Young Wizards: Difference between revisions

Their main duty is to travel through time and space to battle the Lone Power, the evil Power who created Entropy and Death, usually involving them [[Heroic Sacrifice|heroically sacrificing their lives]]. (In fact, halfway through the first novel it is explicitly stated that someone ''usually'' has to die this way in order to defeat the Lone Power -- although it doesn't have to be a wizard.)

 

 

Notable because magic is presented as an [[Functional Magic|advanced scientific principle]], rather similar to the way ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' presents its alchemy. The series also includes lots of extraterrestrials, trips to other planets and moons, and a tendency to explain all mythology as being representative or descriptive of the actions of wizards and the Powers and all language as having been evolved from a natural innate ability to "speak" the Speech. This has the effect of making the YW series feel a lot more like a hybrid of semi-hard [[Science Fiction]] and mystic fantasy than it does pure action-adventure fantasy.

* [[Because Destiny Says So]]: An odd take. "There is no such thing as coincidence" is practically the wizard credo, yet their entire system is based around choice. It essentially boils down this: the ''big'' things that happen are up to the decisions of mortals. All the little things that ''lead'' to those big things, not so much.

** basically the [[Powers That Be]] will get the right person to the right place with the right tools to do what needs to be done, the hardest part is usually figuring out how to use the tools in question.

* [[Carnivore Confusion]]: Wizards can talk to any animal and even vegetables and the Wizards Oath is about preserving life, yet wizards still need to eat to survive and cats aren't about to give up the pleasure of hunting mice and rats. Most of the time it's better not to think of this but there are in-universe justifications:

** ''So You Want To Be A Wizard'' addresses this when Nita talks with the rowan tree about the war the trees fought (and won) against the Lone Power to make the world ready for humans, fully knowing that humans would not always be so nice in return.

*** "Seem" being the key word there.

** During the climactic scene of ''High Wizardry'', Nita uses one of the simplest spells she knows and {{spoiler|two years of her life}} to teleport the [[Satan|Lone Power]] back to [[Heaven|Timeheart]]. It is ''pissed''.

* [[Downer Ending]]: {{spoiler|''Wizard's Dilemma''}}

** Well, really, most of them are kind of bittersweet.

* [[Humans Through Alien Eyes]]: the cats in the ''Feline Wizards'' series.

* [[Inconvenient Summons]]

** There's also that no wizard in the universe expects the Lone Power's eventual permanent defeat to be brought about by killing it -- largely because that's ''impossible''. What they ''do'' expect is that eventually, in the fullness of time, {{spoiler|the Lone Power will finally surrender and redeem. And that's going to take long enough on its own, so no need to make the wait even longer by pissing it off with adding insult to injury. Even if/when does redeem, as an Eternal Power outside of time, he's not as bound by chronological causality as mortals are. His evil self is/was/will be messing with Wizards in the future simultaneously.}}

* [[The Joy of X]]: ''So You Want To Be A Wizard''.

* [[Killed Off for Real]]

* [[Place Beyond Time]]: Timeheart

* [[Portal Network]]: The worldgates. Carmela has one {{spoiler|in her closet!}}

* [[Powers That Be]]: literally.

* [[Primordial Chaos]]: Eternity, the place outside of time where the [[Powers That Be]] dwelled before they created the universes. The most powerful of the Powers still exist mainly in Eternity, projecting mere fragments of themselves into the universes to interact with things that exists inside of time.

* [[Speak of the Devil]]: Referring to the Lone Power, even in the most indirect manner, risks attracting Its attention. And <s>heaven</s> Timeheart help you if you speak, write, or even ''think'' Its ''true'' name...

* [[Superpowerful Genetics]]: Wizardry runs in families, namely Nita's. Probably has more to do with inheritable traits that make a good wizard more than any "wizard gene", since it must still be offered by The Powers to whom they believe is appropriate.

* [[Talking Animal]]: though still they have their own dialects. Everything understands the Speech, but that doesn't mean that it has to be their main language system.

* [[Technology Marches On]]: Though the books hold up well, it can be jarring to compare the tech in ''So You Want to Be A Wizard'' with ''A Wizard of Mars'', or even ''High Wizardry,'' especially because despite there being nine books in the series, they've still only covered a comparatively short period of time in the characters' lives. Duane has said that revised editions of the first four books will be released in early 2011 in ebook form (with physical books to follow eventually) to reflect some of the social and technological changes since their publication.

** Usually. According to the manual itself (through its vocal presence in Nita's head) in ''A Wizard of Mars'', context must exist first - even wizardry and the Speech can't translate a language hundreds of thousands of years dead.

* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]

* [[The Wiki Rule]]: [http://www.youngwizards.com/ErrantryWiki/index.php/Main_Page The Errantry Concordance], an unusual case in that only the creator can edit the articles. Sadly inactive, but still a source of extra lore.

* [[Will Not Tell a Lie]]: Even when not speaking in the [[Language of Truth]], wizards try to avoid lying, since when your job is [[Rewriting Reality]] using words, lying is a Bad Idea.