The Witch Clan that Wasn’t
Most of the russet-haired members of the Illustrious Family of Serendip have never set foot past the Singing Wastes, let alone visited the Witch Clans of the Barrier Range. Despite this, they share both hair colour and magical power with the clans.
Many Serendips have an inherited power: to change people’s emotions with a touch. The Serendip must be touching an item of particular colour, along with the recipient of the modified mood. Some Serendips can amplify this power or increase its range through contrivances like rods made of crystal or painted rooms.
The current Patriarch of the family was actually adopted. Without any witchery of his own, he is trusted by Serendips wary of having their own emotions toyed with. He has focused the family’s efforts on a chain of casinos and dancehalls in Jahur, finding that soothing drunk customers or sore losers, and increasing the euphoria of high spenders, is very good business.
The main competition is not from outside, but within. Kari Serendip established and runs Jahur’s vast Botanical Gardens, where she inculcates changed emotion on a large and complicated scale. A rose garden, with its touches of red and white, might quicken the blood but ward off rage; laying in a bed of daffodils ringed by wisteria cleans away insecurities about becoming a parent.
Kari believes that the Serendips’ main business is corrupt and corrupting, and is leading a morality campaign to shut it down.
Hooks
- How did a Witch Clan - if that’s what the Serendips are - arise in Jahur?
- Which other famous Serendips are there?
- Who else would like to see the Serendips’ business come to an end?