#I didn't even talk about the y in his name; I'm theorizing the mountain-dwellers generally write with a y for the ee sound

[iamthepulta]

so what’s with “petyr rivend”?

OKAY. So Petyr is a character I knew needed to exist in Ellenville, but really solidified... *checks watch* ... two days ago.

((How much am I supposed to share for this ask game...? I'll allow myself to go off under the cut.))

TLDR: Petyr is an Elum miner/union organizer in my Ellenville story. He essentially fits the 'angry revolutionary with a tragic backstory' trope, and the story I'd write for him would just be his backstory since that has minimal effects on Ellenville-proper, but it'd really help worldbuilding for the country and geology.

He grew up in the largest coal mining town of northwest Marena, nestled in the valley between two mountains, and his parents were operators on the mine's south slope, situated upstream of the town.

As part of its normal course, the river began to undercut part of the mine's base slope. Petyr's parents and the other south slope workers voiced their concerns, but no changes were made. Eventually, the slope did fail, sending several tons of coal waste on top of the river. The town wasn't harmed, and Breichester & Co. actively mocked Petyr's parents and the other operators' fears.

However, 1. the coal waste in the river created acid downstream and 2. the poorly-consolidated waste wasn't enough to dam the water completely, but the restricted flow still created an acidic lake upstream.

The town and workers were upset, but the company claimed not only was there not enough money to fix the new problem, but naysayers were union plants so they could call in security. Once their vocal neighbor was silenced, Petyr's parents smuggled him to his uncle a few villages over with vague excuses to the company school. Only a few weeks later, the dam collapsed, burying the town and everyone not on shift in 15 feet of coal sludge and acid.

Petyr continued living with his uncle and worked in gold mining until elum was discovered near the capital city, (also called Marena), and miners flocked to their new Mecca. It didn't take long for Petyr to spot patterns in the families of miners and weavers who'd worked elum longest, and his brash nature quickly earned him credit with the other miners. On the run from company thugs, Petyr is well-known throughout Marena's underground, rallying to keep other workers safe, enacting vengeance whenever possible, and telling whoever will listen that something is wrong with the elum kids.

-=-

((His design is partly from songs "River's Rising" and "The City that Drowned", and partly from the Aberfan Disaster and dozens of other tailings accidents over the years. I also require at least one (1) angry!tragic character in everything I write. I love him. Shaking him like a wet head of lettuce ahhhh))