Hags

**Hags** are a fey race of dangerous and cruel witches, known for their skill in dark magic and access to lost or forbidden knowledge. Though originally native to the Feyrealm, they can be found in Halann and the other Planes of Existence. They are traditionally organized in covens, though some hags do act alone.

## List of Hag Types

Though all united in malevolent and magical power, and desire to cause suffering, there are a variety of different types of hags.

### Green Hags

The Green Hags are considered the most 'common' of hags, though some believe that this is because they live closest to civilization. They are the weakest but the most archetypical of hags, resembling old women and known to be powerful spellcasters. They are also the most likely hag to work with other non-hags, either in manipulation or genuine cooperation for whatever twisted goal they hold in common.

They were early rivals of the Castanites which led to their near-destruction in Escann during Castan Beastbane's Second Great Cleansing which saw the Many hags ended up in the newly separate Greatwoods and are one of the theorized creators of werewolves in the region. The last prominent Green Hag coven was the Oldhaven Coven which persisted through Beastbane's purge up until the Witch Kings Era.

Out of all the hags, the Green Hags are said to be most fey-like, reveling in deals and trickeries upon mortals. For them, suffering through tragedy is their greatest vice - spouting self-fulfiling prophecies to many a foolish man.

These hags are masters of illusion and enchantment, able to take on any vaguely humanoid form at a whim while their natural resistance to magic prevents their disguises from being disrupted by any but the mightiest scrying. As such, rumors persist of modern-day green hags covens establishing themselves in bustling cities rather than swamps and forgotten woodlands of old.

### Annis Hags

Inversions of their Green Hag sisters, the **Annis Hags** are brutal and direct creatures. They are found anywhere green hags may be found, but tend to prefer inhabiting caverns and ruins rather than swamps or forests. Known for their love of eating children, they're the traditional bogeyman of many fables and most direct confrontations with hags involve the annis. As large as ogres, the average annis hag could rip a human in half without any effort, and so need little of the illusions and cunning of other hags to be a threat to a community. Many also establish themselves as leaders over the various giantkin, who come to see them as powerful if abusive matriarch figures.

Annis hags are known for forming covens, but usually not with their own kind - rather, they prefer to align with the more subtle hag varieties to combine their strengths. Usually the annis hag is, at least officially, the leader of their coven but another hag makes any necessary agreements with outsiders. These covens tend to collapse quicker than other hag covens, but do more damage beforehand.

### Bheur Hags

Far less subtle than their green hag cousins, yet all the more dangerous for it, the **Bheur Hags** inhabit the frozen land of Far Gerudia. Incapable of subtlety and far too bitter and selfish to form covens, bheurs instead behave as singular witches bringing eternal winter to their domains with their mighty weather magic. Though many would delight at the opportunity to bring this suffering to humanity, fear of the Skalds and memory of the fate of Elkaesal the White keeps the majority away from Gerudia’s southern coast and the Dalr Valley.

They are known to be more tolerant of the forest trolls than of any human encroachment, though this may simply be from the trolls’ far greater resistance to the cold making it difficult for bheurs to harm them without having to attack personally and put themselves at risk. Despite this co-existence, the majority remain in the true north where even the forest trolls rarely venture, consumed by bitter feuds against each other.

### Night Hags

Considered by many the most dangerous and powerful of hags, **Night Hags** are hags that have so thoroughly absorbed the negative energies of the Shadow Plane, dwelling primarily there as well as the shadow swamps of the Yezel Mora in Sarhal - this immersion into the shadow energies have made them an enemy of all other hag races.

Their presence is often seen in the realm of nightmares, using their magics to cause suffering in the dreaming world. Their powerful mind magic and the vast scope of their abilities make them able to project magical nightmares, warping the mind of the victim in the process to accentuate their vices and corrupt their virtue.

Out of all hags they are the ones most determined to fulfill the hag's base nature for suffering, and are known to construct elaborate schemes and plots to cause suffering and nightmares to all those involved. A centuries-long gambit to uplift an empire through pain and conquest just to end it all and cause an even bloodier warlord period is just another day for a night hag. Because of their long-term outlooks they can be perceived as the most reliable of their kind, with their sufferings dealt in investments to be recouped long after the initial bargainer had died (unlike that of the green hags, who usually wish to see misfortune occur sooner rather than later). This should not be mistaken for compassion or a sense of morality, for all night hags view others solely through the lens of usefulness - they simply view a reputation for honest dealing as more useful than the short-term comfort of spite. Nevertheless, like other hags they will respond to being fooled with brutal retaliation, for the only thing worse than a reputation for betraying others is a reputation for being betrayed.

Some night hags have also been known to make long-term deals in exchange for useful arcane knowledge or a powerful magical object, teaching them the more obscure powers of necromancy in exchange. Others may take on servants, binding them with unbreakable oaths in exchange for the hag's tutoring. Though these servants always come out more powerful, they rarely leave with a personality nearly as stable as they came in with.