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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DreadPirateMurphy" data-source="post: 2916126" data-attributes="member: 20715">People will love any group, however that group may be defined, that does well by them.  They will fear any group that has never done well by them, and MAY do poorly by them.People who live in circumstances where the police are more likely to protect them tend to like them.  People who live in circumstances where the police are more likely to suspect them tend to dislike them.  People who feel no need for police but have never been bothered by them are still likely to distrust them as potentially hostile authority figures.In the Wheel of Time, there were two kinds of channelers, those who could do it naturally, and those who could be taught.  Natural channelers would do so whether they were trained or not, and could hurt themselves or others.  Male channelers were universally feared and despised, because they inevitably went mad and would do ill.  Attitudes toward female channelers varied.  In the border lands like Sheinar, Aes Sedai were respected and even appreciated because they fought against the Blight.  In other lands, they were mostly feared because of their power and influence.  Among the Seanchan, channelers were kept as slaves, untrusted to operated without direct supervision.In the X-Men universe, people with superpowers are clearly divided into superheroes and super villians with the exception of "mutants."  Stan Lee created mutants as a metaphor for the civil rights struggle, and in the process created a set of supers who were "OK" and a set who, for somewhat nonsensical reasons, were "not OK."  Nobody ever tried to regulate Captain America.  A better example is the Pixar film The Incredibles.  Supers were appreciated, until the amount of damage caused reached some critical mass.  Then, they were persecuted and forced to go into witness protection.  In other words, when they did mostly good, they were fine.  When they possibly started doing more harm than good, they were no longer fine.In the Star Wars universe, the Jedi served as a combination of police, mediators, and special forces during the Old Republic.  They were appreciated by the law-abiding.  In part, this was because they adhered to a VERY strict set of rules intended to prevent abuse...so strict, it can be argued, that they led directly to their downfall.  Once they were no longer helpful, it was very easy to portray them as abusive and dangerous.  By the time of the New Jedi Era in the expanded universe setting, it was easy to get people to turn on Jedi.In the Babylon 5 universe, human telepaths are grouped into the PsiCorps to "keep them under control."  They are feared because of their power.  Their aggregation allows them to become a major power on Earth (unlike the Seanchan channelers in Wheel of Time, who were never allowed the freedom to organize or associate).Here is what I would predict would happen in a fantasy universe.If EVERYBODY can use magic at least a little, or with a little effort, then wizards and such will be just specialists...no different from professional athletes or doctors.If only a few people can use magic, then that few will either be persecuted and/or wiped out, or they will rule directly or indirectly, or they will transition from one of those states into a protected state similar to the Jedi in the Old Republic.If many people can channel, then they will be enslaved, or they will become an aristocratic or dominant class in society, or they will be segregated into a separate class of citizens with specific rights and restrictions.Those are the options, and the OP is positing that the RAW specifies the first circumstance, where pretty much anybody can learn to cast spells with the right training and minimal ability.</blockquote>

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