Hex, Voodoo, Thief-Shifting

"Afternoon everyone! This chapter is another dark one. These versions of shapeshifting are not for happy light stories. To change it up I am going to go backwards!"

"Thief-shifting… Okay, this is just the name I have given it. However the concept exists in quite a few lore. To understand Thief-shifting you must understand a few mythological creatures and a few made up creatures based on lore. The list is following."

"Skin-walkers- There are about 3 different variations of these creatures. However 2 of them have the same type of shapeshifting. Through murder, they take the skin of the victim and wear it. While they wear the skin they are almost indistinguishable from the victim. They dispose of their old skin and wear the new one. For necromancers out there, one of the versions of a skin-walker is actually an undead creature, enjoy adding that to your repertoire of horrifying beings. According to the lore, they slowly gain the information from the creature they killed the longer they wear the skin. Whether that gets applied or not in books is another thing altogether."

"This one is a creature from Avatar the last airbender (the tv series) based on lore. (I don't remember the exacts with the lore.) but Koh the FaceStealer. He is a spiritual being that steals and wears people's faces. The condition is that he must get the face to show emotion in front of him."

"So, if you choose to add Thief-shifting into your story. You will probably want to consider a few questions. How does the shifting work? How does the entity obtain the 'shape'? How long does it last? How many forms can the being hold at the same time?"

"Usually Thief-Shifting is a racial thing however there are some magical lore that can replicate the effects. If you seek a more gruesome story, this is a great tool to use."

Eranoth pocketed his phone, wallet, and car keys. "Well, RedPandaChick and I need to go shopping. Be back to explain more everyone!"

"Now then, Hex and Voodoo. I don't have much concrete details on how they work. The amount of exposure to this particular subject is a tad more limited. However, I am quite proud of my observation skills, I shall logic my way through this and even if it is false, you will find the concepts to be completely useable in a story. Please understand that this is not a reflection of Vodou."

"First a thought. From the research I have done, a lot of 'non-arcane' magic is drawn from primarily life force and secondarily soul force. Of course in writing there is always more ways to go about it than this but for the sake of simplicity I will have us go with this."

"Second a question. With (Non-Arcane) witchcraft, mysticism, and other 'looked down upon' magics, why do they use things like totems, masks, statues, charms, and other objects so heavily? Mind you I am not going to go into excessive details."

"First masks: Depending on the lore you go with when looking up masks they had a few purposes. One was to hide one's soul and body. Another was to empathize with another soul. And frequently it was used to communicate with the other side while keeping yourself safe from that side. For the sake of this particular shapeshifting lore let us assume the first and third."

"Second totems and charms: Depending on the sub-category a lot of totems, charms, and the other creations for these purposes are made with animal body parts and carvings. These are theoretically used to harness the magical power of living things; the power of their life force and their soul force."

"Now then, when one thinks of a swamp hag, a witch living in the desolate wilds no human likes to enter, and we hear about transformation magic, which is often referred to as a hex, The most common thought is 'turned into a frog'. Why a frog?"

"Thinking of location, a swamp. Frogs are near the bottom of the food chain there. Most other swamp creatures are more hostile, dangerous, or insects. For some reason they don't seem to do much with bugs. So, among all the creature bones, organs, blood, etc to use for the making of totems, charms and other objects, frogs would be the easiest to get for an abundance of life force."

"Now why does the Hex even happen? What would have more life force, a human body or a frog body? How much soul force does a frog's body need to have vs a human body? Using the common theory about bodies and souls, a frog is a 'simpler existence' with a shorter lifespan and less vitality/strength and it is an animal. In most lifeforce theories the more vitality something has, the more lifeforce it has. In most soulforce theories animals have a weaker soul force than a human as soul force is often associated with comprehension. Because of these theories it is said that a barbarian will have higher life force but weaker soul force than a random person but a wizard will be the opposite as they use other means to extend their lifetime."

"A Hex, in theory is a means to steal life force and soul force. Here is how this works. An object filled with the life force energy and soul force energy of a specific animal is the medium. The target's soul and vitality are drained during the hex. However, since killing a target to obtain their life and soul force can lead to heavy backlash, their vitality is replaced by the animal vitality in the object (causing the physical transformation). Their soul force is drained to that of an animal's because of two reasons. 1 leaving a strong soul in a weak body is dangerous and a waste. 2 draining more soul force then that would equate to killing the creature inviting backlash. The object that was used as the medium has then exchanged the animal for the human in vitality and soul force."

"There is something important to note: Life force and soul force are very much existence bound so if the object trapping the energy is damaged or broken, the hex will become undone. However, if the life and soul force has been consumed the effect won't be undo-able."

"Theory-crafting further. This process could be done with any creature and not just frogs however; theoretically the reason they used frogs instead of snakes and other creatures, fighting back could have be a problem."

"This type of magical transformation is usually a means to an end rather than the act in of itself."

"Well, that is enough theorycrafting about that. Enjoy the rest of your day everyone!"

© J Eranoth