Magical Accessory

Jerrica's earrings aren't just swanky, they also create Holographic Disguises.

"I do so love a functional accessory."

— Rarity, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "Power Ponies"

This trope is for accessories and jewelry that don't just look pretty, but do stuff! There's a common "formula" behind the making of a Magical Accessory; you take a Power Crystal with superpowers and hire the Ultimate Blacksmith to cut it and embed it into a mystic silver setting. This Super-Trope covers just about any Glowing Gem studded piece of sparkly magical jewelry that has or grants powers and effects.

Because humans are historically quite good at making bling, there's a lot of tricked-out trinkets this trope covers. From top to bottom, they are:

• Hat of Power: Includes helmets, crowns, circlets, diadems and tiaras. Examples of these should go there. Compare Weaponized Headgear.
• Hair Decorations: Be it hair ribbons, hairpins, headbands (including martial arts ones), etc. Their functions are often similar to magic headwear above.
• Earrings: Being on the ear itself and jewelry they naturally lend themselves to themes such as super hearing, illusion and Glamour based abilities.
• Necklaces and chains: Cover the entire spectrum. Special mention goes to Orphan's Plot Trinket, which this frequently doubles as.
• Armlets: Usually grant Super Strength.
• Bracelets: Tend to be Amplifier Artifacts that boost spellcasting. Alternatively, they grant Super Strength and heightened defense; that particularly tends to happen to vambraces. Compare Super Wrist-Gadget and Gadget Watches.
• Ring of Power: Do anything and everything, sometimes literally in the case of the Imagination-Based Superpower. Examples of these should go in their respective tropes.
• Belts and belt buckles: May grant Super Strength or Nigh-Invulnerability. Or, as often seen in Tokusatsu, as a Transformation Trinket. Compare Utility Belt.
• Anklets: Usually give Super Speed.
• Pins: A pin or badge that can give the user special abilities.
• Piercings: That is, other than in the ear. As they're all-around "edgier" than most other accessories, they're rare, but if they do appear and are magical, expect the "magic" to be the more shady kind, such as Blood Magic.

Occasionally, the jewelry is technological rather than magical, Sufficiently advanced technology and all that. In both cases what would normally be purely decorative is now also very powerful and useful. When the trinket isn't singular, it may be part of a pair, like earrings or sets of rings. All the pieces may be needed to get the full Set Bonus, though individual parts may keep some power. Much like the Silver Slippers in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz have to be together to grant wishes, but are individually still powerful Protective Charms. Expect there to be a Dramatic Necklace Removal at some point.

See also Clothes Make the Superman (also covers capes and scarves/shawls) and Powered Armor for when it's clothing/armor rather than jewelry. For purposes of trope differentiation, if it's jewelry it goes here, even if it's not made of gems and metal (like say an enchanted leather and bone necklace).

See also Amulet of Concentrated Awesome. See also these other augmented artifacts: Transformation Trinket, Mask of Power, Goggles Do Something Unusual, Tricked-Out Gloves, Tricked-Out Shoes, and Amplifier Artifact.

Compare Shoe Phone, gadgets disguised as items of clothing and other trinkets. Contrast Useless Accessory; this trope may justify the accessory-loaded design by making all of them useful in some way.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop has a bracelet giving her remote control over a set of loaded dice she uses to cheat people with.
• Dragon Ball Z featured the Potara Earrings, which when one earring is worn by two different people, caused them to permanently fuse together although the fusions actually aren't always permanent. Dragon Ball Super demonstrates an additional use: they mark the wearer as a member of the upper Kais, and wearing the earring of a Supreme Kai or higher allows one to access the Time Rings, by which one can travel into the future and return at will.
• Inuyasha gets a very special bead necklace in the first few episodes. It faceplants him whenever his Love Interest Kagome says the magic word.
• Gene Starwind of Outlaw Star had a two-way communicator disguised as an ear stud.
• When not being used or shown off, the Soul Gems in Puella Magi Madoka Magica become rings or other items. They’re also Soul Jars.
  • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion, Devil!Homura seals Godoka's power in a very glittery earring that she never takes off. It serves as a visual indicator of her Face–Heel Turn.
• In the 1960s anime, Prince Planet, the titular hero wears a medallion on his chest that gives him power.
• Several of the Devices in the Lyrical Nanoha franchise take the form of necklaces in their Standby Mode. Specific examples include Nanoha's Raising Heart, Hayate's Schwertkreuz, and Subaru's Mach Calibur. There are also some Wearable-Type Devices whose active mode comes in the form of jewelry that provide support magic, such as Shamal's Klarwind. Rinne's Scuderia gets bonus points for being from her family's clothing brand.
• Inoue in Bleach has a pair of hair clips that transform into a set of sprites with various powers. In this case, the power is her own and the transformation is an expression of it into an object that has sentimental value because the clips were given to her by her deceased brother.
• Early on in Urusei Yatsura, Ataru forces Cherry to give him a set of yellow ribbons that, if tied around Lum's horns, make her lose her powers.

