Baba Yaga

History[]

The Baba Yaga is a witch coven. The coven consists of three pupils, which the sorceress Carabosse raised to sow all manner of evil and chaos across the Homelands.

Tsaritsa — The Evil Queen of the Silver Realm. As a girl, she sought shelter in Carabosse's home, and the sorceress trapped her in a mirror. The orphan was held in the mirror in a state of stasis for many years until such time as she was freed by Carabosse after she swore a binding oath to the sorceress.^[1]
Gothel — A sorceress who kept Rapunzel in a tower and harvested her hair for magical essence. Rapunzel managed to free herself and destroy the tower. Gothel later had an encounter with Rapunzel's children, Hansel and Gretel.^[2]
Lumi — A child of Lilith, Mother of Monsters, and Boreas, a Northern Wind daimon. She's a fierce succubus with powers over seasonal shifts.^[3]

The term Baba Yaga is from an old dialect from the Rus meaning simply 'Wicked Sorceresses'. Baba Yaga is both singular and plural. Carabosse and her goddaughters also often use the term 'Baba Yaga' as a stand-in name.

Carabosse and the other Baba Yaga usually do not join forces, but do meet together at least twice every year (at the summer and winter solstice) to conspire and share stories. They rotate hosting responsibilities and in addition to the host's duty to provide a venue, they are also required to bring a pair of virgins for ritual sacrifice.^[4]

Trivia and Notes[]

Trivia[]

Due to her affiliation with the coven, Carabosse is often misattributed as a witch or a mortal sorceress.
Gothel captured Hansel and Gretel, children of Rapunzel. The boy became her prisoner and the girl became her brainwashed pupil. The pair were being kept for a solstice gathering of the Baba Yaga where Hansel would become the sacrificial offering and Gretel would be the sacrificial executioner — who would then have a chance to join the Baba Yaga by indulging in the feast of the slaughter. However, when the solstice gathering happened, as Gothel was putting the gag on Hansel's mouth, the boy chomped down on her finger and then shouted for Gretel to awaken from her trance. Much to the surprise of the Baba Yaga, Gretel's love for her brother did break the powerful trance, and she used that to channel a raw inferno of magic which sent the Baba Yaga scattering — giving Gretel and Hansel time to escape.^[5]
Though the Baba Yaga are primarily thought to consist of a coven of three Xana and their benefactor, there are actually believed to have been hundreds of previous members. Estimates are that a dozen survived the Sheeda invasion and may have come to Earth. It is probable that such survivors would themselves be with the core members to form a Hebdomad-enforced coven of seven.^[6]
The Baba Yaga and the Grand Coven don't have the best intercoven relationship.^[7]
They helped teach Grigori Rasputin.^[8]
They tortured Benroy for thousands of years.^[9]
A group of witches created an offshoot called the Wicked Witches. They conquered most of Oz by brutal sacrifice of its nobility and mystics, using their potent blood to power enchantments that enslaved the populace of the realm. Splitting control of Oz between themselves as they seized control of the coastline and tightened their control inward. With all of Oz enslaved, with the exception of the Emerald City itself, the witches went more or less unchallenged for nearly fifteen years, until the arrival of Dorothy Gale. Her arrival and her subsequent challenge to the authority of the Wicked Witch of the West triggered the Emerald Revolution.^[10]

Notes[]

The Baba Yaga is an Earth-27 original team consisting of various witches from various stories.
- Carabosse represents the witches from Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty.
- Tsaritsa represents the witch from Snow White.
- Gothel represents the witches from Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Frog Prince, the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz and grandmother from Red Riding Hood.
- Lumi represents the titular Snow Queen and Jadis from the Chronicles of Narnia.
- Mother Rigby is a character from Nathaniel Hawthorne's Feathertop and also represents the Wicked Witch of the East from the Wizard of Oz.
In the Fables comics, Baba Yaga was a character, not a title.

Links and References[]

[1] Network Files: Tsaritsa

[2] Network Files: Rapunzel

[3] Network Files: Bigby Wolf 1

[4] Network Files: Carabosse

[5] Network Files: Hansel and Gretel

[6] Network Files: Mother Gothel

[7] VOX Box: Hell Hath No Fury 1

[8] Network Files: Rasputin 1

[9] Network Files: Benroy

[10] Dinkley Files: Oz

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