| “ | It was the will of Nature. There is no magic in this world that is strong enough to challenge it. | ” |
Nature is the totality of phenomena of the physical world and is thought to be the invisible force behind all life that governs the universe. It functions as the source of a witch's power who through the use of witchcraft, use spells to manipulate nature.
The Earth is considered to be the physical manifestation of Nature by the witches which constantly provides them with the resources, such as herbs and tools, to neutralize or resolve all types of threats. As a way to channel the power of Nature to witches, the Spirits have control of the world of the dead in order to monitor the actions of the servants.
Species
| Nature | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Humans | Doppelgängers | Witches | Psychics | Spirits | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sirens | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ghosts | Immortals | Werewolves | Vampires | Hunters | Hybrids | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Laws and Balance
As the governing force of life, Nature has a number of "laws" set in place, although some are not always absolute. Most of said laws deal with balance in which phenomenon can always be countered be it directly or indirectly.
- Cycle of the Life: Every creature in the world and universe is born, lives and dies uninterruptedly. The lives of every creature are of vital importance, since matter and energy is always flowing, creating new beings, and then dying, to restart the cycle again. If the cycle is interrupted in or by any individual, the consequences are chaotic and they can take a long time to restore. Vampires directly break this law. They may be born as humans and live as humans, but at some point, they die and come back. However, they are among the living and the dead, meaning there is no way to choose their path. Even at death, vampires can not rest in peace, because of their actions in the world of the living.
- Respect of the Dead: When you want to revive a human, it must be some time after its death (usually immediately after), because nature takes its course and the material begins to decompose. When the human is revived, the human essence returns to its material body, but causes a rift between the veil between the material and the immaterial. This fissure causes malignant or benign ghosts, which can travel between worlds and directly affect the fate of the living as a result.
- Own Acceptance: Every creature on earth has skills and powers that characterize them. In the case of witches, any direct denial of their powers will cause nature to remove all of their magic until they accept their mistake and can fulfill its duty as a servant of Nature.
- Security of Species: When a new species is created, it must be in order to maintain balance without compromising other creatures on the planet. Hybrids are creatures that often endangers the species of origin (meaning werewolves), causing the imbalance and the extinction of some other creatures.
- Use of Magic: All witches must have adequate training and maturity when using the power of nature in their spells. Because witches can use the power of evil places, nature punishes the witches who try to use that power constantly.
- Creation and Destruction: Nature's laws forbid its servants to create or destroy anything completely. They are not allowed to create anything out of nothing and are not allowed to completely destroy anything with life-force or significance in the natural world.
Supernatural Laws
- Main article: Loopholes
Although witches, vampires and other supernatural creatures can bend the laws of nature, there are some laws that cannot currently be broken. However there are loopholes in some cases:
- There are rules to spells/objects: Each spell works differently with various tools involved; one of the few times a witch can use merely their mind without an enchantment or tools is with basic forms of magic, such as Pain Infliction or Telekinesis. Darker forms of magic, such as Expression can also accomplish such feats like turning Silas into stone with mere thought of an indomitable will. Certain spelled objects contain their own rules such as with the Gilbert Rings only working on humans and silver daggers can't work on Klaus (due to his hybrid nature).
- A witch can only take in so much power: Each and every witch can only take in so much power before the power literally starts to disintegrate from the inside as stated by Kol. Such an example is Bonnie channeling the power of a 100 dead witches or Kol and Rebekah forcing Finn to channeling more magic through his sacrifices.
- Vampires, werewolves, hybrids and the other species are limited: In some cases, they can overdo the limit such as a werewolf can change at will by being a hybrid or a vampire can be immune to sunlight burning with a daylight ring. But there still remains many weaknesses such as unable to take in certain abilities or unable to find the cure to certain weaknesses. One such limitation is that vampires must be invited into the home/property by the living owner; there is no magical loophole around this.
Known Natural Phenomenons
- Main article: Channeling
Celestial Events
A celestial event is an astronomical phenomenon of interest that involves one or more celestial bodies and one of the most readily available source of power provided by nature used by witches. Examples of celestial events include the various phases of the Moon, meteor showers, comets, solar and lunar eclipses, planetary oppositions, conjunctions and occultations.
- Sun: The Sun is the closest star to Earth and it is the largest source of power that can be used. The Sun was the creator of the planets, satellites and belts of asteroids within the solar system. Unlike other power sources, solar energy is the most accessible that both witches and humans can use.
- Moon: The Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth, and it is the largest natural satellite of a planet in the Solar System relative to the size of its primary. Practically, the moon is a small and dead version of Terra, as well as a support in the surf and some other aspects such as gravity, magnetism, etc.
- Eclipses: An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object is temporarily obscured, either by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. A solar eclipse is a type of eclipse that occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks ("occults") the Sun. In a total eclipse, the disk of the Sun is fully obscured by the Moon. In partial and annular eclipses, only part of the Sun is obscured.
- Comets: A comet is an icy small body in the Solar System that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma (a thin, fuzzy, temporary atmosphere) and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet.
- Meteors: A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all of them disintegrate and never hit the Earth's surface.
