Witch

Magic is a finite energy in the world that is never created or disappears. Magic is intrinsic to life itself, the life “spark” if you will. Every living being contains more or less magic, however, only a few creatures can control and manifest their magic, for instance, witches. When a creature dies, its’ magic is reabsorbed into the earth as a part of the circle of life.
Witches are born with their magic, just as any other life in Sirsjelen. Their magic is never replenished, and when they’ve used up that magic they die. This is a witches’ natural death, comparable to old age in other beings. If a witch uses a lot of powerful spells in her life, she will naturally die younger than a witch who uses her powers conservatively. The witch is inheritably capable of using her magic, but in order to understand and control her powers she needs to be taught by a mentor, often her mother or another female relative.
Dark and light witches are in an eternal rivalry. They have widely different morals and understandings of magic. The two groups dislike each other and dark witches are known to “take out” their light magic practitioning competition.
Dark magic works against nature and generally uses up more magic energy, it is however much more powerful than light magic. A dark witch, thus, sacrifices the length of her life for power and riches. Dark magic needs no vessel for the magic to react with, and is effective immediately.
Light magic works with nature and is often associated with closeness to nature, combining natural ingredients and rituals with small amounts of magic at a time. The older the light witch, the more knowledge she has on how to conserve her magic energy, which means aging more slowly the older she gets.
A spell is the expulsion of an amount of magic energy in exchange for control over a part of the external world. The spell doesn’t have a physical form and can’t be seen. It can however be felt. Witches can easily detect spells made in an area, and other beings can subconsciously sense them to different extents. Since non magic-users don’t understand how it works many peoples fear any witch, light or dark, and tend to shun them. People who live close to witches do however seek them out to be helped with various needs and wants. Since they don’t understand the differences between the practices of light and dark witches they will seek them out depending on geographical closeness. This fact increases the risk of violent rivalry between neighbouring witches.

Basic Information

Anatomy

All practicing witches are female. Male witches also exist, however they can't control or use their magic. Male witches only live for a short time compared to their female counterparts, with a life expectancy of 25 years, which is accelerated by the fact that they are often killed to be used in dark magic rituals.