Hammer of the Witches

1. The Alatyr Stone is an ancient artifact created by the Magi over 600 years ago to seal the Mistress of the Elements. During the 2012 disaster, it shattered into eight fragments. The bearers are called "Keys" or "A-People." Each has received the following abilities: super-strength (Lyokha), super-intelligence (Ilya), super-mastery (Nikita), possession (Golikova), hypnosis (Romanov), telekinesis (Petrovskaya → Vasilisa), talking cat (Kuzya), and an unknown eighth (Kozyrev). If the bearer dies, the energy passes to the nearest person or animal.
2. Reverse – a development by Leonid Popov (Lyokha's father), capable of turning back time and restoring everything "as it was." The key to saving the city. Hidden on the institute grounds. In the finale, it returns Alyona from a mermaid to a human, Golikova from the dead to the living, Nadezhda Popova from a werewolf to a human, and turns Kozyrev to stone.
3. Hogweed—an enchanted plant that the Mistress grows around Kalyazin, cutting the city off from the outside world. It easily breaks asphalt and creates a "radar" that allows the Mistress to see all the Keys in the city and influence them.

1. Leshy (Leshies) are creatures the Mistress transforms people into, encasing them in plant cocoons. These tall creatures, made of tree branches and stronger than humans, are virtually immune to bullets, but are vulnerable in the neck area—a strong blow can decapitate them. They have no will of their own, but under the guidance of the Mistress (or the centurions), they are a dangerous force. Through them, the Mistress draws energy from the earth, restoring her true strength.
2. Mermaids are girls drawn to water by a dark force. They gradually transform into predatory half-fish. Not "Disney-esque"—more like a disease, a gradual, painful transformation. Tied to water, they die quickly on land. If a mermaid bites a girl, she too becomes a mermaid.
3. Centurions—people who ate the Mistress's parasitic berries (similar to blueberries). The berries instantly integrate into their nervous system. They are outwardly indistinguishable from humans, but are extremely strong, attacking with flies from their mouths, retaining their sanity, and commanding forest spirits and mermaids. Under the leadership of the centurions, the Mistress's army easily dealt with a special forces unit.
4. Werewolves are another type of creature that the Mistress turns people into (Lyokha's mother became a werewolf)

1. Valentina Petrovna
   The mayor of Kalyazin. A complex character, he's confused by the current situation, and Moscow is far away. At first, he acts inconsistently, even threatening Tanya. But after a verbal thrashing from Uncle Slava (Alena's father), he begins to soften. In the final scene, he convinces the role-playing vigilantes not to kill the forest spirits, but to catch and tie them up. He receives praise from the townspeople.
2. Kuzminishna
   The mayor of Kalyazin's security guard
3. Pavel Andreevich
   Mushroom picker. Minor character. Fallen under the influence of the mistress of the elements.
4. Mark
   A minor character. He has a daughter, Anya. He fell under the influence of the Mistress of the Elements. Pale, with short black hair.
5. Anya Vasilisina
   Mark's daughter. A minor character.
6. Agrippina, Lyudmila, Claudia
   Market women on Kalyazin Square. Occasional comedic characters.

1. Tanya
   Alyona's friend, a blogger with nearly a million followers. Constantly searching for sensational news and shocking content. She's the one who goes into the dangerous forest to gather material, dragging Alyona along with her. She tries to reach the mayor by telling him about the strange things happening in the forest. Social media is taking control of her. She saves Alyona through her efforts, along with Alyona's father. She has a cameraman, Selivanov.
2. Aleskerka
   A blogger and singer. Tanya's rival, competing with her for views. Bright and charismatic, she fits into the modern context of the series, with jokes about the everyday life of bloggers.
3. Selivanov
   Tanya's cameraman. He's in love with her, but he's torn between her and Aleskerka, since he works with the latter as well.

1. Peresvet
   The leader of a squad of heroic roleplayers. An Orthodox Christian. A charismatic character. Previously worked in the sleep department of the Magic Research Institute—he remembers all the formulas and helps Ilya determine the parameters of witch radiation. He's plump and bald.
2. Zakhar
   A squad member, one of the fighters in Peresvet's detachment.

