The Charmed Ones (Remake-verse)

"You are the Charmed Ones; the most powerful trio of witches."

- Harry, to Macy, Mel and Maggie.

The Charmed Ones are a prophesied sisterhood of three witches who descend from the Gavilán line of witches. They are known as the most powerful witches ever to walk the Earth and are dedicated to protecting the innocent and ridding the world of evil. Each Charmed One has one specific power inherited from their ancestor, Antonia Gavilán de Logroño; the prophecy states that the eldest has the power to move things with her mind, the middle sister can freeze time, and the youngest can see into the future. The magical bond between these sisters is known as The Power of Three, and is said to be the strongest form of magic in the world. It is represented by the ancient symbol called the Triquetra.

The Spanish Inquisition
The witch trials of the Inquisition was an era of bloodshed and darkness, for both witches and vampires. In western Europe there was a faction of aggressive vampires, known as ticks, who were not content to hunt from outside human society. Embedding themselves wherever human weakness made it advantageous to their agenda, the state of things in Spain in the Middle Ages provided one such opportunity. One of the architects of this plan, dun Santiago, delighted in a fear-based quality of feeding. He and his devotees devised famous torture devices employed by the Spanish Inquisition, all in the name of turning their victims into human cattle.

In 1610, Santiago and his followers eventually encountered a complication in their feeding routine when they stumbled across a witch named Antonia Gavilán de Logroño. While most of the so-called magic practitioners condemned during the Inquisition were not witches, just women hand-selected by the vampire priests to be terrorized and fed upon, Antonia had been a necromancer. Even though her actions (e.g. healing the sick or giving comfort to the dying) posed no threat, the vampires decided to dispatch her before she became one. Antonia ultimately formed a bond with her fellow prisoners, expanding the reach of her power, and when she was to be burnt at the stake, she cast a spell that forced all the vampires of the area to walk into the daylight, dying in the process. This momentary distraction not only persecuted her captors, but also gave time for her fellow prisoners and young daughter to escape from the confines of their cell.

Before she has died, Antonia received a psychic vision of the future and prophesied that each generation of the Gavilán line would grow stronger and stronger, finally culminating in the arrival of three sisters, which would be known as the Charmed Ones. Reassured her daughter would escape and be looked after, Antonia died in peace.

The Arrival of the Sisters
Marisol Vera, a powerful witch and descendant of Antonia Gavilán de Logroño, became pregnant by her mortal lover Dexter Vaughn. Macy was born November 20, 1991, but died shortly thereafter when a parasitic demon drained her life force. Marisol tried several methods to revive her daughter, but failed every time. Stealing the Scythe of Tartarus in order to free a necromancer named Knansie, Marisol made a pact to resurrect Macy. Due to the pact Marisol was forced to make with Knansie, to resurrect someone she loved, someone else she loved would have to die. Initially intent on sacrificing her own life, Marisol was told by Knansie that the sacrifice need not be literal in the sense of bloodshed, but instead could be something just as precious — her happy family. Promising to disband her family met the terms of her pact, and a shaken Dexter departed with Macy immediately and relocated to New York. While Dexter still loved Marisol, the threat of the supernatural world was too much for him to handle and he scarcely kept in contact with Marisol out of fear for Macy's safety.

At some point prior to Macy's death, Marisol cast a spell to bind Macy's powers for her protection and to make her relatively unnoticeable to most supernatural threats.

About two years later, Marisol began a relationship with Ramone Maharaj an occult detective from Spain. Together they had two daughters, Melanie (born circa 1997) and Margarita (born circa 1999). Upon uncovering that her daughters were the Charmed Ones, Marisol bound Mel and Maggie's powers to protect them and let them lead normal lives, not informing them of their older sister Macy. While Marisol wanted to raise her daughters as ordinary humans, Ramone was dead-set on raising them as witches to continue his family's legacy of dealing with supernatural threats. Unaware that his daughters were the prophesied Charmed Ones, a frustrated Ramone was driven out of the family by Marisol when Maggie turned five.

Powers and Abilities
As inborn witches, the Charmed Ones have a natural affinity for the mystic arts. Unlike most humans, who can only perform magic after extensive training, the Charmed Ones were born with innate magical potential that enabled them to cast powerful spells, such as stripping another person's magical powers using a Vortex Viribus, while unaware they were doing so. Even without training, they could trigger the inherent magic in a Book of the Damned page without endangering their own souls as most other users would. After brief self-tutelage, the Charmed Ones could project mystic energy from their hands, perform minor chemical alterations, and act as a channel and magnifier for the mystic energy of others.

The Charmed Ones' innate sense and supernaturally enhanced vision enables them to see through magical illusions and disguises; detect cases of demonic or mystic possession; see demonic or mystical energy auras at a distance; detect and avoid invisible mystical traps and alarms; and perceive faeries, who normally must otherwise reveal themselves to ordinary humans.

Unique Powers
Aside from the basic abilities derived from an understanding of witchcraft, each Charmed One possesses separate arcane abilities which are destined to grow and advance over the years. These powers are linked to each other, which is how their advancements are 'selected'. Each Charmed One possesses one of Antonia Gavilán de Logroño's powers (more commonly referred to as "The Gavilán Powers") and are given by seniority; Telekinesis, Temporal Stasis and Precognition, respectively.

The Power of Three
The Charmed Ones possess a unique magical connection with one another, rooted in their bond as sisters and as a family. As a collective, their powers were tied to each other and they were at their most powerful when working as one force. However, as a collective they suffered from the drawback that one death weakened the collective as a whole. They normally pool their collective powers together by linking hands and chanting spells together, although the latter is not always necessary as long as all three sisters are together for the spells to work.

Weaknesses

 * Distraction: Denying a magician from concentrating or giving full attention to their spells, may render them ineffective. Since most spells are spoken verbally and take time to take effect, magicians are vulnerable to attack before their completion. Additionally, certain spells require items, tools, and/or special events during casting, therefore they can't be invoked on mere whim.
 * Emotions: Due to the fact that their supernatural powers are linked to their emotions, when one of the sisters becomes emotionally distressed, her powers will be affected. If all three sisters are distressed at the same time, their combined magic (The Power of Three) will be weakened. Since the Book of Shadows is also linked to the sisters' bond, when their combined magic is weakened, so is the power of their book. This makes the book vulnerable to evil.
 * Herbs: Ingestion of certain herbs can cause a magician to lose consciousness and prevent them from using magic for an undetermined amount of time. Being descendants of the Homo magi, the Lobelia flower can temporarily neutralize the sister's magic and be used to weaken them as one would weaken a vampire with nightshade.
 * Iron: As with all human sorcerers, the Charmed Ones' magical powers are blocked, or at the very least dampened, when they are bound by iron.
 * Magic: The Charmed Ones are still susceptible to the powers of magic. This is inclusive of mystical objects such as the Prism of Souls, Amulet of the Archangels, and Dark Objects. A skilled magic user can siphon the magic from a sorcerer and prolonged exposure may lead to death.
 * Mortality: Despite their mystical attributes, the Charmed Ones are still human and share many of the same weaknesses as non-supernatural beings (e.g. decapitation, disease, heart-failure, suffocation, snapped neck, etc.). However, they can temporarily get around this weakness through the use of protection spells. Being Homo magi, the Charmed Ones cannot be drowned.
 * Overexertion: The Charmed One's magical powers increase if not used, but overuse can deplete them to the point that further use strains their physical well-being and this leaves them mystically debilitated for an extended period of time; as with other magical users, the most common way to restore their waning powers is an extended period of rest or by draining magical energy from other sources to replenish their own reserves.