Post by WINTER on Mar 30, 2017 15:50:00 GMT
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FAMILIARS
FAMILIARS
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true names, bonding and more.
true names, bonding and more.
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On this Earth, there are two parallel worlds. One is the plane of existence, and the other is the plane of spirit. Of course, if you go into deep philosophy or follow the writings of great witches like Morgan Oswald, the meanings of these realms and their complimentary but dependent existences might start to make your hair grow white. To sum up (and perhaps oversimplify), the physical world in which we exist is the Outer Strata and the world from which magic, mana, and spirit originate is called the Inner Strata.
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These worlds, while separate, are constantly influencing each other. When a child is born in the Outer Strata, the speculated extreme levels of energy of the Inner Strata bursts out, and a portion of spirit, mana and magic are passed along with that child into the world. And so the familiar emerges with them-- a huge mass of spirit that is given physical form by the human host, and the human is given magic by the familiar residing inside.
[break][break]
And thus, a witch is born.
[break][break]
Often times, magic is minor and hardly revealing until a witch reaches puberty, which is when the familiar's existence becomes more apparent. The witch will begin to finally hear a voice inside their head, and finally be able to communicate with their familiar, but still be unable to materialize or use their skill effectively. Depending on the familiar, communication and growth can be very difficult for a young witch, and though attempts are often made to institutionalize "familiar growth" through counsellors or others, it is still regarded by society as a "personal quest" -- after all, the greatest secret a witch can bear is the familiar's name.
[break][break]
A familiar can be difficult to control, standoffish, arrogant or plain condescending, often leading to violent outbursts in an adolescent witch or frustration at their own inability to tame their spirit. Of course, some can be immediately supportive or even entirely accepting, though there is usually some kind of conflict that begins with the entrance of the familiar into the life of a witch. This tussle for power ends with a contract spoken simply in the familiar's name. Once that name is shared, the familiar and witch symbolically accept each other and become one. This usually happens over a long period of internal conflict and often a lot of magical accidents, and marks the end of "magical adolescence" in young witches, usually at 15-16 years of age. Usually, once this finishes, familiars can be made to materialize at will and witches begin to show a greater understanding or control over their own elemental powers, which continues to develop until the end of overall adolescence.
[break][break]
A familiar's name, once shared, becomes a very guarded secret. Witches make up their own pet names to call their familiar because anyone that knows of the witch's familiar's real name can force the familiar to materialize by uttering it. A witch that knows the familiar's name and also owns it, however, can make their familiar materialize by just thinking their name or asking it to-- in fact speaking it out loud is often an act of forced submission against the familiar. Witches that have been forced to reveal their familiar's name to others have reported a feeling of their guts twisting and their knees feeling weak when the familiar was made appear by someone else, showing that the act of submission can apply in a different way as well.
[break][break]
The only time it is considering socially acceptable to share your familiar's name is during a marriage ceremony, where the witches to be married whisper the names of their familiars into eachothers ears. However, with the rise of divorce and independence in witch society, some ceremonies have begun to omit this particular rite in fear of the consequences post-marriage.
[break][break]
Finally, we arrive at the death of the familiar, a darker aspect of the magical society. Because the bond between the human and familiaris so strong, it is difficult to determine just who is dependent on what, and who has the upper hand in the seeming symbiosis that one calls a witch. What is the clear is that the familiar is the witch's door to the realm of mana and spirit and the witch is the familiar's key to the plane of existence. Which of the two is more important, however, is always a topic of debate among scholars and philosophers.
[break][break]
A witch may live on without their familiar (though almost all are caught in bouts of madness and borderline suicidal), though they will be shunned by society at large. They are unable to perform any elemental techniques or properly utilize affinities, experience adolescent outbursts of raw magic, and report a feeling of "incompleteness." Other problems associated with losing a familiar are constant fatigue, a sudden change in personality, etc. On the other hand, when a witch dies, the familiar disappears from the world entirely. It is unclear whether they live on in the spirit realm (a theory often used poetically and religiously accepted in many parts of Salem), and most logicians argue that "since they cannot maintain an existence in the Outer Strata they are, if only by technicality, dead as well." Believers in black magic think it is possible to call upon the vengeful spirit of the familiar of a dead witch that was spurned in their last moments, although believers in such magic will likely tell anything to anyone who listens...right?
