In 1570, Afanasiy Veles, a middle-aged wizard, fled the Massacre of Novgorod, a vicious attack ordered by Ivan IV meant to root out scheming political opponents. Prior to his hermitage in the republic bordering Russia, Veles had served assorted Russian Grand Princes as a general, but he had left the royal court and the rest of the Russian nobility behind due to Ivan VI's increased instability and suspicion of everyone around him. In the middle of the slaughter at Novgorod, Veles disappeared through unknown means and the next mention of him in any written document refers to his flight to the Ural mountains. It was there, in the unforgiving territory of Siberia, that he finally stopped running. Likely, he felt that even if Ivan IV -- the tsar history knows as "Ivan the Terrible" -- did discover that he lived, he would never send a force out so far into such a harsh climate simply for one man he wrongly believed to be conspiring against him.
History, or, perhaps more appropriately, myth, does not tell us what exactly happened next, or how much time passed, but some time between 1580 and 1590, Veles was joined by another in his hermitage. The former Princess of Russia, Elena Mikhailovna Repnina, embroiled in a plot to kill her, was fleeing for her life as well. Her husband, hoping for a better position with Tsar Ivan IV, had begun a plot to incriminate her for "strange behaviors against the Tsar of All Russia" and have her killed. However, the only crime she was guilty of, that we know of, was being in possession of magical powers.
Somehow encountering Veles during her flight, the pair worked together to survive in the harsh climes of Siberia, and slowly (and worryingly, in the opinion of Veles and Repnina) began to attract attention in certain circles. Out of fear, the pair enchanted their makeshift dwelling to disappear and reappear every night, shifting its location to keep them safe. Still, some intrepid witches and wizards managed to force their way through the enchantments and thus, slowly Koldovstoretz was born from small additions of powerful and incredibly resourceful magical practitioners.
As the small wizarding hot-spot grew, the original pair enchanted their dwelling to accommodate the masses on top of all their safeguards, and modeled it after the palaces in Russia that they had known so well. Finally, at Veles' assent, the middling congregation of witches and wizards that had essentially become a mecca for magical learning formally became a school in 1619 where he taught until his peaceful death roughly a decade later.
Pirate Queen Zheng Shi (China, 1775 CE -1844 CE)
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In an age where women frequently, if not constantly, were dealt a pretty bad hand, Zeng Shi was a force to be reckoned with. While her fame is not from humanitarian advancements, there is no denying her infamy on the seas. Strangely enough, for the most infamous pirate of all time, much information on Zheng's beginnings can no longer be found. What we do know about her is that she was a prostitute in Canton (Guangzhou) a port town along the Silk Road. There, she was "claimed" by the admiral of a substantial pirate fleet named Zheng Yi. Yi attempted to proclaim her his wife. The woman agreed, but only on the conditions that she was to be his partner in everything -- treasure, control of the fleet, and general respect. Not only did the pirate Zheng Yi agree, but through some means -- likely large amounts of cunning, and a Confundus Charm -- Zheng Shi managed to get the pirate admiral to make good on his promise, right up until his death in 1807.
