Siphoner

"At first, I didn't know how to control my powers, but as I got older, I was able to control it. It just takes time and patience." - Liv to Jason about her gift in Life isn't What It Seems.

**Siphoners**, or **Siphons**, are a subsection of witches born without the ability to generate their own magic but do possess a rare power that allows them to siphon magic from other sources and use that magic for their own purposes. They are considered abominations by many witches, specifically the Ember Coven, despite the fact that siphoners are born with these abilities and may face harsh treatment when discovered. They appear to be rare and few in numbers although they are rather controversial because they have the potential to become witch-vampire hybrids.

#### Creation

Very little is known about siphoners, especially with regards to how or why they came into existence. Their conception and birth appear to be the same as that of ordinary witches, given that many siphoners do not know of their true nature until adolescence. In the case of twins, there seem to be no indication that they both must be either siphoners or regular witches, as evidenced by the existence of two sets of twins of the Ember Coven—the twins Cassi and Rachel Michaels were both born as regular witches, whereas their older twin siblings Jo and Tony Katz were born a regular witch and a siphoner, respectively, and the twins Malia and Carly Castro were both born siphoners.

In *Time Will Heal*, the birth of twin siphoners, Malia and Carly Castro, was shown for the first time. It was revealed that siphoners begin to siphon magic from inside their mother's uterus, starting with feeding on very small, almost imperceptible amounts of magic at a time that will grow larger and larger as the pregnancy continues. During the final stages of birth, a surge in siphoning may be observed which may put said mother in danger.

#### 19th Century

Over a course of over a decade in the mid-1800s, a number of siphoners were exiled from the Ember Coven because of the witches belief that they are abominations. These six individuals, eventually calling themselves Heretics, were befriended by Alexander Mason in the late 1800s and she turned them into vampires. As vampires, they discovered that they could siphon the magic holding them alive, becoming witch-vampire hybrids. While on the way to destroy the Ember Coven, they were imprisoned in a prison world by them.

One of the siphoners, Emma Kyle, became a nurse at a sanatorium near Gotham City, where she befriended one of her patients, Alexander Mason, who ultimately died with vampire blood in her system and became a vampire herself. While Alex was learning control over his vampirism, he took Emma under his wing, forming a trio with himself and his lover, Sasha. Shortly afterward, their trio grew larger after a fellow exiled Ember Coven siphoner, Oscar, joined them.

After Emma was sent to check in on Alexander's human son, Stefan Mason, in Gotham City, she ultimately fell in love and had sex with him, resulting in an inadvertent pregnancy. When Sasha learned that Emma intended to leave their family to start a new family with Stefan, she beat her so severely at the harbor that she miscarried and fell unconscious, allowing Sasha to bring her back to Alexander and lie to her about what happened, claiming instead that Emma was mugged and beaten, since he knew that Emma could not expose him without revealing her relationship with Alex's son.

Distraught as a result of Sasha's monstrous acts and her miscarriage, Emma killed herself by overdosing on pills and drowning in the bath, but because Alexander had healed her with vampire blood earlier, she awoke in transition and became a vampire with witch power; the first of her kind. Eventually, Emma and Sasha turned the remaining siphoners, seeing Emma's potential upon realizing that she had retained her ability to practice witchcraft and was now able to draw on her own vampirism as a source of power.

#### 20th Century

In the late 20th century, the Ember Coven was plagued by the birth of another siphoner, Cassi Michaels, the daughter of Coven leader Joshua Michaels and the twin sister of Rachel Michaels, who had been born a regular witch. Because Josette and Malachai were twins, they were set to inherit the leadership of the coven from Joshua, which Joshua and the rest of the family feared due to Kai's emerging signs of sociopathic nature and his siphoning ability giving him an almost guaranteed "win" in the Merge.