Anna B. Meyer
Edited by Thomas Kelly
Truenames hold the immense power of the creature named. A truename might protect from the named, scry upon the named, exploit the power of the named, dominate the will of the named, or even banish the named. But it’s not an easy thing to obtain. The truename summarizes a being’s story in the form of a poem. The recitation takes at least a minute per level of the creature, and it needs to be recited in the native language of the creature. A truename can be found if you research the creature in question and identify the details of its creation, its kin, its birthplace, its development, its foes, its friends, its accomplishments, its afflictions, and its dominions. Even little details, like its phobias and quirks, can strengthen the true name. But be careful. Truenames keep changing as a creature remains active and adds chapters to its story. In that respect, a truename is only true for a short while before it must be updated in order to stay true. So let’s explore some of the story we might use to name Iggwilv.
She’s called Queen of Witches, Mistress of Demons, Matriarch of Diabolists, Mother of Iuz, Daughter of Baba Yaga, Apprentice of Zagig, the Witch-Queen of Perrenland, and Author of the Demonomicon. But her birth name was Natasha, and she was born into a very poor family somewhere in the Tuflik valley. The family’s situation was so dire that her parents gave the baby away, sold her off, or worse. She ended up in the hands of the legendary hag Baba Yaga. Natasha grew up in The Dancing Hut. At the age ten, Baba Yaga taught her how to summon demons. Natasha despised her adopted sister, Elena the Fair.
She took the name of Hura in her late teens after fleeing the hag. She settled down in Lopolla in 302 CY, where she conducted vile experiments. She broke into the Vault of Daoud and stole the legendary mystic’s Wondrous Lanthorn. The enraged populace chased her out of the region.
She changed her name to Tasha and arrived in the Free City of Greyhawk in the late 310’s CY. Tasha wrote a magic tome called Lore of Subtle Communication. She invented the spell, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, among many others less well-known but no less diabolical. Tasha joined The Company of Seven, adding her name to a roster of famous characters: Keoghtom, Murlynd, Tasha, Zagig, Heward, Quaal, and Nolzur. Tasha hid her true ability, and posed as a spellcaster of less capability than her true strength, and so she became Zagig’s apprentice and lover.
Tasha and the rest of the Seven battled the mirror masters of Lynn. They summoned doubles of the company to fight them. Tasha’s double, Ahsat, was of Lynna good alignment. The group imprisoned the doubles in magic-stained glass windows deep in Castle Greyhawk. Before the end of the century, the Company of Seven fractured over internal disputes and parted ways.
Mistress of Graz’zt
How the two met and first colluded is not known, but there must have been some spark; a very unusual relationship began. Graz’zt needed a capable accomplice in his mission to diminish the growing infernal influence over the Malachite Throne. She obtained the Ichor Lance from Graz’zt for Zagig. Together, Tasha and Zagig with secret aid of Graz’zt, summoned Fraz’Urb’luu. They used the Ichor Lance to wound him, and they bound him to Castle Greyhawk. Tasha extracted as much demonic and arcane knowledge from Fraz’Urb’luu as she could. She helped Zagig build the god trap at the bottom of Castle Greyhawk. To better support his mistress, Graz’zt appeared in the castle pretending to be a prisoner, aiding Tasha in her work and learning about his enemies.
In the eighty-second year of the century, Tasha (and some say with the help of Graz’zt) stole everything she could from Zagig’s library, including the Tome of Zyx, and fled. Zagig’s Tome of Zyx would be modified and soon became known as the first Demonomicon of Iggwilv. Already a century old (or perhaps older), Tasha abandoned her mortal self, immersing herself in eldritch rituals, by which she ultimately became a creature of the lower planes, a true witch-fiend, forever young, beautiful, and terrifying.
