Witches

“Those that can heal can harm; those that can cure can kill.”

— Celia Rees, Witch Child

Witches are a secretive order of magic users made up exclusively of women. They are widely disliked for their casual disregard for society and the Laws of Magic.
Witches are some of the only users of chaos magic on Haven.

Description

Witches are powerful magic users that live far from organized society. They live hidden, in forests, swamps or mountains. They do not want to be found and mostly want to be left alone.

Witches are highly secretive, both to outsiders and to eachother. A Witch will not trust an outsider, and only some of her fellow witches. Primarily a witch will only trust her friends, which will mostly be various animals and spirits.
Witches are not well liked by organized society. The order of Witches has no regard for society's laws, especially their laws of magic. Witches have also harmed various communities for a variety of reasons and have come into conflict with The Raven Knights on multiple occasions, giving them a very unsavory reputation. However this combines well with the witches' desire to be left alone, and several witches go out of their way to spread fear in nearby villages so they are left alone.

A Secret Society
Witches are inducted into the order at a young age. The candidates are often orphan girls or children given to the witch as price of some bargain. When they are chosen, the witch brands the child's left arm with a special magical ritual that lengthens the child's lifespan and grants it magical abilities. This ritual only works on girls.

The girls are then educated in nature, animals, the spirits and spirit world and finally on magic. Witches raise their apprentices as their own daughters. However such a relationship may be nurturing or abusive, depending on the witch in question.
By the time of their graduation, witches are knowledgeable in several disciplines of magic, nature magic, spirit magic, alchemy and, famously, chaos magic. Upon being acknowledged by at least 3 Witches, none of which may be her teacher, the apprentice becomes accepted as a witch.

Powers and Deals

Due to the ritual that makes a Witch, these women are exceptionally powerful and long-lived. By use of their Chaos magic Witches can do many things that are thought impossible to other mages. However witches are legendary among mages not for their direct power on the battlefield, but for their curses and hexes.

Witches are famous for their bargains, where they would grant various magical boons in exchange for exotic prices. Famous tales include Witches trading magical healing for the life of a firstborn child, wealth for somebody's youth or a love-potion for a person's valor.
If such a bargain was ever reneged on, it is said, a witch would curse the oathbreaker with fates worse than death.
Nonetheless many a Knight and even the occasional King has made bargains with a witch, for good and bad both.

History

The order of Witches were originally founded long ago on the world of Kar-Kut, before the War of Burning Skies.
They were founded by a mysterious individual now only known as 'the wanderer', an individual that tought them chaos sorcery before betraying humanity and causing the death of hundreds of thousands.

Due to their association with the wanderer as well as their continued use of chaos sorcery, witches were partially blamed for the destruction of kar-kut and heavily persecuted for centuries.
Nowadays their ancient history is largely forgotten by all but themselves. Still, while people do no longer remember why the witches were originally persecuted, the mutual antipathy between wider society and the order of witches remains.

Appearance:

Witches can live for very long times, several centuries for some of them. However the longer a witch lives, the more twisted and shrivelled she becomes as a result of utilizing chaos magic.
From an ordinary young women, the witch will eventually turn to a withered old crone, all warts and bony fingers.
However some Witches disguise themselves as beautiful young women, while others modify themselves using dark magic to make themselves stronger but even more repulsive.