History Main / EthnicMagician

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' game has a black sorcerer and two white warrior types as player characters.
** ''[[VideoGame/{{Diablo}} Diablo II]]'' mixes it up a bit -- the two distinctly non-white heroes are the Sorceress (a SquishyWizard type with a haughty intellectual personality) and the Paladin (a decidedly non-squishy fighting priest type, complete with lots of analogies to real-world monotheistic religions). The Barbarian class is the only one that doesn't use magic of any kind, as his culture forbids it, and he is white.

Common in sword and sorcery settings, though in Westerns, [[MagicalNativeAmerican Native Americans will fill the mystic slot]]. Those of African origin, including their descendants in the Americas (especially in UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}} and UsefulNotes/NewOrleans), would practice HollywoodVoodoo; meanwhile, Aboriginal Australians are steeped in HollywoodDreamtime. Scandinavian works have historically tended to use the Sami people, and Japanese works often use white or Chinese people for this role, but the principle is the same.

* In ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', the Western-analogue cultures like Midland and Tudor have very few (human) magic-users, really only a couple of witches who subscribe to an oppressed, near-dead nature-focused pagan religion. The Kushan, on the other hand, an Indian / Persian FantasyCounterpartCulture, have sorcerers out the yin-yang.

* OlderThanPrint: In the [[Literature/TheIcelandicSagas Norse sagas]] -- for example, ''Literature/{{Heimskringla}}'' -- if a character was a Finn (note that this word usually referred to those who later would be called Lapps or Sami, not Finnish/Suomi people), it was implied they were inherently magical. This tradition went on for a ''long'' time. The last person to have the reputation of a Lapland Witch died in early 20th century.
** Carried over to the age of Norwegian Television: Sami characters tend to be used as a Scandinavian equivalent of the MagicalNegro even today.

* In ''Literature/TheSnowQueen'' the Old Finn Woman and the Old Lapp Woman, who have some vaguely defined but shared magical powers, are probably intended to be Sámi, which Creator/HandChristianAndersen would have seen as the Fennoscandian equivalent of {{Magical Native American}}s.

* While the ''Series/MahouSentaiMagiranger'' and ''Series/PowerRangersMysticForce'' use Western, Franchise/HarryPotter-style magic, their resident {{Sixth Ranger}}s Hikaru and Daggeron have more of an Arabian flair, including a genie in a lamp and a magic carpet. Daggeron is also AmbiguouslyBrown (he's played by [[UsefulNotes/NewZealand Maori]] actor John Tui). In addition, Lunagel and her counterpart Claire (in her capacity as Gatekeeper) have distinct UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} motifs.

In most fantasy series, if the resident spellcaster isn't a [[WizardClassic long-white bearded Merlin type]], or a VainSorceress, then they're probably reminiscent of a non-European culture (or at least a European culture outside the Western European Germanic- and Romance-speaking countries). Part of this is FlawlessToken. After all, if magic is that world's equivalent of science, somebody particularly adept at it is TheSmartGuy. Also, many African and Asian cultures (not just Egypt) were already advanced in terms of agriculture, literature and so on, while Europe was just getting itself together. On the other hand, it becomes something of a cultural {{Flanderization}}, reinforces stereotypes of non-whites having [[MagicalNativeAmerican some mystical nature]], and may evoke a sense of the hero being full of valor and vigor, while the darker skinned spellcaster is a distant SquishyWizard.

Not to be confused with MagicalNegro (or its supertrope MagicalMinorityPerson) or TokenWizard, though both overlap from time to time. Often results in ReligionIsMagic. Related to MagicalRomani, MagicalNativeAmerican, and MagicalAsian.

* Hadji from ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest''. "SimSimSalabim!" anyone? The update of the cartoon, ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures'', had Hadji be a [[BollywoodNerd computer hacker]] instead of a mystic.

* The Battle Mage in ''VideoGame/{{Sacred}}'' is notoriusly dark-skinned, and one of his armor sets is a SimSimSalabim costume complete with a turban, a curved sword and a crescent-shaped shield.

