Baba Yaga

**Baba Yaga** is a Sun Weaver, the last remnant of the Odi, a former Guardian candidate, the creator of the Undead race (excluding Liches), the mother of the Three Horsemen, and the oldest living white core Awakened. Despite her obsession with resurrection, Baba Yaga is considered an honorable character second in wisdom only to Leegaain, as well as one of his fiercest rivals in chess. The Red Mother is also one of the few living mages with the knowledge of how to craft a mage tower and Creation Magic.

## Appearance

### Maiden Form (Dawn)

The form of Dawn, the incarnation of those with little past and a long future ahead of them. She looks like a young maiden barely sixteen years old, with waist-long golden hair and clear blue eyes, exuding the never-ending energy of youth. Her Maiden form is also the form she took as Malyshka, Elphyn Menadion's childhood friend.

### Mother Form (Dusk)

The form of Dusk, the incarnation of those who had reached half their lifespan, with as much past as future. She looks like a beautiful woman in her 40's with flaming red hair and emerald green eyes. Her voice is calm and wise, her body emitting the reassuring aura typical of good mothers that makes people feel homesick and long to reconnect with their parents, even those who had long lost them or never known them. She wears a farmer's day dress.

### Crone Form (Night)

The form of Night, the incarnation of those with more past than future, holding the wisdom of age and bitterness of regrets. She resembles a hunched crone with grey hair and stone-cold black eyes. She has long ears and a long nose. Her face is full of wrinkles and age spots cover her skin, making her look weak, but her voice is full of strength.

## Personality

**Baba Yaga** is a mother above all else. She provides all those she considers her children with the opportunity to grow and become good people and helps them whenever they fall down. Much like Tyris, she doesn't interfere directly with her children unless necessary, causing her to name herself the "Red Mother" after Tyris, the "Great Mother."

Baba Yaga has kind and gentle manners, yet under her soft exterior lies the strength of a true ruler. It isn't just about her uncanny magical powers that can be perceived even when she does nothing - the entirety of her person exudes an aura of self-confidence and authority that leaves people in awe even when she does something trivial like a spelling test.

She always prefers focusing on the present and working hard to build a better future for her children rather than waste time with memories.

## Abilities

**Baba Yaga** is the oldest surviving white core Awakened and one of the only 2 individuals on Mogar capable of Creation Magic, the apex of Forgemastering. The Red Mother has learned magic from all six of the original Guardians, making her a master of all forms of magic. Her breathing technique is called **Sun and Moon**. Together with her mage tower, Baba Yaga's strength can be considered comparable to that of a Guardian.

## Background

### Legend

According to legend, in her greed for power Baba Yaga isolated herself for so long that once she came out from her hut, Mogar was changed and everyone she had known and loved was dust. She was unable to relate to the new society, even the language was unknown to her. She worked hard to adapt, to learn about the world, and to fall in love again. But while everything changed and died, she remained the same. Baba Yaga's children inherited her talent for magic, but not her longevity. No matter what she did to prolong their life, death would always claim them.

Mad with grief and desperation, she devoted her efforts to give birth to a new race of creatures that could live as long as she did, to save her from loneliness. It was thanks to Baba Yaga that the first undead had walked Mogar. However, her children have too many weak points so she crafted the Three Horsemen to continue her research while she keeps improving her strength before making a new attempt at creating a better race.

### Past

Baba Yaga lived when the Guardians were worshipped as gods. She left her race, the Odi, because she couldn't tolerate a society that imposed impossible standards of beauty, power, and intelligence on its members. She despised their reliance on slavery and left to travel the world. Over time, she became an apprentice to all six of the original Guardians and underwent her own world tribulations as well. Baba Yaga was a violet cored Awakened over 1000 years of age when she apprenticed under the Guardians; after leaving Tyris, she had a breakthrough to the white core and created the undead race.

Baba Yaga was once candidate for the role of Guardian of Children (a role later taken by Scarlett). Mogar had appeared to her under the guise of a female slave like those her people were so quick to kill and replace. When Mogar made the offer she refused it, finding it no different from what the Odi wanted from her. She wanted to avoid living an eternity of duty, eventually becoming a white core Awakened, gaining eternal youth, and escaping Mogar's gaze.

Baba Yaga learned about magic from the other five original Guardians, but learned from Tyris to let those she loves go. She named herself the Red Mother after Tyris and even shaped her daughters after her as a token of her admiration, hoping they would grow up resembling her in their hearts.

Through the ages, Awakened belonging to all races and even Eldritch Abominations have tried to capture Baba Yaga several times. They were all considered experts with bright violet cores, yet they always failed. Even the Awakened offspring of the Guardians never managed to subdue her, not even after luring Baba Yaga away from her tower.

