Equivalent Exchange: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' is the [[Trope Namer]] and arguably also the [[Trope Codifier]] for anime and manga, and makes a big deal out of the principle in its plot. In regards to alchemical transmutation, the law is basically the law of conservation of
** Ed gets a truly wonderful chance to explain the principle in the very first episode of the anime (same as the first chapter of the manga and the third episode of ''Brotherhood''). He lists, in order, all the materials existing in the human body (and just to be cruel, points out that they're ''cheap''
*** In fact Ed himself comes to this conclusion in the manga: you need a soul, and the right one at that. {{spoiler|Now if you don't care about what soul you want, you can make a massive army of homunculi…}}
** The Philosopher's Stone was said to allow bypassing of Equivalent Exchange. {{spoiler|Not true, since the price for the alchemy has already been paid with the sacrifice of souls. Basically, the stone is a massive portable power supply, which lets you create matter from the massive energy stored inside it, seemingly from nothing.}}
** However, one of the central tenets of the manga and a sign of the development of Alphonse and Edward as people is that {{spoiler|no matter how much they try and apply the rule of equivalent exchange to life, something is always missing. By the end they vow to give 11 back to every person or thing they take 10 from, thus making the world richer.}}
*** The first anime has this exact same thing happen, though it is applied differently. Almost everything Ed and Al try to do only makes things worse, instead of better, because of their belief in the theory of Equivalent Exchange, due to the fact that the many variables in life always affect the outcome. This is driven even further by {{spoiler|Dante's [[Hannibal Lecture]] to Ed towards the end, where she picks apart this theory and exposes its flaws}}. Unlike the manga, though, the lesson from it is slightly different.
* ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' (and its [[Nasuverse|multiverse]]) contains
** This is a plot point for all three scenarios in the game, as protagonist Emiya Shiro has to fight, but the only magecraft he is skilled at is far beyond his capabilities. Whenever he uses it excessively, blood loss (and death) is inevitable.
** A double subversion occurs when Shirou gets the ability to use {{spoiler|Unlimited Blade Works}}; his mana cost for Gradation Air (Projection) becomes zero while inside it, but he still needs to gather mana in order to cast it. [[Deus Sex Machina|No points for guessing where he gets that mana.]]
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** And certain spells are just flat-out impossible, presumably because they take far too much energy, or simply cannot be done. For example: Eragon is warned to never try to bring people back from the dead; beyond death, there's just something that magic has no effect on; an attempt would drain the mage of all his life in one go and accomplish nothing. Trying to see the future or the past is a bad idea as well.
** Although in the second book, the young woman running the Varden finds some wiggle room in the rules: doing something with magic takes less ''time'' than it would otherwise, therefore magic-users can outperform in tasks which are complicated but low-energy. And that's the story of how the Varden climbs out of a financial hole by {{spoiler|producing and selling finely made lacework for ladies garments}}.
* In the earliest [[Incarnations of Immortality]] book, [[On A Pale Horse]], Death is NOT scheduled to take {{spoiler|Luna}}. She is going to be burned alive by a dragon, but performs a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. This gets her on Death's schedule, and Gaea performs an
* This also comes up a lot with magic in the ''[[Discworld]]'' books, where it is referred to as the Law of Conservation of Reality. For example, to teleport someone from one side of the disc to another, you may need to have an equivalent weight to teleport back to where they came from. This is mainly to deal with conservation of momentum; because the Disc rotates, different points on its surface move at different velocities relative to the Hub. Teleporting without such a counterweight means that if you move very far, your velocity relative to your immediate surroundings tends to kill you. But you can do it!
** This is still an imperfect science, and when the wizards of Unseen University try it to retrieve Rincewind in ''Interesting Times'', he's hit on the head by all the crap they piled up to equal his weight, going the other way.
** It comes up more often with conjuration than with transportation. If you wanted to make, for example, a loaf of bread appear, the casting thereof would have to expend all the energy that went into making the
* In the non-[[Dragonlance]] book ''[[The Death Gate Cycle]]'' by [[Margaret Weis]] and Tracy Hickman, the same problem came up. When you brought someone back to life, be it a full resurrection or just as a zombie, somebody else, somewhere, died. One of the two competing races nearly wiped themselves out this way.
* ''[[Vurt]]''. Things are swapped between the real world and the vurt world on the basis of their value. The characters are keeping a weird tentacled creature because it was somehow switched with the protagonist's sister, and they're trying to figure out how to get her back. At one point, he wants to bring a object back to reality, so he leaves something of sentimental value behind.
