Editing Discworld (section)

===Wizards===
[[File:Discworld Wizards.jpg|thumb|left|The Faculty of Unseen University: simultaneously some of the most brilliant and foolish men on the Disc]]
[[Wizard]]s are not so much an association as a collective designation for male magic users<sup>1</sup>. Because 8 is the most magically powerful number in Discworld, the 8th son of an 8th son is automatically a Wizard. If said Wizard manages to produce an 8th son of their own (an exceedingly rare occasion, given their ''scholarly'' nature and widespread (if utterly wrong) belief that such intimacies weaken their magic), the result is a Sourcerer or Wizard^2. Sourcerers are unique among Wizards, as they are a source of magic themselves rather than merely manipulating the abundance of magic that exists naturally on the Disc. Being loved by magic in a place built on magic means that a Sourcerer can essentially reshape reality to their will. The danger they represent, and the nature of their creation, are likely the real reasons Wizards are taught to practice celibacy (not that this is a hard and fast rule).

In the past Wizards lived solitary lives, isolated in tall wizard towers where they studied magic and ran experiments. However, any discoveries made were guarded jealously from other Wizards, viewed as unwelcome competitors. Inevitably this resulted in violent conflict between Wizards trying to remove rivals and plunder towers of their research, growing their own collection of knowledge and power. The resulting damage of these wars were often catastrophic, rendering large parcels of land uninhabitable by the persisting effects of unfettered magic. 

In the interest of self-preservation for both themselves and everyone else living in the immediate area, Wizards finally decided to make peace and collaborate, forming universities where magic could be studied and taught freely. In fact, as the curriculum is almost purely academic, many Wizards tend to no longer bother to cast magic at all unless absolutely required - or there's an opportunity to show off to an audience. Their predilection for ambition and competitiveness does flare up on occasion, but for the most part, Wizards are mollified by overly-frequent feasting and a modicum of respect from the locals.

After the founding of these educational institutions, the oldest of which being Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork, the damage of wizard rivalries was mostly only visited on the wizards themselves: once the rigors of undergraduate studies and the perils of postgrad work were complete, wizards rose up the ranks through a mixture of petty one-upmanship and assassination through mundane means. Currently, this system has become obsolete at UU due to the senior faculty choosing an Archchancellor who lived as a country gentleman for decades after completing a number of degrees and was, therefore, virtually impossible for weedy academic schemers to kill. As a result, with nobody being in danger of assassination, the faculty have taken to ignoring the student body as much as possible. In turn, with methods of advancement possible without murder, the students have been doing serious magical experimentation under the Department of Inadvisably Applied Magic, boiling down the old rituals to their bare requirements and doing the closest thing you can get to scientific experimentation in a place with such a ridiculous amount of concentrated background magic. Surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly, given the previous methods for doing the same thing), the constant use of a magical-mechanical computer to run experiments has not caused any major disasters. 

<small><sup>1</sup>There is at least one exception to this rule, even going by the strictest definitions.</small>