History ComicBook / Blackbird2018

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The more Nina learns about the Paragon cabals, the more they sound like warring Mexican drug cartels. A superficially glamourous, heavily secretive world of warring cliques that treats everyone not a part of it with utter contempt, hoards power for itself, and runs through the distribution of a heavily guarded, crystalline substance that requires an unknown (but hinted to be ghastly) process to accumulate. According to the police detective, these cabals are responsible for more than four hundred innocent deaths in the past year ''alone'' (it is all but stated that if you belong to this society, sooner or later you ''will'' become a murderer) — and ten years of it has turned Nina's warm, caring mother into a cold, ruthlessly unemotional figure who seems to think that constantly gaslighting her daughter — and obviously ruining her life in the process — somehow merits her gratitude when she personally made it so that Nina can't even remember the one genuinely good thing that her mother did for her. Basically, there are no good guys in this world, and the longer you are a part of it the worse you become. The contrast between Nina's memories of her mother and how she acts in person are, to say the least, jarring.

* TearJerker: Gloriana's confrontation with Nina in her throne room is one hell of a tearjerker. After the Verdugo Earthquake, Gloriana basically sold her soul to bring Nina back to life and to prevent her young daughters from following her into the hellish life of the paragons. Now, ten years later, one of those daughters has been dragged literally kicking and screaming into that world and must soon fight in a magical war in which she will be badly outmatched and in which, thanks to the other daughter's actions, her Cabal might well lose. Meanwhile, said other daughter- whom she rescued from death itself- is standing before her screaming her head off, laying out in excruciating detail how Gloriana's selfless actions have ruined her life, and is firing off spell after spell in an attempt to kill her own mother because she is utterly terrified of her and thinks of her as a monster.

* TearJerker: Gloriana's confrontation with Nina in her throne room is one hell of a tearjerker. After the Verdugo Earthquake, Gloriana basically sold her soul to bring Nina back to life and to prevent her young daughters from following her into the hellish life of the paragons. Now, ten years later, one of those daughters has been dragged literally kicking and screaming into that world and must soon fight in a magical war in which she will be badly outmatched and in which, thanks to the other daughter's actions, her Cabal might well lose. Meanwhile, said other daughter- whom she gave up everything to resurrect from the dead- is standing before her screaming her head off, laying out in excruciating detail how Gloriana's selfless actions have ruined her life, and is firing off spell after spell in an attempt to kill her own mother because she is utterly terrified of her and thinks of her as a monster.

* TearJerker: Gloriana's confrontation with Nina in her throne room is one hell of a tearjerker. After the Verdugo Earthquake, Gloriana basically sold her soul to bring Nina back to life and to prevent her young daughters from following her into the hellish life of the paragons. Now, one of those daughters has been dragged kicking and screaming (literally!) into that world, and must soon fight in a magical war which, thanks to the other daughter's actions, her Cabal might well lose. Nina- the daughter whose life she saved- is standing before her screaming her head off, laying out in excruciating detail how Gloriana's selfless actions have ruined her life and firing off spell after spell in an attempt to kill her own mother because she is utterly terrified of her and thinks of her as a monster.

** And what is Gloriana's response to her daughter's attempts to kill her, and to the collapse of all of her hopes for her daughters' futures? She tries one last time to hit the reset button by erasing her daughter's memory, with one additional plea: "Be ''happy''!"

* TearJerker: g

* [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You:]] Subverted and played with. While Nina's mother did actually have the best possible reason for abandoning her and faking her own death ([[spoiler:she was forced to agree to it as a precondition for having Nina literally resurrected from the dead]]), the total collapse of Nina's family as a consequence, as well as her family's habitual mockery of Nina for her (entirely accurate) insistance on believing that ''something'' happened on the night of the earthquake and that magic was real utterly ruined Nina's life. Alcoholism, drug addiction, and an early grave were the most likely outcomes of the life she condemned Nina to live — a fact which does not seem to have registered with her or made her reconsider her [[spoiler:post-resurrection]] conduct toward Nina in the slightest. Even worse, when Nina discovers the existence of the paragons ''completely by accident'', which immediately initiates a chain of events that leads to the [[spoiler:intended-to-be permanent disappearance of Nina's own sister, whom Nina now relied upon to survive thanks to being reduced to such a lonely, isolated wreck]], Nina's mother ''tries to erase Nina's memory of her sister's very existence.'' For all intents and purposes, Nina's mother is the big bad of the series, because she absolutely refuses to acknowledge that her (admittedly selfless) deal has led to catastrophic consequences that can no longer be avoided, and that continuing to gaslight her daughter for the sake of protecting her is utterly destroying her.

