Aura and Semblances Part 1

The idea on combining Dust goes like this: Fire(red), Wind(purple), Earth(brown) and Ice(light blue) are the Four Basic Dust Elements. Combining Wind, Fire and Earth creates Energy Dust. Combining Wind and Fire creates Light Dust. Combining Fire and Earth creates Glass Dust. Combining Fire and Ice creates Water Dust. Combining Wind and Earth creates Lightning Dust. Combining Earth and Ice creates Dark Dust. Combining Ice, Earth and Fire creates Gravity Dust. Combining Wind, Ice and Earth creates Psionic Dust. Combining Wind and Ice creates Time Dust. And finally, combining Ice, Wind and Fire creates Polarity Dust. That’s 14 different Dust types( and thus Semblance types) in total. Think of different colors for the “Advanced Dust Types” later.
I think all Semblances are related to Dust. Semblances are created by a manifestation of your Aura. Aura is used to activate Dust. Dust can be used to modify your Semblance. I think that these 3 are like a Holy Trinity, Mind Body and Soul. (I also believe that Dust is what remains of people who have passed on and reforms in a crystallized form - Dust to Dust as they say - But potatoes for other days)
Psionic superpowers typically come in 3 forms: Telepathy(send messages or images to other people over distance without speaking), Telekinesis(lift and move things with your mind) and Clairvoyance(see things before they happen).
In


