Elders (Charmed)

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The Elders

The Elder Ramus shown levitating in an orb enduced meditation.

First appearance Witches in Tights
Last appearance The Jung and the Restless
Created by Constance M. Burge

Statistics
Name The Elders; The Founders; Senior Whitelighters
Status Active
Purpose Preserving "the greater good"; commanding Whitelighters and cupids; protecting witches.
Powers

Orbing
Healing
Sensing charges
Memory manipulation
Mind control
Lightning Bolts
Clairvoyance
Overseeing the world
Thermokinesis
Telekinetic Orbing
Levitation
Membership

In the WB television show Charmed, the Elders are a fictional group of people who oversee good magic. In the Season 1 episode "Secrets and Guys", they are referred to as "The Founders", but all subsequent episodes/seasons use the term "Elders".

Elders mainly keep track of witches, watching from the Heavens. They communicate with those on Earth through their helpers and messengers, the whitelighters. The Elders decide who may become a whitelighter, and give and take their powers. A whitelighter's ability to heal is channeled directly from the Elders.

Apparently in the show's universe at least most, if not all, of the Elders were at one time whitelighters themselves. Leo Wyatt was promoted to the rank of Elder after saving the Charmed Ones and the remaining Elders from the wrath of the Titans. Though most Elders have powers much like Whitelighters, the Charmed Ones protect a retiring Elder for a short time whose powers are strictly of the mental sort, and cannot orb or fight.

Though whitelighters are not allowed to kill, the Elders have powerful fighting abilities. An Elders' powers are the same as Whitelighters but with their power level ramped up. Leo is seen using a lightning-like power to kill Gideon . In the episode "It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World Part I" three elders are shown to kill a mortal with magical flames, although this occurs in a magic-induced hallucination and does not indicate their actual abilities.

When witches need advice on demons they know nothing about, they can ask the Elders by sending their whitelighter. The Elders however are not all knowing, in some cases they are as clueless about something as the sisters are. In the episode Apocalypse Not Leo had to find out who the four horsemen were and what they were up to because the elders could not help. The Elders do not allow witches or any other magical being besides themselves and whitelighters to enter the Heavens. Even the Charmed Ones do not have this privilege, as Piper and Leo have to ask for an audience when they seek permission to have a relationship, and Leo specifically tells Piper she is not allowed there when she comes to see him. The Elders do, however, allow Leo to watch over his son Wyatt and to take him to be with the Elders when he may be in danger.

Paige recently has been using her whitelighter side, and is now able to converse with the elders as she pleases. Though she does not go to the Heavens like the other elders or whitelighters do, they meet at the Golden Gate Bridge and she speaks with one of the few women elders, Sandra.

Very few Elders ever come to Earth. Leo and Gideon are rare examples who spend most of their time outside the Heavens. A few have come to Earth to speak directly with them about important issues like Gideon's intentions to kill Wyatt and the possible threat of the Avatars but as a group, the Elders prefer to take a background role and remain largely unseen in the day-to-day affairs of even the magical world.

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