Comic Books

• In Robin (1993), Tim's first roommate at Brentwood Academy wears a charm around his neck that he received from his father. It gives him the ability to command the demon Arrakhat, which is handy when a political rival summons the demon to assassinate him.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1942): Wonder Woman was given magic red earrings that increase the range of her ability to make telepathic mental radio calls, allowing her to make such calls all the way to Venus from Earth.
  • The Legend of Wonder Woman (2016): The Duke of Deception's zombie army raising powers come from the Heart of Baetylus, which he wears on a necklace.
  • Wonder Woman and the Star Riders: The Star Riders each wear their magical Star Jewels front and center on their belts.
• In Blackbird (2018), all members of Paragon society (a secret society of invisible wizards living in Los Angeles) have to wear bracelets, called cirques, in order to wield the magical gems that power their spells. However, the cirques do not work at all unless you already are a Paragon, which requires having been transformed into one in a magical ritual that begins with the future Paragon's death and resurrection and ends with the locking on of the cirque itself.

Fan Works

• Communication: Thanks to having summoned the System Core of this Multiverse Command System, Louise's is able to summon Artefact Items of the Void that just so happen to take the form of fashionable ornaments, rom rings that act as lie detectors to necklaces that can teleport distances.
• Servant Shenanigans:
  • Ritsuka is gifted a pendant that makes them look like a boy, due to them being genderfluid. It has an engraving of their parents' names in it.
  • CasCu is given one in the shape of Gas Bolg to deal with his Nightmare Disorder.
• The titular manacle in Zelda and the Manacle of Cahla. On its own, it creates a Deflector Shield for Zelda in lieu of a traditional shield, but with a steady stream of element pearls, she can cast powerful spells. It's meant as an answer to the magical key items Link traditionally uses, and also so Zelda wouldn't have to carry too much stuff, ergo one of the stronger spells is magical bombs.

Films — Animated

• The Medal of Everlasting Life from The Book of Life. Whoever wears the medal cannot die or be injured, making them effectively immortal.
• The amulet given to Mrs. Brisby by Nicodemus in The Secret of NIMH gives her the power to pull an entire cinder block with her children and worldly goods inside it out of a mudhole and levitate it several feet to place it gently beside a large rock. Once the transposition is complete, Mrs. Brisby collapses as if from exhaustion.

Films — Live-Action

• Some of the witches in Oz the Great and Powerful, rather than use wands, use magical artifacts to channel their magic. Evanora has a necklace with a huge emerald. Theodora has a Ring of Power, and Glinda is the odd witch out with a Magic Wand.
• The signature skull ring of The Phantom (1996) gets an upgrade from the source material, becoming the fourth of a set of powerful skull artifacts capable of unleashing massive amounts of destructive power.
• In Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Xu Wenwu uses the titular Ten Rings as his signature weapons, which grant their wearer agelessness, Super Strength, and energy manipulation, and can be controlled telekinetically. By the end of the movie, Shang-Chi takes the rings for himself after defeating Wenwu. Unlike in the comics, where the Ten Rings are small rings worn on the fingers, in this movie, they're more like bracelets worn on the arms.

