Minor Traditions
For most spellcasters, magic is a full-time practice, allowing no distractions, or at least a major part of a wider calling. There are a small number of traditions, however, which treat magic as a means of enhancing physical training, and which aspire to go further than a little folk practice. These traditions usually maintain a small selection of spells, taught to chosen apprentices alongside combat or other skills.
- Battle Casters blend martial and magical training. They are also known as shield mages, spear mages or arcane blades, and many belong to ancient orders whose members claim the style of eldritch knight or similar. A very small number of organisations exist, usually sponsored by royal courts, which train battle casters in numbers as arcane soldiers. The largest force of battle casters is the Devastators' League, the hobgoblin arcane academy, which trains regular and arcane soldiers, mageknights and full-fledged war wizards side by side.
- Arcanoraptors - also called arcane tricksters or thief witches - steal magic, and use magic to steal. Some know spells, while others merely learn to use scrolls and other devices. Rumours always persist of secret societies of mage criminals, but none have ever been uncovered, which some of course consider proof enough.
- Magewrights are non-combatant crafters, exploiting aspects of magic - mostly artifice - to assist in their work beyond the usual limits of Magecraft. Those whose crafts include herbalism and healing may be called witches.
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