Coldhands
(a.k.a. Maerisse, The Winter Witch, the Outcast, the Snow Queen)
And Maerisse stood at the threshold of the hut and pleaded "Will no one speak for me? Will no one open their doors and hearths to me?" And her clan was silent, none willing to meet her gaze. The evidence against her was more than sufficient, the strange effigies and offerings she had been seen leaving in the forest had sealed her fate. There was no place for her here anymore, among her people. "If none of you will shelter me, I shall not survive the night," Maerisse went on, "And it shall be as if each of you held the knife and drew it across my throat." Her calls were met with silence. Her kin huddled by the warmth of the fire. She may as well have been a spirit. She looked behind her, out into the snow-swept forest. No other clan would have her. She doubted she could even make it to the next steading, it was so bitterly cold. "By the Red Sisters..." she uttered, shouldering her pack and fighting back tears, "I curse you. I cure the lot of you. May you and your kin regret this for centuries to come." She turned to leave... "Maerisse." She stopped, turned back. Her brother had risen from the fire. A glimmer of hope dared to cross her face. "Brother..." "Close the door behind you." And then it was gone, as quickly as it had come. A moment later, she was out amidst the brutal chill of the winter storm. She knew of another wise, one who knew the secrets of the forest, as she did. They weren't far, a few steadings over. She could make it. She could make it. She trudged forward, slowly losing the feeling in her feet. The snow-laden forest yawned wide and swallowed her whole. From the Antari folk tale The Maiden in Winter
Divine Domains
Winter, bitterness, exiles, revenge. Coldhands is the patron god to those for whom there is no room at the fire; the exiled, the outcast, the destitute.
Divine Goals & Aspirations
Coldhands seeks to exact revenge on behalf of the exiled and the shunned. She thrives on bringing ruin to those in authority who would render others dispossessed and homeless. She seeks to ruin stored supplies meant to carry communities through winter, to flaunt laws and break decrees that would carry banishment as punishment.
