A domovoi is the guardian spirit of the household in Slavic folklore, a small, often unseen protector who lives near the hearth or under the stove and looks after the family, the home, and its animals. He is the most beloved of the Slavic house-spirits: the one you want to keep, and dread to lose.
MORANA: The Open Grave is a free Slavic folk-horror card game you can play in your browser right now, no download and no signup.
The name domovoi comes from the Slavic word dom, meaning house or home, so he is quite literally "the one of the house." Across the East Slavic world he was understood as a household guardian, often thought of as an ancestral presence, sometimes the spirit of the family's founder, watching over his descendants from behind the fire.
The domovoi tends the hearth, minds the livestock, and keeps the home in order while the family sleeps. Treated with respect, he brings good fortune, warns of coming trouble, and defends the house against lesser, meaner spirits. Neglected or offended, he sulks, sours the milk, frightens the animals, and rattles the night. His mood was read as an omen, and a home he abandoned was said to grow cold and unlucky.
He sits at the center of the Slavic domestic supernatural, alongside the kikimora, who is sometimes named as his companion, and the bannik of the bathhouse. Custom built up around him: leaving him bread and salt, speaking well of him, and, most famously, formally inviting him to come along when the family moved house, carrying coals from the old hearth to the new so he would follow the fire. He is the tradition's clearest statement that a home is a relationship with something older than its walls.
MORANA cards him twice, once at home and once astray. Domovoi Hearth-Ward is a Hearth Spirit whose line reads "Vigil: your other Spirits here have +1 Power. Reborn: +1 Power, permanently," the guardian who strengthens everyone gathered at his fire and grows steadier each time he returns. His flavour is his whole character: "He minds the fire so you may sleep." Wandering Domovoi, a neutral Spirit, is the same spirit displaced, growing stronger each time he is reborn, with the warning flavour "Every house he leaves grows cold." Together the two cards tell the folklore exactly: a domovoi at his hearth is a blessing, and a domovoi set wandering is an omen.
See Domovoi Hearth-Ward in the Grimoire. See Wandering Domovoi in the Grimoire.
The domovoi is the warm heart of MORANA's Hearth faction and of the whole Slavic idea of home. He is protection made personal, an ancestor at the fireside, and mechanically he is the card that makes a Site feel defended. In a game about the dead who return, a household guardian who grows stronger every time he comes back is the gentlest, truest version of the wheel.
Sources: General references on the domovoi (for example the Wikipedia entry "Domovoy") and East Slavic traditions of household spirits, including the customs of offerings and of inviting the domovoi to a new home. This page retells public-domain folklore in our own words for background; folk tales vary by region and teller. The card described is part of the planned First Turning set. This page describes MORANA only and does not reference any other product.