INTERVIEWS. 9. Solstice the World Witch (Patreon)

"We are here with Solstice, also known as the World Witch, the Voice of the Solstice Soul, and the Queen of Summer and Winter. Thank you for agreeing to our request for an interview."

"Oh, you are very welcome. I've always loved your mask interviews."

"Really? We've gotten the impression most of the active masked adventuring community find us annoying at best, and actively dangerous at worst."

"Well, sure. I mean, a LOT of heroes, vigilantes, and adventurers depend on secrecy for one thing or another. A secret identity to protect them from sneak attacks and their loved one from reprisals. Secret bases from which to fight crime. Secret origins that might reveal weaknesses to their enemies. And as a reporter you are, quite properly, in the business of revealing secrets. Those two drives are bound to come into conflict, at least in terms of attitudes if not actual enmity."

"And you don't have any secrets to worry about?"

[Laughs] "I have TONS of secrets. As the World Witch, some secrets are literally my job to protect. But they tend not to be the sort of things journalists go looking for. Like, what is the true name of the Manticore of Babylon? Where does the North Wind rest? What snack food cakes can you use to bribe djifryt so they don't attack the mortal realm."

"Seriously?"

"About the snack food cakes? Yeah. LOTS of supernatural things have built in weaknesses and cravings. And folk tales discuss a lot of them. Cream for house fey. Honey for grandparent spirits. Golden apples for Greek goddesses. Pizza for pixies. But there's tons more, and I have likely stopped more mystic invasions with Fainting Goat Snake Cakes than with Solstice Bolts."

"And... NO journalists try to delve into those questions?"

"Not really. I mean, maybe April Showers -- she loves getting specifics on mask issues. But the preferred Food Flight delivery order of Thoford the Unending Hunger isn't a big day-to-day concern for most citizens, at least compared to 'is the Wyrm about to launch an operation in YOUR neighborhood!? And, is it the Gargoyle's fault??!' So, journalists generally investigate the Gargoyle and his ilk, rather than try to dig into my cupboard of eldritch knicks and knacks."

"Is that how you characterize your powers? Knick-knacks?"

"My POWERS? No, absolutely not. For one thing, many of my powers are granted to me by elder forces so I can maintain certain balances and blow the right battle-horns if certain OTHER elder beings get loose from their prisons. Granting me those powers is a kindness on their part, to me and the entire mortal realm, and it would be an act of extreme hubris to belittle those gifts. But, also, flying is just flat FUN, and I know how lucky I am to be able to do it, especially since it's effortless and failproof for me. Actual spells and bestowed enchantments I have are absolutely not knick-knacks. But they also aren't the kind of thing anyone can reveal secrets about. My actual secrets DO tend to be knick-knacks, little tidbits of lore and protocol that let me move more easily in circles most mortal neither see nor want to know about. And those things are often SO silly... yeah. Not all of them, of course, but a lot ARE knick-knacks."

"And you think the levels of secrets of other Masked heroes are different?"

"I mean... yeah, honestly. At least, in most cases. I mean, I've worked with most of the Masked Alliance at one time or another. Gargoyle treats everything as Top Secret. Anthem Lass doesn't seem to have ANY secrets beyond how she got her powers and any connection of hers to the heroes Anthem and Power. Now, weirdly, Pulsar Knight seems to have tiers of secrets--like he makes AMAZING soups he claims are his aunt's secret recipes and I know he's the godfather to a number of alien royal offspring he refuses to talk about but he WILL show you pictures of--but for most part those heroes either consider something a secret they'll guard with their life, or it's something they don't mind seeing in the Chicago Comet's headlines."

"Fair enough. You mentioned the Masked Alliance. As we understand it, while you HAVE been a member of the Masked Alliance, you currently are not?"

"I'm a Reserve Member, at the moment. Honestly, the Alliance has more than enough mystic-focused Masks in the active membership right now, I mean Talaria alone could take on any two things I might help with, and I've had some projects I've been wanting to make more dedicated progress on for a few years now. If they need me, there's lots of ways they can get hold of me."

"And you are teaching at Professor Nu's Academy for Gifted and Talented Spellcasters, are you not? And thus working with his hero team, Numen?" 

