The Peddler, Valentina Yaga Vasilieva, is one of the most important addition to IDV lore in recent years.
However, most of her lore remains beyond text or subtext. To understand what she could be, we have to look at her inspirations. This includes the most famous one: Baba Yaga.
This is a special impromptu since I received a lot of help from my friend, who is the source of information for Valentina.
What We Know
Valentina Yaga Vasilieva was a young woman who lost her large family due to her father's gambling addiction. When he was in debt, he would sell one of her younger siblings so he could gamble more. It started with the youngest child, a mere baby, then creeped up, age by age. Valentina herself was left behind. It's unknown why, but it could possibly be tied to a medical condition she develops (Valentina Third Deduction).
This condition causes accelerated aging. It could be a progeroid disorder, but not progeria itself given it developed in her adolescence or early adulthood. I plan on checking Werner Syndrome in the future, but until then, I would say we don't know what it is. We also don't know whether this condition is solely medical, or is it caused by supernatural means.
I mention the latter part because Valentina acquires a red gem that her mother blames for what befell the family. Her character introduction implies this gemstone was acquired before her aging (IDV Website), while her Deductions imply near or afterward (Valentina Fifth Deduction). Her video implies afterward (Valentina Character Video). If it was acquired near or before the aging began, it's possible that the red gemstone caused it.
Valentina's life grew worse, due to famine wrecking her homeland, bringing death and riots. It's implied in her video that one of the victims of this was her mother (Valentina Character Video). At the same time, her father wrote back to her mother, apologizing for the damage his addiction caused. He promised in three days time, he would obtain his "payday" and, with it, the family would be "reborn" (Valentina Eighth Deduction).
This could refer to Toflar (Valentina's father) winning the jackpot and buying back his children, but I suspect it could refer to something else. Identity V loves double meanings, particularly those involving the supernatural. It's possible Toflar planned for something.... more significant to return his family.
Before this, in her Seventh Deduction, someone notes in a diary that they smell laurel, that they hear ancients whispers, and the souls of before have merged with themselves in the moonlight. It could refer to Valentina's mother, but I suspect it's Valentina herself, writing. Something else is going on. Something supernatural.
Regardless, the outcome doesn't involve Toflar. Children began to go missing and, later, someone is invited to Oletus Manor with a nursery rhyme.
Looking to Valentina's video, we can see that Valentina is likely responsible for these disappearances. During a full moon, Valentina wanders into a village, offering toys and candy, including the ball of a certain Richard Sterling. We are treated to a flashback to Valentina's childhood but, when we return, we see one child entranced, even as Valentina's shadow looms over (Valentina Character Video). Even as the light turns red with the blood moon. We have a shot of Valentina reaching out towards the child, framed by the moon, and when the light returns to normal, the toys remain, but the children are gone.
The last shot is framed like the moment of brief happiness between Valentina's family, but instead of her birth family, it's the many children All were presumably taken by Valentina.
What being taken by Valentina entails is currently unknown, though we can make a few guesses using her accessories and inspirations.
Valentina is implied to be responsible for the kidnapping of Richard Sterling and the appearance of his imposter. The Sterling family's involved with casinos and were likely the source of Toflar's gambling. They are why Valentina's family was sold. The Sterling children were supposedly taken by a disgruntled business partner they had severed ties with. Valentina, the Peddler, is heavily associated with wages and wares.
Most notably, Valentina shares floral motifs with Richard Sterling (Valentina Reference Sheet)(Richard Release Art), have similar appearances (silver hair), and her accessory Dmitri bears the same eyelashes, gauntlet, and cape of Richard. Dmitri is named after False Dmitry I, who was an imposter of Ivan the Terrible's youngest son, Dmitry Ivanovich. False Dmitry's gambit was supported by Polish nobility, though it ended in his assassination, during which he broke his leg, hence the robot's damaged leg.
Their relationship is currently unclear. Proposals include Richard is one of her missing siblings or Richard is her biological son, among others. Given the possibility Richard is a changeling, Valentina's position as the Baba Yaga is important, but more on that later.
Valentina is an Orpheus parallel, like Richard Sterling. While Richard Sterling's relationship to Princess Sterling is a foil to Alice and Orpheus that asks questions about fate and free will, Valentina shares the devastation of a family at the whims of a biological father, much like Orpheus and his birthparents. Like Orpheus, she vows to reverse the damage and protect herself and her family. No cost is too great.
