So I decided it was times to introduce y'all to a few of my worlds. First up to bat is Athelcia. This world is pretty much on the bottom of my top three worlds, but it's the easiest to explain so it goes first.
The whole premise of Athelcia was a combination of two premises. The first is a world/land where magic exists but is outlawed. The second premise is the X-Men premise of ordinary people manifesting superhuman abilities. It all really started years ago when I started asking myself why the superhero motif didn't show up until the late 1900's. I then started asking what it would like to have people with modern-style superpowers in a medieval setting where, unlike in modern settings they wouldn't have scientific understanding of what they're doing (i.e. Magneto would understand that he controls metal, but he wouldn't really understand that he did by magnetic fields because his culture has no knowledge of magnetism). I quickly realized that it could very really result in witch-hunts, which actually parallels pretty closely to the popular reception of mutants in the X-men universe. One of the main differences is that unlike X-men there's no genetic mutation or "next step in the evolutionary process" involved. In fact I was reminded of the scripture from Joel that Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost about God's spirit being poured out on people. From that the world began to take even more shape, so that these powers were a fulfillment of a prophecy that God made to his chosen people.

So the premise became that the main kingdom in the world had strict laws prohibiting magic and witchcraft, and methods of trying/punishing accused witches were very similar to methods used in our own history. Enforcing laws are the dreaded knights of the House of Don, who stop at nothing to ferret out witchcraft, even if it means innocent people are punished in the process. The most prevalent test of witchcraft is one of my own devising: Trial by Elements. The accused person is left bound and naked in the wilderness for 6 days. If they live then their innocence has spared them. If however, they die, then it was because nature itself has retaliated in the face of their heinous crimes. As you can imagine, it is a test that few survive due to weather, wild animals, malnutrition. Also, many women put to this test scarcely make it to their point of abandonment without at least one of their captors forcing himself upon them. But the worse fate of all is to be selected as one of the unfortunate few to go to the House of Don itself for imprisonment and interrogation. Within this dark and dangerous time there are rumors of a group called the "friends" who are said to help those accused of witchcraft. The "friends" actually are a group dedicated to administrating the legal sentences without the cruelty of the House of Don. In many cases they've been known to allow convicted women to go through Trial by Element with a thin covering, as opposed to the traditional naked condition.

Narrative wise - I had one story idea about a girl who finds herself with the strange ability to see through the eyes of animals. She is accused of witchcraft (whether because someone has noticed her strange behavior or because of unfortunate circumstances, I haven't decided). She turns to the "friends" in hopes of finding help only to find herself subjected to "trial by elements." As she lies there wasting away, she finds herself rescued by members of a secret group of similarly convicted "witches" that secretly dwells out in the wilderness rescuing any they find who are convicted of witchcraft. Many in the community are innocent, some have the natural superpowers, more don't. There are a few that are rescued that truly were guilty of witchcraft and they are not welcomed in the community.

Other aspects of premise:
The chosen race was overthrown at the founding of the current kingdom by the current ruling people due to their disobedience. However, like the Israelites, they've been promised by their prophets that a time of deliverance would come. The fulfilled prophecy goes something to the effect of:
"Behold, my sword is against you. And your land will I give to another. Placeless you will be in this world. As dust on the wind, so will be your descendants in the land that I have taken from you. And if in your distress you return to me in your hearts and direct your spirits down my ways, I will hear your cries and will rescue from the hand of your oppressors. I will pour out my power upon them in such a way as the earth has never before seen and never will see again. My power overflow among them turning their children's hearts away from their fathers towards me and towards the people I have loved. No more will you be a by word or a curse on their lips, for they will cling to you as babes to their mothers...."
Haven't quite finished it yet (in all honesty, it's been years since I've looked at Athelcia). The idea is that the chosen people have a kind of gypsy like existence at the time of the story and they ally themselves with the community of outcasts.

There's also the somewhat undeveloped idea that the nation I described above is only one nation and the other nations in the world react differently to magic. For instance, there is one that imprisons "witches" and tries to force them to use their "magic" (even if they are totally normal people) as weapons. And there is another that outlaws magic but doesn't pursue it quite as ardently. And there would be a few more but I haven't worked these out.

The Name:
Originally, Athelcia was named "Amagosia" which I came up with by combining the Greek words a, "without," and magos, "magician," with the "ia" ending that made it sound place name-ish. Later I decided to use a different Greek word for magic, I think it's thelxis, but I'm not sure because I altered it in order to come up with the name "Athelcia", which still means "without magic".

This is not my most organized of posts, but let me know what you think. Before you start bombarding me with questions and suggestions, let me reiterate that Athelcia is one of my least worked on worlds, and I haven't done anything with it in years. I all feel it necessary to restate that I haven't ever written anything longer than a short-story and that was almost five years ago, so the narrative idea is not a novel that I'm working on, because I'm not working on any novels. Other than that, feel free to comment.

In Christ,
Jordan

That sounds really interesting! I really like how you took the "superhero" idea and changed it up a little bit.
How many of the "witches" actually practice witchcraft? And what makes Athelcia so against witchcraft? Are they Christians (or the equivalent of that), or is there another reason?
When you first came up with the idea, were you planning on making it into a novel? Just wondering.

Very few. Think Salem witch-hunts on a somewhat larger scale and longer time frame, so it seems a bit less intense.Funny you should ask that. That's actually an interesting piece of background. Basically, the main country that I've been discussing was inhabited by a race that was special to God. Then the humans (or my equivalent) came into the picture. At first they were a small settlement a safe distance from the Chosen race(which needs a name) and they willingly traded with them and shared their knowledge of "magic," a part of their Cobha. It turned out that some humans could be taught a smiliar craft to that of the Chosen. It was just before this time that prophets from God began to cry out against the wickedness of the Chosen. The peace lasted for a decade or two with only minor scirmishes every now and then, but there was always an undertone of conquest running through the human empire, which had expanded it's borders in other directions. It all exploded with a failed assassination attempt by a human user of magic. Blame was immediately placed on the Chosen and all-out war ensued. During that war all but a few of the Chosen were destroyed, just as the prophets had warned. Those that survived fled outside the borders of the empire and took a nomadic existence similar to that of the Gypsies. It wasn't till centuries later that tensions had decreased enough for them to wander through their homeland in peace, and even then there was still a distrust between them and the humans (though most humans no longer remembered why). The onset of the war was ignited by a proclamation against all "witches" and those who practiced "such vile arts". Somewhere in the mix of this history, Christianity did emerge, but I haven't worked all of that out just yet. Yep, at the beginning I was planning on writing a novel, but I've kinda given up for the time being.

Okay, that all makes sense!

Thanks!

So, out of curiosity, what constitutes a witch in your story? You have the innocents who don’t have any power, the young woman who could see through the eyes of animals, and then you talk about the actual witches. Is this young woman considered a witch because of her power, or must demonic practices be present in order for them to be classified as witches?

Real witches in Athelcia are those who actually practice witchcraft, which is as of yet undefined. I'm thinking of having all magic as "witchcraft" in Athelcia as opposed to those with inherent power. This idea is still under development at the moment.

Okay, I was just wanting some clarification.

That's fine. It's an area I need to clarify for myself, so I welcome the questions. It all needs some work