Magda is a witch from Poland in Les Libertateurs, 18th-century Antiterra, and the company’s written memory. Her body was devoured and her spirit encapsulated, yet she still appears, fights and sits at the table.
| Type | Character |
| Familiar | Edgar, a raven |
| Spanish entry | Magda — la bruja del azar |
Appearance
Small eyes, very red lips, hair frizzed out to the sides in two balls under a mantilla, in extreme Parisian fashion, and a headband with a large bright green stone. She wears a tunic of Careful Casting. Wands, scrolls and potions hang from her belt; she carries a bow and arrows, a rattling bag, and is “literally full of papers”. Edgar nests on top of her head.
She comes from Poland, “from before that religion that came to give them a patina”.
Record-keeper
She drew a map of Paris. Too ill to attend the night of the Host Poker, she spent the next week questioning the others, then set it down on a small map of Paris with numbers, notes and a diagram. Once monkeys disturbed her belongings and she had to reorder them.
Combat
In life she casts spells (Unfortium on a creature), shoots and keeps records. As a ghost she is a bright blue aura with long arms; later, long and somewhat stout and “no longer ectoplasmic”, she slams and strikes, and her touch spells leave foes burned.
Death and afterlife
“Her spirit was encapsulated when her body was devoured.” Oratiol was present. Her spirit is “beyond the Atlantean realms”, and an echo of her can be reached in the Plane of Dreams, though she will not be what she was. She still appears in the Sphere of Invisibility, which she shares with Edgar, at the salon table, and in fights.
She left at least one letter to Krisina, “with surprises”, used after her death. She is said to have had “something like an artifact”, which some identify with the clapperless bell.
The same soul
Magda shares the same soul with Erzebeth, Maleika and Sisi of the Invisible Cities: one line of the potent that recurs from chronicle to chronicle, which the Old Witch watches over.
Conflicting accounts
- The company held her a witch of fortune; someone’s dream makes her queen of “half the dragons of the world”, which may be true or the dreamer’s belief.
- She is called ectoplasmic and later “no longer ectoplasmic”.
Open questions
- Two golden-haired girls, nine and eleven, shouted the name Marta in the Garden Labyrinth as a memory of her; who Marta is (sister, companion, herself) is unknown.
- What devoured her, where, and whether the body is recoverable.
- What an encapsulated spirit can do, and whether the Sphere and salon hold her as body or apparition.
- What her map’s numbers mean.
- What the letter to Krisina contains, and whether there were others.