My family will be of mixed African/ West Indian descent and the heirs of Tituba's bloodline. We will deal mostly in curses, enchantments, and violent natural powers. Though each character themselves may not be particularly violent, the men and women of this families' gifts typically manifest in violent ways. The origins of these powers stem back to Tituba, the first persecuted witch of the Salem Witch Trials who was tortured and hexed by the citizens and fellow "witches" who she implicated during the trials. It is believed amongst the families that curses, violence, and pain has transformed this families' gifts and that they are a force to be reckoned with in vendetta and old feuds.
Family Natural Gifts:
Bone Bending- The ability to focus on a persons anatomy so intently that you can then begin to warp their bones in a desired fashion. The warping is excruciatingly painful to the victim and can leave them in a "ball" of blood and broken bone depending on the anger level of the user. This "gift" is a two fold curse and causes the user to feel the pain of their victim without the physical marks. It is not uncommon for a user to pass out or go into seizures from the pain inflicted.
The Lashers- A gift of sending out an invisible force that act as a bladed whip or scourge. The movement of the users hands can mimic the flip and swish of whip causing the sound to echo through the air and inflict tearing and laceration damage on their victim. First discovered by their ancestor Amun, a field slave, who after being tortured for several hours by whip turned his rage against his master. Amun's magic blood fueled by rage created a force within his palm that ripped his masters face in two. Amun freed the slaves of his plantation after teaching this gift to surviving members of his family. The slaves referred to him as "The Lasher" and it has become a family gift ever since.
I am the Reflection- This gift deals with anything that casts a reflection. This will mostly be a defensive tactic. A member of this line can take refuge inside of elements that cast a reflection such as medium to large sized/mirrors, open pools of water, the reflective properties on a window pain. If a person looks at a vessel inhabited by them they will see the reflection of themselves staring back at them. **Spoiler** None will know this but a Chosen elder group maybe amongst the families (I will pick which ones), but if you turn your back to the reflective surface and use another mirror you can see the inhabiter staring back at you. While inside the reflection the inhabiter can move and depending on the skill level my bring one or more people on the other side with them. This is a dangerous state because if it is a mirror and it is broken the inhabiter risks being stuck on the other side until a "Summons" can be done by the house elder. This skill was learned by their ancestor, Mary Barbados as she was called. She was the beautiful house slave of Winston and Lily Proctor and their four children. She was the victim of Winston's unwanted advances for years bearing him a son she named Samuel. Lily Proctor knew the child was her husband's so she had the child taken from her Mary's arms at birth and then out into the cornfields where she never saw him again. Mary's woes manifested her powers within her (I will get into how she discovered her gifts later) but needless to say in revenge she hid the children of her master in the mirrors of the house and broke them. Finally she hid herself inside her mistress' favored floor length mirror as she prepared for bed and strangled her in the night. No arrests were made and Winston Proctor's children were never found.
I AM SO EXCITED. These ideas are like free flow. Sorry if there are misspellings. I woke up at 4 am with these ideas. I will get into more detail later.
@Doctor Belasco Hey I would be interested in hiring your Artificer/Mage for hire. We can work out a backstory, if your interested. My family are survivalists and would not mind working with an outsider. What do you think?
@Toskao Same to you! I really like the shamanism direction you are going with. That is an aspect I wanted to incorporate into my family but I did not want to take "everything" lol Lets make an alliance happen at some point. I just got to see how your characters pan out and see what we would have in common as far as goals. I got my eye on you.
@ Everyone Else I am loving the diversity. This is gonna be epic!