It seems like a sweet deal, but where they get you is the price for magic ink refills.
"You know that man in the ambulance right now? The man capable, and having already done, absolutely horrible things? There is NOTHING special about him. He's just an average jerk, who, when younger, stumbled on a way to gain use of magic that almost anyone on the planet could use. You want a real-life, non-hypothetical example of why there's so much secrecy? It's lying in the back of that ambulance."
This form of magic isn't a question of spiritual enlightenment, the favor of a god or spirit, or a power that you're born with. It's something that anyone can learn, even (perhaps dangerously) a Muggle. It works because of knowledge that has been collected about the natural world and used in a certain way, and mages are essentially "engineers" of magic who know how to best apply that knowledge. Thus, instead of drawing on some special reservoir of power or acting "outside" of a setting's physical law, magic functions simply because drawing a certain symbol, combining certain ingredients, or making certain sounds has in itself an effect that is not reliant on the specific person doing the action. This concept of magic is Older Than Dirt, going back to the earliest prehistoric forms of religion.
Stories that feature it can certainly have characters who know more magic and are better at casting it be perceived as powerful wizards, but, much like arts and sports, anyone can potentially learn and master it. As such, intelligence, dedication, and time are the primary entry barriers into this form of magic.
Due to being a function of applied knowledge rather than an extension of internal power and will, this magic often requires a variety of external props and conditions. Often, a variety of ingredients, ritual objects, and special words and gestures need to be performed in just the right way and at just the right time. The more advanced and powerful a working, the more complicated its setup is likely to be, thus requiring prospective mages to be willing to work through a lot of complicated subjects if they want to perform the most impressive magic. This is often in contrast to how "innate magic" performs if both are present in the same setting, as the latter is more likely to be depicted as not requiring external materials and to be used in quick, direct, and flashy bursts of power.
If the setting also has magicians whose magical powers are innate, you can expect both types of magicians to come into conflict over their Unequal Rites. Of course, if someone with innate magic were to learn "science magic", the results would be... interesting. In settings with multiple coexisting forms of Functional Magic, this could be considered a kind of "leveler" for the playing field, giving even the non-magical a chance to "wield" comparable forces to those born into a Mage Species. Even if their powers aren't quite up to par, it keeps everyone on their toes.
See Training the Gift of Magic for situations where characters with innate magic still need some kind of special education, and maybe have to use some minor rituals to focus it. In such settings, complex rituals may be one way that people lacking the gift of innate magic can still gain some degree of magical power.
For magic as an actual field of study, see Fantastic Science and Sufficiently Analyzed Magic.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Downplayed in Delicious in Dungeon. Magic mostly involves reciting or inscribing Magical Incantations that anyone can learn with practice, fueled by an inner reserve of Mana that people replenish through their normal diet. However, the average size of this reserve varies by race, setting limits on how much magic they can do at once. Marcille the elf demonstrates this when temporarily transformed into a half-foot: a single explosion spell, of the sort she normally casts willy-nilly, now completely exhausts her.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Alchemy is the discipline of transmuting matter into other sorts of matter without changing its mass. It normally requires inscribing a ritual circle which serves to confine that specific alchemical transmutation to itself. Its application is considered to be essentially an advanced type of science, and alchemists act as a combination of wizards, scientists, researchers, spec-ops, and military officers.
- Downplayed in Little Witch Academia. Magic is an acquired skill and people from non-witch families can learn magic if they are dedicated enough to the craft. Case in point: Akko, who learns to become a witch — despite having no magical lineage and having little prior experience with magic — thanks to her sheer determination. However, according to the Witchpedia section on the series' Japanese website, some people, no matter how hard they work, cannot acquire magical abilities if they don't have the natural aptitude for it.
- Witch Hat Atelier: Everyone believes that witches are born and not made, that you have to be born special to be one and that certain lineages have more magic users in them that can cast spells. The first chapter of the manga reveals this actually a lie that's been maintained for eons, as everybody and anybody who can draw the right symbols in a specific type of ink is able to cast magic. However, as this makes it far too easy for evil people to dominate others, this is a closely guarded secret. The main conflict of the series is between witches who believe the status quo must be maintained, and those who don't want to restrict magic to just an elite group.
