Granny Fey
Bheurs are known by many names, sometimes specified as Bheur hags but also referred to as blue hags, white hags and winter hags. The wicked witches of winter are cold-hearted ice queens said to bring the season's cold, but it is possible the sadistic fey are simply drawn to the frost. Bheurs are hags unique to Rashemen, capable of bringing winter’s chill to any place in the land.Bheurs appear as wrinkled beldams, gaunt as if they have survived hard times by subsisting on inedible matter. Fittingly, they have pallid, blue-white skin like they had died of hypothermia and pale hair as white as snow or black as night. The flesh surrounding their muted eyes is dark as if it is bruised and their voices were like howling winter winds. They are known to wear ragged, grey-blue shawls and often carry gnarled, wooden staffs taller than themselves, the gray bark contrasting against the dry blood that typically stained their hands. They are also reported to have the ability to disguise themselves as ordinary crones.
Winter hags are creatures of cruel depravity that live for the pleasure of bringing icy doom to as many people as it can. They consider selfish actions justified by unrelenting circumstances, normally overpowering cold, especially enticing. Powerful and malevolent, Bheurs sometimes enlist the aid of Orglashes to help them smite folk with terrible cold. Using their mastery of cold weather, they spread misery and despair to communities during winter seasons with intent to create enough desperation to instill a miserly mindset.
The pitiful attempts of unprepared mortals to survive, such as eating leather in place of actual food, their suffering and the suffering they brought to others, murdering people or defiling the sacred for resources, and their eventual deaths are all delightful to a Bheur. The sweetest part of such times for Bheur hags are when the selfish acts are committed unnecessarily, like when individuals hoarding more resources than then could possibly use, and the conniving crones loved planting such excessive ideas.
A favorite feast for Bheur hags is the frozen corpses of their victims, and often times in battle they would stop to devour them, stripping them of their meat and leaving only their bones. The sight of such savagery was known to inflict numerous conditions for various periods of time, ranging from blindness, catatonia, psychotic breaks, babbling fits and extreme fear.
Legends hold that there is only one great Bheur, for no more than one has been seen at a time. At the approach of each winter, the Rashemar prepared diligently to face the winter out of fear of the Bheur. Every year, just before Tarsakh, veteran Hathrans were sent to battle the Bheur hag, not necessarily to kill her, but simply drive her away from the land. If they succeeded it was seen as an omen that spring's warmth would soon return, but if they failed then spring was delayed for several more weeks in Rashemen in favor of harsh winter.
"Winter is the best part of the year, but even winter pales in the month of Hammer.”— A Wychlaran saying.
Or at least... this is what the Wychlarans would want you to believe...