No. No, I'll never forget it, no matter how much I try. The screaming, and the crunching... it's as though the whole lot of them were just... crushed by some massive grinder and thrown in alive. That's what it sounded like. Except the grinding didn't make any noise at all... just the bones. And the screams.

I ran. I'm ashamed to say it, but I did. I didn't try to help them, I just ran - and when I saw those fucking tendrils snaking around near me, I ran even faster. I ran until I couldn't run anymore, and then I kept running until I couldn't move. And when I looked back... those tendrils were still there, feeling around only a little while away. So I ran again.

You would have done the same.

— Ebron, the sole survivor of a hunting party partially destroyed by the Red Woman



Overview

Though the youngest (or most recently revealed, at least) of the Great Beasts, the Red Woman has already proven herself to be perhaps the most actively malevolent of her brethren - as well as the most active; despite having appeared less than a millennium ago, she has made several appearances already. What's more, due to the nature of her power, it is often impossible to tell when she has come through an area.

A Record of Encounters

32354Y The Red Woman devours most of the Village of Cheprow in the middle of the night, leaving the settlement as a ghost town.

32558Y The Red Woman lays waste to helpful hunters after seemingly luring them to their doom using minions or some other form of servant.

33051Y The Red Woman is spotted wandering the fields near Atria, leading to panic among the watchmen of the city. No major attack occurs, but the night is misty, and many people disappear by morning, never to be found.

Despite this, it should be noted that the Mother of Martyrs (as she has come to be called) does seemingly have some limitations on her behavior: she has been known to spare children, for example... though she also has children within her "being" (see below), making the specifics of her reasoning somewhat difficult to puzzle out.

A Brief History

A little over 700 years ago, the population of Cheprow in Gaean was destroyed overnight, with seemingly no struggle and no damage to the environment. Well, destroyed is perhaps the wrong word at least on the surface - "vanished" may be more appropriate, as nearly the entire population seemingly evaporated. There were only a few lucky survivors - people who had not been in bed that night, but instead were wandering late enough to see the Mother appear, standing in the center of the town square.

Weeks later, some of the disappeared townspeople would be seen in various places around the area, though they seemed "somewhat out of sorts," according to witnesses. They would frequently try to get others to follow them into the nearby forest. Those who followed did not return.

It is unclear how often the Red Woman has appeared. Theoretically, she could be responsible for any number of disappearances - singular or groups. But it is known that 200 years later, what is believed to have been the Red Woman appeared near the campgrounds of a large hunting party outside of Keldare. There, hunters were approached by children begging for help. A portion of the hunters broke off from the main body of the group to assist the children. According to the sole surviving hunter, they were then surrounded by people, and by red mist. The hunter panicked and ran, leaving the sound of crunching bones and screams behind as he fled. Despite what seemed to be a grisly mass murder, neither blood nor bodies were ever found.

As with many of the more complicated Beasts, it may take some time to fully uncover the methods and motivations of the Red Woman. That said, attempts to uncover her patterns should be undertaken with urgency as she is by far the most active of the Beasts, even taking into account minor sightings of the more common Beasts such as Zuelis-Tyt.

Habitat

The Red Woman's native location is unknown, but she is most commonly sighted near settlements or encampments. To date, she has only appeared in Gaean.

The Woman Made of Blood and Mist

Survivors of the Red Woman are rare - enough so that it is unknown how many attacks she has committed. But those survivors describe has an ethereal, humanesque creature seemingly made of blood and mist.

Appearance

The Red Woman's appearance is somewhat encompassed with the name she's been given: she appears as a human-sized woman with snow-pale skin and red hair, red eyes, red lips... and wearing red clothes, her hair and clothing often streaked with, or partially, white. Her hair floats around her as though stirring on an ever-present breeze - or floating in nonexistent water. However, her most notable feature are the tendrils of.... mist of some kind that constantly swirl and change around her.

She has been described as seemingly "made of blood and mist."

While they are referred to as mist, in reality it is not entirely clear what they actually are as they strongly resemble liquid despite moving like air. These tendrils sometimes stay close to her body, but at times they can spread over great distances. They also move as though sentient at times, curling around obstacles and slipping through cracks in walls, for example.

It has been said that she is quite beautiful but frankly it's hard to know how anyone could tell since no one who gets close to her has ever come back, so it may be a function of her overwhelming impact leaving a certain impression.

Behavior

Generally, her behavior remains difficult to comprehend at this time - mostly because she is so "young" as a Great Beast. However, what has been observed is the following:

She appears near settlements and large campgrounds. She is often accompanied by many "tagalongs," though who they are and where they came from is largely unknown.

If the settlement is small - a few dozen people to one or two hundred people, she may send her tendrils through each building or tent. She herself will rarely move from the one spot, although she can if necessary.

If the settlement is large - in excess of 200ish people, then she may appear lingering at the edge of the borders, or walking nearby. When seen this way, she is often traveling with her "martyrs," and may use them to draw out her prey by leading them into isolated areas, or traps.

Regardless of how many victims she takes, this is when any survivors may report hearing screams, crushing noises, and sometimes other... unfortunate sounds which seem relevant to crushing or eviscerating a body.

It is unknown why she does this or, indeed, what specifically she is doing.

Abilities

Red Mist Tendrils: Like most of her, The Red Woman's specific abilities are largely a black box. It is known that she can control and move her strange tendrils as though they were her own limbs... and despite being largely insubstantial, those same tendrils can act as tentacles, grabbing and moving things or people at will.

 

Devouring: It's unclear whether she is actually "eating" these people or not. However, given the crunching and screaming, many have speculated that she is doing exactly that. That said, if she is eating them, it must be through some nonstandard means, as she is rarely anywhere near the dying creatures.

 

The Martyrs: As explained earlier, the Red Woman is often seen in the company of many apparent humans of various ages from children to elderly. Sometimes they have been said to resemble her previous victims, though it is unknown whether that is true or just rumors. Either way, these people - or creatures - dubbed martyrs by... someone... are used to draw victims away from larger groups, or to scope out territory as needed. It is unknown whether they physically contribute to the destruction of her prey.

 

██████████: █████████████████████████████████████████████

 

██████████: █████████████████████████████████████████████

 

██████████: █████████████████████████████████████████████

 

██████████: █████████████████████████████████████████████

 

██████████: █████████████████████████████████████████████

 

██████████: █████████████████████████████████████████████

Status Quo

The Red Woman remains extremely active - perhaps even moreso than is immediately evident, as her specific method of elimination does not leave obvious proof of her activities.

Threat Assessment:

████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████

That being the case, it's safe to assume that...

The Red Woman is a Vis level threat.