Bella Hildegard
Local witch veteran with a strong scowl and a mean punch, Bella serves as a Militia drill sergeant and runs her own magic shop called the Lady's Cauldron. Whimsically cynical and playful in her own right, she sends her enemies running to their grave.
Character Location
Current Location
Gleanhold, Port District
Children
I fucked up
26 of Llarvion, 2059
I'm going to have his hide, Omen, for breaking my trust. I guess I'll have one more hex for the road, then, eh? What was I thinking?
Drogolia swung by...scared Asmund more than anything. I've never seen the boy scared before today, as in truly afraid. Lad damn right froze. He said he saw something evil in her eyes: there was only hunger in emotionless slits for pupils; the room heated beyond comfort and her body was off-tilt. By the time he became aware of himself, he said, she was in the back room.
That's when I awoke, I guess. Searing heat, my leg was burning. Been treating it since; I guess I'll be wearing skirts and dresses for a while. She damn melted the skin on my thigh off, I screamed so loud it put the seagulls to shame. Before I could reach for my hammer she grabbed my wrist and let go of my thigh. I saw the look Asmund spoke off. I remember screaming at her mad crazy, my words a disjointed slur of sailor's tongue. Then my head felt as if daggers poured into it all at once and my vision went white and all I could hear was pounding voices in my head like a storm compressed in my damn skull. I couldn't see, I couldn't hear, I couldn't feel anything but fucking pain. When I finally looked up, there she was, grimacing at me.
"Is it true? That you left me to die, Bella?"
I remember screaming at her about making no sense and she mentioned the temple. Her standing atop the temple. I remembered. I felt only one thing in that moment: I felt like ripping the damn shifter's claws right out of his fingers and making him eat them. But then the guilt kicked in. The hurt in her eyes settled. Shame. That was everything that took over. Guilt and shame.
Asmund burst in like the daft brawn he is and tried put an axe in her back. It bounced right off her damn skin and faded to ash. I told him to wait outside. Mama's fine. Mama's ok. He screamed at her, tried to move her and shove her, hit her, anything, but she lit aflame and he fell back with red hands. When her wings unfurled from her back, they tossed him across the room. That's when I snapped. I called my hammer to my hand and smashed her jaw in, scorching myself in the process and my bed lit aflame. I fell off the mattress to avoid the fire and called the winds of winter to guard me, but they didn't come. Drogolia then put out all the fires and told Asmund to stand down, and...he did. Just like that. He sat right down with a "yes' ma'am". I don't know how or what she did to my son at that moment but my head was screaming again. All I could hear was "I'm done trying to save you." When she left, my migraine left with her, and the pain in my leg was unspeakable.
Asmund tells me I should inform the guard. But that would only add more salt to injury. After the day of the red sun, I did everything in my power to make up for the lack of trust I put in Drogolia. I fought alongside her, vouched for her, befriended her, kept her close, and dined with her. I realized my folly and treated her like a sister. She saved my life and the world, and I had turned my back on her when she needed me the most. But the truth always comes out in the end. May this serve to show that it's best to let the truth out on your own terms. Instead, I left it up to the Druid to make that decision for me. And now, my heart lies in two. I failed her.
The Wolf Stirs
Bella Hildegard, 23rd Nymm, 2059
Last night, I was called to while I dreamt. The one night I chose to sleep.
I was standing on a sea cliff, the waves crashing against it and spraying me with their frigid waters. Next to me, a white cat nuzzled my leg, and I knew; the cat is the totem of Frigga, mother of Baldur, the original witch, and a goddess of fertility, life, and the sky. Storm clouds rumbled in the distance, the faintness of Fenrir's growl echoing over the monolithic mountains behind me. And beneath my feat were wilted crops, with goats scattering the land with throats slit. I was wearing my Volva Veteran garb, again, my claws long and my hands bloody. The cold winds kissed my back, thighs, and face, my tattoos shifting on my skin. And across from me was the Archseeress of the coven, a falcon on her shoulder... sitting down at a table on this wilted field, pouring a cup of tea.
"An interesting day to join an old woman for tea, isn't it?"
I remember being taken aback. It's been years since she reached out to me. My antlers branched from my head and I felt the blood of our sacrifices painting my face. I replied saying that it was an interesting day to invite me to tea. She replied by saying, "Best feed your blood not poison but life when the wolf stirs. And he is stirring. Quite restlessly I might add."
