Post by Gabrielle DuMinuit on Jul 7, 2007 15:44:52 GMT -5
A Macht witch is one of the mortal descendants of Vida’s three daughters, and their initiates. There have been six major lines of Macht witches: Vida, Smoke, Light, Arun, Queitch and Marinitch. Vida, the first Macht witch, was the daughter of Macht (see Nyeusi) and a human man.
Vida
The Vida line originated nearly thirty-thousand years BCE, with the birth of Vida. This was the point in time when the higher Nyeusi first gained their powers, and started playing around with them- and with humans- so this also happens to be when the first vampire (Kalika) and the first initiated Triste (Aric) were created by the twins Siete and Triste (see their essays for more details on that). The only important fact for right now is that Vida had an older half-sister, Kalika. Their father was the leader of their village, a seer of sorts, a wise man or shaman or whatever you care to call him. Kalika was to have inherited his position, but living at the center of the newly-powerful Nyeusi’s playground ruined her plans somewhat. Vida- spurred on by her lover, Aric- made a play for power, and Kalika was driven out, to live or die as Fate willed, in the desert. Naturally, someone who was hated by both Macht’s child and Triste’s first initiate interested Siete greatly, and he decided to try his hand at playing god- and he changed her. Several years later, Kalika returned to her village, and argued with and finally killed Vida, failing to realize until after she had done so that Vida’s daughters were looking on. Kalika fled, and that is when the Macht witches come to power. Vida’s three daughters grew up with, quite naturally, a passionate hatred for demons- which is what they considered Kalika, and incidentally, Aric as well, since he abandoned their mother to face Kalika. They vowed to be strong enough to protect themselves and their people, and so began studying fighting with their bodies, minds and magic. They trained humans in the same tactics, binding them with blood-oaths and sharing the magic they had inherited from Macht in that manner. For quite a long time, there weren't that many vampires- they didn't really get to breeding until Mira (3000 BCE) and then more seriously with the creation of Kendra's line in 432 BCE- and so these descendents of Vida could more accurately be considered mystics and warriors than vampire hunters. They were the leaders and protectors of their people, and defended against the natural and the supernatural.
Smoke
At around 5000 BCE, some of Vida's "descendents" decided there were far too many fighters around. The Vida laws urged them to use their abilities to protect others, and the new group, led by Evelyn Smoke, reasoned that killing things wasn't exactly protecting them. So they shifted their training to focus specifically on healing, and wrapped their magic up in vows saying the would protect and heal and never do harm. Among other things, these vows enabled them to travel in otherwise unfriendly territory; you could be certain that a Smoke witch would help, and would never be an assassin or even spy, since it would be contrary to her beliefs.
Light
Except, of course, not everyone has faith in the kindness of others. In 3500 BCE, a Smoke witch known as Cyrinka Light was traveling in unfriendly territory when she and several of her students were taken hostage. Vida laws say you must never bargain with your enemies, and must never endanger all your people in order to protect a few... especially a few sworn to pacificism, who might not thank you for slaughtering people on their behalf. So the captured healers were left to fend for themselves.
Turns out their captivity wasn't in the land of peaches and cream, and they decided that they had a right to their own lives, and to protect their own lives and freedom. Of course they were not trained to fight, like Vidas, but they had their magic, and they forced it to work for them. The Light Line, begun in this way, still favored peaceful measures first, but believed a certain amount of force was appropriate in some situations.
In addition to their healing abilities, members of the Light line are also powerful pyrokinetics- firestarters. One of them is suspected as partially responsible for helping Kaei burn down Mayhem.
The last of the Light line was Lila Light, who lived in Vieton with her husband, Peter, in the late 1600s. When Lila was killed, her husband fled with their twin children, who were never recovered by the other Macht witches.
