MARCH REWARDS 14

Bloat Witches, a part of the greater family of Bloat Mages, are a specific type of witch, and a type of Shylock witch at that. Shylock witches are a specific variant of witch that will often torture themselves via cutting, removal of flesh, extremities, limbs, or even through removing senses such as smell, sight, touch, hearing, or taste in order to enhance their arcane power through physical disability. Humans have no aptitude for magic, and as such to learn arcane arts without having any sort of magic lineage, one must delve into the arcane arts and make a pact with a magical creature, gain some sort of blood infusion, or, learn the arts and hinder themselves in some way to create a sort of pain barrier between the power of the arcane and yourself. Many wizards do this by blinding themselves, wearing barbed clothing, bracers that cause great pain. Madness, and various mental disabilities and illnesses can allow one a greater connection to the arts as well. While most spellcasters only inflict these hindrances upon themselves enough to access the arts, some go further to gain a greater understanding of the magic, and those born with innate abilities can greatly enhance their power through pain and physical and mental distress. Those who sacrifice everything in the pursuit of great magical ability are called Shylock mages, and the witches are the most cruel and terrifying of all due to the natural ability they command with their tattered forms. Some humans, those born with innate arcane power, those with magic blood in their system but not enough to be physically different from most humans, are often called Witchlings in days of old. As time passed this term became used more for females, with Wizardlings used sometimes for males, though witchling is technically gender neutral in it’s origin. A more modern neutral term has been coined as Mageborn or in some circles of occultists, as Arcanans. This could be the result of a demon breeding with a human somewhere in your family lineage, or even simply a pact with a powerful creature that courses through you and even effects the children you birth after the fact. Witchlings are only a sub type of the humans known as Ascended, whos minds have been expanded through enlightenment or forceful electrical currents or chemical tampering and have unlocked additional parts of their brain allowing them to use beyond 100% of their mind's capabilities. This makes those with natural access to arcane powers and those with access to psychic ability very closely related and sometimes indistinguishable from one another. Bloat mages, also known as spell eaters, or as Maru Kassaptu in some places, seek to gain weight, and train in methods to store additional magic power as mana within the fat in their bodies. This allows the magic to steep and stew in a way similar to preparing food. Arcane casters gather magic from the world and condense it down within themselves to be released later, slowly building up magic on their journeys to become more powerful, however there are casting methods in which one can cycle mana to expel it out of themselves and draw it back in more potent than before. Most casters do this through specific abilities trained in their travels and instantly improve their spells, though some perform a process in which they hold the magic within themselves for as long as they can before releasing it in a process not to dissimilar to the sexual act of edging. Some who go further store this magic in the fat of their bodies and bind it there, to steep similar to cooking a roast, allowing it to gain more "Flavor" as it sits before releasing it at a later time. Doing so can be dangerous however as magical mishaps could harness the power inside of the witch and cause violent reactions while still within her body leading to mutations or death. This additional storage of magic within their fatty tissue greatly expands it, causing bloat mages to appear much fatter than their base weight would entail, though it also allows them to possess a supernatural elasticity. Because of this, the more fat they have within their bodies, the more magic they can store, and the more bloated they become, thus meaning some of the most massive bloat mages are likely those with the most magic capability. Bloat mages often specialize in gravity control. They also tend to master many abjuration spells which allow them to protect themselves from magic and even eat the spells of enemies to add to their own reservoir. Bloat Witches, are witches who specifically seek out this sort of magic ability and harness it to their own ends. Bloat witches evil eye allows them to strike an endless hunger into those they target. Though the effect only lasts for a short time, prolonged exposure to the evil eye of a bloat witch can cause a creature to develop eating disorders and food addictions, and it’s thought that those afflicted put on more weight from their consumption. This can cause already hungry or starving creatures to become feral and cannibalistic, and in some cases may even cause the formation of a humanoid wendigo. Bloat witches can use their magic to alter their bodies, often times causing their subcutaneous fat to become dense and resistant to attacks, or for their fat to expand and balloon outward allowing them to roll like a ball or crush their foes. Bloat witches may suffer from various issues involving becoming as massively fat as they tend to be, and the most powerful bloat witches use magic to keep themselves alive at massively distended forms, though on occasion they become so large that even with magic and their seemingly limitless reservoir of magic, they are simply too big to be effective. In such cases they may