Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986. Teenage Witches and the Haunted Midwest

Last week, I examined the witch in AD&D. As a class and a monster in a game of spell lists, curses, familiars, old women living at the edge of villages, mysterious maps, and a host of others. Advanced Witches & Warlocks is a project that aims to give her proper due among the iconic elements of classic fantasy RPGs.

But there is another mirror.

If the Advanced Witches & Warlocks is interested in exploring the witch as an element of a fantasy game in 1986, then the Jackson, IL project is a consideration of how the witch would fit in the modern horror world of 1986.

By the "modern," I don't mean contemporary times. I mean an era of landlines, lockers, cassette tapes, libraries, horror movies at midnight, school rumors, and parents who believe they can keep secrets from teens

These are very different takes on witches.

In the world of AD&D, the witch is always on the edge of the village. By the old road, the swamp, the shrine in ruins, or the sinister forest. In the Jackson, IL setting, she is on the edge of town, near the cemetery, an abandoned structure, the stream, the college, a different neighborhood, or a lonely road.

The map is different, but the location itself is not.

Jackson, IL, is where my imagination has found its new home. This place isn't Salem, nor New Orleans, nor some gothic European village under the full moon, despite my affection for those locations. No, Jackson is in the Midwest. It is a small town in central Illinois. A town with brick school buildings, college halls, county roads, corn fields, old graveyards, tiny churches, pizza shops, book stores, hardware stores, Friday night football games, Friday night dances, and houses where three generations have kept the same secret.

In Jackson, the supernatural does not require thunderous declarations or Latin incantations to reveal itself. Instead, it is rather subtler.

Perhaps it is the teacher who hasn't aged since 1569. Perhaps a door in the library, locked for no apparent reason. Perhaps a statue at the cemetery changing directions at midnight. Perhaps the name of a creek that no one remembers where the name came from. Or perhaps it is the mirror reflecting something other than yourself.

This is the haunting of the Midwest. It is not empty. It is a place filled with ghosts.

Every town in the Midwest has its stories: the house that has never been sold, the road where headlights disappear, the creepy old lady that kids are told not to approach, the rail road tracks where strange things occur, the auditorium in the school where lights flicker even with the power shut off, and the place outside town known only by its ominous name of "the Bad Land."

These are stories that form the Jackson, IL environment. Not simply the background, but the actual foundation on which the Veil between what is "Real" and what is considered "Supernatural" is constructed.

Most people in the town interact with the supernatural indirectly, in fleeting moments. A shadow. A whisper. A dream. A cold sensation down the spine. A name spoken out of nowhere. And they explain it away, because that is what humans do. It is simpler to believe that everything is ordinary than to accept that ancient tales still speak truth.

Teenagers are not good at keeping their thoughts and opinions to themselves. That is why a teenager is perfect in a game about supernatural activity.

Adults follow routines, have reputations, jobs, mortgages, church groups, seats on the school board, and myriad reasons to preserve the "official" story. Teenagers care about other things. Why does that room stay locked? Why are they avoiding that particular teacher? Why did Mom go silent when I mentioned that name? Why does the school bell ring differently to me? And why do I see the woman in the black cloak and purple dress in the mirror?

Thus, the teenage witch belongs in this place.

Not only is she a character living between two worlds. At least partly, but not entirely. She is not a kid anymore, but she is not yet an adult. People look at her, underestimate her, boss her around, dismiss her, and correct her, all before she even knows who she truly is.

And then comes the magic.

She begins having dreams. Strange marks appear on her skin. She finds books at the library with strange titles. A stray cat starts following her wherever she goes and never leaves. Her reflection starts speaking to her. And perhaps she discovers that the story about the dead girl haunting the bathrooms at school was not just a story.

That is the importance of their first experiences.

Whereas in the world of AD&D, the witch appears with powers, spells, and a clear-cut purpose, here she is noticed. The world recognizes something in her, and she recognizes it back.

This can be terrifying, but also terribly tempting.

I played this scenario with Larina. There is a young girl named Larina. Some kids call her "Creepy." She has visions and talks to ghosts, but she tries to hide her magical abilities because she knows that using them attracts attention from things in the darkness.

This scenario is perfectly designed for Jackson, IL. But I also realized there was a lot more I could do with it. That starting with powers is one type of game, but developing them as the game progresses is something else. 

Being magical in the Jackson environment means revealing oneself. Every casting of a spell is an exposure to the darkness seeking light. Every magical act draws eyes. 

Jackson, IL, is still a modern reflection of the AD&D-inspired fantasy world in Advanced Witches & Warlocks. The witch concept remains the same, but the clothes are different.

The group of friends is the coven. After hours in school are the dungeons. Rumors around town turn into gossip in hallways. The wise woman standing at the edge of the village is now someone's aunt, a school teacher, a local shop owner, or someone who has waited patiently for the right girl to ask the right questions.

The familiar becomes a pet that manages to enter the school for reasons that no one understands. A notebook under the bed takes the place of the spell book. The place beyond the fence at the cemetery is the ruined shrine. An ancient deity is a name scrawled in pencil at the abandoned classroom.

But Jackson, IL, cannot merely be a simple adaptation of fantasy RPGs. 

