The Children’s history begins the moment the unicorn Vellamine used the Spell of Destruction. The day she sacrificed herself and became known as the Silver Witch was the day the Children began to form.  As the Silver Witch disappeared and the Aether pool burst from the ground, they knew what they must do, without speaking a word to each other, it was apparent that they must continue her legacy.

To many, the Silver Witch was a goddess, sent from light to save those of the mortal world. To others she was a hero, risen from the ashes of her corrupted unicorn herd. To most she remains a symbol of what is magic and good in the world, and her followers were not going to be quick to let that legacy die. On the other hand, those that didn’t love her as her closest followers did, realized that there had been necessity in her existence. Without her, no horse could unlock the gift that came from within. If not to continue her legacy, the children were formed to protect the magic in the world.

To protect the magic, the Children needed to understand it as completely as possible. However, the new group was small. If they all left the Aether pool, they could lose the power that Vellamine had fought to protect. One of the witch's original followers, a donkey named Ozzer, volunteered to leave the pool. He was tasked with exploring the lands as thoroughly as he could, and to bring back word of the magical properties the new world had taken on. Out of necessity his travels would take him through the territories of the slowly forming Olde and Emberblood herds. Though the herds were wary of wanderers in the wake of the war, they were friendly enough to the donkey, and he began to pick up information on the herds' progress in growth and knowledge. But while the earliest messenger explored all the land he could, one aspect of magical knowledge still escaped the Children.

Who knew the secrets to unlocking gifts? The journey to their destiny truly began when a unicorn known as  Pippin walked into their life. A son of the silver witch, he held secrets that the children did not know. As he was eagerly welcomed into the herd for his knowledge, he was soon declared the herd’s first diviner. When he passed, his knowledge was passed down to another. Since then, it has been tradition only one soul ever know the secret to unlocking the gifts within others. The herd has had few diviner’s in it’s time. As Pippin passed his knowledge to Eiraeth, and Eiraeth passed her knowledge to Tauren, and Tauren passed his knowledge to Merodii. Merodii would be known as the longest living and reigning diviner of her herd, serving the faction for the later forty years of her life. Reigning for half the life of the faction itself, it was she who invented the Eidolon rank, finding that secrecy was not enough to to keep the Children safe in times of need. She would become the first diviner to retire from her role as diviner, passing it on to the next, a mare known as bellamy, while she continued to breath the magical air of the chevalin world.

The singular power of unlocking gifts was a taxing one, though, and early on the Diviners found themselves seeking advice from their fellow herd members. The size of the group made it rather intimate, and thoughts and opinions from all members were welcome. But eventually certain horses, the early Soothsayers, began to stand out for their wisdom and recollection of past events. They were able to more accurately apply their energy - which became known as aethasha - into the acquisition and protection of magical knowledge. With horses physically seeking the magic of the land, and horses learning and teaching others how to put it to use, the Children of the Witch grew into a stable herd. And as their size grew, so too did the size of the now recovered Olde and Emberblood herds. More and more equines across Chevlain began to seek out the Diviner, now well known for her ability to unlock each individual’s gift. The current leader at the time, Eireath, never turned an equine away, no matter how many flocked to the Aether Pool. But in time she grew weary, as her Aethasha was drained. She knew that, to continue her work and the legacy of the Children, she would need to find another energy source to supplement her own. She looked to her faithful Soothsayers, who were brimming with Aethasha with no outlet of their own. After discovering the properties of the stones from the Aether pool’s rockbed, she taught them to channel their energy to her, and with this obstacle overcome it seemed that the Children were destined for a long and peaceful reign as protectors of the land’s magic.

Unfortunately power always draws opposition; in this case it came in their form of a young Soothsayer named Cillian. He, like many before him, had been openly accepted into the herd, his eagerness to learn the ways of the Aethasha agreeable to the Children’s views. The stallion was placed into the soothsayer ranks, and proved himself a quick learner. After only a few years he had gained the level of his rank that many spent half their lives attaining, though at the expense of making friends among the herd. Many had come to distrust him, feeling that there was something the stallion just did not quite understand about their desire to protect Chevalin’s magic.

Their fears proved true, when, one day, Cillian challenged Eireath. He was among the top soothsayers, and he did not quite understand what separated him from the Diviner. If the soothsayers could give her their power, why could they not use it themselves to unlock gifts. But there was a deeper understanding of Chevalin’s magic, a secret known only to the Diviner, that Cillian did not know. He approached Eireath, demanding that she start teaching soothsayers the secret of the Aether Pool. The mare, having held the knowledge for so long, knew that it could be dangerous in the wrong hooves. She tried to explain to Cillian that having only one Diviner was the only way to truly protect the magic, but Cillian would not hear it. Using his own gift of blood manipulation  he murdered Eireath on the spot, under the eyes of many who witnessed their dispute. The surrounding horses, shocked by the horror they had witnessed, immediately detained Cillian. Too kind-hearted by nature, the herd could not bring themselves to kill the traitor, but instead enacted a punishment harsher than any previously known to the herd. Cillian’s mask was ripped from him, and broken upon the Aether Pool. Immediately all bonds he had made with his spirit animal were released, taking away the brunt force of his power though his gift remained. His horn was chipped and his body heavily scarred, he was banished from the lands of the Children, forbidden to ever return to the Aether Pool.

The passive herd was left deeply shaken by the treason and Tauren, Eireath’s chosen heir, was left to mend the pieces. He was terribly unprepared for the role of Diviner, having only been named Eireath’s successor a few months before. The one thing the stallion was good at, though, was throwing bones. In a moment of desperation, he collected the bones of his mentor, and combined them with his gift of retrocognition. Immediately he could see Eireath, many years ago, learning the power of unlocking gifts from Pippin. He was the first Diviner to teach himself to unlock gifts, essentially learning alongside Eireath as he looked into the past to follow along with her own schooling.  Not wanting any other successor to be left as ill prepared as he was, however, he ruled that each Diviner must choose their heir within a year of their own succession, and so it was that he chose Merodii.

For five years Tauren led the Children of the Witch fairly and faithfully. Merodii grew under his tutelage, and was the most prepared of all the previous heirs when Tauren’s death finally occurred. To this day the circumstances of his death are still largely unknown. Some believe it was coincidental, but in hindsight, others believe that there was no doubting the connection of the Diviner’s death and the growing presence of the Aphebel herd.The small band of unicorns appeared seemingly out of nowhere, claiming to be the last of  Valraldic’s rightful children. As such, they felt the land’s magic was theirs to control, and sought to steal the knowledge from the Children. Though the Children were a faction that preached peace, even more so after the ordeal with Cillian, Merodii saw a need for a change. If they were to call themselves the protectors of Chevalin’s magic, then they would need true protectors to defend them. Many of the Children rebelled against the idea of the Eidolon rank, but still others agreed with Merodii, and took up positions as defenders (and eventually out of necessity healers). At first they held this position while retaining their true rank of a messenger or soothsayer, but as the pressure from the Aphabels grew so too did the Eidolon numbers until eventually it became a rank in its own right.

Eventually, the threat of the unicorn faction was quelled, and the Children fell into complacency once more. After serving the longest term of any of the Children’s diviners, Merodii would retire in the year 544, leaving Bellamy as her successor.