Blogs
- Codex Inversus: Magic is derived from a universal Mana field that permeates the universe, which can be interacted with and altered by creating knots in specific patterns, whether by drawing, carving or simply gesturing quickly enough. In theory, anybody can do this, although actually knowing how to do this in a way that will actually achieve anything of note requires a lot of dedicated study; "magicians" are those who have spent large parts of their lives studying in order to do this. Most are scholarly researchers similar to Renaissance-era natural philosophers, although other traditions exist — for instance, Orc fencers have worked out a way to quickly scribe spells in midair with their blades, although they consider this to be simply an advanced martial art and not magic. Even animals can manipulate the field through instinctive behavior or physical structures in their bodies.
Fan Works
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: From the spellbooks and other written forms of spells that have been seen, the only limit on most spellcasting is how much Mana can be gathered and how good the user is at pronouncing the words that make up spells and performing the right Magical Gestures. If they have access to enough mana and pronounce and perform correctly, the spell happens.
Films
- This seems to be the case with magic in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Initially, it seems that Professor Browne is a Muggle fraud since he got his witchcraft lessons out of an old book and had no idea they were actually useful to a real witch like Miss Price. However, in the end, Professor Browne is able to work a magic spell on his own once he learns to believe in himself, meaning he never actually lacked the ability to perform spells.
- In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Strange establishes that almost anyone can wield magic as long as they can mentally open themselves up to the existence of the mystic arts. Stephen Strange's initial struggle comes from the fact that he sees the world from a rational, scientific perspective and has a hard time accepting that there can be anything beyond what his perception and medical training can tell him. The Ancient One finally gets through to him by abandoning him in the Himalayas, forcing him to act on instinct or risk freezing to death.
Literature
- The Bartimaeus Trilogy: Magic consists primarily of demon-summoning, which is done through very complicated rituals. Although it is draining beyond the sheer physical act, anyone can do it, at least in theory — the difficulty of the rituals means that you need genius-level intelligence to do them reliably without blowing yourself up. This is a fact that the magicians are keen for people not to pick up on, and they exaggerate the risks and difficulty as well as discouraging higher education among non-magicians to make it less apparent.
- A Certain Magical Index: This world has two main types of "magic": actual magic Magic, and the more scientific Esper abilities. Magic is described as a power created by and for "those without talent". In contrast to Espers' abilities, which require some degree of innate talent, anyone can perform magic so long as they are given sufficient instructions and follow them properly, unless they are an Esper. In one notable case, a spell that tore an angel down from heaven was cast by a non-magician because they unknowingly set up a ritual for it. That said, someone who has little to no experience using magic will face an extra risk when casting magic compared to a practiced magician. This is because regularly practicing magic makes magicians Resistant to Magic, which helps protect them should anything go wrong.
- Cthulhu Mythos: "Magic" and occult rituals are for the most part implied to be in fact highly sophisticated science unrecognizable to humans, but which otherwise works by interacting with and exploiting complex rules of nature that mundane human science isn't aware of.
- Discworld: In theory, some wizard spells could be cast by anyone, but this is not widely known, partly because wizards keep it quiet, and partly because people who attempt it without a true magic user's ability to sense what they're doing tend to end up dead. The dragon-summoning spell in Guards! Guards!, for example, is a powerful magical working that can be done by a group of random people with the right materials and a leader who knows what he's doing. While witches generally shape magic into the required effect by feel, some folkloric rituals count as witch magic, and the reason they don't normally work for most people is simply that the folklore version misses necessary details.
- The Dresden Files: In addition to the innate magic of wizards, which is only accessible to the rare few born with the power, magic can also be done using complicated ritual circles. This is achievable basically by any person who knows the ritual, wizard or not, and can perform the right ritual and obtain the magical result. Harry likens it to a cosmic vending machine: put in an order, and magic effects are expended. The main difference between a wizard and a muggle in this setting seems to be, aside from overall more power, that a wizard can develop a sense of where magical power is and how it's moving. Casting a spell without this sense is like a blind man building a house; difficult, but possible. In Dead Beat, Butters is able to create a simple protective circle by following Harry's instructions, although he has to be told that it worked. As of Skin Game, he's used practical know-how from Bob to become a kind of proxy-wizard, creating magical devices by ritual means. Harry even notes that due to Butters having a strong knowledge of science to draw from that he's been able to pull some tricks that Harry had failed to ever do successfully.
