Deficients

"Deficient" is the Gifted term for persons without magic. Deficients as a whole are unaware of the existence of the Gifted, though there are obviously rare exceptions.

Integration Debate
Recently, there has been a push from some factions for partial or full Gifted reveal and integration with the Deficient Population (DefPop), especially since WWII, when Deficient weapons killed hundreds of thousands of Defs and Gifted indiscriminately. Many Gifted are pushing the point that Def technology has reached an almost magic-like level and is worthy of attention and investigation, at the very least. The most extreme want to fully integrate to be able to take advantage of the best of both Def technology and Gifted magic.

Supporters and Reaction
MIT was founded in direct response to this push, after Defs reached the moon in the 60s. MIT has already made great strides in combining technology and magic, and also has a (controversial) Deficient "home-stay" program for the Gifted students so that they experience the Def community first-hand.

The de la Mothe family, who are also heavy supporters of MIT, are perhaps the most famous integrationists.

Opposition
Many conservative Gifted strongly oppose what they view as a complete upheaval of their society and traditions (and they're not wrong). In addition, the ramifications of Deficient integration would be completely unpredictable and may threaten the very fabric of Gifted society (not to mention the lives of the Gifted). Deficients have a (not undeserved) reputation for being even less tolerant of difference than the Gifted, and they may react badly.

Joseph Stromgard, a conservative senator from the powerful Stromgard family, is very vocally opposed to integration. He is the figurehead of the anti-integration movement.

Deficient sex-trafficking
Def sex trafficking in the US was never legal, but not entirely frowned upon until 1967, when a Deficient sex slave was driven insane by the repeated memory-wipes ("Blankings") she received following each instance of rape at the hands of her wizard master. She killed the man but was caught and imprisoned while escaping. Her master, Frank Anderson, happened to be a top reporter for the popular newspaper American Sorcerer, so the case made headline news. Because the de la Mothes were occupied with the recent Cataclysm, they weren’t able to fully push for the rights of the enslaved Deficient woman, and so the case focused instead on the murder of Frank Anderson. As a result, the Wizard Senate passed the Frank Anderson Act, which added Blanking to the top tier, or Anathema, of the list of Prohibited Incantations (P.I.s). No actions were taken to protect the escaped woman, except a final Blanking and commitment to a the Baltimore Asylum for the Criminally Insane.

Terms
Def: Slang for "Deficient"

DefPop: common slang for the Deficient Population

Less-gifted Individuals (LGIs): Politically correct term for Defs, mainly used by integrationists