* [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You:]] Subverted and played with. While Nina's mother did actually have the best possible reason for abandoning her and faking her own death ([[spoiler:she was forced to agree to it as a precondition for having Nina literally resurrected from the dead]]), the total collapse of Nina's family as a consequence, as well as her family's habitual mockery of Nina for her (entirely accurate) insistance on believing that ''something'' happened on the night of the earthquake and that magic was real utterly ruined Nina's life. Alcoholism, drug addiction, and an early grave were the most likely outcomes of the life she condemned Nina to live — a fact which does not seem to have registered with her or made her reconsider her [[spoiler:post-resurrection]] conduct toward Nina in the slightest. Even worse, when Nina discovers the existence of the paragons ''completely by accident'', which immediately initiates a chain of events that leads to the [[spoiler:intended-to-be permanent disappearance of Nina's own sister, whom Nina now relied upon to survive thanks to being reduced to such a lonely, isolated wreck]], Nina's mother ''tries to erase Nina's memory of her sister's very existence.'' For all intents and purposes, Nina's mother is the big bad of the series, because she absolutely refuses to acknowledge that her (admittedly selfless) deal has led to catastrophic consequences that can no longer be avoided, and that continuing to gaslight her daughter to maintain the status quo would be tantamount to killing her in the name of protecting her.

* [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You:]] Subverted and played with. While Nina's mother did actually have the best possible reason for abandoning her and faking her own death ([[spoiler:she was forced to agree to it as a precondition for having Nina literally resurrected from the dead]]), the total collapse of Nina's family as a consequence, as well as her family's habitual mockery of Nina for her (entirely accurate) insistance on believing that ''something'' happened on the night of the earthquake and that magic was real utterly ruined Nina's life. Alcoholism, drug addiction, and an early grave were the most likely outcomes of the life she condemned Nina to live — a fact which does not seem to have registered with her or made her reconsider her [[spoiler:post-resurrection]] conduct toward Nina in the slightest. Even worse, when Nina discovers the existence of the paragons ''completely by accident'' and accidentally initiates a chain of events that leads to the [[spoiler:intended-to-be permanent disappearance of Nina's own sister, whom Nina now relied upon to survive thanks to being reduced to such a lonely, isolated wreck]], Nina's mother ''tries to erase Nina's memory of her sister's very existence.'' For all intents and purposes, Nina's mother is the big bad of the series, because she absolutely refuses to acknowledge that her (admittedly selfless) deal has led to catastrophic consequences that can no longer be avoided, and that continuing to gaslight her daughter to maintain the status quo would be tantamount to killing her in the name of protecting her.

* [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You:]] Subverted and played with. While Nina's mother did actually have the best possible reason for abandoning her and faking her own death ([[spoiler:she was forced to agree to it as a precondition for having Nina literally resurrected from the dead]]), the total collapse of Nina's family as a consequence, as well as her family's habitual mockery of Nina for her (entirely accurate) insistance on believing that ''something'' happened on the night of the earthquake and that magic was real utterly ruined Nina's life. Alcoholism, drug addiction, and an early grave were the most likely outcomes of the life she condemned Nina to live — a fact which does not seem to have registered with her or made her reconsider her [[spoiler:post-resurrection]] conduct toward Nina in the slightest. Even worse, when Nina discovers the existence of the paragons ''completely by accident'' and accidentally initiates a chain of events that leads to the [[spoiler:intended-to-be permanent disappearance of Nina's own sister, whom Nina now relied upon to survive thanks to being reduced to such a lonely, isolated wreck]], Nina's mother ''tries to erase Nina's memory of her sister's very existence.'' For all intents and purposes, Nina's mother is the big bad of the series, because she absolutely refuses to acknowledge that her (admittedly selfless) deal has led to catastrophic consequences, and that continuing to gaslight her daughter to maintain the status quo is tantamount to giving her a death sentence.

