Slavic mythology

This is a list of beings and gods in Slavic mythology and religion.

## High gods

* Rodu, Rod - The ultimate creator, according to some myths.
	+ The *kolovrat*, a wheel of eight scythes, is one of his symbols.
* Belobog and Chernobog - the gods of good and evil, respectively; alternatively, they represent the Sun in the sky and in the underworld, or mountains and lowlands. Some sources claim that they are actually Dazhbog.
* Rozhanitsa - One of three goddesses who determine the fates of mortals.
* Sudenitsa - One of three goddesses who detemine the lives of mortals.
* Vida - the goddess of rain. Her consort is Vid, who is sometimes considered the same god as Svetovid.
* Zhiva, Zhivana, Zhyva, Żywia - the goddess of life, fertility, love, and marriage.
* In some accounts, her husband is Zhibog, who sometimes appears with a cat's head. Other accounts mention that Dazhbog is her husband instead of Zhibog.
* Some Slavic tribes referred her as Vesna, or Spring. As the goddess of spring, she is younger than Zhivana, and associated with heat and fire that kills Morana and ends winter. Birds, apples, and flower wreaths represent her and her springtime.
* Triglav - The three-headed god of heaven, earth, and the underworld; or the past, present, and future. He rides on a black horse.
* Svarog - The heavenly god of the sun, the forge, technology, war, and creation. In some myths, he is listed as the king of the gods; and in others he is mentioned as the creator of the world. He keeps a falcon known as Rarog or Jarog.
	+ He was the one who taught ancient humans to use and make tools.
	+ His wife is Lada; his sons are Dazhbog, Mesjats, Perun, and Svarozhich; and his daughter is Ognjena: all of his children have to do with fire and light.
	+ In some traditions, the gods Svetovid, Rugievit, Porevit, and Gerovit are his manifestations.
	+ A wheel of eight scythes, the *kolovrat*, is one of his symbols, and appears in the religious flag of Narivo. His other symbol is an interconnected loop within a quadrangle.
* Perun - The god of thunder, spring, the east, eagles, fertility, war, the sky, weapons, mountains, and nobility. He is also the king of the gods. He uses an axe, arrows, and a hammer as his weapons.
	+ His wife is Mokosh, queen of the earth.
	+ His enemy is Veles, the god of the underworld: for this reason, idols of Perun and Veles must not be placed next to each other.
	+ His symbol is a hexagon with six lines inside, and sometimes with six dots along the outer sides of the hexagon.
	+ He is also the patron god of the nations of Nevkreno and Pogimmel.
* Svetovid - The four-headed god of light, war, prosperity, and fertility. He wields a sword and a horn of plenty, and he rides on a white horse.
	+ He is the national god of the kingdom of Bujan: the entire island kingdom is dedicated to him as his sanctuary. Some people syncretise him with Pjosaroz and Brahma due to his four heads.
	+ His symbol is a wheel with six spokes.
* Svarozhich, Svarozhits - The young god of fire. He represents the sacrificial fires as energy returning to his father Svarog.
* Khors Dazhbog, Dazhbog - The god of the sun and justice. His father is Svarog, and his possible brother is Perun.
* Devana - The goddess of hunting and the forests. As Didilia, she also watches over love, marriage, fertility, and children: and to some extent, innocence and mercy.
* Kupala - The goddess of joy, water, the summer sun, and purification. The romantic festival of Kupala on midsummer is named after her.
* Lada - The goddess of the earth, love, spring, beauty, and harmony.
* Marzanna, Morana - The goddess of death and winter, and the opposite of Zhiva. Her husband is Marovit, the god of death, although some legends mention her husband being Jarilo, whom she murders every autumn.
	+ Ontemazei who have been influenced by Slavic culture associate Morana and Marovit with their gods, Mithura and Goruso.
* Mokosh - The goddess of the earth, moisture, weaving, grains, the harvest, life, and death. Also known as the Great Mother.
	+ Her husband is Perun, and their children are Morana and Jarilo.
	+ Some sources claim that she is also Veles' wife, as an aspect of Zhiva who represent unfaithfulness.

