Mark of the Supernatural

Those tattoos aren't there because of ink.^*Plus the wings are also kind of a giveaway.

A unique physical trait a character possesses marks them as being magical or supernatural in some way like being an alien or a shapeshifter. This could range from having mismatched eyes, to unusual hair or eye colors, to any other odd features. These traits can be part of a Glamour Failure if they give away a character's true form.

Related to Distinguishing Mark which is a marking that personally distinguishes someone from others.

If the trait is supposed to denote evilness, it's a Red Right Hand. If an evil entity gives one of these to its adherents, it's likely a Mark of the Beast. When such a mark is a disability of some sort, it is Superpower Disability.

Supertrope to Occult Blue Eyes, Glowing Eyelights of Undeath, Mystical White Hair, Supernatural Gold Eyes. Compare Power Tattoo for another meaning of "mark", for when the mark gives some power, and Claimed by the Supernatural for yet another.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Ah! My Goddess: Goddesses and Demons have respectively blue or red facial markings on their foreheads and cheeks, with different shapes symbolizing their ranks. At one point Belldandy is temporarily turned into a demon and her blue marks are replaced by red ones to reflect that.
• In Claymore the female warriors are half yoma and half human, with silver eyes and light blonde or even white hair. Some of them also have pointed ears, like elves.
• Hajime in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School's Side:Hope story reveals that he now has mismatched eye colors as a result of the Split-Personality Merge between both Hajime Hinata and Izuru Kamukura at the end of DR2. The right eye is Hajime's green, while the red eye represents Izuru's red.
• In Descendants of Darkness, gate keepers can be identified by their different colored eyes. Wakaba has an orange right eye and a brown left eye.
• In the manga Enchanter by Izumi Kawachi, if you become an enchanter, one of your eyes changes, turning deep red with a pinpoint pupil. Oddly, long-time friends don't seem to notice the change.
• In Inuyasha, the half-demons look very human, but their skin, hair and eyes often have unusual colors. Many of them also have animal or demonic characteristics on their bodies.
• Neko from K has a green right eye and blue left eye in her human form, which makes her look far from normal. She's not, of course, and is quickly identified as a Strain, an individual with supernatural powers that were not given by a King. Her specialty is creating illusions and modifying the memories of the people around her with her presence.
• Dragons in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid always keep their reptilian pupils, no matter how human they turn. In a more general example, Cool-Kyou Shinsha usually uses huge boobs to show that a woman is either a Cute Monster Girl or has some sort of superhuman ability.
• Thanks to Negima! Magister Negi Magi being a manga series, it's difficult to tell that Asuna Kagurazaka has mismatched eyes, though the first anime makes it very obvious. These are just one hint that she's really a magical princess from another world. On another note, Negi's mother, Arika, also possesses these, and it's hinted that she might be related to Asuna.
• In Otherside Picnic, Sorawo's and Toriko's encounter with the kunekune leaves their bodies permanently altered. After Sorawo looks at the kunekune long enough to perceive its true form (and almost loses her mind in the process), her right eye turns a vivid shade of blue and gains the ability to perceive the true form of all Otherside phenomenon. Toriko, who pulled off the strange growths that appeared on Sorawo's face, ends up having her left hand gradually turn completely transparent, gaining the ability to physically interact with Otherside phenomenon. Combining their abilities gives them a fighting chance against all the strange threats from the Otherside.
• In Reborn to Master the Blade, the Stigmata is a magical mark on the foreheads of Highlanders that distinguish them from the Midlanders below. It grants Highlanders magical powers and the ability to charge and use the Magitek that Highland monopolizes, while also granting them the ability to cast spells, an art largely lost among the Midlanders with the passage of time.
• All saviors from The Savior's Book Café Story in Another World can be identified by a pentacle on their body marking them as such. The First Savior's mark is on the back of her hand, while Tsukina asks for her mark to be on the back of her neck behind her hair to remain inconspicuous.
• In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Lordgenome has spiral eyes, to signify his status as a user of Spiral power. Kittan also develops these eye spirals just before he dies, and Simon has just one in the Distant Finale.
• In Tokyo Ghoul, Kaneki and all other One-Eyed Ghouls only have a single Kakugan. This immediately marks them as different from regular Ghouls, but also not fully human. Some are able to control it, while others have one that is permanently active.
• Wolf's Rain: Darcia's left eye is a wolf's eye. He can turn into a large black (possibly dire?) wolf because his family is descended from wolves that wanted to be fully human.
• In Yona of the Dawn, out of the Four Dragons, Kija and Shin-Ah possess more noticeable physical traits. Kija's right hand is a dragon claw and Shin-Ah's eyes are not only stunning but also have red markings underneath them. Jaeha has his leg, which is bright green and covered in scales, but that's usually well bandaged and hidden under his clothes. All three of them (and Zeno) also have the hair color of their corresponding dragon, but this isn't remarked upon by Muggles and appears to be a trait shared by all descendants of the original dragons^note The anime version of Shin-ah's introduction arc didn't give the other Blue Dragon villagers blue hair like Shin-ah, but Mizuho Kusanagi clarified in a fanbook Q&A that her intent was for the Blue Dragon villagers to all have blue hair, just like the White Dragon villagers have white hair and the Green Dragon villagers have green hair.. For that matter, Zeno apparently had yellow hair before he became the original Yellow Dragon.

