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aboutzatanna · 2 years

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The Rules of Magic

One of the most frequently asked questions about Zatanna is how does her magic work? Can she really do anything by speaking backwards?

Well there has been a few rules established about magic but they are disparate and spread out so I will try to coalesce all of them into a singular post. If I missed anything let me know. Also this post isn’t going to be listicle on magic I’m also going to add my own suggestions for how magic works in the DCU in order to fill in some of the blanks.

Anyway, if I missed something or got something or you have your own suggestions let me know in the comments or through a PM.

First, lets establish some ground rules:

Magic began around the same time as the creation of the universe itself. When the Big Bang happened it also released magical energy into the universe as well.

There are characters who are born with magical power, characters who are born with specific magical abilities, characters who get their powers from magical items or they have been physically altered by a magical item, potion or magical being. There are multiple magical civilizations in the DCU: Atlantis, Themysicra, the Hidden City, Skartaris, Gemworld, the Land of Nighshades, the village that Ice/Tora Olafsdotter hails from and countless others.

There are equals, opposites and in-betweens when it comes to cosmic entities. The opposite of order is chaos, the opposite of creation is the Great Darkness seen in Swamp Thing (which in itself was a small piece of a much larger being), the opposite of Hecate is the Otherkind, then you have beings like Dr Fate whom in some incarnations is either an agent of Order, a Lord of Order or in some versions an arbitrator between order and chaos. It really comes down to whoever is wearing the helmet. Then you have individual characters who act as opposites; famously Abel and Cain then you have Phantom Stranger and Spectre, Etrigan and Zauriel, Spectre and Eclipso, Phantom Stranger and Madame Xanadu, etc.

Where DC differs from Marvel primarily when it comes to magic is that in Marvel it’s a learned ability whereas in DC it’s usually an ability you are born with. Now, this a very simplified way of putting it since Marvel has characters who are born with magical power (usually as part of their mutant powers) like Scarlet Witch and Magik and DC has characters who are normal humans who learned magic like Kent Nelson, Inza Cramer and Jared Stevens. When Strange casts spells he is invoking the name of an inter dimensional being which in turn allows them more influence into his dimension, it’s usually Vishanti but even Dormammu’s dark dimension is a place he’s sometimes drawn from as well but Strange can’t rely on one inter dimensional entity too much or they might endanger his realm. Hence why there are Dr Strange arcs where he has to make a faustian bargain with a powerful magical entity for more power because their power and longevity means they can create spells that no human can ever figure out within their life times.

At DC too, other dimensional entities often play a role in granting power to individuals. One area where both Marvel and DC overlap are the ancient gods having their representatives or champions on earth. Marvel has Moon Knight as the current most famous example. DC has Diana who was Athena and Artemis champions in the Perez era, Dr Fate is the host of Nabu and his representative, Spectre is the champion of the Presence/God himself, Captain Marvel/Billy Batson is the wizard Nabu’s champion and the Merlin has his own champion in the form Jason Blood/Etrigan the Demon.

Now, lets look at how DC has classified their magical characters:

This was made by James Tynion IV for DC Nation #4 and I’m glad somebody at DC tried their hand in trying to consolidate the various magical characters into a cohesive system.

But if you turn this into columns in a table in a database and try to slot in characters you’ll probably be bonked on the head by your supervisor and told to eliminate redundancies. Why do Sorcerer and Magician have to be separate? Why do Guardian and Champion have to be separate? Or Archmage and Judge? Where do characters like Raven, Amethyst, Blue Devil, Enchantress, Vixen, Fire (Pre Crisis), Ice (Pre Winnick) and others fit in?

So here is my attempt at a more streamlined version in which I simplify this into 5 categories:

-The Enchanted:

This category denotes characters who have no innate magical abilities but gained them via potions, magical item or by being cursed by a magical being.

To be an Enchanted one you would have to have no innate magical power of your own prior to contact with a magical item (be it potion, magical items) and even if you have altered by a magical being, you’re still free to live your life the way you want to.

Characters who fall into this category include:

-Jim Rook/Nightmaster who was a rockstar whose power comes from a magic sword he found at an antique shop.

