Yo Rygal’s art is SO good do you have any more info about them you can dump? 👀👀
THANK YOU.... They’re pretty fresh so there’s not a whole lot else yet from the essentials I put on their profile 🤔 Mostly just comparing them to Aster- but I can talk about them/the family dynamic a bit more [OOPS THIS ENDED UP LONG]
Basically, the Vervain heirs are chosen on (perceived) merit, rather than following a direct line, especially since they tend to end up with. A lot of children LMAO of course a chosen heir’s offspring are the first candidates, but the youngest might be better qualified than the eldest or their cousin might win out over them and is chosen to take over instead etc. Rigel isn’t the only cousin who’s local to Aster, but the two *especially* butted heads growing up so there’s a particular rivalry between them; in fact, it’s basically the reason Aster knows archery as well as they do (as part of their Starry Form); Rigel is basically a damn sniper with their longbow but archery was the best way Aster could earn any respect from them.
What’s ironic is one of the biggest points of contention between them is the fact Aster was raised primarily to be ‘diplomatic’- the Vervains, as a mafia family, of course don’t shy away from enforcing their influence with violence but the entire reason they have the foothold they do is because they don’t work on *just* fear. They manipulate people and connections, earning trust and loyalty through agreements and efforts to benefit their community. Aster is a Face, and because they’re small and frail compared to their relatives, they know they have to swing social influence and trick people onto the right paths to make up for the actual physical threat they can pose when they’re working on their own. Rigel *doesn’t* need to do any of that, and in fact, they think they can do a lot better WITH their immediate danger to somebody. The thing is- the Morozovs (the rival family they had a generations-long blood feud with) operate with shows of force and harsh punishments when challenged. That’s what Aster argues with their husband Hades about. So Rigel is fiercely loyal to their own family so they’re STILL harboring a lot of animosity from the feud, but has SO MUCH in common with the one who had to marry in :-)
Speaking of that animosity, that’s WHY Rigel was disqualified (as well as a bunch of others). When the families were conducting their negotiations and decided that joining together (now forming the Violet Syndicate) was their only option to try and force this feud to rest, one of the most important things was being able to play nice and eventually stomach a political marriage. Rigel would be the first to admit they’d probably poison their arranged fiance/e within the first month, LMAO (and BOY are they still pissed that *that’s* what this came down to)
Bonus fun fact because I’ve had to consider them as sort of parallels; they’re both nonbinary, but Aster has thought a lot about what titles they like and how they’re perceived etc and has settled on being transfeminine whereas Rigel is that flavor of agender who’s just “idk. I don’t give a shit.” Sort of everything, sort of nothing, fine with any pronouns and titles with neutral being a ‘comfortable default’.
