromancer(AKA a person who speaks to the Dead).

A Shaman is Spiritualist(person who contacts spirits)

A Druid is a Celtic Priest

All of these except for Sorcerers(the Bible praises these Casters of Lots) and Non-Worldy Wizards are condemned in the original Hebrew version of the Bible(alas for bad translations creating Moral Guardians who really need to be properly educated on what the Bible forbids).

edited 12th Feb '14 10:11:21 PM by MickeyFrogeater

Way I use it:

Mages: Any old magic user you care to name. All magic users are mages. Anything else is merely adjectival.

Wizards: Actually a title given to those who distinguish themselves in some way, kinda like a knight. Sir Suchandsuch vs Wizard Soandso.

Witches and Sorcerers: Renegade mages, operating outside the specified laws of magic community. Practicing forbidden arts and suchlike. There's functionally no difference between the two, but they are distinguished by gender based on the edicts of a quite possibly insane goddess of magic.

Warlocks: Never use the term. If I did, I guess it'd just be like it always was, a traitor of some sort.

Shaman, Druid, Medium, etc etc etc. Same as Warlock.

edited 13th Feb '14 12:02:49 PM by Eagal

• Mages, channels the power and will of spirits, gods, deities, whatever.
  • Druids, priests, shamans and so on.
• Witches, uses witchcraft, which is anything from non-magic stuff like herbs, Eye of Newt to making deals with the "devil" or other deities.(some witches are also mages for nature or dark spirits.)
• Wizards, tries to reduce magic into a "science", they create and use Spell Books, do stuff that's repeatable, heavy use of what could be called alchemy.
• Sorcerer, gets their power from deities like mages, but instead of just channel their power (and will) they are able to get some control. Mostly through enchanted objects like Magic Wands, but also Geometric Magic, the Language of Magic and stuff like that. (Some deities have at some point in time made deals and promises to give powers to anyone holding a specific stick or other objects, protect anyone that says the secret words the right way and so on.)
• Warlocks, sorcering taken to the next step, Up To Eleven. They not only make new deals with deities, they are also able to trick them, or break the Oaths. Many of the enchanted objects used by sorcerers was "created" by warlocks.

edited 13th Feb '14 1:48:08 PM by m8e

Thaumaturgical background: A third offshoot of homid, homo arcanis, found a way to tap into the magical quantum underpinnings of the universe. While Neaderthalis and Sapien were busy breeding their way across the globe, Arcanis inhabited a large island in the east Indian Ocean. They successfully aligned the world's magical conduits through the island and sought to create entire new worlds when it blew up in their faces. Many account the Toba super volcano eruption as the source of the detonation that blasted the island through the oceanic crust, sinking it completely.

Witches are descended from one of a dozen female homo arcanis that survived the detonation, being far away in Africa searching for new ley lines to divert. They integrated with a human tribe and since then women have had the potential for innate magic. The magic tends to manifest in early puberty and reaches full strength in the late teens. The power also has a tendency to skip generations, and can be somewhat capricious with its manifestation.

Sadly, most witches don't last long. Though their potential is huge, there's just so many things out there that pick them off young. Many families have lost track of their ancestral roots. Witch magic manifests to certain harmonics that correspond to the 'kind' or color of magic. Black magic is stereotypically regarded as evil. White magic as good. Red magic as unstable. Green magic as healing. Blue magic is mental. Purple is spiritual. Yellow is imbusive. They are preyed on by warlocks, arcane beasties, and mortals who sense something 'off' about the witch. When a witch has a child, it is always female, and results in a lessening of their power. Sometimes all magic is lost after the first. For this reason, many witches remain celibate as long as possible. The power is lost at conception, whether the child is born or not.

Wizards are mortals who come across a bit of lore from Atlantis and use words of power to tap into the harmonics of self to create magical effects. All magic is effectively cast from hitpoints as the wizard converts their own vitality to power. Some wizards try to suppliment this by creating talismans and phylacteries that store power. They eagerly hunt for any lore, and many struggle to learn the ancient Atlantian language. They are usually killed unawares by potent supernatural things that dislike squishy mortal meddlers.

Mages are individuals who learn magic through supernatural entities. They are by far the most diverse class of magic uses, ranging from the Knights of the Broken Blade, a commando mercenary unit in service to a fallen angel, to deranged sex cultists who barely know how to light a candle and really don't believe in magic anyway! Usually mages exist because either a supernatural entity needs something, or because they want to sway humanity to their own goals. Many terrorist organizations, hippy communes, and cult rings are the result of supernatural critters and their mortal students.

