Editing Mestama

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = Mestama
|Symbol = [[File:Mestama sigil.png|100px]]
<center>Eye Balanced on Three Stones</center>
|Aliases = Mother of Witches
|Alignment = Chaotic Evil
|Divine Rank = Demon Lord
|Pantheon = Golarion
|Portfolio = Cruelty, Deception, Hags
|Worshippers = hags, witches, banshees, spurned lovers, vengeful widows
|Favoured Weapon = Punching Dagger
}}

[[File:Mestama 1.jpg|left|300px]]

Claiming the title of Mother of [[Witch]]es, Mestama is the [[Demon Prince]]ss of Cruelty, Deception, [[Hag]]s and Witchcraft, which makes her a bitter enemy of the demi-goddess [[Gyronna]], who is generally worshipped as the mother-goddess of witches and hags. Spiteful, vicious and misandric, Mestama is worshipped only by women and eunuchs, for she would not stand for the outrage of a man calling upon her powers. Indeed, one of her favorite tricks is to murder young women on the night before their wedding, assuming their form so that she can wed and bed her victim's husband-to-be the next day - all so she can revert to her true form at the height of the coupling, attempt to geld her unwitting bedmate, and then vanish. Those who survive such a visit from Mestama may find themselves attacked decades later by a hideous half-fiend; the son or daughter they unwittingly fathered upon the Mother of Witches.

Appearing as a crone with fangs, talons, raven-like wings, sunken black eyes, and a donkey's tail, Mestama demands that her followers use deception to commit cruelty, granting protection against illusions to those who show particular adeptness at inducing tears or fury in others through simple acts of spite and malice. Naturally, the spell-like abilities she can bestow relate to inflicting curses or deceiving others, though she can also grant the ability to scream like a [[banshee]] or forcibly aging that can turn them into a wrathful ghost.

Mestama's [[Abyss]]al realm is the Barren Wood, a mist-wreathed and labyrinthine forest of dead & dying pine trees and fir trees, which is reputed to have planar connections to certain remote forests in the real world. The Barren Wood is haunted by covens of witches, half-fiends, hags, will-o-wisps and other monsters, many of whom take up residence in creepy, decrepit houses as their dens.

{{Pathfinder-DemonPrinces}}