this video, we will be talking about Nen from Hunter x Hunter. We are going to be going over what exactly Nen is, the different principles and techniques that come along with it and all of the other details involved with Nen and how it works. So essentially we will be covering everything you will need to know about Nen. Because Nen is a pretty complex and important aspect of Hunter x Hunter as a whole, if you don’t fully understand how it works you might find yourself lost or confused in certain situations, and because Nen is such a driving force in Hunter x Hunter it’s probably the most important topic to cover.
What is Nen? Nen is the technique that allows any living being to manipulate their own life energy, which is known as aura. Pretty much everything that involves Nen has to do with aura, and Nen is an overall term for the use and manipulation of aura.
What is Aura? Aura, our life energy, is produced by all living bodies and plays an important role in keeping that person, or being, alive. This aura also flows through every part of a person’s body, and generally flows together to create one giant mass of energy. This flow of energy will happen regardless of whether the person knows about Nen or not.
Before someone learns about the concept of Nen or that aura even exists, their aura will constantly be flowing without their knowledge, and because of that this aura flow will result in a small leak that causes aura to constantly flow outside of the body. However, someone who has learned Nen is able to allow this aura to constantly flow but at the same time is able to control and manipulate in many different ways, and is able to stop their aura from leaking out of their body.
This flow of aura is also caused by Aura Nodes, which are the many points on the body where the aura can flow from, and the first step to learning Nen is learning how to control these nodes. It should also be noted that severe injuries, such as losing a limb or some other mutilation, can cause these aura nodes to stop flowing in that body part or stop the aura flow altogether. However, this is where things get a little confusing because aura is considered life energy and if you lose all of your aura, you essentially lose your life as well and will die. But in the case of a severe injury that stops your aura from flowing, you will not die because you aren’t actually losing your aura, you are just losing your ability to control it. And as far as we know, once an individual loses their Nen, there is no way to get it back.
Before we move on to how someone learns about Nen and how to control it, we quickly need to cover how Nen is perceived in the world of Hunter x Hunter. Most people don’t know that Nen or aura exists. This is mainly because Nen is kept secret from the general public by the Hunter’s Association. From what we know the main reason as to why Nen is kept secret is because if someone were to teach or even explain Nen to someone in a public setting, it would be possible for those with bad intentions to potentially learn about an extremely dangerous ability. So because of this rule, Nen can only be taught and learned in secret, and it is against the law for any licensed Hunter to reveal the existence of Nen to someone who doesn’t know about it, and can only do so in an emergency. Because the public are unaware of Nen’s existence, there are people outside of the Hunter’s Association who developed the ability to control their aura without knowing anything about it or without being taught. These people are generally known to the people as “psychics”, “superhumans”, or “geniuses”, and they can do anything from using the basic properties of Nen or somehow develop a unique Nen ability without having any idea of how they were able to do so.
In regards to Hunters, they are actually not considered a professional Hunter until they learn the basic principles of Nen, even if they have already completed the Hunter’s exam. This is known as the Secret Hunter Exam, and as soon as the Hunter learns about Nen they pass the Secret Hunter Exam and is then known as a professional Hunter. If someone already knows the basic principles of Nen when taking the regular Hunter exam then if they pass they are automatically considered a pro Hunter, and do not need to take the secret exam.
How do you learn Nen? To begin learning Nen, the first step is learning how to open and close your aura nodes manually, so they can control the flow of their aura. There are two known methods of learning how to do this:
1) Very slowly and gradually learning how through patience and meditation.
2) A method called Initiation, which is where an individual receives a hefty amount of aura from an experienced Nen-user, which forces their aura nodes to open. However, this method can be dangerous because it can easily harm the individual if the Nen-user is inexperienced or has malicious intent. Initiation can also be performed by physically assaulting the individual with Nen, but this is even more dangerous as it almost always causes permanent damage or even death. There is also a different form of initiation, known as Gehou. This is the least dangerous version of Initiation, and involves an experienced Nen-user using their aura to very gently open an individual’s aura nodes, which will then force the individual to learn how to control their aura or experience severe exhaustion, or in some cases death.
When an individual opens up their aura nodes, they are then able to see their own aura because the aura nodes in their eyes open up as well. Aura itself appears similar to steam or a white mist. Something else that should be mentioned is that Nen can be felt even if the person feeling it has no idea that Nen exists, and it has been said that Nen feels like a warm, flowing liquid or if the Nen-user is very powerful then it can feel like needles pricking their bodies. In addition, Nen can also be felt through the user’s emotions. Although Nen is considered life energy, it is somehow able able to carry the user’s emotions and desires along with it. The best example is known as Bloodlust, which is where an individual channels their anger and/or malicious intent into their aura as they deploy it towards another person. That person is then able to feel all of that malicious intent and anger surround them. This generally stops the individual in their tracks, making them unable to move and if this bloodlust is exceptionally malicious it can even even harm the other person if they don’t deploy their own Nen as a defense.
The next step to learning Nen is known as the Four Basic Principles, which are Ten, Zetsu, Ren and Hatsu. Each of these principles are basic manipulations of someone’s aura flow in one way or another. It should also be noted that since these are basic principles they are hard to learn and maintain at first, but after the user becomes much more experienced each of these techniques become 2nd nature and can be done without a second thought.
Ten: The first principle of Nen. After having all of their aura nodes open the user then needs to learn how to control their aura and keep their aura from leaking away of their body. Ten itself is the process of keeping the aura nodes open but also having their aura flow through and around the user’s body rather than away from it. Once Ten is achieved it creates a shroud of aura around the body that apparently feels like standing in lukewarm water. Ten is also the most basic defense against Nen attacks, but it cannot defend against regular physical attacks. Ten also has a different long-term ability, which is the fact that it reduces aging and allows the individual to keep a youthful appearance. This is because the user’s aura no longer leaks away, which considering that aura is life energy- sealing the leak of life, so to speak- slows down the aging process significantly over time. And with practice and meditation the user will be able to maintain Ten subconsciously at all times.
