Witchcraft upgrades in The Blood of Dawnwalker are gated twice. You need Skill Points, and for most higher tiers you also need the matching manual sitting in Coen’s inventory. Skill Points come from leveling and quests. Manuals come from the world, and they are scattered across chests, supernatural activities, quest rewards, and a handful of vendors who are easy to miss entirely.
Quick answer: Complete Song of the Mountain to open the Matriarch Witchcraft Vendor in Uriash Village — she sells nearly every Witchcraft manual in the game — then fill the gaps from Ancient Circles, Haunted Sites, Will-o’-the-Wisps, and Scouting Tower chests, which drop Witchcraft manuals as rewards.
How Witchcraft manuals turn into unlocked abilities
Picking up a manual does nothing on its own. Read it from the inventory, then travel to a Shrine and spend Skill Points on the perk or ability level it corresponds to. Learning a skill also burns one time segment, so factor that into whatever quest clock you are running against.
Two extra rules matter. You cannot buy into a skill until the previous node in that branch is unlocked, and there is currently no respec, so every point you spend is permanent for that save. Vampirism is the exception to all of this — that tree ignores manuals completely and advances through Corruption, which rises as Coen drinks blood.
Note: Active Witchcraft abilities still need to be equipped in the Ability Wheel to work, and that includes the passive ones. Level the Forbidden Sigils perk to open more Witchcraft Ability Slots. Mercurial Fervour, Compel Soul, and Astral Communion are always active and do not occupy a slot.
Which world activities drop Witchcraft manuals
Witchcraft manuals follow the supernatural side of the map. Ancient Circles, Haunted Sites, and Will-o’-the-Wisps all pay out manuals when completed, and the chests on top of Scouting Towers are among the most reliable single drops in the game. Kobold nests, monster lairs, and caves are worth clearing for the same reason. Manuals can also fall from defeated enemies at random, which means there is no fixed cap on how many copies exist — there are comfortably more in circulation than you need to max the tree.
Filtering the map for those activity types before you set out saves a lot of backtracking, since the reward on any given circle or wisp is not always a manual.
Soldier and bandit camps are mostly a Swordmastery concern, but they are still worth looting on the way past — outposts and camps you clear for quests regularly hand over skill books alongside the usual loot.
Witchcraft vendor locations and how to unlock them
Buying is almost always faster than hunting. Six vendors deal in Witchcraft manuals, and between them they cover the entire tree. Stock is partly randomized, so a merchant who has nothing useful today may restock a manual on a later visit.
| Vendor | Location | How to unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Matriarch | Uriash Village | Complete Song of the Mountain. Stocks the widest selection of Witchcraft manuals. |
| Sanzhana Merchant | Yawning Burrow, Svartrau Outskirts | Complete Pearly and Precious. |
| Mevasser | Svartrau City, Neustadt | Hidden vendor — you have to find him in the district. |
| Peddler of Wonders | Svartrau City, Middens | Available on arrival, but his manual stock is inconsistent between visits. |
| Anca | Crossroad Inn | Complete the Echoes of the Silent Bells questline. |
| Vera | Vera’s Hut | Can die during The Bittersweet Toast. If she dies, her stock is gone for that save. |
Tip: Take the Bewitching Influence perk early if you plan to buy your way through the tree. It improves buy and sell rates, and manuals are not cheap when you are picking up four levels of the same ability.
All eight Witchcraft ability manual locations
These are the manuals tied to the actual abilities rather than the passive perks. Each has at least one guaranteed source, so nothing here is missable as long as at least one vendor route stays open to you.
| Ability | Guaranteed sources | Vendors |
|---|---|---|
| Ravenous Flock | All four Sacred Stones (Uriash Glyphs) during A Pilgrimage for Power | — |
| Mercurial Fervour | Level 1 is unlocked by default. Level 2 is in the library on the top floor of St. Tyna’s Convent during Echoes of the Silent Bells. Also a chest on Silts Tower and the Ancient Circle northeast of Briar Sloughs Crossing Shrine | Sanzhana Merchant (Lv3), Matriarch (Lv4), Mevasser, Peddler of Wonders |
| Burning Blood | Ancient Circle southwest of Eerie Knoll Shrine, Ancient Circle south of Parlita Woods Shrine, and the Curious House activity Working Her Magic in Svartrau City at night | Matriarch, Mevasser, Anca, Peddler of Wonders |
| Life Lock | The rebel questline, Where Loyalty Lies into Who Pulls the String | Mevasser (two copies) |
| Soul Reaping | Ancient Circle east of Maragir village, Haunted Site southwest of Ruined Hut Shrine | Matriarch, Mevasser, Vera, Peddler of Wonders |
| Soul Stigma | Reward from A Mother’s Plea, Ancient Circle northeast of St. Tyna’s Grove Tower Shrine | Matriarch, Anca, Vera, Peddler of Wonders |
| Unholy Vitality | Defeat the final boss at St. Tyna’s Convent during Echoes of the Silent Bells, Haunted Site southwest of Eerie Knoll Shrine | Matriarch, Sanzhana Merchant, Mevasser, Anca, Vera, Peddler of Wonders |
| Cycle of Ruin | Loot every room in the castle during The Circle of Love, chest at the top of Maragir Wealds Tower, Ancient Circle west of Coward’s Path Shrine, a lantern-opened side room in Howling Keep | Sanzhana Merchant, Matriarch, Mevasser, Peddler of Wonders |
Ravenous Flock: the four Sacred Stone sites
Ravenous Flock is the one ability with no vendor fallback. All four of its manuals come from the Sacred Stones you activate across the A Pilgrimage for Power chain — Bear Trouble, Fanatics, Ritual, and Dark Thing. Clear all four and the ability is fully upgradeable.
