204 ◾ Game Magic
both cases used to refer to someone with an inborn, hereditary capacity
for magic (see Chapter 8, Sections 8.2 and 8.12). In contrast to this c-
tive emphasis on heredity, the word “wizard” equates magic with wisdom:
acquired learning and the ability to apply it judiciously. A sorcerer sorts;
a wizard is wise. One term tends to suggest divination and an acceptance
of the role of chance, while the other evokes a reverence (and perhaps also
fear) toward scholarly study and learning.
Unlike sorcerer and wizard, the term “warlock” has distinctly nega-
tive and demonic connotations, descending linguistically from the word
for “traitor,” literally an “oath-breaker.” e term was originally applied to
the Devil and later extended ...