Rules of Magic

Overview

Church scholars have studied magic almost continuously since the Church came out of hiding following the Edict of Milan.¹ In addition to what the clergy have observed and compiled directly themselves, the Church has archived visions that various saints have had that disclose additional information. As these visions, like all visions of the saints, are not considered binding on the faithful, the Church considers this information useful, but not necessarily definitive. Church scholars have, from this research, derived these rules for how magic works.

Overall Rules

Experience with those who repent from witchcraft and other traffic with fallen spirits has aided the Church scholars in the classification of the magic the nephilim use, as their magic is inherited from those who have fallen into these snares. Thus we know that magic can be subdivided into nine aspects, each corresponding to one of the nine angelic choirs. Each choirs appears to grant a distinct ability to those who are corrupted by members of that choir, these abilities being inherited by their children. Further, should either the corrupted themselves, or their children, go on to procreate with others from a different “lineage,” the powers will frequently combine in the next generation. Thus most modern nephilim have powers that derive from most if not all nine choirs.

Power Levels

Individual nephil can be rated on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high) for access to each class of angelic abilities.² These power levels are estimates, and no precise way exists to directly measure the precise ability of the nephilim. Despite this, scholars feel confident that these estimates provide useful and meaningful points of reference for the comparison of the abilities of any given nephilim.

Power Level	Ability Estimate
1	All of the following: Some single weak ability within this category. No conscious control over the ability
2	One of the following: Multiple barely detectable abilities within this category. Conscious control over a single weak ability within this category. No conscious control over a single moderate strength ability within this category.
3	Able to manipulate this category of magic with great difficulty/effort.
4	All of the following: Able to achieve minimally acceptable levels of proficiency in this category of magic. If some OWL test depended solely on this category of magic, expect to score in the P range.
5	All of the following: Expected to achieve acceptable levels of proficiency in this category of magic. If some OWL test depended solely on this category of magic, expect to score in the A range.
6	All of the following: Expected to be capable of more advanced learning in this category of magic. If some OWL test depended solely on this category of magic, expect to score in the E range. If some NEWT test depended solely on this category of magic, expect to score in the A range.
7	All of the following: Expected to be capable of doing well in an advanced course on this category of magic. If some OWL test depended solely on this category of magic, expect to score in the O range. If some NEWT test depended solely on this category of magic, expect to score in the E range. Possibly capable learning magics in this category beyond NEWT level.
8	All of the following: Expected to be capable of doing well in an advanced course on this category of magic. If some OWL test depended solely on this category of magic, expect to score in the O range. If some NEWT test depended solely on this category of magic, expect to score in the 0 range. Capable learning magics in this category beyond NEWT level.
9	All of the following: Expected to learn OWL and NEWT level magics with relative ease. Expected to learn magics in this category beyond the NEWT level. Instinctual (unconscious) use of magic in this category is extremely common.
10	All of the following: Learning this category of magic is more about finding out what is possible and fine-tuning abilities you already have. That is, the student is not really taught so much as shown once, followed by some minimal practice by the student. OWL and NEWT practicals will be easy, but theory portions may be difficult for this person, because their magic is in fact instinctual in this area.

This begs the question “What do you mean by expected?” Obviously there is no standards body anywhere in the world that is grading students using these categories. While the Church has not hidden its research from the nephilim, they have proven remarkably resistant to benefiting from the body of knowledge the Church has compiled, or incorporating it into their own knowledge base in any way. The nephilim have either forgotten or actively deny that they are descended from angels, and refuse to think of their abilities in terms of the angelic choirs.

Given there is no objective standard based on these categories, scholars are attempting to describe a hypothetical situation. So called ‘OWL’ and ‘NEWT’ tests are reasonably standard across Europe and have reasonably equivalent tests in Africa, India, North and South America, and Australia. They also happen to roughly correspond to the GCSEs and A-Levels used in the United Kingdom except that they are graded on a different scale. ‘OWL’ and ‘NEWT’ tests are graded on the scale:

• T - Troll (fail with distinction)
• D - Dreadful (failing grade)
• P - Poor (fail with the possibility to repeat)
• A - Acceptable (lowest passing grade)
• E - Exceeds Expectations
• O - Outstanding

For the purposes of this document, given adequate but not necessarily superlative instruction, someone who does not meet the goal described in a given power level is being lazy, suppressing their abilities, or both. They are neglecting their own strengths.

