Well of course next year needs a jam! But with so many other events going on like IFComp, Ectocomp, Bare-Bones Jam and others, there’s a risk that Mara’s Halloween Fest Jam will end up having insufficient publicity and thus low number of entries. IFComp took up so much of my spare time that the Halloween Fest was nearly forgotten about and I didn’t read all the entries.
Thanks to all who participated. Everyone tried their best, Mara included. It was nice of you to organize a nice one in the middle of so many other bigger events. Put many authors in a room and you get plenty of different results, ideas and the like.
Stuck at work today but had a funny idea of incorporating a code system into AFM.
As one of the seven laws is not to reveal someone’s witchhood.
I just had the thought of adding an option at the start of the game to allow players to ‘name’ a witch. Which would result in a stat increase but a reputation decrease.
I think it would be a unique way of doing it and keeping it within the theme of the story. But also at the same time I am concerned whether it would be triggering as it could be considered “outing” someone so to speak. (The named witches would not be characters you meet just historical ones you could learn about - specifically I am considering seven witches who are the ones who first broke one of the seven laws and are the reason for them being created) This is obviously something I Don’t want it to come across as, so thought I’d get some second and third opinions.
It’s akin to true names and all that stuff in fae lore, no? Revealing a true name of the witch for your own gain sounds like something a witch with no respect for her own would do. Something characters I usually play would.
I wasn’t planning on having true names just more like saying so and so is a witch, but I DO like the true, given and taken name concept in the Skulduggery Pleasant series.
So it might be interesting to have a witch having two names or even their original name and a taken name to symbolise the link with magic perhaps.
If witches are forced to hide, maybe their true names are links to their power and their false names are something they use to mask themselves from prying eyes. Maybe revealing a true name would shatter the link to magic the witch has, leaving it open for grabs by any aspiring one - and I definitely would reveal a true name to get stronger.
Breaking a “law” commanding you not to reveal a witch’s name does not seem to me to have the same consequences as “outing a person” does. I’m going just by what you disclose in your post, so I might be wrong here.
If a witch is named, what happens to the named witch?
Are they put in an extremely dangerous position where people from family to complete strangers impact their health, both physical and mental, because they were outed?
or
Is it like vera is suggesting, where the impact is more localized and handled as per traditional “true name” consequences?
Your world building choices and setting will determine, for me, if I see this as considered “outing”.
Originally I was looking at it like naming a witch reveals them to the public which would get the attention of witch hunters.
But with @vera suggestion. I’m now running in a completely different direction. Namely a witch has their given name i.e the one they have when born. But at the moment they get their familiar the force behind magic (now thinking of making it a sentient energy) gives them a new name (they hear as a whisper on the wind) that is what links them and their familiar together.
Now, I’m on my lunch deciding what revealing a witches other name actually does.
Ive already made it so Witch hunters are basically witches who have had their connection to magic severed due to the loss of their familiar (they lose access to it but basically become deadzones where magic cannot affect them). So they are more like witch police instead of hunters.
Reading this bit of world-building really throws up red flags for me. My feedback here would be to reconsider your plans.
Which leads me to:
Which to me sends me more red flags. Even if hunters are “police” and not inquisitors, remember that for hundreds of years (basically since police existed) historically, they have been used to intimidate, and even lynch and kill those who do not conform.
Open the news today, and there are stories about police in three different states that have used hate speech, either from official vehicles, or text convos .
My feedback here, if you are concerned about the possibility of triggering someone is: to delink naming a witch and the witch hunters in whatever form you make them.
I like the idea of mutual hate. Strikes me as something quite usual in situations where you’re so intertwined one can’t really exist without the other - thus, using true names as weapons would be an interesting opportunity for the player and the world.
I can always find a different name for them. Its more the fact that because they are deadzones for magic they are the ideal people to send after rogue witches.
Unless I just have witches enforce the witch laws. maybe it’s up to a coven to enforce the laws for it’s own witches? (Maybe a witch watch - god that sounded better in my head but like a neighbourhood watch but for a coven?)
There needs to be someone who deals with those who break the rules. I’ll have to have a think of an alternative
What’s wrong with witch hunters when you clearly show they’re the bad guys? Their function in the society of witches is something they’ve chosen by themselves when they’ve abandoned their magic and started hunting their own. I like the potential for the plot it gives: what if one of LIs is a witch hunter that aches because his magic is the only thing that made him whole? What if witch hunters try to create their own forms of magic to replace things they’ve lost?
If you could give a new writer one piece of advise what would that be?
For me, my advice would be just write, whether it’s a couple of words or paragraphs you end up deleting. Writing is writing 1000 words is the same as writing 500 words, deleting them and then writing another 500. Your worst enemy is doubt so just write. There is a story in everyone and everyone deserves a chance to share theirs.