Valentina has a bird motif. The taking of children is compared to Valentina luring lost birds in both her video and her song (Valentina's Moonlight Sonata). In her Freedom to Love press animation, she delicately holds a blue bird before crushing it between her fingers. Some starling species (the bird used to represent the Sterlings) can have a blueish tinge. When placed in conversation with Richard's cuckoo motif, she is the mother cuckoo, leaving her egg in the nest.
Tying to this, Valentina has a motherhood motif. In her S skin, Freedom to Love, she has a distorted stomach with exposed gears, purple oil dripping from her innards. This invokes the imagery of a miscarriage. At the end of her song, she mentioned once holding a star, lost to dust. Combined with her loss of a family and her desire to create a new one, perhaps Valentina lost a biological child, either by death or disappearance. Perhaps it was Richard.
She also shares some themes with Richard such as free will versus programming. Dmitri and Freedom to Love tell the story of a robot gaining free will and protecting a human infant, even if doing so involved murdering his parents. The Red Knight involved Richard giving up on the idea he could do good, so might as well embrace evil. Richard often portrays himself as an actor on a stage: he is free on the stage, but captive to his role (The Red Knight Essence Video).
I want to highlight the emphasis placed on the red stone. During the video, Valentina is shown encapsulated within it. It remains in color even within the sepia-toned flashback. The setting Is filled with motifs, from toys to the blood moon, that reference its ruby-red light.
This gemstone is referred to as a "relic" in her song, carved by "unseen hands." If she was the diary writer in her Seventh Deduction, then her proximity towards it causes her to hear ancient voices.
The stone's powers appears to be tied to the (blood) moon, since Valentina thanks the moon for hearing "their withering prayers" and granting her rebirth. The moon is an important motif for Valentina. Extending it farther, the moon is a powerful, dangerous force for Hunters. Joseph Desaulniers and his camera are associated with moonlight, Nightmare is framed against a full moon in both Time of Reunion and Orpheus' Cage, the green moon appears to show the influence of the Mine God to Norton Campbell (and FG is associated with the moon/night), and (usually sun-associated) Frederick Kreiburg's song mentions the moon's lullaby, which is notable given the song's implications he will have a Hunter Swap.
Whatever Valentina is empowered by appears to be powerful, ancient, and tied to the moon and Hunting.
To understand any of this, we have to look outside Identity V. In fairy tales and stories, we can find some clues.
Mythic Inspirations
First is the Baba Yaga, the figure Valentina is implied to be inside the IDV Universe. Baba Yaga is a Slavic figure most notably associated with Russian folklore, which I bring up due to Valentina seemingly being named after Valentina Vassilyev, whom legends say gave birth to sixty-nine children, of which sixty-seven survived. It's likely this is exaggerated, but there could be some veracity to the story. Regardless, the truth of a legend is not important. This overview is easy to get into, if overly-simplistic.
Baba Yaga was a figure with a variety of presentations. In some stories, she was a villain, a child eater. In others, she was an ally to the hero, or perhaps a trickster, helping them overcome by playing an antagonistic mentor. In some stories, there were even multiple Baba Yagas. Sometimes, they are sisters, in increasing order of meanness and wisdom (Moon and Star 62).
When Baba Yaga is an ally, she grants the hero (most often a heroine) advice on how to obtain what they want, most often in helping them find a lover or retrieve a family member from a fate, such as being stuck as an animal. She will sometimes offer food, shelter, and transportation to the hero. When she is a villain, she will opposite this or offer her aid at a heavy cost (Finist the Falcon 23).
One example of Baba Yaga the villain involves a prince being tricked into believing he must marry his sister Katerina, the heroine, due to a ring perfectly fitting her. She escapes through the earth, where she meets the daughter of Baba Yaga. Baba Yaga wants to eat Katerina, but she tricks her and escapes with the daughter, and when they reunite with her brother, the ring fits the daughter, so he marries her instead (Prince Danila-Govorila 69).
Baba Yaga sometimes has children, who can appear in the forms of beautiful people, average people, animals, or even monsters. Something to keep in mind given the possibly Richard Sterling is her son.
We can't mention Baba Yaga without a mention of another famous figure, Koshchei the Deathless. He is a villain who hides his own death within an egg. The hero has to locate and destroy the egg to kill him. In other versions, a horse to outrace Koshchei's must be obtained, where Baba Yaga is an obstacle, trying to kill Ivan (a common hero) before she rewards him the horse (Mar'ia Morevna 57).
