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This fan-fiction article, Cailleach, was written by Adalwulf of Aedirn. Please do not edit this fiction without the writer's permission. |
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This article, Cailleach, is part of the Extended Ancient Pantheon Expanded Universe. It may not be consistent with other timelines. |
The creatures known as the Cailleach (also known as a Blue Hag, White Hag or Winter Hag) are said to be thankfully one of the rarest of the known Hag variant species.
Physiology[]
From the top down
The hair of a Cailleach is a pale white in color like freshly fallen snow with it becoming clearer the older the individual is a clear sign of Grandma status is frosted but almost see through hair that resembles icicles. The eyes of a Cailleach are a naturally bioluminescent blue in color.
Cailleachs are one of the Hag species that do not magically disguise themselves as humans, a Cailleach has pallid, blue-white skin similar to a human corpse that had died of hypothermia.
Cailleachs typically wear a ragged, grey-blue shawls and often carried a gnarled, wooden staff that is taller than themselves, the gray bark contrasting against the dry blood of their victims that typically stained their hands.
The teeth of a Cailleach are unnaturally white, rot and decay are kept at bay by the subzero temperatures associated with the hag, while their talons when not covered in blood are also unnaturally white at the end of slender, bony fingers.
Lifecycle[]
- Hag Child:
- Hag: A full-grown hag not too strong not too powerful yet. It is at this point a Hag seeks out a coven if she isn't already in one.
- Auntie: An elder hag between the adulthood of a Hag and the power of a Grandma usually serves as the subordinate to a Grandma.
- Grandma: Ancient and the most powerful a hag will be is if she lives to be a Grandma. Grandmas are usually coven leaders or they'll leave a coven to start one so that they can be the leader.
Personality[]
Cailleachs are naturally cruel creatures that live for the pleasure of bringing icy death to as many people as they can. They view people's selfish actions justified by unrelentingly circumstances, normally the overpowering cold, to be especially enticing. Through their mastery of cold weather, they spread misery and despair among communities during winter seasons with the goal of instilling a miserly mindset.
As a Cailleach, the pitiful attempts of unprepared mortals to survive, such as eating leather instead of actual food, their suffering and the suffering they caused others, such as by killing people or defiling the sacred for resources, and their eventual deaths were all delightful to a Cailleach. The Cailleach's favorite part of such times for Cailleachs were when the selfish acts were unnecessarily committed, like when people hoarded more resources then they could possibly use, and the conniving crones love to plant such extravagant ideas.
Bheurs Hags themselves possess significant survivals skills and knowledge of nature.
Abilities[]
Physical[]
- Hag Physiology:
- Claw Retraction: Cailleachs possess razor sharp claws/talons.
- Darkvision: Cailleachs can see in the dark within a specific radius. They can see in dim light within the radius as if it were bright light, and in total darkness as if it were dim light. Though they can’t discern color in the darkness, only shades of gray.
- Fang Retraction: Cailleachs possess a maw of dull human-like teeth, which strangely have no trouble ripping flesh from bone, the teeth of a Cailleach are highly dangerous to humans and humanoids.
Magical[]
All of the Cailleach's powers except for one are dependent on the presence of their 'graystaffs', without with a Cailleach cannot perform most of their magic.
- Hag Magic:
- Floating Object Riding: A Cailleach can use their graystaffs to fly around.
- Ice Generation and Manipulation: The Cailleachs have magical power over the cold; their touch inflicted raw frost that was extremely painful to fire-based beings and they could blast their enemies aside with rime. They could create chains of permafrost and create cones of cold, causing even those who can survived the cold to suffer its effects. Snow and wind often surround them, and they move unhindered by ice and unseen through bitter blizzards.
- Frozen Feast: Cailleachs often feast on the frozen corpses of their victims during battle they would stop to devour them, stripping them of their meat and leaving only their bones. As a result of seeing such savagery, numerous conditions were reported to develop, including blindness, catatonia, psychotic episodes, babbling fits and extreme fear.
- Limited Polymorphy: Like their relatives the Annis Hag, the Cailleach had the ability to disguise herself using polymorphy, though theirs is very limited as they can only maintain it for ten minutes a day.
- Personal Size Manipulation: A Cailleach has the power to increase in size though they can only maintain it for ten minutes a day.
- Size Enhancement: A Cailleach can increase in size.
- Personal Size Manipulation: A Cailleach has the power to increase in size though they can only maintain it for ten minutes a day.
- Minion Creation: Through the use of their Frozen Feast ability Cailleachs are able to make minions in the form of the undead Entombed.
Behaviors[]
Lairing[]
When they establishing lairs, the more powerful Cailleachs, such as Grandmas and Aunties, release greater power from within them, such as the ability to create small, blinding blizzards. Snowstorms and small avalanches are often encountered in areas inhabited by such hags. The trails nearby were twisting and turned back on themselves and bodies preserved by the bitter cold occasionally had their spirits return as specters.
Weaknesses[]
Staves[]
Cailleachs are powerful but have a critical weakness in the form of their staves. While not magical in of themselves, their graystaffs, also called staffs of frost, served as their foci to help unleash their inner power and could be ridden like 'flying broomsticks' by Cailleachs. Without graystaffs to augment their power, a Cailleach is far less dangerous. Graystaffs do not work for non-Cailleachs, but if lost or destroyed, a Cailleach would have to leave the Material Plane in order to create a new one, a process that takes a year and a day.
Acids and electricity[]
Cailleachs also are vulnerable to acids and electricity but strangely resistant to fire.
Silver[]
Like most magical or unnatural monsters Cailleachs have an aversion to silver.
Necrophage Oil[]
Cailleachs take more damage when struck with a silver witcher's sword covered in Necrophage Oil.
Fey Oil[]
Cailleachs take more damage when struck with a silver witcher's sword covered in Fey Oil.
Harvestable Parts[]
Hag Teeth[]
The teeth of a hag are an alchemical ingredient of the Rebis family as such can be used for potions and processing into the alchemical substance known as Pure Rebis.
Necrophage Blood[]
The blood of a necrophage is a alchemical ingredient of the Rebis family as such can be used for potions and processing into the alchemical substance known as Pure Rebis.
Known Cailleachs[]
- TBA
Trivia[]
- Cailleachs are free to use in stories and articles, all I ask is that you honor the lore present and if you make one add their name and a link to this page.
- Sometimes Hags are the female version of other 'species' of Necrophage, such as Annis Hags being the female version of Rotfiends that is not the case for a Cailleach, who reproduces in the an unknown method as they do not share the Annis or Green Hag's methods.
Notes[]
- The necrophage species known as the Cailleach is a purely fanon creation as such there is no official proof of their existence in the Witcher works outside the fanon community.
- The existence of Cailleachs are a personal iteration inclusion for the fanon by Adalwulf of Aedirn, as such their existence in the fanon is not 'definitive' and is subject to the decision of inclusion in others head canons.