Why do witches have such big hats? Does it help with mana flow or something or is it some fashion statement?

Because way back in the day they were Brewster's hats, and women brewed beer. When men took over the brewing industry, they demonized as much as they could.
youtube.com/watch?v=p_fCKnEHNG8

Both, sort of. It's a piece of traditional ceremonial garb, and being so means it's picked up symbolic weight that has practical use in magic.

Because you can take it off and people will barely recognise you, let alone as a witch. It's a little exhausting being a font of wisdom, power and occsasionally fear. Sometimes you just want to get a drink and check out the market.

Phallic imagery, just like the broom - to place between the legs, where else?

For example look at: , the hat is made even more phallic by the two leftmost candles, which are clearly dildos.

Real-world origins have been discussed.

In my setting the wide brimmed hat is popular all over. Peasants use it to keep the sun out of your eyes and give you shade. Some people fold up a side or two or three. Most have a round or oval top that fit over the head.

Pointed hats became popular among magi back in older times when there was a superstition about a conical piece of headgear with different materials to channel magical energy into their heads. Because you needed your hat to look fly as fuck, magi had their hats made to cold these cones.

Then you learn these cones don't do fucking shit so magi stop using them, but the hats have become kind of a symbol. So people wear them anyway.

>if I see cocks everywhere so must everyone else

>hold* these cones
Jesus take the wheel I can't drive for shit.

S-she has candles! In h-her hat!

SHE IS THE CHOSEN ONE!

Shhhh! 'll hear you!

Because it turns out that even your ugliest, greenest of witches does indeed care a lot about her appearance.

I wouldn't see 'em if they didn't draw 'em.

And to recognize their kind witches..

...tips their hats.

Oh gods, I think I understand what HPL meant by "going mad with the revelation".

I've read a story so crazy about the broom thing that I'm tempted to think it's true.

straightdope.com/columns/read/1344/whats-the-deal-with-witches-and-broomsticks

Ice (fist) wizard!!!

That was very interesting, if I ever do a good witch I know I'll have them offering booze now

>I've read a story so crazy about the broom thing that I'm tempted to think it's true.
Witches used to be depicted riding brooms like pic related, which are even more obviously phallic.

The real bristle drive design is modern.

>bristle drive design
I don't know why but talking about a witches broom as if it were some feat of engineering makes me chuckle.

How much magical stuff do you like your witches wearing?

Until they can't move anymore.

If she wears it long enough it becomes magical.

Mind you that magic might just be "she cast prestidigitation to clean her skirt so many times it just cleans itself now" but that's nothing to scoff at.

Acts as a heat sink and radiator. Can be ejected in emergencies.

In public among muggles, as much as their broom can transport and their cloak can hide.

In private among fellow witches, as much as is appropriate to the witch's status.

Well, we modern folk on some level will think of the bristle as the "turbine" in any case. The similarity is totally there.

Yeah, the old shaft drive design made sense with the thaumonic knowledge they had at the time but bristle drive is much more efficient these days.
The trick is achieving a good monoculture material that takes the enchantments well and doesn't degrade under the strain of flight and general use. Ash is a popular choice of course but we've been making some interesting headway with oak subtypes..
Just don't ask about the binding, I'd need to draw diagrams to explain it.

Photosynthesis

It comes from brothers grimm actually. All their witches wore big hats. However, those hats were common among old widows back in their day.
They are called Witwenhut which obviously translates to widow hat

Only a few amulets that serve as mana-batteries, which are rare, expensive and usually found in the ruins of a previous civilization. Other than that, nothing magical, due to the mana-poor environment. The hat is a symbol of the alchemists of the northen cities, that southeners asociated with magic because they can't tell chemistry from sorcery.

>turning water into alcohol was magic
>MAGIC!
or leaving fruit too long in the sun...
just saying, people all over the world have always known how into alcohol, fucking monkeys know how!
it was probably the brewing guild mafia, using their contacts to fuck the witches.

btw, the video explains why the witches are always at the edge of the town, if you're brewing without modern equipment, there are fumes all over the place!

