The Thrice-Tenth Kingdom

The Thrice-Tenth Kingdom is a divine realm belonging to Baba Yaga, located in the Blazing World. The Kingdom existed long before Baba Yaga's ascension to godhood and it has expanded significantly since that time.

## Geography

The Thrice-Tenth Kingdom is shaped like a wheel, with a sunlit "Spring" district at its edge, a harsh eternal "Winter" district at the hub, and terrain gradually transitioning through "Summer" and "Fall" stretched between them. Whatever the climate, the land is universally rocky, with deep crevasses and soaring, jagged peaks being the norm. There is healthy, albeit unnatural and enchanted forest to be found in Spring, but the rest of the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom is relatively bare except for occasional copses of hardy, gnarled pines.

## Population

The population of the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom is extremely cosmopolitan, even by the standards of the Blazing World. Its native population is split into rigid classes, the ruling tier formed of frost giants, winter witches (mortal spellcasters trained in the lore of ice magic from a young age, totally devoted to Baba Yaga), fey knights with an affinity for cold, and a handful of powerful ice elementals. These pass their matron's decrees down to their minions, a slew of cruel and murderous fey who have willingly come to serve Baba Yaga's court, mostly redcaps but also including pixies, hags, shades, duergar, and other miscellaneous brutes. Lowest of all are the serfs, including humble pics pressed into service, mortals kidnapped from Earth, and a variety of prisoners of war taken during conflicts with other Blazing World realms. The outskirts of the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom are inhabited by enchanted animals, each one a mortal who at one point fell afoul of the Queen of Witches or her daughters and now cursed to eternal life in the form of a lowly woodland creature.

Although the authorities of the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom resent any unannounced visitors, the main settlement of Coldhearth teems with itinerant merchants from many neighboring realms. Unscrupulous fey come to trade humble sundries and great treasures alike with the more well-to-do residents, often in the hopes of finding a tribute worthy of garnering Baba Yaga's favor.

## Government

Baba Yaga is the absolute ruler and sole monarch of the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom; her every word is law and defying her means certain death or worse. That said, she often spends a great deal of time away from her throne in Castle Witchspire, and when she does she leaves her Regent to manage the day-to-day running of the state. The Regent is a half-demon frost giant of enormous stature named Kostchtchie, and he and his sycophantic court of giants, knights, and witches enjoy long, raucous feasts funded by the continual stream of taxes and tributes surrendered to the Witch Queen's coffers.

Though Kostchtchie technically holds absolute authority while he reigns, in practice he dares not do anything to tempt the wrath of the kingdom's true ruler. Since Baba Yaga at best tolerates the loathsome giant as a necessary evil, Kostchtchie must play a surprisingly delicate political game where he both holds dominion over, but must not overly offend, the fey court that surrounds him. Some of the winter witches are actually descended from Baba Yaga herself, and she looks on them with relative fondness, while the Regent's chief advisor Grigori (the undead shade of a once-powerful Russian mystic) is in fact the Witch Queen's adopted son. Kostchtchie is not as foolish as he appears, and although he uses bluster and threats to keep the court in line, he does them little actual harm beyond his frequent insults, even when they openly ignore his orders.

## Defenses

The Crone herself will defend the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom in the face of a true threat, and the combined power of her witchcraft and divine might is a match for any force on her home territory. But she leaves the general defense of the borders, as well as the responsibility of keeping law and order, to her army of evil fey. Frost giants guard all the crucial locations of the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom, while fey knights gallop through the sky on patrol. Swarms of pixies scout the land for any sign of intrusion or subversion, eager to tattle on transgressors. And the witches who call the Kingdom home use magical constructs called "fetches" (tiny enchanted bundles of straw, animal bones, and preserved eyeballs) to surveil those areas where Baba Yaga does not trust her other spies to travel.