Shikon no Tama

Shikon no tama, means jewel of four spirits. It's translated as souls, but tama means spirits, so it's jewel of four spirits.

The Shikon no Tama was created long ago with the miko Midoriko, who fought off many demons. She was trying so gain possession of their souls, and they of hers, and as the result, they were mixed together, forming the jewel of four spirits.

Her body and the body of the demons were turned to something like stone, which is entombed in a cave near where the slayer's village used to be.

When the souls combined within her, they became a jewel, which she pushed out of her body, and it went on the cause a lot of trouble for a lot of people. The souls are still battling within the jewel, and the jewel shards. This is why the jewel shards can be made to be pure or impure depending on the surrounding energy, either the priestess or the demon has won.

The jewel shards also can give immense amounts of power to whoever carries them, the full jewel has the power to grant a wish.

Recently, some lesser demons started making counterfeit jewels which had nowhere near the power of the original, and were completely dark energy, however, through sheer numbers they did seem to work for the demons who used them.

To explain how these were made, I have to go into a bit about the four spirits.

The four spirits are as follows: (they're always in order) Everything here I get off a fansub by FangirlFriday,so if there's a problem tell me but take it up with them.

Untamed Strength: Ara- tama (yuu) short for yuuki, meaning courage

Harmony: Nigi-tama (shin) short for shintashi, meaning close friends

Mystery: Kushi-tama (chi) short dor chie, meaning wisdom

Happiness: saki-tama (ai) short for Aijou, meaning love

I'll put up the symbols in japanese if I can find them.

When there is a good deal of chaos in one place, apparently these things mix, creating a fake shikon no tama. However they're really weak. To create a more powerful one, the deons attempted to get the soul of Kagome (a sort of glue to hold it together) Inuyasha (Ara-tama) Miroku (Nigi-tama) Sango (Kushi-tama) and Shippo (saki-tama) to make a much more powerful jewel. Obviously it didn't work.

Anyway, that's all I've got for now.