The Baba
Mistress of all hags. Leader of the Court of Misery. Archfey over the Ceaseless Slough. Pretty Ghastly.
Great-Granny Baba
Hag above all other hags, The Baba is known only by her title. She is an ageless being, having taken over as leader of the Court of Misery more than two thousand years ago (by material plane reckoning). She is unashamedly evil, revelling in the suffering of others, but is more pragmatic and forward-thinking than most other purely evil planar beings. She is content to offer boons, particularly to those who act to oppose her enemies, and treats the fey premise of reciprocation with absolute seriousness - planar travellers who enter her realm and act with the appropriate manners are very unlikely to come to direct harm.
Artifacts
The Baba has two possessions of great note: her cauldron and her house.
Her oversized cauldron sits upon the craggy hill at the centre of her domain. Its exact functionality is unknown, but with it, she seems able to replicate the functionality of any potion or poison.
Her house sits upon wonky struts on the side of the same craggy hill. It is small on the outside - roughly a twelve foot cube - but within is a dizzying array of much larger rooms, twisting corridors and multiple floors. Many doors act as one-way trips to other locations in the multiverse and The Baba is furious any time a lost servant accidentally disappears.
Physical Description
Body Features
Standing at just over eight feet tall (not counting her hair), The Baba is deathly pale, gaunt and gangly. Her arms are preternaturally long, reaching nearly to the floor when standing and able to reach out even further when desired. Her fingers match, each several inches long and ending in a long, iron-hard nail.
The Baba rarely stands to her full height, instead preferring to stoop, sit or hunch over. When sat, her arms appear shorter.
Facial Features
While few would describe her face as "beautiful", The Baba's pale face is blemish-free with only the slightest signs of age. Her mouth is too wide for her face - particularly when she smiles - and is filled with just a few too many teeth. Her nose is plain, remarkable only for the fact that it isn't horrible. Her eyes are dark grey at first glance, but those who look deeply into them see a reflection of the dark swamps of her realm.
Identifying Characteristics
The Baba is most famous for her hair - a giant-sized ponytail that juts from the back of her otherwise bald head. Pitch black and tangled, it reaches nearly a foot taller than her own height and cascades down to cover the floor behind her. Most notable is the prehensile, semi-sentient nature of the mass; her hair reaches out to coil around objects and creatures as though of its own volition.
Each of her palms appears tattooed with stylised eyeball symbology, mostly in dark grey.
Special abilities
As an Archfey, The Baba has a host of powerful (and sometimes confusing) magical abilities. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Dominion over her fey domain, the Ceaseless Slough.
- High-level magical abilities, specialising in dark curses and ice spells.
- High-level alchemical and herbalism knowledge and skill. Is able to bypass many of the normal restrictive nature of creating such magical items.
- Mastery over herself. She may alter her form into other shapes, though usually chooses to remain humanoid.
- Scrying through symbology. By leaving her eye-shaped iconography, The Baba is able to observe areas outside of her direct perception.
- Exceptional perception. She is almost impossible to lie to and can perceive people's hopes, desires and fears.
Apparel & Accessories
The Baba is usually seen wearing a patchwork robe that clings to her body as though perpetually soaked in water. It is made up of scraps and sections from cloth-made items sourced from those who would miss them most. Her favourite pieces to add are those from wedding dresses and from the stuffed toys or dolls of children.
She rarely wears much else, but is often adorned with multiple large bangles of varying materials.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
The Baba has been a hag for longer than most other beings have existed. It is unknown what type she began as - the mutability of powerful fey too unpredictable - though some daring people believe that her affinity to the cold points at her originally being a bheur hag.
What is known for certain is the actions she took that gave her enough standing to ascend to her current archfey status. Several decades were spent as an inside agent within the Winter Court to undermine, corrupt and misinform. This culminated in the theft of the Winter's Periapt, a powerful amulet of icy magic and the symbol that, until its loss, represented the court's greatest champion. The amulet is considered lost forever as The Baba does not appear to wear it, nor keep it on her person, and its location is hidden from scrying.
Morality & Philosophy
As a fey creature, The Baba's morality is tied up in the very fabric of her being. She is evil and she is selfish. Her very purpose for existence is to cause pain and misery, though she rarely does so thoughtlessly or unprovoked. She particularly relishes using hope to worsen the eventual harm she causes: the hope that one will escape her realm, the hope that one has gotten the better end of a bargain or the hope for stability and peace after times of trouble.
She is particularly content to have her machinations take place over extended periods of time, even allowing for repeated successful visits to her realm in order to lull a being into a false sense of security.
The Baba expects the subjects of her realm to be unable to commit any good acts to one another and shapes the Ceaseless Slough specifically to drag all those within down to a state of perpetual envy, backstabbing and skullduggery.
The Baba speaks several languages fluently (at least common, sylvan, elven, infernal, halfling and primordial) and has the magical means to augment this. As she regularly disguises herself, she wears new languages much like new clothes.
Worldember 2022
Article Links
Archfey, The Baba, Bag of Bountiful Bread, Ceaseless Slough, Classifications of Powerful Beings, Echo Pastries, The Eldest Tree, Frostbite Jelly, The Hedge, Hollowfolk, Home At The Centre Of The Maze, Languid Lake, Plane of Creation, Recurrants, The Scribes, The Toad Prince, Underbridge, Week of Shadows
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