Macht Witches

Macht witches are, collectively, the descendents of Macht's children and of the villagers they shared their power with. There are six lines that have at one time or another existed: Vida, Smoke, Light, Arun, Marinitch, and Queitch.

Vida

Vida was Macht's daughter. Her three daughters (and those they shared power with) carried on the line.

For many, many millennia, the three Vida sisters trained others, granted them magic, etc. They did hunt some what we would call supernatural creatures, and protected their lands from magic-users, but in this timeframe they could better be called a select sect of warriors. It was only later, with the proliferation of vampires of Mira's and Kendra's lines, that they specifically hunted vampires.

Present-day Vidas include Dominique, the matriarch, her daughters Adianna and Sarah, Zachary, son of Rose Vida (Dominique's sister), and Kyla Athal Cobriana Vida, (apparently the result of a cultural misunderstanding over who was responsible for birth control).

[Note: Include tidbit about Vida blades, and later Arun blades.]

Smoke

At around 5000 BCE, some of Vida's "descendents" decided there were far too many fighters around. The Vida laws urged them to use their abilities to protect others, and the new group, led by Evelyn Smoke, reasoned that killing things wasn't exactly protecting them. So they shifted their training to focus specifically on healing, and swore some serious vows saying they would not harm others, no matter the situation. This enabled them to travel even in unfriendly territory; you could be certain that a Smoke witch would help, and would never be an assassin or even spy.

Present-day Smokes include Hasana, her daughter Caryn, and Diana Smoke (relationship in flux).

Light

In 3500 BCE, a Smoke witch known as Cyrinka Light was traveling in unfriendly territory when she and several of her students were taken hostage. Vida laws say you must never bargain with your enemies, and must never endanger all your people in order to protect a few... especially a few sworn to pacificism, who might not thank you for slaughtering people on their behalf. So the captured healers were left to fend for themselves. Turns out their captivity wasn't in the land of peaches and cream, and they decided that they had a right to their own lives, and to protect their own lives and freedom. Of course they were not trained to fight, like Vidas, but they had their magic, and they forced it to work for them. The Light Line, begun in this way, still favored peaceful measures first, but believed a certain amount of force was appropriate in some situations.

The Light line has strong healing abilities, though not as strong as the Smoke line. They train physically much like Vidas do, and do not believe in using their magic violently unless it is absolutely necessary. When they do, their magic focuses on heat and fire.

The Light line died out with Lila Light, the last Child of Light to be trained; so far as anyone can tell, she's one of Kaleo's fledglings. Her husband fled to a human village with their children Alexander and Rachel Weatere. Rachel's story is told in In the Forests of the Night. Lila's sister Mara became the first of the Marinitch line.

Arun

The Arun line split off from the Smoke line after Midnight Smoke, mother of Ardiente Arun, drew the vampiric aura into herself to save a human from becoming a vampire, tainting both herself and her daughter. It ended badly and Ardiente ended up with a vendetta and split from the peaceful Smoke clan.

A later incident involving Jade Arun strengthened the vampiric taint of the Arun line. Jade had actually been separated from her family and was taken in, as a child, by a vampire- a solar vampire, to be exact. As she grew up, said vampire distanced herself, to avoid the awkward questions and keep her adopted child from figuring out that her new mommy was a vampire.

The solar vampires aren't well liked by the others, one got into a tiff with Silver, and he retaliated by kidnapping her ward's young child. Jade, who had previously not known what she was, tracked down the other hunters in hope of getting help, and they gave her the summary of her own family history. She was reunited with her family, and they went to try to rescue the daughter. %0a%0aDidn't work out this time, and not only did it not work out, but Silver attempted to blood-bond Jade. Lucky for the Arun line, it already had enough of a taint, which had been passed down for generations, to reject the bloodbond. Not so lucky, the line's vampiric link was strengthened.

Arun witches are faster and stronger than other witches, heal faster, and are immune to things like bloodbonding and even intentional changing - no accidents, as happened with Sarah. The taint also affects their tempers, and on a rare occasion, though any one of them would deny it vehemently, they feel the bloodlust. They don't need to feed, and most of them never do, but... I specified "intentional" for a reason. There are ways to wake that vampiric side.

Many hunters do not trust Arun witches, but they'll usually work with them out of necessity, since the Arun line hunts very well - both natures agree with that calling. Also, orphaned Arun witches will be taken in by their Macht kin. They're still considered witches, and therefore, their own kind protects them%0a%0aThe only living Arun who has power is Michael Arun.

[Note: Find the post about why they no longer have power and add that information.]

Marinitch

The Marinitch line is descended from the Light line, specifically, from Mara Light, who was Lila's sister. After Lila was killed, Mara fled with her human lover, who was something of a magic-user himself ... a shaman, specifically. They had two sons, Eric and Raini. Raini went on to continue the line, after Eric was kidnapped by Pandora, trained as a Triste, and then turned into a vampire by Kendra.

The Marinitch line has strong healing abilities, but more than that, they are strongly empathic with both humans and animals.

The Marinitch line in present day has more descendants than any other line due to the fact that they went into hiding for a long time.

Queitch

The Queitch line is a single familial line. One of the Vida families began studying methods to enhance sight and knowledge. A couple of them were wildly successful enough, in 1900 BCE, that a friendly vampire you might know as Silver decided to transport the whole group of them out of the way (he was in Europe at the time) to what we now consider Mesoamerica. They were allowed to stay with the Azteka, who respected them as other magic-users, but after a couple generations they were kicked out again as their prophetic abilities became strong enough to unnerve those around them.

Kahlan Queitch and her infant daughter were the two Queitch witches who were driven out. They survived for nearly twenty years on their own. Kahlan died of a snakebite, and her now no-longer-an-infant daughter, Moira, angered some humans and was nearly sacrificed via the removal of her heart. She and her new friend Fala wreaked bloody vengeance and now you know that story.