History Main / Familiar

** Honorspren granted access to [[GravityMaster Gravitation]] and [[StickySituation Adhesion]], and made their Knight a Windrunner. Kaladin begins bonding one in [[Literature/TheWayOfKings the first book]], though he [[spoiler:thinks she's a simple windspren for most of the book]].

-->-- '''Foxfire''', explaining why wizards have familiars, in the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', [[http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php/original-timeline/378-bostonbrawl-ii-this-time-it-s-personal 'Boston Brawl II']]

* Erasmus, the EccentricMentor of the ''VideoGame/QuestForGlory'' series of games, has a talking rat as his familiar.
** Considering that Fenrus claims to be a wizard of comparable power and skill, and claims Erasmus is in fact his Familiar. Then again, Fenrus constantly makes jokes, and his strongest demonstrated magical ability is small-scale telekinesis...
*** Zara from the first game has a winged demon-like creature as a familiar called Damiano.

* In ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' the PlayerCharacter has one in the form of a ServileSnarker [[LosingYourHead talking skull]] named Morte.

* Yukari from the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' games has a familiar (the term they use in Japanese is ''shikigami'', which is related to UsefulNotes/{{Onmyodo}}) called [[AsianFoxSpirit Ran]], who in turn has a familiar called [[CatGirl Chen]]. Apparently, Yukari is [[RealityWarper so powerful]] that her familiar can have a familiar of its own. The benefit of being a familiar is that, in return for being a servant, the creature in question shares its master's powers.
* Len from ''VisualNovel/{{Tsukihime}}'' and ''VideoGame/MeltyBlood'' is a familiar, apparently of Arcueid. In the pseudo-sequel ''Kagetsu Tohya'', it's revealed that Arcueid isn't actually her master: as a vampire, she can't form a contract with Len, so she's just looking after her. [[spoiler:At the end of the game, Shiki agrees to become her master to prevent her death from lack of mana.]]
** [[spoiler: In addition, Shiki himself was converted into a Shikigami by his sister to save his life when he was murdered as a child. This means that Len is, somewhat amusingly, effectively the familiar of a familiar.]]
* Familiars play a fairly important role in ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'', and certain familiars are vital to complete some of the higher-level quests. This being KOL, they are somewhat stranger than in other fictions (Sabre-Toothed Lime, Blood-Faced Volleyball, NinjaPirateZombieRobot, etc.). They have several possible functions, such as restoring your HP and/or MP, damaging your opponent with physical and/or elemental attacks, weakening and/or disrupting your opponent during a fight, increasing the number of items and/or meat, and/or stats you get when you win a fight, or [[http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Familiar_abilities any combination of these]]. Black Cats deserve special mention because they create bad luck for the player: they reduce the number of items and stats you're awarded after winning a fight, they regularly strip you of beneficial status effects and drain your MP, and they usually prevent you from using skills, spells, or items in combat. Basically, they do everything short of attacking you directly. However, using them exclusively can let you permanently unlock Bad Moon, a special harder-than-hardcore difficulty level.
** Additionally, pastamancers have a variety of [[http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Summonable_Pastamancer_Combat_Entities pasta-based entities]] that they can establish contracts with and summon in combat up to ten times a day, which are probably closer to traditional familiars.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', there's a minipet called Kirin Tor Familiar. It looks like a small mana elemental. Some NPC mages have familiars, such as cats, dragonhawks, or servants. Warlock's demons could be considered Familiars, especially if you spec demonology when they provide various beneficial effects for the master.
** Frost mages' water elemental might also fit this, as well as the Death Knight's ghoul.
* Galenth Dysley of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' has an owl familiar named Mernva, who is often seen with him when he appears. [[spoiler: She is actually an extension of his power and he uses her to transform into his true form, Barthandelus. Not only that, she is capable of turning into an airship, as well.]]
* ''VideoGame/AzureDreams'' allows you to have a variety of familiars.
* Several games in the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series allow you to have familiars, including ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon Circle of the Moon]]'', ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight Symphony of the Night]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaCurseOfDarkness Curse of Darkness]]'' (in which they played an important role).
* Djinn in the ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' games act mostly like familiars, [[ClassAndLevelSystem enhancing or changing the abilities of their Adept master]] and granting SummonMagic. There's also a {{Mons}} aspect to the Djinn; [[GottaCatchEmAll catching them all]] enables the most customization, the best summons, and access to the last BonusDungeon in ''The Lost Age''.
* ''VideoGame/RivieraThePromisedLand'' has Rose the cat, who is referred to be this for the protagonist, Ein.
* Familiars are the back-bone of the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' series, being a {{Mon}} series. Generally Demons are obtained by contracting and negotiating with the demon itself instead of being summoned (though this does tend to happen often enough in the games), and one can [[FusionDance combine]] 2 or more demons with each other to produce a third one. Another difference with the more traditional familiars is that they tend to be stored on computers, and what binds demons to the summoner will is not a spell, but rather a computer program.

