You’d think sorcerers would be easy to see, but they sometimes ain’t. They need their gems, but not every‘un with gems is a sorcerer. The trick is looking for the right gems, and how big they are. See, a sorcerer can’t work with little stones. Gotta be at least as big as your littlest fingernail, bigger is better. That helps. An’ knowin’ which stones to look for tells you what kinda sorcerer you’re dealing with.
You’ve only gotta look for diamonds for air, beryl for earth, opals for fire, hematite, the shiny one like steel, for metal, turquoise for water, and aquamarine for wood. If they ain’t got those, they ain’t a sorcerer.
The smart ones, though, they’re sneaky. They hide their special stones with other rocks or wear ‘em on necklaces under their shirts so you can’t see ‘em.
-Harry Brown, shifter, to young shifters
In the past, particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries, we have had an unfortunate tendency to look down upon and dismiss witches and witchcraft. Because their magic focuses on nature and tends to be more intuitive in form, wizards have had a history of denigrating witchcraft. We considered them less refined, less powerful, hedge magicians.
We were wrong to do so.
In this technological era, much of humanity has lost touch with the world. There is imbalance, in many areas severe imbalance. Although we have no right to ask it, perhaps witchcraft’s ability to aid animals and plants, and alter the weather, are our only way to rebalance the world before it is too late, since humans are clearly unwilling to do anything significant.
-from “Magic and the Modern World” by Donald Cantor, Akkare
A wizard’s staff is the most recognizable focus of any magician, more so than a witch’s familiar or a sorcerer’s gems. However, a staff can take many forms, from a wand to a staff taller than its wizard. Among the Victorians, a cane was preferred. Some Asian wizards, and modern ones, carry bokken-staves.
To render a wizard truly safe, you must remove their staff, their ability to speak, and their ability to write. For a wizard’s power is in words and sigils. These are how they use their magic. Some say this makes their magic the most difficult to learn, but also the most adaptable. I don’t know if either claim is true.
What I do know is that they can be formidable opponents, if you are not fully aware of how to contain them.
-Nica, House Tyerman, abaa’ya
Why do you need to practice martial arts and meditation?
Do you wish to remain limited to human and beast, forever a child?
NO?
Then you need the discipline of mind and fortitude of body required to achieve and effortlessly hold a half-form and become an adult.
Without discipline, you will not gain the control of mind and body that holding a half-form takes. And, in the eyes of shifters everywhere, you will be considered as a child.
That, young one, is why you must practice meditation and a martial art, like your ancestors before you and your peers.
-Clarissa Pinol, bear shifter
worldsinthenet 