Hunter's Moon Is a Folk Horror Adventure Based on England's Real Life Witch Hunts

'Set in the 17th century, a time when real-world England was on a crusade to eliminate so-called witches..'

Complete misconceptions that films and other media, now you too, continue to perpetuate. It happened but nothing like how you think it did because of how you've been influenced to think of it. To call it a crusade is hugely exaggerated. It's was localised and sporadic in Britain, not centralised, organised and sustained.

This looks kind of cool. The title design is awful and not really consistent with the rest of the art style, they should have spent a little more money on that, but the trailer was actually a little creepy.

@TheDarts sounds like something a witch would say- to the ducking stool for you

@Mergatro1d 😆😆 my cat warned me you were coming

I'm an Ex-witch and I like it, maybe it will inspire someone to watch Witchfinder General. 1968 Vincent Price movie.

@Darts One of us, One of us. Seriously are you? because that's my reading list. I was deep into it for a very long time. Not Wicca or nature worship, more hardcore. I'm a practicing Occultist, but don't rock a cauldron anymore. I started because organized religion said I was one, they said some other things too. Like everything I went all in. Studied, practiced, made what was an insult and condemnation into something positive. I suppose to say I'm well-read on it would be an understatement so I'll just say your comment was correct, very accurate. I pondered saying nothing but do have some people from here as friends in other places and they already know.

Also I'll add that it's a raw topic at the moment. It's seen as taboo and almost illegal in my home country now, some of my books were burned, my collection now resides in England. They have been pushing harder and harder to outright ban it, the sale of books, advertising it, from sites etc too. Anything not of God is being done away with. I quit for myself not because of that reason. But yes modern day witch hunts are still a thing.

@TheDarts That’s fair when it comes to the word “crusade.” But calling the broader idea a misconception goes too far.

Witchcraft was explicitly criminalized, with some offenses punishable by death, and around 500 people were executed for it in England. In southeast England alone, more than 500 people were put on trial between 1560 and 1700.

For comparison, the Salem Witch Trials, one of the most notorious examples of witch persecution in popular culture, involved more than 200 accusations but only 20 deaths.

So yes, “crusade” is too sweeping, but the persecution was very real.

Looks interesting, cool setting for a game.

@GirlVersusGame @anubisvel I said it did happen but not at the scale that's portrayed in films, TV and other media, nowhere near. It wasn't some kind of holy war organised nationally by the State or the Church. But it did happen, there were communities and magistrates who persecuted people during periods of heightened anxiety at various points in time, the 1640 witch hunts episode being a good example.

And from what the lovely @GirlVersusGame says there still an element of society doing it. So no, I didn't say it didn't happen, please take that back, I clearly referred to it being classified a crusade as being a misconception, and I appreciate that what did happen was a travesty.

@GirlVersusGame I'm sorry to hear that. You should be free to practice what you like as much as those against you are free to. Nobody should impose their beliefs on others if no harm is done.

I'm not an occultist but I appreciate religion far more than I do atheism. I find atheism is a tool to strip people of a fixed foundation of morality and make them more susceptible to be influenced by whims that are as changeable as the weather.

@TheDarts All I can say is it's a weird time to be a Russian, my interests were never an issue before and now like everything else it's part of keeping up appearances. It was religion in America that called me a witch, that's a long story, I was living there briefly, they said I was a harlot etc, a loose girl with no morals and that my music (Metal, forever) came from Satan. So like I said my answer was to just go and do what they accused me of in the first place. They made me turn to witchcraft, no one else did.

It's worse elsewhere, like parts of West Africa. I couldn't have Harry Potter books or the game because it was both witchcraft and LGBT, they risk their lives over it. England is a really free country, you guys need to fight and hold onto what you have, it doesn't take much to lose it all. Anyway I won't ramble, nice to talk to you again. And I truly do hope you have a cat, a black one.

@GirlVersusGame I did have a black cat, called Reggie, but he died. And i purposely got a black cat because nobody wanted him because of stupid superstitions about black cats. He's buried in the back garden forever with us. I have a tortoiseshell cat now

@TheDarts I didn't know the English were superstitious, my culture lives and dies by tradition and superstition. Long live Reggie, I have a ceramic fox by the same name, I collect fox things, a lot of fox things. I'm not sure where your name came from, mine was Reggie Kray, that's a long story too. I think he's for a garden, I keep him inside. I checked the internet for a tortoiseshell cat, they look lovely, I'll stop before we go off-topic.

@GirlVersusGame for some reason, probably to do with witches, black cats are considered unlucky in the UK, especially if one crosses your path. No reason for his name, he just looked like a Reggie. Oh and foxes live at the bottom of my garden, which drives my Border Terrier crazy 😆

All the best

Wasn't there a C64 Thalamus game of the same name?
Can't remember what it was like and the cassette cover was no doubt in the classic Thalamus house style

@TheDarts I don’t think we’re actually that far apart here. I wasn’t saying you claimed the persecution didn’t happen. I was responding to the broader wording of “complete misconceptions,” which sounded like it went beyond simply objecting to the word “crusade.”

