Hi, So I'm writing a fantasy novel and I don't know what to call my Non-Magical People and my Magical People. I know in 'Harry Potter' the call people Non-Magic People Muggles but I wanted something more original. Thank you, JaCrispy117
It kind of depends on how your magic system (and magic culture) works and how prevalent the magical ones are. For instance if magic is something that anyone can learn, then there would be no specific name for the non-magical ones. Just like how we don't have a specific word to describe non-doctors, for example. Honestly I think Harry Potter is an anomaly when it comes to having a specific name for non-mages. And that stems mostly because of how the culture of magic works in Harry Potter. Since magic is part of a secret society it makes sense that those within the society would have a slang word for those who are not. (At least it makes sense to me.) As for your magical people, there's lots of terms to chose from but they all bring with them some preconceived notions. Wizards might work well for a medieval setting, but if you're writing a space opera, you'll probably want a different name (just don't use jedi, that's already been taken for wizards in space). Witches can be a quite useful term since that is what most magic practitioners in our world refer to themselves as (as far as I know), but it also means very different things depending on the reader. It's one of those things that it will be hard for anyone to help you with naming conventions if we don't know anything about your magic system and your world.
It's really hard for me to answer questions like this because I know nothing about your world, the species in it, the language or the magic systems. Would they have an English term? Or have you invented a separate language? Then there's what they might call each other. No one can really answer this for you, it's were you have to start using some brain power and create for yourself. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful but all the best
It very much depends on who (in story) made the word, and what those people thought of that group. If say, magic is viewed with suspicion or fear from a typical non-magic users perspective, their name for mages may be less flattering. Such as a "dabbler" or "meddler", or in worse cases a "blasphemer" or some such. Mages might have other names for themselves, but for simplicity (clarity?) you should probably stick with one name per group to begin with. Consider your characters point of view. Does she interact with mages or eh, the nulled more? That may change the tone of the words they use. Words for mages are easier in my opinion, but I think you can use any word, as long as it rolls off the tongue. I mean, what kind of word is "muggle" anyway? Works very well, though.
Maybe "Mortal"? Even if your mages aren't literally immortal, that would probably carry a close enough connotation for people to use it, and you could even have a quick line establishing a particular character as super-literal by having them criticize the popularity of the term