Not only would it be uninteresting, but it would lack necessary depth. It would be uninspired. 

Modern horror has to have its own logic.

While in a fantasy game, the main heroes are expected to take up swords and bravely venture into the dungeons, their counterparts in the modern horror world still have homework to do.

They have to attend classes, deal with parents, curfews, training, work after school, live up to peer expectations, compete with rival schools, maintain reputations, deal with their younger brothers and sisters, and people who would certainly notice if they were gone for three days straight.

This makes a big difference.

A teenage witch cannot just leave town on adventures, and she has to find a way to come back, to cover the stains on her jacket, to explain why her homework was done in the library, why she is late for algebra after having seen something crawling out of the drain at night. And yet, this is not a restriction; it is the essence of the game.

The ordinary world, which is often a barrier in games of the supernatural, is, in fact, what makes them scary.

An isolated haunted school becomes frightening precisely because it is her school. A cursed road is terrifying precisely because her best friend lives on the other side of it. The monster at the cemetery terrifies her, because Grandma is buried there, while the witch's mark makes her fear going to gym class. The ordinary makes the scary parts scarier. 

This is where the theme of the Satanic Panic emerges as well, but in the background.

Not as a simple decoration, but as the very core of the game, because the town uses that panic as a vehicle to express existing fears that otherwise remain untapped. The odd girl has always been creepy, the abandoned house - terrifying, the mysterious books at the library – suspicious. While the rumor makes the witch, it provides a ready-made justification for the search. This is horror, not because of accusations, but because of the town's desperation to believe that it has reason.

Since the community is already scared of her dark clothes, her books, her music, her art, and the woods she loves, the Satanic Panic gives this fear permission. It transforms gossip into social concern, suspicion into righteousness, and parents into monstrous beings, not changing their appearances in the slightest.

Because this is Jackson, IL, the choice of setting is critical. Where in a grand gothic landscape, the supernatural would sprawl. Here it is concentrated in the small-town Midwest. Everyone knows someone; everyone is related to someone; there are always witnesses to secrets; and there are always connections between the town monster and this place, even if no one has figured them out yet.

The ghost is not just a ghost. She used to be someone's sister, student, patient, or an innocent victim of a horrible event. The hag is not a creature that came here to terrorize. She may be an aunt, a landlord, a neighbor at church, the one whose home everyone avoids because of some terrible sin, or the very reason that three generations of women in one family never drink tea after dark. Local legends are not just myths. They are a necessity. People share their tales with such inaccuracy because the truth demands too much action.

Here is the haunted Midwest I imagine for Jackson: the place familiar enough to evoke a sense of security, and unfamiliar enough to hint at inherent dangers.

It is the time that makes the adventure unique as well. 1986 is not chosen by coincidence, although the brand recognition factor cannot be denied. It represents not nostalgia, but distance in time. No smartphones, GPS systems, online investigations, instant messaging apps, or fast transportation are available for the characters. If something terrible happened at night, they needed a phone line, a bicycle, a car, a payphone, or the guts to go to see it.

Rumors spread quickly, but not evenly. Information is stored in filing cabinets, yearbooks, church hallways, newspaper archives, and the library collection.

Which means that all the investigations are hands-on. The characters have to move from place to place, talk to people, and expose themselves. Which is important because in Jackson, IL, knowledge is bound to a place. The public library is important not because it is there, but because it has archived newspapers. The occult shop is valuable not for supplies but for the chance of someone seeing a teenager there. The school is necessary because almost everyone in town once studied there and left something behind. And the cemetery is crucial, because names are inscribed in stone, but not necessarily in the right manner.

As you remember, the power of the witch in Advanced Witches & Warlocks is bound to fantasy conventions and expectations. It is associated with danger, complexity, and power. Magic comes at a price. It creates bonds and produces unexpected results. In Jackson, IL, everything is different because the flow of magical powers has changed. 

This is the reason why these two projects complement each other.

While the Advanced Witches & Warlocks focuses on how witches look in a classic AD&D fantasy world, Jackson explores how a sixteen-year-old witch attending a class on Tuesday morning realizes that her destiny is tied to something far older than the town.

I am not yet sure whether this second project will eventually lead to a full-fledged book. And it may take quite a bit of writing and effort, probably surpassing 80,000 words before I finally figure out the full vision, there is one thing that I am sure about.

Jackson, IL, is a perfect reflection. While the witch at the edge of the ancient village is the witch wearing the black cloak on the old road in Advanced Witches & Warlocks, the witch sitting quietly at the high school is the girl on the bus looking at the old road with fascination.

Because the fantasy witch and the teenage witch are not different.

They are reflections of one another through the glass.

Prof. Lars Nichols with his daughter, Larina

Mirror Shard: Larina, the New Girl Witch

Every good haunted school needs a new girl.

It is one of the staples in teen horror literature and movies, and yet it works so well because it is not a gimmick. From Buffy Summers arriving at Sunnydale High to start a new life to Sarah Bailey transferring to a new school to become the missing fourth link in a teenage coven. The new girl arrives in the adventure exactly when it is born in the audience member's mind. The new girl does not yet understand the rules of the game, so we get to learn with her.

