History Main / UnequalRites

This trope is named for the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book ''Discworld/EqualRites''.

** Witches versus wizards? There is considerable philosophical difference. Witches are village wisewomen who perform some unintrusive magic, but mostly use tricks and "headology" (psychology), though they're able to do pretty powerful stuff if they need to. Wizards go to Unseen University (i.e. WizardingSchool) and spend long years learning, similarly, not to use serious magic unless absolutely necessary. The differences between them are mostly in their public image and in the ''kind'' of magic they... aren't using. The short story ''The Sea and Little Fishes'' presents the basic difference as basically the same as a hammer and a lever: wizards tend to use the magical equivalent of lots and lots of brute force, while witches tend to use their magic in subtler but equally as powerful ways. ''Discworld/EqualRites'' examines this, as it's about a girl who has a talent for wizardry, although she's also a skilled witch. When she shows up again some [[ChekhovsGunman thirty-five books later]], she's drifted more towards witchcraft, but still has a talent for quantum-based MagiBabble (the Elasticated String Theory) that would fit well in the High Energy Magic Building. ''Equal Rites'' also has the one direct magical combat between a powerful witch and a powerful wizard in the books; they are interrupted after being stuck in a draw for a while, and later both just seem embarrassed about the whole thing and try to pretend it never happened.

*** ''Discworld/TheShepherdsCrown'', the last book in the series, brings things full circle with a boy who wants to become a witch. Although he does prove adept at the medical and "social services" angle, he never manages to do actual witch-style magic. He does develop a preternatural ability to calm potentially violent situations and encourage people to improve their own lives, which his trainer believes to be something completely new. The plotline is never really resolved, most likely thanks to the book being unfinished due to AuthorExistenceFailure.

** ''Discworld/ReaperMan'' also parodies the arcane/divine debate with an argument between Archchancellor Ridcully and the High Priest of Blind Io (who happen to be brothers). While the two of them are throwing jovial barbs at each other, they have to stop quickly to prevent the other wizards and priests from murdering each other.

** Also worth noting is luck/fate magic, which usually essentially functions as basic plot armor to the person possessing it, causing them to regard it as something mundane to the point of barely being magical at all, whereas everyone that's not the actual possessor of the magic tends to have their life spontaneously rearranged in disproportionate ways (your wife leaves you and you're raped by a roving pack of demons so that the hat you drop falls in a puddle and keeps a luck mage from accidentally getting his boot wet) so you get a running debate between the one guy that thinks the power's no big deal and the thousands upon thousands that are pretty sure it qualifies him as a god.
* Alexey Pehov's ''Literature/WindAndSparks'' series occurs as the two-millennia conflict between the white (arcane, hermetic) and the black (priest-like necromantic) schools erupts into yet another continent-spanning war. Plus there's a ritualistic red school which could have abstained from the conflict, but supported the whites. Technically, the empire housing the white school wins, but the gray school, which actually gave birth to the white and black ones, is reborn. For deeper rundown of schools see the series page.

** This is an obstacle that [[TheRedMage Avatars]] always have to overcome, as the [[ElementalPowers different elements]] require different frames of mind and techniques. And it proves especially troublesome for Aang when he wants to find a firebending teacher[[labelnote:*]]His two firebending teachers being Jeong Jeong, who resented his own abilities, and Prince Zuko, who had to shake off his cultural conditioning to teach Aang[[/labelnote]].

