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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 3075668" data-attributes="member: 7240">I don't think medievals had a general category for magic items because they wouldn't have conceptualized the category the same way we do. Because magic was an extension of natural law rather than a breach therein, many things have become magical only in hindsight. About the biggest category I can think of is "charm," because it included both Christian and non-Christian magic items and did not specify the physical form or materials of the object. Another good term, although it crosses the magic-non-magic boundary the way Tolkien's elves do is "artifice." (Imagine a party of non-casters trying to distinguish between a masterwork and a +1 sword.) The boundary between something being very well made and being magic was quite permeable so something made with great skill/artifice could be implied to be magical.</blockquote>