Will

Will is the central protagonist of the long-running Dutch comic book series W.i.t.c.h., set in the alternate history nation of New Netherland. As the reincarnated leader of a coven of teenage witches, Will must confront dark supernatural forces threatening her home while also navigating the moral complexities of her family's colonial legacy and the rapidly changing social and political landscape of the Dutch colony-turned-independent nation.

Family Background

Will was born in 1986 in the port city of New Rotterdam, the capital of New Netherland. She comes from a prominent Dutch family with deep roots in the colony's colonial-era aristocracy and commercial elite. Her father, Lionel Vandom, is a wealthy industrialist and shareholder in the Dutch West India Company, while her mother Susan Vandom hails from a family of influential colonial administrators.

Will's family history is intertwined with the expansion of Dutch power in the Americas, including the subjugation of indigenous tribes and the growth of the transatlantic slave trade. This legacy of colonial exploitation weighs heavily on Will as she comes of age and discovers her own unique magical abilities.

Discovery of Powers

At the age of 13, Will begins experiencing strange occurrences and awakenings of innate magical power. After a series of uncanny events, she is approached by a mystical guardian named Yan Lin who reveals Will's true destiny - she is the reincarnated Heart of Kandrakar, the leader of an ancient coven of elemental witches known as the Guardians of the Veil.

Bestowed with the power to manipulate pure energy, Will is tasked with assembling and training a new generation of Guardians to protect the realm of New Netherland from supernatural threats. This journey of discovery puts her at odds with her family's colonial legacy and the complex political situation in her rapidly changing homeland.

The Witch Coven

Over the course of the series, Will brings together four other teenage girls - Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin - to form the new Guardians coven. Each girl wields power over one of the classical elements (water, fire, earth, air), while Will's role as the Heart grants her the ability to coordinate and amplify their combined magic.

The Witch Coven faces a wide array of paranormal challenges, from battling rogue sorcerers and demons to confronting the schemes of malevolent nature spirits and Ancestral Witches seeking to unravel the fabric of reality. As the series progresses, the scope of the threats they face grows ever more apocalyptic, testing the limits of their powers and their moral fortitude.

Navigating the Colonial Legacy

Beyond the supernatural threats, a major source of conflict for Will is wrestling with her family's complicity in the colonial exploitation of New Netherland. As the scion of a prominent colonial family, she is torn between embracing her magical destiny as a Guardian and rejecting the oppressive legacy of her ancestors.

This internal struggle is further complicated by the volatile political climate in New Netherland, which is undergoing a transition from a Dutch colony to an independent nation-state. Will finds herself at the center of these sweeping societal changes, forced to make difficult choices that pit her magical duties against her personal ethics and family loyalties.

Through her journey, Will emerges as a complex heroine - powerful yet conflicted, driven to protect her world while grappling with the moral weight of her bloodline and the use of magic itself. Her story has resonated with readers as a metaphor for the difficult process of reconciling the sins of the past with the demands of the present.