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Powers: Witchcraft
"The Spirit of the earth is all around you. You just need to know how to speak with it.'
Witchcraft, or The Craft, as a practice is something present in many stories and folktales. Though many stories tend to exaggerate the scope of the practice’s reach in order to tell stories of fantasy, or to demonize the practice entirely, its humble origins are very much real and present in Ashbrook.
The Craft can be honed in a number of different ways. Rituals to channel the Earth’s energy via complex steps and reagents to create wards, seals, or to summon spirits. Spoken Incantations with gestures, using the body itself as a conduit to channel magic - less powerful, but quick and easy to do in a pinch. And the making of Potions - healing draughts, poisons, or luck potions, for example.
It is also important to note that magic can have consequences. Doing a spell or ritual can have a rebound effect if it’s poorly invoked. The consequences for such a thing will range depending on the level of the magic being attempted. After all, everything that gets put out into the world must also come back.
Witchcraft, or The Craft, as a practice is something present in many stories and folktales. Though many stories tend to exaggerate the scope of the practice’s reach in order to tell stories of fantasy, or to demonize the practice entirely, its humble origins are very much real and present in Ashbrook.
The Craft can be honed in a number of different ways. Rituals to channel the Earth’s energy via complex steps and reagents to create wards, seals, or to summon spirits. Spoken Incantations with gestures, using the body itself as a conduit to channel magic - less powerful, but quick and easy to do in a pinch. And the making of Potions - healing draughts, poisons, or luck potions, for example.
It is also important to note that magic can have consequences. Doing a spell or ritual can have a rebound effect if it’s poorly invoked. The consequences for such a thing will range depending on the level of the magic being attempted. After all, everything that gets put out into the world must also come back.
Learning
You won’t find books about it in the public library, but if you happen to take a glance inside Turnit Around Turnips, on their shelves are the books to really get you started. If you’re really lucky, you might hear about a master practitioner out in the woods. If you ask nicely, maybe she’ll spare you some of her time…
The Craft can be learned by any Visitor, and how well they’re able to learn it depends on each person’s own practical application. A willingness to listen to the earth, and a desire to *believe* in the energy around you is crucial to being able to succeed in the simplest of spells, but once you’ve gotten that figured out, all that comes next is practice, practice, practice.
The Craft can be learned by any Visitor, and how well they’re able to learn it depends on each person’s own practical application. A willingness to listen to the earth, and a desire to *believe* in the energy around you is crucial to being able to succeed in the simplest of spells, but once you’ve gotten that figured out, all that comes next is practice, practice, practice.
Example Spells
Magic itself is limited only by the creativity of the user, and their familiarity with The Craft. However, below is a helpful example of the kinds of things Visitors can accomplish and various skill levels to give an understanding of how it scales. These are also examples of magic that can be done, however it is NOT limited to this list, and a Visitor can create their own magic within reason (Just don’t break the game.)
Beginning Magic
Beginning Magic
Magic of this category is entry level to the Craft and easy to do so long as you follow the directions. Most of the effects are weak, or only last very temporarily, and the consequences for messing up are less severe. While you're not limited to using only the spells below, these should give you an idea of what a novice is capable of.Potions
Healing potion (weak): Able to heal minor scrapes and scratches, or take the edge off nasty bruising. Not strong enough to mend bone.
Luck potion: Able to give a person about thirty minutes of convenient luck. You won’t be winning the lottery, but five bucks on the ground? Yessir.
Goofs (Get Out of School Free) Potion: Want to fool your parents and play hookie from school? This potion will simulate a fever, pale complexion, and a desperate need for the bathroom. Should wear off in an hour or so if brewed correctly. If not then you might just get sick for real. Is it worth the risk to skip that chem pop quiz? Up to you!Rituals
Protection Charm for Driving: Light a single black candle and allow it to burn completely. While the candle burns, combine black salt, Black tourmaline, cinnamon, pepper, and comfrey root into a jar in layers. Cap and seal jar with wax from candle. String together several wooden beads, all carved in different ways. The patterns don't matter, only that you were focusing on the protection going into them as you work. Stop when the candle burns out and hang from the rear view mirror of a car.
Summoning a Spirit: Requires two or more. Set forth two white candles and create a barrier of salt around the area. Create a circle by joining hands. [Note: do NOT break the circle until the ritual is complete. Doing so risks losing control of the summoning.] Specific words are not important, and any language comfortable to the summoner is fine. Call out to the spirit you wish to summon, clearly, by their rightful name. The flame in the candles will become blue when a spirit has responded. You can ask three yes-or-no questions. If successful the spirit will respond by changing the color of the candle flame from blue to red. Yes for the right candle and No for the left. Once finished, thank the spirit for its time and bid it farewell. Blow out the candles first before releasing hands.
Creating a ward: To protect a house from negative energy, combine the names of all members of a household, arrange it into a sigil. Take a broom and sweep out the negative energy already present in the home, then place a copy of the sigil at every threshold in the house. To reset/refresh spell, burn the original copy of sigil and start from the beginning.Incantations
Note: Latin is commonly used in spells requiring spoken incantations. This is not a hard rule, and the spoken words are flexible so long as they hold meaning to the caster. If someone would rather yell burn! in their native language when lighting a candle, it will often be more effective than yelling burn in some dead language you can't even pronounce most of the words from.
Ignite Flame: To ignite flames, such as to light candles, or create small sparks, focus on the energy within yourself and carefully draw it out. Reciting Ignis while directing that energy to where the flame should burn. (ie: a wick or a campfire). For those using the spell for the first time, a gesture pointing towards where the flame should burn will help channel it properly. With practice the spell can be done by simply making eye contact with what needs to be ignited.
Break-up Spell: To help facilitate a break up by attempting to influence the other party to make the first move, simply light a red candle and recite the entire chorus of Eve6's Inside Out, exactly eight times. It must be done perfectly, one flubbed word means that the rebound could ruin your love life for seven whole years.