* Mages in ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'' have to wait a turn or two in order to attack with magic, so they have a familiar attack for them. Most of the mages have either a parrot or a dove as a familiar. [[AlwaysSecondBest Mystina]], a powerful and high-strung researcher, has a bat as a familiar, while male mages like Gandar and Lezard (who serves as a [[GuestStarPartyMember guest]] for one battle) have dragons.
* In ''Pop'n Magic'', Anise and Lester can summon their NiceMice familiars Tornado and Feel into battle.
* In ''VideoGame/AuraKingdom'', all Envoys are partnered with an Eidolon when their powers awaken. Gameplay-wise they act as partners in battle, able to perform combo attacks or soak up damage for you. In the story Eidolons also share a PsychicLink with their Envoy, letting them sense their emotions (Whether the Envoy wants them to or not).
* Parodied in [[http://www.teamfortress.com/wizardcon/ this]] newspaper for ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', where [[EvilIsHammy Merasmus]] attempts to sell his [[MonsterRoommate former roommate]], [[TheDitz the Soldier]], as a familiar.
* In ''VideoGame/TheSims3'', if you have both the Supernatural and Pets expansions installed, witches recharge their magical power and raise their magical skill level more quickly in the presence of a familiar such as a cat or lizard.
* In ''VideoGame/TheSims4: Realm of Magic'', spellcasters can buy familiars, small creatures that follow them around everywhere. If you have ''Cats and Dogs'', you can also bind a pet as a familiar. Either way, they can protect their masters from death and aid them in duels.
* ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonVsAceAttorney'', dealing with magic spells, has "Famalia", which summons a witch's familiar. [[spoiler:It's actually a RedHerring, as the spell never actually comes into play during the game and is instead suggested in cases of deliberate misdirection. How the Shades would accomplish enacting it is anybody's guess.]]

* In ''VideoGame/GravityRush'', Kat's familiar is a cat, and Reven's familiar is a Raven, appropriately enough.

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[-[[caption-width-right:350:The laws of sorcery absolutely require that you don't have allergies.]]-]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* '''Manga/ShamanKing''' has the guardian spirits. Each Shaman has at least one and a person's strength and potential as a shaman is directly reflected in the guardian spirit they partner with. The type of spirit also has a large influence over what form the shaman's abilities will take (such as Horohoro bonding with a nature spirit from his home in the artic and getting ice-based powers) and what type of medium the shaman uses (like Yoh using a katana as a medium for his samurai guardian spirit Amidamaru).
* In ''Manga/SugarSugarRune'', each of the Queen Candidates have their own familiar that advise them on how to capture hearts: Vanilla has Blanca, a mouse, and Chocolat has Duke, a frog. Also, Pierre has a black cat named Cernunnos. It is later revealed that [[spoiler:most familiars are actually witches who did something illegal]] and [[spoiler:Cernunnos is actually Chocolat's mother, Cinnamon]].
* ''Manga/VermeilInGold'': Every magical student must have a familiar to advance to the second year. Protagonist Alto Goldfield has failed to summon one successfully. In desperation, he tries an old book he stumbled across in the library, and gets a [[SuccubiAndIncubi busty succubus]] who agrees to be his familiar.

