Glyph Magic is a form of magic originating from Titans. It can be used as a method to cast spells, as opposed to casting Spell Circles.
Background[]
Performing glyph magic effectively requires that both the glyph is drawn accurately enough, and that the caster know what they need the glyph to do when they activate it, else they will receive underwhelming and/or unintended results.[1] Glyphs can also sometimes generate spell circles themselves when cast. It has been shown that this can be used in order to have a spell active not where the glyph was placed, but to a nearby location the caster wants the spell to be, such as when Luz used a plant glyph to make a tower of vines underneath her instead of where the glyph was placed in front of her, the glyph forming a spell circle connecting to it around Luz.[2] Furthermore, although usually they need to be placed on an object to directly affect it (rather than indirectly, such as launching ice at something instead of freezing it), there are cases where a glyph only needs to be activated in an object's vicinity to have its magic affect it, such as when Luz heated and melted a metal grate with a fire glyph by activating it in front of the grate rather than placing the glyph on it.[3]
Given that Amity, King, and Eda reacted with curiosity and wonder upon seeing Luz casting magic through glyphs, such practice had apparently become a lost knowledge sometime prior to her arrival in the Demon Realm, either forgotten or rendered obsolete in the light of the discovery of more efficient methods. One such method is through drawing power from the magic bile sac attached to a witch's heart, a method exclusive to witches and biped demons of Boiling Isles — without it, one must improvise by either actually drawing a picture of the glyph for the desired spell, or by using a training wand or similar device.
Since glyphs draw magic from the environment, they are ineffective in the Human Realm due to there being no magic around to harness. However, Luz discovers that glyphs specifically are powered by the Titan itself and being within range of Titan's Blood, even if that distance is hundreds of feet away, can allow a person to perform glyph magic in the human realm. However, the further a person gets from the blood, the weaker and less stable the glyph spells become, until eventually they don't produce an effect beyond destroying themselves; getting even further away will only cause partial self-destruction such as burning away some lines, until eventually the glyphs will become completely inert.[4] There are two exceptions to sources of Titan's Blood that do not empower glyphs in the Human Realm; King and the Portal Key,[5] though why that is has not been stated.
The Titan's Glyphs[]
| Glyph | Function | Appearance |
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When cast, it generates a floating sphere of off-white yellowish light. The intensity of the spell can be changed depending on the size of the glyph/spell circle. The light spell is considered a basic spell that can be cast at a very young age. | The light glyph is drawn with a large triangle in the circle with a smaller triangle and circle on top. Down the middle a long line with two smaller lines across, side by side within the large triangle. |
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When cast, it causes a pillar of ice to form. The diameter, speed of growth, and the height of the ice pillar depends on the size of the glyph. | The ice glyph is drawn with a large diamond with a line down the center, sat on another line across the bottom of the circle. Across the diamond is a curved line and sometimes a smaller diamond is included at the bottom. |
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When cast, flowers, and other types of plants or trees, sprout from the glyph. The plants can be any size, even towering over people. | The plant glyph resembles a flower. Drawn with an upside-down triangle with a line across the bottom, resembling a flowerhead, connected to a line heading down to a circle at the bottom with a dot in the center. Two other lines stick out at the top of the circle, resembling leaves. |
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When cast, it conjures a ball of fire. If cast on the surface of an object, it will set that object on fire. | The fire glyph is drawn with a larger circle at the bottom of the spell circle with a dot in the center. On top is a smaller circle with a curved triangle on top. Another curved triangle is also included on top of the bigger circle which goes over the smaller circle. |
Variants of The Titan's glyphs[]
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King's glyphs[]
| Glyph | Function | Appearance |
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when cast, it generates a floating sphere of off-white yellowish light. It is implied that King's Light glyph works the same or similar to his father's glyph. | This glyph is only ever cast once at the end of Watching and Dreaming, it is similar in appearance to King's father's light glyph, having a diamond with sides bending slightly inwards, a line going through said diamond vertically and a circle on the line along with another line going horizontally. The top of the diamond has a circle with two tringle resembling horns going straight up. The triangles' hypotenuses are curved slightly upwards. |
King's light glyph is the only one of his glyphs seen in full within the show. Parts of King's other glyphs are seen in Watching and Dreaming when King gets enraged while he thinks that Luz is dead. One of the glyphs resembles the Ice Glyph implying that the types of glyph King has and the ones his father had are the same.
Combinations[]
In "Escaping Expulsion", Lilith discovers that by drawing a "glyph combo" by chaining glyphs in a certain order within a larger shape, it is possible to organize the commands over magic and thus achieve different specific effects. This runs counter to the incorrect method used by Eda of overlapping glyphs on top of each other, as this is the equivalent of giving different commands at once and causes the magic to be confused, resulting in the spell going wrong. Although the most common shape used to chain glyphs in a combo is a circle and its variants, Luz has shown that other shapes can used to create a glyph combo, as seen in "Once Upon a Swap" when she created a rectangle-shaped combo.
Combinations can be broken down into two groups: combos that use multiples of only a single glyph to achieve specific, specialized, or enhanced effects of their associated element, and combos that use multiple different types of glyphs to achieve new magical effects outside the capability of a single glyph type's element. There are currently two known examples of the former:
- Circuit Glyph: A glyph combo for a light circuit used by Luz in "Once Upon a Swap", which has ten light glyphs placed in two rows of five, with straight lines connecting them into a rectangle. When cast, it creates an animated image similar to a neon light sign. Interestingly, the light glyphs seen on this combo are different from the ones usually drawn by Luz: the two parallel lines in the center, as well as the circle and lines at the top, are instead replaced with two diamond shapes. How this affects the resulting spell, or if it affects it at all, is unknown.
