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the term thaumaturge

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Jul 08, 2010
28
Where did Wizard101 come up with the term 'thaumaturge' for an ice wizard? It is the first I heard it used. The more common term for ice wizards is usually 'Cryromancer' like pyromancer cept with the cryro as in cryrogenics etc. It just has my curiosity peaked as to where the term came from and why they picked it for the game.

Moderator
We aren't actually the ones who discovered the term.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thaumaturge

and
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Thaumaturgy

In the 16th century, the word thaumaturgy entered the English language meaning miraculous or magical powers.
The word was first anglicized and used in the magical sense in John Dee's book Mathematicall Praeface to Euclid's Elements (1570). He mentions an "art mathematical" called "thaumaturgy... which giveth certain order to make strange works, of the sense to be perceived and of men greatly to be wondered at."

In Dee's time, "the Mathematicks" referred not merely to the abstract computations associated with the term today, but to physical mechanical devices which employed mathematical principles in their design. These devices, operated by means of compressed air, springs, strings, pulleys or levers, were seen by unsophisticated people (who did not understand their working principles) as magical devices which could only have been made with the aid of demons and devils.

(By building such mechanical devices, Dee earned a reputation as a conjurer "dreaded" by neighborhood children. He complained of this assessment in his "Mathematicall Praeface": "And for these, and such like marvellous Actes and Feates, Naturally, and Mechanically, wrought and contrived: ought any honest Student and Modest Christian Philosopher, be counted, & called a Conjurer? Shall the folly of Idiotes, and the Malice of the Scornfull, so much prevaille... Shall that man, be (in hugger mugger) condemned, as a Companion of the hellhoundes, and a Caller, and Conjurer of wicked and damned Spirites?")

Thus thaumaturgy means making and operating physical devices, based on early engineering principles, to produce an effect. However, some who used the title thaumaturge related thaumaturgy to theurgy, a Greek term for a branch of magic concerned with spiritual matters. In this view, the material effect produced by a thaumaturgical device was considered to actually be caused by a spiritual ritual (theurgy), which influences the material sphere by way of the more subtle, ethereal realm.


But very good question!

If you want the prize, you have to build the ladder rung by rung. There are no shortcuts.
Survivor
Jul 08, 2010
28
*upgrades zeke from 'favorite character' to 'hero' status*

Wow that is a rather interesting read. Thanks for the reply!

Explorer
Jan 24, 2010
58
That was truely fascinating, there should be a section in the message boards that describes the origins of all magics, createurs,etc. featured in wizard101. Also, maybe there could be a section to read the complete history of the wars between the tritons, dragons, and ice giants. As well as the origins of the spirit schools.