* [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You:]] Subverted and played with. While Nina's mother did actually have the best possible reason for abandoning her and faking her own death ([[spoiler:she was forced to agree to it as a precondition for having Nina literally resurrected from the dead]]), the total collapse of Nina's family as a consequence, as well as her family's habitual mockery of Nina for her (entirely accurate) insistance on believing that ''something'' happened on the night of the earthquake and that magic was real utterly ruined Nina's life. Alcoholism, drug addiction, and an early grave were the most likely outcomes of the life she condemned Nina to live — a fact which does not seem to have registered with her or made her reconsider her [[spoiler:post-resurrection]] conduct toward Nina in the slightest. Even worse, when Nina's inevitable attempts to figure out what the hell is going on result in a chain of events that leads to the [[spoiler:intended-to-be permanent disappearance of Nina's own sister, whom Nina now relied upon to survive thanks to being reduced to such a lonely, isolated wreck]], Nina's mother has the gall to blame Nina herself for it. ''And she even tries to erase Nina's memory of her sister's existence.'' For all intents and purposes, Nina's mother is the big bad of the series, because she refuses to acknowledge how badly the consequences of her (admittedly selfless) deal — and her willingness to abide by it years after the fact — fucked up and continues to fuck up Nina's life.

* MindOverManners: Averted, hard. Memory wipes and spell-based behavior modification appear to be standard operating procedure in paragon society, even among family members. Nina's ability to overcome this was a necessary precondition to both finding her mother and getting to remember that she did so — in response to which Gloria tried Zon Cabal as a MemoryWipingCrew to make it stick. It is just one example of how contemptuous paragons are of those around them that do not share their powers.

* MindOverManners: Averted, hard. Memory wipes and spell-based behavior modification appear to be standard operating procedure in paragon society, even among family members. Nina's ability to overcome this was a necessary precondition to both finding her mother and getting to remember that she did so — in response to which Gloria tried enlisting outside help to make it stick. It is just one example of how contemptuous paragons are of those around them that do not share their powers.

** To fully understand just how bad they are: they had the nerve to claim — ''while Gloria was cradling Nina's dead body in her arms, no less'' — that Nina's death was proof that the real world was no place for paragons, yet they also directly conditioned reviving Nina on forcing Gloria to abandon her children forever. Their primary concern was always the Zon Cabal, NOT their daughter or her family.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of secret magical societies and TheMasquerade in particular. The driving theme of ''Blackbird'' is that a society which maintains itself apart from the larger world around it and enforces that separation irrespective of the wishes of its individual members, by its very nature rests on a foundation of exploitation and cruelty. No matter how wonderous the abilities of the paragons, they do not use them for the benefit of others, only themselves, and are actively forbidden from doing otherwise. As a consequence, most paragons are contemptuous of "civilians" or "normies", and are habitually cold and distant at best, ruthless or even psychopathic at worst. If, on the other hand, If you are, say,[[spoiler: a genuinely warm and caring paragon mother and you wish to maintain a relationship with your little non-paragon daughters... ''you will be forced to fake your own death and never be allowed to see them again''.]]

* [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You:]] Subverted and played with. While Nina's mother did actually have the best possible reason for abandoning her and faking her own death ([[spoiler:she was forced to agree to it as a precondition for having Nina literally resurrected from the dead]]), the total collapse of Nina's family as a consequence, as well as her family's habitual mockery of Nina for her (entirely accurate) insistance on believing that ''something'' happened on the night of the earthquake and that magic was real utterly ruined Nina's life. Alcoholism, drug addiction, and an early grave were the most likely outcomes of the life she condemned Nina to live — a fact which does not seem to have registered with her or made her reconsider her [[spoiler:post-resurrection]] conduct toward Nina in the slightest. Even worse, when Nina's inevitable attempts to figure out what the hell is going on result in a chain of events that leads to the [[spoiler:intended-to-be permanent disappearance of Nina's own sister, whom Nina now relied upon to survive thanks to being reduced to such a lonely, isolated wreck]], Nina's mother has the gall to blame Nina herself for it. ''And she even tries to erase Nina's memory of her sister's existence.'' For all intents and purposes, Nina's mother is the big bad of the series, because she refuses to acknowledge how badly the consequences of her (admittedly selfless) deal — and her willingness to abide by it years after the fact — fucked up and continues to fuck up Nina's life.

* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: Subverted and played with. While Nina's mother did actually have the best possible reason for abandoning her and faking her own death ([[spoiler:she was forced to agree to it as a precondition for having Nina literally resurrected from the dead]]), the total collapse of Nina's family as a consequence, as well as her family's habitual mockery of Nina for her (entirely accurate) insistance on believing that ''something'' happened on the night of the earthquake and that magic was real utterly ruined Nina's life. Alcoholism, drug addiction, and an early grave were the most likely outcomes of the life she condemned Nina to live — a fact which does not seem to have registered with her or made her reconsider her [[spoiler:post-resurrection]] conduct toward Nina in the slightest. Even worse, when Nina's inevitable attempts to figure out what the hell is going on result in a chain of events that leads to the [[spoiler:intended-to-be permanent disappearance of Nina's own sister, whom Nina now relied upon to survive thanks to being reduced to such a lonely, isolated wreck]], Nina's mother has the gall to blame Nina herself for it. ''And she even tries to erase Nina's memory of her sister's existence.'' For all intents and purposes, Nina's mother is the big bad of the series, because she refuses to acknowledge how badly the consequences of her (admittedly selfless) deal — and her willingness to abide by it years after the fact — fucked up and continues to fuck up Nina's life.

* ClothingReflectsPersonality: To an extraordinary degree. Because paragon clothing is directly generated and maintained by the same glamour field that makes them look like perfect, idealized versions of themselves, a paragon will always be dressed in a manner that perfectly expresses their inner self- unless and to the extent that they wish to modify their appearance. When [[spoiler: Nina finally becomes a full paragon at the end of the first TPB, her clothing is transformed into a reflection of her newly enhanced magical nature, complete with boots and accessories.]]
** However, paragon clothing does appear to have certain motiffs that are limited to the cabals to which they belong, and enable reasonably easy identification. It is likely that, had [[spoiler: Nina managed to become a paragon of Iridium Cabal instead of Zon, her new outfit would have shared her mother and sister's motiffs.]]
* [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou Mommy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You]]: Subverted and played with. While Nina's mother did actually have the best possible reason for abandoning her and faking her own death ([[spoiler: she was forced to agree to it as a precondition for having Nina literally resurrected from the dead]]), the total collapse of Nina's family as a consequence, as well as her family's habitual mockery of Nina for her (entirely accurate) insistance on believing that ''something'' happened on the night of the earthquake and that magic was real utterly ruined Nina's life. Alcoholism, drug addiction, and an early grave were the most likely outcomes of the life she condemned Nina to live — a fact which does not seem to have registered with her or made her reconsider her [[spoiler:post-resurrection]] conduct toward Nina in the slightest. Even worse, when Nina's inevitable attempts to figure out what the hell is going on result in a chain of events that leads to the [[spoiler:intended-to-be permanent disappearance of Nina's own sister, whom Nina now relied upon to survive thanks to being reduced to such a lonely, isolated wreck]], Nina's mother has the gall to blame Nina herself for it. ''And she even tries to erase Nina's memory of her sister's existence.'' For all intents and purposes, Nina's mother is the big bad of the series, because she refuses to acknowledge how badly the consequences of her (admittedly selfless) deal- and her willingness to abide by it years after the fact- fucked up and continues to fuck up Nina's life.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of secret magical societies and TheMasquerade in particular. The driving theme of Blackbird is that a society which maintains itself apart from the larger world around it and enforces that separation irrespective of the wishes of its individual members, by its very nature rests on a foundation of exploitation and cruelty. No matter how wonderous the abilities of the paragons, they do not use them for the benefit of others, only themselves, and are actively forbidden from doing otherwise. As a consequence, most paragons are contemptuous of "civilians" or "normies", and are habitually cold and distant at best, ruthless or even psychopathic at worst. If, on the other hand, If you are, say,[[spoiler: a genuinely warm and caring paragon mother and you wish to maintain a relationship with your little non-paragon daughters... ''you will be forced to fake your own death and never be allowed to see them again''.]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: Gloria's parents, who are also Nina's maternal grandparents. They forced Gloria to agree to abandon her family as a precondition to resurrecting Nina from the dead (a faustian bargain if ever there was one), and despite Gloria currently being the head of the Iridium Cabal, their influence is apparently still strong enough after ten years to hold her to the terms of the bargain. Gloria herself describes her life under the cabals as "hell", and frankly refers to her parents as murderers... who have managed to turn her into one, as well.
** To fully understand just how bad they are: they had the nerve to claim- ''while Gloria was cradling Nina's dead body in her arms, no less''- that Nina's death was proof that the real world was no place for paragons, yet they also directly conditioned reviving Nina on forcing Gloria to abandon her children forever. Their primary concern was always the Iridium Cabal, NOT their daughter or her family.
* InvisibleToNormals: All of the paragon buildings are like this, as are a good chunk of the magical creatures, notably the Great Beast.
** The paragons themselves are also like this, although they can suppress the effect if they wish to do so- or reinforce it if the need arises. This is in addition to and separate from their ability to easily modify memories so no one remembers encountering them.

