theoscout
New Member
I don't feel like writing this myself, because imo this piece is powerful if done right, and has direct allegories for Indigenous genocide. As a non Indigenous person I don't feel like I'm good enough to craft this as well as I wish I could. But here's the prompt.
Strong trigger warnings ahead! Genocide and racism
Thousands of years ago, there were people known as witches living alongside Humans. The powers of a witch seemingly affected people at random- a regular set of parents could produce a witch child, while witch parents didn't guarantee witch children. It was a rare power that struck at random, it seemed. Witches were revered, feared, respected, and everything in between. Many were venerated as tribal leaders, keeping their tribes alive through their strange and unexplainable powers, while others wreaked havoc and sowed fear upon the population. There was many a tale featuring witches, and for good reason.
This lasted for seemingly forever, until explorers from another country approached them.
These explorers were from a mighty continent, with black powder as their enforcements and the word of God at their lips. They came to spread the good news about a loving and benevolent god, and how they were indebted to His deeds. Having no prior experience with witches, they approached with curiosity, and relayed the information back to their king.
Among one of the many tales they spoke of, was a legend.
It was thought that the witches would never die out, they were just too magical. But, in a rumor repeated upon tribes, should the witches ever approach extinction, the person who landed the killing blow on the final living witch would be bestowed with the powers of every witch that ever lived before them.
This was a silly thought, to completely eradicate the witches. Why attack when they have done nothing wrong?
But, as history had proven time and time again, it takes frighteningly little for a human being to view another human being as something that has no value. Something unwanted, and needing of removal. And the land these settlers had found was full of riches. What was a human life to an acre of land? What were millions of lives to godlike powers?
So they spread the word of their god, though the only god they worshiped in their hearts was money and power. They labelled the folk barbarians, savages, animals in need of a helping hand, and named all witches the spawn of evil who broke the rules of reality to their own selfish means. They set fires to the land and many settlements, and shot whoever fled from the fires. They offered bounties for every kill, especially the witches. They enslaved whoever they did not kill, and tortured them daily to see if they would use witch powers to defend themselves.
And...
Nothing happened.
Through a century or two they reduced the country's population to a tenth of its size, and no matter how they waited, there were no witches that appeared. Perhaps they truly had gone extinct after all. There were rumors that the last witch had taken their own life, and used this power to flee from earth, but this was but a rumor. The folk who the witches had once lived among fell to the back of society, the majority trying to keep a low profile to avoid further acts of genocide.
Skip forward to the twenty first century...
There are reconciliation days that are held for the lives lost those centuries ago, though many still pretend they never happened. How could the followers of a good and benevolent god commit atrocities in his name? And surely there's no such thing as witches. Those were just legends the Indigenous folk told the colonists to get them to leave them alone.
Except, there is. People are randomly developing powers that are exactly as described as the legends of old. And just like the witches in the legends, many use their powers for the good of society, while others use them to pursue their own dark goals.
And with the slow but sure return of witches, there must also be the return of another legend. The story of the final killing blow, on the final witch. While the times may change, the hearts of people remain consistent.
Would the story end the same way as it did once before?
Strong trigger warnings ahead! Genocide and racism
Thousands of years ago, there were people known as witches living alongside Humans. The powers of a witch seemingly affected people at random- a regular set of parents could produce a witch child, while witch parents didn't guarantee witch children. It was a rare power that struck at random, it seemed. Witches were revered, feared, respected, and everything in between. Many were venerated as tribal leaders, keeping their tribes alive through their strange and unexplainable powers, while others wreaked havoc and sowed fear upon the population. There was many a tale featuring witches, and for good reason.
This lasted for seemingly forever, until explorers from another country approached them.
These explorers were from a mighty continent, with black powder as their enforcements and the word of God at their lips. They came to spread the good news about a loving and benevolent god, and how they were indebted to His deeds. Having no prior experience with witches, they approached with curiosity, and relayed the information back to their king.
Among one of the many tales they spoke of, was a legend.
It was thought that the witches would never die out, they were just too magical. But, in a rumor repeated upon tribes, should the witches ever approach extinction, the person who landed the killing blow on the final living witch would be bestowed with the powers of every witch that ever lived before them.
This was a silly thought, to completely eradicate the witches. Why attack when they have done nothing wrong?
But, as history had proven time and time again, it takes frighteningly little for a human being to view another human being as something that has no value. Something unwanted, and needing of removal. And the land these settlers had found was full of riches. What was a human life to an acre of land? What were millions of lives to godlike powers?
So they spread the word of their god, though the only god they worshiped in their hearts was money and power. They labelled the folk barbarians, savages, animals in need of a helping hand, and named all witches the spawn of evil who broke the rules of reality to their own selfish means. They set fires to the land and many settlements, and shot whoever fled from the fires. They offered bounties for every kill, especially the witches. They enslaved whoever they did not kill, and tortured them daily to see if they would use witch powers to defend themselves.
And...
Nothing happened.
Through a century or two they reduced the country's population to a tenth of its size, and no matter how they waited, there were no witches that appeared. Perhaps they truly had gone extinct after all. There were rumors that the last witch had taken their own life, and used this power to flee from earth, but this was but a rumor. The folk who the witches had once lived among fell to the back of society, the majority trying to keep a low profile to avoid further acts of genocide.
Skip forward to the twenty first century...
There are reconciliation days that are held for the lives lost those centuries ago, though many still pretend they never happened. How could the followers of a good and benevolent god commit atrocities in his name? And surely there's no such thing as witches. Those were just legends the Indigenous folk told the colonists to get them to leave them alone.
Except, there is. People are randomly developing powers that are exactly as described as the legends of old. And just like the witches in the legends, many use their powers for the good of society, while others use them to pursue their own dark goals.
And with the slow but sure return of witches, there must also be the return of another legend. The story of the final killing blow, on the final witch. While the times may change, the hearts of people remain consistent.
Would the story end the same way as it did once before?
