Line #64 Main/MagicalDatabase


1	Databases. They make finding information as easy as typing a query. Some works extend this capability to finding information on the supernatural elements of the setting. You want information on known [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]], TheUndead, or wizards, this is where you go.
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3	Despite the title referring to electronic databases, Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible and this can easily take the form of a paper encyclopedia or the equivalent. It might even be a person or other sapient entity.
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5	See also MonsterCompendium, which applies to videogames but generally won't tell you about something until you've encountered it firsthand. Compare TomesOfProphecyAndFate, which can be a book on every event past and to happen. Contrast AkashicRecords, which is where the compendium itself is supernatural in origin but contains records of the mundane as well as the supernatural
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7	Not to be confused with the OmniscientDatabase, which is when the database only holds mundane information but is improbably detailed or wide ranging.
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9	%% Please keep this to Administrivia/InUniverseExamplesOnly; no need to mention TheWikiRule.
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11	----
12	!!Examples
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14	[[foldercontrol]]
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16	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
17	* One of these becomes a plot point in an episode of ''Manga/GeGeGeNoKitaro'' (80s version) when it turns out the encyclopedia of {{yokai}} some kids have doesn't contain the MonsterOfTheWeek and it goes on a rampage in revenge for being left out.
18	* Yue's artifact in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi''. It uncovers most of the information needed by the user.
19	* ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has the eponymous Index Librorium Prohibitorium, a little girl who happens to have thousands upon thousands of magical books stored within her mind. As such, the power she holds within her is equally dangerous.
20	[[/folder]]
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22	[[folder:Comic]]
23	* ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'', both movie and comics, featured the agency having an extensive database/library of the occult, where our hero's MissionControl usually digs up a vital piece of information for defeating the MonsterOfTheWeek.
24	[[/folder]]
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26	[[folder:Film]]
27	* The ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'' consulted ''Tobin's Spirit Guide'', both in the two [[Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}} original]] [[Film/GhostbustersII films]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters the cartoon]].
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30	[[folder:Literature]]
31	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series
32	** Death's library in sometimes functions like a MagicalDatabase, instantly delivering books on very obscure subjects when he requests them, or writing out fresh text if his query doesn't require a long answer (the "some of the sheep" response from ''The Last Continent'').
33	** Hex does this as well since he is basically a sentient, magical computer. As long as he has his teddy bear he'll find out what you want to know.
34	* In ''[[Literature/JasonWood Gone in a Flash]]'' by Creator/RykESpoor, Jason Wood is told that he can't find out stuff about vampires from a nice cross-indexed database somewhere, so he sets out to create one himself.
35	* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', there are a couple of sentient examples. In the very first book we're introduced to Bob, a "Spirit of Intellect" who knows a ''lot'' about all things magic and helps Harry quite a bit. Later Harry meets the Archive, who knows literally anything that's ever been written down (which fits this trope because it's explicitly a magical ability, but the Archive is ''also'' an OmniscientDatabase). No one refers to her as anything but "the Archive", but Harry think that's awkwardly formal for a seven year old girl, so he calls her Ivy. (The position is passed from mother to daughter; Ivy's grandmother unexpectedly died young, and her mother killed herself because she couldn't handle being the Archive.)
36	[[/folder]]
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38	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
39	* John Winchester's journal in the earlier seasons of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. Later seasons have Bobby fill this role. Or just the internet.
40	* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' and ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' had ''Demons, Demons, Demons'', your one-stop demon database.
41	* ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' has the journals passed down in the Grimm family. They include detailed illustrations so future generations of Grimms can identify monsters they encounter and what their weak spots are.
42	* The Book of Shadows in ''Series/{{Charmed\|1998}}'' is a magical tome the girls inherited which conveniently has listings for whatever monster they might be fighting that week, along with the appropriate counterspells to use. In one episode, after fighting a monster with no article, they add it to the book themselves.
43	[[/folder]]
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45	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
46	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has the Black Library (not to be confused with the identically named ExpandedUniverse publication), a library that stores the information of just about everything involving the supernatural and daemonic, guarded by the Harlequins of the Laughing God, thus making it inaccessible to most of them.
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49	[[folder:Video Games]]
50	* In ''VideoGame/GabrielKnight 3'', Gabriel's assistant Grace creates SIDNEY (Schattenjäger Information Database), a computer database of all information relevant to the cases that he might take on as an OccultDetective Schattenjäger. It in turn is based on the library of actual books that the line of Schattenjägers used to maintain in their family castle for the same purpose.
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53	[[folder:Webcomic]]
54	* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Tedd has a literal magical database - as in a database of magic spells that he can program into wands (or cheap gimmick watches).
55	* CABAL, the MagiTek supercomputer operated by the Inquisition in ''Webcomic/ExterminatusNow'' is supposed to be this. The protagonists mostly use it to store porn and pirated mp3s, of course...
56	* ''Webcomic/LeifAndThorn'' apparently has a lot of them, including [[http://leifandthorn.com/comic/homecoming-1124/ translation dictionaries]], which can be queried from a distance using [[TheAlternet their magical Internet]].
57	[[/folder]]
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59	[[folder:Web Original]]
60	* The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' is a TheMenInBlack-esque organization that keeps a database of all their supernatural and preternatural objects, and technically the wiki itself ''is'' that database.
61	* ''On Soulless Ones'' from ''Literature/AngelOfDeath'' is a tome that, among other things, contains information on every lich and every magical power any lich possesses.
62	** Another book called ''On the Underworld'' has been mentioned, though we do not know how similar it is.
63	[[/folder]]
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65	[[folder:Western Animation]]
66	* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': Courage's computer knows almost everything and is the go-to source of exposition whenever Courage needs to know how to beat the MonsterOfTheWeek.
67	* The Junior Woodchuck's Guide from Disney's ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987''. It has a chapter on defeating ''dragons'', for crying out loud.
68	* The Journals from ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', which contain information on such things as how to defeat gnomes among others.
69	* The character Skips in ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' is often relied on for explanations of supernatural occurrences.
70	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MagicalDatabase