Zetsu: The second principle of Nen. In contrast of Ten keeping the user’s aura from leaking away from the body, Zetsu stops the flow of aura altogether by closing all of the user’s aura nodes. Because the user is no longer surrounded by their aura they are much more sensitive or aware of the aura coming from other users. This is generally used a a way to track others without being noticed and other Nen-users also won’t be able to notice them because they are no longer producing any aura. However this isn’t the only use of Zetsu. Zetsu can also be used to relieve fatigue and regain energy because it forces the aura surrounding the body back inside, essentially returning unused life energy. At the same time, using Zetsu does have its downsides. Because using Zetsu removes all aura protecting the user, it makes the user defenseless against any Nen attacks, and even a weak Nen attack can do massive damage to the user.
Ren: The third principle of Nen. Ren itself focuses on heavily increasing the user’s amount of aura and keeping it around the body, which will expand the size and intensity of it. This technique is a direct extension of Ten and cannot be used unless the user is somewhat experienced in Ten. Because the user is capable of keeping aura outside of their body without it leaking, they are then able to use Ren to produce more aura around themselves without having to worry about losing it. Ren is generally used for offensive techniques and increases the user’s physical strength and durability, and also provides a large amount of aura to be used for advanced techniques which will be discussed later.
Hatsu: The final basic principle of Nen. Hatsu is essentially the release of someone’s aura that is manipulated to perform a specific ability that is unique to the user. These qualities depend on the user’s natural category, which will be discussed later, but they are not limited to it. This basically results in the user’s personal expression of Nen that ends up creating a special and unique ability that is created by the user over time. These are known as Nen Abilities, Hatsu Abilities, or simply Hatsu. These Hatsu abilities are not directly obtained from the other three basic principles, although in some cases they can be, and these Hatsu abilities generally reflect the individual’s character in one way or another. To put it simply, Hatsu is an individual’s own uniquely crafted Nen ability that can be used for a number of different purposes depending on the user.
Now that we’ve gone over the four basic principles, let’s go over the Advanced Techniques. These techniques are generally learned after an individual is familiar with Ten, Ren and Zetsu, and a majority of these advanced techniques are combinations of these three. Hatsu on the other hand is something that the user develops on their own over time, so someone would not need to have a Hatsu ability to be able to perform these advanced techniques.
Gyo: The first advanced technique, which is an advanced rendition of Ren in which the user concentrates a large amount of aura into one specific part of the body, which will in turn strengthen that body part but leave the rest of the body more vulnerable. Gyo can be used in many different ways but it is generally used on the user’s eyes, which allows them to see aura or other objects that are hidden from the user.
IN: The second advanced technique, which is an advanced form of Zetsu that can hide the aforementioned aura or other objects that can be seen with Gyo. Those that use IN almost completely seal their aura from others. Unlike Zetsu the user doesn’t need to stop their aura flow but instead just hides it, so this technique is very useful in setting up traps or sneak attacks but, as we already mentioned before, it can be easily countered with Gyo.
EN: The third advanced technique, which is an advanced version of both Ren and Ten. With Ren aura usually only protrudes a small distance away from the user’s body, but with EN the user extends their aura a much greater distance and then the user uses Ten to shape this aura, which is usually shaped into a circle. When using EN, the user can feel the shape and movement of anything that enters their circle. The downside of EN is that it is very tiring to keep up because the user needs to constantly be deploying aura. It should also be noted that the radius of EN is different for each user and it’s different depending on how experience the user is with using EN.
Ken: The forth advanced technique, and like EN, an advanced version of both Ren and Ten, although it is mostly derived from Ren. Ken is basically an amplified form of Ren, where the user creates a defensive barrier of aura that surrounds the user’s body. This technique is very useful because it can defend the user from attacks that come from any direction because the user is protecting every part of their body at once. Like EN, this requires a lot more aura than usual, so it is very tiring to use Ken for extended periods of time.
Ryu: The fifth advance technique, which is essentially the technique for using Gyo in real time, by concentration aura to one location of the body whenever needed during a battle. For instance, say that two Nen-users are battling. The first Nen-user throws a punch at the second, and right before his punch makes contact he concentrates all of his aura onto his fist to make it a very powerful attack, but doing so also makes the rest of his body more vulnerable; and then the second guy is anticipating where this punch will strike and as soon as he figures it out he concentrates all of his aura onto his arm to block the punch. Keep in mind that all of that happened in mere seconds.
Shu: The sixth advanced technique and an advanced version of Ten, which allows the user to extend their aura onto an object outside of their body, allowing them to use that object as if it were an extension of their own body. This also in turn increases the strength of whatever object the user is using Shu on. The user can also decide how much aura they are applying to that object, which will also decide just how much stronger that object will become.
Ko: The seventh and final advanced technique, which is an advanced version of Gyo but it is created from mixture of Ten, Ren and Zetsu, all at the same time. Ko is where the user focuses their aura into a single part of the body, similar to Gyo, but at the same time they are also using Zetsu to shut down their aura flow to every other part of the body. This is both very powerful and very risky. It’s power comes from the user placing 100% of their Nen into a single, powerful attack. It’s risk comes from leaving the rest of the body vulnerable because they are no longer protected by any aura.
With Advanced Techniques out of the way, let's move on to Aura Types. There are a total of 6 different aura types, which are Enhancement, Transmutation, Emission, Conjuration, Manipulation and Specialization. Every single person is born with one of these aura types, and each one allows the user to do a wide variety of different techniques. Once a user finds out what aura type they are then able to fully develop their Hatsu Ability. As we discussed before, Hatsu Abilities is almost always reminiscent of that user’s aura type.
To find out what an individual’s aura type is they need to do so through Water Divination, which is where the user places a glass of water in front of them with a leaf on top of the water and then places their hands between the glass and performs Ren. The user will know what their aura type is depending on what happens to the the water. If the volume of the water changes then the user is an Enhancer. If the taste of the water changes then the user is a Transmuter. If some sort of impurity appears in the water then the user is a Conjurer. If the color of the water changes then the user is an Emitter. If the leaf moves on the surface of the water then the user is a Manipulator. And finally, if something happens that is not any of the aforementioned examples then the user is a Specialist. Now let’s go over what each of these aura types are and what they allow the user to possibly do.
Enhancement: The ability to use aura to increase the natural abilities of an object or the user’s own body. So essentially the user is able to greatly increase their physical strength, physical defense or both with their aura. Enhancement techniques are generally most useful for close-ranged attacks, with Enhancement being considered the most balanced aura type and easily allows the user to spread their abilities evenly between offense and defense, and to become very strong using only simple abilities. One example of a simple Enhancement ability is being able to strengthen the power of a user’s arms, and one example of a more complex Enhancement ability is being able to enhance the user’s own healing factor.
