The differences between terms for magic users
(Note, this is not universal and many works have different interpretations: this is just a summary of the common ground when the terms are used in different media)
Wizard: Someone who learns magic through study and practice to get things done. Much like chemistry, except that if you mess up badly your summon an eldritch horror from another plane of reality instead of breaking a beaker. Study all kinds of magic; specialization will result in them becoming (whatever)mancers. While commonly used to adress male practitioners of magic the term is not gender-exclusive.
Witch: A practitioner of a mix of magic and medicine, combined with common sense and practical knowledge. Are more approachable than wizards and often serve as a community’s anchor for reality. Magic often includes life magic like healing spells, nature magic to help plants grow, sometimes have affinity for animals as well. Also make potions and sometimes serve as amateur psychologists. More likly to be seen as evil (or be used by evil people), but witchcraft itself is not evil. The term is almost exclusively used for women, but men can practice witchcraft as well.
Sorcerer: Has power inherent to their being. Is often “in the blood” with the source being an ancestor who was some kind of magical being, often a dragon. Sorcery is more limited in scope than wizardry: while a powerful sorcerer can outshine a wizard in one field their abilities are more limited in another. Think of them like more like superheroes: they have their gimmick but get their asses beat in other fields. Sometimes their magic is limited to a particular type (fire, arcane power, time) and sometimes they get a variety of spells. Sorcery is more intuitve than wizardry: sorcerers feel the magic within them and use it to cast spells, not caring for how or why it works. Not all sorcerers are created equally: some get limited to stage magic while others get phenominal cosmic power. In comparison to wizards sorcerers can keep casting for far longer: they throw spell after spell at the point where a wizard is already spent. Practice can expand upon a sorcerer’s abilities, but learning new things is not very common. Sorcerers can be both good and evil, and the term is male-only: a femal sorcerer is a sorceress.
Warlock: The term is often used for male witches, but this is not always the case. Warlocks practice pact magic: they agree to either give something to a benefactor or be their agent in return for power. Said benefactor can be anything from devils to the Fair Folk to the spirits of old and even extradimensional horrors, with benevolent forces providing such magic is very rare (and not the same as divine magic). Pact magic is often very destructive but limited in scope and frequently taxes its user more heavily than other magics do. Due to their nature Warlocks tend to be not very good people; the influence of their benefactor often increasing evil behaviour. The term is used most frequently to refer to men but warlocks can be women as well.
There is plenty of rivalry and dislike between these four kinds of magic: wizards are seen as uptight, elitist and detached from reality, witches as backwater meddlers and sometimes servants of evil, sorcerers as tryhards and children who play with things they do not understand and warlocks as people who sold their souls to evil to get an imitation of power.
magical phd students, magical doctors/gardeners, magical nepo babies, magical sugar babies
now how does a mage factor into this...
