Wytches
Everyone within the City State of Styx knows of Witches and of Witchcraft doubly so.
Most everyone has witnessed someone accused of such deeds and most know the tales of the monstrous Witches of the Leshivoi Forest who eat children and turn women into frogs or of the dreadful frozen-hearted White Witch of the North which rules the frigid lands north of the Kingdom of Darklight but if you asked the people of Styx what exactly a witch is you'd be hard pressed to find the same answer twice.
What the people of Styx know is that Witches exist and they're afraid of them.
In reality the question what a WYTCH really is isn't one thats easy to answer.
Wytches are, by scholars at the Academia Ars Magicka et Mundana's department of Magick, believed to be a truly-symbiontic and parasitic species unto themselves.
Mature Wytches are capable of shapeshifting at will and its unknown wether the fact most usually take shapes similar to those of females of the common sapient species of the Great Cavern of Aman-ya is due to personal preference or simpyl to attract suitable mates among those species.
The reproductive cycles and processes of Wytches have been a topic of great debate among scholars for a long time but what is assumed to be true is that mature wytches, also called Crones, take mates among males of the sapient species of the Great Cavern of Aman-ya and then leave the offspring, a being commonly called a Changeling with the community of its sire.
Changelings always look like the species of their sire and commonly grow up to be considered very attractive and pleasing to look at by their sire's species.
Changelings usually pass perfectly for their sire's species and while there are countless supposed "traits" to distinguish a Changeling most are not truly conclusive or consistent.
Growing up a Changeling is fed via psychic link by its spawning Crone with impressions, dreams, visions and thought implants meant to instill both a sense of superiority and of alienation from its host community.
Most Changelings emerge out of their host communities filled with both these feelings and ready to embrace their great nascent magickal prowess and reject their origins to become Wytches themselves though there is some claims that a Changeling can reject this calling.
After a Changeling becomes a Wytch it typically comes to serve its spawning Crone for a time, usually until the matured Wytch herself decides to spawn or until she decides to kill her spawning Crone out of a sense of superiority towards her.
Wytches are known for their immense magickal aptitude to a point where most kinds of Magick have, at times, been labelled as Witchcraft within the City State of Styx.
Wytches tend to domineering roles where they attempt to gain positions of power and control in whatever society they interact with and are known for their extremely large egos and desire for almost any possible vice.
That isn't to say that Witches are inherently evil, one of the most famous Witches of Stygian folklore, Hayaga Masha is known for being a morally grey trickster figure who is as likely to aid the people that petition her as she is to punish them for the hubris of assuming she would help.
What it seems like is that Witches, simply put, operate on different moral scales than the ordinary folk of the City State of Styx or even the Forestfolk do.
Some scholars at the Academia Ars Magicka et Mundana believe Wytches to be a stably reproducing form of strange Incarnae.
Most everyone has witnessed someone accused of such deeds and most know the tales of the monstrous Witches of the Leshivoi Forest who eat children and turn women into frogs or of the dreadful frozen-hearted White Witch of the North which rules the frigid lands north of the Kingdom of Darklight but if you asked the people of Styx what exactly a witch is you'd be hard pressed to find the same answer twice.
What the people of Styx know is that Witches exist and they're afraid of them.
In reality the question what a WYTCH really is isn't one thats easy to answer.
Wytches are, by scholars at the Academia Ars Magicka et Mundana's department of Magick, believed to be a truly-symbiontic and parasitic species unto themselves.
Mature Wytches are capable of shapeshifting at will and its unknown wether the fact most usually take shapes similar to those of females of the common sapient species of the Great Cavern of Aman-ya is due to personal preference or simpyl to attract suitable mates among those species.
The reproductive cycles and processes of Wytches have been a topic of great debate among scholars for a long time but what is assumed to be true is that mature wytches, also called Crones, take mates among males of the sapient species of the Great Cavern of Aman-ya and then leave the offspring, a being commonly called a Changeling with the community of its sire.
Changelings always look like the species of their sire and commonly grow up to be considered very attractive and pleasing to look at by their sire's species.
Changelings usually pass perfectly for their sire's species and while there are countless supposed "traits" to distinguish a Changeling most are not truly conclusive or consistent.
Growing up a Changeling is fed via psychic link by its spawning Crone with impressions, dreams, visions and thought implants meant to instill both a sense of superiority and of alienation from its host community.
Most Changelings emerge out of their host communities filled with both these feelings and ready to embrace their great nascent magickal prowess and reject their origins to become Wytches themselves though there is some claims that a Changeling can reject this calling.
After a Changeling becomes a Wytch it typically comes to serve its spawning Crone for a time, usually until the matured Wytch herself decides to spawn or until she decides to kill her spawning Crone out of a sense of superiority towards her.
Wytches are known for their immense magickal aptitude to a point where most kinds of Magick have, at times, been labelled as Witchcraft within the City State of Styx.
Wytches tend to domineering roles where they attempt to gain positions of power and control in whatever society they interact with and are known for their extremely large egos and desire for almost any possible vice.
That isn't to say that Witches are inherently evil, one of the most famous Witches of Stygian folklore, Hayaga Masha is known for being a morally grey trickster figure who is as likely to aid the people that petition her as she is to punish them for the hubris of assuming she would help.
What it seems like is that Witches, simply put, operate on different moral scales than the ordinary folk of the City State of Styx or even the Forestfolk do.
Some scholars at the Academia Ars Magicka et Mundana believe Wytches to be a stably reproducing form of strange Incarnae.