I'm afraid there's been a misunderstanding. You're used to dealing with mercantile and artisan guilds, yes? A mage's guild is a very different beast.
Most guilds can cut a deal with the local lord. He enforces their monopoly, they give him some kind of services in return. If a renegade cloth merchant or tinker starts doing business in town, the local clothmongers' or tinsmiths' guild can inform the baron, and he'll kick them outâeither out of a sense of honor, or because the new guy isn't part of that contract. You could be the best tinker in the world, and you'd still be evicted.
Yes, yes, I realize this is all elementary. Fundamental. But think about what would happen if you tried to apply these fundamentals to magicians. How many knights can a veteran warlock rout? How many chaplains does it take to contain an angry witch's curse? How many lords are willing to risk the ire of an archmage, accredited or no?
True, most magicians aren't archmages. Most could be evicted, if the local lord tried. But there are enough rogue mages who can fight hard enough to make that kind of enforcement infeasible over the long term. Sooner or later, Count Nobody is gonna decide it's easier to cut a deal with the new guy, and evict anyone in the old guild who doesn't agree.
Outside the biggest cities run by the strongest lords, the mage guilds have to work with outside mages. The clothmonger guildmasters can refuse to promote anyone outside their families, but mage guildmasters need to give talented outsiders at least some chance. If they treat the journeymen badly enough, all it takes is one mild prodigy to whip them into a frenzy, and there's a new guild in town.
Yes, it's dreadfully inconvenient. Don't I know it. There's no sense of filial duty in those guilds, so each generation of mages is only loosely loyal to their predecessor's oaths. But that's why I deal with those fickle fellows, and you deal with me.
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One more day left until the end of the summer sale on Smashwords! I feel like I owe my publisher a bit of advertising, so here's a snippet from one of my novellas, Black Cat Security (magical AU + Femdom + a lot of angst and whump):
âThereâs a curse on you.â
Her voice startled Dragomir out of his grim reverie. At this very moment, heâd been deciding between getting hopelessly drunk or moderately drunk. He liked the first option better, but his finances werenât exactly blooming.
âYeah, thanks, I know,â he muttered in Czech, suppressing a vicious desire to snap and say something rude. Of course he fucking knew.
The girl lingered beside him by the bar counter. A petite brunette with a gaze surprisingly sharp for such a nice face. High heels, but no make-up. Casually dressed, certainly not for picking up strangers in a bar, more like for relaxing with friends on a Friday evening. Normally, she would be a type to interest him, but he was far from normal now. He wished she would go away already, turned off by his surly, indifferent countenance.
âIs it easier for you to speak Latin?â she asked instead, tilting her head curiously.
Yes, his Czech wasnât ideal, and it became clear just from a single short phrase. Those who said all Slavic languages sounded the same should have tried learning them instead of simply listening. But nothing indicated he knew Latin at all. It was international, but mostly for scholars and well-educated people. He didnât look like one of them, and he knew it perfectly well. Nor did anything in his appearance betray his former occupation. He seemed more of a rough and rowdy biker type, clad in an old leather jacket, jeans, and heavy, thick-soled boots.
âHow do you know?â he asked, curious, though he hadnât been in the mood for a nice friendly chat. He rarely was nowadays.
âItâs a complex curse, very intricate, very skillfully done,â she said, like she marveled at it. âYou must have been an important person for someone to put this spell on you. Also, I see there have been attempts to remove it. Unsuccessful but insistent. Only very strong mages would even try to do it, and only in a joint effort. Why would they care? My guess is you were one of them.â
âNot anymore.â
He emptied the contents of his glass in one large gulp. Uh. Nasty stuff.
âAre you a witch or a mage?â he asked and waved to the bartender to get a refill.
He wondered how other magicians saw his curse, invisible for common people. As a sigil burnt into the flesh of his shoulder where the wicked hand had touched him? Was it all the more ugly, scarred and disfigured, because of the messy endeavors to get rid of it? He decided he didnât really want to know.
