#the witch of the black forest | ( baba yaga ) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

gryficowa · 6 months ago

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From what I learned, Walt Disney was a shitty person, but he wasn't an anti-Semite, and he had a friend who was (Because you know, you have to respect other people's opinions… Tia… I don't understand people who think that friendship with a bigot is Approx)

And contrary to appearances, it was not an anti-Semitic representation

Or rather, there is a lot of inspiration from Baba Yaga here

Baba Yaga is a character from Slavic mythology, her house had chicken feet (The inspiration can be seen in TOH)

In the old designs of Eda and Lilith in the form of harpies, you can see characteristic faces clearly inspired by Baba Yaga

Unfortunately, Baba Yaga is confused with anti-Semitic creatures due to her characteristic nose

And it pissed me off, it really pissed me off that Baba Yaga and things heavily inspired by her were considered anti-Semitism, seriously, no, it's not anti-Semitism, it's fucking Baba Yaga

If you think that only Jews have such noses, then seriously, WTF

I am a person with a longer nose, not the longest (It is slightly long, a bit like Pearl's nose from SU) and no, I am not a Jew (From what I know, I don't know what's going on with my ancestors from many years ago, because I am from Poland and Europeans and the Slavs themselves did not care about a pure "Race" like Americans)

And yes, many pensioners had such a nose, heck, my grandmother had a similar one, because the paradox of aging is that the nose can look different when you have wrinkles (Now the chance of such a nose is smaller, because people have access to medical help and it is many factors, but then? Oh, my grandmother was born a few years after the war and the funny thing is, I saw a photo of her from her youth, she had the same face as me, which was abstract to me)

But yes, Baba Yaga was created years before anti-Semitic creatures were created, and the character herself is a character from Slavic mythology

"Baba Yaga - a character appearing in Slavic beliefs and folklore"

"The figure of Baba Yaga, originally probably important in Slavic mythology, has survived only in a degraded form as an element of folklore. She appears there as an old, hideous witch (sagging breasts, one bone leg, blind or visually impaired), living in a hut on a chicken's foot deep in the forest[1]. Baba Yaga was often accompanied by a black cat, raven, owl or snake. She kidnapped people wandering in the forest (especially children), then murdered and ate them. She was also credited with sending diseases and other ailments[2]. At the end of the story, she usually fought a fight with the positive hero and died. Occasionally in folklore there is a motif of the gracious Baba Yaga helping people"

We can fuck Disney too much (In Walt Disney's time for misogyny and all that other shit, nowadays for supporting Israel, for filming "Mulan" in labor camps in China and for mistreating workers, but not for anti-Semitism, because what's left is considered "Anti-Semitism" it was not, and it was confused by the work of evil people who spread hatred towards Jews)

Slavic mythology, unfortunately, has been heavily affected by Christians and many other things, and it's not very well known, so it's depressing when you see mythology from the places where it comes from and it's confused with anti-Semitic shit

Unfortunately, beliefs and cultures are attacked, ironically by Americans, I don't remember the name of the demon, but it was confused with blackface, because the actor painted himself black, even though the demon itself was not supposed to be a black character, but a demon and part of a certain culture, so yes, it was confused with blackface, even though, as I mentioned, he didn't represent a black person, so yes, such things happened, I would understand if it was supposed to be a caricature of black people, but it was a fucking demon

Characters representing cultural trends in Japan were also confused with blackface, I don't remember what they were called, but the person had tanned skin and light hair and lips painted with pearl lipstick

From what I heard, Pokemon considered blackface was supposed to represent this cultural trend (White hair was supposed to be proof of this)

So yes, Baba Yaga wasn't the only victim who was mistaken for something she wasn't

Which doesn't change the fact that it's irritating when they confuse Baba Yaga with anti-Semitic depictions of Jews

I think I understand why many people say that white people don't have their own culture, because if they mean white people, they mean Americans, seriously, they are exterminating other cultures and it sucks

And then it ends with other cultures being considered anti-Semitic or racist, because oh God! They have mythology!

Because yes, will you introduce Baba Yaga? Anti-Semitism! (By the way, I post my works on the blog because I deleted my deviantart, because it was bought by an Israeli company in 2017, I gave the character of Baba Yaga and signed it, although I was put on the anti-Semitic list because I am an anti-Zionist), you have the character of a demon who is black and does not represent a person black? Racism!

This is what pisses me off about the US, the erasure of other cultures because "They think it represents what I think it represents and to me it's wrong so they shouldn't have it", just bruh

And this information for you Americans, the basilisk looks like this:

Yes, as much as I love Vee from TOH, this fact amuses me

I often have the impression that when Americans create a basilisk, they forget that it is also a bird, not just a giant snake

I think the only good depiction of the basilisk was in MLP

From what I see, it is not a basilisk, but a Cockatrice, a creature that is similar to a basilisk

It's a bit depressing to think…

The basilisk and the cockatrice are very similar to each other (I'm speaking as a person raised in Europe who has seen animations about legends from Poland), so it's strange that both creatures are so different in American productions

I don't know, when you create a basilisk, add chicken wings or something, because the basilisk doesn't have to be half hen, it can be any bird, so as to distinguish it from the cockatrice

Whatever you do, make it have the characteristics of a bird and not just a giant snake

Heck, even Vee has a feather on her tail and I think that hair is also feathers (I don't know), she may not be the perfect image of a Basilisk, but at least she has the features of a bird in some way

Yes, the basilisk often has dragon wings, but I haven't seen them required (From the description), it's supposed to be a lizard-bird

It doesn't even have to have wings, but the most important thing is that it has feathers or other bird features, and yes, basilisks freeze with their eyes, but when they see their reflection, they become rocks themselves

A basilisk does not have to have only two limbs, it can have four, it is often depicted in the way I have shown, but it can be presented in a different way to distinguish it from a creature similar to it

Please, please stop drawing him as a large snake, because it is a misrepresentation of this creature

The way Harry Potter showed him is wrong (Like everything Rowling wrote, honestly)

Okay, I've rambled on, but yes, this witch and the concept art versions of TOH characters are not anti-Semitic, they are strongly inspired by Baba Yaga

Unfortunately, our mythology has been harmed by Christians and their "Conversion to the right religion", and Slavic mythology itself is unfortunately not very well known (Even for many Poles), so it is seriously depressing to see something that is not anti-Semitic being associated with anti-Semitism

As I said, Disney has a lot on his conscience, but anti-Semitism is a stupid accusation and also harmful, yes, Disney had a fucked up moral compass, because the very fact that he was friends with a Nazi is so sus

Racism makes sense because Disney did a lot of racist shit (Maybe not as much as WB, but still)

Do you know what things can be considered anti-Semitism? Fucking Gargamel from The Smurfs, he was clearly inspired by anti-Semitic shit, just black hair and that nose… It's just awkward to see today's reboot

Why are people silent about the actual anti-Semitic shit that is Gargamel fucking? I'm seriously asking you, he seriously looks like an anti-Semitic creature, his nose, his hair, his clothes (Full of holes and patches) and he lives in a castle (Not in a cottage, so there's no Baba Yaga inspiration here, and his cat is red)

I'm still shocked that no one is talking about it and there is no outrage, because yes, The Smurfs had a 3D reboot and as you can see, Gargamel's appearance has not been changed

I'm still surprised that there was no drama about Anti-Semitism in this case…

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cymorilcinnamonroll · 3 months ago

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And Lilith Sewed the Seam - Sapphic Short Story

The frost came early that year, the year the Queen of Night came to Karelia. We lived in Sharon, a little shtetl in Grand Russe on the Finnish border that was known for its beautiful alpine aerials and lakes like beads of blue glass. The ocean, too, was refreshing to swim in – provided one went to the banya afterwards. I was a young lass in the rime-laden harbors and forests. We Jews of Sharon were a sailing, seabound lot, making our living off fishing and the waves. But mama, bubbe and I? We were seamstresses of the finest caliber. Some would say we were magick. They called us, and our shop, The Weaving Wives.

The boyars ordered traditional kaftans straight from bubbe’s shop, woven with the earth goddess Mokosh and her lovers Veles and Perun on the breast. I had grown up toeing the line between two faiths. I learned both the myths of Baba Yaga eating unworthy children and the Night Howler Agrath screech-dancing on the roof to mark a house that her husband, Sammael, would strike down as dogs bayed at his twelve-winged flight. Sometimes, late at night, I could hear them.

Or perhaps it was only a storm…

Word of bubbe’s and mama’s and my craftiness spread. The year I turned sixteen, the tsarina herself ordered a fashionable cape from us. It was based off the tale of Father Frost’s granddaughter, Snegurochka the Snow Maiden. A tale I had always loved. It was the first project over which I was given complete ownership.

I embroidered white, pale pink and dove gray pearls on the powder blue cape in little clusters of wings shaped like snowflakes, then stitched eiderdown into the golden seams. Bubbe dusted it with malachite flakes to bless it from far off Azov, the riches of the earth piling high upon the tsarina’s head.

Mama, bubbe, and I were the treasures of Sharon. We were married to our thread, the men and women of Sharon said, and they—from the hunters to the midwives to the rabbi, to my own father, a ship captain and whaler—guarded our secrets with their very lives.

We Weaving Wives were a protected, cherished lot. And our craft was our very soul. There was a deep magick in that sewing. For in truth, we were good witches. We could summon sunlight to make yellow fabric like a peach. Melt down rusalka hair in our oven to create the finest threads. Our secrets were the stuff of legends, and we were glad not to tell the rabbi about them, or even dear papa. And the menfolk knew better than to ask, but the women always wondered.

The cape was the talk of the kingdom.

No wonder, the tsarina was pleased.

As fame of our clothing grew, the Weaving Wives gained esteem. Through charitable works we lifted our community up and filled the synagogue coffers to the brim. Our family did good works in Adonai’s name. All so that Peniel – the Face of God – might shine down after the three of us wrestled long with a hill of fabric, like female Jacobs and a needle-bound angel.

But the frost came early the year I turned eighteen, and it stole my bubbe away. Crying tears like glass beads, I looked into my mirror after shiva was over and found myself a changed maid: my long black curls were winsome, I was plump and rounded to please men, and my cornflower eyes could break hearts. I needed a husband. Only… the village maidens had always been far more winsome.

Fair Shayna, with eyes like silver coins. Comely dark Miriam, with a heart like a thorny rose. And Delilah, the marigold of my garden. I had tossed and turned with all of them in the fields and furrows on Ivan Kupalo, what the Western countries called St. John’s Eve, as we searched for fern flowers together to promise bonds of eternal love. Shayna’s lips were soft. Miriam’s grip on my hot hips was hard, determined, just like Malakh HaMavet striking only holy blows.

But Delilah? She was mother-of-pearl dissolving in Cleopatra’s wine. A beauty wrapped in a carpet, delivered to Marc Antony.

I wanted Delilah more than life itself. But Shayna and Miriam had already taken husbands. We were eighteen, after all. Only Delilah, with her red hair, pale skin, full form, and freckles, was left, and to me, she was more holy than any synagogue, a word on the tongue of G-d that would make Chava take an apple all over again, but this time, a blessed fruit. Delilah was a pearl of great price that could redeem. A benediction and wonder that would lighten the load of the Azazel goat on Yom Kippur and set the Temple right.

So, that night in my anger and mourning over losing bubbe too soon, I looked into my mirror, in the flickering light, and I cast a magick spell. I made a wish on bay leaves and some goldenrod I had dried earlier that year for Delilah to be mine. As I was threading the bay leaves through a needle, to string them over my dresser, I pricked myself on my thumb.

A bead of red delicious blood bubbled up. Suddenly, the mirror swirled into a gorgeous Ashkenazi royal woman with long black ringlets of hair done up in silver bands, a purple wine-dark dress with gold threading, yellow-green eyes like parched grass, and pale, ghostly skin. Her bruised pink lips were bloody, and there was hunger in her eye.

“Pu pu pu!” I said, warding off the demon, frightened. I clutched the red thread always tied to my bandeau and threw salt at the mirror. It sizzled as it hit the candle, putting it out. Then, silence.

I had not a day before the Queen of Night came to Sharon. She was the talk of our little shtetl, rumored to be disgraced Romanian royalty who had bathed in maiden’s blood and newborn calf spittle to retain her youth. She was old, she was young, she was invisible, they whispered. Dressed head to toe in a black veil, riding in a carriage like a hearse. It was pulled by black bulls, and scarlet, bloody-colored ribbons were woven round the black bulls’ necks.

Just like the blood from my thumb.

Lailah, she was called. I was so lost in fear of her, I did not hear the clinking of bells at our shop. Bubbe was gone, Delilah was not mine, and I was haunted by a ghost.