Abilities by Type

Church scholars designate first generation nephilim the “primordial nephilim.” By this we do not mean those from the prehistoric times, but rather, those that are immediate children of the humans that first transact with fallen spirits to gain power. These “primordial nephilim” are not different species, as they are cross fertile and in fact nearly all modern nephilim trace their origins to a wide variety of different primordial nephilim types. Rather, this is a nephil that is unique in that it is a single remarkably strong trait that can be independently inherited and traced through the generations. For categorising these traits, the Church has found that the Areopagite model³ of angelic choirs produces the most accurate results, and will be used here.

For each choir we list both the description of that choir and the traits we observe in the nephilim descending from fallen angels of that type. While most are obvious derivations, there are a couple of cases where the trait observed in the resulting nephilim is only remotely related to the description of the angelic choir. This suggests that further research into the nature of angels, the nature of magic, or both, is required. The ability to perform such research is limited by the fact that the rate of new primordial nephilim is (thankfully) extraordinarily low, and that even when it does occur, the clergy are not always both able and sufficiently educated to collect meaningful data.

Angelic Choir	Description	Abilities Granted
Seraphim	These angels perceive God most directly, and know Him in and as Himself best.	The resulting nephil does not appear to have any ability to perceive God. As man is a limited image of God, the nephil has the ability to perceive the heart of the man/nephil. When used on other nephil, this allows access to information about the person’s physical state, their will, and their memories. When used on humans, it allows only access to information about the person’s physical state. However, an astute judge of human nature can combine this with situational awareness, historical information about the person, body language, and similar data to make highly accurate guesses.
Cherubim	These angels perceive God only indirectly, but understand that perception best. Their work is the contemplation of God through His works.	The nephil inherits the the ability to perceive/detect what has been done with magic, and what is possible with it. This is a more passive ability than is inherited from any other choir, and could be confused with the mastery granted by inheriting a power level of 10 from the other choirs. The difference is subtle but important. The Cherub’s child gains no ability to perform magic in other categories, only to understand what has been done. The Cherub’s child gains an ability that is always used instinctively. While nephil with differing levels can perceive with differing levels of accuracy and clarity, neither will need nor benefit from instruction. This makes this category distinct from all others where the nephil inheriting the category does benefit from instruction except at the extreme ends of the scale. Reiterating: you will find no class in any magical school about detecting “spell residue” or similar ideas, because you can either do this without training or you cannot.
Thrones	The Thrones contemplate Judgement.	While the Thrones, like the Seraphim, are primarily contemplative, the inheritance from them is, again like that from the Seraphim, much more active. The nephil has the ability to bind the will of other nephilim, and to defend against being so bound. This ability has marginal at best effect on full humans. Despite this, the magical population continues to use spells intended to change behaviour on full humans as part of their attempts at preserving their so called “International Statute of Secrecy.” Careful investigation with the aid of the rare cooperative nephil has shown that many of these behaviour altering spells have a secondary mode of operation that affects brain chemistry that does work on full humans frequently in ways that mimic the effects of hallucinogenic drugs, alcohol, or both. There is at least some data indicating that these secondary modes of operation come from abilities in other categories automatically compensating for the failure of abilities in this category. However, scholars are unwilling to probe too deeply due to both the morally problematic nature of the research and the very real magical dangers involved. Things like the imperious curse or the confundus charm fit in here. Magical contracts are very real,1 and any clergy dealing with the nephilim should be wary of the ways in which a nephil can be affected by them. Those nephilim with abilities in this category tend to have greater control over contracts they consciously enact enact contracts (both consciously and subconsciously) that are more strongly self-enforcing are, ironically, more resistant to being affected by contracts they are not a first party to authoring each of these tendencies can in fact be trained/strengthened through both instruction and practice. As stated elsewhere in these Appendices, I believe the existence of magical contracts is actually implied by the canonical Harry Potter books. However, I am not going to debate their canonicity here. For the purposes of this work, they exist. ↩
Dominions	These angels are responsible for ordering the work of all other angels. Their name implies actual, real authority.	The relationship between the way Dominions operate and the abilities the nephilim gain is indirect, and one of several places that suggests flawed understanding. God creates by decree - He spoke and the world was made. The nephilim are not capable of true creation, but have authority only over the form, but not the substance, of the material world. They can thus by their magic transmute the form of one thing to another. This will be temporary unless the change is “locked” in place through combining this ability with that inherited from the Powers. No primordial nephilim with the power to transmute has ever been observed to do anything long lasting. No nephil has ever been observed to retroactively make a transmutation permanent, it must be done as the change is made, by the same nephil.
