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Teravian is a witch. In Last Rune canon, witches are, as expected, always female. Some boys are said to sometimes possess small instances of the power, which usually disappear by the time they reach adulthood. However, Teravian is not only fully powered as a witch, but he only become stronger when he becomes a man - which in this case refers to losing his virginity.
Preamble aside, what witch magic - referred to hereafter as The Touch - is capable of is far from straightforward, but I will attempt to supply a breakdown of that here. It is entirely possible that there is more he can do outside of explicit canon examples, but this is a start.
The Touch works by accessing something referred to as the Weirding, which is basically the life energy of everything in a particular area. Naturally, the Weirding tends to be weaker in urban areas, though it's rarely impossible. Witches tap into and manipulate it in various ways, and it usually comes along with various cloth-making metaphors - "weaving" spells, individual people have "threads", multiple threads together equal a "tapestry", etc.
While it is never stated explicitly in canon, it might be helpful to note that Teravian has had little to no actual training in any of these skills. His actual nature as a witch doesn't seem to have been revealed to him until he was eighteen. A lot of what he does is intuition and natural talent, but some of the more complex idea might not occur to him, or would take him some time to develop on his own
*Examples in italics are those that witches other than Teravian are seen to perform in canon.
Preamble aside, what witch magic - referred to hereafter as The Touch - is capable of is far from straightforward, but I will attempt to supply a breakdown of that here. It is entirely possible that there is more he can do outside of explicit canon examples, but this is a start.
The Touch works by accessing something referred to as the Weirding, which is basically the life energy of everything in a particular area. Naturally, the Weirding tends to be weaker in urban areas, though it's rarely impossible. Witches tap into and manipulate it in various ways, and it usually comes along with various cloth-making metaphors - "weaving" spells, individual people have "threads", multiple threads together equal a "tapestry", etc.
- The Sight - Functionally precognition, Teravian can often predict the outcomes of events and actions of others (either through actual visions or moments of strong intuition), though he appears to have little to no control of what he sees.
- The Weirding - Outside of spell-casting, tapping directly into the Weirding can be used in a number of ways
- Lifesense - Teravian and other witches can choose to see via the Weirding, even if normal sight is blocked from them. In addition they can, by elimination, see areas where life energy is missing (undead things) or blocked (metal appears as a blank spot).
- Telepathy - Witches can project their voice into the mind of others. Note that this is only one way unless the other person happens to also be a witch. This connection can share more than just words, however. It's possible to gather up entire spans of memory or complex ideas (see below) and send them to the other person in the span of seconds. Usually this works within line of sight but it's possible to search out a person's thread and speak to them from long distances.
- Share Memories - When a witch connects their thread to that of another an accidental or intentional side effect is that the witch can get a glimpse of that person's memories. Usually this will be the thoughts closest to the surface. Even weirder, it's possible to show these memories to other people and use these to grant them the use of a learned skill
- Life Boost - A witch can tap themselves or others directly into the force of the Weirding to help sustain them in extremely hot or cold weather
- Telekinesis - It is also possible to use strands of Weirding itself to move or restrain people (or things maybe). This ability, however, takes a large amount of power
- Spell-casting - Witches, in a sense, physically manipulate the threads of the Weirding - weaving them together to create particular effects. Since the Weirding is the only the energy of life, this is more often elementally based effects. Additionally, they can only manipulate energy that is present, but they cannot create it.
- Illusions - This can be a number of things and I can't tell you how it's done exactly, except perhaps to guess it has something to do with the bending of light and/or air - not that the witches think of it in such sophisticated terms. Primarily it's made to make the witch appear invisible. Teravian does this all the time to sneak about unseen. It's also possible to disguise themselves or anything else as something else entirely.
- Elemental control - Witches can use the Weirding to exact a certain amount of control over already existing natural elements. Note that while stone is natural, there is little to no life energy with which to interact. Usually this is done with air, water, and plants. Teravian specifically uses this to create a very realistic image of a bull out of the clouds.
- Enchantments - Of course, nature isn't the only living thing witches can control. It's also possible to plant suggestions or deceive people with the Touch, or even cause them to fall unconscious.
While it is never stated explicitly in canon, it might be helpful to note that Teravian has had little to no actual training in any of these skills. His actual nature as a witch doesn't seem to have been revealed to him until he was eighteen. A lot of what he does is intuition and natural talent, but some of the more complex idea might not occur to him, or would take him some time to develop on his own
*Examples in italics are those that witches other than Teravian are seen to perform in canon.
