In the earlier years of the second age, after the first Fae Wars, when there was a burgeoning agreement between Fae and humans, the Citadel had been established and the Great Stone Way was under construction, there came a crisis amongst the witches, who were being killed at an alarming rate by their own people.
The witches were educated for the purpose of helping humans overcome simple tasks, as well as healing and generally making life easier. When they could not accomplish things like this- and indeed, they were not infallible, they were often killed. Sometimes, it was their own fault as they created small cults, religious followings that then turned on them and killed them. Regardless, there came a year wherein a dearth of witches forced the leaders of the Citadel to join and figure out what they might do to solve this issue.
This was called Citadel II- and the only Fae amongst them was the representative at that time, an elf by the name of Stodio, Cast Thrum, Elfinblood. He was alone in representation because when he wrote to his brethren, they said this was to be expected, mixing humans and Majik, and to listen and advise where he could. Stodio was reluctant to ignore such violence and himself suggested a breaking of an elder rule for the safety of witches…. At the time, the Citadel witches, led by Excellior, consisted of Toma, Kurt, Threa, Maleio, Xone, and Pride.
This is an excerpt of one of many meetings from Citadel II, taken by a novitiate who was about to graduate.
~.~
Excellior: I call this meeting to order, the purpose for its conception, the contestation and decimation of the population of witches on the continent.
Toma: How many do we have left, exactly?
Excellior: Threa?
Threa: Based on our registry, and again, some go quiet so it’s hard to tell, but I’d say we have upwards of twelve left—
Kurt: Twelve?!
Threa (nodding, grim): Twelve. And they are generally clustered around Emak. Durevin still has its court witches, that accounts for three, but any witch in rural areas has either fled or been killed as far as we can determine.
Maleio: How are we getting this information?”
Threa: We’ve been sent missives from the witches who remain, and the Fae have also passed information through Stodio.
Stodio (shifts slightly): I would have put the count slightly higher; I believe there are a few witches in the Kotemor who have taken refuge among the Fae. But otherwise you are correct, of the many graduated thus far, most are dead.
Pride: So much for our everlasting life.
Stodio: Not even the Fae live against a foreful strike.
Pride (snorts): Pretty words. Tell me, how come your lot haven’t stepped in?
Stodio: ??? (kind of looks at Pride)
Xone: What are the Fae supposed to do, Pride? It’s humans killing the witches, not the Fae.
Pride (snorts, again): Take all of the witches in and teach humans a lesson.
Threa (rolls her eyes): That’s entirely the opposite point of the Citadel and witches as a whole— Don’t forget your teachings—
Pride: You dare—
Stodio (quietly): It is not our place to interfere with human politics. We have given you the gift of Majik as best we can. This… destruction was the reason many of my people were so hesitant in the first place. You see power differently than the Fae. Now that you have Majik, it frightens those who do not possess it. And so they kill. Violence is always your answer to fear. I cannot fix this. This is inherent in your nature, even as stillness is inherent in the Fae. Pride, I understand your frustration, but I cannot but give you missives from my people. This is your fight alone.
Pride (glowers at Threa, looks chastised): Fine. So how do we fix this.
…silence…
Kurt (clears his throat): We could teach the novitiates martial Majik.
A great hubbub
Stodio (quiet, but firm): No.
Excellior (angry): this is not a solution, this is madness. Giving witches the tools of repression? This is what we were created to stamp out! We were created to be the balance, not create a new order where we’re at the top.
Maleio: Further, we would kill novitiates here faster than we can recruit more. Martial Majik is not easily sought.
The whole room eyes him uncomfortably.
Maleio: I will articulate the uncomfortable points even if you do not wish to.
Stodio: Maleio is correct, even as Excellior is. But I cannot sanction this, and teaching martial Majik castigates the charter. The Fae would not stand for introducing violence to human Majik.
Pride: Are you threatening us?
Stodio (looks ever so slightly contemptuous): Of course. That does not mean you must return with war.
Excellior: Enough, Pride.
Pride (bites his lip)
Threa: So what do we do?
Xone: we could send witches to only friendly places.
Toma: That defeats the purpose of the witches as well. We can neither bless certain areas more than others, any more than we can control where the witches go once they are released. The registry is a guideline, not an elder rule.
Stodio (shifts slightly)
Threa: Keep them in the courts. Keep them in the watchtowers and on the shores of Emak. Make them harder to get to.
