Come, come gather around and lend me your ears for I have a tale to tell. Are you paying close attention? This is a tale you do not want to miss. Once upon a time there was a fish. The end. I know it is the best story you every heard. No? Well, aren't you just difficult to please. Okay, okay I guess I will just have to give more information about the witches. I know that there are those that don't care about the witches. However, for those that do and those that will in the future I have decided to write various blog posts regarding them. This way if anyone has questions about them I can direct them to the right blog. This is not saying that these blogs will answer every question a person might have. It might even create more questions, but I am more than willing to answer questions that haven't been addressed or try to clarify something that someone finds confusing. Also, these blogs will be for me. They will help me keep the witches from being horrid blood sucking fiends while being happy go lucky flower folks who happen be allergic to blood. Okay, they are neither of those things, but I hope you understand my point.

The Witches

Since the witches are the name of the species I figured I should talk about them. Yes, that is right species. Witches are not human. They have never been human, and to call them human is quite insulting to them. They were created the goddess Aine. Naturally the witches are along lived race, but they are not immortal. A witch average lifespan is a thousand years. They age like a normal human for the first eighteen years of their lives, and then they will slow down. They will look to stop aging to any races who has a human lifespan.

Witches go through two types of puberty. The first is exactly like the one humans go through. The second is what the witches call 'the magical puberty' and occurs between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. Witches draw magic from two different sources. The first source comes from within the witches themselves. They have access to this source at birth, but most witches don't start using this magic until their sixth birthday. The second source comes from the universe itself:air, earth, fire, water, spirit, blood, and sex just to give a few examples. Witches don't have access to source at birth. They gain access to it when they hit their magical puberty.

This can be potentially deadly to teenage witches. Witches have a valve inside of them that is turned off when they are born. This valve is turned on when they reach magical puberty, and they do not know how to turn it off, or redirect the magic they draw from the universe back into it. If  teenage witches doesn't find a way to release the magic they gather from the universe they will explode--literally in some cases. The magical puberty ends when teenage witches learn how to turn off and on their valve, and how to redirect the magic they gather from the universe back into it just with their will. This is not something that witches can be taught. They learn it on their own. It is a popular theory among the witches that the knowledge just appears inside their mind when they turn twenty-one.

However, there are ways for teenage witches to release the magic they collect back into the universe. This is done through sexual or violent encounters. The former tends to be more effective than the latter. Teenage witches are encouraged to engage in activities that help release the collected magic not only for their own well being, but also because when they engage in these activities something called 'magical glitter' is created. This glitter is pure magic in physical form, and can be used for various things including augmenting others powers and for medical purposes.

Witches have the ability to ascend into a higher form of existence twice. The first time they ascend into either a queen or king---depending on the gender of the witch. Becoming a king or queen doesn't make the witch leader of their people in the manner that other societies do, but it can. Only a witch that ascended to the level of king or queen can rule the witches as their actual monarch. A new monarch is usually voted in by the council, but in rare cases a monarch will take the throne. The throne is not inheritable. Any children of a monarch will have to earn the throne like any other witch by ascending to king or queen and gaining the throne that way.

A witch who ascends to this level gain more powers, and gain a longer lifespan. It is uncertain exactly how long their lifespan becomes because eventually a queen or king will leave the clan to go off into the world and will not return until they ascend a second time into a god or goddess. A witch that becomes a deity is immortal in the sense that they will never die of old age, but they can be killed through other means. Granted it is more difficult to kill a deity than the previous two level of witches. Through, there are some deities that cannot be killed. Each clan  names a deity as their patron god or goddess with some exceptions. The clans do not worship their deity in the same manner that other societies worship theirs. They revere their deities as those who had reached the ultimate form of existences. The patron god or goddess of a clan will often serve as the adviser to the head of that clan.

The clans.

Witches nations are called clans, and every  witch within a particular clan will take the surname of that clan. For example, witches from the Giese clan will take the surname Giese even if they aren't actually related to Kieran. Sometimes, a witch will take both the surname of their family and their clan. This shows others their ties to both. An example of this is Kieran's brother Keir, whose name is Keir Giese-Vesela. The most powerful clan is usually written last, but in Keir's case Vesela comes last because he is their clan leader.  If the clans are equal in power and the witch wishes to take both than this witch will periodically switch around which name comes first and which one comes last.

Usually a witch marrying into one clan into another takes several things into consideration when deciding on which surname to use. The power of the clan. A clan who is a member of the tribunal is more powerful than a clan who is on the small council and a clan on the small council is more powerful than all the other clans. The positions of the witches being married. For example, an average citizen marrying a member of another clans main family will take the surname of that clan even if that clan is in not as powerful as theirs. The positions of the witches are not taken into consideration if the clan is a secondary clan or a slave clan. In this case the position of the clan is the only one taken into consideration. Gender plays no role in deciding what surname a witch takes.

In the last paragraph you just read something about secondary clans and slave clans and might be a bit confused. In the witch world there are three types of clans. The first is the council clans. These clans have full political rights and hold a seat upon the council, the small council or even tribunal depending on the power of the clan. The second type of clans are called secondary clans. They cannot hold a seat upon the council, but they govern their own clans. A secondary clan is under the military protection of an council clan and will often take the surname of the clan that is their protector in order to show other clans who is protecting them.

The finally type of clans are called slave clans. These clans have no political rights what so-ever. They are under complete control of the clan that owns them. There are three ways a clan can become a slave clan. The first way is they request it. The second they are conquered during war, and the final way a clan might find themselves in slavery as punishment for severe crimes committed against another clan.