- The Echorium Sequence: The Songs of Power work for anyone who can sing them. Humans tend to need special training to manage the necessary precision, but in one incident, a flock of Bird People overhear a Song and start mimicking it, spreading its effects haphazardly.
- N. K. Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy: Scrivening magic requires only knowledge of the divine language that tells reality what to do. However, that language is so incredibly complex and prone to horrific Magic Misfires from any error that the profession is rare, highly trained, and strictly regulated.
- The Kingkiller Chronicle: The magic of Sympathy requires extraordinary strength of will and careful study of the metaphysical principles involved, but is theoretically accessible to anyone. Sygaldry and Alchemy aren't known to require any innate gift either. Despite this, the high skill requirement makes magic a rare trade that's treated with superstition by many.
- Labyrinths of Echo: The "Plain Magic" is a form of magic usable by every single resident of the unnamed world where the city of Echo is located — even by those originating from other worlds. While individual talent and training determines the magnitude of the effects one can achieve with Plain Magic, the most basic spells are available to everyone. Another limiting factor is the geographic proximity to the Heart of the World — the source of all Plain Magic, conveniently located just under Echo, — as the further one travels from Echo, the harder casting higher-level spells becomes.
- The Laundry Files: Magic is just a branch of applied mathematics that happens to invoke extradimensional powers when you do the right calculations. One of the Laundry's jobs is to recruit or dispose of people who stumble across the dangerous stuff — the protagonist got hired after developing a fractal geometry algorithm that almost summoned an Eldritch Abomination into Wolverhampton.
- Old Kingdom: The primordial power of Free Magic is usable by anyone with a strong mind, though because most of the world's magic is now bound up in the Charter, most sorcerers look for a concentrated power source like Death or a subservient spirit to expand their capabilities. This is a problem, as practitioners are either Evil Sorcerers seeking unfettered power or become them in short order.
- Rivers of London: Inverse magic is part of the natural forces and works by taking energy from the surrounding world rather than that inherent to the practitioner. Whilst there are multiple specific disciplines and traditions of how to harness and use magic, due to sharing the underlying rules its possible for anyone to learn them with sufficient practice and knowledge, to the point that Lesley is able to figure out how to do a simple spell just by observing Peter and repeatedly practicing until she figures it out. However, untrained practitioners usually do not get very far, as, without understanding the basic principles, they do not understand how to stop the magic from draining the energy from themselves, leading to severe health complications and often death.
- Tolkien's Legendarium: Elves often express some confusion as to what humans and hobbits mean by "magic", as they use it to refer to both the Elves' works, which are born from a very deep and broad knowledge of the world, and to Morgoth and Sauron's "deceptions". Elves have picked up a lot of knowledge over the course of their aeon-long lifespans and the tutelage of the world's creators, and can do things with it that seem magical (such as creating seemingly enchanted artifacts or shielding their lands from detection and decay), whereas wizards are actually the earthly forms of an order of angels called the Istari, and therefore know the laws of the universe by heart (having worked closely with the guys who wrote 'em in the first place). Even the most complicated and wondrous arts that they practice could be taught to people of other races with sufficient time and care. Morgoth and Sauron, being devils, probably actually do and teach witchcraft to their servants (but it's equally likely this is the same intimate knowledge of the laws of reality being put into practice). There are some things that can't be explained by real-life science, like "a mirror that shows the future" and "a ring that contains the soul and burning malice of an actual demon", but which still boil down to either things that are possible through in-universe "science" or the demons' dark works.
- Unsong: Under the new laws of reality, each of the Names of God has a discrete supernatural effect when spoken aloud by a sentient person, knowingly or not. There are even sweatshops that look for new Names by brute-force recitation of syllable lists.
Live-Action TV
- Supernatural: Zig-zagged. Some magic requires an innate gift or a Deal with the Devil, but some spells — usually those that control or affect supernatural creatures — work for anyone who follows the correct procedures. The main characters aren't witches but regularly use Geometric Magic like demon-trapping circles and dabble in more advanced spells, like a Summoning Ritual for Death.
Podcasts
- Metamor City: Ritual spells can be performed by anyone, as they draw mana from the environment while mages use their own inner reserves (although they do use rituals for more complex spells). Artax runs a shop called "Spells 4 U" that specializes in ritual kits, and very strongly advises his customers to follow the directions exactly.
