Death Totem

The Death Totem is a fictional mystical artifact featured in the DC Television Universe. It appeared on episodes from season three of the CW Network television series Legends of Tomorrow. It first appeared in the episode "Amazing Grace".

The Death Totem is one of six mystical talisman's that originated with the Zambesi tribe of Africa. It is an oval black gemstone that can be worn upon a necklace, or placed upon an object in order to access its power. The Death Totem offers the wielder command over the dead, though the specifics of such a trait seems to vary from person to person. The power of the totems was highly coveted by the disembodied demonic entity known as Mallus, who required them in order to free himself from his nether-prison.

Along with the other five totems, the Death Totem was lost in the timestream as a result of a chronal anachronism. It materialized in Memphis, Tennessee in the year 1954 and was affixed to an acoustic guitar that came into the possession of a young man named Elvis Presley. When Elvis played his guitar, the ghosts of the departed from a nearby cemetery began to rise up out of their graves. Even the spirit of Elvis' stillborn twin brother, Jesse, manifested itself. When the Death Totem was aboard the time ship known as Waverider, it resurrected the ghost of Mick Rory's dead pet rat, Axl.

Sara Lance, who had already interacted with Mallus' realm made contact with the Death Totem, and became possessed by Mallus' evil. The Legends had to work in concert, along with occultist John Constantine and Time Bureau director Ava Sharpe to free her from the totem's evil influence.