This OC originated in the School of Games + Adobe Moodboard Challenge 2022 on Instagram. We had to create a character inspired by the moodboard, the colours, the pictures on it, the words provided (to see my 2021’s entry, click here). The result was Raven the witch apprentice. After submitting my entry even more ideas came up to my mind.
Raven, Witch Apprentice – Raven and the Chamber of Witchcraft – Raven Frogfeet – Raven and Sam
Broken Pier Lake – Secrets – Weaving Magic – Brewing Magic – Warming Thoughts
Kimeira Wartribe – Eye of the Chimera – Bend Stuffcurver – Changing Tides
Enchanting Moonlight
The World of Witchphibians – Witchwood and Surroundings (Map)
The Witches Almanac – The Lore of Witchphibians
Character’s Gallery – Samandra’s Fabric Journal
Raven – Witch Apprentice
Raven and the Chamber of Witchcraft
Originally a thief (not a good one, obviously) who made the mistake sneak into a witch’s hut but got betrayed by her own clumsiness. To make up for the trouble, she henceforth either had to live the life of a small green hopping animal or to become the witch’s apprentice (incl. all the chores coming with it).
Raven Frogfeet
It wasn’t actually a green hopping animal. This was the treat, though, and the witch gave Raven a taste of what it was like to be a frog. Still, since the witch wasn’t the youngest anymore and never has been top witch in the best years of her life, the spell partly stuck even after turning Raven back into a human being. Therefore, every so often Raven (or body parts of her) still turns into a frog or parts of it – usually in the most inconvenient situations.
Raven and Sam
When you are a witch apprentice, you meet other witch apprentices. One of them was Samandra Elvennewt. She was a natural with needle and thread and experienced in retailoring clothes of people who occasionally turn into animals (you get them a lot around witches and wizards). She retailored Raven’s dress which was no more than a mere sack before and together they travelled around a lot.
Samandra shared Raven’s fate in reverse. Originally she was a fire salamander. The whitch she was apprentice of was in need of a helper who could do the chores she wasn’t able to do anymore. So she simply turned a newt into a human being. Since Sam was a fast learner and also showed talent in witchcraft, she finally raised her as her apprentice. Although not completely voluntarily drawn into apprenticeship, she, like Raven, preferred her new life to the old one (not having many memories of it anyway).
Broken Pier Lake
If you are an aspiring witch who can turn into a frog unintentionally any time, you either should stay away from water or you should take swimming lessons.*
Luckily, Raven’s friend Samandra has excellent swimming skills and was able to pull her out of the water in a splash.
*(Samandra) „Wait … You can’t swim? Not even in frog form?“
.
Alternative versions:
Secrets
After another unintended splash into amphibianhood, Raven told Samandra about her past as orphan and thief: War ravaged the land. Raven was searching food in some cellars that weren’t exactly her family’s ones when one side (or the other?) swept over her home village. After comprehending she was the only one not dead, she fled into the woods, meeting some other strays who made a living from theft. Because of the amulet she wore – the only thing left from home – they called her „Raven“.
Weaving Magic
Saying Samandra was a great fabric mage wasn’t just figuratively speaking. She found her special knack in bewitching clothes, trinkets, literally anything that was made of thread and tissue. This came handy after Raven nearly lost her amulet in the course of an unintended form-changing frog experience. Since Samandra knew the amulet was of great value to Raven, she bewitched it to make sure this would never happen again.
Brewing Magic
To become self-respecting witches, Raven and Samandra had to learn how to brew magic spells and potions, of course. And as any self-respecting apprentice they looked up the more sophisticated ones in books they were not supposed to know, collect ingredients they never should have known they even exist and stay up longer than they were expected to during moonlit nights to brew in secret whatever mess their teacher witches would have to clean up the next day. One drawback of turning into an amphibium unintentionally every so often was that when leaning over a bubbling cauldron, you easily could become one of the ingredients yourself …
Bend Stuffcurver
A fully trained witch and Bending Mage, capable of bending anything temporarily or permanently. Before they became a witch apprentice, they had a hard time when they tried to fit into society. Now they are wearing their scars with pride. Rumors have it that them and Kimeira were a thing once, but it didn’t worked out and they parted ways again.
