Last time, we took a look at some pulpy based wizards from the two Conan movies. I wanted to use this as an introduction to how wizards are, well, weirdoes.
I mentioned that wizardry in a lot of the older books had this element of trickery, misdirection and illusion to it. I even used the word 'cheating,' when I did it. That's because the wizard in quite a few tales, occupies the spot of being well.. The bad guy.
One of the concepts of dark sorcery, whether its called thaumaturgy, necromancy or what not, is the idea of trifling with things you don't understand and doing things you shouldn't but that you arrogantly think you can get away with. Wizards frequently are portrayed as gaining their powers by making fell bargains with unholy powers.
One of the ideas here is that the unholy powers know tricks and traps about how to make things happen, and that's what those rituals are for. Kind of like bribing the computer server guy to let you set up a Counterstrike server on the hospital's secure records server, except you bribe him with blood and souls. Wizards also have a strong tie to gnosticism, and if you've ever looked into gnosticism, you understand why they're viewed as jerks.
Gnostics, to summarize, are a particular group of philosophical weirdoes who believe that only by gaining 'the secret knowledge' which of course only they are smart enough to figure out, can one achieve salvation/greatness/merge with the celestial atman, etc. Gnostics also frequently show up in what I like to call 'Supermarket Checkout Line' material, where we hear about how 'We've Discovered!' a book that got refuted in the second century, or 'New Unheard of Secrets Come to Light' which once again some dowdy guy in robes blew apart philosophically several hundred if not a thousand, years ago.
Wizards and gnostics have the general idea that again, they're the smart ones, privileged by their superior brains and 'daring spirits' to do and believe in crap that sane and normal people wouldn't go near with a ten foot clown pole. And both wizards and gnostics are frequently portrayed as speaking in high minded gobbledygook. Pleromas, princes of hell, CHIM, aphelions, etc. Big fancy words that generally end up being things ridiculously and needlessly complex, blasphemous and/or dangerous.
Even if we go to Jack Vance, wizards are portrayed as a collection of backbiters, perverts, sneaks and assholes constantly jockeying for position. Or who treat people's lives as an afternoon entertainment. The routine thing that comes up with wizards is the idea that they think they are better then you because of their powers, and end up causing no end of misery to others and themselves because of it.
There's a joking term used in some tables I've run called 'wizard hubris,' which gets trotted out whenever the PC Wizard decides to do something dodgy, or when they run into something like an owlbear that fires laser beams. I imagine they view it more as the 'wizard as mad scientist' mindset we have more of these days, but I think its a good representation of the 'wizard as asshole,' angle that magic users never seem to really escape.
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