Witchcraft in Vinland

         The inhabitants of Vinland will usually term any hostile use magic as "witchcraft". For game purposes, though, I use the term to refer to the particular practices among the Frankish immigrants around and to the north of Hvalrik (i.e. Boston). These came primarily in a large group around 1350, and their ships were the last contact with Europe that Vinland has seen.

         Witchcraft here is a classic sort of European witchcraft. Its philosophy is a mix of Gallic pagan influences, Gnosticism, and some classical alchemy. At the heart of it, though, witchcraft is a craft: worked with the hands. The central principle of witchcraft is in shaping and using the magical power in natural things. Each living thing has certain magics within it. Minor uses of these are uses of medicinal herbs and so forth. More careful formulae will produce outright magic.

         There are three primary skills of witchcraft: cauldron-craft, knife-craft, and hex-craft. Cauldron-craft works by distilling magical power via cooking and alchemical methods. Knife-craft works by carefully removing magical parts. Hex-craft works by internal mental methods.

Minor Cauldron-craft:
	Enhancing potions
	Fire-resisting ointment
	Love potions
	Poisons
	Poultices
	Sleep Dust

Major Cauldron-craft:
	Cauldron of Resurrection
	Doppleganger
	Flying Ointment
	Homonculus

Minor Knife-craft:
	Bane Arrow
	Blood Ring
	Necromancy
	Spankel

Major Knife-craft:
	Transformation Items: Wolf's skin, Raven feather-cloak, ...

Minor Hex-craft:
	Dowsing
	Empathic Cure
	Puppeteering
	Putrefecation Curse
	Visions

Major Hex-craft:
	Evil Eye


John H. Kim <jhkim-at-darkshire-dot-net>
Last modified: Fri Oct 11 10:14:34 2002