She spoke to me of how the chaos entities of the world were mobilizing for a great time of renewal, how the days of Ragnarok were nigh, and the ancient evils once buried would rise up within the new, corrupting what was good. She reminded me of my oath, and that I should make peace with those in my life. But not because they would be taken. She said must face the fire with the heart of winter, and the golden sky will pierce the ash. Always as cryptic as ever. I must commune with the Gods again, I must touch down to the old ways. Perhaps my shop is ready to retire. Perhaps it is time I visit home once more. Asmund would be happy with that.
"All will hear your Valkyrie Cry," she said.
It is time for the Old Ways to return to Runfel. Frigga herself charges me with it. But for now, Founder's Day awaits, and my son will become a man. And I will taste the blood of a Druid at last. After seeing what he and his companions did, I will not underestimate him. I will observe what he does, but I will not allow him room to get the jump on me. I saw what that fucking deer looked like, a bloody Seer Elk. This boy is not like any other Druid that I've encountered, and last time I checked, Shifter's didn't hold their punches. My question is why the Gods brought them to me. What purpose do I serve in these omens of his? I fear the pursuit of answers regarding this, but I don't find myself having much of a choice.
Yuan-Ti: The Cunning Serpent-Folk of the Wukan Jungle
Valkyrie Witch, 22nd Nymm, 2059
In the Wukan War, the Yuan-Ti had an unparalleled element of surprise. No one had even seen them in the War of Rebirth. Prior to the WoR, they were only seen as fanatics and slave traders that the Bloodcoast Warlock would do trade with. In fact, they were enemies to Gurag, who would regularly engage in skirmishes with their slave trade to capture them for himself. And once the war started, they vanished from history,... until 12 years ago, when the Resurgence started. We had no written lore about them, only oral remnants passed down through colleges of Bards.
During my time in the Wukan Jungle, my team and I experienced horrors that still haunt us to this day, and under new omens brought to me by another, I now feel motivated to share my knowledge on the Yuan-Ti in case I pass and cannot divulge this information myself.
After seeing the Yuan-Ti in action for the first time, they warped our sense of reality, seduced the entire platoon, and took them off to mutate them into their kind or offer them as a sacrifice to their deities. We were completely unprepared. So, moving forward, we did our homework. The Bards were tasked to copy their oral accounts of the Yuan-Ti on paper which was delivered to us. I stayed up all night with Flokki studying them and learning all I could whilst forming strategies and synergies between my magic and my weapons. How to maneuver in combat with them, safeguard myself and my team from their charms and magic, and find a way to corner them and put their tactics to waste. And I can strongly say that I succeeded in doing so.
So now, I will relay my knowledge of their history, their culture, and their weaknesses in this entry:
The Yuan-Ti built great temples of stone and forged metal into armor, tools, and weapons. In their ceremonies, they paid homage to the snake as the embodiment of the qualities they most appreciated. They developed a philosophy of separating emotion from intellectual pursuits, allowing them to focus their energy on personal advancement and expanding their territory. They believed themselves to be the most enlightened mortals in the world, and in their hubris, they sought to become ever greater.
The bodies of all yuan-ti have a mix of humanlike and snakelike parts, but the proportion varies from individual to individual. After the initial metamorphosis of the humans, their society quickly coalesced into a caste system based on how complete a person’s transformation was. The vast majority of yuan-ti fall into three categories — abominations, malisons, and purebloods — while the mutated broodguards and exceedingly rare anathemas have their place in the hierarchy as well.
All yuan-ti can interbreed. Females usually lay clutches of eggs, which are stored in a common hatchery, although live births aren’t uncommon. A mating between yuan-ti of different types almost always produces eggs that hatch into yuan-ti of the weaker parent, so most choose partners of the same type in the interest of maintaining the strength of their personal bloodline.
The yuan-ti have abandoned their humanity and consider non-serpentine humanoids to be lesser creatures, barely more civilized than common apes. Although some purebloods are able to reproduce with humans, most are disgusted by the idea and would do so only if seduction is necessary for a pureblood to preserve a role as a confidant or advisor in human society. The very rare offspring of such a union are always purebloods, although they may appear fully human at birth and for several years afterward.
The yuan-ti know rituals that can transform an individual into a more powerful type. The cost and time required to perform the ritual is prohibitive, and as a result most yuan-ti never get the opportunity to undergo such a transformation. Every use of the ritual must be modified to suit the individual undergoing transformation, and requires rare herbs, exotic magical substances, snakes, and one or more humans to be sacrificed and eaten as part of the procedure.
Undercover Empire
Their civilization grew into a cluster of allied city-states. Conquered neighbors were allowed to keep their leaders and culture so long as they paid tribute, swore allegiance to the victors, and incorporated their conquerors’ serpent gods into their religions. These victories sent a constant influx of food, ore, and slaves back to the home cities.
