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Magik |

Kitty Pryde: About time, Rasputin! What the heck kept you?
Illyana: The bus broke down.
Kitty Pryde: You came to my rescue by bus?!
Illyana: What can I tell you Pryde, we're a class act.
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| Mutant Profile |
Real name: Illyana Nikolievna Rasputin
Former aliases: Darkchylde
Identity: Secret
Occupation: (current) Student, Adventurer
Legal status: Citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics;
lived in the United States under a special visa; no criminal record, a minor.
Place of birth: Ust-Ordynski Collective, near Lake Baikal, Siberia, U.S.S.R.
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Nikolai Rasputin (father, deceased), Alexandra Rasputina (mother, deceased), Piotr (Peter) Rasputin (Colossus, brother), Mikhail Rasputin (brother)
Group affiliation: (current) X-Men Reserve Team
Base of operations: (current) Xavier Institute, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York State. Also Limbo (also known as Otherplace--see note at end of entry).
First appearance: (as child) GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1, (as adolescent) UNCANNY X-MEN #160
Personality: She is still her brother's 'little snowflake' but Illyana had had to grow up quickly when she was seperated from him and trapped in Limbo by
the Demon Belasco. Despite all the power at her fingertips and the fact that some of her
teachers forget that she isn't seven anymore Illyana does her best to maintain the perfect balance between the good and evil sides to her soul.
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| Physical description and mutant powers |
Height: 5 ft. 5 in.
Weight: 120 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde
Strength: Magik possessed the normal human strength of a girl of her physical
age, height, and build who engaged in intensive regular exercise.

Known superhuman powers: Magik is both a superhumanly powerful mutant and a
highly expert sorceress.
Magik's mutant power is the ability to teleport herself and others through time and
space by creating "stepping discs" of an unknown form of energy. If she teleports
herself or someone else from one place on Earth to another, the person being
teleported passes through Magik's limbo in the process. Magik can also teleport
herself or someone else into her limbo or out of it. Apparently she can mentally
scan her limbo while on Earth in order to locate whoever she wishes to teleport to
Earth from it.
Magik has succeeded in teleporting herself and another person across a continent on
one occasion, and across centuries in time on another. However, Magik has not yet
mastered her teleportational ability. The greater the distance over which she
teleports, the greater the possible margin of error in terms of her arriving at the
point in time she desires. Hence, when she once teleported herself and a friend from
New York State to California, hoping to arrive within seconds of the time she left
and her friend instead arrived one week later, having accidentally traveled into the
future. Magik is continuously practicing the use of her teleportational power in
order to master it.
Magik is the sorceress supreme of her limbo dimension. The extent of her powers
there has yet to be defined, but she can probably cast any magic spell that Belasco
could, having had access to his store of sorcerous knowledge. For unknown reasons,
Magik's magical abilities are far more limited in Earth's dimension. On Earth she
can perform astral projection and sense mystical presences. However, her magical
powers on Earth are primarily limited to the use of her soulsword, which is the
ultimate embodiment of her mystical might. The soulsword will have no physical
effect on a non-supernatural creature; it will pass right through such a creature as
if it were intangible. However, the soulsword can release a nonsupernatural being
from any magical spell that it is under. Moreover, the soulsword can physically
injure arid even kill a supernatural being such as a demon.
The more that Magik uses her magical power on any occasion, the more mystical armor
appears on her body. The nature and origin of this armor is as yet unknown.
For unknown reason, the soulsword can physically injure Kitty Pryde, alias
Shadowcat, even when she is using her phasing power to become intangible. Pryde is
also the only known person other than Magik who can wield the soulsword effectively.
When Pryde does so, Magik's armor begins to appear on Pryde's body. Moreover, when
the Beyonder once freed Illyana from the influence of her darksoul, Pryde gained the
ability to produce and wield the soulsword. Illyana later took the darksoul
influence back upon herself in order that she could again wield the soulsword to save
Pryde's life from a demon. The reason for the mystical connection between Illyana
Rasputin and Kitty Pryde, each of whom is the other's best friend, is unknown.
Base of Operations: Magik is the mistress of a dimension she calls limbo.
The word "limbo" is frequently used to describe interdimensional voids. Magik's
limbo is not such a void, but is probably a small pocket dimension that is tenuously
connected to True Limbo, where time does not pass in a physical sense and, as a
result, no one can age or die. Time does pass in a physical sense in Magik's limbo,
and she aged seven years during her first sojourn there. However, one might spend
years in Magik's limbo while no more than moments pass on Earth, due to the unknown
temporal laws of the former place. The matter within Magik's limbo can be shaped and
transformed by the thoughts and emotions of the sorcerer who is its master.
Magik's limbo is populated by demons who serve its master. The principal demon is
known as S'ym.
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| History |
Illyana Rasputin is the younger sister of Piotr (Peter) Rasputin, who left their
home at the Ust-Ordynski collective farm in Siberia when Illyana was quite
young to become Colossus, one of the team of mutant adventurers called the X-Men.
A few years later Illyana was somehow abducted from the Soviet Union through the
machinations of the woman known only as Miss Locke, the assistant to the eccentric
assassin Arcade. Arcade was being held captive by one of Doctor Doom's robotic
duplicates, and Miss Locke took Illyana and other people dear to the X-Men hostage in
order to force the X-Men to go to Arcade's rescue. The main team of X-Men battled the
Doom robot and obtained Arcade's release, and a team of reserve members of the X-Men
freed Illyana and her fellow captives from Miss Locke. Unwilling to risk the dangers
as a defector returning to the Soviet Union to bring the now seven-year-old Illyana
back to her parents, Peter Rasputin decided to have Illyana stay with him at the
X-Men's Westchester headquarters.
Some months later, the sorcerer Belasco brought Illyana and the X-Men to his
extra-dimensional realm, which he called Limbo but is also known as Otherplace.
A group of X-Men from a divergent Earth had come to Belasco's Limbo earlier, but
most of them had been killed there. The sole survivors had been Kitty Pryde, who had
become an adult there named Cat, and Storm, who had also grown older, lost her power
to control the weather, and become a sorceress. As the X-Men of our Earth escaped
back to Earth, Belasco seized Illyana's arm. The Kitty Pryde of our Earth seized
Illyana's other arm, but Belasco ripped Illyana from Pryde's grasp, and held her
captive in Limbo.
Belasco turned a portion of Illyana's soul demonic in nature, giving that part of her
a strong tendency towards what humanity considers evil. This part of her soul is
what Illyana calls her "darksoul." In the process Belasco also conjured a
"bloodstone" from Illyana's soul and placed it within the so-called Beatrice
Medallion. If and when Belasco conjured five bloodstones for the medallion, Illyana,
who would then be the Darkchilde, entirely demonic in nature, would serve as the
means by which Belasco's masters, the demonic Elder Gods, would invade and conquer
the Earth and its entire universe.
Belasco's spell also gave Illyana's darksoul considerable sorcerous power. The
sorceress Storm took Illyana under her wing, hoping to teach her how to combat
Belasco's evil influence. Storm gave Illyana her first lesson in how to
utilize magic. However, Cat feared that the more Illyana learned of magic, the easier
it would prove for Belasco to corrupt her. Therefore, Cat took Illyana from Storm,
and taught her how to fight. Years before, Belasco had transformed Cat, giving her
certain inhuman catlike physical characteristics. When Illyana was physically nine
years old, Belasco transformed Cat even further, giving her a catlike consciousness
and putting her under his control. Belasco then made Illyana his apprentice in
sorcery.

