| “ | Now, in reality, witches appear to cross every culture in history. They're the architects of the supernatural; responsible for everything that goes bump in the night from ghosts to vampires. The Italians call them Strega. The Yoruba of West Africa call them Aje, meaning mother. Where other witches are from, they called them Häxa. And here, we call them witch. Over the centuries, many have fought them and others fought beside them, bedded them and burned them. Whether adversary or ally, they have been a force to be reckoned with. They could be anyone. Neighbor, coworker, man, woman. That's the problem: they're human, they're like everyone else. Most of them anyway. | „ |
| — Oracle, about Witches | ||
Witches or Warlocks, also called The Servants of Nature, Wizards or even Sorcerers, are a race of non-mortal, supernatural human beings who have gained magical powers and abilities to effect changes in reality through the practice of witchcraft and are gifted in the magic arts of witchcraft, sorcery, and wizardry, but those that study it are wiccans. By connecting with various sources of magic, witches can practice their craft in order to fulfill their duties as "Servants of Nature" to maintain balance within the world and combat the forces that disrupt the balance. A witch can be either female or male (male witches are known as warlocks), as they connect with the elements and forces of nature in order to practice sorcery. Witches live in secrecy and never reveal themselves due to the threat of exposure. While little is known about their abilities, a witch can attain eternal life by regularly absorbing human souls.
Beliefs in witchcraft, and resulting witch-hunts, are both found in many cultures worldwide, today mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, and historically notably in Early Modern Europe of the 14th to 18th century, where witchcraft came to be seen as a vast diabolical conspiracy against Christianity, and accusations of witchcraft led to large-scale witch-hunts, especially in Germanic Europe.
The "witch-cult hypothesis", a controversial theory that European witchcraft was a suppressed pagan religion, was popular in the 19th and 20th centuries. Since the mid-20th century, Witchcraft has become the self-designation of a branch of neopaganism, especially in the Wicca tradition following Gerald Gardner, who claimed a religious tradition of Witchcraft with pre-Christian roots.
Powers and Abilities[]
There are significant differences in power between witches, with some being powerful enough to stun even the most terrifying of the Turok-Hans, while others can hardly even defend themselves against human attackers. As such, not all witches have the same abilities. The magic of a witch is limited by the need for material components and verbal Latin incantations for their more powerful spells. Even so, their power seems to have the potential to be far greater than that of any other supernatural being, with the only exception being angels and most demons. Below is a list of powers demonstrated by different witches over the course of the series. The full extent of the abilities of witches has not been seen, but they have been shown to have a variety of terrifying powers, including:
- Spell Casting: The act of employing the use of words and incantations to achieve a magical result and changing and/or controlling events through the use of charms, hexes, rituals, etc. Some witches are capable of performing spells without some of the most important reagents to gain the desired effect. Powerful witches can easily cripple a fallen angel, however they can't kill them. Witches commonly require rituals and objects to direct the spells, such as Hex bags, or enchanted objects like Tarot cards or coins.
- Pyrokinesis: Witches are able to conjure fire.
- Electrokinesis: Witches are able to generate electricity through a spell.
- Summoning: Witches have used spells to summon demons.
- Biokinesis: Witches can use magic to manipulate the human body
- Tracking: Witches can use magic to track down others.
- Astral Projection: Witches are able to project their own awareness as well as those of humans out of their bodies
- Reality Warping: Witches are able to alter reality through magic, but this is usually only to a very small degree.
- Cursing: A common use of magic; this causes the person at whom the spell is aimed to die by manipulating the environment around them.
- Memory Manipulation: Witches are able to transfer memories into the mind of another witch. They were also able to bring forth memories of Hell and Lucifer's cage in Dean and Sam respectively.
- Granting Invulnerability: Witches are able to charm themselves so that they survived being hit by a car without a scratch, and also implied that being hit by bullets would only tickle them.
- Longevity: Witches have been shown to live much longer than typical humans. Some are even potentially immortal, but they can still die as easily as normal humans.
- Teleportation: Witches have the power to teleport over short distances.
- Super Strength: Invoking demons or other spirits, can give witches great strength, making them physically more powerful than normal humans. Witches are strong enough to lift a full-grown familiar into the air and slam others down with ease and are even strong enough to rip victims to shreds with their bare hands.
- Spell Casting: The act of employing the use of words and incantations to achieve a magical result.
- Channeling: The act of channeling or drawing other forms of energy and power by focusing on celestial events.