Asian Animation

• Kukuru from Flower Angel typically has blue eyes, which are only noticeable when he's in his more human-looking forms and not his Super-Deformed shape. When he's possessed by the evil fairy Princess Fannie in Season 3, his left eye turns red.

Comic Books

• In Grendel, characters who are heavily under the influence of the "Grendel" entity tend to develop a white skunk stripe.
• The principal rival to Josie James in Archie Comics' She's Josie series is Alexandra Cabot, who is an unremarkable bobbed brunette with witchcraft powers. When the characters were adapted by Hanna-Barbera Studios into Josie And The Pussy Cats in 1970, Alexandra was remodeled into a raven ponytail with a distinctive white skunk stripe; however, the cartoon Alexandra has no magical powers. The success of the cartoon show compelled Archie Comics to Retcon their Josie characters, resulting in the current Alexandra having the distinctive skunk stripe and witchcraft powers.
• Eez from Thirsty Mermaids has black tattoos along her breast and left arm that were given to her by the Aunties as a sign of her affiliation with them.

Fan Works

• Avatar: Legend of the Guardian: The Guardian is marked by a tattoo consisting of "symbols older than time itself" on their arm. This also allows them to sense and track the Avatar.
• In the Italian remake of Battle Fantasia Project having strange hair colours (including relatively mundane ones like Usagi Tsukino, Minako Aino and Mami Tomoe being blonde Japanese) is a possible sign of having magical powers and the reason most Japanese magical girls don't like the Japanese police (who usually tends to harass them for their apparent anticonformism).
• In Empath: The Luckiest Smurf, the main character, who is a telepath and telekinetic, has a yellow star mark on his forehead to indicate this. All Psyches also bear this mark on their foreheads.
• In Hero: The Guardian Smurf, the title character has a yellow H on his forehead, indicating that he is the bearer of Ki powers that he gained from contact with the Power Stones. His Opposite-Sex Clone and wife Wonder, as well as his two daughters, also bear the same mark.
• In A Knight's Tale as Inquisitor, Arturia has a huge green one that covers her upper body, which is a sign that she's become or IS becoming beyond mortal understanding at that point.
  • Chapter 29, the same chapter that reveals the existence of an eighth but rarely known Old God, shows that the Tevinter Magisters that ruled over Ancient Tevinter at the height of its power reach have special markings on their hands, representing the personal blessing of the Old God they represent. The ones on Remerien's hand matches the one across Arturia's chest.
• Ordinary Girl: Whenever a parautilitarian bonds with an altered item or Object of Power, a tattoo of that object manifests on their person.

