Pesta

The plague maiden, also known as a pesta, is a spirit of disease and pestilence. She appears as a sick woman whose flesh is rotting off her bones, with a whole procession of rats scurrying along in her wake. Nobody knows whether she brings the plague with her or is simply drawn to it, but one thing is clear: she enjoys the suffering around her.

Plague maidens are so rare that many doubt they exist at all, and only two sightings have ever been recorded, both during raging epidemics. In The Witcher 3, patients at the Vilmerius Hospital in Novigrad describe hallucinations of exactly such a woman, according to Joachim von Gratz’s notes, and Geralt adds her to his bestiary by reading Of Sweat and Blood. Like other wraiths, she may be born from a particularly painful death, in this case a long and agonising illness.