Morana

The tale of Morana

In the old Slavic year there was a time when the sun grew weak, the rivers froze and the fields lay dead under snow. That time had a face and a name: Morana, also called Marzanna, Mara or Morena, goddess of winter, of night and of death. She is beautiful and pale as frost, and where she walks the grass turns white and the water stops moving. Her very name comes from the old word for death.

Morana is not a demon. She is one half of the wheel of the year. In many tellings she is the twin or the bride of the spring god Jarilo, and their love story is the story of the seasons. In spring they meet and marry, and the world turns green. Over the summer Jarilo grows old or unfaithful, and Morana's love turns cold and cruel. In autumn she kills him, and the earth dies with him. All winter she rules alone, until spring, when Jarilo is born again and the wheel turns once more.

Drowning winter

Across Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia and other Slavic lands, people still say goodbye to Morana every spring. Around the first days of spring they make a doll of straw, dress her in rags and ribbons, and carry her out of the village with songs. Then they burn her, or throw her into a river, or both, and they walk home without looking back so that winter cannot follow them. On the way back they often carry a green branch decorated with ribbons, the "little summer", into the village.

It is a cheerful custom, but under it lies a very old idea: winter must be killed for spring to live. And every year, as the game's Morana says, she is back by the first frost.

Goddess of death

Morana is also the one who comes at the end of a life, not as a punishment but as a season. Some tales say she sits at the edge of the world and spins the threads of human lives, cutting each one when its time is done. Others give her a darker role as a witch who appears in dreams and sits on sleepers' chests at night. The mara of the nightmare carries her name.

Morana in Battle of Myths

Morana is a cost 4 Slavic assassin and mage. Her ability, Winter's Kiss, makes her blink to the weakest enemy, dealing magic damage, chilling and wounding it. If the target is low enough, the kiss is final: she executes it outright.

The Slavic pantheon's gift is named after her, the Cycle of Morana. The first time a Slavic hero dies, they rise again as a spectral spirit, just as winter always gives way to spring.

Did you know?

• The spring custom is called Topienie Marzanny ("the drowning of Marzanna") in Poland, and children still make the straw dolls at school.
• In the Czech Republic it is said that whoever touches the doll after it is thrown into the water will fall ill.