Named witches by damned puritans, 6 humans wield magic to fill Hell with life, and improve the lives of their fellow humans. When creating and mastering a form of magic, it becomes a part of you, and it changes your body irreversibly.
Magic in general is represented by the inverted pentacle (not to be confused with the inverted pentagram. All magic stems from the Tree, and almost everything in Hell is made from magic.
The most basic form of magic, and the magic that is most easy for Diana to use (some refer to her as a master of it, but there techincally is no master), is the creation, manipulation, combination, and destruction of elements. Most well known for making fire and water, but with the right knowledge and precision, it can be used to make almost anything. It's easy for any elemancer to create 1 element, or combine for simple elements like water. However, it gets complicated fast with bigger elements, or combining to make complex materials. Elemancers have to be careful of toxic elements or explosive chemical reactions as well. Diana is only a master of Elemency in the sense that she's had the most time to learn it.
Elemancy is most commonly used to make water, chemical compounds, and basic materials like gold (which wouldn't be more easily made by Terramancy).
The first witch, master of Necromancy. In her life she had an unusual obsession with death, being fascinated by the work of morticians and even collecting bones. Unfortunately, such an obsession is also a good source of disease, and she would often find herself terribly ill. Despite her often paranoid nature, her consistent ability to survive her illnesses made her feel invincible. Eventually, hubris (in the name of TB), caught up with her. Now her fascination has to turned to that of un-death.
Necromancy, represented by the Ankh symbol, is the creation, manipulation, and destruction of souls. Souls are the foundation of life; anything that can be considered alive has a soul. There are 3 types, or tiers (as called by God), of souls. Tier 1 souls are non-sentient, meaning they carry out the necessary functions of survival, but they don't experience emotions or have any sort of personality. As such, these souls are best suited for simplistic creatures such as unicellular organisms, plants, fungi, etcetera. Tier 2 souls, however, are sentient, meaning they think and feel. The range of intelligence is quite wide, from deep sea fish to apes. However, they are not sapient, meaning they can't understand greater, philisophical concepts like sin. This is why no tier 1 or 2 creatures are damned to Hell. Tier 3 are sapient, they can comprehend the concepts like sin and a God, and are exclusive to humans (as far as God is aware). Nephthys is able to create all types of souls.
While Nephthys is the only one who can create or destroy souls, other Necromancers can revive dead creatures by the returning the soul to the body post-mortem, reviving them. This only works if the cause of death hasn't damaged the body too severely to be salvageable, and wasn't due to old age (they would simply die again shortly after). Alternatively, the soul can be returned the body kept in a dead-state. This effectively makes the creature immortal, but the body must be treated with Alchemancy potions with stop decay, or the body will just rot away. Necromancy services are most commonly used for pets.
Since the souls were created by God and not with magic, Necromancy cannot move or destroy the souls of damned humans.
The second witch, master of Monstromancy. Ylva always had a fondness for nature. She espcially loved the stories of giant creatures deep in the sea, waiting to spring up and attack unsuspecting sailors. As a viking, she believed she and her men could defeat any beast that bored the waves before them. Ironically, her ship was sank not by the Kraken or some other fearsome beast, but by a partially submerged rock during a terrible storm. Surrounded by frigid water and no shore in sight, the ship sank, and the sea claimed everyone on board. Denizens of Hell are often surprised to hear of her violent past, as she is known there for her gentle and loving nature.
Monstromancy, represented by a bind rune, is the creation of bodies for souls to inhabit. The first creatures created were strange and monstrous looking due to Ylva's amateurity, hence the magic's name. With time, plants and animals that better resembled that of Earth's were created. Still, Ylva would dabble in the strange and mythical with her creations, and would have to get creative when balancing the ecosystem. She often consults biologists and botanists when needed. Sapient people Ylva created, though mostly humanoid, are also referred to as monsters. Monstromanc also allows the wielder to control the created bodies, but Ylva refuses to do so on moral grounds.
