====== Mercyverse Witches ======
=====Witch History=====
[[Alpha & Omega Series]] #1: [[Cry Wolf]]
  * the few witchblood families left in Europe during the Napoleonic Wars had quit killing each other, forced instead to protect themselves from the ravages of more mundane fighting<sup>121</sup>
  * clans of witches<sup>213</sup>
  * a bad time for all in Europe; the Inquisition had taken a terrible toll a couple of centuries before - and when it was over, the witches started fighting for power; only Napoleon kept them from exterminating each other entirely<sup>213</sup>
  * the only Western European bloodline to survive the power struggle was the Torvalis line, which was interbred with the Gypsies<sup>213</sup>
  * witches were still born here and there into mundane families, but seldom had a tenth of the power of the old families<sup>214</sup>
  * the Eastern European and Oriental witches had never established the kind of dynasties the Western European witches had<sup>214</sup>
  * they guarded their spells from each other; so each family tended to specialize<sup>214</sup>
  * witches are so jealous of each other<sup>219</sup>

[[Mercy Thompson Series]] #10: [[Silence Fallen]]
  * Spanish Inquisition set off the Witch Wars<sup>294</sup>
  * centuries ago every village had a coven of witches<sup>294</sup>
  * every city of any size had a witch as strong as [[Elizaveta Arkadyevana]] in charge of it<sup>294</sup>
  * humans began it, driving the witches into breaking treaties that had been in place for centuries; by the time it was finished it seemed for fifty years after that they had succeeded in killing off every witchborn person on the planet<sup>294</sup>

[[Mercy Thompson Series]] #11: [[Storm Cursed]]
  * back in the days covens dotted the landscape of Europe<sup>155</sup>
  * covens are no more; just make-believe attempts; not enough witches from thirteen families<sup>258</sup>

======General Witch Behavior & Facts=====
=====Chat Transcripts=====
  * a witch is born to use magic Chat 2007-11-03
  * they are trained in spell usage Chat 2007-11-03
  * and they are usually born to different families who are witches Chat 2007-11-03
  * some of the things witches can do to increase their power, is as corrupting as sorcery Chat 2007-11-03
  * witches do things with mind and body. Wizards have power over the physical -- and both do magic. The ends are sometimes the same, but the means are different. It's far easier to be a powerful wizard and still be a good person then it is to be a powerful witch Chat 2008-07-27

=====Alpha & Omega Series=====
====Cry Wolf====
  * witches often hired themselves out<sup>181</sup>
  * there were witches who regularly worked for the various law-enforcement agencies<sup>181</sup>
  * most witches are human and not immortal<sup>191</sup>
  * witches and dead things went together; there were witches that didn't kill but they were far less powerful than their darker sisters<sup>234</sup>
  * magic and fire have an odd, synergistic effect sometimes<sup>237</sup>
  * likely the witches didn't know why it was forbidden for them to try to take a werewolf for a pet or familiar--not that most of them had the power to do it<sup>239</sup>

=====Covens & Witch Families=====
^      Identified Covens          ^
|[[Hardesty Coven]]    |
|[[London Coven]]      |
|[[Maryhill Coven]]    |
|[[Samhain Coven]]     |

[[Mercy Thompson Series]] #11: [[Storm Cursed]]
  * a coven of witches was thirteen witches, one from each of the thirteen families<sup>288</sup>
  * if you had a complete coven, then you were limited in power only by your imagination<sup>288</sup>
  * since they are witches, usually that lasted a few months or a year at a time before someone fought with someone else and there would be bodies all over the place; untidy folk, witches<sup>288</sup>4
  * examples of what they did: Stonehenge, the Little Ice Age, a couple of volcanic eruptions; used plagues to discipline rules who worked against them<sup>288</sup>
  * the Great Plague of London killed a hundred thousand people in eighteen months; the London Coven was killed by [[Bran Cornick]]<sup>288</sup>

[[Mercyverse Short Fiction]]: [[Seeing Eye]]
  * thirteen members<sup>139</sup>
  * no member related to any other to the sixth generation
  * each family amassed its own specialty spells, and a coven of thirteen benefited from all those differing magics<sup>139</sup>
  * most of the witchblood families had been wiped out by fighting among themselves, covens became a thing of the past<sup>139</sup>

[[Mercy Thompson Series]] #6: [[River Marked]]
  * [[Gordon Seeker]] burned cleaned out a coven; burned the whole town down to do it; Maryhill never recovered

^      Identified Witch Families & Lines          ^
|[[Cornick Family Witches]]       |
|[[Corunda Family Witches]]       |
|[[Eramus Line]]                  |
|[[Green Family Witches]]         |
|[[Hardesty Family Witches]]      |
|[[Keller Family Witches]]        |
|[[Kikimora Family Witches]]      |
|[[Mariposa Line]]                |
|[[Torvalis Line]]                |

====Types of Witches====
[[Black Witch]]\\
[[Gray Witch]]\\
[[White Witch]]\\

=====Spell Casting=====
[[Alpha & Omega Series]] #1: [[Cry Wolf]]
  * illusions were among the very basic tenets of witchcraft<sup>174</sup>
  * imprisoning spells are pretty basic<sup>189</sup>
  * a strong enough witch can control any werewolf who doesn't have a pack to protect him; it is forbidden by witch law, but it is possible<sup>218</sup>
  * it usually took witches a while to gain a hold on a lone wolf<sup>232</sup>
  * power circles: some witches used them to set guard spells to keep things they valued safe, and others used them to store power for drawing upon later<sup>234</sup>
  * changing what the senses of others perceived was one of the major powers of the witch<sup>234</sup> 
  * most of witchcraft is potions and spells<sup>236</sup>
  * witches could hide in plain sight if they had some sort of hold on you; hide-me spells<sup>238</sup>
  * a witch's creations did not survive their maker<sup>280</sup>


[[Alpha & Omega Series]] #2: [[Hunting Ground]]
  * self-sacrifice--as when the witch uses her own blood to fuel a spell -- has some power, but it's difficult to work withHG-120

====Magic Spells====
[[Magic Spells]]