Changing Tides
aka Mirro aka Sam’s Origin Story
An older witch with the special knack of changing the shape and essence of things and living beings. She is the one who turned Samandra into a human being as tadpole all these years ago and made her her servant and later apprentice.
Character’s Gallery
She’s a Light Rune Mage: Discovering, inventing and combining light runes, this way – in theory – able to conjure nearly everything – if she remembers the correct and often quite complex combinations
Raven Frogfeet
Witch Apprentice
Orphaned after a battle ravaged her hometown, the raven amulet is the last thing that remained from her family
Made her living as (not very succesful) thief
Sneaked into a witch’s hut who threated her to turn her into a frog, if she didn’t do her chores (and gave her a taste thereof); still stuck with the spell, occasionally turning into a frog or parts thereof; therefore, her friend Samandra put a spell on her amulet to not get it lost when turning forms
Dressed up and travelled together with Samandra Elvennewt a lot
Samandra Elvennewt
Witch Apprentice
Originally a fire salamander
Got turned into a human being by Mirro to help her with chores but soon got raised as her apprentice
Outstanding tailoring skills, experienced in tailoring clothes for people who occasionally turn into animals – including herself
Bewitched Raven’s amulet to preve, butnt it from getting lost when turning into a frog
Dressed up Raven and travelled together with her a lot
She’s a Fabric Mage: Creating and bewitching clothes, textiles, technically any kind of thread and tissue, in theory even the fabric of space and time – if she ever will be able to master this level
She is a Warrior Mage: Bewitching weapons and armory she gets a hand on, leading them into battle by pure willpower, she just started learning to „know her equpiment by heart“, this enabling her to create a magical shiel and will enable her to build stuff „out of thin air“, wearing an „Armor of Truth“ in the future and even „slice the fabric of space and time“ some day
Kimeira Wartribe
Fully trained young witch
Warrior Mage, specialised in Battle Magic, being able to bewitch any kind of weapon and armory she gets her hand on
Stems from a barbarian wartribe
Defender against marauding soldiers, pillagers, bandits and dangerous beasts – without her, Raven and Sam won’t have survived the one or other adventure
Has a difficult standing with the old(er) witches who still cannot see magic and warcraft come together
Earned her witch name by fighting a chimera (offiicially), inofficially, she herself is seen as some kind of chimera by the old(er) witches
Bend Stuffcurver
Fully trained young witch
Bending Mage, specialised in Bending Magic, being able of bending anything, temporarily or permanently
Never felt like fitting into the role society assigned them, it took them many attempts (and scars) to break out of it – finally with success thanks to a Healer Witch who then became their teacher
Got their name as insult by the other witches, but like their scars, Bend now wears it with pride
Rumours have it that Bend and Kimeira Watribe were a thing once, but it didn’t work out, so they parted ways again; however, they still are connected by the youthful urge of experiencing adventures and helping the young ones experimenting with stuff the old ones wouldn’t approve of.
They are a Bending Mage: They are able to bend all stuff and even living beings to their liking – in a non-harmful way, this being particularly helpful when something is blocking the path, for now it’s just a physical bending, but mindbending isn’t out of option within a few years and give them one or two decades more and they may be able to learn how to warp time and space itself around.
She is a Healer Mage: Skills, knowledge, magic, tattoos and equipment giving her the ability to reach into body regions normal healers won’t able to get into, every tattoo has a magical purpose to summon medical supplies or leading the fastest and safest way to the injured; her abilities are almost peak performance in normal Healing Magic standards, but there is still room for improvement since they only apply to human beings and beasts and the universe has more to offer than organic tissue and minds to fix
Herb Chestfixer
Fully trained middle-aged witch
Healer Mage, specialised in Healing Magic, able to fix even most of the most severe wounds
She got her first name because this what the old witches think healing is all about („herbs and a chicken soup and you will be up again in not time“). The last name comes from her ability to literally reach into ones chest to fix even internal wounds.
Herb also was the one who found Bend Stuffcurver in the Cherry Blossom Grove, severely injured with several breast wounds. She took them in, treated their wounds and accepted him as witch apprentice when she recognized their magical potential.
