Draining Spell

### Effects

Draining Witches and other magical creatures of their magic, resulting in a slow and agonizing death

### Requirements

Nine powerful witches
Eclipse
Coven sigils

## Background information

### First appearance

"Them's the Breaks, Kid" (pictured)
"King's Tide" (debut)

### Last appearance

"Watching and Dreaming" (mentioned)

“
This is worse than we thought.
”

—Raine Whispers, "Them's the Breaks, Kid"

The **Draining Spell** is a powerful spell which is able to drain magic from a large group of Witches and/or Demons who have been branded with a Coven Sigil. This spell is achieved by harnessing the power of a solar eclipse to drain their magic through their Coven Sigil.

The spell was intended to be used by Emperor Belos in an effort to kill all magical beings on the Boiling Isles and the rest of the Demon Realm. However, it backfired once the Collector was freed from his prison by King and stopped the eclipse powering it by moving the moon out of the way of the sun.

## Overview

The Draining Spell is a little-known type of spell, presumably conceived by the Collector and used by Belos in his plans to wipe out all life on the Boiling Isles on the Day of Unity. The spell activates the coven sigils of witches or other magic-wielding beings and drains all of the magic and therefore life force from their body. It needs to drain magic through nine powerful witches in order to work, and the nine coven heads were used for this purpose. The magic is drained upwards into the sky and towards the moon. The Draining Spell used on the Day of Unity would have killed all witches and demons with sigils, judging by the severity of it and the Collector passing down his potent magical knowledge to Belos for many years.

In Belos' memories, Luz and Hunter see a younger Belos, accompanied by a past Golden Guard, branding nine witches with early, non-finalized versions of the sigils, which he then activates, causing them to all collapse to the ground writhing in pain before being rendered unconscious, but not dead. This was highly likely to be an early version of the Draining Spell, which needed more power in order to fully kill its victims.

Before the Day of Unity, Raine Whispers and Darius Deamonne formed the Covens Against the Throne, a secret rebellion group dedicated to stopping Emperor Belos's plans for the Day of Unity. They theorized that the spell could be hijacked by using Eda's owl beast curse in order to corrupt it. On the Day of Unity, using cloaking stones to disguise her as Raine, a newly sigil-branded Eda was stationed in Raine's place on Emperor Belos's spell center.

The coven sigil needs to be on the witch's or demon's body for the Draining Spell to affect them. If their hand, and by extension the sigil is removed, they will be unaffected.

## Background

Emperor Belos was taught the Draining Spell by the Collector sometime in the past, along with powerful magic that made him the strongest witch on the Isles. In exchange, Belos pinky-swore that he would free the Collector from his prison, though he never intended to keep his end of the bargain. In preparation, Belos had the Emperor's Coven restore the Basilisk species and study how they drained magic.

The plans for the Draining Spell first appear when a small abomination created by Darius delivers it to Raine Whispers. According to Darius, the only known way to counter it involves the aid of the Owl Lady, which Raine was against because they wanted to keep Eda away from danger.

When inside Belos' mindscape, Luz and Hunter witness Belos and a prior Golden Guard perform the Draining Spell on Deadwardian Era witches through one of his memories. Upon seeing the witches being overtaken by their new sigils, which causes them to collapse on the ground and nearly kills them, Luz and Hunter react with absolute horror.

On the Day of Unity, Belos, powered by the magic-enhancing properties of the eclipse, casts the spell and causes every witch with a coven brand to have their magic sapped, slowly killing them. However, Belos himself would also experience the effects of the spell when Luz manages to brand the emperor in an attempt to force him to stop it early. However, Belos does not know how to stop the spell, and he turns into his monster form and attacks her instead. The spell was initially deemed as irreversible, but the Collector easily manages to stop it by simply moving the moon out of the eclipse alignment with a flick of his finger.

## Effects

When the Draining Spell was cast, symptoms first manifested in an individual’s coven sigil glowing. Soon after, the veins on their arm would start glowing the same color as their coven, starting from their sigil and gradually progressing up their arm and to their face.

The spell causes immense pain, possibly to the point of paralyzation of the affected body parts. This is notably seen during the fight with Belos, throughout which Hunter uses his right arm less and less as the fight progresses, until he stops using it all together.

As the spell was channeled through the head witches, it seemed to affect them far more severely than the other branded witches. The glowing spread much more quickly on them, and they were rendered immobile much more rapidly. The best comparison can be seen when Hunter attempted to wake Darius; while the glowing veins on Hunter had only spread up his arm, they had nearly overtaken Darius in the same time.

The Draining Spell manifested differently when combined with a curse, as seen with Eda Clawthorne. Instead of draining her magic, the spell instead seemed to disintegrate her entire body, again starting with her branded arm and progressing up her body. When Raine removed her arm, the disintegration stopped, instead fully dissolving her removed arm.

## Trivia

* Although Hunter had no magical abilities, he was still affected by the Draining Spell through his coven sigil.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Zach Marcus (writer) and Bridget Underwood (director) (April 16, 2022). "Them's the Breaks, Kid". *The Owl House*. Season 2. Episode 15. Disney Channel.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Madeleine Hernandez, John Bailey Owen (writers) and Amelia Lorenz (director) (April 23, 2022). "Hollow Mind". *The Owl House*. Season 2. Episode 16. Disney Channel.
3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 Zach Marcus, Dana Terrace (writers) and Bridget Underwood (director) (May 28, 2022). "King's Tide". *The Owl House*. Season 2. Episode 21. Disney Channel.
4. ↑ Emmy Cicierega, Mikki Crisostomo (writers) and Bosook "Bo" Coburn (director) (May 21, 2022). "Clouds on the Horizon". *The Owl House*. Season 2. Episode 20. Disney Channel.
5. ↑ Dana Terrace, Molly Ostertag (writers) and Bo Coburn (director) (August 14, 2021). "Yesterday's Lie". *The Owl House*. Season 2. Episode 10. Disney Channel.