Post by Faith Lehane on Nov 22, 2008 17:53:24 GMT -5
Slayers, The
A Slayer, is a young female bestowed with mystical powers that originate from the essence of a pure-demon, which gives her superhuman senses, strength, speed, endurance, agility, and healing in the fight against forces of darkness. She also receives prophetic dreams in the few hours that she sleeps.
The Prophecy of the slayer states, "...Into each generation a girl is born, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill needed to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness, stopping the swell of their numbers and the spread of their evil. She is the slayer..."
The First Slayer
In ancient Africa, a group of tribal elders known as the Shadow Men use powerful magic to infuse a captive girl with the heart, soul and spirit of a demon. This process grants the girl great strength, agility, and endurance: she becomes the First Slayer, called to fight the vampires and other demons that populate the earth. The Shadow Men's descendants go on to form the Watchers' Council, an organization dedicated to finding, training, and supporting Slayers
The Slayer line
Due to the violent nature of the life of a Slayer, their average lifespan is quite short after being called. Consequently, the Shadow Men's spell also created a large number of Potential Slayers - normal girls around the world who may one day be called. When a Slayer dies, one of the Potentials - seemingly chosen at random - gains the powers and abilities of a Slayer. The Watcher's Council tries to identify and train these "Potentials" before they are called, locating some as babies, but are not always able to do so, with some girls only being found after they have been activated as the Slayer.
This process continues through the generations until 1997, when one Slayer - Buffy Summers - is killed in battle, only to be revived via CPR. Buffy retains her Slayer powers, but her clinical death is enough for the next Slayer to be called. For the next several years, there are two Slayers in the world, first Kendra, who was called on Buffy's death, and then Faith, who was called when Kendra died, approximately one year later.
The mystical "rules" governing the Calling of Slayers change again in 2003, when Buffy discovers a Scythe forged for the Slayer to wield. Willow Rosenberg uses magic to tap into the Scythe's essence at Buffy's request, and performs a spell that calls every living Potential Slayer at once
After taking the time to find and count them, Buffy states that there are at least 1800 Slayers in the world. Exactly how the Slayer line continues after this is currently unclear
Powers and abilities
The powers that are bestowed upon the Slayer are mostly physical enhancements.
Strength
Slayers are endowed with strength greater than that of humans (barring mystically or genetically enhanced), some demons and the majority of vampires. Buffy Summers, for instance, has been shown to lift, with great effort, a metal portcullis which many other teenagers are unable to budge. She is also capable of bending a steel rifle barrel with little apparent effort. Buffy has been recorded throwing human-sized subjects sizable distances.
Faith Lehane is able to pick up the vampire Angel with one hand and easily throw him short distances, lift him over her head, and slam him into the ceiling. Once, while fighting Buffy, she punched her fist into a wall. She is also seen picking up a bar bell with one hand and hitting a woman in the face with it (the woman was trying to kill Faith at the time).
Agility and reflexes
Slayers are able to move faster and react quicker than normal human beings. Buffy has been shown snatching a crossbow bolt in mid-flight, outmaneuver all sorts of bullet-fire from multiple ranges and setting off a bear trap, but not getting caught in it. At one point Buffy was fast enough to out run a raiding motor cyclist on his bike shortly after her resurrection. Faith has been shown to dodge shotgun blasts at point-blank range and Dana was able to dodge a tranquilizer dart also fired at point-blank range. A Slayer is capable of superhuman feats of agility. She can leap to great heights, the maximum being unknown.
Resilience and healing
A Slayer's body is substantially more durable and resistant to blunt force trauma than an ordinary human's. It is difficult, though not impossible, to bruise them, break their bones or strain their joints. Buffy has suffered from a sprained arm as a consequence of fighting vampires A Slayer is hit with a steel girder thrown at her from a demon and recovers within minutes; and is also shown to fall four stories down, crash through the cement roof of an adjacent building and fall down the height of one more story, and recover instantly. Buffy can leap from a window with a man in her arms, landing on the ground and letting her body take the brunt of the fall. Buffy has been hit by a moving truck, got up and run off. Faith has fallen from a height of three stories on top of a closed dumpster, rolled off it to hit the ground and got up immediately with no signs of damage; she also was able to hold her own in a fight with Buffy less than 24 hours after waking from a nine-month coma.
