Hags of Ardrest
Hags of Ardrest can generally speaking refer to one of two groups:
The Three Witches
Referenced in The Defeat of the Witches Three, this covenant of hags ruled over the lands encompassing Ardrest roughly a century ago. They oppressed the people there and fed off their misery. Being hags, they held a particular delight in the reproduction of the mortals in their territory. In order to have a child, a woman was forced to make an offering to the three dark queens, and the hags were particularly fond of snatching young children for their dark rituals, perverse amusements, or meals. The hags where eventually slain by a group of heroes, their defeat making the occasion of the first Fortyear Festival. Tales of the defeat have become the stuff of local legend now, but it is generally agreed that through their actions the heroes were able to undermine the coven and turn its members against each other (which, traditionally, is the weakness of hag covens as the members actively hate each other).The Coven of Bergatha
More likely, this term refers to the coven encounted by the Frostyear Guardians. When the first coven of Ardrest was defeated, Bergatha the weakest of the hags abandoned her sisters and fled. Perceiving the flaw of the group that lead to their defeat as a lack of unity and stumbling upon the hag ritual, Bergatha set upon a plan to create her own coven that was magically bound to be loyal to her. Her scheme, 100 years in the making was ultimately successful in the year 1490, when her "daughter" Marti awakened; however, Bergatha was always disappointed in her first creation, Lendi. As such she sought to perform the ritual again in 1491 with Alma Halfhill this would ultimately lead to her defeat at the hands of the heroes of Ardrest.Structure
A hag coven is always formed of a odd number of hags (and rarely more than three) because they possess no true structure, and a odd number is needed to cajole the minority into following any given plan. Bergatha's coven was unique in that, through her ritual, she had dominated her "daughters" thus ensuring she ruled the coven unopposed. Like most things involving fae, and specifically hag, magic, the there was a loophole, for while Marti could not disobey Bergatha, there was nothing forcing her to approve or support the elder hag.
Public Agenda
Bergatha and her daughters had one and only one goal, to make the people of Ardrest miserable and to drink in their suffering.
Assets
With a century to plot, Bergatha and her daughters set up a complex web of minions to keep control of the local areas, controlling local tribes of goblins, bullywugs, troglodytes, harpies, ogres, trolls, and even had some indirect influence over the thieves of Ardrest.
Disbandment
Bergatha was defeated by the Frostyear Guardians after the Fortyear festival in 1491. Despite activating the Ilyrinan Machine and absorbing considerable power from it she was slain, Lendi was cast through the portal the machine created into another plane, and Marti, thanks to the influence of the Auroral Mistress is able to manage her darker impulses.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
1490 - 1491
Type
Religious, Coven
Leader
Location
Notable Members
Comments