âJust a witch, nothing high class,â the girl said with a small smile as she watched the bartender pouring more slivovice into Dragomirâs glass. âA bit of fortunetelling, a bit of herbal potion-making, a bit of coaching. I keep a small family business. Want to see my license?â she suggested almost playfully.
âNope,â Dragomir said briskly and took another sip from his glass.
Unlike her, heâd been a magician, having finished the famous Scholomance school in the Carpathians. Also unlike her, he had no license at the moment and didnât intend to apply for one.
âDoes alcohol reduce the effect of the curse to some degree?â she asked, not flirtingly this time, but with what seemed like genuine sympathy.
âNope.â
More importantly, alcohol reduced him to nothingness. Numbed him. But not enough. Not yet.
He already regretted starting a conversation, annoyance building up slowly but steadily. Why would she ask? Why would she care?
âIâm Ida, by the way,â the witch said, as if she hadnât noticed his obvious displeasure. Or maybe she didnât want to notice. Stupid, stupid girl.
Mild irritation was starting to evolve into anger, both at her for being so amiably intrusive and at himself for wishing it could lead to something. He willed himself not to look at her, not to answer. It would only be worse. It would end up badly, just like it had the last time.
He hadnât been with a woman for quite a while, and it took him all his resolve to feign indifference.
âNobody will be able to take off your curse, except for the one who made it,â she said as if he wasnât well aware of it. But then she added, âMaybe I could be of some help though.â
Sure. A witch from a seedy bar for tourists and local drunkards would do more than a bunch of highly skilled magicians from the Scholomance school. He would laugh her in the face if he felt like facing her now.
âWhen youâll be in the mood, call me,â she said and slipped a business card along the counter, towards him, until it stopped at his glass. A simple white rectangle with her name and address. And a small silhouette of a black cat on top.
After that, thank God for small mercies, she left. He didnât watch her go, but in a few moments, he heard the squeaky front door opening and closing.
He crumpled her business card in his fist, crushed it like a fucked-up origami, and tossed it to the floor.
Having emptied his glass, he caught his grumpy reflection in the large mirror behind the liquor bottles and automatically reached to smooth his hair. He trimmed it short, out of an old habit, but when it grew just a little, it always stood up in wild spikes and he didnât like it. He didnât like almost anything of late.
Behind his back, three men marched to the door. He wouldnât have paid attention to them if he hadnât caught a glimpse of a familiar tattoo in the mirror. One of the guys had a studded mallet smashing through a pentagram tattooed on his forearm. Malleus Maleficarum. The hammer of witches. Uh-huh. It didnât look good, not for the girl who had just left.
Witchbashers, that was who they were.
It had been long since women were allowed to practice magic freely and enter magic schools along with men. It had been even longer since magicians of whatever gender had acquired any problems with state or church authorities for what they did, having settled a mutually satisfying deal centuries ago. But there were always some douchebags who had their own thoughts on the matter, always eager to see evil outside of themselves.
For a moment, Dragomir wavered. Maybe they werenât after her. Maybe she was long gone.
But then he bounced off his barstool and took after them. Heâd had a shitty day. Heâd had a shitty week and an equally shitty month. He could temporarily forget about it by getting drunk again ⌠or he could do something else, just as foolish. For a change.
It's a wizard college instead of a wizard grade school. The cast are all adults, allowing more freedom in character development & decision-making.
Magicians aren't luddites. It's fully acknowledged that magic isn't a solution to every problem, and magicians willingly use modern technology if it's better or easier than magic.
Keeping magic a secret doesn't really get addressed, which ironically makes it more believable. It's an unwritten rule rather than an enforced law, which is more interesting to think about than having an official but unsatisfying answer.
It directly addresses what happens to magicians who drop out or don't get into magic college. Their magic potential doesn't just go away, so they learn on their own and face the dangers of practicing outside a safe environment. It's immaculate world building.
One of the plot points is one character being a superfan of a series of children's books, who later finds out the author is a terrible person who directly caused the thing that actively threatens the lives of everyone he knows & loves. Sound familiar?
