Witches

**Witches** are magical beings that can command supernatural powers, allowing them to affect change and influence reality with the fundamental forces found in nature and in spirituality. They primarily reside in the Otherworld, but on rare occasions, witch children would be placed in the First World as changelings, growing up unaware of their magical nature. Over the centuries, witches have lost the ability to access transformation magic in order to manifest wings, as well as the art to craft powerful objects, such as their ancient and lost powerful wands. There are three statuses of witches: pure-blood, half-blood and soul-borns.

## Overview

Witches have a similar physiology to humans, but sometimes when using their magical abilities, their eyes glow and change color in accordance with their aura. Some witches are born with an affinity for a specific element or category of spell.

Boarding schools, such as Misticore Academy are formed for young witches in order to learn how to control their magic. Young witches often use finger glows as a crutch for learning magic, to go as a slow and developing pace. Witches who have graduated from Misticore, have played an integral role in the Otherworld society, as many have gone on to rule realms, lead armies, forge powerful relics and even rediscover long-lost and powerful magic.

Witches are able to channel draw extra power from nature, the elements, celestial event and other witches to boost their magic.

Though witches are born, some can be made, as humans are able to be transformed into witches by powerful magical means, although the ways to do so are unknown and only known to a select few with knowledge of such mystical means. The most notable way is to become a protector of The Codex, granting a normal human magical abilities, turning them into a witch.

Upon death, witches release their life essence into the surrounding environment. Powerful witches release a powerful life essence that is able to be tracked and detected by a mystical compound used to find the whereabouts of the deceased witch's remains. Although a mystic hotspot is a place eternally marked by the violent death of a witch. These Magic Hotspots allow witches to tap into the power of the dead witch to use as their own.

## Heredity

*Main article: Blood Status*

Blood status is a concept in the Otherworld that distinguished between family trees that had different levels of witches. It often resulted in prejudice towards those who had a large number of humans in their families. As Sarai Hunter informed Theo Hunter, almost all witches of their time had Humans in their family trees, though some claimed not to. Magic is an inherited trait passed down genetically from one's ancestry. Witches were classified by their blood status, according to their relation to these ancestors, which were usually their parents.

Pure-bloods were born of two witch parents and at the very least, four witch grandparents. Many supremacists believed that a good witch bloodline should have no human ancestors; however, every family tree had at least one human ancestor by the 1990s.

Half-bloods were mainly born of one witch and one human or soul-born parent.

Soul-born witches were distantly descended from a kindred who had married into a human family. Magical genetics resurfaced many years later in a Soul-born descendant when that branch of the witch family had usually lost all traces of its magical legacy.

## History

### Origins

Witches have a rich recorded history dating back much further than recorded human history. By the time mankind was still in the Stone Age, witches had already accomplished weather manipulation. Ten thousand years ago, around this time, sometime around the 7th or 8th Millennium B.C, when magic was everywhere, witches began to form family bloodlines and covens throughout the realms.

### First Dominion

*Main Article: First Dominion*

The First Dominion is an ancient era of the Otherworld, Dating back from one millennia before the Protectors had been chosen by the Codex, and arrived in the Otherworld. During this era, a series of conflicts known as the Dominion Wars happened during this time. Witches had faced against each other in separate factions. During the Dominion Wars, the Titans of Light faced against the Army of Darkness, but the forces of light were not able to prevail over those of darkness, at which point a single individual named Aditi summoned an everlasting power from the highest corners of light.

## Weaknesses

* **Disbelief**: The act of denying or disbelieving in one's potential could cause a witch to inadvertently suppress their magical power.
* **Distraction**: Denying a witch from concentrating or giving full attention to their spells, may render them ineffective. Since most spells are spoken verbally and take time to take effect, witches are vulnerable to attack before their completion. Additionally, certain spells require items, tools, and or special events during casting, therefore they can't be invoked on a mere whim.
* **Emotions**: A witch's magic is subject to the influence of their emotional state and may fluctuate according to them, especially when untrained. According to Malachi Hunter, strong emotions such as worry and anger can fuel a witch's power while emotions such as fear may prevent a witch from properly accessing them.
* **Mortality**: Despite their mystical attributes, witches are still human and share many of the same weaknesses as non-supernatural beings (e.g. age, decapitation, disease, heart-failure, suffocation, snapped neck, etc.). However, witches can temporarily get around this weakness through the use of protection spells.
* **Magic**: Witches are still susceptible to the powers of magic. This is inclusive of mystical and dark objects.
* **Overexertion**: The excessive use of magic can lead to disorientation, nose bleeds, unconsciousness, and if taken to the extreme, death.
* **Nature**: It is said that Nature will always find a balance when magic is performed, thus spells will always have loopholes. This means, among other things, that no being can be truly immortal.

## Witches' tools

* **Amulets**: An object that is used to protect its wear from harm, or for them to channel for magic.
* **Candles**: A block of solid wax with an embedded wick that is commonly lit to amplify a witch's spell.
* **Grimoires**: A family journal documental with magical spells, rituals, recipes and information of their bloodline. Grimoires can also be used as a Talisman to represent a witch.
* **Talismans**: Objects that can be used to magnify a witch's power and/or represent them supernaturally.

## Trivia

* Hunter Witches are well-known in the witch community. Considered one of the most powerful lineages of magic, many powerful spells have been linked to the blood of a Hunter witch, requiring a Hunter witch to successfully perform them.