The Role of Fear in the Witch Hunt Trials of Williamsburg

Witch hunts in Williamsburg were a dark and distressing period in the history of colonial America. During the late 17th century, accusations of witchcraft spread throughout the colonies, including the bustling town of Williamsburg, Virginia. These witch hunts were fueled by a widespread belief in supernatural forces and a fear of the unknown. The seeds of the witch hunts can be traced back to the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts, where several women were accused of practicing witchcraft and subsequently executed. The hysteria surrounding these trials soon spread to neighboring colonies, including Virginia. In Williamsburg, this fear was exacerbated by a series of unexplained illnesses, crop failures, and other misfortunes that were attributed to witchcraft.

Suggested Races: Dwarf, Elf, Fae, Human, Tiefling, Vampire

Magic 4 Elements Lvl 0, 2, 4 6 Mana Bands Lvl 0 Mana Band 1 Lvl 0 Mana Band 2 Lvl 1 Mana Band 3 Lvl 2 Mana Band 4 Lvl 2 Mana Band 5 Lvl 3 Mana Band 6 Lvl 3 Mana Band 7 Lvl 4 Mana Band 8 Lvl 5 Mana Band 9 Lvl 6 Mana Band 10 Lvl 10 Mana Band 11 Lvl 15 Mana Band 12 Lvl 15 Mana Band 13 Lvl 18 Mana Band 14 Lvl 18 Mana Band 15. Armor Light, Shields Weapons Simple Weapons Tools Choose one of the following Alchemist s Supplies, Herbalism Kit, or Poisoner s Kit Saving Throws Constitution and Dexterity Skills Choose two of the following Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Medicine, Nature, Survival.

In Williamsburg, this fear was exacerbated by a series of unexplained illnesses, crop failures, and other misfortunes that were attributed to witchcraft. The passing of the Virginia Witch Act in 1692 further fueled the fervor. This act was similar to the infamous Salem Witch Act and authorized the arrest and trial of anyone suspected of practicing witchcraft.

Arcane arts of flux level magic

These damage values are taken from an oghmir fat mage with 138 int.

• Outburst
  
• Spurt
  
• Lightning
  
• Purify
  
• Lesser Heal
  
• Magic Reflect
  
• Corrupt
  - All of these can also be found as scrolls in barrels in the Tindrem sewers, bandit casters, urns at bandit camps, and the bandit leader. Also found in sator camp chests and urns in the jungle!

These damage values are taken from an oghmir fat mage with 138 int.

All spiritism spells must be found and scribed into your book. None are given to you freely in your basic spellbook.

[Work in Progress]

• Resurrect - Magic vendor 10g
  
• Transcendental Awareness - Magic vendor 5g
  
• Transcendental Seance - Magic vendor 1g
  
• Ether Momentum - Minotaurs and risars (rare drop)
  
• Ether Barrier - risar commanders with a 10% drop chance
  
• Kau Regeneration - Risar healer, the Gravekeeper, and bandit healers with a 5% drop chance.
  
• Etherworld Portal - Trade a forest troll head to a spiritst trader in a major city in exchange for the scroll
  
• Expel Spirit - Magic vendor 1g
  
• Mental Projectile - Sators in the Sator dungeon (5-10% drop chance)
  
• Dispel Portal - Southern Steppe Bandit Camp chest, Bandit Healers, and Risar healers with a 5% drop chance
  
• Mental Healing - The Illusionist (25% drop chance), Bandit Healers (5%drop chance), and Risar healers (5% drop chance)

Step 1: Have spirit box with at least 1 spirit.
Step 2: Make sure you and the poor unfortunate soul are in the same area.
Step 3: Cast Transcendental Awareness on yourself (costs a spirit). This allows you to see the spirits from the world of the living and target them.
Step 4: Cast Resurrect on your friend from close range and have them accept the revive. You will need Jadeite, Calamine, and Cuprum for this.
Step 5: Profit.

If both of you are spiritist mages you can just summon an ether portal which they can walk through. It only requires spirits to cast, you just need your ether lores before using this method (2 primary skills). Technically you don’t have to be a spiritist to walk through the portal as long as you have the skills necessary (60 in Ether Portal Lore).

Transmutation Flux is used for rerolling trinkets you find out in the world from fishing, bandits, risars, bosses, and other formitable opponents.

