Domovoi

**Domovoi** (Russian: Домово́й, Ukrainian: Домови́к, Domovyk) are the wights (spirits) of any house in Slavic religion.

## Appearance

Domovoi are depicted as bearded men with long hair. Some domovoi are also female, and a female domovoi is known as a *domovikha*.

## Personality

As long as the resident of a house continues to honour its domovoi, that wight will protect and bless the resident. Conversely, if the residents mistreat their home, the domovoi will pester them and leave them unprotected against disasters.

Sometimes, the domovoi might leave troubling visions to warn or inform the residents about a future event. Residents may also feel a domovoi's touch while praying to him or her. If they felt something soft or saw the domovoi dancing and laughing, something good will follow; but a cold or prickly touch, or lamps suddenly extinguished, were omens of coming death or misfortune.

## Worship

People offer food to worship the domovoi, such as bread, meat, and animal sacrifices. They tend to do so on Thursdays, where they also leave offerings to their ancestors. Roosters are killed at midnight to stop a domovoi from being angry.

Before they leave or after they return to their homes, people sit or kneel before the domovoi for a few minutes to greet him or her with a prayer.

If a family moves out, they must pray so the domovoi will follow them into their new home. Another ceremony must be done to ensure the previous domovoi will leave and avoid fighting with the current domovoi and cause problems.

## In the Rabydosverse

As many people on Jerde continue to venerate Slavic deities to this day, the domovoi are treated with great respect, and even worshipped.

In Bujan, Sevestrana, and Nevkreno, people depict domovoi as handsome noblemen and noblewomen clad in splendid robes. This tradition was influenced by Vozonid rites, where they try to make the wights resemble a beautiful aspect of their natural feature.

### Bujanski religion

In the Bujanski language, the plural for "domovoi" is "domovoroi", as words ending in diphthongs tend to have an "r" added near the end.

For example, the domovoi statue looking after Paxoti's house is a merman clad in blue-green armour, wielding a net and a spear to catch fish. When Radumo and Paruko moved into Skenchortnij Branch, they purchased a wooden domovoi statue holding a book and a potted plant for their apartment lot's shrine. Radumo offers rice meals to her family's domovoi, as she wanted the wight to enjoy a richer meal fit for a king. The domovoi at Râdumo's old home had a wooden idol, wearing green robes and also holding a book, representing her family being scientists.

One custom the Bujanski use to worship the domovoi is by lighting a candle or ringing a bell, and praying as a plate of food and drinks are offered at the shrine. At the next morning, the food is burned and the drink is poured on the ground to complete the sacrifice, so the meal ends up in the spirit world.

Bujanski also venerate domovoi by praying to them before dinner and sleep, and after morning baths. In some festivals, they also leave an empty seat and decorate it as if it is reserved for a royal member, as all domovoi are treated like very kind kings and queens.

Local Ontemazei tend to use leshi (forest spirits) as their own domovoi and ancestors, as they associate themselves with the trees they were supposedly created from.

The Bujanski have a ritual after they finish a new house: a priest is sent to the house to flip a while stick, which has a different colour on each side facing the priest. If it lands with the red side, the resulting domovoi's idol will be male. If the stick lands with the blue side, the domovoi shall be female.

Bujanski also believe that the domovoi will always stay in his or her home until it is destroyed. If possible, the ruin must be rebuilt and reconsecrated, otherwise, the domovoi's blessings will be lost forever and replaced by a different domovoi. As for the departed domovoi, he or she might reenter a new house whenever possible.

If the home is affected by the stick-flipping ceremony, he or she might become someone different, to the point that their gender might be changed in the process! To prevent accidentally changing the domovoi and shaming him or her, many households conduct another ceremony where a priest consults the former domovoi in a trance. The domovoi is revealed as the priest sketches (what he perceives as) his or her former appearance or writes down their attributes, and the domovoi idol will be designed and named based on that design.

## Trivia

* In modern Russia and Slavic nations, domovoi are no longer worshipped, but sometimes respected by superstitious or devout people. Nowadays, only Rodnovers (polytheists who revive the native Slavic religion) venerate them.
* Although Radumo used a different domovoi when she and Paruko moved into their dorm lot, nothing bad happened. Even though they were shocked that the previous domovoi was a different man, the university's resident *zhrets* (chaplain) calmly assured them that their domovoi was alright with it, and perhaps enjoyed his new instruments.
	+ Radumo's domovoi loves to eat fried rice with crab meat.