Duties of a wizard's apprentice

[Featured Author]

Please help me brainstorm. My protagonist is an apprentice to a famous wizard. What could be some possible duties for a young woman in this position?

 

[Ophiucha]

Mopping, obviously.

 

[Kelise]

Watching BBC's Merlin could help. Truthfully he spends most of it running after Arthur, but it also shows what he does for Gaius - who's more like their court physician but he has knowledge of magic, and is bringing up Merlin. He gets him to do all sorts of little jobs, such as preparing things, delivering them around the castle, and so on.

 

[Dr.Dorkness]

An wizard's apprentice should of course study. But in my point of view it depends on who the master of this student is. perhaps he learns by doing tasks. like gathering herbs and by doing so learning the atributes of the herbs and plants he colects, this importand for things like alchemy. perhaps he is a student of a very chaotic master. then he is tasked by cleaning or archiving and he learns by coinsidence.

what i'm also trying to say with this is that you should look what kind of person the master wizard is, and does the master wizard have more students or is he the only one. If the master wizard has more students, then is the apprentice one of his/her favorite. That way you can see what kind of tasks he will most likely get. and so on.

 

[Amanita]

It really depends on your story's magic system and your society. The relationship between master and apprentice is also important.
If your magic requires ingredients, the apprentice might be charged with purchasing them. Collecting them herself could be difficult in the beginning if he can't be sure that she knows what she's doing.
Assisting the master with simpler tasks during his work would be suitable and interesting as well. Think chemistry class where a few students are asked to help the teacher with his experiments.
Simply helping in the house/working as sort of servant in exchange for the knowledge can work as well.
In some stories I've read the apprentice gives magical power to the master in exchange for being taught, this can be taken into a darker territory.
Another possibility with a male master and a female apprentice (or the other way round) could be taking part in magical rituals involving sexual intercourse if you want to go there, which I don't know. I'm sure something like that can be done well and tastefully, but it's not that easy.

In my own story, the adepts are honouer-bound to teach novices and give back what they'vre received when they were younger. The novices don't have to do anything besides obeying them which is hard enough for my MC. They're also supposed to improve their masters' reputation by showing talent and dedication to their work and learning.
Besides that they may be asked to assist the master in his or her own work but this isn't always the case. Most novices like to do that anyway because they're glad for any opportunity to use their powers.

 

[Mdnight Falling]

I'd imagine a wizard's apprentice isn't too different from any apprentice or squire. They get used to do everything their Master doesn't want to do from house work to cooking to running errands

 

[Ravana]

Mopping, obviously.

LOL! <strains of Dukas swell ominously in background>

It depends, as Amanita mentions, on how magic works, and even more heavily on how society works. What are the expectations for other types of apprentices in your world? Do apprentice magicians face the same expectations, or completely different ones?

Apprenticeship, historically, has ranged everywhere from doing nothing but simple manual labor—essentially a servant, or even a slave, at least during the earliest years of apprenticeship: if the apprentice was very lucky, he might be allowed to observe the master at work once the menial tasks had been completed—all the way up to being a highly respected skilled craftsman in one's own right (generally, at the more experienced end of the scale). An "apprentice" painter in the Renaissance or later might do 90% of the work on one of his "master's" paintings, for instance; an "apprentice" swordsmith in Japan might remain in that position until his master's retirement or death… in both cases, obtaining the advantage of the master's continued tutelage as well as the probably more important commercial advantage of the work coming from the master's shop and therefore getting perceived as the master's own work (or at worst receiving his approval). At the other extreme, children of five or six—possibly younger—might be given (or sold) into apprenticeship and not get to so much as touch the master's tools for half a decade or more… young apprentice blacksmiths often did nothing more than work the bellows on the forge for hours on end.