Cuprum, Silver, Gold, Skadeite, Oghmium

To gather flux, you need to capture spirits with spiritism magic in the Etherworld. The drop chances are LOW and you can expect to gather one about every 4 medium boxes if you are solo and in a good location. Flux can also drop from single orb spirits, but don’t expect to find many.
The best locations to gather flux are the Minotaur dungeon and Celaeno cave.

So you want a gold flux? It might be a while. While out gathering spirits and getting roughly 40-50 per spirit in good locations, you can expect a Cuprum flux to be the most common. Silver flux is 2-3x rarer than Cuprum and gold flux is 2-3x rarer than silver. Gold flux is the highest their that has been discovered so far as well.

If you are gathering 40-50 spirits per attempt at say your average bandit camp, and it takes about 4 medium boxes til you typically find a flux… then you’re looking at about a 7-8% chance to gain a flux at all.

If silver flux are about 2-3x rarer than cuprum flux, then you’re looking at a 2.3-4% drop chance per captured spirit.

If gold flux is 2-3x rarer than silver, then you’ll have a 0.76-2% chance at gathering one per spirit.

• Cuprum: 7-8%
  
• Silver: 2.3-4%
  
• Gold: 0.76-2%
  
• Skadeite: N/A
  
• Oghmium: N/A This flux DID briefly drop during the Hallloween event of 2022, but is not yet obtainable anywhere else ingame since.

In MO1, you had the ability to fill the boxes by going to a priest and killing yourself which split the number of spirits in your boxes in half and you kept them on death. With MO2 this is not the case.

You need to have collected Etherworld Portal, Transcendental Seance, and Expel spirit. then the lore books Ether Portals, Multiuniverse Knowledge, and Ether Portal Knowledge skill books. read them.. AND the spiritism skill book.
(refer to the Spiritism section for where to get all of these books and spells)

Put your equipment, reagents, and anything that isn't a spirit box or spellbook into your bank.

• Small Spiritboxes costs 2g, holds 50 spirits, come with 5 already, and sell for 3g 50s when 50/50
  
• Medium Spiritboxes costs 6g, holds 150 spirits, come with 5 already, and sell for 10g 50s when 150/150

Once you have built your desired character, aquired your basic spellbook, read your skill books, and have a decent amount of reagents. You might still be feeling a little weak.

Mental offense and your Intelligence stat govern your ability to deal damage. But each successful spell cast's exp is determined by the amount of mana that is spent.

The cheapest way to max out your skills is to cast spurt on yourself repeatedly (pressing E) and rest or use lesser healing to regain health.

Based on the new method of exp gain, casting mental healing on yourself would be the fastest (and most expensive) way to level up your skills. Casting spells like fulmination and engaging in combat might just be better in the long run for your new character though. If you do this while mounted, it will also increase your mounted magery skill.

• Mental Focus
  
• Mental Offense
  
• Mana regeneration
  
• Meditation (if you rest)
  
• Concentration
  
• Intelligence stat
  
• Psyche stat

If you are interested in joining MANA (the premier mage's guild in-game) and mastering the arcane arts, have questions, or more information I might have missed, message billbonty#6444 in discord.

Get out there adventurer!

All Necromancy spells must be found and scribed into your book. None are given to you freely in your basic spellbook.

The Necromancy Notes can be found north of the mino cave sold at a small house with a vendor for 10g and awards 1 skill point in Necromancy. (can also just directly trade a medium spirit box for this!) The notes can also be bought for 10g worth of items outside the smoking house vendor at the Necromancy Dungeon. Here is a list of what he sells:

The Tome of the Walking Dead is a rare drop from coffers inside the necro dungeon and can be purchased from the vendor outside the dungeon. This book helps with the mana drain that all walkers require while under your control.

The Necromancer's Tome drops from the Descensus High Priest rarely and the Risen Troll chest that requires the salted key which is dropped by the troll in the dungeon. The tome levels Necromancy to a maximum of 50.

The Compendium of Necromantic Rituals is dropped by the Descensus High Priest (1% chance) and the Risen Troll chest and is by far the rarest drop for both locations. The compendium levels ritualism to a maximum of 70.

It is POSSIBLE to get both the necro tome and compendium in necro POI chests as well, but it is much harder to obtain one that way. (extremely low drop chances well below 1%)

The Notes of Necromantic Rituals requires the player to obtain 50 carved bones. You obtain them through scavengers and necromancers at necro poi's with 33% drop chance. Multiple bones (like 5-10) drop from the Descensus High Priest as well when he is killed. You must then take these bones down to the Fabernum dungeon just before the Gravekeeper and pull a lever. This lever will open a wall behind you and you should walk through an invisible wall on the right side of the room you then enter with the chest. Behind that wall is the vendor. Human clades do not allow you to buy the notes with less bones, you just get some extra silver back for the vendor price of the items.

