The Witches of Appendix N: Michael Moorcock

Michael Moorcock is easily one of the biggest influences on Dungeons & Dragons. Certainly, his contributions rival those of Howard or Tolkien in shaping the structure of the D&D multiverse. Indeed, one can barely talk about the Multiverse of D&D without invoking Moorcock.

When people talk about Michael Moorcock in Appendix N, they usually go straight to Elric of Melniboné, Corum Jhaelen Irsei, Dorian Hawkmoon, and the eternal war between Law and Chaos. 

When I talk about Michael Moorcock and witches, I am not really talking about witches in the broom-riding, cottage-dwelling sense. I am talking about the pact-making sorts of witches. The ones who contact the beings from other planes (something that happens a lot in Moorcock's tales) and the ancient pacts that bind them.

Moorcock does not give us a village wise women. He gives us bloodlines that traffic with elementals, tribes that call heroes out of myth, and archetypes that echo across realities. His magic is not tidy. It is not academic. It is relational, dangerous, and deeply personal.

Which is why it works so well for me.

Elric the Prototype Warlock

Let’s be clear about something. Elric is not a wizard.

He does not memorize formulae in a tower and sling fire from careful study. His power comes from calling upon Arioch and other Lords of Chaos. He names them. He binds them. He bargains.

That is not arcane spellcasting in the later D&D sense.

That is a pact.

In the One Man's God post I wrote before on the Melnibonéan mythos, I pointed out that their religion and their magic are inseparable. The Lords of Chaos are not distant gods in shining heavens. They are immediate, responsive, volatile. They answer when called, but they always take something in return.

Elric’s magic is closer to a warlock than a magic-user.

Stormbringer itself is a kind of patron made steel. It feeds him power and keeps him alive, but it also owns him. That dynamic, that exchange of strength for service, is pure warlock logic.

And this is important when we talk about witches in Appendix N.

Because if Moorcock gives us a prototype warlock in Elric, he also gives us the larger framework that witches later inhabit in D&D. Magic is not a neutral force you manipulate. It is something you negotiate with.

That idea runs straight into warlocks, and through them, into witches who deal with dragons, animal lords, witch queens, and stranger patrons still.

Corum and the Old Religion

If Elric shows us the aristocratic pact, Corum shows us something closer to folk magic.

In the Corum stories, the human tribes are not sophisticated sorcerers. They do not maintain demon treaties stretching back millennia. They have rites. They have memory. They have belief.

And when the world is in peril, they summon Corum.

Not as a cleric would call upon a god for a spell. They call him as part of an older set of magical rules. A returning champion tied to the fate of their land, one who was prophesied.  This feels less like wizardry and more like the Old Religion made manifest. 

It is communal magic. It survives conquest and catastrophe because it is embedded in culture rather than codified in books. 

If I were looking for Appendix N roots of the Wicce or of the Craft of theWise, I would not find them in shining cathedrals. I would find them here, in tribal rites that blur the line between prayer and spell.

The magic works because the people believe in the pattern. That is witchcraft.

It doesn't hurt that Corum and his people are often thought of as "elves" and that much of his tales are based on a psuedo-Celtic past. 

Named Witches 

There are very few named witches, and fewer still that are called "witch." 

Myshella, the Sleeping Sorceress, is one. Though she is not called a witch, she certainly fills that role. 

Jerry Cornelius is not a witch. Not by any stretch, really, but he is fragmented. Self-aware. Reality bending around him. He shapes his reality as much as reality shapes him.  

Moorcock’s Eternal Champion is not a simple reincarnation. He is an archetype that keeps reasserting itself in different circumstances. And this is where I see the parallel to how I have played Larina over the years.  Different systems. Different worlds. Different rules. Same witch.  He is not a witch, but he and the other Eternal Champions have shaped my notions of my archetypal witches.

Moorcock’s Legacy for Witches and Warlocks

Moorcock’s influence on D&D is usually discussed in terms of Law and Chaos. Planes of exsistences and an eternal, if not Eternal (capital "E"), struggle.

But for witches, the more interesting legacy is this:  Magic is relational. Magic is cyclical. Elric shows us the warlock bound to his patron. Corum’s summoners show us the persistence of pagan rites.

That is fertile ground for witches.

Not because Moorcock hands us a cottage and a cauldron.

But because he gives us a universe where magic is negotiated, myth returns, and some souls are simply meant to walk the long road again and again.

Mail Call Tuesday: Witch Edition

 Ok. So calling any of my mail calls "witch edition" narrows it down as much as calling it "Tuesday." But I did get some things I have been waiting on for a while.

First up is the framed painting "Advanced Witch" by Eugene Jaworski.  I need to find a good place on my walls for this one. 

Again, you can find his art here and on his Instagram account. 

In the mini department, I got a nice bonus from work, so I ordered a new mini from Hero Forge. 

Yes, that is my newest witch, Elowen. I am nothing if not obsessed. 

And finally, one I have been waiting for a while, Spell Bound. 

This book features the covers of many vintage paperbacks of the witchcraft popularity craze. And yeah, I own a few, and I remember most of them.  But the book is fantastic.

There is a lot of really great stuff here, and I'll really enjoy going through it all. I loved going through the book, comparing covers to the books I still I have on my shelves. Some of these covers are what got me interested in witches to begin with. 

 So yeah, a lot this week. But some of these have been a long time coming.  

Elowen Hale: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

“Elowen walks like she knows where the puddles are going to be before the rain even starts. She never yells when things go wrong. She just smiles and says we’ll fix it. And then we do. I like going on adventures with her. The ghosts don’t bother her, and she always remembers to pack snacks.” - Doireann, Goblin witch

In many ways, this is the core Elowen, the one I think of when I talk about her.

Elowen died, but she returned changed. Animals respond to her in uncanny ways. Certain undead recoil. Divination spells sometimes yield contradictory results when cast upon her. Detect Evil finds nothing. Detect Magic sometimes flickers.

