Hag

Hags were horrible creatures with origins in the Feywild whose love of evil shaped their very physical image into a horrible ugliness. All hags had the appearance of old female humanoids, at least in form. Some hags usually had a strong resistance to magic.

Description
Hags were almost universally unique in their exact forms and mannerisms, but there were typically common physical traits between them. Generally, hags looked like crooked crones, wrinkled and withered women of unsightly appearance with blotchy skin marred by warts and moles. Their long, skinny fingers were tipped by talon-like nails as tough as steel and as sharp as blades, and their mouths were filled with sharp, blackened teeth and noxious breath. Long, frayed hair ringed their creased faces, but even though their faces were heavy from their malice, the glimmer of sly villainy could still be seen in their eyes.

Normally hags wore simple clothing like those of female peasants, if more ragged and dirty, but not for a lack of interest in their appearance. In fact, hags were very concerned with their appearance, taking steps to ensure they were at their worst by rubbing filth onto their clothes and accessorizing their gross garb with gruesome decorations. They would modify their clothes with bits of gore and refuse, wear bits of skin and bone, spin cloth from innards and put all manner of litter in their hair, and those were only the things they would wear. They were also known to augment their actual bodies, such as by sharpening their teeth to make themselves more fearsome, picking at scabs to produce weeping sores, and otherwise exacerbating their deformities with nurturing attentiveness.

However, if a hag needed to not invoke utter disgust, they could magically disguise themselves, the exact limits of their illusions being specific to different types. Almost all types could take on the forms of regular old ladies, but some could appear to be attractive youths, diminutive giants and even vaguely humanoid animals like bears. Regardless of what guise they donned or act they put on however, such impersonation would always be superficial, because the physical forms of all hags were merely reflections, the twisted moldings of the ugliness in their own hearts.

Personality
Evil was at the core of what defined hags, an inextricable part of their identity. They were representatives of malice and malignancy, paragons of corruption who took unbridled joy in creating misery and misfortune for the virtuous and content. To simply call them evil was itself an understatement; petty, avaricious, conniving, merciless, abhorrent and oppressive simply scratched the descriptive surface. Their reversed sense of value extended to aesthetics as well, for hags were known to relish their moral and physical ugliness, as well as the horror that they evoked, and be disgusted by the beautiful to the point of disfiguring those who were attractive. Despite embodying that which was horrible and brutal in nature, they still disrupted the natural order, for hags were miserable creatures of scorn and hate that did evil purely for evil's sake.

Unpredictable
Even to immortal beings, hags could be unfathomable in their decision-making and it was almost impossible to predict how they would act at any given time much less during any given day. Making them even less understandable was that hags were keepers of forbidden knowledge that would be better off forgotten, although fortunately they were greedy beings and so typically kept it to themselves. Whether obtained from dark divinations, arcane pacts or from other hags, their knowledge was fearsome and made them even more dangerous than they would be otherwise.

"Want to know a dark secret? Ask a hag. The trick lies in getting the truth out of her."

- Volo

In the event that a hag was acting friendly, or at the very least ambivalent, it was important to remember that hags ultimately didn't care about the the thoughts or desires of anyone but themselves. Like cantankerous grandmothers, hags viewed those younger than themselves with opinionated stubbornness, freely and bluntly saying whatever idea came to mind. These could be lewd jokes or comments at their expense or more threatening asides about various means with which they could be harmed, and by no means were hags hesitant to make good on these statements if made to lose their tempers.

The schemes of hags were patient, their webs of manipulation wide and their understanding of mortal vices, as well as how to manipulate them, great. Sometimes they wished to bring devastation to a benevolent community or destroy some being of good and at others their machinations were a net positive for the multiverse, such as the defeat of a fiend or nefarious rival hag coven. The end game behind a hag's actions and requests, even incredibly simple ones, might only come into play decades later under certain specific conditions, but in any case they almost certainly involved directly or indirectly gaining leverage for some undoubtedly nefarious plot. However, even creatures as indisputably vile as hags were known to show affection for certain things other than themselves, some even going so far as to demonstrate motherly devotion towards others, although by no metric was this a common occurrence, nor did it necessitate such hags be generally benevolent or proud of this fact.

Bargaining
"Hags often appear unlooked for, in moments of great need, because they have been spying and see an opportunity to aid now to set up darker mischief later."

- Elminster

Despite their myriad of flaws, hags were not just willing, but happy to make bargains with others, although not out of any sense of genuine generosity. The baleful busybodies enjoyed sticking their noses in other people's business, offering deals that required one to either compromise their values or do something to make the deal ultimately not worth it. For a hag, the bargain was the most delicious way to fell a mortal because they would be complicit in their own wonderful corruption, making it much more enjoyable than blatant violence or straightforward tyranny.

In terms of bargaining behavior, hags could be compared to fiends, both of which used their many resources to make deals with mortals in order to corrupt them, but there was a fundamental difference between the two. Whether devil or demon, fiends typically made deals with mortals ultimately to obtain the soul, a powerful and versatile commodity that would grant them greater status, with the mortal's induction to a particular vile ethos being the means of obtaining it. The emotional state of their marks by the end wasn't necessarily a relevant factor to the fiendish corrupter.

Unlike fiends, hags approached the bargain from the perspective of a hobbyist, corrupting mortals for the fun of making others miserable and not caring about their particular cosmic fate. Obviously such a dichotomy didn't always apply; fiends generally enjoyed torture and torment and hags were known to make deals for purely pragmatic reasons, even if doing so didn't actively ruin anyone's lives.

Weaknesses
Hags tolerated little disrespect in regards to mortals because all possessed at least one crippling weakness, that being their arrogance. Hags treated almost all other beings, particularly humans and demihumans, as inferiors, believing themselves to be the most cunning of all beings. This natural sense of superiority was, in some cases, unwarranted, and while they were extremely clever, their confidence could lead them to accidentally reveal something during conversation that the more cautious wouldn't let slip.

If one did need to make a deal with a hag, the best time, if one could be said to exist, was when one could offer the hag something they needed or wanted. In the mind of the hag, part of their compensation for any given service was the suffering of the other party, and giving them something they genuinely desired made the matter more about sating their greed than their sadism. Because hags weren't subtle about self-expression, it would immediately become clear when a hag wanted to have or observe something, such as an odd spell, magic item or person with bizarre magical abilities, sometimes snatching the object out of the holder's hands to perform more thorough examination. They would smell, shake, taste, feel and hear the subject, person or otherwise, whispering to themselves before finally placing a mental value on it.

A bribe that would be either unique or useful, or at least enough so to a rival that she wouldn't want her to have it, a hag would pay a high price to obtain. This could possibly be in the form of freeing captives or granting requested knowledge regarding local lore, evil creatures or mysterious magic, and such deals were unlikely to have dire consequences. Better still would be to offer the hag a gift without asking for anything to return, all the better if the service was performed outside of any bargaining context. The foul fey hated being in the debt of others, and while this kind of service was less predictable it was also less likely to be a trap of some sort. But even if a deal made with a hag was simple, seemingly generous or even actually fair with no strings attached and no harm to anyone around her, a hag's motivations were still hidden and cryptic.

Combat
Different types of hags had different abilities, but all shared their supernatural strength and some resistance against magic. All hags possessed innate magical abilities, while some hags actively studied spellcasting. They were all capable of hiding their true appearance, either through illusion magic or by polymorphing into a new shape, and were capable of inflicting horrible curses upon their opponents. Despite their decrepit appearance, they were surprisingly agile and supernaturally strong. Their extremely sharp claws were capable of rending flesh open with a mere touch.

Society
Hags could be most frequently found alone or working in covens if they shared a common purpose. The number of hags in a coven was always three, so that disputes between two members could be settled by the third. All hags in a coven were equal in the organization, although they constantly strove for more personal power. With their combined powers in a coven, hags gained access to additional magical capabilities and could craft scrying devices known as hag eyes.

Although hags usually disliked each other, they maintained a vast and complex social network that spanned their entire species. They frequently kept in contact with each other, sharing news and knowledge. Through this vast network, it was conceivable that every hag was aware of all hags in existence.

Hags dealt with each other through a complex code of conduct that they all honored, although those practices did not apply to outsiders. They always announced their presence and brought gifts when entering other hags' territories. Promises made to other hags were always kept, as long as they were not made with crossed fingers.

Their typical dwelling locations consisted of bleak and oppressive landscapes, such as dark swamps, dark forests, and stormy seas. Often, the hags' presence turned the vicinity of their dwellings into aggressive and virulent environments.

Religion
Hags saw their magic as a challenge to the gods themselves.

Ecology
Hags reproduced by a horrid ritual that involved capturing and devouring a human infant. Within one week, the hag gave birth to a seemingly normal human daughter. The offspring retained her human appearance until her thirteenth birthday, when she suddenly transformed into a hag identical to the one who birthed her. Some hags raised their offspring personally, while others returned the child to their parents and sadistically watched her growth and horrific transformation.

Subspecies
Annis
 * They were the most physically powerful of the hags.
 * They were the most physically powerful of the hags.

Bheur
 * Hags who lived in cold regions. They had the power of winter at their disposal.
 * Hags who lived in cold regions. They had the power of winter at their disposal.

Green hag
 * They were hags that used their magical powers to lure innocents into their traps.
 * They were hags that used their magical powers to lure innocents into their traps.

Hagspawn
 * The male product of hags mating with humans.
 * The male product of hags mating with humans.

Hannya
 * A variety of hag from Kara-Tur.
 * A variety of hag from Kara-Tur.

Night hag
 * Hags hailing from the fiendish planes.
 * Hags hailing from the fiendish planes.

Sea hag
 * Hags found in and along the shores of the sea.
 * Hags found in and along the shores of the sea.

Shrieking hag
 * Monsters that roamed desolate plains and wastelands and loved to deceive travelers.
 * Monsters that roamed desolate plains and wastelands and loved to deceive travelers.

Silat
 * A variety of hag from Zakhara.
 * A variety of hag from Zakhara.

History
Hags originated in the Feywild and later migrated into the Prime Material plane, with the exception of night hags, who were exiled from the Feywild and relocated to Hades, from where they later spread to all the Lower planes.