Changes: Siphoning

Revision as of 16:16, 31 March 2020

“	That's exactly what I mean. If Kai gets out, he'll head straight for Jo. His ability to siphon magic will overwhelm Jo, and she will die, and our coven will be left to the whims of a madman.	”
	— Joshua to Damon about the dangers of siphoning in Fade Into You

Siphoning is the distinct ability of Siphoners and witch-vampire hybrids to absorb magic from another source other than themselves, unless they're a hybrid. The source of magic can come from almost anything including other witches or supernatural beings, bound spells, enchanted objects and even vampire blood.

This ability requires physical contact and when activated, it gives off a faint red glow. While in some instances the process of siphoning has been known to cause intense pain, other instances have been painless.

Notable Users

Trivia

Siphoners are the only type of witches who have the potential to be turned into witch-vampire hybrids as they keep their ability to siphon magic after being turned into vampires which allows them to cast magic as vampires.
- As hybrids, their vampirism is a source of power for them to draw from, though that does not make it unlimited, as the magic that sustains their vampirism can be siphoned to the point of death.
  - This was first realized in Postcards from the Edge, when Caroline began to desiccate from her supernatural pregnancy.
  - In One Way or Another, Valerie performed a spell to swap the souls of Stefan and Ambrose, so that Stefan would be reunited with his original body. Valerie claimed that Gemini spells typically require two witches to perform and in doing so on her own, began to suffer physical effects from siphoning in order to execute the spell, such as fatigue and a nose bleed.
  - This was later proven in It's Been a Hell of a Ride, when Kai siphoned Damon until he died.
Siphoners are capable of healing vampires from werewolf bites by siphoning the magic of the werewolf venom from their bodies.
Siphoning, however, has some limits and some magic, such as the Phoenix Sword's ability to cancel out a vampires healing, cannot be siphoned.
- In I Would for You, Valerie tried to siphon the curse mark from Stefan, that was killing him as a result of the "Huntress Fail-safe", on account of Rayna dying, though she was unsuccessful.
  - This may possibly be linked to the fact that the magic that created the Huntress as well as the Phoenix Sword and Stone also gave Rayna immunity to magic itself.
- It's further revealed that siphoners cannot siphon individuals that have ingested the cure, and possibly by extension, Doppelgängers. This was shown in It's Been a Hell of a Ride, when Kai attempted to siphon Stefan, a cured vampire and the last human doppelgänger of Silas.
- It is unknown whether or not a siphoner could siphon the magic of Original vampires in order to kill them given the powerful linking spell that binds their sires to them.
  - This is unlikely as it's suggested by Nora, in Days of Future Past, that Heretics, and by extension siphoners, have limits on how much they can siphon (similar to witches that channel from external sources). Nora states that if Mary Louise attempted to siphon the magic of the Phoenix Stone, it would kill her. Whether it was the overwhelming amount of magic, the resulting explosion, or a combination of both that killed Nora and Mary Louise, remains inconclusive.