Space Master

"You may think of space and distance as solid facts. I prefer a more fluid interpretation."

— Koril, Master of the College of Space, Battle Realms

This is the power that lets the Differently Powered Individual manipulate and fold space. This results in teleportation, bags/pockets/sleeves that are Bigger on the Inside than the outside and/or the ability to ignore bullets. A Reality Warper would have this as part of their powerset.

A Super-Trope of Hammerspace, Bigger on the Inside, and Thinking Up Portals. Compare with Gravity Master and Time Master.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Black Clover
  • Both Finral and Langris use Spatial Magic, and it's the specialty of their family. However, Finral is incapable of using it for direct offensive, presumably due to his kinder personality and disliking the nastier things you could do with it (though he does eventually learned Weaponized Teleportation).
  • Zenon of the Spade Kingdom is the most powerful Spatial Mage in the story, surpassing even Langris and lampshaded in-universe. He can form portals to move long distances, create dimensional pockets, and even take control of the Mana within a space, which has the effect of blocking and interfering with his opponent's spells. Although it technically belongs to the devil he has a contract with, who happens to be one of the three strongest Devils, who rules the Underworld.
• In Bleach, Nianzol Weizol has the title W — The Wind (as in winding path) for his ability. He can distort the space around him so enemy attacks turn away and he can distort people or things he comes near to tear them to pieces. However, while he doesn't have to see things to distort them, he has to be aware of them, making it possible to hurt him.
• Berserk has the Godhand, who, once incarnated into the physical realm, can manipulate dimensions.
  • Skull Knight too, whose sword made of Behelith, can also perform dimensional travelling by cutting space.
• Teleporter Espers (such as Kuroko Shirai and Awaki Musujime) from A Certain Magical Index distort space with their abilities.
• The Magician from Darker than Black Season 2 used this power to summon weapons out of nowhere and No-Sell attempted stabbings.
• Fairy Tail
  • Minerva uses this magic, which she calls "Territory." It allows her to teleport herself or her opponents and manipulate any space she can see. One of her favorite moves is to let an enemy attack her, then teleport herself out of the way and replace herself with the enemy's ally (or if it's a projectile, the attacker themselves to get a face-full of their own attack).
  • Requip Magic, used by several other mages, also works this way in that it allows mages to store weapons or clothing in their own pocket dimensions.
  • Marin Hollow is a master of Spatial Magic, which allows him to not only perform Teleport Spam, but he can also mess with Space Masters and turn them off. For example, he can prevent Erza from accessing her pocket dimension using Requip, Lucy from using her keys (since Summon Magic requires opening a path to the Celestial Spirit World), and when his power was copied by Gemini, it was even able to counter Jacob Lessio of the Spriggan 12's spatial magic that warps people to an alternate dimension.
• The Ainsworth family's bread and butter in Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA. Their magecraft, Flash Air, has been used to create small portals, displace objects, and even hide a massive castle in plain sight.
• Haruhi Suzumiya (unwittingly), Yuki Nagato, and Ryoko Asakura have all done this.
• Okuyasu in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable has the power to erase space and any matter occupying it with his Stand, The Hand. Unfortunately despite having one of the most useful powers among the cast, he isn't too bright and rarely uses it in meaningful ways.
• In Jujutsu Kaisen, Satoru Gojo is the strongest jujutsu sorcerer in the modern age thanks to his "Limitless" technique, complete space control at the atomic level. He can attract or repel objects, people or curses, he can teleport, he can fill the space with a space composed of imaginary mass, and he can make people to see, hear and feel everything in the space. As a defensive ability, he has a constant barrier going on around himself that can slow down any dangerous object or attack that gets too close to him by stretching the space around his body infinitely, which gives the appearance that the object has stopped cold.
• Naruto:
