Elders
| The Elders | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | "Witches in Tights" |
| Last appearance | "The Jung and the Restless" |
| Created by | Constance M. Burge |
| Statistics | |
| Name | The Elders, The Founders, Senior Whitelighters |
| Purpose | Preserving "the greater good", commanding Whitelighters and cupids, protecting witches and overseeing magic. |
| Powers | Regenerating Energy balls Orbing Healing Glamouring Invisibility Sensing charges Memory manipulation Mind control Telepathy Electrokinesis Clairvoyance Overseeing the world Heat generation Thought Projection Telekinetic Orbing Hovering Force fields Ability to make people human (i.e. demons) |
| Membership | Current Known Elders: Odin, Sandra, Kevin, Roland, Kheel, Jonas, Aramis, Alastair Former Elders: |
The Elders are a fictional group of people who oversee good magic. Originally, they were referred to as "The Founders", but all subsequent episodes use the term "Elders".
Elders mainly keep track of witches, watching from the Heavens. They communicate with those on Earth through their helpers and messengers, the Whitelighters. The Elders decide who may become a Whitelighter, and give and take their powers. A Whitelighter's ability to heal is channeled directly from the Elders.
It appears that most of the Elders were Whitelighters themselves at one time. Though some were probably witches because Kevin, a teenage witch, was promoted to be an Elder. Leo Wyatt is promoted to the rank of Elder after saving the Charmed Ones and the remaining Elders from the wrath of the Titans.
Though Whitelighters are not allowed to kill, the Elders have powerful fighting abilities. For the most part, the Elders' powers are only shown on screen when Leo is promoted to the rank of Elder. Leo is seen using a lightning-like power to kill Gideon.
When witches need advice on demons which they know nothing about, they can ask the Elders by sending their Whitelighter. The Elders are not all-knowing, however; in some cases, they know no more than the sisters do. In one episode, Leo had to find out who the Four Horsemen were and what they were up to, because the Elders could not help. The Elders generally do not allow witches or any other magical being besides themselves and Whitelighters to enter the Heavens. Even the Charmed Ones do not have this privilege, as Piper and Leo have to ask for an audience when they seek permission to have a relationship. However, Piper has been there twice, once when the Elders allowed them to have a relationship (however, she does not remember what it was like) and after she becomes a goddess, but Leo specifically tells Piper she is not allowed there when she comes to see him. The Elders do, however, allow Leo to watch over his son Wyatt and to take him to be with the Elders when he might be in danger. Originally Wyatt was not allowed, but when Wyatt was in danger and needed to be hid, Leo went against their orders and took him there anyway. After this he was allowed to go there when in possible danger.
As the show progresses, Paige begins using her Whitelighter side, and is able to converse with the Elders as she pleases. Though she does not go to the Heavens like the other Elders or Whitelighters do, they meet at the Golden Gate Bridge. Chris, however, has been to the Heavens.
Very few Elders ever come to Earth. Leo and Gideon are rare examples who spend most of their time outside the Heavens. A few come to Earth to speak directly about important issues, like Gideon's intentions to kill Wyatt and the possible threat of the Avatars. The Elder Sandra comes to speak to Piper about Leo during the last season. Overall, as a group, the Elders prefer to take a background role and remain largely unseen in the day-to-day affairs of the magical world.
Thousands of years before the present, the Titans (listed below) once ruled the world, but were abusive of their powers. Seeking to entomb them, the Elders of that time created the Greek gods by infusing mortals with a mystical power beyond their own. Ironically, the self-declared Gods of Mount Olympus would later force the world to worship them too for many years.
Read more about this topic: List Of Magical Beings In Charmed
Famous quotes containing the word elders:
“Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.”
—Eudora Welty (b. 1909)
“Like children, the elders are a burden. But unlike children, they offer no hope or promise. They are a weight and an encumbrance and a mirror of our own mortality. It takes a person of great heart to see past this fact and to see the wisdom the elders have to offer, and so serve them out of gratitude for the life they have passed on to us.”
—Kent Nerburn (20th century)
“I’ve noticed that the children of other nations always seem precocious. That’s because the strange manners of their elders have caught our attention most and the children echo those manners enough to seem like their parents.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)