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the familiar & witch adolescence
the familiar & witch adolescence
warning! lots of text ahead
On this Earth, there are two parallel worlds. One is the plane of existence, and the other is the plane of spirit. Of course, if you go into deep philosophy or follow the writings of great witches like Morgan Oswald, the meanings of these realms and their complimentary but dependent existences might start to make your hair grow white. To sum up (and perhaps oversimplify), the physical world in which we exist is the Outer Strata and the world from which magic, mana, and spirit originate is called the Inner Strata.
[break][break]
These worlds, while separate, are constantly influencing each other. When a child is born in the Outer Strata, the speculated extreme levels of energy of the Inner Strata bursts out, and a portion of spirit, mana and magic are passed along with that child into the world. And so the familiar emerges with them-- a huge mass of spirit that is given physical form by the human host, and the human is given magic by the familiar residing inside.
[break][break]
And thus, a witch is born.
[break][break]
Often times, magic is minor and hardly revealing until a witch reaches puberty, which is when the familiar's existence becomes more apparent. The witch will begin to finally hear a voice inside their head, and finally be able to communicate with their familiar, but still be unable to materialize or use their skill effectively. Depending on the familiar, communication and growth can be very difficult for a young witch, and though attempts are often made to institutionalize "familiar growth" through counsellors or others, it is still regarded by society as a "personal quest" -- after all, the greatest secret a witch can bear is the familiar's name.
[break][break]
A familiar can be difficult to control, standoffish, arrogant or plain condescending, often leading to violent outbursts in an adolescent witch or frustration at their own inability to tame their spirit. Of course, some can be immediately supportive or even entirely accepting, though there is usually some kind of conflict that begins with the entrance of the familiar into the life of a witch. This tussle for power ends with a contract spoken simply in the familiar's name. Once that name is shared, the familiar and witch symbolically accept each other and become one. This usually happens over a long period of internal conflict and often a lot of magical accidents, and marks the end of "magical adolescence" in young witches, usually at 15-16 years of age. Usually, once this finishes, familiars can be made to materialize at will and witches begin to show a greater understanding or control over their own elemental powers, which continues to develop until the end of overall adolescence.
[break][break]
A familiar's name, once shared, becomes a very guarded secret. Witches make up their own pet names to call their familiar because anyone that knows of the witch's familiar's real name can force the familiar to materialize by uttering it. A witch that knows the familiar's name and also owns it, however, can make their familiar materialize by just thinking their name or asking it to-- in fact speaking it out loud is often an act of forced submission against the familiar. Witches that have been forced to reveal their familiar's name to others have reported a feeling of their guts twisting and their knees feeling weak when the familiar was made appear by someone else, showing that the act of submission can apply in a different way as well.
[break][break]
The only time it is considering socially acceptable to share your familiar's name is during a marriage ceremony, where the witches to be married whisper the names of their familiars into eachothers ears. However, with the rise of divorce and independence in witch society, some ceremonies have begun to omit this particular rite in fear of the consequences post-marriage.
[break][break]
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familiar death
familiar death
Finally, we arrive at the death of the familiar, a darker aspect of the magical society. Because the bond between the human and familiaris so strong, it is difficult to determine just who is dependent on what, and who has the upper hand in the seeming symbiosis that one calls a witch. What is the clear is that the familiar is the witch's door to the realm of mana and spirit and the witch is the familiar's key to the plane of existence. Which of the two is more important, however, is always a topic of debate among scholars and philosophers.
[break][break]
A witch may live on without their familiar (though almost all are caught in bouts of madness and borderline suicidal), though they will be shunned by society at large. They are unable to perform any elemental techniques or properly utilize affinities, experience adolescent outbursts of raw magic, and report a feeling of "incompleteness." Other problems associated with losing a familiar are constant fatigue, a sudden change in personality, etc. On the other hand, when a witch dies, the familiar disappears from the world entirely. It is unclear whether they live on in the spirit realm (a theory often used poetically and religiously accepted in many parts of Salem), and most logicians argue that "since they cannot maintain an existence in the Outer Strata they are, if only by technicality, dead as well." Believers in black magic think it is possible to call upon the vengeful spirit of the familiar of a dead witch that was spurned in their last moments, although believers in such magic will likely tell anything to anyone who listens...right?
