Waterdhavian Attitudes toward Magic

Early on in his learning of magic, the long-dead and locally famous first Lord (revered in Water¬deep for his role in establishing the city as it is today) Ahghairon said, “I am no wizard. I am a dabbler but no master of magic; it seems no mas¬tery burns within me.”   These are famous words in Waterdeep, still known by most Waterdhavian children and all adults, and are oft referenced, as in the dry comment “No mastery blazing forth yet,” or “A dabbler but no master, eh?” (Comments applied to skill trades and crafts, not just to magic use.) Tuezaera Hallowhand was a famous “lone cat” thief of Waterdeep in the 1200s DR who disap¬peared suddenly and is thought to have come to a violent end. She once robbed a wizard, and wrote this on his wall with a fingertip dipped in his fa¬vorite red wine: “I take things. You take freedom with your spells. Which of us is the greater thief?” This statement, too, is well remembered, and usually echoed in Waterdhavian speech by someone using the last (questioning) sentence of Tuezara’s inscription.   Laeral, Lady Mage of Waterdeep for some years (when married to Khelben “Blackstaff” Arunsun), once publicly rebuked an overambi- tious wizard of the Watchful Order of Magists & Protectors thus: “If I hurl spells but think not of consequences, I am nothing. If I take lives but count not the cost, I am nothing. If I steal in the night and see not the faces of the devastated come morning, I am nothing. If I make decrees like a ruler but undertake none of the responsibilities of the throne, I am nothing. And if I do all these things in the name of the Watchful Order, I am less than nothing. Doth thy mirror crack?”   These scornful words are remembered and used almost daily in Waterdeep even a century later, though almost never as the full quotation. Rather, someone will ask scornfully, “Doth thy mirror crack?” or “Hurl but think not?” or “Take but not count cost? Be nothing, then!”