#unlettered

Unlettered wields a fuzzed-up guitar clangor, burying distant, disembodied voices under vibrating piles of distortion. Shoegaze-y glamor slides off into post-rock dissonance, the surfaces glimmering, the tension roiling beneath them. You’ll get a good whiff of Kinski’s trance-y chug, some angular anarchy a la Polvo and the submerged melodic felicity of Bailter Space, especially circa Wammo.

Photo by K. Grimm Unlettered, the innovative post-punk project spearheaded by multi-instrumentalist Mike Knowlton, is excited to share their new single “Leave Behind.” The track is the latest single to be released from theirnew album, Five Mile Point, out on November 22 (pre-order). “Leave Behind” debuted this week at Post-Punk and is on all streaming platforms for any playlist shares.  On the…

We are not alone

but… must we be connected?

Unfree from the tone –

makes me feel unprotected.

  It’s ubiquitous –

the signal from this device.

It’s continuous

and… relentless to entice.

  In real-time engaged,

are we what’s happening?

Thus we become caged –

unheard with no opening.

  Our lives are thus ruled –

by welcomed interference –

by non-presence – we are pulled,

un-one without deference.

Typically, arcanists are thought of as either those of wizard schooling with a talent or training for breaking the bonds of conventional spellcasting, or else sorcerers that learn to move beyond their blood and unlock arcane secrets through a combination of organization and intuition. However, witches and the old ways don’t really figure into the vanilla arcanist, which is where today’s entry comes in.

Whether they revere a patron whose aspect is the very secrets that arcanists exploit, use their familiars as direct conduits to the heartbeat of magic, or perhaps arcanists that chose to experiment and embrace the old ways, they bring the power of exploits to witchcraft, giving them a very wide range of abilities.

  Like a true witch, these arcanists bond with a familiar that serves as a mystic receptical for their knowledge of arcane spells. However, they do not form a pact or alliance with any specific or at the very least traditional patron spirit. Still, the familiar is a useful ally.

Additionally, these spellcasters draw not upon the arcane spells common to sorcerers and wizards, but upon the magic of the old ways, granting them access to healing and cursing magic beyond the ken of other arcanists, but limiting them in other ways.

Want to play with exploits with the witch spell list? Have at it with this archetype! The various exploits can mean a lot of different things depending on your choices. Want to round out the attack-light spell list with some damaging exploits? Go for it. Want to manipulate not only the battlefield with debuffs but also by turning enemy spells and magic against them? Also quite possible! Study various witch builds and arcanist builds to figure out where to take this one.

  In some worlds, these might be the first arcanists. In others, they might be abberant outliers, oddities that make even other arcanists hesitate. The question, however, is whether your mage believes they are the one with all the answers, or are more humble in their pursuit of knowledge. A few years of experience can make all the difference one way or the other.

    Long ago, the first witches venerated a patron known as Senneniah the Word Weaver. They say that those who were especially favored by her were granted unprecedented control over magic, but over time the practice faded into obscurity. Some say that the last remnants of that old way lay deep in the tombs of the eldest elven kings, protected by the mummified remains of those practicioners.

  Healing magic in the hands of the non-clergy is considered blasphemy in the land of Tegnar. Witches are already heretics as is, but in secret vaults in mage academies, the secret to combining the old ways with modern arcane arts is rumored to exist, a rumor than many an inquisition would love to prove right.