Magic

Magic is the ability of Magical Girls to affect their surroundings, originally meant to be used to fight Witches.

Every particular contractee is able to access different kinds of magic, down to very quirky details. Even among the somewhat large number of Magical Girls contracted today, it's nearly impossible for two to have the exact same powers. The distinct potential is decided at the time of making a wish, and forming a contract with the Incubator, but every Magical Girl only slowly awakens to her powers throughout her service, learning to properly use her individual magic bit by bit. It seems that the wish itself only gives the initial prod in a certain direction, though, and the rest of the Magical Girl's theme, costume, and abilities are defined by her personality instead.

Magic is directly linked to the emotional state of the user, with girls that are strongly motivated being able to perform much greater deeds of magic at the occasion. At the same time, the drawback of Grief is going to be somewhat more severe.

It's unknown whether magic is in theory usable by anyone with a soul and emotions, or is only available through a contract to begin with. Some supernatural forces present in the setting would point to the former, but the nature of Magical Girl magic, and its direct link to the contract and form of the particular wish would point to the latter.

The powers magic can offer are different enough that skill in them nearly can't be taught or shared. To begin with, magic comes naturally to every user, and when asked how they managed to do something specific with it, most girls will have difficulty explaining. That said, there are certain recognizable patterns, thanks to which every fresh Magical Girl can be assigned to at least one of the ranks.

Things Every Magical Girl Can Do

Certain abilities come with the contract. A Magical Girl missing one of these would indicate the contract itself was faulty:

• Transformation - Magical Girls can transform using their Soul Gem. This allows them to use magic much more effectively, though maintaining the form requires some continuous effort as well, and in some cases, may take a slight toll on one's magic reserves. That said, certain older magical girls have been known to not cancel the transformation even when sleeping. An untransformed magical girl is hardly better than a human with the same skills, but a transformed one's physical potential is much greater.
• Costume - Magical Girl costume works like magical armor, and protects one from harm. Interestingly, parts or the entire costume can be removed without canceling the transformation - therefore, the costume is just a prop, and the transformation itself is an elevated state of body and soul.
• Inventory - Every Magical Girl has access to a Doraemon-like hammerspace intended for safe storage. The size of it differs by person, as well as the properties - for example, storing a Soul Gem may be difficult for some, while storing a small rodent without having it die in the process would be difficult for most. One's inventory normally can't be accessed by others. Should the owner die, the contents of her inventory usually appear under her corpse, though sometimes, items may happen to get lost in the ether.
• Magical Weapon - Every Magical Girl can create a personal weapon, or learn to do so very quickly. This weapon is fundamentally meant to be used against Witches, and may not be very versatile, or actually even fit for combat. As a result, many magical girls in the setting choose to fall back on more mundane weaponry, or avoid combat entirely.
• Charm Resistance - Magical girls are immune to mundane Witch charms. A Witch Kiss can't be placed on the body of a Magical Girl. Other ways of charming, such as Callidus charms, or more direct charms of extremely powerful Witches, can still be effective.
• Witch Detection - the ability to detect Witches in the area.

Things Every Magical Girl Can Learn

• Minor Transformation - The ability to change one's Soul Gem into a more easily concealed accessory - typically jewelry of some sort, though something like a Soul Gem kept in the form of fingernail polish or skin piercing isn't unusual. May come naturally to some girls. It seems that every girl has a preferred form for their Soul Gem, aside of the basic egg-like state.
• Magic Burst - The ability to crudely enhance one's movement by pouring magic energy into the respective part of the body. Can be used to make a weapon strike much more powerful as well. It's mainly this skill that makes Magical Girls decidedly superhuman.
• Magic Blast - the ability to directly use magic to attack. It will manifest in different forms, depending on one's magic affinity. Often seen as meaningless, in the context of the setting. In general, everyone can learn some form of this, but only specialist Vindicare would use it as their main method of combat.
• Conjuration - For starters, Magical Girls more familiar with their magical weapon can manifest it en masse, or in different ways. When Eversors fight in medium range, they are known to create more of their weapon, and fling it before melee. For example of the latter, a Magical Girl with a flail as her magical weapon may make it a mace or a poleflail at her bidding, or create lengths of chain. Other can even create completely unrelated things of various helpfulness. For example, a girl who likes to drink tea may find herself able to create a teapot out of thin air.