Among her coven sisters, she is treated with reverence and caution. The Old Religion teaches that death is a doorway. Elowen has stepped through it, and then turned around and stepped back. That doesn't happen, not without a good reason. 

Elowen has a Witch Mark. In this case, the Witch Mark of Sight. Her sight allows her to see ghosts, spirits, and any incorporeal undead, even when they are invisible.  The downside is that they can also always see her. 

Elowen Hale
1st-level Human Witch (High Order), Neutral Good

Secondary Skill: Initiate

S: 10
I: 16
W: 15
D: 12
C: 14
Ch: 17

Paralysis/Poison: 13
Petrify/Polymorph: 13
Rod, Staff, or Wand: 14
Breath Weapon: 16
Spells: 15

AC: 10
HP: 6
THAC0: 20

Weapon
Dagger 1d4/1d3

Familiar: Cat, "Mirepoix"

Spells
Cantrips: Detect Curse, Ghost Sound, Chill, Mend Minor Wounds
First level: Ghostly Slashing, Detect Spirits, Minor Curse

Witch Mark: Witch Sight (see spirits)

Theme song: Home (Prospertine)

This is Elowen at the very start of her adventures. She is currently traveling the world with Doireann and Aisling as they travel with the Free Elves. 

--

Witch Marks are something new I am working on. Elowen has the Witch Mark of Sight, and it allows her to see ghosts, spirits, and any incorporeal or invisible undead. It means they can also see her and know she has seen them. Aisling also has the Witch Mark of Sight, but hers allows her to see auras. The side effect is that Aislign is looking at someone with her witch sight, they know they are being watched, and it makes them uncomfortable. 

Elowen speaks Common, her Alignment Language, Elven, and Draconic. She still has three more languages she can learn. I am fairly sure that if she continues to hang out with Dori, she will learn Goblin. I am saving the other two to figure out later on.

I am also finally detailing where she is from. She is from one of the richer sections of East Haven, or maybe just outside of it. Her family is well off; I figure her father is some sort of import/export merchant. Not someone who sells things himself, but manages a lot of merchandise for others to sell. It would also explain why they knew of Larina, or at least the witches of West Haven. It also goes to show how much the people of East Haven try to avoid thinking about anything that might remind them of West Haven, given how little Elowen first knew about things. 

She wears a witch hat that looks like Larina's. Makes sense since it was a gift from her mentor for her adventures. 

Other Stats

• Tales of the Valiant
• Pathfinder 2nd Edition

Elowen Hale: Pathfinder 2nd Edition

“I have been around long enough to know that returns like this are never free. Nothing in the universe is ever free. There is always a ledger. A balancing. If something, or someone, let Elowen come back, then something may someday collect. I do not know what that means, and I do not like not knowing. She smiles as if the debt has already been paid. I hope she is right. 

But if something comes to collect from that girl, they will have to go through me first.” - Esmé Valethorne

Pathfinder 2nd Edition might not get the hype and play as Pathfinder 1st edition, but in some ways, I think it is better. It can stil play the same sorts of games you can with Pathfinder 1st ed, and of course D&D, but it has a some mechanics I like and many more that interest me.  Plus, I love the world Pathfinder has built.  

Character Background (Pathfinder 2nd Edition)

In this universe, Elowen is marked by the River of Souls. She died before her time, and a power neither divine nor arcane intervened.

Mechanically, she is a Witch, but narratively, she is one of the Returned. She perceives hauntings before they manifest. Undead feel uneasy in her presence. She does not radiate positive energy, but she disturbs the natural flow. I might have her take some levels of Seer later on. I have not decided just yet, I need to read up a little more on the class.

Elowen does not seek power. She studies it because she fears what might have brought her back. She works closely with the witches of West Haven, who understand that resurrection always carries a price. Resurrections of witches, even more so.

Her curse is subtle. At times, her reflection lags behind her movements. At others, she dreams of places she has never been but remembers dying in.  Despite this, she remains hopeful. She believes fate is not fixed. She has seen what lies beyond, and it has made her compassionate rather than cruel.

Elowen Hale
Female Human (versatile) Witch (Hedge Witch), Level 1

Background: Acolyte

Strength 0
Dexterity 0
Constitution 1
Intelligence 4
Wisdom 2
Charisma 2

AC 13
HP 15

Fortitude 4
Reflex 3
Will 7

Skills
Arcana 7, Crafting 4, Deception 5, Diplomacy 5, Lore (Ghosts) 7, Lore (Scribe) 7, Medicine 5, Nature 2, Occultism 7, Performance 5, Religion 5, Society 4, Survival 5

Weapon
Dagger 3, 1d6/1d4

Class DC 17

Feats
Additional Lore, Adapted Cantrip, Student of the Canon

Class Abilities
Attribute Boosts, Witch Initial Proficiencies, Witch Skill Training, Patron, Familiar "Mirepoix" (calico cat), Spellcasting (Occult), Hex Spells, Witch Lessons, Heightened Spells, Cantrips, Hexes, Spinner of Threads. 

Spells
Cantrips: Disrupt Undead, Daze, Detect Magic, Light, Prestidigitation, Read Aura, Shield, Telekinetic Hand, Telekinetic Projectile, Void Warp
First Circle: Sure Strike, Dizzying Colors, Enfeeble, Fear, Ill Omen, Mystic Armor

Focus Spells
Nudge Fate, Phase Familiar

--

This was one of the other main rule sets that helped me define who Elowen was. Here in Pathfinder, she is an Occult-based Hedge Witch. Like Larina has said, Elowen isn't going to raise storms or even summon armies of the dead to fight. She will be a beacon to guide others home, and if she summons up an army of the dead, well, it will be so she can show them to their afterlife and give them peace. 

Of the two versions, Tales of the Valiant and this one, I am not sure which one I like the best.

The Witches of Appendix N: Lord Dunsany

 In my coverage of the Witches of Appendix N, I have shown you Robert E. Howard’s decadent sorceresses, Lin Carter's dangerous enchantresses and Fritz Leiber’s suburban witches. They think of ambition, forbidden knowledge, demon bargains, and spell-casting as spectacle.

But Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, aka Lord Dunsany gives us something older.

Dunsany’s witches are not conquerors. They are not queens of abyssal realms. They do not hurl lightning from towers. They live in fields, beside willows, at the edges of villages. They speak quietly. And they are feared.

For this entry, I am looking at three works:

• The King of Elfland's Daughter (1924)
• The Witch of the Willows (in The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens) (1931)
• The Curse of the Wise Woman (1933)

You could almost describe these as “pre-Pulp.”

Ziroonderel - The Witch of Erl

In The King of Elfland’s Daughter, we meet Ziroonderel, a witch who lives on a thunder-haunted hill at the edge of Erl.

She is the most fully realized witch in Dunsany’s work.

Alveric seeks her out to make him a magic sword so that he may reach Elfland. She first reveals to him her “true, hideous form,” a withered shape. When he does not recoil, she grants him something rare: gratitude that “may not be bought, nor won by any charms that Christians know.”

That line matters.

Ziroonderel does not operate on commerce. She operates on dignity. Courtesy is repaid with loyalty. Magic here is personal, not transactional.

She occupies a liminal position:

• Outside the human community of Erl
• Outside Christian respectability
• Outside Elfland

She belongs fully to none of them.

Later, she becomes the infant Orion’s nursemaid. This is not incidental. Dunsany entrusts her with the child who bridges mortal and fairy worlds. The witch becomes caretaker of the future.

She is ancient, knowledgeable about both mortal and fairy realms, yet not omniscient. In one of the most fascinating moments of the novel, she speaks at length with Lirazel about matters beyond mortal knowledge, and it is the fairy princess who teaches her. For all her hundred years of wisdom, Ziroonderel can still learn.

She may even have feelings for Alveric. Yet she nonetheless aids him in his pursuit of Lirazel. Devotion does not curdle into spite.

When the Parliament of Erl later asks her for a “spell against magic,” she refuses flatly. She will not participate in a project of disenchantment.

Compared to the Christian friar who opposes her, Ziroonderel is morally richer and more generous. She is old, hideous in her true form, benevolent in her function, fiercely independent, and capable of loyalty.

For Appendix N, she is the hedge witch elevated to myth. Not a villain. Not a demon’s bride. A guardian of thresholds.

Mrs. Marlin, The Wise Woman of the Bog

In The Curse of the Wise Woman, Dunsany gives us Mrs. Marlin.

She is called a “wise woman,” but we eventually see the truth: she is a witch.

Unlike Ziroonderel, Mrs. Marlin exists in a recognizable, semi-autobiographical rural Ireland of the 1880s. She is not part of high fantasy. She is embedded in peasant life. Her nature is revealed gradually.

She is extraordinarily attuned to the workings of nature. She can foresee events. She is the self-appointed guardian of the bog.

And the bog matters.

When an English corporation arrives, intent on draining and industrializing the land, only one force stands in the way: the old witch whose curses the English workers do not believe in.

Their skepticism is central. Mrs. Marlin operates in a world that is trying to explain her away.

She communes with nature. When workmen tunnel for peat beneath the bog, she sets her arts to work. The climax pits ancient powers against industrial machinery.

Whether what happens is supernatural or natural is left deliberately ambiguous. Dunsany refuses to settle the matter cleanly.

Where Ziroonderel lives in a world where magic is acknowledged, Mrs. Marlin lives in a world that no longer wishes to acknowledge it. She is less a sorceress casting spells than a personification of the bog itself. Old Ireland embodied in a human form.

Magic here is not about power. It is about land. It is about memory. It is about resistance to modernity.

The Witch of the Willows

“The Witch of the Willows,” the 13th Chapter and final story in The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens, presents the most archetypal and yet the most devastating of Dunsany’s witches.

She is never named. But Dunsany makes sure we know exactly what she looks like.

An old woman in a black cloak and high black hat. A black stick in her hand. Grey ringlets. A black cat at her side. A broomstick leaning against the wall of her cottage. Jorkens himself notes the completeness of the iconography with a wry comparison: she dresses like a witch and acts like one, so he calls her one.

Dunsany is playing the archetype, the stereotype even, completely straight and clearly enjoying it.

She lives deep in Merlinswood, at the end of a path so faint it resembles a rabbit track. Her cottage has thick bottle-glass windows. Earthenware jars of cowslip and briar rose line the interior. It is an utterly traditional witch’s dwelling.

But she is far more than folklore. She is a prophetess of decline.

Over the fire she speaks of humanity losing its hold, of machinery, of people becoming more fit for machines and less fit for men. She reads the future in the coals and refuses to tell Jorkens what she sees because such knowledge “is the affair of the witches.” She is not a distributor of secrets. She is their keeper.

More than that, she is the guardian of the old magic itself.

The mystery of the marsh and wood moves with her. It radiates from her presence and recedes when she withdraws. When Jorkens refuses her proposal and walks away, the disenchantment of the forest is immediate and total. The magic does not merely leave her cottage. It leaves the world around her.

She does not wield magic as a tool. She is magic.

The turning point of the story is her proposal. “I suppose you wouldn’t marry an old, old woman,” she says. Every fairy tale warns us what this means. The loathly lady who becomes radiant. The enchantress in disguise. The swan maiden. The enchanted bride motif is firmly in place.

And Jorkens fails.

He knows full well what the tradition promises. Yet he chooses antimacassars and convention over enchantment. The witch is not cruel. She is not predatory. She offers entry into wonder, and he declines.

There is a flash of anger in her eyes, but she does not curse him.

She simply leaves.

And with her departure, the magic of the wood goes too.

Thirty years later, Jorkens knows it was the mistake of his life.

This witch is melancholy rather than malevolent. She sighs over the fire. She offers tea. She speaks with sorrow about humanity’s direction. She wants companionship, not conquest.

In her, Dunsany crystallizes a theme that runs through his entire body of work: magic is not destroyed by force. It is lost by refusal.

