The Starless One

The Golden Apple of Discord was dropped by Eris, the goddess of strife. Enraged because she wasn't invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, she fueled a vanity contest between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. The apple was meant for 'the fairest one', and Paris was to choose the winner. He chose Aphrodite, who bribed him by giving him the most beautiful woman in the world: Helen of Sparta. [source]

I saw the ghost of what must have once been a beautiful woman, a beautiful woman who gave birth to a beautiful son. [SaB, Ch. 15]

According to this article, 'the golden apple' was identified as quince. Dictionary of Plant Lore states that quince represents a symbol of happiness and fertility. In 17th century England, it was reckoned that pregnant women who eat quince bear wise children.

Each day, the pregnant queen walked the battlements at the top of the palace, her belly swollen, praying that her child would be wise and strong and handsome, but praying most of all for a kind wind to cool her skin and grant her some relief. [Ayama and the Thorn Wood]

Helen's mother Leda was the queen of Sparta, known for her beautiful black hair and snowy skin. Zeus seduced her disguised as a swan seeking protection from the pursuing eagle. On the same night, she went to lay with her husband, and as a result, she got two eggs from which hatched Helen, Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux. The Homeric tradition suggests that Helen was immortal. [source]

I had been playing dolls and my sister had whined and howled and stamped her little feet until my mother insisted that I give over my favorite toy, a wooden swan carved by our father in one of the rare moments that he’d paid me any attention. [RaR, Ch. 10]

The etymology of Helen's name is unclear. The most common theories are focused around Helenē, probably fem. of helenos "the bright one." [source]

I've been going through my notes on Siege and Storm, and one particular detail stood out. It's an excerpt from the prologue:

[...] they stood together on deck, picking out constellations from the vast spill of stars: the Hunter, the Scholar, the Three Foolish Sons, the bright spokes of the Spinning Wheel, the Southern Palace with its six crooked spires.

The note says: Double-check the constellations! Alina's bedchamber has a star-speckled dressing screen! The Darkling's bedchamber has constellations on the ceiling!

And then I remembered my notes on Ruin and Rising. And guess what? The monastery of Sankt Demyan, otherwise known as the Spinning Wheel, was turned into an observatory 'a few hundred years ago'. Double-check the constellations!

[...] the bronze columns were constellations—the Hunter with his drawn bow, the Scholar bent in study, the Three Foolish Sons, huddled together, trying to share a single coat. The Bursar, the Bear, the Beggar. The Shorn Maiden wielding her bone needle. Twelve in all: the spokes of the Spinning Wheel.

It's been abandoned 'for over a century'. This version of the Darkling is approximately 120 years old. Coincidence? I think not. Sugar had been rationed in Ravka for the last hundred years, which can only mean that the current war had started around the same time he'd made himself known again.

But what about the monastery? I think that the Darkling was the one who'd turned it into an observatory. My only proof is a tale found in The Language of Thorns. It's a story about his half-sister Ulla, titled When Water Sang Fire. Our Youngling was the seer's apprentice in the lost city of Söndermane, a scholar cloistered in the Prophetic’s Tower. A stargazer!

At each level the apprentice named another subject: history, augury, geography, mathematics, alchemy. Ulla hoped they’d wind all the way to the top of the tower, where she knew they’d find the famous observatory.

However, stargazing wasn't his only preoccupation there. But we'll come back to that later. Double-check the constellations! Let's get back to the twelve spokes of the Spinning Wheel.

The Hunter with his drawn bow? That's Sankt Petyr, with his still-burning arrows. The Scholar bent in study must be Sankt Dimitri. The Bear is obviously Sankt Grigori. The Shorn Maiden wielding her bone needle is probably Sankta Vasilka, the first firebird.

What about the others? Thirteen Saints were shown on the massive triptych behind the altar in the original Lantsov chapel, where the first Ravkan kings were crowned. Thirteen Saints were featured in the original version of the Istorii Sankt’ya. But there are only twelve spokes, twelve constellations. Who's the odd one out?