%% Calcifer from ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle''.

* The Charmers in ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' may count. In their artwork, small monsters can be seen alongside human spellcasters.
** They definitely count, if the closely-related Familiar-Possessed archetype is anything to go by.

* The [[JustForPun minor]] Creator/DCComics villain ComicBook/KlarionTheWitchBoy has a cat familiar called Teekl. He can transform it into a humanoid form to use [[SeriesContinuityError him/her]] as extra muscle.

* ''ComicBook/TheBadger'': As an AnimalThemedSuperbeing who SpeaksFluentAnimal, Badger ends up serving as Ham's familiar.
* ''ComicBook/TheQueenAndTheWoodborn'': Morana has Iskran, who serves as her "eyes and ears" in the forest. Danica calls him "the Ember Bird", and he's apparently legendary to mortals.

* In the ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' fanfic ''Fanfic/ATaleOfTwoMages'', an additional rule is established: when a mage casts the Find Familiar spell, the familiar is chosen as the creature maximally "compatible" to the mage in a certain radius. (There's a mention of some poor girl who got her own tapeworm as a familiar, and one character muses that it could be much worse: she could get ''somebody else's'' tapeworm as a familiar.) It just so happens that two wizards -- NeutralGood Nalia and LawfulEvil Edwin -- cast the spell simultaneously while being in a fairly close proximity... and both become familiars ''to each other''. HilarityEnsues.
* In ''Sauramud Advice Column for Young Wizardlings'', some poor wizard asks for advice about [[BlessedWithSuck the giant slug]] which he got as a familiar. Sauramud decisively states:
-->"In answer to your question, a giant slug is NO GOOD AT ALL as a familiar -- in fact MOST familiars are no good as a familiar."

* In ''Fanfic/{{Game Theory|LyricalNanoha}}'', [[spoiler:Nanoha]] gets a familiar. The story also explores the consequences of familiars being {{Uplifted Animal}}s in greater depth.

* Practitioners typically get themselves animal familiars in ''Fanfic/FakingIt'' while Dipper was unlucky enough to accidentally make [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Bill]] his familiar (getting a demonic familiar, even unintentionally, would ''at least'' mean jail time). Which of them is actually in charge is also a point of indignation, since while Bill holds all of the power (which is a ''lot''), Dipper is both incapable of being harmed by him and is the only one who can get either of them into the Mindscape.
* Familiars are a branch of magic in the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'':
** Porcina from G1 turns out to have originated as the familiar of a member of Hydia's family named the Glass Witch. Her witch eventually tried to eat her when [[YouHaveFailedMe she made a mistake]]...but Porcina ended up turning ''her'' to glass instead and [[DragonAscendant Porcina became a powerful force in her own right]]. The rest of Hydia's coven left the Glass Witch to her fate, as [[EvenEvilHasStandards killing one's own familiar is considered abominable even by their standards.]]
** Lemon Hearts, one of Twilight's old friends at the School for Gifted Unicorns, has lemons as her special talent. She applies this talent in [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower numerous impressive ways]], but the most impressive is using it to create a number of familiars. The most impressive of these is a {{Kaiju}}.

