Witch Basics

Introduction
Witches are magic users that can be born in nearly any animal species. This very much includes humans and even insects (not just wolves and kitties!). Witches are born at complete random because they do not receive it from their parents and two witch parents will have the same chance of having a witch child as two non-witch parents. This is because although the witch information is within the DNA, it is not produced in sperm or eggs.

While witches are born in every species, some witches are less likely to survive or not be noticed depending on their species. Throughout history, human witches have been prosecuted and burned or else abandon their ties to humans. Insect witches rarely stray from their normal species activies.

Witches part of herds tend to be ostracized as babies then starve or are eaten by predators long before they can use their powers to defend themselves.

Blue Eyes; Witch Eyes
All witches have special blue eyes. The blue of the eyes takes up the entire eyeball. There is no white in these eyes. The eyes have rings and a round center pupil that is a light blue. The ring around the pupil is a darker blue and around that is a light blue ring (and so on). Witch eyes can have any amount of rings but they most comonly look as the picture shown does; only the pupil and three visible rings.

All witches have the same shade of blue for their eyes. These is no navy blue, no purple blue, no grey blue and so on!

Witches tend to have slightly more narrow or slanted (slightly upwards at edge) eyes than the average eyes of their species. Witch eyes can be round but this is usually a characteristic of younger witches such as a witch dog under 9 months old.

Growing into their Eyes
While some witches are born their their blue eyes already matured, most witches actually grow into their eyes. The blue color grows from the outward rim, reaching the pupil last. Witch powers cannot be tapped and used by the individual until their eyes have 100% fully developed.



This is a young fox witch growing into her eyes. The fox has slightly oval pupils, but once her eyes are fully developed the light blue pupil will be a round circle. Right now this fox has no special powers.

Powers
Each witch is born with one specific power. For example, Rollo is an energy manipulator. That is, he controls and deals with electricity. He cannot control fire, water, ect. However, creativity allows witches to broaden their powers' abilities. Rollo's electricity can be used to sense electrical pulses made by any living anmal. That electricity can also be used to control the brain's electrical activity.

The powers witches can be born with the use of art not limited to the elements such as fire or earth. Witches can have nearly any sort of power. Soe powers can even just be super strength (these witches are called Brutes).

Lifespan
Wtches have a unique lifespan. They live through their normal species lifespan, however, once they reach the age their species would normall die at, they continue living through a period of old age (which varies from species to species, for a human it can be up to ten years, a dog it is 5, a rat might only have a few months) before they regain their species' prime life-age again. This is their second life-cycle and they will live through this second life-cycle keeping their youthly prime until they reach again the amount of years their species would have normally lived. Again they will go through an elderly period again--if they survive it, they will continue to go through this lifespan cycle pattern until they die naturally in one of these elderly periods (or die otherwise). if they have the right connections and reputation, it is easy enough to survive for an extremely long period of time by getting other witches to cure them of their old-age illnesses or disabilities that would have killed them.

During their first they will say their age by years (12 years old, 3 years old, etc) but after they survive their first cycle they begin just referring to their age by life-cycle (3-cycles old, 6-cycles old). Roughly 50% of witches do not survive their first extended elderly period.

An example of the lifespan:
A dog lives 15 years but reach seniority at roughly 12 years old. During the first life-cycle the witch dog will age normally and reach seniority at 12 years. The dog witch will continue to live this elderly age past 15 years and then an extra 5 years. If they survive, at 20 years old they quickly rejuvenate their youth. in this second life-cycle they do not begin to experience seniority for the next 15 years. They will then go through 5 years of seniority and then regain their youth again and repeat the same aging process the second life-cycle again and again.

Bodily Changes
A great amount of aging as well as becoming a council member commonly induces new changes to the witch's body. They become significantly more powerful as these changes occur. The changes can be as huge as growing new heads (like Cerberus) but are not going to be so huge that their original species becomes completely unrecognizable. This means a rat isn't going to change into something that looks like a dragon or a horse.

This witch shown in the picture to the right has gained split tails and a unique glow. She is probably triple the strength (or more) of a witch the same age and magic-type as her simply because she has gained these changes.

Some witch types grow into simple anatomical changes for their powers' sake. For example, brute witches are much larger than their normal species or littermates.

Colors
Colors can change as well. Some witch types have magic that can "taint" the fur, changing its color to another. Fur tainting is considerably rare but an example of one is Apollo who can manipulate cell activity in himself and others. He was born a white wolf but while young, he unintentionally tainted his color to gold.

The most common color changes result from aging. As witches age, they, like others in their species, tend to lose pigment. When they regain their youth, often times they do not regain those colors. Many old (second cycle or more) human witches have grey or white hair even though they appear to be in their twenties.