White Lighters and Elders

[Wyatt Halliwell]

Phoebe: "A Whitelighter. What exactly is a Whitelighter?"

Leo: "Well, we’re really just messengers. Guides. Think of us as guardian angels for good witches."
— Leo explaining who he really is.

A Whitelighter is a guardian angel who protects and guides good witches and future whitelighters to protect and nurture them for their intended destiny. A person can become a whitelighter when he or she is destined to be one and fulfilling their destiny in life, being reborn as whitelighters after death. The whitelighters are led by the The Elders, a council of powerful and experienced whitelighters that serve the greater good. The Elders manage whitelighters and assign them to charges, although sometimes this connection happens naturally.

"Look, all I’m saying is that someone always told me that Whitelighters are the glue that keeps the magic world working."
—Wyatt talking about Whitelighters

Whitelighters are "guardian angels". They watch over their charges, given by the Elders and intervene when necessary to help them along their path and keep them safe; they can also be called by their charges. They can constantly hear the lives of their charges in their heads, and if one of them calls their Whitelighter's name, they can usually show up at a moment's notice. They also serve as messengers between Witches and the Elders. Leo Wyatt has stated that a Whitelighter is connected to their charge naturally, and the Elders don't always assign them.

Becoming a Whitelighter

Whitelighters are people who were previously somehow connected to the magical world or who were generally good people that have died. These Future Whitelighters given the choice to become Whitelighters or either move on to the afterlife.

If they do choose to become one, then, they are given the powers of a Whitelighter. Their bodies are replicas of their former human bodies, but are composed of orbs which are described as white lights that have a healing sense to them. If struck by a power that would be fatal to other beings, such as Energy Balls or Molecular Combustion, their bodies will explode into orbs then reform relatively unharmed; they can, however, be knocked unconscious. After becoming a Whitelighter, the person's DNA will have a triple helix like that of witches and demons, not just two like mortals.

Romance

Though the two species are capable of interbreeding, Whitelighters are not normally allowed to have romantic relationships with witches, as it is deemed to be too complicated and dangerous by the Elders. There are several half-Whitelighters due to this rule being broken or lifted in special circumstances by the Elders. The eight known half-Whitelighters are Simon Marks, Paige Matthews, Wyatt Halliwell, Chris Halliwell, Melinda Halliwell, Tamora Mitchell, Kat Mitchell and Matthew Halliwell. The first four of them, display most of the abilities of a Whitelighter. Wyatt is able to heal, and when Paige was new to her powers, she could channel Leo's power of Healing through her. When Paige got more experienced with her powers, she gained the ability to heal by herself after experiencing a strong sense of love which is the trigger to healing someone.

Pacifism and Combat

Because they are pacifists, Whitelighters traditionally avoid fighting, except when desperately needed to protect their charges, but are absolutely not allowed to kill. Leo tries to force Chris into a hearing with the Elders after he suspects that Chris killed two warriors in Valhalla, and Leo, himself, brings balance back into the world of magic by doing a "Great Evil" in killing Gideon. Despite this rule, Leo has killed a few times as the Charmed Ones Whitelighter: while they were trapped in the past, he vanquished the Grimlocks, however, the Elders may have let that one go as he was all that was there at the time and had no choice and he vanquished the Siren. That one he personally did with Piper's Molecular Combustion power, but, at the time, he had no choice as Piper had his powers and they didn't have another method. He also aided the sisters in several vanquishes, not vanquishing demons himself, but usually aiding in some manner. In one instance, Leo teamed up with Cole and due to his lacking his own offensive powers and Cole unconscious, Leo was directly responsible for a demon vanquish by tricking another one into vanquishing his partner.

This rule doesn't occur in the comics, Leo fought the darklighter Rennek for decades as he was killing multiple white magic practitioners. Upon finally vanquishing him (or so he thought), Leo was rewarded by being made whitelighter to the three sister witches who would eventually become the Charmed Ones, the most powerful witches in the world.

Basic Powers

Scrying: The ability to find a lost person or object by holding a crystal over a map.
Spell Casting: The ability to cast a spells and perform rituals.
Potion Making: The ability to brew magical potions.

Active Powers

Orbing: The ability to teleport through the use of orbs.
Hovering: The ability to rise a few feet in the air, with or without orbs.
Glamouring: The ability to change one's appearance to look like another human being.
Healing: The ability to heal physical wounds and different injuries.
Photokinesis: The ability to create and manipulate light and orbs.
Thermokinesis: The ability to mentally control and manipulate heat.
Mind Manipulation: The ability to enter one's mind via telepathic charge connection.

Other Powers

Sensing: The ability to locate and find their charges.
Cloaking: The ability to hide yourself or others from magical detection. Limited to charges.
High Resistance: The power to be resistant to potentially lethal powers.
Reconstitution: The ability to reform the body after it was destroyed.
Regeneration: The ability to instantly heal oneself after being injured.
Immortality: The ability to have an infinite lifespan and an arrested aging process.
Omnilingualism: The ability to understand, speak, and read any language without training in it. Limited to the language of charges.

