Sorcery and Witchcraft have been reported since the days of antiquity. Witches have been ascribed the powers of divination, possession, and shape-shifting. They are frequently presumed to be in league with Satan--pledging their fealty with bizarre sex rituals and human sacrifice. It's said that witches cast spells which cause disease, suffering, and death. Crops wither in the fields. Healthy men are afflicted with strange illnesses and sudden insanity. Infants die in their cribs, or are abducted in the dead of night.

Witchcraft--and the purging of witches--reached its heyday in Post-Renaissance Europe. Old women were said to wander dark roads in the black of night, looking for victims, or hoping to meet Lucifer himself in the darkness. Witches recognized each other by the secret mark of Satan emblazoned into their flesh, and formed covens hell-bent on death and destruction.