Graduation is just some paperwork and homework assignments away. It took quite a lot to get me this far, but I think I can actually manage it. The magic I needed to work is, well...working!
...Speaking of magic, I thought of some details regarding it in the Rubyverse. Basically, this being a realm of superheroes, there's almost as many types of magic as there are superheroes. (Not all superheroes are magic-powered, and not all magic-powered superheroes use a magic unique to them.)
This, naturally, can cause some confusion. The government doesn't go into much detail, having only two specific classes of magic: Beta Magic is generic/unspecified magic. If someone just says they use magic, this is it. If they're just plain told that they learn magic, this is it. It's the majority of magic, where there's magic, but nobody really knows all the details about the system. It's therefore not actually just one magic system--rather, it's collectively many, since naming every single type of magic would be too tedious especially given how strongly many of them overlap.
In other words, Beta Magic is what they consider the "catch all" term for the majority of magic.
The other class of magic is Alpha Magic: The Same, But More; this is Magic that Can Do Anything. Again, it's not a universal system. It's just that it's not magic in a predefined system, and which has no known boundaries. (Beta Magic has limitations, but doesn't have enough that it's a system.) In short, Alpha Magic is the type of thing that a god-tiered superhero would have. (Not all god-tiered superheroes have powers classified as being magic, though.)
In general, Alpha Magic tends to blur the line between science and magic, but not because it has rules (that's something not even most Beta Magic has, but if rules for the magic exist it's almost impossible for the magic to be Alpha Magic). It's because Alpha Magic tends to be magic, which works on a cosmic scale. For instance, tapping into elements a bit, throwing a fireball is basic beta magic, but manipulating heat and its inverse of cold pushes things closer to being alpha magic as the only limit becomes how creative the person gets in their application.
It's a very blurry line, especially when you go into Systematic Magic:
AKA, "Magic A is Magic A": this is magic that has rules to it. These rules can be very specific or very vague. The closer to specific, the more scientific they are; the more vague, the closer they get to being Alpha Magic.
Magic A is Magic A. Magic B is Magic B. Magic A and Magic B work on different rules. Magic C is Magic C. Magic C works on different rules from Magic A and Magic B, but since there's only so many ways to perform magic, there's some overlap in appearance. Magic D is Magic D, but takes influence from Magic A and Magic B, combining aspects of their systems into its own.
You get the idea.
Magical Girls are a generic term, with the only requirement being that they're at lease vaguely magical in nature. Different magical girls fall in different places in the spectrum. Riders are a specific type of Magical Girl, who use a Systematic Magic with a Light-themed element to it: Every Rider has Light as their element, meaning they use Elemental Magic, which is a very broad type of Systematic Magic with hundreds of sub-types.
The Elemental Eight, AKA our protagonists in the Ruby Gang, take a specific form of Rider magic, focusing on the theme of Elements to add an Element into their already-half-elemental magic. (Riders can fight opponents who nullify light magic because their magic, while being based in light, is not reliant on it. Light nullification simply reduces the power significantly, at least by half and sometimes by much more. Incidentally, it works the other way, too: it's possible to nullify magic, but Elemental Magic is very resistant to being nullified by magical-nullifiers that can nullify even Alpha Magic, meaning if a Rider's magic is nullified, they can still fight using their powers of light.)
Incidentally, most evil people do in fact use variants on darkness magic, making them Elemental Magic users and therefore users of Systematic Magic. Vampires being the most prominent and relevant example to the story, of course: their magic has rules, but it's very largely only limited by creativity and available power.
...Yeah. It's confusing. I'm not sure I can describe it any better, though. If this were a setting with only one type of magic, I could give the details about it enough to make it a science, but in this world, again, so many different types of magic that it's really...well, it's really magical.
Basically, not all magic can do everything, but between all the different systems OF magic, magic can do anything.
...Speaking of magic, I thought of some details regarding it in the Rubyverse. Basically, this being a realm of superheroes, there's almost as many types of magic as there are superheroes. (Not all superheroes are magic-powered, and not all magic-powered superheroes use a magic unique to them.)
This, naturally, can cause some confusion. The government doesn't go into much detail, having only two specific classes of magic: Beta Magic is generic/unspecified magic. If someone just says they use magic, this is it. If they're just plain told that they learn magic, this is it. It's the majority of magic, where there's magic, but nobody really knows all the details about the system. It's therefore not actually just one magic system--rather, it's collectively many, since naming every single type of magic would be too tedious especially given how strongly many of them overlap.
In other words, Beta Magic is what they consider the "catch all" term for the majority of magic.
The other class of magic is Alpha Magic: The Same, But More; this is Magic that Can Do Anything. Again, it's not a universal system. It's just that it's not magic in a predefined system, and which has no known boundaries. (Beta Magic has limitations, but doesn't have enough that it's a system.) In short, Alpha Magic is the type of thing that a god-tiered superhero would have. (Not all god-tiered superheroes have powers classified as being magic, though.)
In general, Alpha Magic tends to blur the line between science and magic, but not because it has rules (that's something not even most Beta Magic has, but if rules for the magic exist it's almost impossible for the magic to be Alpha Magic). It's because Alpha Magic tends to be magic, which works on a cosmic scale. For instance, tapping into elements a bit, throwing a fireball is basic beta magic, but manipulating heat and its inverse of cold pushes things closer to being alpha magic as the only limit becomes how creative the person gets in their application.
It's a very blurry line, especially when you go into Systematic Magic:
AKA, "Magic A is Magic A": this is magic that has rules to it. These rules can be very specific or very vague. The closer to specific, the more scientific they are; the more vague, the closer they get to being Alpha Magic.
Magic A is Magic A. Magic B is Magic B. Magic A and Magic B work on different rules. Magic C is Magic C. Magic C works on different rules from Magic A and Magic B, but since there's only so many ways to perform magic, there's some overlap in appearance. Magic D is Magic D, but takes influence from Magic A and Magic B, combining aspects of their systems into its own.
You get the idea.
Magical Girls are a generic term, with the only requirement being that they're at lease vaguely magical in nature. Different magical girls fall in different places in the spectrum. Riders are a specific type of Magical Girl, who use a Systematic Magic with a Light-themed element to it: Every Rider has Light as their element, meaning they use Elemental Magic, which is a very broad type of Systematic Magic with hundreds of sub-types.
The Elemental Eight, AKA our protagonists in the Ruby Gang, take a specific form of Rider magic, focusing on the theme of Elements to add an Element into their already-half-elemental magic. (Riders can fight opponents who nullify light magic because their magic, while being based in light, is not reliant on it. Light nullification simply reduces the power significantly, at least by half and sometimes by much more. Incidentally, it works the other way, too: it's possible to nullify magic, but Elemental Magic is very resistant to being nullified by magical-nullifiers that can nullify even Alpha Magic, meaning if a Rider's magic is nullified, they can still fight using their powers of light.)
Incidentally, most evil people do in fact use variants on darkness magic, making them Elemental Magic users and therefore users of Systematic Magic. Vampires being the most prominent and relevant example to the story, of course: their magic has rules, but it's very largely only limited by creativity and available power.
...Yeah. It's confusing. I'm not sure I can describe it any better, though. If this were a setting with only one type of magic, I could give the details about it enough to make it a science, but in this world, again, so many different types of magic that it's really...well, it's really magical.
Basically, not all magic can do everything, but between all the different systems OF magic, magic can do anything.
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