Witch Hunter

Witch Hunters are Aware humans who are experts in defeating and killing Others and Practitioners. Sometimes because they cross too many lines, sometimes just because.

Methodology

Being a normal person as opposed to a practitioner affords certain advantages, as Others cannot freely act upon them. Some are trained to use Innocence to work around Others camouflage and similar.<ref name=":1">Rose feels different than when she left, somehow. Now, as I think about how her predecessor handled everything… I think about how Rose coped, and I wonder ‘how did she handle it?’ and I can’t come up with much.

When I asked Eva, Eva reminded me of the techniques we learned. Right off the bat, she found the discrepancy.

When we ask, “How did Rose manage?”, we struggle to answer.

When we ask, “How did the second Thorburn heir manage?” we can mutually agree that the heir was almost eerily in step with this world.

As witch hunters, free of any vows or ties to the world the monsters and practitioners inhabit, we’re protected against the trickery. A measure of innocence can challenge that reality, and clearly see the emperor without his clothes.
[...]

• One Nightmare-type monster was invading dreams. Targeting normals. Not affiliated with Johannes or Sandra. Found wandering the streets in a human guise, spotted through the trickery with innocence, cut down with katana. - Excerpt from Interlude 10</ref> to a limitation. They can lie, and are freely allowed to invade demesnes without reservation because they aren't bound by the same rules as those who practice.

They use a lot of weapons including Magic Items that they can use easily.

As they are informed of the supernatural it is hard to leave all that behind and live an ordinary life with the world working against them.<ref>“Their lives were in shambles. Roberto fell in love with Angie and tried to be better for her, and ended up in kid jail. A lot of the time, these weird cases will pop up where Aware will cause a ton of problems, including problems for themselves, and because they face problems when it comes to actually doing stuff… this is a whole complicated concept-”

“The Aware run into resistance if they try to climb the rungs and become a politician or make a billion dollars with their talents,” Lucy said.

“Yeahhh,” Yadira said. “So you know that much. But not even top rung stuff. Even like… if Roberto became a car salesman and he used his asshole power to become the top seller at the biggest car dealership in his city, wherever he is, that’d draw too much attention. So he becomes the top seller at a place where there’s enough other crap going on people don’t pay him a lot of attention, and he doesn’t make that much money. So a lot of Aware will find themselves in similar places on the social ladder, and in the same neighborhood in a town or whatever, and then they crash into one another. And they may not survive those crashes.” - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.3</ref>  Practitioners could very well be unhappy or unsettled by the appearance of witch hunters and Lords or local powers could seek to control them, even abuse them.

In some cases a Witch Hunter may have a strong pattern around them established by past successes or family history. This might make magic less effective on them (similar to a Skeptic) or draw them into being a Witch Hunter against their will (similar to a Designated Victim.)<ref name=":0">“He keeps strange tenants.  Some are complicated.  A gilded lily, who stumbles on magic items by accident on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.  Many are cursed.  Someone who saw something so bent and broken it drove him around the bend.  A child of a witch hunter who survived the rest of her family, who knows something is afoot in the shadows of this world.  The pattern of that family seeks to wrap her up in its flows. [...] Some of them remain and are power sources.  I imagine that swarm tenant is both steady income and a trickle of power.  Others balance out the other tenants.  A skeptic that dulls practices around her to help take the bite out of the worst cursed items.  An elusive man to keep the witch hunter scion’s attention without ever bearing fruit.” - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.8</ref>

Known Witch Hunters

• Witch Hunter network<ref>Gathered Pages: Andy's Notes</ref>
  • Samaniego
  • Mac
  • Creevy
  • The Talons
  • Andy
  • Eva
• The Abbots<ref name=":2">

The Abbots keep an Augur bound in shackles and charms they've picked up, as well as the Augur's child. The Augur identifies targets for them in riddle-speak, which they use to narrow down the type of Other or practitioner they're dealing with, reaching out to home base a state away. They then tailor their munitions and approach appropriately, aiming for devastating opening moves, not giving targets a chance to respond. Typical attacks are two snipers with specially made bullets at two different angles, each with a spotter, and a team of five midrange guys. Their bullets go through barriers, protections, hurt even Others that can't normally be affected by bullets (immaterial, etc). Each wear charms that make them harder to see with the Sight, not easier. Everyone and everything they take down gets butchered and taken apart to serve as more charms for the same purpose, protecting them, their hideouts and homes, their families, etc. The Augur cooperates because they know when they die or finally break down under the accumulated costs of Seeing that much, their child is next in line. - /g4pyrzr/ Wildbow on Witch Hunters</ref>

• The Power Couple<ref name=":3">

Long and Mayes are a Witch Hunter pair who rove around in motorcycles. Mayes is a Designated Victim. Whatever fate the universe weaves, it keeps putting her in the way of hostile Others and monstrous practitioners. Kind of like a Gilded Lily (someone who, by dint of circumstance or shenanigans on the universe's part chronically stumbles onto magic items). Between the two of them, they've survived enough crap that the pattern's been established, and practices don't really affect them anymore. What's more, their return to sender vibe is really, really strong. They're scrappers, with a few cursed items that don't really affect them, and a strong survivor vibe. Most of the time they crash into a scene, with a whole lot of chaos, start crashing into wards and summons, rebound them, and follow them back to the head of the snake. This does mean L&M sometimes let things loose or screw up balances, but they can often kill their way through those things, or they'll just kill the people who swoop in to deal with them; They're not the strongest, but have a way of turning up in delicate situations and have enough momentum they'll probably get 5-10 years of 'work' done before they get turned into paste or worse. - /g4pyrzr/ Wildbow on Witch Hunters</ref>

• Rieth Library Blind<ref name=":4">

The Rieth Library studies Others, traces them back to origins or realms of origin (Abyss, warrens, spirit world, courts) and maintains contact with several higher-ups. Alabasters, Spirit Kings, Goblin rulers, etc. When they set their sights on a particular Other or Practitioner it's typically for a major reason. They then cite old rules, precedent, deals, and stuff dating back hundreds of years, or otherwise appeal to specific individuals, to obtain permission at the source to have their target dealt with. When successful, which is often, practitioners can be cut off from their practice, or Others weakened and cut off from allies or power sources. Their executioners are 'The Blind', men and women raised from birth to be steeped in doubt and skepticism, while the higher ups are the opposite. The doubt is a blessing that affords The Blind further protections and diminishes every Other and practice in an area. This combines with the Big Karmic O.K. they get from the higher-ups to make them very matter-of-fact, to-the-point Witch Hunters. Their victims typically have their eyes gouged out, eardrums pierced, and hands cut off, before being bound as necessary in power suppressing restraints, if Other or nonhuman enough. - /g4pyrzr/ Wildbow on Witch Hunters</ref>

Trivia

• In PactDice it is an accepted option to play as a With Hunter as opposed to a practitioner.<ref name=":4">

How are they able to survive against the kind of capabilities that Practitioners and Others can bring to bear?

It might help to think of witch hunters as practitioners who make countering Others and practice their focus. Often this is rooted in avoiding the explicit use of practice themselves, gaming the systems of awareness, innocence, establishing methodologies in dispatching practitioners that then become power, and using the trophies and scraps of whatever they get from defeated practitioners to then use against practitioners (items & things they can use without being practitioners themselves). - /g4pyrzr/ Wildbow on Witch Hunters</ref>

References

<references/>