- Planetary Conjunctions: A conjunction occurs when two astronomical objects have either the same right ascension or the same ecliptical longitude, normally when observed from the Earth. Conjunctions involve two Solar System bodies, or one Solar System body and one more distant object such as a star. Conjunctions between two bright objects close to the ecliptic, such as two bright planets, can be easily seen with the naked eye and can attract some public interest.
- Auroras: An aurora is a natural light display in the sky, predominantly seen in the high latitude regions. Auroras are caused by charged particles, mainly electrons and protons, entering the atmosphere from above causing ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents, and consequent optical emissions. Incident protons can also produce emissions as hydrogen atoms after gaining an electron from the atmosphere.
Elements
- Elements: The elements are the four main states, which are representative of nature. The four elements are dependent on each other for their existence as well as the development of matter and energy on the planet. Because of its abundance, the elements are the most used by the servants of nature. The four elements are used by Witches.
- Weather: Weather is the alteration of temperature and winds, causing rain, tornadoes, storms, etc. Generally, the climate is determined by the region. If it is extremely hot, it is unlikely that there will be an existence of storms, however, Nature can change the winds, and create nines with water remaining in the area to cause rains and sustain life. Altering the weather even if it is minimal, can make the consequences very chaotic. Bonnie uses the weather against Niklaus when she tries to defeat him. The weather has been used by Bonnie Bennett.
The Servants
- "I'm here because you upset the balance of Nature. And it's your duty to set it right."
- —Sheila Bennett in Ghost World
The Witches are known as the servants of nature, and as a result, these supernatural beings can channel and use the energy or magic of the planet. However, despite their gifts, witches can also be punished by nature because of any actions that may lead to an imbalance of order on the planet. It's revealed that the spirits are the ones in charge of punishing witches.
- Esther Mikaelson was one of the witches that was punished harshly by Nature (or presumably the Spirits). She directly disobeyed maintaining the balance of Nature because she created vampires; the direct violation of Nature's law that all things must die. After her son's first kill as a vampire triggered his werewolf gene she was forced to curse him because such a being was deemed too powerful to exist. In a fit of rage and betrayal, Klaus killed her. While on The Other Side Esther had been forced to watch the Mikaelson children and the plague that they spread across the Earth. For a thousand years, she felt the pain of every victim and suffered while they shed blood of the innocent. When she resurrected herself, she claimed to Elena that though she loved her family, they were an abomination. That since she betrayed Nature when she created them, that is was also her duty to kill them.
- Abby Bennett Wilson was another witch who was punished, though for abandoning her family. She was able to defeat the first of the Originals, Mikael. Though putting him down greatly weakened her, leaving her without her magic. With no magic and seeking a way out, she left Mystic Falls, leaving her young daughter and friends behind. Years later she confessed to Bonnie that she thought Nature was punishing her, because her magic never returned, for abandoning her. Nature restored Abby's powers as she reconnected with Bonnie while performing the spell to release Esther from her coffin. Whether or not it was Nature or the Spirits that took away her magic is disputed as she original believes that Nature took away her magic, though later she states "The spirits are angry with me. For leaving you. Maybe they didn't want me to have my powers again." Once she started to believe that she could help Bonnie with undoing the spell, her magic slowly started to come back.
- Bonnie Bennett was once a former loyal witch that began to harness the powers of Dark Magic. In attempts to prevent Elena's transition into a vampire, she used a dark spell that would allow her to cross to the Other Side and bring Elena back from the dead. However, her grandmother Sheila, also a witch, stopped her and warned her that Nature would punish her for tapping into such darkness and dark forces and defying its plan. However, Bonnie later performs another dark spell in which the Spirits of Nature retaliate by consuming Sheila with the Darkness, causing her spirit agonizing suffering and pain.
Loyal Witches
Although some of them have been involved with issues of vampires, they remain loyal to the nature and balance.
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Former Loyal Witches
They are witches who have somehow tried to disrupt the order, due to their selfish and evil purposes.
Etymology
The word nature is derived from the Latin word natura, or "essential qualities, innate disposition", and in ancient times, it literally meant "birth". Natura was a Latin translation of the Greek word physis (φύσις), which originally related to the intrinsic characteristics that plants, animals, and other features of the world develop of their own accord.
Trivia
- Nature may have a conscience of sorts as there is evidence that shows it may be able to punish the vampires, remove the powers of witches, and defend against beings that threaten its existence.
- Earth is the main setting among many other worlds.
- Nature is the source of Traditional Magic, and is most commonly called upon by witches for power. However, this magic has limits, and if pushed, can be detrimental to the witch's health and can be fatal.
- Dark Magic is defined by witches such as Sheila Bennett to be magic which is "not Nature's plan".
- In The Vampire Diaries, Nature is responsible for the creation of life and death on the planet, however, the witches are the architects of supernatural beings according to Atticus Shane.
- After the creation of the First Vampires, Esther uses a combination of the Moon, her son (Klaus) and Tatia (the doppelgänger) to create the hybrid curse.
- In order to stop the undead, Emily Bennett uses magic and the source of power from a comet to imprison the vampires in a tomb.