Witchcraft, Hagravens, Covens

Witches
Witches originate from High Rock. It is said that the first witch was a girl born from a woman and an elf who truly loved each other in a time of strife between the two species. Knowing what a terrible life the little girl would endure, her parents pleaded to the mighty spirits to show compassion for her and give her the strength to live, as proof of their love and hope of peace between men and mer.
The leaves of the trees swished as Y'ffre answered "Your love shall live forever engraved in my bones."The wind blew as Kynareth hummed "Your love may sing and I will hear."The setting sun stretched his rays as Magnus yawned "Your love be blessed by my light to shine in the dark."The twilight shadows creeped as Azura promised "Your love shall see more than what other see."The night shrouded the world in silence as Nocturnal whispered "Your love shall be able to deceive."Little moon shone as Mara smiled "Your love shall share my compassion so evil shall not reach her."
And so the love of man and mer grew up to become the first witch, gifted with the ability to bend the forces of Mundus and Oblivion. Witchcraft would be passed from mothers to daughters for generations and generations and eventually, those women would gather in clans that would become covens.
Covens
Ever since the Merethic Era, witches covens have existed through what is nowadays High Rock and even extended to the rest of Tamriel --though with more discrestion. If witches have a bad reputation and are hunted down in most provinces of Tamriel, the covens of High Rock were respected by the population. Though witches could be known to play pranks on townfolks and sometime be the source of some havoc (such as the destruction of Mournhold in 1E2920, according to Carlovac Townway), witches were also known to be powerful and gifted with the ability to cure vampirism and Lycanthropy if one was ready to pay the price for it.
Coven witches have been powerful allies or foes in court intrigues as nobles paid for their services. Being a witch in this land was a source of pride and power for those gifted with the talent.
Witchmen
As you can guess, with traditions passed from mother to daughter, there might be a moment when a daughter won't come. Covens used to be strictly reserved to women but most of the covens who kept that tradition straigth disappeared in time. Most people don't know it, but witchcraft is not a gift that only women can access and many great witches were actually men. Those men are called "witches" just like females for the term "wizard" or "sorcerer" is not appropriate. Witchcraft is a specific kind of magic, more similar to the Old Ways of the Psijic than to the magic practiced by most mages. As most male practicers of witchcraft also used to disguise themselves as women the term "witchman" or "male witch" was easily adopted with a hint of self-derision.
Independent Witches and Hagravens
While coven witches follow codes and rules imposed by their hierarchy, some witches prefer to be free and independent, or to eventually gather in anarchic groups. Those witches are dissident for most and likely to create disasters by lack of wisdom and caution. Many of them are worshipers of Nocturnal and blinded with the idea that the Prince might hold secrets in the dark and would eventually share them with the most faithful. While it is true that Nocturnal gifted some witches with some knowledge once or twice (such as the raven form), the independent witches are usually too self-centered to resist the temptations of Oblivion and their lust for power leads them to their own demise. The case of Hagraven is a typical example of chastisement from Nocturnal. The Prince is known to physically appear as a hag if light is ever shed on her, and ravens are her servants. While many witches are able to transform into huge ravens, those who have angered the Prince, or broken a Sceal of Silence, will transform, permanently and irremediably, into Hagravens or Harpies. In most of High Rock, this is seen as a curse and shame, but in the east, some Reachmen known as the Forsworn seek for this evil power when everything else fails. They give up their humanity and flesh in desperate attempts to become strong enough to crush their enemies, and when the fight is over, their monstrous creations eventually end up roaming the country and plaguing it. Hagravens have thus been sighted in the far east of Skyrim's Rift.
Witchcraft
Curses
Witches are able to cast curses on people, less or more powerful maledictions that may last for a short time or, according to some stories, for generations. The effects of curses are varied but most often, they are quite ridiculous effects that may however have dramatic consequences. Take the case of a rich and noble merchant who was victim of a curse that caused him to raise his hands to the sky and bark in an evil laughter at the end of every sentence he pronounced: because of this insane behavior the man lost quite some deals and his serfs would make fun of him. Or the case of a whole village's inhabitants who became unable to say anything but "Hmmm. Precisely." Physical changes may also be expected, such as the case of a young Orc who ended with goat horns stuck on his head (and had to have them sawn away).
Now, practicaly, how are curses created? It requires that the witch creates, or uses, symbols engraved in the Greys, a whispy stream on the edge of Mundus, maybe leaking from the Dreamsleeve in someway. This strange realm is said to be like composed of mist and chalk powder and seemingly inhabited by fragmented bits of souls, though this feel of life might just be the realm's vibration itself, pulsing like a heart. No one ever visited the Greys if it is even possible, and the small plane is used by witches like an eternal magical scroll.
When mages create enchanted scrolls it requires time and attention and the scroll can be used only once. The spells that witches engrave in the Greys can be used again and again, and rely on mystic orders that can be very subtle and specific. However, this art is much more complex than creating and enchanting scrolls, and often requires that the witch stocks Magicka in advance, for even the smallest curses require a lot of energy to be cast.
Seals
The seals are created in the same way than curses, but the difference is that they don't apply any effect to the sealed person unless the seal is broken, releasing the curse. The seal is usually triggered by the breaking of an oath of some sort. It is not necessary that the sealed person pronounced the oath, the oath can be forced by the seal, like the blade a thief would slip under someone's throat to obtain a purse of coins. seals are mostly used by witches covens on their own sisters when some could be tempted to reveal some secrets or take part in dangerous experiments. Such seals are called seals of Silence for the curse bound to it if the oath is broken is usually the forsworn's transformation into a Hagraven.
