Talismans

The Talismans of "Shendu" are named for the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. They each hold an aspect of Shendu power.

History
Long ago, Shendu's subjects rose up against him, led by Lo Pei, Using an extraction spell, he trapped Shendu in statue form, separating his powers from him in the form of twelve Talismans. Lo Pei scattered them across the globe to make sure Shendu would never again rise to power. It would be nine centuries before Shendu made a deal with the Dark Hand in exchange for treasure. However, they only got him two talismans the Sheep and Dragon while their nemesis, Jackie Chan, had ten. By tricking Jackie's Yang side (affected by the Tiger talisman's magic), Shendu gained the other talismans and returned to power.

Near Hong Kong, at Shendu's palace, Jackie used a potion dabbed on his hands to extract the Rat Talisman and turn Shendu back into a statue, which Jade destroyed with the Dragon talisman. However, the talismans ended up in the possession of the Dark Hand, who tried to using them for crime until Shendu came back as a spirit. He enlisted their service, as the talismans were of no use to him in his form. The J-Team was able to recover the Talismans and had them locked in Section 13, from which they would make cameo appearances in all of the later seasons as characters (usually Jade) used them for various tasks. Normally, they would be used against the main antagonist of the season, and the J-Team would use them in the season finales of 4 and 5, against the Oni and Drago, respectively.

After Shendu's spirit was sent back to the Demon Netherworld, the Dark Hand sought to steal the talismans, only for them to be destroyed by a laser cannon in a three-way fight between The Enforcers, Daolon Wong and the Chans. The powers of the Talismans then spread across the world to find the original animals of the zodiac to house their powers as their orignial owner Shendu was dead. As those animals were long since dead, the magic targeted "noblest" animal of the same species. The Chans were able to get nine of the power animals; the Pig and the Rooster were captured by Daolon Wong, and there was no dragon left on Earth. They tried to place the talisman powers within replicas Tohru carved, but the replicas would not hold the energy. Meanwhile, Wong resurrectedShendu to gain the Dragon's magic, only for Shendu to betray him and slowly regain all his powers. Luckily, Uncle, Tohru and the Section 13 agents produced another extraction spell, trapping Shendu in statue form again and reforging the talismans.

During the battle against Drago in the final episode, Jade had everyone throw their talismans to Shendu so he would stand a better chance in the fight against his son. Using a reversal spell, Uncle and Tohru banished Drago and all demons from the Earth, and the talismans are never seen again.

Before Tohru landed on and destroyed it, Shendu at one time had an artifact that could locate the Talismans. The item was a handle with four dragon-like heads. The eyes would glow in from the dragon pointing towards the nearest Talisman when used.

Twelve Talismans
On the front of each talisman is an animal of the Chinese zodiac, while on the back are inscriptions that describe their powers.

Rooster
First seen in "The Dark Hand". Gives the user the power of Levitation and Telekinesis. Found embedded in a shield in an unnamed Bavarian castle. This was the first Talisman found. With it, a person can fly, but it is only with the Rabbit that they are able to achieve supersonic flight speeds.
 * First used by Jade (when she accidentally swallowed it in her soup) to stop from falling off the Golden Gate Bridge and return to solid ground on the bridge.

Ox
First seen in "The Mask of El Toro Fuerte". Gives the user the power of Super Strength and Durability. Found in an ancient Mexican temple by El Toro Fuerte. Later found by Jackie on the mask of El Toro Fuerte. The Ox is most commonly used by Jackie when he needs to fight larger enemies. The Talisman gave Jade huge muscle mass in "The Amazing T-Troop", but it has not been known to do that with any other people who used it.
 * First used by El Toro Fuerte as his symbol on his mask.

Snake
First seen in "Enter the Viper". Gives the user the power of Invisibility. Found in a secret passage in a cave, near the Amazon River. Jackie obtained it and put it in his pocket for safekeeping until he could got to Section 13, but an archeologist named Rank who was at the same cave (as he was filming for an episode of a show called Just the Artifacts) took it from Jackie's pocket while he wasn't looking. Rank sold it to a local pawn shop, but his camera man Deino Stephenson recovered it and donated it to the New York Museum. Later, it was stolen by Viper from the said museum, and Jackie recovered it from her. Is most commonly used by Viper.
 * Was first used by Viper.

