Politically neutral version of "master" [duplicate]

I am writing for a fantasy setting, and there needs to be a similar concept of a “master” magician. There is a guild, “apprentice” and “journeyman” still work well, and then there needs to be a step above that for someone who has completed their training.

Importantly, a “master” in this sense is just someone who has completed all the training and knows all the things you have to know. They aren’t necessarily the greatest or the best; they’re just just fully qualifed. In its original sense, “masterpiece” just meant something that demonstrated those qualifications, not the greatest work of one’s career (cf. magnum opus). The masterpiece is akin to a doctoral dissertation, a black belt, or what have you—a significant accomplishment, but one that should ideally be the beginning of your career, not its pinnacle.

Except there are two problems:

1. “Masterpiece” is widely used to refer to the pinnacle of one’s career. “Magnum opus” would be better for that, but I can’t change the way people use words. Especially when “master” is paired with “masterpiece,” it leads many readers to thinking the person is among the best in the world, or of all time. I just want someone who is fully qualified and capable rather than a student.

2. “Master” is currently the subject of debate about its appropriateness, considering the relationship of a master to slaves.

Both of these are problems for me. I would like to avoid them if I can, but to do that, I need a good alternative.

So, does anyone have any good suggestions for sentences such as these?

• He was an apprentice to the local _____ wizard, Carl.

• Upon completing his enchantments and demonstrating the new spell to the guild, she was awarded the rank of _____, able to properly call herself a magician now and sell her spellcasting services.

My goal is to write this story, describe this setting, in such a way that no one has any reason to question the word choice. I want something that captures the meaning I want, doesn’t lead readers astray, and doesn’t lead to anyone feeling uncomfortable or argumentative over something as simple as word choice. If all I have to do to make the story work better for more readers is find another word, I want to find the other word.

For the sake of making this a useful question, “master” is off the table. It is patently obvious, I think, that I am aware of it as an option. The purpose of this question is to find other options, so that each may be considered. The word “master” is not an alternative to “master” and is therefore not a valid answer to the question.

Solution 1:

Virtuoso could work:

A person highly skilled in music or another artistic pursuit.

It fits the fantasy flavor. Virtuoso is a rank of spell caster in The Sims 4: Realm of Magic (the level above “master”). It’s also used to describe real world magicians:

To become an actual virtuoso magician (and not someone that can just fool the public into thinking you are), you have to understand the breadth of expertise that it would require. [...] Shin Lim has probably had the most stunning rise in a short time. But he is not a virtuoso in a broad range of magic.

This doesn’t help you with a synonym for masterwork/masterpiece but you can go with a completely different term, such as tour de force:

A feat demonstrating brilliance or mastery in a field

Solution 2:

primary or main appear the most common and appropriate (rather boringly). For the relationship you describe, with a "master list" that all others are synchronised to, the relationship may be defined as main/replica or primary/replica or primary/secondary: GitHub proposed the use of "main" while Django now uses "primary/replica".

Alternatives such as provider/consumer and source/replica are also used. (Personally I think primary is good as it indicates clearly the status as number one authoritative source, while main has too many other associations to be a clear name.)

Wikipedia's article on Master/slave technology includes a discussion. It says that "slave" is more often considered offensive than "master" but offers various alternatives for both. The BBC have also written on this.