From: david goodner <david_goodner>
Date: Tue Jun 19, 2001 8:18 pm
Subject: [TGS] Unified Magic Theory

I bring glad tidings.

While I was hunting for a blank disk to use to carry a
font to Kinkos, I happened across the disk that had my
Gargoyles Magic article on it. I'm going to copy it
down below AND put it on as an attachment. (It's 7
pages long, so it will probably post much better in
the original .doc format).

I wrote it a long time ago, so I'm not sure how valid
it is now. Feel free to discuss, suggest changes, or
just call me an idiot. (Actually, I prefer "moron")

David G.

Magic in the Gargoyles Universe
By David Goodner

Introduction
The following essay originated as a post to the
Gargoyles Saga comment room in which I tried to
explain the workings of magic in various Gargoyles
episodes (both from the TV show and the online
series'). My work was entirely speculative, based on
my personal perceptions, my limited knowledge of real
occultism, my experience as an RPG gamer, and my ideas
as a writer.

Any analysis of Gargoyles magic is necessarily
imperfect, since the writers of the series are not
always consistent. This is to be expected, since the
writers, if forced to choose, will allow dramatic
necessity to prevail over hard rules.

Part 1: the Force of Magic
The first step in defining magic is to determine where
it comes from. Owen told Xanatos that all energy,
even magical energy, is subject to physical laws.
Further, the second season of Gargoyles has Unseelie
Halflings drawing their power from Ley Lines. From
this, we can determine that magic comes from one or
more energy fields. For convenience' sake I will
refer to magical energy as mana throughout this
article. I believe that there are two fields. One
surrounds the earth, flowing in currents that follow
mostly stable paths, which are known as Ley Lines.
Geography, celestial motion, and other factors
influence these paths so that the amount of magical
energy available at any one place varies over time,
ebbing and flowing. The total amount of mana
available also fluctuates with time, being higher at
times of celestial significance such as the Summer
Solstice. The second field is generated by the mystic
island of Avalon. Unlike the Earth field, the Avalon
field is constant, and always available.

To envision the two types of mana, I present this
example. Electricity is the basis for almost all of
our technology, but it can be generated in multiple
ways. Any form of power that can turn a turbine can
run a power plant: wind, tides, burning coal, nuclear
power, or several others. Magic works the same way.
The end result is magic. The possible sources are
Earth's mana, or Avalon's mana.

The Earth Field
The Earth's mana field is generated by the life energy
of the Earth. Living mana is always available, but in
relatively limited amounts. This is the energy swept
along the Ley Lines, and is the usual power source for
mortal magic users. There is nothing to indicate that
mortals need any special `gift' to practice magic, so
I assume that all humans are connected to the mana
field. The life energy they generate is swept up into
the nearest current and drawn into the network of Ley
Lines. Similarly, when a mortal wishes to use magic,
he draws it down the same connection.

The fact that the collective life-force of earth is
generating the mana field is embodied in the
Dreamtime. Every living creature contributes
something, and any intelligent entity is capable,
under some circumstances, of interacting with it.
This poses some interesting implications that I will
discuss in section three.

Earth's mana requires careful control. There are
actually many factors contributing to the mana: life,
death, the weather, the seasons, the dreams of
mortals, and factors I can't even imagine. This makes
the mana of earth rather chaotic compared to Avalon's
mana. Several episodes focusing on Human or Halfling
spellcasters have shown bad results of poorly cast
spells, whereas Faerie spells always seem to work
properly. One reason for this is discussed later.
The other reason, I believe, is that the magic of
earth is unstable, and not naturally responsive to
mortal will. Earth's mana field is not meant to be
used for magic, but fulfills some role in the natural
scheme of things. There is no scientific evidence for
a mana field, but Literature will allow me to stretch
the bounds of natural philosophy to say that its
probable purpose is to maintain the delicate balance
of factors that allow a planet to support life. The
mana field is the `soul' of the world, if you will.
This imposes several limitations on mortal
spellcasters, which will be discussed in a later
section.

The Avalon Field
The Magus said that magic was readily available on
Avalon, and when he used it, the Weird Sisters
condemned him for draining the life of their land.
From this, I conclude that Avalon is a massive battery
or generator of magical energy. (Oberon's father) may
have actually created Avalon for the Fey. It not only
provides a home, but a source of power.