There's a devious, colonial, bloodthirsty fantasy race that's treated as a villain for half a season, but also goes out of its way to say even they don't deserve to be slaves. Much better handling of the topic than a certain other wizard franchise.
Multiple characters are hella gay, and not in a handwaved Dumbledore way.
Lev Grossman never expressed a disdain for trans people. Which is technically better than JK Rowling. His newest book The Bright Sword has a trans character who's been pretty well-received, but I've never read it.
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Before I go along with this post, I would like to clarify that I have never shared worldbuilding from my books on tumblr and I donât even know if this is the appropriate place for it, but itâs where fanbases gather, so I donât think it matters.
Hi, my name is Millie, but I go by the pen name M.D.L. Fitzgerald, I am a writer but on tumblr a few people who have liked my posts would know me for my fanart of games like Poppy Playtime and books like Fire & Blood. But I know myself as what I am: an author. An author without a published book or a deal. Thatâs not stopping me from keeping my knowledge to myself and I know my perspective on typical fantasy tropes.
So, what are wizards and their roles in my books?
1. Wizards are people (typically men, transgender or not) who possess great magic that is learned, born magic is equated to sorcery and wizards have to have either a specific genetic or a hyper focus in certain skills such as managing and maintaining magic, understanding magic, alchemy, stealth and astrogeography. They can be young and wise or old and reckless. Age donât matter, itâs their ability. Also, they donât wear pointed hats, they wear whatever they were culturally or historically raised in.
2. They have rules they have to obey, the 9 elders of wizards are the most supreme of the estimated 3,000 wizards (yeah, they are RARE) such as they cannot marry unless they have hit an age where fertility is very low (so 50s or 70s) and even then, a lot choose not to marry. They often are picked for their lack of sexual interest and their strong keen preferences for their work or their abilities. Another rule is that once you become a wizard, leaving the circle is VERY hard and when it eventually comes, they are shunned or erased completely, which happens a few times for marrying without consent from the High Wizard, differing political views or conspiring against other wizards or planetary leaders.
3. They work in multiple positions, they donât solely work as magic-keepers or as wise old men, they are healers, teachers, businessmen, bakers, regular people. They mostly work in public and for the people. One of them even is a senior apprentice and is in his final exams for becoming a wizard, and a wizard of love and philosophy.
4. Once finishing their training, wizards are given a gem, usually a brochure or a necklace with their assigned stone given to them when they were 12 as an upgrade from a simple ring or necklace. Then a longer life. This does not indicate that wizards have longer lives or live too long or too short, itâs just the type of magic they have depends on their life span. Those who focus their magic on death live 80 years longer than humans (sometimes 60) or whatever the estimated life span of a human is on that planet/country is given to that wizard. This does not mean they are exempt from death however, it comes to them differently.
5th and finally: they hide their powers unless itâs absolutely necessary and people are in immense peril, otherwise, like other people, they would be arrested. Magic is extremely limited in their government, but in the wizardâs cabinet it is treated with extreme caution.
It isnât cute and sparkly, itâs morbid and cruel and deadly, even if itâs soft or hard magic, it doesnât matter. if itâs given to the wrong person or the right person, either they accidentally kill themselves or intentionally find a way to harm others. Itâs one of the most if not the most serious offence.
Thatâs it! If thereâs any questions, fell free to ask. If this didnât make sense, Iâm sorry, Iâm exhausted and the news is distracting me đ
I also wanted to quickly explain the gems: they are an honoured, required, mandatory (often at least) gifts that reflect a trait (could be ambition or a royal demeanour) zodiac signs (so a birth sign) or just their personality. Itâs with them for life and basically sums up their life. It can be given based off of vibes or literally what I said: their zodiac sign/a personality trait.
*magician voice* teeth. weâve gottem. unless! *I pull your teeth out from behind your ear. I planted them there at the beginning of the show. youâve never had teeth. only dentures. all your memories of teeth were planted there at the beginning of the show.*