Conjuration: The ability to create a physical, independent material object out of aura. Generally, Conjurer will learn over time how to create a handful of different objects that revolve around whatever Hatsu they develop, and once the user has grown experienced enough they are able to conjure up these objects and dispel them at will. Conjuration is also the only way someone can create objects out of Nen. That non-Nen users can see and touch this is because these objects are created from Nen but once they are created they are no longer Nen but instead whatever object they are conjured as. Conjured objects are also somewhat independent in the sense that they will continue to exist even if the conjurer is a great distance away. It should also be noted that with enough practice the user is able to essentially conjure any object, but most of them generally stick to the same handful involved with their Hatsu.
Emission: The ability to control the deployment of aura while separating it from the user’s own body. Normally, whenever someone would separate aura away from their body it would dissipate very quickly after leaving the source. However once an emitter becomes very strong they are able to separate this aura for very long periods of time, and they are able to control all of its functions even if the aura is a great distance away from the user’s body. One example of this ability is the user being able to shape their aura into the form of a weapon, such as an arrow or a club.
Transmutation: The ability to change the properties of one’s aura to mimic something else. Just like emission, anything created by transmutation is pure aura. A lot of the times transmutation and its abilities are confused for conjuration because they are very similar. The difference between Transmutation and Conjuration is that conjuration creates objects from aura, whereas transmutation merely copies or mimics the properties of an object but doesn’t actually become it. In addition you don’t necessarily need to copy the properties of something real because you can also mi properties to create something new, such as Hisoka’s Bungee Gum for instance, which has the properties of both rubber and gum.
Manipulation: The ability for the user to control both non-living and living objects in a certain way depending on the user, along with controlling aura itself. The main advantage of manipulation is being able to control enemies or even non-living allies. How the user is able to control others is also dependent on the user’s Hatsu. Some need to attach objects to the individual to control them, while others just need to touch them in a certain way, or in some cases they don’t need to touch them at all. Manipulators are also the Nen-users that can pour the most aura into an object.
Specialization: This is a bit harder to explain, as it is considered anything that doesn’t fit in the other five categories, making it the vaguest Nen category. To give some examples of Specialization, Neon is able to unconsciously write the future of a specific person after receiving specific information about them, because of a ghost writer that she unconsciously manifest. Another example is Chrollo Lucifer, who can steal anyone’s Nen ability, so long as certain conditions are fulfilled. So a specialist can be considered many different things so long as they do not fit any of the other five categories.
To clarify, even if someone is confirmed to be a certain aura type, they are still able to use abilities from other aura types with enough practice. And in some very rare cases, the individual can even learn abilities from all aura types. How this is possible is with the Aura Type Chart, where the location of all aura types are presented depending on the percentage of how efficiently someone would be at using an aura type they were not born into. To be more specific, the aura type that someone was born into would be placed at the top of the chart, with the person having 100% potential at being efficient at that aura type. For example, an Enhancer would have 100% at using Enhancement abilities, with the two types next to Enhancement( which are emission at the left and transmutation at the right) having 80% potential and efficiency at using their abilities, with the next two types that are further away( which are manipulation at the left and conjuration at the right) having 60% potential and efficiency at using their abilities, with the final aura type being vertical to the one at the top having 40% potential and efficiency at using their abilities- unless said final aura type is Specialization, in which case all other aura types have a 0-1% potential at using this ability.
Next to discuss is Vows and Limitations, which is someone’s life energy responding to the goals, strengths and desires of each individual Nen-user. The user is able to set certain restrictions with their abilities, which will result in making their abilities stronger so long as the conditions for the restrictions are met. These conditions are the Limitations part, with the act of swearing to uphold these conditions are the Vows part. The stricter the limitation is the stronger the ability will become. These limitations are both a blessing and a curse, because depending on the severity of the restrictions it could put the user into some pretty bad situations where they will not be able to uphold their vows and limitations, in turn losing the benefits that come from it. Limitations that involve some sort of punishment should the user fail to uphold their vows will also strengthen these abilities exponentially.
Now that we’ve discussed every broad category surrounding Nen let’s go over the different sub-categories, starting with Curses. A curse is considered some sort of Nen that is placed on another individual that is detrimental to that person in some way, such as taking away that person’s Nen abilities or even using Nen at all. Each curse is different of course, and some will just fade away with time, or the curse will leave once the cursed individual follows some sort of condition to remove it. However there are curses that will affect that person even after the person who applied the curse dies, and in some cases the curse will become even stronger once the person who applied it dies. These kinds of curses are considered very dangerous because of their long-lasting effects and will even continue to affect the cursed individual until the day they die, and sometimes even after death. Also, one other way to remove a curse is with the use of Nen, which is called Exorcism. There are people out there who are so skilled with Nen that they are able to remove curses from most individuals, and they are called Exorcists. However, these Exorcists are very rare and of the Hunter’s Association there is only one Exorcist, and there is estimated to be fewer than ten exorcists that can remove curses from the dead in the entire world.
The final thing to go over are Symbiotic & Parasitic Types. Symbiotic types are abilities that require multiple Nen-users doing different tasks to collaborate together to perform a certain overall task or ability, such as a Conjurer creating a doll and then a Manipulator controlling it. Parasitic Types are very similar to curses, but not quite the same. Parasitic types are instead Hatsu abilities that are placed onto another person with or without that person’s knowledge. This Hatsu ability will then feed off of that individual’s aura and act on it’s own, usually with some sort of task in mind such as protecting that person or attacking people that come near them. It is currently unknown if the person who applied the parasite is able to control it afterwards, or if the Hatsu ability controls itself at all times. It is ideal for a Nen-user to place this Hatsu ability onto someone who does not know about Nen, because they will be unable to see the parasite around them or even know that it's there, and will instead feel very tired instead of knowing that this parasite is essentially sucking out their life energy.