Dunsany’s Witches

Seen together, Dunsany’s witches form a progression.

• Ziroonderel stands at the boundary between mortal and fairy, dignified and principled, neither villain nor saint.
• Mrs. Marlin stands against industrial modernity, rooted in land and old Ireland, her powers entangled with ambiguity and resistance.
• The Witch of the Willows stands at the brink of disenchantment itself. She is not fighting priests or corporations. She is confronting indifference.

What the three witches share is significant: none is evil in any simple sense. All three are forces connected to something old, natural, or otherworldly that exists in tension with a more mundane or rational order. Dunsany consistently treats his witch figures with sympathy and complexity.

But they differ greatly in register. Ziroonderel belongs to high, lyrical fantasy and is fully visible as a witch from the start. Mrs. Marlin belongs to a grounded, realistic Irish novel where her nature is hinted at and debated. The witch of the willows seems, from what can be confirmed, to belong to the more melancholy and ambiguous register of the Jorkens tales, where wonder is usually tinged with loss.

There is also a progression in how magic is challenged.

• In The King of Elfland’s Daughter, magic is challenged by Christian piety.
• In The Curse of the Wise Woman, it is challenged by industrial capitalism.
• In “The Witch of the Willows,” it is undone by personal choice and cultural gravity.

In many ways, Dunsany’s witches feel closer to the folklore that later informed Margaret Murray’s witch-cult hypothesis than to pulp sorcery. They are remnants of something ancient, local, and very pagan.

So, yes, Howard gives us the witch-queens, and Carter and Leiber gave us the dangerous enchantress. 

D&D inherited witches from pulp spectacle and demonic sorcery. But it also inherited them from Dunsany’s countryside, from the woman in the black cloak at the end of a rabbit path, from the old guardian of the bog, from the witch who offered enchantment and was turned away.

And for Appendix N, that matters. For me, it matters.

This shows the witch as a liminal figure. A figure on the hedge. These are the witches that most folks will know. 

Elowen Hale: Tales of the Valiant

 "Elowen is not the storm. She is the candle in the window while the storm rages." 

- From the Journal of Larina Nix.

After the double marathon of TARDIS Captain's The Character Creation Challenge and Barking Alien's RPG CAMPAIGN TOUR CHALLENGE, I thought I'd do another one for March! Just kidding. I didn't find one I liked, but I do want to continue with the themes of those two challenges for this month.

So, for March, each Monday, I am going to post the character stats for my newest witch, Elowen Hale. She was not featured during the character creation challenge, but I was building her network of friends and coven members. She was featured during the RPG Campaign tour as my tour guide, but all of that happened before she was 1st level. Now she is 1st level and ready for some adventures of her own.

For this, I am going use five different systems to describe her. This is her genesis, really. I had just picked up the new Tales of the Valiant Player's Guide 2. My goal at that point was to find a witch that might work for both TotV and Pathfinder 2 nd edition, since both games have a native witch class. 

I also wanted to see how she would manifest in Daggerheart and AD&D 1st edition. Daggerheart also has a witch class in playtest, and I am working on my AD&D witch. I worked to find the intersection of all these witch ideas into one witch that fit them all. 

That witch is Elowen.

Character Background (Tales of the Valiant)

Elowen was not meant to survive. What returned was not quite the same girl. She breathes. She laughs (more now than when it first happened). She drinks tea. But something in her stands half a step beyond the world.

Clerics say she was restored by divine grace. Wizards insist her resurrection was a planar anomaly. Elowen knows the truth is simpler and stranger: something let her come back.

Since then, the veil between worlds has parted for her. Spirits hesitate around her. Ghosts fall silent. She can see faint threads of fate where others see only empty air.

Unlike many who return from death, Elowen is not hardened. She is gentle. Curious. Soft-spoken. She delights in small things: warm cups, autumn leaves, frogs in rain puddles. She has decided that if she were given a second life, she would live it brightly.

Elowen Hale
Human Witch 1 (Twilight Soul)
PB +2

Heritage: Covenant
Background: Chronicler 
Learn Researcher 
Features: Spell Inoculation (advantage on saves from spells targeting her)

Strength: +0 (10)
Dexterity: +1 (12)
Constitution: +2 (14)
Intelligence: +2 (15)
Wisdom: +3 (17) Saves + PB
Charisma: +3 (16) Saves + PB

Skills: +6 Arcana, +5 Perception, +5 Survival

HP: 10
AC: 12

Spells
Cantrips: Dancing Lights, Influence, Luck Bait, Swift Stash
First Circle: Stumble, Withering Gaze

Age: 19
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 114 lbs

Skin: Pale
Hair: White (was black)
Eyes: gray (were violet)

Familiar: Mirepoix (calico cat)

Theme song: Home (Prospertine)

So this was Elowen's conception. Reading through Tales of the Valiant and figuring out their witch options.  The Twilight Soul witch jumped out at me right away. Plus the art features a white-haired witch (as does Pathfinder) I also pretty much got her look in right away.

Last month's posts also helped me establish that Elowen, much like her mentor Larina, keeps a journal. Since I had some character journals for Tales of the Valiant, one of them became Elowen's.

Sorry for the weird lighting. My wife is turning on her grow lights for this year's garden.

I'll keep notes in this as I run her through various adventures. Yeah, she will be a GMPC for the most part, but her magic isn't going to be the thing to change the tide of a battle. But she can keep notes in her journals that Larina bought for her. Like Larina says, Elowen is not the storm, but she is the comfort away from the storm. She is a comfortable fire and a nice hot cup of tea. She is the one you can tell your horrifying truths to because she won't judge you.

Of course, this is just part of how I defined who Elowen otehr ideas about who she is came from other games too. She is at the intersection of all these witch ideas.

Witchcraft Wednesday: Character Challenge Wrap-up

 Another Character Creation Challenge is in the history books.  Thanks again to Carl Stark, The TARDIS Captain, from TardisCaptain's Blog of Holding.  

