SAMANTHA STEPHENS

Real Name: Samantha Stephens (nee Spellcraft)

Occupation: Sorceress, former caterer, former homemaker,

Place of Birth: Lizmont, England

Marital Status: Widowed

Known Relatives: Maurice (father), Endora (mother), Jessica (sister), Darren (husband, deceased), Tabitha, Amanda (daughters), Adam (son), Jason Danvers (son-in-law), Jessica, Jerrica (grand-daughters), Serena, Minerva, Panda, Piranha, Henry, Edgar (cousins), Clara, Enchantra, Agatha, Bertha (aunts), Arthur (uncle), Frank (father-in-law, deceased), Phyllis (mother-in-law, deceased), Victoria ("Vicki," sister-in-law), Cornelia (great-aunt),

Base of Operations: Mobile, formerly Westport, Connecticut

First Appearance: Bewitched (1963 - 1993, ABC-TV)

History: Samantha Spellcraft is an Eleventh or Twelfth generation member of the Spellcraft family, a family of warlocks and witches adept in the pagan art of witchcraft. Due to marriages with other magic families, the Spellcrafts have produced progeny with exceptional aptitude and proclivity to the mystical arts. As a result, most mystical families forbid relationships with "mortals" or non-magic individuals. (This reference is a bit of a misnomer as most magic-users are not true "immortals," but individuals who have used magic to retard aging and enhance their life spans.) According to some accounts, magic-users such as witches and wizards are descendants of the most ancient magic-users in the history of Earth; their powers existing as a holdover from the numerous pantheons of gods, who once intermingled and lived among humanity, such as the Asgardians and the Olympians.

Very little is known about Samantha's past, but going by her reported contacts and dalliances with historical and legendary figures, she was possibly born sometime in the Early Sixteenth Century in the village of Lizmont, England, the last occupied town in England leftover from the Roman occupation of Britain. Her family have been guests and hosts for the British monarchy and the European aristocracy for hundreds of years and as such, they still exhibit the rigid and regal luxuries of the Elizabethan and Victorian eras. As such, the majority of her relatives consider themselves superior to normal human beings, which they call "mortals," regardless of the fact that the witches are not true immortals. While most magic-users use magic in secret, Samantha's family often openly exhibit their powers in public in order to relish in the befuddled alarm and confusion of people around them, Samantha learned how to be more covert and innocuous with her spells and learned how to demonstrate her mystical powers by twitching her nose, an ability she has demonstrated for several hundred years.

During her teenage years, Samantha's confidants growing up were her sister, Jessica, and her cousins Serena, Panda, Minerva and Piranha, but their friendships became estranged over the years as they competed for and compared prospective suitors. Samantha has had several prospective male companions over the years, but she turned away many of them out of their manners of their male ego and hubris. In the Eighteenth Century, she and her mother, Endora, now separated from her father, lived in Boston, Massachusetts where she was approached by a warlock named Clyde Farnsworth. Rejected by Samantha, a very dejected Clyde had Samantha's aunt, Enchantra, Serena's mother, turn him into a chair. Samantha would also reject a warlock named Waldo Spellcaster and would rid herself of him by turning him into a frog.

During the Nineteenth Century, Samantha traveled a bit between homes owned by her family and extended relatives. For a time, she lived with distant relatives Hilda and Zelda Spellman near Borley, England. She tempered the personality of their young brother, Thomas, to have compassion for mortals. As a result, Thomas as an adult would marry a mortal woman and have a daughter, Sabrina, who also showed proclivity to the mystical arts. During this time, Samantha would also become close friends with a mortal practitioner of the Wiccan religion named Angelique Bouchard, a friendship that has helped to assuage Angelique's old hostilities and enmity with her then estranged husband, Barnabas Collins.