* ''Videogame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' and its sequels delve into a much deeper exploration of the two major Force-using factions in the ''Film/StarWars'' universe. The movies tend to present it as a basic good vs. evil conflict, but the games show it as more nuanced, with the Jedi adhering to a stoic discipline and the Sith following their passions. There are several [=NPCs=] (and [=PCs=], for that matter) who prefer to take a middle ground, seeing both philosophies as flawed extremes.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', the current Archmage of the Mages Guild formally banned necromancy as too dangerous to practice. The Necromancers aren't exactly helping their case, given that the antagonists of the Mages Guild questline are an evil cult of Necromancers called the Order of the Black Worm led by a twisted lich.
** In the next game, ''Skyrim'', there are many different views on magic based on who and what kind of magic. The general view among [[ProudWarriorRace Nords]] is that magic is only used by those who are weak enough to need it. Still, they respect those who practice [[HealingHands Restoration]] while being ambivalent to the other branches of magic, except for Necromancy, which they have [[DueToTheDead good reasons]] to loathe. Among mages, Restoration is considered something of a joke, while Necromancy isn't perfectly accepted, partly due to how much it is hated by everyone else, but can still be practiced.
** In both games you can find a book titled "The Black Arts On Trial" which is just a series of debates on the ethics of Necromancy, and the arguments for and against the Mage Guild officially studying it in a controlled academic environment. While the book does come down on the side that Necromancy is wrong (the book's written by the above-mentioned Archmage), the author notes in it he can still respect the logic presented in the debates and the need to discuss the matter intelligently.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' witches versus Discworld wizards? There is considerable philosophical difference. Witches are village wisewomen who perform some unintrusive magic, but mostly use tricks and "headology" (psychology), though they're able to do pretty powerful stuff if they need to. Wizards go to WizardingSchool and spend long years learning, similarly, not to use serious magic unless absolutely necessary. The differences between them are mostly in their public image and in the ''kind'' of magic they... aren't using. ''Discworld/EqualRites'' examined this, as it's about a girl who has a talent for wizardry, although she's also a skilled witch. When she shows up again some [[ChekhovsGunman thirty-five books later]], she's drifted more towards witchcraft, but still has a talent for quantum-based MagiBabble (the Elasticated String Theory) that would fit well in the High Energy Magic Building.
-->Why was it that when she heard Granny ramble on about witchcraft she longed for the cutting magic of wizardry, but whenever she heard Treatle speak in his high-pitched voice she would fight to the death for witchcraft? She’d be both or none at all.
** The ''point'' of the Wizards at UU is to ''not'' use magic. You don't want [[AmbitionIsEvil ambitious]], {{greed}}y or [[WellIntentionedExtremist idealistic]] people with magic, because as is continually pointed out ''[[EquivalentExchange magic has a price]]!'' Recently they seem to be making a better contribution to society by studying and building magic devices, and other more [[MundaneUtility useful]] applications rather than just throwing fireballs around.
*** Necromancy, [=AKA=] Post-Mortem Communication, has a bad reputation on Discworld, yet its practitioners are formally permitted a modest degree of misbehavior under University statute. Fortunately, the allowed misconduct only rises to the level of being a bloody nuisance, not outright hostility and hunting down rogue necromancers with extreme prejudice.

** There are also lesser grades within or affiliated to wizardry: student wizards who fail their final exams are often directed to socially and professionally more lowly supporting roles such as thaumatology. If a basic degree in wizardry equates to a B.A. degree, thaumatology could be seen as the lesser HND or City and Guilds qualification. Conjuring might be, by comparison, an NVQ. Or for American readers, a community college diploma as opposed to an Ivy League degree.
** Different academic institutions at which wizards are trained have academic-style rivalries, such that the heads of Unseen, Buggarup, and Brazeneck Universities all try to one-up one another. Among witches, regional differences between Circle Sea witchcraft and Genuan voodoo exist, but in ''Witches Abroad'' those differences aren't actually responsible for the conflict. While witchcraft is generally associated with rural culture, urban witches are revealed to exist in ''I Shall Wear Midnight''; the two styles have a CountryMouse / CityMouse relationship.

** ''Discworld/ReaperMan'' also parodied the arcane/divine debate with an argument between Archchancellor Ridcully and the High Priest of Blind Io (who happened to be brothers). While the two of them are throwing jovial barbs at each other, they have to stop quickly to prevent the other wizards and priests from murdering each other.

** ''Discworld/TheShepherdsCrown'', the last book in the series, brings it full circle with a boy who wants to become a witch. Although he does prove adept at the medical and "social services" angle, he never manages to do actual witch-style magic. He does develop a preternatural ability to calm potentially violent situations and encourage people to improve their own lives, which his trainer believes to be something completely new. The plotline is never really resolved, most likely thanks to the book being unfinished due to AuthorExistenceFailure.
** The short story ''The Sea and Little Fishes'' presents the basic difference between wizard and witch magic as basically the same as a hammer and a lever: wizards tend to use the magical equivalent of lots and lots of brute force, while witches tend to use their magic in subtler but equally as powerful ways.
** The one time a powerful witch and a powerful wizard fought a direct magical combat (in ''Equal Rites'') they were interrupted after being stuck in a draw for a while, and then later both just seemed embarrassed about the whole thing and tried to pretend it never happened.

* Cassie in [[WesternAnimation/UltimateBookOfSpells UBOS]] wants to train to become a 'Supreme Sorceress', since 'witches get no respect.'

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' features at least two distinct types of supernatural power. The first is [[KiAttacks Aura]], a manifestation of one's soul, which is widely known about to the point where it isn't considered "supernatural" in-universe, and can be used by anyone with enough training to protect themselves from harm and gain a minor HealingFactor. There is also [[FunctionalMagic magic]], which has unknown origins and is much less widely known about, and can only be used by a very small number of people.
[[/folder]]

** This is an obstacle that [[TheRedMage Avatars]] always have to overcome, as the [[ElementalPowers different elements]] require different frames of mind and techniques. And it proves especially troublesome for Aang when he wants to find a firebending teacher[[labelnote:*]]His two firebending teachers being the self-loathing Jeong-Jeong and Prince Zuko, who had to shake off his own cultural conditioning to teach Aang[[/labelnote]].

