Magic

## What is Magic?

Magic is a form of energy that comes from a variety of sources such as nature or a living being's soul.

### Light and Dark Magic

Light and Dark magic, despite their names, do not actually refer to simply good and bad magic. While Angels do use light magic so do destructive creatures like dragons and vice versa. Rather than a moral-based system, light and dark magic are differentiated by the way they function instead of what help or hurt they may provide. It is important to note that light and dark magic are two sides of the same coin - both opposite and connected. It is also possible to mix light and dark magical methods with other magical methods to alter their abilities.

Light magic is associated with light, warmth, and giving. This form of magic will usually give power in the form of an equal exchange, as seen most predominately with Angels and the sacrifices that often have to be made for their gifts (Ch 150). Angel magic will often work with what it has, encouraging natural systems to work faster or slower than normal. This means that the things created by light magic often have a degree of separation from the creator as their magic helps the process of making the item through more natural means instead of fully creating it from the magic. However, light magic can also be used to destroy. This is seen most easily with the Dishes who use light magic for their powerful bullet attacks. These attacks seem to most often use heat to damage their opponent as seen from the burn marks often left behind from a Dish attack. Cala Maria has also mentioned that light magic tends to linger more than dark magic does (Ch 138).

Dark magic is associated with darkness, cold, and taking. Unlike light magic's equal exchanges, dark magic usually involves risk, gambling, and deals. This means that, when using dark magic, there is a chance one could "win" or "lose" while using it (Ch 150). This can allow dark magic creatures to achieve incredible magical feats that would be near impossible for a light creature of the same caliber to achieve, but also puts them at a much higher risk of negative backlash if they lose their gamble. Dark magic is also better at creating structures from pure magic instead of having to use what is already available as building blocks, which also gives the caster more control over what the magic is used to create. It is also mentioned that dark magic, and all traces of it's use, tend to fade faster than light magic (Ch 138).

**Example- Healing a Missing Limb**

Light magic would accelerate the body's natural healing methods and help create all the new types of cells (bone, muscle, skin) needed for the limb to regrow. Once the limb is regrown the creature has no more power over it than any other limb as their magic just helped the healing process along.

Dark magic would be used by extending it to the individual and shaping it to fit the individual who needed it. As the magic making up the limb would still be coming from the caster that individual would be able to remove the magic, and thus the entire limb, whenever they wished. This is part of why deals are usually made in these cases to set the rules on how the magic will be used and possibly revoked.

### Colors

Since IM is a black-and-white world the only things with color are magical in nature. Magic has been shown in every color of the rainbow throughout the series and it has been shown that magic can even mix multiple colors together in a single piece of magic. While it has been confirmed that the various colors of magic do have a meaning, it is still currently unknown what these meanings are.

## Methods of Magical Usage

### Innate Abilities

All living things have a soul, regardless of race (Ch 260), and it is from this soul that magical power is drawn from. While every person can manipulate the magic in their soul to a certain extent some souls are simply better suited to magic manipulation. For your average toon, they generally have a limit to how powerful their soul/magic can become (Inky Extra’s Ch 98), and don't have the ability to directly shape their magic (Ch 61). Though it is important to note that there may be some variability in the average toons magical ability depending on the individual's talent. Regardless, this means that the majority of toons are fairly limited in magical ability without assistance of some kind.

There are other races/species that are not only naturally more magically inclined, but also have more unaided control over their abilities due to the ability to shape their energy directly (Ch 61). These races can be anything from complex beings like mermaids, animals like unicorns, or even plants such as the White Egret Flower. Each magical race has it's own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses when it comes to their innate magical abilities. For example, Angels have the ability to "store up" their magic in order to use more powerful magic when needed at a later time, but, despite any ability to store up magic, almost every magical being has a limit to how much magic they can produce at any given time. In fact, at this point in time, there are only two known races that have an unlimited internal magical capacity- Demons and Dishes (Inky Extra's Ch 98). These two races could use magic continuously and never run low, making them both very dangerous opponents in battle. However, it is important to note that there are some members of both of these races that can't actually use any magic/have very limited magical abilities despite their unlimited internal power well, so there is a spectrum of abilities across both these races members. It is important to note that completely magical creatures ( Ex- Angels, Dragons, Demons, Unicorns, etc...) can be seen as walking magical ingredients by others. Every part of these creatures, from their hair to their internal organs, can usually be used in some way to create other magical things such as spells or potions. This can make life very dangerous for these creatures since it's not uncommon for others to actively hunt them down to use them for their own purposes (Ch 129).