Unlike most magic, Ylva is the only person who can wield Monstromancy. A secondary effect of Monstromancy is the ability to control the bodies created. Ylva refuses to do this on a moral principal. This only works for bodies made with magic, and as such she could not control the bodies of damned humans. However, the bodies of the coven are so imbued with magic, she could theoretically control the other master witches.
The third witch, master of Alchemancy. They wanted to be a a doctor, but didn't have the money to be formally trained. But as the plague swept through Europe, the ill couldn't demand their doctors know what they're doing. Excited to work in medicine and desparate to help the sick, Clément lept into a plague doctor uniform and got to work. Many patients in their care died. despite their best efforts (and most quality of mercery and arsenic treatments). Although the uniforms were groundbreaking for the time, they were not perfect, and Clément contracted the plague themselves. After death, they devoted themselves to studying the body and created medicines that actually worked, due to the guilt from all the patients they failed
Alchemancy, represented by the sulfur symbol, is the creation of combined ingredients into potions which can treat illnesses or change the body. Bacteria, fungi, and viruses are a part of nature. Anywhere that has life is going to have these things, and some of them are going to be harmful to humans. Besides that, injuries and other illnesses also need to be treated. Alchemancy is used to permanently imbue a specific alchemical recipe with an affect on the body.
No one besides Clément can wield Alchemancy, but anyone can study to become and Alchemist. Alchemy is just the recreation of the recipes, and having more alchemists makes it easier to meet demand. However, a license is required as incorrect recipes can result in terrible consequences.
The third witch, master of Terramancy. She had a fascination with geology, and natural disasters like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Being Yangban, she was able to spend a lot of time studying these subjects, especially once her children were grown. An entire lifetime was not enough to sate her, of course, and she has spent her entire afterlife doing it as well. Her wise appearance and academic interests can be decieving, however, as her second passion in life is causing a little chaos.
Terramancy, represented by the Monas Hieroglyphic, is the creation, manipulation, and destruction of earthly materials. With only elemancy, you would have to carefully combine elements in order to create any metal, rock, crystal, etcetera. This process would be slow and dangerous, as mistakes could result in disastrous chemical reactions. Terramancy is similar to Elemancy in principal but is better suited to creating and moving these kinds of materials in bulk as it is done directly (Elemancy is magic -> elements -> materials, Terramancy is magic -> materials). The movement of materials is similar to Animancy, but based on molecules rather than perception.
Unlike other magics, there is no limitation on Terramancy for people besides Ji-Won. Her mastery is only in terms of her sheer skill and speed in terraforming Hell, carving out rivers and pushing the volcanic mountains away from the Tree. Any terramancers can terraform, though most are employed in creating bulk building materials like steel and bricks, or in gemstones for jewelry and religious purposes.
The sixth witch, master of Animmancy. All of Daniela's life, she always needed to be helped. And she did get that help, but she resented the fact that she needed it in the first place, especially when it cost her so much freedom. All she ever wanted was true independence. To her, Animmancy was a wish come true, and the chance to finally live the life she wanted. Plus, she's allowed others to do the same. She may seem cold and unemotional on the outside, but she's truly the happiest she's ever been.
Animmancy, represented by the Eye of Horus (at Nephthys' behest), is the manipulation of physical matter through perception alone. Essentially telekinesis, the user can move things with their mind. The beginning and end of a single object is based on the perception of the wielder (that is, what their eyes and brain percieve as the start and end).
Animmancy is most commonly used as a mobility aid. The effectiveness is dependent on factors not yet fully understood. It seems to require a great amount of concentration, and for beginners it often seems equally exhausting to move something with their mind as it is with their body. With practice, it becomes easier, but it's not useful to everyone.
A secondary effect, which only very few people can do (including Daniela), is illusions. Essentially, you can make someone hallucinate stimuli. The stimuli is, as of yet, only visual and auditory, but due to the dangerous possibilites of this power, it is the part of Animancy that Daniela refuses to teach. The few people who can do it figured it out entirely on their own (or were taught by someone who did).
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