Much of Wildwood is fiction, but not all. It's the late nineteenth century, magic is outlawed and somewhere in northwest Britain between mountains and the shore we find a hidden coven of witches, fifty-two in all. This is Wildwood, but this isn't a world where magic solves all of life's problems and neither does it spring effortlessly from a wand. Magic is sweat, hard work, devotion and often peril, but the cause is great.
This introduction tells of the very purpose to magic; of the serpents-twins Hethra & Halla and those that laboured to protect them - the witches of Britain.
Valonia
& her Wards |
Valonia Gulfoss was raised in the wilds of Iceland and she founded Wildwood upon arriving in Britain many years ago and became it's coven-mother. The fifty-two witches of Wildwood are divided into four season of thirteen each. Valonia acts as Ward for the twelve witches in her own season - Moon-Frost, while her loyal friends Lana, Hilda and Esta are Wards of the three remaining seasons. Together the four govern and protect Wildwood.
The heart of Wildwood is occupied by a huge oak named Hethra's tree. Both Valonia and Skald, her thunder-sprite, live in a humble dwelling nestling within its branches. Hethra's tree is surrounded by gardens that are worked to produce food crops and from its height Valonia keeps a close watch upon her coven and the well-being of her witches.
Hethra
& Halla |
'No living witch knows where they lie,' goes the old adage. The serpent-twins rest under the earth, entwined in a sibling's embrace inside the terra-soula. They embody life itself and remain perpetual infants. They never age and neither do they awake, instead they dream and their dream is life and it manifests as the green Earth and all its living things. Witches understand that all humans live within Hethra & Halla's dream. This is proof that mind creates matter.
Halla the winter-serpent has scales of holly while her brother Hethra, the summer-serpent has scales of oak. It was the desire to safeguard them that inspired men and women to devise simple spells of protection, keeping their sleep peaceful and undisturbed. In time these guardians came to be known as 'witches'.
Legend says that when a witch dies one of the twins arrives upon their last breath to guide them to evermore, the eternal-spiral.
Witches faithfully protected the twins down the millennia, accompanied by their allies both magical and earth-bound and there are no allies more loyal and magical than thunder-sprites.
Thunder-Sprites
|
Without exception whenever lightning strikes a tree a thunder-sprite is born. Creatures of the element of air, they can only be seen by the gifted and it is the desire of every young witch to recruit one to be their lifelong companion.
At the age of ten, novice witches begin to search for devastated trees where these elementals reside and if they can best the sprite at feats of daring or riddling contests then the sprite almost always agrees to become their partner. In this case the witch will cut a staff from the tree, the sprite will live inside it and the witch will use it as a flying staff powered by the sprite's elemental fury. Some witches disguise their staffs as humble brooms by tying twigs to one end. This gave rise to the myth of 'flying broomsticks', but Valonia shuns this tradition.
All sprites are male and all of them takes their names (which are often long and grand) from the achievements of their parent storm. Gales-Howl-Over-Stormy-Waters is just one example, but their witch names are always shorter. This partnership between witch & sprite lasts until the witch dies or the staff is broken where upon the thunder-sprite will return to the heavens and the embrace of the storm-heights.
Magical
Allies |
Nature spirits benefit witches, but for the most part they remain elusive and are seldom if ever seen. One such being is Lilain the hive-empress. She is a huge bumble-bee. She never lands, but flies the skies of earth spreading bounty to her countless hives across the world. She was once attacked and downed by a pack of barghests from Ruination, but she was rescued by Rowan and Kolfinnia and taken back to Wildwood to recover.
Her recuperation lasted for some weeks and she became a focus for many visiting witches who travelled from afar to pay their respects. Lilain has flown the skies since bees came into existence millions of years ago and it is unlikely witches will meet her kind face to face ever again.
Life
at Wildwood
|
As the witches live in secretive covens for their own protection self sufficiency is paramount. Thus each coven has a head gardener whose job it is to keep the coven fed. Flora Greyswan holds this post at Wildwood, having inherited it from Ada Crabbe, and she manages to keep Wildwood's witches fed and self sufficient not just by growing food but by asking of nature to increase its bounty. She is able to keep the coven gardens growing and yielding food crops right through even the hardest winters. The ability to call forth life from leaf and bud while all around is frost-bitten and grey is regarded as one of the supreme skills of witchcraft.
Ruination
|
Very little is known of Ruination, but just as Hethra & Halla's dream creates the living Earth, the mind of Ruination emanates 'time' into the universe without which there would be no death, decay or rebirth. Frequently tragic, death is never-the-less a natural force of renewal.
However, the mind of Ruin can also create monsters. As it sleeps it sometimes emanates nightmares as living, breathing creatures. These creatures of Ruin frequently stalk the earth and it is up to witches to defend the world against them.
