Magic Is Evil: Difference between revisions

 

In settings that do not have this view of magic, there's usually at least one [[Anti-Magical Faction]] who believes it to be such. Sometimes bleeds into audience reaction; some [[Moral Guardians]] have been known to condemn fantasy stories as evil for containing "witchcraft", even if there's good magic in the actual work.

 

* [[Deal with the Devil|Magic]] in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' is a bit like [[Dragon Age|Darkspawn taint]]—a few people can and do use a seemingly benign version to fight against greater threats, and for quite a while they can even stay relatively sane, but [[Heroic Willpower]] doesn't last forever.

* There is such a thing as a good witch in ''[[Soul Eater]]'', but they're pretty rare, and they tend to [[Van Helsing Hate Crimes|get targeted along with the bad ones]]. (And all witchcraft, even for a good cause, warps the soul into a demonic form.)

* Magic is used rather liberally in ''[[Delicious in Dungeon]]'', given its [[RPG Mechanics Verse]] setting, but use of Ancient Magic (referred to as black magic by everyone except Marcille) is both discouraged and illegal. While this form of magic is indeed powerful, dangerous, and taxing on the user's body and mind, Marcille insists that magic is indifferent in regards to good and evil, pointing out that even healing magic can be used for evil purposes. Whether these views are accurate or not is debatable - {{spoiler|in one chapter, using it causes her to start laughing evilly as the blood of her foes splatters on her, crying tears of blood as she does so, hinting that it may be causing a dark corruption of her soul.}}

 

* The ''Day of Vengeance'' tie-in to ''[[Infinite Crisis]]'' kicked off with Eclipso convincing [[The Spectre]] of this. It largely worked, too.

 

 

* [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s ''[[Cthulhu Mythos]]'' stories. Those who use Mythos magic tend to be extremely evil (and nearly always insane).

** Though both in ''[[The Dunwich Horror]]'' and ''The Case of Charles Dexter Ward'' the protagonists themselves use spells taken from Necronomicon in order to battle evil beings immune to all mundane effort, and don't suffer any consequences at least in the context of the stories.

* More or less everything ever written by [[Jack Chick]].

** And most Christian lore in general, for which there is no such thing as "white" magic: Power belongs to [[God]] and no one else.

* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' novels magic weakens the border between the Disc and the Dungeon Dimensions, allowing all sorts of [[Eldritch Abomination]]s to come through. Magic users themselves are usually portrayed as fairly decent, but the education of witches and wizards tends to focus on ''discouraging'' them from using magic, either by teaching them more practical skills or distracting them with university bureaucracy and politics.

** Discworld doesn't really have Magic Is ''Evil'' so much as Magic Is Way More Trouble Than It Could Possibly Be Worth. It's not characterized as actively malevolent by either the narrative or the characters, just as incredibly dangerous and unreliable.

* In [[Josepha Sherman]]'s ''[[The Shining Falcon]]'', Danilo and many others are convinced of this. Finist distinguishes between sorcery, which is, and magic, which need not be.

* Oddly enough, in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', while magic is certainly not ''inherently'' evil (the hero and many other Wizards use it to do considerable good, and it's only corruptive if you misuse it, breaking the Seven Laws of Magic), it's still shown as very dangerous and risky. Most magic practitioners can not do very much with it, though getting power from demonic bargains or breaking the Seven Laws is relatively easy. Also, even for major players who can do a lot with it, demonic temptations are multifold, the protagonist almost falls into this trap early in the series. For those magically gifted individuals without a ''major'' talent for it, and also access to a trustworthy teacher, a good case can be made from events in the books that the safe, smart, morally and pragmatically best choice is to turn away from magic and don't look back.

** This being the WoTverse, most commoners (and much of the nobility) are incredibly superstitious and stubborn and believe that all Channeling is evil, though much of that stems from the male Aes Sedai going insane and the end of the War of Power and devastating the world.

 

* Played with in ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]''. Magic is not inherently evil; however, King Uther Pendragon was unready and unwilling to [[Equivalent Exchange|accept the price]] that was ultimately required for a spell that would grant him [[King Arthur|an heir]] - his wife dying in childbirth - [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|which led to a campaign of extermination]] [[Disproportionate Retribution|against all magic-users.]] As a result, [[Merlin]] must hide his talents or face execution, and [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|most of the few remaining magic-users are out for bloody revenge against Camelot and the Pendragon line.]]