-Detective Chimp who became intelligent after drinking from the fountain of youth.

-Blue Devil aka Daniel Cassidy who was a Hollywood stuntman cursed to look like a demon. The same applies to his side kick Kid Devil/Eddie Bloomberg.

-Vixen/Marie Jiwe McCabe whose power comes from the magic totem passed down to her by her ancestors.

-Sargon the Sorcerer, if he possesses no magical power without his ruby then he falls into this category as well.

-If the Gingold that Ralph Dibny drank that gave him magical powers was of magical origin then he would count too.

-Alan Scott would count too since he was a normal human, altered by the magical Starheart and later became an immortal green energy being and he ended up passing down those genes to Jade.

-Max Mercury also falls into this category as he was a normal human granted his speed powers by a Shaman.

-Vandal Savage is harder to classify since the origin of his meteor has never been clarified and is constantly revised.

-Ras and his Lazarus pits would count since the pits were always described as mystical in nature.

- Bloodwynd whose power comes from the mystic Blood Gem created by African American slaves.

-The JSA villain Ian Karkull who uses technology to harness the powers of the dark dimension would also count. Although he is an odd case of using technology to access magic.

-Vampires, ghosts and werewolves count as well if they were once normal humans who were transformed into supernatural beings by other supernatural beings.

Basically, magic is energy and that energy can imbued into any object either by a powerful sorcerer or entity or the object was exposed to ambient magical energy in it’s environment.

If somebody was changed through exposure to a magical object or being then they are an enchanted.

Characters who have no innate power but rely on magical books and artifacts in order to cast spells would also fall into this category.

-Homo Magi:

These are normal humans who possess the ability to manipulate magical energy both within their bodies and ambient magical energy within their environment to cast them spells.

There are two categories of Homo Magi:

Type 1 Homo Magi:

This category includes characters like Zatanna, John Zatara, Madame Xanadu, Dr Mist, Merlin, Arion, Traci 13, Manitou Raven, Nabu, they are characters who manipulate magical energy in it’s purest form and the energy is formed within their bodies. They can use this power to manipulate elements (earth, wind, fire, thunder), teleport, transmute objects, predict the future, create illusions and cast spells or curses. There are many different ‘subjects’ of magic so it’s not unlikely for someone to be good at one thing but bad at others. Zatanna has historically been terrible at seeing the future whereas Xanadu excels at it thanks to centuries of experience but she doesn’t do the flashy stuff that Zatanna usually does mostly due to the wizard Merlin blocking her powers centuries ago.

Most Homo Magi need a ‘key’ to access their abilities. It’s not required but it’s easier if they do. Every magi group have their own ‘key’. For the Zatara’s, it’s their backward speech but most it’s hand movements or any incantations. Hence why Zatanna can still cast magic even without her backwards, it’s the difference between using a screw driver to screw something and doing it with just your hand. It is usually a mark of experience, power and control for someone to cast spells without their ‘key’. Top level magicians like Nabu and Merlin can cast spells with very little movement and sometimes with just a thought.

The bigger the spell the greater the magical energy is required. Stuff like time travel, traveling from one universe to another or one dimension to another, reality warping, creating life from thin air is beyond the ken of normal Homo Magi. That kind of feat would require a huge amount of magical energy as well as magical knowledge which can only be attained through centuries of knowledge or it can be done through a power magical artifact or by bargaining with a cosmic entity. A sufficiently good illusionist can always fake reality warping and time travel.

Think of Homo Magi as living batteries of magical power. They run out of magic power the more they use it. Prolonged magical use, much like any physical activity leads to exhaustion and hunger and they have to wait a couple of hours or days to recharge. Younger mages like Traci 13 and Zachary would have a smaller pool of innate magical energy to draw from while experienced ones like Zatanna, Xanadu and Dr Mist would have larger pools to draw from. Magical energy grows through persistence and training.

Type 2 Homo Magi:

This category includes characters whose magical power manifests as a singular ability or one ability that can branch out into many. Like the Type 1 Homo Magi they’re born with innate magical power in their bodies but when they draw out their power it’s already manifest as something specific. And just like Type 1 Magi, prolonged use of their abilities leads to exhaustion and fatigue and they still have to train to be able to do more with their abilities.