Some of the playtest characters

In all, I made 41 characters (with 14 more unfinished), all witches for AD&D 1st Edition and all playtests for my new Advanced Witches & Warlocks: Occult Adventures. All witches from level 1 to level 31.

It has been a lot of fun. Here are all the character sheets (and linked):

Follow Timothy's board 31 Day Character Creation Challenge on Pinterest.

And all of the "Theme Songs" in a playlist:

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!

Advanced Witches & Warlocks: Occult Adventures

 It's Imbolc. A time for renewal and new beginnings. And a great time to announce my newest project!

The art is from the great Eugene Jaworski. You can find his art here and on his Instagram account. 

Here is his fantastic art with my text messing it up. 

And yes, that is my cover girl, Larina, and her lazy familiar, Cotton Ball. 

This should not really be a surprise to any regular readers here. I have been going on about AD&D games and Occult D&D for a bit now. But that is not all this is.

This project began many years ago as my High Secret Order Witch Book. I am also pulling in material I had begun working on for an unannounced Sea Witch book and something I was calling "The Compleat Witch."  None of these ideas jelled the way I wanted, but there was still a lot of good material. Some of this material also comes from my exploration of the Witches of Appendix N.

I also have 500+ new spells. Some are going back to my original netbook, and others I have written along the way. Not sure how many will end up in this new book, other than to say "a lot."

There is also a lot of material I wrote that will not be included in this book. Once I started my editing, I saw that a) I had too much material and b) some of it was not really related to witches. So there will be a second "Occult Adventures" book out next year, and I have already approached Eugene Jaworski to do the cover as well.

There will not be a Kickstarter for this. I plan to get this all to you via DriveThruRPG. I have everything written, we have been playtesting in our Wednesday and Sunday games, I have art. I just need to edit and trim the fat. Though recent playtests have made me go back and forth on a couple of things. I am excited to see where it all ends up.

Looking forward to getting this out to you all.

Character Creation Challenge: Day 31, The Simbul Witch Queen of the High Witchcraft Tradition

There are only a few characters created by others in this game that I can say I absolutely adore. Feiya is one, so is Iggwilv. And The Simbul, aka Alassra Shentrantra Silverhand, is another. As I said before, Ed Greenwood's obvious love for this character in his writing pulled me into this character, and I love her. I love her power, her madness, and her obvious tragedy. She is great, and I could not wait to add her to my games. Of course, I had to put my own spin on her.

The Simbul is often misunderstood because people take her madness at face value. They see chaos, volatility, and emotional extremity and assume a lack of control. That is a mistake. The Simbul is not mad because she is weak. She is mad because she is too strong for the structures that attempt to contain her.

Unlike Iggwilv, who burns down identities and walks away, Alassra remains. She stays. She binds herself to place, to people, to purpose. Aglarond is not merely her realm; it is her anchor, her sanctuary. Her madness is the pressure of power that refuses to dissipate. Where other archmages retreat into towers, demiplanes, or abstraction, The Simbul holds the line in the world itself.

This is the essential difference between High Witchcraft and the more solitary or liminal traditions. High Witchcraft is not about secrecy or withdrawal. It is about standing openly in the storm of magic and daring the world to endure you. The Simbul does not hide her power, nor does she soften it for the comfort of others. She bleeds magic. She leaks prophecy. She burns bridges even as she protects them.

"Do NOT presume to lecture me, Larina Nix, envoy of Baba Yaga or not."

- Alassra Silverhand, The Simbul

Her relationship to the Seven Sisters is equally telling. They are reflections of Mystra’s will, but Alassra is the one who most visibly suffers for it. She is not the most restrained, nor the most diplomatic, nor the most serene. She is the one who feels everything. That emotional intensity is not incidental. It is the price she pays for channeling magic on a scale that would unmake lesser beings.

If Iggwilv represents the witch who refuses all masters, then The Simbul represents the witch who accepts a burden no one else can carry and survives it anyway.

Alassra Shentrantra Silverhand "The Simbul"
31st level Human Arch Witch/Witch Queen (21/10), Neutral
Tradition: High Witchcraft

Secondary Skill: Initiate

S: 14
I: 18
W: 15
D: 18
C: 16
Ch: 19

Paralysis/Poison: 2
Petrify/Polymorph: 2  
Rod, Staff, or Wand: 2
Breath Weapon: 4
Spells: 3

AC:  -2 (Bracers of Protection +3, Cord of Protection +2, Ring of Protection +3, Dex 18 -4)

HP: 78
THAC0: 8

Weapon
Dagger +1 1d4/1d3

Familiar: Familiar Spirit

Occult Powers
1st level: Familiar
7th level: Witch Vision (see magic, invisible) 

Archwitch Powers: Mastery of the Veil (gained at level 7), Arcane Communion (gained at level 9), Unbound by Circles (gained at level 11). 

Witch Queen Powers: Awesome Presence, Occult Eminece (Witch's Blessing), A Thousand Faces, Timeless Body, Ninth Level Spells (5)

Spells
Cantrips: Arcane Mark, Daze, Mote of Light, Object Reading, Open,
First level: Analgesia, Bar the Way, Burning Hands, Charm Person, Comprehend Languages, Eldritch Fire (Silverfire), Glamour, Mend Minor Wounds
Second level: Arcane Disruption, Agony, Alter Self, Continual Flame, Dweomerfire, ESP, Evil Eye, Web 
Third level: Bestow Curse, Clairsentience, Control Winds, Danger Sense, Dispel Magic, Fly, Lightning Bolt
Fourth level: Analyze Magic, Ball Lightning, Divination, Polymorph Others, Polymorph Self, Remove Curse
Fifth level: Break Enchantment, Maelstrom, Sending, Ward of Magic 
Sixth level: Analyze Dweomer, Greater Scry, Mislead, Rain of Fire
Seventh level: Astral Spell, Chain Lightning, Greater Teleport 
Eighth level: Eye of the Storm, I Am The Fire, Storm of Vengeance, 
Ninth level: Foresight, Imprisonment, Seal the Gate, Power Word Kill, Shapechange

Theme Song: Every Little Thing She Does is Magic

The Simbul occupies a rare and precarious position. She is both an Arch Witch and a Witch Queen, but she is not defined by conquest, hierarchy, or cult. Her authority is not derived from dominion over other witches, but from presence. When The Simbul acts, reality pays attention. When she speaks, even the gods listen carefully.