Sacrificial walkers drop Ritual Blood and Risen Sacrifice Carcass. This carcass can be butchered for MORE Ritual Blood (Shinaria Lores), or put in a furnace to produce Ritual Ash.

• Raise Walker - Drops from Necromancers at ruins and in the dungeon. Can also be found in coffers.
  
• Control Undead - Drops from Necromancers at ruins and in the dungeon. Can also be found in coffers.
  
• Command Undead - Drops from Necromancers at ruins and in the dungeon. Can also be found in coffers.
  
• Risen Greater Walker - Drops from Necromancers at ruins (less common) and in coffers within the dungeon.
  
• Risen Strong Walker - Drops from Necromancers at ruins (less common) and in coffers within the dungeon.
  
• Miasma - Trade 10 Strange Baubles at the jungle camp Researcher, Strange Baubles drops from sators anywhere in the jungle.
  
• Sacrificial Heal - Drops from Necromancers at ruins (less common) and Descensus Priests. Can also be found in coffers.
  
• Sacrificial Eruption - Drops from Necromancers at ruins (less common) and coffers in the dungeon. Can also be found in coffers.
  
• Blind - Drops from Descensus Priests and in coffers within the dungeon.
  
• Death Hand - Drops from Necromancers (in dungeon) and in coffers.
  
• Cloud of Ashes - Drops from coffers (in dungeon) and Descensus Priests.
  
• Benumb Mind - Drops from coffers (in dungeon).
  
• Crawling Hands - Drops from coffers (in dungeon).
  
• Auw Surge - Drops from the Descensus High Priest.
  
• Akh Bond - Drops from the Descensus High Priest and in coffers (in dungeon).
  
• Mental Leech - Drops from the Descensus High Priest and coffers (in dungeon).
  
• Atrophy - Drops from coffers (in dungeon).
  

Ritualism is an extremely difficult and painful endeavor for mages. The pets have no defenses and their damage is easily mitigated by armor, with the exception of acid attacks from creatures like the Tupilaks and clothos maidens.

Ritual pets do not take any pet points to hold, but you can only have one undead mount and one undead combat pet out at a time. Summoning or bringing another out from an equerry will KILL the first one outright without warning.

It is possible to have both a ritual horse and living horse out at the same time because they are both mounts, but having a living mount out and an undead combat pet out at the same time will make the undead pet start attacking your living mount until it dies or is stabled.

Bringing an undead pet of any kind into town will result in you becoming a criminal and being killed by the guards. Performing a ritual also makes you a criminal and reduces your psy by one point (this is easy to get back don't worry). You have to stable these pets in house and stronghold equerries.

The Occultist vendor is the only place to buy ritual candles and ritual circles which are used to train ritualism. You will need a LOT of gold to make this happen. Each candle and table cost 1 gold each and each ritual gives 9 exp. Here is a chart:

There is an easy way to level ritualism now! Summon a tupilak and just spam its abilities. Ritualism also counts as a kind of undead beast mastery so this method is VERY CHEAP! It just takes time.

The elementalist vendors are actually tables with a large book on them. It is more about the STUDY of elementalism than just trading an NPC. (even though that is still exactly what you are doing)

Tindrem - The table is located to the left as you are coming through the front gate in a building. This vendor is NOT SAFE so PLEASE do not just walk up and assume there are guards.

Toxai - The table is in a hut at the end of the pier to the east of the south bank down the hill. You can also be killed here or pushed into the water. BE CAREFUL!

Jungle Camp - The table is in front of the hut by the bank. This place is obviously dangerous, scout it out first before diving in.

Haven - In the house with the magic vendor by the garden.

So you're probably noticing at this point that the vendors want some pretty expensive and hard to find items. Take a look below to get an idea of where and what to look for.

Rock Crystal Geode - These are rare drops from mining any rock and can be found rarely by collecting a rock crystal pickable and drop from Sators in the jungle.

Once you've read the book, you'll need to start casting something simple and inexpensive like hailstone (20-61) or ember (20-61) both of these are cheap to cast. From 61-81 start casting either sludge or shock. Both of those will take you to 81. 81-100 you'll want to use dust burst or mending vapors. Mending vapors is easier to level in town since it heals and deals no damage.

