| {{{image}}} | |
|---|---|
| Sivanah Blackwood (manga) Madelyn "Maddi" Bishop (anime) | |
| (シビナ びらくヰぼ, Shibana Barakuwodo Maderin Bishopu) | |
| Alias |
Madelyn "Maddi" Bishop |
| Classification |
Witch |
| Gender |
|
| Age |
13 (anime, pre time-skip) |
| Birthday |
December 29th |
| Hair Color |
Strawberry Blonde |
| Eye Color |
Right; Blue |
| Affiliation |
DWMA |
| Previous Affiliation |
Witch's Order |
| Team |
Spartoi (formerly) |
| Partner(s) |
Aradia (manga) |
| Magic Theme |
Cats |
| Base of Operations |
DWMA (formerly) |
| Status |
Alive |
| Relative(s) |
Milisa Blackwood (mother) |
Sivanah Blackwood (シビナ びらくヰぼ, Shibana Barakuwodo) is a witch who was born raised for 3 years in Georgia where her mother lived and raised her before being unable to raise her child due to the guilt of the ultimately disgraced family name and lifestyle of the Blackwood Family. She was taken to the Witch's Realm and given away to which she resided within the Witch Order under Maba's protection before being allowed to branch out into the world and make a new life for herself. Upon arriving in Death City, the atmosphere intrigued her and allowed her to have fun pranking humans and obtain a job as a waitress under a fake name—Madelyn Bishop—within the city's perimeter. She is discovered and captured by Sid and his partner Naigus after 3 1/2 years without a home or detection after being caught for using magic and her true name was discovered through interrogation. When taken in, they attempt to find out her fate from Lord Death in which he attempts to repurpose her as a meister though this sadly fails throughout the series. The fact that she could not wield a weapon became the reason for her jealousy toward meisters until the near end of the series. She becomes a great ally over time and forms a close relationship with many while still having indifferences with and towards others and several bouts even now.
After accomplishing in miraculously returning Aradia's Kishin soul to normality, she and Aradia act similar to meister and weapon to amplify Sivanah's magic.
Appearance[]
Sivanah has two notable outfits as well as a party dress that she wears throughout the series. As for aesthetics, Sivanah is pale, even paler than Death the Kid when compared side by side, as well as she has a slender figure similar to Patty's and a large chest as she developed early at age 11. Her eyes are heterochromatic and consist of the dominant blue colored eye on the right, and the recessive gene for a green eye on the left which she can partially see out of due to the mutation of the recessive pigment in which no amount of magic can fix unless her eye is replaced with a new one through surgery. She's also known for her signature strawberry blonde hair which she wears in different fashions. A key accessory Sivanah carries is her soul protect charm given to her by Maba since she cannot perform soul protect herself. At the end of Volume 25, there is a coronation for Sivanah as well revealing her new magic eye.
Her original witch's outfit is often worn when out on missions or just to be lazy instead of dressing into her school attire and until the time-skip. Her witch's outfit consists of a dark gray/black dress with ruffled sleeves on either side that hang low, revealing her shoulders and upper chest to neck area, as well as frayed ends that just cover her crotch and bottom. She wears a single black, cat's eye glove with the eye colored green, and two soft brown/beige belts—one with a gold buckle on one, and one without a buckle at all. She wears a black cat themes hat that seems to have the eyes covered by a blue ribbon that ties off center into a bow with a golden bell in the center of the bow, and sports a cat nose, ears, and an open cat mouth that seems to have a hissing or loudly meowing-type cat face wide open wide and bearing its teeth—tongue visible. She wears beige boots that match her belts mid-shin down, and a black collar around her neck that also has a golden bell and lastly had her hair loosely tied to either side in the back, to the shoulder blades, which hangs down to her shoes with frayed asymmetrical bangs in the front and to each side of her face.
After Sivanah goes to the DWMA for her first day, Kid decides she's going to look presentable and has her hair cut to where it hangs to her waist, or just about. In rebellion to this, Sivanah purposefully makes her hair asymmetrical by making a braid off to the right side over her shoulder, spiked bangs to each side and asymmetrically over her face, as well as a strand of hair to the left to finish it off.
