hpowellsmith
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The Earth Has Teeth RO intro: Val Chernenko
🕑 Added 2025-03-19 19:00:02 +0000 UTC
Full name: Valerio/Valeria Chernenko (known by their full name in-game, but for ease I’ll refer to them as Val when talking about them generally)
Age: 26
Gender: selectable between trans man (he/him), trans woman (she/her), and nonbinary transfem (they/them)
Background: Val lived in Rizhala with their elderly grandmother who was a cunning witch. Under her tutelage they learned magic but little discretion; after their grandmother died in their early twenties, they became increasingly reckless, selling illegal remedies and charms within the town’s bounds. After one too many run-ins with Rizhala law, they thought it prudent to leave, and now live a transient life.
Personality: cynical, artful, shrewd, adventurous
Appearance: short and slender, with pale skin, straight black hair, and bright brown eyes.
Style: Val wears their hair long, usually partially tied back. Male Val has a moustache and beard. Val usually wears thick linen trousers, brightly-coloured shirts, and a deep orange-coloured leather coat, some of it embossed with decorative floral patterns. This coat is clearly expensive and well-kept, containing lots of pockets, and is reversible. Their cloak clasp is decorated with glass gems and they have a number of hairpieces, rings, and necklaces.
At their best: bright, self-reliant, smooth
At their worst: bitter, reckless, self-indulgent
You’ll like Val if you like… someone fun-loving, who will see through those who try to mess you around, who might learn to trust in time, who enjoys the finer things in life, who can persuade others to your side
You’ll like romancing Val if you like… someone who’ll flatter you, who will be a partner in crime (or who could perhaps be persuaded to a less criminal way of life), who will give you space when you need it, who will be canny about what you need
A song from Val’s playlist: Big Exit by PJ Harvey
Face cast ideas: (bear in mind that this isn’t the be-all-and-end-all - feel free to imagine as you like) Ayanga, Gana Bayarsaikhan, Wang Likun
Comments
hpowellsmith
It's for my fantasy WIP The Earth Has Teeth - there's an intro post about it here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/121022606/ The first two chapters are playable for £6+ subscribers, and the public version is going up on 2nd April!
Lorathil
Which IF is this from?
emelsi
That's such an interesting setup where the theocratic leadership is the entrenched interest and yeah they do kind of have a point about whatever they've banned for safety reasons ... But they also have a monopoly. And it's a religious monopoly. And we are walking into this situation as a member of a monastic order of that religion who just happens to have God in their pocket. And how has the religion sort of grown and created institutions and what does Vashtan have to say about all this, and how are the Rizhalan leaders abusing their power and their monopoly? Did they maybe make it illegal to leave town at all without seeking protection/permission? I think the thing I keep coming back to in everything I am reading/watching these days is "How will the people who currently have power use their resources to protect the status quo even when the status quo is objectively terrible for everyone?"
hpowellsmith
Ooh I love these questions, I think I'll add the answers to the Q&A at the end of March if that's OK as it'll make sure people see them! Rizhala's law technically stretches within its bounds and a bit of territory around it, but it's very loosey-goosey because there's a lot of non-owned/unclaimed land that's far away from towns or isn't claimed by farmsteads, etc. So: yes there can be conflicts between people like Roschin and people living nearby, and sometimes fights over unclaimed resources. Charms and remedies of the kind Val uses are assumed not to work by the Rizhala leadership (whether they do or not) and there's not really a way of regulating them, so it's a general rule that it's fine to make and use them yourself - but selling them isn't allowed. Jan, the leader, does provide protective materials and instructions, some based on the priestly rituals of Vastan (the PC would recognise some of it from their experiences) and some less familiar. Jan and the other leaders of Rizhala benefit from having greater control and awareness of who's moving in and out - not everyone would come to them for protection if they were going out to travel, but a lot of people would - and from Jan's perspective, they know for sure that their protections work so it's putting people less at risk. I think that there were problems before this with people in Rizhala knowingly selling desperate people trash, resulting in deaths from storms - perhaps an organised group that was stamped out - though I'm not sure on the timing of it. It would have been within the last 40-50 years, I think (there are some elements I need to pin down to know exactly when it was, which I haven't done yet!) so it's a familiar state of affairs to the citizens there. But other places aren't so bothered about it, so people from, say, Ven Lake where Issi's from might be like "umm? what?" or "yeah, I suppose when you've got such a big settlement you have to be strict" or "that's wild and I'm glad I live here" or "yep I wish our leaders were strong in that way, good to be tough on this stuff"... or whatever other opinions. Basically it's not something everyone would agree with. Val is raging against the machine, is handling grief about their grandmother badly, angered people a few too many times, and has an allergy to keeping their head down and out of trouble.
emelsi
I am fascinated by the concept of illegal charms and remedies, why Rizhala might ban them, what the concept of Rizhala law means in terms of the town's jurisdiction, are there conflicts between people like Roschin and people who live near Rizhala but are not necessarily a part of that community? Are the charms and remedies illegal because they don't work? Or because they do work and undercut a monopoly held by some powerful interest in the town? Or because there is something ethically and legally dubious about how they are created? is Val breaking an unjust set of laws? Why? Do they have no other good options for generating income, or do they do it to rage against the machine? Who benefits from outlawing their charms and remedies? Are the laws old or new? If old, did they originally have a good reason that is now forgotten? Or a bad reason that is now forgotten? If new, was Val specifically targeted?
hpowellsmith
Oh my gosh... I'd forgotten that I hadn't posted them yet so thank you for mentioning it! I certainly will - I think it'll be on Wednesday 26th, as I like putting the posts up fairly regularly.
Bessie Burnet
You're welcome! Now that everyone has been revealed, will we get an update on the poly combos soon?
hpowellsmith
It can be fun to try out different configurations :D I'm so glad, thank you so much!
Bessie Burnet
Can't wait to meet them!! Any character named Valeria is a great sign! Though, I wonder if I may make them a guy unlike how I originally planned. After all, there's some Aladdin vibes in this description. You never know. I shocked myself when i changed Kiriyak from a guy to a gal. Just fit more. And we haven't met Arnell yet. Still, I'm just excited for more of this cool ass story.
