I looked and found only "Mages" as a category. Should a new category of "Witches" be made? There are only two in this story, Parker and O'Neill. Or a more general category of "Magic Users" with "Mages" as a sub-cat? ML4E 03:42, December 3, 2009 (UTC)
- We could add Cicily Sellis to the Witches category. That gets us three. Growth potential beyond that, I'm not sure, but I wouldn't count it out. And a category for "magic users" sounds like a good idea, though I'd suggest that "Magicians" might roll off the tongue a bit more smoothly. Turtle Fan 05:45, December 3, 2009 (UTC)
- It does, but I don't think all magic users should be classified as "Magicians". For instance, the POV in After the Downfall, develops his own spells but had no training as a "Wizard" or "Magician".
- Anthimos III too. Various others.
- Actually, you raise a good point. In certain fantasy works of HT's, many characters "use magic" in some fashion or other. In the Derlavai series, I'd be hard pressed to think of a single adult character who doesn't occasionally cast some small commercially valuable spell. It's no more significant for them than it is for us to fip a light switch or turn the key in our car's ignition. That's hardly enough to call us technicians or engineers or electricians or what have you. In defining the category, we'll want to impose limits.
- Good point. In Birdwitching, the son Jesse (who is too young to be a witch) uses a crystal instead of a cellphone complete with a "ringspell" when he gets a call from Kathleen. In the story it seems that magic is a technology just like electronics is in our society. ML4E 04:40, December 10, 2009 (UTC)
- Anyway, there must be some more convenient way of phrasing it. I've never understood "magician" to require formal training, but I can't say I'm prepared to suss out distinctions among magicians, wizards, sorcerers, mages, enchanters, what have you. Turtle Fan 04:24, December 10, 2009 (UTC)
- Not so much formal training as some sort of practised skill for a "magician".
- More generally, I would classify them in whatever category HT calls them. AtD calls several characters "wizards" and so if and when that novel gets done they should be categorized as such. In this story, its "witches", in WBtP "mages". All of these categories then become sub-cats of whatever we call the parent cat. ML4E 04:40, December 10, 2009 (UTC)
- If we can't come up with a nice simple one-word name for it, let's go for a phrase that makes it clear what we're talking about instead. Something like "Characters With Magical Abilities" or " . . . Skills." Turtle Fan 04:58, December 10, 2009 (UTC)
I am of two minds about making articles for all the birds observed. I think I won't for the common stuff but will for the more exotic ones that are witched later. Unless you think otherwise? ML4E 02:36, December 13, 2009 (UTC)
- If they're relevant to the story, like honkers are. I'm not one to get too excited about which birds she saw. Turtle Fan 05:54, December 13, 2009 (UTC)