Fire/Beatriz Da Cotza (in her Pre Cisis) and her green flames is one example. So is Ice/Tora Olafsdotter and her ice powers, Aquaman’s ability to communicate with marine life plus Mera and other Atlanteans water bending ability would fall into this category. Sometimes one ability can branch out into many like Nightshade/Eve Eden whose primary power is creating shadow portals but she has other abilities like controlling shadows and low level magic which also stems from her shadow powers and connection to the shadow realm. You can also slot in Rose Canton, Alan Scott’s wife, and their off spring Todd and Jade as well. Jade inherited Alan’s altered human genes making her an Enchanted while Todd inherited his mothers Homo Magi genes but developed a connection to the darkness instead of plants (maybe he has an ancestor who had that power). You can also slot in characters like Johnny Quick and Jesse Quick into this category as it explains why they need a password for their powers to activate their powers while other speedsters don’t.

As established in JLA #165, if a Homo Magi had a child with a normal human, then that child would have only half their power and if that child breeds with another human, then the resulting child would have even less power. Hence why most of magical characters segregated themselves from humanity in order to preserve their power and species. Expanding on that it makes sense why those with similar powers decided to group together in single communities and explains why the DCU have so many hidden societies. This applies to both types of Homo Magi.

Most characters listed here are connected to hidden magical societies. Zatanna’s mom hails from the Hidden City. Raven is from Azarath. Amethyst is from Gemworld. Ice was originally from a hidden society of heroes with ice powers. Eve Eden is from the land of Nigthshades. Dr Mist comes from the ancient African city of Kor. Xanadu and Morgane Le Fay are form Avalon. And there are some like John Zatara and Beatriz Da Costa (Pre Crisis) who weren’t born in magical societies but still developed magical power likely because they had an ancestor who had magical powers.

I would slot in the wizard Shazam and Black Alice as Type 2 as well. I would interpret their abilities as being able to tap into and draw power from other magical beings and create a facsimile of it either for their own use or in the Wizard Shazam’s case, grant it to someone else like Billy Batson. This would mean the Wizard Shazam and Black Alice are very, very, distant relatives.

Obsidian, Shade, Nightshade, Shadow Thief and Ian Karkull are not related but they draw power from the same dark dimension. Either through their magical heritage, magical items or in the case of certain iterations of Shadow Thief and Karkull, using technology. Different keys to access the same power source.

Some characters like Eve Eden/Nightshade and Raven draw power from their dimension and these dimensions are ruled or threatened by powerful entities.

-The Entities:

These are the pantheons, the lords of order and chaos and other cosmic entities.

They are masses of magical energy that accumulated over time given life by human thought and imagination eventually becoming autonomous beings in their own right. They are our dreams and nightmares. Some of are so powerful that humans once worshiped them as Gods and they rule over different dimensions, others are so weak they can be exorcised when you stop believing in their power or existence.

Since they are Gods, they shouldn’t be so easy to kill, they are energy and energy can never be created nor destroyed just changed from one form to another. So even if you ‘kill’ a god, the energy that made them up will simply reform either into a different version of the old god or a new being entirely. If you happen to be standing to next to a ‘magical hotspot’ the magical energy could form into something resembling your worst fears or your best dream. Or if you died near there, a facsimile resembling you (like a ghost) could be created.

Trolls, orcs, goblins, dragons shouldn’t count as entities unless those being were specifically created using pure magical energy by a sorcerer or an entity. Otherwise, they are just beings who exist in other realms much like humans and animals do in ‘our’ realm or they are just beings living in hidden societies on earth.

It is possible for Homo Magi to attain god like power but because they started off as humans, they are still considered Homo Magi albeit very powerful ones. This is where characters like Nabu and the wizard Shazam would fit in. They’re powerful but they’re still not Entities.