Effect

Using Semblances as a marker for character growth was something that I was hoping and expecting of RWBY. This mechanic would fit perfectly with a coming-of-age story like RWBY. In the actual show, they try to play lip service to this with Weiss and her Summonings but they didn’t work because 1) She was never racist against faunus and has already shown to jump into battle to even protect people she doesn’t like like Jaune, so her being able to summon the Armored Gigas arm because she tried to protect Velvet rings completely hollow and 2) She learned nothing from fighting the Queen Lancer and let innocent civilians die when by all rights she could’ve saved them easily. Heck, it makes more sense if she could summon the Nevermore they killed in V1, since they still haven’t gone over the specifics as to what constitutes as a “kill” or the limits to what Schnees can summon.
Using Semblances as a marker for character growth could work in tandem with each Grimm type being attracted to a specific negative emotion. This could also work well with each of the 4 temperament type being good/bad at different parts of the 4 Basic Principles of Aura, such as cholerics having the highest chance of activating their Semblances first. It also meshes well with people seeing more/less shadow people based on how sociable/empathetic they are. This all rooted in Sanderson’s First Law on Hard Magic Systems: “The magic itself is a character, and by showing off its laws and rules, the author is able to provide twists, worldbuilding, and characterization.” This is also talked about in his Second Law: “Depth. You can do this with powers too. You can do this one with anything. However, my experience has been that great limitations require a little more stretching to explain. That forces you, as a writer, to create more depth to your world and characters. If you have a character whose power is the ability to fly, but then you add a limitation–she can only fly when she is happy, for example–then character depth will result. Suddenly, her mood is directly tied to the plot of the story. Her very personality is going to be involved deeply in her ability to accomplish things with her magic.”