Literature

• A recurring motif in Deryni:
  • Haldane empowerment rituals use a number of different pieces, starting with a single ruby earring called the Eye of Rom. Rhys Michael Haldane pressed an enameled brooch into service for a self-designed triggering of his powers; this piece was used later in the timeline for the more structured rituals of his successors. Donal Haldane used a silver bracelet to encode his son's ritual; Alyce de Corwyn Morgan triggered part of the process on her deathbed, and her son Alaric finished it years later.
  • Brion Haldane commissions a new ducal signet ring for Alaric Morgan (reflecting his personal coat of arms, a blend of those of his parents), This ring becomes a Ring of Power, at one point magically securing items for Brion's son's ritual as well as securing the door of Morgan's study.
• A technological version appears in Hard to Be a God. Don Rumata (a disguised observer from a spacefaring Earth on a medieval planet) wears a circlet with a single large gem. The gem is actually a camera, and the circlet contains a one-way communicator that constantly transmits camera footage to mission control. He uses it to transmit his intelligence data and to alert other observers in case of danger. It's because of this device Earth forces arrive in a nick of time in the finale to evacuate Rumata when he goes against his directives and puts himself in mortal danger.
• This trope pops up a lot in The Dresden Files. Harry Dresden himself has a shield bracelet which serves as a focus to generate a magical shield, as well as rings that store kinetic energy when he moves his hand and can unleash the energy at an enemy later.
• In The Licanius Trilogy, certain Vessels are wearable accessories, like Asha's ring that functions as a very powerful wind cannon.
• In The Wheel of Time, many Angreal and ter'angreal take the forms of accessories, though most are shaped like statues, rods or other ornamental items. Notable examples include Nynaeve's angreal consisting of a set of rings attached to a bracelet by fine chains, Aviendha's turtle brooch angreal, Cadsuane's paralis-net, a set of hair decorations that do various things mostly related to detecting and locating use of magic, and the bloodknife ring, which gives its user increased speed and the ability to hide in shadows at the cost of poisoning the user's blood so that they die within a few weeks. Several of the Forsaken also had angreal in the form of rings.
• Nita from the Young Wizards series has a charm bracelet that lets her hold up to nine pre-cast spells, with a spell taking instant effect just by plucking off one of the charms. The bracelet is actually a complicated matrix of pure magic which Nita made manifest physically by adding "virtual mass" to it.
• Several kinds of fabrials in The Stormlight Archive, but most prominently the Soulcasters, which are elaborate hand chains capable of transmutation of matter.
• Robin's pendant in The Girl from the Miracles District, which serves as a Protective Charm and Amplifier Artifact for Robin's aura.
• In The Witchlands, magical items often come in form of necklaces, such as the Hell-Bard "noose", which makes the wearer immune to mind-altering or mind-reading magic and keeps them from Cleaving, or Safi's and Iseult's necklaces, whose Threadstones blink when the person wearing the other one is in danger and allow the two to communicate.

Tabletop Games

• Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting: The Kiss of the Changebringer is just an emerald connected to a silver chain, but when worn, it provides a bonus to every saving throw, immunity to up to four status conditions, the ability to enter another dimension, and even the ability to manipulate fate.
• Dungeons & Dragons had a plethora of magical jewelry items, including various amulets, bracelets, brooches, cameos, crowns, earrings, medallions, necklaces, rings, scarabs, and torcs.
• Princess: The Hopeful: Bequests (items into which a Princess has bound a Charm) can take almost any form, but a large number end up as various forms of jewelry.