Energy changes over time and the Gods exist in cycles, some exist in physical forms, others change their forms constantly and some don’t take on any forms but humans see them however their minds process their appearance. And because Gods exist in cycles, there are old gods and there are new gods, chiefly the ones from Apokolips and New Genesis who have a slightly different kind of existence as the Fourth World characters are melding of both magic and technology. As established in the Days of Vengeance story line, there are different ages of magic and the rules change slightly for each age but they overall stay the same. What would change over time would be the power and potency of magic. I would interpret the first age as when gods and mortals co existed due to both the human and god dimension overlapping and magical power flowing more freely into earthly realm. Then the second age when the two realms moved apart, the third age when they were the furthest apart and the fourth age when they began to intersect again and the fifth and current age being the just like the first age when the two dimensions became even more closely aligned.

There also exists Entities who exist not because of belief but because of the mere existence of the aspect of existence, they are Neil Gaiman’s Endless. Dream will exist so long as someone dreams and likewise Death will exist from the birth of the first being to the end of the universe. They are the highest level of beings. Higher than than Greek, Norse or Abrahamaic pantheons, all of whom, while still unbelievably powerful and representing an aspect of existence, still require followers to sustain their existence. Even if a human does not worship them, just knowing they exist or writer stories about them or name things after them is enough for them to sustain their existence. The Titans of Myth exist on a level higher than Zeus but below the Endless.

Most entities exist in other dimensions. Some can’t leave either because it would upset the cosmic balance since they are so powerful or because of a pact they made with other entities. If there is a dispute between various entities, the ones who settle such conflicts would be the Lords of Order and Chaos and their representatives. Their job is to act as arbitrators and keep the Entities in life and eliminate them if necessary.

What most entities want is to spread their power and influence sometimes at the expense of other entities while others want to maintain peace and balance while still looking after their followers. The entities know they have to maintain followers and representatives in order to preserve their existence. If they are forgotten, they lose their power and they die a true death (this does not apply to the Endless). Hence why many of them will outright life claiming credit for creation of life on earth or other similarly outrageous claims.

Because some entities are so powerful and because any all out conflict between them would result in annihilation of everything and because some of them can’t actually leave their realms without help or can’t directly interact with the mortal world, they often need a representative to carry out their will. Which brings us to:

-The Champions:

They are the representatives, the enforcers, the ones who carry out the wills of the various entities.

-Wonder Woman is the champion of Athena and Artemis.

-The Spectre is the champion of the Presence.

-Deadman is the champion of Rama Kushna.

-Jason Blood/Etrigan are the champion of Merlin.

-Billy Batson and the Marvel Family are the champions of the wizard Shazam.

-Swamp Thing who serves the Green (or at least when he serves them) counts as well.

-Raven can be interpreted as a Champion of Trigon but she rebelled against him.

-The Phantom Stranger is at times shown to be a servant of the Lords of Order. But other times he’s shown to be operating on his own will... or is he? You can never really tell with the Stranger and that’s how it should always be.

-Dr Fate is usually depicted as a servant of the Lords of Order. Although I do have an issue with order being depicted as inherently good while chaos is depicted as inherently bad. After all fascism is a kind of order albeit a tyrannical one while democracy is a form of controlled chaos. When order becomes stale or tyrannical then chaos is necessary to uproot them while order is necessary because too much chaos leads to injustice and prevents us from achieve a common goal. Personally, I like the suggestion made during the Eric and Linda Strauss era Dr Fate ongoing and in Gaiman’s Books of Magic and even during the exxtreeeeme 90′s era Jared Stevens Dr Fate book that order and chaos aren’t inherently bad and that Fate has both order and chaos in him and acts like more like an arbitrator between them. He has to choose whether order or chaos is necessary for each situation.

-Donna Troy's Titans Seed origin definitely counts as an example of being a champion.

Basically to be a champion you have to be empowered by a cosmic entity or a sorcerer on a similar level to serve as an agent who carries out the will of their benefactors. Some have more free reign like Deadman, Billy Batson and to an extent Diana while others like Phantom Stranger, Dr Fate and Spectre operate under much tighter rules.

By carrying out the will of the entity, the champions are (intentionally or not) maintaining the belief of the existence of said entities which prolongs their existence and allows them greater and greater influence over the mortal world.

