Steward of the Skein

Steward of the Skein

Externally hosted image

(Creature)

Type

Outsider
(extraplanar, herald, psychopomp, shapechanger)

CR

15

Environment

Any (Boneyard)

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Inner Sea Gods, pg(s). 302 (1E)
Divine Mysteries, pg(s). 89 (2E)

Also detailed in Trial of the Beast 90–91.

Ⅰ

The Steward of the Skein is the herald of the goddess Pharasma, and serves her as a powerful warrior and messenger.✝

Appearance

The Steward of the Skein stands seven feet tall and weighs 200 pounds, although those who view her often report that she appears precisely as tall as the viewer. Her full plate is decorated with skulls, she has a pair of white-feathered wings, and the inside of her helm appears to be a dark void except for a pair of glowing red eyes.✝

When she appears to proclaim a message, she often does so as an incorporeal shade. She has nonetheless defeated many foes in her material form.

Ecology and behavior

The Steward does not age and can wait in perfect stillness for centuries before acting, if Pharasma so requires. Reports of her appearances include instances where she appeared in cities and remote areas alike, ignoring all attempts to contact her and stunning any who attempt to harm her. In two reported appearances she appeared and waited in a Pharasmin temple rarely interacting with her faithful, and in one instance the Steward waited in a field for so long that a Pharasmin built a temple around her.

While there is no known reason for Pharasma's deployment of the Steward in this manner, Pharasmin priests theorize that her presence alone is enough to align fate as Pharasma desires. She kills a being only when Pharasma wills it, and in all other circumstances prefers to stun, compel, or otherwise nonlethally incapacitate those who oppose her. She heals others only when Pharasma has designated someone as necessary for a future event.

She has little interest in mortals other than as Pharasma commands, although she is sometimes called to testify on behalf of a souls judgment in Pharasma's Court. While she is more social with other Pharasmin planar servitors, she is also aware that she outranks them and avoids fraternizing them into distraction.

However, she is particularly interested in the birth and death of Pharasma's servants and is often present when such an event occurs. Her preternatural sense of the imminent destruction of fellow Pharasmin servitors makes her appearance near one in the Universe a bad omen. Some believe this behavior is a sign that the Steward serves as Pharasma's eyes, to witness events where Pharasma's own presence would be overwhelming.

However, in the presence of the undead, the Steward becomes a ruthless being of destruction and holds back none of her powers. When not tasked with a specific job by Pharasma, she roams the planes destroying the undead and protecting souls from predators on the River of Souls.

Relationships

The Steward enjoys slaughtering Urgathoa's minions, and particularly enjoys tearing apart Urgathoa's herald Mother's Maw, which she has done several times.

Courage Heart, the herald of Milani, has lobbied the Steward of the Skein to join her crusade to free the souls trapped within the final blades of Galt. Her argument is that the blades are preventing souls rightly ascending to Pharasma's Boneyard. So far, the Steward has made little reaction to her proposal.

Relics

The Pharasmin temple of Maiden's Choir in Caliphas, Ustalav, counts among its treasures one of the Steward's steel feathers.