Magic

Magic in the Magica Universe are forces created from fluctuation of emotion, unbounded by the First Law of Thermodynamic. When QB's scientifically-advanced civilization discovered Magic, they realized Magic's capacity to create new energy can postpone maximum Entropy and delay the heat death of the Universe. However, QB's civilization are incapable of emotions, thus they scoured the Universe for species with the most emotional potential. QB found his answer in the Earth's human females, especially those still developing secondary sex characteristics. Mahou Shoujo and Witches, thus the settings of the story, are the result of QB's quest to harvest this energy.

Magical creatures

Three types of magical creatures exist in Magica universe: magical girls, witches, and familiars. However, because both familiars and magic girls can mature into witches, all three may be considered stages of a single species. Souls of magic girls and witches are separated from their bodies and reside in soul gems and grief seeds, respectively. Because of this, magic girls and witches are nigh invulnerable as long as their soul gems or grief seeds are intact and can recover in due time. Familiars do not have grief seeds, so they are presumed dead when killed. Both soul gems and grief seeds are adorned by the emblem of the holder, and familiars carry the emblem of witch whom they budded from.

Read more about emblems at soul gems and grief seeds.

Common abilities

These are magical abilities common to all magic girls. For magic girls, magic usage result in darkening of their soul gems, which must be cleansed by a vanquished witch's grief seed. With training, magical girls can become more proficient at these abilities and reduce magic usage:

• Summon weaponry: Magical girls typically summon their offensive weapon from thin air or their soul gem at will. Each has their own characteristic weaponry and fighting style that they gain increasing proficiency at. Mami and Sayaka at least are able to make as many of them as they desire, and the weapons are not necessarily mundane as Mami's rifles fire blasts of magic, not bullets. For a catalogue of weapons used in the series, see Weapons.
• Henshin: Magical girls undergo a magical transformation that summons fancy new costume onto their body. It is assumed that the costume provides protection.
• Physical enhancements: All magical girls exhibits superhuman strength, agility, reaction, and regeneration. Further training allows the girls to be able to shut off their sense of pain during battle. They are also capable of harnessing the regenerative power to heal problems like nearsightedness. According to Kyubey they could keep fighting even with every drop of blood in their body drained by healing it with magic. These physical enhancements also include the ability to jump incredible heights.
• Witch Detection: Soul gems glow when there are witches nearby, or if there have been witches nearby recently. From Episode 1, when Mami tells Homura that she can still chase after the witch, and from Episode 6, when Sayaka tries to find the trail of the familiar Anja, witches seem to leave behind some sort of trail of energy which magical girls can detect and follow. From episode 9, when Kyouko assures Madoka that the witch she's chasing has the same energy signature, it can be surmised that each witch has a different trail, possibly similar to a fingerprint or other identifier. In essence, every witch may be unique. It is unclear whether a witch's familiar has the same energy signature as the original witch, and it is unclear whether soul gems can also detect victims of a witches' kiss.
• Telepathy: Magical Girls are able to use telepathy to communicate with other people, including normal humans. However it is possible there is a limited range on this ability or that Kyubey is needed to act as a relay. Only Mami and Kyouko have displayed the ability to do it without Kyubey thus far.
• Flying/Hovering: While so far only Homura has displayed the outright ability to hover in the air (during her fight with Walpurgis) it's not impossible they can all learn to do it.

Special abilities

Madoka

• Magical arrows: Madoka can produce arrows of pink magic that seem to explode on impact. She can fire as many as five in one shot and they appear to be able to curve in mid-flight to change direction.
• Incredible potential: Somehow Madoka is able to take out The Final Boss in one solid hit in the right conditions. This would appear to burn through her magic instantly, however, but not to destroy her Soul Gem.

Sayaka

• Regeneration: Sayaka can quickly regenerate any otherwise fatal body damages and continue fighting.
• Screen sweep: Leaving blue streaks in her wake, Sayaka is able to quickly bounce across the entire battlefield and take out any enemies in her path.

Homura

• Time stop: Homura can temporarily stop time in the surrounding area with exception of herself and anything in direct contact with her (such as holding hands).
• Hammer space: Besides blocking damage, her clockwork shield can store any size and amount of munition. Thus far Homura has seen storing and pulling out from it pistols, grenades, flashbangs, an M249 and large amounts of RPGs.
• Energy manipulation: She would appear to be able to fire purple-ish blasts of magic out of her hand (or Soul Gem), as well as form energy barriers around her shield to block attacks.
• Time loop: Homura can rewind time back one month; however, she must wait at least one month between uses (or use up one month's worth of sand in her timer).
• Healing: Homura is seen healing her eyesight and allowing her to no longer wear glasses. Possibility that she also altered her physical state, allowing her to beat the school's pole jump record.

Mami

• Healing: In episode 1, Mami demonstrate the ability to heal wounds on others.
• Restrain: Mami can summon ribbons or chains to restrain and incapacitate an adversary.
• Ribbons: She can apparently shape her ribbons as she sees fit, making bridges or giant pistols out of them.
• Other abilities: Mami placed a chain around Madoka and Sayaka in episode 1 to protect them from harm, and imbue Sayaka's bat with magic in episode 2. It is unknown if these abilities are learned or unique to Mami.

Kyouko

• Erecting fencing: Kyouko can erect a impenetrable, latticed barrier to keep others from harm or to isolate her adversary.
• Giant spears: Said barrier is made of giant spears. She would appear to be able to ride them and they behave somewhat like snakes due to their chained nature.
• Energy manipulation: Kyouko is also able to shroud herself in a powerful magical glow. Whether it has any effect or is just for show remains to be seen.
• Soul Gem detonation: Suicide attack. Able to take out witches in one hit. It is unknown if other magical girls can also do this at will.
• Other abilities: Kyouko was able to keep Sayaka's (soulless) body from decaying while also keeping it warm. This might be a generic use of magic all of the girls can learn to do, but it might also just be an application of healing magic on a body other than hers.

Magic Realm

Witches and familiars reside in magical labyrinths of another dimension. These labyrinths interface with the real world at specific locations through an unknown mechanism, but can be entered by magic girls through ripping open barriers. To attract normal people to their locations to 'eat,' witches infest unhappy people with a witch's kiss, which either attract them to these locations to commit suicide (if unhindered) or kill them off with diseases. For this reason, witches tend to gather around violence-prone areas and hospitals.

The labyrinths consist both of elements from their locations in reality and of allusions to the witches that create them. Deeper within the labyrinth, more references to the witch will be seen and fewer elements from reality show up. For example, in episode one, the labyrinth is set in a floor waiting for refurbishing, and it was fulfilled with 'under construction' signs and barriers of a construction site. In episode two, the labyrinth is set in an abandoned concrete building, thus the rooms in the labyrinth are made of solid concrete, making its appearance differ from episode one even though the owner is the same. As the protagonists approach the the final room, elements of a rose garden start to dominate the construction elements. In episode three, the labyrinth is set in a hospital, therefore surgery signs, needles, gallipots, and wards are presented first, but deeper in, those are replaced by various kinds of desserts. The barrier can also be influenced by the strong emotions of the people within them, as seen in episode three when Mami and Madoka make their promise.

Further Reading

Speculative magical powers