Arun
The Light Line was not the only group of healers that ever rebelled against the strict non-violence policy taught by Smoke Witches. In AD 430, Middy Smoke was called to heal a bloodbonded human. Many others cautioned against it, but she was determined not to let die a woman who had asked for her help. In the process, she infected herself and her daughter, Ardiente, slightly with the vampiric power. When the vampire who had bloodbonded the girl returned, and discovered a witch there, he jumped to the conclusion that she had come to kill him and his bonds-- and killed her.
Ardiente originally attempted to join the Light witches, but it was decided that she was a little too... aggressive... for their beliefs. She founded her own line, known as the Arun line, because she believed that while healing skills were important, they were best used on your allies- and fighting skills were best used on your enemies. While the Light line was primarily healers with fighting skills for self-defense, the Arun line consisted of hunters with strong healing abilities... at this point in time.
A few generations later, things got complicated.
Needless to say, if you get a new vampire-hunting line, you are going to end up with some new annoyed vampires, as was the case with Jade Arun. In 1338, during the most famous of the plague outbreaks in Europe, the child Jade Arun was orphaned. Jade was taken in by an Egyptian traveler called Nai, and together they left the city, and lived together at the edges of civilization for several years. Unknown to Jade, her foster mother was actually a solar vampire. As Jade grew older, Nai distanced herself in order to keep her Jade from learning that her new mommy was a vampire, but stayed near enough to keep a protective eye on her adopted child.
The solar and lunar vampires generally hate each other, and the lunar vampires certainly hate the Arun witches, so perhaps it isn't surprising for one that Silver and Nai quarreled, or that Silver chose Jade as his target for vengeance. By this time, Jade was an adult and had a daughter. When Silver and Nai fought, Silver retaliated by kidnapping Nai’s ward's young child... in the process informing Jade of her origins, how her parents had died, and what Nai really was. Jade tracked down the other hunters in hope of getting help, and they gave her the summary of her own family history. She was reunited with the other Macht and Arun witches, and they went to try to rescue Jade's daughter.
The rescue attempt did not go well. Not only did it not work out, but Silver attempted to blood-bond Jade. Lucky for the Arun line, it already had enough of a taint, which had been passed down for generations, to reject the bloodbond. Not so lucky, the line's vampiric link was strengthened. To this day, all Arun witches are partially tainted.
Arun witches are faster and stronger than other witches, heal faster, and are immune to things like bloodbonding and even intentional changing - no accidents, as happened with Sarah. However, though most of them would deny vehemently that the vampiric taint affects their personalities or instincts, Arun witches tend to be hot-tempered- and on a rare occasion, though none would ever admit it, they feel the bloodlust. They don't need to feed, and most of them never do, but... I specified "intentional" for a reason. There are ways to wake that vampiric side.
Many hunters do not trust Arun witches, but they'll usually work with them out of necessity, since the Arun line hunts very well - both natures agree with that calling. Also, orphaned Arun witches will be taken in by their Macht kin. They're still considered witches, and therefore, their own kind protects them.
Queitch
The Queitch line is a single familial line. One of the Vida families began studying methods to enhance sight and knowledge. A couple of them were wildly successful enough, in 1900 BCE, that a friendly vampire you might know as Silver decided to transport the whole group of them out of the way (he was in Europe at the time) to what we now consider Mesoamerica. They were allowed to stay with the Azteka, who respected them as other magic-users, but after a couple generations they were kicked out again as their prophetic abilities became strong enough to unnerve those around them.
Kahlan Queitch and her infant daughter were the two Queitch witches who were driven out - the last of their line. They survived for nearly twenty years on their own. Kahlan died of a snakebite, and her now no-longer-an-infant daughter, Moira, angered some humans and was nearly sacrificed via the removal of her heart. She and her new friend Fala wreaked bloody vengeance and now you know that story.
Marinitch
The Marinitch line is descended from the Light line, specifically, from Mara Light, who was Lila's sister. After Lila was killed, Mara fled with her human lover, who was something of a magic-user himself... a shaman, specifically. They had two sons, Eric and Raini. Raini went on to continue the line, after Eric was kidnapped by Pandora, trained as a Triste, and then turned into a vampire by Kendra.
