A male witch is a witch, not a warlock (well not anywhere except butchered history and bad movies.) Warlock is a word that originally means (roughly) "betrayer" or "oathbreaker". It is, as far as I know, gender-neutral.
Not worried about it and I know full well that plenty of female avatar warlocks will call themselves witches. However the question was asked, presumably because of the real world misconception of witch as being the feminine of warlock, or warlock being the masculine of witch, one encouraged by television shows like “Charmed†and movies like “Warlock.†I’m not going to debate with anyone who wants to play a female warlock and call themselves a witch, totally pointless, but if someone asks I hardly see a problem in giving slightly more accurate information.
war·lock n.A male witch, sorcerer, wizard, or demon. [Middle English warloghe, from Old English wrloga, oath-breaker : wr, pledge; see wr-o- in Indo-European Roots + -loga, liar (from logan, to lie. See leugh- in Indo-European Roots).] http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=warlock
Yep, that's the modern meaning all right. Not the original meaning, and modern (real world) witches will assure you that witch is not specific to just females. -shrug- Of course a word for kindling has come to be associated with men who prefer men instead of women (the actual words get censored.. ah well), a term for happy has also likewise become associated with that group, and more recently with "dumb", "stupid", or just generally "bad." Gotta love a moving target like the English language eh? Anyway, in EQII, there is no "witch" class or subclass. Warlock is applied to both.
Please please... do NOT get another one of these threads going. Warlocks are both male and female in EQ2. LEAVE IT AT THAT. Leave the RL in RL and the IG.... IG!
The people on this thread not in beta I suppose arent getting the remarks/inside jokes from some of us Put it this way there was a certain very touchy female player who made this her personal crusade and you would have thought NOW was getting ready to sue SOE if they didnt put in the term "witch" It became a huge thread and later a bit of a running joke too Dear GOD I hope she doesnt see this thread
Hi all, after having studied wiccan over the last 14 years I can assure you as a male I am still what would be considered a witch it is not gender specific only society has give the warlock the generic term for male witch. Not that it bothers me either way because this is a game and real life is of course not. But I thought I would post to give my two cents on the matter. Blessed Be. Talrune
Erm... <raises hand> Considering, that they are saying a Warlock deals with Death, Disease and Poison, and no where what so ever they have said they use "Witch Craft" where on earth do people get "they are witches" from? We might aswell demand the following. All Female Sorcerers must now be called a Sorceress All Female Wizards must now be called a Wizardess All Female Enchanters must now be called a Enchantress Must one go on? They are using the Term Warlock to be a meaning of the Darker side of Magic, dealing with the more.. Nastyness that a wizard wouldnt touch with someone elses wand. Need this go on? Of course it will. Where else would we all get our jollies? Argue away dears! Fight Fight Fight!!
<also raises hand> In history, specifically real history not RPG... Witches were (mainly) women who were thought to be able to curse people with... [drumroll] Poison. Disease. Bad luck. Bad harvests. Death. Warlocks from the same historic point of view were the evil counterpart of the Wizards, who manipulated the forces of ether, ie not nature like the Wizards. Warlocks for example summoned demons, and forced people to submission through fear. The best example of a Wizard from legend is (of course) Merlin, while Mordred would be the Warlock. So, from a real historic point of view what this game calls Warlocks are actually Witches.
Yeah and halflings are still just hobbits by another name! Someone said it best when they said keep real life in real life... Although I do somewhat enjoy laughing at peolpe who keep arguing the point of things like this when it really shouldn't matter since it is supposed to be just a fun little game anyway.
