By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes, What have we here? A Mythkeepper, FEAR! That’s the best I could do. Poetry is not my sting suit. Personally, I like hag covens as villains, but always found the origin of them as bitter women to be rather distasteful.
Another great video, thank you! I'd love to see more Fae-related content, like a deeper dive into the Eldest and their relationship with Gyrona, or an exploration of the history of the First World
Well the good news is I have two of these videos up on the channel already. The Eldest is a video in my religion series and the First World is discussed in detail in my Pathfinder Planar Guide: Inner Sphere Part 2 video (not obviously named perhaps!) But also in good news a Fey focused Creature Feature is just around the corner (maybe like 6 weeks out now).
The whole whitches and crone because patriarchy vastly oversimplified things to the point of potentially misleading, as both terms had less evil connotations in pre/non-Christian Europe, and in a numbers of societies magic was seen as the feminine counterbalance to masculine physical strength, for example it's why loki was seen as effeminate for studying it
Thank you so much! Hags are one of my favorite enemies to use on players. Great for any level and a lot of details to make each hag unique. Great video
No. There is functionally no difference between Winter Hags & the Jadwiga in Irriseni society. Each one basicly scapegoat the other when publicly engaging in bad behaviour.
Oh man, this is perfect! The next character I'm playing is going to be a changeling. So having the background on Hags is super helpful in fleshing out the idea. Thanks Keeper!
Yes!!! Changelings are such a great player character race. What a great opportunity for a conflicted character. You have a foot in one world and a foot in the other. Also if your GM is smart, you know an encounter with your messed up mother at some point in the campaign is almost inevitable ;-)
They are a blast to play. Right now I am playing Gheada. She is a 13th level/1 mythic teir- trickster Unseelie Bugbear Annis Hag changling - Bloodrager with shapechanger bloodline. She is wicked scary and OP, but the other players and our GM love it when I play her. She is in the beginnings of her hag ascension and this video gives me all kinds of sweet ideas for her. build one you'll love it!
Pathfinder isn't the only franchise to have it both ways. Old Gods of Appalachia has witches and grannies as its main heroines, but also Granny White, which is actually an eldritch abomination posing as a blind old woman to lure victims in and expand its empire and is scary as all get out. No, the bigger problem is how much of the art for hags still gives them big ol' hooked noses which is an old trope for witches but a *super* antisemitic one. A lot of European witch tropes are rooted in antisemitism, having "sabbaths" where they drank baby blood and all that. Got to really avoid those when you use these kind of creatures as villains.
I won't avoid that. Just like I won't avoid the inquisition to be overly zealous and torture-y. Or dwarves being short. Golarion is not Earth, hags are not jewish. With all that is going on in the fantasy world, a hag's nose is a problem?
@@mboatrightED300 If hags were the driving force behind Golarion's banking system, sure. But they are not and everyone has a nose. Sometimes it looks crooked. You are seeing things where there are none. No one else has made this association.
The source of the hag archetype can, to one degree or another, be credited to belief in the supernatural being significantly and persistently greater among women than men. We can speculate as to the precise reasons for this, but some of them are known to us. Characteristics such as a propensity for empathizing rather than systematizing thought, and a greater presence of the personality trait of openness predispose one to experiencing ontological confusion, which is the most reliable predictor of supernatural belief.
So hags are like supernatural dark priestesses. The Dark side of those who serve the spiritual. Instead of purity of motive and deed, to bring the mundane and spiritual in harmony, the hag is selfish use of these forces for cruel and self centered purposes
I do have some videos on some cool extra-planar types. First one to come out will be on angels, then one on devils, and I suspect I will be doing daemons and demons in short order with asuras and divs and some other more obscure types in the longer term future.
@@TheMythKeeper I just thought I'd throw them out there because there's a lot known about devils and demons in both Pathfinder and D&D, but there's so little information shared about other fiends, which is a shame because there are SO many more that are just as if not more interesting.
@@joshuawilliams8252 Totally agree with you and I will get there eventually, but in the interest of keep my videos as widely useful a tool as possible, I'll start my outsider videos on the bigger name ones and progress down the list. I am very consistent with my weekly releases though, so they'll get here sooner than you think.
Thanks for this deep dive. Hags are such excellent vehicles for creating believable trauma. Running a game right now where the players discovered that a sea hag had swapped bodies with the wife of their Pirate captain patron, taking over her body while the real wife was trapped in the body of the sea hag. This had gone on for over a year before the players uncovered the secret. The players had to figure out a way to capture the hag and switch them back. Now the couple is so traumatized, they cannot bear to look at each other and the players are searching for a device which might wipe the whole experience from their minds so that they can finally be reunited. I am hoping the players can manage to create a happy ending that pays off for them, because writing this plot line felt super icky.
I'll often go to some dark places in my games too and my experience has always been that heroes that have been brought to their lowest feel the greatest rewards when they finally turn things around and set things right.
@@TheMythKeeper That’s what I’m hoping for. Really loving these lore videos. Golarion has such fantastic, detailed lore and you present it beautifully. I really appreciate you weaving in the real world historical and mythical context.
Ack! The hag that I'm using for one of my games is part of Bestiary 3 which came out only a couple months ago. That said, this video was still very informative, I think I know how to portray the Moon Hag mother of one of my players better now!
Small note, considering that your little RU-vid channel avatar is MK, I don't know if you're allowed to customise this much, but you could call your channel's membership service "MK-Ultra".