This is important in a horror RPG.

The long-time local heroine already knows what is better to remain unsaid. She knows the forbidden hallways, the names of the families whose conversation must be cut abruptly, and the teachers whom one has to joke with and not argue. She was taught by experience. While she may not fully believe in the town tales, she knows what they are about or at least what to avoid.

The new girl doesn't know anything. Not yet, at least.

• She wants to know why the third-floor room is locked all the time.
• She is curious why no one ever swims in the creek downstream.
• She wonders why there is a gap in the school's trophy case.
• She would like to understand why the librarian keeps local histories in the drawers rather than on the shelves.
• She would like to know why people fall silent whenever someone mentions "Mauvaisterre" or "Blackthorne."

This makes her useful. This also makes her dangerous.

The character of Larina fits the concept perfectly because she is known and unknown. We know where she can evolve into. The Witch Queen. The occult historian. The redhead witch, who wears black and purple clothing and stands in the way of the bad things trying to get into our world. 

But this is not the case in Jackson, IL.

Larina might have just moved into town because of her father's transfer to the college. She might be a newcomer attempting to blend into normality, failing to do so by noon. She might already be aware that ghosts exist in her town, but she has yet to comprehend their meaning. The other students might consider her creepy before she even introduces herself.

This is useful at the table.

The role of Larina as a New Girl Witch is not to figure out the details for players but to expose the mysteries by noticing things that everyone else failed to see or has learned to ignore.

I use Larina here because she is a great character for me. She is a stand-in, though, for any character the players bring to the table. 

• She observes the reflection's weird movement.
• She listens to a ringing of the bell that no one else can hear.
• She realizes that a stray cat hanging around the school has come there with a specific purpose.
• She discovers that the dead girl haunting the school bathrooms knows her name.
• Her first lesson of magic is not about casting a spell.
• It is about revealing her to the supernatural world.
• The ghosts can see her.
• The entity residing beneath the railroad tracks sees her.
• The teacher who has not aged since 1769 sees her.
• So do students who needed reasons to regard her as creepy.

So use the New Girl Witch when you want to start your campaign with a supernatural revelation. She can be a player character, NPC, rival, friend, or a stranger whom the other characters need to trust or not.

And just like the PCs, she does not have to know everything.

She just has to know enough to be scared.

Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986. The Witch Was Already Waiting in AD&D

The main design idea behind Advanced Witches & Warlocks is simple.

The Witch was already a part of AD&D.

However, she had yet to receive an official class.

After all, she didn't really fall under the same category as other classes, such as the Magic-User, Cleric, Druid, Illusionist, Assassin, Monk, Ranger, or Paladin. But the Witch had a presence.

If you know how to find her, you will encounter her in the spells, in the monsters, in the implied setting, and even in Appendix N. She hides within the text itself. Like an occult figure.

AD&D already contained curses, charms, familiars, potions, polymorphs, magic circles, haunted mirrors, hags, night creatures, demons, devils, spirits, evil temples, forbidden books, and strange old women living on the fringes of the map.  Welcome to witch country.

All that was really left was to make the formal class.

That is why I don't think of my Advanced Witches & Warlocks as trying to force a modern witch concept into a retro-style game. AD&D has its own style, its own rules, and its own unique feel. If you drop a modern witch into AD&D's framework, it wouldn't work. The two things simply don't gel. 

Instead, the real question is: What sort of witch does AD&D want to nurture?

And that is why Appendix N plays such an essential role here.

While writing my Witches of Appendix N posts, I am doing far more than merely collecting witches in an inventory list. In reality, I am attempting to identify the essential concepts that were formed by early fantasy, weird fiction, horror stories, and sword-and-sorcery before D&D codified magic into game rules.

And once you start looking, the witches are everywhere.

Notably, not all witches will go by that name. They might be referred to as sorceresses, enchantresses, priestesses, hags, mothers, queens, oracles, temptresses, psychics, necromancers, or any other female with unusual powers. They are more than just distaff wizards; they have their own unique presence. 

Not all witches will be villains either. In fact, sometimes, they are the only ones capable of interpreting the strange events taking place. Whether that places them on the side of "good" or "evil" is often too simple of a question. 

That is important for gaming design purposes. 

The witch of AD&D doesn't have to be confined to folklore alone. She doesn't have to be a village healer, a wicked stepmother, a pagan priestess, an enchantress, or the mysterious old woman of the woods.

She is all these things combined.

Take, for example, the Satanic Witch featured in Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions. The story takes place within a setting full of Christian, pagan, faerie, and infernal elements. The witch's magic is powerful because it has spiritual, moral, and social implications. Both the satanic witch and Morgan Le Fey of this tale stand apart AND stand between all these other groups. 

A witch doesn't simply cast a spell.  A witch makes contact with beings that want something from her. She makes social contacts.

Here is another vital lesson for our witch design in AD&D.

• Magic-Users learn the arcane.
• Clerics petition divine power.
• Druids follow the ancient rites.
• Witches make contact.

She makes contact with spirits, patrons, ancestors, elder gods, demons, the dead, the moon, the earth, and whatever else lies beyond naming.

