…..INTRODUCTION…..
The Salem Witch trials succeeded.
For all they were a farce of accusations against innocent people, people who were not in fact, witches, the trials produced—by simplest chance—the presence of true witches.
On October 29, 1692, Governor Sir William Phips of the Massachusetts colony strode to his place of authority with every intention of ending the trials. Unhappy with the proceedings and the spiraling nature of the paranoia, he’d decided that for the safety and sanity of his people, the witch trials must end.
En route, in a random confrontation, Sir William encountered a real witch that saved his life.
On that day, instead of ending the trials, a true witch was discovered, made to talk, and the false witches released.
For the first time in history, real witches and real witchcraft were documented.
In fear, they were killed just as the innocent non-witches had been. And yet, once again, innocents were caught in the cross-fire of fear and paranoia, innocent of wrong-doing.
The fate of the woman that saved the Governor’s life is unknown, though it’s suspected that she was quietly executed.
While commonsense and statistics showed that like the rest of the population, witches were mostly decent folk and harmful ones rare, at first, witches were rooted-out and persecuted by those who feared them. But for every visible witch that performed an act of kindness or mercy, another used their magic for chaos, damage, or harm. One witch destroyed three churches and killed dozens of people in separate incidents in Macon Georgia. Another masterminded a drug ring in Philadelphia, while a third rampaged through Washington D.C., burning half the city down before the woman was killed to prevent further loss of life.
But with little evidence of malice from neighbors, friends, and family, they were less and less feared over time, though most were shunned upon discovery. Living very quiet lives, decent witches went mostly unnoticed. Exceptions included the ‘Blue Witch,’ a woman that used her magic in the rescue of three children from the floods of the May 31st, 1889 Johnstown dam collapse. In 1843, a child used her magic to help an old man in a very public display that earned her lifelong imprisonment. And a Fire witch rescued a congressman from a mugger in New York in the year 1870. He was lauded a hero.
In the years between initial discovery and the early 20th century, witchcraft began to emerge. Still technically illegal, still feared, it none-the-less became a popular underground solution for the poor who couldn’t afford doctors or needed help. While rich tycoons began to monopolize the use of witchcraft in their ever-expanding empires, the poor had little access, and when they were caught in the use of magic, or were caught requesting magic from a witch, the law was not kind.
In the year 1915, a spectacular case reached the court systems, when a witch was, again, falsely accused of mischief. With little evidence, with overreaching ‘justice,’ the woman was put to death. Every witch in America, long used to fear, to punishment, to injustice, rose up, revealing a surprising number. Protests were made, legal cases of government abuses brought.
All with no result.
And then in 1918, the Spanish Flu struck. In fear, the government itself asked witches to come forward, to heal, to help the people.
In memory of Salem, in memory of those persecuted, in fear of a backstabbing retribution should they comply, a letter was sent to the President telling the government no—and why.
The resulting deaths from Spanish Flu outpaced every projection of scientist and doctor alike, killing a quarter of the population of America.
Because of their refusal to help—and because many feared illogically and without proof, that witches had either caused or helped make the plague worse—the government enacted the Witch-born Binding Act in the fall of 1920. A new witch hunt then began. Every witch located was forced to wear an identifying bracelet, were registered, and were required to obey the local government. To keep up with the process of dealing with a surprising number of witches—just over one in ten people—the Federal Bureau of Witchcraft and Registry was founded in 1922.
In the beginning of life after the Binding Act, witches were persecuted, often abused, and the requirement of registry opened them to all of it. In 1925, the Bureau requested lawmakers pass an amendment to the law, which was quickly put into place, protections for the witches they policed. The following year, in 1926, the Bureau began to use the witches in their everyday work, helping rein in actively malevolent magic-users, and within a year, Handlers were an official part of life at the Bureau.
The success of the pairing of witch with a Handler seeped rapidly into society. By 1929, the government cleared another amendment to the Binding Act. Every witch must always be under the monitoring eye of a Handler outside their place of residence.
In 1943, used in World War II against their will, legal witches protested their treatment, the cruelties of their lives, and their lack of basic human necessities. With the loss of fleeing witches from ranks into both their allies and their enemies, lawmakers acted quickly. The law was amended a third time. All witches must be given fair and adequate housing, food, and mental relief by their Handlers, such as art or hobbies, gardening, recreation, or gainful employment under supervision.
By the end of the war, with the discovery of the risk of nuclear catastrophe made clear with the accident at the Alamagordo Bombing Range, and the discovery of a top-secret new source of power, the government shifted stance on witches yet again. While leaving in place the requirement for witches to be treated well, lawmakers forced through a final amendment late in 1944.
In return for their good treatment, all witches became government property until legal adoption, and after adequate Federal training of their magic and their responsibilities to the people of America.
The last amendment enforced possession of a witch, which necessitated removing surnames.
Already unable to go in public without their Handler, now no witch was allowed to live alone, without their Handler.
And in a cruel twist, the law blandly stated that witches were not permitted marriage, in a not-so-subtle attempt to rein in the growing numbers. Even those already married, were declared divorced. Spouses of these witches protested, but were given the option of becoming the Handler. In anger and pain, most agreed.
Witches became possessions.
But for all the soft-pedaling legal attempt to protect witches from injustice, the true injustice came from society. The people had not forgotten the witch’s attempt at self-actualization, at withdrawal in protest from abuses, that led to such loss in the pandemic of 1918. Society had condemned them. Over time, many considered the witch’s failure to act indicated a literal lack humanity.
As science began to study magic more and more, they came to realize that the ancients had had the right of it. The four Elements were in fact, real, were the basis of all magic. But what they hadn’t known was that within each Element there were Aspects of that Element that moved in distinctly unique ways. These tighter Aspects of the broader Elements were categorized within their Element. Witches also seemed to prefer a certain form of their native magic. This was perhaps why magic was so misunderstood for so long.
Based on the science of magic, within Earth magic was Matter, Gravity, Lattice, and Magnetism. Air broke down into Space, Dimension, Probability, and Void. Fire contained Energy, Light, Heat, and Waves. While Water, perhaps the most exotic of all, was noted for Time, Transformation, Entropy, and Mirror.
Magic melded with science over time. Many considered it a triumph of the human race, to incorporate all three, and most considered witches beneficial. But almost all considered the subjugation of witches necessary for the safety and function of society around the world.
But under the surface of every country in the world was a restless rage. Witches everywhere knew there was a war coming. And this time, the war wouldn’t just have witches fighting in it. Witches would be the prize of it, either as free people, or fully enthralled beings without legal humanity to call their own.