Reepah Grimm
Reepah (aka Grand-mummy; aka Gam-Gam) is the disembodied spirit of Tyding Grimm's great-great-grandmother on his father's side. In life, Reepah was perhaps the greatest oracle the island continent of Aerenal had ever known.
Perhaps.
It was really hard to judge. Did one count all of one's breath-takingly accurate predictions, or just the ones people heeded? She knew how she tallied score and, after the Undying Court failed to accept her into their ranks when she Transitioned (from life to death), she supposed she knew how they tallied it, too. Even if you discounted some of her more mundane predictions like the ones about tomorrow's weather or whose children would grow up to be insufferable imbeciles, she was definitely in the oracular Top 3. Top 5 at worst. Was it her fault that all her really juicy predictions wouldn't come to pass for years after her death? Oh, what she would have given for a freak volcanic fissure or a rogue dragon rampage in her lifetime! She'd have even settled for a vision of the Deathless refusing to Elevate her so she could have given them a piece of her mind before they tethered her forever to to her withered, embalmed corpse, condemned to wait aimlessly until some desperate family member came to seek her counsel.
At least that family member turned out to be her favorite grandson, Tyding. As she had foreseen. Because her visions (and this was a surprise) didn't stop when her body died. If anything, they became more vivid and more frequent. Her spirit didn't become some forlorn ghost incapable of speaking about anything but the past. She was aware of what was happening in the world...well, of what would happen in it at least. The visions concerning she and Tyding, however, those were murky. Damnably so. What if, she thought, she could find a way to get closer to the places she saw, to get closer to the "action." Maybe if she...
It worked! Of course it did. She'd known it would, hadn't she? With her spirit now tethered to her dear, sweet grandson, she could go where he went, see what he saw. And it just so happened that where he needed to be was exactly where she wanted to be. Of course, he didn't really need to be there for about another century and a half, but why quibble over trivialities? She'd show those Deathless ingrates that her foretellings weren't, "Often too obscure to be of any real use." She was the greatest oracle in the history of Aerenal! ...Top 10 for sure.
Perhaps.
It was really hard to judge. Did one count all of one's breath-takingly accurate predictions, or just the ones people heeded? She knew how she tallied score and, after the Undying Court failed to accept her into their ranks when she Transitioned (from life to death), she supposed she knew how they tallied it, too. Even if you discounted some of her more mundane predictions like the ones about tomorrow's weather or whose children would grow up to be insufferable imbeciles, she was definitely in the oracular Top 3. Top 5 at worst. Was it her fault that all her really juicy predictions wouldn't come to pass for years after her death? Oh, what she would have given for a freak volcanic fissure or a rogue dragon rampage in her lifetime! She'd have even settled for a vision of the Deathless refusing to Elevate her so she could have given them a piece of her mind before they tethered her forever to to her withered, embalmed corpse, condemned to wait aimlessly until some desperate family member came to seek her counsel.
At least that family member turned out to be her favorite grandson, Tyding. As she had foreseen. Because her visions (and this was a surprise) didn't stop when her body died. If anything, they became more vivid and more frequent. Her spirit didn't become some forlorn ghost incapable of speaking about anything but the past. She was aware of what was happening in the world...well, of what would happen in it at least. The visions concerning she and Tyding, however, those were murky. Damnably so. What if, she thought, she could find a way to get closer to the places she saw, to get closer to the "action." Maybe if she...
It worked! Of course it did. She'd known it would, hadn't she? With her spirit now tethered to her dear, sweet grandson, she could go where he went, see what he saw. And it just so happened that where he needed to be was exactly where she wanted to be. Of course, he didn't really need to be there for about another century and a half, but why quibble over trivialities? She'd show those Deathless ingrates that her foretellings weren't, "Often too obscure to be of any real use." She was the greatest oracle in the history of Aerenal! ...Top 10 for sure.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Reepah is a incorporeal spirit. Her mummified corpse, back in Aerenal, is in excellent condition for a dead body, but is in quite poor shape by nearly any other metric.
Body Features
Her body, when she can be seen at all, appears to be that of an emaciated, horribly elongated elf maiden with jagged, blackened talons tipping impossibly long fingers.
Facial Features
Her face is similarly stretched. She may have been beautiful once, but her features are now nightmarishly distorted. And when she settles her cold, unflinching gaze upon you, it feels as though your very soul is being sucked into the icy, black depths that float where her eyes should be.
Physical quirks
The most notable quirk of Gam-Gam's appearance is that she is rarely visible at all. Usually, she is a huge, fleeting shadow seen only for a moment out of the corner of one's eye. When she is near, people feel like they are being watched or that there is someone standing right behind them. Sometimes, she can be seen for the briefest of moments in a reflection or when a dark room becomes suddenly illuminated. Most who do manage to get a good look at her for whatever reason spend the rest of their lives wishing they hadn't.
Special abilities
Reepah is a true oracle and can forecast future events. For some reason, she has trouble seeing events that directly affect her and, as their bond grows stronger over time, that's beginning to apply to Tyding as well.
Social
Contacts & Relations
So far, the only two people to whom Reepah does not appear a horrific banshee are her grandson, Tyding, and the firbolg, Moes. To them she appears as she did in life: a quite striking, mature elven woman (a Melf, I believe is the term). Elves don't age like humans so, despite her advanced years, she looks a well-preserved 50 rather than a woman ready for her death bed. The two can also hear her speak. To everyone else she is either silent as a specter or riding the wave of a deep, ululating keening that sounds like it was ripped from the traumatized throats of a dozen wounded demons.
Relationships
Family
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Gender
Female
Eyes
Black pits devoid of even the glimmer of life
Hair
Lank and dark as grave-soil
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Parchment thin and maggot white
Height
Varies; always seems to loom over you
Weight
Weightless, but the air around her is heavy indeed
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