* In ''Teen Titans: Witch-Hunt'', Circe the Sorceress is accompanied by one foul-tempered falcon named Perseis. She acts as Circe's spy and can be turned into a [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies harpy-like]] creature to fight.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12748824/1/ Never Tear Us Apart]]'', Franchise/HarryPotter becomes bonded to [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Lilith Aensland]]. As it turns out, the part of Morrigan's power that would gain sentience and become Lilith was accidentally released and fused with Lily Evans' unborn child. From then on, she was present as Harry's NotSoImaginaryFriend, until the events of [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire the Tri-Wizard Tournament]] caused Lilith to finally break out and gain a physical body. Their bond also has some shades of MagicContractRomance, as growing up together has made them feel love towards each other.
%%* ''Fanfic/CaseySteele'': Waldo, a non-human entity, that basically serves as the titular Casey's constant companion is called her familiar, for lack of a better term.
* ''Fanfic/{{Metro}}'': Commentary on the titular Metro's {{Glamour}} affecting possible roommate choices:
--> "The pheromones he's putting out induce a 'fight or flight' reaction in most animals we've tested, so that excludes students with familiars or service animals.
* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} as expanded by Creator/AAPessimal, some magic users have familiars. Young witch Rebecka Smith-Rhodes got hers at the age of three, when she looked at a semi-sentient Imp bound to a picture book for children, and asked "What else can you do?" Grindguts The Destroying Demon, in all his tusked and fanged horror, is now her inseparable companion. Fortunately for the world he is benign and friendly. Most of the time.\\
Elsewhere, the young [[MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong Rodinian]] Witch, Alexandra Mumorovka, has made friends with a Sylph, a spirit of the air, who is now bound to come to her when she asks for his[[note]]Or perhaps her. It's hard to tell[[/note]] help. As a Spirit of Air And Wind can be a mixed blessing to the City Air Watch, her commanding officer has requested Lexi not to summon her sprite while on active duty.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Pyewacket, feline companion and familiar to Kim Novak's HotWitch character in ''Film/BellBookAndCandle''.
* ''Film/ChildrenOfTheNight'': [[BigBad Czakyr]] has a familiar who takes the form of a 10-year-old boy. He's made of Czakyr's desires and is a total perv.
* ''Film/{{Maleficent}}'': Maleficent saves the life of the raven Diaval, who in return serves her as a spy and confidant. Diaval is an actual raven but he has human intelligence and Maleficent himself gives him human form at her will.
* ''{{Film/Mythica}}'': Betylla's beetles seem to serve as his, since they can understand and follow his orders, flying to specific people when he's commanded it. He uses it to deliver messages for Peregus. They don't speak though-just flying to people serves as the message.

* The ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}} Series 2000'' book ''Revenge R Us'' has a witch named Iris whose crow, Maggie, actually seems to be the source of her powers: petting Maggie while making a wish will cause it to come true. Since she runs a "revenge" business, it's possible this only includes curses. [[spoiler:Also, you can only make three wishes per day, or the fourth will rebound on you]].

* ''Literature/SteelCrowSaga'': The magic of Shadepacting lets a human exchange parts of their soul with a consenting animal, which gives them a PsychicLink, transforms the animal into a DireBeast, and lets the human manifest and de-manifest it at will. It's seen as sacred by the Shang and Sanbuna peoples and as vile slavery by the Tomodanese, and the human can in fact [[RestrainingBolt dominate the animal's will]] -- or [[BlackMagic pact with another human]]...
* In ''Literature/StrikeTheBlood'', Kojou Akatsuki, being the Fourth Progenitor, has twelve familiars who are very powerful each giving him specific abilities.
* All witches in the series ''The Witch of Turlingham Academy'' have a familiar; an animal that comes to them when they first develop their powers. The protagonist's familiar is a squirrel, her father's is a fox, her aunt's is a cat, and her grandmother's is a crow.
* The Marat people in the Literature/CodexAlera series form intense spiritual bonds with animals they call their chala. These bonds allow them to understand their chala, affect their moods, and the bonding process changes the color of the marat's eyes to match the color of their chala. Typically, a Marat will take on a chala belonging to their tribe or intended tribe (Kitai, for example, is part of a tribe that binds with giant, sloth-like gargants, but she wants to join her aunt in the horse tribe). However, it turns out that [[ThisIsMyHuman Alerans can also become chalas]].
** Alerans themselves have furies. Furies are nature spirits that when bonded to a person give them control over their respective element and other abilities related to that element (such as earth crafters getting enhanced strength). Strong crafters can even manifest their fury which usually takes on the form of an animal formed out of their element.
* ''Literature/TheScholomance'': Wizards bond animals as familiars by spending time with them and imbuing them with {{mana}}, after which they'll act independently on the wizard's behalf. When Liu swears off BlackMagic, she starts to do this with the mice she'd been sacrificing. Gwen Higgins, meanwhile, is such a FriendToAllLivingThings that animals show up and volunteer as familiars now and then.
* ''Literature/OfFireAndStars'': Tamers bond to animals with their magic.
* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Multiple magicians in this story have familiars. The protagonist Emily first serves on a squad with a girl named Amanda, who has a cat familiar called Princess. Emily is also attacked early on by a witch from an evil magic school who has a giant wolf familiar named [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Sica]]. Other new Scholomance recruits have familiars too, including Gelila, who has a goat named Akko, and Maura, who has an eagle named Zuleg.
* ''Literature/XanaduStoryverse'': In "Refamiliarization", the main characters go as a wizard and his dragon familiar, which in the unspecified tabletop campaign that they're playing is a creature magically bonded to a spellcaster to whom it's connected by a mental link. After the Change, the two remain telepathically connected.

* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' features Familiars for the title mages, creatures that are actually manifested spirits capable of using Numina (spirit powers) at will. Those with a good knowledge of the Spirit Arcanum even have the ability to summon temporary familiars at will. Mages decently versed in Death magic can bind ghosts as familiars instead.
* ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' has Hedge Beasts, animals touched by the strange magic of the Hedge. They're capable of human speech, are much smarter than the average animal, and have the ability to use [[FunctionalMagic Contracts]].
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'', when a magician tries to summon a demon and they fail to maintain control over it, it actually ''reverses'' the relationship, making the summoner the familiar of the demon.
* ''TabletopGame/SummonerWars'' has the Owl Familiar, a non-unique unit that can go in any deck. Familiars help wizards focus their magics, represented in-game by [[LuckManipulationMechanic the ability to rearrange the top few cards of our deck.]]
* In ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'', Hermetic magi often have familiars because they are amazingly useful. They can help you not botch your spellcasting rolls, resist mind control, resist physical damage (and heal it when it happens), not drown, starve or die of thirst, and resist aging. And that's just from the magus-familiar bond. You can add special powers later in the lab. Magi from House Bjornaer (who have the special power of VoluntaryShapeshifting) are unable to form the magical bonds necessary to create a familiar, and "No Familiar" is a flaw available to other magi; taking this flaw sometimes causes one to be mistaken for a Bjornaer magus.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' has the Familiar background which gives an Exalted character a supernatural animal companion. At one or two dots the familiar is simply loyal and a bit smarter than a normal animal, starting at three it also acts as an Essence reservoir. Lunars have a note that their choice of familiar is limited by their Totem animal, a rabbit probably wouldn't want to bond with someone who turns into a wolf but a raven might.

* '''Manga/ShamanKing''' has the gaurdian spirits. Each Shaman has at least one and a person's strength and potential as a shaman is directly reflected in the guardian spirit they partner with. The type of spirit also has a large influence over what form the shaman's abilities will take (such as Horohoro bonding with a nature spirit from his home in the artic and getting ice-based powers) and what type of medium the shaman uses (like Yoh using a katana as a medium for his samurai guardian spirit Amidamaru)

* Jiji the black cat from ''Anime/KikisDeliveryService'' is Kiki's familiar. Only she can talk to him and apparently every witch has one. Her inability to understand him is one of the signs that she has lost her magic.

* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica:'' Familiars are the minions of witches, the evil beings in this anime. Familiars are not that strong and don't have Grief Seeds, but they are still a threat for humans as it's stated in the first episodes they can become witches as well if allowed to grow powerful enough.

* The main title character of ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'' is an ordinary human guy who unexpectedly becomes the familiar of a struggling witch at a WizardingSchool.