Films — Animation

• In Turning Red, every female in Mei's family who possesses a red panda spirit within them has red hair.

Film — Live-Action

• In 28 Weeks Later, the mother and her son have heterochromia. When she becomes a vector for The Virus, it serves as a clue to her and her son's shared biological resistance to the virus, and an indicator of when they become exposed but remain unturned: one eye becomes bloodshot like a normal zombie's infected would, the other remains clear.
• The strange white cat in Mountolive's mansion in The Legacy has differently colored eyes, which is a first hint that it is actually a shapeshifter.
• Requiem (2021): A woman in the village is accused of being a witch since dark markings appear on her arms, which is taken to be a sign of witchcraft. Evelyn, reasonably, suspects it's really bruises from her being mistreated by someone, though her father the minister brushes this off. She's convicted and burned regardless.

Literature

• Aurora Cycle: Aurora Jie-Lin O'Malley's skunk stripe and white-irised right eye indicate her status as the Eshvaren's Trigger, intended to fight the Ra'haam.
• The Belgariad: All sorcerers have a special mark somewhere on their body that marks them as a disciple of the god Aldur. Belgarath has a mark over his heart and Polgara's black hair gained a lock of white hair when Belgarath touched her head just after she was born. Poledra has strange golden eyes that are described as 'amber', which acts as a clue to her true nature (she is a sorceress who was born as a wolf that learned how to take human form). Unlike the other sorcerers, Garion has a dual-purpose mark: the palm of his hand contains a shimmering mark which identifies him as both a sorcerer and the rightful king of Riva, as all the Rivan kings possess this mark to establish their connection to the Orb of Aldur.
• Farideh, heroine of Brimstone Angels, has one silver eye and one gold eye and her twin sister Havilar has two gold eyes because they are tieflings (humanoids with devil ancestry).
• Cradle Series: Whenever anyone becomes a Gold-stage sacred artist by capturing a Remnant or contracting a sacred beast, they gain a "goldsign," a mark of their power. These signs include burning eyes, a poison-spitting ghost on the arm, a cloud around the head, or an arm with an attached sword sprouting out of the back. As the sacred artist gains power, their goldsign will evolve, and they will usually gain the ability to hide it. Because your goldsign is directly connected to your chosen Path, there are a lot of common goldsigns, and most of the greater houses have identical ones. On the other hand, it's also possible to reach Gold through sheer power, which does not produce a goldsign. This is more difficult, though, so it's more rare.
• Delicate Condition:
  • In the present, Anna's friend Siobhan has a birthmark in the shape of a handprint below her chin. She performs a Born-Again Immortality ritual just before Anna delivers a baby girl with an identical mark.
  • In the "Alice Parsons, 1648" chapter, a woman is put on trial for witchcraft. Margaret Jones's jailer claims to have found "[...] the mark of the devil—a deep red stain like a little handprint just below her chin. A near certain sign of a witch."

