Warlock

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Magic people with a different path of practicing magic than the kind the wizards learn from books or clerics learn through prayer or even from the wild magic surging through a sorcerer (though to most folks it's all just magic). Most Warlocks claim sorcerous bloodlines as the source of their power and, while some have periodically made claims to the contrary, there is no known divination able to differentiate the origins of magic. There is little scholarship into the matter of Warlocks and their pacts, so it is unknown if induction or singular-contact is the most common form of pact creation.

Violently anti-warlock groups such as the Wytchfinder Family exist and a fairly common conception of warlocks is they're likely to be strange and likely dangerous cultists or demon summoners. As a result most Warlocks' operations top out with at most with a single apprentice or small cell of acolytes. These groups are encouraged to stay small, for obvious reasons, although there are some rumors (again, largely pushed by the Wytchfinder Family) that some such cults have proliferated enough to establish shadowy networks across broad regions and infiltration of religious and state power structures over the century since their advent.

History

Among experts who do study such things warlocks are considered a recent, and for many a worrying, phenomenon. It is generally agreed that even a couple centuries ago they were unknown and the Veil would have made their planar connections and powers impossible.

Due to the large amount of mistrust and persecution Warlocks have always faced, they to be a solitary and insular lot. Historically there a few examples of large, public Warlock groups, mostly during the War of Schism, where church and national forces were too occupied with larger concerns to root out strange new magic users. (And, in some cases, allegedly even utilized them). Of these "Warlock Rebellions," most took as their banner one or another of the Demi-Pantheon beings, the precursors to Alexandria.

Since those beings are were killed by Alexandria's assumption of the Omnity, what true powers these foolish mortals are contacting is obviously unknown. Some such groups seem to realize this, and use pre-Alexandrian symbols primarily as part of the identity building process, while others truly seem to be coaxed into believing they have contacted the literal being.

Relationship with Alexandrianism

Nearly all branches of Alexandrianism (including even Peteran Alexandrianism) have declared Warlock pacts to be an apostasy and afford the choice of death or life of solitary confinement to its practitioners. Generally speaking, the Church dedicates its primary energies to rooting out Warlocks from within their own ranks, now the primary purpose of church inquisitors. Warlocks not operating within the church sphere have an easier time of it, as they can usually pass for simple hedge magicians without too much scrutiny.