As for her attire, her original black, Halloween/black cat based witch's hat is swapped for a more subtle version with the same adjustment of the blue bow and bell by her choice in refusal to be symmetrical. She still wears her signature black bell collar, as well as now wears a deep black/blue top that mimics a cat's head at the chest equipt with ears over her chest, and two glaring green cat eyes. Her hair is kept in place to the right with two blue scrunchies, and she wears a skirt very similar to Maka's that Maka actually gave to her out of a gesture from Kid and even agreed, reluctantly, to stitch the death logo on the left by request of what Sivanah demanded of Kid to request for her. Lastly, she wears gothic brand hand gloves on either hand that stretches mid arm width before the elbow and covers to her mid hand, while sporting brown boots that reach 3 or 4 inches below the knee, with heels, and jacket like accessories dangling from the inside of either boot with green poms decorating the ends. She's also depicted with long clawed nails on certain occasions.
Background[]
Sivanah was kept safe after being given to the Grand Witch Maba who, in a favor to the child's mother and Sivanah herself, prevented her from falling into the pull of magic most witches suffer from as long as her willpower was intact. She grew up learning her family's abilities and magic before learning the true evils of witches amongst living with them and her learning about her family's dark past before coming to detest witches and even didn't want to be a witch herself though she truly respected Maba.
After being in the Witch Order till she was 12, she broke free of the Witch's Realm with permission from Maba to go and explore on her own. When she came upon Death City, she settled down with a new name, on the streets and seemed to enjoy the humans better as she didn't get along well with other witches. She always used her soul protect charm that Maba had given her to hide her true soul and its spastic wavelength while taking on a part-time job as a waitress. She was only making minimum wage and capable of making enough money to pay for dry cleaning while getting free food from the restaurant she worked at within reason and dwelling on the streets.
She was captured 4 months after her arrival by Sid and Naigus after being monitored due to being discovered for pulling pranks on others using witch's magic, that she was a Blackwood, and thus was the last one being Sivanah Blackwood herself. She was brought to Lord Death to which she went through a series of questions in order for him to determine if she was good or evil and see what potential she harbored within herself. Even though she refused to give up the location of the Witch's Realm due to her respect for Maba who raised her, Lord Death understood and still determined her "good" but forced her to enroll into the DWMA in hopes to repurpose her as a meister before finding out her soul was too spastic from fighting Aradia's soul and Madness of Magic inside of her to be compatible with any weapon. She is never told about Aradia's dark soul trying to take over her own in order to protect her from panic or worry, and thus begins her adventures within the Academy under Death the Kid's close watch and guarding.
Personality[]
Sivanah was originally very difficult to read and understand and is well known for her slight southern accent due to being born in Georgia and raised there for a few years, so she picked up the accent, even the southern charm, and hospitality. Even in the beginning, she was disliked and almost detested by Death the Kid and many others at the start of her time at the DWMA even though she didn't truly hate anyone. She was a trapped cat and hissed accordingly.
She starts off with a very rough, tsundere attitude towards others by giving off an "I don't need or want help from anyone!" demeanor and impression. She is instantly revealed to be a prankster, very playful at times, originally acted rudely, she was noticeably cunning, manipulative, and a troublemaker to the core upon pranking students and even teachers for her own fun and amusement with her illusions and levitation magic while not mean-spirited. This, in turn, makes her appear careless and unaware of the consequences in the eyes of others and often didn't care and acted stubbornly. She was actually very knowledgeable and considerate when it mattered, giving off her Southern Hospitality and quite shy with her true emotions which she hid behind most all of her pranks aside from being fueled by her dwindling willpower and increasing pull of magic.
Sivanah very intelligent but didn't show it since she couldn't concentrate without a book in her face and without something to do, she'll often get into trouble like any other cat would when bored. She would still, however, lighten up her pranking tendencies when asked by authority figures such as Lord Death which shows she has a sense of respect amongst specific people above her in merit.
She reveals to have grown envious of meisters after being unable to become one which brought about more aggressive pranks towards individuals such as Maka Albarn, Black Star, and Death the Kid to name a few. She didn't like her own behavior as such, but without the sense security to reveal her emotions, she didn't know how else to quell her anger of the situation. People often took this as a personal insult, though that wasn't the case.