The demonic side of Illyana's soul reveled in serving Belasco, and his influence over
her grew continually stronger, no matter how hard she resisted. But her true, good
personality remained in control, and as she studied Belasco's magic books, she
searched for a means to destroy him. Years after becoming his apprentice, Illyana
discovered her own mutant power to create energy discs by which she could teleport
herself through space and time.
Storm finally fought Belasco in an attempt to save Illyana, but Belasco had Cat
wound Storm. Horrified, Illyana tried to keep Cat away from Storm, and Belasco,
displeased, ordered Cat to attack Illyana. Illyana found herself forced to kill Cat
to save herself.
Belasco had already conjured a second bloodstone from Illyana's soul. He now
conjured the third and intended to sacrifice Storm's soul to the Elder Gods. Illyana
killed Storm as the only means of saving her from this dreadful fate. Finally,
Illyana, who had mastered the magic in Belasco's books, did battle with Belasco
himself. She used her weapon, her newly-formed Soulsword, the ultimate expression of
her mystical power. As the two battled, Illyana grew mentally and physically more
demonic, while Belasco reverted to human form, losing much of his power. Illyana
nearly killed Belasco with the Soulsword, but decided instead to let him live, and
not to give in to her demonic side. She drove Belasco from Limbo and regained her
human form.
Illyana then returned to Earth at long last, at a point only seconds after the
X-Men's escape from Limbo. However, whereas only seconds had passed for the X-Men,
Illyana had aged seven years in Limbo, time having passed more quickly for her
there than it did on Earth due to Limbo's unknown temporal laws. (Although Illyana
aged seven years in Limbo, it is unclear whether she actually spent the equivalent
of seven years there. Illyana herself has stated that she had difficulty keeping
track of time there.) Illyana was now fourteen years old, and turned fifteen shortly
afterwards. Belasco's principal demon servant, S'ym, followed Illyana to Earth but
Illyana defeated him in battle and demanded he renounce Belasco. S'ym did so and from
that time forward Illyana was the undisputed master of Belasco's Limbo. However,
Illyana preferred to live on Earth, where she was studying at Xavier's Institute and part
of the X-Men Reserve Team. Illyana took the code name Magik.
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