Demonomicon of Iggwilv
Tasha took the name “Iggwilv” and set up shop in the Yatil Mountains in the 380’s CY. She took control of Tsojcanth, a mage and cambian son of Fraz’Urb’luu. In this endeavor, she had help and support from her mentor and lover Graz’zt, the demon lord. Graz’zt gifted Iggwilv not only knowledge but also tokens of his affection in the form of items of infernal power, including the rare cloak called Fiend’s Embrace, made from the hide of the pit-fiend Drokarrn. Even more precious to her than such baubles, Graz’zt became her source of infernal knowledge. Using her studies in the Tome of Zyx as a foundation for those efforts, Iggwilv extracted from him information about demons, spells, and truenames. She incorporated all that she learned into her first draft of Demonomicon.
Shortly before 460 CY, she gave birth to a son, Iuz, believed to be sired by her infernal partner. Perhaps fearing for the child’s safety, she hid him away in the keeping of a petty lord north of Whyestil Lake. Some speculate this was to give her son a place to train and mature far away from the prying eyes of Rauxes as he prepared himself for the mission of going after the power of the Aerdy. Iggwilv also gave birth to a daughter, Drelzna, but the identity of the father and the date of Delzna’s birth remain unknown.
Conquest of Perrenland
Before her son had yet achieved a score of years, his adoptive father died. Young Iuz seized upon the opportunity to take control of his estate. He proved himself a capable general, and he mustered an army of barbaric humans and humanoids to his cause. At the age of twenty, he led those forces onto the field of battle under his mother’s banner to conquer the lands surrounding her home in the Yatils. A year later, Iggwilv had enslaved all of Perrenland, establishing herself under the title of Witch Queen. Perrenland’s nobility fled to their embassy in Exag. The Witch Queen’s rising power began to concern Perrenland’s neighbors, and that concern fostered an alliance between Ket and the dwarves of the lower Yatils.
For the ensuing decade (481-491 CY), Iggwilv’s conquests continued the expansion of her domain. She took Lake Quag to the north and attacked the Wolf Nomads. She stripped conquered lands of their wealth to invest in magical research. She offered an alliance to the Storm Riders of the Temple of Celestial Winds, raiders bound to their temple by ancient curse, but when they rejected her offer, she sealed away their temple.
Under Graz’zt’s influence, Iggwilv grew ever hungrier for power. She sought to extend her conquests to Ket, the land from which she had been exiled a century earlier. She focused her attention on vengeance. Graz’zt began to resent his mistress and her selfish ambitions to conquer the lands of her birth. He wanted her helping counter the Infernal powers of Hell’s growing domination of the Aerdy. In the beginning, the Perrenland “adventures” of Iggwilv and Iuz had provided a useful distraction, but a decade spent on local campaigns and conquests stole valuable resources and attention from his long-term goal. Iggwilv lost the trust of Graz’zt.
Meantime, her summoner’s games further opened a rift to the Abyss that she had been exploiting beneath her lair in the mountains. With the help of Graz’zt, Iggwilv freed the half-fiend Tsojcanth to use his essence to seal the rift, but as she undertook the ritual, Graz’zt betrayed her. He took the opportunity to attack Iggwilv without mercy in a titanic battle said to have shaken the Yatil Mountains. Young Iuz was caught up in the storm. Torn between loyalty to both parents, his essence divided into two, one demonic, one human.
Iggwilv survived. Graz’zt may have been insufficiently powerful to deal the finishing blow. Perhaps he wished his former lover to continue living for his sake if not for sentimentality. Perhaps he wished to humiliate her by forcing her to live on in a weakened state. The battle cost Iggwilv nearly every spell, artifact, and ally she once had at her disposal. Graz’zt also suffered. He lost an avatar and more. He returned to his home in the Abyss to sulk, nurse his wounds, and regather his strength.
Wretched and alone, Iggwilv’s reign over Perrenland came to an end. The impoverished nation suffered a famine which lasted for two years after her fall. Iggwilv abandoned the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and fled north with her son Iuz, who she helped place into power. She then departed from those lands. For nearly a century, she was widely presumed dead. Her riches and many of her magic items were plundered by her former servants, including Iggwilv’s Nethertome.
Conflict with the Circle of Eight
Eight decades later, Iggwilv reappeared in two notable clashes with the Circle of Eight. In the mid to late 570s CY, the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth were rediscovered. When word reached the Circle of Eight, they quietly sponsored groups of adventurers to sack the caverns. Iggwilv’s daughter Drelzna, now a vampire, was destroyed while guarding the ruins. Iggwilv gathered what forces she could muster and launched an attack, moving south this time, with a horde of fiends and monsters.
