What have the Hags of Hama been doing?

Frogman experiments

The thing is, the Hags/Reformists that run the recruitment facilities do not necessarily know what the research people are doing. This segmentation allows them to hide secrets from magically-enhanced interrogation methods such as Zone of Truth and Suggestion. Members of the recruitment team may actually know nothing about the frogman events truthfully, even if there is active magical research occurring that the Hags of Hama are definitely involved in.

That said, these frogmen are said to nave been made by the original Hags as a defense mechanism against incursions from powerful interests. The current Hags are forcing their creation to see if it shows them insights on the location of the Deep Lore by watching their patterns of behavior.

Deep Lore

They are trying new avenues to try to find anything about the [note:140]. It should be a priority for me to show more about this to the player.

What is it again?

The Deep Lore was inspired by the idea of the Akashic Records—a nebulous store of all knowledge that can only be accessed through intense study and meditation. Every time someone learns something, they are able to access a portion of this vast repository. If one is able to access the entirety at will, all the Universe’s secrets are said to be revealed. The Deep Lore is similar. There are claims that the original Hags of Hama were able to access the Deep Lore through a powerful and mysterious energy source in the place currently called the Turbiere d’ Hubar.

How do we reintroduce the Deep Lore?

There should be a meaningful way of introducing the Deep Lore again after it seemed to no longer be relevant. It was never talked about again when the characters arrived at Rainoso. It makes sense, since there are no actual Hags on the island anymore—at least not in the same vain as the [location:136] from [location:137]. The only ones who even have any chance at knowing stores about the Deep Lore are the old natives of Raibon. A sizeable population of them are in the East Side of Port Rainoso.

Nana Clarita

A woman [character:138] called [character:139] is one of those people with knowledge of old Raibonian traditions and lore. She might be someone who can get us this info. We can introduce a small community of [organization:79|Orthodox Divine Masochists] that have taken root in the East Side, so we can have a reason to spend more time in this area.

What does she actually know?

Nana Clarita is not Hag of Hama—original or Reformist. She is, instead, an elder of the community that had received her information through an oral tradition passed down from mother to daughter. She has heard of stories regarding the Deep Lore and how the Hags invoked it to perform feats unimaginable. Their access to the Deep Lore is how they are able to make the barren, capable of bearing children once more, among other miraculous powers.

One of the stories she’s been taught is about the swirling pool in the middle of the swamp where the frogmen are born. It was said that the Hags have asked permission from the people of the island to use the bodies of the dead of the bog for its protection. as well as the protection of the Deep Lore itself. If pressed for more stories, she would also tell tales of how the Hags have also used the bodies of their slain enemies to become frogmen.

When told about Godfrey’s condition, she would also say that the living may also become frogmen if their deeds were quite egregious, and how the “dead are turned into frogmen so the people remember them for who they were, the living are turned into frogmen so that people are remembered them as the monsters they have become.”. Dead bodies become mindless frogmen that follow the orders of the first person to inject Ritma into it and give it a command. Living bodies are cursed to live a life of a frogman while in the possession of his own mind.

Another persistent legend is the ability of the Hags to give or take away ones ability to create life—they are able to grant the barren the ability to conceive, but they can also take it away if you offend them in any way.

Nana Clarita and the other natives believe that they are the descendants of the Goddess of Nature Herself. This, to them explains their access to the Deep Lore, and the other mysteries that are associated with them. In fact, in the East Side of Rainoso, there is a mystery cult that is dedicated to the true Hags of Hama. These people are offended by the existence of the Reformist Hags, and would actively work against anyone associated with them, such as, perhaps, Denise Dubois.

What do the Reformist Hags know now that no one else knows?

They basically know what Nana Clarita knows, but have more magical context that had led them further into their investigation of the Hags and their access to the Deep Lore.

First, they suspect that there might be something about the native women of the island that make them especially able to commune, or join the ranks of, the Hags. They have heard about the [race:141|Hexbloods], and suspect that they represent something special.