The Avalon field behaves more like an artifact than a
living thing. Even the Magus, who was pretty shoddy
as sorcerers go, was able to perform amazing feats
with the magic of Avalon to support him. The Fey are
almost godlike, and Oberon is even stronger. Avalon's
magic responds to the desires of its users, which is
the prime advantage of Fey spellcasters.

The only major limitation on Avalon's mana is a
negative reaction to iron. This limitation actually
seems to come from the Fey themselves, rather than
from their source of magic. Merlin and the Magus had
no trouble manipulating iron with their spells, but
Coyote could be imprisoned in an iron chamber, and in
"Darkest Hour part 2," Titania could not teleport out
of an iron lined elevator shaft.

Magic Incompatibility
Several times during the series, sorcerers say that
mixing magic types is dangerous. At other points,
however, they seem to trade techniques and energy
sources with relative ease. For instance, The Magus
has no trouble working magic in Avalon, and even
masters the art of running spells without a preset
formula. The major difference has to be in the way
the power is used. Fey cast their spells naturally,
as an extension of will, or an art. Mortals cast
their spells formulaically, like a science, with every
factor carefully controlled.

I will discuss this more later, particularly in the
Halflings section.

Part 2: Practice of Magic
Now that we have a rough theory of the power source,
let's look at how a sorcerer actually does anything.
There are two major types of sorcery, first is Faerie
magic, and second is mortal magic, which I am going to
call Wizardry for convenience sake.

I believe that Faerie magic was first, and that
Faeries taught humans and gargoyles how to work magic.
This has to do with my theory of what the Fey folk
are, and how they exist.

In either form, a spell does the same thing: gathering
mana and feeding it into a magical `matrix' that
temporarily alters the rules of reality. Magic does
not so much break physical laws, as create new
conditions that seem to break physical laws. Spells
can't create matter, but they can convert energy into
matter, and draw in energy to make up the difference.
Levitation isn't defying gravity; it's creating a
highly localized gravity pocket that nullifies gravity
right where you are. The amount of energy any
individual possesses would be insufficient for even a
simple spell, but the individual doesn't need the
energy for the spell, just the energy to draw upon
mana. Even so, there is a drain on the spellcaster's
personal reserves, as his energies are needed to start
the ball rolling.

Faerie Magic
The Fey use magic naturally. They ARE magic. Faeries
are creatures of the spirit world who take on
corporeal form. To them, magic is `visible.' They
have an innate sense of the presence of magical
energy. This is how Oberon was able to so easily
determine Puck's whereabouts in (episode A). This
does not mean, however, that they use magic naturally.
Instead, I believe that they must exercise their
magical senses, or those senses can be lost. The same
thing happens if a human child is raised without
language. After a certain threshold, acquiring
language becomes almost impossible. Before that
threshold, language is acquired without even trying.
Even if no one ever actually tries to teach a baby to
speak, he will learn so long as someone speaks around
him.

Assuming I'm right about the origin of Avalon, the
ancient Fey created it as a refuge and a power source,
or it was created for them. Raised in an environment
of magic, Faeries learn to manipulate it as easily as
they learn to walk or talk. To demonstrate this, one
simply has to note the ease with which Fey fly,
teleport, and become invisible. All of these are
feats that mortal Wizards can either do with great
difficulty, or not at all.

The model of language acquisition continues to serve
as the Faeries advance in power. Each of the major
Fey we have been introduced to has a specific
bailiwick. Loki does fire, Odin does weather, and
Puck does transformation tricks. Any Fey can do any
of these things to some degree, but certain Fey seem
specialized. In the same way, as humans grow, their
linguistic abilities become refined. A poet has
considerably different methods of self-expression than
a truck driver or a brain surgeon. Their vocabularies
are different. I think the same applies to the Fey in
magical powers.

