Secret Spells and using Ward

[RGTraynor]

There are also societal/professional considerations.

Using my gameworld as an example, there are 4500 years of recorded history, a couple dozen playable races, numerous magical orders, several competing international mage guilds, fifteen living languages, six dead languages, many cultures, many many nation-states, and 49 colleges of magic.

So, for my money, the concept that there is only One True Way to cast each spell, using the same words and the same gestures, everywhere in the world, is arrant nonsense. (Never mind that who can tell the difference as to whether the elderly fellow in the caftan, pointing a finger at you and screeching in some incomprehensible language, isn't just plain cussing you out for trespassing in his olive orchard instead of trying to spell you.)

This is leaving aside knowing spells at a high enough level so as not to have to make visible gestures or shouting a long incantation out loud, or that I have significant incentive as an opposing wizard not to make a really big deal of pointing straight at you and crying out "Avada Kedavra!" in a battlefield voice.