Sheep
First seen in " Project A, for Astral ". Gives the user the power of Astral Projection, or the ability to eject the soul from the body and wander as a spirit. In this form, one is invisible, inaudible, and able to fly, pass through walls, and enter a person's dreams (where one can be seen and heard). Shendu was also able to possess Jade when both of their astral forms had left their bodies. It was first found in a crate on a train. Despite all of its uses, it is next to useless in a fight, as both Jackie Chan and Finn have stated at some point.
 * First used by Jade. The Sheep is the least commonly used Talisman.
 * It's also shown one can use the talisman to eject the souls of other people other than the holder as Daolon Wong demonstrates.

Rabbit
First seen in  "Shell Game". Gives the user the power of super speed. Was found stuck in the shell of a tortoise in the Pacific. When used with the Rooster, it can produce supersonic flight. Can also be used to increase speed of objects like a space shuttle (as shown in " Shanghai Moon "). The Rabbit is most commonly used by Jade and Tohru.
 * Was first used by Tohru.

Dragon
First seen in " Bullies ". Gives the user the Power of Combustion and pyrokinesis, allows holder to shoot beams of explosive flaming energy to be discharged from the talisman. It was found in a volcanic cave, and  Valmont  fused it to his hand. However, soon afterward, Shendu's Shadowkhan returned the talisman to Shendu.
 * Was first used by Valmont.
 * Made several cameo appearances in season 5.

Rat
First seen in " Tough Break ". Gives the user the power of Animation; "motion to the motionless". Gives inanimate objects life. When Shendu was under the spell of Lo Pei, this talisman was required to maintain his form if the Talismans were used to free him from statue form. Found in an ancient Chinese lantern. The Rat is most commonly used by Jade to bring her "Super Moose" doll to life.
 * Was accidentally first used by Jade to bring her action figure to life.
 * Was never used to bring a dead person back to life, not counting the statue of Lo Pei.
 * It gives the animated items the personalities, powers, and even memories that were intended by the creators of the inanimate object.

Horse
First seen in " The Rock ". Gives the user the power of Healing. Its magic is that, "if activated, the Noble Horse expels all alien forces within," curing the user of foreign bodies (i.e. germs, viruses, etc). It can also heal physical injuries, repair broken objects and instantly relieve physical pain and disorientation (such as sea sickness) It was so effective that it even healed a hole  the size of a cow  in Shendu's chest in a few seconds. Found in an unknown mountain lodge.
 * First used by Tohru accidentally to cure his cold.
 * Can work on any inanimate object, such as statues and boats, as well as living things.
 * Cannot be used to cure magical afflictions such as curses as Valmont found out when he tried using the power to revert to normal when cursed to be a child.

Dog
First seen in " The Dog and Piggy Show ". Gives the user the power of Immortality; "The Dog Talisman is best friend to Man, it restores youthful energy and grants Eternal Life." It can negate the "effects" of aging, while making them invulnerable. The demonstrated power of the talisman is contradictory as Jackie used the talisman to survive a fire blast from Shendu unscathed (a similar thing happened when Daolon Wong blasted Scruffy and the latter was unharmed due to this talisman) whilst  Finn collided with a bridge while also flying using the rooster talisman, then groaned weakly, "Immortality hurts!" and Jackie was able to blast a giant hole into Shendu with the Dragon Talisman even though Shendu still had this Talisman in him. It could be possible that the Dog Talisman's power only prevents the user from being harmed by attacks that could outright kill them and that it also reduces the amount of damage they take from attacks that aren't fatal. The talisman's power lasts only as long as the user is in contact/wearing the talisman. Found in a wall of a windmill in Bavaria.
 * Was first used by Uncle to battle Tohru and Hak Foo.

Pig
First seen in " The Dog and Piggy Show " Gives the user the power of Laser/"Heat-Beam Eye Blasts"/Optic Blasts. The user is given the power to shoot powerful beams of energy from their eyes. It can also be used to see everything as heat (heatvision). It can be seen as a reverse to the snake talisman due to the fact that it can detect someone who is invisible. Found on a Bavarian clock tower mechanical pig with cymbals.
 * It was first seen to be used by hak foo. Its previous owner, a chocolate maker named Ferkel, used it for melting cocoa beans to make his chocolate.

