On the Carving of Gorgons

Long, long ago in a small village in the depths of the Gloom, people did what people do... and hurt one another.
A lone and hated woman, abused by her people for year after year of her life, was at last driven out into the dense caves of the Hollows to starve and die alone. Yet, she was not alone. The first night she lay shivering in the dark caverns, a human man, slim and sharp, appeared from the depths. He sat with her on the rock and watched her meet his gaze with cold eyes and a pride that her sullied state could not crush.
And then, she noticed his eyes. Yellow and slitted, like a snake's. And she recognized that this was not a man at all. The traveler offered her a gift—one that would allow her to survive the Hollows alone, one that would repel the society that abused her, one that would make her a deadly warning to all that would do her harm.
She accepted his gift, and became the first gorgon.
Many years later, when she felt the desire to create daughters of her own, she retreated into the darkness and met the traveler again. He showed her how to carve her daughters from stone, whispering to them their names and her knowledge of the world. Then, she left them behind, to hatch alone as she once did and find their own way in the Gloom.
In the modern age, new gorgons are carved by their mother(s) from stone by hand and hatch after a period of time equivalent to the biological age they were carved to be. As the Hollows are a treacherous place, gorgon are typically carved at their adult age. Often, a new gorgon will awaken alone in the caves, with only the name and knowledge of the world her parent whispered to her while carving.