Of course, this doesn't mean every witch is inherently evil. That would be sloppy game design and even worse, boring.

Here we see the magic of Fritz Leiber, where the main antagonist of one of the first Fafhrd & Gray Mouser stories isn't some evil mage, but Fafhrd's mother. Mor isn't just a boss in the dungeon, but family, power, culture, and control. She created that whole world for him, and escaping her is an accomplishment not unlike slaying monsters. Mor is not really evil. She is controlling; she is a matriarch after all, but she isn't harming Fafhrd; she is just not letting the youth run free. 

In Leiber's The Conjure Wife we see another witch, Tansy. She navigates her own "dungeon," only this time it is the challenges of a suburban housewife/witch facing other witches for dominance over their husbands' mundane careers at a University. Like Mor, Tansy is not about flashy magic; her magic is about something else.

That brings us to the third thing we learn:

The Witch is social.

She has family members, a coven, social and economic obligations, rivals, apprentices, enemies, taboos, and reputation. People know she exists before meeting her. People talk about her in hushed tones. People avoid her home, yet people end up visiting her.

• They visit when the child is ill.
• They visit when the cow stops giving milk.
• They visit when their husband takes a lover.
• They visit when their crops fail.
• They visit when the ghosts keep coming out.

These things aren't mere background flavor; they're solid adventure hooks.

The Witch should cause rumors. She should be a reason why villages need adventurers. She should affect villages in tangible ways.

Robert E. Howard brings up a fourth point. His worlds are full of the vestiges of lost ages, dark cults, serpent-haunted ruins, vanished civilizations, sinister rituals, and sorcerers whose power seems to predate even mankind itself. His witches and similar beings appear almost to carry within themselves the weight of lost history. Their magic is not theoretical; it is something that has been practiced long before modern civilization.

This matters. Well, at least to me and my view of how witches work.

An AD&D Witch is not simply an academic wizard with a new label slapped on. This character must embody knowledge of forgotten lore that remains effective. The old magic still works.

Sometimes that involves healing. Sometimes it involves cursing. Sometimes it involves making deals with powers better left unawakened.

And here we begin to see how the Witch becomes distinct from the usual AD&D Magic-User. Whereas the latter is kept aloof from the world through scholarship, the former is involved in the world and its dark undercurrents.

• She knows the trees that were once used to hang criminals.
• She knows why the church bell has a crack in it.
• She knows who among the midwives was secretly buried beyond the cemetery walls.
• She knows what the nameless thing in the well is.

Once again, this isn't just flavor. It is essential to what the class is.

A Witch PC knows more than just whether there is magic around. She knows the history of that magic. She knows who left it behind. She knows why.

• What spirit cursed the bridge?
• What drives the wolves away from the north road?
• Why does the old woman who lives near the outskirts to put out milk on dark nights?
• Why does the baron’s daughter cast no reflection?

That's why Advanced Witches & Warlocks doesn't reduce the Witch to simply having a spell list. She is not a wizard with a broom. She is not a cleric with a pointy hat.

The spell list is important, however. AD&D is a game of rules, levels, spells, limitations, saving throws, and consequences. A class has to have some sort of unique footprint.

But a class needs something else too.

It needs a role in the implied setting and world.

The Cleric implies temples, deities, undead, holy symbols, and orders.

The Magic-User implies spellbooks, towers, apprenticeships, lost libraries, and rival magic-users.

The Druid implies sacred groves, circles, mistletoe, ancient faiths, and harmony.

The Witch implies cottage homes, covens, familiars, curses, enchantments, rites of the full moon, hidden grimoires, local superstition, wizened crones, prodigious children, the fool of wisdom, and the dangerous generosity of one who understands your predicament and the price of its resolution.

This is not merely an addition for AD&D. This is part of what makes it AD&D.

Consider the monsters.

The hags; Night hags. Sea hags. Greenhags. Lamias. Medusae. Harpies. Vampires. Succubi. Lycanthropes. Demons and devils who tempt mortals with power. The undead whose restless souls seek redemption. The fey whose customs of hospitality and revenge dictate their actions.

These are not random monsters.

These are elements of a world in which magic is dangerous, intimate, and transactional.

This is the world of the Witch.

Consider the spells.

Charm Person. Detect Evil. ESP. Clairvoyance. Polymorph. Geas. Bestow/Remove Curse. Speak with Dead. Animate Dead. Reincarnation. Contact Other Plane. Magic Jar.

These spells all have their roots in esoteric practices that involve dealing with spirits, transformations, fates, and taboo acts.

These spells all contain elements of witchcraft.

One cannot simply mix and match bits of the Magic-User and the Cleric classes, add a cat, a broom, and a pointy hat. One cannot create the Witch in such a lazy manner. The Witch should not be merely a Magic-User with a familiar or a Cleric without armor nor a Druid with a different robe. 

A proper Witch demands her own mechanics and her own logic.

That logic for Advanced Witches & Warlocks is Occult Magic.

• Arcane magic is learned magic.
• Divine magic is authoritative magic.
• Occult magic is secretive magic.

The Witch recognizes magic as a complex tapestry, and one that might take notice if its strands are pulled apart.

