Charlie Bone Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Endowments are magical abilities possessed by descendants of the Red King a powerful magician with many powers. They are a hereditary trait, although descendants may not always manifest them, their children will still have the potential to inherit an endowment. This people, also called the endowed, inherit one of the many endowments possessed by the Red King which can be traced back to one of his ten children. Some exceptional endowed have even show to possess more than one ability.

Known Endowments[]

Throughout the series, endowments play an important role in the books and centers around the fight against those who use their endowments to help others and those who use them for selfish reasons. Many endowments are not always clearly defined and may sometimes cross with other endowments. The endowments that appear in the series are listed here:

Animal Communication[]

  • The ability to have an affinity with animals and talk to them. Billy Raven (and, possibly, Mr Onimous) has this endowment. This endowment originated from Amadis, the Red King's second child as well as Amadis' son Owain, who is also Billy's ancestor.

Animal Changing[]

  • The ability to shapeshift into animals although they may be limited to a specific species. Emma Tolly has this gift, but she can only become various birds. Asa Pike also has this gift, but he can only become a were-beast and only at dusk or when it's dark. This endowment originated from Carfal, the ancestor of the Pikes and Onimouses.
    • Were-beast: A limited form of animal changing to transform into a type of werewolf at dusk. Asa Pike has this endowment.

Bewitching[]

Clairvoyance[]

  • The ability to know and perceive current events via psychic intuition. Sometimes, it may even provide knowledge of the future. Eustacia Yewbeam and Daphne Yewbeam are known clairvoyants, although it has been stated to be rather unreliable. Both sisters knew when Charlie's endowment had manifested and came to test it. Eustacia shows this power in Charlie Bone and The Blue Boa, knowing Samuel Sparks needed a car ride. Also in Charlie Bone and the Red Knight, where she read Charlie's mind, seeing the boat Greywing, that they thought was the ship Charlie's parents were on. An unknown descendant of the Red King on Piminy Street was said to possess the "second sight" and could see Charlie and Ollie when they were invisible. This endowment originated from Guanhamara, who was said to be able see into the future.

Drowning[]

  • The ability to control water and drown others, even if there are no bodies of water nearby. Dagbert Endless possesses this power, along with his father Lord Grimwald. They both tend to smell fishy when emotional. This endowment originated from Petrello.

Fire Taming[]

  • The ability to create and control fire, which can also heat objects by touch. Manfred Bloor later receives this power after losing his hypnotism. This endowment originated from Borlath.

Flight[]

  • The ability to travel in the air by transforming into a bird. Emma Tolly does this, but doesn't like it very much as she worries that it might sometimes go wrong. If her fingers are injured, she cannot fly because the wing tips of her bird form would be damaged, so this is one of her major weaknesses. Apparently, when Emma turns into a bird she can understand animal languages. In Charlie Bone and the Time Twister and Charlie Bone and the Red Knight, Emma transforms into her own bird, a giant monster called the Tollroc. She uses this ability throughout the series to sneak around as a small bird. Tancred can also achieve flight by "riding his storm." This endowment originated from Tolemeo, Emma's ancestor.

Force Fields[]

  • The ability to produce invisible yet impenetrable barriers. Usher de Grey has this endowment.

Hypnotism[]

  • The ability to bring others into a trance state through eye contact to control their minds, erase memories or even change their personality. Manfred Bloor has that power, but loses it before turning into a fire tamer although he eventually regains hypnotism back. Yolanda Yewbeam and Vera Kurigina are also hypnotists. Albino eyes appear to have some natural resistance to being hypnotised as stated by Billy Raven throughout the books that he was able to "fight off the stare". This endowment originated from Borlath, as seen when he put Olga into a trance in Leopards' Gold.

Illusion Casting[]

  • The ability to create images that aren't really there at will. Olivia Vertigo discovers that she has this particular endowment at the end of Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors. Olivia uses her endowment for good (like when she used it to create a fierce warrior to force Harold Bloor into granting Billy the right to spend the weekends with whomever he wants to) or for fun (when she creates a giant alligator to scare Dorcas when she won't stop whining about her missing pets). This endowment originated from Guanhamara.

Invisibility[]

  • The ability to become transparent from view at will. Una Ominous has this endowment.

Intangibility[]

  • The ability to walk through solid objects and travel through walls, closed doors, and other things. Edgar Badlock has this endowment.

Luck and Grace[]

  • The ability to have and bestow good fortune and tranquility. Cook has this ability and so does her sister Pearl.

Magical Blacksmithery[]

Magnetism[]

  • The ability to attract and repulse objects and people. The person that has this endowment can be referred to as a "magnet." In the case of objects, this endowment works physically like gravity, while on people it works mentally, like charisma. Joshua Tilpin has this endowment.

Manifestation[]

  • The ability to produce anything out of thin air. Natalia Dobinski has this power.

Oath-Binding[]

  • The ability to keep oaths dipped in poison that are magically binding. This ensures that anyone who breaks their oaths broke would suffer with pain. Florence de Grey has this endowment.