Monkey
First seen in " Jade Monkey " Gives the user the power of Animal Shapeshifting. Any item/person/animal may be changed into the shape of any animal by saying the name of the intended animal's shape. It is unknown if it can do extinct animals, e.g. a T-rex. The talisman then projects a beam or vapor that transforms whatever it hits. (Saying/thinking a variant of "change back" undoes the spell.) Found in Micronesia, underwater. The Monkey is most commonly used by Tohru to turn enemies into kittens (which Uncle once scolded him about, since Uncle was allergic to kittens).
 * Was first used by Jade to accidentally turn Jackie into a yak while trying to figure out its power and saying "This ride is going to make me yak" after getting seasick.
 * It should be noted that the first time the Monkey talisman was used on an inanimate object, it turned into a living animal. (Jade called for a hollow log to become "a death ray," but it turned into a manta ray instead.) It’s possible that the talisman can turn nonliving objects into living animals but only if it’s in close contact with the object. In all other instances where the Monkey Talisman was used on an inanimate object, the beam turned the said inanimate objects (e.g. a boulder or bush) into sculpture-like shapes.

. Tiger
First seen in " The Tiger and the Pussycat " (where it was strangely discovered in a pie), it gives the user the power of Balance. When halved, it also splits the user's positive and negative halves (Yin and Yang) into two separate beings, each holding a half of the talisman. Can also be used to find the "other half" of a broken object. The two beings rejoin when they reunite the broken talisman. As said by Shendu, the Tiger is meant to balance the other 11 Talismans. This tells that it wasn't supposed to be broken, meaning that the action of splitting someone in two was never its true ability, but merely a consequence of it being broken in half. Jackie realized the crack and thought of the time when the elder bit on the talisman thus cracking it. On the other hand, the Noble Tiger had the same ability, and the new Talisman made by Tohru had the same crack, so it is possible that the crack on the talisman was intentional, and the separation ability is its real ability
 * First used accidently by Jackie.
 * The Talisman has only ever been used on Jackie, Spring-Heel Jack, and Captain Black.

The Talisman Powers
In season 3 both Daolon Wong and the Dark Hand manage to break into Section 13 and attempt to steal the Talismans. However, Jackie fires a powerful laser cannon at the bag of Talismans, intending to destroy them forever and put an end to Daolon Wong's plan. However, he learned the hard way that although the Talismans are destroyed, their magical powers are not. As a result, the powers were scattered to the winds to possess the noble descendants of the original Zodiac animals; as their original containers were destroyed, they have to seek a substitute. So instead of ending the Talisman quest for good, Jackie started it all over again (much to his chagrin).

The Noble Animals
When the Chans located any of the animals, they transported them to Section 13 to be kept under magical and technological protection. The search for the animals was hampered by the appearances of Daolon Wong, who would simply absorb the powers out from the animals and into himself, and by the fact that the animals tended to activate their own abilities when frightened or angered. (For some of the hunts, Uncle used enchanted cages that would prevent the animal within from activating its magic.)

Scruffy
The noble dog with the power of immortality was discovered at a dog show. But to the Chans' surprise, the dog was actually a stray and was not part of the show. Jade named the dog Scruffy and adopted it as a pet. Throughout the series, Jade thought Scruffy was a cross of several other breeds. In The Amazing T-Troop Scruffy accidentally donned a Shadowkhan mask, and was subsequently corrupted by it and Tarukudo. It let him summon Bat Shadowkhan and it turned him huge and yellow with black accents.

Sasha
The noble tiger was called Sasha and was the star attraction in a show in Las Vegas. When Jackie tried to take the tiger, its power of Balance (or lack thereof) was activated, and it started splitting Jackie into his light and dark side. But Jade knocked Jackie out of the way before the process was complete, leaving Jackie with two heads. (He completed the separation a little later.) However, once he manages to bring the two tigers together again, he is returned to normal.

Rat
The noble rat with the ability to give motion to the motionless was discovered in a Mexican temple. However, the rat's power was activated, and a nearby statue of the Mexican sun god Quetzalcoatl was reanimated. He was brought to life until he was persuaded to return to his statue form by touching the rat again.

Haiku
The noble monkey with the power of shapeshifting was named Haiku and belonged to a Japanese ambassador on vacation in Hawaii. When Jackie went to collect the monkey, the Monkey King, freed from his puppet form, followed Jackie intent on getting his revenge. In this episode, Haiku used his power only on himself, and he used it on others as well in later episodes.