• The Empirium Trilogy:
  • During the Third Age, any human body possessed by an angel will sport black eyes.
  • Marques have wing marks on their backs. This is because they're born with wings which are cut off shortly after birth in order for them to hide better.
• The Girl with the Silver Eyes: The protagonist is telekinetic, and she and other children who received strange powers because of a medical experiment performed on their mothers all have this eye color.
• It is easy to spot a Graceling in Graceling Realm by their mismatched eyes. It becomes important to the plot when you find out that one of the kings is missing an eye, and it later turns out that he is Graced with a very effective version of Charm Person, as his Grace can work even second- and third-hand, via rumors.
• In The Half Life Trilogy, witches have "glints" in their eyes.
• Journey to Chaos: If you see someone with Pointed Ears, then they are related, in some way, to chaotic energy and/or trickster gods.
• Nowhere Stars: For Keepers, there is Emergence; as a Keeper kills more Harbingers and absorbs their essence, they grow in power, which causes physical changes to them as well. The first time Liadain kills a Harbinger, she gains a white streak in her hair that lasts even when she isn't transformed. The oldest Keeper in New Claris has a permanent bubble of winter around her, and looks like an ice-princess, with pale blue skin and glowing blue eyes. One particularly legendary Keeper apparently grew so powerful she became a living construct of wood and vines in humanoid form, her old flesh-and-blood body a distant memory, though it's rare for any Keeper to get that old and powerful.
• All royal-blooded witches in Magical Annals have markings and physical features that denote them as such. Their features (sometimes referred to as atavisms) differ from family to family since they are all descended from different supernatural beings. The markings can be anything from marks on their skin, fangs to claws and more.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Chela MacFarlane is depicted as a blue-eyed blonde with bronze skin. This unusual appearance is eventually revealed to be a clue to the fact she's not fully human: her mother was an elf, and she can shapeshift into a more obviously elvish form as a Super Mode.
• Sabina Kane: All vampires have red hair (and all humans with red hair have a bit of vampire ancestry). All mages have a birthmark of the sigil of the goddess Hecate somewhere on their bodies. Sabina, who is half-vampire, half-mage, has the birthmark as well as hair in streaks of black and red.
• Septimus Heap: It's explicitly stated that wizards always develop green eyes as soon as they start practicing it. This makes it impossible for them to hide.
• Shades of Magic: Antari are humans born at random with one all-black eye and powerful magical abilities. After a magical catastrophe consumed Black London, the mark made antari targets for fearful mobs who thought them somehow connected. Delilah has been missing one eye all her life, and starts to develop antari magic in the second book.
• The Shadowhunter Chronicles:
  • Warlocks have a distinguishing mark that's unique to each one. Magnus Bane has cat eyes, Catarina Loss has blue skin and white hair, and Ragnor Fell has ram horns, green skin and an extra joint in each finger. In the spinoff The Infernal Devices, Tessa, despite being a warlock, doesn't have a mark because her mother was a Shadowhunter. This is basically her distinguishing mark.
  • Clary has a star-shaped birthmark because she was experimented with the blood of the angel Ithuriel before she was born. Jace also has the same mark, albeit not strictly because was experimented (as he did too), but because he was descended from Will Herondale, who received the mark after he had sex with Tessa and was touched by her clockwork angel, which contains Ithuriel's soul. As a result, all of Will's male-line descendants were born with the birthmark.
  • Valentine Morgenstern and his son, Jonathan, have black eyes, which symbolize their demonic blood. After Jonathan is purified by the heavenly fire, however, his eyes turn green.
  • Mark and Helen Blackthorn, as well as Ash Morgenstern, have pointed ears, as their mothers were faeries. Kit Herondale doesn't have pointed ears, but his blond hair is highly implied to be the result of his distant faerie ancestry.
• In The Shattered Kingdoms, Meiran/Lahlil's mismatched eyes are a consequence of her magical illness, which originates from having been "blessed" by both Nomas deities instead of just one. Both eyes still work, but not when she uses both at once, so she uses an eyepatch. In conjunction with other unusual features (Norlanders are generally considered to look corpse-like anyway, and she has a mess of non-supernatural burn marks on her forearm) she is quite distinctive in her appearance.
• The Silerian Trilogy: Having red hair and or golden eyes serves as a sign of special favor from the God of Fire Dar.
• In Something More Than Night, Stephen Swift's right eye is dramatically bloodshot, a consequence of a past incident when she overused her telekinesis. She usually hides it behind bangs. When Ward Home Junior steals her telekinesis, he immediately gets the bloodshot eye as well.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • Euron "Crow's Eye" Greyjoy hides a black eye behind an eye patch. His other one, called his smiling eye, is blue. There's an implied connection between his eyes and his magic.
  • Minor character Shiera Seastar has one blue eye and one green eye, supposedly due, in part, to her rumoured black magic.
• The main character of Ann Downer's Spellkey Trilogy has one green eye and one blue (which is a sign of magical power in that world).
• Sweet & Bitter Magic: Witches in Carrow get a specific mark denoting them. Tamsin's was burned off as part of her punishment. Wren's given one too when she goes to the witch domain and they learn she's a source, registering her. Tamsin later gets hers back after she's forgiven.
• In Tea with the Black Dragon, Mayland Long is a dragon who has become human. The main sign of his strange origin is his hands, which are unusually shaped, with very long fingers. Most of the people who pay enough attention to him to notice find them disconcerting; Martha merely comments that with hands like that he has the potential to become a remarkable piano player.
• In Terminal World, all tectomancers have a large red birthmark in the shape of a six-pointed star on the back of their heads.
• Conrad Nomikos from This Immortal, who is probably a mutant and is definitely hundreds of years old, has heterochromia, among other odd features. His unique appearance is an important plot point.
• In Wings of Fire, NightWings with actual mind-reading powers have a silver scale under each eye.
• In A World of Wonder, The Chosen Many are called "the Runed" because of the tattoo-like symbol of a card suit people and animals gain after chosen by a caterpillar. Gabriel has the heart on his left palm, Renata has the spade on her chest, and Professor Chimes has the diamond on his back.