  • Both Kakashi and Tobi have space-bending Mangekyo Sharingan techniques. Kakashi can teleport whatever he focuses at through a portal, while Tobi's allows him to teleport anything he can touch (including himself) and intangibility. It turns out they're using the same technique and that their eyes are a pair, Tobi just knew how to use it better. Later on they are both capable of traveling in and out of the other dimension at will, suggesting that Kakashi mastered it by following Tobi's example.
  • Both the Second and Fourth Hokage were also renowned for their space-time ninjutsu, which they used to Teleport Spam. To be specific, they can teleport to any location they have marked.
• In One Piece, resident Deadly Doctor Trafalgar Law has the power of the Op-Op Fruit, which lets him create a sphere of influence called a "Room" that serves as his "operating table". Law can cut, rearrange, and piece together any object or living being in any way he chooses while they remain whole and intact. Even if he cuts you in half, your top and bottom will work and move just like normal, except now separated from one another. He can also swap the locations of objects in the Room as a form of teleportation.
• Pokémon Adventures expands on the space-bending powers of Palkia, the god of space. It can distort the area around it, causing everything affected to twist in strange ways, and open a portal with a single swipe to intercept an incoming attack.
• In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, The Witches manifest by warping space around them into their Witch Barrier.
  • Homura is able to store weapons in her shield, along with her primary ability of manipulating time. This means she is both this trope and a Time Master. Even better, she managed to get this all from one wish.
• In Rosario + Vampire, Akuha uses a technique called the Jigen-Tou, which by 'delaying her existence for a second' allows her to disrupt local spacetime in order to cut through anything just by waving her arm through it — rather than attacking an object directly, she's cutting the space it's occupying.
• In Saint Seiya and its assorted spinoffs, this is the usual power set for the Gemini Saint, pictured above. Their usual technique is Another Dimension, which exiles the opponent to exactly where you'd expect, but they can also warp the space within Sanctuary's Gemini Temple to create an illusory maze that loops back in on itself. And if push comes to shove, they have the powerful Galaxian Explosion attack, which manifests as a series of exploding planets and galaxies being flung at the victim.
• In So I'm a Spider, So What?, users of Dimensional and Space Magic are extremely rare, and even rarer are the ones who can actually get any real mileage out of it...among mortals, at least. Where Gods are concerned, being a Space Master is practically a prerequisite, and Shiraori notes that it's hopeless to even consider fighting a God who's stronger than you without an advantage in Dimensional Magic over them as a minimum requirement, because achieving dimensional supremacy essentially gives you absolute control of the battlefield.
  • Said individual happens to be very proficient at it, creating seemingly infinite pocket dimensions for storing or moving people and objects, being capable of instantly travelling to any place they've been to at least once, being able to use portals to redirect attacks or to use as windows into other vistas, and is also able to organize extra-dimensional assaults that cannot be retaliated against due to the attacks coming from different dimensions.
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Spatial magic and skills relating to it are quite commonplace. Such effects allow people to teleport themselves and/or others at will, prevent people from teleporting within a certain area, duplicating attacks, storing objects in pocket dimensions, creating barriers or dimensional prisons out of countless intersecting dimensions impossible to get in or out of, warping space directly to either create an absolute defense that no attacks can pierce through, or rending space and anything within that area to punch through any defense. Rimuru eventually gains such spatial control to launch simultaneous inter-dimensional assaults with his doppelgangers while he himself hides in real body in a pocket dimension.
• Vampire Hunter D film (1985). The mutant Rei Ginsei has the power to warp space within his body. For example, when D's sword stabbed him he caused part of it to appear near D and stab him instead.