She is best used in a campaign not as a quest-giver or antagonist, but as a force of nature given human form. The Simbul does not maneuver behind the scenes. She erupts. She intervenes. She is not a gentle breeze; she is a storm, she is a hurricane. 

She makes decisions that reshape the magical landscape, then lives with the consequences, in full view of the world. Player characters who encounter her should feel small, not because she belittles them, but because she reminds them of the scale at which magic can truly operate.

Yet, for all her terrifying capability, there is a deep sadness at the heart of Alassra Shentrantra Silverhand. She has given up the possibility of an ordinary life, not for ambition, but for necessity. She endures so that others may not have to. That sacrifice is what elevates her from a powerful spellcaster to a Witch Queen in the truest sense.

I am not sure what I feel about her canonical death. While I do not pretend for a moment that any Witch Queen should live forever, her end feels strangely hollow to me. Yes, she died doing something entirely in character, but the framing feels uncomfortably refrigeratory, reducing a complex, volatile, deeply loved figure to a moment of narrative utility rather than culmination.

In my games, she sacrifices herself, yes, but not in that way. It is her magic and her sanity that are consumed, burned away to seal what could not otherwise be contained. Alassra lives, but she is vastly diminished. The storm has passed, and what remains is the woman who stood at its center.

I like to think that in this state, Elminster keeps her hidden and protected, not as a guardian of the realm, but as a dear and close friend who refuses to let her story end in silence. He works without rest to restore what was lost, knowing full well that success is uncertain. Whether she will ever return as the Simbul the world knew is unclear. But she is alive. 

And for a Witch Queen, that matters.

Where Iggwilv survives by changing, and others by ruling, The Simbul survives by being remembered, even when she can no longer remember herself.

And that's another 31 Day Character Challenge!

Character Creation Challenge: Day 30, Iggwilv Witch Queen of the Demonic Tradition

 I rather love Iggwilv. 

There is a quote attributed to her that I think is spot on. "I can't remember the number of times I have burned everything to the ground and started over." It captures her well I think. From the girl Natasha to Natasha the Dark, to Tasha, to Tashanna, to Hura, Iggwilv, and now? Zyblina. I see no contradictions here. Witches are fluid, liminal creatures, and witch queens more so. 

Iggwilv has never been a creature of stasis, either in her world or ours. She does not cling to names, crowns, or even worlds. She sheds them. Each incarnation is not a disguise so much as a molting, a deliberate abandonment of what no longer serves her. Where other archmages obsess over legacy and continuity, Iggwilv embraces rupture. Reinvention is not a failure state for her, it is a strategy.

This is what separates her from the traditional wizard archetype and places her squarely in the lineage of witch queens. Wizards accumulate. Witches transform. Iggwilv understands that power calcifies if it is not periodically broken down and reforged. When she burns everything to the ground, it is not an act of petulance or nihilism. It is pruning. It is alchemy. 

There is also a deeply witchy pragmatism to her infamous dealings with demons. Iggwilv is not a supplicant, nor is she a true believer. She does not worship, and she does not kneel. Demons are tools, dangers, lovers, rivals, and sometimes mirrors, but never masters. Her greatest victories over fiends were not won through brute force or righteous opposition, but through understanding their nature better than they understood themselves. 

The Demonic Tradition she embodies is not about corruption for its own sake, but about sovereignty. To bind a demon is to assert that no cosmic hierarchy is absolute, that even Hell has rules that can be learned, exploited, and rewritten. She is part of the Demonic Tradition because she knows demons, she can gain power from them, and not let it harm herself. Well. Most times.

If Baba Yaga is the archetypal Witch Mother, eternal and terrible, then Iggwilv is the Witch Daughter who refused to remain in her shadow. She learned everything she could, then walked away.

Iggwilv
30th level Human Arch Witch/Witch Queen (20/10), Chaotic Neutral (Evil)
Tradition: Demonic (formerly Daughters of Baba Yaga)

Secondary Skill: Scribe

S: 10
I: 20
W: 17
D: 21
C: 19
Ch: 22

Paralysis/Poison: 3
Petrify/Polymorph: 3  
Rod, Staff, or Wand: 4
Breath Weapon: 6
Spells: 5

AC: -10 (leather armor +4, Bracers of Defense +3, Ring of Protection +5, Dex 21 -4, Tastchti's Mark -2)
HP: 66
THAC0: 10

Weapon
Dagger +1 1d4/1d3

Familiar: Quasit, "Black Comet"

Occult Powers
1st level: Familiar
7th level: Touch of Evil

Archwitch Powers: Mastery of the Veil (gained at level 7), Arcane Communion (gained at level 9), Unbound by Circles (gained at level 11). 