Live Action TV

• Motherland: Fort Salem: Every witch possesses a mark somewhere on their body, which looks like a black, symbol-shaped birthmark though it changes, becoming shiny, after the person's had sex. Tally and Abigail get theirs on places easy to show, but when Raelle's asked by Tally to see hers, she replies that they'll need to know each other better for that, since it's by her vagina.

Radio

• In the world of Marus, as depicted in Adventures in Odyssey's Passages tie-in episode, different-colored eyes are recognized as a sign of prophecy. Interworldly interloper Alice physically goes from having brown eyes to blue and green, then loses them again when her time as The Unseen One's messenger is up.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • This is an iconic trait that defines the "Planetouched", who first appeared in 2e's Planescape setting. Be they Aasimar (Celestial ancestor), Genasi (Elemental ancestor), Tiefling (Fiendish ancestor), or any of the other varieties, they always have markings that reflect their ancestry. Exactly how marked they are varies hugely from individual to individual; aasimars are usually more subtly marked than tieflings, but even the humanlike ones generally have at least one identifying mark that belies this. An aasimar descended from a solar frequently has vestigial feather patches at the shoulder blades, and one descended from a celestial serving a deity may have a birthmark in the shape of that god's holy symbol.
    • Pathfinder gives extreme amounts of variation with its "Blood of Angels" and "Blood of Fiends" sourcebooks, which include sizable 2e-esque random trait lists and fully detailed explanations of traits typical to aasimar who strongly connect to their celestial ancestor.
  • In the Eberron campaign setting the Dragonmarked manifest vibrant blue-and-white Draconic sigils somewhere on their skin when their spell-like abilities appear.
  • Karsites are humans descended from an ancient mage-king who posess innate Anti-Magic abilites, and who all possess a shock of white hair and a single icy blue eye.
• In Sorcerer (2001), the Telltale is a specific attribute that gives a sorcerer or a human-looking demon away to those in the know.
• Warhammer: Mutations are almost always a sign of Chaos in a newborn, but where these signs are welcomed as a blessing of the Dark Gods in Norsca (Wulfrik was born with wolf fangs instead of human teeth, Sigvald with a horned birthmark), they're widley feared in the Empire (and not without reason) and the children killed, abandoned or worse. Sometimes the mark comes later in life, in the Empire the victims pretty much have two fates left: be killed by a screaming mob, or escape into the forests and become a slave to Beast-men herds by showing them their village.
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: As they grow in power, Collegiate wizards gain physical traits to match their magical specialty, like fiery Glowing Eyes for a Bright mage, Mystical White Hair for a Celestial mage, or semi-transparent skin for a Light mage. These may be seen In-Universe as a Red Right Hand due to the setting's general distrust of magic.
• Wraith: The Oblivion: While all wraiths are supernatural by definition, those wraiths who specialise in one of their magical arts (Arcanoi) generally develop markings that identify them as a practitioner - black eyes (Argos), stained black fingers (Castigate), never closing their eyes (Lifeweb), etc.