Frequently the themes behind the various forms of magic will take one of the various points within FunctionalMagic. Magicians who follow MagicAIsMagicA will be [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic academic, studious, and always "researching"]] new spells. Artistic mages usually have some form of FunctionalMagic that they [[MagicMusic tap into]] in [[MagicDance unconventional ways]]. HermeticMagic practitioners follow ritual like academic magicians but usually ignore the “how” and “why” in favor of theological explanations or even plain old faith. Expect these mages to be on differing sides of HarmonyVersusDiscipline, with some seeking to “control” magic, others to “channel” it, and some to understand and influence it.

Objectively, expect all these magical approaches to be valid in their own right, usually have CompetitiveBalance, (ex. ritual magic is usually stronger than any other magic, but takes longer, and requires spell components, while academic wizards usually need only to speak — or even think — to use a spell, but requires great training, study, and discipline) while at times being capable of a YinYangBomb when various disciplines collaborate. One frequent representation of this is the TrashTalk seen when people with opposite ElementalPowers fight each other. Only ''very'' rarely will these settings reveal there are [[TheRedMage Red Mages]] who combine these varying forms of magic.

** The necromancer/wizard split was not the only division in the old setting -- interestingly, the part of the description where the wizard sneers at the cleric is averted. Instead, it is the philosophical divisions ''within'' the categories of spell-users that inspire rivalry: Archdruids (Druids that have deepened their commitment to nature) and Warlocks (Druids that seek power) tend to clash, Priests of Light (Clerics aligned with the Path of Light) and Priests of Dark (Clerics aligned with the Path of Dark) are adherents to mutually opposed religions, Necromancers by definition are opposed to the Path of Light while Wizards tends to support it...

* In ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'', the Miracle wielding clerics view soul arts as an abomination. The pracitioners of soul arts dislike clerics for trying to hold them back and treating them like pariahs. The clerics aren't exactly wrong to dislike soul arts though -- it's a dangerous power fueled by the souls of the dead that comes from the Old One itself, and the world is a CrapsackWorld because people abused soul arts in the past. [[spoiler:It's heavily implied that the god the clerics worship is actually the Old One, which would mean that the "miracles" (which are also fueled by souls) are just soul arts with a more "benevolent" flavor to them.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsI'', other spellcasters look down on pyromancy, considering it a "primitive" art, which the player's initial teacher in the subject admits is true, to a point. In fact, said teacher came to the Undead-infested kingdom of Lordran in part because it is literally the only place in the world where pyromancers are respected to some extent. In the [[VideoGame/DarkSoulsII second game]], the situation has changed: pyromancy is studied alongside sorcery, while miracles were frowned on in Drangleic. In another kingdom, sorcery was the art looked down on, since the kingdom was highly religious and therefore tended to focus on miracles. Hexers, meanwhile, seem to consider their art superior to either sorcery or miracles... not without reason, as Hexes ''are'' more difficult to use than any other spellcasting art. ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'', meanwhile, has Karla disparaging Miracles (as a classical witch, she hates holier-than-thou clerics who tend to use them), while all other spellcasters will refuse to teach Dark-affiliated magic (what was called "Hexes" in 2), citing the dangers of corruption.

Much like the [[FantasticRacism rivalry]] involved in MagicVersusScience, magic users will be prejudiced against each other based on their philosophy regarding magic, how they study it, and/or how they cast spells. You'll frequently see mages versus wizards versus witches versus clerics versus shamans versus druids [--deep breath--] versus warlocks versus monks versus psions. Put another way, a wizard of RitualMagic will sneer at a bard who approaches magic as [[MagicMusic music]], casting spells based on poetic rules. And of course both will scoff at the cleric whose magic is based on [[ReligionIsMagic articles of faith]] rather than academic or artistic viewpoints.

* One of the worst insults you can deliver to a sorcerer in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is to call him a "magician". Sorcerers use their Will, focused by a Word, to perform their feats. Magicians tell their (hopefully-)bound demons to go do something. There are also references to witches, who work with nature spirits.

** and of course, pretty much all of the above mentioned mages bag low opinions Rivani Seers and Avvar augurs, who practice [[WillingChanneler communion]] with benevolent spirits. Basically everyone see this as no better than DemonicPossession.

