Gramdol, Mother of Hags

Mental characteristics

Personal history

After the Ice-Crowned Peaks gained their name from the eternal winter storm, a town of humans remained alive—trapped and land-locked to the north. They were in grave danger, not knowing how to survive in the now polar lands. In their plight, they prayed to every god they knew of, and they were visited by a mysterious woman whose skin burned with heat and whose long red hair flickered like flame, melting the snow around her. She called herself nothing, so they called her Ildfrue, the Lady of Fire.   She promised to warm their land and protect them from the storm, on one condition: each year one of their young women, no older than 16, must deliver her a red flower. The destination was Ildfrue's tower which was far away in the winter storm, and it was to be brought no earlier nor no later than dawn on the last day of Hiesys, the last day of winter. Without this offering, their protection from the storm would end, and there would be no second chances.
With this seemingly simple request and desperation in their minds, they agreed. Immediately the snow melted in their streets and the area of their town for miles, as if the winter never touched it. They could grow crops and live peacefully, yet they could not leave. A year passed, and the last day of Hiesys approached. As required they sent out a young girl of 12 with a bouquet of red flowers to trek through the storm to the tower. The girl never returned, yet the summer warmth remained.
Despite the girls never returning, the town continued to send them year after year using a lottery system. Always their eternal spring remained, and they continued to live. Then, after over 20 years this way, just before dawn on the first day of winter the town held their vigil in honour of another lost to save them all. They anxiously waited to watch the dawn, hoping to breathe a sigh of relief and mourn their loss quietly. However, this time the girl did not make it, having succumbed to the winter storm with the red flower still protected in her hands.
Their world dissolved at dawn, and the people found themselves standing in the snow-covered ruin of their town, unattended for 20 years. They had been kept all this time in an alternate world by Ildfrue, and were ejected from it due to the girl's failure. While the horrified and doomed townsfolk huddled together in the snow, Ildfrue appeared, walking among them and reveling in their plight. She was no longer the beautiful woman of fire, but a gnarled and twisted creature. Behind her tailed a few of her daughters, also hideous and deformed things who shrieked in delight.
Ildfrue and her daughters began to steal the shards of life from each person just as they were about to escape to the ether, and with the theft of their power and sheer force of their horror, she ascended fully to the outer plane. Left on Aedelor were 20 of her daughters, who spread throughout the world to return souls and lay suffering at her feet. She is also known by others names now, such as Gramdol, mother of hags.

Divine Classification

Lesser Deity

Pronouns

She/Her