Wizards are widely known to be subtle and quick to anger. Popular knowledge is, as in most cases, completely missing the point without being completely inaccurate. The difference lies in definitions, specifically, that having to do with subtlety. Most people consider subtlety in this case to refer to the temperament of the wizards, and it does -- but only partly.
Wizards are not like warriors. They are not like archers, though they may cast spells to cross distances, and they are not like poisoners, though they may lay a lingering hex. They are not even like sorcerers, who summon demons to devour their opponents. Wizards are much more like electricians.
A warrior can whip out a sword at a moment's notice and cut your arm off. An archer can whip out an arrow. A poisoner can drip poison in a goblet, and a sorcerer can shout a summoning. A wizard must draw lines, and circles, and graphically demonstrate the path the spell is to travel. A wizard must prepare. The counterpoint is that a wizard can do nearly anything he can understand the mechanics behind, with sufficient preparation, and wizards, who long ago conquered their own mortality, understand a lot.
Wizards know the secret of preserving velocity without preserving momentum during a shape-change. That means a wizard could throw a bit of gravel at you, then allow it to shift size into a boulder -- without its speed changing.Wizards know the secrets of teleportation. And, though it seems less impressive, wizards know the secrets of biochemistry, psychology, and calculus.
The end result of all this is that wizards are subtle -- they are both devious and sneaky. More, they are aware of their limits in a way that most mortals, who will never approach their age, can be -- if a wizard is unprepared, he is acutely aware of it and unlikely to start confrontation. In counterpoint, if a wizard is prepared in vain he will be acutely frustrated from the wasted time he spent.
So yes, wizards are subtle and quick to anger. Just not the way that most would think. Graham is a good example. Graham, whose high-tongue name is not known, was born to power, seventh son of a seventh son. He was speaking before he was able to walk. He permanently turned the wash-woman into a snake on his seventh birthday completely by accident and had to be rushed in a carriage to the nearest worker-in-the-Power before he finished turning himself into a lizard.
Graham's mentor was a cold, calculating man who coveted the King's crown -- and was beheaded before he could complete Graham's training in the arts. His successor wandered in vain through the apartments in the tower for weeks before giving in and leaving, never to return -- such were the enchantments that Graham had laid on his master's room that it was never found again, save by him.
Graham achieved apotheosis, if that is the word -- immortality, perhaps -- at the age of twenty-five, and though the process burned ten years from his form he still is considered remarkably well-preserved, for a wizard. Quite the charmer, in some circles.
Nowadays, Graham has settled himself to a quiet life as a metal-smith -- though he spends much more of his time experimenting with molten metal than actually making anything. He's known to be fey, but most don't suspect him of being anything more than moderately gifted at some more minor magic. How wrong they are.
It is fortunate for the world that his talents will not have been wasted, and that some foolish caster placed a curse on him, forcing him out into the world once more.
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