Evolution Until Modern Day
At one point in time, there were many more Macht witches than there are today. However, as the blood was diluted, the children of Macht lost the ability to pass their magic on in any way besides bearing children, and so the lineages became far less prolific. Vida’s blood-descendants continued to carry magic, but many of the descendants of those the three daughters had taught lost their power.
Their numbers were further ravaged by centuries of human Inquisition, which destroyed countless numbers of Macht witches and shapeshifters, while leaving the vampires and Tristes relatively untouched. By the middle of the second millennia, there were only a few Macht families that still had strong magic.
Then came Midnight. Through the centuries of Midnight’s rule, the numbers of Macht witches swiftly lessened. By the time Midnight fell, only the Vida, Smoke, Arun and Marinitch lines were left. The first three had all became to single family lines; the fourth remained in hiding almost until modern day.
In modern day, there are still sometimes Macht witches born to seemingly human parents. The trait is carried like a severely recessive gene in much of the human population, in people who descended from those to whom Vida’s daughters granted power. However, the number of trained witches in the three major lines has reached easily countable numbers.
In modern day, Dominique Vida is the matriarch of the Macht witches. Her surviving relatives include her nephew, Zachary Vida, a niece-once-removed named Kyla Athal Cobriana Vida, and her two daughters, Adianna and Sarah. The Smoke line includes Hasana Smoke, her daughters Diana and Caryn, and two Smoke witches born of human parents: Samuel Francisco, and his son, Isaac. The Arun line was nearly ended by the death of Lee Arun (born 1914). One of Lee’s daughters, Nicole, refused to follow her lineage or teach the path to her daughter, Mildred Elizabeth Arun. Lee’s other child was changed into a vampire and subsequently fell on the knife.
Lee’s younger sister, Charlet, had been born without magic; her two daughters, Megan and Elena, were the same, as were their children. However, after three generations without power, each family had a child with magic- Gabri Arun, and Michael Arun. Elizabeth and Gabri have both been lost to the vampires, leaving Michael Arun as the last of the Arun line.
(Information (c) Amelia Atwater-Rhodes)
Vida
The Vida line originated nearly thirty-thousand years BCE, with the birth of Vida. This was the point in time when the higher Nyeusi first gained their powers, and started playing around with them- and with humans- so this also happens to be when the first vampire (Kalika) and the first initiated Triste (Aric) were created by the twins Siete and Triste (see their essays for more details on that). The only important fact for right now is that Vida had an older half-sister, Kalika. Their father was the leader of their village, a seer of sorts, a wise man or shaman or whatever you care to call him. Kalika was to have inherited his position, but living at the center of the newly-powerful Nyeusi’s playground ruined her plans somewhat. Vida- spurred on by her lover, Aric- made a play for power, and Kalika was driven out, to live or die as Fate willed, in the desert. Naturally, someone who was hated by both Macht’s child and Triste’s first initiate interested Siete greatly, and he decided to try his hand at playing god- and he changed her. Several years later, Kalika returned to her village, and argued with and finally killed Vida, failing to realize until after she had done so that Vida’s daughters were looking on. Kalika fled, and that is when the Macht witches come to power. Vida’s three daughters grew up with, quite naturally, a passionate hatred for demons- which is what they considered Kalika, and incidentally, Aric as well, since he abandoned their mother to face Kalika. They vowed to be strong enough to protect themselves and their people, and so began studying fighting with their bodies, minds and magic. They trained humans in the same tactics, binding them with blood-oaths and sharing the magic they had inherited from Macht in that manner. For quite a long time, there weren't that many vampires- they didn't really get to breeding until Mira (3000 BCE) and then more seriously with the creation of Kendra's line in 432 BCE- and so these descendents of Vida could more accurately be considered mystics and warriors than vampire hunters. They were the leaders and protectors of their people, and defended against the natural and the supernatural.
