What is the difference?

[William5849]

What is the difference between a Witch and a Sorceress? And also, what is a Mage? These identities are used in the game a lot. I know they all practice magic, but what separates them in relation to the Witcher lore.

[Whoami]

the difference between an alchoholic and a drunk is the meetings.
i havent found the mention of it. seems its all the same depending on who is doing the talking about it.

[Big Boom Boom]

Sorceress are female Mages, most likely have a proper/sanctioned magic training/education. For example Margharita (or Rita for short) was a teacher at a now destroyed Academy (if you spoke to her, she mentioned some students managed to get out before the mob finally destroyed it).

Mages in generally refer to everyone who dabble in magics and even alchemy.

Witch is probably refer to female magic practitioners without above mentioned education. Obviously found in rural areas (village witch vs village sorcerer/mage who have proper education and are bound by oath to defend the village they reside in). Think unregistered mages.

[Kalil]

Originally posted by whoami:

the difference between an alchoholic and a drunk is the meetings.
i havent found the mention of it. seems its all the same depending on who is doing the talking about it.

This was my first thought.. That it depends on how the speaker feels about them.

But surely the crones aren't really sorceresses?

Sorry not a witcher lore expert. Would be great if one could chip in..

[huntinghawk]

Originally posted by Big Boom Boom:

Sorceress are female Mages, most likely have a proper/sanctioned magic training/education. For example Margharita (or Rita for short) was a teacher at a now destroyed Academy (if you spoke to her, she mentioned some students managed to get out before the mob finally destroyed it).

Mages in generally refer to everyone who dabble in magics and even alchemy.

Witch is probably refer to female magic practitioners without above mentioned education. Obviously found in rural areas (village witch vs village sorcerer/mage who have proper education and are bound by oath to defend the village they reside in). Think unregistered mages.

Holy Crapoly,

That has to be the most on topic and to the point answer I have seen in many questions.

Standing ovation for that one....

[Whoami]

well they are all magic users. crones are relic monsters.
the witch hunters and priests of eternal flame treat them all as monsters.
the uppty class magic users address themselves as sorceresses.
witches are classed by the towns people.
mages are refered to the magic users from the sorceresses as pupils or apprentice type.
depends on who is talking about them it seems.
oh and forgot the druids they are the highlander type mage/spirit healer/magic user.

[(GS96) Balthazar]

Originally posted by Big Boom Boom:

Sorceress are female Mages, most likely have a proper/sanctioned magic training/education. For example Margharita (or Rita for short) was a teacher at a now destroyed Academy (if you spoke to her, she mentioned some students managed to get out before the mob finally destroyed it).

Mages in generally refer to everyone who dabble in magics and even alchemy.

Witch is probably refer to female magic practitioners without above mentioned education. Obviously found in rural areas (village witch vs village sorcerer/mage who have proper education and are bound by oath to defend the village they reside in). Think unregistered mages.

WItches are also usually better versed in alchemy than sorceresses, and require rituals for magic that a sorceress would be able to forego (assuming the OP wants the general definitions, and not the game specific ones.) As for translating this to in-game, I'd be damned is Keitra isn't a damned sorceress rather than a witch - but ehhh, she's a witch supposedly. Could be that in game, the terms are only preferrential and are interchangeable.

[Big Boom Boom]

I don't read the book, but I do read brief summary on what they are about. In one of the short story it's explained that a Village Sorcerer/Sorceress/Registered Mage is bound by an oath to defend that village, though the said Sorcerer in the short story refused to do so.

Sorcerer, mages, wizards, whatever male sanctioned magic practitioners tend to have towers. In one quest in Skellige you discover that a magic tower of a recently deceased Kovir Mage is purchased by another Kovir Mage, but the automatic defense system wasn't turned down and now the new owner is trapped within it. In another contract, you found an Earth Elemental in the basement of a recently deceased mage mansion. You can see that these are clearly registered properties under the law, so these magical practitioners are (or were) in fact registered, sanctioned by the states and respected by the states.

[Big Boom Boom]

Originally posted by (=DPG=)DarkStar_1:

Originally posted by Big Boom Boom:

Sorceress are female Mages, most likely have a proper/sanctioned magic training/education. For example Margharita (or Rita for short) was a teacher at a now destroyed Academy (if you spoke to her, she mentioned some students managed to get out before the mob finally destroyed it).

Mages in generally refer to everyone who dabble in magics and even alchemy.

Witch is probably refer to female magic practitioners without above mentioned education. Obviously found in rural areas (village witch vs village sorcerer/mage who have proper education and are bound by oath to defend the village they reside in). Think unregistered mages.

WItches are also usually better versed in alchemy and than sorceresses, and require rituals for magic that a sorceress would be able to forego (assuming the OP wants the general definitions, and not the game specific ones.) As for translating this to in-game, I'd be damned is Keitra isn't a damned sorceress rather than a witch - but ehhh, she's a witch supposedly. Could be that in game, the terms are only preferrential and are interchangeable.

Well the problem with requiring ritual is that their magic practices are not properly organised and studied like the Sorceresses'. Even weaker sorceresses need proper ritual to cast stronger spells, only the Lodge of Sorceress members are that powerful that they don't need ritual or preparations. Sorceresses don't study into Alchemy since they are generally more powerful and don't need to substitute their lack of magical sources with alchemy. The reason why many mages are hunted down that easily is that not everyone can fling fireball whenever they want like Triss. They probably need a couple of days to prepare to cast one such spell.