After reading the book, start out by casting sandspout from 20-36. At 36 I leveled down my psyche by hitting a friend to get strength up and hit trees. This allowed me to have less bonus points and I could start casting sandspout again to get to 40. When lodestone powder is cheaper, it will likely be feasible to just cast boulder to level 46. Either way your next step is Fireball from 40-66, Fuming Bubble from 66-81, then either Lava Ball from 81-91 or Lightning Bolt from 81-96. Whirlwind is for 96-100, but Nimbic Spirits are currently quite expensive and tedious to make, so you'll likely not be grinding that for a while.

Remember, leveling up a child skill still levels up the parent skill! You can lock elementalism spells at 65 you can keep leveling intensification to 100 with fireball or 95 and do lightning bolt even though there is no exp bar visible.

These spells are all very basic and have minimal AOE if any at all and hit for small numbers, but have faster cast times. Here's all of the spells in order from darkness-light at 138 int.

These spells are your main damage dealers at range until we get something stronger. Their projectile speed is slower, but the AOE damage is HUGE as it should be. These will be your bread and butter as an elementalist especially for pve. All spells are shown at 138 int and organized from darkness - light.

Flux Adepts are all generally compelled by the same goal: to push their bodies to the limit, and beyond even that. They eschew exercise and physical training as methods to grow strong; after all, even that can only get you so far. The true path to power is by molding your flesh as you will it. A Flux Adept views the body not as a tool, but as a raw material to be shaped into something more.

It allowed for the use of spectral evidence, testimonies of the afflicted claiming to see the accused performing witchcraft in their dreams or visions. Accusations of witchcraft in Williamsburg were often based on superstition, personal grudges, or neighborly disputes. Women, especially those who were perceived as outcasts or had unconventional beliefs, were disproportionately targeted as suspected witches. Many innocents fell victim to false accusations and were subjected to harsh interrogations and cruel punishments. The witch trials in Williamsburg were marked by intimidation tactics, public humiliation, and in some cases, torture. Accused witches were often subjected to "witch tests" such as the swimming test or the prick test, designed to reveal physical marks or other supposed signs of witchcraft. Those found guilty faced execution by hanging or being burned at the stake. The hysteria surrounding witchcraft eventually subsided in Williamsburg, as it did in other parts of America. The trials began to lose credibility, and the scientific and rational thinking of the Enlightenment Era challenged the belief in witchcraft. By the early 18th century, the witch hunts in Williamsburg came to an end, leaving behind a dark chapter in the town's history. In conclusion, the witch hunts in Williamsburg represented a disturbing period in colonial America. They were marked by fear, hysteria, and the persecution of innocent people. Today, these events serve as a somber reminder of the dangers of unchecked superstition and the devastating consequences of mass hysteria..

Reviews for "Witch Hunting in Colonial Williamsburg: Society's Search for a Scapegoat"

1. Sarah - 2/5 stars - I was really excited to visit Williamsburg and attend the "Witch Hunts in Williamsburg" event because I'm a history buff. However, I was sorely disappointed with the experience. The event lacked depth and historical accuracy. The actors were not very convincing and the whole thing felt rather cheesy. I expected to be transported back in time and learn more about the real history of witch hunts, but instead, it was more like a poorly executed haunted house tour. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone looking for an educational and authentic experience.

2. Mark - 3/5 stars - The "Witch Hunts in Williamsburg" event had its moments, but overall, I found it to be a bit underwhelming. While some of the actors did a decent job, others seemed overacted and forced. The storytelling aspect was fragmented and failed to provide a coherent narrative. Additionally, the event was overcrowded, detracting from the overall experience. I appreciate the effort put into recreating historical events, but there is definitely room for improvement in terms of execution and attention to detail.

3. Emily - 2/5 stars - Having heard great things about the "Witch Hunts in Williamsburg" event, I was excited to attend. However, I left feeling disappointed and underwhelmed. The event lacked organization, and the flow of the storytelling was confusing. The costumes and set design were also lackluster, failing to transport me into the historical setting. I expected to be engaged and educated, but instead, I found myself bored and unimpressed. I hope they work on improving the quality of the event in the future for a more enjoyable experience.

The Legacy of Williamsburg's Witch Hunt Trials: Historical Significance and Lessons Learned