They suspect that access to the Deep Lore is what made it possible for these Hags to have had the ability to perform magical abilities before the Fall of Bastion Deep Lore may just be another supermassive Orb of Enhancement, but if it were, they wonder how a) the Orb did not infuse more people with magic in the area, b) how did the techniques that the Hags seem to have developed unlock it, and c) if there is a supermassive Orb in the Tubiere, where was it exactly.

The Nature of the Bog

The Tubiere de Hubar is an ever-changing landscape, and building any permanent structure within it is next to impossible. The original Hags of Hama seem to have done so in the past, however. The structure they call [location:124] was created there, and remains to this day. Any extensive modification to it doesn’t persist though. The only things they were able to add, were doors and windows into already-existing frames and sills. This allowed the magical doorway into [location:125].

Denise Dubois

Denise Dubois had always been driven to succeed. She was always told the story of the rise, fall and recovery of the Dubois family—how their ancestors have struggled to rise into the aristocracy from the fringes of Sanerian society; how there were elements always acting to undermine their authority and power due to petty jealousy and greed; how hubris almost broke the family during the [event:60]Then she was told about how her great great grandfather had correctly navigated the chaos of the [event:80] which led to their present success. The expectations of their great house was on her, and her brothers’ shoulders. It doesn’t matter that they are from a branch of the Sanerian Dubois given stewardship of the Raibon backwater—they were all destined for greater things, if it took multiple generations for it to happen.

Her education in the liberal and political arts in the University of Sanery had developed her fledgling feminist ideas and supplemented them with from early feminist thinkers like Sapphia of [location:142]. She had also become deeply interested in the lore surrouding the Hags. In her youth, she was told to dismiss the tales of the Hags of Hama as myth and heresy. A proper Masochistic woman should not believe in things such as magic. it isn’t real. The Church itself says so. They are temptation by the adversary to lure you away from proper supplication to the Lord. So, as she had found herself free from the constraints of her conservative family, she was able to take a keener interest into the Hags, and what they represented. To her though. their magic was not what they could conjure from the void—it was the empowerment they gave each other as part of a collective. She took this as a model for the feminist commune she had formed with a number of her compatriots. They called themselves the Hags Congeniai of Sanery. The fact that colloquially, prostitutes in brothels are also called hags was a huge part in choosing the name, as protecting the rights of sex workers was included in their agenda. At the time, she was not a very charismatic public speaker. She had grand ideas, sure, but she’d always volunteered her work to the women she saw as her social betters—one of them was a cousin of hers from the main Dubois household, Antoinette Dubois. Most of Denise’s accomplishments in the Hags Congenial were naturally attributed to the more gifted orator and natural beauty. Antoinette would deny accolades, of course, and would often refer them to her brilliant cousin from the Islands.

Even as she returned to Raibon, she retained this acquired meekness. She often attempted to avoid social events to explore more about the island she was taught to disdain. Eventually she met members of the Reformist Church. They indoctrinated her into their faith and trained her to be more assertive and confident, as is what the Venerable Matron demands of them, Her daughters.

Does she know about the Reformist Agenda?

Yes, partially. In tact. she was easily converted from Orthodoxy. She was the one who crafted their persona as the Hags of Hama based on the island’s lore as a means of subverting the islanders’ prejudice against Divine Masochist theology. She was given magical abilities after she was elected as councilor of Port Rainoso. What she doesn’f know, is why exactly these reformists want to unlock the Deep Lore.

Is she being used, or is she using them?

They are definitely using her. But she also believes she is using them to achieve her personal goals.

How sincere is Denise in fulfilling her platform?

She really does sincerely believe in many of her political platforms. She also believes that the way to accomplish her goals, is by furthering the cause of the Reformists. They seem to represent the same kind of progressive political change that her personal brand of politics calls for.

How is she perceived by people outside Port Rainoso?

Traditionalist business owners dislike her, as well as well-entrenched pastoral and agricultural families. For one thing, everyone knew her to be Divine Masochist, and most Apgarians saw the religion as Poasan. She was also advocating to upend the balance of family dynamics. She was perceived as a lesbian who was there to steal the farmers’ wives away from them.