Things Most Eversor Can Do

• Eversor Trance - A battle trance, in which the body becomes a proper tool of the soul. The Eversor trance makes it easier for the user to focus in combat, and negates any unwanted feedback they could be getting from their body, such as pain or fatigue, leaving only awareness of the body state behind. It can also be used to access functions of the body which are not naturally controlled, for example to stop one's heart from beating, or alter the bodily chemistry. Deeper trance can induce a berserkgang-like state, in which the focus and potential of the user is maximized, but she may lose the ability to tell a friend from foe.
• Eversor Physiology - Eversors are supernaturally strong and tough, surpassing humans of their age and weight even out of costume. While most magical girl don't care much for poisons, or death of the body for that matter, Eversors are completely immune to the effects of all but the most invasive of foreign substances.
• Advanced Magic Burst - Eversors tend to be able to use it much more effectively, allowing for incredible leaps, crushing strikes, on-point defense, and uncanny maneuvering. It may also work together with the trance to protect the user's own body from strikes it wasn't meant to perform. To Eversors, this may be largely instinctive. If one appears to never use magic but accumulates Grief as usual anyway, it may well be the case that she is actually a master of this.
• Considering that the most Magical Girls in the world are Eversors, it's likely that almost all Magical Girls can actually learn the Eversor trance. Still, most of them won't have time to even try the specifics of another rank until they are long out of training.

Things Most Vindicare Can Do

• Enhanced Senses - Of all the Magical Girl ranks, Vindicare are the most similar to modern day human soldiers. While most of Vindicare acquired qualities come from training and preparation, they tend to have or learn ways to sharpen their sight and hearing, allowing them to reduce their mistakes in judgement to none. Perfect spatial awareness is a must.
• Due to the distant nature of offensive magic, however, many of the most powerful users of magic in the world are Vindicare. To fit their own approach to the battlefield, and to complement their skills, they tend to have the largest repertoire of small magic tricks outside of their area of expertise. They are also the most oriented towards large scale destruction. Vindicare learn to be subtle, but in the end, they usually aren't.

Things Most Callidus Can Do

• Advanced Transformation - Callidus are spies and diplomats. To this end, can change their form to appear different to a naked, or even magical eye. This often goes down to changes in psychology, and auto-hypnosis. Callidus have different ways of doing this, and personal quirks, however - for example, one may actually be changing her body physically while another solely relies on illusion magic, or it may be difficult for one to change the color of her eyes. Another would just pour all of her efforts into never being seen at all.
• Advanced Detection - Callidus can detect not only Witches, but other Magical Girls as well. They are also generally able to conceal their own or other Soul Gems from detection. Eventually, they can learn to see through such concealment, or develop more advanced methods of concealment that would be more difficult to counter. Compared to Culexus tracking, they aren't as effective against common target, but able to pierce through concealment much more easily.

Things Most Venenum Can Do

• Healing - In many cases, Venenum are able to heal fellow Magical Girls, or create something that can. They are often support staff, though less so than the Vanus.
• Advanced Conjuration - Venenum are scientists, creators, and engineers at their core - even if the science they do is more on the mystic side. They can work with concoctions, magic tools, or even advanced machinery. For this, the ability to create various materials, magical or mundane, is usually needed.

Things Most Vanus Can Do

• Data Management - Mostly the personal orientation of a person rather than a magic skill, but magic can be involved. More importantly, though, it assumes the lack of other talents. Vanus are classified as such due to their unviability for combat, though a transformed Vanus is also much more dangerous than an unarmed human. Still, they aren't worth fielding over mundane mercenaries, so they are used to support the combatants with providing accurate information instead.

Things Most Culexus Can Do

• Anti-Magic - The ability to counter magic, and unmake magical things. Culexus anti-magic completely stuns other Magical Girls, typically causing their bodies to malfunction and vomit. It's also known to cause normal civilians to become somewhat more aggressive. If employed in a Barrier, it will start erasing it entirely, along with its inhabitants, though the ability of a Culexus to wipe a Witch herself out of existence depends on the individual power of the Witch. Normally, Culexus anti-magic field is persistent around their person, and cannot be turned off. This makes the presence of Culexus often disliked in the Magical Girl society, especially in the past. The Anima Speculum suits designed by Malal help alleviate this issue lately, though some of the effect still remains.
• Telepathy - Culexus can enter the minds of other people, including Magical Girls. Like with anti-magic, this ability is difficult to deactivate, and Culexus tend to hear the surface thoughts of people near by. There is also a difference in observing and actually affecting. Callidus may be able to read thoughts of their targets, or enter their minds, but the Culexus way is a lot less gentle, and can easily leave the victim without much of a mind left. A Culexus is the last resort in interrogation after all torture had failed. Telepathy also includes the ability to "Pulse", send messages to other Magical Girls over distance. This carries much similarity, and indeed is probably the same thing as Incubator telepathy (much like the Silent Room generators imply connection to Incubators as well). Sometimes, other girls, if they take especially easily to the presence of a Culexus, can hear the pulsed messages near them.
• Prognostication - The ability to accurately predict events. More precise than the Vanus form, but also a lot more dangerous to the user, since use of it involves the Akashic Realm. Culexus prognostication is closer to true future sight.
• Telekinesis - The ability to manipulate matter. Culexus don't seem to be using it often, but have been known to practice it by assembling and disassembling machinery and weaponry.
• Soul Gem Tracking - much more powerful than Callidus sense for Soul Gems in its basic form, though faulty against Callidus concealment.
• It is of note that Culexus magic isn't as completely uniform as it may appear at the first glance. It may still be flavored by personal affinity, like in the case of Red Culexus mixing her telekinesis with fire.

