There was once a time when witches were valued in one of the highest point of a court, they added the people cure ills of the sick, casing luck charms on the poor. Of course there were a few witches that case curses on the people who deserved it, however that was few and far between. The witches not only helped the people but the rulers as well, in many of the same ways as the people. However it was one prince who changed everything, most of the witches were good by nature, their laws and rules at the time forced them to be any curse that was laid must be deserved. This prince did not wish to abide by their laws, he was the prince, and he could do as he wished.

His orders were simple, kill the king of another land so that he could marry the daughter. This was against the witches laws, and so the coven leader in the kingdom refused. Angered the prince locked the leader up, and thus a fight with magic was started, the witches won as the magic was stronger than the arms of humans, when their leader was free they fled to the woods foolishly letting the prince live. Stating that the witches attacked for no reason, he outlawed magic.With the witch's exile and the total ban on magic, a void was left, one that the kingdom's sage's attempted to fill with alchemy.

Alchemy met with limited success at first, the ingredients of the mundane world provided only mundane effects... Until it was discovered that witch's blood made for a powerful reagent in alchemical concoctions. With this discovery, the hunts redoubled. The reward for hauling in a witch, especially a living witch, was more than most people made in a lifetime. The money and benefit to society helped most people overlook the slow and terrible death awaiting most captured witches, but even so, most hunters are sadistic.