Rituals and Staves
Witches are capable of summoning Daedra Princes on Tamriel on their summoning day – or at least used to before the unwavering Barrier was set by Martin Septim's sacrifice. While the conjuration of a lesser Daedra doesn't require any sort of ritual, being performed instinctively in a way that isn't completely different from casual Conjuration, the conjuration of a Prince requires much more power. Hence, witches had found a way to gather this amount of power by combining the forces of several witches through a summoning ritual.
Rituals aim to magnify the call of the summoners, usually through synergical mystic chants and dances. As the witches start to echo with each other their power grows and bends the higher forces of our world, opening the breech aligned between Mundus and Oblivion on the summoning day.
When witches aren't numerous enough to perform the ritual scriptures, runes and staves might be used to replace the missing witches. Such patterns might be painted or engraved, sometimes with the use of specific materials, sometimes extending up to the performing witch's body, in order to create the right synergical vibration and allow the witch to grow more power.
Ritual Potions
Such principles may also be used to create extremely powerful potions, such as potions able to cure vampirism or lycanthropy. With a specific ritual treatment of the ingredients all along the creation of the potion, symbols and effects can be added to the mixture and hence induce results that no casual alchemical recipe could provide. It could be compared to Alteration or bending the Eathbones that define the nature of the ingredients.
Along the centuries, the coven witches have developed some successful recipes and made them easier to achieve, especially as far as potions to cure curses were concerned. Yet this art remains extremely tricky as the potion should always be adapted specifically to the person it is created for in order to minimize the risks of failure. The potion's reaction with the alchemical components of the patient's digestive system should, for example, be considered. Some of the most impressive potions are even designed to interact with the inner biology in order to release an effect after the other along the digestion.
Curing the Cursed
Some witches have a specific understanding with a Prince, like those of the Glenmoril Coven who hold especially good relations with Hircine. It is noteworthy however that relations with Molag Bal are largely unpopular and discouraged. Such affiliations may bring some benefits but as in every good deal, both parties must be satisfied and so, while the Prince may allow the witches to cure his curse more easily, it doesn't come without a price. The price is mostly that of blood. A cursed person willing to get cured shall take the life of another person. Most people think that the blood or flesh is required for the ritual and bring corpses to their witch but such behavior usually annoy witches. The only element that matters in the act is the death of a person. Hircine requires it for justice as he won't allow to cure someone who isn't worthy of being called a were-creature. If the cursed is not a killer, then what's the matter?
Molag Bal requires it for more vicious reasons. First, while he loses a vampire child, he gains a soul sacrificed in his name. Second, he can enjoy the satisfaction to witness his vampire child taking power over another person and tainting their soul in gore. So in the end, he doesn't loose everything, unlike Hircine who doesn't require that the victim be sacrificed in his name.
Witchcraft Mysticism
Witches commune with nature and magic through their devotion to Kynareth, Magnus and Y'ffre. The way they wield magic cannot be compared with any School of magic as it is actually closer to the Old Ways of the Psijic. Yet, while the Psijic redefine the reality through an unwavering will, witches are more likely to bend reality along the will of the gods. Through many rituals to honor the gods along the year they are rewarded with the ability to harness the forces of nature, such as wind, fire, heat or cold, and the free Magicka naturally flowing in the air. While witches don't use magic to cast spells they are sensible to it and well able to detect life, and to even detect how Magicka flows in someone's body, which allows them to impress seals or curses in this energy, to damage it or fix it from spiritual wounds.
Witches are able to somehow reproduce the effects of a casual spell such as a fire spell but would rather bend the flames of an existing fire than create thaumaturgic flames for this exercise is more tiring for them than for mages. The reason is that their Magicka is trained for witchcraft and not scholar magic.
Molag Bal Rituals and Daughters of Cold Harbor
Such rituals are usually performed by Daedra adorators or vampire clans (either seceding or willing to renew their bloodlines) but also by unconscious independant witches.
The rituals aim to create new Daedric afflictions, most often in the form of new vampire species. They may vary a lot in the form they take, sometimes blunt and brutal, sometimes more ceremonial, ochestrated and vicious. But usually the ritual features a great violence and cruelty, be it moral, physical, or both. Abuse, enslaving, domination and desecration are the main aspects of the event and rape is to be expected.
In most cases, the rape is perpetrated by an adorator assuming the role of Daedric avatar of the Prince, but in several occurences, the Prince himself has been summoned to perform this act. This kind of "Lamae Bal" ritual aims to make a new vampire spawn out of the victim. It is said that the less the victim is willing during the act, the more powerful is the curse – though there is no evidence of this so far. The victims taken by Molag Bal himself are commonly called Daughters of Coldharbour for they are usually women, or as a reference to the first vampire, Lamae Bal. What could be called "Sons" of Coldharbour also exist though they are called "Daughters" in some document. Gender is not always clear, especially in oldest texts that may have suffered from age.
It is the duty of Coven witches to prevent such rituals and the creation of new vampire species.
Lycanthrophy and Witchcraft
Through the study of the magical system of the were-cursed it appeared that the Daedric energy shapes into an alternative circuit through the body. Primarly unactive, it is when the subject's Magicka flows through this second circuit that the metamorphosis occurs.
For a long time the reproduction of this effect through the manipulation of energetic chanels of the Ethereal bones proved uneffective and hazardous, causing damage more than anything else. With further studying of subjects cured from lycanthropy, it appeared that the Daedric energy would leave mystic scars.
With proper care, those scars can be preserved as non-Daedric alternative chanels and allow transformation when filled with energy. This however requires the performing witch to be a potent mystic or experienced were-cursed, in order to direct the Magicka through the chanels without damage. Currently, very few witches are skilled shapeshifter given the great complexity of the exercise.
NB: The raven form induces the apparition of an alternative Daedric circuit as well but much more discreet and about impossible to grasp, as can be expected from Nocturnal's void-like energy.
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