I was manning the shop till, daydreaming about the demon. She… had been beautiful. Lailah was said to be hideous. To be virginal and pure. To be a vampir or dhampir or G-d knew what! Only, this Romanian countess or ghost or queen had come to my shop, now, smelling of lavender and patchouli. She had been watching me, and I felt like I was drowning.

A musk radiated off her that reminded me of eating dinner between Delilah’s thighs.

Suddenly, Lailah let her veil and robes fall, and the demoness from earlier in the mirror stood naked before me, perfect as a pale statue of Dark Venus, brimstone the farthest word from her.

Her eyes were a poisonous, mesmerizing yellow. Her pubis was lightly thatched with slashes of black, her sex an enticing pink wound. She seemed to be carved from alabaster, her legs ending in owl’s feet, great sooty wings on her back, and a night storm cloud of ebon ringlets framed her sharp, small and upturned nose and wicked ruby-grapefruit lips.

“Lilith?” I squeaked. I did not have it in me to “Pu pu pu.” To reach for metal or iron or salt. To even clutch my red thread.

I knew immediately that if this beautiful, treacherous Queen of the Night asked, I would be her slave. I would be a dog in her yard, licking fruit off her feet, honey off her lips. All to taste… majesty. The divine.

She demurred, smiling to reveal needle teeth that only heightened her beauty. “You have grown beautiful, Jael.”

“Oh. No. I, Lilith, with all my pleading, please, flee this place. We are holy. Adonai shall smite you. And you are too beautiful to suffer,” I said, rambling, not making sense, soaking in Lilith’s beauty, her temptation, her smirk, the way her thick hips and ripe breasts swayed as she walked towards me slowly, like a leopardess stalking its prey.

“But, if I flee, you will be nothing. An adamant bloom plucked too young to thrive. You have all the talent of your bubbe Abigail, and all the strength and industry of your mother Bina. There is a reason our faith is passed on through women, Jael. You are the perfect vessel.”

I froze. “You mean to possess me?”

Lilith narrowed her yellow eyes at me. Oh, how I wanted to reassure her I was not scared. And yet, I was. Highly terrified. The Witch of Endor was in my shop, and darkness filled the corners, Sheol the depths of the yard; the windows were blotted out by the realm of husks. It was only Lilith and I at the axis mundi of the worlds.

“No, I mean to pay you,” Lilith laughed in a sultry tone, then quickly softened. “I have need of a dress for a ball Ashmedai is throwing. Ashmedai and Sammael are both my husbands, but they are at war as of late. I need to dress for battle. For the manner in which I fight, and who I choose as consort, shall determine the course of Kingship in Gehenna.”

My jaw dropped. “Like the Maid of Orleans?”

Lilith smiled. “Dear Jael, I have been at this for millennia longer than any Frenchwoman. Now, this I must ask you: can you make me a ballgown the color of a mirror, that reflects all it touches, that can withstand hail and hellfire? If you do, you will be wealthier than the tsarina. As you know, the Shekinah often rests with Sammael, and as the Shekinah’s Handmaiden, I ascend to G-d in turn. He lets me do what I like, you see. The world, for me, is freedom. As I mean it to be for all women, Jael. Your namesake certainly agreed. We had plans, Jael and I.”

“The girl who drove a tent spike through her enemy’s head?” I piped out, voice squeaking yet again. I nervously chewed my hair, then spat it out. “Yes, I can make a dress like that. But I do not need riches. Just Delilah.”

“Lilah. Delilah. She is similar, yet nothing like me. A seal, then, of our bargain?” Lilith leaned against the counter and kissed me, deep. “Yes, you taste just like Jael as well. She was one of mine, you know. Perhaps… but no, Jael. Let sleeping Judges lie.”

With that, Lilith disappeared, and the pale, ghostly light of winter trickled into the shop.

I reached for the red thread on my bandeau and snapped it apart, welcoming the demoness in.

For the fabric, I captured moonlight in a jar. I made it slitted at the train, so Lilith could stride across the burning floor of Ashmedai’s ballroom like the Queen of Sheba did to win Solomon’s heart. I wove the bodice of form-fitting silver silk, loose and dyed from rain under the morning star. Do not ask how the Weaving Wives work our magick. We simply do. It was in bubbe’s blood. It is half in mother’s blood. And I?

I surpass them both.

I wrote Delilah a letter that night. A letter to come room with me. It did not say much other than “bosom friend” and “bubbe’s room is empty” and “mama and papa are leaving for America, so it shall be just us, and I could use a shopkeeper.” But I sprayed perfume from Moscow on it, kissed it thrice, and slipped it in a pink bow and thick sturdy envelope into our hiding tree. An alder.

Delilah wrote me back: “If your gown for this cursed queen goes through, then you will have proven to me that a woman can love a woman, like a man loves a woman, and Jael, I do think… I must not write it.”

There were tear stains blotting her delicate signature.

I cried that night. I stitched Lilith’s seam. I used bat wings boiled down to the finest veins to protect the dress from hellfire. Then I crushed the bay leaves of my witchcraft, when I met Lilith in the mirror, into the fur capelet of mink. It was my heart’s treasure. My greatest wish of all.

And finally, a hilt for a dagger, bejeweled with malachite from Mount Azov. It was sacred in Russia, from one Mistress – the Mistress of Copper Mountain – to the Queen of Night.

Lilith came the day after Sabbath.

She tried it on, the silk bunching around her in pleasing, curvaceous angles, the embroidery and pearls and malachite and mink sparkling, and she shone like the tsarina’s silver tiara.

Lilith smiled in the mirror: “It’s perfect, my Jael. Come walk with me.”

Into her dark midnight carriage with the four red-banded black bulls I went. We rode to Gehenna. What I saw would frighten Enoch himself. Dumah, at the gate, with his poisoned sword of gall. Hazarmavet, the Court of the Dead, where new souls ate meat and drank wine in perfect silence. The winnowing of souls in the fire of Sheol with the punishing, purifying angels. A glimpse of Gan Eden and the Silver City where the angels lived, attending the Promised Messiah. It was all like a crack in the sky.

Finally, Ashmedai’s realm. A realm of exotic desert fruit and pleasure girls and winebearer ephebes. Hot searing heat, simoom winds, oases and belly dancers. It was scandalous.

Sammael’s forces of death, poison and decay camped at the door. I waited in the carriage as Lilith walked on French heels to the forefront, her dagger held high, her dress that I had painstakingly, feverishly sewed gleaming under the hot desert sun.

Lilith’s beauty sparked Sammael’s shedim and lilim and seirim into frenzy. They descended on Ashmedai’s forces as the demon king emerged from his glistening sandstone palace with his forces, dates and palm and rivers of jewels surrounding us on all four sides.

I watched as Lilith turned the tides of the battle, flirted with Ashmedai, lured Sammael. In the end, Lilith took both Ashmedai and Sammael’s crowns as they kneeled and kissed her hands off their heads. She melted the coronets down with fiery breath from her beautiful lips, then formed two gold arm bands for her pale limbs.

It seemed Gehenna had a new ruler.

I am old now. Delilah is my bosom companion. I talk to Lilith in the mirror, late at night, I am aged, Lilith is ageless, and she tells me tales of the world: the invention of electricity. War in America. Discoveries in Asia. How her plans are in motion to free women, so one day, we are not so tied to the cycles of our womb, forced to labor in birth pangs like Chavah.

Delilah and I adopted three girls, and we teach them the secrets of weaving, sewing, and stitchery. We are bringing the crafts of our shtetl into a new age. My parents died in America and seemed to have prospered. I have no intention of leaving Karelia. We are the exclusive gownmakers for the new tsarina.

It is a good life. It is a small life. Lilith and Adonai shower riches upon our community – not too much, but enough that Sharon is known as blessed. The Shekinah still roosts with Sammael, and will until the Temple is set right, and Her people ascend.

I am happy all my days. So is Delilah. When we die, we will be led by Lilith the Perpetual Regent of Gehenna to be her personal weavers and outfitters, and our daughter’s daughter’s daughters will know true freedom in the modern age.

And all because Lilith sewed the seam.

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witchysolfan · 1 year ago

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May I ask a question?

I recently came to check on any progress with your “The Princess and the Fools” AU, because I love their relationship and the storytelling and the funny moments from it! But I sort of realized something in the recent additions to the story.

In a comic from last year, Sun and Moon ask Vanessa why she doesn’t want to be a mother. https://www.tumblr.com/witchysolfan/689898616963334144/the-princess-and-the-fools-cw-dark-themes

And she explains that she sincerely doesn’t want to be a mother, and feels she wouldn’t be a very good one. But now, looking back, it seems the circumstances she thought a child could happen in all would be horrible for her, which might be why she dreaded motherhood.

In contrast, she’s so much happier with her husbands now. And they seem to be taking in Poppet almost as their own child now. Does Vanessa actually want to be a mother now?

What changed her mind? Is it because of the different circumstances in which she received the child?

Sorry for the long ask, I’m just a bit confused.

Hope you have a good day/night!

Well it’s due to her time in Baba Yaga’s hut. She spent a month there in the dark forest where it’s only been a week or so outside of it. Time moves differently.

I’m actually planning on expanding that time there and how Vanessa just became close to the Poppet in a separate little comic. But basically it’s like Vanessa was first given a doll thing for protection. Then she became attached to the doll. The doll gained a soul later on, it seeming to just make sense as if the soul has always belonged there, and Vanessa just grew even more attached to the doll. The doll becoming real to her and even though she never wanted children of her own, she was still very protective and secretive over Poppet’s soul.

More so when in the presence of a witch who is known to eat the hearts of children and this little poppet dared to steal from her.

Yeah, Vanessa was very quick to clean up that bloody mess before Baba Yaga returned that day.

And from there, Vanessa just began to open up her mind in keeping and adoring Poppet.

And *coughs* I might’ve been influenced by my real life black kitten who is also named Charlotte and I had my own cat mom feelings over Charlie/Puppet and projected it onto Vanessa *coughs*

But Vanessa is in a better state of mind at this point. It’s actually better because Poppet, while technically has a human soul, is very non-human and that just helps.

#the princess and the fools

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ancestorsalive · 1 year ago

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BABA YAGA Fiana Sidhe tells us, “Baba Yaga is a very misunderstood Goddess. She is not just the stereotypical wicked witch. She often appears as a frightening old hag, but can also appear as a beautiful woman who bestows gifts. She is wild and untamed but also can be kind and generous. Even in Her haggard form, Baba Yaga has many gifts to share. Baba Yaga is the old crone who guards The Waters of Life and Death. She is the White Lady of Death and Rebirth, and is also known as The Ancient Goddess of Old Bones. The old bones are symbolic of the things we cling to, but must finally let lie. When we experience a death, darkness, depression, or spiritual emptiness in our lives, we journey to Baba Yaga’s hut, where She washes new life into us. She collects our bones and pours the waters on them, while She sings and chants and causes us to be reborn. She destroys and then She resurrects. Baba Yaga symbolises the death of ignorance. She forces us to see our true, darkest selves, then She grants us a deep wisdom that we can attain by accepting the dark shadows within ourselves. We can only receive help from Baba Yaga by learning humility. Her gifts can destroy or enlighten us.” Sr. Dea Phoebe has this to say about Baba Yaga: “So, while She is certainly a dark Goddess, a death Goddess, and may even seem ‘wicked’ in ways, Baba Yaga is hardly the villain of Her stories. But also, Baba Yaga is not a nice, clean, civilised Goddess. In the story of Valalisa the Wise, triple Goddess imagery repeats throughout – in Valalisa and her doll’s white, red, and black clothing, (colours traditionally associated with the Maiden, Mother, and Crone,) in the repetition of threes throughout the story (three colors, three enemies in the stepfamily, three riders, three tasks, three questions, three pairs of hands) and in Valalisa, (the maiden beginning her journey), her mother (who has given Valalisa gifts to guide her), and of course, in Baba Yaga as the crone. As a denizen of the deep forest, Baba Yaga is the wild aspect of the psyche, what Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estés calls [in her book Women Who Run with the Wolves] the Wild Hag or the Wild Woman —not the gentle grandmother that bakes you cookies and tells you stories, but the stern grandmother that might just smack your rear with a spoon and tell you to smarten up! She is not pretty to look at, and she represents the deepest mysteries of death. No wonder she has a reputation of a scary old witch! When we work with Baba Yaga, when we take that path into the deep forest to face the mysteries of death and emerge with the light of wisdom, we also face the wild aspects of ourselves. They may not be pretty, they may have long stringy hair and iron teeth and a wild cackle, but they also hold mysteries our more civilised day-to-day selves never think upon. Baba Yaga is not tied by social norms and mores. She flies about in yet another symbol of transformation; She wipes away the signs of Her passing so you’re never sure if She’s really been there. She’s rude, She’s crude, and She lives in a hut that doesn’t have the manners to sit down and stay like we expect a house should—and you can bet She enjoys all of this. She is less concerned about what is civilized and polite than what is true. When you find yourself in need of true wisdom, when you find yourself being too nice, too polite in the face of ongoing boundary violations, when you find yourself stagnated by the expectations of others, it might just be time to retrieve your Wild Woman (or Man.) It might be time to brave the forest and meet Baba Yaga.” ♦️ How might you have courage, as Vasilisa did, to face the frightening depths of the dark forest? ♦️ What gifts can you find within yourself that will give you protection and guidance as you meet the dark goddess and learn from her? ~ Rebekah Myers ~ Fiana Sidhe, “Baba Yaga, The Bone Mother“ ~ Sr. Dea Phoebe, Order of Our Lady of Salt, “The Goddess and the Wheel: Baba Yaga – Wicked Witches and Wild Women“ Art: Rima Staines, Baba Yaga Rima Staines - Artist rimastaines.com

#Baba Yaga #rima staines #Rebekah Myers #Vasilisa #courage #gifts #guidance #lessons #dark goddess #protection #The Bone Mother #archetypes #myth #folkways

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beba-780 · 1 year ago

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The Witch of the Forest (Headcanons)

• The story is inspired by local stories on the theme of the most famous witches, such as the Salem witches, Baba Yaga, among others. I was also inspired by movies, comics, novels and stories on this topic of witches.

