WIZARD, OR WARLOCK?
Let's talk terminology, if you'll allow this humble moth a moment of your time.
Sorcerer, witch, mage, conjurer, enchantress: these--and many myriads more--are the terms used to describe various practitioners of, to use the broadest possible term, "magic".
In casual conversation, such terms are often bandied about with little regard for the appropriateness of their use in a given specific case. To some extent, this is harmless: after all, who among us hasn't borrowed from a set of magical practices outside of our own usual wheelhouse?
(In practice, it seems to me that in rolling up our sleeves and delving into the Mysteries Arcane and Bizarre, we are grafting another piece of occult handiwork onto a larger patchwork quilt that is an individual's diverse corpus of fantastical deeds far more often than we could be said to be carving out yet another contour of one's personal monolith of a mystical career, consisting only of strict practice within one magical discipline. It's a tired bit, but I'm sure even the most transmutation-obsessed alchemists have learned Mend Buttcrack for the sake of a laugh. And before you tell me you haven't, just know I won't believe you.)
That said, I have seen a carelessness recently in how practitioners use these terms in more professional arcane circles, which worries me. I may just be yelling into the void again, but I feel like I can't be the only one who's a little bit concerned about this.
In essence, the problem as I see it is about getting people who need magic to the right practitioner.
Sure, as a seasoned (and delicious) warlock, I can inscribe some flame-bursting runes on your Real Sword, or slap together a Draught of Uncontrollable Glottal-Stopping to slip into the punch bowl for a good office-party prank. But really, you'd be better seeing an enchanter for the sword, and an apothecary for the Draught if you want either to pack their most spectacular punch.
That preamble out of the way, I figured I'd at least outline the basics of what distinguishes a warlock from other practitioners of the mystic arts, in hopes that such an explanation will make it easier to find the right type of caster for your needs.
Thankfully, when it comes to warlocks, there's really just one main thing you need to know:
✨It's All In The Name, Baybee✨
We warlocks are referred to as such primarily because of how we get our magical powers.
Popular media--especially a certain tabletop roleplaying game--usually depicts warlocks as accessing power through a pact with some sort of otherworldly, innately magical entity or denizen. In the broadest sense, this is not strictly untrue.
However, in contrast to your conventional pen-and-paper "warlock," the vast majority of warlocks you'll encounter do not Get Shit Done because we stuck to an agreement, carrying out a patron's bidding in obedience to an oath hither and thither in the manner of some sort of mindless Paladin. (Eugh.)
No, warlocks are distinguished not by the keeping of oaths and honoring of pacts, but by the breaking of them.
For some, it's screwing over a spirit; for others, it's wire fraud against a djinni, or pulling a grift over on a geist. (For my part, it began when I reneged on a deal with a lawn gnome.)
(You do get the odd "made a deal and now Daddy Lucifuge doms me in our little Pocket Hell, with ballgags, leather, and the whole nine yards," here and there in accordance with the stereotype, but that tends to be the exception to the rule. Not every Talented And Gifted Submissive Brat With A Praise Kink And A Grimoire is a warlock. Summoning just tends to lend itself naturally to horny pursuits 🤷. Not much else to say about it other than be Safe, Sane, and Consensual and have a safeword. And that unless your apothecary specifies otherwise, you probably need a Potion of Unburning and lube. Fire resistance ≠ can't get friction burns.)
It's important to note that it's also not just about one broken deal: a wizard can give a devil a raw deal for services rendered, and still be best described as a wizard. A dick move here or there won't make you a warlock.
We warlocks have built our careers on chicanery. Warlocks exploit loopholes as well as the most underhanded demon-lawyers of the Hells, and play with the rules and linguistic representations that govern the twisting of realities alongside the craftiest among the fae.
The above probably sounds like I'm just trying to talk up myself and colleagues in my field, but these stereotypically infamous deal-makers and tricksters are some of the entities we take power or influence from on a regular basis, since a devil or fae looking to make a deal is usually not at all uncommon.
(Those of you who are more versed in such matters may be wondering, "Doesn't that make warlocks kind of like Asshole Sorcerers, since sorcerers are generally about conjuring and working with spirits?" And, I mean, kind of? But as much as I respect my sorcerer colleagues, you wouldn't want to go to one of them to do a warlock's job: we specialize in Fine Print Fuckery and surviving/getting results out of impossible situations through trickery. A sorcerer commands or entices to get results, whereas a warlock manipulates and exploits underlying conditions to achieve their goals.
It's similar to the relationship between how squares and rectangles are defined: all warlocks are at least sort of sorcerers, whereas most sorcerers aren't warlocks at all.)
As such, "warlock" is not a title you claim for yourself after learning to cast on a certain level of complexity: it is an epithet you earn your way into having thrown at you by making and breaking deals with entities of successively greater influence and guile until it sticks, metaphysically speaking. We may not be as studied as most wizards, or as powerful as your average archmage, but if you get good enough at the art of oath-breaking, you'll be punching well above your weight pretty damn quickly.
Eventually, so many different beings will have conflicting IOUs for your soul that none of them will be able to collect without fighting with the others over you first, so most just don't bother. Besides, they're often wary of the fact that most warlocks worth their salt will have bargained for protection from something particularly nasty. And you'd better bet we keep those deals--most of the time.
If you're a wizard--or some other type of caster, for that matter--feel free to add how you define your work in a reblog.
