The Witches of WITCHLAND.
Cover by Damonza. In this version you can see even more of Eliza’s Fire and Ice magic.
In WITCHLAND, all witches are born with magic, but its strength varies greatly according to each woman’s innate talent. Their power is usually dormant during childhood, with a few notable exceptions like Eliza. Magic blossoms in a witch’s early teens and takes several years to settle.
Teenage witches start by learning spells, a safe way to channel their magic whilst it’s still developing, but once their power calms most use their own will to direct and use magic. Spells can still be useful for setting lasting change on objects, or during times of high stress when concentration might falter.
After their magic settles, Bloodline Witches attend the Witch Academy for a year, honing their formidable talents. After graduating, most spend a few months on a Grand Tour of Witchland. This is a chance to relax, travel and learn more about the wider realm they serve. Once a Bloodline Witch returns to her family Estate, she rarely leaves her territory. There must always be a member of the family in residence, to protect and defend its people; if an Estate is left unguarded, an ambitious Landless Witch like Eliza’s cousin Veronia can, by law, move in and insist on a Territory Challenge. The exceptions to this are in times of war, when every witch is needed to fight, or when a rare summons comes for the whole family to attend the Royal Court.
Aristocratic Bloodline Witches are the most powerful. Each Bloodline family – headed by a Matriarch – rules a defined territory. Matriarchs are Chosen by their Estate’s familiar, a fabulous beast who is its guardian. Familiars can be dragons, unicorns, winged horses and griffins.
Each Matriarch has a magical contract with her semi-sentient Land, that requires her to marry and have at least two daughters, an heiress and a spare who’ll grow up to protect and serve the territory. Failure to comply eventually destroys the bond between the Witch Matriarch and her familiar, opening the way for a Territory Challenge like the one Eliza faces in WITCHLAND.
A Matriarch’s family home and the wider community surrounding it is called the Estate. Each has a sacred cave or grotto – the epicentre of power in the territory – located in the gardens. Only the Matriarch and her sister can enter the sacred cave, and it is there that they bring their husbands on their wedding night, and on any other occasion when lovemaking is likely to result in conception. A witch conceived in a sacred cave is invariably more powerful.
Every Estate contains several sacred sites, like the grass and thyme labyrinth in Eliza’s gardens, and a stone circle where witches can enter the ley lines to travel along them. Any of the sacred sites can be used for important ceremonies like The Gifting, when witches gather to send magic into the Land they serve.
An Estate’s familiar can harvest power from the Land within its territory and send it to their Matriarch to supplement her magic. Whilst familiars can eat ordinary food, most of their sustenance comes from the energy in their sacred cave. Familiars like Eliza’s dragon, Erevus, can hold magic inside their bodies for use when away from the territory that feeds them, for they can’t draw power away from it. Rarely, one familiar will permit another to rest in their cave, but long-term a familiar craves the energy of their home Estate.
All other witches are called Lesser Witches. Lessers can augment their innate talent by drawing a small amount of power from the surface energies of ley lines. It is the Lesser Witches who work alongside humans, and serve their Matriarchs as warriors, craftswomen and administrators.
Every witch – Bloodline or Lesser – has an Elemental affinity. Some Bloodline Witches wield twin Elemental powers, like Eliza’s Fire and Ice... but more on that in a future blog post.