Virtues	The Virtues are responsible for enforcing the laws of physics. Traditional sources tell us that they generally concern themselves primarily with massively macroscopic effects.	As related to the magic of the nephilim, this a better understanding appears to be that actually doing anything with the way physical laws work at a microscopic and sub-microscopic level would be either catastrophic, unduly influence free will for those affected by it, or both. As a result, the nephilim appear to be either inherently unable, or Divinely restricted from, doing anything at the microscopic level. Given the above limitation to the macroscopic, one can understand the nephilim as temporarily augmenting the nature of the natural world. Things like animation charms fit here, but so do things like levitation charms. Interestingly, primordial nephilim and those who inherit from them appear to gain a passive ability as well. When they simply touch or handle certain raw materials (potions ingredients), these become “charged” with extra properties. Like the magic inherited from the Dominions, the magic inherited from the Virtues is highly temporary. It appears to require continuous concentration on the part of the nephilim. Nephilim communities with inheritance from a spectrum of choirs have devised several ways around the time limitations. See latter sections for details. Nephilim have discovered an interesting aspect of this ability, it can be used to add a property to an object such that it has the ability to itself store magic. Not in the unformed potential the way a battery allows any use of electricity, but rather in the formed potential that a shotgun shell has a certain stored potential to project the shotgun pellets, but limited potential to do anything except explode.
Powers	Powers are the first of the overtly militant angelic orders (looking from top down). They protect the work of the Virtues from interference. This, to me, implies that God providentially foresaw that giving angels free will would entail a universe in which that free will was exercised in wrong ways.	The nephil inherits the ability to affect time. Divination is not included in this ability, that is something different. When used directly on the natural world: Nephilim are capable of short duration closed-loop time travel. “short duration” meaning about one to two days backwards depending on both power level and training. Longer durations appear to cost the user either physical health, actual longevity, or both, in proportion to the distance in time travelled. They have tried extensively to work around this. “closed loop” meaning that, despite tails the nephilim tell each other, there is no reliable evidence that a nephil has actually managed to change anything - only to change things that appeared to have happened. For example you hear something, misattribute a cause, go back, change the cause, but the sound still happens, and proceed forward to rejoin time where you left it. various nephilim have managed to harm (and sometimes kill) their future selves, but when actually observed by Church chroniclers, no nephil has ever killed their past self. There are stories of this happening, but even their research has no actual evidence that it has actually happened. Nephilim can slow the passage of time on an object or person. They think they can halt it entirely. The so called “stasis charm” is actually still allowing forward motion in time, but at about one one-millionth of a second per hour. We suspect they could equally accelerate the passage of time, but the Church has not observed a nephil doing this. Nephilim who inherit this in addition to some other ability quickly learn that this ability combines with other powers. When used on a magical effect, you can make it last longer (even permanently) When used on a magical effect, you can make it last less time (a finite incantatem charm for example totally cancels it). Interestingly, when used on an object that contains a magical effect, you can affect either the object containing, or the effect contained. The relationship to this and the parent angel’s ability is indirect and suggests a need for more research.
Principalities	The principalities are concerned with groups of people - nations, cities, clubs, ethnic groups. They are not concerned with the individual, but with the common good.	The nephil inherits the ability to create area effects on populations and places (unplottable, “muggle repelling”, so on). This differs from the Thrones in that the gifts from the Thrones affect individuals regardless of location. A Thrones derived ability always affects a specific person regardless of where that person is. A Principalities derived ability affects whoever happens to be in a specific location, regardless of who that person is. The nephilim appear to have some ability to target what kind of who is affected. Scholars record spells successfully affecting Anyone below a certain age. Anyone with a specific genetic trait. Any nephilim with a specific intent. Anyone in a specific emotional state. Note the slight but key difference from the proceeding. Most nephilim communities do not appear to be reliably aware of this distinction. Like the magic of the Powers, these spells must be continuously powered, except where similar workarounds have been developed using other classes of abilities.
Archangels	These angels are tasked with particular goals in particular times and places. Heal this person, protect that person, deliver this message. They accomplish concrete tasks on God’s behalf, with whatever force is required to do so.	The nephil’s inheritance is again indirect. The Archangels exercise visible force, the nephil gains the ability to use magic to enforce his will on others via external means. This should not be confused with the Thrones or Principalities. The magic inherited from these choirs influence others directly. That magic is, for lack of better phrasing, “inside your head.” The magic inherited from the Archangels is more like pushing someone, or pulling him/her into place. As implied above, Scholars have also observed some nephilim use spells that superficially appears identical to that inherited from the Principalities, in that it affects a location. However, the mode of operation differs, again as noted above. A primordial nephil from the Principalities would keep you out by making you want to be somewhere else. A primordial nephil from the Archangels would physically stop you from going there. The powers appear to combine in those who descend from both types particularly well. Some of these magics appear to trigger corrupting changes with at very high rates, to unusually severe degrees, or both.
Angels	Also called Guardian Angels, these angels are tasked with the welfare of specific individuals in a general sense. They differ from the Archangel who has a particular goal to achieve in time and space in that the Guardian Angel is concerned with the moral state of its assigned person. The Guardian Angel is concerned with salvation.	The inheritance from the nephil is the ability to resist magical force, of any kind, from any other class of magic. Shield spells, spells to undo effects (which differs from stopping the duration very slightly but significantly), and healing spells. While this description sounds like it should be one of the safest categories of magic, corrupting change has been observed even primordial nephil of this type. Scholars have reasoned that defensive measure might still warp the mind/soul of the user; it might effectively be resisting too much, or the wrong way. For example in the physical world one can drown out a voice by being louder, by covering one’s ears, or by puncturing one’s ear drums. While the last is extreme, and only a crazy person would do it, remember that nephil do not always understand how their magic affects them.

