Crystal Dynamics! Baba Yaga Trailer UPDATE: Some Spoilers
READ MORE ABOUT THE DLC DETAILS:
You can learn all about the details of the latest DLC at the Xbox site. Rather than copying and pasting the entire page of info, I am offering a link. Most of it I have already added, but this goes into more depth about the add-on and various features. THE DETAILS
Glad I just saw this on my youtube channel. The temple of the Witch is using some elements from the scary tale. Her chicken legged hut is also in it along with the way she travels and several other key myth elements! Great job to the writers. I am so happy! Here is a video about the latest DLC which apparently says it will be out January. Okay, fine. This was my latest historical / myth piece and so I felt a duty to update. This is important info for the soon to be released new area for Rise of the Tomb Raider known as “Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch!” Furthermore, Included in the expansion package for “Temple of the Witch” is more weapons, more expedition cards, and outfits! This is going to be a great addition! However, you will need to buy a seasons pass to access this content. And, there will also be new enemies for Lara to battle, as well as a new mode “Endurance Mode” that encourages extended survival. Another new item is “The Darkness Awakened” Apparently Lara will be fighting off infected predators in this add-on. They will attack her in waves, so I would think it is connected to some sort of survival mode.
Some of the game story:
Apparently Lara ventures deeper into the wilds of Siberia, into a forbidden forest that nobody will dare cross the threshold of. A soviet expedition disappeared one day with no trace. When Lara enters the Wicked Vale, she is looking for a man that has disappeared. However, she didn’t bargain on finding the horror she encounters. Nor explain. She wonders if the evil witch named Baba Yaga is actually haunting the forbidden forest? Will Lara find out about something else that drives the legend? Also, like the other tombs, Baba Yaga’s is going to be puzzle filled! All of this info is found here for your information! Want to know more? Get the DLC to play it and find out!
To elaborate about the DLC further, here is a quote about the trailer debut:
“We didn’t get to see too much in the quick trailer, but what we did see was definitely spooky, mixing hallucinations, chills, and thrills through a trip into what looked like the actual Baba Yaga legend. This DLC definitely looks like it will be playing up the horror elements of the Tomb Raider reboots.”
You can find this blurb here
SMALL BABA YAGA PICTURE GALLERY FROM THE LATEST DLC TRAILER DEBUT!
After viewing this trailer, it is clear they took artistic license with the game, but there are elements that are directly from the myth. I love this about the games, to reiterate a previous point. I cannot wait to play the new DLC! It looks exciting, well thought out, delightfully creepy as it should be, and shall be great entertainment! I am one happy fan! Well done Crystal Dynamics! Bravo!
Before Rise of the Tomb Raider premiered there was a lot of talk about the incorporation of Russian folklore. Of course, one was the lost city of Kitezh. There were others, and one is about to hit the spotlight through DLC. When I heard about the tomb of Baba Yaga: Temple of the Witch I had to write something about this character. I have heard about this tale all my life and always found it most fascinating. There are different variations; however, I will elaborate on the main folklore.
Russian legend tells of Koshchey the deathless. He is a powerful, evil sorcerer. Legend tells about him in several stories. One of which he is seen riding naked upon the back of his magical steed he got from his female counterpart Baba Yaga. However, Koshchey’s story will be written on this blog at another time.
She was another notorious, awful character that lived in the forest in a chicken-legged hut that walked about. Here is an illustration of her hut:
Baba Yaga is a terrifying character from Russian folklore known as the fearsome witch with iron teeth. She is also known as “Bony Legs” for her enormous appetite and her skeletal image. That rendition of her is known as “Baba Yaga Kostianya Noga”
There are stories about her that serve to confuse you for she has sisters that are also named Baba Yaga.
By description, she has some defining characteristics such as a nose that touches the ceiling of her hut when she sleeps and she looks as bony as a skeleton. When she is present a rushing wind appears. She never uses a broom stick like conventional witches, nor does she wear a hat. Instead in a truly unusual style she scrunches up inside a mortar and pushes herself along the forest floor with a pestle. She is usually accompanied by several loud shrieking spirits.
Apparently nobody ever sees a trace of her comings and goings because she sweeps away the evidence with a silver birch broom that destroys her trail. Don’t underestimate her talent, for she can also fly through the air.
Her hut is very odd like her. It sports chicken legs and it walks about the forest spinning and traveling here and there. When it stays put for a while the windows are implemented as eyes.
If you run across a hut surrounded by a fence made of bones and topped with skulls that have blazing fiery eyes then you have found her.
If you happen to wander into her hut she will ask you two questions one of which is the correct answer. She will want to know if you were sent or you arrived at your own free will. Odds are the wrong answer is the last answer you will ever give.
Fear not for she has no power over the pure in heart or those who are blessed and loved.
She has some minions you may never want to meet. The pure in heart may ask her who are her faithful servants?
She will answer: she replies: ‘My Bright Dawn, my Red Sun and my Dark Midnight.’ She is referring to the Red Horseman, the White Horseman and the Black Horseman.
Yet, there is something even creepier about her. There are three pairs of hands that appear from thin air when she needs them. She calls them her soul friends. They are sinister and look as if they could attack at any moment.
In this particular version of Baba Yaga she mentions that “someone spiteful has mixed earth in with her poppy seeds”
There could be an enemy out there trying to harm her. Would she have an enemy? Who knows?
However, she is more often depicted as a miserable old crone, but there are also stories about her being helpful and kind and very much like an earth mother. It all depends on which story you are familiar with that shapes your perspective the most.
Of course, this is one story connected to this character from folklore. I have no idea if any of these elements will be present in Rise of the Tomb Raider’s new DLC. I am excited to see how they fit Baba Yaga into everything. I cannot wait to get the DLC.
Until we meet again,
~Emma
Sites that mention the DLC:
okheshivartr.blog 
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