## Gods

* Karna - The goddess of sadness and funerals.
* Kostroma - The goddess of spring, fertility, and grain.
* Lelia - The goddess of spring and mercy. She is also Lada's daughter.
* Ognjena, Onennaja - The goddess of fire. She is also Perun's sister.
	+ When the earth is dried by heat or fire, Mokosh becomes her.
* Bevo - The youthful goddess of knowledge, mastery, exploration, and earth. She is depicted as green, cheerful, and having black eyes.
* Veliona - The goddess of death who looks after the souls of the ancestors.
* Devana - The goddess of the hunt, archery, wild animals, the forest, and the moon. She is served by an army of hounds.
* Porevit - A five-headed god with a shield and lance. He has five heads, one of which is in his chest.
* Radegast - The bearded god of strength, honour, hospitality, and guests. Even though he is a war god, he is very kind. His weapon is a spear.
	+ Idols and shrines to Radegast are placed outside and inside hotel rooms and lots to bless the guests, and also at ports for those leaving or entering the country.
	+ As Radegast is also the god of meetings, statues of him are built outside council buildings and halls.
* Rugievit - The god of the island of Rugen or Arkona, a major temple to Svetovid.
	+ The royal family of Bujan worships him in their rites to honour their ancestors.
* Simargl - A winged dog or leopard chained to the north polar star by the Zorjas so he will not destroy the world. However, he is also the god of sailors and drinking.
* Stribog - The god of wind, storms, and wealth.
* Veles - The horned god of the underworld, snakes, magic, music, cattle, wealth, wild animals, the forest, messengers, and commerce.
	+ He is the enemy of Perun.
	+ For this reason, it is forbidden and very disrespectful for people to place idols of Perun and Veles next to each other, as it might anger both deities.
* Jarilo - The god of spring, plants, health, and romantic love. Often worshipped by farmers like Ljudmila and Altansarnai, who built a shrine to him next to their crops.
	+ Popular among Ontemazei, who consider themselves to be people created from plants.
* Zorjas - The goddesses of beauty and the sun. They are Dazhbog's daughters who accompany him as the sun passes through the sky. Their names are Zorja Utrennaja (morning light) and Zorja Vechernjaja (evening light).
	+ "Midnight Light" or "Zorja Polunochnaja" does not really exist in Slavic mythology. There was one myth that spoke of "three little sisters" and Neil Gaiman used as an inspiration for Zorya Polunochnaya for the novel American Gods.
	+ Zorja Polunochnaja (midnight light) was a later addition in some Darroskei sects and cults. In spite of her popularity in some countries, she is not accepted as one of the Zorjas in standard Rodnovery. In Bujan, all shrines and temples to her are automatically assigned as shrines to Dazhbog or Zorja Vechernjaja, therefore Zorja Poluchonaja is officially regarded as an aspect of Zorja Vechernjaja.
* Zvezda - The goddesses of the planets Venus and Jazgathral. They are also Dazhbog's daughters, and they are the Zorjas' sisters. Their names are Zvezda Dennitsa (morning star) and Zvezda Vechernjaja (evening star)
* Beregynia - In some countries, she is worshipped as the goddess of the hearth and mothers.
	+ She is also a folk deity among Ukrainian Rodnovers and pagans.
* Moroz - God of winter and frost.
	+ One of his names, Korochun, is another name for the festival of Kolieda.
	+ In some countries, he also brings gifts to good children as Djed Moroz (Grandfather Frost).
	+ In Bujan, he is worshipped as the first man who died during the Great Crossing, when the ancestors of the Slavonians crossed the northern polar continent to their homeland of Darros. Rewarded for his dedication to his people's survivor, the god Stribog or Svarog raised him as a divine guardian for all travellers in the frozen north and south.
* Pessei - God of pets.
* Ratainicha, Ratai - God of horses.
	+ Popular among Arnadjanai, as horses (or the six-legged salpar) are a part of their traditional nomadic culture.
* Kirnije - God of cherries.
	+ Popular among the Ontemazei, who like to associate themselves with cherry trees due to their pink hair.