- Conjuration: The act of calling, commanding, or summoning an element, certain object, person, and/or spirit already in existence.
- Elemental Control: The act of controlling and manipulating the elements of air, earth, fire and water.
- Mind Control: The act of controlling and manipulating the minds of humans. (Similar to a Vampire’s Mind Compulsion, but they witch doesn’t have to make eye-contact)
- Mind Stunning: The act of bemusing and rendering someone unconscious.
- Pain Infliction: The act of creating and inflicting excruciating pain upon another person, especially and particularly creatures with supernaturally accelerated self-healing abilities such as vampires.
- Mediumship: The act of calling, communicating, and invoking the spirits of the dead.
- Premonition: The act of seeing past, present and future events and happenings.
- Telekinesis: The act of controlling and manipulating the movements of objects and persons by mental influence. Some witches have exhibited a very refined control. Others have great and powerful displays of this ability, hurtling an entire vampire out into the sunlight.
- Potion Making/Witches Brewing: The act of brewing and concocting supernatural and paranormal elixirs and potions that contain mystical and supernatural properties.
- Manipulation Immunity: The act of resisting forms of supernatural manipulation.
- Special Gifts: Some Witches have been identified as possessing individual magical abilities special to them in particular.
Tools[]
- Candles: Materials used to amplify a witch's spells.
- Grimoires: A magical family book/journal documented with ancient magical knowledge, recipes, rituals, and spells.
- Herbs and Stones: Materials used as ingredients for brewing and concocting paranormal potions.
- Talismans: Materials used to amplify a witch’s power.
- Hex Bags: Materials used to curse, kill, enchant or protect another person.
- Herbs and Roots: Materials used as ingredients for brewing magical potions.
Weaknesses[]
Witches and Warlocks are not easy to take down. Despite their great powers, witches are still mortal humans, and can die just as easily as them, unless they use magic to enhance or protect themselves.
- Iron: It appears that some, of if not all, of a witch's powers can be blocked with iron.
- Anti-witch Spell: Once prepared, it kills any witch it hits, and makes it impossible for them to use magic to protect themselves. It has a very small range, as it killed one witch but left another who was standing only a few feet away unharmed.
- Disbelief: The act of denying or disbelieving in ones magical potential could cause a witch to inadvertently suppress their paranormal power.
- Distraction: Any person, substance, or thing that prevents a witch from giving full attention to their spells can hinder a witch from effectively practicing witchcraft.
- Fear: A distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the condition or feeling of being afraid could cause a witch to temporarily lose their powers.
- Magic: All creatures, including witches, are susceptible to the forces of witchcraft.
- Mortality: Based off the fact that witches are still human, they share many of the same weaknesses as non-supernatural beings (e.g. age, decapitation, disease, heart-failure, suffocation, etc.)
- Overexertion/Overuse Of Magic: The excessive use of magic could lead to disorientation, nose bleeds, unconsciousness, and if taken to the extreme, death from overexertion.
Types of Witches[]
There are many kinds of Witches and Warlocks. A lot of the time, they are connected with a certain religion - though wiccan religions may vary - that is based around performing rituals and spells. In short, anyone (regular humans, even vampires and demons) can cast a spell and produce magic. However, those with experience and devoted understanding of magic are called wiccans.
Wizards[]
These are elder witches and warlocks. They are considered to be the leaders and masters of their own covens. As such, they possess great power and wisdom, with some being powerful enough to not only fight off, but destroy monsters, demons, and even other witches.
Grand Witches[]
Grand Witches, or Warlock, are a type of Sorcerers that are more powerful thank wiccans. They are basically the heads of their own witch covens, serving as second in command to the Wizards. Grand Witches possess the ability to shapeshift.
Sorcerers[]
These witches are no different from ordinary witches and warlocks but they are more powerful and are basically warrior versions of them. Similar to Wizards, Sorcerers wield great power, making them very powerful.
Wiccans[]
These kinds are the normal, common witches. Though they are powerful, they can be outmatched and overpowered by more powerful beings.
Students[]
These are witches and warlocks whose abilities had just awoken. They are people who obtain their power through practice and training. While these witches are commonly known to have been taught about witchcraft from other witches, it has been implied that some Students are self-taught.
Necromancers[]
Though these ones are rare in existence, Necromancers are a type of witch, warlock, sorcerers, or even wizards that have the power to summon the spirits of the dead. They are considered to be the most evil magic-folk in the supernatural world.