Despite this durability to blunt force, a Slayer's skin can be punctured by sharp weapons such as knives or bullets, but they recover from even very severe injuries in remarkably short periods of time. Usually, Buffy is completely healed within 24 hours of being injured, though more serious injuries have been shown to take at least a few days. Buffy has survived contact with a live electrical wire; the normally lethal jolt simply renders her unconscious.
Senses
Slayers possess a heightened awareness of their surroundings. This heightened awareness can, with experience, allow the Slayer to know the position of an attacker and fight them blindfolded or in the dark. This is not a constant ability, however. This skill must be honed through practice and the Slayer usually must focus to achieve the full benefit.
A Slayer also has the limited ability to detect the presence of vampires. This power must be honed as with the heightened awareness, and the Slayer must focus to achieve the full effect. This does not prevent Buffy (and other Slayers) being ambushed by Vampires. Buffy is unusually deficient in this sense: Although she initially distrusts Angel when first meeting him and seems to sense that he is following her for a period of time she doesn't realize until he shows her his vampiric face for the first time that he is a vampire.
Dreams
All Slayers through the ages share a psychic link, manifested in dreams. A Slayer will frequently dream of herself as a Slayer in another time and place. These dreams are usually vague, but can also be prophetic. Dreams exist in their own mystic plane or "dreamscape" where for a Slayer, precognitive sense and the inherited memories of other Slayers can manifest themselves. Also, Slayers have been shown to appear in each other's dreams, and Buffy and Faith shared a dream while Faith was in a coma. Faith provided the first cryptic reference to Dawn Summers' arrival.
Other abilities
A Slayer naturally has formidable fighting skills. Dana is seen holding her own against Spike without having any previous combat training. Her Watcher trains her to hone these talents, and to teach her specific fighting skills, such as various martial arts. The training helps her to battle the occasional demon whose physical strength outclasses her own. For most situations, however, her strength suffices. To test a Slayer's natural ingenuity and capability, the Watcher's Council administers a test known as "the Cruciamentum," which strips the Slayer of her powers and forces her to fight a powerful vampire without them ("Helpless"). It should be noted that the compound used to weaken the Slayer makes her typically weaker than most normal humans. This renders a Slayer who would still normally be physically fit without her powers, remarkably feeble even for a human. This forces the Slayer to rely solely on her intellect and wit.
Weapons and equipment
Slayers typically use weapons to fight vampires and other demons. Simple wooden stakes, crucifixes, and holy water are commonly implemented due to their effectiveness against vampires. Swords, axes and knives are the most common implements used for dispatching demons, though other melee weapons (generally of medieval European design) are implemented. Ranged weaponry is usually confined to crossbows. On occasion, more sophisticated weaponry is used; Buffy Summers has used a military-issue rocket launcher to defeat a particularly tough demon.
Scythe
The Scythe is a weapon resembling a metal lochaber axe with a wooden stake and a flanged mace head built into the handle. Due to its design, the Scythe can be used as an axe, sword or spear, depending on the fighting style of its wielder. When Buffy discovers the weapon, she tracks its lineage to a mysterious woman who explains its origin. Centuries ago, a group of women known as The Guardians forged the Scythe for the Slayer. The Guardians kept the weapon a secret from the Shadow Men, and later the Watchers. The Scythe was used to kill the last pure demon on Earth in what would later become Sunnydale, CA. It was lost after that, until discovered by Buffy embedded in stone. The Scythe exhibits some mystical properties. A Slayer who picks it up recognizes it as a source of power, and has an instinctive sense of ownership of the weapon.Willow Rosenberg is able to harness the Scythe's mystical essence and activate every Potential Slayer in the world.
"Slayer Emergency Kit"
The "emergency kit" is a bag found in the possession of Robin Wood. It had been left to him by his mother Slayer Nikki Wood. Upon giving the kit to Buffy, Wood claims that the kit should have been passed on directly to Buffy through the Slayer line, but that he had kept it instead. The bag contains assorted weapons and charms, along with a text written in Sumerian and a locked box containing a set of shadow-casters. Using the shadow-casters in conjunction with the book tells the story of the creation of the first Slayer, and opens a portal which allows the Slayer to speak to the Shadow Men directly, at a cost of unleashing a demon on Earth.