Mapping to how the Nephilim themselves understand Magic

Nearly all nephilim communities categorise magic as follows:

charms

• generally a mix of inheritance from Virtues and Powers for the lower years, however things like “cheering charms” are actually a form of transmutation manipulating the form of brain chemicals, and thus, temporarily, their effect.

• memory charms like obliviation are a mix of transmutation on brain chemicals with the Seraphic ability to perceive (and thus target the transmutation really precisely). Because they are chemical in nature, they can work on full humans. However, they can be more precisely targeted and more finely crafted/tuned when used against a nephil. Thus you can make a human forget, say, the last hour, or the last day; you can make a nephil forget that a single person was present while otherwise remembering the event.

• Imperious curse acts differently on humans and nephil. Using the imperious curse on a human will require “operating” that human like you would a puppet or a remote control robot, while using it on a nephil acts more like what you see in the Harry Potter books, where you can give a command and the victim’s own mind will assist in finding ways to carry out the order.
• Confundus type charms only work well on nephil, because they extend memory charms by depending on abilities inherited from Thrones. When used on a human, this charm interferes with the ability to form a long term memory, and the ability to retrieve long term memories, both for the duration of the charm, and it causes the various chemicals in the brain to surge. So humans will tend to end up all sorts of confused, but without the fine grained control over what they are confused about, or what they think is actually happening that you can achieve with a nephil. Note that not all nephil are aware of the difference in affect here.

transfiguration

• comes primarily from the Dominions, but is highly temporary unless you use abilities from the Powers to extend (perhaps infinitely) the duration as you make the change.
• Nephilim scholars will teach students about Gamp’s Law. Their understanding is highly flawed. As a result of this flawed formulation, the “law” has exceptions, each of which also have exceptions, for example wine can be conjured.⁴ These flaws stem from a few primary misconceptions:
  • transfiguration is temporary by default. Your transfigured food will revert. For something like water into wine, that is not actually a problem. You can drink your wine, enjoy it, and simply experience less of a hang-over the next day. For something like a sandwich, you would now have a block of wood (if you transfigured the sandwich out of wood) instead of something digestible.
  • Successful permanent transfiguration means transmuting the actual substance all the way down to the subatomic level. Few of the nephilim know anything to the level of detail required for this to be successful, and where they do, it tends to be fairly pure elements, like raw iron into raw gold. But even then, combining your transmutation with the Powers magic necessary to make it permanent is poorly understood, thus poorly taught, and so see the prior point.
  • Few if any nephilim understand the real differences between conjuration, vanishing, and transmutation. Most attempt to teach all three as if they are the same thing.

