Knowledge is power. Trite and oft-repeated, we've heard this a thousand times. This makes it no less true. Knowledge of physical allowed man to walk the pebbled lunar surface, and to swim the crushing oceanic depths. Were these men better than any others? More personally powerful, intelligent, physically resilient? No?
They reaped the benefits from the applied knowledge of thousands before them. A man with a gun could almost certainly not formulate the black powder, temper the steel, rifle the barrel, or even accurately describe all the parts -- in fact, I'm pretty sure it's not black anymore, but grey -- but he doesn't need to to do something inhumanly difficult, and accelerate a small chunk of metal to near the speed of sound.
Was Alexander the Great more knowledgeable than any other man of his day, or did he stand on the shoulders of giants, lead the massed armies of his fore-bearers, and use the combination of Greek tactical knowledge, Macedonian military technology, and a political climate with could help propagate his culture as he rose to power? His personal charisma may have been formidable, be he was only successful because he know his world, and applied his knowledge.
Nobody wants a story about a hero who has no power, and no intellect. Those are short, sad, soulless, and boring. Therefore, Graham must know things. As an avatar of wisdom, he may as well be a "wise lord" -- a wizard.
One of the most basic human frustrations is the discrepancy between imagination and reality. We can imagine flight, but when we try it, we inevitably fail. We can imagine ourselves rich, or strong, or just an inch taller -- but that's not how reality works. So we invented magic.
Anything that does not fall into the category of the possible is magic. It is the human longing for a shortcut conceptualized.
Stories are also about transcending the human limitation of being able to understand only what we experience -- it's a side effect of only being able to live one life. We understand others by simulating parts of their lives in our minds, and so broaden our horizons. Since magic is a broadening beyond that which is even possible in reality, stories are the only place for it, and therefore are the perfect place for a magical character. So Graham will be a wizard.
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