Smoke
At around 5000 BCE, some of Vida's "descendents" decided there were far too many fighters around. The Vida laws urged them to use their abilities to protect others, and the new group, led by Evelyn Smoke, reasoned that killing things wasn't exactly protecting them. So they shifted their training to focus specifically on healing, and wrapped their magic up in vows saying the would protect and heal and never do harm. Among other things, these vows enabled them to travel in otherwise unfriendly territory; you could be certain that a Smoke witch would help, and would never be an assassin or even spy, since it would be contrary to her beliefs.
Light
Except, of course, not everyone has faith in the kindness of others. In 3500 BCE, a Smoke witch known as Cyrinka Light was traveling in unfriendly territory when she and several of her students were taken hostage. Vida laws say you must never bargain with your enemies, and must never endanger all your people in order to protect a few... especially a few sworn to pacificism, who might not thank you for slaughtering people on their behalf. So the captured healers were left to fend for themselves.
Turns out their captivity wasn't in the land of peaches and cream, and they decided that they had a right to their own lives, and to protect their own lives and freedom. Of course they were not trained to fight, like Vidas, but they had their magic, and they forced it to work for them. The Light Line, begun in this way, still favored peaceful measures first, but believed a certain amount of force was appropriate in some situations.
In addition to their healing abilities, members of the Light line are also powerful pyrokinetics- firestarters. One of them is suspected as partially responsible for helping Kaei burn down Mayhem.
The last of the Light line was Lila Light, who lived in Vieton with her husband, Peter, in the late 1600s. When Lila was killed, her husband fled with their twin children, who were never recovered by the other Macht witches.
Arun
The Light Line was not the only group of healers that ever rebelled against the strict non-violence policy taught by Smoke Witches. In AD 430, Middy Smoke was called to heal a bloodbonded human. Many others cautioned against it, but she was determined not to let die a woman who had asked for her help. In the process, she infected herself and her daughter, Ardiente, slightly with the vampiric power. When the vampire who had bloodbonded the girl returned, and discovered a witch there, he jumped to the conclusion that she had come to kill him and his bonds-- and killed her.
Ardiente originally attempted to join the Light witches, but it was decided that she was a little too... aggressive... for their beliefs. She founded her own line, known as the Arun line, because she believed that while healing skills were important, they were best used on your allies- and fighting skills were best used on your enemies. While the Light line was primarily healers with fighting skills for self-defense, the Arun line consisted of hunters with strong healing abilities... at this point in time.
A few generations later, things got complicated.
Needless to say, if you get a new vampire-hunting line, you are going to end up with some new annoyed vampires, as was the case with Jade Arun. In 1338, during the most famous of the plague outbreaks in Europe, the child Jade Arun was orphaned. Jade was taken in by an Egyptian traveler called Nai, and together they left the city, and lived together at the edges of civilization for several years. Unknown to Jade, her foster mother was actually a solar vampire. As Jade grew older, Nai distanced herself in order to keep her Jade from learning that her new mommy was a vampire, but stayed near enough to keep a protective eye on her adopted child.
The solar and lunar vampires generally hate each other, and the lunar vampires certainly hate the Arun witches, so perhaps it isn't surprising for one that Silver and Nai quarreled, or that Silver chose Jade as his target for vengeance. By this time, Jade was an adult and had a daughter. When Silver and Nai fought, Silver retaliated by kidnapping Nai’s ward's young child... in the process informing Jade of her origins, how her parents had died, and what Nai really was. Jade tracked down the other hunters in hope of getting help, and they gave her the summary of her own family history. She was reunited with the other Macht and Arun witches, and they went to try to rescue Jade's daughter.
The rescue attempt did not go well. Not only did it not work out, but Silver attempted to blood-bond Jade. Lucky for the Arun line, it already had enough of a taint, which had been passed down for generations, to reject the bloodbond. Not so lucky, the line's vampiric link was strengthened. To this day, all Arun witches are partially tainted.