Defence

• Much of the content in this class is, as a mix of content categorised (by the nephilim) elsewhere, particularly Charms, Runes, Transfiguration, and Care of Magical Creatures.⁵
• Some of it, particularly as it comes to the study of specific counter curses and shields, comes from the Angels.
• Some of it, where actual offensive spells are taught (such as the knockback jinx), comes from the Archangels.
• This class is a mishmash of content, part learning about “dark” creatures, part learning about the curses you are defending against (except not practising casting them), part learning about the counters to those curses, and part learning about avoiding the need to ever use those counter curses. Since many spells can be used either offensively or defensively, but are not inherently combat related, this class is pulling from all sorts of branches of magic.
• As hinted above, some magic, has particular counter-magic, that is directly reversing the effects. For example, there is a curse that reverses the direction that the knee bends; one needs a counter-magic for this because the curse is a form of permanent (Powers) reshaping (Dominions) of the structure of the joint combined into a single act by the caster. It is specifically a curse because it has also been ‘hardened’ against removal by an admixture of additional magic. In this case, the joint has also been modified to act as container for a magical contract (Virtues - container for magic; Thrones - contract) the act of attempting to heal the joint is explicitly the acceptance terms for the contract, in which you agree to fail at healing. With a better understanding of magic, one could attack first the contract directly, reducing its operating period (to nil), then attempt to heal the joint. In fact, unknown to the nephilim this is precisely what the counter-curse does.

animagus

• No modern nephilim realises how integral to their very being the so called “animagus” transformation is.
• For European nephilim, there is a pervasive believe that this ability can only be accessed by a rare few through an absurdly difficult ritual that combines a ritual spell with aspects of transfiguration with a potion.
• The Uagadou⁶ school teaches students ways to influence what animal you become. In fact, only those who inherit from the Thrones, the Powers, and the Dominions can succeed at the method they teach. This method uses the melded powers from all three inheritances to transmute the student’s own nature to the desired animal (or animals), so that when they exercise the inherit animagus ability, they become an “unnatural” (to that individual) animal. Few ever realise how invasive this transmutation is to their sense of self.
• Other cultures have other ways of unlocking this ability, some of which are safer than others.
• The ability itself needs to be “unlocked” only because the nephilim have convinced themselves, subconsciously, that it needs to be. Mostly because they have a mental image of themselves as human (which they are not).

conjuring

• requires inheritance from the Powers, as you are in essence manipulating quantum probabilities.
• No known nephilim community actually understands how conjuring actually works.
• The nephilim have manipulated time in a highly localised (nearly negligible) space until it becomes probable that quanta will appear in the desired configuration, and more, that this has actually happened (and not some other quantum affect).
• Conjuration will tend to be permanent.
• The nephilim believe Gramp’s Law again comes into play, but there are actually two unrelated problems at work.
  1. See the note above about needing to understand your target down to the elemental level for it to end up being digestible. A comfortable chair does not need to be so accurate, because we expect it to remain a chair. A sandwich we expect our bodies to break down into the constituent molecules, which thus have to be there.
  2. There’s also an aspect of belief going on. Most nephil have been trained to believe that conjuration is a form of transfiguration, and that transfiguration of food is impossible. They conclude from this chain of thought that conjuration of food is impossible, and in so doing, make it impossible for them.
• Nephil are taught conjuration of animals. This only works for things that are in fact animals - that is, that lack immortal souls. Even then, it does not reliably produce truly living animals even, but more frequently only highly realistic puppets that will cease to operate when their “battery” runs out, but cannot (for example) digest food to “recharge.”

Vanishing

• Though considered transfiguration, this is actually a really weird mix of abilities from Virtues and Powers.
• Like conjuring, no known nephilim community correctly understands it.
• The nephilim are essentially making the thing vanished air soluble, then for the space that thing occupies, manipulating time such that it appears to have instantly dissolved.
• Because it is explained so poorly, students new to the practice will often actually attempt to modify the physical properties of the thing being vanished instead of its chemical properties, resulting in transparent versions instead of something that has, to paraphrase one well known nephil scholar, gone into everything.
• Vanishing is, highly problematic magic. When practised on a living thing, you are killing that thing. Fortunately, it is impossible to vanish anything that has an immortal soul, the magic simply will not work. Church officials worried about this for centuries, and some scholars to this day refuse to accept the vision that revealed this titbit. Some continue to worry about murder-by-vanishment.

