#gcaw

Like I said, this is kind of going to be all over the place because it’s part meta, part stream of thoughts, etc.

The Merge

The Merge is basically human sacrifice, isn’t it? Because someone’s death is guaranteed in this ritual. Which makes me wonder if it didn’t start out as a cruder form of human sacrifice - I’m talking an altar, a dirty knife and all that works, etc. Perhaps the opposing twins performed a magical duel and whoever ‘won’ sacrificed the other.

Or maybe it was always the way it’s been. It’s worth noting that at the climax (I know) of the Ceremony, the twins’s eyes glow white like Bonnie’s did in the thrall of Expression. So assuming that they’re the same kind of magic that means that the Merge Ceremony is a kind of ‘sentient’ magic like Expression - magic that has a will of its own. Which will explain why it can’t be escaped. And why it’s inevitable for the twins to merge, regardless of what they choose. It could also be why the strict conditions of the Merge have to be met. But what are the conditions?

If the Luke-Kai-Jo 2-step 3-way Merge gives us a clue, the conditions seem to be that: The magically stronger twin absorbs the magic and the soul of his other twin. Now, Luke tries to ‘cheat’ the Merge and it seems to work for a while - Kai gets his soul, his magic, and Luke dies… But then it ‘kicks back’, and Kai starts disintegrating magically after some days.

In the Jo/Kai deleted scene: Jo claims that she’s spoken to her father and he’s shown no ill effects, implying that Kai is lying. But as we see in the season finale, the effects of Kai’s death or injury are not instantaneous on the rest of the coven. They die … but slowly. Slowly enough that Tyler’s Werewolf Trigger registers him as Liv’s murderer. Giving the ‘time delay’ in the magical dominoes, is it possible that some witches could escape dying if they had acted fast enough? It’s interesting…

When Kai eventually absorbs Jo’s magic, it’s important to note that he does this as a siphoner. It’s not Merge Ceremony. Their eyes don’t glow white - rather his hands glow red, showing he’s siphoning. And, she doesn’t die from it. It doesn’t even seem to hurt her. Could it be because she’s giving him her magic willingly?

Siphoners:

Talking about Siphoners… I have 2 rather opposing theories about the origin/cause for their existence. The first is that they’re nature’s way of finding a balance for the Merge Ceremony, which is this soul/magic-sucking process that takes place roughly every 22 -32 years and creates this Super-Being* of the Gemini leader. So nature throws up a siphoner every once in awhile that’s the polar opposite of a post-merge surviving twin. The second theory is that Siphoners an evolutionary mutation - a ‘survival’ gene, so to speak, that pops up randomly in the Parker line and gives the siphoner in question an automatic ‘win’ in the Merge Ceremony.

But for the second theory to work… that would mean that ever Siphoner is born a twin that is either directly descended from the existing Gemini leader… or close enough to be a potential heir.

From what we know of the heretics - virtually nothing - either of this theory could be correct. Going by the age of the actors where we don’t have any information on their characters - Oscar was in his late 40s, Malcolm and Beau were in their 30s and Valerie, Nora and Mary Louise were in their tweens when they were turned. Depending on how large the family structures tended to be** - they might all just have been part of the same large, extended Parker family.

Noting of course that just because Joshua Parker’s last name is Parker, doesn’t mean the leading family always had that last name. Women had been Leaders in the past (no one considers Liv winning extraordinary or unprecedented because she’s a girl), so names might have changed several times over the centuries. In addition, going by their family names - it’s possible that they had non-European origins, and Parker could be an Anglicized version of an entirely different name.

Going back to the theories, if a Siphoner is not born a twin from the ruling family, it makes it more likely that the first theory is the correct one. Or perhaps, the ‘truth’ is something between the two theories.

If the heretics tell us anything, it’s that there were a lot more siphoners than the coven would admit to. Some of them died young … under mysterious circumstances. Some made lives of their own amongst humans, turning their backs on the coven. With enough marrying and breeding with humans (ugh, unfortunate choice of words but really the most appropriate for this), their descendants lost their magical abilities all together and were, to all intents and purposes, normal people. Then there was the third kind of siphoner which leads to the question of:

Why are siphoners hated? Because it wasn’t just Kai and his sociopathy***, all the other heretics had a sob-story of being cast out for their condition.