Tabletop Games
- d20 Modern and the 3.5 version of Unearthed Arcana have Incantations, a magic variant that can be used by anyone regardless of spellcasting ability, that involves complex and sometimes dangerous rituals.
- DC Heroes: The skill Occultist includes the sub-skill Ritualist, which allows anyone to use a form of magic that is lengthy to cast and demands props and ingredients, as opposed to the superpower-like magic of actual sorcerers. In the game's system, normal human sorcerers like John Constantine are said to use the sub-skill Ritualist to represent their magic, while flashy superhuman sorcerers like Zatanna and Doctor Fate have one or more actual powers to represent their magic. This might or might not accurately portray how things happen in the comics themselves.
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- In most editions, Wizard magic is based on knowledge — anyone who knows precisely the right gestures, words, and ingredient use can access it — but, much like any other book learning, plenty of folks aren't knowledgeable enough to grasp it or patient enough for the extensive study needed to master it. Bards also don't need to be "born special", as their magic is gained via the power of performance, often music, and as such is more a skill that a mundane person could pick up provided that they are good with an instrument, acting, juggling or other performing skill and dedicated enough to practice enough to master it. This is in contrast with sorcerers, who gain magic from supernatural ancestry that gives them deeper magical reserves but more narrow powers, and divine spellcasters (Druids, Paladins, and Clerics) and Warlocks, who "buy in" to their magic via faith, knight-like-oaths, venerating nature, or pacts with powerful entities.
- 3rd Edition: Binders have their negative reputation in part because binding a vestige to your soul is an extremely simple process where the hardest part is drawing its symbol correctly. This is represented by a feat chain which grants any character the ability to bind low-level vestiges, regardless of class (albeit gaining only a subset of the abilities a Binder would).
- 4th Edition distinguishes between class-specific powers, which for the more magical classes are defined as spells and can be used quickly and particularly in combat, and rituals that anyone with the right feat and appropriate skill(s) can use as long as they can pay for the components and have the time. Wizards and clerics get the requisite feat for free right from the start, while other classes can obtain the feat provided that they're trained in Arcana or Religion. Even non-magical fighters can perform rituals by using a scroll.
- 5th Edition:
- Spells with the "ritual" tag can be cast without using spell slots if a character spends ten minutes performing an elaborate ritual. A character does not need to be a member of a spellcasting class to learn ritual spells if they take the Ritual Caster feat, which only requires an Intelligence or Wisdom score of 13 and allows a character to learn any ritual spell of a specified class in the same manner as wizards, but only to cast them as rituals.
- The Magic Initiate feat allows a character to learn two cantrips and a 1st level spell with one daily spell slot without any prerequisites.
- The Arcane Trickster and Eldritch Knight are rogue and fighter subclasses, respectively, that dabble in wizard magic.
- Exalted:
- In 2nd Edition, thaumaturgy is available to anyone with enough of an "Occult" score. Some thaumaturgy is so basic that it's not even necessary to specifically learn its Arts and rituals; all that is required is a single dot of Occult and you know how to use it.
- 3rd Edition heavily quashes how common thaumaturgy is. Now, it's a luck of the draw whether any individual has the spark in them for magical learning. Sorcery can technically be learned by anyone, but it's about as technically true as the statement that any US citizen can be the president.
- Mutants & Masterminds: Anyone can buy a Feat (later renamed an Advantage) called Ritualist, which permits the casting of lengthy spells that demand props and ingredients, but only the very special people have superpowers that allow them to use magic easily and instantly.
- Pathfinder: Most magic can only be accessed through a magical character class or an enchanted item. Rare "Occult Rituals" can be learned by anyone but take hours to perform, require multiple difficult skill checks to succeed, have nasty side effects from a Magic Misfire, and often exact a heavy cost on the ritualist.
- Powered by the Apocalypse: Liberalization of the supernatural is a common feature in Tabletop RPGs (ones that feature magic at all) of the PbtA family and of its "cadet branch", Forged in the Dark, owing to the design choices made in their respective progenitor games:
- Apocalypse World postulates the existence of "the Psychic Maelstrom" — a purposefully ill-defined supernatural entity that has existed since the apocalypse and into which any Player Character can tap in order to use psychic powers. While there are playbooks (Brainer, Hocus) that are more adept at it than others, this is due to dedicated training and equipment, rather than innate talent. Gameplay-wise, this is expressed in the Open Your Mind to the Psychic Maelstrom basic move and the Weird stat, which all playbooks can use at all times.
