Blackthorn Coven
Name: The Blackthorn Coven
Symbol: a thorned rose in silhouette before a gibbous moon
Core Philosophy: Darwinian
Cover: Thorn Garden Books & Teahouse [Under Construction]
- This faction can be joined by alts.
- This faction is open to being joined with faction join.
- This faction has a parent organization supporting it.
- This is a protected faction
- leadership can be taken by anyone who obtains high enough standing
- it cannot fall below 50k resources
- cannot be disbanded
Formed by a pair of Sumerian Witches in June of 2015 the Blackthorn Coven has been a gathering point for members of the Coven ever since.
Athena Marie Valentine and Aria Lucas were the founders of the Coven, practicing an ancient line of magic that works through the manipulation and evocation of one of sixty four Summerian me (pronounced mai), words or symbols that represent all of the powerful ideas of the Sumerian people. This branch of witchcraft is however plagued by a schism between two sects. One sect, often called the night witches, believes in maintaining the traditional uses of magic that their ancestors, the Kassapatu, worked which were mostly stronger at night time. The other believes in incorporating what is often colloquially called day magic and was first practiced by the Asipu, a group of almost all-male sorcerer priests who fought and persecuted the Kassapatu in the earliest history of Sumerian magic.
The coven also accepted those who followed different paths, so long as they were still members of the coven and had Germanic and pagan practitioners mixed in with the others. They became known for the tarot readings performed in their bookshop in the light of day as well as the female robed figures who snatched people at night and took them to strange underground caves where they were bitten by snakes or insects with strange, mystical or hallucinogenic poisons, bled by leeches or used in strange rituals. The wider town also experienced it's share of disturbing events from mental impulses to strange weather and atmospheric disturbances as the witches practiced their craft and made deals with other entities for more power. But despite their drive and dark ambitious, their young age however contributed to many of these castings going awry as the girls continued to learn more and more about their craft.
Around the beginning of October the founders were seen less and less often and finally disappeared from Haven all together in November, but they left the coven and all it's resources in place, either awaiting their return or simply to help aid in the next generation of witches.
The Blackthorn Coven embraces a Darwinian philosophy, they are not very well structured and heavily emphasize individual freedom and choice. The Coven's legacy of oppression has left many even modern day witches suspicious of anyone attempting to gain power of them. They spurn almost all alliances except for the most fleeting and are suspicious of almost everyone outside their own order. The goal of most members is the pursuit of individual arcane power and more respect is conferred because of someone's mastery of the craft than actual skills at leadership or wisdom.
Their primary goals in Haven are an exploitation of the natural magical resources for study and personal empowerment. They are generally willing to do whatever it takes to further their own craft, even hurting or experimenting on innocent people or making deals with dark entities or creatures for more power or arcane knowledge.
(In OOC terms the coven is driven by RP around rituals, schemes and the capture of PCs for use in rituals/experimentation. It very much embraces the aesthetic of dark, gothic witches making deals with dark beings for unholy power, it is not an appropriate place for nice hippy wiccans.)