Okay. We’ve talked about the price and limits of magic, but we’ve skirted the role of enchanters in enchantress is, so that’s our long overdue subject for today!
As you’re probably aware, enchanters and enchantresses are the most powerful magic users in the Timeless Fairy Tales world. Because they are so powerful most of them have a price for using their magic. As I mentioned in the previous post, sometimes they can edge around the price by using something to supplement their magic. An example, someone intending to cause darkness and chaos could use the blood of innocent creatures or people—like the sea witch. Or, someone whose heart is in the right place could use things like love to supplement their power. Angelique always uses the power of love when modifying curses, because love is the only thing that strong enough to overcome such dark magic.
As you can see by my examples, obviously enchanters and enchantresses are capable of doing more than core magic. You have not yet seen Angelique’s core magic, but you have seen her do some illusion magic, curse breaking, and a bit of weather magic. That’s because now, with centuries of schooling under their belts, enchanters and enchantresses have been able to harness their powerful core magic and use it for auxiliary powers. They can harness their powers through spells, or the use of magical artifacts.
However, just as there are limitations to their core magic, there are limitations to their auxiliary powers as well. To begin with, they aren’t that strong. A weather mage will always be able to beat out an enchanter or enchantress in terms of weather magic. This is true for just about every magic they can use. Someone whose core powers lie in that particular discipline will almost always be more powerful at it than enchanter or enchantress. Only the low-level mages would be less skillful.
You can see this kind of reflection in real life. Let’s use me as an example. As a writer, my greatest strength lies in my ability to write fiction. However, because I’m a writer, there are additional skills I’ve picked up along the way. For example, I’m a fairly skilled observer– because you never know when I could use something the book– I’ve had to improve in marketing and business matters to shore up my career, I’ve gotten much more skilled at budgeting, the list goes on.
The basic idea is that the enchanters and enchantresses are so powerful in one area, that their power spills over into all other areas of magic. They cannot do everything, and they have to be taught it. (As you might remember, Angelique is very limited in the number of curse modifiers she knows because her teacher only taught her two.)
Besides having a lot of power, enchanters and enchantresses are also different from other magic users because they’re limited in the kinds of jobs/positions they can fill. They can help anyone who asks for their aid–whether it’s royalty or a peasant–but they cannot hold a position outside of the Veneno Conclave. This is a rule to keep magic from being unevenly distributed–or the rich countries would try to hire all the top tier magic users, and the poor countries would be extremely limited. IF an enchantress or enchanter swears alliance to a particular country–in example, Queen Ingrid of Arcainia, who was an enchantress before marrying the King of Arcainia–they have to forsake their magic and swear to never use it. Historically, this has only happened a few times. Queen Ingrid is the most recent, but otherwise it hasn’t happened in well over a century.
However, the ban that the Veneno Conclave placed from any and all magic being used in Arcainia was unprecedented. Most believe it was placed because the Conclave was worried other magic users would see it as their duty to come help Ingrid and Arcainia. (Before Queen Ingrid married the King, the Ogre was still ruling over Carabas. Other magic users very likely would have banded together to overthrow the ogre out of kindness to Ingrid, giving them an unfair advantage. As such, the Ogre remained alive until a particular miller’s daughter and her mouthy cat strolled onto the scene.)
Okay, this is a long post, so I’m ending it here. Have a lovely day, Champions! Thanks for reading!
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