In the Sixties, Samantha met and was romanced by a young advertising executive named Darren Stephens. She became intrigued by his humility and charm and eventually married him. Their marriage had a significant impact on the High Council of the Wiccan race. After years of establishing themselves above humanity, the High Council was hesitant against witches associating with and intermingling with mortals out of fear of re-igniting new witch trials. Quite possibly, the Council also feared that the mystical abilities of future generations would be genetically eliminated from them by inter-marriages with regular humanity. Samantha and Darren's first born child, Tabitha, as well as Sabrina, however, proved exceptions to their fears by exhibiting mystical powers far earlier than children in most mystical families.

Samantha's mother, Endora, however, remained a constant antagonist to the marriage because of  her personal prejudice to human beings, but mostly because Samantha ignored her mystical powers and heritage to prove she could live in human conditions as a mortal wife. Sometimes going weeks without using her powers, Samantha still had to bear the burden of her mother constantly testing Darren's love to her. The High Council even temporarily appointed Samantha Queen of the Witches to further reap the amount of frustration in Darren's life, but he weathered through upon realizing how much he loved Samantha. 

In addition to the meddling and sadistic persecution of Darren from her mother, Samantha has also had to bear witness to a persistent allotment of occurrences from her other relatives. Darren has never been safe where Samantha's father, Maurice, has been involved, but the gentleman has come to respect Darren's love for Samantha. Samantha's hedonistic cousin, Serena, has made Darren the victim of several practical jokes, but not quite on the level of Uncle Arthur, a self-proclaimed prankster and trickster, who Darren has to admit is his only true friend among his in-laws along with Samantha's Aunt Clara. Clara, however, has never been much of a threat to Darren. Clara's imprecise spells, involuntary conjurations and mystical blunders has long been a source of embarrassment to him, but he still treats her warmly. Irregardless of the mystical stress in his life, Darren has realized just how much he must love Samantha to weather magic and mystical phenomenon in his life.

Samantha on the other hand has felt the impact of concealing her magic from the unsuspecting public. Gladys Kravitz, a harmless but overly-curious neighbor has long suspected Samantha of being more than she actually is and has discovered first-hand the demonstration of magic first-hand from Samantha and her relatives. Samantha, meanwhile, has used clever double-talk and subterfuge to keep Mrs. Kravitz further confused for years in order to quell her fears and keep her witchcraft secret. Darren's opportunistic boss, Larry Tate, has come close to discovering Samantha's powers a few times, but she has learned to be wary of him on account of his ruthless devotion to materialism. Her only true foe has been private detective Charlie Leach who has discovered what she is and has threatened to expose her to the public, but Samantha has kept him at bay for years by constantly outwitting his attempts to out her to the public.

Despite the amount of trouble in her life, Samantha and Darren shared a life of idyllic suburban bliss for years and eventually had two more children: a son named Adam was born in 1969 and a daughter named Amanda was born in 1972. About this time, Samantha discovered a parallel universe after a time-traveling sojourn with an exact counterpart of herself. In this other universe, everyone looked identical to their mainstream counterparts except for Darren, Larry Tate's wife, Louise, Gladys Kravitz and Darren's father, Frank. This parallel Samantha was assisted by a maid named Esmerelda, a older witch whose witchcraft was declining in power and precision. Much of this parallel time Samantha's life has paralleled the life of the main time Samantha. (It is believed that Esmerelda is the alternate reality counterpart to Sabrina's great grandmother, Nana Spellman, but this is unconfirmed.)

Over the years, Tabitha grew up into a beautiful woman and got a job in the television industry in San Francisco, California. Adam followed Darren into the advertising business and eventually lived near Tabitha on the West Coast. His powers seemed to decline as well, but they were restored after realizing he was under the spell of a jilted young witch he had dated. Samantha's cousin, Minerva, whom Tabitha and Adam regarded as an aunt, checked up on them frequently on behalf of  Samantha. Amanda, however, was kept restricted to the East Coast as years of being influenced by Serena had made her just as impractical and unpredictable. Samantha's long-lost sister, Jessica, eventually returned as well after being turned into a dress for several years by Serena. To fulfill her time without her children around, Samantha dabbled for a time as a caterer, mostly to McMann and Tate, Darren's firm, after years of providing dinners to guests and prospective clients.

