Kaija

How do old gods adapt to a rapidly changing world? A spirit of place can hardly embody a landscape that's grown pliable for mankind's easy manipulation, and the protection they offered waters down to myth and symbol. Technology surpasses magic and modernization slowly erodes tradition's necessity: the people of Polevskoy no longer require a deity's assistance to navigate the Gumyoshevsky mine, and no longer need to in general.

Still, the cycle of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain must continue. Since the Old People set foot in Ural, there has always been a guardian maiden of the malachite mine. Blessed at birth by the mountain itself, a woman is chosen to embody its spirit and maintain the relationship between the people and the land, to be their patron at this monument of great power. This woman becomes somewhat of a stone dryad, a demigoddess with the powers to manipulate geology on small and large scales, pass through stone, alter her age-appearance, and apparate. In addition, she does not have to eat, drink, breathe (she also doesn't have a heartbeat), or sleep, and cannot be killed - although she will succumb to old age, when she will be replaced by the girl (not necessarily designated female at birth) born closest to her time of death, and nearest to the Copper Mountain. Her main attributes are malachite, copper, and lizards. 

Kaija Cvetaeva was one such girl - blessed or burdened with the duty to protect the mountain and the surrounding community. The Polevskoy Copper Smelting Plant shut down in 1923 when the previous Mistress was but 20, and she spent the remainder of her long, happy life relieved that the human meddling drew to an end. Of course, she encouraged the local communities to preserve tradition and malachite craftsmanship through the rise and fall of the Soviet Union (Bazhov's stories helped a fair bit), as well as punishing injustice and disrespect - but, all in all, the previous incarnation was a long-deserved peace for the Mistress. However, Kaija's reign has been different so far. Convinced the Copper Mountain and its people no longer need her quite so much, she spends more of her time raging at landscapes ravaged elsewhere. Impatient and impulsive, the young woman extends her protection and magical aid to other spirits of place who need support when their land is disturbed and violated, adamant about fighting for the preservation of nature and culture. 

She cares deeply about her heritage and status as the mountain's protector, but what's the point of having powers to guard a mine that's been more or less abandoned? Other places and spirits fight for their survival against capitalism draining their beauty and resources at a mechanical pace, and Kaija simply cannot refuse drifting away from her own home to help others with all she can at the cost of her divine relevance. Alive since the Bronze Age, the Copper Mountain's Mistress recognizes the end of an era - through the brash decisions of a hot-headed lesbian. The previous incarnations live within her now, and accept Kaija as the current rightful Mistress, chosen for a reason - and if that reason is to deliver magical vigilante justice alongside similar demigods to corporations set to suck the soul out of the Mother Earth, then so be it. 

Kaija's most noticeable personality trait is her passion, although she tries to remain cold-blooded to match her image (without much success). She's quick to lose her temper, but is working on it. She's got a great sense of humor, loves to laugh, and often does things without thinking about them first. However, her intuition is unshakable, and most of her quick decisions turn out well by the force of her convictions. She's often scolded by the other incarnations for being so lighthearted one moment and blazing-steel-willpower the next, but it's clear they're like mothers and aunts lovingly watching her grow up. She's also unusually selfless, a true chaotic good.

Just a minute after she was born to her human parents, the Mistress' transformative blessing set in, and the baby's heart stopped beating. She was pronounced a still birth, and then, when she subconsciously teleported into the Gumyoshevsky mine an hour later, it was filed as extreme negligence on the hospital's part - they lost the body. Hence, she was indeed raised by her past incarnations, them passing on much wisdom to her in the cold comfort of the Copper Mountain. Her name is the one her human parents gave her, decided before her birth and overheard by the previous incarnation in the hospital's panic - and later confirmed when she was around nine, curious and looking for newspapers surrounding the mystery of her disappearance (which she was told about as she grew up). 

She wears a hoodie made of rippling malachite cloth, a long pleated skirt, a malachite hair clip, several copper rings, and either goes barefoot or in combat boots. She has a copper nose piercing, and a forked lizard tongue. She can shapeshift into a lizard.