Witch Queen Powers: Awesome Presence, Occult Eminece (Polymorph Other), A Thousand Faces, Timeless Body, Ninth Level Spells (5)

Spells
Cantrips: Alarm Ward, Arcane Mark, Chill, Daze, Ghost Sound, Summon Vermin
First level: Bad Luck, Cause Fear, Charm Person, Darkness, Fey Sight, Ghostly Slashing, Glamour, Protection from Spirits, Silver Tongue
Second level: Agony, Biting Blade, Discord, Enthrall, Evil Eye, Invisibility, Mind Obscure, Phantasmal Spirit, Tasha's Hideous Laughter (Ritual)
Third level: Astral Sense, Bestow Curse, Dispel Magic, Feral Spirit, Ghost Ward, Toad Mind, Witch Writing
Fourth level: Analyze Magic, Divination, Intangible Cloak of Shadows, Phantom Lacerations, Spiritual Dagger, Tears of the Banshee, Withering Touch
Fifth level:  Break Enchantment, Enslave, Greater Command, Magic Jar, Witch Box
Sixth level: Anchoring Rite, Anti-Magic Shell, Break the Spirit, Dismissal (Ritual)
Seventh level: Banishment, Draw Forth the Soul, Forbidding
Eighth level: Astral Projection, Gate, Trap the Soul
Ninth level: Bind Soul, Foresight, Imprisonment, Seal the Gate, Power Word Kill,

Theme Song: I Hate Myself for Loving You

What makes Iggwilv compelling is not that she is powerful, but that she is unfinished. Or more to the point, ever-changing and ever-growing. Even now, even under yet another name like Zybilna, she is still becoming. A Witch Queen is not a static end-state like lichdom or apotheosis. It is a road, and Iggwilv has walked it forward, backward, and sideways across multiple realities.

For a campaign, Iggwilv should never be a simple antagonist. She is an event. An inflection point. Crossing paths with her should permanently alter the trajectory of a story, even if swords are never drawn and spells are never exchanged. She might teach, betray, ignore, manipulate, or save the party, but she will never do so for their sake alone. There is always a larger calculus at work.

And yet, for all her monstrous reputation, there remains something profoundly mortal at her core. She still loves, still hates, still remembers. Her many names are not masks to hide emptiness, but scars that prove she has survived herself over and over again.

That may be her greatest magic of all.

Character Creation Challenge: Day 29, Kersy Witch Queen of the Atlantean Tradition

Kersy is a wonderful character. Bruce Heard, her creator, admits she is basically a Circe stand-in, but I saw her as something else. I have to admit, when I saw Vanessa Williams in ads for the 1997 TV mini-series "The Odyssey," I thought, "Now that is great casting for Circe!" Sadly, I got it wrong: she was cast as Calypso, and Bernadette Peters as Circe. But it stuck with me. So when I came back to D&D in the 2000s and encountered Kersy, I already knew what she looked like. She looked like 1990s Vanessa Williams. 

Kersy has an interesting character beyond her origins as a Circe stand-in. She is introduced in the D&D Masters-level module M1 Into the Maelstrom. She is using her human guise as a 30th-level Magic-user, and she is the ruler of the Island of Turkeys.  If you are thinking she sounds a lot like Circe and her Island of Pigs then you are correct. Doing some deeper research into Kersy gives me a stranger tale. Over at the Vaults of Pandius, they have expanded on her background a bit more. 

She is described as the distillation of Koryis' own unwanted thoughts, urges, and feelings.  

Koryis is the Immortal Patron of Peace.  While he was on his epic quest, he sought to purge himself of evil in impure thoughts. He was successful, and that "impurity" manifested itself as Kersy. If Kersey looks like Vanessa Williams from The Odyssey, then Koris looks like Armand Assante.

At least that is what his mythology says. 

We learn from M1 that she is a "beautiful maiden" and a "30th-level magic-user." But other details are scant. From the Vaults of Pandius, we learn that she is beautiful, with long raven-black hair and amber-colored eyes.  She is the Patroness of Witchcraft and Charms.  

What can we gather from all of this? Kersy is Koryis' "dark anima" in Jungian psychology.  The description of Koryis' quest to rid himself of these dark, impure impulses sounds exactly like a quest to confront his Anima, who is Kersy. However, Koryis failed to integrate his "shadow self" and is less than he was. 

Now, if this is what happened, then according to Jung, Koyris is now forever incomplete.  Reading over the history of VoP, it would seem that Kersy knows this. If we extend this to other Jungian archetypes, then Kersy fits one perfectly. The Witch.  She is powerful, connected to the Earth, and a source of wisdom.  Koyris, in his quest to rid himself of Kersy, only weakened himself and gave his power away.

Kersy might wish to reunite with the now forever incomplete Koryis, or not. She has grown since then. 

In my Occult D&D, they would forever be circling each other, each seeking what the other has and never feeling quite complete. An Anima and Animus, or a Yin and Yang. 

And given her history, she is also perfect for my Atlantean Tradition.

Kersy
29th level Human Witch/ Witch Queen (20/9), Neutral (Chaoic Neutral)
Tradition: Atlantean 

Secondary Skill: Astrologer

S: 12
I: 18
W: 18
D: 16
C: 14
Ch: 18

Paralysis/Poison: 3
Petrify/Polymorph: 3 
Rod, Staff, or Wand: 4
Breath Weapon: 6
Spells: 5

AC: -2 (leather armor +3, Bracers of Protection +3, Cord of Protection +2, Ring of Protection +3, Dex 16 -1)
HP: 66
THAC0: 12

Weapon
None

Familiar: Rainbow Warbler (Song Bird) "Victoria"

Occult Powers
1st level: Familiar
7th level: Speak to Animals
13th level: Drawing Down the Moon
19th level: Witch's Blessing

Witch Queen Powers:
Awesome Presence, Occult Eminece (Polymorph Other), A Thousand Faces, Timeless Body, Ninth Level Spells (4)

Spells

Cantrips: Daze, Guiding Star*, Mote of Light, Object Reading, Open
First level: Allure, Bar the Way, Bewitch I, Burning Hands, Call Spirits of the Land, Charm Person, Comprehend Languages, Glamour
Second level: Alter Self, Beckon, Blight of Loneliness, Burning Gaze, Detect Charm, ESP, Evil Eye, Mind Obscure
Third level: Astral Sense, Bestow Curse, Calm Animals, Clairsentience, Control Winds, Danger Sense
Fourth level: Ball Lightning, Confusion, Divination, Masque, Polymorph Others, Threshold
Fifth level: Break Enchantment, Commune with Nature, Maelstrom, Song of Night
Sixth level: Bones of Earth, Cloak of Dreams, Greater Scry, Mislead
Seventh level: Astral Spell, Breath of the Goddess, Veneration
Eighth level: Adoration (Overwhelming), Eye of the Storm, Storm of Vengeance
Ninth level: Foresight, Mass Polymorph, Seal the Gate, Sovereign Geas, Time Stop

Theme Song: Veil of Isis

My Kersy has outgrown the original Kersy much as she outgrew the original Circe. She is my witch queen of the Jungian archetype of the Anima. So, in a way, it makes some sense to me to make her an Atlantean Witch. She also brings up something.

