Yomogi, Valeriya

TIMELINE Feudal Era

OCCUPATION Priest; Wandering Monk

MARITAL STATUS Single

SEXUALITY Bisexual

PERSONALITY Although patient, Veyl can sometimes be very serious and aggressive. She doesn’t speak often, at times passing days without so much as a word; and when she does speak her voice is soft, hoarsened by lack of use and gently deepened by years of smoke. In addition to her appearance, the low voice is what makes most people mistake her for a boy; though Veyl doesn’t mind, and a high-pitched voice would certainly be more cause for confusion. Valeriya generally has no great notion of her gender, nor is she mindful of others and rather treats both men and women the same. When intrigued, she adapts to comfort and attempts a lead of conversation; and yet she is cautious, never caring to share more about herself than she absolutely needs to. It takes a while to earn Veyl’s trust, but then it is well earned. Finally, when she opens up, Valeriya is a loyal friend; she has her goofy moments and she has her flaws, as any human does.

LIKES Spicy foods and fresh fruits. Walking; her bare feet on the soft soil and early morning dew on vast grass fields. Veyl is a smoker, but tobacco is a luxury that she cannot always afford.

DISLIKES Long nights. Cruelty.

FEARS Fire.

TALENTS None especially. She can name about ten demon types and their characteristics, which is basically a superpower. Jokes aside, Veyl has a rather pleasant singing voice. She’s also a terrible cook.

ABILITIES Valeriya is a monk and, as such, she possesses a certain amount of spiritual power. She draws her strength from earth, or rather from its spirits. Her ability is most expressed through powers of purification, formation of barriers and sealing. Her training as a monk raised her spiritual awareness, unlocking a sense that enables her to detect barriers and demons. She knows a bit about healing, but Veyl never pursued an extensive knowledge in the arts of medicine. She is rather skilled in armed combat.


WEAPON Ritual Staff; Shakujō

APPEARANCE Veyl’s staff is a traditional shakujō, a little over five feet in lenght, topped with a metal final with two sections, each with three rings; and with a sharpened end, so as to serve as a sort of a spear when wielded in such form.
Tied around the metal connecting the two sections of the top is a circural pendant; a good-luck charm of a sorts, taken from a necklace that once belonged to Veyl’s sister.

HISTORY Veyl’s shakujō is a pilgrim's staff; much like any monk, pilgrim or practitioner of Shugendou, she earned hers in a temple where she was (learning to be and) serving as a priest. It was the head priest that presented Veyl with the staff, at a ceremony that qualified her, among other young monks, a pilgrim; and marked the beginning of her wanderings.

HAIR Dark red, often tied into a single braid that reaches down her back.

EYES Honey brown.

BODY Veyl's androgynous features and lack of a womanly figure often have her mistaken for a pretty boy. She has a small scar behind her left ear, from when she fell off a tree as a child; and a thin, jagged burn on her right thigh, courtesy of a fire demon. Her feet are decorated with a number of tiny scars and scratches, as Veyl often walks barefoot.

HEIGHT 167 cm

WEIGHT 56 kg

ATTIRE Her preference lies in comfortable clothing; rather than heavy armour, Veyl often sports light clothes of linen or leather, easy to move in kimono shirts and pants. Most of her attire is poor and ragged, of dull and earthy colours. She dislikes the rich and traditional kimonos, as they give a certain arrest to her movement and as such, so she believes, they slow her down unnecessarily. She does, however, own a common kimono; one similar to those that she wore at the temple. Stitched out of various pieces of cloth, these days she wears it on occasion, though such are quite rare. Veyl wears a rosary around her neck; a string of beads used for Buddhist prayer and invocation. She is most often seen barefoot.

HOMETOWN A village in the Kai Province

GUARDIANS Though Valeriya’s mother and father are alive and well, Veyl considers the priests who raised her to be her guardians.

SIBLINGS Alayne, sister; deceased.

Valeriya comes from a village at the edge of the Kai Province. Her family consisted of four; Veyl and her sister, Alayne, a mother and a father, of course. But the family was poor, Yomogi a name that meant nothing in the village, and it seemed best for the girls to be sent to a temple where they could serve as priestesses.

The girls grew in faith and learned the ancient prayers; they learned to channel their spiritual power and draw strength from the earth. Alayne delighted in finding new herbs and mixing up healing poultices; just as, her ability grew most in the arts of healing. Veyl was wilder, she liked running off and watching the boys practice armed combat. On one such adventure she had climbed a tree; and she had come rather high before Alayne’s call distracted her. Veyl had grabbed a dry branch at that moment and came tumbling down in all her glory. The event left her with a scar behind her left ear and Alayne with months of silent guilt. Valeriya never blamed her for it.

With years she calmed and became more persistent in her studies, seeking knowledge of purification and protection. Alayne helped a lot, as she had grasped the basics of such skills much sooner than Veyl. Sealing came next, as a branch of study of barriers. Valeriya also became more aware of the spirits around her, though mainly those of the earth. And she and her sister, along with other little priestesses in making, received their own part of armed combat training.

They did not see their parents often; the days were busy and the nights were long, and the cottage was far from the temple. On occasion they were allowed a visit.

Once they were old enough to take jobs and make use of their skills, Valeriya and Alayne made their first coin working in the village and the near, smaller settlements. It wasn’t a lot, and most of it they sent to their parents; but it was money and patient savings made out to be quite a sum. So came a day for the young priestesses to see the world.

They never got far; at least, Alayne did not. Demons found them on their way to the Musashi Province. They came at night and there were much too many for the two to handle. By the time help arrived, Alayne had been fataky wounded by an Onibi. Valeriya had suffered her own share of wounds, but only two remained in scars; one from a burn on her thigh, the other a gaping hole in her heart, carved by Alayne’s death.