Sankt Demyan is most certainly not, and here's why.

According to The Lives of Saints, the site of Sankt Demyan's death is the tallest mountain in the Elbjen. He was the nobleman who owned the land upon which a cemetery stood; and when the birches started to obscure the path, he had his servants cut a new one. When the rains came to disturb the cemetery, Demyan designed the aqueduct around the graveyard, diverting the water to irrigate the fields. But the people still complained.

He was desperate to please them. He asked the Saints to raise the cemetery up to the sun itself, so it would no longer be obscured by the shade of his previous creations.

He laid his hands upon the soil, and the earth began to shake. The ground rose higher and higher, until the highest mountain was made. The cemetery was intact, but his own family crypt was broken. The people accused Demyan of disrespecting his family name by using dark magic, and the angry mob stoned him to death. He became known as the patron saint of the newly dead.

Sankt Demyan's miracle was the creation of the highest mountain in the northern Sikurzoi.

But why is this important? Because the Sikurzoi mountains cover most of Ravka's eastern and southern border with Shu Han. And the Spinning Wheel is located in the Elbjen, which is the Fjerdan name for the northern range of Sikurzoi. More so, it's the place the first firebird came from. And that firebird is Ravka.

But what if I tell you that the first Taban queens also come from the highest mountains of the Sikurzoi range? The palace of the Taban dynasty has the Court of the Golden Wing. You know who else has golden wings? Sankta Vasilka, the first firebird.

It's said that the borders of Ravka were sketched by the firebird's flight. Its rivers run with the firebird's tears. And when one of her feathers fell to earth, the young warrior picked it up and carried it into battle. No one could defeat him, and so he became the first king of Ravka.

But where are the stars? The old Taban queen resides in the place called the Palace of Thousand Stars. Even before the first Taban queens have come to their rule, Sankta Neyar was already one of the Six Soldiers, the sacred protectors of the Shu Han.

Remember the constellations? The Southern Palace and its six crooked spires? The Spinning Wheel? It's all there, written in the stars.

And the Starless Saint knows that.

His bedchamber is built on a hexagonal plan, like the temples of Ahmrat Jen. His dark wood walls are carved into the illusion of a forest crowded with slender trees. The birch trees, like the ones growing around the cemetery. He almost died there, once.

Demon in the wood. Demyan in the wood.

The domed ceiling above his bed is spangled with chips of mother-of-pearl laid in constellations, to create the illusion of the Spinning Wheel. The ebony screen in Alina's bedchamber is speckled with mother-of-pearl stars, too. It was probably brought from his rooms, as only his chambers are furnished in ebony.

We have already established that Alina's journey in Shadow and Bone starts between late October and early November. You can read the entire post here.

It's still autumn when Alina comes to the Little Palace.

On the Darkling's orders, Alina is traveling in his coach. By the time the Healer is done tending to her wounds, dusk is falling and they are already far from Kribirsk. As the coach travels day and night at a brutal pace, Alina loses track of time.

One afternoon, the Fjerdan attack occurs in the wooded glen on the Vy. The Darkling saves the day, and they ride the southern trails together. Over the next few days, they stay off of the Vy and travel the side roads and hunting trails. On the fifth night, they stop to make camp at an abandoned farm.

The air had changed over the last couple of days, and the bright blue skies of autumn are giving way to the sullen gray. But the soldiers think they can still make it to Os Alta before the weather turns. In the gathering dusk, Alina has her first real conversation with the Darkling. Two days later, they enter the city just after dawn.

Alina is taken to her room, where she instantly falls asleep. In the afternoon, Genya comes to wake her up. The court demonstration takes place in less than an hour. Alina reveals that she'd covered almost two hundred miles on horseback since the Fjerdan attack. The Grisha leave for the Grand Palace at dusk.