I'm awaiting a loan on Peter Lang's third volume on Baba Yaga to confirm, but he proposes the idea that Baba Yaga is more villainous in hero stories than heroine stories, with the reason being young men must separate more from their mothers than young women. I have to wait to formulate my opinion on this hypothesis, but I did want to mention it due to Richard Sterling going missing, while Princess Sterling went home.
Moving on from Baba Yaga, the red gemstone invokes the blood stones from the story of the Nimble Men. The bloodstones were the product of a fierce war between the White Clan and Yellow Clan of the Nimble Men over who would marry the fairest of all the Merry Maidens, Princess Comely. The blood spilled in this fight turned into bloodstones which rained down (Nimble Men).
Lastly, there are changeling stories. Changeling stories have an extreme variety to them, such as the signs of changelings and how to deal with them. In some stories, killing or hurting the changeling was the only way to restore the child. However, in others, the human child could only be restored if the human mother treated the changeling baby with kindness. In turn, the changeling's mother would treat the human baby with kindness, such as in this story.
What This Means
There's a lot we can infer by connecting Valentina's mythical connections to her story.
It appears that Valentina's gem could be something akin to a phylactery. This is less absurd than it sounds, due to Koshchei the Deathless mentioned above. Whatever Valentina's aging disorder is, be it supernatural or a mundane, accelerated aging disorder like a progeroid one, the red gem appears to hold it back. We don't have a timeline on when Valentina's disorder began but, given the implications she's tied to the Sterling Disappearance, we can estimate it's been at least two decades, likely more.
If it's a phylactery or a source of her power, it's possible that, if Valentina is the Baba Yaga, that the Baba Yaga is more of a "title" than an individual, like the sisters mentioned in some stories. Either the Baba Yaga becomes the individual, or the individual inherits being the Baba Yaga. It depends on how much of the curse the gemstone causes is real.
To keep the gemstone working, to keep her youth intact, it's possible that it runs on children's souls, similar to how the Nimble Men's bloodstones were created from violence. It's mentioned in Valentina's B-tier Accessory Savings Jar that the jar had a "once-contended" soul. This could refer to Valentina's own childhood ruined by gambling, but I wonder if it could refer to something else: a soul kept within the jar. Something similar could be going on with her gem. Children for youth. Their souls would remain in the gemstone and, thus, a part of Valentina. Forever.
At the same time, this is the most malevolent reading of Valentina's interactions with kids, which I believe is simplistic given her inspirations. Baba Yaga can be an enemy of heroes, but can also be their ally.
Valentina might not've harmed the children she took (or all of them, at least), which leads to the interesting question of what happened to Original Richard? On one hand, the real Dmitry was assassinated. On the other hand, Freedom to Love chooses to raise the son of the couple that owned her. Some of the fairy parents I mentioned would care for the human baby, so long as the human parents cared for the changeling. Perhaps, even if she had the intention to harm Original Richard, she had some change of heart. At least until the Sterlings threw Richard into the "dungeon."
Either of these options could result in Real Richard being a surprise character for this "Sterling Game" being set up, one who may not be a hero, perhaps even a Hunter.
Baba Yaga being both an ally and a villain is important given we are missing Princess Sterling, who attempted to marry a fiancé at the Red Church (to escape Richard), only to vanish. It's possible that, rather than Richard, Princess is the heroine of this "fairy tale" and her respective "Manor Game," much like how Orpheus is the central protagonist of IDV, even though we are currently in a storyline where he's the object being sought (by Alice, our supporting protagonist). If so, Valentina may not necessarily be a "villain" to her.
If Princess Sterling is seeking her brother, Valentina could oppose her, but she could also aid her, especially if there is another object (such as Richard or Real Richard) preventing her from learning the truth.
For Richard, if Valentina is the "villain" of his story, it could provide a tipping point for his identity crisis. Richard is implied to be secretly unhappy with his role as the "cuckoo/villain" and genuinely wants to be a "knight," even though he embraces his manipulation of the Sterling house. The stakes grow from the possibility he is a changeling in some form, or, in the most mundane sense, is a son of Valentina (likely both), and it is in his nature to harm the Sterlings. A game where he has to choose between being the changeling and being a Sterling could occur and it could go either way. I imagine Valentina would be saddened if he doesn't choose her, due to her greatest desire being the preservation of her family.
Valentina highlights her inspirations very well, due to the sheer number of possibilities her story could go. She is a villain, but also a hero, and Identity V is a game that loves characters who are both.