Faeries manipulate mana by envisioning the effect they
desire and focusing their will on it. They have
various mental techniques to aid them in this task,
but all that is strictly necessary is thought. The
Avalon mana responds by doing whatever is necessary to
grant the Faerie's desire. For simple or personal
effects, even the weakest Faerie only needs to think
about what he wants to do. Most `mundane' effects
don't even qualify as spells, being so easy to
accomplish that the Faerie does them without
consciously thinking about it. For example, Puck
floats all over the place with nary a problem, while
Angela complains that a simple levitation spell is too
hard.

However, the more sweeping a given spell, the more
mana it takes to enact it, and the more concentration
the Faerie has to muster. For spells with a wide area
of effect, or any complexity, most of the Fey use
poetry, gestures, or both. Perhaps by engaging the
motor and auditory nervous system, as well as the
visual cortex, the Faerie is able to draw more power.
Note that some Faeries are able to do things
automatically that require a good deal of effort from
others. Oberon and Madoc were powerful enough that if
they were to do battle directly the results would be
cataclysmic. At his full power level Oberon did
things that no other faerie in the series did, and
never so much as chanted a rhyme. Presumably, the
Faeries have tiers of power. Oberon, as one of the
oldest, is more powerful than his subjects are.
However, we have no way of telling his age, as Faerie
appearance is more a matter of personal taste than
necessity. Another theory is that Oberon, as the son
of the creator of Avalon, has a closer tie to the
mystic island than other Fey. As such, he can draw
more power more quickly, and more aptly. Any child
sharing of his line would be similarly stronger than
another faerie, but still weaker than Oberon. This
would explain why Umbriel was both able to learn magic
on his own, and was stronger than most of the other
Halflings, and strong enough to be impudent with true
Fey.

Faerie Artifacts
Occasionally the Fey use special tools in their
magics. The series has produced *** Faerie Artifacts
of note: Titania's Mirror, the Phoenix Gate, the Eye
of Odin, Excalibur, and the Gae Bolgia. Curiously,
all of these artifacts work at least as well for
mortals as they do for the Fey. In fact, most of them
seem to have been created for mortal use. Only
Titania's Mirror is extensively used by the Fey.

These objects create several questions. Why would the
Fey need tools? Why would they give them to humans?
How were they created?

First, how are Faerie artifacts created: The process
is similar to creating a spell. The Faerie envisions
a desired effect, in this case an object with certain
occult powers. The object must also be physically
created. None of the Artifacts revealed in the series
were created out of thin air, though we do not know
the origins of all of them. The Faerie does not
create the object, but embues it with new properties.
However, something must sustain the powers of the
object. I theorize that the creation of a Faerie
artifact requires an effusion of Faerie essence. For
instance, Odin gave up his eye for wisdom, and it was
crafted into the Eye. The Phoenix Gate derived all
its power from being a prison for Loki. The essence
of the Fey allows the Artifact to draw upon Avalon's
magic for an eternal power supply.

Second, why would the fey need tools: This is slightly
more complicated. Since a Faerie can do virtually
anything, at any time, magical objects would seem to
be superfluous. However, those used primarily by the
Fey do have one advantage, that of convenience. An
Artifact is useful for something you want to do all
the time, or very frequently. Titania's mirror allows
the user to scry or teleport without the bother of
casting a spell. The Phoenix gate holds Loki without
needing to be watched or maintained. That it has
other properties is probably a side effect. Tools
used by other Fey would likely have similar purposes.
Hephestus' forge allows him to create artifacts, which
might be tedious otherwise. I have no proof that the
forge is magical in any way, but it otherwise fits my
criteria.

Finally, why give Artifacts to humans: The Fey likely
taught humanity how to use magic. They did this for
their own ends, to create more useful servants.
Artifacts given to humans would serve a similar
purpose. Prometheus, in his guise as Bran, wanted to
protect the people of Ulster. Giving his son the Gae
Bolgia allowed him to keep his people safe without
having to watch them constantly. The Lady of the Lake
most likely had similar designs in mind for the
Britons who led by King Arthur. By giving the sword
into the hands of the person she wanted to be king,
she could virtually ensure his succession without
direct interference in the conflict. The Eye of Odin
is a bit more complicated. It seems to serve only as
a really harsh teacher. I think the core of its
creation was the lesson that wisdom is more important
than power.