• The role of the town witch of Ignacia will be taken on by Aspheera, who lived in the 1600s and something, as a public servant in the small town. Aspheera grew up with her father Mambo V, and her family is descended from the original founders of the town, and with Mambo being an important public figure in the town, Aspheera was tasked with maintaining a good image.

• However, Aspheera was an ambitious person, since she was a child she always wanted to be better than everyone, to be better than her father, so investigating everything about the town she discovered that her father, and members of the church, carried out trials against people who practiced witchcraft, investigating his personal things Aspheera discovered the witchcraft devices that were confiscated from the people prosecuted by his father.

• Wanting to discover how to obtain more power, he began practicing spells, rituals, and incantations of all kinds. At night, when no one was watching her, she would go to an old mine that was closed due to its structural instability, where Aspheera used the place as a lair to hide her witchcraft objects that she stole from her father. This made her spend almost all her time in the forest, she was very good at presenting a false image to everyone, being a simple lady before the people, but what they did not know is that very soon all its inhabitants would suffer the consequences of her practices with the black magic.

• As Aspheera gained more power, strange things began to happen in the village, animals fled, crop failures began to occur, and some domestic animals disappeared. At first no one cared because they thought it was the weather or because there was another wild animal scaring away the other animals. But things got worse when a terrible disease fell on some people, they seemed to be slowly losing their lives, despite not being contagious, many of the doctors who came to the town could not discover the cause of the disease.

• After Aspheera discovered how to live forever, she began to carry out accidents that involved the disappearance of children. First, she began with the children who lived on the outskirts of the town. The citizens believed that they were lost in the forest while playing, or that some wolf or another animal took them, many of the inhabitants carried out searches but no one discovered anything about their whereabouts.

• Aspheera discovered that the life essence of children was vital to completing spells that would help her live young and eternal, even gaining more power than she imagined. Then Aspheera began to capture children from the town, which caused even more uproar. The council met and clarified that these events were due to witchcraft. Deciding to help his town, Mambo V embarked on a journey to the cathedral to beg for help. to the high command of the church.

• The people who were still trying to find the children in the forest began to disappear without a trace or die terrible deaths. The children even began to go into the forest since Aspheera applied a spell on them that managed to hypnotize them so that they would go straight to their cave without anyone seeing them. Her powers even helped Aspheera steal babies from their cribs without anyone noticing. Aspheera hid the bodies in different parts of the forest and in his cave so that no one could find them. And even with all this, no one suspected Aspheera since she managed to hide her tracks well.

• Aspheera created creatures that helped her with the kidnappings of children, babies and adults in the town, now everyone was forbidden to go to the forest, people locked themselves in their houses and were afraid to go out in case the person who performed witchcraft was found. She will decide to hunt again.

• Mambo managed to reach the town in time with help, the Church entrusted two great shamans who were brothers to help the town of Ignacia, these brothers used white magic to fight against darkness with the permission of the church, their actions caused some towns They were freed from the evil of people who practiced black magic. The brothers' names were Garmadon and Wu Montgomery.

• When they arrived at the town, the brothers managed to cure the diseases caused by black magic and even managed to perform a spell that helped them discover who the witch was that tormented the town. Upon discovering that it was Aspheera, the shamans and the townspeople formed a group to capture her, even Mambo allowed it and joined in capturing her.

• Aspheera was discovered while she was trying to finish a ritual that would help her gain more power by sacrificing the lives of some children she had previously captured. The shamans stopped her and managed to rescue her children. By confronting her they managed to seriously weaken her, with her last breath Aspheera promised that she would return, and they activated a spell so that this would happen and she would not really die, the shamans to prevent Aspheera's return locked the witch's body and spirit in a large dry oak tree. and hollow so that it would be impossible to locate it properly. her grave, but Aspheera would only return if she broke the seal on her tombstone.

• The shamans created four stone statues in the shape of snakes that would send a signal in case the seal was broken, to know if the witch Aspheera would return between life and death. That is why after leaving the town the brothers performed a spell that would let them live for many years until they knew that the threat of Aspheera's return would not come true. Since then they have watched the city from the shadows.

• Since then, the town celebrates the defeat of the witch Aspheera at each harvest festival, and represents the shaman brothers and Mambo V as heroes who risked their lives to confront the witch Aspheera, but over the years the The townspeople forgot Aspheera's warning and tell her story so that the children do not go further into the forest. Even the path to Aspheera's grave began to be forgotten and as the years passed, until modern times, the The town of Ignacia continues to celebrate the defeat of Ashpeera along with a great party that takes place on Halloween where they also celebrate the good harvest they have had in the town.

• Ignacia became a good commercial town in the country, many tourists came just to be able to witness the Halloween festival and the theatrical interpretation of the story of the witch Aspheera, the legend of her became a great legend in the country. But things changed when a group of documentary filmmakers were exploring the Ignacia forest, and as they went deeper they came across the great oak and inside they discovered the tomb of Aspheera, this was reported to Mayor Ulysses Norville Trustable, current mayor of Ignacia, who He gave them help in the construction to be able to better excavate the tomb, to remove the tombstone, everyone in the town thought that it was the old tomb of the witch Aspheera, since the tombstone had no name, and the story of Aspheera was almost always interpreted. . differently over the years, which is why the town's citizens are currently unaware of Aspheera's curse.

• Mayor Ulysses has since placed the tomb in the city's local museum, where many tourists are now amazed by this discovery. But while examining the tomb, the researchers accidentally and inadvertently broke the seal that kept Aspheera's body and soul locked away. When this happened, unbeknownst to anyone, the mummified body disappeared into the tomb and appeared in the mine where Aspheera previously practiced her witchcraft. If she wanted to recover her body and her powers, she had to get the children's lives, and soon, for now she makes potions to recover some of your life force.

• The strange events began to occur when some farm animals were killed, everyone thought it was a wild animal at first, but then some crops began to rot and dry, many of the farmers thought it was a prank by the farmers young people and Mayor Ulysses ordered night surveillance on the farms so that it would not affect the other crops since the month of October had arrived and the town was making preparations for the festival.

• The story centers on young Kai Smith, a 15-year-old boy who is the older brother of his 8-year-old sister Nya and Lloyd, a one-year-old baby. His father Ray Smith became the new sheriff of the town of Ignacia after the previous one retired and moved to another city. Ray accepted the job because he thought it would be a new start for his children by moving to an open-air town. Kai didn't really like the idea of moving to a town with stories of witches but he didn't want to bother his father after his mother Maya died a few months ago due to a terminal illness.

• After the death of his mother, Kai became distant, but that did not stop him from taking good care of his two younger brothers. Kai wanted to be strong for his father, and that is why he showed that he was capable of taking good care of Nya and Lloyd, it was fortunate that her mother taught her how to take care of Lloyd before she died.

• After settling in the town and in his new high school, there Kai met Skylor Chen, daughter of an important lumber merchant and owner of a lumber company in the town.

• Then he met Cole Bucket, Lou's son who was the high school drama teacher and director of the town's plays, plus the football star of the high school team called the "Dragons", he did not consider himself the most popular, but it was very well known.

• Zane Julien is the smartest boy in high school, and is Jay's partner in some robotics projects. He is the eldest son of doctor Julien and his 8-year-old younger brother is called Echo.

• Jay is the second smartest boy in high school, he is in the robotics workshop and his parents have a farm where they grow corn and rice, they are not very popular but they have a good business selling several of their crops.

• Kai heard the legend of the witch Aspheera several times in high school, and after he and his family got a little used to the town, real problems began to appear after the first child disappeared within the town, Ray was in charge of the case but no one in the town has discovered his whereabouts, then more animals appeared lifeless in the town and more crops were drying up. Now the town was on high alert.

• But after Nya disappeared like the other children, Kai ventured into the forest to find his sister and discover what was really happening in this town haunted by a witch. He even gets help from his new friends and receives clues from the museum curator and the strange ranger.

#lego ninjago #ninjago #ninjago au #au #headcanon #headcanons #ninjago headcanon #ninjago headcanons #the witch of the forest #the witch of the forest au #ninjago the witch of the forest #ninjago the witch of the forest au #ninjago aspheera

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yibeimolihuacha · 1 year ago

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Slavic-folklore-inspired Zoyalai AU Prompt

AU in which Nikolai is a prince who returns home to find that his family had fallen ill with some strange disease and died, and now he is the one who should become the king, but his officials and people are not happy to give their country into the hands of a man who spent most of his life in faraway lands. So his traveling buddies and wise advisors Tolya and Tamar suggest asking for the hand of one of the noble maidens - Alina, who is also known as The Bright for her kindness and good nature, and therefore, if Nikolai marries her, then the people will accept him better. Nikolai agrees and rides out to pick up his bride. However, the lands of Alina’s father are the farthest in the kingdom, and therefore the path before him lies long and difficult.

Nikolai is a prince who can't become the king until he marries the right bride.

Alina is a noble maiden.

The Darkling - Koschey, an ancient immortal sorcerer who lives in the Underworld. Because of Baba Yaga's ancient curse, he cannot set foot on the surface until he has the one the sun loves most (Alina). He already has two brides - The Beautiful and The Wise, and now he is trying to get the third, the most important one - The Bright.

Genya (The Beautiful) is The Darkling’s first bride, she is a witch famous for her unearthly beauty. He kidnapped her when she was a child, and since then she serves him and keeps an eye on what happens in the real world for him. To get Alina, The Darkling tells Genya to gain her trust and lure her into his kingdom.

Zoya (The Wise) is his second bride, she is also a witch, but despite her name she is not famous for her wisdom, but rather for her bad temper. The Darkling named her The Wise because she came to his kingdom by her own will and wished to become his bride (of course she had her reasons), and he thought her desire for power and strength was the best manifestation of wisdom. Zoya lives in The Dark Forest, in the old hut of Baba Yaga, whom Koschey locked for her curse in the Underworld. While Genya is trying to lure Alina into the underworld, he sends Zoya to take care of Nikolai and lead the prince astray.

Both Genya and Zoya wear The Darkling's shackles - Genya has a bone necklace, Zoya has bone bracelets, he also has a bone crown waiting for Alina. The Darkling's shackles maintain the connection between him and his brides and prevent them from disobeying him, and also enhance their natural witch powers. Genya and Zoya apart from Baba Yaga are the strongest witches in the kingdom.

Bagra is Baba Yaga duh.

Mal is an archer in the service of Alina’s father, he is in love with Alina, just as she is with him.

Kaz is The Crow, a criminal who can shapeshift into a crow, he helps Nikolai once on his quest for a pay.

Maybe all of the crows could be some kind of shapeshifters, Mathias could be a wolf, Inej could be a black cat etc

here are some of Bilibin's and Vasnecov's artworks for the VIBES

#i was procrastinating #shadow and bone #shadow and bone prompt #grishaverse #grishaverse prompt #zoyalai #zoyalai au #nikolai lantsov #zoya nazyalensky #the darkling #zoyalai prompt #I am sorry #prompt

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tomthefanboy · 5 months ago

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Double Dreamjournal 7/28/24

Last night I was up late at the hospital with my wife having a very long day, but when I woke up this morning I had a dream with a specific detail so vivid that it was worth writing down, and in the process I remember the two dreams that came before it!

