Magic is the term given to various forces throughout the Realm that can be utilized by various species and characters to perform a number of different types of abilities. According to Rei, magic is the culmination of art and science, the very essence of the Realm. (▶️) Despite there being quite a number of different types of magic, it oddly seems incredibly uncommon, with most champions that can use magic being connected to an otherwordly force, while almost all regular citizens seem unable to use any magic at all.
The exact nature of magic isn't entirely clear, though there are many sources of magic, such as the Runic Magic of the ska'drins, the Crystals that ultimately started the Crystal War, as well as magic originating from the Enchanted Forest / Nature, the Abyss, the Pyre, and possibly others.[1]
Established Types of Magic[ | ]
These types of magic have official names and are generally more understood.
Crystal Magic[ | ]
Crystals are a powerful type of magic focused through crafted crystals that harness magic. Their uses are near limitless, with their power being great enough to rival that of the Magistrate itself. Using their power, a variety of things could be accomplished, from simple weapons, powered suits, tracking objects, to even such things as bringing inanimate objects to life or traveling through time, the latter serving as basis for Chrono Energy. Though due to misuse of these crystals, they were banned by the Magistrate for the safety of the Realm, ultimately resulting in the Crystal War. This type of magic may also be connected with Runic and Warder Magic, though this has never been elaborated on.
Many champions appear to use or be powered by crystals to varying extents, such as Atlas, Barik, Bomb King, Buck, Cassie, Drogoz, Fernando, Grohk, Khan, Kinessa, Imani, Inara, Lex, Lian, Ruckus, Strix, Terminus, Vivian, and possibly more characters. Karne appears to possibly utilize some form of this magic as well.
- This information comes from the A Realm Divided lore cinematic, the various champion bios and weapon appearances, this loading screen tip, these tweets, and these dev statements.
Chrono Energy[ | ]
Seemingly originating from Crystals, Chrono Energy is utilized by Atlas to grant himself various time related abilities, from reversing time on himself or others, creating force fields, jumping through time, and even temporarily banishing people from existence.
- This information comes from Atlas' bio, his ability descriptions, as well as his ability showcase.
Runic Magic[ | ]
Seemingly largely originating from the Ska'drin, Runic Magic is seemingly focused through ancient runes, granting abilities such as teleportation and enhanced mobility to its users, among other types of effects such as creating shields or nullifying enemy abilities, seemingly depending on the type of symbol. Some types can also produce fire seemingly endlessly, as evidenced by the "Runic Fire" on the Shattered Desert map, which suggests one potential source for Runic Magic is from the moon. This type of magic seems to have some connection to various other types as well, such as Pyre / Abyssal, Warder, and Crystal Magic.
Transcriptions of most supposed runes (including other types of runes such as those of the Pyre) can be viewed here.
Talus and Torvald are known to utilize Runic Magic, with Vatu appearing to utilize it as well. Corvus may potentially utilize it as well, due to the icon that appears when he uses Projection[2] being the same icon that appears when Talus uses Rune of Travel.[3] Mal'Damba similarly may also use Runic Magic to some extent due to being a ska'drin, as well as implied by this line (▶️).
Nature / Enchanted Forest Magic[ | ]
Creatures from the Enchanted Forest, such as the Leipori naturally have a lot of magical power within them, granting them abilities such as the capability to transform objects and people into other forms, including themselves if they have significant control over some type of "arcane forces". This type of magic also appears to allow for the creation of a familiar such as Moji's mount, Po-Li. This magic appears to serve as a source for other types of magic as well, such as Elemental and Warder Magic, as well as Alchemy.
Moji and Rei are known to utilize this type of magic, with Grover utilizing it as well, as well as possibly other characters.
- This information comes from a number of different dev statements, as well as Grover's bio.
Abyssal / Pyre Magic[ | ]
Magic originating from the Abyss and the Pyre, is seemingly near-limitless and capable of incredibly powerful acts, from shredding souls to kindling them, healing others, causing massive amounts of damage, and even creating tears in reality. The Abyss in particular appears to have several sources of power. The two also appear to utilize some form of Runic Magic as well, with it seemingly having some connection to standard Runic Magic, based on the similarities between some runes of the Pyre Alphabet, and symbols seen on cards, such as Furia's Devout Dexterity and Torvald's Glyph of the Fist and Infusion.
Androxus, Corvus, Dredge, Raum, Seris, and Terminus all utilize Abyssal magic to varying degrees, and possibly other characters as well, while Azaan and Furia utilize Pyre magic.
- This information comes from the various characters bios and ability descriptions, as well as these loading screen tips.
Blood Magic[ | ]
Seemingly an extension of Abyssal magic utilized by Lillith.
- This information comes from one of Lillith's teasers.
Alchemy[ | ]
A type of 'magic' originating from Nature Magic mostly used by Vulpin, as well as other individuals such as Mal'Damba. The exact nature of alchemy is unknown, though it appears to be capable of incredibly impressive magic, with experiments gone wrong creating a portal to an alternate universe and allowing some of the inhabitants to enter the Realm.
Shadow Magic[ | ]
Little is known of the mysterious shadow magic utilized by Vatu, though it can be seen to seemingly grant him several abilities, such as surrounding enemies in smoke, and possibly the capacity to either create illusions or turn himself into smoke.
Aside from Vatu, Koga and Zhin seemingly utilize this type of magic to a certain extent as well.
- This information comes from Vatu's bio, as well as his teaser trailer.
Other Types of Magic[ | ]
These are types of magic with no official name and little information currently known about them, with the possibility they are only extensions of other types of magic.