Potions

• These are complicated. The magic comes in part from the brewer (primarily from the Virtues), and in part from the ingredients (different ingredients will react to the nephil’s magical influence in different ways).
• No two nephil will affect ingredients precisely the same way; similarly no two instances of the same ingredient are actually precisely the same.
• A strong ability inherited from the Cherubim will make you more able to discern the effects of the ingredients, including between instances of supposedly identical ingredients. He or she will be able to do so even before adding the ingredients, but not before intending to do so.
• Thus the best potioneers strongly inherit from both the Cherubim and Virtues.
• Some potions additionally require chemical reactions not possible in nature.
  • This requires the potioneer to have abilities from the Powers to make a probabilistic reaction happen in the desired time frame.
  • Alternately, the potioneer can transmute the form of one ingredient to make it chemically react the desired way.
• Lastly, if a potion is to be stored, rather than used immediately, the effects must be locked in place at the time it is brewed, again an ability coming from the Powers.
• Potions is a wandless art, though some traditions do use incantations and/or wand movements as part of the process to assist the potioneer to trigger their magic.
• All European schools teach potions in its hardest form: both wandless and silent, requiring near instinctual use of effectively three to four forms of magic simultaneously.
  • The nephil must use abilities inherited from the Virtues to augment the ingredients with additional properties, locking the augmentation in place using the time magic from the Powers (endless duration).
  • As this highly personal process will result in something slightly different from nephil to nephil, he/she must use abilities from the Cherubim to pick precisely the ingredients affected by his/her magic to precisely the right degree and in precisely the right way.
  • Should the ingredients not want to mix, the nephil then uses abilities inherited from either the Dominions or the Virtues, either transmuting the form of the ingredient into something that can mix, or to manipulate the laws of chemistry to make the reaction possible.
  • The different ways and patterns of stirring are essentially mental triggers to help the nephil activate their magic.
  • This means that a potion recipe is more of a suggestion than a true recipe, the best will always come from deviating from the recipe by just the right amount to account for your personal magic and the specific ingredients you happen to be using in this particular instance.

Runes

• Runes are a mental crutch used by the nephilim to aid them in triggering that ability inherited from the Virtues to make an object a container for magic, and to control what magic goes into a specific container.
• Runes also allowed for early nephilim, before communities were so genetically mixed as to almost always have inherited all types of magic, to ‘mix and match’ magic.
  • The rune carver would prepare containers using the Virtues.
  • Partners in the project, with other inheritances, would fill each container with the appropriate magic.
  • Runes can be combined into phrases allowing different containers with different magic to be joined together even when no single nephil has all the magic required.
  • Modern nephilim know that runes can be recharged but have forgotten that a rune can be carved in an empty/potential state as described here. that there is no inherent connection between the ‘label’ on the container and the contents of the container. They erroneously think that a given rune must be filled with a particular magic.
• While runes can be combined across different nephil as described above, they work better if the container is filled with power at the same time it is created as a container, which of course necessitates that it be done by the same nephil.
• As stated, a rune can be recharged. However, it will not work as well if it has to be recharged from empty as if it is recharged from something less then empty. Runes are not like batteries that will have a degraded lifespan if not allowed to drain. They work better if they are continuously partly used then immediately refilled.
• Nephilim later found that Runes can be authored to absorb power from the surrounding area to power connected sequences of runes.
  • A rune is a container. The container can contain a magical contract as well as a raw power.
  • The nephil creating what they think of as the ‘absorption’ rune is creating a rune with a contract in it. The acceptance criteria of the contract is the use of magic within an area defined by an area effect defined with ability inherited from the Principalities. So you need Thrones, Principalities, and Virtues to successfully carve an ‘absorption’ rune.
  • Unknown to almost all nephil, the founders used such runes extensively when building Hogwarts. They did so intentionally having stumbled quite accidentally across the fact that they could build an absorption rune that would target all spells cast by anyone who is a student. This solved a very real problem – magic is inherently dangerous to learn. However, with the extensive use of these runes, every spell the students cast is drained of part of its power as they cast it. This makes the spells by the students slightly, but noticeably, less dangerous than those cast by those of equal ability elsewhere.
• The use of runes persists into the modern era in part because the effects created by these “primordial” nephilim are still encountered by the “modern” magical society, and in part because of the ways these ‘absorption’ runes allow for incredibly powerful, long lasting, and effectively self-repairing defences.