The physical and magical prowess of the yuan-ti empire allowed the former humans to retain their holdings for several hundred years, until a combination of drought, attacks by enemies (including dragons and nagas), civil war, torpor among the serpent gods, and the development of iron weapons by the some of their conquered enemies finally loosened the yuan-ti’s hold over nearby lands. The serpent people withdrew to their fortified cities and underground temples, ceding the rest of their territory to their former minions. The Yuan-Ti crawled away and hid in a matter of weeks, all but disappearing from the world. Yuan-ti structures throughout the land were torn down to celebrate liberation from the snake-bodied oppressors, and within a few generations the yuan-ti were all but forgotten by the new humanoid civilizations.
Yuan-ti are emotionless, yet feel completely superior to humanoids, in the same way that a human can feel superior to chickens or rabbits — in a matter-of-fact, completely objective way that doesn’t brook any second-guessing. To a yuan-ti, there are only three categories of creature: threat, yuan-ti, or meat. Threats are powerful creatures such as demons, dragons, and genies. Yuan-ti are any of their own kind, regardless of caste; although a rival yuan-ti might be dangerous, and a weak or dead one might be potential food, it is first and foremost one of the true people and deserving of some respect. Meat includes any creature that is neither a threat nor a yuan-ti, possibly useful for a base purpose but not worthy of other consideration.
Most yuan-ti consider it beneath themselves to speak to meat. Abominations and malisons rarely communicate directly with slaves except in emergencies (such as for giving battle orders at other times, slaves are expected to constantly be aware of the master’s mood, anticipate the master’s needs, and recognize subtle gestures of hands, head, and tail that indicate commands.
Only purebloods — which walk among humanoids and therefore have to learn how to speak to them civilly — practice interacting with meat-creatures. Much of their training involves suppressing their innate annoyance at having to speak to lesser beings as though they were equals, or being obliged to kowtow to a humanoid ruler as if the pureblood were merely an advisor. Pureblood spies feel a sort of aloof contempt toward meat-creatures, but they can affect a pleasant tone, and speak to such creatures with a silver tongue that disguises their true feelings.
Under normal circumstances, yuan-ti are always calmly deferential to those of higher rank. They tend to be curt and formal with those of lower rank, for the differences between them aren’t a source of anger or disgust (emotions that the yuan-ti don’t feel anyway), merely a fact of the natural order, and their culture long ago realized that treating the lower castes with a measure of detached respect prevents rebellion and advances the cause of the entire race.
For the last 900 years after their empire fell, the yuan-ti remained ensconced in their hidden strongholds, biding their time until they were ready to strike again. Today, with their numbers greatly depleted and their enemies much stronger than in ages past, the yuan-ti know they can’t resort to direct attacks in order to reclaim their rightful place in the world. Operating out of the subterranean ruins of their buildings in foreign lands, yuan-ti agents infiltrate enemy governments to discover weaknesses that their leaders can exploit. The yuan-ti look forward to the day when their empire rises again and spreads across the world like venom through the blood, as it once did.
Because their population is so small, the Yuan-Ti are aware they are vulnerable in open warfare. Instead, their current plans assume they will never rule outwardly in human society, so they gain influence by controlling enemy rulers — and those close to them — through blackmail, drugs, magic, and the subterfuge of disguised purebloods. Such was the beginning of the Dragon Cult of the Yuan-Ti Resurgence.
Yuan-ti Anathemas
The exceedingly rare yuan-ti known as anathemas look much like abominations, but larger, with clawed hands, and six snake heads sprouting from where the head should be. Each anathema is the product of a unique ritual that alters its original abomination form, increasing its size, power, and intelligence. Other yuan-ti treat anathemas like demigods, and they naturally assume a leadership position over all others in the area.
An anathema’s aggressive presence brings about a transformation in a yuan-ti city, pushing it to become more warlike and expansionistic. The anathema directs the yuan-ti to wage small-scale wars on humanoids, usually through proxies such as cults and allied creatures, and uses these conflicts to gather riches and slaves until it has enough resources to establish the yuan-ti as the rulers of a region.
Yuan-ti Abominations
Mostly ophidian, but with humanlike arms that can wield weapons and use tools, abominations closely resemble the perfect form that the serpent gods envisioned. Absent the presence of an anathema, yuan-ti abominations are the leaders in most yuan-ti cities.
