I will make you richer and more fortunate than you have ever been, but you must promise that you will give me whatever has just been born in your house."

When he was nearly there, the maid opened the front door and called out to him that there was good news: his wife had just given birth to a little boy.

-Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, The Nixie in the Pond

Of the monsters Van Richten documented in his treatises, hags are the one with which he had the least personal experience. That comes as no surprise, as these foul blights against nature are fortunately rarely encountered in the Land of Mists.

Unfortunately, Van Richten's relative ignorance of hags meant that he had to turn to another for information, and that source, a hag itself, can hardly be considered a trusted confidante. A would-be hunter of hags should be cautious and not surprised if the foes they face differ greatly from what they expect.

Origins

The true nature of hags remains something of a mystery. Van Richten's research led him to conclude that perhaps hags were a unique species, perhaps related to the fey races, but a species dependent on human males for procreation. They use their magical abilities to disguise themselves as human females and conceive children with human males while in these guises. The hag abandons the child, placing it with surrogate parents; this is usually done by switching the hag child with a normal human newborn. The child appears to be a normal human female until it reaches advanced middle age, at which points it begins to physically change into a hag. There is anecdotal evidence, however, that perfectly normal human females can also transform into hags, particularly those who delve deeply into the magical arts. There are also tales of powerful curses transforming women into hags. Hags are also blamed for the existence of hexbloods.

The Change

Regardless of how it actually occurs, when a female becomes a hag she goes through what is known as the Change. The Change usually occurs sometime after the woman's fortieth year and before the fiftieth. Once a woman starts going through the Change, she becomes a hag, and her type changes to fey.

As hags age, their bodies become more powerful and they become more adept at their own brand of corruptive magic.

Hag Magic

As hags grow older, their command over their unique form of magic increases and they gain new powers. Hag magic is poorly understood, but it seems to somehow tap into natural cycles. The hags draw upon natural cycles, corrupt them, and channel the power through their bodies in the form of spells. The powers possessed by individual hags can vary widely, as they prefer drawing from different natural cycles to gain their powers. Once a power is selected, it cannot be changed.

Coveys

Hags in Ravenloft form coveys just as standard hags do, and gain increased spellcasting prowess using group magic and rituals.