Stribog
Viy. NE lesser power of wind and disease (especially zoonotic ones) [He/Him]
Pantheon: Slavic
Symbol: An eye with a spiral pupil
Realms: Gray Waste / Oinos / The Tsardom of Copper
Proxies: Zhupela (human prime proxy [she/her] / CE)
Viy is one ugly deity indeed. He takes the shape of a grotesque humanoid creature—short, lame, fat and covered in blisters. The most fearsome feature of his face are his iron eyelids, that reach the floor. It isn’t known whether Stribog can lift his eyelids himself, but he always makes his servants to do it. In a sense, it’s fortunate he has them, for the gaze of Viy is deadly—it rots creatures alive, withers plants, rusts metal and makes stones crumble to dust. Moreover, it counteracts protective magics such as protection from evil and magic circles. Stribog rarely uses this ability in person, but for one day in every four years, when he is able to channel his gaze through scrying spells. During this day, he surveys the Prime worlds where he has worshippers, spreading destruction and disease on his way.
Stribog enjoys creating pandemics and bringing civilizations to ruin through disease. His philosophy holds that infections and parasites are the pinnacle of life—infinitely growing and adapting, able to overpower even the healthiest specimens of other species. Of course, he’s not above personal feuds—he holds them against all of the other Slavic powers, but mostly against Veles. Whatever the trickster god did to him to deserve this is dark, but Viy has created numerous diseases and monsters that specifically attack the livestock cherished by Veles.
At the same time, Stribog is also the god of winds—not just regular breezes but also hurricanes, tornadoes and sandstorms that bring drought. Viy can use his winds for scrying, making him the most reliable source of information amongst all Slavic deities, as he can tell a diviner secrets that even the Sun and Moon cannot.
The strange and terrible appearance of Stribog is puzzling for many bashers. One rumour claims, that he used to be a cheerful and friendly power of the winds, an ally of Perun by the name of Pozvizd. But he was young and careless, and had the misfortune of entangling himself in the affairs of the yugoloth. Whatever the ‘loths did to him is unknown, but Pozvizd ended up being disfigured and transformed both physically and morally.
Stribog’s realm is an imposing structure called the Tsardom of Copper, all the more impressive because it stands in a landscape of absolute devastation on the plains of Oinos, in the Gray Waste. His realm is also home to a race of horrid petitioner-fiends called the
likhoradkas, who embody diseases prevalent in human societies.
Sources: Margarita and Jon Winter-Holt. Margarita notes: While this homebrew power is based on Slavic folklore and beliefs, the amount of actual information we have on pre-Christian Slavic deities is so minuscule that building any kind of lore out of it is impossible. However, there are a lot of folk beliefs about things these deities are thought to represent, which I have worked into the piece.