I've never been happy with the term "Biomancer" to describe the wizard who specializes in creating mutagenic potions or breeding/creating bizarre chimeraic beasts.
My problem with biomancer is two-fold:
1. bio- is just too scientific
2. -mancer refers to diviners, not workers of practical "magic".
I posted the question to RPG.net recently and got some great suggestions. My favorites were "teraturge" and "marlane".
"Teraturge" appeals to me for the same reason I chose "terat" to mean "mutant monster". It comes from the Greek word for monster and has the added benefit of being the same word: a teraturge is someone who makes terats.
I then extrapolated to also get the more benign "mutaturge", someone who makes mutants. It removes the inherent negative implication of creating "monsters" because not all mutants created by mutagenic potions are horrible, and the members of the Society of Twin Serpents are trying to change the public perception of all "teraturges" as "mad scientists". So maybe the general term is "teraturge" but the forward thinking members of the Society are trying to push the term "mutaturge" instead.
I also really like "merlane", which apparenlty comes from an issue of Dragon Magazine. It is appropriately archaic sounding, the kind of work Jack Vance would have used. I can't find any etymology for it and I would prefer to know I'm using an actual archaic work and not one coined by the author of that article to refer to a specific type of wizard.
Anyway, work proceeds apace on "The Blade of Takshaka". I'm deep into the Roshu Warrens now, which shouldn't take long. Then I'll tackle the Temple of Anaka.
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