Magic is sometimes used in the show (mainly by villains). Magic in Candle Cove works differently than in most media. The developers set up rules for how magic works to prevent using magic for every single situation, and to ensure the show's portrayal of magic remained unique. Magic was described in detail in The Fascinating Creatures of the Abyssal Kingdom, as very little information on magic is given in the actual show.
Some documents suggest that magic was going to be used more often in the show by more characters, but the magic usage was toned down to keep the show's emphasis on pirates.
Users[]
Only a very few people living in Candle Cove are capable of practicing it, but everyone from the Abyssal Kingdom, or descended from people from the Abyssal Kingdom, are capable. Anyone capable of magic is born with a natural ability that only people in that alignment are able to have.
These abilities are related to a certain type of magic that the person is aligned with. A person's magic alignment determines the only kind of magic he/she is able to use. However, a person is not limited to use its only birth magic skill: they can learn to use other abilities, but only those related with their alignment. By this same condition, two people with opposed alignments usually have abilities that counteract one another.
It is believed there were some humans and Abyssians able to control more than one alignment as a result of transferring, called Lords of magic, but they died because the immense amount of power overloaded their systems (some of them aged too quickly, while others exploded), and thus transferring multiple alignments to one individual became forbidden, and Abyssians even go as far as to make it punishable by death. No one has been born with control over multiple alignments.
Also, there are some alignment-neutral spells that people of any alignment can learn.
The Alignments[]
For main page and details, see Magic Alignments
There are ten alignments in magic, represented by the Magic Alignments Circle. This circle also represents the position that each aligned person has to take in order to perform a successful magic ritual requiring all ten alignments (the goal of these rituals can be very different, but the common point is that all rituals allow to do a task that, any other how, would be impossible by human means).
Transferring[]
It is possible for a person gifted with magic skills to transmit their powers to other people, creatures or even inanimate objects. For this reason is that there exist magical items, magical animals and magic inheritances between generations.
Conditions[]
However, magic-transferring brings certain consequences:
- Once a magician has given his/her powers to other person, s/he permanently loses his/her powers. This is why some wait until they are in their deathbed to transfer powers.
- A magician can only transfer its own alignment and its own birth given power. If the person gifted with the powers wants to use new abilities, they will have to learn them first.
- One magician can only gift one person/animal/object.
- It is possible to gift a person with more than just one kind of magic alignment if s/he manages to make two or more magicians to transfer their powers, but according to the ancient magic rules this is strictly prohibited in order to prevent a magician from becoming overpowered, and to prevent harm to the person, as magical overloads have occurred to individuals who tried this.
- If a person waives their powers after being gifted with them, the powers will be lost forever. All the effects that they might have caused over the world will remain, though.
Ceremony[]
For a magic-transferring to happen, an specific ritual has to be done first. This ritual needs the original aligned and the person that will be gifted with the powers to read a certain spell together and cut the skin of their right hand to share their blood; this works the same for animals, but the blood has to come out from the paw (or any other structure analogous to a human hand) and only the transferer has to read the spell. In the case of items, which obviously don't have blood and can't read, the only condition is to pronounce the spell and put a drop of the person's blood within the object. The transferring spell reads as follows:
- "Oh great forces of magic, we reclaim you to manifest in this world of strings and chaos to approve and witness the magic trade that today is going to befall. Could you, oh divine essences, come to us to tie the hands that control our souls and allow the power of [alignment] to flow freely between our bodies?
- Shall my gift become the gift of the here present [name of the person/animal or item]? Will our bloods blend together to make us siblings of [alignment] and allow the join of this magic? Only you in all your wisdom can decide over this union of power, and we will be waiting for your will to come to us.
- De magia inter nos fluit! Tiulf son retni aigam ed!"
- The last phrase, in Latin, has to be spelled by the original magician, while the person who will become the new magician has to spell it backwards, as it appears above (unless the magic is being transferred to an animal who can not speak or an object; in these cases, the magician has to spell both phrases).
Trivia[]
- Each alignment in the circle is across from their opposite.
- The Magic Alignments Circle is used as a placement chart: When a ceremony or spell requiring people aligned with all ten alignments is performed, the participants must position themselves based on the circle.
- Being aligned with magic can communicate with each other using a method similar to telepathy.
- It is unofficial whether or not a parent's alignment affects their child's alignment.
- Magic seems to have an influence on a person's personality. Horace, for example, seems to depend on others he has summoned. Red Mary is a pyromaniac, and has a fiery temper. The Skin-Taker seems to believe being dead is just a different version of being alive.
- It is rumored that in the fifth book of the novel series, there was going to be a spell discovered that required a person from each alignment and could only be used once every one hundred and thirty years. The spell was the only way to kill someone from the Abyssal Kingdom. It is believed the characters were going to use it to destroy Red Mary, and that the Skin-Taker and Horace Horrible were going to be among those participating in the ceremony. However, this book was never released due to the series being cancelled after the third installment.
- The colors for life and death were mistaken by fans to be reversed, but in Asia, white represents death, while in ancient Egypt, Black represented fertile soil and life. This was done on purpose, because the development team wanted it to be the opposite of what one would expect while still making sense.