I have journalled the first and third dream and decided that the dream in the middle but it's too hard to explain and involves complicated political topics I don't need people reading into.

Dream 1: The Giant Witch

I am embedded in a modern USA military unit. I think the leader is Giancarlo Esposito (thanks Marvel). We move into position in snowy mountains of some central/West Asia province. A MASH is set up to treat the locals who were injured by our fighting with the enemy forces. The main unit moves forward to recon and prep for the assault on the next mountain to the South where the enemies now are.

As the station fills up with refugees and the sun goes down, the officers get a report that [Rusankya] has been spotted in the area. I say [Rusankya] because I can't actually remember the name from the dream. However, it's well known enough that it has to be kept secret to keep the locals from panicking. The refugees are packed into all the evac vehicles and sent down the mountain to the nearest city for treatment and to remove them from danger.

While this happens some men go missing. As we watch the trucks vanish into the forest below I see a man get plucked off the ground by a giant raven and disappear into the dark cloudy sky. The officer in charge of the MASH (Neal McDonough) gives a briefing/exposition dump about [Rusankya] even though it feels like common knowledge to the viewer. She is an ice giant witch. She travels in a walking pine tree. she is friends with Baba Yaga, this is why sometimes there is a giant pine tree next to her hut wherever it camps. She controls giant ravens and has them pick up men for her to eat or do magic on. But when she finds a village she usually comes herself that same night to kill everyone there.

The military men get paranoid and it becomes a struggle to survive the night. Trying to get gear from outside and fortify the main ramshackle bui8lding without getting picked off, but find a way to last until morning if [Rusankya] does show up. There's a lull in the raven attacks for about an hour and the officer comments about wishing he knew why. was she playing games with them or had she found better targets, they weren't lucky enough to get off the hook that easy.

My dream brain flew through the mountains to see [Rusankya] on a snowy bare mountainside having tea and chatting with Baba Yaga herself. Baba Yaga was on her way to a nearby swamp, just passing through and utterly uninterested in the war zone that had brought [Rusankya] here. In person, [Rusankya] was MUCH LARGER than I expected. the pine tree had a massive curve in the trunk that she could sit on like a throne, the top of the tree just barely reaching the nape of her neck. Making her far taller than the D&D Ice giants. A door in the tree told me she could shrink down to human size if she wanted but this was her natural form. The was wiry, with knobby joints and lean, well defined muscles like a rock climber. She dressed in rags. Her claws and teeth were black and gleamed like obsidian through their filth. But the most interesting part of [Rusankya] was that above her long nose and chin, she had the wall or porch of a wooden house lashed across her eyes like a blindfold. It either blocked her vision or hid her blind eyes, but on it was a massive bloody rune. This allowed her to see through the eyes of ravens. Not just the giant ones roosting in her pine tree (and currently pecking at the remains of the dead soldiers) but ANY raven. Even the ones she did not control.

for some reason this new layer of surveillance made he seem much scarier than I had already (justifiably) felt. Looking at her "in person" made me wonder how the patchwork fortifications of the MASH could possibly survive once she attacked.

Unfortunately that's when my brain moved on to the second dream I am not going to talk about. Suffice to say I was with the refugees.

Next post will have Dream 3.

#dream journal #baba yaga #oh I see why my brain guess Rusankya #a rusalka is a slavic water spirit #I had to look up Neal McDonough #He might've been Ray liota in one part

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agnerd-bot · 2 years ago

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Fanservant: Frau Trude Gothel, Wicked Witch of the Fairy Tales(Caster)

Ascension Stages:

First Stage: Gothel is dressed in an elaborate dark ballgown that reaches all the way to the floor, the dress ornate with gold and silver accents. On her ring finger, a shining golden ring gleams in the light. Long pink hair flows down to the small of her back, topped by a black crown, and a pair of gleaming golden eyes shine as she stares down the Master.

Second Stage: Gothel’s outfit has changed to a more ‘traditional’ witch’s style, with long, flowing sleeves extending out from her robes, and a witch’s hat resting upon her head, replacing her crown. Her dress has shortened, revealing her long legs, and her hair has grown out to be much more wild and unkempt. Her sclera have darkened to become pitch-black, and a fiery aura has begun to surround her entire being.

Final Stage: Gothel’s form has changed from that of a witch to a true Devil. Out from her back sprouts black feathered wings, and her skin takes on a deathly white pallor. Her nails lengthen into demonic claws, and a pair of monstrous horns sprout from the sides of her head. The ring has been corrupted slightly, becoming immersed in hellish flames.

Theme:

Character Theme: Healing Song - Tangled

Battle Theme: BlazBlue CentralFiction - Walpurgisnacht (Nine the Phantom theme)

Fatal Battle Theme: 破壊神

Traits:

Class: Caster Alternate Class: Berserker, Alter Ego, Beast True Name: Frau Trude Gothel Source: Grimm’s Fairy Tales Region: Germany Alignment: Chaotic Evil Attribute: Earth

Known as: The Witch of the Story’s End, The Witch of the Tower, the Forest Witch, The Villain of All Fairy Tales, The Devil Incarnate, Diabolus Ex Machina

Voice Actress: Noto Mamiko

Deck: QABBB

Parameters: Strength: D Endurance: A++ Agility: B Mana: EX Luck: C NP: A

Passive Skills:

Territory Creation(Fairy Tale) C++:

As a Fairy Tale character, Gothel is uniquely capable of altering her environment, creating the backdrops of the stories to be told. Gingerbread houses, massive towers, fantastic castles, all can be made by Gothel with a mere wave of her wand.

However, as much as she is the creator of the world around her, the majority of her creations are simply temporary structures of illusions made to trap victims, meaning this skill is less effective than a true master’s handiwork. While her creations could be much more impressive if she chose to apply herself more properly, she’s content to lazily throw together false illusions to suit her needs and then smash them to pieces when she is done.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own Arts and Quick performance by 10%.

Item Construction EX:

The power of one of the most famed witches to ever exist, and yet one of a witch who melts away among all the rest. Gothel’s ability to create fearsome cursed items and magical weapons is among the best among all Servants, thanks to her status as an offshoot of the legendary Baba Yaga. There are few Servants that could ever hope to match her raw talent in magecraft.

In at least one Fairy Tale, The Dragon of the North, it is even said that a witch-maiden held the power of King Solomon’s Ring, and knew of its incredible secrets. While this story is likely nothing more than a fantasy, it speaks testament to the incredible and fearsome powers that Gothel has at her beck and call.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own Debuff success rate by 12%.

Wicked Witch of the Story’s End A:

As the Villain of All Fairy Tales, Dame Gothel reigns supreme as one of the most powerful Fairy Tale Servants alive, surpassed only by the Big Bad Wolf and the Persecuted Heroine, and matched only by her equal opposite, the Fairy Godmother.

Where there are stories to be told, a villain will naturally arrive to cause strife and pain.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own critical damage by 12%. -Increases own damage by 250.

Active Skills:

Devil’s Contract B:

While many in the world feared witches and blamed them for countless misfortunes and disasters that happened to them, few, if any, ever truly laid eyes on a witch and recorded their experiences. As few understood witches or how their powers worked, many associated their existence with that of the Devil, believing them to be Brides of Satan who had sold their souls to evil in exchange for power. As a Fairy Tale whose existence was based off of these false notions, Gothel has imprinted upon her a ‘contract’ with Hell itself.

This contract with Hell has granted Gothel incredible powers, and is the source of some of her more powerful magic. She can summon pillars of hellfire that can erase even a victim’s soul, drag victims off to the deepest pits of Hell, and summon monstrous creatures from the Pit to fight for her in combat. Her powers are effectively limited only by her sick imagination and sadistic cruelty.

Most notable of her powers is a form of pseudo-immortality. While her body can be destroyed by an enemy, she can resurrect herself each and every time, so long as the enemy she faces isn’t a god or similar divinity. It is through this power that Gothel has survived things like being burned alive by Handel and Gretel, dancing to death in Snow White, being hacked to pieces, and other similar fates.

No matter how often the villain dies, or how often the hero beats her, she will always return when the story begins anew, ready to ravage the lands at her leisure.

(FGO Effect:) -Increases own Debuff Success rate every turn for three turns. -Apply a state to yourself: Gain NP Gauge when attacking with Buster Cards (3 turns). -Apply Guts to self for two times, five turns.(Stackable with other Guts).

Wicked Transformation A:

In Fairy Tales of old, there were hundreds of tales of witches using their accursed powers to transform unwilling victims into horrible monsters, helpless animals, or inanimate objects for some reason or another. Whether it be envy of another’s virtue, punishing the wicked and foolish for incurring their ire, or twisting a victim’s wish into something terribly ironic, the ability of a witch to alter the forms of those she chooses is unlimited, and when these powers are unleashed, it is all too easy for Gothel to dispose of her victims.

If need be, Gothel can turn this transformation unto herself, shifting into the form of an eagle to fly through the air, an old beggar woman to disguise her appearance, a ferocious bear to fight off her enemies, and so much more, all with a mere magic word and a wave of her wand. It is through this power that Gothel gained her reputation as the Villain of All Fairy Tales.

However, as with all fairy tales, this ability does have a caveat. Each transformation comes with a condition that, once fulfilled, will release the victim from its binding. If a victim is able to escape from Gothel and find someone to free them from their curse, then they will be returned to their true form.

(FGO Effect:) -Inflicts Buff Block status for three times on one enemy. -High chance to Stun an enemy for one turn. -Gains Critical Stars every turn for three turns. -Increase Critical Damage for yourself for three turns

Mesmerizing Banquet of Cockaigne B:

Poisoned Apples.

Gingerbread Houses.

Irresistible Rapunzel.

In the fairy tales of old Europe, food and drink has often served as the greatest tempter of man, and witches like Gothel have preyed on these temptations for ages, able to prey on the hunger and greed of humanity by creating food that no human is able to possibly resist.

This power over food has only grown in power after Gothel has consumed the mythical Land of Cockaigne and further bolstered her power. The mere presence of her cooking is able to drive victims mad and lure them into the land of food and drink that is Cockaigne, abandoning all precepts such and former memories to become self-indulgent and hedonistic, like cattles to the slaughter.

Surprisingly, while Gothel can easily summon food and drink by means of her magic, she seems to have a preference for making her food from scratch. When cooking, a faint smile can be seen on Gothel’s face, even when not preparing a meal to deceive or hypnotize.

“Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble… Rampion flower on the vine… return to me what once was mine…”

(FGO Effect:) -Significantly increases NP Gauge. -Removes own Debuffs. -Low chance to lower Critical Resistance for all enemies for three turns. -Low chance to lower Buster Resistance for all enemies for three turns. -Low chance to reduce NP Charge for all enemies for three turns. -Low chance to lower Attack for all enemies for three turns. -Low chance to lower Healing for all enemies for three turns.

Noble Phantasms:

Noble Phantasm: Die Teufelsmaske - Feed the Devil’s Fire Rank: A Maximum Targets: 1 Range: — Classification: Anti-Unit(Self)

A terrifying Noble Phantasm that removes all guises and illusion from Frau Gothel’s form to reveal who she truly is: The Devil, villain of Europe's very first fairy tales. In this state, she takes on the form of a terrible demon straight from Hell itself. Gnarled horns as red as blood pierce through her skull, her hair takes on a deathly pallor, angelic wings burst out from her back, and her teeth sharpen into deadly fangs. The world around her shifts and darkens, becoming a dense, foggy forest filled with dead trees and ominous winds, all isolating the devil and her victims from the world.

She is not the true Devil, but rather “Mankind’s Approximation of the Devil”, a false image who bears but a fraction of the true Adversary's power. Simply put, she is the ultimate evil for a hero to face in a fairy tale, a monster with the potential to become an Evil of Humanity itself.

It is not just her physical form that changes upon activating this Noble Phantasm, but her magical prowess surges to seemingly limitless heights, able to weave her own story and alter the world around her how she pleases. It was through this Noble Phantasm that the Hausmärchen Singularity Collective was born, where the Beast of Ignorance would attempt to consume all other stories in order to destroy Humanity to its very roots, and where Gothel would attempt to destroy the Chaldeans on her orders, by altering these beloved fairy tales and corrupting them with her immense power.

So ferocious, so dreadful is this power that even the nascent Beast of Ignorance, Red Riding Hood, didn’t dare face this monster head-on in combat, instead choosing to let the Chaldeans distract and weaken her so she could land a mortal wound on the demonic witch.

