Familiar
A Familiar is a lesser monster divided out of the essence of a Witch or other magical creature. Though normally assigned the task of maintaining and defending their mistress' Barrier, they also possess Barriers of their own, often very identical to that of their creator.
A Familiar is a secondary enemy that a Witch creates for a variety of purposes, usually shortly after the Witch itself is born. After either eating a few humans or gaining enough energy through other means, they will turn into a filled Grief Seed, lay roots and launch their own Barrier, which is itself full of Familiars. The Grief Seed itself will then hatch completely and grow into an identical copy of its parent Witch, able to spawn its own Familiars and dropping their own Grief Seed. The details of this process sometimes vary slightly depending on the Witch, but the practice of not hunting Familiars until they mature into Witches is known as "Witch farming." One prominent example is most of the Witch population of Kamihama City, which were created by Familiars, whether by chance or through the Witch farming of Magical Girls.
Unlike their parent Witches, Familiars are approximately weak enough for a human to do significant damage to them without magical assistance. Familiars themselves do not drop any Grief Seeds when killed unless they have matured into a full Witch and it appears that when a Witch is killed, Familiars in its Labyrinth, or at least those in close proximity, also die alongside it.
According to the January 2012 Dengeki PlayStation, Familiars are described as "projections of the Magical Girl's heart before they became a Witch." Like Witches themselves, the behavior and properties of Familiars, as well as the relationship to their Witch, vary greatly, with seemingly the only constants being the lack of a Grief Seed, their big numbers and lesser power.
Non-Witch Familiars
Despite Familiars being most common with Witches, other magical creatures also have Familiars of their own. Magical Girls themselves have been known to create creatures, or constructs from their own personal magic to do a certain job, or simply aid their master.
It can be said that Nightmares are a form of Familiar in their own right, but they also have proper Familiars of their own. The Familiars of Nightmares, named Koguma and Koyagi respectively, appear as small plushies that are mostly used as projectiles. Notably, a creature which was very similar to Nightmares in its creation and function, Made in 168, did not appear to have any Familiars of its own.
As Uwasa are all created by Nemu's magic, they can be considered her Familiars, but they themselves sometimes also have their own Familiars. The Familiars of Uwasa are different in that they solely exist to fulfill their underlying rumor, and they seemingly all lack any form of further agency, or ability to grow into anything else. When the Kimochi appear, they initially employ empty copies of major Uwasa and their Uwasa Familiars to serve as their personal bodyguards before the Kimochi themselves appeared.
Names
The only entries in the franchise that have named Familiars are Madoka Magica, Magia Record and Magia Exedra.
As with the names of Witches, the names of Familiars in Madoka Magica relate to the works or themes of Johann Goethe, Richard Wagner, or Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Albertine is named after one or two women by that name that Goethe was known friends with, and her Familiar Anja is named after a titular character of a play by writer Klaus Mann, who like Goethe wrote an adaptation of the legend of Faust. Charlotte's Familiars, Pyotr and Polina, are respectively named after Pyotr Tchaikovsky (composer for The Nutcracker) and both Polina Semionova (a ballerina in The Nutcracker) and possibly, Pauiline von Metternich, a woman important in the promotion of Richard Wagner's work.
In Magia Record, it is more common for the names for the Familiars to more closely relate to the name of their master Witches, which themselves tend to be named for more personal reasons outside of the game's larger inspirations. For instance, Zenobia is a revered Syrian queen, and Zabaii comes from Zenobia's birth name or an ancestor. Shin, a babysitting-themed Witch, may be named after the television character Shin Takonara who is herself a babysitter; her Familiar, Kotori, is named after a Japanese children's game. This may also explain the aforementioned characterization of Familiars are projections of the Magical Girl's heart.
Trivia
- In folklore, a Familiar (or familiar spirit) was believed to be a small animal or imp given to a witch by the devil or inherited from another witch, serving as her attendant and helping to perform magic. It is sometimes believed that a familiar is the witch's demon itself, taking an animal form and supplying them with magic.
See also: Witch, for more information regarding Witch-related topics.