Amulet of Avalor

"With each deed performed, for better or worse, a power is granted, a blessing or curse."

- Cedric's spellbook about the Amulet of Avalor

The Amulet of Avalor is an magical necklace that appears in the Disney Junior series Sofia the First, that bestows upon its wearer a power that can be a blessing or curse, depending on either a good or bad deed.

History
The Amulet of Avalor was created centuries ago by unknown means. It has the power to reward good deeds with magical abilities and punish bad deeds with curses. It became very famous among magic folk and highly coveted by those who knew the truth about it.

Sometime in the past, the Amulet made it's way to the Kingdom of Avalor and became a family heirloom of the Royal Family. Forty-two years before the start of the series, the Queen of Avalor gave the Amulet to her eldest daughter, Princess Elena, on her fifteenth birthday. One year later, an evil sorceress named Shuriki attacked Avalor and killed the King and Queen. Alakazar, Avalor's Royal Sorcerer, used a spell to save the rest of the Royal Family. To buy him time, Princess Elena tried to stop Shuriki on her own. Shuriki tried to strike Elena down but the Amulet saved her life at the cost of her freedom by pulling her into it. The process turned the Amulet from red to purple. Alakazar found the Amulet and spirited it away.

Sometime later, the Amulet arrived in Enchancia and became a family heirloom of the Royal Family. It was worn for a time by Grand Mum, the Grand Queen of Enchancia, until she gave it to her daughter. She told her children, Roland and Tilly, stories about it. Over time, her son came to dismiss the stories as fairy tales. Tilly, on the other hand, quickly discovered the stories were true and went on to become the first Storekeeper of Enchancia. Sometime later, Tilly took it off and the Amulet ended up in the Royal Jewel Room of Enchancia until Roland gave it to his youngest daughter Princess Sofia.

