Hexenstein

The Witch in Stone

Atop a crumbling church ruin on the edge of the Black Forest sits a gargoyle the locals call Hexenstein, the Witch in Stone. She is both beautiful and horrific, powerful yet sad. She looks down upon the cobbled streets of her village, now dazzling with the lights of commerce and choking with the fumes of industry. Postcards of her grace their stalls, and through them she has seen the world.

Tourists look up at her and she knows what is in their hearts. They take their photographs. They show them to their lovers, their families and friends.

Those that look too long upon her find no rest, nightmares return behind lidded eyes, though they are never the same as the night before. Some say they hear her voice in their ears. Whispering. Pleading. Demanding. Warning.

At least that is the story you might have heard.

I was conceived from a forbidden love as the valleys flooded with the Mother's tears.

I was born to a winter of hunger. My childhood lost in blood and steel.

I have seen the great forests fall to fire and wicked men shake the hand of god.

I have watched as the endless song of the world was captured. Stuttered. Frozen.

I am etched in stone.

Yet, I have known love.

And I long to dance on the graves of those who took it from me.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

The Witch in Stone was born as Reina Von Hochwald, into a minor noble family during the Hungry Winter of 1481. Her father, Ulrich Von Hochwald, was a vassal Lord to the Count of Hohengeroldseck, and had inherited rule over a patch of Black Forest high on the mountain sides above the Kinzig River valleys. The keep they were given was called Hochwald, or the High Forest.

Her mother Isolde had been the daughter of the midwife in the village of Hochwald, and Ulrich had fallen in love with her from a young age. Their match went against the wishes of family and church, but when he came into his title in 1480, he ignored the protests of his peers and they were married during the following winter solstice. Rumours abounded about the impropriety nature of the match, some even suggesting that Isolde had charmed the young lord with diabolic magics to secure his love, and the marriage itself had been part of a pagan ritual rather than a holy Christian sacrament. Ulrich dismissed and tried to suppress these rumors but they persisted, and would follow Isolde and her daughter for the rest of their lives.

During Isolde's pregnancy, the region was beset by severe storms and flooding of the valleys. There was much destruction from floodwaters, and crops failed across the region. Reina was born in the middle of the Hungry Winter that followed, as famine and privation scourged the people. Many saw this as signs of God's punishment against the marriage, and the rumours of diabolic influence grew as people sought to find someone to blame for their hardships. The agitations against Ulrich and Isolde were fuelled by the beginnings of witch trials across Rhine in Alsace, and the Papal Decree of 1485 added fuel to the growing hysteria.

The situation was made much worse when the Palatinate invaded in 1486 as part of their expansion into the Swabian region. Reina was only 5 years old. Ulrich was called to arms by the Count and was killed during the siege and fall of Hohengeroldseck. Upon news of his death, a local Robber Baron, possibly organised by Ulrich's moral and religious critics, lay siege to the castle of Hochwald, and Isolde was forced to flee with her daughter.

Reina travelled north through the Black Forest in disguise for fear of being pursued by her enemies. She eventually found protection in a small forest village within the Margraviate of Baden. There, she took on a new name, Agnes Weber and renamed her daughter Aletheia. She found work there as a local midwife, healer and weaver.

Reina, now Aletheia, spent the following years learning the skills of her mother, and the ancient wisdoms that they were born from.

(More to come, probably post-Summercamp unless other prompts align)

Life

1481 CE 1498 CE 17 years old