The Dubna

*'I searched up and down that wretched tributary, and nearby, looking for my sister – the one body I couldn’t find – in heaps and mounds of dead grasses, in the muck that you left behind. It’s very nice, really, that you’ve decided you can revive them now.' - Gulvi Dubna Vajat*

## Introduction

The Dubna was the former family home of Dubna and her family.

## Description

The Dubna was a river that served as a home to the swan shifter family of the same name. It appears to have been an ancestral home for the family. It was a genius loci, and incredibly powerful. The river itself, at least in Julvia Dubna Vajat's heart, was 'a giant, winding river' with 'many tributaries.' As a genius loci, Mosk Manytrees saw it as 'a huge creature, with folded swan wings, a long swan neck, sharp teeth, paws with wicked claws at the end. No single thing, but a chimera, larger than the trees around it and staring at its river. For that was the Dubna at its heart, among the smell of fresh and brackish water both, among reeds and river grasses and swans making their nests and curling their necks together, among grebes and beavers and fat bears that fished with paws that were tiny compared to the giant Dubna-creature itself.'

Julvia said that small fairies resided in the Dubna, sometimes co-existing with the swan shifters, despite the fact that the swan shifters ate them.

Augus used the Blight to destroy the Dubna and its surrounding tributaries, killing almost all its residents.

When Augus and Gulvi later went to heal another of the Blighted lakes, they arrived at a location that reminded Gulvi of the Daugava, which is likely the main river that the Dubna is an offshoot of, considering the real-world locations of the names and Augus' comment, 'Bringing back memories? . . . You weren't there when it happened, were you?', as well as Gulvi elaborating that she 'searched up and down that wretched tributary and nearby, looking for [her] *sister*'. The Blighted lake looked 'black and grey', and seemed like it had never held life, implying this was the current state of the Dubna.

Julvia noted that the Dubna still lives on within her, and has traveled with her.

## Residents

* Former:
	+ The Dubna (owner, deceased)
	+ King Innokenti (deceased)
	+ Julvia Dubna Vajat
	+ Gulvi Dubna Vajat
	+ Galina Dubna Vajat (deceased)
	+ Maruta Dubna Vajat (deceased)
	+ Alva Dubna Vajat (deceased)
	+ Two other female swan shifters in the Dubna family (deceased)

## Quotations

* Gulvi: 'Mon dieu, it’s just like the Daugava.'

## Trivia

* The Dubna '(Russian: Дубна) is a river in Vladimir Oblast and Moscow Oblast in Russia, a right tributary of the Volga.' It is an offshoot of the Daugava, 'or Western Dvina (Russian: Западная Двина (Západnaya Dviná); Belarusian: Заходняя Дзвіна) . . . a large river rising in the Valdai Hills of Russia that flows through Belarus then Latvia into the Gulf of Riga of the Baltic Sea. It rises close to the source of the Volga.'

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 23 January 2015. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/7005020. Chapter 27: Healing.
2. ↑ not\_poignant. “Game Theory.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 7 March 2014. https://archiveofourown.org/works/915296/chapters/2655808. Chapter 44: Consultation.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 31 March 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/95108674. Chapter 29: Invention.
4. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 19 November 2020. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/67599242. Chapter 7: Bad Habits.
5. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Court of Five Thrones.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 12 September 2014. https://archiveofourown.org/works/1749290/chapters/5045072. Chapter 9: Amends.
6. ↑ "Dubna (Volga)". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubna\_(Volga). Accessed 30 May 2021.
7. ↑ "Daugava". Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daugava. Accessed 30 May 2021.