Baba Yaga is not a member of the Daughters of Baba Yaga tradition; she is Classical. Aradia is not a member of the Followers of Aradia tradition; she is a Pagan. Likewise, Kersy is the Queen of the Atlantean Tradition and founded the Aquarian Tradition. The Aquarians, in their own way, honor her as their Witch Queen, but they aptly refuse to have a witch queen of their own. 

I have done quite a lot with Kersy over the last five or so years, and she has been great. Truly one of the most powerful Witch Queens I use. 

Character Creation Challenge: Day 28, Areelu Vorlesh Witch Queen of the Malefic Tradition

 Areelu Vorlesh is another witch queen I adopted, this time from the Pathfinder game. She is a half-succubus witch and a whole lot of fun. In the Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous video game, she is described as something like a mad scientist and mother of monsters. So for this reason, I gave her the Alchemist secondary skill. Since a lot of her magic seems based on her occult devotion, I also decided that she would be a witch priestess, more akin to an occultist than anything. I considered archwitch, but felt this worked better. She sought to claim the authority of the gods in my games. 

The human who would become the witch Areelu Vorlesh has been lost to time. It was known that she was a witch in Deskari’s cult.  She was researching the nature of the separation of the worlds and planes.  It was her success at opening the Worldwound that caused her Patron to transform her into a half-fiend.

After her defeat at the World Wound, Areelu Vorlesh sought other allies. The ones she found became The Coven of the Shattered Crowns. Vorlesh is going after the Gods themselves. 

Witch Queen Areelu Vorlesh

Areelu’s elevation to Witch Queen came not through lineage, coven recognition, or patron blessing, but through apotheosis by catastrophe.

The creation of the Worldwound was not an accident, nor a summoning gone awry. It was a calculated experiment: to pierce planar reality and hold it open long enough to observe what crawled through. That demons followed was expected. That the wound endured was the true triumph.

In this moment, Areelu crossed the threshold from Malefic Witch Priestess to Witch Queen, for she no longer merely wielded magic, she altered the cosmological order.

This act places her above regional sovereigns and elemental queens, but below those who embody primal myth. She is not inevitable. She is possible, and that is far more dangerous.

Areelu Vorlesh
28th level Half-Succubus Witch Priestess/Witch Queen 28 (20/8), Chaotic Evil
Tradition: Malefic 

Secondary Skill: Alchemist

S: 14
I: 18
W: 18
D: 18
C: 18
Ch: 19

Paralysis/Poison: 3
Petrify/Polymorph: 3  
Rod, Staff, or Wand: 4
Breath Weapon: 6
Spells: 5

AC: 0 (Bracers of Defense, +3 Amulet of Protection)
HP: 73
THAC0: 10

Weapon
Dagger of venom +4 1d4/1d3

Familiar: "Gimcrak" (Quasit, Enhanced)

Occult Powers
1st level: Familiar
7th level: Evil's Touch
13th level: Devil's Tongue
19th level: Curse

Witch Queen Powers:
Awesome Presence, Occult Eminece (Polymorph Other), A Thousand Faces, Timeless Body, Ninth Level Spells (4)

Spells
Cantrips: Arcane Mark, Detect Curse, Message, Summon Vermin
First level: Bewitch I, Cause Fear, Charm Person, Command, Increase Sex Appeal, Quicken Healing, Shattering the Hourglass, Silver Tongue
Second level: Ecstasy, Enthrall, Evil Eye, Hold Person, Invisibility, Phantasmal Spirit, Rite of Remote Seeing, Scare
Third level: Bestow Curse, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Dispel Magic, Feral Spirit, Fly, Tongues, Witch Wail
Fourth level: Abomination, Charm Monster, Confusion, Divine Power, Spiritual Dagger, Withering Touch
Fifth level: Baleful Polymorph, Feeblemind, Greater Command, Nightmare 
Sixth level: Break the Spirit, Mass Suggestion, Repulsion, True Seeing
Seventh level: Draw Forth the Soul, Eternal Charm Monster, Gate (Ritual)
Eighth level: Bewitch VIII, Damming Stare, Destroy Life, Wail of the Banshee
Ninth level: Bind the Soul, Imprisonment, Power Word Kill, Shapechange

Theme Song: Hexenhammer & Queen of the Infernal Pantheon

Areelu Vorlesh ultimately earns her place among the Witch Queens not because she commands lesser demons, but because she refused to accept the limits imposed by gods, planes, or tradition. Where other witches bargain, rule, or endure, Areelu experiments. She treats the cosmos as a problem to be solved and suffering as an acceptable reagent. In this, she represents a uniquely modern horror, not the ancient terror of Baba Yaga or the cold inevitability of Koliada, but the relentless conviction that reality itself is flawed and must be corrected, no matter the cost.

Mail Call Tuesday: Tales of the Valiant Player's Guide 2

 Tales of the Valiant Player's Guide 2 was delivered to my door this week! 

I backed this on Kickstarter a while back and I am happy to see it. 

The box was packed with the Player's Guide 2 and three character journals.

Of course, what I am most excited about is their new witch class.

It looks like it is a lot of fun and I can't wait to create a new character for it.

I think I do want a brand new character. One I can try in this, Pathfinder 2.1, and for the hell of it, something for my current AD&D game. It could be a lot of fun. 

Just need a concept that would fit all three games!

This witch has three subclasses, which are roughly equivalent to my ideas of traditions. The Crimson Cord, the Night Song, and the Twilight Soul. Pathfinder is more Patron-focused.  Somewhere is a witch I can slot into all three.