She’s in her early 40s now and lives with Nay Carpenter, her beloved partner for 20 years now. They are mothers of a 16-years old teenage daughter.
Nay Carpenter
Commoner (i.e. a non-magic person)
Craftswoman (carpenter)
She got her name due to the disappointment that his newborn first child was girl, therefore in his narrow-minded opinion not able to execute the carpenter’s profession („Nah, that’s nay carpenter“).
So, Nay put in double the effort than her later-born brothers to show that she was a capable craftswoman. When they died (the older one of a disease, the younger one in a war in a distant land), despite all of her father’s prejudices, she was able to take over the family’s trade.
Nay lives with Herb Chestfixer, her beloved partner for 20 years now. Totgether they have a 16-years old teenage daughter.
Witches usually don’t have much need for building new huts and furniture or repairing them (it’s said those age with their witches), but new staffs and brooms or wooden items as base for magical spells are demanded regularly. She also finds decent amounts of work in the surrounding villages among witches and commoners alike.
She is a Shapechanging Mage: She is able to change the shape an the essence, even the mind, of anything and anyone she wants to except herself, to this purpose she is using mirrors which also help her keep control over a target, she still is able to change the surface ot the world, but being in her older years, her spells aren’t as solid or powerful as they used to be
Mirro
Master Witch
Shapechanging Mage, specialised in Shapechanging Magic, being able to change the shape and the essence of anything and anyone she wants to
Got her name because she always carries mirrors with her, not because she is vain (she is, but this isn’t the reason), but because she can’t change her body directly, plus mirrors split parts of the soul, using mirrors allows her to keep control over the target
When getting old, she turned a tadpole (Samandra Elvennewt) into a human being to do the chores but soon took her in as apprentice
There is a general rule of thumb around: „If something around Mirro resembles something else, it usually once was something else.“
She is married to Archibald „Archie“ Kryptodiros.
Archie
Wizard (retired)
Specialized in myths, riddles, cryptopghraphics, deciphering of ancient spells and discovering new ones.
Old Witch Mirro’s husband, met her during a field trip when doing research for the wizard adademy in the town far away.
Mirro turned him into a turtle to slow down his pace of aging and gave him the mirrors she used for the spell. This way he keeps control over the shapechanging spell.
Nowadays, he stays in turtle form most of the day to keep the pace of aging low.
Samandra’s Fabric Journal
Being a fabric mage means knowing where to get your magic stuff to weave into your clothes. So, Samandra wrote down any bit of information she got to look it up again whenever the need arises.
This painting is part of vitranas_art’s Junicorn challenge. I tried several approaches, this one is the only one I finished. Already the first one was planned to be linked to my witches universe. Since I failed to get stuff done, I did it via the form of a journal entry.
„Roaming the flooded shores of forest’s river the Floodycorn can be found. Despite its cold appearance it has a hot temper and attacks anything that doesn’t respect its territory.“
Second painting for vitranas_art’s Junicorn challenge. The topic was „Water“ this time. Biggest reference to this one was the narwhale, the unicorn of the seas. First I thought of placing it in the icy waters the narwhale lives in, with a horn made of ice, but I got carried away with the background and placed it in more swampy waters. And besides, I planned to depict a doodle of Raven in frog form right from the beginning, so icy waters wouldn’t have been fitting at all. This way it also fits into Raven’s witches universe
„Running faster than a horse, ruling the sky like thunder, the Hurricorn is on the hunt, causing storms and mayhem thereunder.“
Third painting for vitranas_art’s Junicorn challenge, matching the the air topic. This time Samandra scribbled herself in salamander form into the journal.
„“In the middle of the now burnt lands the Pyrocorn emerged, bringing fire, flames and fear.“
Fourth painting for vitranas_art’s Junicorn challenge for the fire theme. This time Samandra helping out Raven who got in trouble.
Moonlight Magic
DTIYS
In July 2022 my Instagram account reached 200 followers. I asked my followers how to celebrate this and the majority voted for another DTIYS. This time, I wanted to provide a fresh and new painting and since I wanted to continue the tale of Raven and Samandra ever since there was the self-induced break during the Mermay. This way I hit two birds with one stone (and by the way, added a little bit more to the lore):
Zum Kritzeleck 