11. Kuzya the Cat
    Ilya Muromtsev's talking cat. No one else can hear him, only Ilya, who thinks it's a figment of his imagination, an "inner voice of reason." He's based on the Learned Cat from Pushkin's fairy tale. He mostly sits in a chair, mentally communicating with the characters. His expressive gaze makes it seem as if he's actually talking, even though his mouth doesn't open. He's one of the eight bearers of the Alatyr Stone fragment.
12. Egorych
    A ghost that haunts the walls of ITIER. Serving the Mistress. A comical character—he constantly shows his "butt" to the scientists. The prototype is a mischievous fairytale spirit.
13. Babay
    The boatman. A water spirit disguised as an old man. A sort of Charon—he ferries people across the river. Disguised as an ordinary man, he served the Mistress for centuries. In the end, he turns out to be "not a bad man." A sly, sneaky fellow.

Backstory: Nikita Dobrynin's younger sister, the daughter of local police officer Vyacheslav Dobrynin. She falls victim to the Mistress of the Elements, gradually transforming into a mermaid. The transformation is shown gradually, from skin rashes to complete "scaly" skin. The mermaids in the series aren't Disney-esque—they're half-fish, predatory creatures resembling common fish native to the temperate zone. Alena is sent to Moscow for experiments on Basov's orders, but is saved by the efforts of her father and Tanya. Thanks to the "reverse," she becomes human again.
5) Nadezhda Vladimirovna Popova
Lyokha's mother. Seriously ill, Lyokha is looking for money for her treatment. She falls under the Mistress's spell: she eats magic berries, falls under the witch's control, and becomes a werewolf—a subject of the Mistress. She is saved by "reversal."
6) Leonid Popov
Lyokha's father, an ITIER employee, died in an explosion during an experiment with the Alatyr Stone. He is the inventor of "reverse"—a program/device capable of reversing time. His invention becomes the key to saving the city. Lyokha sets out to find his father's lost invention—it's the only chance to restore peace to Kalyazin.
7) Vyacheslav Ivanovich Dobrynin (“Uncle Slava”)
Nikita and Alyona's father. A local police officer. A loving husband and father. He's not privy to the Institute of Magic's affairs, but when Alyona goes missing, he joins in the rescue.
8) Anna Pavlovna Petrovskaya
An ITIER employee. After the explosion, she gained telekinesis. She was killed by the Dead One (Golikova), who killed her when Anna began telling Vasilisa the institute's secrets. After her death, her telekinetic powers passed to Vasilisa.
9) Svetlana
Nikita and Alyona's mother. Vyacheslav's wife. Plump, about 45-50 years old. Short, light-blond hair.
10) Vasilisa
Appearance: Young attractive woman. Long brown hair.
Personality and behavior: Divorced, has a son. Nikita's colleague in the ambulance service. Previously associated with the Institute of Magic—former partner of the Tsarevich. The prototype for Vasilisa the Wise.
Ability: Gains telekinesis - the ability is transferred to her from Anna Petrovskaya, who was killed by the Dead Woman.

1. Ivan Tsarenko ("Tsarevich")
   Appearance: A middle-aged man, he resembles David Duchovny—the same tired, intelligent image. He drives a tuned UAZ van. His black hair is cut short.
   Personality and behavior: Sarcastic, ironic. His level of sarcasm is comparable to Agent Mulder from The X-Files. He knows about the magical apocalypse brewing in Kalyazin, but he doesn't share any valuable information, feeding the security forces flimsy excuses. He's married.
   Occupation: Major, member of the special unit of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Leads a squad for capturing supernatural creatures. Prototype of Ivan Tsarevich.
   Backstory: Vasilisa's former partner. He knows more about the magical nature of what's happening than any civilian.
2. Gray and the Wolf
   The Tsarevich's subordinates. Their call signs allude to the Gray Wolf from Russian fairy tales—here he's "split" into two characters. Along with the Tsarevich, they are local "ghostbusters" who respond to calls about evil spirits. They carry pistols, which are ineffective against tree monsters. The Wolf is deaf and dumb.
3. Sergey Sergeevich Basov
   The head of the special unit of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Tsarevich's immediate superior. He demands results from his subordinates—so far, only wood goblin cocoons have been found. It is he who orders Alyona, who has transformed into a mermaid, to be sent to Moscow for experiments. A character "unpleasant," according to reviewers.
4. Alena Dobrynina
   Appearance: A beautiful young girl, a typical provincial beauty. Long, blond hair.
   Personality and behavior: Trusting and open. She loves her brother Nikita and is dating Lyokha Popov (an old flame). She has a blogger friend, Tanya, who constantly drags her into the dangerous forest for shocking content.