* MindOverManners: Averted, hard. Memory wipes and spell-based behavior modification appear to be standard operating procedure in paragon society, even among family members. Nina's ability to overcome this was a necessary precondition to both finding her mother and getting to remember that she did so- in response to which Gloria tried enlisting outside help to make it stick. It is just one example of how contemptuous paragons are of those around them that do not share their powers.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Nina's mother, Gloria, died in a car accident while driving away from her husband, Enrique, because he was having an affair. Except [[spoiler: no, she didn't. Nina died in an earthquake and Gloria had her resurrected in a deal in which Gloria faked her own death in the car accident, leaving Enrique with the guilt of having indirectly gotten a member of his family killed. If Nina ''had'' died in that accident, it might be a fair exchange (Enrique has not been portrayed in anything like a positive light so far), but Nina was actually killed by falling masonry whilst huddling under a freeway overpass during an earthquake. Enrique had nothing to do with it, one way or the other. Gloria's parting shot, while probably more an act of supreme negligence rather than deliberate malice, left him with a decade of undeserved guilt over causing her death, greatly contributing to him being a bitter, alcoholic, absentee father — which effectively left Nina and her sister with ''neither parent''. And Nina is becoming an alcoholic herself.]]
** Gloria is [[spoiler: hell-bent on preventing Nina from becoming a full paragon, forseeing disaster of some unspecified form if this happens. Fair enough. If she had responded to Nina's tearful embrace by welcoming her with open arms, letting her back into her life, and simply having a long talk with her about why paragonhood was not what it was cracked up to be, she might have convinced a grateful Nina to go along with it. Instead, she refused to even acknowledge her daughter's presence ''as her daughter was hugging her and weeping in pain and confusion'', and dismissed Nina with a spell meant to erase Nina's memory of finding Gloria, and of her kidnapped sister's very existence, from Nina's mind. This was roughly the equivalent of waving a red flag in front of a bull, provoking a furious Nina (who, despite her mother's spell, remembered ''everything'') into raiding and accidentally destroying one of Iridium Cabal's crystal depositories, and directly led to Nina becoming a paragon... in the thrall of her mother's rivals.]]

* TheAgeless: It is not clear whether Paragons are truly ageless. However, it ''is'' clear that paragonhood drastically slows the aging process. Apart from their own personal glamor fields making them look like the best possible versions of themselves, nearly all paragons look like they are in their very early twenties. The only exceptions are Gloria, who might be considered a stunningly beautiful woman anywhere between thirty and her mid-forties (assuming Nina's sister Marissa was born when she was 18, Gloria could not plausibly be less than 42), Gloria's parents (who do admittedly look late-middle aged), and Carter, who also appears to be in his late thirties or early forties. However, based on Detective Alexis's research, Carter became a paragon in 1983- meaning he is at least in his mid-fifties and possibly sixties. Clint himself became a paragon in 1999, meaning he is probably in his late thirties or even early forties... but he looks like a teenager. This is even with his glamour field suppressed to display his burn scars.

