Hearts

“	Every world has a source of mystic energy, like the Heart of Kandrakar. Elyon was the Heart of Meridian. With her power, Nerissa's might equals the five of yours combined.	”
	— Himerish to the W.I.T.C.H. about Nerissa and the Heart of Meridian[src]

The term Heart describes a force that was the very mystical essence and source of magic of the very world or realm it originated from.^[1] It could take on a variety of different forms, and it was among the most powerful and revered sources of power across the universe.

A Heart can either be a person - like Elyon, the Heart of Meridian - or a jewel, like the Heart of Kandrakar.

Description

It appears that most of the time, a mystic Heart is found in the form of a living being, as it is for Earth,^[2] Meridian,^[1] and Aridia,^[3] and a few of others took on the form of an external, semi-sentient physical object such as an orbicular crystal (e.g. Heart of Kandrakar^[4][5] and Heart of Zamballa^[6]) or an inanimate pendant (e.g. Elyon's tear-drop jewel^[7]) and were the owners of their own power, but which was controlled by its holder.^[3][1] The owner of any Heart can merge it with another world's Heart and take on its powers, but only if that Heart is given willingly.^[6]

The Hearts and their keepers are often governmental leaders among certain groups of people throughout the Infinite Dimensions, as it is for Meridian and Zamballa. The Guardians are especially noted for having their leader as the Keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar, although it was currently given and returned to the newest Oracle of Kandrakar and a former Guardian of air Yan Lin.

Succession and Transference

Generally, the ownership of any Heart was only transferred to a new holder by their predecessor's deliberate, willing, and conscious consent, and as such it could not be taken by sheer force (with some exceptions),^[1] physically re-attracting^[8] or magically returning to the possession of its then-most recent owner in the event of theft.^[9] If the Heart itself was stripped of their mystical powers by sheer force without their consent, it would most likely be rendered intact or, at the very least, be instantly reabsorbed and returned in its total to the possession of its then-recent true vessel from whom it was taken by force, along with all its features and abilities.

If the owner of a certain world's Heart died or was killed in a premature death with no known successor or heir to the mystical power, it would most likely be eventually permanently transferred and reincarnated into a random newborn creature by a higher force, along with all its features and abilities. However, a former keeper of the heart of Kandrakar was able to retain their spark of the Heart even in death, as Cassidy retained her own spark as a spirit long after she died, and later even passed it on to Will as a replacement.

If the power was contained in an external, physical object such as an orbicular crystal or a tear-drop jewel, the object could be taken by anyone first to claim its ownership.^[10] When Cassidy was killed by a previous keeper of the Heart, Nerissa, in their youth, the Oracle Himerish took the Heart of Kandrakar back upon Cassidy's death before entrusting it to Yan Lin. In the present, Nerissa had threatened to have Kadma killed using her Knights of Destruction, where she then planned to "negotiate" with the Zamballans to transfer ownership of the Heart of Zamballa to her after Kadma's death, but was defeated.^[9] The connection between the two was apparently so strong that it reached across the dimensions^[8] and even if placed somewhere else near out of their hand, it would still be considered the stealth if it was taken by someone else and would return immediately to its true owner.^[11]

Taking a Heart by force

Whether Hearts can be taken by force or permission is a tricky subject. A lot of mystic energy from the Heart of Kandrakar was used to keep the veil in place, therefore, the Heart could be taken by force as it was weaker, and the Guardians' own elemental and other abilities were considerably weakened and/or undeveloped. When the veil was taken down and all the energy it required to sustain itself returned to the Heart and the aurameres, permission was re-required to take the Heart of Kandarakar, and the Guardians were granted the full power granted to guardians prior to the raising of the veil.

The Keeper of the Heart needed to be careful in advance about what they do and even what they say, even if unaware that they truly possessed any real power and believed it to be a mere bedtime story. For instance, Elyon was tricked into willingly accepting a tear-drop jewel from her mother's crown that succeeded in gradually absorbing all her magic which she unknowingly involuntarily surrendered after willingly angrily rejecting and returning the jewel to Nerissa, and Lilian herself was unknowingly tricked into giving her power to her three regents while under the guise of a bedtime story and without realizing the truth about her destiny and powers.

There existed a few exceptions in which a certain world's Heart could be taken without the consent of its then-recent owner(s). For instance, the power of the Heart of Meridian was generally only inherited by a legitimate first-born female heir to the Meridian throne at birth but could still only be forcibly taken by a fellow legitimate heir.^[12][3] By destroying the true Heart's familiar on Halloween, the power of the Heart of Earth could be transfered to the killer of the familiar.^[13] Lastly if an inanimate Heart posseessed a mind and sentience of its own, a Heart could sever its bond with the current Keeper overtime and transfer itself to the ownership of another suitable keeper.

