Witchcraft

"It's not all hocus pocus and chicanery. There's also sleight of hand and deceit. And raw sorcerous power."

The core of sorcery in a horror setting is that it's a series of secrets that an individual learns that gives them great powers and is a really bad idea. When Extras attempt to learn Magic they don't turn into monsters or anything, they just end up as cultists. Think Cthulhu or Bible Black cultists. Better yet, don't. Extras who attempt to learn magic usually end up getting sacrificed one way or another, and it's really no better of a deal than being a Vampire Spawn. But for those lucky few who can master the dark arts without succumbing to the whispers or tentacles of demons, a lifetime of sorcerous power and intrigue awaits.

Using magic is, for a mortal, a harrowing, draining, and indeed life and sanity threatening thing. However, through deliberate study or horrid inspiration a human can manage to change themselves into something that can use magic with relative safety and reliability. Once attuned to sorcery a soul can never be the same, and people who become sorcerers can be wicked difficult to get along with or even understand.

Witches are generally fairly vulnerable to normal physical attacks, but Silver actually causes them aggravated damage. Most Witches have Master Passion Greed. In After Sundown, men and women can both be "Witches", although some men prefer the epithet "Warlocks" and a considerable number prefer to call themselves by some more culturally specific term for a magician such as Houngan or Rishi.

The Baali Tradition

"You will not remember what I show you now, and yet I shall awaken memories of love... and crime... and death..."

Perhaps the most expedient manner to make one's human soul stop reacting poorly to magic is to set it on fire and be done with it. A Baali is someone who did exactly that. Some sell their soul off to demons, while others burn out their souls quickly or slowly with their own dabbling in dark power.

Baali tend to be emotionally distant and enraged by pictures of themselves (such as reflections, paintings, or photographs). This is probably to do with the fact that their souls are burned out husks or trapped far away in a mysterious hell dimension and reminders of their pasts as humans are infuriating. The thing where they usually fail at having normal relationships with people is probably much the same thing, albeit played out in a grinding process of ashy distance rather than inexplicable rage.

Baali refresh their powers by hurting people. This is functionally equivalent to vampiric blood drinking, but they don't specifically put any blood into their mouths. They still have to spend the same amount of time absorbing the proceeds of their wickedness. The actual distance they can be from the victim is about 1 meter per Potency each round after the wound is inflicted to draw a power point from the fresh injury.

The Baali Witch has an Infernal power source and a Feeding power schedule.

The First Baali?

The word "Baali" is an old Mesopotamian word meaning someone worthy of respect or allegiance. It has been handed around the Middle East and North Africa for millennia, and even such famous figures as Hannibal have reference to precisely that in their names. But the title used to mean someone who used Sorcery. That changed with the reforms of Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE, where people who had no magic at all could be known as a Baal. The first person in the secret histories who used Infernal magic to burn out their soul to keep the use of magic from destroying them was Marduk. He slew Tiamat and began the Marduk Society in the 25th century BCE. It is interesting to note that in the nights since, the Marduk Society has moved to favoring Astral magic, and no longer has many Baali members.

Baali Starting Powers

Core Discipline: Authority

• Command (Basic Authority)

Basic Powers

• Aura Perception (Basic Discernment)

Advanced Powers

• Cloud Memory (Advanced Authority)

In addition, you may choose three extra Basic Powers and one extra Advanced Power. These Powers must be drawn from the Discernment or Authority Disciplines or must be Infernal Sorceries.

Suggested Basic Powers

• Mesmerism (Basic Authority)
• Hand of Flame (Basic Walk of Flame)
• Light of Ennui (Basic Descent of Entropy)
• Learn the Heart's Pain (Basic Names of the Blasphemies)

Suggested Advanced Powers

• Fire Starter (Advanced Walk of Flame)

Distinctive Flaw: Disloyal

Story Inspiration: The 1932 Mummy, Constantine, Devil's Advocate, Faust

The Dryad Tradition

"You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been."

You know who doesn't have emotionally crippling experiences when exposed to the horrors of true magic? Plants. A person who replaces their heart with a seed can channel magic through themselves like water goes through roots. Sometimes this is a deliberate process, and other times it is the providence of an evil seed taking control of someone in their sleep. Regardless, once a person's blood runs with sap they are forever more a witch.

