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Wicca and Wicce are modern terms.The masculine form of witch is ...witch. It's actually a genderless term, derived from the anglo-saxon 'wicca' pronounced 'witchuh' which term referred to followers of the pagan traditions (or the priesthood thereof) rather than converting to Christianity.Actually it's not a genderless term....Wicca is the masculine, Wicce is the feminine ;)
The word "wicca" is Old English for "witch," just like Dabbler said. Capital-w "Wicca" is a modern term.
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Also why is he wearing a dress and his bodice keeps falling down. ;)So here's what you do:
Think up some really good flavourful imagery of a female witch. The iconic witch could make a good starting point for inspiration. Then apply the whole concept to your male witch, including image.
My male witch is wondering why he's wearing a crescent moon lunar headdress which hearkens back to the Cult of Isis and assorted other "moon as female" imagery since.
Yes, there is "moon as male" stuff elsewhere in mythology, but that's pretty clearly an Isis headdress Feiya is wearing.
perhaps he is a Berdache or Two-Spirit.
:)
If he were a berdache it would imply he was Native American. Native Americans tend to have Shamans of various types. Wait some would fit the witch class though they wouldn't be neo-pagan.
All the Best,
Kerney
The word "wicca" is Old English for "witch," just like Dabbler said. Capital-w "Wicca" is a modern term.Wicca and Wicce are modern terms.The masculine form of witch is ...witch. It's actually a genderless term, derived from the anglo-saxon 'wicca' pronounced 'witchuh' which term referred to followers of the pagan traditions (or the priesthood thereof) rather than converting to Christianity.Actually it's not a genderless term....Wicca is the masculine, Wicce is the feminine ;)
Very much so. For a long time the 'old practitioners' were known as Wise Women and Cunning Men. Otherwise, no big difference between them - except the women did more midwifery.
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Some visual flavor ideas:
1. A shadowy figure in a tattered, hooded robe with a scythe (spend the feat. Why not?) and a raven familiar that serves as a "guardian of the crossroads"
2. A fairly normal-seeming guy who's an old sailor or something and has been known to curse people.
3. A stereotypical evil necromancer - black robes, bone fashion accessories, a sickle at his belt, etc.
4. A VERY normal-looking "royal falconer". Clean shave, short hair, tabard with the heraldry of someplace Not From Around Here (feel free to put whatever hidden symbolism you have in mind here!), a nice, functional dagger at his belt and a heavy falconer's glove. The hawk familiar completes the picture. Could either be a secret guardian or an insidious threat. Or both.
Probably should split it off to its own thread, but while we're here:
6. The stereotypical spoiled princess with the pink gown, pink hennin, and the fluffy white Persian cat who's even more spoiled than she is.
7. The pub owner with the pub cat and the large collection of liquors and tonics he keeps behind the bar.
8. The wizened apothecary with his many jars filled with strange and curious things, including a tank with a live crab or octopus he calls "the luck of the shop" and reverences in the Tianese manner as a household god.
>Staying out of the debate about gender and nominclature<
After reading Classic Horrors Revisited's section on the Hag the idea for a Killcrop (male offspring of a Hag swapped for a normal baby changelign style) Male Witch struck me as nearlly perfect. Starts out life as "that creepy kid", progresses to "scary", and what else can he do with his life but adventure? Maybe he cares about his background and origins and maybe he doesn't. He just wants to keep moving and be left relatively alone. Maybe a level or two of fighter, ranger, or barbarian if he is prone to violence or maybe just some levels of rogue for subtle menace.
The masculine form of witch is ...witch. It's actually a genderless term, derived from the anglo-saxon 'wicca' pronounced 'witchuh' which term referred to followers of the pagan traditions (or the priesthood thereof) rather than converting to Christianity.Actually it's not a genderless term....Wicca is the masculine, Wicce is the feminine ;)
You're both wrong. A male witch is a mitch.
Witcher?
Even if the one from the novel is more like a alchemist. :)
This reminds me of a similar problem I was having the other day. I wanted to make a female bard, and for some reason (I'm sure it's my own bizarre cultural bias) I couldn't figure out any good concepts. Every bard I've ever seen anyone talk about was a guy, and I can't seem to reconcile anything from those concepts into a female character.
I'm suprised that no one has mentioned Steven Brust's Taltos series. That series is chock full of male witches- most are witch-fighter gestalts though...
My advice is to have your Witch talk kind of like Vincent Price. It works for me. As for a background story, maybe he's a minor Chellish noble who saw his family fortunes fail when his brother's forbidden studies in demonology (rather than diabolism!) went horribly wrong and left him fused with a chasme demon.
The Wicker Man (the original) is pretty good as well, with Lord Fairisle making one cool witch.