Black Adam does not count as a champion since he only serves himself and acts 100% of his own will. He was a champion once with powers granted to him by the Wizard Shazam but because he was corrupted by them he was banished by the Wizard Shazam to the distant cosmos which he didn't return from until centuries later. So he is an ex champion but now one of the Enchanted.

-The Offspring:

They’re the children of Entities.

To count in this category, you have to be the child of an entity and another non entity being (human, troll, orc, alien, etc). If you’re a being created from nothing or clay brought to life like Diana or the Galatea from the myths then you don’t count. If you’re a descendant of a powerful sorcerer like Merlin, Nabu or Shazam and have inherited their power through the generation then you don’t count either.

-All the children Zeus sired with mortal women would count as this but not the ones he sired with other Goddesses. And just like in Greek mythology, a child of a God could be born perfectly normal (like many Greek heroic figures) with no supernatural powers beyond feeling a connection to the parent God or they are born as a full blown God themselves with their own powers.

-In the recent Truth & Justice #1 mini we learned that Vixen is a descendant of Anansi. He was her great, great, great, x1000 grandfather. Thus she shares a psychic connection to him and so she counts as an Offspring.

The more human like Offspring may not have flashy powers but they do share latent abilities from the entities which mostly manifests as a psychic connection to the Gods.

-Raven would count as well since she is the child of a human woman and a demonic father and all her powers stem from her demonic father.

-Lilith Clay from NTT is the daughter of the Theia of the Titans of Myth and a mortal man and that’s the origin of her vast psychic ability. If an Offspring gains powers, it’s usually not the exact same ones as their parents or ancestors. It can be something vastly different. None of the children of Ares has the same powers he does either. The same goes for the various children of gods in other mythologies as well.

Prior to the Nu52 continuity, Wonder Woman’s mother Hippolyta was revealed to be the daughter Ares during John Bryne’s run:

Source: Wonder Woman Vol 2 #136

And also during the Silver Age WW comics:

Source: Wonder Woman Vol 1 #183

But she has no special powers beyond the ones that the Goddesses granted her as well as power derived from various magical items.

Overlap

Yes, there are also overlaps in the way I categorized magic.

-Vixen/Marie Jiwe McCabe would count as both Enchanted and Offspring. Seeing as she is a descendant of Anansi and her power comes from her connection to the amulet.

-Raven would also fit into Champion and Offspring category. After all, she was born with her powers, Trigon has attempted to use her multiple times as his pawn and gateway to the mortal world and Trigon himself would count as an Entity.

-Alan Scott is an Enchanted who had offspring with the Homo Magi Type 2 (Rose Canton) resulting in Jade who inherited her fathers ability (which were a result of his genes being altered by the Starheart) which makes her an Enchanted. While Obsidian inherited his mother’s genes and her schizophrenia but his abilities are different from his mothers. This could be explained away as Rose having an ancestor who had shadow abilities.

-Now, I also slotted in Johnny and Jesse Quick as T2 Magi. This is my own interpretation of their power set. In the latter’s case, this would make Johnny's daughter Jesse Quick is both the child of a Homo Magi and a Meta human (her mother is Liberty Belle). Jesse and Johnny have only one power which is access to the speed force by reciting a formula (the key). Jesse has some of her mother abilities like super strength and enhanced durability and ability to access the Speed Force from her father. The Magi gene is non dominant so it’s rare for her to inherit it in the first place. Think of it as similar to how blood types are passed down. Since Jesse Quick married Rick Tyler (Hourman 2) who is a meta human, their kids would most likely be meta humans, although if they had more than one kid, it’s possible that one of them will have a less potent version of her Homo Magi abilities. Or may be it will show up in their grand kids or great grand kids at some point.

As we head down the rabbit hole of classification, things are bound to get more complex.

For example, all Atlanteans count as Enchanted since their ability to breath under water was granted to them by a powerful sorcerer and entities. Still, among them there are Homo Magi of both types as well as meta humans.

On Themyscira too, all the Amazons would count as Enchanted, since they were all women whose lives were cut short by violence, given a second chance on a Paradise Island with new bodies by the Greek Goddesses. Among them there would be Amazon Homo Magi of both types and possibly metas. This explains Amazon mages like Magala and the Hecate tribe seen in JLD.