| Sacred Stone | Region |
|---|---|
| West of Laslea Gate Shrine | Briar Sloughs |
| North of Westridge Outpost Shrine | Rockfalls |
| East of Woodland Outpost Shrine | St. Tyna’s Grove |
| Southeast of Vedera Spring Shrine | Tantari Woods |
Witchcraft perk manual locations
The passive side of the tree has its own manuals, and these are where tower chests and kobold nests earn their keep. Unnatural Resilience needs no manual at all, and Font of Life is not a manual pickup — it comes from choosing to drink from the Font of Life during Stronger Than Achilles, the final Anca quest.
| Perk | World source | Vendors |
|---|---|---|
| Forager | Chest near the top of Briar Sloughs Tower | Vera |
| Herbal Remedies I | Will-o’-the-Wisps east of Maragir Wealds Shrine | Vera, Matriarch, Anca |
| Herbal Remedies II | Chest at the kobold nest southeast of Laslea Gate Shrine | Vera, Matriarch, Mevasser |
| Medicus I | Chests on St. Tyna’s Grove Tower and Boar’s Back Tower | Vera, Matriarch, Anca |
| Medicus II | — | Vera, Matriarch, Mevasser |
| Amalgam | Chest in an abandoned camp northwest of St. Tyna’s Grove Tower | Matriarch, Anca, Vera |
| Aether Flow | Chest on Rockfalls Tower | Sanzhana Merchant, Mevasser, Anca |
| Forbidden Sigils | Looted from the Witch boss at the Bandit Camp in St. Tyna’s Grove | Matriarch, Sanzhana Merchant, Mevasser, Anca |
| Blasphemous Echo | Chest at the kobold nest east of Southern Swampside Shrine, or the side quest The Highland Grave | Matriarch, Mevasser |
| Witchcraft Mastery | — | Matriarch, Mevasser |
| Lasting Malediction | — | Vera, Sanzhana Merchant, Anca |
| Evil Eye | Chest at the kobold nest north of Maragir Wealds Watchtower Shrine | Vera, Matriarch, Mevasser |
| Frugal Witchcraft | Will-o’-the-Wisps west of Sloughside Mill Shrine | Sanzhana Merchant, Mevasser, Anca |
| Potent Blood | — | Vera, Matriarch, Mevasser |
| Unholy Fervour | Chest on Tantari Tower | Matriarch, Mevasser |
| Unnatural Resilience | No manual required | Anca, Mevasser (extra copies) |
Why an ability still will not unlock
Confirmation is simple. Once the manual is read and the Skill Point is spent at a Shrine, the node shows as learned in the Character menu and the ability becomes assignable in the Ability Wheel. If it is still locked, one of these is the reason.
- The manual is in your inventory but has not been read yet. Collecting it is not the same as consuming it.
- The preceding node in that branch is not unlocked. The tree only opens in order.
- You have the manual for a different level of the same ability. Each upgrade tier wants its own copy.
- You are not at a Shrine. Learning happens there, not from the menu.
- The ability is learned but not equipped. Passive Witchcraft abilities do nothing until they occupy an Ability Slot, and Witchcraft is only usable during the day with a few exceptions.
Sources that can close permanently
Vera is the big one. She can die during The Bittersweet Toast, and if that happens her entire inventory disappears with her — Soul Stigma, Soul Reaping, Potent Blood, Evil Eye, Lasting Malediction, and both Medicus and Herbal Remedies tiers. Every one of those has another route through the Matriarch, Mevasser, or a world chest, but the shopping becomes noticeably narrower.
The rest is soft. Vendor inventories shuffle between visits, so a missing manual usually means coming back later rather than a lost opportunity. Since Vampirism does not touch manuals at all, anything you bank now feeds only the daytime half of the build, which is worth keeping in mind before you dump half your purse into books you will not read for another ten levels.
