LoTR RiE: Occult Flavor Replacer for Witches
"…but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and ‘magic’ traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron."- Letter 211, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
This mod is entirely for flavor and touches on no mechanics.
It always mildly annoyed me that the Witch trait in RiE remained largely untouched. Unlike the history CK3 is emulating, witches in Middle-Earth tends to be used interchangeably with Sorcerers, that is to say, actual evil wizards, rather than someone who’s mildly interested in the occult. Additionally, having a secret cult of mystics in your family seems a bit redundant given how many faiths in Middle-Earth are essentially already magical cults.
Occultist Flavor instead refluffs ‘Witches’ into being associated with, well, occultists. Rather than being fanatics of a shadowy deity, they’re more like faith-agnostic mystery cultists, not nessasarily malevolent or in service to evil, but certainly people a Hobbit might consider ‘queer’, ever seeking higher knowledge and convinced that the steps to power have been hidden from them by whatever powers that be.
