Wizard
Wizards are trained experts in all of the magical arts: spelling and magic principally, but also mathematics, astronomy, and any other study that might prove useful to powerful men.
Wizardry was born during the Old Orckid occupation of Milos, when Viisianari governors built spelleries to teach spelling and magic to the children of local nobles. The men who nominally ruled these regions grew resentful that their sons (and they themselves) were barred from acquiring these powers. This resentment, coupled with the trickling-in of Mornal culture after the Mornal Invasion of Orckid, likely contributed strongly to the anti-magical sentiment that ended with the burning of the Great Spellery at Cantef and the First Death of Magic.
For centuries, Wizards served kings as advisers, teachers, and even secondary rulers. Some of them enjoyed favor and power above princes and Mox Masters. However, whenever a clan dynasty fell, the new dynasty would almost always kill the prior ruler's Wizard, often by burning. This would compel some Wizards to flee upon the king's death, hiding in the wild or emptying the royal coffers to build private fortresses to protect themselves. Some would try to seize control of castles after a king's death, though no Wizard successfully took over more than a single building.
This anti-magic mania would climax in the Second Death of Magic, which took place during the Southern Rebellion. A Wizard could not find employ for any lord however small. It is assumed all Milosian wizards died out, with the practice later being revived by practitioners imported from Vaina and Monos.
Nowadays, the practice of wizardry is slowly returning to what it was before the Second Death of Magic. All major clans have a wizard in service, and even a few minor ones as well.
Career
Qualifications
A wizard must prove herself expert spelling first and foremost, as well as at least five magical instruments and the higher magics. Additionally, she must be shown to specialize in at least one other discipline dependent upon these gifts: arithmetic, astronomy, strategy, and the like. This latter point is usually intended to display the wizard's utility to a landowner.
Career Progression
A would-be wizard must first apprentice under an established one, whom she will serve as a speller until granted the Honor of Wizardry. There is no set time period for this apprenticeship, and indeed most of a wizard's spellers will remain in that position her entire life.
The Honor of wizardry is strictly that, an honorific, akin to a knight dubbing another knight. The Entitlement of wizardry refers to a position of employment. Often, these are granted together, with a wizard sending their favored apprentice to serve a new lord elsewhere. It should be noted that lords, and kings in particular, will exercise great power over these distinctions, such that when his wizard dies, he will likely identify said wizard's greatest or most experienced apprentice and simply confer both Honor and Title himself. Despite all this, history does record those who have been granted the Honor without the Title, and may well serve in such capacity their entire lives. The Sagarts of the New Spellery at Cantef are a keen example of this: wizards who work to recover and reinterpret the surviving histories of Milos, but who serve no lord or king.
Type
Arcane
Famous in the Field
- Agathe the Elder
- Agathe the Younger
- Anjiil Shadowmaster
- Anna Chains
- Anna the Pretender
- Ashlyn the Tall
- Bergeth the Fair
- Brinid Binder
- Brinid Younger
- Elisel the Enchantress
- Ermengarda of Felissar
- Fuia the Small
- Ghiselda the Ghastly
- Gwelryth the Spear
- Hannah Humble
- Hanwyth the Hostly
- Heather Snowfall
- Helena to Hand
- Jaell Shadowmaster
- Margget the Wise
- Penny the Wise
- Surshem the Serpent
- Uithael Wonder
- Wynid Wild
- Yawn Ice-Eye
Other Associated professions
Related Locations