Familiars and Their Purpose (Patreon)

To be completely honest, the purpose of familiars started off very basic. Their purpose largely in the story is to 

• because witches typically have familiars in stories
• because it is a way for witches to recognize other witches and distinguish easily what family they are from based on that (if they are local anyway) 

I always knew that familiars obviously have a bond with the witch - that's the whole point. But it evolved over time to be something more. 

I'm not sure how many of you have read the Golden Compass series at all- but essentially in that world Daemons are animals that represent their soul - when they are children they continuously change shape until they finally settle into one form as you grow older to represent who you are. 

I think in that way it's sort of similar with the familiars with Muted. tbh now that I think about it- they are probably more similar to them than I initially realized LMAOOO that was a big series for me growing up (and they do the whole shared pain thing too)

Witches are born with an innate sense of magic, but in order to basically keep it and "settle" into their magic they make a pact with the universe essentially (or the magic within it anyway - and by 'in it' i mean the magic that is drifting through from trea) to give a part of themselves to it  and summon a familiar which basically allows them to continue accessing that magic. 

failing to summon a familiar means that you are not able to continue to use your magic and summon a being that's outer form will "represent" them as both a person and as a marker for what family they are from. There is a honesty and sincerity that comes with it that cannot really be fucked with - hence why Silvia was hurt trying to basically trying to lie to the Concept Of Magic by trying to will a different sort of familiar.

Thus the concept of Muting (or being Muted as it were) 

when you're a child and your magic hasn't settled - the ability to essentially 'wash' that magic off of you is pretty simple.  

Well - Simple to the LaCour anyway since that is their ability. 

People ask all the time what their power is, and I know it doesn't sound as cool as blood/plants or whatever but think of them like uh... energy benders I guess. There were energy benders in ATLA right? lmao to be able to amplify/mute/stablize magic etc

But when you're an adult- as Babette explains in episode uuHHhhh 62? 63? the matriarch meeting. It's not that simple. 

Muting severs the connection to magic yes, but when the familiar is the tether to the magic and ALSO holds part of the witches soul - then severing that connection also destroys that part of the soul and they haven't found a way around it. Mostly because that would involve like... experimenting on people to figure out a way for it to work which might mean that a lot of people get unnecessarily hurt. They try to avoid Muting adults as much as possible.

And if this is sort of the point where you're like "Miranda this sounds like bullshit" it's because its stuff that I've thought about but never put into words until now so I'm not sure of the best way to explain it LMAOOO 

But when it comes to Matriarch's familiars and Dual Blood children. 

Basically when you become Matriarch, and taking on that responsibility of taking care of the family you are getting more magic and exchange storing a bit more of your soul in them. The reason why matriarch's familiars are so much more mutated than most familiars is because of the sheer amount of magic that is channeling through them. And emotions amplify that power as well (being open with yourself, connecting with your soul thus connecting with magic blah blah blah you get it). 

Which is why Athalie's familiar becomes basically an evil smokey blob at the end of season 2 - because you'll notice when she goes to the matriarch meeting that her familiar is the only one that looks Exactly Like A Normal Bird while the rest are mutated. It's because she was keeping a very tight lip on herself to try and stay in control and 'proper' ((Even when she's yelling at Avaline in episode 59/60 her familiar doesn't mutate because she still feels very much In Control of that situation and very righteous in her beliefs. She isn't on the defensive in that situation she's just chastizing her child who she believes is being foolish.)) But it's hard to keep that kind of mask up after you've been hit over the head with a vase lmao.

(Lavender - in case you're wondering - does have a secondary form. Harriet is just very good about keeping him small/cute because she likes him like that. I want to have Lavender's 'real' form appear at some point in season 3 but I haven't figured out where exactly to put it yet so we'll see!)

With Dual Blood Children - the issue is that when you get a familiar that represents the aspect of the familiar you are from... you aren't representing or making a pact with that part of your magic. So instead of channeling through in a steady way you're basically at risk of opening yourself up to unchecked levels of magic/energy.  

Like if you don't properly say "goodbye" to a spirit on a Ouiji board lmfao

here have a terribly drawn graph and I'm not even going to label it HAHA