** Except it turned out that the White Scars' version of Librarians called Stormseers used their planets world soul. Fenris has no confirmed world soul and the Fang, headquarters of the Space Wolves, has the screaming souls of former inhabitants embedded in its surface. Also, the Thousand Sons practiced a stable form of sorcery, which anyone can do, and they used psykers. Chaos sorcery involves entreating with Chaos, which the Thousand Sons did not do (but Magnus did without realizing it). Besides that, a strictly ordered and regimented form of sorcery would not be dangerous. It's how the Eldar keep their power use clean of Chaos.

** Except it turned out that the White Fangs' version of Librarians called Stormseers used their planets world soul. Fenris has no confirmed world soul and the Fang, headquarters of the Space Wolves, has the screaming souls of former inhabitants embedded in its surface. Also, the Thousand Sons practiced a stable form of sorcery, which anyone can do, and they used psykers. Chaos sorcery involves entreating with Chaos, which the Thousand Sons did not do (but Magnus did without realizing it). Besides that, a strictly ordered and regimented form of sorcery would not be dangerous. It's how the Eldar keep their power use clean of Chaos.

->'' "A wizard being called a sorcerer is sort of like having a [=PhD=] and someone telling you that you only managed to graduate because you have natural talent.''
->'' A wizard being called a warlock is like having a [=PhD=] and being told you only managed to graduate because you gave the dean a quickie in the alley behind the movie theater." ''

* In Creator/DianaWynneJones's Literature/{{Chrestomanci}} Chronicles, there are levels and ranks in magic from "the lowest certified witch" to the most powerful nine-lived enchanters. Passing references are made to people being sorcerers, magicians, hedgewitchs, warlocks, hags (though the last three are insulting).
* In Creator/TamoraPierce's ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'' series, the two types of mages (ambient and academic) each view the other with derision; the academics viewed the ambients as backwater weaklings, and the ambients viewed the academics as stuffy snobs. Academic mages are those who have an inner font of plain power that they can channel into any direction they want. However, ambient mages have a different magic which only responds to (and can act upon) the magic within the outside world, and is associated with a certain discipline, such as metalworking, cooking, or gardening. Nearly all of the protagonists are ambient mages. And if you thought ''any'' kind of ambient magic could be [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway useless or silly]]? [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower No. NONE of them are]].

* In ''Literature/FableHaven'', Wizards are dragons that took human form permanently to drastically increase their magical powers, witches are mortals who have somehow learned dark magic, and magicians and warlocks are... something. The only thing known about them is that they(and witches) make up the bulk of those who claim to be wizards. The genuine article is quite rare and much more powerful. Due to their [[WizardsLiveLonger millennia long lifespan]], a remnant of the immortality they possessed as dragons, they tend to be the WizardClassic.

