In the 1500s the Wyck, those people who carried in their blood the heritage of Pagan Magic, fled across the sea to escape the fires of the Inquisition. As colonists from the Christian kingdoms followed them they were forced to retreat farther and farther into the wilderness of the West. There on the frontier they make their last stand against the endless march of 'civilization' and religion.

Witches see the conflict as a battle between two laws, a battle which their prophets tell them they are destined to loose. Their law, the law that every witch enforces to her dying day, is the Law of the Heart. This Law can Never be written and lives in the beating heart of every human being, even those who have tried to close themselves off from its whispers. The other law, the Law of the Word, represents the codified edicts of states and faiths. According to the witches it is written so that it can be twisted and manipulated, used to enslave rather than protect and to create inequality rather than equality. The two Laws can not coexist and this is becoming apparent as a fledgling America expands her borders further and further West. The Law of the Witches, which for so long kept justice upon the open prairie, is now being contested by Eastern Lawyers and Federal Marshals both of whom consider witches vigilantes.

In their fight the Witches have few allies, though, one might be the native peoples of the West. Like the witches they carry a magic in their blood, a much older more primal magic. Those who inherit this gift are called Shifters and can blend their forms with that of a specific animal, usually a carnivore, native to their land. Although the witches hold many beliefs in common with these Shifters there has long been mistrust between the two. Part of this is because the witches have invariably needed to protect settlers from Indian attack, sometimes with deadly force, but mainly it is due to the weapons of the witches. As an aid in their magic women of the Wyck use silver bullets exclusively as ammunition, silver being a metal which due to its magical properties is anathema to nearly all supernaturals, Shifters included.

The newly freed Negros also hold the Wyck in high regard. Before and during the war witches rescued many from bondage. However, as a result of the violence of the war Witches wound up fighting Northern soldiers more than Southern as they protected innocent people from rampaging troops. In the Post war period the Witches have been characterized as rebels who supported slavery even though they were smuggling slaves across the border decades before the war began. Using their fabricated ties to the Confederacy as reason, the victorious Union, backed by religious authority, does its best to hunt down the remaining witches.

Witchcraft

Strictly speaking witchcraft is the channeling of energy through a media. In the past wands and daggers (athame) were used for this purpose and were always constructed of silver, a metal uniquely conductive to magic in its pure form. Modern witches still occasionally use knives but most prefer silver bullets to channel their spells. When their bullets strike their target they unleash the magic imbued within them causing a variety of effects. Not all such spells are lethal, in fact, the one spell known by almost all witches is the wax bullet spell which stuns but does not kill the target of the shot. Spells are notoriously hard to master and the average witch usually knows no more than a handful.

One vital aspect to magic and a fact which has long influenced the culture of witchcraft is its passage through the blood. This means that it is inherited through the placental connection and that women alone can pass on the gift. Although men, called warlocks, can inherit it, their inability to pass it on has long lead to an inferior status within the Wyck. Due to the often violent actions of Warlocks in recent history most witches refuse to teach the gift to males who carry the blood. As a result there are very few male witches.

Magic in its pure form is called electricity by the Easterners. It can be seen as flashes in the sky and felt by the hairs on the back of your neck when it is being worked near by. For this reason most witches consider eastern technology's gradual use and control of electricity to be near to blasphemy. Many destroy such technomagical devices when they find them.

Spells

Most trained witches know between seven and thirteen spells. Cast by extreme concentration and visualization methods, spells are patterns of magical energy. Since such patterns easily disintegrate in the world at large silver must be used to shelter them until their full effects bloom into being. Largely speaking there are two classes of spells, channels and enchantments. Enchantments are the more common and constitute all bullet-based witch craft. In these spells the pattern of magic is static until the media is disturbed, this usually being the point at which the bullet strikes its target (spells can be triggered before this by hard impacts of the metallic slug so witches must be careful when storing their enchanted rounds). Most such enchantments have a 'shelf life' of little more than a month. At this point the magic begins to fade until the spell is rendered useless. Channeled spells are a much more ancient magic in which the pattern of energy of the spell is not static but flowing. Such spells use older conduits like daggers and wands. Although magic cast in this way can be very powerful, it has four major disadvantages. One, the magic can not extend beyond the implement so it is limited by its range. Two, the witch must maintain contact with the implement or the channel is broken. Three, the steady flow of magic is draining to the witch and she soon tires when casting it and four since channels are cast without preparation they are necessarily simpler than enchantments. Needless to say modern witches tend to focus on enchantment and use channeling mainly when involved in close up fighting.

Marksmanship

All witches are trained in firearms and accuracy from the time they are old enough to walk. As a result they wield their revolvers and rifles with a skill that most frontiersmen see as magic in and of itself. In fact most of their powers of accuracy are derived from a secret method much akin to Zen Archery. In meditation witches learn to collapse the illusion of an expansive and separate world into a single unity. In this trance, witches find they can hit any target they can see as easily as reaching up and touching their own nose. Of course this is seen as much more than a way to shoot better by the witches who consider the unity of all being to be the ultimate reality and the one which awaits us all after death.

Handguns used by witches are usually of smaller caliber than standard pistols, lighter to draw and quicker to load. They also tend to have longer barrels than eastern revolvers giving the weapons a farther range of accuracy. Rifles used by witches differ little from those used by Indians or frontiersmen. Scatter guns are universally reviled by witches and no practitioner would carry such a crude weapon.

