Coven of the Wicked Witches
The Black Coven
“There is no sin in spite. Only honesty.”
Overview
The Black Coven is the most feared and reviled of all witch covens in Aerenfall. Known for their mastery of curses, hexes, and pain magic, they operate from the shadows, often alone or in secretive circles, spreading suffering with precision and glee. While most see them as villains or monsters, many of these witches were once cast out, betrayed, or broken—what they became is what the world made them.
They do not seek redemption. They offer none.
Philosophy
- Pain is power.
- Kindness is camouflage.
- Magic is a blade, not a balm.
- Spite outlives justice.
The Black Coven believes that the world is cruel, and they merely reflect that cruelty back upon it—sharpened, refined, and weaponized.
Magic and Methods
- Primary Schools: Cursecraft, Pain Resonance, Death-aligned Astral Magic
- Common Spells:
- Hex of Withering — causes rot and illness
- Pain Echo — reflects emotional or physical agony
- Witch’s Blight — poisons crops, minds, or animals
- Dream Leech — saps rest and sanity during sleep
- Barghest Binding — summons spectral hounds of punishment
- Familiar Types:
- Ravens, spiders, shadow-cats, skeletal beasts
- Some witches bind spirit doubles or animate cursed objects (like floating parchments)
Coven Hierarchy
- Crone Mother – Supreme matron of the Black Coven.
- Current Crone Mother: Black Agnes — a wily, ancient figure rumored to eat children. Her favorite trick is selling cursed apples in disguise.
- Elder Hags – Powerful witches who have transcended humanity. Each has their own grim legend and controls a domain of magic, territory, or cursed influence.
- Sisters – Fully initiated Black Witches with the power to curse, kill, and corrupt. Many work alone, but some form hex-circles or small covens.
- Children – Initiates or prospective members. Only called “Child”, until they earn the title of Sister. Survival is not guaranteed.
Signature Holiday
The Blood Moon Conventicle
- Held during a blood moon, when the veil between Aerenfall and the Shadow Realm grows thin.
- Black Witches gather in secret to offer prayers to Nyx in her true form and to Drazhanna, the goddess of pain and vengeance.
- Curses are cast in unison, spirits summoned, bindings made.
- No witch may refuse the call if summoned—on pain of being cast out or consumed.
Sacred Site
The Bone Garden (located in the Wildlands)
A cursed grove of skeletal trees and bone-flowers.
- Each tree grows from the buried body of a cursed soul.
- Site of ancient rites, witch burials, and dangerous memory-planting rituals.
- Protected by whispering spirits, venomous vines, and enchanted root-wards.
- Rituals performed here include:
- The Thorn Oath
- The Bone Calling
- The Rite of Blooming Spite
Named Elder Hags
Black Agnes – The Crone Mother
A disguised hag of immense age and cruelty.
- Appears harmless until it's far too late.
- Often seen as a hunched apple-seller or toothless crone in villages.
- No one knows how old she is—or how many Crone Mothers she’s outlived.
Vanessa Horne – The Witch Queen of Pedmore Peak
A glamorous, highborn Black Witch who enslaved the village of Pedmore.
- Commands spectral barghests.
- Once trained by Crone Yaga, seduced power from Unseelie Fey, vampires, and demons.
- Driven out by Albion’s Princes. Now in exile, seeking vengeance.
- Elegant, icy, and always dressed as if royalty.
The Ink-Tongue Hag – Eastern Black Coven
A cursed calligrapher who writes her spells in blood, often with her own tongue.
- Controls scrolls that whisper, bind, or suffocate.
- Can cast spells by tracing sigils into the air with bleeding fingers.
- Lives in a ruined calligraphy hall in Yunxia.
- Spirit-bound familiar: Red Syllable, a whispering, animate scroll.
Mami’s Mirror – Southern Black Coven
A former priestess of Verdessa who now binds souls in mirrors.
- Her beauty is a glamour—beneath it, her flesh rots.
- Lives in a sunken shrine among swamp lilies and reflective waters.
- Familiar: Silverface, a haunted mirror that distorts truth and reveals feared futures.
Half-Marrow – Northern Black Coven
A Skand witch split between life and death.
- Left side: beautiful shieldmaiden; right side: necrotic and frostbitten.
- Practices dual-magic—glamour and healing from one hand, death and curse from the other.
- Keeps the souls of her enemies in carved bone-charms.
- Familiar: Two-Tongue, a skeletal raven with prophetic speech.
Relations with Others
- Wild Coven: Occasional rivalry; believed one Elder Hag once poisoned a sacred Wild Grove.
- White Coven: Philosophical enemies. White witches undo curses, Black witches refine them.
- Silver Claw: Mutual respect through shared pain magic—but the Silver Claw judges the Black Coven for lack of restraint.
- Clergy & Inquisitors: Hunted. Universally condemned.
Quote
“We are not evil. We are the harvest of your cruelty. You sowed the thorn—we merely grew sharp.”
—Vanessa Horne
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