PRUE HALLIWELL
Real Name: Prudence "Prue" Halliwell
Occupation: Witch/Sorceress, Photojournalist, former Antique Appraiser and Museum Assistant,
Place of Birth: possibly San Francisco, California
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Victor Bennett (father), Patricia (mother, "Patty"), Piper, Phoebe (sisters), Paige (half-sister), Allen (grandfather, deceased), Penelope (grandmother, "Grams," deceased), Leo (brother-in-law), Wyatt, Christopher (nephews),
Base of Operations: San Francisco, California
First Appearance: Charmed TV-Series (Episode: "Something Wicca This Way Comes")
History: Prudence Halliwell is a descendant of a long line of witches, sorcerers and practitioners of the mystical arts. Her family has used their knowledge of magic in protecting the Earthly realm from dangerous and negative forces and often in investigating and researching other individuals with a proclivity to magic. However, due to the persecution of other witches and sorcerers in the history of Earth, the family eventually chose to conceal their magic from the general public. It has been suggested that the family line chose their name from the city of Halliwell in Lancashire, England, but this is uncertain.
Prue is the daughter of Patricia Halliwell and Victor Halliwell. Patricia's mother, Penelope, was a full-practicing witch who often sold good luck charms and New Age relics as well as using her witchcraft to ward off demons and beings with dark desires from doing harm to others, possibly lending her experience to paranormal researchers. Prue and her sisters, Piper and Phoebe, inherited her mystical proclivities, which often manifested as low-level psychokinesis, but after Patty lost her life against a demonic threat, Penelope used a spell to suppress Prue's powers and that of her sisters and remove their memories of them to protect them from a warlock named Nicholas hoping to exploit them.
As an adult, Prue was extremely sensitive over her mother's death, becoming unable to form emotional relationships with others. Despite her relationship with her father, she was embittered by his choice to leave her and her sisters with her grandmother in the aftermath of Patty's death. She learned to look after and care for her sisters from a very early age, becoming exceedingly responsible and taking a surrogate-maternal role in their development. Penelope, named "Grams" by the girls, often used magic to protect the girls, going so far as to mystically warding off a neighborhood boy named Andrew Trudreau from trying to date her, possibly to keep Prue and her sisters on a path toward a destiny she had planned for them.
Penelope felt Prue, Piper and Phoebe were meant to be "The Charmed Ones," a trinity of white witches whose powers in union were more powerful than any other witch, wizard or sorcerer in eradicating evil in the Earthly dimension. Determined in keeping the sisters together to fulfill this destiny, she struggled to keep the sisters together in her house, even as Prue and Phoebe continued to be at odds with each other. However, shortly before Prue was to marry Roger Prince, her boyfriend and employer at the San Francisco Museum of Natural History, Penelope passed away from a cardiac arrest. Her death broke the spells hindering Prue, Piper and Phoebe's prohibited mystical potential, and the girls started regaining their mystical abilities.
In the beginning, Prue's mystical powers were almost entirely psychokinetic and telekinetic in nature while Piper could distort reality to allow her to "stop time" and Phoebe had momentary precognitive visions, but over time and with practice using Penelope's research and spell books, they became much more adept as witches. Nicholas returned trying to take possession of them, but the Halliwells defeated him, along with other covens and mystic clans trying to seize their mystical research. Their victories allowed them to bond together better as sisters, and while Prue was reluctant to the idea of being a witch, she, Piper and Phoebe learned to embrace it, especially after Phoebe forced her to acknowledge her buried emotions which gave her greater control over her power than before. Meanwhile, Prue became increasing frustrated with Roger flirting with her sisters, and cancelled their engagement, breaking off her relationship with him.
Prue's secret life as a witch and her responsibilities had constant strains on her public life and subsequent job at the Buckland Auction House. Her position there tended to result in her encountering ghosts and other beings, and she went on to acquire a job as a photojournalist at 415 Magazine, becoming one of their top photographers. Meanwhile, Andrew turned up in her life as police officer and trying to re-spark their friendship into a relationship, but he lost his life after learning she was a witch. His death stayed a constant reminder in her life, and although she had numerous male admirers in her life, none of them materialized into long-lasting relationships. As the Charmed Ones, Prue, Phoebe and Piper fought numerous evil witches, malignant spirits, demons and even extra-dimensional entities. During her adventures, she also encountered other white witches, a few gods and a few angels. One of their most recurring foes was Cole Turner, Phoebe's's boyfriend, who turned out to be the mortal avatar of a demon. The sisters found themselves often protected by a formal mortal named Leo, a White Lighter, a pure spirit in league with the Elohim ("angels") in the Afterlife. Leo claimed to be the guardian angel to the Halliwell Sisters, but he eventually fell in love and romanced Piper. By now, Prue had discovered that she had another sister named Paige, born from a brief fling their mother had years before. Paige had been adopted by her foster family years before, and Prue felt Paige's proclivity for spells and enchantments as well as her half White-Lighter would make her replacement in the Charmed Ones. The sisters, however, clashed with a demon named Shax in an encounter that was filmed by a news crew and released to the public. In order to cover up their activities, Leo reversed time for the sisters to re-confront and defeat Shax under different circumstances, but in the new timeline, Prue lost her life, willingly passing on to the Afterlife with Paige taking her place in the Chosen Ones.