** Similarly, Neville's grandmother doesn't want him to take Charms at NEWT level, viewing it as a "soft option." Professor [=McGonagall=] promptly reveals this is because she ''failed'' her Charms OWL.
* ''Literature/TheHeirChronicles'' the weir (magic-users) come in 5 types: wizards use [[MagicalIncantation magical incantations]] in Latin, soothsayers have visions, sorcerers make magical objects, warriors have superhuman physical capabilities and shoot fire from their swords, and enchanters have a CompellingVoice. And then there's the Old Religion, a kind of Old--meaning blood ritual--magic that predates the Hereditary Inherent Gift-using weir. And that's all we know about it. It is presumably usable by [[{{Muggle}} Anaweir]], which would make it a kind of Hedge magic (magic available to all weir guilds and anaweir) like tarot cards.
* In the ''Literature/DoctrineOfLabyrinths'' world, there tends to be a different school of magic in each country, so a lot of the rivalry is tied up with politics. Most wizards don't study other schools of magic for this reason, even though they would probably be capable of more than one type of spells. Also, wizards visiting another country have to be very careful what they do--for example, in Melusine it's considered heresy to cast a spell of any kind on a person.
* All the different cultures in Robert Jordan's Literature/TheWheelOfTime have different ideas on how to handle magic: Aes Sedai, Aiel Wise Ones, Seanchan damane and sul'dam, and so on. All think that their way is the Only Way, and that the other cultures' ways are stupid, criminal and/or dangerous. The attitude to male magicians - a necessary evil, or plain evil? - causes a deep split within the Aes Sedai, and the power struggle between different Ajahs may also count.
** Furthermore, male and female spellcasting are similar in principle, but [[HarmonyVersusDiscipline feel entirely different]]. Female spellcasters embrace their source of magic and exist in harmony with it, whereas men must seize their source and constantly struggle with it (and that's even when it's ''not'' corrupted with pure evil). Similar spells can work on entirely different principles - a man teleports by forcing apart a gap in the fabric of the universe, whereas a woman teleports by blending together two places until they overlap, and each describes the other method as "impossible". Finally, the [[YinYangBomb two types of magic used together are orders of magnitude more powerful than either used separately]].
*** There are also differences in power levels, men are on average stronger but can't combine their powers without women, women are on average individually less powerful but can form circles of up to 13 women (and a circle of 13 women can overpower any male channeler even if individually the women can barely channel at all, though 13 men would probably win, even if they couldn't circle). Additionally strength in the different types of magic varies between the genders, men tend to be more powerful with Earth and Fire magic while women are more powerful with Water and Air (the fifth type, Spirit, has minimal variation between genders).
*** Another interesting difference is that cats hate male channelers and love female channelers while dogs are the opposite.
** The Aes Sedai vs. Wise Ones vs. Windfinder vs. damane split - that is, the place of female channelers in society - is just an instance of CultureClash, which the series is full of. The different methods required for male vs. female magic is a better example of UnequalRites, as are the varying approaches to all the non-channeling kinds of magic out there, particularly foresight: wolfbrothers, Foretellings, Dreaming and Min's viewings. We have never seen anyone use more than one of the above and no one agrees on how reliable any of them are.
*** Also not helping at all is the sheer size of the ego of everyone involved, and their inability to admit that they ''might'' be wrong.
** There's also something of a direct conflict between natural dream-walkers (most of them wolves rather than humans) and channeler dream-walkers, and the channelers tend to deride the wolf-blooded as inferior at best, monsters at worst.
** Also worth noting is luck/fate magic, which usually essentially functions as basic plot armor to the person possessing it, causing them to regard it as something mundane to the point of barely being magical at all, whereas everyone that's not the actual possessor of the magic tends to have their life spontaneously rearranged in disproportionate ways (your wife leaves you and you're raped by a roving pack of demons so that the hat you drop falls in a puddle and keeps a luck mage from accidentally getting his boot wet) so you get a running debate between the one guy that thinks the power's no big deal and the thousands upon thousands that are pretty sure it qualifies him as a god.
* Creator/LawrenceWattEvans' ''Literature/TheLegendsOfEthshar'' series has a ''large'' number of different types of magic, several of which are strongly opposed to one another. In-world, different experts have classified magic into between 3 (psionic, clerical, arcane) to 12 different disciplines! The main ones are (deep breath): Wizardry (rituals, requires components, taps into raw chaos, possibly the most powerful), Sorcery (use of "talismans" which appear to be some form of [[{{Magitek}} ultra-advanced technology]] such as a genetic scanner and a wand that acts as a machine gun and grenade launcher), witchcraft (psychic powers including telepathy and telekinesis, as tiring to use as doing something by hand), warlockry (a different form of psychic powers, stronger and not tiring, but as it gets stronger with use, eventually draws one to the source of the power never to be seen again; said source is either a meteor, crashed UFO, or [[Creator/HPLovecraft Lovecraftian Horror]] that no-one can get near without becoming a warlock too powerful to resist its call), theurgy (priests call upon gods to manifest and aid them, no priest can be heard by more than a handful of gods, each only capable within their narrow specialty), demonology (calling and binding demons), and things such as herbalism, science, ritual dance, necromancy and prestidigitation have all been mentioned at one point! Clearly priests and demonologists hate one another, as do wizards and sorcerers; there was a major war which the priests and wizards won when the gods and demons took to the field themselves after 200 years of fighting. Warlocks are new and regarded with suspicion, but can work well with witches (power and precision working together) as a YinYangBomb. *pant, pant, pant* The politics of magic is a major underlying theme of the series.
* In ''[[Literature/MatthewSwift A Madness of Angels]]'', though Wizards (who control magic through rules) and Sorcerers (who draw on raw magical power) get along reasonably well, they both have very little respect for Warlocks, who earn magical powers by bargaining with the various spirits in the area.
* Wizards of Franchise/{{the witcher}}world tend to look down on priests, considering their power to be just magic achieved through mysticism and meditation rather than [[MagicAIsMagicA training]].
* Iar Elterrus:
** ''Burden of the Emperor'' features the conflict between the wizards and in general arcane spellcasters of the titular Empire and the priests of the setting's dominant monotheistic religion, which blooms into [[spoiler: a full-scale world war involving the attempt to summon an EldritchAbomination.]]
** ''Gray Sword'' setting: regular mages draw their power from a certain specialty, e.g. Fire, Wind or Pain. The latter grants the already CrapsackWorld setting a "pain counter" device, just to make sure the torturers don't cut nobody no slack.

