The truth about koscheis
Guest post by Irina Lopatina,
author of White Raven: The Sword of Northern Ancestors
author of White Raven: The Sword of Northern Ancestors
In my book White Raven: The sword of Northern Ancestors the koschei’s motivation, according to the young magus Evstarh, is as follows:
“Each
of us strives to expand our skills, and we are constantly in need of
new information and the opportunity to experiment in order to do that.
But the human life is short. As soon as one gains the real power,
their life is already approaching the end. What shall we do, then? The
knowledge can be passed on to students, but how about the things that
you wanted but had not yet managed to learn in this world? That is
where various elixirs, spells, and amulets, that can prolong the magus’s
life for a hundred or two hundred years, are widely adopted. But some
magi go even further. They make up their mind to transform themselves
into those who have no eternal peace. They are neither alive nor dead.
Their spirit continues to wander, looking for what they failed to find
during their life. Usually, they hide themselves in some secluded
place, experimenting with combinations of drinking a particular potion
while casting certain spells in an attempt to become an all-powerful
koschei, and so often stay there forever trying…”
A very talented magus can become not just a magus who has no eternal peace, but a koschei who is no longer tied to his physical remains. And his goals deviate dramatically from simply reaching the depths of knowledge. A koschei seeks immortality and absolute power. For me, this is not an equal exchange at all, because once you shed your own body, you are able neither to kiss nor to eat strawberries nor to even swim in a river any more. But koscheis probably know more about what they must give up. So, these dangerous and evil creatures hide themselves in all sorts of dark corners and entwine the world with a net of intrigues.
This happens not only in fairy tales, by the way. But that is another story.
In my book, the koschei is a surprisingly “useful” character. If he did not exist, all the heroes of the White Raven series would live happily, only occasionally coming into conflict with smaller evil creatures. But this unequal battle with the evil magus gives them the opportunity to show themselves in full. In this deadly battle, a soldier will become a Hero, a gifted thinker will reach the heights of knowledge, and a coward will choke on his own faintheartedness. As in our own lives – only severe trials can reveal what is hidden under the mask of our everyday existence.
White
Raven: Sword of Northern Ancestors
By
Irina Lopatina
Genre:
Fantasy
The
fate of Areya rests with the lost sword Urart. Will White Raven
retrieve it before it's too late?
In
the kingdom of Areya, humans, animals, and the magical creatures that
inhabit the Eternal Forest have long coexisted peacefully, but now
something is horribly wrong. A terrifying stream of monstrous
creatures has begun to emerge from the secret depths of the earth,
terrorizing all of Areya's native inhabitants. From the tiny, wise
drevalyankas to the bellicose cave-dwelling gnomes to the devious
kikimoras who gather roots and herbs in the marsh, everyone is in
danger.
With
the aid of Urart, the magical sword that has been passed down from
the time of the ancient northern ancestors, Grand Duke Vlady can
offer temporary protection to his people. But Prince Vraigo, Vlady's
nephew, who is endowed with magical power himself, understands that
the source of the evil monsters must be found if there's any hope of
survival. Along with a motley crew of his forest-dwelling friends,
Vraigo sets off on a perilous quest in search of the koschei, the
powerful, corrupt Archmagus whose mission is the destruction not just
of Areya, but of the entire world.
As
if this weren't bad enough, Urart disappears from the duke's
stronghold. Without it, Areya is doomed, and only Vraigo, the White
Raven, can possibly get the sword back. This journey requires Vraigo
to use all of his keen wits and magical abilities, as well as to ally
himself to dangerous creatures like yagas and werewolves, natural
enemies of man, and precipitates the young prince into the most
bewildering, complex challenge he has faced yet: life in the
twenty-first century.
About
the Author:
Irina
Lopatina lives and works in Siberia, Russia, but her homeland has an
even more wonderful and exotic name: Altai. It is a unique place
where old Altai Mountains rise high up to the sky, centuries-old
forests stretch out as in ages past, and mighty Siberian rivers flow
along the plains. Altai is one of the few places in the world where
huge, densely populated cities coexist with pristine wild places.
Moreover, this is an area of the earliest human civilizations,
through which the great migration of people from eastern lands to
Europe once took place.
While
studying at the Altai State University, Irina devoted much attention
to the past of her native land. As a student, she went to the
archaeological sites of ancient settlements located on the mountain
plateau, where it was only possible to arrive on foot. She remembers
moments when it was quite easy to imagine how the ancient people had
lived, what creatures neighbored them, and what adventures took place
in these vast spaces. Irina needed take only a small leap from there
to White Raven, his friends, and his enemies who were ready to begin
a journey through the Eternal Forest of Areya.
Of
course, it would have been much more difficult for her to create her
stories if Irina had not been inspired early on by the works of many
excellent fantasy and science fiction writers such as J.R. Tolkien
and Ursula Le Guin, the Russian authors Nick Perumov and Svyatoslav
Loginov, as well as the wonderfully charming Russian fairy tales
where a brave prince, his faithful grey wolf and the evil koschei
always live. And so it happens that Irina's novels are the stories of
a distant, semi-fantastic land which, who knows, may still exist next
door to us.
About
the Illustrator
Even
as a child, Igor Adasikov knew that he would be an artist.
While
studying at an art school, he devoted much of his time practicing
classical drawing, seeking to depict the world around him as fully as
possible. His works often won awards in Russian art contests, and he
continued his education at Moscow Art Institute. After graduating
from the Institute, Igor worked as an artist preferring realistic
painting, such as portrait and landscape. However, his rich
imagination still needed an outlet and manifested itself in full
while illustrating the fantasy novel, White Raven: The Sword of
Northern Ancestors.
Here,
in the surprising fairy-tale world, void of any boundaries, the
artist found the nourishment to feed his creativity. Having traveled
with the heroes through the whirlwind of adventures, he worked to
give readers a visible image of Areya, bringing to life the magical
creatures that inhabit the land, and making friends with the heroes
of this fascinating story.
Thank you, Shandy, for sharing the story of White Raven: The Sword of Northern Ancestors with your readers.
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