Witches on Waking Materia
While witches exist on many planes in and around the Eridún Crux, their role as occult and spiritual stewards of the land occasionally leads to a large amount of religious and political influence. This is especially true of planes like Waking Materia, where more civilized powers—typically the main rivals of witches and their territories—remain fractionated and superstitious. In essence, planes like Materia can be divided not only by political or geographical boundaries, but also the boundaries of witch domains, the latter being no less important.
These occult stewards may be divided into two major roles on Materia: those of the Harvest Witches and those of the Wilderwitches. The former are stewards of humanoid lands primarily, taking partial responsibility for the croplands and food forests of their partner settlements as well as the ecological health of surrounding parklands, wetlands and the like. They are generally Good- or Neutral-aligned. Wilderwitches, in contrast, are antisocial creatures who rule over territories far removed from other humanoids, often considering civilization to be a disease of stagnation that threatens the richness of nature. They are generally Neutral- or Evil-aligned. There is no strict divide between the two: many witches exist in a grey area between the two extremes.Imagery
See also: Harvest Witches & Mikō Image Gallery (External)
or: Wilderwitches, Black Mages & Morganites Image Gallery (External)Famous Witches
The Material demigoddess of the Harvest, Ninalta, is often considered to be the godhead of Harvest Witches and the magely, spiritual aspect to Saint Ajora's knightly half.
Morrigan, Goddess of the Dark Arts, likely traces her history back to the mortal Iyōan witch, Mael Morha.
Little Grandma is an immensely powerful witch whose territory officially encompasses all of the Thaumatocracy of Oztroja, making her a sort of divine-magical leader of the nation, even above the highest political officials.
Granny Ozma is an eccentric Wilderwitch whose territory encompasses much of the continent of Rhosgobel. Though she disdains worship, she is not malicious towards the peoples of the island nation and has even acted as a protector figure in times of war or natural disaster.
Shan "Branchhead" Rin-Xian is officially the Chief Seer and Advisor to the Shan of Marai's leader, Shan Gow-Ron, but in truth she is in full control of the clan.In Religion
Though often connected to Material religion, witches very much represent their own force on the plane.As Subjects of Worship
Though Harvest Witches may be revered and trade on that divine Quintessence with their worshippers, thus becoming standard ascendant demigods, even Wilderwitches can grow to encompass such expansive and sometimes deeply powerful territories that they ascend to a comparable level of power, though no divine quintessence is involved. Thus, sufficiently powerful witches may be considered their own unique type of pantheon. This may explain some demigods in history who were immensely powerful despite a seeming lack of direct worship, for example the New Rozsan Lichlords, who oversaw a largely secular society despite their obvious godlike abilities.As Worshippers
By and large, witches are occult/primal casters who revere the plane, the forces of nature and their resident spirits in a wholistic sense. However some are known to also be clerics—or at least worshipful—of certain Material Gods or Duskscape Regents as exemplars of their hallowed duties. Good-aligned Harvest Witches are often worshippers of Aios, Ninalta and/or the Heron's Eye. Neutral-aligned Wilderwitches sometimes align themselves to Ahm, Kaleva or Tariel. Evil-aligned Wilderwitches may be drawn into worship of Morrigan, the Wendigo Primogen or Ob'Silexia.
Profile: A Middish Harvest Witch from Zhayolm, wearing the standard red-black-yellow of the Zhayolmites. Illus. MashacK
Musical inset: A wilderwitch's chant from Oztroja.
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