- Blades in the Dark has the "ghost field" — a spectral reflection of the physical world where ghosts of the dead and other supernatural entities have resided since the destruction of the old world. Again, while some playbooks are better at tapping into it (Whisper, Railjack), it's because they have better starting training and equipment, and every other playbook also has the Attune action stat that is used to tap into the ghost field to manifest its mystic powers.
- Monster of the Week (PbtA) does away with the "Maelstrom" idea altogether and just postulates the existence of magic, period, which all player characters can use with the basic Use Magic move and the Weird stat. It does, however, note that different characters may express their magic very differently, from the ki-powered kung fu monk to a modern-day technopath.
- Scum and Villainy (FitD) replaces the ghost field with "the Way" — an amorphous energy field permeating all of space since time immemorial and allowing anyone to tap into it to use its powers. It is obviously inspired by the Force from Star Wars, but notably removes its dark/light side binary, as well as giving "Force sensitivity" to every living being in the galaxy.
- Mage: The Ascension: The game is primarily about Mages, humans with an innate ability to cast magic, known as "Sphere Magic" aka "True Magick." However, Sorcerers are Mages' less-famous cousins who deal in "Hedge Magic." Unlike Sphere Magic, anyone can learn Hedge Magic through rigorous study, and while their scope and potential are far more limited in the long run than Sphere Magick where the sky's the limit,note Hedge Magic doesn't cause Paradox backlash and is less likely to draw the ire of other supernaturals, since it's (usually) considered part of the natural order rather than working against it.
Video Games
- The Elder Scrolls: In the setting, magic is done through the manipulation of magicka rather than with any sort of inborn abilities, and thus it's a discipline which anyone can study and learn to use. In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, it's noted that in Skyrim, even though every Jarl has a court wizard, most of the resident Nords look down on the use of magic (except for the Restoration school for healing) because they view it almost like cheating, and culturally prefer to whack each other with swords.
- Final Fantasy:
- There do not seem to be any innate requirements for being able to use magic in the world of Spira in Final Fantasy X. At the beginning of the game, the characters are set up into certain classes, i.e. Lulu as Black Mage and Yuna as a Summoner / White Mage. However, when discussing her Fear of Thunder, Rikku explains that it came about because her Brother once accidentally used a Thunder spell on her and Lulu tells her that magic is effective against marine fiends and that she should learn some spells too. Ultimately, if you grind enough, your entire party is able to learn every spell available via the Sphere Grid system.
- Final Fantasy XIV: Every living being in the world is, to some extent, made up of aether. Essentially, anyone can manipulate aether in various ways to cast magic, to the point that people using such magic to enhance everyday tasks is treated as ordinary. For instance, a cook might have a Mundane Utility of controlling heat to perfect their cooking. As a result, anyone can learn magic, but very few people bother because of how much aether is required to do so and the complexity of learning the correct spells. Those that do learn it for combat (such as the Warrior of Light) use it to either cast spells outright or enhance their abilities, such as swinging weapons faster or allowing them to hit supernatural creatures like ghosts. Native Garleans, however, are unable to use magic at all, which initially made them pariahs, until they developed Magitek to put them on equal footing with the rest of the world, and then used that power to conquer. When the Warrior of Light is forcibly bodyswapped into a Garlean body in Endwalker, the extreme loss of power and lack of natural healing is very dramatic, forcing them to pick fights carefully against single or weak foes that they would otherwise have no trouble destroying at full power.
- Fire Emblem: Downplayed. Magic is generally treated as a discipline to be learned rather than as an innate ability, with the series' elemental mages being of a generally scholarly bent in contrast to the divinely-powered priests and clerics. The reclassing mechanic seen in later games (from Shadow Dragon onward) allows most, if not all, of the playable characters to access magical powers in battle.
- Fortune Summoners: For all that the opening narration says that magic is now a personal and commonplace part of people's lives due to the mass-manufacture of elemental stones, which appear to be the only requirement to cast elemental magic, as long as they're trained on how to use it, in practice, it's limited to those with the large amount of wealth to purchase said stone, and get trained on it.
