Witch (Brynhildr in the Darkness)

Witches are a genetically engineered species that feature in Brynhildr in the Darkness.

History
A Witch was a genetically engineered teenage girl that was created by the shadowy and mysterious group known as the Organization. The creation of a Witch was traced to around a century ago when alien ruins were discovered with a mysterious organization studying them and the organisms within. From their study, they determined that mankind was in fact the creation of an unknown race of alien intelligences long ago. Such beings were responsible for creating a genetic trigger that was able to exterminate all of mankind. These were linked to small organisms known as the Drasil and a special kind of creature known as the Grane. The latter of the two had the ability to initiate the genetic trigger and bring about the end of the world. However, both organism needed to be within organic hosts in order to develop and mature until they hatched. Their research led to them to create witches that had superhuman abilities. The goal of the Organization was the cultivation of the alien organisms that resided in their Harnests until they hatched. Several members of the Organization after learning of its goal defected and formed a resistance group known as Hexenjagd. Hexenjagd sought not only to combat the Organization but eliminate the Witches to prevent the emergence of a Grane.

During transportation, 27 Witches managed to escape the convoy and went into hiding with the organization's efforts being able to capture at least eight of them. The remaining went into hiding where they sought to survive with their dwindling supply of Death Suppressants.

Overview
Their powers ranged in effect from computer data manipulation, prophetic visions of the future, telepathy, telekinesis, regeneration, time manipulation, shooting bolts of flame and teleportation. Though called witches, their power had nothing to do with the supernatural and instead were the result of body modification. Certain witches were powerful enough to wield two different kinds of magic and others had the power to destroy the world. A key aspect in this was a device situated on the neck known as a harnest. This resembled a circular device implanted on the neck and went through the skin with its surface having a number of buttons. Excessive use of their powers or certain abilities caused the witch to 'hang up' whereby the harnest partially popped out. A witch could not use their abilities further as this could lead to death as the harnest pops out completely. Should that happen, the witch's body began to degrade where they decomposed into a formless pile of flesh that was a horrific and painful death to experience.

The harnest contained numerous buttons on it with one triggering an early 'hang up' to prevent the witch from using their powers. A second button actually caused the harnest to pop out entirely triggering the death of the host. A third button existed with the witches being taught never to trigger as it resulted in a fate worse than death. This actually had the power of unlocking the seals on a witch's abilities allowing some of them to call upon their true power. In certain cases, the Organization placed a beacon on the harnest of a Witch if they were going out in the field that allowed them to track their movement and remotely eject the harnest in order to terminate them. Beacons were clamped onto the harnest tightly to prevent them from being easily removed though in some cases they were capable of being dislodged without ejecting the harnest.

Initially, it was believed that a harnest was a distortion of the word harness. However, this was not entirely true as instead it was linked to a creature that resided within the harnest known as a drasil. This creature resembled a sluggish amoeba-like green mass that could fit on the hand which had numerous red eyes and a maw filled with teeth. It was believed that the word harnest did not mean a harness but rather was an indicate of 'her nest' referring to the creature within it. Harnests were quite valuable to the organization that recovered them at the expense of their witch hosts. In fact, once popped, the harnest was the only thing to survive the horrifying death of the witch. The creature if far away seemingly moved under their own power to go back to the harnest. The drasil themselves incubated within their hosts and when mature they hatched where they killed the witch in order to become a large monstrous creature that would attack other humans. Some witches were host to a relative creature known as the grane that emerged in one in a thousand drasils that had the power to destroy the world.

In addition, the engineering of their bodies led to them being able to survive without a drug known as DR623G. The letters DR referred to Dresden Research that was a laboratory within the Organization that manufactured the drug. It operated by stemming the protease digestive enzymes within a Witch's body that was slowly killing them. These Death Suppressants halted the degradation of their bodies and were required every day in order to prevent their body's from decaying. A lack of the drug in a 30 hour timeframe led to bleeding from all across the body and if not taken in 36 hours than it began to decompose leading to a painful death. It was possible to split the capsules in half but this also halved the length of time for the drug. The rate of decay varied among witches as this was a general timeframe with some capable of dying even sooner. This drug was not a crystalline compound and could not be easily manufactured with reverse engineering taking at minimum a year long to accomplish.

Witches had a ranking system in place by the organization that created them with them being classified either as C, B, A, AA, AA+, AAA and S-ranked. Those labelled C and B were considered the weakest with some even being considered defective leading to their termination. More powerful and higher ranked Witches were able to wield more than one power.

Members

 * Neko :
 * Kana
 * Kazumi :
 * Saori :
 * Chie :
 * Nanami :

Appearances

 * Brynhildr in the Darkness: