Wizard

A Wizard is any kind of magic user that draws thaumaturgical power from an extradimensional source and makes manifest this power upon the present reality.

Wizard Practitioners, as defined by the International Magick Standardization Society, typically make up the layman's stereotypical idea of a Wizard. For this reason, Practitioners are often simply known by the common name wizard, without capitalization that would indicate an officially-recognized moniker.

Characteristics
All Wizards share many qualities with one another due to long-term exposure to arcane energies, regardless of internal classification.


 * Wizards of all kinds will find themselves wearing a pointy hat. This is for the same reason that fish are often found exclusively in bodies of water, or why clouds only form in the upper regions of the troposphere. The specifics of the hat may vary widely, and research into the morphology of a hypothetical Ideal Wizard-Hat is ongoing.
 * Robes, star-studded or otherwise elaborate in design, are common but not necessary.
 * Almost all Wizards are homosexual. It is much more difficult for heterosexuals to master magic to the extent demanded by Wizardry.
 * All Wizards are immortal by nature. A Wizard will never die of old age, but may continue to show exaggerated signs of aging beyond what a normal human will ever experience in a centennial lifespan. The oldest known Wizards, Mages, were born before recording history came into style.

Classification
As discussed before, General Wizardry is merely one aspect of magic users. Some of the most common types of wizard are listed below. The International Magick Standardization Society is responsible for maintaining these standards.


 * Wizard Practitioners
 * As discussed before, these are stereotypical wizards that feature prominently in mortal pop-culture. They can be identified by their key attributes of individualism, a jester-like tendency towards capriciousness and Chaos-alignment (or what seems like it from the limited human perspective,) their seeming freedom from the weathering of time (though wizards almost always appear wizened and elderly,) and typically utilizing their unimaginable magical power for chaotic spells and tricks.


 * Sorcerer
 * Sorcerers or Sorcerii are distinguished from other Wizards by their formal education in the threads of magic and Neutral-alignment. A Sorcerer will often have no issue producing a diploma for verification of sorcerer status to anyone who might ask. They can also be identified by always having proficiency in only a single school of magic as a result of having alchemically traded their psychological malleability for rapid mana development. Recent double-blind studies have shown that there is no significant difference in ${mana \over in^2}$ in Sorcerer nervous systems when compared to individuals in other thaumaturgical classes.
 * Warlock
 * Warlocks are defined as Wizards that focus the greater part of their magical ability into discerning and manipulating the flow of time. Warlocking is a highly advanced form of magic and fully-realized Warlocks stand among the Gods in power. Theoretically, a powerful Warlock stopping or slowing time is, with enough dedication and patience, capable of the impossible. Sovereign leaders highly prize Warlocks as Court Wizards for the boundless political implications of seeing the future, though Warlocks are rare and difficult to locate and precognition is universally-recognized as self-defeating.
 * Mage
 * Mages are the oldest class of Wizard. In ancient times, Mages wielded immense cosmological power and waged massive battles that are now understood to have caused several separate mass extinctions. The art of Magecraft was lost several thousand years before the beginning of organized society, and few Mages remain to present day. The last living Mages are duty-bound to protect the Universe from the kind of anti-causality incursions that they once caused.
 * Great Apes
 * The non-Human Hominidae, whose members are known as Great Apes, are a taxonomic family of primates that includes seven extant species in three genera: Pongo, Gorilla, and Pan. All Great Apes hold intense magical power. Among them, individuals of the genus Pongo, the Orang-utans, showcase the greatest amount of average innate mana. It is notable that the Great Apes are the only non-human organisms, aside from some species of cyanobacteria, to exhibit the ability to manipulate raw mana.

Witchcraft
Contrary to popular belief, Witches, sometimes spelled Vvitches, are not simply female Wizards. While Wizards fuel magic through extradimensional or extraterrestrial sources, Witchcraft grounds its driving forces in the Earth and terrestrial life itself.

However, this does not mean that Witchcraft is any less powerful than Wizardry. While the stars and outer dimensions are saturated with massive power, they have very little implications for everyday life. Of course, these glimmers of causality can be telescopically channeled to great effect and are the basis for all Wizardry.

Witchery, on the other hand, makes use of the abundant thaumaturgical power found everywhere on the planet. This overpowering force is counterbalanced by the fundamental alchemical and physical principle of equivalent exchange. In the end, this results in a rather equal distribution of total magical output between Wizardry and Witchcraft, though many scholars have made divisive arguments in the favor of either one.

While some would-be magic users may display an affinity for Witchcraft over Wizardry or vice-versa, this is completely irrelevant to the user's gender. It has been a well-established fact for many decades and has been detailed in a great number of studies that gender plays no role in magical ability.

Known Wizards

 * Odo Odo
 * A prominent Wizard Practitioner of the NGA-verse.

Misconceptions
Severus Snape is not a Wizard.