[Wyatt Halliwell]

The Elders, also known as The Council of Elders, The Founders or The Powers That Be, are an assembly of extremely powerful Whitelighters who advise benevolent magical beings and are in command of all Whitelighters. Their purpose is to preserve the "greater good" by directing Whitelighters to watch over and protect witches and future Whitelighters from the Heavens. They communicate with witches through their assigned Whitelighters, giving them messages and warning them of impending great threats. They also send Whitelighters after humans who are "Whitelighters to be" and clip their wings whenever serious rules are broken. It is implied in the earlier seasons, that the Elders are in control, or rather, possess a great influence over many things in the avenue of "good magic". However, like the majority of magical beings, their powers are limited.

The All

In the early days of humanity, to help the Nexus that was The All regain some of its magic, the Elders and the Angels of Destiny were forced to send the mate of Neena, the First Witch, back to the Higher Realm where The All resided. This was a decision, the errors of which, would only be fully realised millenniums later. Approximately 1000 BC, the Elders saw the Titans as a risk to the world and themselves. In reply to this expanding threat, they unleashed the powers of the Greek Gods onto mortals, who were then able to use those powers to imprison the Titans for millennia. However, instead of returning the divine powers back to their resting place after the battle, the mortals declared themselves Gods and forced the known world to worship them, as their abilities had completely overwhelmed their senses of humanity. After and since this crises was resolved, the Elders have been providing guidance, support, care and watching over the world from their Heavenly abode. (Oh My Goddess! Part 1).

Creation of the Whitelighters

Nearly a thousand years later, the Elders began to plan the creation of a race of magical beings that would eventually become the Whitelighters. Their initial intentions were to make Whitelighters avenging angels, warriors on the side of good fighting against evil. To aid them in this task, the Elders asked a magical blacksmith to produce a weapon for these warriors. However, some Elders thought that the Whitelighters should mere guides to the good magical beings. After a heated discussion that nearly tore the Heavens apart, the faction which sought to make Whitelighters peaceful guides carried the day, and the weapon created by the bladesmith was hidden away.

The Charmed Ones

The Elders did initially forbid the marriage of Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt, which they rescinded, allowing the wedding to occur later in 2001 (season 3). After Leo's efforts to save the Elders and the world, the Elders promoted him to an Elder, however he spent much of his time on Earth, became an Avatar and eventually "fell from grace" which is something no other Elder had ever done.

Interfering in the Halliwell's lives

When Piper and Leo disover that their daughter, Melinda, miraculously had the power of telekinetic orbing, despite Leo being human during the time of her conception, Leo goes to The Heavens with Paige to question the Elders. There, they are approached by newly-appointed Elder, Kyle Brody, who informs them that that since Leo was a Whitelighter for so long, his magical abilities became ingrained within his DNA despite his being mortal, passing those genes onto Melinda. The Elders decided to interfere and caused these whitelighter powers to manifest in Melinda so as to alter the prophecy of the Twice-Blessed Child. They wanted to make both Chris and Melinda twice blessed like Wyatt, which would allow the three first born Halliwell children to inherit a more potent Power of Three so that in the future they would be a greater force of good than the Charmed Ones. Because the Council of Elders interfered too many times in human affairs, they were replaced with a new one, including Kyle.

Powers and Abilities

Basic Powers

Spell Casting: The ability to cast spells and perform rituals.
Potion Making: The ability to brew potions.
Scrying: The ability to scry for a person or object by the use of a scrying crystal, a map, and sometimes other tools.

Active Powers

Orbing: The ability to teleport oneself from one place to another with the use of orbs.
Remote Orbing: The ability to orb other beings from one place to another.
Electrokinesis: The ability to create and project electricity or lightning.
Shielding: The ability to create protective electrically charged force fields.
Invisibility: The ability to become unseen to the naked eye.
Photokinesis: The ability to create and manipulate light and orbs.
Thermokinesis: The ability to manipulate heat.
Power Stripping: The ability to strip powers from any being.
Healing: The ability to heal the injuries and wounds of others.
Portal Creation: The ability to open a vortex or portal to other locations, planes and times.
Premonition: The ability to see premonitions of the past, future or present. Only a few Elders possess this ability.
Hovering: The ability to rise a few feet in the air, with or without orbs.
Power Granting: The ability to grant any number of powers to any being.

Other Powers

Sensing: The ability to magically sense and locate beings anywhere in the world, unless they are dead or in the Underworld.
Regeneration: The ability to instantly heal from injuries.
Reconstitution: The ability to reform the body after being destroyed by explosive powers.
Immunity: The ability to be immune to certain powers, spells or other forms of magic.
Immortality: the abiliy to possess an an infinite lifespan and an arrested aging process.