- Sculpture Glyph: A glyph combo for an ice sculpture combo used by Lilith in "Escaping Expulsion", which usually has an ice glyph at the top of the circle, with another on the bottom. When cast, it creates ice sculptures based on the caster's will, such as creating ice popsicles, an ornate crown and jewelry, and a large-scale life-like model boat. Two other types of ice sculpture combos have also been seen: One with four ice glyphs on the corners of the circle, which has not been used, and another with a light glyph at the bottom instead of an ice glyph, which was used to create the ice popsicles.
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Snow | ||
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| The glyph combo for snow is a light glyph at the top of the circle, two ice glyphs on the left and right sides, and a fire glyph at the bottom. When cast, it creates snow. It can also command existing magic to become snow. First used by Lilith in "Escaping Expulsion". | |||
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Invisibility | ||
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| The glyph combo for invisibility is a light glyph in the center of the circle, another light glyph on the top left corner of the circle, and two ice glyphs on the bottom left and right corners. When cast, it can render anyone or anything it is placed on invisible. However, the invisibility spell only lasts for as long as the caster, not the person they used it on, holds their breath, even if the glyph is used on an inanimate object. First used by Luz in "Echoes of the Past". | |||
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Mist | ||
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| The glyph combo for mist is a fire glyph on the left side of the circle, with an ice glyph on the right side. Occasionally, it is drawn with a smaller empty circle at the bottom to place an item in. When cast, it conjures up a thick mist. Additionally, by including pollen from sleeping nettle flowers, the combination will create a sleep-induced smoke. First used by Luz in "Hunting Palismen". | |||
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Teleportation | ||
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| The glyph combo for a teleportation spell is a very complex combination of five ice glyphs, eight plant glyphs, and eight fire glyphs, with varying sizes and placed on multiple different rings. When cast, it teleports anyone and anything on it to another location. First used by Philip Wittebane in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen".
The first time it is shown, one of the fire glyphs is oriented diagonally, going down right instead of straight like other glyphs. The second time it is shown, however, the fire glyph is mostly straightened besides a slightly left tilt, but the central fire glyph has instead been turned upside-down. The reason for this has not been explained, though it can be inferred that this changes where the teleport leads to. | |||
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Safety Hover | ||
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| The safety hover was first discovered by Luz in "Reaching Out". It acts like a safety net for when someone is falling, making them hover for a couple seconds just before they hit the ground and then dropping them. The combination is a light glyph inside a larger circle between an ice and fire glyph. | |||
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Wind Spell | ||
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| One of four unfinished glyph combos drawn by Philip Wittebane; the following combination casts a powerful wind spell using a light glyph in the outer circle and an ice glyph in the center, surrounded by three fire glyphs. | |||
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Water Fountain | ||
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| One of four unfinished glyph combos drawn by Philip Wittebane; the combination of three ice glyphs in the outer circle and a fire glyph in the center circle, connected by three curved lines that swirl into the center, creates a weak water fountain. | |||
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Petrification | ||
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| One of four unfinished glyph combos drawn by Philip Wittebane; this glyph combination with three ice glyphs and two plant glyphs connected by one line can cast a petrification spell, turning anything or anyone to brittle stone that crumbles to dust soon after being touched. | |||
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Monster Summoning | ||
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| One of four unfinished glyph combos drawn by Philip Wittebane; this glyph combo uses two plant glyphs and two fire glyphs to summon a hand of a murderous monster seemingly made out of a regenerative mud-like substance. | |||
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Lock | ||
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| This combo was drawn up by Philip as a magic stone lock to his secret grimwalker creation lab and Golden Guard graveyard at the base of the Titan's skull. It is a mix of multiple circles, featuring the ice, plant, and fire glyphs. It is the only known glyph combo not made by a titan that is not made up purely by glyphs and connection lines, having circles not connecting to glyphs that are placed on rings like glyphs often are placed for connection. | |||
Gallery
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Trivia[]
- Witches can still use their spell circles in the Human Realm, but not glyphs, due to the absence of natural magic in the Human Realm compared to the Boiling Isles.
- Certain glyphs are drawn with an outer circle, though they do not appear to require them to work.
- In "Elsewhere and Elsewhen", Philip Wittebane mentioned that it took years for him to discover the plant, ice and fire glyphs, almost as if the world itself were trying to keep them from him. In "King's Tide", Belos mentioned that the same was true for combining glyphs. Luz, on the other hand, learned all four glyphs very quickly and figured out the combination process in a couple of months, and in "Watching and Dreaming", the Collector mentions that The Titan must like her to have shown her that much. This implies that The Titan, at least when he was in the In Between Realm, could show his magic to or restrict it from certain individuals.
References[]
- ↑ Dana Terrace (writer) and Bo Coburn (director) (April 9, 2022). "Reaching Out". The Owl House. Season 2. Episode 14. Disney Channel.
- ↑ Emmy Cicierega, Mikki Crisostomo (writers) and Bosook "Bo" Coburn (director) (May 21, 2022). "Clouds on the Horizon". The Owl House. Season 2. Episode 20. Disney Channel.
- ↑ John Bailey Owen (writer) and Aminder Dhaliwal (director) (August 22, 2020). "Agony of a Witch". The Owl House. Season 1. Episode 18. Disney Channel.
- ↑ Emmy Cicierega, Mikki Crisostomo, Madeleine Hernandez, Zach Marcus, John Bailey Owen (writers) and Amelia Lorenz, Bosook "Bo" Coburn (directors) (October 15, 2022). "Thanks to Them". The Owl House. Season 3. Episode 1. Disney Channel.
- ↑ Dana Terrace, Rachel Vine (writers) and Stephen Sandoval (director) (August 29, 2020). "Young Blood, Old Souls". The Owl House. Season 1. Episode 19. Disney Channel.