Magic

By nature's hand / by craft, by art / What once was one / now fly apart!

Magic is a mysterious supernatural force, wielded by members of numerous species to accomplish various things.

It should not be confused with dark science, a perfectly quantifiable means of summoning extradimensional horrors.

“	Foolish human. Magic can never defeat science!	”
—Starscream, just before getting beaten with the help of magic, "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court"

Fiction

Generation 1 continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Millions of years ago, the Quintesson Mara-Al-Utha was convicted of the crime of sorcery, and exiled to the dimension of Menonia. Here, magic was commonplace, and the exile's power grew under the tutelage of the Golden One, whose place as ruler he eventually usurped. Madman's Paradise

On the planet Earth, during the 6th century, there lived a wizard called Beorht. He helped the time-traveling Hoist and Warpath recharge their energy reserves by magically calling down lightning from the sky. However, one of his concoctions he claimed to be magical, the substance known as Dragon's Bane, had a clear scientific explanation. A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court

Beast Wars Neo

The Predacon Saberback is said to be an expert in black magic. Beast Wars Neo

IDW Generation 1 continuity

In the earliest days of the Transformers, some Cybertronians professed a belief in magic, including the barbarian warrior Galvatron, who once believed that the members of the Thirteen possessed supernatural powers. The Crucible In truth, however, this was a lie, encouraged by the more decadent members of the Thirteen to ensure their hold over Cybertronan civilization would never falter. Origin Myths According to Alpha Trion, however, the powerful artifacts that the Thirteen wielded in their heyday were beyond the ken of Cybertronian science; their universe-bending properties were, according to him, comparable to "metaphors made real". Aphelion Rationally-minded Transformers of the era, such as Jhiaxus, maintained that these powers were simply advanced science. The Crucible

Unbeknownst to Cybertronians, "true" magic did exist elsewhere in the cosmos, regarded by its practitioners as a fundamental truth of the universe that could be harnessed and wielded for good or evil. Schismatic One such artifact would find its way onto Cybertron in the years before the ascension of the Thirteen, a powerful obelisk that humanity would later code-name the "Talisman." Origin Myths In the chaotic days that preceded the end of the First Cybertronian Civil War, Onyx brought the arcane artifact to Eukaris, and eventually entrusted it to his follower Domitius Major, who inadvertently brought it to Earth some twenty thousand years ago. Strange Visitors

Largely an unknown quantity, few Transformers would ever be exposed to the power of the Talisman, which was capable of transmitting magical energy in its rawest form. For reasons uknown, magic was almost entirely inimical to mechanical life; First Strike #0 even minor exposure to magic could cause necrotic symptoms in Transformers, and larger concentrations could cause Cybertronians to fatally crumble. Schismatic Likewise, Transformers were unable to process any kind of fuel that had been tainted by magic. The Dead Come Home, Part 1

As time passed and Transformer civilization developed, magic soon became synonymous with the legends of the Primes: superstitions and folk stories from a bygone era. Lagrange Most Transformers would come to see "magic" as simply advanced science, Schismatic or, in the case of Rodimus, a sardonic byword for science that he didn't understand. Towards Peace

"Numb arm. Numb arm. N'arm! N'arm!"

Prysmos

Cybertron was not the only inhabited world in the cosmos, however, and other alien civilizations developed their own interactions with magic. In the ancient days of the planet Prysmos, its inhabitants came to worship what they called the "Arcana Vast," an alternate belief system that venerated the power of magic over the "crude imitations" of science and technology. Schismatic First Strike #0 As Prysmosian civilization developed, however, the Arcana Vast was forgotten as technology advanced; some three hundred years ago, the last surviving sorcerer Merklynn sought to reverse this development and did so; casting a spell that brought all three of the planet's suns into alignment, the energies unleashed shut down all technology and ushering in a new "Age of Magic." This brief age lasted until the suns moved back out of alignement, and the tidal forces unleashed tore the world apart. In the aftermath, a handful of Prysmosians escaped their world's destruction and fled into space as Merklynn tasked himself with finding a new world to colonize. Schismatic