Video Games

• In the Command & Conquer: Tiberian Series, people who have survived Tiberium exposure and have become mutated have green Tiberium crystals embedded in their bodies. They are often referred to as "shiners" because of the way the crystals glow.
• In Dark Souls, the Undead are all branded by the "Dark Sign", a small, circular mark with what appear to be tiny flames coming off of it. Where the Dark Sign came from and why it exists are some of the driving questions of the series: it appears to be a force of nature. Undead afflicted by it do not turn evil... most of them are just regular folk; good people, bad people, stupid people, etc. However, as time goes on, and they "die" more and more, they gradually lose their minds, until they become "Hollow", a state in which the Undead has lost all humanity and reason, and mindlessly attacks anything that comes near. There is no known cure for it, though many in the series search for one. Dark Souls III finally gives us an answer on where the Darksign came from in The Ringed City; it was created by Lord Gwyn as a "seal of fire" meant to deny mankind of their innate access to the power of the Abyss and the Dark Soul. Thus cut off from that which makes them what they are, the dark began manifesting itself as the Undead curse in those with little Humanity, and as an all-consuming power that drives those possessed by it stark raving insane for those with too much, and the lack of control over their souls compared to bearers of light souls only made the problem worse for mankind.
• In Dishonored, any person empowered by the Outsider gets a tattoo with its symbol on the back of one of their hands. It glows every time they use their powers.
• In Fable, the most magically powerful characters gain Prophet Eyes and glowing patterns under their skin. The wizard Maze has had his develop to the point of Volcanic Veins.
• In Fire Emblem: Awakening, the royal family of Yllise has the Mark of Naga on their bodies, distinguishing them as the wielders of the legendary sword Falchion and who can awaken its power via the Awakening ritual. Chrom has the mark on his shoulder, while Emmeryn has it on her forehead. Lucina, Chrom's daughter, inherits the mark as well, which is located in the iris of her left eye. Chrom and Emmeryn's sister, Lissa, doesn't have the Mark for some reason, which makes her fear she might be illegitimate. It just skipped a generation in her case, as her Kid from the Future Owain has it on the inside of his right arm. In one of their Supports, he mentions how relieved she was when she saw he had it.
• Genshin Impact:
  • A notable trait of those characters hailing from the fallen nation of Khaenri'ah, once a high-tech Shining City independent of any of Teyvat's gods or the control of Celestia, but was destroyed by the Heavenly Principles and left in ruins are their four-pointed cross-shaped pupils in Icy Blue Eyes. These are most clearly seen in Mondstadt's Lovable Rogue and Knights of Favonius cavalry captain Kaeya Alberich, and also in eyes of the former Khaenri'ahn royal guard Dainsleif who has been cursed to immortality as part of Khaenri'ah's divine punishment.
  • Liyue has the Geo Archon, Morax (also known as Rex Lapis or Zhongli) who has light brown/dark gold eyes with subtle diamond-shaped pupils. Liyue also has the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's 77th director Hu Tao, who has pupils shaped like five-petaled flowers but their significance is not known yet, although she does have an affinity for marshalling the spirits of the dead and is a bit of a Creepy Cute Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant.
