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Darklighters are a breed of magical beings that can be considered the evil counterparts to Whitelighters. The primary goal of all Darklighters is to kill Whitelighters in order to make good witches more vulnerable to the attack of evil, as well as to kill mortals destined to become Whitelighters before they can "earn their wings". In addition, Darklighters often work as hired guns or mercenaries to upper-level demons and the leaders of the Underworld.

Darklighters possess the ability to teleport through black orbs. Their preferred weapon is a deadly crossbow that can fire arrows coated in a poison lethal to Whitelighters, the Elders and Whitelighter-Witches. Additionally, they possess a Touch of Death, which they can use to instantly kill their victims with a touch.

Types of Darklighters[]

TrackersPage

Trackers page from the book.

Besides the standard "assassin" type of Darklighter, who strive to kill Whitelighters to leave their charges vulnerable or to kill Future Whitelighters before they can earn their wings, there are four other known types of Darklighters.

  • One type of Darklighter spreads evil through procreation, by seducing innocent mortal women and tricking them into bearing their progeny, similar to an incubus. It is against the rules to tell these women about who they truly are, so it is presumed that the women are abandoned once a child is produced.[1]
  • Spirit Killers are Darklighters that seek to drive paragons of good to suicide and prevent them from achieving their destiny. They curse their victims with bad luck and manipulate them into a depression before driving them to suicide. This type of Darklighter is particularly known for targeting Future Whitelighters to prevent them from fullfilling their calling, as suicide would deny them the chance.[2]
  • Trackers are a powerful breed of Darklighters who hunt Whitelighters that are about to "lose their wings". They are more powerful than regular Darklighters and are often rogues that only answer to themselves. Trackers can be recognized by tribal tattoos on their face.[3]
  • A fourth type of Darklighter was only seen in a parallel universe where moralities were reversed. Instead of being Whitelighters in this world, Sam Wilder and Leo Wyatt were Darklighters, leading to the birth of Darklighter-Witches Paige, Wyatt and Chris. Aside from their wiccan powers, they seemingly possessed the abilities of a standard Darklighter.[4]

Appendices[]

Book of Shadows[]

Darklighters[]

Darklighters are on a mission to kill Whitelighters, which
leaves their charges vulnerable to attack by the forces of evil. They can orb
through a process known as black orbing, and some can inflict a touch of
death, in contrast to a Whitelighter's healing power. A Darklighter's crossbow
is armed with arrows covered in a poison lethal to Whitelighters.[5]

Spells[]

To Summon a Darklighter[]

Ixo Mende Layto Sempar.

Vanquishing[]

  • Darklighters are not invulnerable and are thus open to many ways of being vanquished. Previous methods used were potions, athames, energy balls and deadly Wiccan powers such as Molecular Combustion.
  • Darklighters also appear to be susceptible to their own Darklighter arrows. However, some Darklighters are shown to be able to survive one of their own arrows, although it depends on the strength of the Darklighter and if the arrow struck a vital point in the body.

Significant Darklighters[]

  • Alec: The first Darklighter encountered by the Charmed Ones. Alec fell in love with a mortal woman named Daisy, who he was assigned to impregnate. He was killed by Prue who switched powers with him and killed him with his own Touch of Death.
  • Spirit Killer: He tried to make Maggie Murphy kill herself by cursing her with bad luck and manipulating her. He then tried to drive Prue to kill herself after she intervened, but was orbed away by Leo.
  • Ronan: A Tracker Darklighter blessed by Cole with additional powers. He was used by Cole in an attempt to get the Charmed Ones to vanquish him. He was later vanquished by Cole with an energy ball.
  • Damien: Damien was a Darklighter who was sent by Gideon to kill Leo. He was vanquished by his leader with a poison arrow in order to keep him from revealing that Gideon sent him.
  • Unnamed Darklighter Leader: He was recruited by Gideon to kill Leo, and later ordered to assassinate Damien when Phoee and Paige rescued Leo and Piper from their imprisonment.
  • East Coast Darklighter: Recruited to participate in the gameshow Witchwars. The Darklighter injured Chris and killed a witch named Tali, and tried kill a Shapeshifter who was going after Phoebe. He was killed by the game master, Corr.
  • Salek: An upper-level Darklighter shown to have trained new Darklighters, including Sid. He was blown up by Piper after mortally wounding Paige and killing her charge. However, Paige's charge became a Whitelighter and saved Paige with her new healing power.
  • Rennek: A powerful darklighter and a long-time rival of Leo. He was first working with Neena, but later became a threat on his own by obtaining powerful artifacts and altering reality to grant magic to mortals. He was vanquished by Prue.
  • Wyatt Halliwell: When the future version of Wyatt was evil, he displayed the ability to teleport through black orbs like a Darklighter instead of the regular blue orbs.
  • Evil Counterparts: The counterparts of Gideon, Leo, Paige, Wyatt and Chris in the parallel world where all shown to be pure or part-Darklighters.

