You have most probably seen a wizard in your llife no matter how reclusive you are. Basicly any town of more than one thousand people has at least one wizard's tower. Even some smaller villages house the tower of a wizard who likes the rustic country setting.

You know that wizards tend to try to keep an air of mystery about themselves, but are not always successful. Certainly you know that there are different types of wizards. If you have enough intrest to look into the subject, you will quickly learn that there are in fact no less than five types of wizards:

Channelers are the most widely accepted type of wizard. They commonly serve as advisors to monarchs and even other high nobles. As far as you can tell they cast their magic without harming anyone, unless of course you get in their way. If you had to be around a wizard, you would probably choose a chaneler.

On occasion you may have seen a Light Mage or Light Wizard. They occasionally serve as advisors. Most light mages are certainly more visable than other spell casters. As far as you can figure if a light mage works with magic for too long his/her eyes will turn completely pure white! No pupils, no irises, not even veins. To make matters worse white doesn't quite describe it. Their eyes seem to glow, well maybe, you can't tell if the white is just so pure and perfect, or if they are actualy glowing.

Wild Mages are nuts! That is basicly any sane person's analisis of the situation. To practice that kind of magic with that kind of risk you would have to be. It is definitely not safe to be arround a wild mage casting a spell. There is a good chance he/she will accedentialy turn you into a purple and orange fish or kill you with a rain of rubies or some other equaly obsurd cause of death that you wouldn't want on your death certificate.

Shadow Mages (or Shadow Wizards) are hated by some and pittied by others. The other wizards seem to accept them with an air of caution, but almost everyone you know thinks that they are creepy or evil or both. Although if they are evil you don't understand why the other mages don't just get together and kill them all off. Like light mages, it seems that if a shadow mage works long enough with his magic his eyes will change. Shadow mages of some experience often have eyes as black as midnight that seem to devour every ray of light that hits them. Their discolored eyes make them look unholy enough for many people to believe them to be evil.

Defilers are obviously evil. That is if they even exist. There is a large part of the population that believes that they are nothing more than fiction. Those that do believe tell stories of how a defiler can kill ten men without casting a spell, or how they steal babies in the night for use in their dark magics. Any wizard you care to talk to will tell you they are real, and that other wizards spend a considerable ammount of effort hunting them down and executing them. If one tenth of what is said about defilers is true, then they are certainly not the kind of people you want to meet in a dark alley.

Other than that you might be familiar with a couple of common magical products including copy paper (which will copy something if it is laid flat against it and rubbed with a cold iron rod) and peace stone (an incrediably strong and long lived building material)