* Vitalij Zykov's ''Return'' series (pentalogy to be continued): almost every culture has it's own magic specialty, with free-for-all relations between states and schools of magic. Pick your flavor: tribal orc shamans, tribal human shamans, innate human wizards, academic human and dwarven wizards discriminated against by the innate ones, academic human necromancers, "light" elven life-mages (who use the proficiency at [[AFateWorseThanDeath upkeeping life]] for unparalleled [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]]), "dark" elven conjurers and dragons who use their own flavors of arcane spells and necromancy. The world also had two sentient species, referenced as Reptarh and Reptohors, who fought to mutual annihilation. The Reptohors magic is largely unknown and forgotten, but might have specialized on interacting with mind and consiousness. The Reptarh magic, learned by the protagonist in an ExpositionBeam relic, can be used to interact with and upgrade every other human magic, while being different from them.
* Alexey Pehov's ''[[Literature/WindAndSparks Wind and Sparks]]'' series occurs as the two-millennia conflict between the white (arcane, hermetic) and the black (priest-like necromantic) schools erupts into yet another continent-spanning war. Plus there's a ritualistic red school which could have abstained from the conflict, but supported the whites. Technically, the empire housing the white school wins, but the gray school, which actually gave birth to the white and black ones, is reborn. For deeper rundown of schools see the series page.

* In Delia Marshall Turner's ''Nameless Magery'' the protagonist, who comes from a world where magic is revered as a sentient, semi-divine force with a personality of its own, experiences culture clash when she lands on a planet where the mages fear magic and treat it as a dangerous tool that needs to be handled carefully.
* There's a few minor cases of this in ''Literature/TheMagicians,'' though it takes place only at [[WizardingSchool Brakebills.]] Intermediate students are sorted into certain groups based on their magical disciplines, and several of these groups have long-standing rivalries: for example, the Physical Kids- who practice messy physics-based wizardry- despise the [[GreenThumb Naturals]] with a passion.
* One of the worst insults you can deliver to a sorcerer in ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' is to call him a "magician". Sorcerers use their Will, focused by a Word, to perform their feats. Magicians tell their (hopefully-)bound demons to go do something. There are also references to witches, who work with nature spirits.
* The ''Literature/{{Earthsea}}'' series makes a distinction between "true" magic (based on an ancient language, studied in a WizardingSchool, practiced only by men) and several lesser forms of magic, including sorcery, illusionism and village witches. There are also other forms of religious magic in different cultures.
* The ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'' has:
** Wizards: Use staves to cast magic, often grow beards, absorb magic from their surroundings to use later through their staffs, and seem to store the magic in them. Nobody likes them, especially not the main characters, dragons in general, or anyone with their own magic. They in turn don't like dragons, fire-witches, or any of the main characters.
** Magicians: Can cast a number of different spells picked up from studying a number of different sources. Often mistaken for other magic users, such as wizards, which annoys them. Innately curious about other kinds of magic, highly scientific in their studies, prone to TechnoBabble, these habits annoy others.
** Witches: Use cats and objects innate magic in their spells. Broomsticks are only reliable transportation for them. They get along reasonably well with other magic-users, but make it a point to keep everyone else scared enough of them to leave them alone.
** Fire-witches: Innate magic users, immune to most spells, and to fire which they have a special affinity for, can instinctively control spells, even by other casters. Wizards must be careful not to absorb their magic, the results end badly for the wizard. All fire-witches share a few personality traits and most are unpredictable but reasonably hospitable/friendly, but there are a few who are down right nasty. Most people are at least a little scared of any fire-witches they meet.
** Dragon Magic: Normally only used by dragons, a few others have picked up a few spells of this type. Not the kind of magic most people expect to see, so anyone who recognizes it will be surprised and impressed. Rare enough that there are no hard and fast rules on how its users are seen by other magic users, so they are judged more on their individual temperaments than anything else. However, they ''definitely'' tend to like Dragons and are seen as friendly enough that a Dragon will teach them.
** Sorceresses: Mentioned briefly as having gotten a reputation for being helpful. Now they all have to live in remote and hard to get to places to avoid being bothered all the time with requests for aid.
* There is quite some rivalry between Witches and Wizards in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'', especially about Mother Nature and the situations in which '''Magyk''' is to be used.
* Oddly enough, [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz Oz Books]] lean on this trope. Witches and Wizards, of course, are considered the highest of all magic users. But then you have sorcerers and sorceresses, common conjurers, alchemists (those who mix magic potions and powders), and the like. Conjurers and alchemists seem to be the lower-end.
* The Creator/LyndonHardy trilogy has several types of magic users, with some disparagement betwixt.
* Literature/TheObsidianTrilogy: Ritualized High Magick is in conflict with WildMagic. The High Mages of Armethalieh look down on Wild Mages as evil Demon-worshippers, while the elites among them hide High Magick's history as [[spoiler:a magic created through use of Wild Magic itself]]. True Wild Mages are invariably good people, while many High Mages are corrupt. This probably comes from the fact that Wild Magic is mostly outside mortal control, and its spells are just deals made with the Wild Magic, whild High Magick is solely in human control.