Darren, actually, became president at the advertising agency after Larry was imprisoned for embezzling from the company, but he eventually passed away in 1992 after recurring bouts with cancer. Tabitha returned home with her husband, Jason Danvers, to be by her side. Samantha stayed at home in Westport after her grandchildren were born, but she departed in 1995 to decide where her life was meant to go now that Darren was gone. Surprisingly, her mother finally confided in her how she respected Darren for having stayed with her through all the mystical terrorism and emotional abuse.

In 2005, Amanda Stephens had a bit part as a actress in a comedy directed by Nora Ephron. The comedy involved exaggerated displays involving magic and witches and inspired Ephron to remake a successful television show from the Sixties called "Bewitched" which oddly paralleled Samantha's marriage with Darren. A beautiful sorceress named Isabel Bigelow was encouraged to take the title role alongside the film's reputed star, Jack Wyatt, whose once promising career was in decline. Samantha returned to encourage Isabel to take the role and coached her in it, and even had a hand in helping her teach Wyatt the values and virtues of humility.

CLASSIFIED: *Top Secret*  FBI, X-Files Division (Updated 1998 by Fox Mulder)

Known Superhuman Powers (Based on covert long-term examination and analysis of Samantha Stephens): Samantha Stephens possesses the ability to tap into and manipulate mystical energies through witchcraft. Strictly speaking, magic is not a superhuman power; all human beings have the potential to practice and tap into the mystical arts, but each person is limited by their own amount of training, discipline, knowledge, enlightenment and mastery of the mystical arts, although some people like individuals have for more potential and aptitude for it than others. It is believed this ability may be part of a genetic holdover from individuals whose ancestors were demigods, the children of gods and mortal individuals. It is believed excessive intermingling between magic families has resulted in a off-shoot of humanity with increased potential for magic, and that magic-users such as Samantha are evidence of this. 

Historically, all magic derives from three main sources: personal powers of the mind/body/soul derived from one developing their own psychic powers (such as telepathy, psychokinesis, telekinesis, clairvoyance, psychometry...), powers gained by tapping into the universe's store of ambient energies for specific results (teleportation, transmutation of objects...) and powers gained by the invoking of gods and/or other-dimensional beings in worlds tangent to their own (dimensional travel, manipulation of energy....). The latter means of power is usually gained by the recitation of spells or incantations, either ritualized ones found in ancient mystical texts or by original spells invoking gods and other extra-dimensional beings. Nearly all families of wizards or witches have mystical tomes or spell-books describing the history of their families with their accumulated mystical knowledge.

The gamut of Samantha's mystical powers appear based on a form of advanced psychokinesis and telekinesis. She can affect matter on the atomic level (changing the properties of an object into another object), on the molecular level (altering an object into another similar object) or on a whole (telekinetically moving an object). She can convert her thoughts to mass both consciously and unconsciously and can materialize whole objects and even sentient beings. She can use this power on herself such as when she shape-shifts, turning herself into other people, animals and even inanimate objects and back with no harm to herself. She can also become invisible to normal human senses and attain a sentient immaterial form in which she is immune to conventional but not mystical injury. She can also create spells to render her able to exist underwater, in the vacuum of outer space or just against the detrimental effects of moving at high speeds. She can mystically increase her strength and speed to perform certain tasks. In order to attain any of these feats, Samantha is required to gesture or create some kind of movement; the size of the gesture is sometimes pertinent to the scale of the feat she desires. Her personal expertise is considerable enough that she can levitate several tons of matter or conjure living beings with just a twitch of her nose. Samantha can also conjure objects, manifesting her thoughts into physical objects or mentally teleporting objects, such clothing, from existing areas without creating it anew from nothingness. Her psychic and mystical energies appear to be just as individual as fingerprints or retina patterns, which makes it difficult for her to undo the spells or enchantments created by other magic-users. She can, however, affect or add to spells created by Aunt Clara or Esmerelda whose power levels have diminished to nearly-defunct levels. These energies have rendered Samantha immune to mortal frailties such as intoxication and terrestrial disease. She is also extremely long-lived, but she is not immortal like the Olympian gods. She ages at a very slow rate, but she still looks and has the physical stamina and endurance of a young woman approaching middle age. 