And that's the other reason why Charisma remains my pick for the Witch's primary attribute. Not beauty, not popularity, but presence. Presence, as in the power of the self vis-à-vis others. Because the Witch must bargain, bind, curse, bless, threaten, pacify, command, and beckon across thresholds. 

It is equally obvious why this applies directly to Jackson, IL. Our young Witch may well be one of the smartest people in the room, but we don't need to assume it, and our young Witch will certainly never be the wisest. But our young Witch will have presence. Sometimes it may be subtle. Other times it may be awkward. And it will most likely manifest only under the cover of darkness, fog, mirrors, and whispers of her name. In the context of a school, Charisma becomes not simply popularity but social gravity. The ability to pull others into a secret, intimidate a bully, unsettle a teacher, console a frightened child, or even make that mysterious dead girl in the bathroom listen.

The reason why the Witch also works in Jackson, IL, just like in AD&D, is that she is powered by relationships. And there is perhaps no better place than high school for such power to operate.

Multi-faceted Non-Player Character Witches

That leads to yet another reason why this class is not too simplistic. Modern fantasy is often built around clear-cut heroes and villains, and both can do the job. However, AD&D requires something more nuanced.

The old-school Witch must be useful to the party, feared, necessary, and possibly suspicious.

She may be the party's best hope of countering the effects of a curse... while also being the very reason that curse exists.

She may heal a sick child in one town while being accused of causing a blight elsewhere. She may be neutral but remember that neutrality doesn't imply passivity but rather balance, debts, oaths, and repercussions.

She may be good yet be truly horrifying and evil, yet still cherished by someone she saved.

These are the roles that I want for my new class.

The Witch had to appear in Advanced Witches & Warlocks because of what AD&D represents.

• A dungeon door.
• A path through the woods.
• A forsaken altar.
• A burial site.
• A locked chamber.
• A mirror.
• An old and forgotten tome.

In all cases, the Witch understands that these are thresholds and must be named.

• She was there in Appendix N.
• She was there on the spell lists.
• She was there in the monster manuals.
• She was there in the rumors.

Advanced Witches & Warlocks does nothing more than greet her, provide her some rules, and give her a voice.

Shard: The Village Witch

She was in the game even before she became a class.

She was in the rumor table, though nobody called her by name. She was in the little cottage noted in the forest wilderness map. She was the old woman the people feared, and yet the one they visited under the cover of darkness. She was the stranger who knew the barrow’s true name, the seeress who told the party not to open the black door, the sole inhabitant of the town not showing any sign of surprise when the dead started walking.

There were always traces of her in the game. Her familiar lurking on top of a fencepost. The curse that no Cleric could lift, but she knew who placed it. Potion brewed from grave-moss, moonwater, and blood. Charm tied in red thread. Child born under an unlucky star. Ruined shrine where old rituals still work.

Introduce the village witch whenever the party arrives in a small town dealing with some problem they don’t want to face. She can be anywhere near the settlement – at the edge of the map, at the edge of the woods, marsh, ancient trail, ruin of the old temple, the last house in town before the fields become dark.

She is not automatically an enemy of the party. Nor is she always friendly towards everyone around her. She is not a monster, though the monster may fear her. She is not a Cleric, though the villagers seek her help whenever they get sick. She is not a Magic-User, though she casts spells that are unknown in academies. She is not a Druid, but uses all the old names for plants and trees.

She knows about what the villagers have done. She knows what the monster wants. She knows the secret the priest won’t talk about in public. She knows what the Magic-User failed to discover, because he was looking for written magic while ignoring oral magic. The magic that predates writing. 

Maybe she cured the reeve’s son once, though the reeve still considers her a wicked witch. Maybe her familiar has encountered the monster, and refuses to venture into the forest at night. Maybe she knows the old name of the hill ruins, but calling it brings her blood loss. Maybe she has written down her secret spells in some old tome that gets written by itself whenever it rains thunderously.

Perhaps the village priest consults her in secret for the reading of dreams. She may have buried something beneath her hearth long ago and never talked about it for two decades. She may recognize one of the party members' birthmarks as a witch-mark. She may ask to have the curse removed only after somebody confesses.

She may inform the party that the haunting isn’t actually caused by the undead, but rather it is the grief made manifest. She may recall times when the ruined temple had worshippers. She may remember which tomb is empty, and why people keep flowers on it. She may not venture over moving waters ever since the last witch-hunt came to the town.

It shouldn’t give away rumors and heal the party for free like an automaton. She has her needs, debts, limits, and enemies. She may request to have a piece of hair, offer to protect someone, make a pact under the moonlight, retrieve a missing charm, or identify the liar among the villagers.

Most of all, she must have a price.  Not gold, for sure. Rarely gold. 

Usually, something only the PCs can provide.

But in any case, the witch is out there. Waiting. 

Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986. Two Books, One Spell

Monday has often been Monstrous Monday here at The Other Side for a very long time. A mirror into what I am working on at any given point in time. But for the next few months, I am turning the mirror in a manner of speaking. And the mirror is an apt metaphor for what I am doing. 

The monsters will still be present; they always are. This time, though, I'm focusing on the witches who confront them, call them into being, control them, get rid of them, or even turn into them. I want to think of 1986 not just as a date, but as a breeding ground for imagination.