My theory is that siphoners are hated because that’s just human nature. We always hate what’s different. Witches are people, just like everyone else. Then siphoning has the potential to be harmful to actual witches - so that’s even more cause to be afraid of it. That’s the main reason, imo, but in addition - the fact that siphoners have turned into heretics**** and that was more cause to fear them.

Talking about heretics….

Prison Worlds

I am 99.999% positive that the only reason why the Gemini coven locked up Lily was because she was travelling with the heretics. I don’t know how or why I got this impression that the coven did supernatural policing - and I’m too lazy to check through my season 5 videos - but I also believe that, like most witches in TVD-land, they had a strong sense of self preservation and only interfered directly in situations that could potentially harm them. E.g. the Travellers who were a threat to all magic users. Similarly, they were interested in Lily the Ripper - and never, Stefan - because she was moving with the heretics.

Now, why not just kill the heretics? Well, this is where my ‘head-canon’ diverges from canon because yeah, no idea why not if the heretics are as vulnerable as the show made them out to be in season 7. The only way it ever made sense to me for the coven to exert so much capturing the heretics, only to lock them up is if they couldn’t be easily killed: if they were virtually immortal. So they needed to ‘seal evil in a can’.

It’s also possible that the Prison Worlds were also used - might even have been built - to contain Coven Leaders who had… snapped. Considering that the lives of every member of the coven was tied to one person, I can imagine a situation where that person’s life might be protected… even against his own will. If a Coven Leader becomes suicidal, for whatever reason, or became dangerous to the rest of the coven - they cannot ‘oust’ him magically, but they can certainly keep in a magical 5150 until there’s a pair of twins ready to Merge and take leadership from him.

The Prison Worlds themselves are a poor-man’s Other Side. Or perhaps, that’s being too harsh. A dimension like the Other Side won’t work as a Prison World because the Gemini couldn’t keep their prisoners isolated from each other. They’d all be in the same place, and could scheme and break out. So it serves it’s own purpose. However, I still think it’s a variation of Qetsiyah's spell, the same way that Esther Mikaelson’s Vampiric Spell was a variation of the Silas Immortality Spell that he and Qetsiyah invented. It’s also why the Prison Worlds come with Ascendants - which are like the ‘keys’ to the Worlds that are activated by Bennett blood. \

I think I described it once that entering from our World to a Prison World is like walking through a normal door with a handle on each side. That’s why there are 2 Ascendants which cannot cross from Our World to a Prison World: like a door handle, each Ascendant is fixed to its own ‘side’. If you destroyed the Ascendant, you destroyed the handle and prevented the door from being opened from that side. Which leads to all sorts of interesting questions and theories like: if you destroy one Ascendant, does that affect the other? Can the Ascendant in the Prison World be destroyed? It shatters into pieces after Bonnie sends Damon back, but Kai puts it back together again. What if he - or someone else - throws it into a Lake, or something? It clearly doesn’t ‘reset’ with the day otherwise he won’t have had to fix it back.

In Conclusion:

It’s all rather fascinating and maybe that’s the reason why this dumb show couldn’t handle it!

Sorry for the late submission, guys!

*Canon doesn’t give Kai or Joshua a lot of bad-ass mega-powerful Gemini Leader moments. Kai gets jumped by Liv - granted he was in the middle of a very powerful spell - but still… and Joshua gets owned by non-Werewolf-Curse-Triggered Tyler. But I’ll blame that on the show’s bad writing and their inconsistencies in showing power levels of supernaturals. Because there’s no way a coven that survived for millennia with so many enemies, could hinge its existence on leaders who were so frail.

**According to Jo and Kai, their large family wasn’t planned. Mr and Mrs Parker only started breeding like bunnies when they discovered that Kai was a siphoner. But in that case, if a siphoner was likely to pop up every other generation, in every other nuclear component of the larger ‘Gemini royal extended family’, it’s possible that there were several large nuclear families for this precise reason - a siphoner turns up, and parents started having as many children as possible to get replacement twins.

***Whatever that means. I still wonder just how much of Kai’s ‘diagnosis’ should be taken with a pinch of salt. I mean, this is a show that has Damon Salvatore, Klaus Mikaelson, Kol Mikaelson, Katherine Pierce, vampires who can turn off their humanity (unless they can’t e.g. Damon and Rose), etc. But somehow we’re supposed to understand that Kai is somehow mentally different from all these people.