Baba Yaga went on to create the fourth major race on Mogar, the undead. She wanted to give everyone the possibility to live forever, free from all constrictions, be they made by men, beasts, or even Mogar itself. Baba Yaga created the undead by imitating and improving upon Abominations, Mogar's natural undead. She managed to grant the her offspring the ability to reproduce and the means to appreciate the physical world. However, she failed to get rid of the hunger and placed several limitations on them that Abominations don't have, such as the inability to use Chaos magic.

The Red Mother created the Three Horsemen Dawn, Dusk, and Night (eldest to youngest), Living Legacies that she has continuously enhanced over the years, making them incredibly strong. Dawn's mission is to find a way for undead to assimilate knowledge along with the life force of their victims, Dusk's to make all forms of magic accessible to them, and Night's to make undead immune to darkness magic, the only element that can truly harm them, no matter if they retain a physical form or not.

During Valeron's war for unification, Tessa the TItania caused a plague to make crops rot in order to turn the tides of the battle. The humans blamed undead for the resulting famine, causing Baba Yaga to intervene. Valeron and his 4 compatriots faced Baba Yaga, nearly killing her and destroying her tower, before Valeron took the time to talk to her to discover the reason for her intervention. After learning that she was merely trying to protect her children from humans, he let her go with his apologies.

Baba Yaga was close friends with the 1st Ruler of the Flames Ripha Menadion. When her husband Threin died Menadion came to Baba Yaga with all the pieces of him she could find, begging her to bring him back. She even offered victims to fuel Forbidden Spells, forcing Baba Yaga to spend hours talking sense into her. Only once she accepted that her husband was gone forever did the two pool their resources together to devise a way to save Menadion's daughter Elphyn from death if necessity arose. They created a way to put Elphyn in a suspended animation state and even helped plan Menadion's mage tower.

In the aftermath of Threin's death, Baba Yaga became best friends with Elphyn as Malyshka, studying magic or visiting beautiful cities on Mogar using either of their towers. She also accompanies Elphyn during the latter's rebellious phase as well as experimental pleasure phase.

### Present

Dawn returns to Baba Yaga in her hut on the Jiera Continent after her defeat by Lith. She informs her mother of Lith's hybrid abilities and ability to merge with cursed objects, suggesting him as a "Sword" for her little sister Night. Baba Yaga tells Dawn to keep her findings private for now until Night can be trusted with power.

Baba Yaga fosters and educates a sizable group of abandoned or orphaned hybrid children in her mage tower as part of her most recent project. She orchestrates her meeting with the Ernas sisters by spreading the gemstones for Belin to find that leads to the expedition and makes sure Phloria ends up in the mines to stabilize her imminent Awakening. She makes Returner Abomination Nandi an offer rescue them from the undead later on in exchange for stabilizing his condition and offers the sisters to help her with her research on hybrids in exchange for helping Phloria Awaken safely and granting them power.

Baba Yaga expresses interest in Phloria's condition, being a self-Awakened who has yet to complete the process, stuck in the middle between life and death. She offers to make Phloria a hybrid by granting her a blood core while her life force is both very unstable and easily manipulable. Unlike her undead, her blood core would not be devised to replace the mana core, but to coexist with it. This way, once the procedure is over and she Awakens, the blood core will lessen the strain on her body and use the massive amount of energy released to fix its imbalance. The regenerative abilities and the toughness typical of the undead would guarantee her survival, no matter how violent the process is.

She makes an offer to the Ernas sisters, Morok, and Nandi, though only Nandi accepts. They observe Lith's arrival through a surveillance mirror, and Baba Yaga mistakes Solus as a cursed object but fails to recognize the decrepit form of Menadion's tower. Protector arrives at the hut with one of Solus' Sentries and they Warp the sisters out of the caves to the tower. Baba Yaga cures Nandi of his condition, successfully merging his Minotaur and Abomination sides together. She bestows him the mark of her Firstborns that will allow him to find her and suggests he seek out the Master.

When Night is severely wounded by the Master's Chosen as retaliation for attacking Lutia, Baba Yaga intervenes. To appease the hybrid Eldritches' anger, Baba Yaga punishes Night by removing part of her free will and barring the Horseman from harming anyone inside Lutia, as well as guaranteeing her other children will do the same and promising not to intervene if they break the oath. She also kills Night's host to let her experience the physical pain the living suffer without darkness fusion.