Canon Hazen understood early on what was coming. He and Tenser of the Circle of Eight hired adventurers to locate the Crook of Rao with which to prevent the incursion of her army of fiends. Among those who took part in the expedition were Agath of Thrunch, Great Druidess Reynard Yargrove, Franz, Lord Torkeep, Lady Marshal Rowena of the Silverbow of the Vesve Forest, Warnes Starcoat of Urnst, and Guildmaster Rakehell Chert. These heroes thwarted Iggwilv’s plot and sent her back into hiding in the lands of her son Iuz.
Greyhawk Wars
Iggwilv helped Iuz expand his power in the Flanaess during the initial phase of the Greyhawk Wars. These machinations pleased Graz’zt. He recognized an opportunity to execute his original plan of using Iuz to diminish the power of the Infernal and other competing demonic lords. Iggwilv inspired Iuz to lure Ket to help in his conquest of the Flanaess. She assisted him in these efforts. In this way, she was avenged against the people that had treated her so badly when she was young. She was happy to see the Kettites fight and die for her son’s cause.
Did Iggwilv play any role in Iuz decision to throw off his father’s authority? Graz’zt placed little trust in his former mistress. When Iuz executed his Vatun ploy and destroyed Tehn, Graz’zt blamed Iggwilv as well as the useless son of hers for breaking their pact. Graz’zt did not lash out against his son or his mistress as might have been expected. Instead, he took the advice of his lieutenant, Vuron, subdued his explosive anger, and displayed the immortal patience of his infernal home.
Iggwilv fell for a ploy involving Graz’zt’s majordomo, Vuron. Iggwilv attempted to summon and bind Graz’zt, but discovered that Graz’zt had made plans for this eventuality, bringing a unique artifact which broke her binding circles. He carried her to the Abyss and imprisoned her in his Argent Palace. He could not hold her there long. Aided by Tuerny the Merciless, she escaped bondage, and tested Graz’zt’s patience. She and her abyssal paramour fought a running battle through the Argent Palace, destroying halls of priceless treasures and slaying each other’s favored servants, but neither was willing to commit full strength to deal the killing blow. Graz’zt finally called a kind of truce and allowed Iggwilv to leave unharmed. He even employed his own demonic servants to convey her research and valued possessions to her manor on another plane. Iggwilv and Graz’zt would thereafter continue in a cycle of attempts to exploit each other to serve their own plans.
In 585CY she again clashed with agents of the Circle of Eight during another attempt to invade Oerth. Tenser, who had previously thwarted Iggwilv during the Greyhawk Wars, intercepted her. He defeated her and sent her again into exile.
Recent History
In 591CY, rumors of Iggwilv’s return sparked public panic in Perrenland. The wizard Vayne created a simulacrum of Iggwilv from a lock of her hair, less powerful than the true Witch-Queen but still greatly powerful. As of 597CY, Iggwilv bides her time in a hidden lair in the Lower Planes, located in Niflheim in the Gray Wastes of Hades. She is guarded by Stygian linnorms. Iggwilv also possesses a small personal demiplane, where she holds a manor within an orchard of black-leaved trees and an ancient gray gazebo. Graz’zt is said to still visit her from time to time, the nature of those meetings are a secret only Lord Vuron might know. What happened to Ahsat is not known; maybe she is still encased in glass in the dungeons under Castle Greyhawk, or maybe she has escaped and is secretly working her own plots somewhere.
Is there more to the Witch Queen’s story? Assuredly. But herein we have enough to begin the naming. To finish the task, you will need to search the matter out. But be careful. She will surely do everything in her power to keep her secrets secret lest you learn her truename.
Find more Iggwilv stories here: Mother of Witches
An early version of this writeup originally appeared on Anna’s Patreon page: www.patreon.com/annabmeyer/posts
Visit Anna’s website: http://www.annabmeyer.com
Artwork:
Greyhawk Stories 