The Rules of Faerie Magic
These rules are basic guidelines that seem to define
the way the Fey use their magic. They are based on my
observations, and a lot of guesswork.
1. Magic is intuitive. Manipulating magic is a task
of the imagination. You must be able to think of the
effect you want to make it happen.
2. Faerie Mana is cheap. Faeries rarely need to
gather strength for a spell, and recover their
strength rapidly. Note Oberon's recovery from massive
drain and iron wounds as soon as he had a minute to
catch his breath.
3. Magic is directional. There are no examples of a
"Smite from anywhere" spell. Faerie Magic also does
not appear to be `contagious' or `conductive.' For
instance, Puck needed to be able to `broadcast' his
`Human to Gargoyle' spell, and the reverse from a
skyscraper, whereas Demona could affect the same
number of people if they simply saw her face and heard
her voice.
4. Drain is physical. Faeries seem to suffer
physical loss of strength from using magic. Thus Puck
"is going to need a long nap" after a night of heavy
spellcasting, unless he was just lying. However, if
my theory that the Fey are spiritual beings is true
then using lots of magic would result in physical
harm.
5. Magic goes away. Magic is a temporary blip in the
laws of reality. If a spell is not designed to either
detonate instantly or to fade after a time, there must
be an escape clause. Thus, Demona and Macbeth are
immortal until one kills the other. A notable
exception is Puck's `gift' to Demona. I think the
loophole here is that Demona is only human some of the
time.
6. Magic can't give life. Faeries are powerless over
death. It is possible for them to heal almost any
level of wounds, in themselves, or in others, but at
the point where the wounds would prove fatal, the
magic can not compensate. This rule is rather hazy,
as Titania seemingly broke it to restore the Cold Duo,
and the Lady of the Lake brought Lancelot to Avalon to
heal him since otherwise he would die. Possibly in
that case it was infection that would have killed him,
and the Lady could not help him, but she could kill
the infection. The Cold Duo present more complicated
case, that I will discuss below.

Wizardry
The first Wizards probably learned from the Faeries.
This would follow if the Fey were able to sense magic,
while mortals could not. In my model, that is one of
the major differences between mortals and Faeries.
The Faeries are beings of energy, while mortals are
creatures of matter. At any rate, 11,000 years ago
the Fey were the gods of the ancient peoples. Small
groups of Faeries adopted certain peoples. To aid
their chosen followers, these Fey taught their closest
servants the rudiments of magic. Mortals were not
good students. On one hand they couldn't see what
they were doing (Remember, Demona taught Angela a
spell to allow her to read auras), meaning the Fey
teachers had to devise systems of rules to properly
focus their students' minds. On the other, humans are
ungrateful and curious little buggers, so they
immediately went off to make up new spells with which
to destroy their oppressive overlords.

Wizardry exists in several forms of occultism. The
most prevalent school was the Hermetic style
popularized in ancient Greece and Rome. Hermetic
magic is based on the Latin language, and works in a
fashion very similar to Fey magic. The Hermetic
Wizard pretty much just says what he wants to happen,
and it happens. Other Wizards use other forms to
achieve the same results. The Hopi trained by Coyote
use songs. A Japanese Miko might use calligraphy.
Whatever the style, Wizards are limited to a small
selection of predictable spells, and require a lot
more chanting and props to gather the power. Wizards'
spells are not adaptable at all. A spell to produce a
light always produces the same light. A spell to
control one person's mind can only control one
person's mind. It could not be used to simply
influence his mind, and it would have to be cast
several times to affect several minds.

The Magus said he needed a `conduit' to work magic
effectively. He claimed the Grimorium Arcamorium was
such a conduit, but implied that there were more.
However, Una and Demona cast spells effectively
without any apparent conduit. There are two probable
explanations. (A) The Magus was not a good Wizard.
Since his training was probably spotty or interrupted
by the death of the Archimage, that would be no
surprise. The requirement of a conduit might be
unique to him. (B) Una and Demona had conduits, but
we don't know what they are. It might be that a large
number of occult objects serve as conduits for magic,
and the ones Demona and Una used were just smaller
than the Grimorium. This is the explanation I prefer,
as it fits into my theory of magic well. Since the
natural direction for Earth mana to flow is away from
the person generating it, a conduit item might serve
as a magnet, pulling magic in the direction of the
caster. Without it, he's reduced to `swimming against
the current' to draw his power, which would make it
more draining. Note, however, that Angela doesn't
seem to have anything to use as a conduit. She
doesn't need one, she has one, but we don't know what
it is, or her time on Avalon has attuned her to magic
enough that she acts as a conduit herself somehow. My
personal explanation is that the Grimorie Demona gave
her is a conduit, and when she doesn't use it, she
borrows something else from Demona. Also, she seems
pretty weak as a sorceress. Maybe she'd be better
with some item of power.