From my own reading... I don't suspect a lot of hags worship Zon-kuthon for very long before they run into his whole 'don't start trouble with my sister or her clerics or else thing', give what Shelyn entails. There are probably some, in perhaps Irrisen but I expect a lot more run afoul of Zon-kuthon's particular rules
Добрый день ! Подскажите пожалуйста вашу электронную почту маил , я бы хотел прислать вам дополнительный материал о Каргах из Пасфаиндера :) . Обо мне : я помошник Автора канала Lore , мы тоже хотим сделать видео Каргах , мы в процессе обработки материала , думаю вы его оцените 😁
I don't believe their stats have been made yet for PF2, but they are part of the lore, and are particularly common in Cheliax where I guess there have been historically lots of arsons. You can check out their PF1 stats here: aonprd.com/MonsterDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Ash%20Hag
Love your vids! They've been really helpful to get me kickstarted on the lore as a GM. As for my request, though it may be early for holloween, would you consider covering Sahkil in creature feature? I was amazed and terrified when I saw them especially how they give content warning to check in on your friends on their creature family page in AoN.
Thanks for the comment John! I don't know that I'll do a whole video about Sahkils just because there are so many creature types out there that are more central to the PF lore, but they do get a name-check in my Planar Cosmology video when I discuss the Ethereal Plane ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-k0oENVmtEM4.html ) along with a number of other creatures native to that plane. I have a few more ghostly types coming up on an upcoming creature feature that covers various kinds of undead creatures as well.
This one sparked some game ideas, (probably more oneshots or scenarios then fully fledged campaigns) but that image of a hag near a village, replacing children and then manipulating the environment her daughters are growing in. Making it worse, trying to shape them to become like her- Yeah I think I could get 3-4 sessions out of that :D
There are many good locations around Golarion to run a game like that. I actually really that in a place like Galt or the River Kingdoms or Lozeri County in Ustalav which are generally in disarray and the townsfolk may be slow to respond.
@@TheMythKeeper I remember liking the Ustalav video. I might have another watch and see if I can flesh out the idea a little more. Also when I started watching these I'd never played Pathfinder. Now I have! I haven't run anything yet, and tbh I'll probably wait until after I've run Traveller and City of Mist for my players to try. But I had a lot of fun, it's a nice system.
There are actually a few more hag subtypes that I wasn't able to cover and because of the Fey connection I'd imagine this is a creature type that comes in many additional subtypes so if you're looking for a more spidery creature you can absolutely do that. Also IIRC, there is a kind of Spidery Hag type that appears in Meratt County in the War for the Crown AP...
Great vid my friend, thanks. I'd like to see this lore expanded on sometime in the future hopefully, regarding the many different servants, familiars, enforcers and simple minions that Hags utilize to their benefit. Such as; Scarecrows, Redcaps (+ other simple Fey), Blights, Meenlocks, Ogres, Quasits, Ettercaps (and their spider minions), Catoblepas and so many, many others. Hags are without a doubt, one of the best monsters to utilize, since they are so easy to manipulate into an engaging and quite terrifying storyline, regardless of setting or PC level. :)
I have come to anticipate your presentations on various topics of Golarion. Just wish that the adds didn't have twice the volume when I'm wearing headphones...
It's so hard to pick just one! I may not have a real favorite. Usually, my favourite monster is always the one I'm prepping for my PCs to encounter in my next game.
Always a good Friday morning when I can listen to part of a mythkeeper video on my way to work!! Keep up the great work man we as a community appreciate you
I really appreciate the discussion at the start of the video about the role patriarchy plays in witch mythology. Thanks so much for going the extra mile to discuss that
Great video. There’s a lot more potential to Hags than I would have thought, and they’re already an evocative creature. Not only do they hold a classic-if problematic-place in folklore, they’re just a cool and disturbing idea: these twisted humanoids who look old and frail but are actually incredibly dangerous. And I kind of like that they’re all female, just because women are so often depicted as weaker than men. Also, a mono-sexed race is kind of cool and different. I really like the possible origin story of Hags and how it leaves open the question: where did the other subtypes come from? My only complaint is that I’m a fan of Mr. Welch’s “Welcome to Mystara” videos, and the name of their kingdom sounds exactly like the county of Fantasy Texas. Oh, well. I would love to see a couple of videos on dragons and vampires.
Thanks for the comment! Vampires are coming a little bit sooner than dragons as part of a general Undead video I'm currently working on. Dragons is probably my most requested video though, so its coming!
For Creature Features, I would LOVE to see some more content about Proteans/Monitors/Psychopomps from Concordance of Rivals. This is amazing content that is helping my group become engaged in the setting that is so near and dear to me. THANK YOU!
Really loving this channel. Very high quality stuff. Can't wait for a Dragons Deep dive. The things I've read myself seems very promising Keep up the good work. Thanks!
This is my fav video of yours so far. I love how sympathetically you deconstruct fantasy, both in regards to pathfinder and real mythology. It'd be cool to see you extend this to some of the classes -I play a lot of oracles, but I feel left to my own devices too much with the official lore.
This is a great suggestion. I haven't done any lore videos on player character classes, but I absolutely could do a full series just on this idea alone. Thanks for the suggestion!
Loved this video. always love to see more pathfinder lore videos. Though I feel like I should be annoying and mention a often forgotten member of the hag race. The Pit Hag- only ever appeared in the reign of winter adventure path and the tome of horrors.
Yeah there are about three or four hag types that I didn't get around to covering here. I probably should have had a section at the end that just rattled off a few more - pit hags, moon hags, sand hags, flue hags - but its a rolling list because Paizo may at any point introduce a new hag type.
@@TheMythKeeper dang I forgot about moon hags. It's a surprisingly large monster type. I always forget just how many there are, but that just makes them more interesting to use ingame. There just rare enough people don't suspect them, but also just common enough people generally know what they are when revealed.
The PF version of the Far Realm is called the Dark Tapestry and I’ve done a whole video on the Dark Tapestry that’s up on the channel in the religion section, I also touch on Leng and some other cool mythos places in my Demiplanes video you can check out 😉