Illusion Magic[ | ]
An unknown type of magic utilized by Ying, granting her various types of abilities, from creating solid illusions of herself or even other individuals, to healing wounds, beams of energy, small explosions, teleportation, and even the ability to manipulate dimensions.
- This information comes from Ying's bio, her various ability descriptions, and the Tutorial.
Elemental Magic[ | ]
Seemingly powerful magic of Elementals, when utilized by Evie, was enough to turn her from apprentice sorceress to Winter Witch seemingly overnight, granting her various abilities such as teleportation, ice blasts, to even the ability to create massive ice storms with a simple sneeze. Though it's unknown how much of these abilities are the Elemental's doing or Evie specifically. This magic seems to have some type of connection with Nature and Warder Magic.
- This information comes from Evie's bio and this dev statement.
Warder Magic[ | ]
Abilities used by Warders such as Imani, this seemingly involves both the ability to command dragons that was discovered by the wise mage that become the first Warder long ago, which is seemingly tied to a Warder's gauntlets. This ability to control dragons alone puts Imani as one of the most powerful mortals in the Realm, though not as powerful as the gods.
Warder Magic also seems to include Imani's ability to control elements such as fire and ice, even without her gauntlets. It's unknown if these elemental abilities have any connection to actual Elementals. Both of these types of abilities seem to involve some degree of verbal spell casting, as indicated by Imani saying several unknown phrases when using certain abilities, as well as her ultimate.
Imani also claims to be able to feel shifts in time (▶️), likely from Atlas, though it's unknown if this is another ability of the Warders or is unique to Imani.
Warder Magic also appears to have some potential connection to Runic Magic, with rune-like symbols appearing on Imani's cards Arcane Flame and Cooling Runes, on top of the obvious connection in the latter card's name. Warder Magic also appears to have some connection to Crystal, Nature, and Elemental Magic.
- This information comes from Imani's bio, her teaser trailer, some of her cards such as Ice in her Veins, this [tweet, and several dev, statements.
Cosmic Magic[ | ]
Godly abilities utilized by Jenos and Io. It's unknown if the two use the same type of magic, though Jenos in particular has shown a number of abilities, from teleportation, channeling gravitational energy, and even creating massive beams of energy. This type of magic also appears to have some connection to Runic Magic, potentially serving as a source of power.
- This information comes from Jenos and Io's bios, The Fight of the Shattered Desert story, and this stream.
Darkness / Maw Magic[ | ]
While seemingly largely organic, those connected with the Maw, such as Yagorath and Vora, appear to have some form of magical abilities, with Vora throwing an unknown type of projectile for her basic attacks and Dark Siphon, while enemies pulled towards Yagorath with Devour become surrounded by some type of red energy. However, these abilities too may be purely organic.
Spirit Magic[ | ]
By using the power of spirits, character such as Grohk, Mal'Damba, and Rei can utilize various abilities, from turning briefly intangible, healing allies, and linking one's own spirit with another for either positive or negative effects. It's suspected Wekono is related to this type of magic. This magic may also possibly be a form of Ancient Magic, based on one of Mal'Damba's lines towards Makoa. (▶️)
- This information comes from the description for Grohk's Ghost Walk ability, Mal'Damba's Mending Spirits ability, and Rei's Spirit Link ability.
Ancient Magic[ | ]
A potential form of magic utilized by Makoa and potentially Mal'Damba. It's mentioned in the description for Makoa's ultimate, Ancient Rage, as well as one of Mal'Damba's lines towards Makoa. (▶️). It also seems to potentially have a connection to Runic Magic, due to various symbols appearing on Makoa's Shell Shield.
Arcane Magic[ | ]
A much more unclear form of magic. While this type is most likely a generalization of abilities that were never given actual classification, it will still be listed here just in case. This type of magic has shown apparent connections with a number of magic types, such as Nature / Enchanted Forest, Warder, and Runic Magic, among potentially others. Caspian and Rei have both been stated to use some form of Arcane Magic in some form (Rei by manipulating some type of "Arcane Forces", while Caspian's bio refers to his weapons as "Arcane Weapons), while Imani and Torvald have also had connections made with various cards, such as Arcane Ice, Arcane Flame, and Arcane Etching.
Lightning Magic[ | ]
Some of the abilities used by Grohk involve him channeling lighting, having seemingly been imbued with the power following Grohk being struck by lighting a dozen times. Grohk is also mentioned to use elemental power in the description for his ultimate, Tempest, though it's unknown if this has any connection to Elemental Magic.
- This information comes from Grohk's bio and the description for Lighting Staff.
Heavenly Magic[ | ]
Tiberius's unique blade appears to contain some form of power "capable of banishing unspeakable evils", which seemingly allowed Tiberius to match Raum in combat, who's been compared to similarly powerful to Azaan "in a sense".[4] Some suspect Tiberius' blade to possibly be related to the Pyre, though this remains unconfirmed.
- This information comes from Tiberius' bio.
Dark Magic[ | ]
Mentioned to have been practiced by Mal'Damba in his bio, nothing is currently known of what this type of magic involves. Terminus' bio also mentions he was bound by dark sorcery, though it likely this is only referring to the Abyss.
Earthen Magic[ | ]
Inara appears to possibly utilize a special type of magic, with descriptions such as that of Warder's Field describing it as channeling nature's wrath, may possibly be what allows her to control stones. It is unknown if the "Mother" Inara mentions in several lines is an actual entity connected with this potential magic.
Trivia[ | ]
- There are potentially even more types of magic, as Rei can seemingly use a type of water magic, based on her card Future Generations.
- The various types of runic magic seem to be largely based on real world ancient runes.
