Familiar

A Familiar (使い魔, Tsukaima) refers to a creature of any shape and size whose existence is sustained by the magical energy of another magician, thus resulting in the familiar's life being bound to the magician's. There are almost countless types of familiars, with no two familiars being exactly the same with the exception of familiars formed through the Replication spell.

While Familiars constantly follow the magician who created them, they can only be forged through the Familiar Reincarnation Spell (使い魔転生の呪文, Tsukaima Tensei no Jumon); an uncategorized spell which requires no parent magic to perform.

Description
A Familiar is more or less a magician's personal servant; though in some rather special cases there's a deeper relationship. The idea of Familiars was born with the advent of the Mageocracy, who believed that it was only natural for a magician to separate themselves from society, they decided to make it a requirement that each magician needed to have assistants whom were capable of performing small, simple errands as it was considered orthodox; and thus, an uncategorized spell referred to as Familiar Reincarnation Spell (使い魔転生の呪文, Tsukaima Tensei no Jumon) was born, which revolves around the creation and control of all sorts of familiars. The Familiar Reincarnation Spell, and by extension (obviously), are considered a distant ancestor of all forms of Summon Spirit Magic- as all the magics revolve around summoning a non-human creature; however, as humanity discovered that there were countless other realms in which all sorts of beings lived –and those who were willing to assist humanity- Summon Spirit Magic was developed and the power of these "aliens" could only be contained by having a special object to summon them with, as it seemed that staying on Earth Land was hazardous to their bodily composition.

Each of these familiars are capable of all sorts of abilities, and some are created solely for combat to serve as the magician's bodyguard, though most are simply used to assist their masters in various tasks, be used for information gathering and relaying messages, as well as perform any other odd jobs that their masters could think of; though they're usually utilized to gather information or carry messages. Mostly they perform janitorial work and odd jobs for their master, and although they're considered a different entity, familiars are more often than not seen as an extension of the magician they are bound to as there is both a mental and physical connection between the two. Despite having the ability to cast all sorts of magic, a familiar is incapable of producing magical energy independently unless they have a few Lacrima lodged within their bodies- but if they don't, the magical energy is required to be supplied by their master through their life link. Thus, a familiar requires a master to maintain both their powers and life; to reiterate, because of this, a familiar cannot stray from their master's side- as the master could easily cut off the life link between them and the familiar would waste away in a matter of days.

Whether forged from scratch or not, a familiar is capable of forming their own personality and will be capable of reasoning and acquiring experience which the master does not have access to while sharing the same knowledge. Familiar creators need something that has about the same level of rationale and reasoning, but can think independently. That way they can act as a teacher, and have the familiar be a teacher to them, too- it makes it easier for them to realize their own mistakes. However, the presence of a personality also makes this type of familiar more independent from the magician; and some magicians use them as a form of insurance by passing everything on to their familiars while transferring their soul into the corporal bodies of the familiars with an Organic Link Magic spell known as Organic Link: Essence Rebirth (生連・本質生, Seiren: Honshitsusei). To explain it simply, it is a spare self that is a little behind on abilities. It is important to note that this is by no means a form of resurrection, as the familiar is still a being completely different from the one whose soul it received.

Familiar Reincarnation Spell
The Familiar Reincarnation Spell (使い魔転生の呪文, Tsukaima Tensei no Jumon) is an uncategorized spell which enables the user to create familiars from almost anything as long as there is a soul involved.

In any case, in order to create a familiar through the Familiar Reincarnation Spell, the magician in question must take a Catalyst (触媒, Shokubai); which is an object that possesses a connection to the next step, which can be anything of importance. After choosing a suitable catalyst, the magician utilizes a forbidden spell known as "Soultaker" (, Sōruteikā lit. Essence Removal) in order to remove a soul from a body of a being, whether it be an animal, a race, or a simple human before storing it within the Catalyst. From here, the magician uses the forbidden Organic Link Magic spell known as Organic Link: Soulbind (生連・魂結, Seiren: Konketsu) in order to merge the soul with the Catalyst, creating what is known as a "core". From here, the magician forges a proper body for the soul to their liking while giving them the ability to cast magic, both of which are sustained by the magician's power meaning that the familiar cannot stray from the creator's side; the two share a single heart, meaning that their lives are linked together.

The familiars are empathically linked to their masters and dependent on their magical power through an Organic Link Magic spell referred to as Organic Link: Life Entwinement (生連・命綢繆, Seiren: Meichūbyū) which activates upon the construction of the familiar and forges a magic channel between the Magic Origin of the master and the body of the familiar, through which the master feeds the familiar a small portion of their magical energy frequently- though, this amount varies depending on how complex the familiar's construction method was- in the case of high-tier Phantasmal Familiars, it can result in a weak magician being incapable of moving after fuelling their familiar with magical energy. Despite this, creating a familiar does not automatically guarantee its loyalty, though, so a familiar should normally be bound by a contract with its master.

Familiar and Summon Types
Completely different types of familiars exist; it is said that there are almost countless examples of familiars out there. Generally, all Familiars are created in the exact same manner, with some outside factors being a slight influence on what form the familiar takes. More often than not, these outside factors are simply environmental in nature, with earthen soldiers being capable of being formed around deserts and aquatic hunters manifesting using water as a medium- the list goes on. Some examples of familiars include Peng Liuxing's Demon Crows, magic constructs such as Golems, and spiritual beings such as ghosts collected by - additionally, those beings summoned through Living Magic but are not counted as can be considered a form of familiar, such as. Note that, strictly speaking, a Spirit is not a familiar and rather falls more towards the side of summoned being. Summon Spirits are called familiars only due to some similarities such as a magical connection and a dependence on magical energy and for the sake of formalities.