Comic Books

• In 52, one of T.O. Morrow's future weapons is a tesseract gadget, which he uses to brutally defeat Black Adam by attempting to open a space the size of a football field inside his invulnerable skull.
• The Flash foe the Folded Man wears a suit that allows him to manipulate his personal dimensions. He can flatten to a two-dimensional form which allows him to slice through objects more cleanly than the sharpest razor. By shifting into four dimensions, he can leave our plane and pop back anywhere he likes.
• One-shot Legion of Super-Heroes villain Domain had the ability to create specialized pocket dimensions at will and trap people in them.
• Marvel Comics:
  • The villain of Grant Morrison's Marvel Boy miniseries gains the amplified and combined powers of The Fantastic Four, and describes the Invisible Woman's force field power as "folding space."
  • Any wielder of the Space Gem of Infinity Gauntlet fame.
  • Deadpool uses this, as he is known to have a teleportation belt and Magic Satchel, which can carry ANYTHING Deadpool wants.
  • Eden Fesi/Manifold of the Avengers and the X-Men is originally described as a universal-scale teleporter, but his Thinking Up Portals power is eventually stated not to be simple teleportation but spatial folding. He is also able to manipulate space in other ways, such as locking an enemy in place or creating shields, as well as always knowing his exact position in the universe. He explains his ability as him talking to the universe and asking it for favours. Other multiversal Manifolds appear in Jonathan Hickman's Avengers, with the implication that Manifolds are a fundamental aspect of reality, and the Arakki mutant Lactuca the Knower also has a similar power set and refers to Eden as "little brother".
• Although he starts out as a simple con artist, Wonder Woman's foe Angle Man becomes this after obtaining an alien device shaped like an artist's drafting triangle, which has the ability to distort space.

Fan Works

• In Aeon Entelechy Evangelion, spatial distortion magic is used to turn a nuclear warhead into a Chest Blaster.
• Batman 1939: The spirit of Shadowcrest can warp space within the house; e.g., compressing hallways or expanding to accommodate newly added space.
• Child of the Storm:
  • The Tesseract, given that it's the Space Stone. Strange has used it to teleport multiple pantheons of gods and hold them at his mercy.
  • Doctor Strange in general is quite good at this, as part of his general bending of the laws of reality, even allowing him to teleport into Hogwarts itself. Everyone accepts it as 'Strange being Strange, in every possible sense of the phrase' while Hermione has mild hysterics.
  • This turns out to be Hermione's mutant power in the Ghosts, on a truly vast scale. She's compared to a lower-scale version of the Tesseract in capabilities.
  • Dumbledore proves to be extraordinarily adept user of this ability, fighting the above when she's possessed.
• Dorje in the Dresden Files fic Fair Vote and the Big Bad Lama Nawang both shield differently from Western wizards; they bend space around themselves instead of deflecting the attack.

Literature

• The Empirium Trilogy: Marques have the ability to teleport by creating a portal to a specific location and stepping through it.
• Travelers in The Grimnoir Chronicles books seem to teleport by folding space.
• In Kraken, a man with a knack for folding three-dimensional objects makes a brief appearance. He demonstrates by folding a cash register into an origami crane and back again. It's a great way to conserve luggage space. Earlier, he used it to fold two people into a small box, allowing them to bypass Billy's knacked defenses and kidnap him when he opened it.
• "Topological crumpling" is a fairly common magical technique in the Marla Mason books.
• Worm:
  • Vista is a powerful example, being able to distort any space in her sight, with tricks including shortening and lengthening the distance between her and objects, bending space to put shields in her path, and shrinking trail rations so that she can make supply runs on her own. Her powers grow more versatile in Ward, where she has learned how to set her distortions at odd angles to each other. This allows her to, among other feats of space-warping, fold an entire city into a tightly packed puzzle box.
  • Damsel of Distress fires off cone-shaped blasts of warped space and gravity that rend apart virtually anything they hit.
  • Butcher XIV (aka the villain formerly known as Quarrel) has a space-bending power that ensures her attacks will always hit what she aims at — unless the target is outside her weapon's maximum range.
• A Wrinkle in Time: Mrs. Who, What, and Which can tesser, or wrinkle, which allows them to bend space and time in order to teleport and time-travel. This also allows them to visit spaces which are not three-dimensional. It is later revealed that the American government has been experimenting with this technique as well.

