Quentin using telekinesis.
Physicalis a magical discipline centered around the ability to manipulate the nature and properties of matter and energy. The many disciplines that branch from this group allow Magicians to manipulate heat, light and other radiation, sound, electricity, gravity, magnetism, and the structure of atoms.
Characteristics
This group is the area of magic that focuses on matter and energy. Physical magic is described as gruesome and disgusting by Eliot and Janet when Quentin and Alice are able to get inside the Cottage.
Brakebills Elite
House
A Victorian-era country house, referred to as the Cottage, is the official housing facility for the Physical Kids. It is located towards the outer rim of The Sea, set behind a small band of trees. The Cottage is the closest Discipline House to the Welters field.
Disciplines
- Telekinesis: Also called 'kinetics', this ability allows Magicians to move objects with their mind. This typically manifests first for Physical Kids, as it was the first form of magic both Eliot Waugh and Quentin Coldwater were able to perform in their lives.[1] In the books, Quentin mentions that, as a Physical Kid, he was adept at it. [2]
Alice using pyromancy.
- Temperature Manipulation:
- Pyromancy: Fire and heat-related magical proficiency. This was used by Alice Quinn to set a voodoo doll ablaze in hopes of curing Penny of the curse inflicted upon him by the Virgo Blade.
- Cryomancy: Ice and cold-related magical proficiency. This is Janet's discipline. It allowed her to make animated swans of ice during a party, as well as utilize Sorrow & Sorrow, her twin magical staves.[3]
- Flight: The ability to levitate, hover, and fly unsupported while having full control over trajectory and velocity. While not inherently a discipline on its own, this ability manifests naturally for Physical Kids and can be trained to varying degrees of proficiency by its user. Despite its frequent and casual appearance in the series, unsupported flight (flight without a physical medium) is said to be a Major Arcanum, requiring a high degree of magical capability.[2]
- Phosphoromancy: The art of manipulating light. It's said to be a very clean and technical discipline, as Professor March stated. This form of magic can be used to refract light to render an area invisible, redirect and focus it to burn objects and to freeze single photons in mid-air.[4]
- Mending: An innate skill to repair objects. This branches off into Major Mending, the ability to repair objects on a larger scale, and Minor Mending, the repairing of objects on a smaller scale. The latter is Quentin's discipline in the series, as well as a subject he teaches during his time as a Professor at Brakebills.
- Portal Creation: A highly technical discipline, this focuses on creating doorways in space-time between locations as a form of transportation.
Eliot, Master Mixologist.
- Mixology: The study or skill of preparing mixed drinks and magical brews. Attributed as an informal discipline, mixology takes prominence in the Physical cluster of disciplines. Physical Kids are renowned for their parties, with Eliot Waugh being known around campus for his signature cocktails. Notably, this was used in a combined effort of Margo and Eliot to summon a Djinn.[5]
Quotes
- "You can bend physics to your will, and possess great fortitude of mind, magic, and liver. Contrary to popular belief, mixology is not a formal part of this Discipline."
- ―BrakebillsU[5]
- "Kinetics. He was good with them. He was a Physical Kid. Whispering fast, reaching back to a Brakebills seminar he hadn't thought about in, what, five years, he held out both hands, palms up, and waved them towards the soldier as if he were shooing away a flock of pigeons"
- ―Quentin Coldwater explaining his ease with Telekinesis
Members
- Professor Bigby - Faculty Advisor
- Eliot Waugh
- Janet Pluchinsky
- Margo Hanson
- Josh Hoberman (book only)
- Quentin Coldwater
- Alice Quinn
- Todd
- Richard Corrigan (graduated)
- Isabel (graduated)
- Four Unnamed Students
Trivia
- During the Welters' Challenge the team wears a black with white outfit.