* Blood-magic in George Martin's ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' works this way;
** Near the end of the first book, {{spoiler|Danaerys sacrifices her husband's prize stallion and her unborn child to save her husband's life}}
** Melisandre kills {{spoiler|Renly Baratheon with a nigh-unstoppable intangible assassin, [[Fan Nickname|dubbed a "shadowbaby" by fans]]}}. Althouh the details are never quite revealed, it seems to involve [[Deus Sex Machina|getting herself pregnant]] and sacrificing the life of the ({{spoiler|royal-blooded}}) unborn child. There are also hints that the spell was at least partially [[Cast From Hit Points]] {{spoiler|on Stannis' part}}.
* The magic system in Eric Nylund's ''Pawn's Dream'' works through a variation of
* ''The Recluce Saga'' by L. E. Modesitt Jr. are set in a world of Chaos and Order Magic, both of which must be carefully
** Despite that the balance is well-known in-universe, it didn't stop people from trying to cheat. Recluce itself, for example, was protected by a navy of Order-infused ships...and every time they replaced one, it was with a larger, more powerful ship that required more Order.
* The novels in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] emphasize that the [[The Dark Side|Sith]] path is one of sacrifice, i.e., ''demolishing'' attachments instead of the Jedi path of ''avoiding'' attachments. Since the Sith draw power from pain and rage, easy or pleasant trade-offs aren't in the picture.
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** Fatigue-banishing spells exist, but they cannot be re-used indefinitely, and the rejuvenation they provide can be quickly lost if the person experiences more stress.
** Training also seems to extend endurance within limits, much as people who physically train increase athletic endurance to a point. Tiercel makes this analogy: “...you're flexing abilities you've never used before. You have to build up your endurance. I'll bet you've got a headache just from this afternoon's work.”
* In the ''[[Coldfire Trilogy]]'', magical energy is released by sacrifice. The amount of energy gained is directly proportional to how much the sacrificed object was worth to the sorcerer. This is one of the facts used to show the [[Magnificent Bastard
** It's later explained that the sacrifice which made him immortal wasn't actually his wife and children. It was ''his own humanity'', which he lost through the expedient of killing his wife and children.
*** And if he ever tried to act like a compassionate human being again by engaging in an act of life or Healing, his immortality would be forfeit.
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** We're later introduced to people with healing spirit stones. They can heal the wounds of others by taking them on themselves, although the healers have a slightly improved healing rate.
* In ''[[The Neverending Story (novel)|The Neverending Story]]'', AURYN grants humans the ability to make their wishes come true, by rewriting reality in Fantastia so that it always was so. In exchange, AURYN takes away a memory of the Outer World from the human with each wish. They start off reasonable enough (trading the memory of being fat and scared for a more heroic figure), but eventually descends into taking more and more precious memories, no matter how selfish the wish is (the memory of being from the outer world, the memory of one's parents, the memory of one's own ''name''). In the book, the wishes don't even have to be spoken, either. If you want something badly enough, AURYN will sense it, grant that wish and take a memory with no effort on your part.
* A system of
* In [[Robert Silverberg]]'s early novel ''The Time Hoppers'', time travel is done by exchanging matter between the present and the past; when a human is sent back, an equivalent mass of air has to be brought forward.
* In Cornelia Funke's ''[[The Inkworld Trilogy]]'', characters can be read out of books into the real world, but not without someone or something from the real world taking their place
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* [[Dungeons and Dragons]]
** In ''[[Dark Sun]]'' both Defilers and Preservers need to drain life forces in order to power arcane magic, but defilers drain it away without worrying about the consequences, while Preservers are careful not to drain enough to kill the plants and animals nearby that are contributing (and thus get less power and slowly). Considering that Dark Sun is a gigantic desert world, it's not hard to deduce the popularity of defiler magic.
** In [[Ravenloft]] curses can be invoked by ordinary people, but attempting to do so invites a Powers check. If failed, the curse-layer will suffer karmic retribution from the Dark Powers. In an
* Most magick in ''[[Unknown Armies]]'' works this way. The "value" of certain actions varies based on what kind of adept you are. Typically an adept gets a "minor charge" for some kind of ritual that's easy enough to be performed every day or so, a "significant charge" for doing something very difficult and painful, and a "major charge" for doing something nigh-impossible. And even the magick that seems to be free usually isn't. In [[Unknown Armies]], ain't nothin' come for free.
** There's even an in-game term for the concept in UA: The Law of Transaction.
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* Present in the TCG [[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]] to an extent. Every spell has a cost. Most are simply [[Mana]] drawn from the land, but others require a life (yours or your creatures), the land itself, or even time (skipping a turn). Several cards will actually kill you if the cost is too much for you to afford.