In the morning, the sunlight is streaming through Alina's windows. She gets her first kefta and meets Nadia and Marie. Genya gives her a tour of the Little Palace after breakfast. Alina meets Baghra, and then she spends the rest of her morning at the library. She has her first lesson with Botkin after lunch. On her way to the stables, the Apparat is lurking from the shadows. Ivan takes her to the war room after dinner, and the Darkling's asks about her day.

Alina spends day after day training with Baghra and Botkin, studying the Grisha theory, struggling to call her power. She sleeps poorly and has no appetite. She deliberately isolates herself from the other Grisha in order to hide her failures.

The Darkling is rarely seen at the Little Palace. Hundreds of Grisha are stationed throughout Ravka, and he spends most of his time traveling, circling between the Fold and the northern border, or riding south to where the Shu Han raiding parties are attacking settlements before winter.

Alina writes to Mal every week, but receives no reply. The Apparat gives her a copy of Istorii Sankt’ya. Zoya returns, and Alina gets her first update on Mal. The two of them clash during Botkin's class and Alina ends up with broken ribs. The Apparat practically corners her during her stay at the infirmary.

Alina continues with her lessons shortly after the incident. The sun is bright, but the air is cold on her cheeks. Baghra and the Darkling are arguing over the idea of getting her the Morozova's amplifier. Alina has her third one-on-one conversation with the Darkling.

Additional information:

Most Grisha discover their power early in life:

In Chapter 4, Ivan asks Alina if she was tested as a child. She claims that she was tested when she was eight. His reply suggests that it was 'very late'. In Chapter 8, it's revealed that Genya had joined the Grisha when she was five. She explains to Alina that the children are brought to the Little Palace as soon as their powers are discovered.

In The Demon in the Wood, the Darkling states that Baghra had mastered the Cut when she was 'half his age'. He was thirteen at the time, which means that Baghra was at least six. Her own story in Chapter 10 of Ruin and Rising confirms that her shadow summoning power had first showed when she was still an infant.

Ravka's current war started at least a century ago:

In Chapter 8, it's mentioned that sugar had been rationed in Ravka for the last hundred years. This suggests that the current war had started at least a century ago.

In Chapter 5, the Darkling tells Alina that he's 'one hundred and twenty' years old, but he also adds 'give or take'. It's most likely a half-truth, because this version of him could've reappeared right in time for the war.

The draft age for the King's Army is sixteen:

In Chapter 1, it's said that Mal and Alina have spent 'more than ten years' of their lives in Keramzin before they've departed for the army. In the opening chapter, when the Grisha Examiners arrive, Ana Kuya claims that they are both 'around eight', 'the youngest' there 'by quite a bit'. In Chapter 8, we are told that they've both been in the army for a year. From Chapter 7 of Siege and Storm, we know that the girls were drafted along with boys once they came of age. And based on Nikolai's childhood story in Chapter 12 of King of Scars, we also know that the draft becomes mandatory at sixteen. This is further confirmed in Chapter 19 of Siege and Storm, when Vasily suggests that they should lower the draft age to fourteen or fifteen.

This means that Mal and Alina should be at least seventeen at the beginning of Shadow and Bone. The fact that Ana Kuya is telling the Grisha Examiners only their approximate age, and that she also mentions how impossible it is to tell their real age when their parents are deceased, suggests that they were probably too young to know their age when they first came to the orphanage.

The orphans are expected to forget their past:

In Chapter 5, Alina asks the Darkling about his age. When he tells her that he's not quite sure how old he is, she asks how come he doesn't know. When he bounces back her question, she makes a mental remark that all the orphans at Keramzin were given the Duke's birthday in honor of their benefactor.

In Chapter 4, when Ivan asks Alina why her parents haven't tested her before she turned eight, she makes another mental remark: they couldn't, because they were dead, and no one paid closer attention to the orphans.

