Originally Posted by
John Venus
I've seen this before and I like it. It's good to see somebody trying to sort this thing out for once.
Though my main criticism is that some of the categories overlap too much. Like Magician and Sorcerer. Champions and Guardians. Archmage and Judges. You're right that some characters don't fit into those categories because the classifications are so narrow.
My suggestions would be something like this:
This is what I came up with after seeing the above posted page sometime back.
The Enchanted: Regular humans or animals who get their powers from magical items, potions or altered in some way by a magical being. This would be the case for characters like Vixen, Detective Chimp, Blue Devil, Nightmaster, Shining Knight, Bloodwynd, certain iterations of Dr Fate, the reincarnated Hawkman (depending on how you want to explain his reincarnation), Ralph (depending on whether you think the substance he drank was magical or scientific in nature) as well as Vandal Savage (again, depends on whether you think that the meteor was magical or scientific in nature). Some of these characters would just be regular people (or animals) if they lost their enchanted items or if whatever spell that gives them their abilities were lifted. I would categorize Atlanteans and their ability to breath and survive underwater as a result of being enchanted as well. Vampires, werewolves, dragons and their variations would fall under this category.
The Magi: This is where your typical spell chanting or wand waving magicians would be. These characters are born with magical powers, their body creates it and the more spells or the bigger the spell they cast the more they run out of energy and need a moments rest to recharge. Experienced mages have a larger pool of magical energy while novices would get tired after one spell but the more you train, the more your power grows.
I would categorize them into two: type 1 would be the likes of Zatanna, Zachary, Traci 13, Dr Occult, Madame Xanadu, Merlin, Tala, Circe, Morgane Le Fay, Constantine basically characters who throw around bolts of technicolor lightning falls into this category. They manipulate 'pure' magical energy to cast illusions, alchemy, teleknisis, travel between dimensions, astral projections, etc. Usually they need a 'key' to channel their abilities through for the Zataras its backwards speaking and for others it could be hand movements or gestures. Magic is everywhere, some places more than others. Most regular cities have very faint magical energy but there are magical hotspots like Stonehenge or Atlantis or the Bermuda Triangle which the Magi can tap into for more power but they have to be their for it or have a connection to it for it to work. Because magic is vast and there are multiple different skills sets involved, different magi specialize in different things; Xanadu specializes in divination, Circe is an expert in turning humans into animals, the Zataras are a jack-of-all trades and Traci 13 has her 'urban magic'.
The second type would be characters whose magical power express themselves in specific powersets; Raven, Nightshade, Black Alice, Mera, , et al would fall into this category. Everything Raven does is derived from her soul self. Everything that Nightshade does is derived from her connection to shadows and the land of Nigthshade. Raven and Nighshade have more variety with their powers while Mera can only do water bending with her powers. Likewise, Black Alice's power is just tapping into other people's powers and utilizing a copy of whoever she is channeling. I would also throw in Johnny Quick and Jesse Quick, this is why they need a password for their powers to work because it's not scientific in nature. They access the Speed Force through magic while the Flash Family accesses it through science.
I will also take a page of out of JLA Vol 1 #165: the magical gene is recessive. If a magi had a child with a normal human then that child would only have half of their magical parent's power and if that child were to marry another normal human then they would have a third, a quarter in the next generation until eventually the power just fades after a couple of generations. Somewhere down the family tree, maybe centuries later, someone might develop full blown magical powers like John Zatara did but that's rare. Because of this many magical communities simply walled themselves away from normal human society hence why you have so many hidden societies in the DCU like Kor (Dr Mist), Hidden City (Zatanna), Azarath (Raven) and a bunch of others.
Wish I had a better name than Type 1 and 2.
The Champions: These are characters chosen by gods or god like beings to be their emissary's in our world. This is where Wonder Woman, Cheetah, Deadman, Captain Marvel & The Marvel Family, Dr. Fate, Spectre, Etrigan and possibly even the Phantom Stranger come in. Also depending on how you're handling Hawkman's reincarnation, he could fall into this category too. In CM, Etrigan and Dr Fate's case, they've been given their powers by powerful wizards and not Gods. The wizards are just Magi who climbed up the ladder high enough to have power almost comparable to that of Gods. The purpose of the Champions is to carry out whatever task has been assigned by their patrons. Sometimes their task is more hopeful and optimistic like WW and the Marvel Family, other times it's dark like the Spectre's mission. The instructions from their patrons could either be very loose or hands off like for Deadman and Etrigan or it could be very stringent like it is for the Spectre.
The Entities: Ranging from minor spirits easily vanquished to primordial gods who rule over entire dimensions, they are beings made of pure magical energy who embodies an aspect of existence and it's humans thoughts that gave them their personality. Kind of like an American Gods take. People have bloodlust? Hello Ares! Mars! And other war gods! Their flaw is that they need followers since belief is their power. Examples would be all the Pantheons; the Greek Gods, the Norse Gods, the Presence who represents the Abrahamic Gods, and basically The Endless would be a step above these guys. Somewhere in between would the New Gods; they are the next step after the Greek/Roman Gods. They don't need followers to maintain power but characters like Darkseid feeds on others misery and their power comes from the Source. All these beings are in competition with each other, sometimes they may support each other but ultimately they all want the top spot of being the ruler of the universe.
Anyway, that's my take. Thoughts?