Striga Hag
"Even among Hags, this creature is unloved and unwanted; more's the pity to its blighted and accursed existence"
Basic Information
Anatomy
Striga Hags are gangly creatures averaging 6 to 7 foot in height but rail thinned in body shape and structure. Their skin is a purplish-grey hue with long matted blackened hair; their eyes are the most disturbing feature about them with their bulbous shape and venomous hues. A Striga Hag cannot be reasoned with, it is a feral and famished Undead Fey that seeks only to sate its appetite. Fortunately the only magicks and Arcana it knows are solely based upon instinct, so it is incapable of most spells. Though the spells it does know instinctively do not need Verbal or Material components to cast.
Genetics and Reproduction
Hags may reproduce in many different ways ranging from the more fanciful origins such as being spawned from animals, like cows with venomous milk or snake eggs kissed by virgins, while other processes were more artificial, like being incubated in the coffins of the unhallowed or being poured out from cauldrons of boiling blood. Or through the more roundabout fashion via a contract, pact, or a curse is placed upon a Humanoid family that produces a Hexblood who eventually become a Hag themselves. Or through the more common forms such as the production of a Changeling via laying with a Humanoid Male, or through the consumption of a newborn infant, and after a 9 month pregnancy the Changeling is born and placed in the care of a Humanoid village until the Changeling reaches a certain age and they undergo a metamorphosis and became a Hag themselves.
Striga Hags are the rarest and most heinous of Hags and are unlike other Hags in existence. They are what happens when a Hag impregnated with a Changeling, or a Humanoid carrying a Hexblood, dies before delivering the child and the Mother's body is not properly consecrated or destroyed post-mortem. From its Mother's remains it slithers out and feeds on her corpse, and slowly but surely begins to feed on small beasts or other interred corpses near or in the crypt or cemetery. Over time it begins to expand its hunting ground beyond the tomb it was born from, eventually becoming a threat to local communities hunting livestock and small children. A Striga Hag is a nocturnal creature that needs to feed regularly, it hunts nightly and may consume several meals an evening before retreating to its Lair with its leftovers. At dawn it returns to the tomb in which it was born, for its the only home it has ever known.
Ecology and Habitats
Typically found in the Forest, Mountain, Swamp, Underdark, and Urban; but never far from her mother's remains
The Lair of the Striga Hag cannot be moved and is directly tied to the location of her mother's remains. The Striga Hag, either by instinct or deep magic ties, rests among the rotting bones and remains of what was once their mother. They cannot move their mother's remains from where they lie, no matter how inconvenient or inaccessible they may or may not be to others. Their mother's remains, and by extension their Lairs, can typically be found in the ruins of their mother's own lair if their mother was a Hag or where ever they may be interred if their mother was still Humanoid. If the mother was a Hag then the remains may be found in their apothecaries, huts, or caves. If the mother was a Humanoid carrying a Hexblood, then the remains may be interred typically in tombs, crypts, cemetery, graveyard, mausoleum, or even a mass grave. In either case, the Lair of the Striga Hag is the most central point of its hunting ground and the most "sacred" place to it.
Behaviour
Striga Hags are both utterly reviled and pitied by the entirety of the Hag community, many of which will gladly aid adventurers who seek to put the Striga Hag to rest once and for all with extreme prejudice and violence. However, according to legend, it is possible to "cure" a Striga Hag and to turn into a Hexblood or "normal" Hag of some sort. But it requires the cooperation of another Hag to formally and ritually adopt the Striga Hag into a Coven as a daughter or granddaughter, the ritual requires one to capture the Striga Hag alive and imprison it. Then it needs the blood of the new Hag parent or grandparent in order to create a soul bond of sorts with the Striga Hag, the soul bond serves as a means of magically pulling the Striga Hag back from a state of undeath while bringing the Hag closer to death by taking years from its own supposed immortal life. To complete the ritual one has to keep the Striga Hag from escaping, protect the Hag parent or grandparent from being killed by the Striga Hag, and the Striga Hag has to kept from its Lair for a full day. Naturally finding any Hag and a party of Adventurers willing to cooperate with one and other to perform the ritual is nearly impossible, so its by far more common to slay the Striga Hag instead.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Origin/Ancestry
Haggish kin, though believed to be unique to the world of the Freelands
Conservation Status
Striga Hags are both utterly reviled and pitied by the entirety of the Hag community, many of which will gladly aid adventurers who seek to put the Striga Hag to rest once and for all with extreme prejudice and violence.
Geographic Distribution
Related Ethnicities
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