Wonder Woman herself was the soul of a child that Hippolyta had during her mortal life, whose soul was preserved by the Goddesses and then reincarnated into the mortal world which would put her in the Enchanted category. Then she won the contest becoming a Champion and when she died, ascended to being the Goddess of Truth.

And if Diana counts as an Enchanted one because of her birth then so should Hector Hall; the son of the Golden Age Hawkman and Hawkgirl who were reincarnated ancient Egyptian. Hector was born without a soul, which made him a target of various magical beings, seemingly died and was later reborn as the 5th wearer of Dr Fate. He also had a romance with Lyta Hall (who was initially the daughter of Diana and Steve Trevor and later the daughter of a different hero) resulting in Daniel Hall who would go on to replace Dream of the Endless, thus ascending to an Entity.

Here is a rough Venn Diagram to represent these classifications in which I tried to fit in as many characters as possible:

Now lets look at things from a cosmic perspective:

Origin of Magic & GL

As established in the comics, the Big Bang also released magical energy into the universe.

I imagine not every part of the universe were bathed equally in magical energy, some parts more than others. I imagine the Maltusians (the race that the Guardians of the Universe) hails from had little to no magical energy affect. But sectors like Earth, Mars, the planet Despero hails from and Thanagar were more affected than others. Hence why there have been sorcerers and entities from those worlds. We know from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and Martian Manhunters ongoing that there have been Martian Gods. There have also been a few mystical characters hailing from Krypton but I don’t think they were as common on Krypton as they are on Earth/Thanagar/Mars. Same goes for Rann, Tamaran and the Vega System (which Tamaran is located in).

We know from the comics that the Maltusian Krona attempted to look back in time, to before the Big Bang but the experiment went wrong resulting in the creation of the Multiverse as well as the Anti Matter world with the Anti-Monitor and his counterpart the Monitor. Krona is responsible for unleashing ‘evil’ into the universe hence the Maltusians became the Guardians of the Universe in order to rectify that mistake.

Now, ‘evil’ is an abstract concept so what if instead of ‘evil’, Krona accidentally unleashed excess magical energy into the universe? The excess magical energy combined with the imagination of sentient beings lead to the birth of various cosmic entities. One of the GLC’s oldest foes are after all the ‘Empire of Tears’ a race of demonic creatures imprisoned in Ysmault and also Nekron.

Now, the Monitor and Anti-Monitor wouldn’t count as magical beings even if the same incident gave rise to them. The Anti-Monitor was born, not from magical energy, but from anti-matter energy and to counter balance him, is the Monitor and logically his powers would stem from matter.

So in order to rectify this mistake, the Guardians created the Manhunters but they malfunctioned resulting in the genocide of Sector 666 and setting Atrocitus on the path to becoming the founder of the Red Lanterns. The Guardians chose to disband the Manhunters and in their place chose to empower the residents of the sectors with a tool powered by their will and imagination thus the creation of the GLC. The organization wasn’t created just to fight Entities but to allow each GL to protect their homeworlds from other invaders and threats.

So are the GLC magic?

Nope. The ring is pure technology. It’s tech so advanced that humans can’t even comprehend it yet.

Imagine if you and a Magi were trapped in a darkened tunnel and the Magi illuminated the tunnel by summon a palm sized ball of light but you used a flashlight. Same result but different ways to get there. In this analogy, the GL rin would be akin to the flashlight.

Furthermore, in the comics, it’s also established that the Starheart or the ‘Green Flame of Light’ was mystic energy of the universe that the Guardians couldn’t control so they balled it up and tried to hide or suppress it but a small piece of it ended up escaping, accumulating debris along the way, becoming a meteor and crash landed on earth in ancient China. There, it was fashioned to a lantern and later given to Kublai Khan as a gift who in turn gifted it to Marco Polo and centuries later ended up in the hands of Alan Scott who became the Golden Age GL of earth.

The Guardians created their own power source comprised of their own mental energy which became the Central Battery which the GLC draws power from to this day but it’s likely they took inspiration from the Green Flame of Light to do so.

The current volume of Green Lantern, ‘Green Lantern Vol 6 (2021)’ introduced a race of magical beings who worshiped the Starheart and hates the Guardians for taking away the ‘magix’ of the universe.

