OC Reviews

8. Mariya Rohoza

Hello there! :D

Today we're looking at Mariya Rohoza, submitted by @_knif_ and yeah. I should keep it short, since this is one of the longer ones, so let's go. Grab yourself a smoothie or cocktail, and we will start right in!

(rules as always, semi-scientific questions, chronological order.)

CW: mentions of death, blood, and a fictional chronic illness.

This is a supporting character from an original work in progress.

Ok, I'll try to keep this in mind that I don't forget she isn't the main character (I'll probably won't, but it's the thought that counts... I hope)

While the protagonist of the story deals with a heritage she doesn't want to deal with, this one — the love interest — is looking for her own with little success.

Seems good

Overall, the story is supposed to touch on the themes of trust and togetherness with an open window for cheesy romance, but I'm worried about wading too far into manic pixie dream girl waters.

By what you've told me so far (which isn't much) it seems ok, and the themes are very nice.

The world of the story is built on the premise that magic is real, if rare.

Interesting, go on

However, there's no public consensus on it: there are those who believe in its existence and those who don't, and both have made a multitude of assumptions about how it's supposed to work.

That is interesting, I myself haven't seen this kind of approach very often!

Some of those are more accurate than others. In some cases, magical and rational thinking overlap, and the anxiety that makes people knock on wood and avoid broken mirrors with utmost care is, in fact, not unfounded.

I'm intrigued, connecting irl beliefs with fictional magic like that is cool. Adds to worldbuilding, you know.

Some folkloric beliefs — of creatures, spirits, the other world/afterlife, magic practices — aren't far from reality. I'll only touch on the most relevant ones here.

Yeees! Worldbuilding!

A vampire, on an upyr (упир, /u'pɪr/) — the difference in terminology is generational —

What language is that? I think it's Ukrainian, but I'm not quite sure. Good that you thought of the thing with language changing over time!

is a male witch, whose magic can be an acquired skill as well as an innate ability.

A witcher? Interesting, By vampire I would've thought of, well, a vampire.

However, they are more often recognized by the morbid side effects of their prolonged contact with the Beyond: the fangs, the nocturnal lifestyle, the blood stuff, etcetera.

Oh, ok. A witcher that works like a vampire. Got it. And what exactly is The Beyond? I think you'll explain it later, but yea... I said above how I do this stuff

It has been observed that after dying, witches and upyrs tend to take people with them: a few more deaths occur in the local community in the following months; but this phenomenon isn't particularly well-studied.

Seems as intriguing as creepy!

In a certain (spoilery) way, this character falls under the influence of an upyr's death and experiences all the drawbacks of vampirism without any of the benefits.