Common in sword and sorcery settings, though in Westerns, [[MagicalNativeAmerican Native Americans will fill the mystic slot]]. Those of African origin, including their descendants in the Americas (especially in UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}} and UsefulNotes/NewOrleans), would practice HollywoodVoodoo; meanwhile, Australians are steeped in HollywoodDreamtime. Scandinavian works have historically tended to use the Sami people, and Japanese works often use white or Chinese people for this role, but the principle is the same.

Common in sword and sorcery settings, though in Westerns, [[MagicalNativeAmerican Native Americans will fill the mystic slot]]. Those of African origin, including their descendants in the Americas (especially in UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}} and UsefulNotes/NewOrleans), would practice HollywoodVoodoo; Australians are steeped in HollywoodDreamtime. Scandinavian works have historically tended to use the Sami people, and Japanese works often use white or Chinese people for this role, but the principle is the same.

Common in sword and sorcery settings, though in Westerns, [[MagicalNativeAmerican Native Americans will fill the mystic slot]]. Those of African origin, or Afro-Caribbean (especially UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}}an) or Afro-American (especially in TheBigEasy) origin, would practice HollywoodVoodoo; Australians are steeped in HollywoodDreamtime. Scandinavian works have historically tended to use the Sami people, and Japanese works often use white people or Chinese for this role, but the principle is the same.

Not to be confused with MagicalNegro (or its supertrope MagicalMinorityPerson) or TokenWizard, though both overlap from time to time. Often results in ReligionIsMagic. Related to MagicalRomani, MagicalNativeAmerican and MagicalAsian.

Common in sword and sorcery settings, though in Westerns, [[MagicalNativeAmerican Native Americans will fill the mystic slot]]. Those of African or Haitian origin would practice HollywoodVoodoo, while Australians are steeped in HollywoodDreamtime. Scandinavian works have historically tended to use the Sami people, and Japanese works often use white people or Chinese for this role, but the principle is the same.

Not to be confused with MagicalNegro or TokenWizard, though both overlap from time to time. Often results in ReligionIsMagic. Related to MagicalRomani, MagicalNativeAmerican and MagicalAsian.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/DoctorStrange https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_doctor_voodoo_3.png]]]]

* The first ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'' film had Creator/JamesEarlJones (though he was no SquishyWizard in the beginning) and UsefulNotes/{{Mako}} as the respective evil and good wizards. The second one also had Akiro, who also fits.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' features Western, HermeticMagic-using magi interacting with Eastern, {{UsefulNotes/Onmyodo}}-using ones, thus managing to fulfill this trope from two cultural perspectives.

* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': All witches, save one, are descended from one apparent family line of black people... Descendants of a ''handmaiden''... The writers may have notice this, as going farther back in the family tree shows ''her'' ancestor to be [[spoiler:Qetsiyah, one of the most powerful characters in the show's mythology.]]
** Averted in later seasons with the introduction of other clans of witches who were of varying races. The aversion continued in the other series in the TVD-verse, ''The Originals'' and ''Legacies''.

* Mild examples in ''Literature/NightWatch'', since this is an UrbanFantasy setting, many powerful [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Others]] are very old, and don't usually talk about their origins. Geser is a powerful Light Other, originally from Tibet, although he has adopted a Russian name after moving to Moscow and his vaguely Asian appearance doesn't seem strange to people (considering how many ethnic groups live in Russia, it's not surprising). He is, occasionally, seen walking around in an Eastern robe and pointy shoes. Zabulon's origins are unclear, although an old friend of his calls him Arthur in a spin-off novel, and another novel indicates that he lived in Ireland for a time, so he may have been born in the isles thousands of years ago. The latest novel also introduces a powerful Jewish mage whose spells tend to be related to his culture in some manner (for example, he creates a golem to fight the Tiger and commands it in Hebrew). Overall, it's not that magic is different from culture to culture (MagicAIsMagicA, after all), but the way the Others use magic tends to be affected by their culture. For example, Western Others tend to go for more direct magic. When Anton meets a Taiwanese Other, he notes how intricate and beautiful the Asian mage's spells are, composed of multiple interconnected layers like a tapestry.