Hedge-Wizardry
Across the Old World, particularly in rural areas, there are practitioners of the magical arts who have never had any formal training. These people are known collectively as 'hedge-wizards', a catch-all term for magic-users who do not follow one of the orthodox schools of magical theory. Locally such rustics are referred to as wise ones, healers, or witches.
There are three kinds of hedge-wizard. The first are those who follow a set of teachings that have been passed down from generation to generation, slowly gathering new understanding and new spells. These teachings are usually a hotchpotch of local lore, superstition, rites and incantations that hang together to make a rough collection of low level spells, although occasionally their enchantments will be based on the remains of ancient theories and systems of magic dating back millenniums, that still retain some ancient power. This kind of learning can be fascinating to scholars, if can locate someone who has it.
The second kind are ones who have received some education in one of the recognized forms of magic, but who have not completed their training and never received a license. Some apprentices who have abandoned their masters end up this way. They understand the basic rules of magic but have no way of learning more, apart from performing their own haphazard research.
The last kind of hedge-wizard is the rarest, the most interesting and definitely the most dangerous. These are people who are born with strong innate magical abilities, who have done their best to learn, through trial and error, how the magical world works. Frequently they are repeating experiments that were done many hundreds of years ago, and are now considered to be apprentice's work by those in the great magical colleges of the Empire's cities. Sometimes, rarely, they happen across previously undiscovered branches of magical theory, and tap into new and powerful areas of spell-use. More often they find themselves caught up in the web of Chaos and lured into the service of the dark gods.
Being a hedge-wizard is a precarious career. Apart from the meager living to be earned, they are always vulnerable to accusations of consorting with the forces of Chaos, are often the target of witch- hunters. Eccentrics are often feared, especially in the more backward rural areas, and people who live alone and potter about collecting herbs by night and muttering to themselves are likely to be treated with suspicion.
A hedge-wizard, by definition, has no association with any of the approved colleges of magic, and therefore is likely to find it almost impossible to obtain a license. This makes hedge-wizards easy pickings for witch-hunters, no matter how upstanding a member of the community they may be - and some hedge-wizards do manage to rise to be village leaders or local representatives on provincial councils, although they would he advised to keep their powers well hidden if they do.
The majority of hedge-wizards live alone, growing more eccentric as the years go by. But a hedge-wizard can get lonely, even with a cat or toad for company. Some decide to take on apprentices. There are two sorts of hedge-wizard's apprentices: these who go to learn hedge wizardry because they have a natural talent for the subject but no one with formal training is around to teach them, and those misfits whom no one else will take on as an apprentice, and who go to the hedge-wizard as a last resort.
A village is unlikely to put up with more than one hedge-wizard. Someone taken on as an apprentice may find it difficult to practice locally, since the master hedge-wizard will view the apprentice as unwanted competition. In this case, an apprentice must either wait until the master dies (a process sometimes helper along by the more ruthless young students) or leave in search of a village without its own spellcaster. But most villagers are suspicious of strangers, particularly those claiming knowledge of magic, and a hedge-wizard may travel for years, becoming better at magic, picking up spells here and there, before finding somewhere to settle down.
Recommended Disadvantages: Bad Reputation; Secret (Chaos Cultist or Hedge-Wizard); Enemy (Witch-Hunters); Social Stigma (Heretic).
Recommended Skills: Animal Handling; Herb Lore; Stealth; Sleight of Hand; Thaumatology.
Allowed GURPS Colleges: Hedgewizards may start play with up to 20 points in spells from ANY college except Technology; however they may not start with more than 5 points spent in any single college. They will also have a hard time learning new spells.
