Burned Ones

A Burned One blasted with fire magic

> There is a legend. It's a thousand years old. That's how old the Burned Ones are, by the way. They were soldiers from an ancient war. The legend is about the magic used against them. It created them. It's powerful. It's primal. The Dragon Flame. It burns inside our changeling friend.
>
> Rosalind Hale to Farah Dowling, A Fanatic Heart

The **Burned Ones** are monstrous creatures that were created a thousand years ago from the Dragon Flame. They terrorized the Otherworld for millennia until the last of them were vanquished by Bloom Peters in the modern era.

## Overview

The Burned Ones are scorched humanoid figures with visible rib cages and eyes that glow red. They are incapable of human speech and roar when attacking their victims. Burned Ones are particularly vicious and try to kill every living being they come into contact with, mutilating the bodies they leave in their wake. However, if the wielder of the Dragon Flame is close by, the Burned Ones will actively pursue them instead of any other people in its path, as they are instinctively aware that the Dragon Flame created them and has the power to destroy them.

Burned Ones can morph their left arms into the shape of a sharp appendage that can pierce the skin and inflict venomous wounds. Individuals who become infected by a Burned One attack will have visible black veins protruding on their bodies, and their eyes change to a bright blue color. Their behavior will slowly become more rabid and violent until they succumb to the fatal effects of the infection. A potion made from Zanbaq flowers can be used to treat the infection and manage the symptoms, but the only way to fully cure the affliction is to kill the Burned One responsible for wounding the individual.

While Burned Ones have superhuman durability that make them resistant to direct attacks from fire magic, they are susceptible to other forms of fairy magic. Light Fairies can obscure a Burned One's vision with a blinding light, Earth Fairies can temporarily bind them with vines,, Mind Fairies can probe their memories, and Water Fairies can summon a powerful stream of water to push them away. Additionally, Zanbaq oil is effective in rendering a Burned Ones unconscious for a few hours.

The Burned Ones possess a magical core known as a cinder, and destroying it is the only foolproof method of killing a Burned One. This can be done either by directly impaling the Burned One in the cinder with a sharp object or by focusing fire magic into the cinder and exploding it from within. When the magic of the Dragon Flame is used against the Burned Ones, their cinders are ripped from their bodies and they revert to their original human forms.

## Background

A thousand years ago, the Dragon Flame was used to transform soldiers from an ancient war into the Burned Ones. A fairy baby who inherited the Dragon Flame was placed in stasis by her mother so that she would not have to bear the burden of controlling that great power. As the Dragon Flame lie dormant for one thousand years, the Burned Ones roamed the Otherworld and terrorized its inhabitants.

In the 21st century, a powerful fairy by the name of Rosalind Hale hunted the Burned Ones with help from her allies: fairies Farah Dowling and Ben Harvey, as well as Specialists Saul Silva and Andreas. They killed many Burned Ones over the years, notably in events called the Black Woods Massacre and an excursion to Maravet Falls. Saul stated his personal kill count to be thirteen with help from his allies. On one particular mission, they were able to defeat a Burned One in two minutes, fifteen seconds - their fastest record yet. Ben dissected its remains in order to learn more about it.

In 2004, the Burned Ones surrounded the village of Aster Dell in Solaria when they sensed that the Dragon Flame had reawakened. A Blood Witch had found the fairy baby who held the Dragon Flame and brought her to Aster Dell in order to harness its power against the fairies. However, Rosalind had also learnt of the child's existence and took her away from the Blood Witches of Aster Dell. She left the child in the First World as a changeling, under the care of a human couple who named her Bloom Peters. Rosalind then seized the opportunity to destroy both the Burned Ones and the Blood Witches together. She withheld the fact that Aster Dell was home to Blood Witches and told her allies the village was evacuated. Then, Rosalind convinced Farah and Ben to combine their magic with hers, conjuring a powerful lightning storm that obliterated Aster Dell. This killed the Blood Witches and the Burned Ones present at the attack, but it didn't eradicate them entirely from the Otherworld. A few Burned Ones still remained, but they became inactive for the next sixteen years.

## *Fate: The Winx Saga*

### Season 1

In "To the Waters and the Wild," a single Burned One kills a shepherd not far from the barrier protecting Alfea.

During Specialist training, Saul Silva reprimands Dane for laughing at his lecture. He explains that the barrier exists to protect the school from Burned Ones, and that he is lucky never to have seen one and have the privilege of being so "soft." At this point, no one Dane's age has ever witnessed a Burned One. Silva says that he was 10 years old when he saw one for the first time with his father, who shot the creature twice. It did not die, instead killing his father.

Meanwhile, Riven discovers the shepherd's mutilated body. Farah Dowling, Saul Silva, and Ben Harvey investigate and determine the likely cause of death. They lament that it has been 16 years since anyone has seen a Burned One, and believed that Rosalind had killed them all.

As Bloom returns from her trip to Gardenia, a Burned One finds her in the passage between worlds, attacks her, and takes Stella's ring. Dowling finds her and intervenes as Bloom runs away. Dowling chains the Burned One in a barn outside the barrier, hoping to read its thoughts and determine if this ordeal was an isolated incident or something more. She believes that her finding a changeling 16 years ago around the time the last Burned One was spotted is connected to the events going on now.

The Burned Ones follow Bloom away from Alfea's courtyard and attack her. She manages to fight them all off using her magic. They fall around her, and are seen transforming back into humans in death.

After Bloom kills the Burned Ones attacking Alfea, Dowling buries them on the grounds, later stating "It seemed fitting seeing as they were clearly human at one time." Rosalind reveals to Farah Dowling that according to a thousand year old legend, the Burned Ones were once human soldiers from an ancient war. A magic known as the Dragon Flame was used against them, turning the soldiers into the Burned Ones. She explains that the same magic "burns inside" Bloom, which is why she was able to transform, and presumably why the Burned Ones she killed reverted to human form. Rosalind also states that there are a "shit ton" of Burned Ones left and that there is a war coming with an enemy far worse than the Burned Ones.

## Trivia

* The Burned Ones may have been inspired by the Army of Darkness  from *Winx Club*. The Army of Darkness can only be conjured and controlled by wielders of the Dragon Flame, where they were used as foot soldiers in a magical war in the first season. The only difference is that the Army of Darkness are purely monstrous creatures, while the Burned Ones were humans who were transformed into monsters.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Season 1, Episode 6: *A Fanatic Heart*
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Season 1, Episode 3: *Heavy Mortal Hopes*
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Season 1, Episode 2: *No Strangers Here*
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Season 1, Episode 1: *To the Waters and the Wild*
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Season 1, Episode 5: *Wither Into The Truth*
6. ↑ Season 2, Episode 7: *All the Wild Witches*
7. ↑ Season 2, Episode 5: *Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?*