** The other races have different connections as well, mostly preventing them having magic (except for cleric/champion magic). The Dwarves can do psionic stonework. Hradani have the rage as well as strength and speed. Halfings....
* Literature/{{Dragaera}} divides magic into witchcraft and sorcery. Witchcraft is RitualMagic mostly practiced by Easterners (baseline humans). Sorcery is a power anyone with citizenship in the empire can use: a powerful artifact called the Orb can be called upon mentally by anyone in Dragaera to fuel a wide variety of spells. Apparently it controls the energy/substance/''something'' known as Chaos, the normally dangerously unstable power behind all magic. (The third kind of magic is ''direct'' manipulation of the stuff. Since it tends to get out of control and consume all in its path, trying it is a highly discouraged dead last resort.) Vlad Taltos is a user of both (and tried to command chaos once when the GodzillaThreshold had been crossed -- fortunately, Aliera was there to keep it from expanding too much and leaving a Sea of Chaos where the city used to be).
* {{Literature/Pact}}: Practitioners come in a variety of MasterOfOneMagic flavors, but none are more feared and hated than [[DealWithTheDevil Diabolist]]. This is for very good reason, as the creatures that diabolists deal with are the antithesis of creation, and each time one is brought into the world it diminishes the world as a whole-light gets a little less bright, people get a little less kind, and lucky breaks that save lives happen more infrequently.
* Literature/DragonKeeperTrilogy: Sorcerers and Necromancers are not the same thing, not that we see much of sorcerers.
* In the Literature/CraftSequence, there are two fundamentally different ways of working magic. First came Practical Theology-- making (''[[MagicallyBindingContract very binding]]'') pacts with gods, who in return for worship both worked direct miracles and empowered their priests as divine spellcasters. Then, much more recently, the Craft was developed-- magic woven from starlight by pure human will. A nearly-genocidal ([[spoiler:nearly omnicidal, in fact]]) series of God Wars ensued between practitioners of the two arts. Craftspeople won, but the terms of the peace were at least tolerable for most Theologians and their surviving Gods.
* In R. Scott Bakker's ''Literature/SecondApocalypse'', all users of magic must belong to a school of sorcery. Each school approaches sorcery from a completely different angle. The schools are all essentially at war with each other for dominance, the secrets of each others' sorcery, or both. Those who are not in a school are called wizards and will be killed by any sorcerer who discovers them, making them extremely rare and short-lived. Women who use magic are called witches and are outlawed, making them also extremely rare. Sorcery is considered an abomination to religious types, but there are also magical abilities granted directly from the Gods, though these are much more nebulous. In addition, sorcery breaks down into three types:
** The Gnosis, practised by the Mandate. It is far more powerful than the rest and its secrets hotly coveted and jealously protected. WordOfGod compares it to ''philosophy'', defining the terms of reality exactly and objectively. [[note]][[AuthorAppeal It might be noted that R. Scott Bakker has a degree in philosophy and thinks highly of its importance.]][[/note]]
** The Anagogis, practised by most Schools in the Three Seas region. It is less powerful than the Gnosis. WordOfGod compares it to ''poetry'', describing reality by use of metaphors and comparison.
** The Psûkhe, practiced by the Cishaurim sorcerer-priests. It has the least raw power, but does have the benefit of being undetectable except by its effects. WordOfGod compares it to ''music'', which is better at communicating emotion than concrete ideas.
* In Creator/CSLewis ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'', Jadis holds Andrew Ketterley in contempt for almost as many reasons as the reader does, but they're all different reasons -- and the very first is this trope: "You are a Magician -- of a sort ... a little piddling Magician who works by spells and books. There is no real Magic in your blood or heart."
* In ''Literature/SkinHunger'', the inequality is created by Somiss, who starts a WizardingSchool that is only for boys from wealthy families. After he achieves this, there seem to be no female magic users at all, while beforehand, most magicians were female and/or ethnic minority. The teaching methods are also very different - while people used to learn their magic spells from their mothers in everyday life, (and Sadima was just born with the ability to communicate with animals, no training required), Somiss established a BoardingSchoolOfHorrors where one of nine boys becomes a proper, privileged wizard, while the others ... are implied to die. They are actively discouraged from helping each other, and not given food. The only food they get to eat is that which they can produce by magic ... without any education on how to achieve this.
* The ''DiogenesClub'' short story "Sorcerer Conjuror Wizard Witch" has the main characters investigating four individuals, each fitting one of the terms in the title, and each said to protect the city of London in some mystical way, to see if one is evil. The Sorcerer is the Astronomer Royal, the Conjuror is a stage magician, the Witch is a high society hostess, and the Wizard is an old kook who keeps the ravens at the Tower of London. Each of them have some ongoing feuds with at least one of the others.
* ''Literature/TheSilerianTrilogy'': The Guardians (fire mages) and waterlords (water mages) are old, deadly enemies. As you'd expect, the latter is more powerful. [[spoiler: However, by the end of the series people who have both abilities appear.]]