Video Games

• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword gives Link a pair of earrings that allow him to walk into super-heated areas without his clothes catching fire.
• The Hunter's Medallion in Monster Hunter (PC), which grants the titular character extra lives, Mercy Invincibility for a few seconds, and can destroy Monster Spawners with a single touch. The game calls it "the most powerful weapon only the best of Monster Hunters are entrusted with".
• In Captain Commando, Baby Commando (Hoover)'s pacifier is a special device that lets him talk in thousands of languages, including alien ones.
• On Dark Cloud 2 the two protagonists Max and Monica derive their powers from two amulets they wear around their necks; with them, they can go back and forth in time, among other things.
• In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion the Amulet of Kings is the magical necklace that the entire game is about. It can only be worn by the Septim heir, however; he uses it to light the dragon fires as he wears it.
• Rena from Grapple Force Rena has a pair of bracelets that shoot out magic grappling beams.
• In Kingdom Hearts Sora is able to change the properties of the keyblade by equipping keychains.
• Haunting Ground: Fiona can forge several accessories with beneficial effects for herself, including chokers that improve her stamina, boots that make her footfalls inaudible to nearby stalkers, and a pair of earrings that make her turn invisible if she stays still for a few seconds.
• In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, the Harmony Scarves are magical scarves the Hero and the Partner wear. If near the Tree of Life, which they were made from, the scarves will temporarily evolve the pair and protect them from stone shadows in dire need. Also, in the Purifying Cave, at the cost of the scarves, Partner is brought back. In addition, Looplets can be considered Magical Accessories since they are the only way to use the special effects of Emeras.
• Silent Hill 4: The Room: The Saint Medallions are protective items that can be worn by Henry. They hamstring Victims, neutralizing their harmful aura and drastically slowing them down; it also seems to deal limited damage to them, as weaker Victims like #1 and #12 can be knocked down altogether just by being near Henry for extended amounts of time. They have limited power, however, and will eventually break when that power is used up; plus, there are less than ten of them in the whole game.
• Ellia of Eternal Darkness happens upon a necklace which can work healing magick on her if used. Karim starts with a Talisman which has a similar effect.
• It might be easier to list the RPG's that don't have Magic Accessories. Some even tie special abilities to the accessories you have equipped, while others are merely Stat Sticks.
• Horizon Zero Dawn plays with this trope. Aloy's "focus" is a piece of sufficiently advanced consumer electronics from the mid 21st century that's essentially an augmented reality smartphone. Its interface allows Aloy to interact with a lot of old-world tech and Gaia's machines in ways that look magical to those unaware of how it works (which includes Aloy for most of her life).
• In Ace Attorney, the Magatama normally appears to be a simple jade accessory, but when charged up and glowing with Pearls's spiritual power, it enables the user to sense lies through the form of "Psyche-locks", which can then be usually broken by submitting evidence.

Webcomics

• El Goonish Shive: Tedd creates a belt that works on the principles of the Transformation Gun. It transforms the wearer into a cat-human hybrid and back with a press of the appropriate button. Unfortunately, since it was one of Tedd's earlier creations, it does so painfully.
• Inverloch: Kayn'dar's would-be Protective Charm is still linked to him. Acheron can glean various memories from it and uses it to try and find him. It turns out that Kayn'dar stored his memory in the pendant when his soul was swapped into the real Acheron's body, and later helps to restore him.
• Outsider: Teidar — Loroi special forces roughly analogous to Marines with psychokinesis — traditionally wear headdresses connected to plugs implanted into their temples, which serve to amplify their powers.
• Sweet Dreams: Magical girls all have a sparkly gemstone Transformation Trinket that gets incorporated into their magical girl costumes, the main trio of girls wear theirs as chokers.
• Siren's Lament: The Heart of Hestia is a magical pendant on a necklace that Ian and Lyra steal from Crim, which is later hinted to rightfully belong to Lyra.

Western Animation

• Jerrica in Jem has her two earrings, which are incredibly powerful hologram emitters paired with an advanced A.I. named Synergy. Together, they allow her to have a dual identity and cause much misdirection.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: SpongeBob once gets hold of Mermaid Man's special belt, which allows him to shrink things.
• The Nessies in Happy Ness: The Secret of the Loch have magical pendants called Loch-kets. These can transfer their emotions to anyone they choose.
• Esmeralda's locket in The Magical Adventures of Quasimodo grants her magical abilities.
• In Ella the Elephant, Ella usually transforms her hat into something that will help solve the problem of the episode somehow.
• Princess Paw Paw in Paw Paw Bears had a moonstone amulet that brought their Totem Bear to life.
• In The Smurfs (1981) episode "The Magic Earrings", Hogatha came across one half of a pair of magic earrings that she recognized could be used to track down the Smurfs, since these earrings could pick up sounds from around the world. She disguised herself as a Hot Witch in order to attract Gargamel's attention to get the other half of the earrings from him, which he bought from the same traveling salesman. However, when she was being drawn to the Smurf Village by the sound of Lazy's snoring, the Smurfs, who were aware of the magic earrings Hogatha had possessed, had Harmony play his usual awful music, which drove Hogatha away and into the water, where the earrings ended up being worn by a fish that happened to swim by.
• In Mia and Me, the titular Mia's bracelet lets her travel between Centopia and Earth. About halfway through the second season, the gem in it breaks, but luckily fixes itself shortly after. However, she missed one shard of it, which turns into another gem that Violetta picks up and puts on a necklace. The necklace activates and sends Violetta to Centopia whenever Mia travels there.

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