“Fufufufufufu… Do you understand now? I am not some mere ‘thing’ that goes bump in the night… I am not just the paltry scratches at your walls… I am the monster that all children fear. I am the evil that makes you lock your doors. I am the witch that lives just next door. I am Evil. I am Wicked. I am Frau Trude, and I am very real, child.”

(FGO Effect:) -Remove all Debuffs from self. -Increase Debuff Resistance for three turns. -Increases own critical star absorption for three turns. -Grants self On-Attack-Activate buff for three attacks, three turns. --Increases own Critical Damage for one turn when attacking with Buster Cards. -Increases own damage against ‘Fairy Tale’ or ‘Fated Hero’ enemies.

Noble Phantasm: Kleine Verlorene Kinder - Happily Never After Rank: A Maximum Targets: — Range: — Classification: Anti-Army

Dame Gothel has the ability to summon massive golems made of gnarled wood and hellish flames, each one standing over ten feet tall. These golems are nigh-immortal, soulless husks of incredible power, akin to the Olympian Soldiers of the Fifth Lostbelt. They feel no pain, are able to regenerate from nearly any damage, and will not cease until their targets have been completely and utterly eradicated. They know nothing but destruction and death, and wickedly relish in it any chance they can.

Truly, these must be monsters straight out of Hell, demons created from the darkest pits mankind has ever known. There is nothing else that could explain their sheer malice and relentless nature.

Alas… if only that were true.

In reality, these monsters are the children slain by Dame Gothel, the foolish and wicked children who disobeyed their parents. They strayed from the path and ended up caught by the wicked witch. Their bodies were killed and eaten by the monster in the woods, and their souls were left to burn in the Devil’s fire, fueling these monstrosities. What memories these creatures held have been long forgotten, and all they know now is to obey, a monstrous punishment for their foolishness in life.

Now, all these children have left is resentment and anger. Hatred for the ones who got away, who had a chance to escape the monsters of the world. It is unfair, they say, that they alone must suffer. So they will drag down anyone and everyone they can into the darkness, using their powers to twist and distort their victims into more of these monstrous creatures, until nothing is left behind but death and chaos.

Noble Phantasm: Rapunzel, Rapunzel - The Maiden in the Tower Rank: A Maximum Targets: — Range: — Classification: Anti-Fortress

The fabled tower in which Dame Gothel spent the rest of her days, and where the fair maiden Rapunzel was locked within. It is a prison akin to Merlin’s Garden of Avalon, a nigh-inescapable maze of hewn stone and wood. This tower serves as a great and terrible prison in which escape is nigh impossible. The tower itself is protected against magical attacks of all kinds, and is far sturdier than its appearance belies. The only way in or out is within a window high near the top of the tower, where Gothel herself lays in wait for anyone who would dare escape or enter.

Gothel can summon this tower in parts, summoning the walls as a bulwark against enemies and their attacks. However, the tower is at its most fearsome and powerful when the full structure has been erected, serving as the central lynchpin of the Hausmärchen Singularity where all Fairy Tales were forcibly distorted.

However, for those trapped within, there is a single thing to serve as a guide. A long, golden rope of hair, which can be seen throughout the tower. Despite the obvious trail it leads, Gothel does not do much as touch the hair, content to leave it be.

Voice Lines:

Summoned: Bow your head, human. You stand in the presence of Dame Gothel, the Witch of the Story's End. Hmm… So I have been summoned to serve Humanity, is it? Hah! What a joke. But I suppose I can spare you for now, Human. Though be warned. If I find you irritating, I will cook and eat you like all the rest before you.

Summoned(Clear Singularity “Hausmärchen - Land of Stories”): I see now… This is why I was called by the World to save mankind. How irritating... Does this world expect me to play the role of a hero now? But I suppose if that is the role the story asks me to play, I must play it out to my best. Don't think I'm getting soft though, human... I am Dame Gothel, the Witch of the Story's End, and a monster I will remain until the end of days.

Level Up 1: More fuel to the fire… Good, let the flames grow higher.

Level Up 2: Another ingredient to the cauldron... How delicious.

Level Up 3: Another offering for me? My, my, you're too kind.

1st Ascension: Ah, now this is more to my tastes. This is a dress most befitting a witch like myself. Fufufufufu… What do you think, human? Beautiful and fearsome, am I not? Perfect for the monster that I am.

2nd Ascension: You insist on pressing onward? Even if what you see may be frightening? I wonder... Would you consider yourself brave or foolish? I suppose time will tell.

3rd Ascension: Fufufufufufu... Finally, you see me for who I truly am. Do you understand, child…? You've strayed too far from the path of light, and now The Devil has come to make you pay for your sins. Tell me, was it worth it, selling your soul?

4th Ascension: Good and evil... Light and dark... They are but roles we are meant to play in the story. I did not choose the path I have taken, it was thrust upon me. The story dictated that I was to be the villain, and so I took upon that title with pride. I do not regret a single action I have taken... ...I wonder, did she think the same? Did she not once look back?

Fight Start 1: By all means, welcome to my humble abode… You’re not going to leave it anytime soon…

Fight Start 2: Well, well, well, it seems like a lovely little morsel has arrived. And just when I was getting hungry, too…

Fight Start 3: You know, you shouldn’t go walking around the woods by yourself. Who knows what monsters lurk in the shadows…?

Fight Start(Fatal Battle): Ah… Ahhh…! Rapunzel, Rapunzel…! Why…?! Why did you leave me?!

Skill 1: Double, double, toil and trouble…

Skill 2: Fire burn and cauldron bubble…

Skill 3: By the pricking of my thumbs…

Skill 4: Something wicked this way comes…

Command Card Select 1: Is that all?

Command Card Select 2: I suppose I haven’t used this trick in a while.

Command Card Select 3: This should be more than enough for the likes of you!

Noble Phantasm Select 1: It’s time we cast off this illusion…

Noble Phantasm Select 2: Tell me… Are you afraid?

Attack 1: Burn, down to your very bones!

Attack 2: By all means, scream…

Attack 3: You are going to taste exquisite…

Attack 4: Crush them, Tower with No Doors!

Attack 5: Hell awaits you!

Attack 6: Do you think you can survive this?!

Attack 7: Bind them, Seal of Solomon!

Extra Attack 1: The final chapter has been written… It’s the end of your story!

Extra Attack 2: Oh, do you think you can escape…? How foolish!

Noble Phantasm 1:

Heeheeheeeee… Hahahahaaaaa…!

Now the real fun begins…

Now the feast shall commence…

Now, little ones…

It’s time.

Let. Me. In.

DIE TEUFELMASKE!

Noble Phantasm 2:

The Witch’s Night has come and gone…

Now the Devil comes to play!

So run and hide, it’s all the fun!

NOW HAS COME THE TIME TO SLAY!

DIE TEUFELMASKE!

Noble Phantasm 3:

Bolt your doors…

Hide your children…

For the witching hour has arrived…

Die Teufelmaske.

AHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!

Noble Phantasm 4(Fatal Battle):

I am a monster… I am the Devil…

I am a demon who holds no love for anything in this world…

Then why…

Why does my heart hurt so much?!

Rapunzel… Rapunzel…

It's all your fault!

YOU DID THIS TO ME!

AHHHHHHHH!!!

DIE TEUFELMASKE!

Damage from Noble Phantasm: How annoying…

Regular Damage: Tch.

Defeated 1: If the story says so…

Defeated 2: I’ll come back another day, just you wait.

Defeated(Fatal Battle): No… Please… Just let me end this!

Victory 1: Unfortunately for you, there is no happy ending.

Victory 2: And so the story reaches the end. The hero has been slain, and the wicked witch claims another victim.

Bond Level 1: So, we really are doing this, hm? Very well, as per our agreement, I shall lend my aid in your task to save mankind. In return, the moment I get bored with you, or I grow irritated by your words, or I am offended by your presence, I can and will eradicate you, completely and utterly. This I swear. Such is the binding of our contract. ...fufufufufu. Congratulations, young Master of Chaldea. You've made a deal with the Devil.

Bond Level 2: What's with that strange look you are giving me? ...ah, I understand. You don't trust me, do you? Don't worry. I may be the Witch of the End, but even I understand the sacred nature of an oath. Even if it is an annoyance to me, I intend to fulfill my side of the bargain to the fullest. I expect nothing less from you. Otherwise... *snaps fingers* Your soul is forfeit. Do I make myself clear?

Bond Level 3: Ghhh... Must you insist on following me around like a lost duckling? Surely, there must be other Servants that you could bother aside from me? ...hm? Lonely? ... What a joke. I am a monster. The Devil Incarnate. Whoever heard of a creature like that being lonely?

Bond Level 4: Your presence... It's annoyingly familiar to me. You remind me too much of my daughter. No... That's not right. Unlike her, you truly do fear me, don't you? I can smell it. And yet, you still choose to approach me? How strange... Still, I suppose I can't begrudge you, given our contract. But stay out of my way.

Bond Level 5: What is it now? ...ah, I understand, a revision to the contract. Very well. I suppose we are due for some additions. First off, your terms wish for me to... be more open in Chaldea. Tch. What an annoyance. But I suppose it is an acceptable one. I do not promise to be kind, or to be sociable, or any of that nonsense. But I suppose I can make an effort to do more around here. As for my terms...? You are not allowed to leave. ...oh? Do I see hesitation on your face? Then allow me to explain. Your life and mine will become bound to one another. If you are to leave me behind, I will follow. If you are to die, I will put you back together. If you are to vanish from this world, I will use every bit of my power to return you to it. Your fate and mind will become connected for all eternity, until we both agree to annul this contract. Simply put? I will not let you abandon me. So... do we have a deal?

Dialogue 1: Tell me child, when you think of the villain of all Fairy Tales, who comes to mind? …eh? The Big Bad Wolf…? Tch. What a pain. It appears I’ve been slacking in my efforts.

Dialogue 2: So, you too are a dreamer? Feh, I should have known. You have that annoying air about you. One of hoping and dreaming…

Dialogue 3: Are you just going to sit there and gawp at me while I work? If you have nothing better to do, here. Get me these ingredients. What? You’re worried it’s too dangerous? Well, it’s not my problem. Now go!

Dialogue 4: The end is fast approaching… I wonder, what will you do when the time comes? Will you cower in fear? Will you fight? Or will you simply accept it…? No, that’s foolish of me to ask, I know the answer.

Dialogue 5 (If you have Pinocchio): Little Pilgrim Made of Pine… The boy has apparently got it into his hollow head that he is to be my ‘conscience’. …heh. Isn’t that funny? A monster having a conscience? I’d laugh if the boy didn’t seem to mean it with all his heart…

Dialogue 6 (If you have Cinderella): Ah yes, the Persecuted Heroine… She reminds me all too much of my dear child. Such a pity, though… To have all the fortune in the world and still be unhappy.

Dialogue 7 (If you have Red Riding Hood): The Beast of Ignorance… Yes, she summoned me to create her own Singularity. In exchange, she would give me the salvation I desperately wanted. I was a fool to think I could trust a wolf. Be that as it may… I don’t enjoy being tricked.

Dialogue 8 (If you have “Goldilocks”): Ah, it’s you… I was wondering for the longest time why you of all characters felt so out of place… To think that it would be that a fallen deity stood before me. …how irritating.

Dialogue 9 (If you have any “Angel” Servants): Have you come once more to mock me, angel? Fine. Make your jeers and your judgements, they’re all the same.

Dialogue 10 (If you have Beni-Enma): Have you come to cast your judgement on me, little sparrow? I suppose it’s only fair. But if you expect me to make it easy for you, then you are a fool.

Dialogue 11 (If you have Mephistopheles): Oh? The Demon of Faust is here as well? How interesting… What a shame that he is not a true demon, though. I suppose his trickery and deceit is entertaining enough. I wonder, clown. What tricks have you up your sleeves?

Dialogue 12 (If you have Oberon-Vortigern): You too… have lost something important to you? Ah, Titania… No, I sadly have never met a woman such as that. Have you by any chance…? No, I suppose you wouldn’t have. In any case, I wish you luck, Fairy King.

Dialogue 13 (If you have Kintoki Sakata): Golden hair… The son of a witch… And an annoyingly chipper outlook on the world. Ghhh… He’s clearly not the same, but still, he’s too familiar. I best keep away from him for now.

Dialogue 14 (If you have Nursery Rhyme): Hm? What do you want, child? …you wish for me to read you a story? … No, there are other Servants better suited to that-OW! Hey, stop pulling on my dress! Ghhh…! This is why I hate children!

Dialogue 15 (If you have Hans Christian Andersen): Hans Christian Andersen… I suppose I owe my existence partly to him. What a sad little man he is. Putting up a front of coldness and disdain, but he’s just a coward too afraid of intimacy. …hm? What do you mean ‘he reminds you of someone’?!