Picture traveling[]

  • The ability to look at a painting or photograph and literally go into said painting/photo and meet the person(s) depicted in it. Charlie Bone has this ability, first discovering it when he finds a photo of Dr. Tolly and Emma as an infant and hearing the sounds from when the picture was taken. Charlie's picture traveling ability strengthens as the series progresses, since at first he can only hear sounds and voices, but later he is able to travel bodily into paintings/photos. In Charlie Bone and the Time Twister and Charlie Bone and The Blue Boa, Charlie travels into the painting of Skarpo, a sorcerer with tools Charlie may use. Charlie travels out of a window in Skarpo's room to see a vision of the Red King. In Charlie Bone and the Hidden King, Charlie attempts to travel into a photo with his father in it faintly, but this attempt fails. The only drawback of this ability is that its unwittingly creates a link between the traveler and the subject of the photo. For example, when Charlie looks at a photograph and hears the voices, whoever is in the photo is able to see his face at that moment; if he looks at a picture of someone who wishes him harm, they will see Charlie and recognise him later. In Midnight for Charlie Bone he somehow uses this connection to read Manfred's mind, allowing him to resist being hypnotized while weakening his hold on his other victims. One of Charlie's ancestors, Charles Pennybuck, is mentioned to also have had this ability. This endowment originated from Amoret, the Red King's youngest child.

Power Boosting[]

  • The ability to boost up the energy in light bulbs to the point where they explode. Charlie's great-uncle Paton Yewbeam has this ability and it seems to be closely tied with his emotions. For example, when he first developed the talent when he was seven, it was on his birthday; he was so ecstatic that he exploded all of the light bulbs in the house. At first Paton feels that his power is useless and uncontrollable, but as the series progresses he explores how it works. In Charlie Bone and the Time Twister he finds that when he is reading or relaxed, light bulbs around him don't explode. When his light bulb-exploding powers are in use, there is a sound around him that is "like a feeling of humming, as if the air around...were charged with soundless music".

Psychometry (through clothing)[]

  • The ability to feel someone's emotions as well as sense their past and current whereabouts by wearing an article of their clothing. Gabriel Silk can do this, and therefore it is rather painful for him to wear used clothes. In Charlie Bone and the Time Twister, he wears a glove belonging to Dorothy de Vere, who had her fingers crushed in a door. In Charlie Bone and The Blue Boa, he wears Mr Boldova's cloak to give him an ounce of courage as he, Billy and Charlie begin their risky boa hunt, and in Charlie Bone and the Hidden King, wears the Red King's cloak for protection against Count's Harken's magical attack.

Shadow Scribing[]

  • The ability to shape shadows to form messages and send them to their intended target as long as they have access to a possession of the recipient. Naren Bloor has this endowment.

Shape Shifting[]

  • The ability to reshape themselves into any form and size they desire including people and animals. Yorath Yewbeam and Yolanda Yewbeam have this power. This endowment originated from Wyborn.

Sparkling[]

  • The ability to super-heat rocks and turn them to sparks. Samuel Sparks has this endowment.

Spirit Summoning[]

  • The ability to summon the spirits of their ancestors to aid them. Lysander Sage and his mother possess this power, and Lysander uses it quite often when he and his friends get into crises. His spirits wield spears and are often accompanied by drumming to signify their arrival. This endowment originated from Guanhamara.

Stone Animating[]

  • The ability to animate stone and make stone statues come to life. Eric Shellhorn has this endowment. An ancestor of his was also able to do this.

Storm Bringing[]

Telekinesis[]

Telepathy[]

  • The ability to enter minds, communicate mentally, and read thoughts and memories. Some clairvoyants, when their gifts are at full power can also "know" the state of a person's thoughts such as Eustacia Yewbeam. Charlie also displayed the ability to read the minds of those he had used his traveling ability on although it has only been used once in Midnight for Charlie Bone. This endowment originated from Guanhamara.

Witchery[]

  • The ability to have an affinity for magic and witchcraft such as spell casting and potion making although this gift has been vague in the series. Titania Tilpin and Alice Angel both possess this endowment, having been called a "witch" and "white witch" respectively. It was noted in Charlie Bone and the Red Knight that she could fling ice from her fingers. Ezekiel Bloor, like his aunt, Beatrice Bloor, was said to have some talent with magic though he has been shown to be an amateur at best. This endowment originated from Guanhamara, who was said to have been a gifted witch and used many of her talents to help reduce the effects of her more evil siblings.

Trivia[]

  • Witchery may not be a endowment specific to the Red King's descendants, as sorcerers that are not related to him, namely Mathonwy, Skarpo and Count Harken Badlock, are known to exist.
  • To possess more than one endowment is considered a rare case.
  • Several animals related to the Red King have also displayed magical abilities although they cannot be considered endowments.
    • The Flames are able to produce fire, interfere with other endowments and heal others.
    • The Blue Boa is extremely long-lived and is able to turn others invisible by squeezing them. However, it gained this talent via an enchantment.

See Also[]

Advertisement