### Runes

Runes are specific magic symbols that can be used to shape an individuals magic energy to fit a set purpose (Ch 61). Runes are almost like their own languages in that not only do differing races have different sets of runes, but each rune usually has a word/meaning attached to it to explain it's ability. For example, the Micco rune for Light is a uniquely Micco creation which creates light when an individual feeds magic into it (Inky Extra's Ch 48). In the world of IM Micco runes are the most well-known runes, but other races such as Demons, Dishes, and Angels also have their own runes. Demons don't really need runes to do any magical workings (Ch 61), but they still have them in the form of Demon Script, which is more like a language as Demon script has different letters and grammar rules attached to it (Ch 127). Demon Script can also be used by non-demonic beings as seen when the Cupbros use it to contact the Devil (Ch 29). This is in sharp contrast to the runes used by Angels, which are more complex then Micco runes and can only be used by Angels (Ch 61). As for Dish runes, they are very powerful but are nowhere near as versatile as other runes such as those used by the Micco (Ch 218). It is currently unknown whether non-Dishes can use Dish runes. It is important to note that not all runes are inherently magical. As mentioned above, runes act as their own unique language and there are plenty of common runes from the different races that have no inherent magical power. In this case, runes act as a sort of picture language with each symbol meaning something different. However, it is possible to combine common runes with magical ones in order to change the magic of a spell (Ch 127). The runes themselves can also be changed slightly to make more "modern" versions of them as Felix mentions after coming across an enchanted pot that had runes that appeared to be modified Micco runes (Ch 284).

Below are examples of Runes from the 4 major races.

Angel RunesMicco RunesDish RunesDemon Runes

### Contracts

Contracts between magical creatures is a way for others to use the magic of that creature for themselves. Demons are most well known for this method thanks to their soul contracts, but any magical creature that was strong enough could, in theory, make a magical contract with another being. A contract can give an individual incredible abilities, such as how Bigby's soul contract grants him immortality (Ch 162).

#### Witches

Witches are beings with access to powerful magic and have a culture/way of life unto themselves. As explained by Holly, witches are those who make a contract with beings of power (for example a Demon) in order to access and use that beings magical power for themselves. There are both dark and light witches depending on what being the witch makes a contract with and how the witch themselves utilizes their new magical abilities. In essence the witch is just channeling the energy that they are borrowing from the being of power in order to fuel their own magical workings. Because of this they can do more powerful and instantaneous magic as opposed to someone who uses rune magic like Holly. However, there is always a large price that must be paid for making a witch contract with a being of power regardless of whether that being is light or dark (Ch 58). It has been confirmed by the authors that any magical being with a large supply of magic, the ability to share it, and the sentience to make a deal can make a contract with a witch. This includes Demons, Angels, Dishes, and a number of the magical beings mentioned on this page. Of course, the magical being who the witch makes a contract with defines what kind of magic said witch has access too. If a witch makes a contract with an Angel they aren't really going to be doing any dark magic. The witch may also be able to negotiate other magical bonuses from the being they make a contract with, such as elongating their own life span by borrowing some of the being's own life span. Witches historically have not had the best reputation as Bendy notes that witches, especially those who made deals with Demons, were burned for their deals (Ch 115).

### Potions

Potions are magical liquids created by combining a variety of magical ingredients together. Generally speaking, the rarer the ingredients used and more complex the process to create the potion is the more powerful its magic is. For example, the potion for the magic strong enough to take down the Devil in the Angel-Demon War contains a number of very difficult to to obtain ingredients (Ch 150). Some potions need to be ingested to give their users power, such as the bullet potions used by Dishes (Ch 252), while others can be used as weapons on their own (Inky Extra's Ch 121). Another thing to consider with potions is the fact that sometimes they can only be used by certain races. Dishes in particular are well known for the fact that they create a wide variety of potions that can only be used by other Dishes.

## Trivia and Notes

### Trivia

* The presence of zanies, even former ones, can cause magic to act more unpredictably than normal due to their chaotic aura (Ch 284)