** Perhaps the most famous example of this is Necropotence. You don't draw normally near the beginning of your turn; instead, you may pay X life to draw X cards at the end of your turn. However, this particular exchange turned out not too equivalent: both cards with this effect proved to be broken beyond imagination.
* In ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] Fantasy'', the species known as the Dragon Ogres succeeded at making a deal with Tzeentch that rendered their entire species immortal and able to subsist on lightning alone as
* In ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters]]'', a Sin-Eater can come back from the dead easily (yes, [[First-Episode Resurrection|more than once]]). Problem is, in addition to the act knocking a chunk off your [[Karma Meter]], your [[Our Ghosts Are Different|geist]] is going to draw that life force directly from someone else. And when you wake from your brief dirt nap, your face is covered in an ectoplasmic caul that conveys ''all'' the details of that person's death.
* The magic system in "The Valdorian Age" (a setting for [[Hero System|Fantasy Hero]]) can be summarized as "you convince otherworldly/extraplanar beings to do something for you". However, they're doing it as a favor, and eventually they will require a favor from you in exchange ... which, depending on how big your debt is when it gets called in, could involve things like killing all the inhabitants of a village in one night. No one ever claimed those otherworldly beings were ''nice''.
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* ''[[Oracle of Tao]]'' has a variety of these. Most magic uses MP as its price, but some abilities are [[Cast From Hit Points]]. On the other end of the scale, you have a [[Mana Shield]]. And then there's Elias's alchemy, which aside from making cool items, has certain alchemy spells. But in order to learn each spell or make a super-rare item (like gold), you sacrifice anywhere from a level to 10 levels (and you can combine spells together, meaning there's a chance you might end up making the same spell more than two times).
* Whenever the Nameless One from ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' {{spoiler|dies and comes back, someone else somewhere on the Great Wheel dies as a result, becoming a tormented shadow whose only desire is to hunt down the Nameless One and kill him again}}.
** Subverted, however, with the Nameless One being able to shrug off almost any price that doesn't kill him. Thus, what would be a painful exchange for a [[Squishy Wizard]]
*** Then, double subverted with the {{spoiler|Pillar of Skulls}} and a particular (semisentient and evil) book of magic, which soon begin to ask for things ''aside'' from and greater than, just for an example, a taste of your flesh or you to commit some minor evil act.
* The ritual of Soul Exchange in ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'' allows someone to sacrifice their own life to bring someone else back. However, it won't work on someone who died by using the same ritual, and one character ends up undead for attempting this.
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* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' mages can inadvertently perform minor displays of magic effortlessly (Wynne discovered she was a mage when she accidentally set a bully's hair on fire when she was only nine years old). This is usually how young potential mages are discovered by the Templars. More powerful spells and rituals require outside sources of energy. Lyrium, the [[Green Rocks]] of the setting that are the ''[[Dragon Age]]'' setting's source of magic, is usually distilled into a consumable liquid form for this purpose. [[Blood Magic|Blood Mages]] can use [[Life Energy]] (theirs or others' it doesn't matter) instead; this also lets them perform blood manipulating feats that non [[Blood Magic]] cannot, such as [[Mind Control]] (controlling blood in the brain?) and ripping the blood out of their enemies' pores.
** Also, another case with Blood Magic is that for a mage to first be able to use it, they have to make a bargain with a Demon to gain the power. Now, what each bargains requires changes from person to person, but most cases end with [[Grand Theft Me|the Demon possessing the Mage]] and turning them into [[And I Must Scream|an Abomination]].
* ''[[Phantasy Star III]]'' allows you to visit a "technique distribution" shop to alter the potency of a magic-wielding character's techniques. With the use of a square-shaped grid, at the expense of one, another can be strengthened. In practice, thanks to [[Useless Useful Spell
* In ''[[Quest for Glory]] I'', "Every curse has an equal and opposite countercurse."
* Equivalent Exchange is one of the major rules of magic in the [[Nasuverse]] both in the practical (a spell needs to take its energy from somewhere else) and the social sense (a magus will never do someone a favor without expecting something in return).
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== Real Life ==
* As seen in the description, the First Law of Thermodynamics makes this trope not just [[Older Than Dirt]], but Older Than Everything But The Universe Itself. The ''second'' law of thermodynamics states that you can't really get even equivalent
** There's actually [[wikipedia:Conservation law|quite a few of these]]. Some are played straight, but others are subverted and only hold true under most circumstances.
** [[wikipedia:Noether's Theorem|Noether's Theorem]] shows that there's a one-to-one correspondence between conservation laws and physical symmetries. Conservation of energy is due to time-invariance, so as long as physical constants don't change, it will exist.
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