There's an interesting passage in Chapter 7 of Siege and Storm, which suggests that the orphans were expected to forget about their lives from before:

At Keramzin, even mentioning our parents had been considered a betrayal of the Duke’s kindness and a sign of ingratitude. We’d been taught never to speak of our lives before we arrived at the estate, and eventually most of the memories just disappeared.

But Alina remembers something: a shallow dish of cooked beets, her fingers stained red with them, the smell of egg porridge, seeing the dusty road from someone's shoulders, the sway of ox tails, their shadows on the ground, a hand pointing to the ruins of Dva Stolba.

The only other memory Alina has is of the day when Mal came to the orphanage. In Chapter 21 of Siege and Storm, it's mentioned how she'd heard that another refugee was coming, and she'd hoped it would be a girl she could play with. Most people's earliest memories start around three, but this level of comprehension suggests that Alina must've been at least a tiny bit older.

The opening chapter of Shadow and Bone describes Alina as 'pale and sour', and it's stated that she's very skinny due to lack of appetite. This suggests that she was already suffering from the wasting sickness. Her malnourishment could've easily altered her appearance enough to make her look younger.

In the same chapter, it's said that Mal and Alina had arrived within weeks of each other. According to Chapter 21 of Siege and Storm, Mal wasn't much older than Alina, and in the opening chapter of Shadow and Bone he is described as 'short and stocky'. His height could've easily made him look younger than he actually was.

Concerning Mal's earliest memories, Chapter 21 of Siege and Storm reveals that the smell of licorice reminds him of sitting on a porch with a red painted chair in front of him. He'd also had dreams about a woman with long gold hair dangling her braid in front of him like a toy.

In Chapter 8 of Shadow and Bone, the other Summoners are asking Alina about her life. Her mental narration reveals a particularly interesting detail:

Where was I from? The North. (Mal and I never lied about where we were from. We just didn’t tell the whole truth.)

If we consult the map, Keramzin is located southeast of Os Alta. Dva Stolba is located among the Sikurzoi mountains, right along Ravka's southern border. Yet, Alina claims to be from the North. Could it be that her fragmented memory of someone's finger pointing to the ruins of Dva Stolba from the dusty road means that she wasn't actually born there?

Final thoughts:

When she came to the orphanage, Alina was already suffering from the wasting sickness. Her earliest memories suggest that she was at least three years old, but her malnourishment could've easily made her look younger than she actually was.

Most Grisha discover their powers early in life, and if she was indeed brought from Dva Stolba, her powers could've been triggered by the life-threatening situation such as the Shu Han raid, given how common they are along the southern border.

If she was indeed born in the North, her parents have probably fled to Dva Stolba shortly before their demise.

It's autumn when the first trip to the Fold occurs.

At the beginning of Shadow and Bone, Alina's regiment marches from the military encampment at Poliznaya to Kribirsk. It takes them two weeks to get there. Alina gets her first glimpse of the Fold standing on the Vy, the wide road that had once led from Os Alta to the port cities on Ravka's western coast.

It is explicitly stated that the autumn sun was warm overhead. Alina takes notice of both the green and gold smells of autumn and the soft breeze at her back.

Alina almost gets trampled by the Darkling's coach before entering Kribirsk, and she spends the rest of the day at the Documents Tent. At dusk, she gets her first glimpse of the Grisha pavilion. The air is noticeably cooler.

Later at night, Alina sneaks out to meet Mal, and the plumes of their breath are visible in the cold air. In fact, it's cold enough for her to wish she had taken the time to grab her scarf and gloves.

The next morning, Mal and Alina are boarding the sandskiff and entering the Fold for the first time. Barely thirty minutes later, the volcra attack happens, and Alina's power is revealed. The skiff returns, and the survivors are taken to the Grisha tent. The bright autumn sun is clearly visible in the sky, and the flags above the tent are fluttering in the breeze.

Alina meets the Darkling, and her power is confirmed. She doesn't even get to speak to Mal before she departs for the Little Palace.