In most settings, I imagine that magical apprenticeship will be more than merely a commercial convenience (kid's family no longer has to feed the kid, master gets someone to sweep and wash), since in most settings, "magic" isn't taken to be something that "just anybody" can be taught. (There's no reason your setting needs to follow this tradition, of course.) So one might expect that any magical apprentice will, at a minimum, be receiving regular practice in the craft, as well as ongoing education—literacy will likely play a part in this, as much traditional magic is thought of as being inscribed in weighty tomes; again, this isn't necessary: few shamanic cultures had writing systems. Magical apprentices might be considered too valuable to be saddled with menial tasks; the master's household could employ mundane servants to handle such things for both master and apprentices—in which case, the apprentices will be freed from many tasks that even craftsmen's apprentices or unapprenticed age-peers would receive (and will probably face some jealousy because of this)… though they're unlikely to be living a "life of luxury" as a result. (Then again, they may.) Possibly, magical apprentices will be respected in their own right, simply because they can do what they can do… or might be feared, for the same reason. Perhaps someone manifesting magical talent would be legally required to undergo training, for the protection of the society—in which case, an apprentice might receive respect, but an unapprenticed magician might be regarded as a dangerous criminal. Depending on how dangerous you make the use of magical forces to the user, becoming a magician's apprentice might be regarded as being far from a plum position—could well fall into the realm of "hazardous duty" (and one could imagine the anti-child labor movement's reaction to something that was worse than working in a coal mine…). (Or teaching them might be considered "hazardous duty".…)

You will need to decide what the "official" (legal, economic or other) relationship between apprentice and master is. Does the master "own" the apprentice? At least until the apprentice reaches age of majority? Does the apprentice live with the master, or with her own family (assuming this is possible, based on nearness of location)? Does the apprentice have the option to leave her situation (whatever circumstances, if any, might permit this)? Does the master have more than one apprentice, and if so, what sort of seniority system exists? (Age, length of apprenticeship, merit?) Are there different levels of apprenticeship? Are there journeymen (or other similar ranks: adept, say), and if so how do they differ from apprentices? (Historically, the difference would be that the journeyman will probably have some level of legal independence and freedom of movement—and would almost certainly no longer get the scut jobs—but would not yet be acknowledged as being "master-level" in her craft… one of the biggest differences being whether or not the person could take apprentices of her own. On the other hand, a journeyman might well be tasked by a master with overseeing instruction of the most junior apprentices… possibly overseeing every aspect of their lives, to free the master for more "important" pursuits. Possibly the master wouldn't teach apprentices at all, only the more senior ranks.)

Conversely, what are the master's responsibilities to the apprentice, and to society in general? At a minimum, the master will probably be held responsible—legally responsible, or just by societal convention: and angry mobs are often more effective at "enforcing order" than police and judges—for anything the apprentice does wrong… certainly for anything magical the apprentice does wrong. Is the master responsible for feeding, clothing and housing the apprentice? Educating her, in anything beyond what's required by the craft? Can the master dismiss an apprentice, or must he find an appropriate disposition for her?

Also, are there magical "guilds," so that only those apprenticed to a member master are allowed to learn magic? Again, this would make a "rogue talent" a criminal, effectively if not legally. Is the master the only possible choice available, or was it possible to place the apprentice in more than one situation? (And did the apprentice have any input in the matter, if so?) Are there rival "schools" (think kung fu movies) that compete for the best apprentices—and make life difficult for apprentices from other masters? Alternately, do masters have "social networks" where one might send a given apprentice to a more appropriate instructor? Is magic connected to religion in any way… say, controlled by a priesthood? (Or condemned by one?)

Then, after all that you will need, as Dr.Dorkness points out, to decide how much of a "typical" representative of the master paradigm your particular wizard is.…

Answering the above questions will go a long way toward defining what duties an apprentice magician might receive. After the legal and societal bases are laid out, the rest is mere detail.

 

[Sigillimus]

I always imagined the duties of an apprentice being something akin to the Jedi Master-Apprentice relationship in the Star Wars universe. They are selected because of their innate capabilities or other discerning factors, depending on your story, and then trained in the ways of magic by education, practice and demonstration.

So, my definition of the duties of the apprentice would be:

- Education: Studying beneath the master, drinking in the knowledge that is imparted to them and building upon it.
- Practice: Putting what they have learned into practice, whether by casting spells or creating enchantments or potions.
- Demonstration: Venturing out to prove their abilities in the world, not just in the classroom.

It is the duty of the master to instill into his student everything that he has learned, and then it is in the duty of the student to put into practice everything that he has been taught. The cycle itself is constantly repeated, for when the wizard's apprentice has learned everything necessary, he too shall advance to that same role of teacher that his old master once was.