VancianMagic: An entire society run on the stuff. Spells are encapsulated into crystals, which are handed out like a cross between street drugs and currency [[spoiler: under the supervision of Nina's mother]]. They are loaded up into a bracelet called a "cirque", and fired off like bullets from a gun. each crystal has a limited degree of power, and loses its color as it is drained. And cirques can apparently become outmoded and replaced.
** However, there do seem to be additional factors. The strength of the spell seems directly dependent upon the personal skill and innate power of the gem wielder, and simply wearing a cirque is not enough- you have to actually be a paragon first. In addition, there are clearly some magical qualities that are not derived solely from crystals. The standard paragon glamour field that makes them all look perfect appears to be completely innate, as is Nina's occasional ability to tell whether someone is lying and to see through illusions. Both she and Gloria seem to be capable of having prophetic dreams to some degree, too.
* VillainsOutShopping: While scanning the patrons of a paragon night club, Nina and Clint spy an ordinary member of Polaris Cabal, which had just attacked her... just standing around and doing nothing in particular. This helps reinforce that the cabals are not just magical gangs. They are social groups, whose members run the gamut from militant to (relatively) harmless civilians. When the ones who ''did'' attack her storm in, it is obvious they are ''not'' Polaris's rank-and-file.
** Further reinforcing the difference- Polaris's theme of dress is apparently feathers. None of Nina's attackers are wearing them.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of secret magical societies and TheMasquerade in particular. The driving theme of Blackbird is that a society which maintains itself apart from the larger world around it and enforces that separation irrespective of the wishes of its individual members, by its very nature rests on a foundation of exploitation and cruelty. No matter how wonderous the abilities of the paragons, they do not use them for the benefit of others, only themselves, and are actively forbidden from doing otherwise. As a consequence, most paragons are contemptuous of "civilians" or "normies", and are habitually cold and distant at best, ruthless or even psychopathic at worst. If, on the other hand, If you are, say,[[spoiler: a genuinely warm and caring paragon mother and you wish to maintain a relationship with your little non-paragon children... ''you will be forced to fake your own death and never be allowed to see them again''.]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of secret magical societies and TheMasquerade in particular. The driving theme of Blackbird is that a society which maintains itself apart from the larger world around it and enforces that separation irrespective of the wishes of its individual members, by its very nature rests on a foundation of exploitation and cruelty. No matter how wonderous the abilities of the paragons, they do not use them for the benefit of others, only themselves, and are actively forbidden from doing otherwise. As a consequence, most paragons are contemptuous of "civilians" or "normies", and are habitually cold and distant at best, ruthless or even psychopathic at worst. If, on the other hand, If you are a genuinely warm and caring paragon mother and you wish to maintain a relationship with your little non-paragon children... you will be forced to fake your own death and never be allowed to see them again.

* {{Deconstruction}}: Of secret magical societies and TheMasquerade in particular. The driving theme of Blackbird is that a society which maintains itself apart from the larger world around it and enforces that separation irrespective of the wishes of its individual members, by its very nature rests on a foundation of exploitation and cruelty. No matter how wonderous the abilities of the paragons, they do not use them for the benefit of others, only themselves, and are actively forbidden from doing otherwise. If you are a paragon and you wish to maintain a relationship with your little children who are not themselves paragons... you WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO. PERIOD.

* Deconstruction: Of secret magical societies and TheMasquerade in particular. The driving theme of Blackbird is that a society which maintains itself apart from the larger world around it and enforces that separation irrespective of the wishes of its individual members, by its very nature rests on a foundation of exploitation and cruelty. No matter how wonderous the abilities of the paragons, they do not use them for the benefit of others, only themselves, and are actively forbidden from doing otherwise. If you are a paragon and you wish to maintain a relationship with your little children who are not themselves paragons... you WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO. PERIOD.

VancianMagic: An entire society run on the stuff. Spells are encapsulated into crystals, which are handed out like a cross between street drugs and currency [[spoiler: under the supervision of Nina's mother]]. They are loaded up into a bracelet called a "cirque", and fired off like bullets from a gun. each crystal has a limited degree of power, and loses its color as it is drained. And torques can apparently become outmoded and replaced.

VancianMagic: An entire society run on the stuff. Spells are encapsulated into crystals, which are handed out like a cross between street drugs and currency [[spoiler: under the supervision of Nina's mother]]. They are loaded up into a bracelet called a "torque", and fired off like bullets from a gun. each crystal has a limited degree of power, and loses its color as it is drained. And torques can apparently become outmoded and replaced.
** However, there do seem to be additional factors. The strength of the spell seems directly dependent upon the personal skill and innate power of the gem wielder, and simply wearing a torque is not enough- you have to actually be a paragon first. In addition, there are clearly some magical qualities that are not derived solely from crystals. The standard paragon glamour field that makes them all look perfect appears to be completely innate, as is Nina's occasional ability to tell whether someone is lying and to see through illusions. Both she and Gloria seem to be capable of having prophetic dreams to some degree, too.
* VillainsOutShopping: While scanning the patrons of a paragon night club, Nina and Clint spy an ordinary member of Polaris Cabal, which had just attacked her... standing around and having a a quiet drink. This helps reinforce that the cabals are not just magical gangs. They are social groups, whose members run the gamut from militant to (relatively) harmless civilians. When the ones who ''did'' attack her storm in, it is obvious they are ''not'' Polaris's rank-and-file.