I was reading Jaina’s biography to see if I can understand, but it simply states that “Her magical talent were discovered”.
What exactly happens? Do you cast a spell without training? Trained Mages can sense your affinity?
I’d imagine that, being a noble, she had mages around her constantly growing up. They’d probably notice something, or perhaps even administer some kind of formal test.
If she were poor it’d probably be more of a “accidentally set the house on fire” kind of deal.
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More than likely someone of the nobility like her would have had tutors that teach her the basic theories of magic, and in doing so noted she had a pretty marked talent for the stuff, which would mean she got tested at some point.
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There’s some implication that trained mages can detect the potential of prospective mages; it’s how Aegwynn’s predecessor tracked down and identified her latent arcane talent when she was still just a normal backwoods peasant girl growing up in Lordaeron as he was collecting apprentices in search of an eventual successor.
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I imagine it’s no different than becoming scientist in reality: it is inherently difficult to learn, and just requires a certain level of intelligence to have an affinity for it—whether it be a natural or acquired intelligence, depending on the specifics of your life, environment, access to pre-requisite education. Some people seek it out, some people are pushed in that direction if an adult notices a talent for it.
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Usually it’s by accident. In my fire mage’s case, she found out explosively when her river barge was attacked by trolls. Her family was frightened enough that they sold her to the Kirin Tor.
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Honestly WoW is really bad at differentiating between Wizards and Sorcerers.
The difference being people become wizards the same way you’d become a lawyer or doctor. Study for years, take tests, there’s probably a wizarding equivalent of a bar association, etc. Whereas sorcerers are born with magical abilities, usually because their great grandma banged a dragon or some other inherently magical entity.
Mages in Azeroth can be either it seems. As we know the Orcs learned how to Mage from the Forsaken who just taught it to them like you would any other professional skill. But others are described as having innate magical ability.
Maybe it’s like being gifted. Like anyone could conceivably become a physicist but some people get a brain much better at processing that sort of knowledge.
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For most of D&D’s history, they were one and the same In First Edition they were level titles for the Magic-User class. In Azeroth, sorcerer is usually an epithet used to insult a mage.
In popular fiction tropes they also tend to describe the same thing.
Personally I usually go with Sorcerer because being really charismatic is basically like having free mind control spells if you roll well.
But I can see why wizards would be annoyed. If I spent my 20s learning how to perfectly cast Searing Ray I’d be pissed this wine drunk half elf can effortlessly do it just as well because his granddad was a dragon banger.
Your post seems to criticize WoW for failing to adhere to Dungeons and Dragons’ specific magic system and specific definitions of terms. They are under no obligation to do either.
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Cool.
Still think it’s better world building when sorcerer and wizard are different terms and not just synonyms.
I’d imagine magic affinity would come up pretty early on when your kid is talking to spirits or moving things with their minds, stuff like that.
Though folks saying that for the more wealthy there are probably mages and other practitioners of magic on the look out for signs of such talents in young nobles (and might actively test them for such aptitude) are likely on to something there.
I mean that’s basically what the Zandalari do with their cast system. They take you at a young age and if you are good at magic you learn to be part of the priest cast, good at fighting you go to the warrior cast, and not particularly great at either you become a regular peasant.
For centuries they meant the exact same thing.
This includes the first two generations of what was called Advanced Dungeons and Dragons at the time when it was a game produced by TSR.
Just because WOTC decided to change that doesn’t mean that everyone else should follow through.
From what we can gather…
Magic is both an innate talent and an earned one. Those with a mental aquity or a natural leaning towards the arcane may find themselves more capable to understand and cast. The Elves for example had been so in tune with magic, it became part of their beings. You were born into magic, lived with it, and would die with it. (Especially if you were starved from it.)
A human in question may have more magical prowess whether just be birth, location, exposure, or mental strength. Or one can gain arcane attunement through major exposure to something like the Arcane Leylines, rich mana, or more. Or through darker pacts. (Warlocks for example use dark rituals for their power.)
There were a lot of bad ideas that stood for centuries we amended, see no reason to stop now. I played D&D many, many, years after I’d played WoW. My preference to that arrangement isn’t nostalgia it’s because it seems to me like a legitimately better world building idea.
See also; Devils and Demons being their own separate entities. A lawful evil cosmic force that hates the chaotic evil one, and they’re commonly mistaken for eachother to the point naked and often violent resentment, is a pretty fun idea.
I don’t see it as a bad idea. Dr. Strange is referred to everyone in the MCU as “The Wizard”, but his title is Sorcerer Supreme. I really don’t see this as anything other than nitpicking really.
I think that distinction helps world build in settings where it’s both commonplace and a fundamentally known and recognized quality to existence itself.
The idea that it is something that can be studied, quantified and taught but is still also this wild force that nobody completely understands makes it more interesting to me.
Like you can study for years and be able to shape-shift into a dragon. But some people notably skilled with a tuba also seem to manage that. So having all these differing and competing schools of thought and practice to toward it seems appropriate for a literal, physical Arcane force.
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Bards are so much fun to play. Just not when people follow or expect the typical bardic stereotypes.
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