Baba Yaga attends a meeting between the six original Guardians of the Garlen and Jiera continents as a mediator alongside the First Magus Lochra Silverwing. Later, she brings her Horsemen to observe Lith during the battle of Kolga, as it is rare for an Awakened to be able to reject a world tribulation before achieving the white core. Her consciousness as well as the Guardians' and other white cores are forcefully brought to witness Lith's tribulation. When witnessing Lith's geyser and Demon-powered form, she reminisces on her long lost proto-Guardian form, and wonders if she made the right choice.

The Red Mother goes to the undead city of Lightkeep accompanied by Nandi to investigate the kidnapping and murder of undead children, as she is able to feel their deaths. She greets Lith and his group with Vladion Dragonborn's son Radusk when the city's arrays are suddenly sabotaged. Baba Yaga and Nandi stay to protect the hybrid children while the rest pursue the invaders. Upon their return, Baba Yaga, with Nandi's help in conjuring world energy, uses Creation Magic to upgrade the city's arrays to avoid them being sabotaged again. She learns from the other Lords of the Eclipsed Lands that the disappearance of newborn undead has been happening elsewhere as well.

When Scarlett volunteers to use her prince-nez to examine the prisoners to see how they were capable of their greater cousins' bloodline abilities, Baba Yaga recognizes it as the Eyes of Menadion, but reassures the Scorpicore she isn't interested in the artifact. She unlocks the Eyes' full mode and teaches Scarlett how to use it. Baba Yaga approaches Lith asking to meet Elphyn, having seen her during Lith's tribulation in Kolga, and explains her past with Ripha Menadion. She asks to examine Solus with her Sun and Moon breathing technique but Solus declines, wary of an incident like with Silverwing happening again. After witnessing proof that their relationship is built on trust, not authority, Baba Yaga concedes and offers to examine Lith. She gives him advice about embracing the great power within him without letting it consume him. She explains a bit of her past and her parenting style with the Horsemen.

Sunrise is accompanied by mass attacks on the other undead cities, prompting Nandi to summon the Master for help. The Master shares his theory behind the creation of the Ambrosia found within the culprits' blood and informs them that the Kingdom's war with the undead has escalated with the Three Horsemen leading attacks on several major cities. Baba Yaga realizes that her children have stolen their mage tower steeds and rushes away.

Dawn is mortally wounded by a Blade spell from the Spell Hoarding Cube that summons the specter of First King Valeron, her crystal core cut and crumbling. Dawn, having grown affectionate with her host Acala, begs her mother to save him and Baba Yaga obliges, saving them both using Creation Magic. Baba Yaga along with all other Guardians and white cores are summoned to witness Scarlett's final tribulation against Xedros in the Eclipsed Lands. She sees Jormun and Xedros and swears revenge on them for kidnapping her children.

Baba Yaga spends weeks healing Dawn and, to punish Dusk, strips him of his powers while passing onto him half of Sunset's injuries. She rebukes Dusk for involving the undead in a pointless war and making them the common enemy of the Council, Master's Organization, and the Great Countries. She explains how unlike Dusk, Dawn has become one with her host, and Night has served as a catalyst of natural selection for several undead species with her actions. She berates Dusk for having erased his host Wynwald the Lich's personality and depriving Mogar of his legacy, and forcibly breaks their bond. She heals Dusk and locks his powers, telling him they will remain sealed until he finds a way to unlock them before kicking him out. Baba Yaga proceeds to find the scattered remnants of the Lich's mind, gathering enough of his consciousness for him to ask for the release of death. Baba Yaga obliges and crushes his phylactery.