Having landed on Earth around World War II and adopted the alias of "Garrison Kreiger," Merklynn's efforts to recreate his lost homeworld bore fruit when a chance encounter with the Cybertronian Centurion led him to the wreckage of Domitius' ship; deducing that the vessel had once held the Talisman, he dedicated the rest of his life to finding it so that he could harness its power. Strange Visitors First Strike #6 Using Joe "Baron Ironblood" Colton and his Iron Ring as a catspaw to reach Cybertron, Merklynn shed his human disguise and tapped into the Talisman's magical power to transform the planet's energon into a supernatural substance, magically remaking a fraction of the planet into the city of New Prysmos. First Strike #6

In the aftermath, the Transformers were unable to process the magically-tainted energon, forcing them to rely on artificial human derivatives. The Dead Come Home, Part 1 Bent on completing its original mission to remake the entire world into a copy of Prysmos, the Talisman continued to burrow towards Vector Sigma, suffusing the ground with magical energy as it went. Wheeljackand Breakdown were eventually sent to New Prysmos to examine the Talisman, the latter discovering the inimical effect magic had on mechanical life. The Darkling Lords Cindarr and Virulina realized this meant the Cybertronians were vulnerable to magic, and Virulina subsequently used this to her advantage to kill Kup. Schismatic

Dire Wraith magic

Another culture that relied heavily on magic were the monstrous Dire Wraiths; their sorcery was a unique brand of "dark magic" that allowed them to shapeshift, teleport, and infect other living creatures with their mutative energies. Shining Armor #1 It did not share the Transformer-killing nature of Prysmosian magic; in fact, Wraiths could even be combined with Cybertronian biology to produce monstrous, albeit highly unstable, technorganic fusions. Shining Armor #2 Shining Armor #4 This was of some interest to the demented Wraith "scientist" Vekktral; after his scheme failed, however, the surviving Wraiths agreed that they would eschew science and machinery in favor of their natural abilities. Shining Armor #5 When the Dire Wraiths discovered Earth and its supplies of Cybertronian-derived Ore-13, they found that their various arcane powers were significantly amplified by exposure to the synthetic element. Thundercracker & Buster Save the World

Transformers vs. G.I. Joe

After Megatron teleported from a black hole in an attempt to escape from the core of Earth's sun, his charred body ended up in a dimension where magic is a scientific given and is imbued with the power of friendship. The War Never Ends

Alternity

Magic was considered taboo even by the higher-dimensional Alternity; as a mystical and ancient craft, their advanced technology had no defenses against it. Megatron used this weak point to his advantage when he acquired a magical tablet, a sort of universal control board, and destroyed the Alternity aggregate with its power. Casting spells with the tablet came at a price, however; each time the artifact's power was used, it drained the life-force of Planicrons, lower-dimensional beings whose universe was being accessed through the tablet. Thundercracker became disgusted by the reckless loss of life that ensued from the Planicrons' exploitation, and used another tablet to set them free from Megatron's control. Alternation

Beast Wars: Uprising

A statue of Amenhotep III held at the British Museum was rumoured to have magical powers. Starscream led a raid to seize the statue to harness its supposed powers. Cultural Appropriation

Prime cartoon

The Forge of Solus Prime was one of many ancient devices that operated through the convergence of magic and science. Regeneration

Transformers Legends comics

Mindwipe used "ghost magic" to bring Devil Z back from the dead. Bonus Edition Vol. 34

The Last Knight

The magic of the Staff of Merlin was in actuality just advanced Cybertronian technology. When Edmund Burton explained this to Viviane Wembly and Cade Yeager, the former scoffed at the notion of magic while the latter was more believing noting Hot Rod changing from a Citroen to a Lamborghini in seconds and also quoting Clarke's Third Law impressing Viviane that he knew of it. The Last Knight

Merchandise

Transformers (2007)

• Magic Washcloths (2006)

Magic Washcloths were made available that allegedly could "magically unfold".

See also

• Chōkon Power
• Devil Power
• The Force