Magic in The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud can be created by two entities, the magician or the magical entity summoned from the Other Place.
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Magicians
Apprenticeship
Each country has a different process of training apprentices. Italy favours the child remaining in the family, which later apparently causes many family rivalries. However, in British culture, children are given up by their parents to undergo magical training with a qualified magician. In return, the parents, usually commoners, receive a large sum of money as compensation. Apprentices are then trained in all manner of magical arts. They have rigorous physical as well as mental training. Physical exercise might be useful in order to summon and control more powerful spirits, however some magicians in the series, such as Marmaduke Fry, appear to have risen to power but not maintained the vigour in which they were trained. This makes it unlikely that it is a requirement of powerful magic.
Birth-names
The knowledge of a person's true or birth-name can give one power and control over that individual.(It is by this means that magicians are able to summon spirits in the first place.) For this reason new apprentices, when taken as children, are instructed to forget their birth-name and choose a new one when they come of age. This allows them to summon spirits without fear of loss of control from a spirit that knows their name. The power provided by names is shown in the series when Bartimaeus is able to reflect Nathaniel's punishments because of his use of Nathaniel's birth-name.
Resilience
Due to the extended use of magic as a culture many people in Britain built up resilience to magic as well as talents such as seeing into the other planes of existence, detecting magical auras, or not affected by magic. These talents made them able to resist the magical attacks of demons and so resist the Ruling class of magicians who had few non-magical means of restoring order.
Magical Entity Classes
The most commonly summoned magical entities exist in 5 basic types, listed in increasing order of power:
- Imps - Spirits of weak ability, often rude to compensate. They are only effective in extreme numbers or as messengers.
- Foliots - Spirits of more capable strength, described by Bartimaeus as being "Cut Price Djinn". They are weaker than djinn, but useful for everyday tasks too difficult or sensitive for imps. Apparently they are good laborers, being used to build many things, including the Walls of Prague, with Bartimaeus.
- Djinn - powerful spirits able to sustain high-powered magical attacks for a short period. Bartimaeus is a fourth level Djinn, and is listed as an extremely dangerous being. Djinn of his caliber -- and Djinn in general -- are sneaky but very creative, and able to complete nearly any task set to them.
- Afrits - Spirits of great ability, "Immune to the magic of mere Djinn", according to Honorious, an Afrit of Ninth level strength. Due to being spirits of fire, they are near-powerless in water. Afrits are usually seen doing guard duty for prominent figures, but Bartimaeus claims that they are "overrated".
- Marids - The most powerful of the regularly summoned entities. Marids are mentioned, but never actually appear in the series. A particularly muscular marid by the name of Atlas was charged to hold the Parthenon's foundations up for eternity as punishment for slacking off on their construction. Marids are so powerful that they leave behind a trail of magic that can be traced, similar to the trail of slime left behind by a snail, but it is considered unwise to use this analogy to a Marid's face for obvious reasons. Because of their immense power all but the weakest Marids require two Magicians to summon. Bartimaeus claims Marids are "dreadfully full of themselves".
All spirits' abilities are static; they cannot grow any stronger over time.
There are many magical beings below imps---for example, "mites," small magical bugs---and other beings who are much stronger than Marids (Nouda and Ramuthra are two such entities), but these are not really classified into levels and are rarely summoned. This is primarily because the former are not very useful, while the latter are too powerful for any but the most powerful magicians to control.
Elementals are also mentioned in the books, most notably their usage in elemental spheres, but their actual nature is unexplained and it is largely unclear what classification they come under, if they come under the five types at all. However, Bartimaeus mentions that spirits like him, who are beings of fire and air, are harmed by the element of earth (such as that of a golem) and Honorius is almost completely powerless in water (proven when he fell into a river), so the existence of water and earth elementals implies that they are a different form of spirit than the five conventional types.
In total there are thirteen thousand and forty-six classified types of spirit, and according to the magician Petronius there are forty-five thousand unclassified, although Zavattini believes there to be forty-eight thousand.
Lesser Spirits
- Will-o'-the-wisps- Glowing spirits once used by magicians to lure travellers into bogs. Now they are reduced to hovering over manholes and the like.
- Mites
- Homunculi - Tiny Mannequins produced by magic. Some have prophetic powers but will always try to harm the magician
- Sprites
- Moulers - Small spirits, their stench causes unconsciousness
- Natterjack Implings -Basic spirit, one of the first a magician will learn to summon.
- Search Sphere - Used for surveillance.
