79. A Taxonomy of Wizard Power

(Epistemic status: A frame that someone else came up with which I've found useful and personally resonant, and which I am elaborating on independently. For IL, AZ, T/M, and of course JSW.)

JSW has written about Wizard Power, and the ways in which it differs from King Power; others have followed, sketching out more ways in which it differs and elaborating a taxonomy of different types of Role Powers. I recommend seeking out the original article, but in brief: Wizard Power is the ability to make things happen, to wreak your will in the world in a way that specifically need not depend all that much on other people or rely on social structures in order to manifest it, except to the extent that the target of that Wizard Power is the world of people and of society; this is perhaps the most important aspect of Wizard Power that characterizes it. Wizard Power is the capacity to consider something that doesn't yet exist, desire that it exist, and bring it into being. It can be mundane, in the crafting of bespoke tools that don't yet exist in the precise form you want, it can be mythical, in the first and fastest instantiation of something important that doesn't quite exist anywhere yet, or it can be mythical, pulling off some feat that seems impossible through extensive preparation and resource expenditure. Wizard Power can be found in the small, like mending shirts and writing code, and in the large, like brewing up experimental vaccines and building engines. The only requirement is that it be something real, something that you can point to as having not existed before you acted and only existing because you personally acted in a way that most people could not or would not.

The sense in which I personally mean Wizard Power, for the purpose of this taxonomy, is perhaps only overlapping with the way JSW means it; moreover, this taxonomy is surely incomplete. But all the same, I think that even a partial and conflicting account of Wizard Power has value, even if this sevenfold taxonomy of aspects of Wizard Power falls short of perfection; sketches from different angles can reveal more than a photograph from a single point.

First, there's Fingersnaps. A Fingersnap is a deed that seems impossible in some impressive way to the unprepared observer, and perhaps making something of a show of it. Centrally, this includes card tricks, prestidigitation, and stage magic, as well as the seeming display of correlated action at a distance with no obvious causal mode: if you point at a tree and it explodes, that's a Fingersnap. LIkewise seeming to be in one place and then suddenly in another, or in two places at once.

Next, there's Crafting. This is perhaps the most central to JSW's original account of Wizard Power. Crafting is the creation of something, usually an object, which has properties that are surprising, unlikely-seeming, or merely intensely bespoke in utility. Those unnerving cakes and chocolate confections that look just like a doorknob or a shoe are offbeat examples here. Precisely CNC-milled pieces of metal that fit so flush with each other that their seams disappear, magnetic clasps in clothing, and startlingly intensely flavored foods are all examples of Crafting, as might the brewing of RadVac have been in 2021. Metalcasting, brewing experimental mead, and baking a delicious pie whose fruit no one can easily identify all qualify.

For one that I have difficulty giving a name to, there's Divination or Scrying. Whichever you want to pick for a name, Divination/Scrying consists of knowing, guessing at, or accurately predicting something that it doesn't seem like you should have any way of getting good information about. Meteorology and epidemiology are more mundae examples of this nonetheless writ large; good probability calibration and strong Fermi estimates are straightforward personal routes to practicing Divination/Scrying, as are keeping an eye open for the hidden or unremarked-on aspects of a building or a campus and an ear cocked for multiple corroborating rumors.

Speaking of naming, there's also Naming. This is a somewhat subtler or vaguer aspect of Wizard Power. To Name something is to call it out by a correct descriptive name - a True Name, in the best cases - whether that takes good reasoning, depth of lore, or simple bravery and fortitude of will. Cleverly reducing a problem to a simpler one is an instance of Naming. So is coining a new word which is appropriate to a subtle phenomenon, and which readily sticks. So are being intensely honest with yourself about the precise shape of your hopes and fears. So is calling out someone harmful that really really genuinely needs to be called out, backed up by hard objective evidence and a litany of their universally-accorded misdeeds. If you've read "The Name of the Wind", you know the thing I'm talking about here. "Name it and know it."

Not all aspects of Wizard power exist in isolation; some of them manifest only in chaos and conflict. Taunting/Nonbluffingness/Preparation is one that can only be found in such fraught situations. When in contest with fellow agents, Taunting/Nonbluffingness is the correct term; this looks like staring someone down and daring them to try you, and being very much able to back up your words with unexpected force. "You shall not pass!" This looks more like Aikido than brawling, though; more like pepper spray than a knife - or better yet being much too fast to be caught. (Dimension Door would certainly be Wizard Power, if it existed!) Baiting someone into overbetting in poker when you've had the nuts the whole time is a more central example here; so is politely but pointedly questioning whether your opponent really wants to try to blow up your board, when you've clearly got two untappped Islands and five cards in hand, as is sitting at a go board having quietly read out a sequence of moves in advance, knowing your opponent's stones are already dead. When in struggle against unfeeling nature, Preparation is the better term. Having a bag of tricks to shield yourself from the elements and from discomfort, want, and constraint. A trusty hat and a sturdy coat to keep the weather off; a brick of tame lightning to recharge hungry devices; a small box of supplies for healing, with basic ritual supplies and some seasoning for food tossed in for good measure. Even a good bar of chocolate stashed away counts here.

Other aspects of Wizard Power are not for the lay public to see - they are generally for the Wizard alone. Preparation - also called Planning, Scheming, or Procuring - is a major one here. The manifestation of Wizard Power proverbially takes far more preparation and resources than any mundane would ever reasonably expect. One must thus plan a next move, or sketch out plans for an ambitious new project or trick, or plot in secret for the betterment or ruin of others. One must seek out knowledge, understanding, and lore; one must survey territory and procure reagents wherever they can be found.

The final category in my taxonomy is another such hidden aspect: Maintenance/Restoration. Look after your tools, habits, and stockpiles, and they will look after you in turn. You, too, are such a tool for yourself to wield, and if anything the single most important one: your physical health and strength, your emotional and spiritual solidity, and the cultivation and maintenance of your knowledge and wisdom are of paramount importance. Keeping cooking knives sharp, work spaces tidy and ordered, and . In a metaphorical or mythical frame, tending to wards, recarving worn runes, and recharging arcane batteries are more fictional examples of Maintenance/Restoration. Tending to the old and the ongoing are just as important as setting up for the new.

From friends I have heard whispers of overlapping sorts of power - Artificer Power and Cleric Power (where that latter is meant to refer to a D&D sort of cleric and not a Christian one). They have not yet worked out in full what those involve, but from what I understand, Artificer Power is less about the flair of the novel and wondrous than about the creation of tools and systems that operate with glorious efficiency, minimal maintenance and ongoing effort, and exceeding repeatability and reliability, while Cleric Power is less about the solitary and hermetic arcane life and more about being a beacon of community, forging strong social ties to help and be helped in turn, insight into the pains and joys of the mortal condition, connection and recognition between peers, and the exultation of many hands lifted to coordination on a singular grand task.

Whatever kind of power you seek, seek it wisely and well, and aim to do far more good than harm - and do, in fact, seek it.