"I... ah... heh. And here I said I didn't mind my secrets being dug into. Yes, I have accepted a position at Professor Nu's academy. There is a particular student... and no I WON'T reveal which one... who needs my specific help. As long as I am there helping that student, I might as well teach. But in general, no, I'm not going out into the field with the Numen. I still have my own affairs to see to and, as I mentioned, some long-term projects I want to make progress on."

"Are any of those projects connected to the origins of your role as World Witch?"

"Almost all of them, actually."

"And how, exactly, DID you become the World Witch, Queen of Summer and Winter?"

"I've talked about this before. It's not really a mystery."

"You have, but to our knowledge never at any length. And mostly when talking about other Mask's experiences with other realities. You came out in defense of Dragonrider when she claimed her dragon came from another world, stating you had gone to the same world. And you worked with Anthem Lass when she was using the Aurora Angel identity, stating that the 'Solstice Soul' required it of you.

"Some mask-watchers have pieced together those and other brief statements of yours over the years and formed a theory about how you came to be the World Witch, but there's a fair amount of speculation and interpretation involved. We'd love to hear it from you, all in one go, if you're willing."

"I suppose at this point there's no advantage to be gained by playing coy about my elevation to being the World Witch. Early in my time with this title I was concerned I might be taken less seriously if other powered individuals thought I was delusional about how I gained my magic."

"Like Sleepwalker?"

"Perfect example, yes. I've worked with Alfie a fair amount.."

"Wait, we're sorry... Alfie? Sleepwalker's true name is Alfie? And you are comfortable revealing that?"

"Yes, Sleepwalker's name is Alfie Gwydion, and it's not a secret. I honestly think 'Sleepwalker' is just a nom-de-masque he uses when dealing with the Masked Alliance, or S.T.E.E.L. He has business cards with both Sleepwalker and his Christian name printed on them, and hands them out quite freely."

"We... did not know that. Which is surprising. Surprising to the level of being concerning."

"I'm not surprised that you are surprised. One of the fascinating things about Alfie is that people tend to forget details about him unless they need him. One reason so few people know his full name is that almost no one remembers it... until a Nocnista moves in as their roommate, or they discover goblins living in their walls. And then, suddenly, Alfie's name and phone number pop into their head, even if they only saw it once seven years ago. "

"Clearly, we need to get Sleepwalker in for a much longer interview."

[Laughs] "Good luck with that."

"But, back to how you became the World Witch?"

"Okay, fair. So, I was an artist before this. I mean, I was a professional artist, making money from acrylic -- and later digital -- paintings. Not MUCH money, sure, but it let me pay my share of a communal eight-person, two-bedroom apartment in Redmond. That's near Seattle. I did whatever work came along--characters for collectable card games, book and RPG covers, designs for OTHER people to turn into tattoos... I even did some dragon art for Cherry BOMM soda, which I THOUGHT was my ticket to the big leagues... and it wasn't."

"Did you ever want to be a superhero, back then?"

"Hell no. I mean, I wasn't opposed to the idea, I just never considered it. You might as well ask if I wanted to be a snake milker. It just wasn't on my radar."

"And did you have any hint that your art was... special?"

"Of course not, except for when I was sure of it. But that's true of all artists, I think. Mostly, you are convinced your art is terrible and you should give up and become a barista. But then, other times, you know you can channel the hellerune Gudrel the Vanir of Art That Brings Emotions. ... You know, if you happen to be one of those artists who know who the heck Gudrel is."

"But your art actually DID channel Gudrel?"

"Well... no. No, it's closer to say one of Gudrel's sisters decided to be channeled by my art. But however you want to put it, one day a piece of art I was finishing became... a real place. Or... I dunno. it embodied the IDEA of a real place well enough to become a portal to that place. Or... or maybe the real place reached out to me and made me paint it. Honestly, I still don't know for sure even now, and a lot of those concepts just aren't conveyed well in any mortal tongue."

"What language does convey them well?"

"The language of flowers seducing bees. Of ice reflecting light. The language of birds susurrating and cherry blossoms' one and only dance, spiraling to the ground in beautiful death."

"Are any of those real languages?" 

"As real as flowers and rain and a cat stretching. And before you ask, yes, I speak all those languages. I'm not the Queen of Summer and Winter for nothing. But if you mean are there any languages anyone else who speaks English might be able to speak... yeah. Vanirwrot, which is the native language of the long-resting Vanir, of Vanaheimr fame. And there are a few creatures who know both that beautiful speech and various mortal, Earthly languages."

"Any we'd recognize?"

