Hags

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Swamp Hags are among the most ancient of Fey and the the most common representation.

Mountain HAgs are towering and beautiful, but with air of a predator.

Overview

Hags (Commonspeak), also Gorraithe (Feyspeak \ˈɡɔriə\ for brood, hatch), are a Fey species native to Arcadia. They are the sole species of The Court of Three, ruled collectively by The Keening Women. Among the Fey, Hags are feared and respected in equal measure, as embodiments of inevitability, cost, and the arithmetic of suffering.

Second only to the Fairfolk in antiquity, Hags are the oldest living proofs that philosophy itself can shape flesh.

History

Shattered Age

Hags came into existence in the early Shattered Age, circa NIR 200, with the formation of The Court of Four. This primordial Court explored Strange Meaning through numerology in its broadest sense, patterns, ratios, and the belief that the universe could be understood by counting it correctly.

Hags emerged as enforcers and investigators of this doctrine, capable of grasping complex abstractions and applying them ruthlessly to reality.

Dark Age

After the War of Erasure, in the early Dark Age around NIR 1350, one member of the Court of Four was erased. In response, the surviving Fey Gods defensively redefined their philosophy and renamed the Court The Court of Three.

This shift narrowed their focus from numerology as a universal language to cardinality, especially as it manifests in debts, costs, and irreducible totals. What remains after something is taken became more important than what could be imagined.

Hags adapted readily to this change, their already pragmatic nature sharpening into a fixation on what must be paid.

Dawn Age

In the present era, Hags remain powerful and influential, though their numbers are few. Their secrets accumulate slowly, but never diminish.

Cosmology

The Court of Three holds that Strange Meaning arises from inevitability expressed through number. Everything has a cost; everything leaves a remainder.

Hags embody this principle through both body and behavior. Their strength and resilience reflect the Court’s belief that power is what remains after loss. Their magic is transactional by nature, always demanding payment in blood, memory, or obligation.

Society

Hag society is organized into covens, small, intensely loyal groups bound by shared research, rivalry, and mutual survival.

Within a coven:

• Knowledge is hoarded and exchanged carefully.
• Betrayal is rare, not because it is punished, but because it is counted.
• Fierce loyalty to their coven sisters

Covens often compete with one another, yet all contribute to the broader accumulation of Arcadian magical knowledge. Hags pursue secrets aggressively, expanding the reach and depth of Fey magic regardless of collateral cost.

Ecology

Hags appear as enormous, muscular women, their features shifting unpredictably between hideous, maternal, and strikingly beautiful. These aspects are not disguises, but simultaneous truths made visible in turn.

They are among the strongest and most resilient of all Fey. In addition, Hags possess innate alchemical talent. Their blood can be transformed into spells, including potions, servant creatures, curses, and living reagents.

This magic is never free. Each working subtracts something measurable, reinforcing the Court’s belief that power is meaningful only when it costs.

Variations

Hags seem to have physical variations associated with their preferred environment. Swamp Hags, Mountain Hags, Forest Hags, Lake Hags, Sea Hags, and Desert Hags, just to name a few. Each looks quite distinct from the others, and covens almost always involve a mixture of varieties.