Ghraewaj and the Harpies Content . On the twelfth of Hearth Fire every year , the people of the Hammerfell township and barony of Lainlyn celebrate Riglametha . Riglametha in the Banthan dialect of the ancient Redguard tongue means " grateful - offering " and is a festival of the graces the gods have granted the people of Lainlyn over the centuries . Tradition dictates the performance of a number of plays about the great moments from Lainlyn ' s past , and one of the most popular is Ghraewaj , which may be translated as " The Crows Who Were Punished " or " The Crows Who Punish . " Old Redguard is somewhat vague with its objective case . The story of Ghraewaj , as any Lainlyn child will tell you , is of the wicked sisterhood of daedra worshippers who craft lies , curses , murders , and suicides to hurt the people of Lainlyn . Most of all , they use their beauty as a weapon to drive men to mayhem . Their leader , the temptress Noctyr - a , seduces the unnamed baron of Lainlyn and is about to force him to commit suicide to prove his love , when the baroness arrives . The baroness tricks Noctyr - a into wearing a beautiful white robe from the baroness ' closet : " See how the robe glows with the lumniscience of pearl , but the inside is soft , feathered with down . " Noctyr - a puts on the robe and the trap is sprung : the robe is magical and transforms Noctyr - a into an giant black bird . The baron , no longer enchanted , slays the great bird and calls in his cook . The sisterhood has , by this time , taken over Lainlyn castle and turned it into an orgy - filled den of decadence . At the height of their frenzied debauch , the cook arrives with an enormous roast to keep their energy high . They dig into the deliciously prepared meal , and at the crescendo of their gorging , the baron and baroness appear to tell them all that they have just devoured their leader , Noctyr - a . The women scream and caw and suddenly they too are transformed by the magic of the robe , into harpies , vicious half - bird creatures . The interesting thing about Ghraewaj from a scholarly perspective is how much the story has changed and continues to change over the years . In some versions of the story , Noctyr - a is an innocent peasant seamstress and it is the baroness who is the cruel and wicked leader of the harpies . Noctyr - a prays to Dibella and is given the charm to make the magical robe , and she and the baron live happily ever after once the harpies have feasted on the transformed baroness . During the long reign of the virgin baroness of Lainlyn , Viana the Pure ( 2E 120 - 2E 148 ) , the baron was portrayed as a willing conspirator of Noctyr - a . The harpies thus have two birds to dine on . It is unlikely that trying to find the truth in the story is profitable research . Harpies are indeed a common nuisance in the Iliac Bay , particularly around Lainlyn . They do have their own tongue , and the few who have mastered it and not been devoured by their interviewees suggest that the harpies have no more idea about their origins than we do . In a different vein , one of the best known of the Daedra Princes is named Nocturnal , who is often portrayed as a beautiful dark woman holding two black crows . It is not a difficult etymologic trick to derive the name Noctyr - a from Nocturnal , or vice - versa .