Supernaturals

More terrifying things than Witches walk the lonely prairies after dark. Of course, as already mentioned the most abundant 'monster' in the west are the shifters all of whom come from native or african stock. Although witches see shifters as posessing a blood magic like their own, the shifting gift is actually genetic in its inheritance. A recessive allele, it can be passed by either mother or father. Africans taken as slaves brought their own native gift across the ocean. Shifters are notoriously hard to kill, their body regenerating from any injury in a matter of minutes, however, silver due to its magical properties disrupts the shifter's biological magic. Lodging the metal in their bodies is tantamount to jamming a needle in an electronic device. Most quickly revert to their human form and all their powers of regeneration cease. Like Witches Shifters are seen by White preachers as demonic servants put on earth to slaughter the lambs of Christ. In most western territories it is legal to hunt and kill them as ranchers do wolves.

Probably the most common supernatural foe witches face is of their own creation, warlocks. Warlocks are men who carry the blood of the Wyck in their veins. For most power has driven them mad and made them into egomaniacs. Although, capable of all the feats of witches warlocks harbor none of their self imposed limitations. Rather than relying on just their own power they have been known to draw from others through ritual sacrifice thus expanding the potency of their magic many fold. Warlocks also have no compunction against seeking the aid of demons and wraiths. Many of their allies are such creatures given flesh either living or dead to inhabit and set upon the earth. Although there are a few good warlocks who resist temptation, these tend to hide their magic for fear of being mistaken for their maniacal brethren and gunned down by the women of the Wyck.

In the cities of the east another supernatural holds sway, one which has long plotted the downfall of witches. Wyck tradition states that the first of them were male witches, warlocks, who, desiring to pass on their blood magic as women do, created a ritual of blood drinking and in the process created a monster. Vampires are considered little more than fairy tales by most witches, stories told to apprentices to frighten them. Only those who travel in the industrialized north and the old crones know the truth. Vampires not only exist, they control much of America from its business to its government; some believe they are even the hidden rulers of the Christian church. Fortunately the blood-suckers, like all supernatural creatures, can not abide the touch of silver and silver bullets disrupt their many dark powers so long as the metal is in contact with their flesh. In the West where human populations are less dense, vampires are harder to find though they are still to be found, in the shadows of gambling halls, the lower decks of river boats, and the slums of immigrant shanty towns. Wherever there is blood to be had and money to be made, you will find them.

Spirits, according to witches, are beings who have magical form but no material body to go along with it. They are, in a sense, living spells. In our terms they might be called self organizing electric fields. Witches say you can sense them pass when you have an unexpected shiver or see the hairs of your arm stand up. Some of these spirits are wraiths, human souls which seek but have not found rest, others are native spirit-guides and ancestors, still others are the very daemons the Christian Church fears brought with them over the ocean like stow-away rats. In general the Wyck believes spirits to be a nuisance at best. Though, they might offer help, they will always ask for something in return. 'No gift from the spirit world comes without a price,' an old crone once said. Witches who always prefer to rise or fall by their own power spurn all such advances and for this reason their spiritual magic focuses almost entirely on deterance. Shamans of the native people and some shifters, however, readily accept help from spirits and often follow many superstitious proscriptions as a result of their alliegances. Some Christian priests also interact with the spirit world. Many claim to drive out demons, though witches realize its the self diminishing nature of their teachings which leave people easy prey for parasitic spirits in the first place. Of course, as mentioned above, warlocks are the most notorious spiritualists. Their diabolism knows no end in its cruelty or its wickedness and even the echoes of its rituals often walk the prairies for years spreading fear and murder across western towns. Finally there are a few inventors who dabble in things spiritual attempting to harm and even catch such creatures with bizarre new electrical equipment.

Technology

The technology of the period can be considered roughly equal with that available during and after the Civil War. However, on occasion more advanced technology will be introduced. Among such advanced technology may be derigibles, automatic rifles, and strange technomagic devices powered, in some cases, by bound spirits.

Religion

Witches practice a form of paganism which teaches that the divine is imminent in all things, animals, plants and people. Although they do recognize a Goddess who is one and the same with the earth itself, they do not worship her or expect special favors from her. Chief among the beliefs of witches is the sanctity of the human. They view sex as natural and beautiful if consensual and they see every emotion even hate, lust and envy as having their place. Only repression has no place in witchcraft.

The religion of the mainstream culture is nearly identical to the period. Protestant evangelism is sweeping the nation and preachers warn their congregations of the fires of hell and the temptations of things like alcohol, sex and of course witchcraft. Although witch trials and burnings are no longer technically legal, lynchings of witches and burnings conducted by the faithful are still common throughout the West.

Minorities

Apart from Natives and Blacks, the other nonwhite race most commonly encountered in the West will be the Chinese, or Dragon-folk as they are sometimes called. This name is derived from the commonly known legend that they come from an empire ruled by dragons. Few can confirm or deny such stories because the Chinese are an extremely closed off group. They view Americans as unclean barbarians and Americans view them as strange and effeminate. As a result the two cultures rarely mix even when they work side by side. Due to the work ethic and skills of the Dragon-Folk, they have become the nearly universal employees of the railroad, replacing, much to their shame, the Irish workmen.

Among the whites there also exists a minority, set apart not by skin color but religion. The Mormons moved west to escape the prejudice they encountered in the east. Unfortunately it seems to follow them wherever they go. Mormons set themselves apart from other Christians by the embracing of an additional book of the Bible which tells of a strange history predating European colonization. They also (during this time period) follow a polygamous lifestyle with prominent men of the community often taking several wives. Whether you ascribe to their teachings or not, one thing is undeniable. The Mormons unlike other whites are far more tolerant and open in their treatment of native peoples, due, perhaps in part, to these peoples' role in their scriptures.

Story

Most of the players will start as witches who travel together for protection, a common arrangement on the modern frontier. Players who do not want to play witches can create other characters who will wind up travelling with the witches and accompanying them on their adventures. Shifters are allowed but must either be native or black characters. Also be well researched in your tribe or in Black American roots if you wish to play one of these people.