- Trails Series: Magic, or "Arts" as they're called here, has been quantified, analyzed, and corporatized down into a simple system that anybody can use. Naturally occurring gemstones known as Sepith are processed into circuit pieces known as Quartz, which are then slotted into the circuitry of magic-casting devices called Orbments. Orbments come in many forms such as pocket watches, staves, and even cell phones, and much like real-life cellphones, there are multiple competing models produced by different corporations. Anybody with a properly outfitted Orbment can use combat magic, but some are more predisposed toward it than others; besides raw stats, more powerful mages tend to also wield more favorable Orbment circuit layouts. "Traditional" unquantified magic also exists in the setting, exclusive to supernatural beings such as witches, but even some of them also carry an Orbment as a modern convenience.
- Ruphand: An Apothecary's Adventure: An inborn talent for magic is unnecessary to use it and it is uncertain whether such inborn talent even really exists. In the right side of the Arkenvali Academy of magic, some people speak of such a split, between "Lambents" and "Mundanes" and use it to discriminate against the "Mundanes", but even they acknowledge that Mundanes "can learn magic".
Webcomics
- El Goonish Shive: Downplayed. This, as it turns out, is the primary reason for The Masquerade. Almost anyone who is exposed to magic for long enough will eventually "Awaken," gaining the ability to learn new spells. Magic in this world is easy and forgiving to use, and also runs off of Personality Powers. Which means that not only will the rapists get date rape spells, but they'll keep getting better date rape spells as they practice. However, while anyone can in theory gains access to magic, magic is also deeply personal and not easily translatable between people. In essence, people get access to spells in a semi-controlled manner based on a combination of their personality, needs, and past magic use, and do not always have direct input over which spells come to them — Elliot, for instance, continues to get gender-changing spells despite not really wanting them because the magic "thinks" that this is the kind of magic that he wants. Additionally, each person's spells are personal to them — Elliot and Nanase can both use magic, for instance, but they cannot use one another's spells because they aren't "theirs". Wizards can learn and use the spells of other magic-using beings, but this is an innate ability that cannot be learned.
- Kill Six Billion Demons: Atum is universal and all beings can learn how to use and cultivate theirs, at least provided they come from a universe where the Gods allow for Atum manipulation (Allison's universe, much like ours, seems not to). Similarly, learning the White, Red and Black Arts of Lying to The Face of God is all a matter of willpower and dedication, and not contingent on special gifts. Having a Magus Key provides a (significant) shortcut to power, but ultimately it is possible (if very, very unlikely) to become a match for a Demiurge even without one.
- Unsounded: Anyone can be made into a spellwright with a quick ritual to open their connection to the Background Magic Field. Spells are just correctly worded instructions in the Language of Magic, so wrights run the gamut from Inept Mages reciting spells from a primer to Badass Bookworms who know the language inside and out.
Web Original
- In the Quest Den NSFW adventure "Moot Point", the Sender Order's Thinking Up Portals magic can apparently be learned by anyone with the right inclination towards mathematics and geometry. It turns out this power was actually innate for the school's founder Augustine Moot, but Hekal and Tuvara-Malli the Teacher analyzed and codified it to the point that you can learn the basics of it from a simple book.
- It's shown that anyone in The Stickworld is capable of magic if they want to train to use it, though it usually depends on whether they have anyone they think of protecting.
Western Animation
- Hilda: Magic is a power that anyone can use, as proven in "Chapter 8: The Tide Mice" when Hilda uses a spell she found in a library book to summon the titular tide mice, despite never having used magic before. Season 2 reveals there's a community of witches in Trolberg, but they are not a Mage Species but simply people who have turned magic into a career and devote their time to the study and understanding of magic.
- Jackie Chan Adventures: Chi magic can be learned by anyone through study and practice. Uncle, who has been a chi wizard for years, usually acts as the main spellcaster on the side of the protagonists, but over the course of the series he trains Tohru to become a chi wizard, and Jade has also tried her hands at magic a few times, with varying results. In "The J Team" even the usually skeptical Captain Black decides to give it a try; he ends up turning himself into a frog.
- Legion of Super Heroes (2006): In "Trials", the de-powered young wizard Zyx admits that anyone can perform the most basic forms of magic.
- The Owl House: Residents of the Boiling Isles are born with a magic bile sac that enables them to use magic. Luz, as a human, is locked out of using magic this way; however, in “The Intruder” she discovers a system of magic glyphs that can be used by anyone, though they only function in the Demon Realm due to its Background Magic Field.
