witch

Witches are a new species evolved from mortal women who begin to absorb magic power. Roughly one woman in a hundred can become a witch; her unique and unpredictable ability awakens usually during puberty — and one who has not awakened by eighteen never will. Beyond their powers, witches gain greater beauty, faster healing and slower aging, but cannot bear children.

A witch's growth is marked by key stages: the Day of Awakening, the Day of Adulthood at eighteen (which may grant a branch ability), and a rarer High Awakening or evolution that deepens her power. Only about a tenth of witches gain 'combat' abilities; the self-strengthening ones, called Extraordinaries, are immune to the God's Stone of Retaliation and, once evolved, become Transcendents.

The red mist that the demons breathe is lethal to witches. Hunted by the Church as heretics, they are precisely the people Roland shelters and empowers, treating their gifts as the engine of civilization rather than a curse.