Additional information:

Establishing the date of the winter fete:

The first Malina reunion takes place in Chapter 14, on the night of the winter fete. In Chapter 13, it's stated that the King and the Queen are hosting the final winter fete at the end of the season. We're not given any specific date, but in Chapter 14, when she's arriving at the fete, Alina takes notice that the spring has barely begun to show itself. She runs away later that night, and in Chapter 16, when the second Malina reunion takes place outside of Ryevost, Alina explicitly states that she'd escaped from the palace well over a week ago. In Chapter 17, she wonders about Mal's life in the past five months.

Over the next few days, they keep a brutal pace, until they reach a village on the northwestern side of the Petrazoi. The festivities of the butter week are taking place. In Chapter 17, it's stated that the holiday takes place in the week before the spring fast. Alina's description of the customs, especially the mention of blini (a form of Eastern European pancake) corresponds with the Eastern Slavic holiday known as Maslenitsa. This suggests that we should probably stick to the Old (Julian) Calendar, rather than the New (Gregorian) Calendar.

Based on the information above, Alina's timeline at the Little Palace spans over five months and two seasons. And if we could calculate the possible date of the winter fete, we could also determine the approximate timeline of the whole story.

Establishing the date of the butter week:

Maslenitsa (also known as Butter Lady, Butter Week, Crepe Week or Cheesefare Week) is celebrated during the last week before the Great Fast. It's the eighth week before Eastern Orthodox Pascha [i.e. Easter].

Since Easter and its holidays are moveable feasts, the date of the celebration has to be computed to the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or soonest after March 21.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the March equinox equals the spring equinox, and while some of the churches have adopted the revised New Calendar, the Russian Orthodox Church still uses the Old Calendar, which sets the date of Orthodox Easter anywhere between April 4 and May 8.

It's explicitly stated that Malina's second reunion takes place 'well over a week' after the winter fete, and the choice of words suggests that we should read 'well over' like 'less than a week, but still more than a half'. However, this is where our timeline starts to blur: all we know is that 'over the next few days' they are keeping a brutal pace, until they reach a village where the festivities of the butter week are taking place. Initially, Alina thinks it might be Sunday.

The approximate calculation says that at least 18 days have passed between the winter fete and the butter week festival. Fixing the date of the fete to the spring equinox sets the festival on the second week of April. This doesn't seem to fit with the Old Calendar, because our Butter Week is the eighth week before Easter, and in this case, Ravkan Easter falls outside the specified frame.

However, given that there is no mention of Easter in this world, we can only assume that the Ravkan butter week actually corresponds more with the pre-Christian celebrations of the upcoming spring, which were later adopted by the Orthodox church. It's worth mentioning that in pre-Christian times, blini were considered to be a symbol of the sun due to their round form. Traditionally, they were prepared at the end of winter to honor the rebirth of the new sun.

To confirm that the Ravkans are indeed using the Old Calendar, and that fixing the date of the winter fete on the spring equinox makes sense, we should take a closer look into the feast of Sankt Nikolai, the only other explicitly mentioned holiday in Ravka.

Establishing the date of the feast of Sankt Nikolai:

In Chapter 13, there's a mention of the feast of Sankt Nikolai, which takes place in winter. It seems to mirror the Christian celebration of the feast of Saint Nicholas, which falls on December 19, according to the Old Calendar.

According to The Lives of Saints, a table should be set for Sankt Nikolai on the darkest night of the year. In our world, this would mirror the December solstice, the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year. On the Old Calendar, the winter solstice occurs around December 25. It's also known as midwinter.

In Chapter 13 of Shadow and Bone, it's mentioned that the feast of Sankt Nikolai is celebrated with huge bowls of dumpling soup and kutya made with honey and poppy seeds. In Orthodox tradition, predominantly Eastern Slavic, kutya is a ceremonial grain dish served during the Christmas season or as part of a funeral feast.

On the Old Calendar, Christmas takes place on January 7, which could potentially explain why it is explicitly stated that the 'final' winter fete takes place at the end of the season. The festivities have probably started with midwinter.