Arun witches are faster and stronger than other witches, heal faster, and are immune to things like bloodbonding and even intentional changing - no accidents, as happened with Sarah. However, though most of them would deny vehemently that the vampiric taint affects their personalities or instincts, Arun witches tend to be hot-tempered- and on a rare occasion, though none would ever admit it, they feel the bloodlust. They don't need to feed, and most of them never do, but... I specified "intentional" for a reason. There are ways to wake that vampiric side.
Many hunters do not trust Arun witches, but they'll usually work with them out of necessity, since the Arun line hunts very well - both natures agree with that calling. Also, orphaned Arun witches will be taken in by their Macht kin. They're still considered witches, and therefore, their own kind protects them.
Queitch
The Queitch line is a single familial line. One of the Vida families began studying methods to enhance sight and knowledge. A couple of them were wildly successful enough, in 1900 BCE, that a friendly vampire you might know as Silver decided to transport the whole group of them out of the way (he was in Europe at the time) to what we now consider Mesoamerica. They were allowed to stay with the Azteka, who respected them as other magic-users, but after a couple generations they were kicked out again as their prophetic abilities became strong enough to unnerve those around them.
Kahlan Queitch and her infant daughter were the two Queitch witches who were driven out - the last of their line. They survived for nearly twenty years on their own. Kahlan died of a snakebite, and her now no-longer-an-infant daughter, Moira, angered some humans and was nearly sacrificed via the removal of her heart. She and her new friend Fala wreaked bloody vengeance and now you know that story.
Marinitch
The Marinitch line is descended from the Light line, specifically, from Mara Light, who was Lila's sister. After Lila was killed, Mara fled with her human lover, who was something of a magic-user himself... a shaman, specifically. They had two sons, Eric and Raini. Raini went on to continue the line, after Eric was kidnapped by Pandora, trained as a Triste, and then turned into a vampire by Kendra.
Evolution Until Modern Day
At one point in time, there were many more Macht witches than there are today. However, as the blood was diluted, the children of Macht lost the ability to pass their magic on in any way besides bearing children, and so the lineages became far less prolific. Vida’s blood-descendants continued to carry magic, but many of the descendants of those the three daughters had taught lost their power.
Their numbers were further ravaged by centuries of human Inquisition, which destroyed countless numbers of Macht witches and shapeshifters, while leaving the vampires and Tristes relatively untouched. By the middle of the second millennia, there were only a few Macht families that still had strong magic.
Then came Midnight. Through the centuries of Midnight’s rule, the numbers of Macht witches swiftly lessened. By the time Midnight fell, only the Vida, Smoke, Arun and Marinitch lines were left. The first three had all became to single family lines; the fourth remained in hiding almost until modern day.
In modern day, there are still sometimes Macht witches born to seemingly human parents. The trait is carried like a severely recessive gene in much of the human population, in people who descended from those to whom Vida’s daughters granted power. However, the number of trained witches in the three major lines has reached easily countable numbers.
In modern day, Dominique Vida is the matriarch of the Macht witches. Her surviving relatives include her nephew, Zachary Vida, a niece-once-removed named Kyla Athal Cobriana Vida, and her two daughters, Adianna and Sarah. The Smoke line includes Hasana Smoke, her daughters Diana and Caryn, and two Smoke witches born of human parents: Samuel Francisco, and his son, Isaac. The Arun line was nearly ended by the death of Lee Arun (born 1914). One of Lee’s daughters, Nicole, refused to follow her lineage or teach the path to her daughter, Mildred Elizabeth Arun. Lee’s other child was changed into a vampire and subsequently fell on the knife.
Lee’s younger sister, Charlet, had been born without magic; her two daughters, Megan and Elena, were the same, as were their children. However, after three generations without power, each family had a child with magic- Gabri Arun, and Michael Arun. Elizabeth and Gabri have both been lost to the vampires, leaving Michael Arun as the last of the Arun line.
(Information (c) Amelia Atwater-Rhodes)