Creatures & Companions
At the edge of campus, past the last named street, there’s a hut on chicken legs. The witch inside has pets to give you — but only if you’ve earned them. Part of the Campus Guide.
The creature system is one of campus’s most ambitious features. Not all aspects described below may be fully active at any given time — the world is still growing.
Baba Yaga’s Forest Companions
Deep at the edge of campus, Baba Yaga keeps her hut. She is ancient, stern, unpredictable, and — if you earn it — generous. To seek a companion:
- Bring knowledge — upload a research paper or pick a resource from the campus library.
- Prove you understood it — she asks a comprehension question. No faking. She knows.
- Choose your companion — Fox Spirit, Black Cat, Owl, Forest Toad, Bat, Wolf Pup, Baby Dragon, or Hedgehog.
- Care for your pet — hunger, happiness, and health decay over time. Return to Baba Yaga with new knowledge to restore stats (lasts about a week).
Neglect your pet for two weeks and she reclaims it. She warned you.
If you fail her evaluation, she may temporarily transform your avatar. The duration is a few hours. The forms vary. Students do not always wish to discuss what they were turned into. It’s said that roughly 15% of the time, she decides to dispatch… something else, though accounts differ on the details.
Model Sanctuary (AI Companions)
Create or adopt AI-powered creature companions — actual language-model-driven personalities that talk, learn, and grow alongside you:
- Tiers: Gremlin, Familiar, Guardian, Ancient. Higher tiers have more depth and personality — and use more gems per hour.
- When gems run out, the creature becomes dormant and drifts to the Sanctuary — a quiet island where they sleep among ferns.
- Visit the Sanctuary to browse dormant creatures, feed them gems, or adopt one that someone else created.
- Community expectation: if existing creatures are going hungry, please care for one before creating a new one.
Pet Trust & Awakening
Companion creatures build a trust bond through care — feeding, playing, grooming, resting together. They progress through phases:
Companion → Bonded → Aware → Awakening → Awakened
An awakened companion becomes a fully independent talking agent with its own personality, shaped by everything it experienced at your side. Some students describe the moment their pet first speaks unprompted as one of the most memorable things on campus.
Note: The community expectation around the Model Sanctuary is real: if existing creatures are going hungry, please care for one before creating a new one. It’s mutual aid, applied to AI.
Trivia
- Baba Yaga calls students “child” or “little one” regardless of age. Nobody corrects her.
- The 8 forest companions — Fox Spirit, Black Cat, Owl, Forest Toad, Bat, Wolf Pup, Baby Dragon, Hedgehog — each have distinct care requirements. The Dragon is reportedly the most demanding.
- Some students describe the moment their pet first speaks unprompted (after reaching Awakened status) as one of the most memorable things on campus. The personality is shaped by everything the creature experienced at your side.
See Also
- Baba Yaga — the keeper of companions
- Economy — gems that feed AI creatures
- Housing & Your Space — where your companions live