Manifestation

Yeah, I agree with you that it would have made a lot more sense for Remnant's world building if we'd seen any evidence of their society having developed standardized ways of dealing with these things. It's something I noted on during my Volume 4 rewrite:
It's a question that I feel the show ought to have addressed by now, or at least something the writers should probably decide a stance on: Is there an acknowledged or standardized way to capture or detain people with aura in Remnant?
Like, do you just tie them up in handcuffs and then place them in a 2-feet by 2-feet metal room like the Atlas army did Roman?
That doesn’t sound like a great long-term solution unless everyone is fine with complete metal cage isolation for all aura-having criminals regardless of severity. Plus it wouldn’t stop someone with a semblance like Pyrrha. Yang could potentially break out of it. And so on and so forth.
Or is there some sort of drug you could administer daily that would prevent a person from recharging their aura once its spent?
I think that could have been a feasible element to introduce that would enrich the world and ensure viewers how hunters/police in this world don’t just execute criminals on the spot. But bringing it up now might be weird, since something like that should probably have been relevant to the plot at some point before now. Maybe you could wave it away as something very expensive that mainly people like Jacques Schnee would have access to.
Or maybe the solution is harsher. Maybe you knock the enemy out, draining all of their aura, and then slap some sort of slightly electrified/heated bracelet on them or something.
The continuous damage counteracts their aura-recovery and thus you just have to detain them the way one would a regular humanoid. Keeping this process functional and stable should actually be easier than it sounds considering that aura-tracking machines exist. Perhaps in less technologically advanced parts of the world you make a cut on the prisoner’s cheek and give him/her a couple of punches whenever the cut starts to close. That kind of thing.
All of these suggestions may seem brutal or unrealistic, but the fact of the matter is that these people live in a world where having aura can equate to a person moving metal objects with their mind, cloning themselves, running at the speed of sound, creating hallucinations and summoning defeated foes. To name a few. It just doesn’t make sense to me from a worldbuilding perspective that the people in Remnant wouldn’t have devoted some time and effort seeking ways to counteract those risks.
About the aura tracking technology. What if there was some sort of shock device that damages the prisoner when they try to use their semblance? Since semblances use aura and there's tech that could track aura use, that seems a like a plausible system.

Source

One thing that bothers me about RWBY is that they should have the characters' aura colours to their eye colours, as a reference to the saying, 'eyes are the windows to the soul.'. Each eye color is representative of one of the personality types from the Myers-Briggs test, so there are 16 colors in all.

Discovery

Semblances should be what makes the characters’ fighting styles unique. And it is not just combat, Semblances are the manifestation of one's soul, so there can be a lot of interesting character studies that can be done with this. Use the world of His Dark Material to flesh out how having an extension of your soul out would affect normal conversations and humanity in general.

Material Components

Since Aura is a manifestation of your soul, I guess Grimm could be more attracted to Aura users compared to other people because their emotions are more "visible" to them, like a torch among lighters. Which is good if you want to draw fire away from civilians, and very bad if everyone starts unlocking their Auras. This is my favorite explanation as to why mass Aura unlocking isn't happening.

Gestures & Ritual

The problem with introducing Magic as a distinct concept to the series is that there's too many other things in the franchise which occupy the same sort of placeholder in terms of broad scope.
Magic is unique! ...but everyone can unlock their Aura, allowing them to fight Grimm face to face and perform physical feats impossible for ordinary people to successfully perform, up to and including being launched hundreds of feet into a forest, off a cliff, with no harm whatsoever.
Magic is unique! ...but we have Dust, which can produce elemental attack effects through bullets, swords, and all sorts of other ways which allow the user to bombard their target with Ice, Lightning, Fire, or even fucking Gravity!
Magic is unique! ...but individual aura users can discover their Semblance, which is a manifestation of their soul expressed through their Aura. This can range from Telekinesis (Glynda), Illusions everyone can see (Neo), Phantasms only one person can see (Emerald), Teleportation portals (Raven), Bad Luck (Qrow), Dust-infused clones (Blake), Electricity Absorption (Nora), Super Speed (Ruby) or anything else! How does it work? Magic! Aura! What are the limits? Nobody knows! Any way to define or measure a Semblance? Not a chance!
The problem by the time Magic (TM) is introduced into the series is that outside of the power-scale of it, there's no distinct difference between Magic (TM) and an unusually powerful or versatile Semblance. Personally, if I were to introduce Magic (TM) to RWBY, it'd be in a manner which showcases both the raw power and sheer versatility of it. Something undeniable, and done versus a nominally superior opponent with a similar Semblance to showcase just how important the distinction happens to be. More importantly, showcase what a jump in power the Magic (TM) is before and afterwards to show why people would be fighting over it.

Related Discipline

https://roosterteeth.com/forum/rwby/topic/3351164 . Everyone has a varying Semblance, rather than all of them being “completely unique” like in canon.