It's very annoying because, in french, Witch translates into "Sorcière", the feminin form of "Sorcier", which means Sorceror or Warlock.
I'm planning to play an elven male Witch in a upcoming (french) campaing and I honestly don't know how to call my character. I guess I'll go with Sorcerer, it should be fine as long as they're no "true" Sorcerer among the PCs. :)
I know this is bit of necro for a frivolous reason but...NO. This is the the Etymology of the word Warlock. NO etymology of this word has ever been positive. The Word derives from old english wærloga; meaning roughly "Oath breaker". It isn't until the 1560's that it came to be used as "Male equivalent of witch".The old English words Ward and Lock by way are weard and Lucan respectively. There really is no way to get "Warlock" Out of those words, at best the combination of those words would be "Wearluc" which would come out to mean "Closed Guard".
Random Language lesson. Sorry folks
That it is derived from old english wærloga; is actually no where attested, contradicts language patterns completly, and is highly doubtful.
Quote by Niklas Gander. The author is a PhD candidate in Philology of Germanic languages
"In the interest of linguistics, I just wanted to add some potentially useful information on the use of the term "warlock." First of note is that the Modern English definition of the term has nothing to do with traitors or such, and at least according to the 'Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary' is defined:
1 : a man practicing the black arts: sorcerer;
2 : conjurer".Whatever its hypothetical etymology, it is nowadays *not* used to indicate a traitor. And any who choose to self-identify as a warlock are saying nothing at all about their ability to keep oath.
Also, it has long irked me that compilers of Modern English dictionaries seem so very ignorant of the role the Scandinavian languages played in the development of English in England and Scotland.
Allow me to illustrate with the word warlock.
If, as is posited in many Modern English dictionaries, the word"warlock" comes from a ME "warloghe" from OE "w¾rloga", then the Modern form we should expect to see would be something like warlow, or werlow, since the tendency to move from 'gh' to 'w' is strong in English, and from 'gh' to 'ck' unknown.
This is a trait it shares with Danish, and to provide an example, the Old Swedish "lagh" (meaning"law") is spelled in Modern Danish "lag" but pronounced "law" and in English, orthography and pronunciation are again in sync, with the form "law." That "gh" in the Middle English form "warloghe" indicates a uvular fricative, that is a g that is pronounced as if one were gargling (as in Dutch "gulder"). That aspirated "g" is what, in English, is usually exchanged for a "w". Other examples in English:"through", "drought", etc.
When one also considers the semantic shift,i.e., from "traitor, oathbreaker" to "sorcerer, conjurer", this all begins to introduce an element of doubt as to the actual etymology.
Now, when I find corroboration for this hypothesis in dictionaries of Old Norse (Cleasby, Vigfusson and Craigie), I must, as a trained linguist, seek another more satisfying etymology.
Here, then, is an alternative etymology for "warlock", one which I find both satisfying as a linguist and as a magic user.
In the Old Norse tale, Eiriks saga RauÝa (The Saga of Eirik the Red,mid 14th century), the term "varÝlokkur" appears in the context of a prophecy-session at a farm in Greenland.
It is used to mean a song of conjuring.
When the two constituent terms are split, we see "varÝ"which had by that time the sense of a spirit, and "lokkur" or a song of luring or attracting.
In Modern Swedish, the term "lock" is used for the pastoral songs that are sung to call the cows home from the meadow -- "kolock".
In just this same way, the song to attract or call the "varÝ" or spirit, was the "varÝlokkur".
Gradually, with time, the term for the song and for the singer became interchangeable, i.e., the same term was used for both.
Semantically, we can interpret the term as "enchanter, conjurer." Now, is all of this linguistically feasible? Yes, and here's why: The term varÝlokkur is a compound noun.
The consonantal combination "rÝl" could never occur otherwise.
As it is,this consonantal cluster is very difficult, even in Norse, so the tendency is to simplify.
Since in Old Norse, the rolled "r" followed by the liquid "l" would have organically produced the medial "Ý",this consonant is the most likely candidate for deletion.
Also, word initial "v" was commonly anglicized into word initial "w" in English.Examples: vOErd = ward, vurm = worm, vatten = water, ved = wood, etc.
And finally (and in my mind, most convincingly) the geminate "k" at the end of the Norse is reflected in the "ck" of the English.
Orthographic tendencies in English tend to reflect "kk" as "ck".
Lastly, the nominative "ur" ending in Old Norse is superfluous in English, as we had abandoned case endings long before.
And the fact that the Scottish and East Anglian coasts had been battered by Scandinavian raiders for quite some time prior to the word's first attestation in *English* adds historical probability to linguistic possibility.
Now, even if my etymology back to the Scandinavian form for enchanter is unconvincing to you, at least remember that the Modern English term has nothing to do with traitors."