Portfolio: Hags, runes, souls
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Titles: The Crone, She-Beast of the Highlands, the Hag Mother
Domain: The Stone Barge
Symbols: A small clear or stone vial of enchanted liquid on a silver chain
Chosen Weapon: Claw and fang
Dogma: “The hags were born when the first witches traded a portion of their womanhood for an equal portion of the power of beasts. Survival is based on sacrifices. Power is based on knowledge and the ability to gain the upper hand in any deal.”
Worshippers: Hags, desperate women, scribes, rune crafters, female spellcasters
History: Segrund is an ancient deity, having existed long before the creation of the world as part of the Fairy Queen Titania’s court. When Titania was betrayed by her fellow immortals and was lost upon the River Styx, Segrund shifted her loyalty to Gatropsis, and when Gatropsis was herself trapped beyond reality, Segrund steered her stone barge into obscure planar waters, doing her best to avoid the attention of greater powers. Eternally cunning, the Crone has eschewed planar politics effectively for millennia, content to practice her runecraft and ancient magicks in secret, occasionally collecting souls in gems to power her spells of concealment. Her enormous Stone Barge looks like a slab of unworked dark metamorphic rock with enormous deposits of crystal and gemstones rife throughout it. The barge is covered in magical runes that only become visible when their enchantments are activated.
Like the devils of the hells, Segrund learned long ago the power of souls. As nearly infinite things, souls possess an uncanny ability to generate magical energy. Some souls are perfect for some castings, and some are less ideal, but Segrund has learned them all. The Midwife of Souls delights in capturing the souls of willing mortals, striking deals with them to avoid even worse fates or to grant temporary power. Unlike the devils of the hells, Segrund is not usually willing to wait for these prizes, but unlike the devils, Segrund will release a soul once it has served her purpose. Like a true fey deity, she always keeps her words, and as a result, the Hag Mother is never without a consistent stream of petitioners desperate for a pact.
No one truly knows what Segrund’s ultimate goal might be or if she even has one beyond survival in a tumultuous multiverse, but the Midwife of Souls has been depositing caches of powerful magic fueled by captured souls in many strange and unapproachable locations. Whatever her plan might be, she is being pursued and hounded by the gods of the aberrations who seem almost frantic to stop her. Because of this, it is whispered that Segrund has discovered a way to seal all breaches to the Far Realm for all time. Some sages believe that if she accomplishes this, Segrund plans to demand leadership of the gods in the Astral Plane, take her place as Queen of the Heavens. She will then turn her sights to the demons of the Abyss, and the hells until the enemies of the gods are no more and reality can return to the Infinity it is said to have emerged from in the first place.
The Clergy of the Church of Segrund: Segrund has no church to speak of, and neither does she have any interest in organizing her followers into such a force. What she does have are covens who are more or less invested in their relationship with her. As Segrund preys upon her worshippers as often as she rewards them, these covens plan carefully how to appease her, and those practiced in striking deals with her often find themselves reaping great rewards at the expense of their enemies. However, one coven, the Rune Weird, is zealous in their service to the Crone, supposedly doing her bidding out of nothing more than affection for what the goddess has made them. The Rune Weird seeks to discover the ultimate expression of writing in the universe, which is rumored to be one of the Seven Lost Symbols of Magic. Once they have discovered it, they will supposedly have the power to raise a mighty nation where no hag sister may fear to walk undisguised.