- Scarlet Vexations - Carry disease
Imps
- Messenger Imps- Used to carry personal; correspondence
- Shadow Stalkers
- Stygian Implets
- Goblin Imps
- Lamias - When summoned they must be played music to soothe them.
Foliots
Djinn Sub-classes
The various subclasses of djinni are:
- Cockatrices- Spirit with a deadly gaze, like the original Basilisk, so that one must wear mirrored glasses and place mirrors around the pentacle, with its instructions in a bowl, to safely control it. Mr. Lovelace quizzed Nathaniel on them during their first meeting.
- Demi-Afrits: Supposedly potent spirits that are close to, but not at, an Afrit's level; at least four were present at the Piccadilly Raid.
- Ghuls: fond of human flesh, sentries at Heddlam Hall, fought in the Siege Of Prague less powerful than most djinn.
- Horlas: powerful djinn that cause illness and despair in humans and sap other spirits' essence. As a result they are often used to combat other djinn.; they were used as sentries at the Tower Of London, were part of the guard that protected the Prime Minister and Mr Fry and fought in the Siege of Prague. Horlas appear as thin, smokey apparations with a human shape with glowing eyes.
- Krels: tall, thin, reddish djinn, were used as sentries at Mr Lovelace's house.
- Reviler: mentioned only once on p.230/239 of The Amulet Of Samarkand" as a threat for Nathaniel's "failed" summoning of Bartimaeus.
- Tracker Djinn: Were used to track Martin in the Westminster Raid.
- Succubi: seductive female djinn, often unstable, and prone to recklessness and self destruction unless placated, "oddly" popular with male Magicians.
- Triloids: three-legged yellow sentry djinn, were used as sentries at Mr Lovelace's house. They are described as having three muscular legs which rotate on a hub of gristle. Above the hub of gristle is a blobby mass which sports two mouths and numerous eyes.
- Utukku: particularly unintelligent djinn that generally take the form of animal-headed warriors, and used as sentries at the Tower Of London. Many of their people fought in the Battle Of Al-Arish, where Bartimaeus slaughtered almost all of them single-handedly (The Amulet of Samarkand, mentioned briefly in Ptolemy's Gate) through Bartimaeus's 5 steps to slaying an Utukku (1. Pick up a rock 2. Throw it behind the desired Utukku so it makes a distracting sound 3. Watch the Utukku swivel around, eyes popping 4. Run it through the back with gusto 5. Gloat to taste).
Greater Spirits
Similarly, above marids exist entities of terrible power which few magicians dare bother. One of these, due to lack of a constraining pentacle, destroyed and sunk Atlantis, causing tidal waves to lap up onto the Egyptian coast. Examples of these would be:
- Nouda - Slain by the combined power of Bartimaeus and Nathaniel and the staff of Gladstone during the Spirit Rebellion. Prior to this, Nouda ravaged Tenochtitlan, annihilated Darius of Persia's personal army, and stacked executed prisoners' heads up to 50 feet during Mongolian invasions.
- Ramuthra - summoned for first time in The Amulet of Samarkand. He was dismissed soon after he swallowed Simon Lovelace, a traitor, and was unable to do much harm to the government.
Essence
The basic form of the magical entities consists of a substance named essence, a flowing shapeless matter, described as a smokey liquid, while in the other place it is described as a mixture between gas and liquid. It is responsible for their personality, power, and abilities. While on earth, they have to create a physical body for themselves, which may be of any form they please although they have a set appearance on the 7th plane that never changes. Maintaining this form pains them, and their essences weaken if summoned for a prolonged period. Their essences are also extremely vulnerable to silver and iron. These metals are often used to subdue spirits, such as when Bartimaeus chases Honorius (The Golem's Eye) and when Mandrake tries to threaten Bartimaeus with a silver-tipped spear (Ptolemy's Gate). It is to be noted that the Resistance often used silver throwing discs against spirits. The spirits are also vulnerable against rowan powder, rosemary, garlic, and a few other substances.
The Planes
There are multiple co-existing planes in the Bartimaeus trilogy. The first plane contains all physical things. while the others show magical activity. Humans can normally only see the first plane; however, magicians use lenses that allow them also to see into the second and third planes. Usually, these lenses take the form of contact lenses, but magicians sometimes use them in the form of eyeglasses or a monocle. Auras are emitted on the first plane, but are invisible to humans. (Spirits and cats can see them, however.) These can reveal someone's emotions or intent. Almost all spirits are able to see and change their appearance on other planes. The number of planes on which a spirit can operate depends on that spirit's power. Bartimaeus is able to see and disguise himself in the first six planes, though the disguise is weaker on the higher planes. A spirit cannot hide their true appearance to any spirit at least as powerful as themselves, as their "true" form is revealed on a higher plane. There is a theoretical 8th plane that the demons sealed inside 7 league boots can access.
