The Pygmalion Theory describes how the magic system in Pygmalion Theory works, generally. It’s more of a hypothesis than a theory, but the Pygmalion Theory “sounds cooler” than the Pygmalion Hypothesis. It is also about magic, so scientific standards allegedly do not apply.

Though the Theory was outlined and named by Dr. Abigail Hugh, what it states have been generally understood by those who interact with magic for generations. The name is cool, though, so here we are.

Central to the Theory is the loose idea that stories generate power, and that power generates stories. ‘Power’ refers to what is generally understood to be magic, and it is fairly difficult to detect and quantify. In most cases, there is no way to directly wield magic (this will be elaborated on).

The power of magic and storytelling can be likened to gravity; the more ‘mass’ a story has, the more widespread it is, the more cultural influence, the more likely it is to produce magic. Conversely, the more ‘mass’ magic has, the stranger it is, the more power it holds, a more influential story is told about said magic. More often than not, stories and magic produce a cycle, which can lead to a sort of chicken or the egg question. Which came first? The story or the magic?

Magical beings are, then, beings whose existence is dependent on this cycle. These lines can very easily be blurred, like in the case of the kraken, where tales of giant squids have been told for centuries, but actual specimens have been recently recorded by science. Were these squids spawned by these stories, are they magic, and thus spawned such widespread stories? It’s hard to say! Does it actually matter? This is debatable!

Oftentimes stories can be spawned by things that do not seem magical at the time, but end up retroactively gaining magical properties. This is another example of the lines being blurred. Is magic simply something that appears to be strange and fantastical, even if it is provable by known science, or must it defy understood laws of nature? Will all magic eventually be absorbed by science? There are many questions without answers.