****Regardless of what Valerie said, I doubt that she was the ‘first’ heretic. She was probably the ‘first’ heretic that she knew of.

It was said to go like this – On January 1st 1312, Malakie Parker was born to Asher and Rose Parker of the Sequoia Coven, an earthly assembly in Portland. They were the only coven ever with no basis of actual magic, just their prayers and medicine in which they all gathered from the great Sequoia Tree that could be used in various ways, to treat any kind of ailments/disease. You could say the tree itself was the witch of the matter for its incredible healing properties. Many of the neighboring covens mocked the Sequoia Coven, questioning their claims of being witches, when they possessed no magic. Their name was considered a laughing stock and eventually news of them reached the ears of every Magical foundation of the earth. Malakie at the age of 12 was made aware of the ugly truth, the vast difference in abilities between his “coven” and those of the true line of witches. He grew up ashamed and angry at their incompetence and marveled at the others’ unique abilities, at how they performed otherworldly activities grounded by the different elements – Aether, Fire, Water, Air and Earth, the latter, exhibited differently by his kin. The Sequoia Coven leaned to the Earth element; though they were only capable with the miracles they harvested thanks to the Sequoia Tree and they managed and had been more than content with just that for years. 

Malakie thought this to be tedious but nevertheless he prayed, to become an actual witch able to use diverse magic which, of course, proved to be fruitless and it only enraged and warped him even more and so Malakie Parker grew bitter. At the age of 22, in 1334, he happened upon a kind yet feisty and beautiful young girl named Hazel, of the neighboring Eiche Coven. They fell for each other, but their love was barren of a future, for Hazel was to be betrothed to another witch, handpicked by her father; Lancelot Griffin, The Leader of the Eiche Coven, who were the most powerful witches in Portland. Malakie was stricken with anguish and so went to pray once again to be blessed with Magic, so he could be deemed worthy for Hazel but with each trial, he failed and cursed and bellowed until what seemed to be a cloud of black smoke appeared unto him. 

The formless black smokes’ name was Ragorio; an eerie gender-less, existence and the creator of dark magic, which would only manifest to the most impure of hearts with the most consequential of wishes. Ragorio was also the one who paved the route for mischief and disorder in the realms of magic, by sending countless witches on the road of madness due to unachievable-like requests that would result in the complete annihilation of their covens. Any form of wish always had a dual element so it was very important to be careful for what to wish for. Ye; Some coven leaders managed to escape oblivion due to what they appealed for but there were still repercussions as equivalent exchange would extend its hand, demanding some sort of payment for its services. There’s always a price to pay. As to how this sinister essence came to be, there’s no record to show for no one knows. 

It offered unto Malakie two options, which were of the same – to become a Siphoner, first of its kind and strip the magic along with the life of its host without ever being fulfilled OR absorb the essence of his twin sister, Marian and prosper thereon with the abundance of magic as a full pledge witch; with the ability to siphon as an addition without the barbaric, unending hunger to steal, if so desired. Now Malakie hated his coven, his parents included but he always had a soft spot for his sister. He remembered the time when they were playing hide and seek in which it was Malakie’s turn to hide but sadly did a terrible job, so instead of submitting when he was caught, he ran away. He’d always hated the taste of defeat and preferred winning even if it was by unjust methods. Marian chased after him demanding for her turn to now hide, but tripped over her feet and fell on an unattended axe, cutting her abdomen in the process. It was due to Malakie’s unwillingness to play fair that had caused this, so when their parents questioned the matter, Marian stood up for him, telling them Malakie was nowhere in sight when she fell; knowing that he would get an incredible scolding. 

Malakie hadn’t been on the receiving end of his parents’ affection ever since he found out the great distinction that separated them from the other covens and had thus been rebellious - urinated on the Sequoia Tree, caused mischief for patients, poisoned the livestock and even voiced his thanklessness in the form of curses during their prayer circle. Marian was the only one who would treat his wounds after receiving lashes from both parents and so he chose the former option. He thought now was the time to repay her, even if it was too much of a payment.

Malakie’s first victim was Lancelot Griffin. He had fooled him by agreeing to stay away from his daughter just so he could get close to him, alone and siphon him of his magic and the life he led in condescension, and that he did. The elders had learned of this and so made an effort to seize him, but with the prize he had claimed, he apprehended them without much effort by mimicking a paralysis spell Hazel jokingly used on him; the only spell he was fortunate and unfortunate altogether, of knowing.