Maleio: That also destroys the purpose of the witches. We need to be embedded, accessible to humans. That is the point of offering us Majik in the first place, that we use it to improve the lives of those who otherwise could not.
Excellior: What about covens? Groups of witches in certain areas on the continent so that people can visit them and ask for help?
Hubbub
Kurt: And make it that much easier for a massacre?
Threa: We already have issues with humans venerating witches, and witches using their Majik to garner cults and create their own religions. How much worse would this become if we made them the sites of pilgrimages?
Hubbub
Stodio: What if you created something new?
Silence
Excellior: Go on…
Stodio (hesitant): What if you created a new sect of human. A partner for each witch. A nun, devoted entirely to the preservation of his or her witch.
Silence
Threa: How would we make them—
Maleio: How is this not teaching martial Majik?
Stodio: They would not be taught Majik. In fact, they would be unable to learn or practice Majik. (Discomfort)
Toma: How would we do that?
Stodio (hesitant): The Fae would have to begin the teaching. We would have to bind their minds so that they can neither learn the First Language, nor employ it.
Hubbub
Pride: This is an elder rule. You cannot break this.
Stodio (surprised): You are correct. But—
Pride: No. It is in the Charter; we cannot forsake the elder rules. We will be, as you say, castigated.
Stodio: The Charter can be amended, but I would have to convince the Fae.
Excellior: This seems like madness. What does this mean for a witch? Would we bind their mind too? That they cannot use certain types of Majik? I will not stand for this. They will not be able to practice Majik should we proceed down that path. That crushes a freedom. This is why it is so forbidden in your culture, Stodio. Binding minds strips one of an identity.
Stodio: It will not be the same for humans, though it will kill them if they reach for that piece of their mind.
Pride: How can you suggest this?
Stodio: These nuns would be the most skilled fighters. Different than humans or witches. Created in pain, desperately loyal to one being. They would be the ultimate bodyguard, capable of destruction only by other nuns or other witches. This is your solution; this is the dark underbelly of human ambition.
Silence
Toma: How would we begin?
Stodio: I would need to convince my people to allow this. Then we amend the Charter. Then Fae send representatives to begin the teaching and the binding. I can tell you right now, Fae will only consent to having Fae complete the binding. They would not trust humans to do it. I will not either. Your understanding of the First Language is not inherent enough to do so without causing irreparable damage.
Pride (snorts): You’d break your own elder rules for us. Something does not seem right.
Stodio: You are so quick to distrust me. If you have a solution, I bid you speak.
Silence
Excellior: How do we find the bodies?
Threa: That’s simpler. We ask for volunteers. And then we voluntell. And as recruits who pass the trials come in, we give them a choice.
Maleio: don’t you think this will sift those inclined to violence into the nunnery?
Threa: Isn’t that what we want?
Silence
Excellior: How would a witch and nun select each other? We cannot make that assignment.
Stodio: They will train separately at first. Witches at the Citadel. Nuns in the Crucible. And once they are ready to complete their first stage of training, once we are comfortable with their existences separately, we will create a way for them to bond in a second stage of training. Then they will move to completing a third stage together, so that they know their every move. The witch will offer back a piece of the mind of which the nun was deprived. The nun will offer the same to the witch in phsyciality. They will be a dyad, incomplete without their other half.
Threa: This sounds like love.
Stodio (nodding): It is a type of it, yes. The nun must never feel as though he or she must reach for that forbidden piece of the mind. If they do, they will die.
Excellior: What of this crucible?
Stodio: That will be for the Fae to create. You cannot be trusted with pain.
Uncomfortable shifting.
Stodio: And what’s more- the witches cannot be allowed to the crucible- they must earn the knowledge of the pain and endurance that the nuns endure instead of witnessing it.
Excellior: How will they bond?
Stodio: Majik will find Majik. There will be currents that drive partners together. It will be the job of the trainers to ensure these traces exist.
Silence
Xone: How long until we can begin?
Stodio: We begin as soon as I can reach my people.
~.~
Of note, one of the other serious topics of Citadel II was the continued and consistent creation of cults around specific witch personalities. While this would grow into such a massive problem that it would cause a civil war in the south, at the time, existence seemed more pressing than moderating religious tendencies of humans toward Majik users. When Carza returned to the Citadel at the rise of the third age, he wrote expansively on the need to shift human perceptions of Majik and its power. It was much too late.
~.~
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