For me, 1986 isn't about warm, fuzzy nostalgia. It is a lens to focus my attention. 

It's the hardback Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books on the table, odd paperbacks found in used bookstores, heavy metal music, scary films, late-night TV, school libraries, local stories, and that feeling of books your parents wouldn't let you read. It's the year when fantasy games, talk of the occult, and being a teenager all felt crammed into one shadowy room, with a general sense of fear from the Satanic Panic and a sense that something…more existed. 

That's where two things I'm working on intersect.

One is Advanced Witches & Warlocks, my take on a retro witch book, as if the AD&D witch finally got the attention she deserved around 1986. It's aiming for release around Halloween 2026, which feels fitting. Witches should appear in October.

The other is Jackson, IL, a modern supernatural setting in the Midwest, centered on odd towns in the middle of the country, teenage witches, haunted schools, local monsters, hidden family histories, and the strangeness of growing up in 1986. This one is different; it doesn't have a release date. It might not even be published in a typical way. It's going to be about 80,000 words before I can even say it's a book, and it isn't there yet, but it’s progressing.

However, these two projects are constantly influencing each other.

They aren't the same book, or even the same style of book. Advanced Witches & Warlocks is all about fantasy gaming, character classes, occult magic, witch lore, warlock groups, magical spells, animal helpers (familiars), and what the witch should be like alongside the Cleric, Magic-User, Druid and Illusionist.

Jackson, IL, is small-town horror. It’s the high school hall, the library, the old graveyard, the pizza place, the road leading past the cornfields, the local university, the occult store in town, and the house that everyone knows about but nobody discusses. It's about teenage witches in a world where adults have carefully constructed their lives to act as if the supernatural isn't genuine. 

One is the witch as a character in AD&D.

One is the witch as the girl in homeroom who understands the mirror is showing a false image. 

And the central question for both of them is the same:

When 1986 is the focus of the imagination lens, what does a witch actually look like?

In a fantasy setting inspired by 1986, a witch is much more than just someone on a broom who casts spells; her origins lie in folklore, fairy tales, frightening tales, hidden knowledge, the books Appendix N lists, and the stranger parts of fantasy. She’s part of a group of witches, follows certain customs and has powerful figures she answers to, observes forbidden practices, performs ceremonies under the moon, and taps into ancient powers that aren't easily contained in spellbooks or churches. 

She isn't a Cleric. Clerics have a church, a god, and openly stated beliefs. And she isn't a Magic-User, because Magic-Users study, have specific formulas, and believe the universe can be written down completely.

A Witch has something much older and more personal; she has connections. Connections to spirits, the land, her ancestors, the moon, old gods, and, really, to be honest, things that are best left unmentioned. She understands magic isn't only something you learn, but something you receive from family, get through deals, endure, and occasionally live through. 

And that’s how it is in fantasy.

But in 1986, in the real world, the witch is a bit different, although not as different as you'd think.

She’s the new student who seems to know a lot, the quiet one who hears things in empty rooms, the head cheerleader who keeps everyone protected but won't admit to how afraid she is, the outsider with the family that's been around forever, or the girl who happens to find the right (or wrong) book at the library…and it’s as if the book was waiting for her.

She exists amongst lockers, telephone landlines, cassette tapes, school bells, what everyone in town is saying, and teachers who might not be entirely human. The school after hours is her dungeon, the roads leading out of town are her wilderness, and her temple is the bedroom floor late at night, with candles, a notebook, and a mirror that shows more than it should. 

Both of these witches are liminal, in-between people.

And that’s the essential point.

A witch is on the boundary. The edge of town, the edge of social groups, the edge of the church, the edge of family, the edge of becoming an adult, the edge of the map. She knows where the lines are because she's crossed them, and sometimes she chose to, other times she was forced.

That’s why witches work so well in old-fashioned gaming. Dungeons & Dragons always liked boundaries: dungeons and the wild, law and chaos, the village and the ruins, human and monster, the living and the divine. A witch belongs in that boundary zone.

And that’s also why they suit teenage horror. Being a teenager is a boundary zone. You aren't a child, but you're not an adult yet, and everyone is misleading you about both. You’re expected to follow rules you didn't create, you're given a future you might not even want, you're observed, evaluated, underestimated, and told to stay away from doors that someone else has already opened.

That’s where a witch finds her place.

The Midwest is important here as well.

These aren't Salem witches, not exactly, and not the glamorous witches of Hollywood. The witch of the Midwest lives amongst brick school buildings, university towns, country roads, old cemeteries, the changeable prairie weather, church potlucks, basement playrooms, and libraries with surprisingly good collections of occult books.

She knows the local ghost stories. She knows which road to avoid in the dark. She knows who lived in that house before the current family changed the name. She understands that not all monsters come from Transylvania or from Hell; some are created by the cursed land surrounding the old town, in the drainage ditch, beneath the old bridge, or in the quiet that exists between what everyone says and what nobody will talk about.

That’s where Jackson, IL is.

And that's where Advanced Witches & Warlocks is also finding a new foundation.