Upon growing to understand her crowd better, Sivanah finally attempted to open up an unknown side of her to Kid and a few others with few words, showing she was honestly very caring and considerate, as well as, being very loyal towards others even if they gave her a hard time and vice versa. Her initial hatred and dislike of Maka and Maka's dislike of her due to Sivanah being a troublemaker, turned into a form of rivalry upon them at the series end, now understanding one another after Maka quickly came to realize Sivanah had a deep sense of loyalty to her comrades, though, still not sparing them of her shenanigans on many occasions in the long run. Her initial idealism of boundaries was also very limited at first and she learns to understand them more as she comes to respect her classmates.
Sivanah's weaknesses become clear throughout the plotline as she's revealed to be needy, very stubborn, afraid of isolation, agitated and swayed by threats and bouts of aggression towards herself or her friends, as well as being too quick to judge and take action in anger and aggression which often got her injured. She was known to also be self-conscious around many people and even doubting of herself when overtaken by regret or isolation which would unleash Aradia's madness of magic over time before being completely consumed by it and Aradia's soul due being framed for murder due to Crona setting her up upon Medusa's orders, and is immediately ordered to be put in a cell by Kid. Many didn't believe her pleas to trust her when she said she didn't do it due to the blood on her clothes and just for the fact that she was a witch. Medusa has sown seeds of doubt in her peers and this slowly drops her into the madness of magic before she is released. Upon being released, she immediately escapes Death City after a few days in class after succumbing to her madness.
Her strengths mostly outweigh her bad tendencies as she devotes her magic and abilities, as well as her life, to her allies because she craves companionship from them, even in the very beginning with no idea of how to say so other than proving it in battles and/or through other complicated or silly methods. She's also known to be very energetic and playful, yet nice to Crona upon them noting on not knowing how to deal with this playfulness quite often. She is known to not be free of fear as well as she was certainly not free of malice, though her personality could be considered balanced, and was, after Asura's defeat and Kid becoming a full-fledged shinigami in the manga. Sivanah often sets her sights on making herself better than the family she lives within the shadow of and is devoted to proving the fact she's not an average witch by this self-set standard to the very core of her existence.
Upon facing her fears and syncing soul wavelengths with Aradia after pulling her kishin soul back to normality, she now wields Aradia's magic with her own as if Aradia were an inner amplifier to Sivanah's power. The two care for each other now in a mother/daughter relationship.
Influenced by Madness[]
When Sivanah was controlled by Aradia's madness of magic and her own pull of magic, she loved being destructive for her new master, Arachne, then easily betraying her for Asura when he devoured the spider witch's soul. She was easily one of the most manipulative and cunning witches due to having ties to the DWMA and could easily fool them into thinking she was on their side again before killing unnamed members of the Academy, even several teachers. Her truly evil antics are easily noticeable and brought out as she becomes almost as terrible as Medusa if not as manipulative and careless of other's lives except her masters'. She gives absolutely no care towards human lives and not even caring for the allies she worked with and killed them if they didn't obey word for word. She was best known for taunting the weak with a sarcastic yet sympathetic voice, yet was truly empathetic even if she didn't care for one's life as a whole.
With the encouraging words of her friends to remember who she was, she was set free of this madness by coming to terms with her own self-doubt which had dwindled her most notable feature—willpower—and finds herself overcoming her worries of herself and her fears about failing herself and her friends as a result. With this new found knowledge of her most fatal weakness of who she is, she becomes stronger for it, and faces the madness, using it to benefit her, not fall into it with every step she took with it. She now used her willpower to push herself to become the person she desired to be—someone who would not fall to her magic and would instead rule over it.
Relations[]
Abilities[]
Levitation Magic: A basic spell that is known by many witches in which an incantation is never needed to activate. It allows a witch to levitate on their brooms or in Sivanah's case her magical bells(similar to Blair's pumpkins), among other things with the right experience. Sivanah is able to levitate herself without her broom as well as other things.
Illusion Wavelength and Illusion Magic: An advanced magic known to a single witch family(aside from the Kishin Asura) within the Witch's Realm, one such family being the Blackwood family. They often used these to increase the madness in others in different ways than Arachne's madness wavelength by using their worst fears against them through illusions they couldn't escape without awareness that the magic would be, and was being used. This is called illusion wavelength which can be spread amongst many individuals, or a single individual with a mental focus on someone's particular wavelength.
