Steward of the Skein

This plate-clad woman has large bird wings augmented with overlapping pieces of metal. Her armor is adorned with skulls, and her open-faced helm reveals nothing of her features but a pair of intensely-glowing eyes.

ECOLOGY

Environment any (extraplanar)
Organization solitary
Treasure standard

The Steward of the Skein is a mighty warrior sent to restore the balance of fate, announce a particularly auspicious birth or death, or deliver a world-shaking prophecy. Many times her presence is as an incorporeal shade, making a pronouncement and then fading away, though countless creatures over the eons have felt the stunning impact of her armored fists. No mortal can recall seeing her and her role as messenger of prophecy has all but disappeared since that time.

The Steward is emotionally distant, and seems to have difficulties relating to mortals. Some speculate that she was driven mad and others believe she sees the past, present, and future simultaneously, leading her to treat mortals as temporary objects in the skein of fate, much the way a beekeeper has little regard for individual bees. When viewed by a Medium or Small creature, she always appears to be exactly the same height as the viewer, though her size does not change, and the few documented sightings of her by larger creatures describe her as no more than 6 feet tall.

Ecology

The Steward is timeless and ageless, and capable of patiently waiting hundreds of years for a particular event to occur. She has been found deep underground, standing silently like a golem, only to snap to attention when a particular individual approaches, delivering her message and then vanishing. She has likewise appeared in cities or remote areas, ignoring all who speak to her, stunning those who try to harm her, and waiting for the right time to speak. It is unknown why she acts this way rather than appearing at the necessary time, but her priests believe the herald’s presence is enough to align the strands of fate to suit the goddess’ will, much as standing in a stream can change the course of a floating leaf. On at least two occasions she has waited in a prominent temple, rarely reaching out to bless the faithful, and in one case a loyal member of the church found her standing in a field and built a temple around her.

The Steward only kills when it is her gods will. She prefers to use her stunning gaze, her charm and hold magic, and similar nonlethal methods for dealing with opponents, giving them ample opportunities to flee. She is sparse with her healing, only using it to save those who are needed for future events—when present at great battles in history, she healed only a few, and restored but one or two who had recently died. The herald is ruthless when dealing with the undead, however, blasting them with her full power.

Habitat & Society

The Steward is a loner and has little interest in the desires of mortals. She is more personable with other planar servitors of her creator, but her unique role places her above them in the religious hierarchy, and she does not like fraternizing too much with her underlings lest she distract them. Conversely, she is extremely interested when one of the goddess’s other servants is due to give birth or die. Though the Steward has no interest in procreating on her own, any celestial or half-celestial birth is especially interesting to her, from both a physical and a spiritual standpoint whose presence would certainly overwhelm the newborn and confuse its role in the tapestry of fate. Likewise, she has an almost morbid curiosity about one of her fellow servitors dying, and has an almost-precognitive sense for such things, making her sudden appearance next to other servants in the Material Plane slightly worrisome.

Occasionally she is called to testify about the deeds or fate of a particular soul. When not following a direct order from the goddess, the Steward has been known to travel the planes slaying undead. She relishes the opportunity to chase and slaughter outsiders.