There are witches. Most think they're a myth, but they aren't. It's not important what they are exactly, whether that means a different species, or simply another branch of humanity, perhaps older, perhaps more evolved, perhaps less. It doesn't even matter if they're considered benign or malign. What matters is they're most certainly amongst us and go largely unseen. And, of course, it matters a great deal how they conduct themselves. Because there is something they must do, are forced to do, and this compulsion has moulded the fearful reputation the witch has endured for the centuries mankind has registered them, peripherally, from the corner of our wary eye. For the witch is burdened by being an agent of correction. It must punish when it perceives an injustice.
—Forgotten, by Muriel Gray
The mage does not simply cast magick spells; he or she becomes magick personified, transcending the boundaries of what is believed possible. A mage — any true mage — alters reality simply by becoming aware.
—Mage: The Ascension — Book of Shadows: Player's Guide
A mage is a person who has an attunement to one particular aspect of the world around them: they perceive that aspect more clearly and directly than other people and over time they can learn to control it. The aspect can be something elemental like air or heat, something connected to living beings like life or thought, or an abstract concept such as chance or time.
The type of magic a mage is connected to is based on their inner nature — their personality, character, and soul. You could say that someone's magic is an expression of their inner self, but it's just as true to say that someone’s magic is their inner self — certainly mages can't survive without their magic and in the rare cases where it’s separated from them they don’t live long.
The study of magic is not a science, it is not an art, and it is not a religion. Magic is a craft. When we do magic, we do not wish and we do not pray. We rely upon our will and our knowledge and our skill to make a specific change to the world. This is not to say that we understand magic, in the sense that physicists understand why subatomic particles do whatever it is that they do. Or perhaps they don't understand that yet, I can never remember. In any case, we do not and cannot understand what magic is, or where it comes from, any more than a carpenter understands why a tree grows. He doesn't have to. He works with what he has. With the caveat that it is much more difficult and much more dangerous and much more interesting to be a magician than it is to be a carpenter.
—Professor March, The Magicians
A warlock doesn't perform magic. A warlock isn't a magician. A warlock is a negotiator. A warlock changes the world around him by petitioning an Eidolon to circumvent the laws of nature. The Eidolons, being entities that exist... outside... of space and time, acknowledge no such laws.
—Will, Bitter Seeds
When did you ever see me perform such nonsensical tricks? Draw forth my own blood or scribble words on paper? Whenever I wish to do something, I simply speak to the air or to the stones or to the sunlight or the sea or to whatever it is and politely request them to help. And then, since my alliances with these powerful spirits were set in place thousands of years ago, they are only too glad to do whatever I ask.
—The Gentleman With The Thistle-Down Hair, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Sorcerers don't have any textbooks, formal lessons, ritual incantations or spells like the magicians do. Magicians use the wisdom of others, gestures of power, words of binding to do their bidding — theirs is a precise, focussed magic. Sorcerers bind a different kind of magic: ours is the power of seeing the power in the most ordinary thing and binding it to our will; it is wild, free, beautiful and dangerous. Teaching control is the most vital lesson, one that is learned at various speeds.