Often times mages don't even think of themselves as spell casters. They might think they're psychic, or werewolves, or mediums, or some such. The tolls of such relationships can vary from the odd to the terrifying. Fae taught mages are subject to their masters mecurial whims. Spirit taught mages are often forced to foreswear technology, civilization, and in extreme cases, clothes. Ghost mages might be spirit ridden by people who died decades or even centuries in the past.

Warlocks are bad wizards, in that they don't use their own vitality to power spells, they use others. Sacrifices, mental anguish, insanity, are all marks of a warlocks. They quickly become inhuman sociopaths, turning everyone they know into another fix. The stronger the emotional bond, the more power they can get from it. Warlocks liken it to farming. You breed the sow, you raise the pig, and eventually, no matter how fond of it you are, you kill the pig. Many warlocks see it as their right to exploit and drain everyone they can. Supernaturals give even more juice, leading to some truly terrifying warlocks to become 'cannibals'. Young witches are a favorite source of magical power.

A warlock, contrary to popular belief, is actually not evil. The name does not translate to Oath Breaker. In fact, almost the opposite. It comes from the words Waer and Lac, which translate literally to Honor Bound, or more freely as "Honorable, Faithful, Loyal, Truthful". The original meaning is one who is devoted to their tradition and their word. The opposite is warloka, from the words Waer and Loka, which translates literally as Honor Breaker, or more freely as "Unfaithful, Disloyal, Liar." When the English language became more and more simplified with the coming of the Church, Warlock and Warloka became interchangeable, both being associated with the negative meaning of Warloka. Warlocks were actually seen as protectors, who would "Warlock" a nation, meaning to protect it from invasions by others and prevent civil war inside the nation. To be "warlocked" was lucky, as such people would be miraculously protected from weapons, especially iron, which was usually the key to dispelling magic.

That's really the only thing I wanted to talk about. But since the discussion is about witches, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards, I will also discuss the other three, though not in as much detail.

Witches are usually seen as beings who don't truly practice magic. Rather, they rely on their knowledge of nature and its magic. Witch typically provide charms and potions to help things happen, such as easy births, healing sickness, etc. A wizard, on the other hand, is a human born with magic, usually through magical parentage (Merlin and his fairy father, for example). Usually, wizards live away from the rest of human kind, helping only those brave/wise enough to reach them. In rare cases (Merlin) they enter the mundane world to aid kings/queens worthy of their power (Arthur/Guinevere). Sorcerers don't have any natural power, but gain power through contracts with spirits. The smart ones make contracts with many lesser spirits, who are usually more willing to make such contracts, because they have something to gain from making them. The less intelligent ones tend to make contracts with the more powerful spirits, which usually have to be forced to make the contract, as they have nothing to gain.

In my setting all magic is focused through the lens of religion, and all of those are just titles.

Some people have an innate ability to do magic, but that alone doesn't allow them to do anything. They have to pray to a deity as an intermediary, and will usually offer themselves to whichever deity they feel the closest connection to. BUT, they can still perform feats outside their deity's domain with effort. Other people are chosen specifically by a god or goddess, and they are often more powerful, but more limited. Some other, powerful spirits can also claim a magic user as their own.

• Witches: Either worship Iska (Lady of Blood and Flowers) or Yohainan (He of the Wild Places) and are counterparts of druids. They are very ritual-based and prefer less-obvious magic. Blessings, hexes, healings, scryings, and so on. Alone, they are weak; in a circle, you either be nice or die horribly.
• Sorcerer: a person who can inherently tap into magic, and is oftentimes a lot less powerful, but can produce more varied effects. Sorcerer is reserved for a magic user who has not declared a deity.
• Warlocks: Varies by region. In some places it is a person who has declared a fae spirit. In others it refers to a magic user who has committed crimes against the state.
• Wizard: A sorcerer who has declared or been claimed by Iokua, the god of Magic. The title has a double-meaning, though. No one can decide whether Iokua is good or bad. He simply is. A city that can lay claim to a wizard can expect interesting times ahead.

They (typically) all use magic in some way. What these magic users call themselves is up to the writer, and may or may not include those four categories. They aren't normally synonyms (beyond broadly meaning 'user of magic'), but they can be if the writer so desires.

I'm gonna echo an earlier point and say: Why make huge distinctions? Synonyms can exist.

