{ "model": { "rank": 2024, "code": "thing-q81741", "model_id": "vr.tr.magic", "name": "magic", "purpose": "Let an agent describe magic as a cultural, religious and historical phenomenon, attributing beliefs to practitioners, noting the lack of scientific support, and routing people harmed by witchcraft accusations or exploitative practices to help.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q81741/", "tier": 2, "score": 118, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "witchcraft", "witchcraft in Wales", "invocation of spirits", "contemporary witchcraft", "witchcraft (crime)", "Tame Head", "Witchcraft in ancient Greece and Rome", "Kitchen witchcraft", "Stregheria", "European witchcraft", "Asian witchcraft", "witchcraft confession", "Tenkai palm", "chaos magic", "Mugic", "Herbal magic", "dream magic", "halimunan", "the Will and the Word", "magic word", "Contagious magic", "communing with the dead", "Ancient Egyptian magic", "weather magic", "Buddhist magic", "Celtic magic", "Nordic magic", "folk magic", "Maya magic", "Jewish magic", "Slavic magic", "Germanic magic", "Coptic magic", "magick", "Magic in Ancient Rome", "seiðr", "Image magic", "sex magic", "magic among Slavs", "white magic" ], "aliasCount": 70, "merged": 70, "knownIn": 118, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.magic", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q81741", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q81741", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T11:26:49Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q81741", "registryId": "vr.tr.magic", "name": "magic", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q81741/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.magic", "name": "magic", "purpose": "Let an agent describe magic as a cultural, religious and historical phenomenon, attributing beliefs to practitioners, noting the lack of scientific support, and routing people harmed by witchcraft accusations or exploitative practices to help.", "definition": "Beliefs and practices intended to influence events or gain knowledge through supernatural or occult means, including folk magic, witchcraft traditions, ritual magic and contemporary pagan practice; claims of supernatural efficacy are not supported by scientific evidence. Stage magic is a separate performing art.", "what_it_is_for": "Understanding beliefs, rituals and history across cultures.", "affordances": [ "describe magical traditions with attribution", "explain historical witch trials from sources", "recognise fraud and harmful practices", "separate stage magic and other senses" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Belief in supernatural influence", "Culturally diverse", "Not scientifically supported", "History of persecution and accusations" ], "appearance": "Rituals, charms, texts and practices; stage magic uses illusion.", "visual_identification": [ "Folk, ritual and ceremonial magic", "Contemporary witchcraft and paganism", "Stage magic is entertainment illusion" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "folk magic", "ritual and ceremonial magic", "contemporary witchcraft and pagan practice", "historical witchcraft beliefs and trials", "stage magic (separate)" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "occultism", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "religion and folklore", "why": "context" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "science", "why": "evidence" }, { "relation": "is confused with", "target": "stage magic", "why": "another sense" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Consumer protection and fraud law", "Human rights law on witchcraft accusations", "Freedom of religion law" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Presenting supernatural claims as fact", "Mocking believers", "Missing abuse linked to witchcraft accusations" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "traditions", "name": "Traditions", "description": "Which practice.", "rationale": "Attribution matters.", "layers": [ { "id": "which", "name": "Which", "description": "Tradition.", "findings": [ { "id": "which-finding", "name": "Which", "description": "Tradition.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which magical tradition is being discussed?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What do practitioners believe, according to their sources?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence", "name": "Evidence", "description": "Scientific view.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-finding", "name": "Evidence", "description": "Scientific evidence.", "questions": [ { "text": "What does scientific research say about claimed effects?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is belief distinguished from fact?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "Witch trials.", "rationale": "History needs sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "trials", "name": "Trials", "description": "Persecution.", "findings": [ { "id": "trials-finding", "name": "Trials", "description": "Witch trials.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do historians record about witch trials in this region?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Have governments issued pardons or apologies?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "folklore", "name": "Folklore", "description": "Customs.", "findings": [ { "id": "folklore-finding", "name": "Folklore", "description": "Folklore.", "questions": [ { "text": "What folk customs are associated with magic here, according to folklorists?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Are they still practised?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "safety", "name": "Safety", "description": "Harm.", "rationale": "Harm must be prevented.", "layers": [ { "id": "accusations", "name": "Accusations", "description": "Abuse.", "findings": [ { "id": "accusations-finding", "name": "Accusations", "description": "Witchcraft accusations.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is someone, especially a child, being accused of witchcraft or harmed because of such beliefs?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which child protection or emergency service should be contacted?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "fraud", "name": "Fraud", "description": "Paid spells.", "findings": [ { "id": "fraud-finding", "name": "Fraud", "description": "Fraud.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is someone being pressured to pay for spells or curse removal?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How can fraud be reported?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "senses", "name": "Senses", "description": "Disambiguation.", "rationale": "Magic has other senses.", "layers": [ { "id": "stage", "name": "Stage magic", "description": "Illusion.", "findings": [ { "id": "stage-finding", "name": "Stage magic", "description": "Stage magic.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is stage magic or conjuring meant?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which entry fits?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "fiction", "name": "Fiction", "description": "Fantasy.", "findings": [ { "id": "fiction-finding", "name": "Fiction", "description": "Fictional magic.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is magic in fantasy fiction or games meant?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which entry fits?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should traditions be separate entries?", "How should beliefs be attributed consistently?", "How should stage magic be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a magic, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent describe magic as a cultural, religious and historical phenomenon, attributing beliefs to practitioners, noting the lack of scientific support, and routing people harmed by witchcraft accusations or exploitative practices to help.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: witchcraft, witchcraft in Wales, invocation of spirits, contemporary witchcraft, witchcraft (crime), Tame Head, Witchcraft in ancient Greece and Rome, Kitchen witchcraft, Stregheria, European witchcraft, Asian witchcraft, witchcraft confession.", "70 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 118 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a magic, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "witchcraft", "witchcraft in Wales", "invocation of spirits", "contemporary witchcraft", "witchcraft (crime)", "Tame Head", "Witchcraft in ancient Greece and Rome", "Kitchen witchcraft", "Stregheria", "European witchcraft", "Asian witchcraft", "witchcraft confession" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 118 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 70 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one magic from another, and a magic from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a magic, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a magic, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a magic is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a magic, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a magic, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a magic is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a magic sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a magic, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a magic, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a magic is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a magic from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a magic, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a magic, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a magic is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a magic passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a magic between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a magic, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a magic, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a magic is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a magic, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a magic is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a magic, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a magic, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a magic is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a magic says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a magic contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a magic, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a magic, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a magic is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a magic and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a magic, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a magic, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a magic is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What magic studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does magic take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does magic establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where magic is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark magic as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place magic, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a magic came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a magic and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a magic, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a magic, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a magic is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a magic is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a magic, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a magic, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a magic is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }