Sankt’ya and Merzost: The Russian influences behind Shadow and Bone

Author Leigh Bardugo has spoken openly about the Russian origins of her Shadow and Bone series. Let’s explore the real-life language and myths behind the Grishaverse.

It’s no secret that Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone trilogy, as well as subsequent books set in her “Grishaverse,” are cut from a different cloth than your typical fantasy story. That was made all the more clear recently with the debut of the first season of Shadow and Bone on Netflix.

Instead of taking cues from western medieval fantasy stories, the Grishaverse is heavily influenced by Tsarist Russian and Slavic cultures and the historical “magic” of science and alchemy. In an interview with The Atlantic when the first book Shadow and Bone was published in 2012, Bardugo explained why she chose this milieu:

"The first thing I should say is that it’s not tsarist Russia—it’s a world that’s inspired by tsarist Russia. People seem to hear that there’s a different cultural touchstone being used than Medieval England, and…they instantly go to alternate history. I got into the world-building phase, I went to a used bookstore, and I was poking through old travel books and textbooks, and I came across this Russian imperial atlas. There was a cover with three men in fur hats next to a sledge in snow. I started flipping through it, and it had trade logs, and military campaigns, and shifting borders, and pretty much instantly I knew this was the right world for the book."

Shadow and Bone still has plenty of things fantasy fans will recognize, from chosen one tropes to problematic romances to political and cultural wars, but its Russian roots give it a special flair. Let’s sort through some of its unique nods to Russian mythology and history.