  • Inazuma's far western island of Watatsumi is home to Sangonomiya Kokomi, the island's Divine Priestess and rebel leader against Narukami Island's dictatorial Raiden Shogun. Along with being the bearer of a Hydro Vision, Kokomi is notable for being the chief descendant of the Sangonomiya clan and having milky light-blue eyes with no defined iris that could pass for Prophet Eyes if she were blind.
• In Kult: Heretic Kingdoms, some children are born with scars known as the Mark of the Dead God, which generally indicate a high degree of magical ability. Alita, the protagonist, is such a person.
• Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda each hold a piece of the Triforce. Link's is Courage (the lower right triangle), Zelda's is Wisdom (the lower left triangle), and Ganondorf's is Power (the top triangle). It shows up on the backs of their dominant hands.
• MapleStory's Luminous starts his story off with two blue eyes, then one of his eyes turns red when he absorbs the Black Mage's energy.
• In Puyo Puyo, Sig has a muscular red claw on his left arm and one of his eyes is miscolored, being red when Sig's natural eye color is blue. It's implied that these are because Sig is half-demon.
• In Ragnarok Online, the pope of Arunafeltz and her twin brother have opposite-color heterochromia. Apparently, this was one of the reasons she was chosen as pope. The other reason was her hair and skin color.
• In the Soul Series, Zasalamel has one normal-colored eye and one golden eye, possibly as a result of his immortality curse.
• There are several examples in Warcraft and World of Warcraft.
  • Fel magic is corruptive in nature, being a perversion of life magic. People exposed to fel magic or wield it often mutate in some way, usually something in the same sinister green color as the fel. When the orcs drank the blood of demons, their naturally brown skin turned to green and their eyes turned red. After the demon who gave them the blood was slain, their eye colors returned to normal, but the green skin was permanent. If a green skin orc drinks even more demon blood, they can wind up with red skin and become near demons as fel orcs.
  • Druids who advance far enough in the study of nature magic can grow animal features to symbolize their ties to nature. For Night Elves, the highest ranking druids often grow the antlers of a stag like their mentor and patron Wild God Cenarius. Malfurion Stormrage, the eldest and greatest Night Elf druid, has even more animal traits to show his powerful ties; claws of a night saber, legs and fur of a bear, and feathers of a bird.
  • Dragons are able to shapeshift and disguise themselves as other sapient life to interact with them on more even footing. If a dragon isn't trying to hide among other races, they often leave signs of their true nature on their smaller forms. Alexstrasza and her sister Ysera both keep their draconic horns while in their elven bodies, for example.
  • Draenei who are empowered by the Holy Light to become Lightforged have their skin brighten to metallic colors, gain Supernatural Gold Eyes, and glowing glyphs and Power Tattoos.
  • Huln Highmountain of the Tauren fought in the War of the Ancients. During the battle, he was given a blessing by the Wild Gods for his aid, which manifested as changing his horns into the antlers of a moose. His blessing spread to the Tauren tribe he lead, creating the Highmountain Tauren.
• Wild ARMs: Rudy, one of the main characters, has blue hair. The only other characters we see with odd-colored hair are the inter-dimensional demons that are attacking the world. This is foreshadowing Rudy is not human, and we eventually find out he is a robot made from metal that the demons forged.