Canonically fixing the date of the feast of Sankt Nikolai on the date of the winter solstice, we are creating a headcanon in which every change of season comes with a big holiday.

Final thoughts:

‎‎‎ There once was a girl who could summon darkness. A child so rare, a true black swan, like nothing ever seen. But her mother was terrified of her. She believed her child was cursed, an abomination born as the result of her husband's greed.

The girl's father was an extraordinary creature. A scholar so consumed with knowledge, a sorcerer who never stopped testing the very boundaries of his power. But he was also a man, and all men are bound to make mistakes.

He was so lost in his work, in his need to decipher the ways of the universe. He rarely saw his daughter, and when he did, her childish ways annoyed him. He never noticed that his wife resented the girl so much that she could barely hold her. She was a simple, ordinary woman, a peasant raised on superstition. And though she loved him, she could not understand him. And so the girl learned loneliness at her mother's knee.

Six years have passed, and another girl was born. A child so beautiful, a true white swan, so delicate and lovely. How much her mother adored her! She was powerless and normal, like every child should be. And so the girl learned what it means to be different. Terribly, irrevocably different. It tore her little heart in two.

There once was a girl who could summon a blade. A child so lonely, a true black swan, despised by her flock. But she was no ugly duckling, and there was no happily ever after. The sky was full of stars, but she could only see the endless reaches of darkness between them. And when the time came, she taught her son to see them, too.

What is life if it's just of the earth Only of the flesh and bones

Wanna thrive in the dust of the universe And way into unknown

So I love beyond the bones Goes deep inside your soul

Into the unknown Where no other love goes

I shut my eyes and breathed deeply. What was it? The crisp edge of a winter wind. Bare branches. The smell of absence, the smell of night.

1. He had a sharp, beautiful face, a shock of thick black hair, and clear gray eyes that glimmered like quartz. (SaB)

2. He walked down to the stream, crouching on the bank to splash water on his face and through his dark hair. (SaB)

3. The Darkling sighed and ran his hands through his dark hair in exasperation. When he looked at me, there was a rueful smile on his lips, and his hair was going every which way. (SaB)

4. When we had walked a short distance down the path, he heaved a huge sigh and ran his hands through his hair again. (SaB)

5. His hair was still a mess, and in the bright morning sunlight, he looked more handsome and more human than I'd ever seen him. (SaB)

6. The candlelight gleamed off his dark hair. (SaB)

7. I remembered his perfect face in the lamplight, his stunned expression, his rumpled hair. (SaB)

8. A memory rose unbidden in my mind: black hair, slate eyes, the Darkling's face exultant in victory as he unleashed the power of the Fold. (SaS)

9. Pale, beautiful, that thick shock of black hair, the perfect sweep of jaw. (SaS)

10. I tried not to notice the way he looked ― his mussed hair, the shadowed ridges of his bare chest. (RaR)

When I first learned about the infamous name drop, I was under the impression that its only purpose was to bridge the gap between the two different mediums. What works on paper might not always work on screen, and vice versa. I'd only read the first book at the time, which is why I wasn't familiar with the real significance of the scene. It seemed to be a logical choice, especially since the books were written strictly from Alina's perspective. As mysterious as he may be, even the Darkling has to have a name. I can hardly imagine anyone calling him that to his face and living to walk away in one piece. But he must be addressed somehow, right?

Manipulative or not, the decision to reveal his name sooner than expected actually serves the plot brilliantly. For once, it does a great job in creating a certain sense of intimacy and vulnerability in his relationship with Alina. And this only gets more emphasized later, after she just casually drops his name to Mal. Because she gives it away just as quickly and just as easily as it was given only to her.

Which brings us back to the original problem. If his real name is so important that it has to be hidden, and you can't really expect people to call him the Darkling to his face, then what will they call him? General Kirigan sounds perfectly fine for a soldier. Except that it doesn't sound Slavic at all, let alone Russian.