Dialogue 16 (If you have any other “Fairy Tale” Servants): It appears my reputation precedes me… Yes, all the looks of terror and fear surrounding me… Fufufufufu… Now this is my element!

Dialogue 17 (If you have Lostbelt Morgan): The Witch-Queen of the Britons, as I live and breathe. You may be from a time and place not of this world, but I can sense your magical talent all the same… How frightening.

Dialogue 18 (If you have any “Child” Servants): Well, well, well… Lunch has arrived. Fufufufu… Don’t worry, Master, I’m only kidding. For now, at least.

Likes: There’s no greater pleasure in this world than eating. If there’s one thing God has done right, it’s grant all creatures, great and small, the ability to eat and cook. And of course, thanks to my magic, I can change my appearance however I wish. In other words, I can eat as much as I want, and suffer none of the consequence!

Dislikes: Something I dislike? Children. They’re terrible little things, talking to you, invading your homes, taking things from you… Yes, what rotten, horrible things children are. Only good to be a meal, nothing else.

About the Holy Grail: The Holy Grail…? Hmph, do you take me for a fool? That thing is clearly cursed. To make a wish on it, one must either be desperate, or an idiot. No, my magic is more than enough to surpass that paltry little thing.

During an Event: Oho? Now what has come a-knocking at my door? My, it seems that some festivities have begun, and here I am without an invitation. This cannot stand… Come, let us go see what all the fuss is about. I happen to know a thing or two about crashing parties…

Birthday: What? Oh, you wish to celebrate your birthday with me, do you? Hmm… I suppose I can whip something up from scratch. It may be a bit of a rush, but I suppose I can indulge you just this once. Don’t expect me to make this a habit, though.

Profile:

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Once Upon a Time, in a faraway land, there was a witch. Or rather, there were many witches. Monsters that stalked the dark forests, looking for children to kidnap. Women that had sold their souls to the Devil in exchange for fantastic magical powers. Tricksters that caught victims in riddles and traps for their own sick amusement.

These stories would eventually become fused into one, a witch who would symbolize the fear all children hold in their hearts, and the looming threat that lay beyond the walls of their home. One of the few named witches, who terrorized the tales of the Brothers Grimm told to children at night. Gleefully, she tormented those who walked in her forests, cooking children for her meals, burning wayward fools who entered into her hut, and tearing families apart, all to amuse her.

She was Frau Trude Gothel, the Wicked Witch, a monster who held no love for anything.

Bond Level 1:

Height/Weight: 176cm • 75kg Source: Grimm’s Fairy Tales Region: Germany Alignment: Chaotic • Evil Gender: Female

She was Frau Trude Gothel, the Wicked Witch, a monster who held no love for anything.

Bond Level 2:

The witch's cruelty comes in many forms, some benign, some sinister. Some overt, some subtle. In some stories, she is The Devil, extending a gentle hand to bind a victim within a horrifying contract, cackling as another fool sells their soul and loses everything to her. In other tales, she is a temptress, luring children into her home with promises of sweets or enticing mysteries to solve, only to kill these innocents and use them to sate her vile hunger. In still others, she is a vain sorceress, tormenting younger beauties in envy of their purity and goodness, forcing a hero to come and save the maiden from her monstrous cruelty.

However, on very rare occasions, the witch is not the villain of the story, but rather a guide and teacher for the hero to seek out. And at times rarer still, she is a mother, a guardian, and a protector, watching over her child with the rage of a loving parent. How strange it is, that this self-admitted monster can be so versatile, how a being who claims to be heartless can come to care for anything with true love.

And here, in truth, does the story begin in earnest.

Bond Level 3:

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, the witch Dame Gothel lived, laying deep within a forest by her lonesome, relishing in the fear and terror her very name brought to the land. Mothers locked their children behind their doors, fathers carried torches and pitchforks in the night, and all prayed to God for salvation from this monster. She was content with this, all too happy to be the monster she was meant to be.

One night, the witch heard a rustling outside her door, and found that a neighbor from a nearby home had ravaged her garden, stealing the rapunzel plants and placing them in a basket. Incensed, the witch accuses the man of theft, and readied to kill him on the spot. The man, in turn, fell to his knees and begs.

"Please, miss! My wife needs to eat these plants to survive! She is to give birth soon, and I fear that she is wasting away! For the love of God, have mercy!"

The witch stayed her hand at the man’s words, but her mercy was not bourn out of kindness. Rather, she came to a terribly wicked idea. A bargain that would drive the man to the deepest pits of despair.

"Very well, I shall spare your life, but in return, I ask for one thing: your child that is to be had. I should like to keep her, and in exchange, I will let you eat of my plants."

Desperate, the man agreed, and upon the child's birth, she was given to the witch, at both mother and father’s despair. Frau Gothel took the child with her to a tower with no stairs or doors hidden deep in the forest. She named the child Rapunzel, after the very plants that secured her imprisonment to Gothel, and locked the baby into the highest room of the tower, where no man could ever hope to find her.

Bond Level 4:

Dame Gothel never truly intended to keep the child for herself. She had no use for a progeny because of her immortality, nor did she particularly want one in the first place. Children were far too noisy and prying and irritating for her to keep, that much was clear. No, if anything, the child would suffice as a meal. Perhaps not as she was now, but in due time, the baby would serve as a meal, nothing more, nothing less. It was as she was named: Rapunzel. Merely an ingredient to be cooked in a stew or served in a salad, just like all the other children before her.

And yet...

As the years went on, the child grew and grew, and Dame Gothel couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness as she watched. The child looked her in the eyes with no fear, unlike anyone else who had met her before. She did not care of the magical power she held, or the terrible atrocities she had done. No, the young Rapunzel saw no evil in her mother's eyes, and in turn, Dame Gothel beheld something she had truly begun to love. Eventually, all thoughts of eating the child were gone, and in their place were a mother's protective heart. She would shield the child from the cruelty of the world, protect her within this tower with all her might. Nothing and no one would ever lay eyes on her precious daughter, and they would live together within this tower, just the two of them.

They would all live Happily Ever After.

Alas, if only it was meant to be.

Bond Level 5:

She did not know when the man came, nor how he came to find their hiding place, or even why he climbed the tower to begin with. But it was unmistakable, the stench of that 'prince' violated the tower, just as much as he had violated her dear Rapunzel. Gothel confronted her child, and soon, the relationship between mother and daughter began to strain.

"You... You let him in here?! Moreso than that, you bear his child?! How could you do this to me?! How could you do this to yourself?!"

"Mother, I love him! And he loves me! We are to be wed, and I will not let you stand in the way of our marriage!"

"Love?! Marriage?! Rapunzel, you are a fool! You've only known him for a few months, and you're talking about marrying him?! You're just blinded by your naivete!"

"Whose fault is it then?! You call me naive, and yet you're the one who locked me in this tower, never able to see anything beyond these walls! If I am blind, then it is because you are the one who has blinded me my whole life!"

"How... dare you?! I did this all to protect you!"

"No, you did this to keep me all to yourself!"

At her daughter's words, Gothel was overcome with a monstrous rage she had not known since taking in the child. In a fit of blind rage, Gothel cut off Rapunzel's precious locks, her golden hairs falling to the ground all at once. The two fell silent as mother and daughter looked each other in the eyes. Horrified at what she had done, Gothel could not even speak a word of protest as her child left the tower, never to return again. Silently, she extended a hand towards the one person she had ever loved… And did nothing as she faded away into the dark forest.

Extra (Clear Singularity “Hausmärchen - Land of Stories”):

Upon Rapunzel's departure, the Witch of the Forest remained in the tower waiting, hoping for the day that her child would one day return, and they would live out their lives as they always had. Just the two of them together. She did not eat. She did not sleep. She did not even attempt to leave her prison of her own making.

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, months turned to years, and yet neither hide nor golden hair of the child had made her way home.

So, the Witch of the Story’s End did something she had never done in her long years of life: she prayed. Clasping her hands together, Dame Gothel, who had sold her soul to the Devil, who wickedly defied Heaven without remorse, begged Heaven for a sign, an answer from God that her beloved daughter would come home to her, that her family would be made whole once more. After many sleepless nights of prayer, Heaven would eventually answer Gothel’s prayers, sending an angel from on high to speak to the monstrous witch.

"Dame Gothel, wicked and cruel tormentor of mankind... You dare ask God for intercession? You, who has torn apart countless lives, murdered hundreds of children, now beg for your own child to return? Do you not realize that your daughter left you because you refused to give her happiness? That you marred her own beloved just to selfishly keep her in your tower? ... You disgust me. The only reason why I do not damn you to Hell here and now... Is because I see that no punishment could ever surpass your torment here and now. So lay here and rot until the end of your life, Dame Gothel... Forever knowing your daughter is far happier now that you are gone from her life."

Upon the angel's words, Gothel's heart had shattered into pieces. The wicked witch, who had gleefully tormented families and left them in despair, was now trapped within her own sorrow, having lost her dear Rapunzel. She had nothing to live for, nothing to smile about. Without Rapunzel, she was left as nothing more than a living corpse, left to waste away until nothing remained of her.

Never to regain her Happily Ever After.

The End.

#fate #fate fanservant #fanservant #fate grand order #fgo #fate oc #dame gothel #frau trude #the wicked witch #writing and other stuff #behold! my second fairy tale fanservant!#I've got six in total in mind #and yes this is me indulging in my love of witch designs in fiction #i liked the idea of having an unrepentant monster as a servant #and yet they still do have someone they cared about despite that #and dame gothel was honestly the best choice for that #witches in fairy tales are almost always unrepentant eaters of children and complete monsters #but dame gothel was somewhat of an exception #with there being a lot of ambiguity in the story if she truly loved rapunzel or was an abusive parental figure like many other fairy tales #i decided to lean towards the former #which made an interesting writeup to juxtapose with her being... well an evil witch who ate children #and i like how it turned out #hope y'all find it interesting too

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somediyprojects · 1 year ago

Photo

Lavender and Lace: Enchanted Alphabet conversion by Frank Jordan. Pattern designed by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum.

Completed - a Halloween conversion of Enchanted Alphabet.

Cross Eyed Cricket - Sleepy Hollow

There were so many elements I love about this large panel piece, but I only had room for one element- the moon. This pattern is available to purchase from several retailers, but not as a digital download.

Owl Forest Embroidery -100 Owls

This is (amazingly) a free download of a sampler made of (you guessed it) 100 Owls. Really fantastic- it was hard to choose- but many of them would have been too big or too small - I like this one - I just needed to make the D wider to accommodate the footprint.

The Witchy Stitcher

I have been a massive fan of Meg Black, otherwise known as the Witchy Stitcher, for a number of years. She is a Canadian artist with an extensive catalog of spooky and funny patterns available to purchase and download, and hosts excellent stitch alongs. She is also active on Patreon, and one of the patterns I used (Pumpkin Krampus) is (I think) a Patreon exclusive. I knew I wanted to use my stash of WS patterns in this project, but little did I know I would end up purchasing several more to get the elements I wanted. Meg was also very supportive through her Facebook group. I can't recommend her enough to anyone who loves Halloween and Cross Stitch!

Leshy - Guardian of the Woods

This was one of the three WS patterns I knew I had to use in the sampler. I used the main figure, a modified and extended border (boy was that a pain to stitch - I decided I wanted some sparkle and used Etoile DMC for the black and white. It does look good but that was a very long border!), and the bird, converted to black and grey with red eyes.

Batty for You - Valloween

The second pattern I KNEW i wanted.

Baba Yaga

Another MUST HAVE. This is the pattern I had to modify the most from the original to get to fit. Those chicken legs are about half length, and sadly I had to lose the smoke coming from the chimney- despite several attempts to fit it in. I also used the cauldron and mounted skulls as a separate element.

Antisocial Bat

I knew I wanted to highlight the letters D (for my partner Danny), F (for me), and P (for our feline companion Pangur) Danny got the owl (above), I got the bat, and I designed my own version of Pangur.

Pumpkin Krampus

This was a Patreon exclusive. The Witchy Stitcher Patreon benefits are great - and this pattern was perfectly timed. I really wanted to include some version of a goat (my partner is a big fan of The VVitch). There are a couple of fantastic versions of goats on the Witchy Stitcher site, but I just couldn't get them to fit- just as I was giving up- this mini pattern dropped. It is not a goat, but it does give those vibes and I love it in the sampler.

Queen of Halloween

I wanted to do something special as a "signature" for this sampler. I knew I wanted this pattern but it would be much too large. I decided to take the plunge and stitch 1 over 1 - while I was cursing this decision halfway through stitching, I really like it. The text below is of my own design. I made great progress in 2021 and fully expected to finish that year, but life happens- didn't have the heart to go back and frog the stitching,so I guess I will have to live with the deception - I finished in 2023.

