Where wishing fails, ancient magic can offer a heart’s desire—at least, for a time. Hexbloods are individuals infused with eldritch magic, fey energy, or mysterious witchcraft. Some who enter into bargains with hags gain their deepest wishes but eventually find themselves transformed. These changes evidence a hag’s influence: ears that split in forked points, skin in wild shades, lengthy hair that regrows if cut, and an irremovable living crown. Along with these marks, hexbloods manifest hag-like traits, such as long life, darkvision, and a variety of magical methods to beguile the senses and avoid the same.
While many hexbloods gain their lineage after making a deal with a hag, others reveal their nature as they age—particularly if a hag influenced them early in life or even before their birth. Many hexbloods turn to lives of adventure, seeking to discover the mysteries of their magic, to forge a connection with their fey natures, or to avoid a hag that obsesses over them.
One way hags create more of their kind is through the creation of hexbloods. Every hexblood exhibits features suggestive of the hag whose magic inspires their powers. This includes an unusual crown, often called a “eldercross” or “witch’s turn.” This living, garland-like part of a hexblood’s body extends from their temples and wraps behind the head, serving as a visible mark of the bargain between hag and hexblood, a debt owed, or a change to come.
Hags can undertake a ritual to irreversibly transform a hexblood they created into a new hag, either one of their own kind or that embodies the hexblood’s nature. This requires that both the hag and hexblood be in the same place and consent to the lengthy ritual— circumstances most hexbloods shun but might come to accept over the course of centuries. Once a hexblood undergoes this irreversible ritual, they emerge as a hag NPC no longer under the control of the hexblood’s player, unless the DM rules otherwise.