The Witch Hunt

> *"My dear Blair, forgive me for locking you up in this room. This is the only way to protect you without abandoning you. The witch hunt. Decades ago, the church started hunting the magic-bearing witches of the kingdom. The church declared them heretics, ones who desecrate the holiness of God. Nobody really knows the origin of the witches, only that the curse is conditionally hereditary. If your child turned out to be bearing the curse of Witchery, they must be reported to the church, or the entire family must suffer consequences. No matter their social status, they were all put to death by the church’s knights. These knights protected the church, and fearing backlash, the royalty stood back and watched. That is, until Queen Agatha inherited the throne and reestablished the authority of the royalty through her charisma and abilities. The queen was especially harsh on the church, stripping them of all their power and ending the decade-long bloodbath of the witch hunt. However, the damage was already done, and only a few witches survived including me, Morgan. That is why you cannot be seen by outsiders, Blair. People are still fearful of us witches, and I am not powerful enough to protect you. Be patient, my child… One day, I will make the kingdom a better place for you to live."*
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## The Witch Hunt

### Location

Ryum

**The Witch Hunt** is an event that took place thousands of years ago, which culminated in the Witch race becoming scarce.

## History

Thousands of years ago, a young woman was proclaimed a witch and was set to be burned at the stake. However, she wasn't a witch at all. That young woman was named Keno, a demon who was set to wed the king of Ryum, Frederik VIII. King Frederik VIII was known, during his engagement to Keno, to sentence anyone who so much as looked at Keno in a lustful manner to death. However, she was caught in a lustful affair with the king's best friend, Thomas, and in his anger, he proclaimed her a witch and sent her to be burned at the stake. Thomas managed to escape, and Frederik sent out guards to find him and kill him, bringing the king his head as a souvenir.

The crowd cheered as Keno was put on the stake, strapped, and the fire started to burn. As fire rose up Keno's leg, she started to laugh at the jurisdiction of the country. Being burned at the stake for something the king didn't like, what kind of rules are those? And as she laughed, the fire was just being consumed by her. The crowd no longer cheered, and their expressions changed from excitement to outright fear as Keno broke from her chains and wished Thelm a good night as she started to throw fireballs, hitting buildings, causing debris to fall, and subsequently began to set the city ablaze with Black Fire, a type of fire only known in myths and stories from ancient times.

Many people died that night, King Frederik VIII went missing, along with three noble ladies, who had killed their fathers before also disappearing. The fire couldn't be put out by any normal means, so no one knows how the fire stopped. Whether the demon felt pity and consumed the fire back up, or whether The Goddess herself came down and put the fire out like the books published by The Church dictated, no one knows the truth of what happened that night, partly due to The Church keeping the events anonymous to preserve their reputation and to keep the people's faith in them.

Afterwards, The Church proclaimed a national Witch Hunt; where they sought after and killed thousands of Witches. Witches soon went into hiding to avoid being killed by Knights sent by The Church. Later, Queen Agatha took the throne, and sought to end the Witch Hunt and break with The Church, as well as to build Thelm back up. Her plans were successful in the end, but at great costs; she could not stop people's subsequent hatred of witches, nor could she revive the numerous amounts of witches who died. But in the end, she stripped the Church of it's power over Ryum, putting the Witch Hunt to a close. However, the brutal massacring events of the Witch Hunt lasted long into people, particularly Witches', minds, and Ryum was forever changed from a nation who welcomed all with open arms to a land of racial prejudice where anyone who wasn't human was scorned, hated and feared. Some even say that there are still Knights linked to The Church who kill Witches in secrecy.