The Beer Brewing Witch

The cauldron bubbled over a low flame fed by smith coals, animal bones, and hickory sticks. Elora stirred it with a clean birch staff, muttering a mantra under her breath as she kept a slow and steady pace. A cloth covered the lower half of her face, and steam rose from the noxious brew.

"What kind of spell are you putting into this?" Doran asked, coughing.

"This one doesn't need any of my magic," Elora said, taking out the staff and tapping off the dregs of the concoction. "The finest hopps harvest combined with pure spring water, all of it steadily refined for months. This is the last stage in the process... after the yeast did its job and gave me a nice, thick brew, we added in a touch of dragon's bile, and a pinch of troll's blood. The result is something that tastes like All Hallows, and leaves you feeling fine after a couple of swallows."

Doran stared at his companion as she swiveled the cauldron off the carefuly-prepared fire, and dipped a ladel into it. She filled small, single-serving bottles with the brew, leaving the stopper alongside each bottle as it cooled. She was examining the final bottle when Doran spoke up again.

"That's all?" Doran asked. "Just a batch of beer?"

"Not just any beer," Elora said, thumbing a stopper into a bottle and lightly tossing it to her companion. "Drink one of those when you set off on a journey, and you'll need neither food nor drink the whole day until you've woken up after a good night's sleep. That, and a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg makes it nice and sweet!"

The Beer-Brewing Witch

The image of a witch bent over a cauldron to brew strange-smelling potions that can do everything from dull pain to granting courage is an old one, but it doesn't take much in the way of imagination to add that extra step of turning the traditional image of toil-and-trouble into a craft brewer with a bit of genuine magic up her sleeve.

While the association between beer brewing and historical witches is somewhat established, as The Conversation points out, it's also important to remind folks that the witch class is open to any and all genders, which can lead us to interesting questions regarding presentation, personality, and even societal roles for characters who combine the magic of the witch with the craft of the beer brewer.

For example, if the witch comes from a dwarven community where beer is part-and-parcel of daily life, are their skills and knowledge valued and celebrated by their community? Or are they considered to be a dangerous renegade, messing with tradition in a way that could have catastrophic effects? Would an elven brewer have a different experience, focusing on ciders, wines, and similar concoctions rather than traditional beer because fruit was more readily available? And would this be considered an honorable profession in their culture, preserving nature's bounty in a useful way, or would it be considered a perversion of what nature provided creating their potions the way they do? Does the witch have the personality of a microbrewer, focusing on enhancing and altering their potion recipes, and creating unique, small-batch solutions for problems on the road? Does the witch treat potion-tasting like a wine connoisseur, able to tell which ingredients were used, and even the method, just with a tiny taste?

At the end of the day, a Beer Brewing Witch is meant to demystify a very mystical character class. They still have access to a variety of spells, their witch hexes, a familiar, and a slew of other unique class features... but coming at this potion making magician from an unexpected angle can lead to a unique personality, social role, and even unusual goals (particularly if brewing witches are part of a guild or secret society, where members have to be chosen by a patron before they learn the secrets of the order) that can really make the character stand out!

Also, to go along with this character concept, consider checking out some of the following supplements:

- Fantasy Beer Name Generator

- 100 Fantasy Drinks

- 100 Secret Societies

- 100 Fantasy Guilds

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Unusual Character Concepts post!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my gangland noir series starring a Maine Coon enforcer with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, or my recent short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more content, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!