Malakie, now clad with delusion, disregarding or clueless as to how exactly Hazel would take what had transpired; proposed to her, on bended knee, with her covens’ lifeless bodies as an audience; uttered demented sentences such as “No one will get in the way of our love anymore. We can now live happily without any disturbances” It was said that a series of shock, sadness and guilt, had caused Hazel to join her now deceased coven by taking her own life with a suicidal spell used by witches whenever they were apprehended by enemies for information. Not knowing how to react, for Malakie, drenched in stupor, just did what he thought was necessary for a future with Hazel; remained there in a grim, red-stained silence and replayed the heartbroken symphony for the remainder of the day until he released a ghastly cry. He cried and erupted in a vile manner because the love of his life, in his twisted words, chose death over him and his attempt to live together and because of the gnawing sensation in which he had to immediately attend to.

One of the after effects of being a novice Siphoner; it renders one intoxicated with power with the idea of invincibility but once the magic wears off, it leaves the unfortunate soul unbearably empty and hungry for more. In the midst of his agonizing demeanor, he then realized what he must do, what he should’ve done from the beginning. With eyes fixed as a wounded animal fighting for its life and dreaded like that of the serpent littered with tricks and destruction, Malakie trod in pursuit of his twin sister, but first he had to find a way to contact the smoke-like entity. 

Ragario, who had already predicted his movements from since the time it offered the two options, reappeared and disclosed to Malakie, the incantation that should be said for the ritual. He also included that his sister must repeat the incantation or else the spell would not work. It didn’t matter if Marian wasn’t a witch or exuded any magic, the mere fact that the incantation was being said by her, his twin, acted as a reflection of his present state. With a heart now fully infested with malignant growth, he proceeded to trick his sister. He told her that he had been granted the ability to do magic through endless prayer and patience, to which Marian chuckled. Still possessing a bit of stolen magic, he addressed her disbelief by causing a nearby rose to bloom which warranted a mixture of shock and awe from Marian. He pressed further; telling her that he still felt guilty about her scar and that he knew of a spell that could remove it but he’ll need her help once again, like old times. Touched by her brothers’ words, she agreed to each and every condition that had to be met. After memorizing the spell and with joined hands, they commenced the ceremony and on that day, January 21st 1334, The Merge took its first breath.  

A transition from opaque to burning, ocean, blue eyes greeted the world with new sight and motive. Before he could cast his hardened eyes upon his sisters’ form, Ragorio reappeared to him for the final time. It told him that out of his rebirth shall prosper a new coven, unlike the others before and the rest to come and shall be feared across the Magical Plane; but the only way to maintain this power is if The Merge is obeyed and performed for every generation or the coven will crumble. He warned him also, to never reveal its existence to anyone but the next leader, and to instruct him/her to do the same for there would be consequences greater than death that would make him wish he never pulled on the devils’ tail and with that, the ominous smoke disappeared. 

Ragorio was defined by ulterior motives and the gift that it had bestowed upon Malakie was more of a gift unto itself. Here it created a path for the lad to give up an offering from his own bloodline that would be ushered onto it like rent and it was now Malakie Parkers’  and the future leaders’ duty to supply for the sake of the longevity of the coven. Malakie now resumed to look at his sisters’ inanimate body; any little affection he once had for her had been replaced with indifference; Coven before family. He burned her body to which he claimed was a necessary sacrifice for greatness; then proceeded to eradicate the remainder of the Sequoia and Eiche Coven, as the beginning of his appointed ascension.

The Merge flourished on successfully from generation to generation, filling one of Ragorio’s many cups of iniquity. Joshua Parker came into this world and with age, he performed The Merge with his twin and triumphed. With his new leadership, he now knew of his Covens’ origins. He admired the tenacity of the Gemini Covens’ Founding Father, Malakie; the almighty witch who rose from nothing and became a force to be reckoned within the magical domain. It was because of this that caused him to name his first born male child, Malachai, so he could one day rule like Malakie did; but Ragorio appeared unto Joshua and told him not to allow Malachai to perform The Merge ceremony. Having an idea of who it was that had appeared to him, Joshua bowed in reverence and asked of its reasons why Malachai shouldn’t lead; after all, first born twins were automatically chosen for The Merge ceremony, for it was law. Ragorio told him that his son will not place Coven before family and will lead the Geminis down a path of oblivion. It continued by saying Malachai will not sit idly by either with the revelation that he would be denied of his birthright. After receiving this unsettling piece of information, Joshua boiled with inimitable fury and shame. He couldn’t believe such an abominable spawn came forth from his loins and with his pride now on the line, he proposed to kill Malachai. He was reminded by Ragorio that in any matter where Siphoners were to be seen as a threat, even though he/she was born during the Golden Century, a prison world would become their form of punishment and not death. Joshua thanked the formless entity for its counsel and Ragorio vanished once more.