Eggbert
Jackie found the noble rooster with the power of levitation hovering around the Petronas Towers in Malaysia. He later took it to Kansas, where it made friends with the noble pig, Mordecai. Jade named the rooster Eggbert. Eggbert went on to live with farmer MacDonald. He reappeared in The Amazing T-Troop, when Jade gave him the Rooster Talisman to try to free Scruffy from the Shadowkhan mask. He reappeared yet again with the Rooster Talisman in season five, The Powers That Be (Part 2) to fight demons summoned by Drago

Mordecai
Jade and Jackie found the noble pig with the power of heat beam eyes, called Mordecai, on a farm in Kansas. Mordecai made friends with the noble rooster, Eggbert, and the two joined forces and began floating around the town. Both animals were cornered by Daolon Wong, who absorbed both powers before retreating. Mordecai went on to live with Farmer MacDonald and Eggbert. He reappeared in season four, The Amazing T-Troop, when Jade gave him the Pig Talisman to help free Scruffy from the Shadowkhan mask. He reappeared yet again in season five, The Powers That Be (Part 2) with the Pig Talisman to help defeat demons summoned by Drago.

Snake
The Chans found the noble snake with the power of invisibility in an Indian bazaar. The snake was in a egg, which Tohru's mother dipped into her tea to relieve her headache, causing her to turn invisible. After the hatched cobra was collected by the Chans, Uncle concocted a spell to make Tohru's mother visible again.

Bob
The noble sheep with the power of astral projection, who called himself Baab, was located in the Scottish highlands, near Loch Ness. Daolon Wong managed to absorb the power and used it to release Jade and Jackie's souls from their bodies. He then put a spell on their bodies so that their astral forms could not return. Uncle managed to perform a spell to return Jade and Jackie, but the spell went wrong and Jade ended up in Jackie's body and vice versa. They later located Daolon Wong's physical form (as his astral self was elsewhere) and released the Sheep magic from him, restoring Jade and Jackie and sealing Wong's body for good measure. (He managed to return to his body after the episode ended.)

Lucky
The noble rabbit was a mascot named Lucky for a high school football team called the Jackalopes. Lucky was used by a relatively-scrawny football player named Chip to run several key plays and help win the game.

Royal Medicine
The noble horse with the power of healing was located in London, at the Campton Racecourse. Its name was Royal Medicine. Valmont believed that the horse's ability would return him to his normal size after Daolon Wong turned him into a child, but it merely healed his paper cut (much to his shock and anger).

Ox
The noble ox with the power of super strength, who was a yak, was in the Himalayan Mountains. Uncle managed to release the power from the ox and place it in his own body temporarily, to protect it from Daolon Wong. He soon later returned the power to the ox.

Shendu ho yah
As dragons were extinct, the Dragon power could not go to a host, which temporarily stopped the hunt for the talisman powers at eleven animals. However, Daolon Wong made a deal with the spirit of Shendu, agreeing to conjure a new body for the poor dragon in exchange for receiving the power of combustion when it came to possess Shendu. Immediately after his rebirth, Shendu betrayed Daolon Wong, took the Dragon power for himself, and absorbed the powers of the Rooster and Pig from Daolon Wong as well. He then went on to hunt down the other nine animals, and he claimed all their powers, but Uncle performed Lo Pei's spell and returned Shendu to statue form, sealing the powers into stone talismans again. Shendu has many ancestors like him. Valmont is Shendu's Talisman collector.

Trivia

 * It was noted in the series that if a user were to hold both the Horse talisman and the Dog Talisman, they wouldn't need the healing granted by the Horse Talisman (such as repairs for something unbreakable). This, however, was proven incorrect, because while the Dog Talisman prevents death or major injury, it does not prevent one from feeling pain (which is something the Horse Talisman does).
 * Although the pig talisman isn't as strong in its offensive uses as the dragon talisman, it can also grant the user thermal imaging (in order to counter the effects of the snake talisman).
 * Jade once commented that the dragon, dog, rabbit, rooster, snake and ox are "the good ones", in that they are the most useful of the twelve.
 * It is said that the Snake Talisman is Viper's favorite, as her name is a type of snake.
 * Although the Talismans are gone for good due to Shendu having been sent to the spirit world with them and Drago, future Jade said she was on desk duty since she destroyed a doughnut shop with the Dragon Talisman and later Captain Black distributes them to fight off Iso's Minion's of dark Chi.