And of course it doesn't. It was probably borrowed from a 1986 British fantasy-adventure film called Highlander. Do you remember that famous line? There can be only one. But more importantly, do you remember that evil warrior named Kurgan?

From the moment I've first heard Kirigan's name, I've wondered whether it was a deliberate choice. And I think I may have found some sort of confirmation. Recently, I was browsing through the author's old GR blog posts. In August 2011, she wrote a post titled There Can Be Only Some. Essentially, it's a little trip down memory lane. She writes about Highlander being one of her favourite childhood films AND about Kurgan being 'her first dark knight'.

And those words really struck a chord.

It's her description of him that gets to me: 'the evil warrior who will pursue the hero across time', and later 'we'll learn that Kurgan is a rapist and a murderer', but he 'makes a great first impression', and 'tricked out in truly wicked style, he is an EPIC adversary'. But then, 'sadly, the Kurgan just gets goofier and, by film's end, he's a silly, sleazy bit of caricature'.

This reminds me of the Darkling a lot, especially since I find his character severely degraded from 'an epic adversary' to a simple 'sleazy bit of caricature' in the last book. And even that humorous description of Kurgan's choice of wardrobe later in the franchise reminds me of a certain 'put on a shirt' scene in RoW.

Not to mention that KoS character named Count Kirigin.

It's just you and me now, Alina. And we are all we need anyway.

*Who Wants to Live Forever playing in the background*

I'll admit that I may be reaching a little here, but I just can't help it. Especially since I've realized that a large portion of TGT world was probably inspired by different pieces of art.

For example, there's an opera called The Oprichnik. Composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the opera was set in the 16th century court of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. And it was dedicated to the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich Romanov. What matters here is the historical context.

The 'oprichnina times' started with a state policy established by the Tsar in order to repress the boyars (aristocrats) who opposed him. Led by the Tsar Ivan himself, the Oprichniks performed a lot of public executions and confiscations, sometimes also terrorizing the civilian population. They rode black stallions and wore black robes similar to those worn by monks, with their lifestyle often described as ascetic. [Remember how Alina describes the Darkling and his soldiers during their trip to the Little Palace: peasant foods, stable campings, etc.] Because the Oprichniks were all hand-picked by the Tsar, they were also called cromeshnina ('selected') by the public. [As opposed to being the otkazat'sya, right?] The country was basically separated in two: with oprichnina being ruled by the Tsar from his residence in Alexandrov, and zemschina ('the land outside her'), headed by the boyars and the king in Moscow. Travelling between the two was permitted, but costly. Those who were evicted from the Tsar's court were also permanently exiled to zemschina. The two even had their own separate regiments.

It's difficult not to draw parallels here, especially since the opera's libretto features two characters named Morozov(a): the widowed boyarina Morozova and her son, Andrei Morozov.

Speaking of Morozovas', there was also a 17th century martyr named Feodosia Morozova. As a punishment for supporting the Old Believer movement during the schism, she was literally starved to death in an underground cellar. Immortalized in a hagiography (a genre depicting the lives of saints and martyrs), and later celebrated as a symbol of resistance to state power by 19th century radical writers, she was also an inspiration behind the 1887 painting by Vasily Surikov.

The painting Boyarina Morozova now belongs to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. In 2006, Rodion Shchendrin composed a choral opera of the same name.

Inspired by a folktale, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed an opera called Kaschey the Immortal. Simplified Wikipedia-style description paints him as an evil old wizard who liked young women. The story also mentions a firebird. The famous Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg has a performer named Alexander Morozov.

A similar folktale inspired Igor Stravinsky to compose The Firebird. And should I also mention the very existence of a composer named Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev? Or a Finnish rock band The Rasmus, whose biggest hit up to date is a song called In the Shadows? [Granted, Rasmus is a fairly common name in Scandinavia, but every decent TGT playlist has to have that song. Right?]