The Hand-of-Fate
|
The Hand-of-Fate is the strangest and most feared creature in witchdom, neither aligned with Oak & Holly nor Ruination, but part of something altogether more ancient. Witches who desire to know the future and are daring enough, can summon the Hand - a huge hand bearing six fingers as large as an ox. It always appears from underground and thus is synonymous with caves and tunnels, wells and mines.
Legend says that the Hand belonged to the Patternmaker himself and after creating the world he was so disgusted by humanity's capacity for evil that he cut off his own hand and cast it down to Earth. The legends go on to say that Hand seeks revenge on its former master by revealing to those reckless enough to seek it out, the Patternmaker's intentions.
Fairies or 'fays' |
Legends of fairies have become so overgrown that the truth of what fairies are and their role in the world has been mostly lost.
We are taught that only humans have souls, but in the world before humankind all things in creation possessed a soul, from river pebbles to snowflakes, from fallen feathers to blades of grass and all of these souls were shepherded and protected by fays or 'fairies'.
At the end of its life each fallen soul, be it rock or raindrop, was escorted to the eternal-spiral by a patron fay and thus there were not just fairies for beasts and trees, but fairies for stones, berries, moonlight, fog, hail, bird-song and all things in creation. Sadly, as science began to supplant wonder the fairy nations started to dwindle and they continue to do so, and one day they must surely vanish all together.
At
the end of its life each fallen soul, be it rock or raindrop,
was escorted to the eternal-spiral by a patron Fay and thus there
were not just fairies for beasts and trees, but fairies for stones,
berries, moonlight, fog, hail, bird-song and all things in creation.
As science supplanted wonder and life itself became defined by
equations scribbled with paper & ink, the fairy nations dwindled
and continue to do so and one day they must surely vanish all
together, leaving humanity as the only creatures gifted with souls,
but they’ll be all the lonelier because of it.
The Order of the Knights
Illuminata
|
An ancient military force openly opposed to witchcraft - but secretly they steal magical secrets and corrupt them to derive technologies that benefit the Empire. Aside from feuding amongst themselves the knight bloodlines actively hunt down hidden covens and are adept at interrogation and infiltration. The knights use coal-fired steam-suits as their primary weapon known as 'krakens'. They are much like 'walking tanks' and the knight sits under the monstrous helmet and pilots the machine. Their battlefield support comes in the form of mounted squires.
The
Swords of Britain
|
It
is believed that each season can manifest a champion to protect
Hethra & Halla in the event of dire need, and although no
living witch can claim to have seen the four guardians, every
living witch knows that they can be called upon by the ‘Swords
of Britain’. Thule, Fen-Halla, Sol-Har and Oceana are the
spirits, but the simple wooden swords must be carved anew for
each summoning for it is the love and faith that the carver imbues
the weapon with, that is the true act of calling these powerful
deities.
The
Eternal-Spiral |
Often referred to as 'evermore'. It is the backbone of eternity - a spiral of stone stairs outside the material universe that curl onwards without end and lined with countless doors that lead the souls of the departed to new lives. All souls, regardless of their species, beliefs or even their home world meet here at the end and beginning of all things.
The Ragged-Brothers |
A scattered but legendary coven comprising thirteen men who meets only at summer solstice. They live solitary lives and preach the teachings of Oak & Holly in the hope of enlightening the masses. For this they are regarded as highly dangerous by the Knighthood. Their symbol is an ear of wheat with thirteen kernels, one for each witch, and thus the Illuminata know them as the 'poison bread'.
The Brothers are spoken of with awe amongst witches. It is rumoured that they are so adept at magic that they can fly and cast spells at will, and so they have no need of wands or lightning-staffs. It is said they are wild and dangerous fellows, perhaps even strong enough to live free of the ravages of time. The coven moves around and may be absent from these shores for many years before surfacing again, but when they do calamity for the Illuminata is always sure to follow.
Witches of the Wildwood Novel - Rowan
& Kolfinnia |
We can't pass Kolfinnia and Rowan without saying a few words. They form the backbone of the Wildwood novel. In her own illustration Kolfinnia stands on the cliffs overlooking the sea. It is dusk and she is about to cast Valonia's wand into the waves. She hopes it will locate the force-line of magic that span the globe and follow one of them to a place where a new coven can be founded. After the wand finds a trace of magic it speeds away through the sea and Kolfinnia follows on her lightning-staff. She flies through the night following the wand and is soon joined by an enormous escort of dolphins and other seas creatures all drawn by the wand's power.
Last but not least is Rowan Barefoot. The young girl who possesses a skill never seen before in witchdom. There is no secret or knowledge in creation that can be hidden from her. If asked, Rowan might even disclose the resting place of Hethra & Halla themselves. If this young witch should ever fall into the hands of the Illuminata the Earth itself would be forfeit.