## Beings

A "dukh" is a term for any wight or nature spirit. Multiple dukhs are known as "dukhi".

* bereginia - Goddesses and wights of rivers and waters
* boginka - Minor goddesses and wights of the waters and winds.
	+ rusalka - river maidens
	+ vila - wind maidens and similar wights
	+ samodiva - forest maidens with fire
		- Attractive women and female fire mutants are also known affectionately or teasingly as "samodivas".
	+ navia - ghosts of tragic or premature deaths and the drowned, nymphs
* domovoi - Wights who protect houses and families, who also represent the ancestors. Every house with religious people tends to have a shrine to its domovoi, who receives offerings out of thanks or when its occupants leave.
	+ Female domovoi are known as domovikha.
	+ Other similar spirits are known as dvorovoi (courtyards and gardens), bannik (baths and saunas), and ovinnik (threshing barns).
	+ Arnadjanai especially love banniks, as they associate nudity with romance, so the banniks became Cupid-like figures who cause people to fall in love.
	+ Nearly every house and building in Bujan has its own domovoi. In apartments, this has been extended so every lot has its own domovoi, even within the same building (which will have a greater domovoi, a "house-guardian").
* vodjanoi - Wights of the waters. They tend to be depicted as old men with a cap of reeds and a belt of rushes.
* leshi - Forest wights. A female leshi is known as a leshachikha.
	+ Some houses with Ontemazei residents tend to worship leshi as their own domovoi. Some Ontemazei even claim certain famous leshis as their ancestors!
* polevoi, poludnitsa - Farm and field wights. Male spirits are known as polevoi, and female spirits are known as poludnitsa.
* mora (pl. mory) - Spirits that represent nightmares and sleep paralysis. Given enough time and strength, a mora could also choke a sleeper to death. They are repelled by blades or a scythe on the bed, a belt on the sheets, or salt on a window's panel.
* jezinka - Forest fairies in Czech folklore that hunt and eat children. They live in forests and caves, and they liked to eat eyes.
	+ During the Green Years, the human realms referred their Ontemazei enemies as "jezinky" due to their plant-like appearance and cannibalism. Some humans who fought Ontemazei also painted grenades and bombs to look like eyeballs.
	+ "Jezinka" is later a racist slur against Ontemazei people, accusing them of cannibalism.
* ratichi - the celestial soldiers of Perun.
	+ From an archaic Slavic word that means "an army".

### Creatures

* rarog - a falcon of pure flame that is associated with the hearth and Svarog. It is believed to be born from an egg that has been incubated on a stove for nine days and nights. It can grow or shrink into any size it pleases, and can either bring ruin or joy.
* Finist - a wise falcon from folklore.

## Pseudo-deities

These are fictitious deities who were not present in historical records about the ancient Slavs.

* Chislobog - god of time and calendars
* Jutrobog - god of the moon
	+ In Bujan, this is the name of the solar god Khors, who is seen as a lunar counterpart for Dazhbog.
	+ Worshipped by the local Heronoi in Bujan as an aspect of their own god, Heros.
* Lada - goddess of the harvest
* Koliada - goddess of the new year (actually a personified festival)
* Lelya - goddess of love
* Flins - god of death in West Slavic folklore
* Chur - god of borders
	+ In modern Rodnovery, "chur" is a word used to refer to idols, especially smaller statues in household shrines. That word originally meant "an ancestor god".
* Vesna - goddess of spring
* Vyshen' - equivalent of Vishnu, Book of Veles

### Uncertain deities

These are deities that were mentioned in folklore, but not in historical Slavic records.

