Editing Nasuverse (section)

=== Magic in the Nasuverse ===
Most of the works in the Nasuverse feature mages as pretty important people. These mages are an intersection of the study-hard-and-experiment [[wizard]] and the you-gotta-be-born-with-it [[Sorcerer_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)|sorcerer]]. Only people with Magic Circuits are capable of magecraft, and the number and quantity of your Magic Circuits stems from both <del>eugenics</del> the mages in your family tree and sheer luck of the draw. Mages from old, powerful families have more Magic Circuits of higher quality than those from less established families, leading Mage society towards snooty aristocracy and thumbing their noses at upstarts.

Mage families in the Nasuverse are distinguished by their Magic Crests, which are like a combination family crest, spellbook library, and tattoo. The family's Magic Crest designates the inheritor of their magic tradition, with each heir performing magical research in their lifetime to modify and extend the Crest before passing it on in turn.

As for the actual magic practiced, it's not called "magic." Most of the time. The majority of what you see in the Nasuverse is referred to as "magecraft." Magecraft is distinguished from magic by the notion of "how possible it is." If your wizardry is just a faster version of something technology or human effort can do, you are a mage and you are doing magecraft. To be a magician who does magic, also known as True Magic, you must do something by mechanics that no one understands, not even you. If humans eventually learn to replicate it through mundane means -- including magecraft, which is hermetic and can be replicated by anyone with the proper power/ingredients/magical affinities -- it stops being a True Magic.

This disqualification only applies if the formula for it can be properly understood, so blind replications of True Magic are not considered to limit their status as magic. For example, there are homunculi cloned to use Heaven's Feel, as well as a magical tool that uses Kaleidoscope in a limited capacity, but none of these understand how their magic works or can be deliberately adjusted in any way and keep working so they remain True Magic. The creation of the homunculus in question was a freak accident that drove those who achieved it to despair over centuries of trying and failing to understand it, and the tool was conceptually designed by Zelretch himself and still took many generations and a good deal of luck to actually produce. Even something as simple as starting a fire used to be True Magic, but as a result of humanity's progress, very few things are still so impossible as to qualify. It is considered the realm of miracles, and even meeting a Magician is an event worthy of legend.

There are five more or less known True Magics in the Nasuverse:
* Denial of Nothingness, the First Magic. A Magic that is still active in the world, but its users are long gone. It is suggested to be related to creation of Ether Clumps, which is to say, making magic energy out of nothing. The user of First True Magic was born the night before the calendar started, so he is most definitely ''not'' Jesus because it's off by a day.
* Kaleidoscope, the Second Magic. Also known as Zelretch, the name of the only wizard crazy enough to ever achieve it. Kaleidoscope grants access to an infinite number of parallel universes, enabling tricks like casting a spell over and over without exhausting yourself by [[What | tapping into the ambient mana of the parallel versions of the room you're currently in]]. Zeltrech disappeared into [[Warp|interdimensional hyperspace]] after discovering Kaleidoscope, and he remains there as a convenient plot hook dispenser and plot hole repairman. There's very little that he ''can'' do, because if he gives more than a slight bit of attention to a timeline, ''it becomes set in place''. like how a scientist can only confirm whether the cat in Schroedinger's experiment is alive or dead if the scientist opens the box.  There's enough evidence to see why timelines like Prisma Illya even ''exist'' was because he had a direct hand in the proceedings (in that case, providing the Kaleido Sticks to Rin and Luvia).  Naturally he would like to ''avoid'' looking at timelines that would, oh, awaken a certain Ultimate One from its slumber in South America prematurely...
* Heaven's Feel, the Third Magic. Discovered by the Einzberns, one of the three great mage families, this is a magic that can materialize a human soul. The Holy Grail's ability to summon Servants for the ritual of the Grail War is an application of Third Magic. In the Fate/Extra continuity, humanity achieves the Third by learning how to digitize souls, so this is the only True Magic that ever loses its status in a Nasuverse work.
* Unknown Fourth Magic. All that's known is that it hid itself right after it appeared, but 'it definitely exists'. It might be related to the concealment itself, or not.
* Magic Blue, the Fifth Magic. Supposedly relevant to time travel, enabling the user to violate conservation of energy by borrowing energy from pasts with no future. One application of it we've seen is a freshly-minted user [[What | temporarily summoning herself from 10 years in the future onto her present self because the future self had the knowledge and training needed to use the Magic properly, and then the future self would summon her own past/future selves on top of ''herself'' to take hits and die for her]]. Yeah, True Magic is a bit weird. This is the least-understood of the known Magics, in no small part because it was invented in the 20th century and actually activated only in the late 80s (grandpa Aozaki invented the spell to achieve it but never used it himself, storing it in his Crest and passing it to his grand-daughter Aoko), and its acquisition may involve reaching the Root and choosing to go back in time. 

Whether or not there could be more Magics after the Fifth is pure speculation (with the implication being that the number is 6).

While not True Magic, the Reality Marble is a technique that comes close in power. This is a magecraft that replaces the caster's surroundings with some other space like a temporary demiplane. Reality Marbles demonstrated in the Nasuverse range from Emiya Kiritsugu's Time Alter, a bubble that surrounds him with a faster or slower flow of time, all the way up to the legendary Unlimited Blade Works.