Abilities
So far, the Amulet of Avalor has shown six abilities that have helped Sofia out and taught her very important life lessons.
 * Power Granting: When the one wearing the Amulet does a very good deed, the Amulet will bless its wearer with a magical ability as a reward. After the power is unlocked, the wearer can use it anytime they want as long as they wear the Amulet. In "Cedric Be Good", it is shown that the powers can also be unlocked by magical means such as the Power Plucking potion but when the powers are unlocked that way they aren't permenet since the power isn't truly earned that way. Nine of its powers have been revealed. So far, Sofia has unlocked three of the powers it can grant its wearer:
 * Animal Communication: The first power the Amulet has given Sofia is the ability to converse with animals. She gained this ability in Once Upon a Princess when she helped a baby bird reunite with its mother. This is Sofia's most used ability.
 * Mermaid Transformation: The second power the Amulet has given Sofia is the ability to transform into a mermaid and back. She gained this ability in The Floating Palace after she helped Oona out of a net. Sofia can use this whenever she puts her bare feet in a body of water and she stops using it after she pulls herself completely out of the water. So far, Sofia has used this ability twice.
 * Shrinking Ability: The third power the Amulet has given Sofia is the ability to shrink to sprite size and back. Sofia gained this ability in "The Littlest Princess" after she helped three wee sprites. This is Sofia's first will-driven ability. So far, she has used it four times.
 * Invisibility: In "Cedric Be Good", Winifred reveals that the Amulet of Avalor can grant someone the ability to become invisible.
 * Telepathy: In "Cedric be Good", Winifred reveals that the Amulet can grant the ability to read minds.
 * Growing Ability: In "Cedric Be Good", Winifred reveals that the amulet can grant the ability to grow to giant size and back.
 * Supreme Strength: In "Cedric Be Good", Cedric reveals that the amulet can make the wearer as strong as Hercules.
 * Bouncing Ability: In "Cedric Be Good", it is revealed that the amulet can give someone the ability to bounce really high.
 * Cryokinesis: In "Cedric be Good", it is revealed that the amulet can give someone the ability to fire cryokinetic blasts from their hands that freeze anything they touch.
 * Princess Summoning: When the one wearing the Amulet really needs help, the Amulet summons Disney Princesses to help them out.
 * Curse Unleashing: When the one wearing the Amulet does a very bad deed, the Amulet will place a curse on its wearer as punishment. The curses the Amulet unleashes are so strong that they can only be lifted when the person it has cursed breaks it. The Amulet's curses can only be broken when the one it has cursed does a good deed to make up for the bad deed that angered the Amulet. So far, the Amulet has unleashed six curses that have helped Sofia:
 * Croaking Curse: This curse was unleashed in "The Amulet and the Anthem". It makes the victim croak like a frog. The amulet placed this curse on Sofia to punish her for boasting about being chosen to be the Anthem Singer to Ruby and Jade. She broke this curse with Belle's help by apologizing to Ruby and Jade and letting them be the Anthem Singers. It was a very minor curse that was meant to help Sofia learn a very important life lesson: That actions speak louder than words, especially when it comes to setting things right.
 * The Curse of Princess Ivy: This curse was unleashed in The Curse of Princess Ivy. As the names implies, this curse summons the evil enchantress Princess Ivy to the victim's homeland. The Amulet put this curse on Amber because after learning the Amulet's secrets, Amber betrayed Sofia and stole it from her to get a Princess to appear for her. Amber broke this curse with Rapunzel's help by apologizing to Sofia and letting herself get hit by one of Ivy's dragonflies to protect Sofia. Unlike the croaking curse, this curse was really powerful and dangerous because Amber's act of thievery not only was a bad deed but also activated the Amulet's safeguard against thievery.
 * Mini Curse: This curse was unleashed in "The Littlest Princess". This curse leaves the victim at wee sprite size. The Amulet placed this curse on Sofia when she disobeyed her mother and brought her wee sprite friends into the castle. Sofia broke this curse by apologizing to her mother and obeying her when Miranda told her how to get the sprites out of the castle. Like the croaking curse, this curse was a very minor curse that was meant to help Sofia learn a very important life lesson: To have faith in those who love her and to listen to them when they're trying to help her.
 * Sticky Fingers Curse: This curse was unleashed in "Cedric Be Good". It makes the victim stick to anything their hands touch. The Amulet placed this curse on Cedric when he stole it from Sofia. He broke it by giving Sofia his flying machine.
 * Bird Beak Curse: This curse was unleashed in "Cedric Be Good". It turns the front of the victim's face into a bird's beak. The amulet placed this curse on Cedric when he upset some birds. He broke this curse when he dealt with the baker's pest problem.
 * Metal Hands Curse: This curse was unleashed in "Cedric Be Good". It gives the victim metal hands. The Amulet placed this curse on Cedric when he tries to take over Enchancia. He broke it by returning the amulet to Sofia.
 * Secret Library Guide: The Amulet of Avalor's fourth ability is the ability to guide it's bearer to The Secret Library of Enchancia. Unlike the other three abilities, which activate on their own, this ability only activates when it's bearer has the magical book that the library's key. Also unlike the other abilities, which make the amulet glow purple, this ability makes the amulet glow blue.
 * Secret Library Alert:This ability alerts Sofia to when a story in the Secret Library of Enchancia needs her to give it a happy ending right away. Like the Compass ability, this ability makes the Amulet glow blue.
 * Princess Companion Summoning: When the one wearing the amulet needs help but the Amulet can't summon Princesses, the Amulet will summon one of their companions instead. Unlike the Princesses, the companions normally help out directly. This ability was activated only once so far.
 * Olaf: Olaf was summoned by the Amulet in "The Secret Library: Olaf and the Tale of Miss Nettle". He helped Sofia save the Winter Flowers Festival and taught her that the abilities that being someone who has a big heart and who never gives up bestows are stronger than any magic.