A familiar is a creature that has been magically bound to a person in a master-and-servant type of relationship. The actual type of familiar varies greatly; it is typically a small animal ([[AllWitchesHaveCats such as a witch's cat]]) but can be anything, including demons or even human beings. Similarly, the type of bond can vary: in some cases, it is nothing more than the ability to [[SpeaksFluentAnimal understand]] what the familiar says [[TalkingAnimal (if it speaks)]] while in others the familiar ''is'' the source of the character's powers. But there ''must'' be a specific bond; just having a magical creature as a companion doesn't count. The "master" need not be a sorcerer, either -- many stories have a normal person gain a familiar by accident, often resulting in trouble.

** In the anime, [[FillerVillain the]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent bounts]] have something that fits the traditional archetype more closely than Zanpakuto spirits: The dolls. They are servant creatures that bounts can summon to do their bidding. They are bound to the bounts via a contract of power. This means that the bounts must always prove that they aren’t weak and that they are worthy to wield the doll’s power, because if the dolls view their masters as too weak or unworthy, then the doll will turn on its master and kill them.

* ''Manga/VermeilInGold'': Every magical student must have a familiar to advance to the second year. Protagonist Alto Goldfield has failed to summon one successfully. In desperation, he tries an old book he stumbled across in the library, and gets a [[GagBoobs Busty]] [[SuccubiAndIncubi Succubus]] who agrees to be his familiar.

* In ''Fanfic/QueenOfAllOni'', the EvilSorceror [[SmugSnake Lung]] [[spoiler: the apprentice of the by-then deceased Daolon Wong, tries to [[ColdBloodedTorture force]] [[VillainProtagonist Jade]] into becoming his, so he can command all her forces. Not only does she not submit, but this attempt gets him killed by her vengeful minions.]]

** Strangely enough, the animal that most closely matches the traditional role of a familiar is Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris. This loathsome creature prowls the school grounds for troublemakers and apparently has the ability to summon Filch to her location when she finds them. This is odd, as Filch is a [[MuggleBornOfMages squib]], and apparently lacks the magical talent to create such a bond. We later meet Mrs. Figg in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', another Squib, whose [[CrazyCatLady many felines]] [[SpeaksFluentAnimal serve as her scouts]].

** Cultivationspren are bonded to Edgedancers and give access to [[SlipperySkid Abrasion]] and [[GreenThumb Progr]][[HealingHands ession]] Lift is bonded to one of these called Wyndle, though she insists he's a Voidbringer, mostly because it annoys him.

* ''Webcomic/BasketsOfGuts'': General Creedy is a one to [[VillainProtagonist Lich]]. Actually, [[AmbiguousGender it]]'s just an [[TheUndead undead]] [[YouDirtyRat rat]], but it's still the most long-living servant of the Lich.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', [[WickedWitch Maja]] has a crabbit ([[CreepyCrows crow]]-[[HairRaisingHare rabbit]] [[HybridMonster hybrid creature]]) familiar. However, Maja's a BadBoss, so said familiar eventually quits.

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Multiple magicians in this story have familiars. The protagonist Emily first serves on a squad with a girl named Amanda, who has a cat familiar called Princess. Emily is also attacked early on by a witch from an evil magic school who has a giant wolf familiar named [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Sica]]. Other new Scholomance recruits have familiars too, including a goat and an eagle.

* ''LightNovel/FateZero'': Briefly discussed. Most Magi use familiars, which leave a magical trail so they can be detected. However, Kiritsugu also uses normal cameras attached to bats as they do not leave a presence nor can a camera be tricked with magic like the brain of a familiar.

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'' has the Devils getting familiars instead of the human magicians. One short story, which made it into the anime, focuses on Asia and Ise trying to find familiars. She recruits a tiny, lightning spewing dragon. And he almost recruits a clothing-eating slime, but Rias destroys it first.