In one of my settings, there are only two real terms: "mage," meaning anyone who can use magic, and "Arcanist," which is a specific kind of uber-strong mage. Then there's cultural/regional/personal preferences like wizard, witch, sorcerer, caster, shaman, and even demon, among others.

And then there are different ways to use magic: Supernatural Martial Arts, rule-based Magical Incantations, material-based Geometric Magic... And it all runs on a variant of Clarke's Third Law.

So really, names aren't important — What matters is how the characters use magic.

edited 19th Mar '14 12:55:16 PM by AwSamWeston

One of my worlds has pretty much that attitude: a mage/sorcerer/wizard/whatever is one thing- a user of blood magic- and a shaman/warlock/demon/whatever else is a user of wild magic. There are plenty of regional synonyms.

The other world, though, has a much more complicated system, with many schools of magic that usually end up contradicting each other:

• Mage/Magus: Any person with some ability with magic.

• (Hedge) Witch: Someone who takes old folk medicine, hotwired but genuinely magical abilities from a dozen different areas, and stuff that is just plain made up, and couches it all in gobbledygook to make the ignorant peasants take it seriously. Usually an insult, because being called a hedge witch means you have no idea what you're doing.

• Sorcerer: An insult- usually delivered by alchemists and other scientists, as well as the more traditional wizards- applied to the less methodical users of magic. As with 'witch', it indicates that you're sloppy, make things up as you go along, don't have any underlying method, and probably are imitating someone else's work in a less competent way. Unlike being called a hedge witch, though, which under certain circumstances are fighting words, some mages wear 'sorcerer' as a badge of pride, and it's generally a moderate insult.

• Wizard: A person identified as potentially skilled at magic by some agent of the Tezeraqi Empire, been trained by a wizard for ten years, and certified as an adept in the higher mysteries. The first wizards were people who analyzed hundreds of folk traditions, witches' practices, and alchemists's texts, figured out what actually involved magic, and tried to draft consistent rules from this. A wizard is assigned a position by the Empire, and their duties are first to serve the Emperor and the people of their district, and second to try and expand the knowledge of magic.
  • Wizard Errant: Some non-Tezeraqi who studied the texts of wizards, did their own analysis of magic near them, and now thinks they're a wizard. Actual wizards hold them universally in contempt.

• Witchling: Not to be confused with a witch, a witchling is someone born with innate magic. Most of this magic is what in the Middlands is called a knack i.e. extremely limited. Someone with a knack may be able to light a candle or heal bruises, but throwing giant fireballs or gaping wounds are beyond them. One hallmark of a witchling is an allergy to iron, and, in the cases of the more powerful individuals, even steel, iron being magic's Weaksauce Weakness.
  • Great-mage/demon/devilspawn/all those good things: A witchling whose power is not just a knack. The line can be somewhat fuzzy- a skinchanger, limited to two forms, has a knack, but a true shapeshifter is considered a Great-mage; in general these are considered to be things like weather mages, elemental mages, luck mages, and the like. As Great-mages are extremely rare, monarchs and military leaders snap them up like candy whenever they're available.
    • Luck mage/demon/devilspawn/servant of evil/all that: A Great-mage who can control bad luck. There are usually between ten and twenty of them in the entire world at any given time, making any given luck mage extremely powerful. Luck mages are also the most likely to dabble in other disciplines, and many notable luck mages have also been alchemists, wizards errant, and even warlocks.

• Shaman: Someone, in more tribal situations often a leader of the community, who deals with spirits/elementals/demons/whatever you want to call them. Depending on the shaman, this involves entering their plane to talk to them^note although people who do this too often have an unpleasant habit of going mad, the plane of spirits not being overly comprehensible to mortals., summoning them to this world to speak with them, summoning them to this world to make them your servant, binding them into an object, or binding them into yourself. This last however, makes someone a:
  • Warlock: Someone whose body is inhabited by one or more spirits. Warlocks can work acts of great and powerful magic, unsurpassed even by luck mages- so it's really too bad that the works of a spirit tends not only to shorten your life, but, in extreme cases the lives of everyone else around you. Other side affects may include paranoia over having sold your soul to the devil, insomnia and terrible nightmares, a Hair-Trigger Temper, extreme Lack of Empathy and going batshit insane. For these reasons warlocky is generally considered A Bad Idea, and almost universally condemned by religion. This doesn't stop people from doing it, even when they're called a:

• Demon/Devil/Evildoer: Typical ignorant-people (or in the cases of certain mages, sensible) insults for people with magic common the world over.

edited 23rd Mar '14 9:45:21 AM by Kesar