Visual Novels

• Sakura Matou in Fate/stay night has violet eyes. This is revealed to be because of the "conditioning" imposed upon her by Zouken in order to make her into the successor of the Matou brand of magecraft.
  • Mash Kyrielight of Fate/Grand Order has amethyst eyes; while her backstory isn't directly comparable to Sakura's, it's likely that her unnatural eye color is a result of her existence as a Designer Baby, part of a Magitek project by the Chaldea Security Organization under Marisbury Animusphere to create the first ever Demi-Servant, a human-Servant hybrid. The horror comes in when you consider that she was callously experimented upon as a child and treated as a living weapon (rather than a person) by everyone except for Dr. Roman. Her armor has purple accents all over it, and even includes a purple Showgirl Skirt as part of her 3rd Ascension.
• Gavin in Sword Daughter has purple eyes, presumably from his innately magical elven blood.

Webcomics

• All the Ravens (servants of the Great Raven) in Archipelago have a left eye with a black sclera and a glowing red pupil, regardless of species. At least some of them can hide this to pass in normal society.
• Among the Cubi of Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, one reclusive, mysterious clan all have different-coloured eyes, along with wings that are both feathered and leathery. The trait can appear in other clans, and is regarded as a good omen. Since Cubi can shapeshift, this applies only to their default forms. Abel, a central character, has both traits, and his father considers them important to his plans. However, by the time they can shapeshift, they will have a clan mark, which can't be hidden, staying visible whatever form they take.
• In Doomsday My Dear the main character has one blue and one green eye because this is a trait of a carrier of the Blood Plague. Several other characters turn out to have this undesirable trait as the comic progresses.
• Those possessed by demons in The Greenhouse eventually develop a permanent physical tell. For main character Mica, it's Cute Little Fangs that get more pronounced as the story goes on. For love interest Liv, one of her eyes can turn red. This becomes useful later when Mica is separated from Red and loses all memories of her in the process. Her Cute Little Fangs are the only physical proof she has that she's not completely losing her mind.
• In Penny Blackfeather, the Adventurer has mismatched brown and blue eyes, with the blue eye appearing in color even in the Deliberately Monochrome parts of the comic (that is, everywhere outside of the Goblin Valley). Similarly, the magical parrot Princess is blue and so is the magicked-up Adventurer — it seems blue is the color of magic in this world.
• Eyes are commonly used for this in The Sanity Circus. Fletch's are mismatched, one being black with a gold iris (shapeshifter residue from turning into a seagull frequently), and Sammy Talbot's have two pupils and a doubled iris in each.
• Magical Girls in Sleepless Domain have a unique Power Tattoo called a Sigil. These marks can appear anywhere on the girl's body, and it's common for girls who are already close, such as Team Alchemical, to have matching "thematic" symbols and form teams. If a Magical Girl burns her power out prematurely, the Sigil remains, but as something of a scar rather than a vibrant symbol.

Web Original

• In Polyhistor Academy, the Thrice-Cursed all possess an obviously magical deformity/mutation, that grants them a magical ability, and is usually blatantly obvious.
• Several human SCP items from the SCP Foundation have these:
  • SCP-040 has pink hair and a Black Eye Of Crazy (although she herself isn't crazy).
  • SCP-073 has a mark on his forehead of unknown origin, and Artificial Limbs (specifically arms, legs, shoulder blades and spinal chord).
  • SCP-076-2 is tattooed all over with occult iconography.
  • SCP-134 has pitch black eyes (which actually act as windows to another point in space).
  • SCP-239 has her radiation emitting grey eyes.
• The omnipotent protagonist of Nothing Like The Sun has eyes that glow like the Sun. This trait is inherent to her powers, because when she makes her best friend omnipotent too, the friend's eyes start glowing as well.

Western Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: After Zhao kills the Moon Spirit, Tui, Yue becomes despondent believing there's no longer any hope for her people. However, Iroh takes note of her hair color and recognizes its significance.
  Iroh: (in realization) "You...! You have been touched by the Moon Spirit!"
• On Futurama the only outward physical difference between alien Leela and all the humans is she only has one eye. Subverted later though, as we learn that she's not an alien — she's just a mutant. Since mutants are an oppressed minority and aliens aren't, her parents left her as a Doorstop Baby at an orphanarium, leaving a note saying she was an alien in order for her to have a better life.
• Alicorns in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic possess both the wings of a Pegasus and the horn of a unicorn, as well as whatever vaguely defined traits an earth pony has, just in the name of species equality. Possessing the traits of all three kinds of ponies makes them stand out as a Master of All. They also are Large and in Charge, with Celestia in particular towering over ordinary ponies — and even Twilight, who was originally the size of any other pony, appears to be growing.^note Flurry Heart, who's a baby, is an exception to this. Luna and Celestia also possess magical sparkling manes which flow on their own, with Luna's looking like a starry night sky.
• In The Owl House, grimwalkers are a type of magical clone that always have a very specific eye color regardless of their genetic donor. More specifically, the same shade of pink as Hunter's.

---