Here's what I found.
Everyone knows that witches burn. What else is burning? Of course, wood. And does the wood sink? Not really, it floats on water. And what else floats on the water? Well, duck. So if we want to find out if a woman is a witch, we have to weigh her and see if she weighs as much as a duck. If so, that means she's a witch.
Monty Python's Philosophy on Witches
"What's on fire besides a witch?"
"Other witches!"
The essence of the sport of burning witches
Burning witches - the favorite sport of the Catholic and Protestant world. Its beginnings date back to the 12th century, i.e. the Middle Ages. The sport gained its greatest popularity in the Renaissance.
Contents
1 Game rules
1.1 Characteristics of a witch
1.2 Scoring
2 League structure
3 Best representations
4 See also
Game rules
The game is about finding, judging and finally burning the witch. Depending on the mod, the following can participate in the game:
Low budget version:
villagers and a witch.
Elite version:
The brigade of the Holy Inquisition and a witch, possibly a heretic.
The game starts with finding the witch; first, the team's goal is to find one, and then using the prescribed tools (torches, pitchforks, rusty rakes, rails) to force it to surrender to the team.
The witch who did not manage to escape from the participants in the game was subjected to the stone test by them. It consisted in tying a rope to the witch with a stone, after which the stone with the rope and the witch were thrown into the water. If the witch broke free and floated, it means the second turn of the game, i.e.:
Searching for certain characteristics in a suspect. The more such attributes a witch had, the more points the team scored for burning her. And if that witch didn't come out, it meant the so-called "burnt", that is, this witch was not a witch... and you had to look for another witch to play with.
Burning witches. In the background you can see the scores for style
Characteristics of a witch
Female (meaning female).
Usually not so pretty.
Goth-style black clothing (the more black, the more points).
Messy black hair.
Carrot nose.
Broom or mop, possibly a vacuum cleaner.
Black cat. There may be other colors, but black is the highest score. The number of points is multiplied by the number of cats owned by the witch.
Bats. The more bats around the hut, the more points.
He lives in a remote area in a bizarre wooden cabin (burning down the cabin - 15 extra points).
She is afraid of holy water (you can use gasoline instead of holy water, threatening to set it on fire. It is important that she is afraid).
It weighs as much as a duck and is made of wood.
He has a wart on his face.
After finding the witch, the team went to the judge who counted the points, and then the type of wood was chosen, how much was to be, and whether it was to be dry or damp. This was important because you could get extra style points when burning a witch.
Then the scores for the witch's value and the burning style were added together; the result was recorded in the overall ranking. At the end of the season, each team's points were tallied, and the team with the most points was awarded the Incorporator's Cup.
Punctation
The final score depended on many factors and variables, firstly on the number of witches and their witchcraft factor (i.e. the more witch qualities listed above, the better).
Witches were judged on the following score:
Ugliness - the uglier the more points - 1-15 points.
Amount of black in clothing - the blacker the more points - 1-10 points.
Having disheveled black hair:
black and disheveled - +10 points;
black and not disheveled - +7 points;
dark (but not black) and disheveled - +5 points;
dark and not disheveled - +3 points;
bright and disheveled - +1 point;
bright and not disheveled - 0 points.
Possession of a broom, mop, vacuum cleaner - +5 points for one of the items.
Owning a black cat - +10 points (times the number of cats); having a cat (non-black) – +5 points (+2 points for each subsequent one).
Bats living nearby – +1 point for each.
Living in a hut in a remote area - +10 pts. Additional cabin burn after capturing a witch - +15 points.
It is worth mentioning that 5 penalty points were deducted from the final score for each villager above the legal number of 35 (in words: eighty-four) villagers in the team.
Points for burn style were awarded by judges sitting near the pyre. They could add from 0 to 40 extra points.
League structure
In every Christian country there were national leagues whose teams played local championships. Once every 4 years, the Great European Championship in Burning Witches (WMEPC) was organized in Rome, where the representations of Catholic countries competed with each other for the Holy Cup of the Championship in Burning Witches. During the championship there were slightly different rules, namely each team had to appoint exactly 25 villagers, and not as in the local version - as many as came. Nevertheless, it soon turned out that players from Protestant countries were perfect in this discipline, whose achievements in the number of burned witches soon surpassed the results from Catholic countries.
The best representations
The best representations were undoubtedly the representation of Germany (including a particularly thriving Catholic representation), Italy, Spain, England, the English colonies in the new world and France. There was a fierce battle between them in each championship. The Polish national team was also not a second league, because it was very successful in this sport, although it never won the holy cup.
The most famous teams were FC Salem, AC Inkwiziciona, Witchburn Rovers, FC Prossneck Hexe, Real Qumar Brujah, AS Incendier Goule, Kingom Arsburn London, CKKS Spanish Inquisition and Polish clubs KS Salezjano, Stos Gniezno and KKS Wiedźma.