Summoning
To summon an entity, a magician is required to draw a pentacle; failing to do so will result in the magician's being attacked and/or torn apart by the entity he summons. He also needs to take many precautionary measures to prevent any mishap (like escape of the entity which will likely result in the death of the magician at the hands of the entity). A number of herbs act as instruments to ward off entities. The magician then speaks a spell. The spell acts in the following manner: the magician's voice carries to the Other Place taking nine seconds, where it draws the attention of the entity being called (seven seconds). The entity then has to answer the summons or risk tearing its essence apart. It then appears in an adjoining pentacle (three seconds).
Depending on the skill of the magician, there are limits to summoning ability. Some powerful magicians mentioned in the series were:
- Nathaniel/John Mandrake
- Simon Lovelace
- Maurice Schyler
- Quentin Makepeace
- Jessica Whitwell
- Solomon
- William Gladstone
- Ptolemy
- Henry Duvall
- Kitty Jones
- Tycho Brahe
- Mr. Button (capable of summoning a Marid)
Spells
Magicians despite relying heavily in demons to do most magical tasks are able to perform some magics unassisted. These are often punishments to their slaves these include:
Detonation
Detonations are common, simple-to-cast spells of varying degrees of power (depending on the caster), used primarily in fierce combat. They appear to be large green explosions usually strong enough to blow apart walls or 'vaporize' a human being.
Plasm
A plasm is a bolt of force which can be shot by men as well as spirits. Its colour, size and shape remain undefined. Sometimes referred to as 'Convulsions' instead.
Inferno
Inferno is a spell used most commonly by spirits in combat. It is described as a flash of light that engulfs the target in red-hot flame of varying colors.
Pestilence
A common trap, Pestilences most often appear as sickly green clouds of vapor acidic enough to eat away skin and kill human beings; the effects of a Pestilence on a spirit remains unseen.
Shield
Shields are (usually domed) constructs of protective magic designed to protect the user from physical and/or magical attack.
Pulse
Used by spirits, Pulses are sonar-like spells that allow one to accurately detect the strength and location of surrounding magical forces.
Nexus
Large nets of magical energy designed to sound an alarm should anything of magical (or possibly physical) origin step within their range.
The Red-hot Stipples
The Red-hot Stipples are used as punishment to force spirits to do a magician's bidding. Like the name implies, the stipples are a heat-based punishment that causes acute pain. Bartimaeus was the subject to many stipples due to his penchant for annoying his masters. Many magicians use the Stipples to prod their servants. "As always, the Red-Hot Stipples made me lose my train of thought" - Bartimaeus, The Golem's Eye
The Stimulating Compass
An advanced spell that causes lightning bolts to strike from all five corners of the pentacle. Others include:
- Essence rack
- Inverted Skin
The Indefinite Confinement
A common punishment for spirits who are becoming annoying (Bartimaeus has several recollections of this spell used on him) where the spirit is bound into an object until released. The object is often the first thing to come to sight (Bartimaeus was once confined to a pot of jam because of his cheek during afternoon tea) Mandrake used this spell in the Amulet of Samarkand as a threat to ensure Bartimaeus' loyalty when he overheard his birth-name, by not having the spell activate immediately but setting a date on it
The Systematic Vice
A basic spell which Bartimaeus describes as "the bully's favourite" It is a number of concentric bands of force that compress the spirit into submission.
The Punitive Jab
A basic and simple spell which simply causes a small lilac flame to jab the Djinn, used usually during annoyance as it doesn't cause any real harm.
Stricture
A web of white threads that prevent any object or sound escaping their range. More often used on humans than on spirits, due to the fact that if there is even the tiniest flaw in the stricture, the spirit can usually escape. Jessica Whitwell uses it on Mandrake and Bartimaeus and nearly prevents them stopping Lovelace, but the disruption Ramuthra causes blows it apart.
The Mournful Orb
The preferred method of interrogation in the Tower of London for spirits. A small energy sphere that prevents summons working, it consists of thin white lines of force that tear essence apart, that said, its overall colour is blue. At a magician's words it can shrink, eventually to nothing, destroying spirits inside it unless they co-operate before this happens.