* Morskoi - The god and king of the sea.
	+ Not attested in historical sources about the ancient Slavs or any modern Rodnover groups, so he is not a proper deity. He only existed in later Russian folklore.
	+ He has many daughters, including the river goddess Chernava.
	+ Because Bujan is an archipelago surrounded by water, Morskoi is also a popular deity worshipped by its people, both by travellers, sailors, fisherfolk, and naval soldiers and officers. People pray at his shrines before boarding ships and boats for his protection.
* Chernava - The goddess of the Chernava River.

## Characters

### Other Slavic countries

* Twelve Months - in one Slovak fairy tale, the Twelve Months were the personifications of the months of the year who help a lost child survive.
	+ In Pogimmel and Bujan, they are the gods and goddesses of each month, recording everyone's deeds to be shown to Perun and Mokosh. Good deeds are rewarded, and crimes are usually punished in their right times.

### Russian folklore

* Baba Yaga - a witch or goddess who lives in a chicken-legged house within the forest. She was said to kill and devour children for sport.
* Koschei the Immortal (Коще́й Бессме́ртный) - a wizard who became immortal after locking away his heart in a chest within a tree.
	+ He became the namesake for the warlord Koschei the Red, who led a rebellion during the twilight years of the Sarmelonid Empire. Like his namesake, he ruled over an island far in the west and sought immortality. In honour of his favourite fairy tales, he named his nation "Bujan" after the magical island where some of them took place.
* Vasilisa the Wise

### Characters from Tsar Saltan

* Tsar Saltan
* Swan Princess
* Prince Gvidon
* Thirty-three Bogatyrs (тридцать три богатыря) - thirty-three knights who emerged from the sea
	+ The Wolf Knights, the guardians of King Koschei the Red, were based on them. However, they have non-Slavic origins, such as Wonao and even Norse and Vozonid.
	+ One of the members of the Wolf Knights, a Norse warrior, was also the early Bujanid kingdom's prime minister.

## Locations

### Russian folklore

* Buyan - a legendary island
	+ Also the namesake of a Slavic monarchy armed with futuristic technology.
* Ledenets (город Ле́денец) - the capital city of Buyan, a magical city.
	+ The namesake of Lidongrad, the royal capital of the Kingdom of Bujan, and the former residence of Koschei's royal family.
	+ Some researchers suggested that Ledenets was actually Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.
* Kitezh - a floating city that vanishes to avoid being destroyed by the Mongols.
* Lukomorye
* Bald Mountain
* Kingdom of Opona

## Religious concepts

Many of these concepts are from Rodnovery, a revival or reconstruction of Slavic religions and polytheism.

* pravǐ - justice, divine order
* kapišče - shrine
* khram - sacred field or temple
* čur, rodovoi, stolb, kap - log or idol used to worship a god
* bolvan - large idol or statue, especially that used to represent a god
* opaška - fence or stones around the shrine
* krada, ogonǐ - sacred fire
* vozzhiganije ognja - lighting the sacred fire
* khorovod, kolo - sacred dance around the idol
* prinesenije treby - "bringing the treasures", offering a sacrifice
* volkhv - high priest, sorcerer
	+ In Bujan, this priest is called "volkh*o*v", and is a high priest.
	+ The title "volkhov" is expanded, modelling after Sarmelonid clergy, so a provincial volkhov is an Arch-Volkhov, and the high priest of the kingdom is a Supreme Volkhov or a Pontifex. Men of any human ethnicity may be elected as a volkhov.
* vidun - intermediate priest, seer
* vedunja - seeress, priestess
* žrets - priest, minor priest
* žretsa - priestess
* kosovorotka - a peasant's robes, worn by ancient and mediaeval Slavic people. Often the traditional and ceremonial clothing worn while praying at Rodnover temples.

## See also

* Hindu divine beings
* Nordic mythology
* Gauvajut mythology/Hittite mythology

### Variants of Slavic mythology in the Rabydosverse

* Bujanski folklore
	+ Gdjestranian mythology
* Rukanian mythology
* Sevraejan mythology
* "Tyrskan mythology"

## External links

* Slavic deities
* Slavic pseudo-deities (not attested in historical records)