All About Witches and Warlocks (Mostly)
The Basics
Witchcraft has been practiced since the beginning of time.
You don’t need to be part of a bloodline of magic users to become one. As stated in the lore, humans, without having magical abilities, can use magic to a degree.
However, magic users, (aka witches and/or warlocks) can use unlimited magic and even make their own spells, the only requirement they need is their focusing aura.
Extra: normally women are blessed with magic, very rarely men are.
A focusing aura is similar to what some would call mana, but it’s more about a magic user’s mind and willpower; the stronger those are, the higher chance of a successful spell and the stronger it will be.
There are users out there that are blessed with a proficiency in a certain magical aspect.
Proficiency in a particular set of magical abilities normally means that the magic user does not require a great amount of focusing aura for it, it comes naturally and normally it’s one of the first things they learn by nature. Not all magic users have a proficiency, and those who are, can normally go under a different title other than “witch” or “warlocks.”
Proficient magic users also have an easier time learning spell, incantations and new magic.
Using the main cast as an example, Hel, Evina and Muirne are proficient in a certain magical set:
Hel is proficient in the life and nature aspect of magic. She can speak as well as control plants and animals, she can even communicate with the spirits that watch over the world, giving her visions on possible outcomes of the future and advice on her path. Hel can provide a great amount of healing and even revive the dead within reason*. Hel also possesses the ability to see through the eyes of ravens and can see a great distance ahead of her. However, because of her life magic, she is also very much proficient in death magic. Hel is more commonly known as a Necromancer than just a witch, despite all the good magic she can do.
*The body must have died within the hour to revive, for a successful revival thirty minutes or less is best. However, Hel can revive the body without the “soul”, creating an undead, this is where it becomes necromancy.
Evina is proficient in dark magic, this doesn’t necessarily mean evil, she can see passed people’s faces and see their true emotions and intent. Like Hel, Evina can also communicate with spirits, but only spirits of the past. Evina can merge into the darkness and become it and hide away or even stalk her enemies like so; along with all of this, Evina can also hook onto your shadow and hear your every whisper and know your location*. Evina is referred to as a Sorceress.
*The distance is very limited, Evina wouldn’t be able to track you if you’re in a completely different country, but she might be able to sense you if you’re in a neighboring city.
Muirne is proficient in manipulation, she can easily charm other people as well as manipulate time and space. Some might also know this manipulation as telekinesis and to a degree, telepathy. Muirne can slow people* and even use the space around them to crush their bodies. Yes, she can literally make space collapse on them or just break their bodies bone by bone instead. Due to Muirne’s proficiency in manipulation, she is referred to as an Enchantress.
*Muirne can only slow people and not “speed” them up because she can’t force a future she doesn’t know.
The titles
Not every witch/warlock who is proficient in something needs to be addressed by another title, it’s just a general term to summarize the abilities of said magic user.
Note: Necromancy is actually illegal and has been since 1200AD in every country in Europe, by 1250AD it was officially illegal in every country in the world; typically, you can serve time, whether that’s actual imprisonment or labor similar to community service. However, in England, if you perform necromancy you are put to death.
As stated in Hel’s section, she is known as a necromancer but not referred to as one (publicly anyway) since it is illegal.
The Coven
The Coven is a group of witches (and/or warlocks), the coven is made up of neighboring countries from a continent. To represent their coven, the witches would wear a broche that had a specific seal.
Not all witches had to join a coven, but doing so, and successfully going through the trials would grant you great respect and authority.
Bonus lore: Evina was part of a coven and one of the head figures, her coven represented England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, Evina obviously represented Scotland.
Sacrifices
Sacrifices were very commonly used. From animals to humans. It was believed that sacrificing something while attempting a spell would be a complete success. The sacrifice was commonly done for whatever deity the magic user believed in, whether it was of Greek or Norse origin.
Human sacrifices were done but frowned upon in the BC era. It became illegal towards the end and into the AD.
Animal sacrifices were commonly done up until the late 1800s, it never became illegal but became out of fashion when magic users decided to just have an abundance of pets and let them die naturally and then either use their remains or sell them in a market specifically for witches and warlocks.
Typically if you needed to cast something ASAP, you would go out and murder a squirrel or a bird.
Note: No torture was ever involved in the sacrifice. The deaths would be immediate.
The False Magicians
As stated in the beginning of this topic, humans can perform magic to a degree. They’re normally referred to as false magicians. They need a book of spells and they must speak the incantations correctly for the spell to work, typically these are only curses, curing spells or even banishment spells.
How it is possible is completely unknown, many theorize that the reason this can be done is because the incantations are being whispered into the ears of deities of magic and are granting the humans limited power.
If a human wishes to expand their powers and knowledge, they can attempt to make a deal with a demon and bear their seal on their hands, striking a deal is illegal in some countries, but no punishment will be done towards a human if the deal was done outside of their country. Most of the time, humans that strike deals are frowned upon and disrespected by true magic users.
Scrying and Spells
Magic users will blend specific plants and stones together to create spells, these are more of binding spells, similar to curses, but not all are necessarily bad. Some of these can create ointments that can hide scars long-term or even permanently remove them. Some of them can do harm and have a burning effect.
When it comes to scrying, it’s not a crystal ball, but instead a raw uncut crystal that must be used, the vision is only visible to the person performing the scrying.
(a list of plants and stones and what they can be used for will be done way into the future)
Bonus lore:
Witches and Warlocks always had a set rule and are the primary believers of keeping things hidden from humans to avoid havoc. Magic users used to not interfere in human affairs until The Great War.
Now many witches act as advisors to world leaders and even settle affairs themselves for their country.
They’ve changed the world greatly while still keeping their magic hidden.