In the country of Ael, humans live alongside all kinds of fantastic creatures, including forest fairies, small winged creatures of powerful magic who are often helpful but can also be very mischevious. Some Fairies form bonds with specific people, allowing them to gain magical powers of their own. These people are called Witches and Warlocks and are often highly respected figures in society, though obviously there were those who would abuse their powers for evil.
One particularly powerful Witch named Morrigaine rose to power 1000 years ago and caused all sorts of terror throughout the land. She was eventually defeated, and the grimoire containing her most powerful spells was taken and sealed away, though no one knows exactly where it was hidden.
More recently, about 30 years ago travelers from a far away land to the east discovered Ael and began trading with them. These people didn't really trust magic, believing any power that was not of their god to be suspect if not outright evil, but the people of Ael mostly found them odd and a little obnoxious, but intesting and fine to trade with, until they started getting pushy. War broke out between the two groups about 20 years ago, with the foreigners attempting to take over Ael, though in the end they were unsuccessful and Ael's current King was able to forge a peace treaty with their Queen. Things have settled down again, though Ael's people regard the people of the eastern country with suspicion and apprehension nowadays.

None of this really matters to Merle, the impetuous young witch of the Eastern Fairy forest, other than the fact that both her parents, a powerful Witch and Warlock, were major players during the war. Everyone sings their praises, but she knows that her mother is really an immature flighty woman-child and not the beautiful and wise sorceress the bards songs claim her to be and her father is an annoyingly eccentric vagabond who likes to travel all over Ael creating new spells and potions. That and they weren't very good parents either, considering they'd rarely ever been home since she turned 10, leaving her to be mostly raised by the three fairies who share their house. Not that Merle cares or anything. she'd probably go nuts if she had to live under the same roof as those two for more than three days anyway, but then he sent that letter...

That letter telling her that they'd made some kind of fantastic discovery in their travels and how they wanted her to come visit them in the capital, which happens to be all the way on the other side of creation from where she lives, and then he has the audiecty to tell her she'll never be as good a witch as she could be if she stays in the forest all her life.

Well, she couldn't take that, so she packs up and drags her best friend and fellow witch Bridget along to head for the Capitol, intent on proving That Bum wrong and rub the fact in his face, and then maybe she'll see whatever stupid trinket he's found now...

In the country of Ael, humans live alongside all kinds of fantastic creatures, including forest fairies, small winged creatures of powerful magic who are often helpful but can also be very mischevious. Some Fairies form bonds with specific people, allowing them to gain magical powers of their own. These people are called Witches and Warlocks and are often highly respected figures in society, though obviously there were those who would abuse their powers for evil.
One particularly powerful Witch named Morrigaine rose to power 1000 years ago and caused all sorts of terror throughout the land. She was eventually defeated, and the grimoire containing her most powerful spells was taken and sealed away, though no one knows exactly where it was hidden.
In the present time, Ael has recently come into contact with a country to the east known as Brea, who, while some what wary of Ael and it's magic, due to the belief that the only legitimate power is that of their god, and that which their god grants upon the servants of the church, are willing to do trade with them, since their current Queen Dolores III is a member of a more flexible sect of this religion. Of course this is not without controversy. It also doesn't help that there are rumors now spreading that someone is hunting for Morrigaine's Grimoire and that the more dangerous creatures of Ael are becoming more restless as of late.
None of this really matters to Merle, the Black Witch of the Eastern Fairy Forest, who is much more concerned with the fact that it's a week before her 15th Birthday and her father, the useless vagabond, sent her a letter to tell her that he can't come (of course) because he and her mother are in the captial, and they've found this utterly fascinating old book in the old Elven language that he simply must translate now, though in the mean time, had she thought about her Wander Year at all yet? She couldn't very well become a very good witch if she stayed in one place for the rest of her life.
Of course Merle wasn't upset. It's not like she expected anything less from him and her mother, especially considering she'd barely seen them more than once a year since she was 10. Everyone thought they were the best Witch and Warlock in the last century, and that might even be true, but that didn't change the fact that her mother acted like she was 12 and her father cared more about books than pretty much anything else and could only stay in one place for more than a month at a stretch, unless he'd found a new book to translate of course. She didn't care what they thought at all.
... And what buisness did he have, mentioning her Wander Year like that? That wasn't even until next year for her, so why bring it up now? Did he think she wasn't going to go? Why should he care when he's never around anyway? Urgh, that old man had some nerve!
Well there was only one thing to do. It turned out that her best friend Bridget was heading out on her own Wander Year in the next two weeks, so Merle would just have to come along and do hers early! That should show him! Of course Bridget might not be too happy about that idea, but Merle was sure she'd come around...

Witch/Warlock
Humans who are gifted with magic powers by Fairies. Most of them tend to live in Fairy Forests, or wander Ael helping people, and all associate closely with the Fairy race. They learn most of their basic magical spells and herbal lore from Fairies, but their truly powerful spells come from the Grimoires, spell books originally written by the Elvenkind thousands of years ago. Most witches are good people, but of course there are bad ones too, and all witches have the potential to become immortal Fairy Witches if they become powerful enough. Unfortunately this last detail is part of the reason some of the more unscrupulous Witches are around in the first place, however the actual occurrence of Witches becoming Fairy Witches is rare and as of this time there are only 13 known Fairy Witches and of those only one is known to be evil. The others are mostly rather reclusive and possibly amoral or apathetic towards the rest of the world. Witches as a whole have a fairly good reputation amongst the people of Ael. They are, however, regarded with some apprehension by the people of Brea and especially the followers of the Church of the Holy Light, who consider them untrustworthy.

It's known that a few famous Witches and Warlocks have actually written their own Grimoires with their own original spells, though most of those books currently belong to one of the Fairy Witches and are only known to have been used by them.

Witch Subcategories

Black Witches

Flashy users of powerful Non-Elemental magic that is mostly single target. They're kind of the magical equivalent of a warrior/knight class, but can't be considered magic knights since their damage out put is primarily magical. Merle is a Black Witch.

Blue Witches

The Healer/Alchemist Class. They use a combination of powerful healing spells and an extensive knowledge of magical herbs to to aid allies in battle and cure the sick and the wounded outside of battle. They can however, also use their Alchemical abilities offensively when need be by mixing up some more explosive brews.

Red Witches

Bard/Dancer Class (I'd also like to make them a beast tamer class, but this is my first game, and I'm not sure how hard that would be). Red Witches are notorious for being able to use their powers to influence those around them with their magic, weakening foes and strengthening allies as well as outright bending people to their will.

Green Witches

At the moment a basic Black Mage class, technically. Green Witches have the ability to manipulate the seven magical elements (Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, Wood, Dark and Light) to create devastating attacks capable of striking multiple targets.