Bheur

Bheurs were known by many names: sometimes specified as bheur hags, they were also referred to as blue hags, white hags and winter hags. The wicked witches of winter were cold-hearted ice queens said to bring the season's cold, but it was possible the sadistic fey were simply drawn to the frost.
==Description==
Bheurs appeared as wrinkled beldams, gaunt as if they had survived hard times by subsisting on inedible matter. Fittingly, they had pallid, blue-white skin as though they had died of hypothermia, and pale hair as white as snow. The flesh surrounding their muted eyes was dark, as if bruised, and their voices were like howling winter winds. They were known to wear ragged, grey-blue shawls and often carried gnarled wooden staves taller than themselves. The gray bark of the staff contrasted against the dry blood that typically stained their hands. They were once reported to have the ability to disguise themselves as ordinary crones.
==Personality==
Winter hags were creatures of cruel depravity that lived for the pleasure of bringing icy doom to as many people as they could. They considered selfish actions justified by unrelentingly harsh circumstances — normally the overpowering cold — especially enticing. Using their mastery of cold weather, they spread misery and despair to communities during winter seasons with the intent to create enough desperation to instill a miserly mindset in the populace.
The pitiful attempts of unprepared mortals to survive, such as eating leather in place of actual food; their suffering and the suffering they brought to others, such as by murdering people or defiling the sacred for resources; and their eventual deaths were all delightful to a bheur. The sweetest part of such times for bheur hags was when selfish acts were committed unnecessarily, such as when individuals hoarded more resources than they could possibly use while those lacking died around them, and the conniving crones loved planting such avaricious ideas.
Bheurs themselves had great knowledge of nature and substantial survival skills.
==Abilities==
Bheur hags had magical control over the cold; their touch inflicted raw frost that was especially painful to beings of fire, and they could blast their enemies aside with rime. They could create cones of cold and were known to create chains of permafrost, and could curse even those normally resistant to the cold to suffer from its effects. They were often surrounded by snow and wind, and moved unhampered by icy terrain and unseen through bitter blizzards.
Bheurs were powerful, but had a weakness in the form of their staves. While not magical in itself, a hag's graystaff — also called a staff of frost — served as a foci to help unleash the bheur's inner power, and could be ridden like a flying broomstick. Without a graystaff to augment their power, bheurs were far less dangerous. The graystaff was useless to non-bheurs, but if lost or destroyed, a bheur hag would have to leave the Prime Material Plane in order to create a new staff. This process took a year and a day. Bheur hags were also vulnerable to acid and electricity, but strangely resistant to fire.
A favorite feast for bheur hags was the frozen corpses of their victims, and often times in battle they would stop to devour them, stripping them of their meat and leaving only bones. The sight of such savagery was known to inflict a variety of possible conditions for varying periods of time, such as blindness, catatonia, psychotic breaks, babbling fits and extreme fear.
They were reported to have the power to increase in size, if only for ten minutes each day.
==Combat==
A bheur's first move in combat was often to use a spell, like cone of cold, able to affect multiple foes at once in order to evaluate their opponents' defense against cold. Those that seemed vulnerable were blasted by similar attacks, while those who seemed to resist were cursed. Those who were immune were subjected to spells like ice storm that inflicted other forms of damage, or simple melee attacks. The consumption of their enemies was generally performed once the hag was fully in the throes of battle.
Still, bheur hags were intelligent and concerned with their own survival, and so usually fled when confronted with dangerous enemies. Instead, blue hags would ambush such enemies using the environmental advantage of their local terrain, especially when dealing with enemies that proved dangerous in the past. Spellcasters possessing electric or acidic spells in particular were threats that bheurs were hesitant to confront. They preferred to attack lone travelers, create restraining permafrost, and lure enemies into unavoidable deadfalls and dangerous snowdrifts.
==Society==
Despite being chaotic crones with deadly magic, the rightfully feared bheurs were occasionally sought out for their wisdom or prophecies. They were usually lone wanderers, having little to no space for community or kinship in their cold hearts. Nevertheless, they were sometimes accompanied by mounted ice archons or avariel guards, or found working with orglashes to deceive and devour others.
===Lairs===
When they established lairs, the more powerful bheur hags — such as grandmas and aunties — gained greater powers, such as the ability to create blinding blizzards. Regions inhabited by such hags were known to suffer from frequent, unpredictable snowstorms and small avalanches. The trails near a winter hag's lair were treacherous, twisting and turning back on themselves, and bodies preserved by the bitter cold occasionally broke through their icy coffins as zombies or had their spirits return as specters.
===Homelands===
Bheurs sometimes resided in frigid lands like boreal forests, but they preferred snowy mountains, particularly the peaks. They were commonly found in Auril's realm within the Deep Wilds. Winter hags could also be found on the isolated outskirts of Rashemen, to the point they were considered unique to the region.
===Religion===
Bheur hags were Auril's handmaidens and the most common of them in Faerun.
==Biology==
===Diet===
They favored the taste of human flesh, but would eat practically any humanoid, livestock, or fish, often freezing them first.
==History==
At the approach of each winter, the Rashemaar prepared diligently to face the winter out of fear of the bheur. Every year, just before Tarsakh, veteran hathrans were sent to battle a bheur hag, not necessarily to kill her, but simply to drive her away from the land. If they succeeded it was seen as an omen that spring's warmth would soon return, but if they failed then spring was delayed for several more weeks in favor of harsh winter.
==Rumors and Legends==
Much of the truth behind bheurs was shrouded in myth, partially because of their habit of leaving no witnesses. Their occasional alliances with orglashes was a point of contention. Some tales said that white hags snuck through unlocked entrances to steal away children and the unsuspecting. While likely untrue, these cautionary tales kept children in line and reminded people to close their windows and doors.
A common legend in Rashemen and surrounding lands suggested that there was only one bheur alive, because no more than one was ever seen at a time. This was, in fact, false, and it was far more likely that it was because of their solitary behavior.
In all stories regarding the bheur, she was inevitably defeated, but those involving high-ranking wychlaran detailed epic clashes between the two resulting in spring coming early. Both the stories and the Witches themselves purported that the bheur, while malicious and dangerous, was a necessary evil. As a force of nature, the bheur served the purpose of bringing winter, and was fought only when she began acting arbitrarily or with unnecessary cruelty.
==Notable Bheur Hags==
* Grandmother Snow
* Tselelka
==Appendix==
===Gallery===
Bheur wow.jpg|A bheur hag from the Shimmersky Valley.
Bheur.png|A bheur with her brew.
===Appearances===
===Further Reading===
*
===References===
===Connections===
Category:Hags
Category:Creatures found in the Domains of Dread
es:Bheur