entities: ENT_BALT_VELNIAS

The core table — every entity in the database, spanning gods, angels, demons, aeons, prophets, saints, heroes, spirits, monsters, personified abstractions, cosmological realms, and ritual categories. Use category to filter by functional type (146 values: Underworld Deity, Hero, Adversarial Being, Revealer Figure, etc.). Use tradition to filter by tradition. The short_note column contains a scholarly description with source citations.

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entity_id canonical_name greek_name tradition entity_type category primary_domains tags cult_scope primary_period evidence_confidence review_status inclusion_basis earth_association_score chthonic_flag serpent_flag short_note entity_class
ENT_BALT_VELNIAS Velnias   Baltic Chthonic deity Underworld Deity underworld; cattle; magic; wealth; the dead; shapeshifting       A           Chthonic deity of the Baltic tradition; Lithuanian Velnias (later folk form: Vėlinas), Latvian Vels. Lord of the realm of the dead (vėlės), protector of cattle and earthly wealth, master of magic and the arts. The name is cognate with Slavic Veles and ultimately with PIE *wel- (the dead, the realm of the dead). Velnias is the serpentine antagonist of Perkūnas in the great Baltic cosmic myth: he steals cattle, gold, or a solar being and hides below the earth, in trees, in water; Perkūnas pursues him with lightning. Despite his adversarial role, Velnias is not simply evil — he governs essential underworld functions including agricultural fertility and the wealth of the earth. Attested in chronicle sources and folk song. Gimbutas (1963) pp. 200-201; Greimas (1992) pp. 121-150. deity

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