Powers and Abilities[]

Active Powers
  • Black Orbing: The ability to teleport through the use of black orbs.
  • Apportation: The ability to transport an object or person through planes from place to place. Darklighters most prominently use this power whenever they summon their crossbows and arrows, whose poison is lethal to all Whitelighters and Elders.
  • Touch of Death: The ability to incinerate and kill beings with a touch.
  • Sensing: The ability to sense the location of other beings.
  • Voice Manipulation: The ability to alter one's voice to sound like another or add an echo to one's voice when angered.
Other Powers
  • High Resistance: The ability to be highly resistant to other beings' powers and magic and survive otherwise lethal attacks.
  • Immortality: The ability to possess an infinite lifespan and an arrested aging process.

Notes and Trivia[]

  • All Darklighters that have appeared on the show have been male, with the exception of Evil Paige Matthews from the Parallel World. However, even she wasn't a full Darklighter, but a half-witch.
  • It has been shown by adult Wyatt that when Whitelighter-Witches become evil, their orbs turn black, similar to orbs possessed by Darklighters.[6]
    • It should be noted however when Paige is supposedly turned evil in "12 Angry Zen", her orbs don't turn black as shown when she uses her teleorbing power, the color of her orbs remains the same. The reason for this inconsistency is unknown.
    • In addition, Eames, being an evil being, also moves blue orbing, not black.
  • A Darklighter was the last evil being to be shown vanquished on the show.[7]
  • The term "Darklighter" is contradictory as darkness is defined as the absence of light.
    • Paige's charge Mikelle once referred to them as "Blacklighters" in "The Jung and the Restless", but Paige corrected her.
    • It is also curious that their teleportation is called "black orbing", although their orbs always have a predominantly dark blue color.
  • It's shown in both "The Jung and the Restless", "Witch Wars", and "The Courtship of Wyatt's Father" that Darklighters have a forge where they create their crossbows and arrows.
  • Darklighters are apparently not considered demons, since they've been referred to separately and the Darklighters in "The Jung and the Restless" complained about being second class to demons in the Underworld.
  • The origin of Darklighters hasn't been established. In "Love Hurts", it was said that some Darklighters seduce mortal women to reproduce their own kind, which means that future Darklighters are born full-blooded like warlocks and witches, despite one human parent.
  • According to Leo, Darklighters are not able to orb something or someone.[8] This means that, unlike the Elders and Whitelighter-Witches, who can develop Telekinetic Orbing and Remote Orbing, they are not capable of their evil counterpart powers.
    • Rennek became an exception to the rule: When his powers increased due to the influence of the Source, he was able to develop Remote Black Orbing.
  • In the reboot the Darklighters are very different: they are the evil side of Whitelighters that are extracted when people become Whitelighters. This ensures that they look the same as their counterparts and that when one of them dies, the other dies along.

Appearances[]

Darklighters have appeared in a total of 14 episodes throughout the course of the series and a total of 15 issues of the comics.


References[]

  1. As seen in "Love Hurts"
  2. As seen in "Murphy's Luck"
  3. As seen in "Sam, I Am"
  4. As seen in "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World, Part 1" and "Part 2"
  5. The Sourcebook
  6. As seen in "Imaginary Fiends".
  7. As seen in the flash-forward at the end of "Forever Charmed".
  8. "Family Shatters"
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