Creepy Crafter

Mini Samhain (Free Download)

The Witchy Stitcher provides several fun, small, free downloads on her site. This is one of them.

When Witches Go Riding

All Treats No Tricks

The very last element I added. I think it provides a lovely pop of colour. I did modify the colours and only used the head of one of the trick or treaters. A charming pattern I may end up doing on its on.

A note on bats

There are 15 bats on the sampler, drawn from a number of WS patterns.

IN CLOSING

When I started this project, I had no idea it would take two years to complete. There are many nicer patterns out there than this mash up of a sampler (in fact any one of the ones I have used on their own would be more attractive) but I am proud of this project and look forward to seeing it every Halloween. Thank you to the Witchy Stitcher and the other designers - you make this hobby such a rewarding and fun experience.

And thank you especially to the late Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum. She deserves a place in the cross stitch hall of fame (if such a thing existed) - a true artist with a special vision for textile arts.

#cross stitch #inspo #x #lavender and lace #marilyn leavitt imblum #conversion #halloween

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hannahhook7744 · 2 years ago

Text

Marya Rasputin Application;

Name: Marya Grigorievna Rasputin.

Known Aliases: The Medic, The Taxidermist, The Archeologist, and Marya 'The Freak' Rasputin.

Nicknames or Other: Mary, Mar, 'Rya, 'Arya, M.G.R, M.R, the demon girl, the skeleton keeper, and the grave robber.

Date of Birth or Best Guess: Sometime 20 years ago.

Place of Birth: The Isle of the lost.

Favorite Color: Black, red, silver, purple, and green.

Favorite Activity: Taxidermy and archeology.

Favorite School Subject: Unnatural Biology.

Father's Name (or alias): Grigori Efimovic Rasputin.

Mother's Name (or alias): Baba Yaga/The Witch of the Iron Forest.

Father's Profession: Dark Sorcerer, Priest, and Cossack.

Mother's Profession: Witch of the Iron Forest.

Who is your favorite of the first wave of VKs? There is no wrong answer.

The Apple Witch (She means Evie).

In your own words, tell us why you want to come to Auradon. There is no wrong answer.

Marya wants to go to Auradon because she wants to travel to and see the homeland her parents (and my mother) speak so fondly of and she also wants to go to an actual medical school like I and a couple of our friends want to do as well.

Signature:

Marya Grigorievna Rasputin.

#descendants #disney descendants #melissa de la cruz #wicked world #disney #descendants au #descendants head #disney descendants headcanons #descendants book #descendants book characters i built on #disney descendants book characters

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axl-ul · 2 years ago

Text

Character Intro: Ulfrika Výtaušeimová

Aliases:

Embalmer, Black Horseman, Devil, Healer, Rat, Umrlec

Quote:

“My word is not only the law but also my binding to you and your life.“

Physical traits:

Height: 214 cm (7 ft)

Weight: 70 kg (154,3 lbs)

Build: lanky, gaunt, bony

Hair: dark brown, shoulder-length

Eyes: dark brown, nearly black with eyebags underneath

Skin: pale almost ashen, dry

Unusual traits: a set of protruding fangs, a scar on her chest, claw-like nails

Personality:

Ulfrika is not much of a talker. Keeping to herself most of her time while closely listening to rumors, she is known for her unnerving presence lurking in the shadows. A Master Embalmer skilled in both arts of the blade and the way of laying the dead to an eternal rest, her calm yet eerie attitude has raised various questions throughout the many years of her non-human life. Those who looked into her eyes even claim there's no life behind, only an alien mimickery of a proper living creature. Her cold demeanour intertwined with a sickly looking body and high intelligence makes her stand out in the crowd. However, if one bats an eye, it is for sure they won't find her there anymore. Yet few know how caring she can be. One of the few fortunate souls to ever see behind the facade are Ulfrika's animal companions and her younger sister, all of whom Ulfrika values significantly higher than the rest of the humans, demons and even gods themselves. One thing is certain, though - her loyalty to her family and ancient craft of embalming is immeasurable.

Personal life and relationships:

She barely speaks of her private life and so not many people can precisely put together her origins. Speculations say she was found in a dark forest as a child. All that is known for sure is that she has a younger sister Márgerdra, who's better known under her title Lady Wolf Witch. Ulfrika might be spotted with her loyal raven messanger, Krabat, sitting on her shoulder, then her devoted wolf companion Tiru. As a 'Black Horseman' she owns two black horses which are rumoured to be the result of her pact with Baba Yaga herself.

Role:

Protagonist of Empire of Dust novel and one of the main characters of The Legends of No-man's Land cycle.

#writing #writing community #writers of tumblr #writeblr #original character #character introduction #character intro #novel #my writing #somehow i built up the courage to share this post #still a long way ahead myself #but at least i started right? yay #btw im doing a character intro this detailed for the first time #and i dont know whether im doing this right #hopefully the structure makes sense #ulfrika výtaušeimová

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legends-collection · 9 days ago

Text

Ala

An ala or hala (plural: ale or hali) is a female mythological creature recorded in the folklore of Bulgarians, Macedonians, and Serbs. Ale are considered demons of bad weather whose main purpose is to lead hail-producing thunderclouds in the direction of fields, vineyards, or orchards to destroy the crops, or loot and take them away. Extremely voracious, ale particularly like to eat children, though their gluttony is not limited to Earth. It is believed they sometimes try devouring the Sun or the Moon, causing eclipses, and that it would mean the end of the world should they succeed. When people encounter an ala, their mental or physical health, or even life, are in peril; however, her favor can be gained by approaching her with respect and trust. Being in a good relationship with an ala is very beneficial, because she makes her favorites rich and saves their lives in times of trouble.

Pic by MRAIRT on DeviantArt

The appearance of an ala is diversely and often vaguely described in folklore. A given ala may look like a black wind, a gigantic creature of indistinct form, a huge-mouthed, humanlike, or snakelike monster, a female dragon, or a raven. An ala may also assume various human or animal shapes, and can even possess a person's body. It is believed that the diversity of appearances described is due to the ala's being a synthesis of a Slavic demon of bad weather and a similar demon of the central Balkans pre-Slavic population. In folk tales with a humanlike ala, her personality is similar to that of the Russian Baba Yaga. Ale are said to live in the clouds, or in a lake, spring, hidden remote place, forest, inhospitable mountain, cave, or gigantic tree. While ale are usually hostile towards humans, they do have other powerful enemies that can defeat them, like dragons. In Christianized tales, St. Elijah takes the dragons' role, but in some cases the saint and the dragons fight ale together. Eagles are also regarded as defenders against ale, chasing them away from fields and thus preventing them from bringing hail clouds overhead.

Origin

While some mythological beings are common to all Slavic ethnic groups, ale seem to be exclusive to Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serb folklore. Even so, other Slavic groups also had demons of bad weather. Among East Slavs, this witch was called Baba Yaga, and was imagined as a woman of gigantic stature with a big nose, iron teeth, and protruding chin; it was believed that she ate children, and her presence brought thunderstorms and cold weather. The term baba is present in customs, beliefs, and toponyms of all Slavic groups, usually as a personification of wind, darkness, and rain. This leads some scholars to believe there was a proto-Slavic divinity or demon called Baba, associated with bad weather.

Traces of beliefs in that demon are preserved among South Slavs in expressions for the bad weather common in early spring (baba Marta, babini jarci, babine huke, etc.). Brought to the Balkans from the ancient homeland, these beliefs combined with those of the native populations, eventually developing into the personage of the ala. The pre-Slavic Balkan source of the ala is related to the vlva, female demons of bad weather of the Romanians of the Timok Valley, who, like ale, led hail clouds over crops to ruin them, and uprooted trees. A Greek female demon Lamia might also have contributed in the development of the ala. Just like ale, she eats children, and is called gluttonous. In southern Serbia and North Macedonia, lamnja, a word derived from lamia, is also a synonym for ala. The Bulgarian lamya has remained a creature distinct from the ala, but shares many similarities with her. The numerous variations in form of ale, ranging from the animal and half-animal to the humanlike concepts, tell us that beliefs in these demons were not uniform.

Etymology

The demon’s name in the standard Serbian, ala, comes from dialects which lost the velar fricative, while hala is recorded in a Serbian dialect which has retained this sound and in Bulgarian. For this reason, it is believed that the original name had an initial h-sound, a fact that has led Serbian scholar Ljubinko Radenković to reject the etymology given by several dictionaries, including that of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, by which the demon’s name comes from the Turkish word ‘ala’ (snake) as that word lacks the h-sound. The name may instead stem from the Greek word for hail, χάλαζα (pronounced [ˈxalaza]; transliterated chalaza or khalaza). This etymology is proposed by Bulgarian scholar Ivanichka Georgieva, and supported by Bulgarian scholar Rachko Popov and Serbian scholars Slobodan Zečević, and Sreten Petrović. According to Serbian scholar Marta Bjeletić, ala and hala stem from the noun *xala in Proto-South-Slavic, the dialect of Proto-Slavic from which South Slavic languages emerged (x in xala represents the voiceless velar fricative). That noun was derived from the Proto-Slavic root *xal-, denoting the fury of the elements. A possible cognate in Kashubian language might be hała - "a large creature or thing".

Appearance

Dragon or serpent like demon connected with the wind, and thunderstorm and hail clouds. It was believed in the Gruža region of central Serbia that the ala is invisible, but that she can be heard — her powerful hissing resonated in front of the dark hail clouds.

In Bulgaria, farmers saw a horrible ala with huge wings and sword-like thick tail in the contours of a dark cloud. When an ala–cloud overtook the village, villagers peered into the sky hoping to see an imperial eagle emerging there. They believed that the mighty bird with a cross on its back could banish the ala–cloud from the fields. In eastern Bulgaria, ala appeared not in clouds, but in gales and whirlwinds. In other regions of Bulgaria, the ala was seen either as a "bull with huge horns, a black cloud, dark fog or a snake-like monster with six wings and twelve tails". The ala is thought to inhabit remote mountain areas or caves, in which she keeps bad weather. In Bulgarian tradition, thunderstorms and hail clouds were interpreted as a battle between the good dragon or eagle and the evil ala.

Serbs in Kosovo believed that the ala lowers her tail to the ground and hides her head in the clouds. Anyone who saw her head became instantly insane. In a high relief carved above a window of the Visoki Dečani monastery’s church, an eagle clutches a snakelike ala while an eaglet looks on. According to a description from eastern Serbia, the ala is a very large creature with a snake’s body and a horse’s head. A very common opinion is that the ala is the sister of the dragon, and looks more or less like him. In a spell from eastern Serbia, the ala is described as a three-headed snake:

У једна уста носи виле и ветрови, друга уста – издат и зле болести, трећа уста – учинци, растурци. In one mouth she bears fairies and winds, the second mouth – infirmity and bad diseases, the third mouth – spells, curses.

By a description recorded in the Boljevac region, the ala is a black and horrible creature in the form of wind. Similarly, in the Homolje region of eastern Serbia, the people imagine the ala as a black wind moving over the land. Wherever she goes, a whirlwind blows, turning like a drill, and those who get exposed to the whirlwind go mad. In Bulgaria too, the ala is a violent wind that sweeps up everything in its way and brings havoc:

Излезнаха до три люти хали, Девет години що се духали. Three furious ale had come out, For nine years they would be blowing.

A belief from the Leskovac region states the ala is a monster with an enormous mouth who holds in her hand a big wooden spoon, with which she grabs and devours everything that gets in her way. One story has it that a man kept such an ala in his barn; she drank thirty liters of milk every day. Another warns that ale in the form of twelve ravens used to take the crops from vineyards.

In eastern Serbia it was believed that ale who interact with people can metamorphose into humans or animals, after which their true selves can be seen only by so-called šestaci – men with six fingers on both hands and six toes on both feet – though human-looking ale cause houses to shake when they enter. By a belief recorded in the Homolje region, ale that charge to the Moon also display shapeshifting abilities: they repeatedly shift from their basic shape of two-headed snakes to six-fingered men who hold iron pitchforks, black young bulls, big boars, or black wolves, and back.

Effect on humans

Ale primarily destroy crops in fields, vineyards, and orchards by leading hail storm clouds overhead, usually during the first half of the summer when grain crops ripen. Ale are also believed to “drink the crops”, or seize the crops of a village and transport them to another place in their huge ears, thereby making some villages poor, and others rich. This was held as the reason why the Aleksandrovac region in central Serbia was so fruitful: it was where ale transported their loot. The people of Kopaonik mountain believed the local ala defended the crops of the area from other ale. If hail destroyed the crops, it was thought that an ala from another area had defeated the local ala and “drunk the crops”. Ale can also spread themselves over fields and thwart the ripening of the crops, or worse, consume the field's fertility, and drink the milk from sheep, especially when it thunders. Ale also possess great strength; when a storm uprooted trees, the people believed that an ala had done it. This resulted in a saying for a very strong man: jak kao ala, "as strong as an ala".

