Help with a Witch?

I say the creepiest thing she could do to a young mother of an infant, is offer a prediction of the child's fate. A horrible fate like SIDS/early death, a tragic accident, being kidnapped. Turning into an evil monster of a person, etc.

This would 1. Create tension between characters who are just crossing paths 2. Not make the witch evil, just off-putting or very strange and 3. Make the mother keep *thinking* about a prediction/witch throughout your narrative. Does she take the witch seriously? Does she develop superstitions or paranoia that make her behave differently, just in case the witch wasn't wrong?

The witch could additionally have a twisted sense of humor and just gives everybody she meets impending, cryptic, bad news for her own personal amusement as a practical joker. Maybe she gives two details that will be correct, but never the third, so the person sees the 'signs' and alters their behavior.

Or, if you want to make your witch slightly nicer, she makes the partially correct predictions in a hope to offer positive behavioral intervention. For example: the young mother ignores her crying fussing baby for just a bit too long for the witch's liking. She'll make a prediction "that one day soon, when a x-bird sings out of season on a clear day, the baby will be crying and the mother will ignore it, but if she does, the baby may never cry out again."

That would creep me out. Every time I heard that stupid bird in the wrong time of year, I'd probably be hyper-paranoid about tending that infant.

 

My first thought: she's looking for recruits for her cult. So she drops hints about wonder and mystery, maybe does a cantrip or two.

 

So something wicked this way comes. If she's got the magic, nothing stopping her from using it and playing it up. Maybe the infant is sick and she has the power to help (or more brain cells to rub together the the local village population) and it comes at a certain cost. To both her and the mother. At the very least that cost could come back at some later date (as they tend to) and it will play havoc. Gives the witch a stronger role and keeps up her roadblocking ways. It could even tie them to her eventual or possible already cult.

And now I have Welcome to the Family running through my head. And welcome to the Scribbles! Before I forget that bit.

 

Welcome.

Reading this I say make her an a sinister mother figure. Initially she is caring helpful a loving mother figure, later she is very manipulative and emotionally abusive, she makes the young woman dependent on her and feed off her emotionally. Cult leaders are a lot like this, however one thing she would need is some type of divine knowledge or Divine quality. For example she claims the God's choose her to lead the worthy through the coming apocalypse, or she is the true saviour and all others are false prophets. In this case you could have her claim she knows the answers to the problems of the young woman, or something similar.

Best of luck

 

Hi,
Do you have to make her evil? Can't she just be sheltering them because she knows there is peril ahead. She wants to tell them, but is scared of scaring them away, right into danger. She is conflicted. She must warn them, but she doesn't know how. Don't go with evil witches. Subvert the trope.

 

If the witch is just odd-- or ambiguous-- and not transparently evil, I think you'd get so much more depth and options for your writing. If she is sheltering the young mother and infant, the act should be genuine. But, if the travels ahead are perilous she might be reluctant to let the young mother leave. That would give you thematic options like... cabin fever, feeling trapped or imprisoned, doubt, paranoia, getting creeped out by other 'cult' members, etc. It could be something really mundane, like the geography being legitimately dangerous after torrential rains. Years of living in the area would tell you if you got 10 inches of rain in 24 hours, the roads and bridges 2 miles out from the cult compound will be impassible and dangerous to attempt traveling for X amount of days. The foot bridge over the river will be underwater, rock avalanches and mudslides are routine, etc. If your young mother character can't get a good read on this witchy-matriarch for whatever reason, you wouldn't want to overstay your welcome... but refusing hospitality can be insulting.

 

Welcome to the forum!
I love the people on here so much and would spend all my time on here if I wasn't so busy. On a lot of forums, if you just join and immediately ask a question you can get slaughtered for it! People are awesome here.

First I love your idea. And I also like what others have added about the witch being someone who enjoys toying with people rather than just evil I mean if she has a long life (immortal) and no way to fill it. No use in getting close to people, she'll only out live them and it causes her pain to watch loved ones die, she has to do something to fill her time. Her powers allow her to interact with people which otherwise she couldn't, it gives her a feeling of worth and importance that other wise she wouldn't feel. There's no reason why she might not take advantage of her powers - maybe she's an opportunities and her "help" comes with a price.

 

As a Witch - I'm kind of against the typical stereotype that witches are ugly old hags that are evil. I like the idea that she protects the woman and child from an outside source. the crone, woman, and child fits the symbolism of the triple goddess - maiden, mother, crone. If you wish to use the magical aspects, then this would be perfect. She shelters them because their power added to hers? Makes her strong enough to fight the evil cult that wants her power too. Working together and combining their powers allows them to tip the balance of evil and good towards good.

 

So something like the Charmed ones from Charmed?

 

My first thought when you said about the witch taking the children, what if she took a part of their youth/life force to return her own youth? You said that she was a hag. Is there a backstory about the way she became what she is? Or is she just an old bitter woman? Do you intend to keep her on as a villain or a hero?

 

She could tell them their fortune. Try to get the woman to hand over her infant with mind manipulation. But without knowing your plot it's hard to for to say.