Sivanah often used illusions to her advantage in battle and especially in pranking. She often used illusionary spells such as nudity illusions, age illusions, symmetrical illusions, and asymmetrical illusions. One to make Stein appear naked in only his boxers in front of the entire class, the next to play a prank on Spirit to make him easily flirt with her because she appeared sexy and 21, the next to help and/or agitate Kid when he was off his guard. She would also try to help on missions by using these illusions, but if Kid was aware it was her, it didn't work and whatever crisis to become couldn't be avoided making this a 50/50 chance of success.
This was later enhanced after being granted a pseudo-magic eye from Maba which only increased her eyesight to 20/20 vision, and enhanced her illusionary abilities.
Bell Magic: This is Sivanah's main magic "theme" similar to Blair's "pumpkin" theme which isn't her actual animal theme. It just accents it and activates her magic, it's not a magic in itself. Often activated with chants such as "Jing, jing, jingle", while most of her magic is also used in this way, it specifically allows her to resonate a specific sound and pitch of that sound to many individuals or a single individual that activated her illusion wavelength specifically while other simpler magics like levitation was just a flick of the wrist and her index finger.
She could often use levitating bells in battle like Blair uses rocket boosted levitating pumpkins.
Bad Luck: A harmless curse in Sivanah's hands when not under the control of the pull of magic or Aradia's control. This gives innocent bystanders whom her cats walks past a temporary curse which last in threes. Every time someone goes through three instances of bad luck, the curse is broken with awareness just like her illusion wavelength. Used mostly during October and Halloween.
Cat Instincts: This is a family specific trait of magic that they used to counter the immortals who appeared as wolves yet couldn't tranform completely into a werecat counterpart. Sivanah can form cat ears in a magical transformation in which she gains access to a cat's primal instincts. This includes the enhancement of abilities such as increased speed, agility, hearing, smell, sight, and cat-specific instincts like being able to take the impact of a fall from great heights with better flexibility to which her body isn't permanently or harshly damaged on impact, as well as often landing on her feet. She's also able to adapt to minimal sources of lighting which her pupils adjust and give her a better view in a very similar way as a cat's eye works. She's also able to purr to regulate her soul resonance as well as to calm herself, and often does this in human form to signify satisfaction or contentment.
Like cats and other animals, she is weak to certain scents like ammonia, catnip, and sounds such as anything high pitched or excessive like Crona's screaming resonance. It's about the same percentage of accuracy as a normal cat as to whether she will land on her feet or not.
Grigori Soul Resonance: When Sivanah resonates with Aradia in the manga after merging their souls together in harmony, Sivana can enhance her magic as well as willingly borrow the abilities of Aradia's Grigori soul to create wings to avoid using magic if the situation has no time for her chanting or just out of preference and fascination.
Trivia[]
- Sivanah's name is in reference to a deity who is well known for her knowledge, ruin, illusions, trickery, and magic.
- The Blackwood witch family was known for many terrible deeds in which was the reason Sivanah's mother finally gave her up to Maba 3 or 4 years after she was born and lived in Georgia long enough to pick up the accent.
- Her mother was heavily burdened and ashamed by the family's past and couldn't withstand to let her daughter be born into such a nightmare.
She was constantly in a tug of war for her own soul against Aradia—one of 8 warlords that followed Lord Death many centuries ago before choosing madness to be with her beloved Asura and then having her soul implanted within a witch of the Blackwood family in order to get away from being killed by Lord Death.
- In the manga, Sivanah successfully harmonizes with and befriends Aradia, allowing her to let go of her tainted love for the Kishin who never "truly" loved her.
- Maba supported Sivanah's decision to be whatever she desires to be, regardless of the opinions of the other witches as she cared for her own kind and had little judgment.
- Upon Kid and Kim working together, reluctantly, to make a truce with the witches, Sivanah gets jealous upon Kid stating he and Kim were in a hysical relationship.
- Sivanah's favorite foods include lobster and other expensive seafood dishes, as well as soul food.
- However, she cannot stand raw fish or fish roe, nor can she stand sour drinks or spicy foods.
- Sivanah's most favorite drink is sweet tea she gets imported from Georgia, keeping a large supply within Kid's kitchen by constant demand.