* Basic ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Depending on the setting and campaign, there might be rivalries or antipathy between practitioners of all the various types of supernatural abilities, including arcane magic, divine magic and psionics, whether by their incompatible philosophies, lifestyles or values. Common examples of conflicts include:
** Necromancy and life-draining are one of the few conflicts written into the basic rules. Good aligned characters will be reluctant to use these powers, even to perform good deeds, and will be look down on those who do.
*** Ironically, this was one of the larger changes in 3rd edition. While necromancy as a school has always been viewed with skepticism and poorly, severl of the most important spells in the game were necromantic spells reserved for priests and druids in earlier editions, namely ''cure light wounds''. Since 3rd edition, this spell has been moved to the evocation school, reflecting that it manipulates a generic energy rather than life force.
** Evil-aligned magic, such as spells of the Evil domain, are looked down upon by good-aligned people because BadPowersBadPeople. Warlocks generally fall in the same category (to even greater degrees, since they have a reputation as having sold their souls for power), even if their invocations aren't ''exactly'' evil-aligned and it is entirely possibly for warlocks to be [[BadPowersGoodPeople good]] (the deal needn't have been made by the warlock themselves, and it needn't have been with infernal forces, either).
** In 3rd and 4th editions, wizards must endure years of unwavering discipline and intense study before they can cast even the simplest of spells. Sorcerers have no training, just an innate talent for magic that manifests naturally -- and which they may or may not care to control. The two radically different approaches may cause the two groups to bicker or even war against each other, depending on the setting.

** When initially introduced in 3rd edition, the Warlock class was hated and feared by all, especially other casters, since it was quite literally fueled by making a DealWithTheDevil. This aspect got lessened in subsequent editions.
** Likewise, the 3rd edition Binder class has some problems with other arcanists (who generally regard them as lazy, foolish or cheaters), but is outright loathed by divine casters, who consider them blasphemers and heretics of such an extent that the default assumption is any setting where the two exist will have {{witch hunter}}s specifically to hunt down Binders. So much so that the sourcebook they were introduced in included a PrestigeClass, the Witch Slayer, and an organization called the Order of Seropaenes specifically aimed at tracking and murdering Binders and destroying all lore relating to them.
** The adept, as an NPC class, really ''is'' very weak in comparison to the PC spell-casting classes, who are often treated like "professionals" or "advanced/civilized", in contrast to the adept "amateurs" or "primitives". Likewise, those PC classes for which spells are only one component of their slate of abilities (paladins, rangers, bards) are often considered ill-trained dabblers by characters which specialize in magic, alone.
** When they were introduced in Advanced D&D, Wild Mages were generally looked upon with scorn, distrust or other negative feelings by other magic users. This is because Wild Mages use a unique form of EntropyAndChaosMagic, which makes their spells have a significant chance of failing and exploding in a "wild surge" instead of working as intended. Wild surges are always chaotic, with results that can be anything from funny, to annoying, to potentially deadly. Needless to say, other wizards look down on wild mages both for their inability to retain control and for the practical reason that nobody really likes someone who has a chance of randomly randomly hurling around fireballs, {{Gender Bender}}s, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking clouds of rainbow bubbles]] whenever they try to use even the mildest form of magic.
*** Wild mages get it particularly bad in the ''TabletopGames/ForgottenRealms'', where their magic was born after the brutal death of the local Goddess of Magic and so they are often hated as heretics, blasphemers or religious profaners by both more devout wizards and by the deity's clergy.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

** To begin with, both sides have a mutual treaty to minimise contact with each other. This results in the vast majority of the science side having no knowledge of magic, though the latter is not true. A number of magicians look down on science. When science-side characters encounter magic, they often don't believe it's real and/or think it's actually esper abilities.