Broad Daylight Appendix: Liches and Witches · 6:34pm Dec 30th, 2021

The Witches:

Leader: None

Headquarters: None

An ancient order established at least six thousand years ago during the Mythic Era. Witches are considered the most dangerous and powerful ponies on the planet by an astounding margin. Until the modern era, ‘killing a witch’ was synonymous with the impossible. Their power still has a massive mark on Equestrian culture.

‘Crow’ is often considered a swear word simply because of it association with witches. Harming a crow is considered the worst luck because there’s a chance it was a witch turned into a crow. The saying ‘killing the wrong crow’ refers, literally, to the horrible situation of realizing you’ve killed one of the crows a witch has turned into.

The main ability witches are feared for is their mastery over mind fibers. Holding onto a piece of mind fiber will grant you all the knowledge and skill that has been written onto it. Even the most skilled mages outside the order can quickly become overwhelmed by more than a few strands of mind fibers. However, witches are able to use vast amounts of them, compiled into spell books which contain hundreds or thousands of spells and the skill to cast each at a master level.

In addition to spells, spellbooks are also used to store ever-increasing amounts of martial arts skills and general knowledge. Each spellbook contains multiple generations of training, giving its wielder total mastery over dozens of fighting styles. Because they’ve been honed over multiple lifetimes, this also give witches reflexes, battle intuition, and expertise vastly beyond anything a normal pony could hope to achieve.

A witch with a spellbook is not something any normal pony can hope to fight.

For a long time, witches appeared to only become more powerful with each passing generation. By inheriting a spellbook and adding all the training and learning they do through their life into it, witches were able to slowly build up spectacular abilities. That this tradition went back to the dawn of the Mythic Era is one theory as to the origins of their awesome power.

Another is that they simply retained ancient knowledge from the Mythic Era now lost to all others. As of 1350 no witch has ever been captured alive and witches are secretive about their ways to outsiders.

In more recent centuries, witches appear to be waning in power. The number of spellbooks in existence has greatly decreased with The Book of Shadows being the only known set of high-quality spellbooks in existence. It’s believed witches have somehow lost the ability to create more.

There is believed to be a small number of lesser spellbooks still in existence, mostly cobbled together from fragments of mind fibers.

Though witches were largely secluded from outsiders in the Royal Era, starting around the beginning of the Democratic Era they began to interact with the world more often. Because witches value the endless accumulation of power above all else, they have a reputation for showing little concern for the wellbeing of those weaker than them.

Their reputation has been in constant decline as they continue to push around normal ponies, eventually leading witches to be one of the most hated groups in the world. Today, their curses and actions have resulted in a great deal of hardship for the rest of the world.

A list of the knowledge and techniques exclusively known to witches:

-Knowledge of spells that are centuries beyond Equestria in terms of complexity and power.

-Knowledge of materials that no one else has yet managed to replicate. Only recently did Equestrians learn to forge arcanium and adamantium, which was once exclusively a secret known to witches.

-The ability to create and use cauldrons.

-The ability to use earth pony, pegasus and unicorn magic regardless of which tribe they are.

-The ability to cast magic with their whole bodies, allowing for much larger ‘hyper’ spells to be cast.

-The ability to create curses.

-The ability to wield spellbooks, which contain mind fibers for hundreds or (in the case of The Book of Shadows) thousands of spells.

Though there are at least twelve witches known to exist, the following are the holders of the seven volumes of the Book of Shadows. Because the majority of a witch’s strength comes from a spellbook, these six are considered a far large threat than any of the other witches.

Sorted by volume (as of chapter 1):

Volume 1 (A-D): Screwball

Volume 2 (E-H): Trixie

Volume 3 (I-L): ‘Auntie’ Eclipse

Volume 4 (M-P): Ember Moon

Volume 5 (Q-T): Sunset Shimmer

Volume 6 (U-Y): Held in Area 5X

Volume 7 (Z): Minuette

The level of mastery of witchcraft is marked by the number of bells a witch hangs from her hat. A witch begins with no bells and is granted one bell for each of the milestones listed below. Obtaining all seven bells marks one as a master witch:

First bell (familiar) – spin a makarakarn 100 times without passing out

Second bell – cast a hyper spell

Third bell (witch) – cast a spell from a spellbook

Fourth bell – carry a spellbook with you for one year

Fifth bell – create and write a new spell into a spellbook

Sixth bell – create a spellbook

Seventh bell (master witch) – a master witch acknowledges you as their equal. If a master refuses to acknowledge a sixth bell, they must instead give some challenge that would prove the sixth bell has power equal to their own. The sixth bell can either complete this task or ask another master to acknowledge them

The Liches
Leader: Lexigraph
Headquarters: Unknown

The Liches were formed as an offshoot of the witches. Lexigraph started off as a familiar, a trainee of a master witch. He was expelled from the order around the time of the revolution in the year 4220 RE, which he was strongly opposed to believe democracy was doomed to end in failure. Depending on who you ask, it was either because he was too interested in the politics of Equestria (supporting the royals), or he just kind of sucked at being a witch.

Angered at his banishment, Lexigraph sought to create his own ancient order and founded the liches. Though he never learned to make mind fibers himself, he was able to spread knowledge of creating curses, powerful spells, and how to use mind fibers to his fellow liches.

More vitally, he pioneered the creation of phylactery, which can greatly extend one’s lifespan. Ponies who use the artifact still age, but cannot die from their body aging. As such, they live until their body turns to dust, giving liches lifespans of centuries.

Realizing his order could not become ‘ancient’ in his lifespan, even with a phylactery, it is said Lexigraph put himself into a deep cryo-sleep. He is believed to still slumber somewhere to the far north even today.

While not nearly as feared as witches, liches are considered a serious theat. Their power ranges far more greatly but the most powerful liches can get close in strength to the weakest witches. While they don’t posses most of the knowledge witches have, they do know how to use mind fibers to nearly the same degree. In addition, they’ve developed a vast library of necromantic and other spells over the past thousand years.

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