Witches

Since the witches are the name of the species I figured I should talk about them. Yes, that is the right species. Witches are not human. They have never been human, and to call them human is quite insulting to them. They were created by the goddess Aine. Naturally, the witches are a long-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 have 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 sources 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 don'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 minds 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 other 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 levels 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 existence. The patron god or goddess of a clan will often serve as the adviser to the head of that clan.