Yuan-ti Malisons
The various kinds of malisons are imperfect compared to abominations but still a step above humankind in the eyes of the serpent gods. Malisons tend to be receptive to religion, seeking insight about how they can improve toward the serpent ideal, and many of them become leaders in the worship of one of the serpent gods.
Yuan-ti Pureblood
The most numerous of the yuan-ti, purebloods are also the most humanlike, exhibiting only one or two snakelike features such as slitted pupils or patches of scales on the skin.
In yuan-ti cities, purebloods are treated fairly but live in an environment where their wants and needs are eclipsed by those of the malisons and abominations.
Because purebloods can easily pass as human, their most important function is as agents of the yuan-ti in the outside world. They can live incognito among humans as diplomats, infiltrators, and spies. Because they get to wield power and influence while playing such roles, some purebloods surround themselves with luxury in their human guises and then become resentful when they have to return home and live under the caste system again.
Yuan-ti Broodguards
The devolved creatures known as broodguards are created by feeding humanoids a special elixir, which gives them scaly skin and a compulsion to follow orders. Because their minds are crippled by their transformation, broodguards are less useful than slaves for many tasks, but because of their unwavering loyalty they make capable guardians for yuan-ti eggs.
Broodguards are technically slaves, but because of their loyalty and the expense of the potion that creates them, they have slightly higher status than common slaves — meaning that a pureblood is more likely to give a suicidal order to a slave than to a broodguard.
Slaves
Every yuan-ti settlement has a number of other creatures under its control, including intelligent humanoids, charmed or trained beasts, and even undead or conjured minions. Regardless of their nature, all are treated as slaves: no creature that is not a yuan-ti is fit for anything other than menial labor and subservience. Slaves that fail to follow orders or lag in their duties are dispatched or turned into broodguards.
Capture, Not Kill
The objective of the yuan-ti as a race is to conquer and enslave others; they don’t espouse the sort of evil that calls for them to butcher or eradicate all who oppose them. In keeping with their goal of domination, the yuan-ti would rather capture potentially useful opponents than kill them. They use many methods for capturing enemies, such as poisoning, knocking out an opponent instead of making a killing blow, throwing nets, using magic such as suggestion, or restraining them in the coils of a giant snake.
To force their compliance, enemies might be brainwashed, charmed, tortured, or transformed into broodguards. Those that prove intractable still have their uses, either as sacrifices to the gods or as food.
Depend on Deceit
Yuan-ti have no sense of honorable combat. They are naturally stealthy, and if they can sneak up on enemies, either in an ambush or to murder them in their sleep, the yuan-ti will do so — and they actually prefer these tactics to open warfare. Because abominations and malisons can change into the shapes of snakes, they can keep their presence hidden and get into places their normal forms couldn’t enter.
Their immunity to poison gives all yuan-ti a tactical advantage in dealing with other creatures. A pureblood serving as a food taster for a royal family could poison a meal and declare it “safe” after taking a bite.
Sickening Ritual Rites
The ritual that produced the first yuan-ti required the human subjects to butcher and eat their human slaves and prisoners. This act of cannibalism had several ramifications. It broke a long-standing taboo among civilized humanoids and set the yuan-ti apart from other civilizations as creatures not beholden to moral values. It corrupted their flesh, making the yuan-ti receptive to dark magic. It emulated the dispassionate viewpoint of the reptilian mind, a trait the yuan-ti admired.
Today, cannibalism is practiced by the most fervent of yuan-ti cultists, including those who aspire to transform into yuan-ti themselves. In yuan-ti cities, the activity persists in the form of human sacrifice — not strictly cannibalism anymore, but still serving as a repudiation of what it is to be human and a glorification of what it is to be yuan-ti.
Yuan-ti don’t have a taboo against eating their own kind; a starving yuan-ti would kill and eat a lesser without a second thought, and a group of them would choose the weakest among them to be killed and eaten. Under normal circumstances, however, they bury or cremate their dead rather than eating them, but a great hero or someone of status might be ritually consumed as a form of tribute.
Their Weaknesses
If you have any way to prevent being magically charmed, use it. Get anything that protects you from poison. They will engage in combat if you do not get charmed, so ready yourself to kill them and kill them quick; if there's one thing the snakey fuckers are good at, it's making sure you can't escape. Get in close with them, lay down a flurry of attacks--- do not rely on magic--- and have the existing magic users as much out of harm's way, sometimes in the center of you all, countering yuan-ti sorcerers and buffing you all. Move quietly through the jungle, don't raise suspicion, and utilize their weapons of deceit, blackmail, and ransom against them. When fighting against those without humanity, their main strength over you is your struggle to preserve your own; abandon it when you engage with these creatures, or you will die.
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