 

* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' are perhaps the most dramatic examples of this trope, where any and all use of magic has hideous risks and relatively few advantages. In Warhammer magic can still be used with a degree of safety and positive result, but in the latter, the power of the Warp is so terrible even being ''near'' the psychic backlash of sorcerous workings makes ordinary, virtuous people feel sick.

** Note that in both cases, magic/psychic powers come from ''[[Hell]]'' (or, depending on one's interpretation, [[Cosmic Horror Story|something worse]]).

** Some magic is relatively safer, though; unsurprisingly, it's the kind that impedes or protects from Mythos forces (like the Elder Sign or the powder of Ibn-Ghazi).

* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'':

** Adventure X2 ''Castle Amber'', based on [[Clark Ashton Smith]]'s ''Averoigne'' stories (see above).

** Carcosan sorcery is about as evil as all get-out, drawing a lot of influence from the Cthulhu Mythos and from sword and sorcery stories such as Conan above. A lot of the sorcerous rituals listed require grisly [[Human Sacrifice]] of some nature, with the banishment rituals being the ones that generally don't.

* Ask any fundamentalist Christian about ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' and they'll say this is why [[Everyone Is Satan in Hell]]. Hilariously enough, an anti-magic church is the primarily religion on one Dominarian continent in The Dark.

 

* While Prospero only uses his magic for good in ''[[The Tempest]]'', he nonetheless drowns his books of magic for this reason at the end of the play.

* The slightly earlier ''[[Doctor Faustus]]'' promised to burn his books—a little too late.

 

* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' has shades of this, with magical talent inevitably endangering the would-be-mage and linked to the realm of generally-malicious demons.

** Though it also leads to lots of [[Fantastic Racism]] and [[I Just Want to Be Normal|self hate]].

* In ''[[Age of Conan]]'', all of the mage classes use evil magic in some form, the necromancer simply uses dark powers, while the demonologist and Herald of Xotli make pacts with demons. Being based on the world of [[Conan the Barbarian|you-know-who]], this is hardly unexpected.

* In ''[[Diablo]]'', it's an explicit part of the setting that most forms of magic carry a high risk of corrupting the user and making them into a servant of the demons. The only ''definite'' exception is necromancy, as [[necromancer]]s are too [[True Neutral]] and unconcerned with fleeting personal power to fall to the lure of demonic might. Most people in the setting are fine with magic despite this, oddly enough.

 

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', [[Fanon Discontinuity|not counting the "Torg Potter" wizards]], the only human sorcerers who get more than a cameo are Gwynn (whose powers come from a [[Tome of Eldritch Lore]] and a [[Demonic Possession]]) and Kesandru (whose powers are based on turning ghosts into his slaves). Not exactly examples of [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]].

* Zig-zagged and combined with [[Dark Is Evil]] in ''[[Twokinds]]''. Normal [[Mana]] is neutral, but [[Evil Counterpart|Dark Mana]] is obtained by using [[The Lifestream]] as mana, and when it doesn't drive the caster mad or kills them outright, it weakens their sanity and causes a horrific black burn to creep up their left arm.

* In ''[[The Witch Watch]]'' all magic has traditionally been condemned as evil by the Church and the general populace. Sorcery in particular seems to generally be used for awful purposes but people have begun to wonder whether magic can be used beneficially for healing. {{spoiler|It turns out this involves killing people, so no}}.

 

* Most squirrels in ''[[Tasakeru]]'' follow this viewpoint, believing that only the Gods should alter the natural order. The degree to which this applies varies greatly; some families allow usage of the magically-infused [[Applied Phlebotinum|spellstones]] crafted by mages of other species, and some reject any and all magic, spellstones included.

 

* In ''[[Aladdin (1992 Disney film)|Aladdin: The Series]]'', this was [[Zig Zagged]]. Magic as a concept didn't seem evil, as there were plenty of benign creatures who used it (like Genie, obviously). ''Wizards'', on the other hand... Suffice to say that if there were any who weren't evil, the heroes never met any, and it took a couple of averted disasters that resulted from trusting them to finally figure this out. The only possible exception might have been Sadira, and she was pretty much at the low end of the power scale.

 

 

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