Live-Action TV

• In The Gifted (2017), the Strucker twins are the descendants of the villainous Fenris twins, who used to be part of the leadership of a World War 2-era evil organization that is definitely not that other World War 2-era evil organization led by people named Strucker over in the Marvel Cinematic Universe because Fox can't use them. Andy has the power to push things apart, usually resulting in destruction, and Lauren has the ability to pull things together (usually making barriers out of solidified air, and eventually learning to use these as an Absurdly Sharp Blade). Using their powers in concert can push them up a notch.
  • The same series has Rebecca, aka Twist. She can turn things inside out. Yes, this works on people. She is terrifyingly Ax-Crazy and loves to use it this way.
• Hiro from Heroes is this and a Time Master to boot.
  • Peter Petrelli whenever he happened to be mimicking Hiro.
• Kamen Rider:
  • Kamen Rider Fourze with his Cosmic States.
  • Kamen Rider Evol from Kamen Rider Build is this with his Black Hole Form. His Ultimate Form DEVOURS THE MOON!
• Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger: Dagded Dujardin, the Big Bad of the show's second half, is the self-proclaimed king of the universe whose cosmic powers manifest as the ability to instantly teleport around it, change sizes from gargantuan and minuscule and vice versa, rain down celestial bodies as projectiles, or use portals to transport people from one end of the universe to the other.

Tabletop Games

• In Mage: The Ascension, Mages with high ability in the Sphere of Correspondence embody this trope.
  • Mage: The Awakening uses the Space Arcanum instead to the same net result.
• In Warhammer 40,000, some powerful Thousand Sons Sorcerers have mastered the ability to fold the very fabric of reality, allowing them to travel leagues, if not from planet to planet, with a single step. In the 8th Edition of the game this is represented by the 'Aetherstride' Thousand Sons Warlord Trait that gives the Warlord bonuses to their movement that allow them to enter combat quicker.

Video Games

• Koril, the senior Lotus warlock from Battle Realms is known as the Master of College of Space. He's described as not quite 'there', shimmering in and out of existence and able to be at any place he wants in an instant. In-game, he can teleport to any spot on the map, and his phased nature makes him nigh-impossible to hit with missile weapons.
• DC Universe Online has this choice of powers under the name of Quantum, as well as Time Control.
• EXTRAPOWER: Astral Gate. Said to be everywhere at once, his specialty is portal creation and spatial control. His powers have been used beneficially like in the beginning of Attack of Darkforce to help Sharkungo cross the distance between the Shakun Star and the Earth instantaneously, but has also been used to trap people in enclosed pockets of space.
• Time Mages in Final Fantasy Tactics have a few space-warping powers to go with their time and gravity powers; they can teleport, make themselves or others hover off the ground, or manipulate spacial forces to root a guy to the spot.
  • This manifests as early as the Time Mage's series debut in Final Fantasy V; the class' ultimate spell happens to be Meteor.
• The Herrscher of the Void in Honkai Impact 3rd is essentially this, while also having varying degrees of control over time, (originally) wind, lightning and illusions; this is without taking into account its sheer ability to manipulate Honkai energy. When in battle, it can create pockets of distorted space when attacking, can freely create and link portals, including to redirect enemy attacks, take others with it into the Imaginary Space, where it can then freely manipulate the matter within, and has been shown to even be able to create miniature black holes. As a matter of fact, at one point it's said it is capable of creating a space-time distortion field capable of destroying a good chunk of the world, and the Time Fracture technology was only made possible by analyzing its powers. There's a reason the only effective solution Shicksal had at the time of its original uprising was to completely saturate its position and everything for miles around with experimental anti-Honkai ballistic super missiles. It's also the same reason why she's also considered a Game-Breaker when fully outfitted... At least before Power Creep caught up to her.
• Xigbar from the Kingdom Hearts series has this as his ability, being capable of firing his laser arrows from angles other than where his gun is pointing, and changing the layout of the battlefield on a whim. He can even change the trajectory of his arrows as shown in the fight against him in Kingdom Hearts III. Also overlaps with Gravity Master, in his ability to walk on walls and ceilings.
  • Master Xehanort also demonstrates this power in the final battle of the above game, bending the layout of Scala ad Caelum and folding it into a cube in his armored form, which also shifts the gravity.
• Palkia from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl/Platinum is said to be the "god of space". Its signature move is "Spacial Rend" which allows it to attack by warping the space around it.
• Skullgirls gives us Venus Lovelace, who is able to distort reality itself; it's been said that her human form is but a smaller part of a larger creature, and if you see her true form, you're probably already devoured by it. She can summon mouths, claws, and clouds of locusts seemingly from nowhere, and it's speculated that she's able to teleport and create holes in space as well.
• Rosalina in Super Smash Bros. takes this to a literal extreme. She holds the whole cosmos beneath her gown, and she makes use of it by having several attacks invoke cosmic formations in front of her, such as mini nebulas and galaxies, in addition to warping the space around her to deflect projectiles and pull items closer to her.
• Touhou has Komachi Onozuka and Yumeko. Komachi has the power of "manipulation of distance". Canonically, she uses it to change the width of Sanzu river depending on the current passenger's virtue; Fanon often turns it into teleportation. Yumeko, on the other hand can turn intangible when moving and it is implied that she materializes her swords from empty air using her space control ability.
• In Guilty Gear, Space magic is one of the hardest types to master. Faust uses this element in battle, doing things like storing an endless amount of objects to throw, using doors to teleport (and attack), or fitting his enemy inside his mouth and stomach.

