The Doctor and the Witch OOC

[Guest]

Map of Altara

Alright, the story. I was thinking it's going to be a bit fantasy-based in reality(meaning realistic situations in a world not our own, with a bit of magic thrown in). The town is full of miners and very religious folk. What use to be a happy town is now a town full of people on edge, ever since a preacher came several years ago. He's a big man full of self-righteousness and looking to make the people enemies of each other while he searches out real witchcraft and persecutes those who practice it.

The townspeople were ready to riot and kill each other a year or two ago when a young doctor traveled through and talked some sense into them. And ever since then he's been waging a war over the people's sanity and their souls against the destructive priest. In this world, real witches do exist(as your character will be one) but they're so apart from the world this doctor knows that he cannot even begin to imagine they might be real.

Your character shows up, stumbling in on the edge of town and collapses in the square, dressed in odd clothing and carrying with her arcane things(like possibly a spell book and a staff or something; I'll let you decide what she be carrying, but something on her person suggests to them occult and mysticism). Add onto that fact that she's a stranger and the townspeople are about ready to burn her at the stake. But the doctor steps in and reasons with them to at least give him the chance to prove her innocent, and so the preacher sets up a public trial, confident that he'll be able to win them over with the "evidence" present and his own oratory skills.

Meanwhile, your character will struggle to remember how and why she arrived in town in the first place and also struggle with the prejudices of the town and the disbelief of the one man willing to save her.

The religion is something called "The Way" and they talk about holiness and the importance of walking in the Light and have a very black and white view of the world and morality. It is slowly making conquests across the land with traveling priests settling in towns and setting up churches and whatnot. But not everywhere has accepted the new religion or been touched by it yet and many towns accept witches as "medicine women" and fortune tellers in their towns(not the type to swindle people or mislead them but guide the lives of the townspeople where they live using their knowledge of the esoteric nature of things, like stars, planets and nature itself, many of them possessing gifts like telepathy, clairvoyance, empathic abilities, etc.).

But this new religion is domineering and destructive and does not enjoy sharing with people of these talents, seeking to demonize them, turning the people against them and run them out of their towns(those that aren't killed). This church that's spreading over the land will act as a foil to the nature and balance espoused by witches and their kind, by being like a disease, encouraging violence and hatred towards outsiders, a guilty way of living(like, you're a sinner from birth and have to spend the rest of your life denying your basic needs and instincts to win back God's love). Like a sick paranoia; the only relief people find from God's supposed wrath is if they bring someone else to justice, so it essentially turns everybody against each other and stifles living conditions.

Any thoughts and ideas are welcome; none of this is set in stone. ^^

[Lara]

This sounds wonderful. =)

A question for now, though more might come up as I think of them.

What exactly makes a witch a witch in this? I mean, as a general sense - like does their magic involve things like fireballs, or is it more of a shamanistic type of thing? Or something entirely different. It'd be kind of good to know, since you've done such a good job of explaining the public's view of them, but I'm still not sure how they actually work.

I'm going to assume that since my character doesn't remember anything, she won't know she's a witch at first. Let me know if it's an incorrect assumption.

I like the concept of a necklace of sorts, though there might be a second object that will allow the priest to be all "she is most definitely a witch, just look at that!" (this is more so that I remember it in the future. XD)

[Guest]

Well, I was thinking that the witches of this world have the ability to control and wield the elements through an understanding and partnership with the energy of these forces and matter itself. This includes an understanding of the human body. So, fireballs are possible, but if they were to use such grand scale of power it would probably do more harm than good to their cause, you know? They do use herbs and the like to heal the sick and wounded because the amount of power they use directly relates to their energy. So, if they were to completely heal a stab wound within a few minutes and have there be no scar, or hurl several fireballs, they risk losing themselves to the power surge or burning themselves out. So, having a knowledge of nature and the like helps them not have to rely on raw power. And I was going to leave it up to you the degree of power your character has in relation to this.

My original thoughts were that she just doesn't remember how she arrives at the town but she still remembers everything before it except the train of events leading up to her arrival. Maybe something traumatic happened that made her forget? I was going to leave her backstory up to you, but some suggestions might be is that in her original home town the people got turned against her and drove her out, or some "witch hunters" chase after her and catch her, take her to the middle of the desert and leave her for dead?

Maybe a book of spells she carries with her or cards of divination?

[Guest]

Alright, while I'm waiting for you to develop your character, I'll submit the two that I have. =)

Name: Landon Cane
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Appearance: He has a long face but small features, big eyes and a small nose topping pouty lips and a mustache with matching soul patch and hair on the bottom of his chin; has a medium build and is fairly thin and average height. Has a tick where he rubs at his mustache when he's thinking or nervous.
Bio: As a young man, he was intrigued by the traveling salesmen and apothecaries who supposedly had elixirs that could heal the sick and cure just about anything in a matter of minutes. After finding out the frauds and cons these people generate on a regular basis, he set out to become a real doctor instead. Having a natural love of Science and the medical profession, he absorbed his schooling in only a few years and set out to find a town in need of his services. Upon arriving to Altara, he couldn't find a more needful town.