Appearance: A middle-aged man, intelligent. His gaze is piercing, reflecting his ability. His hair is short and black with graying hair.
Personality and Behavior: A tragic figure. Obsessed with bringing back his beloved Olga, who died in the explosion at the institute, from the dead. He keeps her ghost alive with the help of her personal belongings.
Occupation: Chief Engineer of ITIER, scientist.
Backstory: He worked at the institute. His fiancée, Olga, also an ITIER employee, died in an explosion during an experiment. After the explosion, Nikolai discovered he had the ability to telepathically influence people.
Abilities: The bearer of a shard of the Alatyr Stone possesses hypnosis: they can take control of a person by looking into their eyes, instilling illusions and telepathic commands, including orders to commit suicide. They can hypnotize groups of people. Weakness: If they are not looked at or blindfolded, the ability is useless. They can also summon the ghosts of the dead by possessing their personal belongings.

Appearance: Outwardly, she's an ordinary middle-aged woman, but with eerie details: pale skin, cold hands, unnaturally even breathing. Upon closer inspection, it's noticeable that she's not breathing normally. Her temperature is very low, as is her blood pressure. Her long black hair is pulled back into a ponytail.
Personality and Behavior: A ruthless careerist. Cold, calculating, and ruthless. Literally dead, yet still functioning. She can't taste food, but eats and drinks out of habit. She yearns for simple human joys—once she says she'd like to smell fried potatoes again.
Selfish and unprincipled. She wants to be alive again—and is willing to do anything to achieve it. She killed employee Anna Petrovskaya when she began telling Vasilisa the secrets of ITIER.
Occupation: Deputy Director of ITIER, scientist.
Backstory: She worked at the institute. During an explosion during an experiment with the Alatyr Stone, she received a fragment of the artifact—but the stone's energy literally killed her. The Alatyr Stone sustains her "life," preventing her from resting. She doesn't breathe, her heart doesn't beat, and her body temperature is room temperature. She has stopped aging. For ten years, they've been studying her, dissecting her, conducting experiments, and drawing her blood.
Abilities: Immortality, superhuman hearing (can discern a conversation on the second floor from the street), perception of Alatyr's energy (can locate other Keys nearby), possession—can take control of another person, forcing them to repeat his movements, even through walls. Can interrupt the victim's breathing and heartbeat. In the finale, thanks to "reversal," he becomes alive again.

Appearance: A middle-aged man with an intelligent appearance. He dresses in the style of a scientist-cum-chief—neat, but not overly chic. His hair is short and black with graying hair.
Character and behavior: A man torn by contradictions. On the one hand, he loves Katya and wants to save her. On the other, he is obsessed with ambition: he wants to gain the Mistress's power, immortality, and omnipotence. He is cunning, calculating, and ready to betray. He refuses to allow the witch to be destroyed because he is pursuing his own personal interests.
Occupation: Acting Director of the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Research. He headed the institute during the 1979 experiment.
Backstory: He was Katya Reshetnikova's lover before the Mistress possessed her. After the experiment failed, Kozyrev was imprisoned, from which he was only recently released. The Institute brought him back as a former leader who knew how to handle the situation. But in the finale, it is revealed that Kozyrev is the eighth, unknown bearer of the Alatyr shard. His true plan is to obtain the Mistress's power. In the final battle, he stabs Alyosha in the back with a sword, but Lyosha still triggers the "reverse." Kozyrev is defeated, and the Mistress turns him to stone.

Appearance: Katya's body is occupied by a young, beautiful woman. After the Mistress possesses her, her appearance becomes eerie: tousled hair, which viewers and critics have compared to a "nest on her head," a fiery gaze, and unnatural facial expressions. She often hovers in the air. She can appear simultaneously alluring and terrifying. Her eyes are a bright amber color.
Personality and behavior: Cruel, vengeful, cold-blooded. But she wasn't initially evil—she became that way because of how people treated fairy creatures. She doesn't understand the traditional concepts of good and evil—she acts according to her own natural laws. She's capable of unexpected kindness (she healed Ilya). In the finale, seeing kind people, she stops being angry.
Occupation: An ancient being—Mother Nature, mistress of forests and the elements. For millennia, she lived in the forest, protecting fabulous creatures.
Backstory: Over 1,000 years ago, the Mistress of the Elements lived peacefully in the forest and treated people well. But when people began to mistreat these magical creatures, she became enraged and declared war on humanity. She was captured and imprisoned in a magical barrel for centuries. During Soviet times, the barrel was discovered by employees of the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Sciences (ITIERS). In 1979, the institute conducted an experiment: Katya Reshetnikova, a young, beautiful scientist and a powerful medium, volunteered as a medium. The experiment failed—the Mistress possessed Katya.
Katya's lover, Konstantin Kozyrev, tried to reason with her, but the Mistress proved stronger, turning the guards into wood goblins and escaping. Katya was captured and placed in a cryochamber, where she waited until scientists could separate her from the entity. In 2012, during a repeat experiment, the Mistress broke free. She was no longer the smiling Katya, but an evil sorceress, determined to take revenge.
Abilities: Manipulation of the elements (typhoons, tsunamis), flight, possession of people, mental manipulation, dream walking, turning people into wood goblins and mermaids, growing enchanted hogweed, control of technology, healing, petrification, teleportation, regeneration, immortality.