Learning Magic
A Wizard needs a teacher, or at least a good reference
library. Most Wizardry is done `by rote' meaning the
Wizard does not need to understand the principals
behind the spells he casts as long as he understands
the basic principle of gathering mana, and executes
the spell correctly. A Wizard would have a hard time
reaching the level of facility with magic available to
the Faeries because he can't start learning magic
until after the `threshold' of acquisition. This goes
back to the fact that mortals can't sense magic. You
would have to be old enough to understand difficult
concepts before someone could teach you any magic,
which would be too old to get completely fluent in a
second language. If there are any magical prodigies
in the Gargoyles universe, they have not been used in
any stories.

Learning spells is relatively easy. Based on Angela's
studies, I would say it is as easy to learn a simple
spell as it would be to learn a simple martial arts
technique, or a single song if you already knew how to
play the instrument. Spells do, particularly for
beginners, require practice. Fortunately, the more
spells you know, the easier it seems to be able to
learn new ones. Otherwise, Wizards would be very
unlikely to be able to execute spells that require a
specific celestial alignment, since you'd only get one
chance every generation or so.

There is not enough evidence to show how easy it is to
translate a spell from one style to another. Demona
had no trouble with Atlantean spells, but she's had a
thousand years to practice, and Atlantis shared roots
with Greece, which shared roots with Rome, from which
the Hermetic style emerged. Translation might not be
necessary. Once you know the principles of
spellcasting, you might be able to recite spells in
any language you could read. All the Wizards in the
series seem to stick to a single style. Demona uses
Hermetic magic. Beth uses Hopi songs. (Harthoth)
uses ancient Egyptian necromantic practices. Merlin
uses both Latin and Gaelic spells, but he's usually
just doing Faerie style magic in a strange language,
so his example is not really useful.

Practice of Wizardry
A Wizard has procedures to follow if he wants to cast
a spell. First, he needs a conduit. The bare minimum
seems to be a page from a book of magic. Possibly,
the act of writing the spell down gives it some
measure of power. There seem to be several possible
conduits. A magic staff or something would probably
function. Magic tomes work. Beth's ceremonial spells
indicate that a large number of people can act as a
conduit, or overcome the need for one.

Second, he needs a spell. Unlike the Fey, Wizards
can't make spells up on the spot. New spells can be
created, but the process takes time, study, and
experimentation. Wizards' spells seem to work like
computer programs, doing the same thing in the same
way over and over. Bugs in a spell would probably do
a lot worse than just screw up the bus schedule, so
research Wizards are nervous people. Older spells are
probably better than `modern' spells, since the Fey
who taught the first mortals were better able to make
spells without side effects.

Third, some spells require props. Obviously a spell
to let you scry through a pool of ink won't work if
you don't have ink. Some props are even more
important. These Talismans actually seem to have
spells hardwired into them, such that the specific
item is required to cast the spell. Demona's
bloodstone is an example of this type. So,
apparently, are some of the pages of the Grimorium.
The mind control spell on Goliath was controlled by
the person holding the page the spell was written on.
The largest Talismans are `Places of Power.' These
are usually structures, but sometimes simply
locations. Whatever the case, they are situated to
gather large quantities of Mana. The two most well
known in the series are Stonehenge, which is a vast
talisman for time and dimensional spells, and the gate
to Avalon that is somewhere in Arizona.

Fourth, a spell must be performed in a specific way.
This is the most stringent requirement. In my theory,
the exacting nature of spellcasting is all based upon
getting precisely the right amount of energy for the
spell, and manipulating it in precisely the right way.
Magic is very exacting. A miscast spell, at best,
will do nothing. The spell matrix breaks down and
dissolves. At worse, it does something you didn't
want it to, usually at the cost of local real estate
values. A spell's performance has two components,
accuracy, and timing. Accuracy is needed to form the
spell matrix correctly. Timing might be needed to be
certain that there is enough mana available to perform
the spell at all.