Divination

• This magic has two categories.
  • Prophesy is rarely magic at all. True prophecy occurs when a nephil is possessed by a fallen angel, who communicates some (usually cryptic) message. If they ever tell anything truthful, it is only because they judge it useful to lead us further into sin. Thus most prophesies are misleading, false, or both (they also tend to be self fulfilling, like that in Macbeth.⁷)
  • Users particularly skilled in the abilities from the Seraphim may be able to use these abilities to make incredibly accurate predictions about people without being possessed. Knowing that someone is clumsy from their memories, knowing that someone is afraid from their emotions, the user can predict some short term events and reactions in ways that might seem like divination. Practices like palm reading, tea leaves, and crystal gazing grew from this magical insight into people
• There is some crossover between the two, generally to the detriment of both the user and any understanding of the truth. That is, some nephilim use magic to actively seek out or encourage their own possession.
• Scholars have observed that where magic is used to “trigger” prophecy, it is always corrupting, although the degree of corruption differs widely.
• Most frequently, it appears evident that there is a lasting and inheritable reduction in the ability to resist magic that stems from the powers of the Seraphim and Thrones.
  • So while in general someone strong in the Thrones could normally resist the imperious curse, if they come from a family steeped in the use of divination, then he/she personally will be abnormally susceptible to this magic.
  • A notable counter example is that of the centaurs, who actually became more resistant to these forms of magic, but developed weaker wills in other ways. See a more detailed account here.

Arithmancy

• Mundane mythology would describe this as being a speciality of divination. More accurately scholars understand arithmancy as an attempt to predict the effect of a use of magic. It attempts to make magic scientific. However, it is complicated by the fact that its practitioners themselves do not actually understand the scientific method, nor agree on which mathematical system(s) they are using to do this in. The field is dominated by people with only the vaguest idea of what the mundane world has done with either numbers or science in the past 400 years.

Legilimency

• This requires both an inheritance from the Seraphim and the Thrones, for this work it comes in 3 phases.
  • Passively, it is solely from the Seraphim, and is morally neutral. This will tell you a target’s emotional state (anything related to brain chemistry), whether or not the person is telling the truth (again based on brain chemistry and things like pulse rates, but done automatically for you by the magic), energy level/alertness, and other purely physical things but not about the person’s actual thoughts or memories. A really skilled user may be able to infer thoughts from this however with a fair degree of accuracy.
  • Unidirectionally Outbound, it adds in abilities from the Thrones, forcing the recipient to hear your thoughts. This is a bit of a grey area morally.
  • Bidirectionally, you force the victim to reveal their memories, implant memories, or manipulate emotional states.
• For some unknown reason, unless the target has at least some magic, you will be unable to do more than manipulate emotional states. This manipulation goes beyond the simple transmutation of brain chemicals, it actually causes the brain to release the appropriate chemicals as if naturally in that emotional state.
• All bidirectional legilimency is morally repugnant, and comes at a high risk of corrupting change.
  • This change may be physical, spiritual, mental, or any combination thereof.
    • Reduced ability to resist concupiscence is the most frequently observed change, but far from the only change.
    • In some cases this has been significantly noticeable even within a single individual’s lifespan.
    • In others it has been visible only by comparing across generations.
  • While all use of bidirectional legilimency is morally repugnant, the normal distinction between mortal and venial sin is still present. Scholars have observed the following patterns in nephilim who self-report having used this magic:
    • Use of the magic due to fear for self or in defence of others appears to produce less harmful changes. Scholars speculate that this constitutes an impaired freedom.
    • Those self-taught in the art appear to go longer before experiencing any change. Scholars speculate the delay in effect is due to impaired knowledge.
    • At least one nephil has been recorded who performed legilimency unconsciously and required both great training and great concentration to not use this magic. That individual appeared to experience no effects from her use of legilimency except the loss of trust of those around her. Some Scholars speculate that the lack of freedom involved is key. Others think that this child’s lack of control was in fact the result of a parent’s abuse of the magic, and that the lack of trust the nephil experienced her whole life was the punishment.
  • There is an unknown threshold where the risk changes from a risk of a personally corrupting change to an inheritable corrupting change. The purposes for which legilimency was used appear to be critical in determining where this threshold exists.

Occlumency

• The magical suppression of emotion and with that access to thoughts comes at similar moral and magical cost to active legilimency.
• This is a prime example of a defensive magic that harms the user.
• Most nephilim communities believe that occlumency is the only reliable counter to legilimency. This is not true. Scholars have recovered copies of works from individual families that document other ways. Why these are not more generally known is debatable.

Contracts

The history of the Church’s interaction with the nephilim is replete with examples of individuals who have been bound by magical contracts. There is more than sufficient documentary evidence to establish that at least some of these were created either without the subject’s knowledge or even against the subject’s will.