The Shrivelling Fire
The ultimate punishment a spirit can earn and can only be used on a spirit who deliberately disobeys an order. It is an incineration spell that is made up of fifteen curses in five different languages, tiring a magician that uses it and killing the unfortunate spirit. A last resort for these reasons.
Hurricane
In the Golem's Eye, Bartimaeus summoned a strong gust of wind to blow the Mercenary off the mountain.
Magical items
The Amulet of Samarkand
It is an immensely powerful amulet, that contains an unusually strong entity (enough to ward off the power of Ramuthra, a being so potent that it disrupts each of the seven planes) who can absorb any magical spell or creature that is of lesser strength than the trapped spirit residing in the Amulet. Like all amulets it is a passive defensive item. It was created some 3,000 years ago in the Steppes of Central Asia as a gift to a princess. It is made of pressed gold in an oval shape, bearing shapes of running horses, and hangs on a gold chain. There is a jade stone in the center where the spirit is contained, and all magic is absorbed into it.
Gladstone's staff
Gladstone's staff is a powerful offensive weapon containing the power of at least two trapped marids. It was used by Gladstone, the most powerful magician of Britain, in his conquest of various countries across the world, thus building a world empire. The staff was destroyed by Nathaniel when he let the entities inside break free so that the magical shockwave would collapse the Crystal Palace, in which Nathaniel and Nouda were fighting, and destroy Nouda through the falling iron frame. The talisman ( a talisman being defined in the books as any magical item that may be used upon command) was used most notably by Gladstone during the siege of Prague, where he used it to summon bolts of lightning from the sky, and thrust them from the tip of his staff into the powerfully defended and famous city walls. According to an Afrit, it did not take very long for his staff to obliterate the wall entirely.
Golem's Eye
A magical, ornate stone eye made from hardened river mud, this allows a magician to see what the golem is seeing and to give the golem commands. The eye is used in conjunction with a golem's body and golem's scroll, and one of the few recorded in modern times was in the collection of Simon Lovelace. After the events of the Amulet of Samarkand, it is placed into government vaults and used later in the Golem's Eye.
Golem's body
Golems were creatures shaped from mud and created by a spell that required the majority of the energy of the magician. They originally came from Bohemia, especially Prague, where the great magician Loew (based on legendary Rabbi Loew of Prague) created one deep in the ghetto 400 years prior to the book "The Golem's Eye." They were used as a last-ditch defence against the British invasion of Prague. They were controlled by a golem's eye, a magical instrument that allowed the magician to see what the golem was seeing and thus direct it. One was used by Henry Duvall to destroy large parts of London. The body must be combined with a golem's eye and golem's scroll to make a golem. It is implied that golems draw power from a different (earthly) source than spirits. They are slow but are very strong. Golems have a cloud of black smoke around their bodies. This cloud is harmful and can be lethal to djinn and other demons. Golems negate demons' powers and eat away at demons' essences. Gladstone's afrit, Honorius, was destroyed when he made contact with Duvall's golem. Bartimaeus had to have Kitty Jones attack the golem in the second book, because he could not get close to the golem.
Animating Parchment
A magical scroll inscribed with an ancient, secret Czech spell, the spell is lost as it was never recorded, only passed through word of mouth. The spell must be written with equal parts ink and blood, and a small square is made at the bottom, where the user of the golem signs his name using his own blood. It is implied that whoever signs their name in that box is the only person able to control the golem. The golem's scroll is placed inside a golem's body, which animates the golem. When a golem's scroll is removed from a golem's mouth, the scroll disintegrates, and the golem returns to its owner to "die", or collapse into a pile of mud. The spell is very draining to the writer as they sacrifice much of their life-force.
Seven-League Boots
These are magical talismans, allowing people to travel great distances in a few steps. They are activated by a single, magical command. They can be used to appear and disappear from numerous situations and scenes without leaving a trace. When Nathaniel retrieved them, they were part of his key plan to destroy Nouda and the other Hybrids. The pair that was worn by Verroq was destroyed (or at least unfindable) when Nathaniel broke Gladstone's Staff's bonds. They are alleged to work by using contained Djinn that travel on a hypothetical 8th plane, where they use their powers to warp space.
Seal of Solomon
Never appeared in the book but is possibly the most powerful magical artifact in exsistence as Bartimaeus commented that Solomon could control well over 20 000 spirits with this ring.
External links
References
- The Amulet of Samarkand ISBN 0552552577
- The Golem's Eye ISBN 038560615X
- Ptolemy's Gate ISBN 0385608683
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