The fantasy witch and the teenage witch aren't separated in my mind; they are each other’s reflections. One wears a purple dress and a black cloak, the other wears jeans, boots, and an excessive amount of eyeliner for a Monday. One has a familiar and a Book of Shadows, the other has a cat that isn't quite a cat and a notebook hidden under her mattress.

Both of them understand the same truth. 

People who are respectable act as if magic isn't real, because acknowledging it would change everything.

This series, Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986, is where I’m going to look at that reflection.

Some weeks I’ll be more focused on Advanced Witches & Warlocks; talking about witch types, magical practices, familiars, traditions, warlocks, spells, monsters, and creating a witch's book that feels as if it could have existed in the AD&D period without just copying old texts. 

Other weeks I’ll focus on Jackson, Illinois; teenage witches, haunted schools, folklore from the Midwest, local monsters, bad roads, strange teachers, shops with occult items, and why 1986 is the perfect year for supernatural horror.

Most weeks will be somewhere in the middle.

That's the unusual intersection where both projects come together.

The mirror is now open.

Mirror Shards: The Mirror Between Larina Nichols and Larina Nix

Not every magical object starts as something valuable. 

Some begin as a simple question.

A witch looks in the mirror and sees herself...but not the person standing in the room. She sees another life, another world, another version of the same soul. One that is older, stronger, stranger, and maybe even more dangerous.

For Advanced Witches & Warlocks, this mirror might be an ancient magical object, a way to see into the future or a risky way for witches to get in touch with alternate selves, echoes of their mentors or their future selves.

But for Jackson, Illinois, it's more personal. A teenage witch sees the woman she could become, or the woman she was somewhere else, or the woman who is protecting her from a fantasy world that shouldn't be real.

The mirror doesn't question in a straightforward way. That would be too simple.

It shows what could be.

It shows a warning.

It shows power.

And sometimes, when the room is dark and the house is quiet, the image in the mirror moves first.

I am focusing on this witch in particular because she has a pedigree. She was created as an AD&D character in 1986. She is my window into this liminal and reflected world. She was a playtest character for every version of the witch class I ever wrote, including AD&D and NIGHT SHIFT.

I have another post I am picking at, "What I Learned Playing the Same Character for 40 Years," and some of that insight feeds into this and vice versa. She is the test bed, as I have said before, my "Drosophila melanogaster" of these tests. When playing a game, I ask, "What would Larina do here?" When designing one, I ask, "How can I do Larina here?" Both questions have served me well over the last 4 decades. 

There are a handful of witches, both characters and personalities, as well as more simple archetypes, that I use when testing any game I play and any game I write. Larina is the most forward-facing of these witches. She isn't the only one. Elowen still gets a lot of play, as does Moria, Amaranth, and others. But Larina has a lot of history, both in games and in the real world. 

A Mirror Shard in both games is a means to communicate with other versions of yourself. Or other versions of others. It is a sneaky little device I have thrown into my games when I want to try out one version of a character in another's universe. Valerie Beaumont is a regular abuser of these mirror shards. She isn't even my character, and she keeps crashing into my games. 

Which brings up an interesting point. 

In Advanced Witches & Warlocks, the "mirror shards" are the magic items connected to the magical mirrors.

In Jackson, IL, "mirror shards" are the people you see in the mirror that are not you.

Both developed from the same fundamental idea and then took on different meanings in my writing. I don't really feel the need to reconcile these differences. Different games. Different universes. But there is something fairly evocative about calling these characters mirror shards. 

Larina is a mirror shard. Valerie is a mirror shard. Even someone like Jenny Everywhere is a mirror shard.

Greg: "I feel sorry for the guy who tries to buy them a drink!"

Candy and Denise in Jackson, IL, are mirror shards of Candella and Duchess in Glantri. Or is that the other way around?

It is because they are "mirror shards" that they heard the Bell in Jackson, IL, when only supernatural creatures heard it. They are not supernatural, but they are special. 

An out-of-game idea for one is giving me an in-game solution for another. 

I have quite a lot more to say on all of this.

Witchcraft Wednesdays: Spellbound (2025)

 Last month, I mentioned that I got my copy of Spellbound (2025) in the mail from author Thomas Negovan. It is a treasure trove of commentary and images of all sorts of fantastic vintage paperbacks about witches and witchcraft. From fictional accounts of witches and black magic, to how-to and self-help guides, to the growing fascination with witches and the occult throughout the 1960s and 1970s. 

The book is rather fantastic, to be honest, and filled with some great memories.

The book is 7.5" x 10", so a bit smaller than letter size, but it has the feel of a larger "coffee table" book. The photos are fantastic, and it was a joy to see so many I remembered.

The binding is good, and you all know I am a sucker for a book with a ribbon bookmark. The pages are edge-painted purple. This would seem to clash with the red cover, but honestly, it doesn't. It adds to the weird vibe the entire book is going for, and it works well for me. 

We begin with a brief prelude about the Bibliomancers concept. It explains that this special hardcover edition is an expansion on the original 2023 softcover edition by Astraleyes (more on who that is later). Thomas Negovan expanded on the original copy to give us the collection of 1960s and 1970s occult ephemera. 