Even in the mundane world, arranged marriages were common in much of the world as late as the 18th century.⁸ Just as the Church has been forced to develop norms around the reality that occasionally one or both persons approaching for marriage are under duress, and thus not free to validly celebrate the sacrament, anyone interacting with the nephilim must always be careful of the possibility that one or both nephilim are coerced by a contract. Indeed, so great is the risk that a contract will compel a nephil’s behaviour that some Church scholars believe that the nephilim are incapable of a total, free, and faithful gift of self except by exception and luck, and thus ought not be permitted the sacrament at all. Fortunately (for their souls) the nephilim community seems to have largely spontaneously developed societal norms such that these binding contracts are now much less frequent than they were in past centuries.

• See Magical Contracts for more details on these contracts.
• See Soteriology, Misology and Ecclesiology for more on the Church’s speculation on the relationship between the nephilim and the sacraments.
• See The Nephilim for more details on the nature and origin of the nephilim.

Magically speaking, contracts can be generalised in a few ways, depending on its precise nature.

• A written contract is (unknown to the nephilim) essentially a highly modern form of runes. You use magic inherited from the Virtues make the writing, the paper, or both a container, in this case of power inherited from the Thrones to compel the will of those bound by the contract. The contract may be further infused by the Powers to give it duration, and (almost always) may depend on the existence of the paper/parchment contract to ensure its persistence. Some nephilim communities have realised that destroying the physical contract will (usually) destroy the magical contract.
• Magical Contracts, for unknown reasons, are not nearly as successful at binding the will as more specialised magic like the Imperius curse. See Magical Contracts for details. Nephilim, not understanding the fine grained conditions outlined there, do not understand why some contracts work and others do not.
• Some nephilim believe that artefacts can create contracts and bind people to them.
  • In actually, these objects have the contract inscribed on them, usually in the form of runes, almost always hidden or obscured from view.
  • These objects cannot unilaterally bind anyone. Users must be bound by some action they or a valid proxy (see Magical Contracts) take interacting with the object.
  • The most famous of this is the so called “Goblet of Fire.” If it were ever carefully inspected, runes are lightly scratched around and inside it spelling out the terms of the contract it enforces. These scratches have been preserved and protected by the application of still more magic reinforced by the case the Goblet is stored in between Triwizard Tournaments. Modern users have not taken the time to carefully inspect either.
• Other forms of ‘contract’ magic leverage the mutable nature of the nephilim rather than relying on the power of the thrones.
  • These lack the versatility of written contracts, in that they cannot be prepared in advanced by a skilled practitioner with fine-tuned terms, conditions, effects, limitations, loop-holes, and all the other things that a fallen people have wanted in their agreements over the centuries.
  • Similarly, the contract that lacks a physical representation cannot be used as flexibly, one can bind oneself or one’s descendants, but not a pair of unknown and unrelated persons.
  • Where the written contract uses the magic of the writer, these use the magic of those entering into them.
  • Destroying these unwritten contracts after creation is much more difficult and practically impossible unless the exact terms are known (such as someone providing a memory of the vow being made).

Authors notes

Here lets step beyond what might be gleaned by summarising the various works available “in-world.”

“Standard” nephilim seem more or less humans with extra abilities, but this is not really true. If you consider creation as a hierarchy, humanity has always occupied a messy place - top of the material creation, bottom of the spiritual order, but destined, through grace, not merit, to be raised above its (our) natural place. Introducing the nephilim in this fictional world, I am putting the nephilim as being an unnatural hybrid of two things God created. In making this hybrid, something of each was lost. They are thus slightly lesser than humans, and entirely outside the intended, natural hierarchy. Despite having greater capabilities in some ways, they have deficits in others, most notably, they are overall less free. Think of mules, they have advantages, in certain circumstances, over both donkeys and horses, but they are not really a stable species at all, and in some ways (specifically fertility) less than either.

Nephil have some aspects of both. They are mostly contingent beings that grow and change over time, but their use of magic is, in this universe, the use of an angelic power, and so it tends to either be 1) incredibly crippled compared to actual angels (for example, charms wear off really fast) or 2) incredibly permanent. In the canon books, you cannot remove Walburga’s portrait from the wall without removing the wall, which might have been stupid for a house that will be passed down through generations, but clearly demonstrates that a momentary decision can have effects all out of proportion to the result. I am restricting that to magic used on things without immortal souls and to magic used on other nephilim (or on races descending from nephilim, see Magical Beings). Things that would be temptations to a human can be overriding compulsions to a nephil, and they are vulnerable to each other (and to others who can use similar powers) in ways that humans are not. See the notes on contracts.

https://www.rowlingindex.org/work/qaba/