These witches are able to control ONE of the five elements, fire, air, earth, water, or aether. Witches with this magic are able to summon their element, as well as control it and use it to their will. A witch who is able to manipulate fire can also create smoke and, and a water witch would be able to create ice for example. A witch who uses this type of magic is unharmed by the element they summon.
Powerful nature witches may also be able to summon various types of weather. This magic is much easier to perform in smaller amounts i.e a rain cloud in a kitchen or summoning a single bolt of lightning. Big weather changes such as an ability to summon storms that affect a large area would require more witches for their combined power. They can create rain, wind, hail, lightning, snow, sleet, fog, temperature changes or other occurrences relevant to their element or in a combination of elements that would produce that occurrence..
Fire, air, earth and water are pretty much straight forward, but in CIH, there is a fifth element that is about to be wielded, and an example of an aether witch’s capabilities are listed below:
Aether - Aether witches can manipulate dark energy and dark matter. Witches are able to teleport distances up to half a mile. The distance depends on their own personal capability and age, as older witches have usually honed their magic better. While they can teleport through things, like buildings, it’s imperative for the witch to know where they’re teleporting to as splicing does happen. Dark energy does not respond to the power of gravity fae. Dark energy manipulation also includes the capability to launch an object at high speed and maintain its velocity for a set distance not to exceed one mile.
In manipulating dark matter, witches are able to be completely invisible. They naturally are able to block fae in the electromagnetic spectrum from using capabilities on them. With the capability of invisibility comes stealth as well; dark matter witches can move silently about while invisible although it’s visible if they interact with something.
Divination is the ability to look into the future, the length of time they can see for depends on the strength of the witch. A very strong witch can view as far as a month ahead, whereas weaker witch may only view a few weeks or days. Diviners are also able to see and/or manipulate things that others cannot. This could be reading auras via intuition which is individual to each witch, empathetic connections, reading the history of an object, etc.
Some more versed, stronger diviners may also manipulate time in such a way, they are able to travel through it. Time travelers are able to manipulate time and a powerful witch can travel up to one hour into the past or future whereas a weaker witch may only be able to manage a few minutes. Time manipulation involves the capability of freezing time for anywhere between a few minutes to an hour.
Enchantment is the ability to weave magic through a person or an object, so it can perform in a different manner than it was originally intended. For example, an enchanter can make a sweater enchanted with eternal warmth, or hex a human with boils or severe stomach cramps using magic. Enchantment can both be positive and make the lives of all easier, or it can be used for wickedness via hexes and cursing. Essentially enchanting is the use of magic to create a reaction that is either permanent or short term.
This type of magic is often seen as the purest form of witchcraft and certainly one of the more powerful pathways. However, using this type of magic requires a lot of stamina and practice and if used.
Illusions - Enchanters can weave magic through a person via the mind and create elaborate illusions that can suck a person into a completely different reality. The more seasoned witches can make the illusions dimensional in touch and feel, thus creating a labyrinth that one must navigate in order to break the illusion. Illusions can have lasting effects on the person targeted, such as being unable to tell whether they are existing within the current reality of things or if they are in a memory of illusion.
Alchemy is the ancient art of changing the chemical makeup of one item into another. Historically, this is often associated with the myth of turning base metals into gold, though that skill is extremely complex and limited to very few powerful witches that have cracked that code. Overtime, witches have developed spells and formulas to change the chemical makeup of many things and formed knowledge on potions that will heal wounds and cure things from acne to headaches.
Alchemy in its simplest form is transformation of materials, but also potion making. It can again be used for amazing things such as healing, but also to create poisons etc. Potions cannot be practiced by those who don't possess magic as it simply more than mixing together ingredients requires the power of magic too.
Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transferred. For industria witches, they can take life energy from one thing and transfer it whether to themselves or to something else. Energy manipulation takes great concentration as it’s easy for the witch to take too much energy from a living thing and kill it, but they can also harm or accidentally kill themselves if they do not release the energy they are taking in. Too much energy overwhelms the organs and will cause failure quickly while transferring out too much can cause the same results.
Industria magic is about balance and proper transference. Witches who harness energy magic can learn to see auras which help them ascertain the amount of energy they can take without harming, assuming no harm is the intent. Examples are:
Telekinesis - The movement of larger objects requires more energy and witches in this path must not make the mistake of pulling in too much energy into themselves if they’re attempting to move something substantially large.
Reanimation - This animation is not the same as necromancy as there’s no summoning back a person, only reanimating the movement of life without the guise of life. This works better on smaller things and reanimating creatures with larger mass takes more energy which often turns detrimental to both witch and energy source.
Possession - Possession is a craft that needs the most discipline for an energy witch. To occupy another’s body is to be at war with two essences and a race against time. If left too long in another’s body, the witch’s body may die leaving them stuck. Two essences in one body can cause a personality split and if the witch is to occupy the body for another life, they must kill the other essence but to do so will cause a fracturing of their own. To maintain possession is to keep a spell continually alive which requires almost all of their energy, leaving them with no capability to engage in large, power hungry spell casting.
At its root, blood magic is about the cost of magic. The thing offered must be equal or greater than to the thing given. Blood magic has some of the most rewarding results but at a high cost.
Witches who engage in blood magic are more ritualistic; their timing must be perfected by celestial events and their sacrifice chosen carefully. While blood magic does not always ask for a life, it will ask for something valuable, something that often brings the petitioner to a line close to too much.
This type of magic is known to use more natural elements in rituals other than blood as well to enhance the power of the ritual. Witches who deal in blood magic are no stranger to death and as they age, are often prone to madnesses for the cost of what they want.
Blood magic is looked down upon but not technically illegal. This type of magic is not its own pathway necessary but more of a gateway, allowing the witch to take on not one but two paths of magic to call from. (i.e. Fire and enchantments, or divination and industria, etc.) To access another path, a witch must use blood magic in order to sacrifice something of equal or greater value to what they’re getting. Blood magic can also be used to enhance spells in both paths.
Illegal and seen as a defiance of nature, necromancy is a path that few walk. The price one pays to bring the dead back to life can be something gruesome. Witches who practice necromancy are some of the strongest witches in existence. For awhile, they are able to prevent themselves from being haunted, but in the end the portal blurring the living and the dead can become hard to decipher as they fall deeper and deeper into the imbalance. Blood magic is the more prominent way witches access necromancy but it is a path that can be a calling to witches although most try to resist. Necromancy is the only path that other witches can be bound to by other witches and may lend itself to interesting domain over the dead.