Things Some Magical Girls Can Learn

Please understand that all the skills described here are fairly straightforward. Aside of the miscellaneous patterns of magic used across the ranks, some choice Magical Girl talents can be incredibly odd, with mechanics as baffling or complicated as one would rather expect in Hirohiko Araki's work. Akemi Homura herself is one such case.

• Elemental Magic - Usually tied to the user's personality or wish. Often makes up the entire magical affinity on its own. With that said, there seem to be many variations of each element, as a result of which the users can't always agree on how it works. Elements are also only one of the patterns, and don't really affect much - save for ice magic being useful for getting across water surfaces, and such. A girl with a strong elemental affinity will thus be treated as any other girl of her rank, but elemental magic can still offer paths that wouldn't be available without it, which is why it's considered an ability beyond just flavor.
• Enchantment - The ability to improve on, or devalue matter, including human body, in a more fundamental manner. This is important, because it implicitly carries with it the option to strengthen or weaken others. A Magical Girl who would be even able to strengthen the souls of her comrades, or curse the souls of her enemies, would be a valuable asset to her Officio. This skill is usually found on Eversors, Vindicare, and Venenum.
• Summoning - The ability to create magical helpers, or helpful constructs. Most summoners will only be able to summon one particular kind of a minion, such as a specific animal. A Magical Girl who can create ones helpful in battle may will have great potential, being able to match whole squads on her own. This can stand for both the ability to create a pseudo-living thing out of one's magic, and the ability to call out a powerful ally from another place.
• Sealing - The ability to separate. Defensive magic would mostly stem from this ability. Very practical if one wishes to defeat a Witch without a fight, and useful for containment of Witch Cores. Runic magic, Cabalic circles, or Onmyoudo would be classic sealing patterns.
• Flight - While every Magical Girl seems to be able to learn at least some manner of levitation through careful application of Magic Burst, perfect unrestrained flight is a skill reserved for precious few. Xiaomei Baocun is its most well known master, but every Officio will probably have several, reserved for the special tasks only they can perform. This skill is typically found on Vindicare, and they can gain the most use from the skill.
• Teleportation - A rare ability, usually used for accessing closed off locations, transportation of materials, or personnel. The ability to transport something other than oneself is appreciated, but even a short-distance blink is an extremely helpful tool for anyone. Very long distance teleportation is rare.
• Witch-like Magic - Witch and Magical Girl kinds of magic are said to be two sides of the same coin. Some rare magical girls are able to perform Witch-like magic. This magic is more difficult to control than usual, and is as ferocious as a Witch.
• Sacred Magic - Sacred magic is more dangerous to Witches and Witch-like beings. Like Witch magic, it usually comes along with more complications and only flavors the character's own skills. The two types of magic are known to cancel each other. In particular, "sacred flame" and "witchfire" are two relatively common patterns.
• Time Magic - The ability to affect the flow of time is highly valued. Some Magical Girls can enhance their own speed by slowing time for themselves, other can do it by quickening it for their enemies. The only known user of a perfect time stop is Chiaki Matsuda.

Spells

A spell is a pattern of magic that can be shared if two Magical Girls can both learn it. They can be recorded on paper.

Many magical girls have never heard of a spell, or would not call the complicated magic they have reached a spell, because it never occured to them that someone could learn from it.

Older Magical Girls and Incubators, who are aware of the full implications of spells, tend to dislike the idea that they would come into common use, since it would make magic too easy to learn, and Magical Girls perhaps much more dangerous, and less inspired. It feels proper if everyone keeps to their own tricks.

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For plot-relevant details, please see Questions and Answers: Magic as well.