* ''Freelance Familiars by Danial Potter'' - This whole novel series revolves around a new familiar named Thomas who as the title suggests becomes a freelance familiar.
* In ''LightNovel/StrikeTheBlood'', Kojou Akatsuki, being the Fourth Progenitor, has twelve familiars who are very powerful each giving him specific abilities.
* The main title character of ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'' is an ordinary human guy who unexpectedly becomes the familiar of a struggling witch at a WizardingSchool.
* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': The HeadlessHorseman Celty has a black motorcycle that is actually her familiar; he normally takes the form of a horse but transformed into a motorcycle to hide in the modern world. It's mentioned that Celty has the ability to un-summon him, but without her head, she's lost the memories of how to re-summon him, and she's not sure what would happen to him while he was gone.

* ''Series/KamenRiderWizard'': They're named PlaMonsters, and are summoned from the collectible magic rings magicians used, forming themselves from the ring itself and a summoned plastic model kit. Wizard/Haruto has four-Red Garuda, Blue Unicorn, and Yellow Kraken help with scouting in the air, earth, and water, respectively, while Purple Golem helps with crafting new rings, TheRival Beast/Kosuke has Green Griffon who acts like Red Garuda, and Wiseman has a White Garuda as well as a Black Cerberus.

** In ''LightNovel/FateZero,'' familiars are briefly mentioned as well as bringing up a certain disadvantage: Magecraft can easily be used to trick or fool one with illusions, so Kiritsugu attaches cameras instead as they are not so easily fooled. Caster also fights entirely through the use of summoned familiars, though they're actually bound to his Noble Phantasm instead of him.

* ''Series/MastersOfHorror'': One episode, based off of Creator/HPLovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House", deals with the protagonist vainly trying to protect a baby from a witch and her familiar, a giant rat with the face of a man.

* ''Series/{{KamenRiderWizard}}'': They're named PlaMonsters, and are summoned from the collectible magic rings magicians used, forming themselves from the ring itself and a summoned plastic model kit. Wizard/Haruto has four-Red Garuda, Blue Unicorn, and Yellow Kraken help with scouting in the air, earth, and water, respectively, while Purple Golem helps with crafting new rings, TheRival Beast/Kosuke has Green Griffon who acts like Red Garuda, and Wiseman has a White Garuda as well as a Black Cerberus.

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Multiple magicians in this story have familiars. The protagonist Emily first serves on a squad with a girl named Amanda, who has a cat familiar called Princess. Emily is also attacked early on by a witch from an evil magic school who has a giant wolf familiar named [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Sica]].

* ''Litearture/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Multiple magicians in this story have familiars. The protagonist Emily first serves on a squad with a girl named Amanda, who has a cat familiar called Princess. Emily is also attacked early on by a witch from an evil magic school who has a giant wolf familiar named [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Sica]].

* ''Webcomic/OurLittleAdventure'': Angelika has Norveg, an [[IntellectualAnimal exceptionally intelligent]] rat who offers to become her familiar. The fate of her previous familiar is a NoodleIncident that worries him a fair bit.

* Elsewhere, the young [[MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong Rodinian]] Witch, Alexandra Mumorovka, has made friends with a Sylph, a spirit of the air, who is now bound to come to her when she asks for his[[note]]Or perhaps her. It's hard to tell[[/note]] help. As a Spirit of Air And Wind can be a mixed blessing to the City Air Watch, her commanding officer has requested Lexi not to summon her sprite while on active duty.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} as expanded by Creator/AAPessimal, some magic users have familiars. Young witch Rebecka Smith-Rhodes got hers at the age of three, when she looked at a semi-sentient Imp bound to a picture book for children, and asked "What else can you do?" Grindguts The Destroying Demon, in all his tusked and fanged horror, is now her inseparable companion. Fortunately for the world he is benign and friendly. Most of the time.
** Elsewhere, the young [[MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong Rodinian]] Witch, Alexandra Mumorovka, has made friends with a Sylph, a spirit of the air, who is now bound to come to her when she asks for his[[note]]Or perhaps her. It's hard to tell[[/note]] help. As a Spirit of Air And Wind can be a mixed blessing to the City Air Watch, her commanding officer has requested Lexi not to summon her sprite while on active duty.