>He doesn't know why they have pointy hats
It's the same as the model of Dante's Inferno/The 9 hells from a cosmological point of view It's the same sort of cone.

Wearing the hat grants them affinity with the brithplace of their patrons layer of origin, and those who serve them.

A warlock on the other hand, uses those rod-things.

Wait, the hat isn't really taller. Does it work even if the diameter is bigger?
Or are the candles the thing?

Fucking witches, how do they work, Veeky Forums?

The magic thing is probably bullshit. Poor doesn't mean stupid.
I'd guess the guilds DID try to put out the competition but the legend was born because there still were lonely women making shit innawoods.

>how do they work, Veeky Forums?
If they wanted to work they wouldn't be witches.

It serves as a beacon for magical energy and attracts its flows towards the hat. This is why witches' mana reservoirs are so perky.

the perkier one doesn't need a perky hat

Nigga, if there is one fantasy archetype that works on a regular basis it's the witches (and the clerics).
Making potions, selling charms, reading divinations.

But what about synthetics?

And you forgot the tax evasion.

Clandestine illegal work doesn't count.

They work if you can't afford, or have the time, to hand craft your own. However, due to the nature of the thing, it doesn't take enchantments as well due to not being as mystically 'grounded'.

Wait, your heroes and adventurers pay taxes to the guild of dungeoneering or something?
Do they have insurance against everything from food poisoning to tentacle rape?

An aluminim shaft for weight reduction, hollow in order to allow reverse-thrust if desired, effectively revisiting classical design principle, which will appeal the retro crowd.
The bristle would be made with carbon fibers for maximal resistance to enchantments. It would be mounted on a pivot to allow thurst vectoring.
The hat itself is large enough to produce lift and can be twisted to provide a control surface.
Arcane dogfighting must be on the bleeding edge of both magic and tecnology.

Gain extra mana from semen.
Hat is an advertisement to men they will drain them of it, mabye for the price of a beer.

Explain flat witches

I Iike to think that they use it to aid in potion brewing and spells, like perhaps they inscribe runes/cantrips/what have you on the inside and place them over top cauldrons and allow them to simmer while they go about working on preparing other, quicker spells. Perhaps they could use them in this manner to also trap in steam from the brews as they boil, either to save as much as they possibly can, or to inhale it from a small hole in the top if that's what a spell calls for. That or they sunburn easily because the pale fuckers spend most of their time locked away from the sun.

As imitation of glorious wizard's hat, obviously.

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Hands-free umbrellas m8

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People recognize them and know not to bother them except for magic stuff.

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sexy & young > old & ugly

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Do cleric hats count?

>no pointed hat

Slut.

>she's about to splash you with pure grain alchohol

Both have a place depending on tone

I prefer it when the ugly is a glamour to keep perverted men from bothering them

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I know right? What's the point?

>Not posting the improved version

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What are those pasties?

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It's the latest fashion in the underworld. Dress to impress.

Probably not pasties. Probably

Is an ushanka okay?

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Caution: Witches are not actually cute girls; it is an illusion in order to eat your liver

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Hats are the source of a witches power, and are not to be trifled with. The bigger the hat, the more powerful the witch

That's a kumiho user. Witches just steal your liver for spell components

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I thought not being mystically grounded was the whole point?

sounds like complete bs

I'll take that bullshit over this bullshit:

okay

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Thinking back I'm kinda surprised hentai authors didn't feel inspired by this.

>opening the thread for fabolous hats
>see this
>the feels

user what the fuck did I do to you?

Did that comic not include a fabulous hat? I fail to see the problem.

Caaaarlooooos...

Witches' depicted fashion is simply a corruption of "witch doctor" fashion, which is another name for plague doctor.

The broom replaced the staff of Asclepius. Protip: if you never noticed, the burning stake looks like a giant broom from afar.

The wide-brim hat was extrapolated from the traditional conical hat worn by depictions of wizards (pic related, the guy on the left), and fused with the plague doctor's hat, adding the wide brim.

Also, this was not intentional, but look at the stereotypical witch depiction on the right of the image.

Remove the conical shape from her hat, give her a staff instead of a broom, and cover her face with a mask. Congrats, you got a plague doctor outfit.