The Charmed Sisters
Membership: Piper Halliwell (played by Holly Marie Combs); Phoebe Halliwell (played by Alyssa Milano); Prue Halliwell (deceased; played by Shannen Doherty); Paige Matthews-Halliwell (played by Rose McGowan)
Purpose: Defend the innocent from the dark side of magic, using the power of three
Affiliations: P3 Night Club (owners); 415 Magazine; South Bay Social Services; Leo Wyatt and Chris Perry Halliwell (White lighters); the Elders
Enemies: Evil witches, Warlocks, Demons, the Triad, the Source, evil in any form.
Base of Operations: Halliwell Manor, San Francisco, California
First Appearance: Prue, Piper, Phoebe - Charmed #1 "Something Wicca This Way Comes" (WB, October 1998)
Paige - Charmed #67 "Charmed Again" (WB, 2001)
History: The history of the Charmed Ones goes all the way back to their ancestor, Melinda Warren, a witch around the time of the Salem Witch Hunts. Melinda possessed the power to stop time, the ability to move things with her mind, and the ability to have visions of the past and the future. As she was burned, she prophesised that, at some future date, three sisters, Melinda's descendants, would be born, their combined powers being greater than those of any witches from before. Each one would possess one of Melinda's three powers, but, although each sister would possess great powers by themselves, together, as the Charmed Ones, no evil known to the world could stand against them.
This prophecy eventually came to pass almost three centuries after Melinda's time, with the three Halliwell sisters moving into their gandmother's manor after her death. The youngest sister, Phoebe, found the Book of Shadows, a book containing all the spells and potions written by their ancestors, and cast a spell that awakened their long-dormant powers- although the sisters had possessed their powers since birth, Grams had surpressed their powers in order to ensure that the girls wouldn't grow up in constant fear of getting attacked.
Initially, the sisters each had a separate ability - Prue was telekinetic, Piper could freeze time, and Phoebe had visions of the past and future. In time these powers grew. Prue gained the ability to project her mind far away from her body, Piper gained the ability to blow things up as well as freeze them, and Phoebe acquired the power of levitation, as well as starting to take self defense classes to compensate for her lack of any offensive magical powers.
A White lighter (a being that protects and heals witches) named Leo was sent to the Halliwells as their protector. Leo had been a soldier in WWII, dying in the Battle of Guadalcanal. He fell in love with Piper, despite the fact that unions between witches and Whitelighters were expressly forbidden. However, the Elders decided to allow the union so long as it didn't prevent Piper from fulfilling her destiny to save innocents.
Phoebe's path to romance was not as easy as her sister's; she fell in love with a half-demon called Cole, aka Belthazor, sent to kill Charmed Ones by hi masters, the Triad. However, he likewise fell in love with her, and rejected his mission. The relationship went fairly well at first, despite a brief crisis where Cole was nearly killed but instead turned human, but then he became the new Source (of all evil) in a complicated chain of circumstances. Fortunately, despite his newfound indestructibility, his reign was finally ended when he tried to change history to be with Phoebe, resulting in him reverting back into Belthazor, and thus able to be vanquished.
Prue, on the other hand, didn't have much luck with romance at all; her first real love, Andy Trudeau, was killed by a demon in her first year of being a witch, and, a couple of years later, Prue was killed by Shax, a demon assassin sent by the Source. She and Piper were thrown through a wall; although Leo managed to heal Piper, but he didn't have the time to save Prue as well. (In reality creative differences caused Doherty to leave the show).
A half sister, Paige, the result of another union between their mother and a White Lighter called Sam Wilder, was discovered; as a child she had been given up for adoption to conceal her from the Elders, due to the forbidden nature of her parent's union. Her sisters activated her powers as a witch, and she joined the new Power of Three (Admittedly with slightly altered powers- the Whitelighter part of her makes her ability to move things with her mind work very differently than it did for Prue.)
Piper and Leo now have a baby, the first boy in the family for three centuries, named Wyatt Matthew Halliwell. Another White lighter, Chris, was sent to watch over the sisters due to this. Not even a year old yet, Wyatt already appears to possess some incredible powers, including the ability to set up a force field around himself that could only be penetrated by those he loves or trusts- and, of course, the various assorted powers of his parents and aunts.
At the present time, the sisters live in Halliwell Manor, and continue to fight the good fight.
Comments: More detailed individual files to follow.
Thanks to Josh Geren for contributing most of this profile, and to David Spence for additional information.
CLARIFICATIONS: None.
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
All images and characters depicted on this site are copyright their respective holders, and are used for informational purposes only. No infringement is intended and copyrights remain at source.