Appearance: A strong, stocky man. His hands are callused from blacksmithing. He dresses simply and practically—a working man's style. His black hair is short.
Personality and behavior: Brash and quick to speak. But at the same time, he's positive—he can take a punch and not whine. He loves his sister, Alena, more than life itself. He's not happy about Lyokha Popov's return to town—there's tension between them. He disapproves of Alyosha's crypto project, believing it's exploiting Ilya. At heart, he's a warrior and a protector.
Occupation: Ambulance driver. Self-taught blacksmith – forges swords and axes. In his spare time, he leads a "squad" of amateur roleplayers through the woods, exterminating evil spirits.
Backstory: A native of Kalyazin, he works as an ambulance driver with his partner, Vasilisa. His sister, Alyona, falls victim to the Mistress of the Elements and is transformed into a mermaid. Nikita rushes to save her. He also has a strained relationship with Ilya due to fundamental disagreements over Alyoshin's crypto business.
Ability: Bearer of a fragment of the Alatyr stone - "super-handiness", mastery of handling metal and weapons, phenomenal hand-eye coordination.

Appearance: A young man with an intelligent, focused face. He uses a wheelchair (until he recovers). Physically strong—despite his injury, he maintains his fitness. He has short, black hair.
Personality and Behavior: Thoughtful, stubborn, and analytical. He doesn't believe in semi-legal enrichment schemes—he thinks Alyosha is using him. At first, he seems withdrawn and gloomy, but in reality, he's a loyal friend. He never loses heart and seeks solutions. He talks to his cat, who no one else can hear.
Occupation: Programmer, former firefighter. A talented IT specialist. He is the one developing the "magic radar"—a device that accurately identifies any supernatural being. The device is called the "Hammer of Witches."
Backstory: Ten years ago, Ilya saved Alyosha during an explosion at the institute. He suffered a serious spinal injury and was confined to a wheelchair. He didn't give up and found his calling in computer technology. He suffers from prophetic dreams about the Mistress of the Elements—dreams in which the witch rips out his heart and causes the apocalypse. Later, the Mistress of the Elements kidnaps him and, to prove she's not entirely evil, heals his legs—Ilya begins to walk again.
Ability: The bearer of a fragment of the Alatyr stone possesses super-intelligence and genius-level intellect.

A pragmatic, energetic young man and athlete. He moved to Moscow and is trying to sell investors a device for extracting a percentage of cryptocurrency mining profits—a project not entirely legal, but Alyosha doesn't care; he needs the money to treat his gravely ill mother. He is Ilya Muromtsev's business partner, but he doesn't share his enthusiasm for mining. Alyosha possesses superhuman strength—he can single-handedly move a car blocking his exit from a parking lot. His father died in an accident at the institute in 2012, and Alyosha, like the other bogatyrs, carries a fragment of the Alatyr stone. He is a strong, confident man in appearance. His character is sharp, pragmatic, but devoted to his loved ones.
Appearance: A strong, physically fit young man with an athletic build. He dresses modernly and simply—more street style than business attire. His face is open, but with a calculating squint. His hair is light blond.
Personality and Behavior: Pragmatic, energetic, and enterprising. He doesn't mince words, and knows how to speak persuasively and sell. He's not a bad person, but he's willing to use less-than-legal methods for the sake of his loved ones. He's blunt, quick-tempered, but loyal. When it comes to family and friends, he's quick to jump into action.
Occupation: Athlete, crypto enthusiast. He's trying to sell investors a device that takes a cut of every cryptocurrency transaction. The project isn't entirely legal.
Backstory: Lyokha was born and raised in Kalyazin. His father, Leonid Popov, an employee of the secret ITIER, died in an explosion during an experiment with the Alatyr Stone in 2012. His mother, Nadezhda, fell seriously ill, and Lyokha moved to Moscow, trying to earn money for her treatment. He is a business partner of Ilya Muromtsev, who, according to Lyokha's plan, was supposed to complete the crypto-device, but has stopped communicating. He returns to Kalyazin to personally force Ilya to complete the project—and finds himself caught in a maelstrom of magical events.