Rules of Wizardry
Mortal magic is distinctly different in form and
utilization from Faerie magic. These are the
guidelines that seem to define Wizardry, also based on
a little evidence and a lot of guessing.
1. Magic is by rote. Wizards can't improvise.
Spells always do exactly what they were designed to
do. Design of new spells is time consuming and
dangerous. Wizards never know exactly how a new spell
will work until it has been tried. Most researchers
focus on finding old spells that will do what they
want, rather than making new ones.
2. Power is hard to get. The vast stores that most
Faeries can draw upon are closed to most mortal
Wizards. They have to either be well placed, on a
major Ley Line nexus, or casting at a time of high
mana.
3. Drain is mental. Wizards use less of their
personal energies to enact spells. Long before their
health is endangered, their bodies' natural safeguards
usually shut down their access to the mana flow. This
is why Wizards get headaches instead of passing out
and why they can still walk around and fight without
notable problems even when they can't cast any more
spells. The Magus, who died after a duel with the
Weird sisters, is a notable exception. However, he
was mainlining Avalon mana, which his body wasn't
designed to use, and which he hadn't been trained to
work with. Also, the sheer desperation of his battle
might have led him to push himself too far. Since he
never stopped casting spells long enough for his body
to shut him down, he was `able' to kill himself.
4. Magic goes away. Wizards also have to put limits
on their spells. Meyrt's immortality only extends as
long as she remains in Egypt. The Gargoyles would
remain stone until the castle rose above the clouds.
Other spells are either intermittent, or fade over
time.
5. Magic can give life. I doubt that a Wizard could
create true life from scratch, but mortal magic does
seem to have much more leeway with the spirits of the
dead and dying. Demona, with Xanatos to aid her, was
able to restore life to Coldstone when all she had
were fragments over one thousand years old.

Part 3: Exceptions
Everything I defined above is true about 80 to 90% of
the time. However, there are some elements of the
saga that don't exactly fit. In this section, I'll
try to address those topics.

The Archimage
The Archimage breaks all the rules. When he tried to
take over Avalon, he was a virtually invincible
Wizard, able to cast spells with little more than a
word or gesture. He achieved this power by consuming
the Grimorium Arcanorium, and wearing the Phoenix Gate
and the Eye of Odin. The Grimorium was for power.
The Gate was for knowledge and movement, and the Eye
was for control. However, if the Grimorium was
nothing more than a conduit for spellcasting, how did
it give the Archimage more power? The answer is that
it didn't increase his power level at all. Being on
Avalon would do that. It still acted as a conduit,
while also giving him full access to the knowledge on
the pages. Centuries of magical scholarship gave him
a knowledge of Wizardry to rival the intuitive magic
of the Fey. However, he needed the Eye to control all
that rampant knowledge. As has been revealed, the Eye
grants the user's desire for power in tune with his
personality, but usually in a bad way. Fox admires
physical power, and became a were-creature. Goliath
wants to be a protector, and became a megalomaniac
control freak. The Archimage was already evil to
begin with, so the Eye couldn't really unbalance his
mind. The power it gave him was the ability to
control all the incredible input from the Grimorium.
Without it, his nervous system was trying to cast
spells with every stray thought. No one could control
that much knowledge, especially with mana so plentiful
in Avalon.

Madoc and Maeve
When Oberon banished his brother, and Maeve, he
stripped them of almost all their power, and banished
them from Avalon. The banishment from Avalon is very
significant. Even when Madoc got his powers back, he
couldn't get back into Avalon. Yet he was equal to
Oberon in power, and broke other spells Oberon cast
with no apparent difficulty. I think the Banishment
severed Madoc and Maeve's connection to the mystic
isle. Beyond having their powers suppressed, the two
were forced to rely on Earth mana. Oberon's Children
were able to travel to and from Avalon with relative
ease, through a variety of gates. Madoc and Maeve
couldn't even remember a spell to get t