At the sight of hail and thunderstorm clouds, i.e. the ala that leads them, people did not just sit and wait – they resorted to magic. In the Pomoravlje region, this magic was assisted by ala’s herbs, picked in levees and the places on a field where a plow turns around during plowing. These locations were considered unclean because ale visited them. In folk spells of eastern Serbia, a particular ala could be addressed by a female personal name: Smiljana, Kalina, Magdalena, Dobrica, Dragija, Zagorka, etc. An expression for addressing an ala – Maate paletinke – is of uncertain meaning. One of the spells that was used upon sighting hail clouds, and which explicitly mentioned an ala, was shouted in the direction of the clouds:

Alo, ne ovamo, putuj na Tatar planinu! Ala, not hither, travel to the Tatar Mountain!

Another spell was spoken by a vračara, a woman versed in magic, while she performed a suitable ritual:

Не, ало, овамо, овамо је грђа ала гологлава. У планину, облаче, где петао не пева, где пас не лаје, где краве не ричу, где овце не блеје, где се слава не слави. Not hither, ala, a mightier, bareheaded ala is here. Off into the mountain, cloud, where no rooster crows, where no dog barks, where no cows bellow, where no sheep bleat, where slava is not celebrated.

As several other supernatural entities were also held responsible for bringing hail and torrential rains, when the entity is not explicitly named, it is often impossible to conclude to which the magical measures apply. There was, for example, a custom used when the approach of a thunderstorm was perceived: to bring a table in front of the house, and to put bread, salt, a knife with a black sheath, and an axe with its edge directed skywards on the table. By another custom, a fireplace trivet with its legs directed skywards, knives, forks, and the stub of the Slava candle were put on the table.

Another characteristic attributed to the ala is extreme voracity; in the Leskovac region, she was imagined as a monster with a huge mouth and a wooden spoon in her hand, with which she grabbed and devoured whatever came her way. According to a widely spread tradition, ale used to seize children and devour them in her dwelling, which was full of children’s bones and spilt blood. Less often, they attacked and ate adults; they were able to find a hidden human by smell.

People in eastern and southern Serbia believed that ale, in their voracity, attacked the Sun and the Moon. They gradually ate more and more of those celestial bodies, thereby causing an eclipse. During an eclipse, the Sun turned red because it was covered with its own blood as a result of the ale’s bites; when it shone brightly again, that meant it had defeated the ale. The spots on the Moon were seen as scars from the ale’s bites. While ale devoured the Sun or the Moon, many elderly people became depressed and even wept in fear. If ale succeeded in devouring the Sun, the world would end. To prevent that, men shot their guns toward the eclipse or rang bells, and women cast spells incessantly. There was a notion in the Homolje region that, if ale succeeded in devouring the Moon, the Sun would die from sorrow, and darkness would overwhelm the world.

Ale were believed to be able to make men insane; in eastern Serbia there is a special term for such a man: alosan. When people encountered an ala on a road or field, they could get dangerous diseases from her. Ale are also responsible for dogs’ rabies, although indirectly: a skylark that reaches the clouds and encounters an ala there goes mad (alosan), plunges to the ground, and so kills itself; a dog that finds and eats the bird goes mad too.

Traversing a crossroads at night was considered dangerous because it was the place and time of the ala’s supper; the unfortunate person who stepped on an “ala’s table” could become blind, deaf, or lame. Ale gather at night on the eves of greater holidays, divert men from their ways into gullies, and torture them there by riding them like horses.

Ala can “sneak” into humans, gaining a human form while retaining their own properties. A tradition has it that an ala sneaked into St. Simeon, which made him voracious, but St. Sava took her out of him. In a tale recorded in eastern Serbia and Bulgaria, a farmer killed an ala who possessed a skinny man living in a distant village, because the ala destroyed his vineyard. In another story, an ala gets into a deceased princess and devours the soldiers on watch.

A human going into an ala’s house, which is frequently deep in a forest, but may also be in the clouds, in a lake, spring, cave, gigantic tree, or other hidden remote place, or on an inhospitable mountain, can have varied consequences. If he approaches the ala with an appeal, and does not mention the differences between her and humans, he will be rewarded. Otherwise, he will be cruelly punished. According to one story, a stepdaughter, driven away from home by her stepmother, comes to an ala’s house; addresses her with the word mother; picks lice from the ala’s hair full of worms; and feeds the ala’s “livestock” of owls, wolves, badgers, and other wild animals; behaving and talking as if these things are quite normal to her, and is rewarded by the ala with a chest filled with gold. When the stepmother’s daughter comes to the ala’s house, she does the opposite, and the ala punishes her and her mother by sending them a chest of snakes, which blind them. In another example, when a prince asks an ala for her daughter’s hand, she saves him from other ale, and helps him get married. But when a girl to whom an ala is the godmother visits the ala with her mother, the ala eats them both because the mother talked about the strange things in her house.

That even a dead ala is bad is seen in the legend explaining the origin of the Golubatz fly (Simulium colombaschense), a species of bloodsucking black fly (of the genus Simulium) that can be lethal to livestock. The legend, recorded in the Požarevac District in the 19th century by Vuk Karadžić, tells how a Serbian man, after a chase, caught and wounded an ala, but she broke away and fled into a cave near Golubac (a town in the district), where she died of the wounds. Ever since, her body has bred the Golubatz flies, and in late spring, they fly out of the cave in a big swarm, spreading as far as Šumadija. People walled up the cave’s opening once, but when the time came for the flies to swarm, the wall shattered.

Aloviti men

Stefan Nemanja was believed to have been aloviti (ala-like).

In Serbia, men believed to possess properties of an ala were called aloviti (ala-like) men, and they were given several explanations. An ala may have sneaked into them; these were recognized by their voracity, because the ala, in order to satisfy her excessive hunger, drove them to eat incessantly. They may also have survived an ala blowing on them – an ala’s breath is usually lethal to humans. These people would then become exceptionally strong. Alternatively, they could be the offspring of an ala and a woman, or could have been born covered with the caul. It was believed that aloviti men could not be killed with a gun or arrow, unless gold or silver was used.

Like ale, aloviti men led hail-producing and thunderstorm clouds: when the skies darkened, such a man would fall into a trance, and his spirit would fly out of his body toward the clouds as if his spirit were an ala herself. There was, however, a significant difference – he never led the clouds over the fields of his own village; the damage was done to the neighboring villages. In this respect, aloviti men are equivalent to zduhaći. Besides leading clouds away, an aloviti man could also fight against ale to protect his village. Children, too, could be aloviti, and they fought ale using plough beams. In these fights they were helped by the Aesculapian snake (smuk in Serbian), and for this reason people would not hurt these snakes.

There is a story about an aloviti man, who is described as unusually tall, thin, bony-faced, and with a long beard and moustache. When the weather was nice, he worked and behaved like the other people in his village, but as soon as the dark clouds covered the sky, he used to close himself in his house, put blinds on the windows, and remain alone and in a trance as long as the bad weather and thunder lasted. Historical persons believed to be aloviti men are Stefan Nemanja, and Stefan Dečanski.

In modern Serbian adjective ''alav'' still signifies voracious appetite.

Ale have several adversaries, including dragons, zmajeviti (dragon-like) men, eagles, St. Elijah, and St. Sava. The principal enemy of the ala is the dragon; he is able to defeat her and eliminate her harmful effects. Dragons are thus seen as guardians of the fields and harvest, and as protectors against bad weather. When an ala threatens by bringing hail clouds, a dragon comes out to fight with her and drive her away. His main weapon is lightning; thunder represents a fight between ale and dragons (during which ale hide in tall trees). An instance of a more abundant crop at a particular point is explained in the Pčinja region as a result of a dragon having struck an ala with lightning just over that place, making her drop the looted grains she had been carrying in her huge ears. If an ala finds a dragon in a hollow tree, however, she can destroy him by burning the tree.

Ale can be defeated by zmajeviti men, who have a human mother, but a dragon father. They look like ordinary people except for little wings beneath their armpits; such men are always born at night after a twelve-month term. Much like a zduhać, a zmajeviti man lives like everybody else when the weather is nice, but when an ala leads threatening clouds into sight, he falls into a trance and his spirit comes out of his body and flies up to the clouds to fight with the ala, just like a dragon would do. A story from Banat, which was held as true until the 1950s, says that before World War I, an exhausted ala in the form of a giant snake fell from the clouds onto a road. The explanation of the event was that the ala was defeated in her fight with a zmajeviti man; people gave her milk to help her recover.

In a Christianized version, the duel involves the Christian St. Elijah and the ala, but there is a belief that the saint and the dragons in fact cooperate: as soon as St. Elijah spots an ala, he summons the dragons, either takes them aboard his chariot or harnesses them to it, and they jointly shoot the ala with lightning. Arrow-shaped stones, like belemnites or stone-age arrowheads, are regarded as materialized lightning bolts imbued with a beneficial magical power, and finding one is a good omen.

In a more Christianized version, St. Elijah shoots lightning at the devils who lead the hail clouds; the devils in this case are obviously ale. As shown by these examples, beliefs with various degrees of Christianization, from none to almost complete, can exist side by side.

An eagle’s appearance in the sky when thunderclouds threatened was greeted with joy and hope by people who trusted in their power to defeat an ala; after defeating the ala, the eagle led the clouds away from the fields. An explanation for this, recorded in eastern Serbia, is that the eagles which nest in the vicinity of a village want thunderstorms and hail as far as possible from their nestlings, so coincidentally protect the village’s fields as well. The role of eagles, however, was controversial, because in the same region there was a belief that an eagle flying in front of thunderstorm clouds was a manifestation of an ala, leading the clouds toward the crops, rather than driving them away.

Connection with Baba Yaga

Comparing folk tales, there are similarities between the ala and the Russian Baba Yaga. The aforementioned motif of a stepdaughter coming to an ala’s house in a forest is recorded among Russians too – there a stepdaughter comes to Baba Yaga’s house and feeds her “livestock”. Similar are also the motifs of an ala (by Serbs) and Baba Yaga (by Russians) becoming godmothers to children whom they later eat because the children discover their secret. In the Serbian example, the mother of an ala’s godchild speaks with the ala, and in the Russian, the godchild speaks with Baba Yaga. Serbian tale (...) Yesterday, the woman went to the ala’s house with her child, the ala’s godchild. Upon entering the first room, she saw a poker and a broom fighting; in the second room, she saw human legs; in the third, she saw human arms; in the fourth – human flesh; in the fifth – blood; in the sixth – she saw that the ala had taken off her head and was delousing it, while wearing a horse’s head in its place. After that, the ala brought lunch and said to the woman, “Eat, kuma.” “How can I eat after I saw a poker and a broom fighting in the first room?” “Eat, kuma, eat. Those are my maids: they fight about which one should take the broom and sweep.” “How can I eat after I saw human arms and legs in the second and third rooms?” And the ala told her, “Eat, kuma, eat. That is my food.” “How can I eat, kuma, after I saw the sixth room full of blood?” “Eat, kuma, eat. That is the wine that I drink.” “How can I eat after I saw that you had taken your head off and were delousing it, having fixed a horse’s head on yourself?” The ala, after hearing that, ate both the woman and her child. Russian tale (...) On her name day, the girl goes to her godmother’s house with cakes to treat her. She comes to the gate – the gate is closed with a human leg; she goes into the yard – there a barrel full of blood; she goes up the stairs – there dead children; the porch is closed with an arm; on the floor – arms, legs; the door is closed with a finger. Baba Yaga comes to meet her at the door and asks her, “Have you seen anything, my dear, on your way to my house?” “I saw,” the girl answers, “the gate closed with a leg.” “That is my iron latch.” “I saw a barrel in the yard full of blood.” “That is my wine, my darling.” “I saw children lying on the stairs.” “Those are my pigs.” “The porch is closed with an arm.” “That is my latch, my golden one.” “I saw in the house a hairy head.” “That is my broom, my curly one,” said Baba Yaga, then got angry with her prying goddaughter and ate her.

The two examples witness the chthonic nature of these mythological creatures: a hero can enter the chthonic space and discover the secret of that world, but he is not allowed to relate that secret to other humans. Both the ala and Baba Yaga can be traced back to an older concept of a female demonic divinity: the snakelike mistress of the underworld.

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