Official Tomb Raider Blog

Dev Blog: The Myth of Baba Yaga 

Cameron Suey, Narrative Designer on Rise of the Tomb Raider

[Our developer blogs lift the curtain on the creation of Lara’s first great tomb raiding expedition. Rise of the Tomb Raider is available now on Xbox One and Xbox 360, and launches January 28 for PC. Pre-order now at BuyROTTR.com]

There were several ideas discussed for our story-based DLC, but the mere presence of the word “Witch” had such a magnetic draw, that I think we all knew early on what direction we were heading. Once we’d decided to explore the idea of what “Witch” meant within the confines of Lara Croft’s world, it didn’t take us long to realize there was only one witch for us to focus on. “Baba Yaga” is not a name known the world over, unless you or your parents grew up steeped in Slavic folklore. In recent she’s achieved some level of notoriety in the west thanks to her inclusion in games, comics, and pop culture: Baba Yaga’s hut, depicted as a small cabin perched on spindly chicken’s legs, appears in some of the earliest supplements for the game Dungeons and Dragons. The Witch herself has recently appeared in comics such as Hellboy and Fables, as well as being name-dropped in the film “John Wick”.  

For us, she occupied the perfect space between unknown and overplayed, a fascinating legend comprised of dozens of shifting, evocative details. Working with Senior Designers, Will Kerslake and Jeff Wajcs, we decided which elements of the myth we wanted to include, and which we wanted to subvert. However, we knew the House-on-Chicken-Legs had to be included.

The most recent Tomb Raider games have a subtle relationship with the supernatural. They are grounded in reality, but have elements of the supernatural at the fringes and borders. This was something we knew we wanted to cleave close to, so for every far out and wild idea we had to find a way to justify or explain it in order to maintain the internal consistency of world. Once we found a narrative device that allowed us to celebrate the most extreme and terrifying elements of the myth while still remaining true to the core game experience, the story quickly fell into place. Some of the more bizarre elements were scoured away in favor of a streamlined story, but we all stood strong on the Chicken House, making sure to find a way to fold it satisfyingly into the story. It remains the most enduring and memorable image associated with the Baba Yaga myth, and seeing it stride across the forest in Rise of the Tomb Raider for the hundredth time still gives me a giddy thrill.

Our final challenge was finding a place for our self-contained story to live organically in the larger world of Rise of the Tomb Raider. Our version of Baba Yaga is connected to both the Soviet history of the valley, as well as to the native people. We wanted to make sure that players could access it early on or long after they’d completed the main story. We knew we needed a character who would represent both the native and Soviet experience, and the earliest point you could discover Baba Yaga precluded the existing cast members of Rise, (who may not yet fully trust Lara at that point!).

So Nadia was born, the young granddaughter of a Russian man who left his life behind to live with the native peoples of the valley. This gave Nadia a fluency in both Russian Folklore and the native legends, a familiarity with the Soviet history of the valley, and a personal connection to the story. Nadia came fully alive when we cast Ashly Burch (Life is Strange, Borderlands II, Adventure Time), who brought a vigor and energy to the script that played counterpoint to Lara’s more seasoned calm and conviction.

The story is out of our hands now, and into yours. Nadia and Lara have much to discover in the Wicked Vale, the forbidden forest that no one has entered since the collapse of the Gulag. There are layers of history dating back to the time of the Prophet to uncover, and at the center of it all sits Baba Yaga, cloaked in mystery.

Come find the truth behind the myth.

Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch is available tomorrow on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 as part of the Rise of the Tomb Raider Season Pass. Featuring hours of new gameplay, it’s also available for individual purchase.