The Rogue Duchess

In the beginning before deities had lower beings who worshipped them. Two goddesses of different continents were tasked with coming together to create sentient life. Mawu, the African sun goddess, and her friend Selene, the Grecian goddess of the moon, came together to plan their beings.             Mawu decided to model her creations after herself and Nyame, the African god of creation. She called her creatures of the day, humans, and decided that they would be mortal beings. Humans would have short life spans, never to go passed one hundred-twenty years. Humans were not given supernatural powers. They made up for what they lacked with their population size, perseverance, ingenuity, and resourcefulness. She gave humanity the power of free will and allowed them to love whomever they chose to.             Selene was impressed by Mawu’s plans for her humans, so she modeled her creations in a similar fashion. Like her moon has phases, Selene decided her beings should also have phases. Her creations would be called shifters, there were two types she thought of. She had always loved the wolves that howled at her moon. Selene decided humanity, needed a powerful, but peaceful neighbor to coexist with.  So, she decided to make wolf shifters and she called them werewolves. They were shifters with three forms: human, bipedal beast, and wolf form. They were immortal beings with supernatural strength, speed, and agility. She also blessed werewolves to be at their most powerful on the night of a full moon. Selene and Mawu agreed that no species should go unbalanced. Humans outnumbered werewolves, and werewolves were designed to live in peace with humans unless they were provoked first. Meaning that there would be no predator for humans to keep them from dominating the planet. To remedy that Selene looked at the nocturnal bats that flew under her moon and they became the inspiration for her second creation. Vampires, as she called them, were the natural enemy of humans and the competitor for werewolves. Their speed surpasses werewolves, but they’re not as strong. Gifted with the ability of flight, they were made to be poor swimmers to give werewolves and humans an advantage in naval warfare. Vampires like werewolves have three forms fanged or vampiric, bat, and human form. Vampires are born with ironless blood causing a blood lust to gain the missing nutrient. This blood lust can be satisfied with animal blood, but it is best satiated with human blood.             Mawu and Selene were proud of their creations and ready to take their plans to the balancers, and then their respective kings. When Isis and Hecate, goddesses of magic, appeared with a suggestion for a being of their own. They called their creation witches; they were to be the bridge species for the humans and the shifters. In appearance and physical power, they were no different than humans, but they had a unique set of skills. Witches were designed to be able to control internal and or atmospheric mana in order to use magic. Witches are a matriarchal species unlike the shifters, female witches were to always be imbued with more magic power than their male counterparts. Mawu and Selene readily agreed to the concept of witches and took on their plan to have it submitted for creation as well.             As the next step in the process Mawu and Selene, went to the goddesses of balance Oshun and Libra to make sure their creations were evenly yoked. When the scales were checked it was determined they were not. While humans would have the largest population, they would easily be wiped away by the others. Immortality and invulnerability made the shifters and witches too strong, tipping the scales in their favor. Needing someone to assist with creating weaknesses they called on Ma’at and Nemesis to develop vulnerabilities for each species.             Werewolves were examined first; they were noted as the powerhouse species. It was decided that the inner wolf, or consciousness of the wolf form would not appear to a werewolf until the age of six. The ability to shift into wolf form would be painful at first, and impossible until the age of thirteen. The bipedal beast form would only become available at the age of twenty-one when the human and wolf form reached full maturity. Along with that wolves can be mortally wounded or killed by silver and wolfsbane. Vampires were reviewed next, noted as the specters of death, their ability to kill needed to be reined in. Since they were creatures of the night, it was decided the sunlight would siphon their energy and that they could die from prolonged sun exposure. Unlike human and animal blood, werewolf and witch blood when consumed is a lethal toxin to vampires. Vampires can also be killed with fire or by destruction of their hearts.             Lastly witches were examined and noted as the cognizant ones. First their needed to be a more in-depth power hierarchy for witches. The most powerful witches are born with an unlocked eighth chakra, called the magus chakra. This is what allows mana to flow freely through a witch’s body, giving them the ability to use all magic without mediums or spells. These witches are intentionally few and far between. Some witches are born with a locked magus chakra, they can use magic without a spell or medium, but there’s a condition. The magic they are using must resonate with their mana’s magical attribute, if it doesn’t, they’ll need a medium or spell. These witches are uncommon, but not quite rare. The most common witches are not born with a magus chakra, instead they are able to manipulate atmospheric mana. Common witches always need mediums or spells to use magic.  The powers of magic are nearly limitless in its applications, so witches needed weaknesses that targeted their source. Iron was given the magnetic capability to disrupt mana fields. Binding a witch with iron will render them unable to use magic. Witches can be injured as easily as humans can, but they can only be killed if mortally wounded while iron bound, or if they’re poisoned with belladonna and or oleander.             After the edits to the creation plans were made, the scales were checked again, and equilibrium was reached. Oshun was also a goddess of love and she noticed that Selene didn’t include love in the creation plan for the shifters or the witches. Oshun asked if she intended for the shifters and witches to be loveless beings. Selene thought of her beloved prince Endymion she decided she wanted to guarantee that kind of love to her creations and the bonus beings. So, she split the soul of her shifters and the witches in half, placing the other half into their soulmate.             Creating what is now referred to as the mate bond. At eighteen years old the souls of shifters and witches begins to call out for its mate. With witches when they’re within a certain proximity of their mate their magic works as a magnet to bring the bonded pair together. In the case of shifters, each mated pair has a scent that is unique and only detectable to one another. It is typical for shifter mates to be able to smell each other before they see each other, and once the scent is captured mates become laser focused on finding one another. When they do find one another, they fall in love at first sight and they go to complete their mate bond by marking each other.