provide implants or grafts of their fat onto other creatures bodies to allow them access to the witch’s magic from their flesh and fat. These creatures may themselves become addicted to the hedonistic and over consumptive lifestyle. The most extreme Bloat witches however seek out additional power from a dark and cosmic source, to ingest the ambrosia and grow within themselves a creature known as the Marsadiri, colloquially known as a “Gut Worm” or the spawn of the Fleshmother. Many of these witches are followers of the fleshmother, and are known as acolytes of the throbbing moon, or witches of the throbbing moon. Through their magic, they fool the Marsadiri by shifting their physical state, giving it false flags that the bloat witch has not grown fat enough to be born yet, and causing them to gestate within the witches for years, decades, or even centuries, growing fatter and more powerful as they feed on the witch’s mana and live within their mother’s “Womb” for far longer than a gutworm is required to do. This allows the Bloat witches who seek out such power a bit of protection and even control over some of the children of the Fleshmother, though many of them heed her call and follow her whims. Like with any dark power however, eventually their control will falter, and the Gutworm will be born. However for those Bloat Witches with enough ability, they may perform a ritual known as the trading of flesh, in which they attempt to become permanently one with the Gutworm upon it’s birth, and thus they become a Bloat Hag. Bloat Hags, also known as Spelleater Hags, Maru Sawtu, Fleshmother Hags, Burst Crones, or Tattered Hags, are Bloat witches that have become one with the Marsadiri, and have transferred their power to it, leaving their discarded husk as a tattered, snail like shell upon the writhing back of the new creature that emerged from within. Bloat hags possess long necks, and long tendrils tipped with barbed stingers that the witch can use to attack her foes, controlling each individually. Her fingers and toes become prehensile tentacles with a full range of motion, and her form becomes much more able to move through tight spaces, forcefully compacting the fattened “Backpack” of her former self into areas by breaking bones and molding flesh. They specialize in spells to warp flesh and twist physical forms, hideous polymorph and transmutation spells, and their Evil Eye becomes that which can cause a permanent hunger in those they target, with Bloat Hags slithering into the rooms of nobles at night and casting her hex upon them to force them to feast until eruption. As with other tattered mothers, born from the birth of a Gutworm, Bloat Witches will produce a Beef Seed, which they will often plant and mold with their magic into a sort of hag den or wizard tower of flesh and fat. On occasion they will simply use the beef seed to create the womb that allows for more children of the flesh mother to be born, though they more often than not alter slightly it’s purpose to function not only as a birthing chamber, but as a gestation chamber for herself to rest and grow stronger in. Though legends state that the witch controls the marsadiri, there are whispers that the ability to do so is to usurp the will of the fleshmother, and is thus impossible, and that the gutworm simply takes on some of the personality traits of the witch and the original witch is left in eternal suffering, alive as a shell and flesh repository, in pain, for all eternity. Some bloat hags join forces with the vampires known as Pishtaco, whom consume fat to stay alive. Bloat Hags gain power through the fat stored on their past form, however they also graft their fat and flesh to other creatures and draw upon the magic stored in their fat, using them as obese mana packs to cast their spells, which can leas to Bloat hags transforming humans into cursed individuals, popularly known as Nebutori. Hmm… she looks familiar? In Modern settings, finding a gutworm without summoning one from beyond the veil of space is difficult, thus meaning only the most powerful bloat witches can do it. However sometimes they can find a very rare eating establishment in the form of a Meaty’s Burger Child. Though these places are usually shut down quickly by the government before they can take hold, in rural and far off places they can go unnoticed for quite some time. Bloat witches who track these locations down, may choose to integrate themselves into the hierarchy of the alien business. Sometimes a Bloat Witch that’s become impregnated with a gut worm, will choose to blend in and work at a Meaty’s Burger Child establishment, which is usually where they got the worm from in the first place, and they will become a worker there, often times positioning themselves as a manager of sorts, and sometimes taking minor control over the creatures within so long as she doesn’t deviate from the will of the fleshmother too much. This can be very helpful to the Burger children and the gutworms as having a “Human” work as management can aid in their message and cause them to appeal to more people in environments where the veil may be lifted and they may see the truth of the world. They can also be a friendly face that remains relatively normal as the others working deteriorate and become hideous creatures. If the Bloat Witch becomes overzealous however and pushes the billion young in a direction they deem unfit, or interferes with their work too often, she will be treated just as anyone else, and battered into scraps to be fed to the masses… Here we see the same witch as before, but working in a management position at a Meaty’s burger child. Would this massively squishy witch be able to convince YOU to eat lunch there?