Meandering Mondays: Magic Theory: Fairy Tail

So after realizing that I was late for today's post I decided to start another series of articles on magic in anime and manga.  Our first subject will be Fairy Tail one of the more popular shounen series currently coming out.  As a warning POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD


The central part of magic in Fairy Tail is the mages who can use it.  It is stated that 10% of all humans are able to use magic but it is not entirely clear if this divide is skill based or inherent.  To use magic a mage uses "Magic Power" drawn from an internal reservoir and directs it into the desired form.  The interesting feature of this is that the reservoir refilling happens by absorption of magic from the environment


In general most mages study a particular discipline of magic and train to improve their skill in that field.  Mages do not seem to learn secondary disciplines and prefer to focus on a specific technique with the only exceptions being incredibly powerful mages.  Also it seems that most mages pick a field based on their natural aptitudes which can manifest before someone is even aware of their ability as exampled by Ezra controlling weapons in a fit of rage without ever using magic.  The main exception to this rule seems to be dragonslayer magic which is either taught or granted by imbedded magical crystals.   Grey and Lucy are more ambiguous since their magic specialties could come from natural aptitude or have been taught.  They also both show a possible hereditary affinity since Lucy's mother was a celestial mage and Grey's father mastered demonslayer ice magic. 

It also appears that there is minimal overlap between the abilities of mages with only ice make, celestial spirit magic and take over magic presenting mages with the same specialty.  Beyond the various slayer type abilities and a few types of make magic most forms of magic seem completely random and limited only by the existence of someone who can use it.  They range in specificity from general earth magic to magic only able to affect the target's perception of time. 

The other instances of magic in this world are mainly in the form of magical objects which can either be powered by a mage wielding the item or by a crystal made of pure magic called lacrima.  They are used by both mages and non-mages and the lacrima powered items are the only form of magic that is native to Edolas other than the magic possessed by the Exceed which is limited to a psell that causes them to grow wings. 

I hope you all enjoyed this and I'll be back on Saturday with the fanmade content post.