The Foreword is by occult book collector Astraleyes, who came up with Bibliomancers and the first edition of this book. The picture of Astraleyes and his books is also a nice stroll down the book aisles of my memories. 

The Introduction by Thomas Negovan hits me where I live. "As far back as I can remember, used book stores were my chosen houses of worship." Feels like something I would have said myself. He name-drops Man, Myth & Magic series, and more. Sounds like he was visiting my home library/office/game room. 

Negovan goes on to discuss how the growing interest in witches, witchcraft, and the occult got started in the 1960s and 1970s. A time I have called the 70s Occult Revival here in these pages. He ties it a little closer to the 1960s sexual revolution than I have, and he is spot on, really.  The role of witchcraft and feminism was always linked, either by its proponents and detractors, in ways that can't really be ignored. See my own Aiséiligh Witchcraft Tradition for how I touched on the same topic. Negovan does an excellent job, in both words and stunning photos, of setting the stage for why witches and witchcraft found such an open welcome in the city and suburban lives of many modern women. Not just witches, but also Wicca and witchcraft as a practice. 

All the while mainstream society was pushing against all of this, the market for witches and witchcraft had never been stronger. This book is a testament to that explosive growth. 

Negovan goes deeper, naturally, than I have here but covers familiar ground. He is explicit about the four distinct categories emerging from this era. The Wiccan traditions of Gerald Gardner and his adherents, such as Raymond Buckland. The later Alexandrian Tradition (which I often lump together here despite their many and manifest differences), the Sybil Leek/Horoscope boom (which I often call "Left Over Hippie Shit"), and the most dominant, Witchcraft as Aesthetic. Not just wicca guides or other self-help books popular at the time, but being a witch because it was cool.  Those were the woman my young brain imprinted on as wonderful, powerful, and sexy. These were all aided by the boom in cheap paperbacks that became ubiquitous in bookstores, grocery stores, and just about everywhere. I am still astonished to this day by how much these treasures in my own collection originally cost compared to what I would later happily pay for them.  The spread on pages 24-25, 26-27 is like unlocking a core memory of the first time I ever walked into a college bookstore at age 10. I was overwhelmed. I was ecstatic. It was akin to walking into a holy sanctum. And one thing is very, very clear. Thomas Negovan feels exactly the same way.

Negovan begins to leave the discussion of the zeitgeist behind to focus on the books themselves, plotting a course from the rise of pamphlets at the start of the 20th century onto the rise of Wicca in the early 1950s and on. It was not something that happened overnight, even if the boom of the 1960s and 1970s felt that way. We are treated to several different covers of Gardner's "Witchcraft Today," which fairly depict how society viewed witches and witchcraft at the time of each publication. We move to what I have always considered the tipping point of this phenomenon, Stewart Farrar's 1971 "What Witches Do" and Raymond Buckland's 1970 "Ancient & Modern Witchcraft."

The book moves on to give some of the wonderful paperback covers, and, where possible, renditions of the original cover art sans titles. 

Many of these titles should be familiar to readers of this blog. More are familiar to me from my own collections. 

The number of titles published between 1968 and 1972 alone was staggering. All of this while the background noise was Vietnam and Richard Nixon.

And the art. To say I imprinted hard on many of these covers doesn't take a Ph.D. in psychology. I flip through these pages, and I see Marissia looking back at me. I see Rhiannon, Esmé, Aeronwy, and Eria. And in the covers of "What Witches Do" and "Anita," I saw the first glimpses of Larina. 

To many readers, this is a glimpse of witchcraft's past. For me? It is a yearbook filled with photos of old girlfriends and lost loves. 

Even some of the Witches of Appendix N appear here. As with Fritz Leiber's "Conjure Wife." Indeed, with the aid of this book, I could expand my own "Appendix O."

And it fits so nicely with many of my other witch-related hardcovers.

It is hard for me to tell if this is a book for the casual reader. This book deeply resonates with so many of my own memories; it is difficult for me to detach myself from my "nostalgia gogles" (as my oldest says) or even bits of deeply ingrained memory. How can I objectively review something like this?

Obviously, I can't. Nor even do I want to try.

I am going to say that this book is extraordinary. Thomas Negovan certainly thinks so. The care, attention, and love he put into it are obvious from the first few pages.

Seeing a book like this get made is one of the best reasons for a Kickstarter. 

I see he has another Kickstarter for the third volume in this trilogy (this was the second!), Binding the Devil. 

While I am sure there might some duplication, I have books in my library that would fit that did not find their way into Spellbound.  So yes, this one should give me as much joy. Check out some of his previous 88 Kickstarters; the guy has good taste. You can pledge this new book and add on Spell Bound for another $79. 

You can also get your own copy directly from their store. While I think the limited-edition Art Nouveau version is fantastic (and, as an aside, Negovan really seems to know his Art Nouveau), the red cover I have with the model from "How to Become a Sensuous Witch" is the one that really called out to me. 

Negovan chose this cover well as one of the best examples of "Witchcraft as Aesthetic".  Why? "How to Become a Sensuous Witch" is not a guide on witchcraft, or a lurid witch tale, or even a primer on sex magic. It is a cookbook.

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.