## Quotes

* *"My children have failed me as it happens so very often, but I'm still their mother." (Baba Yaga to Dawn, Chapter 897)*
* *"Why should a predator worry about the weak, spending their time to make sure that they thrive and prosper?...I never intended for any of you to have a country of your own, to bind you with chains of duty. I just wanted my children to have a second chance at life, a better life."* (Baba Yaga to Dawn, Chapter 898)
* *"What if hybrids aren't just an accident but a new path life is taking? What if I've been wrong all along and the solution to all my children's problems was right in front of me from the beginning? Only time and research will tell."* (Baba Yaga to the Ernas sisters, Chapter 1022)
* *"Stay here with me and help me with my research. Not only will I save your lives, but I will also give you power beyond your wildest dreams. Or you can leave these caves and die a dog's death at the hands of the very people you considered your allies."* (Baba Yaga to the Ernas sisters, Chapter 1022)
* *"The Blackest Knight?" Baba Yaga chuckled. "The runt is powerful indeed, but someone who has yet to live his first century lacks both the means and the knowledge to help Phloria. No, child. I'm her only hope."* (Baba Yaga to Quylla, Chapter 1027)
* *"I'm Baba Yaga, the Red Mother, and I can be your parent as well...Hybrids are just the first steps towards new races, a necessary compromise until I find a way to harmonize different kinds of life forces...Together, we can make Mogar better. We can be a family."* (Baba Yaga to the Ernas sisters, Morok, and Nandi, Chapter 1027)
* *"All I want is to make my children happy. Starting a new family over the misery of my own firstborn would doom my project to failure and is against all I ever worked for. No matter what you think, I'm not a tyrant but a mother. Even when my children go against my wishes, I don't put them in jail until they obey. That's not love, that's madness."* (Baba Yaga to Nandi, Chapter 1032)
* *"Even if you are not an undead, you have lived under my roof, eaten my cooking, and shared your worries with me long enough to be one of my children. Now you've been reborn through me, and that's a bond I cannot forget. Wherever you go, whatever happens to you, this will always be your home. Now you can go see the world again, like you always wanted."* (Baba Yaga to Nandi, Chapter 1032)
* *"I'm Baba Yaga, child, and I'm standing inside my mage tower."* (Baba Yaga to the hybrid Eldritches, Chapter 1111)
* *"[Become a Guardian] to what end?...We've never fought seriously against each other so I've got no idea how powerful my white core makes me compared to a Guardian, but I know that it makes me free. Free to go wherever I want whenever I want. Free to save whoever I want, even those that the rest of Mogar knew as the accursed Odi, my people...That's why I created the undead. To give everyone the possibility to live forever, free from all constrictions, be they made by men, beasts, or even Mogar itself."* (Chapter 1153)
* *"I don't know if it's due to your new idiotic host affecting your mind or if I made some mistake while giving you birth, my child."* (Baba Yaga to Night, Chapter 1249)
* *"Love and control are two very different things, yet most people, even the Guardians, fail to understand it."* (Chapter 1386)
* *"There's a great power within you. Something old like life itself yet new. Something that never existed before and still doesn't. Yet this power is corrupt and dangerous. You wear heavy chains, young man. They made you strong in the past but they also keep you from moving forward. You'll never bloom unless you get rid of them."* (Baba Yaga to Lith, Chapter 1386)
* *"Love and control are two very different things, yet most people, even the Guardians, fail to understand it. That's why they either rule their land with an iron fist like Salaark or give up on it like Leegaain."* (Baba Yaga to Lith, Chapter 1386)
* *"The role of a parent is to teach their kid how to walk, not to choose their path. When you have a child, you don't have the right to force them to move forward, only to be there for them and help them get up when they fall."* (Baba Yaga to Lith, Chapter 1387)
* *"I'm tired of your antics. Tired of seeing my Horsemen focus on something as irrelevant as conquest and forget about the mission I gave them back when you three reached adulthood. It's time for you to learn that actions have consequences. You are supposed to be adults, not a bunch of cry-babies that call for their mom the moment something doesn't go as they expected."* (Baba Yaga to Dusk, Chapter 1446)

## Trivia

* Baba Yaga's character is based upon the powerful witch from Slavic folklore with the same name. Her children, the 'Three Horsemen', are also based on the same folktale.
* Baba Yaga is bisexual.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 1072:
2. ↑ Chapter 991: Questions and Answers (Part 1)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 897: Back Home (Part 1)
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 1385:
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Chapter 898: Back Home (Part 2)
6. ↑ Chapter 1027: The Secret Tower (Part 1)
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chapter 1376: Living and Undead (Part 2)
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Chapter 1386: Rebellious Phase (Part 2)
9. ↑ Chapter 1021: A New Path (Part 1)
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Chapter 1249: Natural Undead (Part 1)
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 883: Evil Light (Part 1)
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 1091: Facts and Legends (Part 1)
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Chapter 1153: Shadows of the Past (Part 1)
14. ↑ Legion on Discord
15. ↑ Chapter 1415: The Final Step (Part 1)
16. ↑ Chapter 1154: Shadows of the Past (Part 2)
17. ↑ Chapter 901: Predator Versus Predator (Part 1)
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Chapter 1399: When All Are One (Part 1)
19. ↑ Chapter 1023: Dangerous Wishes (Part 1)
20. ↑ Chapter 1026:
21. ↑ Chapter 1028: Dragonspeed (Part 2)
22. ↑ Chapter 1032: Phloria’s Choice (Part 2)
23. ↑ Chapter 1112: Blood for Blood (Part 2)
24. ↑ Chapter 1252: Demons’ Horde (Part 2)
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Chapter 1382: Eyes of Menadion (Part 2)
26. ↑ Chapter 1412: Golden Dragon (Part 2)
27. ↑ Chapter 1448: True Path (Part 2)
28. ↑ Legion on Discord