Hedwiga Málóid | Saxon Sorceress | Eva Green | Open
“To fear death is a choice. For those of you who live to see tomorrow, know that you had a choice.”
From the moment she was born Hedwiga was cursed. She had a special connection to the Old Ways that allowed her to see into the future, but it wasn’t so simple. Every time she closed her eyes she was overwhelmed by visions of death. Without wanting to, Hedwiga could look into the future and see the exact way and moment in which a person died. At first everyone in her village dismissed her visions as the nightmares of an over-imaginative little girl, but then her predictions started coming true. On one dreadful day Hedwiga saw her father dying on the battle field. She begged him to stay home but he didn’t listen. He never came back. Horrified, her mother mourned the loss of her husband and cast her daughter out as a witch. Hedwiga was left to grow up alone on the streets. Alone and forsaken, she became cold and calculating, manipulating those around her to serve her own purposes. Life lost all meaning to her, since she saw it flicker out so easily and so often. Watching people die became as easy as breathing. Wherever she went death seemed to follow, and stories of her spread quickly. She used her visions to control people around her, using their fear against them.
Thanks to her abilities she quickly rose in power and wealth, but she was utterly alone. She realised only someone with her gifts would ever understand her, so she decided to have a child who would inherit her magic. Perhaps a daughter would fill the aching hole inside of her, and that way she would never be alone. Hedwiga picked a man from a nearby village and lured him into her bed. She had no interest in him or in his company, but her plan succeeded when a few months later she discovered that she was with child. For the first time ever Hedwiga felt hope for the future. Unfortunately, the fates had something else in store. When she was almost ready to give birth she had a vision of her child dying inside of her, and it drove her mad. She became obsessed with saving her unborn daughter, taking all kinds of potions and turning to dark magic and powerful spells to prevent her vision from coming true. On the day of her vision she began to bleed, and she realised with horror that her child was dying inside of her just as she had predicted. Desperate, she ordered a physician cut open her stomach in an attempt to remove the child and save it. However their efforts failed, and Hedwiga lost her baby. She nearly died during the process, and after that any trace of kindness or sanity vanished. She let her visions and her loneliness overwhelm her and she became consumed with death.
That’s when King Arthur rose and forced the Saxons out of the south. Hedwiga kept to herself for some time, isolating herself from everyone. That changed when the Saxons prepared to launch a second attack on Camelot and some warriors approached her about the war. They had heard the stories about her powers and wanted her to tell them who she saw dying in battle. Her visions made her incredibly valuable, and young warriors flocked to her with questions about their deaths. At last Hedwiga joined the Saxon cause as an advisor to the warlords and kings, and even after the attack on the kingdom failed she stayed in the Saxon camp in the forest just outside of the city. If she could not have a child of her own, then she would become the mother of an army, and with her powers she was going to ensure that it became an army as unstoppable as death itself.
*Character note: To avoid any god modding Hedwiga’s powers cannot be used on any in game characters unless previously discussed with the player.