Joshua continued to beget more children so another worthy pair of twins could be chosen. He refused to acknowledge Malachai as his son any longer; for he was an abomination and a traitor, to have the audacity to possess Parker blood coursing through his veins yet will be the ultimate downfall of them all. How could he have known though? Normally Gemini children showed signs of doing magic at the age of 11, Kai, although showed no signs of that, proved to be a Siphoner at the age of 12 which was a very sure sign of a prosperous rule because he was born during the golden years. Every century; a period of 110 years to be exact, would mark the reign of a fearsome and glorious leader, exhibit Malakie of 1334, Maleek of 1444, Malen of 1554, Malfried of 1664, Malchior of 1774, Malkosh of 1884 and now it would’ve been Malachai of 1994 but the Gemini constellation declared it not for this period, which was a very ominous revelation.

Joshua did not reveal what Ragorio had told him to his people, as the formless entity, along with the Gemini origins were not made known to the world. The Gemini Coven’s history was fabricated by Malakie Parker in an attempt for the Magical population to remain oblivious to what took place on January 21st 1334. Its history was spared from fellow Geminis in fear that they may be captured by other witches so they could attempt to extract the truth; which had happened before. The only thing the remainder of the Gemini coven were allowed to know were the Siphoners for it would've been difficult to hide when an equal amount of Siphoners were born to that of Gemini witches. Despite its fabricated history, the other neighboring covens in Portland and the ears of whom the news had traveled to about the Sequoia Coven, started to make inquiries – what happened to the great Eiche and the mediocre Sequoia Coven? How was it that out of a number of them prospered not but one? How was Malakie now a witch when he was but a mere human? These questions were never addressed with answers, which was why the rumor about the Gemini Coven being built on dark magic originated.

And so, to detour the truth, Joshua told his coven that Malachai was no witch but a defect. Siphoners were a malevolent bunch but as was said before, not if they were born during the golden years and the rest of the coven knew this, so they questioned Joshua on what made Malachai different. He lied by telling them he saw in a dream, the Gemini Coven bloodied and lifeless at the feet of his son and whether the dream was true or not, he wouldn't take any chances whatsoever. It was now Malachai against the world.The rest of the coven joined in with Joshua and ostracized him from their institutions, their children and their love; to put it simply, he was banned from having any relations within the Gemini society. From that moment, Malachai was forced to live by himself.

In a situation like this, it was made mandatory by the leaders and the elders to ultimately banish Siphoners from their coven but Joshua wanted to deny history from repeating itself like what happened back then with The Heretics, so he kept Kai close to imprison him without any trouble; though for this to play out, it would take ten years for a celestial event to happen. Once ten years had passed, Joshua set out in search for a member of his alliance, Sheila Bennett in secrecy. He left the elders in charge of the coven and made sure that they along with his wife Emilia, saw to it that Malachai isn’t an inch within Lucas and Olivia, who were chosen for The Merge ceremony; and so they did as they were told.

Malachai continued to be treated as an outcast by everyone minus Josette, his twin sister. She was the only one who’d treat him like a living being despite the warnings she would get from the others, so to change that, one of the elders performed a spell on her so she would view him the same as the others, undeserving of love. In 1994 it all became unbearable to him, the loneliness, the mockery and Joshua; he kept repeating the times he was well received by Joshua, as a sign of promise, to the day his father took what had belonged to him and bestowed it now unto his youngest siblings, intensifying his anger until he snapped. He killed 4 of his siblings whilst Joshua was occupied with the elders in a conference after he returned from his trip; it was the perfect chance he thought, he’d kill his siblings who taunted him and merge with Jo so he could become the Gemini Leader and be given the respect he deserved. Josette sought out her father with the help of a telepathic spell to notify him of the events that were taking place and so he rushed into action, along with the elders; and together they imprisoned Malachai Parker before he could perform The Merge.