The Crones for example only perform the ritual to maintain their power, they can fling spells without preparations like any sorceresses. You can see they can freely change between their real form and their hot naked form at will.

[(GS96) Balthazar]

Originally posted by Big Boom Boom:

Originally posted by (=DPG=)DarkStar_1:

WItches are also usually better versed in alchemy and than sorceresses, and require rituals for magic that a sorceress would be able to forego (assuming the OP wants the general definitions, and not the game specific ones.) As for translating this to in-game, I'd be damned is Keitra isn't a damned sorceress rather than a witch - but ehhh, she's a witch supposedly. Could be that in game, the terms are only preferrential and are interchangeable.

Well the problem with requiring ritual is that their magic practices are not properly organised and studied like the Sorceresses'. Even weaker sorceresses need proper ritual to cast stronger spells, only the Lodge of Sorceress members are that powerful that they don't need ritual or preparations. Sorceresses don't study into Alchemy since they are generally more powerful and don't need to substitute their lack of magical sources with alchemy. The reason why many mages are hunted down that easily is that not everyone can fling fireball whenever they want like Triss. They probably need a couple of days to prepare to cast one such spell.

The Crones for example only perform the ritual to maintain their power, they can fling spells without preparations like any sorceresses. You can see they can freely change between their real form and their hot naked form at will.

SPOILERS HERE
Right, which is why the Keitra character and her quest you do alongside her is more than a bit confusing. She's walking through the entire length of the tunnels, whipping out everything from light to lightning to flying hunks of rock to sealing Wild Hunt rifts WHILE shielding the two of you, etc, etc, etc..all without so much as a frog's foot or Eye of Newt...leads me to believe the term "Witch" is exactly that, a term, with no resolute meaning here in this world.

[Tórç]

Originally posted by (=DPG=)DarkStar_1:

WItches are also usually better versed in alchemy and than sorceresses. As for translating this to in-game, I'd be damned is Keitra isn't a damned sorceress rather than a witch

On the map in-game, Keira is a herbalist at the time which directly relates to your original description of a witch versed in alchemy.

[Big Boom Boom]

Keira was never a witch, she's a sorceress, advisor to King whathisname, Foltest (?), along with Triss. She's a class mate of Triss and therefore have some sort of friendly rivalry between them.

She happened upon the previous witch stash of herbal ingredient and picked up the Witch job in order to hide. As witches are not registered and live in rural area, Eternal Flame Witch Hunters found it harder to hunt for these when the villagers actively protect them.

Not all powerful mages are female, there are some male who are very powerful like whathisname from the book who totally destroyed Regis (who is a high vampire that survived decapitation and a stake through the heart) as easily as counting to three, and overpowered pretty much all the other sorceresses like Yennefer.

[William5849]

Thanks for all of the responses, that helped clear it up. The biggest thing that threw me was that Kiera was referred to as a witch although she seemed to have the formal training of Triss and Yen.

[Coin]

Originally posted by William5849:

Thanks for all of the responses, that helped clear it up. The biggest thing that threw me was that Kiera was referred to as a witch although she seemed to have the formal training of Triss and Yen.

She pretended to be a witch in order to escape being burned. Though it doesn't really sound like a good idea now when i think about it

[coyote]

i came across this, i know it's way behind. i'm a geek, also an occult dabbler. now let's ignore dnd, because the classes from that do not exactly stick with the occult and time period relations.


sorcerer/sorceress: generally this term meant someone who came from a school of magic. during certain time period it also meant someone who sold their soul to a demon, that mostly happened because at a certain time period all magic was considered devils work.

witch: a witch is a practitioner of magic, any form really, magic includes potions, poisons, herbal remedies, or even medical treatment. usually an area had witch that took care of the locals abortions. doing abortions was considered magic and they had to make sure local customs were done so "evil" spirits won't get them. funny thing is at certain regions and time periods a witch could be a man or woman.

warlock: is a term that comes from the meaning of traitor or betrayer. it later refers to a person who betrays god to demons for powers.

mage: is a term for someone that is legally allowed by the court to perform magic. sometimes it's interchanged with wizard. mages generally come from a kind of school.

witcher: witcher is translated from another language to mean a male witch, something similar to a wizard. in the game witchers go through trials that make them acceptable to mutations.

wizard: generally a male witch, but at times was a term for a mage or a sorcerer.

now this is more generalized, the issue is that the witcher comes from poish, i know a little of polish lore but not much, also to add the translations are different. this means the words they use they try to fit in our little boxes. near russia there is a creature that acts like a werewolf but once killed becomes a vampire. to us we would call that a hybrid or an abomination. to people in that area they have a specific term for the creature, another for werewolves, and another for vampires. in that area a local monster hunter/holy man/ witch hunter/ brave fool would deal with each in its own way. before someone goes crazy about monster hunters and such. back then there were people who would go out to "find" monsters, most of them were just con artist. witch hunters and holy men generally came to an area and tortured people and killed people until someone confessed that they were doing the devils work. one of the best ways to find out if someone was a witch was to tie their legs to some heavy and throw it into the water, if the person floats they are/were a witch, if they drown they are/were not a witch.

i hope this helped(even if it's way behind/), remember this is a general basis, and could change based on the region, time period, lore, or because of translation. it's like how the greeks had six different words and kinds of love. to those who speak enlgish, we would probably split them into three words: love, lust, and narcissism.

if anyone who also dabbles in the occult or history has a correction, please do so. i did the best i could do with my knowledge