"Oh, sure. Doctor Athens. Vithar Valdirson, Heck, Anthem Lass and Alfie both do, though Annie's accent can make a squirrel wince..."

"Again, we're sorry to interrupt but... Annie?"

"Anthem Lass. Annie is a... sobriquet? Calling name? When she and I hang out, and there aren't Injustice Machines trying to kill a buss full of orphans or something, I usually call her Annie. It originally started to keep track of the differences between her and Rory... ah... Aurora Angel, back when the two of them were hopping back and forth between their native realities and sharing bodies. And it just kinda... stuck."

"Does anyone ELSE call the Greatest Hero of Our Time 'Annie'?"

"Oh, sure. Lots of us do. But I may be the only one who does it to her face. Oh, no, that's not true. Hexen calls her Annie. So does Colossia, Huntmaster, even Sudden Oven Man. It may not be common, but I'm not alone in it."

"Thank you. Now, we interrupted. You were talking abut the origin of your role as World Witch?"

"Right, sure. So, my panting becomes, or takes me to, the Solstice Lands. The Land of Seasonal Extremes. And the original Solstice Queen is dying, and she takes my hand, and she asks if I swear to keep the seasons separate. And, I mean, she's the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, and her palace is the most beautiful place I have ever been, and tears are streaming down my face, and I tell her yes, I will keep the seasons separate. I had NO idea what that meant, but I swore to it. And then she dies, and the Oathbreakers of Equinox attack, and I hold up my hand so I'm not skewered by a Symmetry Lance, and... blammo. Solstice Shield. Then Gudrel, the aforementioned Vanir of Art That Brings Emotions, shows up and kicks the Oathbreaker's butts, and tells me I must save the Solstice Lands, and free the Equinox Realms from the Oathbreaker League. And... it all kinda spiraled out of control from there."

"And... that made you the World Witch?"

"Oh, no. That made me the Princess of Summer and Winter. Then, when I brought the Oathbreakers to heel and they renewed their vows in Good Faith -- that's a place by the way, Good Faith, I became the Queen of Summer and Winter.

"Then I went on a quest for the Solstice Soul, who at the time was only showing up at random to empower one-shot heroes that always called themselves Pinnacle, instead of appearing every Summer and Winter. And when I found that the Solstice Soul and Equinox Spirit had forgotten they were lovers, and brought them into harmony again, that made me the Voice of the Solstice Soul.

"And then, as the Voice, I was called to a Council of Mortal Powers, of which both the Queen of Summer and Winter and the Prelate of Spring and Fall are members, to vote on whether or not to kill all humans and allow the Fanashi to rule the surface world again. And I was opposed, but it was a tied vote, and the World Witch breaks ties on the Council of Mortal Powers, and that position was open, so I had to take the Ten Agonies. And THEN I was the World Witch."

"We confess, that sounds... complex."

"I mean, I began all of this in the mid 1980s. A BUNCH of stuff can happen over 40 years. And there are STILL things I don't understand. Like, I haven't aged a day since I first set foot in the Solstice Lands. That... that's not a power of the Queen of Summer and Winter. Or the World Witch, or any of my other two dozen titles greater and lesser. So, did I forget something that made me eternally youthful? Or do I just LOOK young and I'll die of old age next week? Or, is there some combination of powers, lessons, titles, and relics I have or have been exposed to that's done it?"

"Given you are regularly dealing with world-shaking, or rather, multi-world shaking, events, many totally unrelated to one another, how do you even begin to investigate a question like that?""

"It all gets super confusing sometimes. I began keeping illustrated journals to try to keep track of every step of everything I've ever done. My main journal has 473 entries, and a few double-sized annual recaps. I have sub-journals I keep under different names for specific kinds of things, and some of them have almost 100 entries. And that's just what I write about my own life events. I shudder to think how many times I must have been mentioned in someone else's diary, or a groups' after-action reports, doing things I didn't even think worth writing down."

"Who illustrates them?"

"I do. I still think of myself as an artist who happens to command powers cosmic and eldritch, rather than a hero who happens to paint. Heck, who knows. Maybe someday some of them will even be collectable."

The Mask Interviews 

Interviews 1-4: Anthem Lass, Scrap-Iron, Kilroy, the Tyrant

Interviews 5-7: Sleepwalker, Sudden-Oven Man, the Wyrm

Interviews 8. Red Bodkin