Witch Hat Atelier, Orufrey and the Myth of the Beginning of Witches
From my other post on Orufrey and the founding myth, seeing peoples comments has also made me think of the mythos of the creation of magic and it's allusion WHA in general. The myth goes that the star that fell in love with the tree, to give magic to the tree maiden so she could be free of suffering; only the tree maiden then gave it to humanity to alleviate their own suffering, making them witches. It's a story that makes sense since magic is only able to be drawn from the ink from the silverleaf tree!
Beyond the mythos story making sense and back to its allusion to the plot of WHA, Qifrey and Olruggio alludes directly to the silverleaf tree/maiden and the star that was caught and fell in love with the silverleaf tree maiden, with the way they clearly deeply love each other. Olruggio represents the star, in literally being called the brightest, kindest star during the flashback when Qifrey was turning into a silverleaf tree as well as being also nicknamed Olruggio the Torch due to being is known for his fire spells, and when he was younger the Star of Godley for being so good with magic. Qifrey represents the Silverleaf trees and their maiden, with literally being possessed by the silverleaf tree, and his emphasis on the colour white. Even their relationship mimics the story to a lesser degree beyond loving each other; Olruggio being the one who gave Qifrey the memory spell to use on himself, to keep Qifrey alive (ie, to alleviate his suffering) while he was turning into a silver leaf tree, and continues to help Qifrey where he can. One can also infer from the story that the star falling in love with the silverleaf maiden which caught them, could mimic the way that Olruggio found Qifrey as someone who gave him a sense of home and purpose.
And within the greater story, Olruggio and Qifrey are the ones who provide the foundation of magic for Coco (and us the audience); Qifrey cheifly being the one who teaches and passes down magic the same way as the silverleaf maiden gave magic to humanity. As well, the maiden chose to share the magic with humanity because she cared about their suffering; in much the same way, one of the reasons Qifrey chooses to apprentice Coco is to provide her tools to alleviate her suffering by helping her mother as well as avoiding the Knights Moralos, who would cause even more suffering (in fact most of Qifrey's apprentices seem to have gone through things before becoming his apprentice). Meanwhile the introduction of Olruggio matches the mythos, as Olruggio threatens to hand Coco over to the Knights Morales to protect Qifrey. After all, the star gave magic to the silver maiden to protect her and alleviate her suffering, not to protect humans from suffering, and much like the star, Olruggio prioritizes his care of Qifrey over others! In fact, it seems like Olruggio did not himself intend on taking apprentices, but rather became Qifrey's watchful eye because he cares about Qifrey (although of course, he has clearly grown to love all the apprentices, nor am I saying he doesn't care about helping people; he just puts Qifrey generally first). Also, the fact that the star gave magic originally to alleviate suffering (and thus, to bring joy); which reflects what's been a refrain over and over again in the manga that magic's purpose is to bring joy, (and implicitly, to alleviate suffering), something Qifrey and Olruggio have said. It's something that is hammered home again and again within the manga, and is also the crux of many of the tensions within the story!
Overall, the founding story is almost playing out before us within WHA! And as @dai-ceased pointed out, in the anime the green book representing the story literally has a Silverleaf tree reaching towards a star on it...
Also, as an aside, part of me wonders if we'll ever get more details/alternate to the mythos story, since it feels like some details may be missing from the story, especially with the new information about that the silverleaf tree's all grow from animals they've parasitized... perhaps as we get to know more about Iguin the Lidless eye...
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