Nyx
The Grey Maiden, The Grave Mother, The Maiden of Shrouds
a.k.a The Grey Maiden, The Grave Mother, The Maiden of Shrouds
Greylands links: Shaegoth, Jester - aka the Archivist of Woe
Miurag links: the Herald of Nyx, Deathwalkers, The Harrowed, the Deathless, the Winter Throne, the Broken One
"I stand upon the crossroads. Past, present, and future are as one to me. My reality is all of time. Life and death, real and unreal. I am the Maiden of the Shrouds, the Grave Mother."
The Grey Maiden may be seen as a pale woman standing in an ashen plane, swaddled in grey, tattered shrouds. Her features are elegant and beautiful, save for her eyes...or more exactly, the place where her eyes should be. There are two holes into a black void, the edges of which make it appear like the shattered edge of a mask, even though her face moves and emotes exactly like one made of flesh and blood. Occasionally, obsidian-shelled beetles emerge from these holes.
While Nyx is often worshipped as a demigod or goddess of death, that is not all with which she is involved. She is also tied to birth, rebirth, and prophecy.
Most Greylords are said to be able to glimpse the final moments of the dying and hear their last whispered words. Nyx, however, is said to be able to glimpse the fates of anyone born. If this is true, she has never been generous with her knowledge. While many Greylords have become entrenched in their own power struggles or throwing in their lot with the forces of the Eternal War, Nyx seems to be concerned with maintaining a balance.
Conflict in the Nexus
Though it may seem odd now, ancient sources suggest the Greylords were more unified, and in many ways stronger for it, than they are today. Unfortunately—or fortunately depending on one's view—various rifts, betrayals, wars, and disagreements compounded over time to drive them apart until only empty and politically motivated alliances with one another remain.
Once they might have gone to battle side-by-side with each other for the sake of some mutual cause, but those days lie well in the past. Diplomacy is a chilly affair, where most Greylords resent one another and show no effort to hide it even behind empty platitudes. Vocal challenges, subtle antagonism, and out-and-out hostility are common place in their rare interactions with each other.
Despite this, Greylords place particular significance on formal promises and oaths to each other. It is a rare occurrence for a Greylord to renege on an agreement with one of their own. It is unclear why this is, but seems to an essential part of their nature. Such trust, however, does not stop them from carrying out short-term campaigns to multiply their number of vassals and holdings.
While Greylords are the driving factor behind their minions, they seldom take a very active role in these schemes but instead sit idly in their citadels, directing their forces from afar... if at all. Some vassals follow commands given by their Greylord centuries ago and have never been in their presence. In many ways each Greylord sets up a society in their territory and then mostly lets it run itself.
Bloody atrocities attributed to a Greylord are more often the result of their minion's interpretations of their decrees and the harsh environment (for mortals at least) in which they exist. Even though not all Greylords see the world with such patience and wisdom that violence would never come quickly to them, acts of wrath are simply rarer than what many believe.
The Rebalance of Nyx
One point of evidence for a unified front the Greylords once existing is the necropolis of Stygia. This massive and labyrinthine city bears many decorations now defaced but hints at many prominent Greylords, and some texts do reference a “Council of Stygia.”
The city is now one of the main prizes over which the Greylords fight as it not only holds some of the more stable portals to other realms but also untold artifacts from that bygone era. Unfortunately now its walls are marred by the many sieges that took place as each Greylord sought to take it for themselves. Many of those portals are now sealed and warded behind multiple barriers and the artifacts are either hidden, stolen, or destroyed. No Greylord has held the city for long before another war to claim it began.
Nyx was one of the last lords to hold the city, her forces bolstered by her links to the divine powers of Miurag. The Maiden of Shrouds destroyed the previous lord's forces from the inside without open warfare. Few Greylords realized she had been taking the city until one day her banners flew in place of the others. The Grave Mother then attempted and was seemingly succeeding in efforts to once again consolidate the Greylands and unify a few like minds when disaster struck.
Abyssal agents came, erupting en masse throughout her holdings and the city of Stygia. The Greylords who had only begun to reconsider peace quickly slid back into old hatreds. Nyx may still have prevailed, but she was cut off from Miurag by her own ally. The slaughter that followed makes those of her Deathwalkers pale in comparison.
Nyx retreated deep into her old holdings, saving what souls she could. Those enemies that sought to pursue and corner her found themselves slain by silver blades from the shadows. The Greylord was uncertain at first who had been behind this subterfuge. Braqth the Spider Queen was one of those but was not a Greylord; the demon could not have acted alone
Eventually, Nyx gained an inkling of the one... the Devourer of Conflict.
If he has shrouded his actions this well, more troubling may be his goal.
