Baba Yaga

Witch of the Woods (Art by Ivan Bilibin)

### Aliases

Ježibaba, Old Crone of Forest, Mother-broomstick, Imp's Grandmother, Devil's Great Grandmother, Greatest Witch Alive, Terrors in the Woods, The Immortal Hag, Old Mother, Old Woman of the Dark Woods

## Relatives

### Offspring

Bright Day, Radiant Sun, Dark Night

**Baba Yaga** is a legendary immortal witch in Slavic regions, known for her powerful and terrifying magic and her wooden hut which is located on a pair of chicken legs. She is considered to be one of the most powerful magic-users in the worlds, on par with the gods of magic.

## Overview

She is the creator of Bright Day, Radiant Sun, and Dark Night - failed attempts to clone the three Horsemen of Apocalypse War, Conquest, and Famine. She is the adopted grandmother of Vasilisa the Fair and Grigori Rasputin. She is also the master of Koschei the Deathless.

She was one of the original members of the Supreme Magic Council.

## Appearance

Baba Yaga is an old woman with long and shaggy hair, pale skin, and a deformed lower torso. She only had a working blue eye, while the other one is milky-white. Her legs are also described as bony and barely functional.

She is often depicted as a hideous hag, flying around in a mortar, wielding a pestle, and dwells deep in the forest in a hut usually described as standing on chicken legs.

## History

### Early Life

Not much is know about Baba Yaga's early life, other than the fact she was not the original holder of the name, having inherited her name from her mother named Fel, who also inherited the name Yaga from her mother and the mother before her.

She also mentioned to have two sisters, both of whom she killed for betraying her. These might be the "Baba Yagas" mentioned in "The Maiden Tsar", with the second sister being killed for telling Ivan how to save himself from her third sister.

### Koschei the Deathless

Ages ago Baba Yaga took advantage of Koshchei's fear of losing his soul. She told him that even though the path he took was dark and bloody, he could still be redeemed. The witch sent him on a quest to slay the last breeding pair of dragons and their hatchlings in Russia so that mankind may be spared. However in doing so he murdered the family of his adoptive father.

### Vasilisa the Fair

One day, while patrolling in her woods, she found a fainted Vasilisa on the steps of her hut. Sensing that the young girl's soul is sinless as well as the magical potential within her, she decided not to kill her but to take her in and nurture her back to full health.

When Vasilisa woke up, Baba Yaga informed her that in exchange for living with her, she must perform tasks to earn the fire, or be killed. She was to clean the house and yard, wash Baba Yaga's laundry, and cook her a meal. She was also required to separate grains of rotten corn from sound corn, and separate poppy seeds from grains of soil.

When Baba Yaga returned, she saw that all her requests had been fulfilled and could complain of nothing. She bade three pairs of disembodied hands seize the corn to squeeze the oil from it, then asked Vasilisa if she had any questions. When she said no, the old crone then enquired as to the cause of Vasilisa's success. On hearing the answer "by my mother's blessing", Baba Yaga, who wanted nobody with any kind of blessing in her presence, threw Vasilisa out of her house, and sent her home with a skull-lantern full of burning coals, to provide light for her step-family.

Weeks after the deaths of Vasilisa's step-mother and step-sisters, Baba Yaga, in secret, came to her house and retrieved back her skull-lantern, now carrying both the souls of the mother and two daughters inside of them.

Years after the events of the story happened, Baba Yaga once again met Vasilisa in front of her cottage, which interested her. When asked about why she was here, she was then told about how her husband Ivan had abandoned her for a younger and fairer wife, which led to her banishment from the kingdom. Having no where else to go, she remembered about her and wanted to learn magic from her, in order to wreck revenge upon her former husband.

Feeling surprised at the young woman's desire and motivation, she decided to not only teach her witchcraft, but would also take her in as her new apprentice, training her in all of the schools of magic that she knows so that one day she would inherited the Yaga name.

### Rasputin the Immortal

In 1895 prior to the downfall of the Romanov's rule in Russia, Baba Yaga contacted a young Grigori Rasputin. She told the monk that the fates had chosen him to be their agent of change, father of the new millennium. To ensure that Rasputin's spirit always be safe, the Baba Yaga placed half of it within the roots of Yggdrasil, the world tree. Baba Yaga and Rasputin gained a strong bond after this, with Rasputin going so far as to call Baba Yaga "grandmother" afterward.