Editing Discworld (section)

===Witches===
[[File:Witches Dicworld.png|thumb|As fine a body of women as you'd ever hope to avoid...]]
[[Witch]]es, much like their [[wizard]]ly counterparts, are not so much an association as a collective designation for female magic users. Where Wizards tend to congregate and organize themselves into hierarchies, Witches tend to have an independent streak a mile wide and do their own thing. Witches do occasionally gather in Covens (usually three, two witches can work even if they step on each others toes and you can go up to five witches before the whole thing breaks down into a flaming row, three is the sweet spot) and occasionally Witches will have larger meet-ups to discuss matters that concern them all but there's a distinct lack of dancing naked in the moonlight and a lot more exchanging of local gossip and jam preserves. 

Witches are generally far more reserved and austere than Wizards, even after the latter calmed down and stopped obliterating each other with fireballs. Instead of bright star-spangled robes, Witches prefer robust black cloaks that can safely get dirty and keep the chill off while flying by broomstick. Many younger (and foolish) Witches don't always agree with this sentiment, vainly going in for sheer silks and silver bangled jewellery to affect airs of enchanting mysticism. Ironically, while these have no affect on magical ability, they are in some cases detrimental to the job of being a village witch.

Good witchery actually relies very little on using magic, focused more on hard work and cultivating a Reputation of some kind. Medicine, herbology, animal husbandry, arbitration, midwifery, etc. are all often as equally important as spellcasting and potion brewing in witchcraft. Additionally, many witches employ "Boffo," a secret, nonmagical, and extremely powerful method of turning themselves into living legends and engendering respect/admiration/fear in a population. As Witches never ask for money in exchange for their services, they tend to rely on the land and goodwill (and mild intimidation) of their community, who gift foodstuffs and other essentials in appreciation. As such, anti-witch superstition is disastrous for a Witch, as even if she can easily escape an angry mob's bonfire with magic she will still likely be forced to relocate to a place more hospitable. Tragically, many lonely old women, with no family left to care for them and no magic to escape, often get caught up in anti-Witch persecution despite not being witches themselves.

This stigma is not completely unjustified (or perhaps it is the impetus?), as there are several infamous cases of Witches going insane and wreaking havoc. Witches are, by the nature of their relationships with the communities they live in, solitary people who have few friends who aren't also witches. Left alone, some witches might start to think that they're better than the people they help, that the world is full of stupid people and that she could help them if she could only set them on the right path... Conscientious witches make an effort to visit their colleagues for tea, watching their sisters for warning signs of "cackling," a kind of insanity born of physical and mental separation from the rest of the world. A cackling witch gives in to this kind of thinking and starts to shape the world to her will through magic, seeing everyone else as things instead of people and in some cases genuinely believing she's making a better world. A powerful witch who has been lost to the cackling (and the more powerful the witch, the stronger she has to fight against the urge to cackle) tends to end up having to be put down by her sisters or gets thrown in the oven in her gingerbread cottage- storybook villain witch behaviors often result from thinking with a cackling mind.