Name: Father Desmond Emmanuel Wallace
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Appearance: He has long square features and blue, cow-like eyes, a large nose and large lips. A very tall man, standing at 6'3" with broad shoulders and a deep voice to match.
Bio: A staunch supporter of The Way, he was raised as a boy in the church and has devoted his life to the spreading of the "Light" and doing God's will. When he was a young man, he found out his mother, who had abandoned him to the doorstep of the church, was a "witch" and felt it tainted his honor as a priest to come from a line of those who wielded the power of darkness. So, he made an example of her by having her killed and has made it his mission to expose these people for what they are and to bring them to the justice of the Light. He came to Altara 10 years ago and set up a church in the town, at first helping it grow through the people's faith. But over time, he's slowly needled away at the people's loyalties to each other, telling them stories of witches and demons in our midst, systematically tearing the town apart from the inside with superstition and paranoia.

[Lara]

Baaaah. -had written up most of what she wanted to say, only to accidentally press something and have it all disappear-

-goes into abbreviated version- I'm leaving soon, will be back in a few hours, but let me know what you think.

Name: Anna Dalkin
Age: 25

Comes wearing a necklace with some sort of emblem engraved on it (family symbol, witch symbol, something I haven't thought of yet) and carrying a worn, handwritten book of spells/remedies.

Reason for being at the village: Chased from her hometown (currently unnamed) after a group of townspeople who believed in 'the Way' took matters into their own hands and attacked her to the point where she retaliated with her magic in self-defense (I was thinking something along the lines of heating the temperature of her hands to the point where it would burn someone who had grabbed her, but you'll have to let me know what you think of that idea especially). The townsfolk rally others to their cause, showing only that she had attacked them, and she is chased out. Due to the fact that her village was one of the latest to start converting to the Way, she found no refuge in nearby towns and ended up being continuously chased away to the point of exhaustion, around which point she was physically attacked a second time and knocked down and out, then left for dead. I figure the exhaustion coupled with the blow would be enough to cause the memory loss, and when she wakes up she can be near enough to Altara for it to be the first place she ends up stumbling upon.

I also had the idea that maybe one of the people from her hometown might come into the picture at one point- they could help testify against her and align with the priest if that's the kind of angle you'd be interested in taking.

Havetogobebacklater!

[Guest]

Aw, that sucks; I hate it when that happens. It's usually when I go to use the "Shift" key, I accidentally press the ↑ key as well and it highlights everything above that I just wrote and I don't notice and continue typing, thus erasing the whole lot. XP

Sounds perfect! The way she used her powers to heat her hands fits with the story and someone she knows coming to the town later on is an excellent idea and I definitely want to incorporate it. Ah, if you don't have any more questions, maybe we could get started soon.

[Lara]

-has successfully swiped time on a nearby computer while her mom and dad continue to talk-

I'm glad to hear you like my ideas. =D I'm ready to start whenever you are- the only thing I still need to do is figure out exactly what she looks like, but that's trivial and unimportant to starting the whole shabang.

And yeah, I don't think I erased what I wrote - I think I somehow went from quick reply to actual reply, in the process getting everything deleted.

Who should start?

[Guest]

Ah, I see. I don't mind starting if that's alright? =)

[Guest]

Alright, here it is: The Way of the Heart

I wasn't really sure what to call it but didn't want to title it "The Doctor and the Witch"; we can always change it.

[Lara]

Aw, that's a cute name. =) I like it.

-scurries off to read the post-

[Guest]

Hehe, hope you like how I started it. ^.^

[Lara]

There you go! Finally. =D I hope it's along the lines of what you were looking for.

[Guest]

It's excellent! You have a wonderful voice in your writing. This is going to be fun to do with you. ^.^

[Lara]

Thank you, it means a lot that you say that. =D It's going to be awesome RPing with you as well~.

[Guest]

Alright, phew! Finally posted! That was a long one, but I couldn't think of a way to shorten it and every time I edited, I kept adding more. And I'm sorry about the book; I know you said nothing about it in your post but I thought they would need something more than just the charm around her neck to cement their suspicions and accusations.

[Lara]

I'll definitely get around to reading it soon! It's perfectly alright that you mentioned the book - I was hoping you would; she just didn't need to look at it in my post, so I hadn't mentioned it myself. I'm excited about the length of the post, actually. XD

Edit: Posted! That was...not nearly as long or as detailed as I had been hoping to end up with as a result, but I think it's the best I can do right now, and I didn't know how much farther to go in that particular post.

[Lara]

Success!

Sorry for taking so long. =/ I worked a good majority of this weekend, and though I worked on the post while at my job, I was too tired to finish it until today.

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