As a witch, however, Prue's spirit remained intact and managed to survive in the astral realm. Her sisters tried summoning her several times, but Penelope's spirit kept her from returning. A few years later, Prue eventually returned to Earth, using her mystic and supernatural powers to save innocents and help her sisters from a distance. Eventually, she regained corporeal form in the body of a young comatose witch named Patience Worth but rejoining her sisters caused their powers to become more difficult to control. She departed them once more, staying at a distance doing good in the world but often returning as they required help.
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Known Superhuman Powers: (Based on the notes and research of Dr. Stephen Strange, expert on the occult and the paranormal)
Prue Halliwell possesses the abilities to tap into and manipulate mystical energies. Like all earthborn magicians, her abilities are based upon three sources: powers based on the psychic powers of the mind/body/soul (clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition...), powers based upon tapping the ambient cosmic energies of the universe and employing them for specific spells (teleportation, illusion-casting, transmutation...) and powers gained by calling upon beings of power through the recitation of spells, either ritualized ones or by original spells invoking extra-dimensional beings of power living in worlds tangent to Earth, such as Gaea or the Vishanti.
Contrary to belief, the ability to practice magic is not a superhuman power. Theoretically, all human beings have the potential to tap into a massive amount of mystical energy. However, each person is limited by his own amount of training, discipline, knowledge and enlightenment of the mystical arts. Prue, however, has much more potential for it due to her own mystical ancestry and direct access to a nearly indispensable portal of elemental energy on the grounds of her family home. Foremost among her powers are her ability to tap into and manipulate the ambient energies of mystical energy in the universe through the use of spells and incantations.
Prue can mentally manipulate matter on a molecular and atomic level, allowing her to move objects on a whole (telekinesis) or on an atomic level (transmutation). She can also affect lines of probability to cause unlikely but not improbable events to occur (psychokinesis) and to teleport and materialize objects from other locations. She can also cast spells that allow her increase or alter the attributes of other individuals or objects. She can also mentally separate her mind from her body and move through the material form in spirit form (astral projection). As the oldest sister, Prue was considered the most powerful or adept in her mystical prowess, able to extent her personal senses into clairvoyance and use a mystical process known as scrying to search for objects or individuals in a defined area near herself.
Among the sisters, Piper could also create warps in time that allowed her to attain feats beyond the physical realm of other human beings, but Prue has limited access to this ability as well. Although Piper called this spell "stopping time," she is not actually stopping time but actually mystically speeding up her molecular state in order exist on an accelerated plane of existence. In this state, she could move at .00001 rate of a second and remain in this state for as long as she wanted without any ill effects to herself. To another observer, the perception would be virtually undetectable as long as Piper returned to the same place before she cast the spell. However, if she changed attire or altered anything in her environment while accelerated, the observer would notice these as sudden changes in their line of vision without detecting the action Piper made to affect the changes. Piper could also bring her sisters and others into this state by touching them. She could also use a variation of this ability to place others into a frozen immobile state, momentarily halting the physical, verbal and conscious movements of the individual.. In this state, her subject enters into a submissive state where they can be more suggestive to Piper's (or Prue's) whims and magic. She can keep her subjects in this state almost indefinitely after which that person will have no recollection of any time having passing while in this state. However, this spell can be virtually impossible if not difficult to perform on magic-users of certain experience or power-levels.
Like most witches, Prue was also adept in brewing potions and creating mystical objects, often exploiting the natural anathema of ingredients to extend or control her personal powers into very specific results, much as wizards use a wand to direct their magic into spells demanding precision. However, most of the time, she can conjure her spells or mystical effects by gesturing or merely pointing her finger. The size of the gesture however is not proportionate to the spell she seeks to create. As an adept witch, she can move almost ten tons of matter by merely posturing with her finger, but in order to command more greater amounts of energy she is often required to create potions often in tandem with complex spells invoking gods or extra-dimensional beings in realms tangent to our own. Utilizing the Power of Three and channeling her sisters' powers into one singular spell, she could command far more energies without taxing her own personal abilities.
Abilities: Prue Halliwell is a graduate with honors from Gold State University and an accomplished and skillful resourceful woman. She is also trained in martial arts, making her gifted combatant in unarmed combat skills, surpassing even that of her sister, Phoebe Halliwell.
Paraphernalia: Prue Halliwell had access to the Book of Shadows, the mystic tome of the Halliwell family documenting the history of their family, the extent of their mystical spells and incantations and knowledge and research of demons and mystical entities. Contrary to belief, the book holds no mystical power, but Penelope enchanted it that it could not be removed from her home or be taken by beings of evil intent.
Source/Comments: Prue Halliwell is a fictional character from the "Charmed" television series. She was played by actress Shannen Doherty and joined by Holly Marie Combs (Piper) and Alyssa Milano (Phoebe), later joined by Rose McGowan (Paige).
According to the "Charmed" mythos, Prue Halliwell was born on October 28, 1970; her death occurred on May 17, 2001.
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