:Not to be confused with the Witch Queen who ruled Cragsend (04.06)
She lives in the Haunt of the Witch-Queen (23.16)
For three generations, the finest knights of Thring have quested to destroy the Witch Queen. Whether she belongs to one of the witch clan is not known, but it is said that it was she who roused the clans to bar Thring from riding to the aid of Blind Midshotgatepool when it was besieged by the forces of the City of Shuttered Windows.
By some accounts, the Witch Queen is a beautiful sorceress who lives in five towers of bone that sink and rise from the swamp like a grasping hand. According to others, she is a wizened hag who lives in a thatched house ringed by bluebells and daffodils, wearing the flayed skins of young men in the naïve belief that this lends her their beauty. All tales agree that she has a black cauldron that she uses to create cauldronborn.
Connections
- One knight who returned ashen-faced from an encounter with the Witch Queen was exiled after he hacked to pieces the statue of the Green Lady in the Duke’s private chapel, screaming all the while that it depicted not Her, but the Witch Queen instead.
- The witch-hounds number among the Witch Queen’s servants, as do the cauldronborn.
Hooks
- Why did the Witch Queen rouse the clans?
- Does she belong to one of the clans?
- Which of the tales about her appearance are true?
- Where do the human skins come from?
- What is her connection to the Green Lady?