Dryads do not remember their dreams, even when woken in the middle of them. Their sweat smells like flowering trees. And they become plantish in their demeanor. Regaining their power requires that they put parts of their body into the ground and water themselves. When they draw their hands or feet out of the soil, there will momentarily be white rootlets that are rapidly drawn back into their pores with a sickening hiss.

A Dryad has an Astral power source and a Ritual power schedule.

The First Dryad?

The Dryadic tradition of magic was probably codified in Greece, around the 3rd century BCE. Like the Maenads of the same period, Dryads were a conscious attempt by Greeks to emulate Egyptian cultic practices of the time. However, unlike the Chain of Coronis it is no longer part of the historical record what exactly they were emulating. In the early nights, Dryads were defined and divided by the type of seed used to anchor their heart. If an apple seed was used, the Witch was an Epimeliad; if a laurel seed was used, the Witch was an Oread; and so on. During the early centuries of the Common Era, Dryads were almost exterminated in Europe, but the tradition was picked up upon elsewhere in the world.

These new Dryads used different seeds based on what was available in their climate, and the old clan distinctions are no longer used.

Dryad Starting Powers

Core Discipline: Coil of Thorns

• Bitter Fruit (Basic Coil of Thorns)

Basic Powers

• Aura Perception (Basic Discernment)

Advanced Powers

• Telepathy (Advanced Discernment)

In addition, you may choose three extra Basic Powers and one extra Advanced Power. These Powers must be drawn from the Discernment or Veil Disciplines or must be Astral Sorceries.

Suggested Basic Powers

• Grass Rope (Basic Coil of Thorns)
• Rising Mists (Basic Chasing the Storm)
• Enchanted Slumber (Basic Veil of Morpheus)
• Pain Drops (Basic Trail of Tears)

Suggested Advanced Powers

• Puppetry (Advanced Coil of Thorns)

Distinctive Flaw: Aimless

Story Inspiration: The Craft, Kotetsu, Poison Ivy

The Khaibit Tradition

"There are far worse things awaiting man than death."

Fear of darkness and death leads men to do strange things. Perhaps the strangest of them is to murder one's self and then use sorcery or advanced medical techniques to make one's foray into the land of the dead a temporary one. This does not inherently prevent a person from dying in the future, indeed quite the opposite. Many who gain the intimate secrets of death in this manner are chased by the shadow of doom for the remainder of their existence.

The Khaibit gain venomous saliva, a fact that they cannot choose to turn off under any circumstances. However, each Khaibit's kiss is dangerous in a different manner. The player of a Khaibit may choose their venom of choice.

The Ritual to regain power requires either a bunch of medical equipment or a bunch of corpse pieces, depending upon whether they originally killed themselves with scientific equipment or ancient rituals. That declaration needs to be made right at the beginning of character creation. However, while the more mystical types need to have a skull to "Alas Poor Yorick" with, it doesn't need to be especially fresh and they don't need to have chopped it off themselves. Either way, Khaibit are incredibly bad tenants, as some sort of horrible luck rubs off onto any place they stay for long. Appliances break down, walls cave in, windows break. Many Khaibit become paranoid about these effects, and come to believe that a mysterious force is hunting them to take them back to The Gloom. They might even be right.

The Khaibit Witch has an Orphic power source and a Ritual power schedule.

The First Khaibit?

Khaibit Sorcery is available throughout the night all over the world. But the earliest recorded books of power written for the subject were in Egypt around 1550 BCE. The "Book of the Dead" was itself based on earlier sorcerous investigations, but Khaibit Witches date back in a currently recognizable form to the beginnings of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt.

Khaibit Starting Powers

Core Discipline: Necromancy

• Summon Spirit (Basic Necromancy)

Basic Powers

• Aura Perception (Basic Discernment)

Advanced Powers

• Reanimate (Advanced Necromancy)

In addition, you may choose three extra Basic Powers and one extra Advanced Power. These Powers must be drawn from the Discernment or Fortitude Disciplines or must be Orphic Sorceries.

Suggested Basic Powers

• Compel Spirits (Basic Necromancy)
• Eyes of the Night (Basic Play of Shadows)
• Bite of the Serpent (Basic Lure of Destruction)
• Thaumaturgical Forensics (Basic Path of Blood)

Suggested Advanced Powers

• Solid Darkness (Advanced Play of Shadows)

Distinctive Flaw: Haunted

Story Inspiration: Reanimator, Flatliners, Jason and the Argonauts