Crochan Witches are a race of witches, the offspring of Valg and Fae who once ruled over the Witch Kingdom before falling to the Ironteeth. The Crochan Witches are described as peaceful and beautiful, taking after their Fae ancestors but Baba Yellowlegs described them as talented and dangerous warriors.
History
Millennia ago, when the Valg broke into the world, witches did not exist. It was the Valg, and the Fae, and humans. But the Valg were demons. They wanted the world for their own, and they thought a good way to get it would be to ensure that their offspring could survive here. The humans weren’t compatible – too breakable. But the Fae...the Valg kidnapped and stole whatever Fae they could and the offspring became witches. The Ironteeth took after their Valg ancestors more, while the Crochan witches got more of the Fae traits. However the people of Erilea did not want the witches there, not after the war, but King Brannon didn’t think it was right to hunt them all down. So he gave the witches the Western Wastes where they lived until the witch wars.
The Crochan Queen was the Queen of the Witch Kingdom and all witches until five hundred years before the events of Throne of Glass and the Ironteeth Clans rose against her. The Ironteeth Clans allied themselves and battled against the Crochan witches and the Queen in a bloody battle. Then as Rhiannon Crochan the last queen of the Witch Kingdom lay dying she cursed the kingdom so that the Ironteeth may win the war but they would never win the land. That for what the Ironteeth had done, they would inherit the land only to see it wilt and die in their hands. Their beasts would shrivel and keel over dead; their witchlings would be stillborn, poisoned by the streams and rivers. Fish would rot in lakes before they could catch them. Rabbits and deer would flee across the mountains. And the once verdant Witch Kingdom would become a wasteland.
She told the Ironteeth that there was only one way to break the curse; “Blood to blood and soul to soul, together this was done, and only together it can be undone. Be the bridge, be the light. When iron melts, when flowers spring from fields of blood - let the land be witness, and return home.”
When the curse proved true the matrons of the Ironteeth Clans ordered the witches to cross the mountains and wander as they would. Every Ironteeth witch has since been hunting down the Crochan witches, killing them and cutting out their hearts in the hopes of finding the one that can reverse the curse.
Since then, most Crochans spend their lives as refugees, pretending to be wise women and healers, hiding both from mortals and the Ironteeth Witches who hunt them.
Centuries after the war when the Ironteeth were thrown into exile Lothian Blackbeak, the daughter of the Blackbeak Matron had a child with a Crochan Prince the son of Rhiannon Crochan, they believed that she would be the one to break the curse on the land. The Crochan Prince spent years searching for his and Lothian Blackbeak's daughter, Manon Blackbeak when the Blackbeak Matron discovered him and killed him. Rhiannon, the other Crochan Prince's daughter and the then heir to the Crochan throne was killed years later by her unknowing half-sister Manon Blackbeak.
Currently, Manon Blackbeak is the rightful and last Crochan Queen.
Trivia
- Each Crochan is given a red cloak on their first bleeding.
- Unlike the Ironteeth witches, there are male Crochan witches.
- Baba Yellowlegs claimed that Crochan witches tasted like summer grass and cool water.