For Gold & Glory: Card of the Week: Verduran Enchantress

The artwork for Verduran Enchantress is one of my favorites in all of Magic.

A Forbidden Land

She sat down across from me and made herself comfortable, lounging back on a generous pile of cushions. She looked me over with a skeptical eye but she must have found me acceptable, for she smiled and spoke. Her voice was low but powerful—I had no trouble hearing her words despite the quiet of their forming. “I understand that you seek the heart of Verdura, yes?”

“I do,” I replied. In the silence that followed she stared at me, obviously expecting more of an answer—a request that was all the more powerful for being unspoken. “I have heard of the primeval forests of this island, untouched by axe, and would see them with my own eyes,” I added, unwilling to state the obvious.

Her smile returned, but this time it was cold. “Just to see them, yes? You must think me a fool, to tell me such a lie. I am an Enchantress, and I know another mage when I meet one. You are here for the forests, but not to observe. You wish to bind its ley lines to yourself, yes?”

I bowed my head. “I mean no insult to you, or to anyone else,” I said. “Yes, I do wish to find new ley lines, but I assure you I mean no harm to the forest.”

She nodded, apparently satisfied. “Very well. But even if I believe your intent is good, you cannot enter the forest, yes? You cannot pass beyond the borders of this port city.” She glanced down from my face. “It is forbidden for one such as yourself to intrude on our domain.”

Did she refer to my status as a foreigner? As a mage who practiced other colors of magic? It took me a moment to realize what she meant. “Men cannot enter the forest?” I asked. “Just mages, or all men in general?”

She shook her head. “All men are forbidden. Just as the spirit of Verdura is mother to all who live here, so too must we be as mothers to the children of her sacred forest, yes? Men cannot be mothers, and cannot tend to the children of the forest as we do.”

“So no men, even those born to this land and devoted to the spirit of Verdura, can never enter the forest? Even if they are equally as devoted as their mothers, their sisters, their wives? Would not Verdura rather have more who tend to her ways than less?”

The Enchantress was silent for a long moment, a frown creasing her brow. “It is not for me to know the thoughts of Verdura’s spirit,” she finally said. “But this is the way that we have honored her for generations upon generations, and it has served us well. Those men who wish to may revere her in their own ways, and those who chafe at the ancient laws may leave. There are, I hear, plenty of places for them elsewhere in the world.”

For a moment, I thought to argue against Verdura’s rules, but I held back. Who was I to tell this woman how she and her fellow Enchantresses should manage their own land? Trying to force my way in would only, in the best case, see me on an outbound boat sooner rather than later. “Very well, I understand. You have my word that I will not go inland.”

“That is good,” she replied. “I would not wish to kill you, yes? For that is the price that a man must pay should he intrude in Verdura’s forests. But do not be disappointed—for those not native to our land, one forest is much like another, and you will find others.” She smiled at me, and this time it seemed genuinely warm. “But you are welcome to stay in this village for as long as you like. You surely know magic that we do not, and we know that which you don't. We can learn from each other, yes?”

Women and Magic

The Enchantresses of Verdura are not unusual in their connection to magic. In many cultures, magic is seen as a feminine art. Depictions of women mages are varied, from images of old women hunched over bubbling cauldrons to women as oracles and seers to temptresses who ensnare their victims with dark magic, but are not at all uncommon. Indeed, in some cultures that see magic as the purview of women it can be seen as taboo for men to practice magic.

In Germanic traditions, prophecy and other magic is often the purview of women. Veleda, Jules Eugène Lenepveu, 1883.

An Enchanting Strategy

Calling on the Verduran Enchantresses is perhaps not the most effective way to fight a battle, but the lure of its promise has long been a siren's call to those mages who seek creative new strategies. Some day, they hope, perhaps someone will find the right combination of spells to make the Verduran Enchantresses a power to be reckoned with. But even if that day never comes, there are still many mages willing to ally themselves with Verdura.

I assume that wombats are popular pets on the island of Verdura. Like the Enchantress, the Popcorn-Eating Wombat goes well with enchantments. Combine the two for greater effect!

Naturally, those who ally with the Enchantresses fill their spellbooks with enchantments—many of which are staples of sorcerous combat in any case, but take on a new prominence here. With the backing of the Enchantresses, each enchantment cast is another source of knowledge—knowledge that often results in yet more enchantments to cast. If all goes well, one’s Enchantress allies can enable a mage to access a great portion of their knowledge at once. With all resources at hand, a mage need only to pick and choose a spell to seize victory.