Web Comics

• The Nightmare Knight in Cucumber Quest shows the ability to open a rift in space.
• Parley, from Gunnerkrigg Court has this ability. It begun to materialize in Chapter 23, where this power sends Antimony, Jones, Reynardine, Andrew and her from the simulator to Parley's room. Jones calls it "distortion of space", while the author's commentary says:
  Just call it "teleportation", Jones.
• In Homestuck, Space is one of the elemental aspects available to Sburb players, and one of the two which absolutely must occur in every session; Jade Harley is the Witch of Space in the human session, Kanaya Maryam is the Sylph of Space in the troll session and Calliope is the Muse of Space in her session. Space powers however are much closer to being Reality Warping due to being a bit of a Superpower Lottery jackpot. Additionally, all First Guardians have these abilities. So when Jade reaches God Tier by merging with her sprite (prototyped with her dead dream self and Becquerel, a First Guardian), she's able to take all of the kid's planets with them as they escape the Scratch.
• In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! both the Butterfly of Iron and the Cone Ship seem to have this ability to an extent. The Cone Ship is full of Alien Geometries that it can manipulate at will; while the Butterfly was able to "squash" the heroes' constituent de Broglie waves "nearly flat for just a moment," effectively making them blink out of existence for a few seconds.
  • For that matter, even the Nemesites, who are more of a Higher-Tech Species than a Sufficiently Advanced one, routinely build structures that are Bigger on the Inside.
• Mind Mistress creates a spatial distortion shield to counter magical attacks. She figures, even if they're mystical, they still have to traverse three-dimensional space to get to her.

Web Original

• Academy of Superheroes Universe:
  • Solar Max started as a gravity manipulator. Over time, his skills grew till he could (crudely) manipulate space-time. Devastator had the same power among others.
  • Labyrinthe on the other hand is a mage specializing in spatial control.
• In the Whateley Universe, Mobius specializes in building pockets that are larger on the inside than the outside. Phase has paid Mobius to make a utility belt, and this is now a regular source of income for Mobius. Thuban can also do this trick with his warper power, and (among other things) has a car that has an interior the size of a two-story house.

Western Animation

• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic gives us characters like Twilight Sparkle (mainly with Teleport Spam, but also with some extras — e.g., Gravity Master), Pinkie Pie (a Hammerspace-wielder and fan of Breaking the Fourth Wall), Discord (whose Reality Warper skillset makes this a given), King Sombra (a shadowy Domain Holder with Mass Teleportation-based curses and Pocket Dimension-based traps), etc.
  • One of the spinoffs, My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Friendship Games, gives us likely the most-destructive example yet: Midnight Sparkle — the Superpowered Evil Side of Twilight's Alternate Universe counterpart — invokes Thinking Up Portals left and right in her frantic attempt to reach Equestria For Science!, thus risking a Reality Bleed unless she's stopped.

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