Trivia

 * The Amulet of Avalor likely gets its name from a portmanteau of "Avalon" and "Lore" ; Avalon is the mythical isle of Arthurian legend ruled by fairies, and is Welsh for apple. Lore is a synonym for myths, legends, fictional stories, fables, and fairy tales. Cedric, Miss Nettle, and Sofia are the only ones so far who refer to the Amulet by that name. Roland just calls it "that Amulet," showing that he is unaware of its full power, though he knows it is special.
 * Avalor also splits into "a valor," marking how the deeds that Sofia performed to gain abilities involved pure bravery.
 * Princess Ivy believes that if the Amulet is destroyed, any princesses summoned cannot return to their original locations and times. However, since she showed no knowledge of the amulet prior to meeting Amber and overhearing Sofia, this is likely just an assumption she made.
 * The Amulet transforms with Sofia to make it be worn more easily during animal transformations. When Sofia became a lizard, the Amulet became a marking on her scales. As a cat, the chain shortened to become a collar.
 * "The Amulet and the Anthem" is the first episode where the magical amulet curses Sofia for the first time. This helps show some truth in Cedric's rumors of its great power in the strength of the curse. Fortunately, the curse was more comical than dangerous, being quite similar to hexes cast by Lucinda or on Cedric's trick shoes, and was more meant to remind Sofia to know herself so she wouldn't hurt her friends than to harm her.
 * Roland's mother told him the stories of the Amulet's princess-protecting powers, which helped lead him to accept the Amulet's flash as a mark of Sofia being chosen as the next bearer.
 * Most of Sofia's family and human friends don't know that Sofia's Amulet is a mystical item or about her magical abilities because Sofia refuses to tell them because, for some reason, she feels she's not supposed to tell anyone about the Amulet of Avalor's magic. They think it's just a family heirloom because Roland once asked her if she thanked the gryffin after seeing her talking to it and Amber said she thinks Sofia's always pretending to talk to "that bunny of hers" when trying to disprove Sofia's claims about Oona's abduction by a sea monster and Queen Emmaline's threat to sink the Floating Palace. The only ones who know the magical secrets of Sofia's Amulet and about her magical abilities are her animal friends, the merpeople of Merroway Cove, her Wee Sprite friends, and her Aunt Tilly.
 * The Amulet does different things according to the action. When choosing the next bearer, it flashes, and gives off a slight glow. When summoning, it gives off a brief, strong glow. Blessing, the light brightens with sparkles, and when it curses, there are sparkles, but with the light being darker than the Amulet's chief jewel. The Amulet also neutrally sparkles to mark power, when Sofia showed it to Ginger in "Blue Ribbon Bunny", greet its bearer, when it was shown to Sofia, warn her of trouble, as was the case in "The Amulet of Avalor", and awaken, when it sparkled the morning after Sofia got her first magical ability. When it is removed to help Amber, it emits a pale glow. When it leads Sofia to the Secret Library, it glows blue. There may be other actions that it does, but they haven't been seen yet.
 * It can summon Princesses from the past, according to Cinderella, "all princesses that ever lived."
 * Interestingly, it seems to be implied by Tiana's appearance that princesses from the future can also be summoned.
 * The Amulet's been removed three times, all because of Amber. The first was so Sofia could swap jewels with Amber for a ball. The second was for a supposed potion from Cedric to remove Amber's butterfly "costume." The third time was so that Amber could summon Princess Rapunzel. In all three cases, the Amulet was captured, first by a baby griffin, the second time by Wormwood, the third time by Princess Ivy, until Sofia retrieved it.
 * It is similar to Oona's magical comb in that both are best carried by the pure of heart, while those who gave the items were unaware of the powers the objects possess.
 * The large spellbook of Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, as Miss Nettle reveals in her first appearance, has a section for it identical to Cedric's, which she made a copy of in her own spellbook.
 * According to Cedric, there are fake Amulets, likely created to trick the power-hungry, or those desiring the Amulet for its beauty, such as Amber. The only way to tell the real Amulet from fakes, besides looking at size, color, temperature, and the smoothness of the stone, is by looking into it. Cedric's even tone and speaking pace showed that he was telling the truth. The existence of fake Amulets is also supported by Sofia duplicating herself. Cedric even makes his own duplicate in "Cedric Be Good" that fools Sofia.
 * The Amulet has been compared with a ruby necklace twice―the first time was in "The Amulet of Avalor", when Roland revealed he was going to give Sofia a ruby necklace if not for the Amulet flashing, an event which strangely coincided with Sofia singing "I'm Not Ready to Be a Princess", hinting that the Amulet may be able to choose its bearer when it hears of or senses distress. The second time was in "The Enchanted Feast", where Miss Nettle, disguised as Sascha the Sorceress, offered to trade a fancy Ancient Egyptian-style ruby necklace for the Amulet. Why this comparison is so has yet to be determined, but may be because rubies are sometimes considered the most valuable gemstones.
 * Rubies are also commonly linked to femininity and love, and a ruby was seen as an impure gemstone in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
 * The Amulet may have the potential to be used as a weapon, since the other enchanted object wielded by a princesses on the show, the Mermaid Comb, can be used as a weapon in experienced hands.
 * Once the Amulet is transferred, any powers given to the previous bearer do not apply to the new one, though if the previous bearer retrieves the Amulet, they regain the powers they earned.
 * The Amulet, despite it being unable to be destroyed by common means, has a weakness as shown in The Curse of Princess Ivy. According to Cedric, the Amulet of Avalor can only be destroyed by the bright flame of Everburn the Elder Dragon in the Blazing Palisades. Fortunately, Everburn's cold prevents him from breathing fire often.
 * The Amulet can trap people within its stone, as revealed when its magic imprisoned Princess Elena of Avalor.
 * The Amulet is very old, and looking at its ability to stay intact for centuries, may have gotten its power through divine means.
 * The Amulet is named after its kingdom of origin, like Oona's Comb and the Emerald Key. Unlike them, it has traveled all over, going from Avalor to Enchancia.
 * Aunt Tilly was the bearer before Sofia.
 * Olaf is the first male character to be summoned by the Amulet and the only one seen returning to his home.