V O D J M I R   Y U K A

GENDER	secret 7th thing {they/them}
AGE	early 20s
HEIGHT	6'0" \| 183 cm
ORIENTATION	um. none idk
SPECIES	halfblood
ETHNICITY/CULTURE	Central Lowlander
BIRTHDAY	uhhhh breakup?

When Yuka’s quiet, weird-kid nature turned out to be the shamanic calling, their father did what any self-respecting loyalist would do and sent them away to a boarding school he knew would suppress the calling by any means necessary. Unfortunately for Yuka, this only further singled them out as the weird kid and resulted in a rather lonely and ostracized childhood. After years of growing up with such treatment, the anger, fear, and exhaustion manifested itself into a hollowed raven spirit that beckoned Yuka to take the chance of an open window and take back control of their life.

Originally grateful for the assistance of the raven spirit, they quickly found themself struggling with vengeful urges and demands of bloodier undertakings. To make matters even more complicated, Yuka's violent actions turned them into a mysterious hero praised by local folk for challenging the oppressive ruling class with their own methods. Stuck between doing what was expected of them by both the spirit and locals or turning their back on the people counting on them, Yuka tried to ignore the raven's demands at the risk of their sanity, unaware of the taut connection between their own spirit and the raven.

Once again seeking to take back control of their own life, Yuka fights their way to the sacred spring in hopes that they can enlist a divine miracle to free themself from the spirit and then find a nice hole to hide in for the next billion years so no one can ever bother them again. Instead, Yuka finds the spring alive with the spirit-gods offering them the role of the next vodjmir. Feeling quite undeserving of the role due to what they feel is an undeserving past (as well as wistfully thinking of the billion-year hole), Yuka hesitantly accepts, afraid of letting everyone down yet also relieved that the raven spirit was no more. With the hawk spirit Vonyova reassuring them that they were chosen for a reason, Yuka starts to feel that their weird nature was just being soft-spoken and distracted by things only they could see. With new confidence and the billion-year backup plan hole in the back of their mind, Yuka is only slightly freaking out at the thought of having to fill the empty space left by Ksunya’s death and decides the best way to begin filling that space is by meeting the tsaritsa.

Yuka's Spotify Playlist

PERSONALITY

According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway. Because bees don't care what humans think is impossible. According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway. Because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.According to all known laws of aviation.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

RELATIONSHIPS

Vonyova - Their guiding spirit and closest friend. The two of them share a sibling-like relationship that Yuka cherishes greatly, especially with how Yuka doesn't have much family of their own. They didn't expect the daughter of the Great White Hawk Spirit to have a mullet though.
Tsaritsa Yelenovna - Kept their distance when they first met her seeing as how her public image was that of a cold-hearted dictator and she had the closed-off disposition to go with it. Of course, once she confided in them the reasons behind her behavior and her more passive (but still guilty) role in the war, the two of them began to get closer, Yuka helping her get set on the path preventing more damage and the Tsaritsa becoming the older family member who shares all the castle gossip over tea. Yuka enjoys her company, exquisite tea selection, and taste in fashion.
High King Vadim - He's kinda weird.
Ksunya - Even years after her death, Yuka can still feel the weight of her legacy and the expectations of fulfilling it that come with. They have really big shoes to fill, both figuratively and literally.
The Sovskovan Pantheon - Considers them their extended family. All of them are akin to weird aunts and uncles that pop up from time to time to offer spirital guidance or life advice (such as which rodents taste the best).

MISC NOTES

Technically Yuka's pronouns are more like "it depends" because their gender category allows them to fulfill roles meant for both men and women. For example, if the sacred ritual is missing a woman figure, Yuka can step in and essentially take up the role of a woman within the ritual (including being referred to as such since within this moment they—or she—will be a woman). On a normal day if you ask them "so, are you like a man or a woman?" they'll shrug and say "hmm... sometimes!"
Illiterate because: first, no one taught them to read; second, being forced to learn to read just wasn't doing anything; and third, once they became vodjmir they decided to just stay illiterate for religious reasons.
The name "Yuka" came from shallow Google searches for Inuit-related names starting with "Y." Some sites say it means "bright star" or "star" which I'm sure is isn't right in the slightest and is probably made up by white people HOWEVER I thought the name sounded perfect so here we are. Thank you MomJunction dot com.
Yeah so Yuka is the legally distinct fantasy AU version of Yakov (ILL LINK THIS SOMEDAY) whatever (and if you see me he/him them it's from 1, this background and 2, the fact I only relatively recently made that change; insert "his pronouns are they/them" meme here)