If your point is specifically that England wasn’t engaged in a centralized, sustained national campaign to eradicate witches, I agree.

My only point was that the persecution itself was still substantial in scale, and dramatic enough that it’s not hard to see why those incidents became so deeply embedded in popular culture (even if later media has certainly simplified or exaggerated them).

@anubisvel fine, but I didn't attribute the 'complete misconception' to the broader issue of the witch hunts. I directed it at a quote that phrased it as a crusade, I included the quote in my comment so that there was no ambiguity, and said in my comment that the quote is a misconception, so you responding as if I hadn't because to you it 'sounded like' I did somehow disregard the broader issue was unfair and unmerited. I don't know why you thought that as nothing I said could've given that impression. And even now you say 'if' my point was that it wasn't centralised....even though that's exactly what I said, no 'if' about it.

Anyway...I wish you well. I shall continue to enjoy my coffee by the beach.

@TheDarts @GirlVersusGame do either if you have any book recommendations for the history of witchcraft, or occult, around that time period (or earlier)?

I find it fascinating, but don't know a whole lot about it.

And I'm sorry you're not able to live how you'd like. We're so lucky in the UK, but so many supposed 'patriots' are ready to throw away our freedoms to the elite because they're being brainwashed. Scary times to live in!

@Hyena_socks I'm no expert like Girl but I have the audiobook, on Audible, Ruin of all Witches by Malcom Gaskill which (no pun intended) is very good.

this looks like a spooky survival game, and always great to see a woman’s experience at the center of the story. will be playing this someday for sure!

@Hyena_socks I can definitely recommend a couple.

A Popular History of Witchcraft by Montague Summers. He was a well known eccentric clergyman from England who believed that Witches, and the Devil were real and a very real threat. That book is a kind of combination of his earlier work. It really captures some of the paranoia and fears of the time. His work heavily influenced how the mid-to-late 20th century conceptualized occult malevolence, especially in Horror fiction. He also produced the first English translation of the Malleus Maleficarum (Witch's Hammer) a kind of guidebook for the Inquisition and others, it described how to find, and deal with witches (i.e. free thinking men and women)

A History of Magic and Witchcraft: Sabbats, Satan and Superstitions in the West by Frances Timbers does a good job of exploring the topic of Western witchcraft. They begin the book with witchcraft as it was seen in Ancient Greece then goes through hundreds of years of history, it's straight forward, an easy read.

The Occult itself is a tricky one because I'm not sure what aspects you want to know about. For example I practice the Golden Dawn tradition of ceremonial magik The Occult itself branches into so many areas like Thelema (Alesiter Crowley) Gnosticism (Religion) Kabbalistic (Mysticism) Anthroposophy (A Spiritual movement) Theosophy (another movement) and all of the Occult sciences in-between. The Occult for me is generational and Masonic, witchcraft is seen as a polar opposite to our Lodge. I did almost join the female wing, then decided against it, for now now at least. Most members are much older and females need a Master Mason connection to join. It's for daughters and wives, which I do have. For me it was charity, they do a lot of philanthropy and help people in need. I like solo study, nor can I devote my time to our Order.

One book on the Occult as a kind of primer would be:

The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P. Hall. He dedicated his life to the study of the Occult. That book tackles everything from the Egyptian mysteries, Kabbala, Alchemy and of course Freemasonry.

I don't want to go too off topic but there is a book thread in the forum, we are pretty active and I do talk about very weird spooky things. The others not so much, but it is fairly active if you have any other questions.

I would say this. Keep your head on your shoulders, it's a complex topic, people sometimes get overwhelmed with it all, witchcraft as a historical study is fine, I stopped practicing for a reason. With the Occult it's fifty-fifty, it can be taken as a study of religion, of science, of philosophy, it covers so much ground. It can be a little hard to put that Djinn (genie) back in that bottle, but don't let that discourage you either.

I wonder if there will be a twist where you actually are a witch, and get powers to terrors people by the end of the game.

@GirlVersusGame @TheDarts thanks both, they sound great!

I'm more interested in the history than the practice, but there are some great recommendations there, thank you

@Hyena_socks You're welcome, the offer still stands. Tag me in the book thread or chitchat if you ever want to learn a little more about either. I can say that witchcraft was a positive experience until it wasn't, but that the Occult is a way of life, it's grounded more in science/faith/philosophy. It's a lifelong pursuit that works parallel to some of my other interests, I use it for learning, answers and personal growth. I used Witchcraft for something else.