So.....to summarize everything I’ve written thus far:

-The Big Bang released magical energy into the universe. Some parts of the universe were more affected by this energy than others. This magical energy mixed with the imagination of various sentient beings resulted in the creation of various Entites.

On earth, these entities were worshiped as Gods. To restore order to the universe and rectify their mistake, the Maltusians aka the Guardians of the Universe created the Manhunters and when that backfired they created the Green Lantern Corps. They also suppressed the magics of the universe but a small fragment of it landed on earth and at some point it became the ‘Starheart’, the power source of GL Alan Scott.

There are 5 categories of magical beings:

The Enchanted: Not born with any power. They get their power from various magical items, potions or they have been cursed by a sorcerer or demon which results in supernatural ability. And they have free will to do whatever they want.

Homo Magi: Those who are born with magical power. Their bodies create magical power naturally. There are two types; Type 1 who can create pure magical energy (like Zatanna, Xanadu, Traci 13) and Type 2 who has either one power or one power that can branch out to into many (Nightshade, Johnny and Jesse Quick, Fire, Ice). You are either one or the other you can’t be both types at once.

The magical gene is non dominant so generations of intermingling with humans would lead to the power being wiped out. Hence why the Magi segregated into magical societies for centuries.

Entities: As described above beings made of pure magical energy who reflect the fears and hopes of humanity. Different entities have different levels of power. On earth, they maintain harmony through pacts and bargains. They can’t be killed only changed from one form to another and their existence is sustained by beliefs. If enough people stop believing in them or powering them they would cease to exist. Eg: Ares exists due to war, if war and conflict ended then Ares would cease to exist or if war lessened then he would be depowered at the very least.

The Champions: the ones who carry out the will of the Entities or a powerful, wizard or sorcerer as their representatives and have been granted power by them. Eg: Dr Fate, Spectre, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel/Shazam, Phantom Stranger, Deadman, etc.

The Offspring: the child of an Entity and another being (usually human). Some of them have powers, some do not but they do share a psychic connection to their Entity parent even if said Entity was a distant ancestor.

All the various dimensions we see were formed after the Big Bang that sent that magical wave across the universe. Some were created or at least shaped by powerful sorcerers or entities. As established in ‘Adventure Comics #413′ if a powerful sorcerer finds themselves trapped in a dimension they can’t just teleport themselves away from they’ll just have to find the nearest magical portal that will take them home.

And that about wraps it up.

What do you guys think?

A lot of the information here isn’t new. I’ve made only very few additions and a few tweaks here to canon (like the Quicks being Homo Magi and Obsidian’s powers coming from a distant ancestor). I mostly focused on categorizing existing canon material in a cohesive way. Make each category broader but still defined to fit in as many characters as possible. It’s not a wholesale rewriting of the DCU power system so much as it is a new way of organizing them and thinking about them.

One thing I couldn’t find a straight answer for is whether Jason Blood had magical abilities before he was bonded to the demon Etrigan. Blood has been shown doing magic on his own but whether it’s through rituals or due to his bond with Etrigan was unclear. Same for Dr Occult, it wasn’t clear whether he had innate magic or whether the source of his power was the talisman he always carried. He seems to have some innate powers but mostly seems to rely on magical items.

Neil Gaiman’s Books of Magic series and Sandman run, Ostrander’s Spectre and Suicide Squad runs, Wolfman & Perez’s New Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing run and his short GLC stories which also heavily influenced Geoff Johns Green Lantern run, Johns own GL run, Wagner’s Madame Xanadu series, the current GL run by Thorne, Robinson/Goyer/Johns JSA run, Pasko & Simsons Dr Fate mini series, Giffen & DeMattis’ Dr Fate series, JLD Vol 2 by Tynion VI & Ram V, Neal Adams Deadman stories, were all heavy influences in creating this post and I recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

Also, I know my posts are loooooong and I try to break them up with images, bullet points, bolding specific texts and other tricks to make it more readable. If you have any suggestions to make posts more readable and accessible, do let me know.

And as always feel free to ask me anything.

litnu txen emit!