Prav- Slavic LocationLocation · Realm"The Heavens"

The Crown of the World Tree

Prav sits at the top of the world. Below it, Yav stretches along the trunk of the World Tree: the middle realm where humans live, where fields are plowed and children are born. Below that, coiled among the roots, lies Nav, the realm of the dead. Prav is the crown. Its name means "right" or "true" in Old Slavic, the same root that gives Russian pravda. Above the clouds, the sun travels its appointed path. The stars turn in their proper courses. Nothing in Prav is out of place.

The Thunderstorm

From Prav, Perun watches the world below. At the roots of the World Tree, Veles hoards what he has stolen: the waters and the cattle of the living world. Perun's thunderbolt splits the sky and strikes downward. The rain falls. The fields drink.

Every thunderstorm reenacts this. Lightning is Prav reaching down into Nav. The eagle in the crown of the tree screams, the serpent among the roots writhes, and the middle world gets wet.

Fire on the Hilltop

Perun's cult sites stood on hills, as close to Prav as earth could reach. The Primary Chronicle records that Vladimir set up Perun's idol on a hill above Kiev in 980 CE, silver-headed and gold-moustached. Sacred fires burned at these elevated sites, and smoke carried offerings upward. The fire on the hilltop was Prav's own celestial fire, brought down to where humans could tend it.