This generally occured by directly magically teletransporting itself to the possession of its most recent keeper.^[9] The connection between the two was apparently so strong that it reached across the dimemsions^[8] and even if placed somewhere else near out of their hand, it would still be considered stealing if it was taken by someone else and would return immediately to its true owner.^[11]

List of Hearts

Heart of Kandrakar

Main article: Heart of Kandrakar

The Heart of Kandrakar is the mystical Heart of the planet Kandrakar, the realm at the center of the universe that is home to the Oracle, whose job it is to look over the universe and protect it from evil, such as when the Council of Kandrakar raised the Veil to protect other dimensions from the threats like Prince Phobos and Nerissa.

The Heart of Kandrakar is a living and feeling entity. Therefore, the Heart of Kandrakar has to choose its Keeper, whereas the Oracle can choose the Guardians.^[14] The Heart can make errors of judgement in its choosing, like any human, as it chose Nerissa to be its Keeper. An Oracle cannot take the Heart away without permission, but if the Heart itself longs for a new Keeper, the bond is broken between Keeper and Heart, and the Oracle can decide on a new Keeper.^{[citation needed]} According to Cassidy, the Heart leaves a "spark" of itself in its every Keeper upon being passed to the next Keeper,^[15][16][17] and Cassidy's own spark was later absorbed into the Heart itself.^[18]

Heart of Meridian

Main article: Light of Meridian

The Heart of Meridian is the mystical Heart of the planet Meridian. The Heart is a genetically passed position given to the females of the royal family that ruled Meridian for generations.^[19]

Queen Elyon is the current Heart of Meridian and the rightful ruler of her homeworld. When Nerissa drained her power into a jewel, it became the new physical embodiment of the Heart of Meridian.^[7]

Heart of Earth

Main article: Heart of Earth

The Heart of Earth is the mystical Heart of the planet Earth. Lilian Hale, Cornelia's younger sister, is the Heart of Earth. It was decided that Lilian was too young to have the power as it was beyond her control, so Cornelia and Matt Olsen convinced Lilian (via a bedtime story) to give her powers to her Regents of Earth, who were Matt, Mr. Huggles and her cat, Napoleon.^[2]

Heart of Aridia

Main article: Heart of Aridia

The Heart of Aridia appeared when Nerissa tried to take a third Heart. The Heart of Aridia is a giant rock being who can speak, feel, think, and move.^[3] As the Heart of Aridia does not show anything from his power, it is unknown what kind of abilities he had.

Heart of Zamballa

Main article: Heart of Zamballa

The Heart of Zamballa, like the Heart of Kandrakar, is a jewel but is shown to be a partially living being. Kadma consistently talked to the Heart, asking to be lent its power and to help "their" subjects, even occasionally asking for advice. The Heart, alike the Heart of Kandrakar, has its own spirit, and is the owner of its own power, but is controlled by its holder.^[20][6]

The Heart of Zamballa was held by Kadma, and was later passed on to Ironwood.^[21]

Other Hearts

Seal of Nerissa

Main article: Seal of Nerissa

The Seal of Nerissa is a combination of the Hearts of Meridian and Zamballa, focusing great power when Nerissa combined both stolen hearts. It was created when Kadma stole the Heart of Meridian and merged it with the Heart of Zamballa after Will refused to absorb the Heart of Meridian. However, as the Heart of Meridian was stolen rather than given away, the Heart returned to Nerissa, who called the combined Heart, the Seal of Nerissa.^[6] Nerissa tried to add Lilian's Heart of Earth,^[2] Heart of Aridia to her Seal but failed.^[3] Will discovered that they can't take the Seal because of the Heart of Meridian was given to Nerissa freely, so she freed Phobos since he can take it and bend the rule.^[3]

Nerissa then absorbed the previous Guardians into a tear-drop jewel inside the Seal after they snapped out of her control. This allowed the Seal to have all the Guardians' powers.^[3] On Halloween, Phobos succeeded in tricking Nerissa and grabbing the Seal from her at the stroke of midnight, imprisoning her inside his family's treasure jewel alongside the remaining C.H.Y.K.N. members and his little sister Elyon^[22] and renamed it the Sceptre of Phobos.^[23] After retaking Meridian and violating the terms of his binding magical oath to the W.I.T.C.H., Phobos set his sights on Kandrakar, and was on the verge of taking it and surrendering all the collected power when he was tricked and betrayed by Lord Cedric, who swallowed him whole, thus gaining his powers for his own.^[24] After Cedric's defeat, Phobos was brought back up and the Seal was also broken, separating into a tear-drop jewel and the Heart of Zamballa. C.H.Y.K.N. and Elyon managed to escape, however, Nerissa couldn't since she didn't put herself in harmony with the others.^[25]

Trivia

• The only Heart to appear outside of the TV series is the Heart of Kandrakar, a pendant that allows W.I.T.C.H. to transform.
• As they did not debut in the TV series and were exclusive to the comics, it was not known what kind of Hearts belonged to the realms such as Arkhanta, Basiliade, Fast World, and Nune-Boreal.
• Dialogue in season 2 implied that some hearts are stronger than others. An example would be the strength of the Heart of Meridian being more than the Heart of Zamballa, meaning an heir to the Meridian throne could still take the seal by force even though the Heart of Zamballa alone cannot be taken by force.

References