By mentally manipulating gravitons (theoretical sub-atomic particles carrying the force of gravity between atoms), Samantha can levitate herself and even mystically enable herself to fly. When she does so, she generally uses a a solid object like a pole or rod to balance herself (the use of which gave rise to the myth that witches fly on brooms). For considerable distances, Samantha can teleport herself or a group of people by mentally conjuring a link between two points in space, levitating herself a short distance and then closing the doorway in between. The friction of molecules between the two points of sometimes creates a burst of smoke that appears upon departure and reentry depending on the length of space traversed. The limits on this feat are unknown. She can take several minutes to travel from the United States to Europe or an hour to visit the moon. She can even reach unknown destinations by channeling upon persons or objects that she has encountered at least once (she once trailed Darren to a bar she had never been to before). It would be impossible for her to locate an object she has never seen, but it would be no problem for her to enter a location just as long as she knows it exists. She can use this power to mentally transverse dimensions and travel through time, although when she transcends beyond the length of her lifetime, she can become vulnerable to losing her powers (except for her trip back to her point of origin) or even having the memories of her present life erased from her mind.

Samantha also has low-level psychic prowess and is susceptible to paranormal phenomenon. She can see the spirits of those people who have died (ghosts) and detect the mystical potential in other magical beings, such as sprites, elves and gods. She is empathic and can sense emotional patterns in human beings, such as lust in her ardent admirers. Although she has mental barriers against telepathy, she can communicate messages over long-distance to other witches even without knowing where they are located (such as when she calls upon her mother or Serena). She can implant thoughts and hypnotic suggestions on people to act or respond as she sees fit, and even mesmerize anyone she catches in her gaze for three to five seconds, but she makes little use of this power. She can also mentally communicate with animals, such as dogs, horses and chimpanzees.  She can also cause certain individuals to perceive hallucinations no one else can see, and place anyone of her choosing to enter into a "deep-freeze," a spell which momentarily halts the physical, verbal and conscious movements of that individual. In this state, a potential subject enters into a submissive state where they can be more suggestive to Samantha's whims and magic. She can also keep a subject in "deep freeze" indefinitely after which that person will have no recollection of any time having passing while in this state.

Samantha can also tap into and utilize external magical forces such as elemental and cosmic energies in order to strengthen or increase upon her own mystical powers without taxing upon her own powers, such as when she crosses dimensions or travels through time. She can create whole new worlds subject to her imagination similar to the story-book realms which Tabitha once created as a child. By tapping into the elemental forces of the earth, she can control the weather and conjure small locally centered earthquakes. She also tends to use incantations, spells and chants in order to channel her spells into very precise effects or hexes. Her hexes actually are spells rigged to influence spheres of psychokinetic force around specific people or objects to create negative results in the form of "bad luck." Samantha can also create spheres of "good luck" around people and objects of her choosing.

Abilities: Samantha is a gifted linguist able to speak in numerous languages including but not limited to to French, Spanish, Italian and Old English. She is also an adept cook and promising artist.

Limitations: Although immune to human frailties, Samantha is vulnerable to a host of mystical maladies, such as veracious ravenousitus and gravitous inflammitus, many of which have been created by sorcerers, mystics and wizards as defenses against witches using natural anathema to earth. Usually debilitating to her powers,  the majority of these illnesses are not cumulative and she can return to full power and vigor after an accurate diagnosis of her symptoms. Samantha is also unable to counter the subconscious desires of individuals granted wishes closely related to their own personal desires; hence, she cannot undo a person's wish by another witch without realizing the motivations behind that spell.

Comments: All characters here except for extraneous Ninth through Twentieth Season characters are copyrighted to Columbia Pictures Television

 

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