User:Christoph Schrader/Magic Page Specimen

Holy, sometimes also called Pearl or Faith, is a semi-recurring spell in the Kingdom Hearts Series. In each appearance, Holy makes use of rays, spheres, or pillars of holy light to damage enemies, and, in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep also restores the caster's health. The first mention of Holy spells in the series comes with the Angel Star Heartless, which are said to be born of Holy spells, and which absorb most forms of magic, though the spell is not useable in-game. Notably, this spell has never been useable by player characters in either the original Kingdom Hearts or in Kingdom Hearts II.

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep
Faith appears as a Deck Command exclusive to Ventus. It releases a circle of lasers similar to those employed by Roxas that annihilate nearby enemies and restore his health all at once. He additionally possesses the Deck Command Salvation, which appears to draw upon this same power to both attack and heal at once.

Kingdom Hearts
Although Sora cannot cast Holy in this game, a very large engine block is known as the Holy G, and the Angel Star heartless are remarked to have been born of holy spells despite being beings of darkness.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Sora learns Holy at level 42. The sleight requires a mega-ether, a megalixir, and any other item card to cast, and summons a pillar of white light that lifts enemies who touch it into the air, though most bosses are immune to this lifting effect.

Kingdom Hearts: Re: Chain of Memories
Sora learns Holy at level 47, but the casting requirements remain the same -- mega-ether, megalixir, and any other item card must be stocked. Its effect has been alterred drastically, however, and it now summons four pillars of white light to strike the targeted enemy at fixed intervals. If no enemy is targeted, the pillars of light strike Sora's position and damage any nearby enemies.

Kingdom Hearts II
Sora cannot cast Holy of his own accord, but when escorting Queen Minnie, the reaction command Faith becomes available. When activated, it calls a pillar of white and pale-pink light from above that erupts into a wave that repels enemies when it hits the ground. Queen Minnie is also able to summon slow-moving orbs of light with homing properties that appear to draw upon the same power as the reaction command.

If Sora is defeated during certain boss fights, King Mickey will become playable if the player chooses not to give up. His guard command is replaced with a spell called Pearl, which fires orbs of light in a manner similar to the Blizzard spell as it appears in this game.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Holy appears as King Mickey's limit break.

Heartless

 * Angel Star

Nobodies

 * None

Bosses

 * Roxas
 * Master Eraqus

Spell Origin
Holy, also rendered into English as Fade (the original Final Fantasy), White (Final Fantasy IV upon its first English release, under the title Final Fantasy II), and Pearl (Final Fantasy VI upon its first English release, under the title Final Fantasy III') owing to censorship of religious imagery by Nintendo of America, is a recurring spell in the Final Fantasy series. One of few White Magic spells capable of damaging the enemy, Holy is often effective against enemies alligned with darkness and the undead, though its appearance ranges from summoning orbs of light to coalescing shining pillars to blasting enemies with light-based explosions.

Faith also appears as a spell in Final Fantasy XII, in which it augments magical power.

Etymology
The word holy is of Old English origin and survives largely-unchanged from the Middle Ages with regard to pronunciation. In other Germanic languages, the word appears as heilig in both German and Dutch, and as helga in Swedish.

Both faith and pearl have French roots and entered the English language after the Norman Conquest. Faith, spelled feid at the time, has the modern French cognate foi, while Pearl has survived generally-unchanged in French as perle.

Trivia

 * Holy is one of several spells that appear recurringly in spinoff games that are not generally castable in main-sequence games. Other such spells include Quake, Warp, and Tornado.
 * The French equivalent is called Sidéral, which has the English equivalent sidereal and relates the spell to starlight rather than to holy light.
 * The use of Pearl might have been a creative translation based upon the spell's animation in the game in which it appeared under that name, in which it summoned three pearls of light that descended and exploded to damage an enemy. The spell White Wind is called Pearl Wind in this version of the game as well.