Generally, if the acquisition of a familiar is tied into a magician's main combat method, then magicians can develop entire magics around them in a similar manner to that of Summon Spirit Magics such as Celestial Spirit Magic. A good example of this is Golemancy, which, as the name would indicate, enables the user to create and control golems of all shapes and sizes. Other examples are Insektzug (インゼクトツーク, Inzekutotsūku) which allows the user to summon and control large amounts of bugs with countless variations and special powers and Nevermore, a side effect of which results in the manifestation of countless amounts of Demon Crows which the user can direct all according to their will. Numerous other examples exist, though some simply choose to just use Requip to store their familiars in a pocket dimension and summon them for any purpose at any time that they wish after.

There are three types of Familiars; firstly, there's the Beastborn Familiars (獣生使い魔, Jūsei Tsukaima), whom were forged with the corpses of animals and other races- these can be formed from any creature; domesticated animals, birds, fish, etc- living animals can be turned into familiars as well- good examples of these are Demon Crows (魔烏, Makarasu), Killer Slimes (キラー・スライム, Kirā Suraimu), and Noble Wolves (高狼, Kōrō). The Beastborn Familiars are the least straining of the familiar types to maintain and they excel at speed-based abilities, whether magic-derived or not and reconnaissance missions, and certain types of Beastborn Familiars are capable of unleashing overwhelming amounts of power. However, the Beastborn Familiars have the lowest chance of developing advanced intelligence- but for this, most magicians prefer them.

Secondly, there's Constructed Familiars (構造使い魔, Kōzō Tsukaima), whom are forged in the shape of humans and come in all sizes while having numerous powers- a good example of this is the entirety of the Golem (, Goremu lit. Earthbound Cryptid) race, the Phantom Knights, Fantomu Naitsu lit. Departed Soul Mounted Knight Group), and the Homunculus (, Homunkurusu lit. Nature's Aberration). The Constructed Familiars are a 'jack of all trades' type of familiar, being capable of all sorts of jobs; in some cases, the Constructed Familiars are part of an entire race, as displayed with golems and homunculi. The Constructed Familiars have the highest intelligence of all three types, being considered akin to humans in both appearance and sentience; as such, these types of familiars are given more liberty than the others.

And last but not least, the final type of familiars are Phantasmal Familiars (幻想使い魔, Gensō Tsukaima), whom are non-human creatures that are legendary to Earth Land, such as Pegasus (天馬, Tenba), Fairies (妖精, Yōsei), Harpies (妖鳥, Yōchō) , and, of course, Sacred Guardian Beasts (守護聖獣, Shugoseijū) such as and. Now, the Phantasmal Familiars are the strongest of the three as well as the most difficult to obtain, with the strongest types of them being capable of laying waste to an entire country on their own and displaying immense magical power and overwhelming physical might. Their intelligence is in the middle between Beastborn and Constructed Familiars- not too stupid, not too smart; it's for this reason that they're kept on a tight leash as if they break free, they could prove a danger to everyone.

Powers and Abilities
All familiars can be forged normally or have different types of magic be a major part of their bodily structure. In most cases, such a method would allow the familiar to utilize Elemental Magic as if it were a part of their own body (which it technically is) in a similar manner to a user of Slayer Magic. If the familiar is a Beastborn Familiar or a Phantasmal Familiar, familiars retain some instincts of their past animal lives and possess the ability to utilize Transformation Magic in order to regress into their non-humanoid form. In their humanoid form, an non-human familiar will normally have some traits of the species they are based on but if necessary, many are capable of hiding these features; once more utilizing Transformation Magic. Not only this, a magician is capable of storing their familiars within a dimensional space using Requip, giving them the ability to appear at any time, only returning to the space when exhausted- though they can also be summoned to their master's location in the blink of an eye through Teleportation Magic.

Not only this, most familiars are capable of all sorts of abilities such as hand-to-hand combat, immense physical powers, and most are able to act independently in the heat of battle to serve as a teammate of sorts to their master. While almost any kind of familiar is capable of learning any type of magic, there are a few exceptions, such as Slayer Magic and the Black Arts. Generally, because they are souls infused into a body of pure energy, familiars have greater physical thresholds than ordinary humans, being capable of impressive displays of physical might and speed far beyond that of regular beings- indeed, this is the same kind of power which is displayed with Summon Spirits. Some familiars have shown abilities which are exclusive to the race that they were fashioned in the shape of, such as Wyrm's Breath for wyrms, and Fairy Magic for Fairies. Because of this, in this day and age, some magicians are fairly specific in what type of familiar they wish to have under their command.

As stated many times above, most (but not all) familiars are known to be empathically linked to their masters and dependent on their magical power through an Organic Link Magic spell referred to as Organic Link: Life Entwinement (生連・命綢繆, Seiren: Meichūbyū) which activates upon the construction of the familiar and forges a magic channel between the Magic Origin of the master and the body of the familiar, through which the master feeds the familiar a small portion of their magical energy frequently- though, this amount varies depending on how complex the familiar's construction method was- in the case of high-tier Phantasmal Familiars, it can result in a weak magician being incapable of moving after fuelling their familiar with magical energy. When the familiar is a fair distance away from their master, the magician is capable of sharing the senses with their familiar to see everything that their creation sees and hears, giving them a better insight into things such as recon and exploring jobs.

Trivia

 * Those that are resurrected through Necromancy can be considered a sort of familiar.