The Witch Collector is the first book in the Witch Walker series by Charissa Weaks. An epic fantasy, the novel uses immersive world-building to create a complex realm populated by myths, legends, ancient magick, and fallen gods. In the tradition of other romantasy favorites such as Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015), Jennifer L. Armentrout’s From Blood and Ash (2020), and Callie Hart’s Quicksilver (2024). Weaks blends romance and political intrigue within a rich mythological framework. The Witch Walker series includes five works (three published and two in development): The Witch Collector (2021), City of Ruin (2022), the novella The Wolf and the Witch (2023), Kingdom of the Forgotten (expected in September 2025), and The God’s War.

The Witch Collector introduces Tiressia’s foundational geography, theology, mythology, and gods’ history. The land has four distinct territories: the Northlands, ruled by the wolf-god Neri; the Summerlands, once ruled by the goddess Asha; the Eastland Territories, governed by the god Thamaos; and the Western Drifts, under the god Urdin. While natural barriers like vast seas isolate each region, the entire continent shares a reverence for Loria, the goddess of creation. Though Alexus mentions lands beyond Tiressia, the central narrative remains grounded within these four territories.

The four directional gods form the mythic backbone of the story. Unlike Urdin and Neri, Thamaos and Asha once installed monarchs to rule in their stead. Thamaos, a power-hungry god, sought domination over all of Tiressia and began his conquest of the Summerlands. To repel Thamaos, Neri offered to help Asha protect her realm—at the cost of her heart. Asha accepted, only to fall in love with Colden Moeshka, a mortal soldier in her army, thus violating divine laws forbidding relationships between gods and humans. She made Colden immortal, but her obsession soon soured. When she discovered Colden embracing Queen Fia Drumera of the Summerlands, Asha cursed him, banishing him from the Summerlands and the City of Ruin.

Neri, jealous of Asha’s love for Colden, struck a new bargain: He offered to curse Fia with immortality, gifting her fire powers and binding Colden with frost magick, a cruel twist ensuring that the two could never be together. Neri and Asha were eventually punished and slain, and their bodies were interred in the Grove of the Gods. The text doesn’t reveal who enacted their punishment, adding an element of mystery to the divine order. When Thamaos demanded control of the abandoned Summerlands, Urdin refused, arguing that the chaos originated with Thamaos himself.

Thamaos then placed King Gherahn on the throne of the Eastlands and conscripted every available sorcerer for his Land War, including the legendary Un Drallag, who the novel later reveals is Alexus Thibault. Thamaos ordered him to forge the God Knife, a blade crafted from Thamaos’s rib and capable of slaying gods. During the battle on the Jade River, Thamaos ambushed Urdin and drove the blade into his back. But before Urdin died, he forced the knife through his own chest, impaling Thamaos. This double death marked the end of the gods of Tiressia, more than 300 years before the events of The Witch Collector.

In City of Ruin (2022), the second novel in the series, Raina is transported back in time to witness the events of the Land Wars firsthand. There, she meets Alexus in his former identity as Un Drallag, or Alexi of Ghent. This time-travel element deepens the historical layers of the story and allows Raina to understand how the divine and mortal realms became so dangerously intertwined. In the present, Neri and Nephele forge a secretive pact to preserve the Northlands. The Grove of the Gods, located in the Summerlands, becomes increasingly significant, serving as the burial site of the gods and a symbolic convergence point for divine and mortal power. Similarly, the Shadowlands, a liminal realm where the souls of the dead linger, grows more central in the later novels, especially as characters confront the cost of resurrection, sacrifice, and divine interference.

In The Wolf and the Witch (2023), the threat of Thamaos’s reign rises in the East. Nephele, Alexus, and their friends must therefore strengthen the Northland and Summerland armies, even if it means depending on the one being they never thought would live again: Neri, God of the White Wolf.

Kingdom of the Forgotten (expected in September 2025) will pick up Raina’s story as she travels back to an era when gods ruled the land. She learns about her lineage and attracts unwanted attention from malevolent forces but finds help from an unexpected source. The Witch Walker series explores themes of power, sacrifice, fate, and free will. The mythology established in The Witch Collector not only drives the saga’s epic stakes but also grounds its characters’ deeply personal journeys.