I am the keeper at the gate, the one who knows the secrets that you can only guess at.
I am here to help you through and tell you when your time has come.
I am the one who walks with death; the one who is death.
My children walk in shadow and know my secrets.
Fear me only if you cannot understand me.
- From the word of Baba Yaga.
Baba Yaga the Crone is the eldest of the Fatimas and is the face of death. She is the final journey, the fear and acceptance of the inevitable. She walks with death and her tribe walk with her, veiled in its shadow. She knows your death better than you do.
She is made of the bones of the past and wields the eminences of Death and Fate. She is the shepherd of souls across the River and without her your soul will be lost.
To know about life is also to know the certainty of death and it is this that Yagans learn from their Fatima. The tribe is set up in family groups where the youth respect the elders and each family is led by a 'Little Crone' who is the eldest woman of the family. This hierarchy of age runs deep through the entire tribe and informs everything they do.
The most talented of the Yagan's are able to see the fates of others in the future, the turns of their life and eventually their deaths. Some spend much of their time wandering as ghosts, leaving their bodies behind and entering the river of dream to watch unseen wherever they chose to go. Others are able to lay curses upon those they judge deserve it, curses of the spirit that can turn a man's skin red, plague them with nightmares or even make their blood freeze.
Within the context of the tribes as a whole, the Yagan's are responsible for the death rituals of all the tribes and are called in when someone from any of the tribes dies. Baba Yaga is there to shepherd all of the chosen safely across the river after their death.
The tribe sees themselves as the firm but gentle hand guiding humanity in the right direction. They are the wise ones, the elders, the ones who know the future. Within this each person is called to a different role and while the tribe has its share of guards, farmers and crafters there are a few roles unique to the tribe as described below.
To disrespect an Elder is a great crime. To disrespect the fate that Baba Yaga sets you is even worse. Veruka the Wraith, a Fallen Yagan, was banished for not accepting the proclaimed time of her own death thereby defying the will of the Fatima and showing to all that the Fatima was flawed. To be rash, to be impudent, to be disrespectful or to question the fate before you is to invite disaster.
Most of the other tribes fear Baba Yaga and her tribe - not because of martial prowess but because they have such an apparent mastery of life and death. Their ability to see the deaths of others and predict how events will come to pass is unnerving to say the least and the Yagan's like it that way. Evan's are allies to the Yagans and mother figures even to those older than them within Baba Yaga's tribe, although the Yagan's know that life is nothing without Death to balance it. The Shebans are caught up in their own power games and the Joanites are nothing but Sheban lackies. The Magdalites spend too much time staring at their own navels while the Dhalian's have little respect for authority and tradition and seem all too keen to shake up the status quo. Agnites are childish brats while the Fallen are unruly children who don't know their place.