Witchcraft (Art)

Witchcraft as a magical practise exists in contrast to modern sorcery in that while sorcery is founded on strong familiarity with scientific and natural principles, laws, and well-defined theories; witchcraft endorses emotional investment and passion-based decision making.

In addition to its counterculture approach to magic as an art, rather than a science, many of the primary magical skills which are associated with witchcraft require specific physical attributes which pre-emptively exclude certain groups from fully participating in the art. This natural opposition to the currently established order, as well as its seemingly discriminatory nature often puts witchcraft in an awkward place, and in most cases, the practise of witchcraft eventually becomes the target of unwarranted suspicion, unfounded fear, and eventually it finds itself outlawed.

The System itself has a general prohibition on witchcraft, though it has only actually outlawed specific spells and rituals which are part of witchcraft's less-than-desirable catalogue of magic.

### Prohibition of Witchcraft

The general prohibition of witchcraft was enacted as part of the Articles of Implementation in the year 0AU. At the time, "witchcraft" was defined as "the crafte of the Wytche". Eventually, in the year 4301AU, the definition was expanded to include several of the core practices of witchcraft, most specifically communicative necromancy.

Periodically, the legalisation of witchcraft becomes a source of public debate, but because of several key elements of witchcraft which appear discriminatory, the issue rarely gets much traction.

#### Education Tradition

Unlike sorcery, where everything is carefully written down and recorded, witchcraft is relayed primarily through shared experience. Sorcery is so perfectly refined that it is taught in classrooms, and can even be learned from a book. Witchcraft requires years of apprenticeship, communion with fellow witches, and engaging constantly with the environment.

Because a witch can only take a limited number of apprentices at once (usually one, maybe two if the need is great enough), this means that very few members of a community can ever become witches. A witch who takes an apprentice every eight years can train only a fraction of students that a conventional classroom can. Further adding to this supply/demand mismatch, witches often spend decades between apprentices, as a personal choice.

#### Non-Female Exclusion

Specific high-level spells within the realm of witchcraft require the physical vessel of the caster to have the ability to impart the gift of life onto another. In most species, this traditionally means the ability to give live birth, or lay fertile eggs. Because of this, who becomes a high-level witch is very structured, precise, and limited - even moreso than who receives an education. It is not something that simply anyone can decide to become.

In comparison to science and sorcery, neither of which have any major barriers to entry, and both of which expound the virtues of inclusivity and diversity, this makes witchcraft appear exclusionary, or even discriminatory.

#### Necromancy

The power witches are most famous for is their mastery of life after death. Unlike conventional necromancy, wherein the physical remains of a creature are reanimated using a portion of the caster's own will and consciousness; witchcraft can be used to call back the spirits of the deceased. This is an important distinction, since normal necromancy is effectively an advanced form of puppetry, while witchcraft can actually allow families to reunite. In fact, this is the most common use of a witch's necromantic prowess.

Even today, witches will often descend upon areas that have recently experienced terrible trauma, and offer their services to the bereaved families so that they can say their proper goodbyes. When inevitably this grieving period ends, as the spirits cannot be held in the land of the living forever, the community may sometimes grow resentful, and even blame the witches themselves for causing the tragedy in the first place.

## Trivia

* The highest level of spells in witchcraft are known as the "mothering arts". They are so named because they are impossible to perform without a physical body that can, or has, shared the gift of life with another.
* Even though males can't perform the highest levels of witchcraft, there are still male witches. At the point in their training where they would learn the mothering arts, their apprenticeships are cut off, and they instead must learn other high-level magic, usually summoning spells, which themselves are also generally illegal. Witches can't catch a break!
* Witches were the first to record the movement of celestial bodies, and to discover the effect of their movements on the use of magic.
* Despite the common association, witches are not required to consort with daemons, and in fact they generally do not care for each other very much.
* Witchcraft requires much more mana to use effectively than sorcery. As a result, many witch's spells require materials which are rich in mana; fresh blood being a prime example.
* Zeniba Ridley is a witch, although she's never apprenticed as one. Instead, she's learned everything she knows by visiting political prisoners and other witches in hiding. She doesn't know any of the mothering arts, and won't be able to learn them unless she joins a coven properly and completes that part of her training.