#ruin's gate

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Sexiest Podcast Character 2026 — Round 3

Who is sexier?

Hazel McCallah

Emmy Acero

Voting ended onJul 11

Propaganda

Hazel McCallah (The Unexplored Places: Ruin's Gate):

Hazel is literally a hot middle aged butch cowboy who died and came back wrong it does NOT get sexier than that

what's sexier than a middle aged butch cowboy with a shady past born out of desperation to survive on a harsh and unforgiving planet who makes the conscious decision to not only become a better person and use her strength to help her struggling community, but also who willingly sacrifices herself to atone for her past and then COMES BACK FROM THE DEAD, resurrected by the spirit of said planet, to continue to protect that community and the people in it?

is it a middle aged butch cowboy who rescues a young girl—who, grieving the loss of her own mother in a mining accident, ran away from home and got trapped in the same haunted mine where her mother died—and decides to become a mentor to that young girl, and is motivated by the desire to make the world into a kinder place for that girl than it was to her when she was a child?

or maybe it's a middle aged butch cowboy who, when she fights supernatural monsters with her cool hellstone axe, has smoke come out of her eyes and succumbs to prophetic visions of doom???

also she's HOT

Listen, I'm going to be honest here. I don't think I'd ever found a podcast character hot before Hazel. Now Hazel is the metric against which all other podcast characters are judged. I've never listened to that other show, but how Hazel isn't just absolutely running away with this thing is beyond me.

Emmy Acero (Tidal Wave Games Podcast: SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY...):

Latino trans man, college student turned movie stunt double turned space bounty hunter. Father blew his entire college fund on a cryptocurrency scheme, now trying to raise enough money as a gig worker to pay off his debt before his school's tuition office's hitmen come after him. And that's before he finds out about the whole "secret destiny" thing…

Might be inexperienced (don't worry, he's a consenting adult) but he's a very quick learner. Just look how quickly he learned the saxophone!

Accidental rizz levels off the charts. Canonically has the most romantic/sexual success of any character in the podcast, almost entirely unintentionally on his part

You float the idea of knife play and he says "omg I thought you would never ask". Next thing you know you're sitting in a chair watching him perform actual knife tricks for two hours

Special skills: "True Strength is in the Core", "Can Fit in Spaces Most Can't", "Resting Innocent Face" (aka puppy dog eyes). I think you can fill in the blanks

There's just something about this guy, I can't quite put my finger on it...

Art of Emmy Acero by @violetfoxsketches.

Additional propaganda below the cut:

Hazel McCallah (The Unexplored Places: Ruin's Gate):

Middle aged woman who now uses her fighting skills to defend people.

Rescues a girl without a mother and gets so absorbed in teaching this girl how to ride a horse she misses a job.

Probably a lesbian.

Died and came back wrong. :)

Made me cry.

No but seriously if you want a Cowboy With A Hard Past Who Wants To Get Home To His Family But After Decades Realizes He Has A New Community He Wants To Stay For but with a woman, Hazel delivers in spades.

definitely a lesbian

has terrible horrible visions of Doom

occasionally gets possessed by a supernatural force that makes her better at fighting demons and also makes smoke pour out of her eyes

described as "if Charlize Theron in Mad Max didn't have a celebrity skincare routine"

fights with a fucking sick axe with a red stone head

wears an old flight suit but with the arms tied around her waist like a classic hot scifi lesbian

died and came back wrong!!!!!!!!

her link to the world of the living is the motherless 12 year old girl she rescued from a mine collapse and taught how to ride a horse and who loves her sooooo much

almost got turned into a centaur made of plant and bone one time

has a horse named Freddie

can engage a small gang on equal footing

[wanderingandfound]

Nope was created as a lesson for me personally because I think keeping the horror god as a pet is a great idea. The Blessed Eternal and the Hephaestus crew. Asepsis and Brnine. Aterika’Kaal and Lyke. The Mother of Bones and Hazel.

[slowmo-cowboy]

I love that friends at the table considered in media res intros, but kept with the scripted intros. Especially cos I get my in media res fix from Christine in The Unexplored Places

[unexploredcast]

What's going on at The Unexplored Places patreon this month?

for $1+ backers, the first mission of The Forensic Department of Paranormal and Demonic Activity has wrapped up, and the second will begin at the end of the month, introducing three new Department agents facing off against small town rumors of a mysterious man with no shadow...

for $3+ backers, the first episode of our revamped miscellany show Places & Patrons will be up 8/17! join Christine, Roman, and Sam for the first part of a game of D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker's The King is Dead!

for $5+ backers, August brings three more behind the scenes character creation episodes for FDPDA2, introducing Morgan, Dylan, and Roman's new agents

for $10+ backers, we're posting ten—yes, TEN!—new pieces of microfiction, each a 3-4 page chapter of the extensive backstory for Sydney and her robotic creation Virex that Morgan wrote mid-season. If you enjoyed Virex's story in Ruin's Gate, you'll definitely want to check these out.

If you haven't joined yet, this month's a great month to jump in. And as always, you can also join the Patreon as a free member to get the most reliable and up-to-date announcements about the show. Join here!

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Sexiest Podcast Character 2026 — Round 2

Who is sexier?

Hazel McCallah

Kiki Cethin

Voting ended onJun 13

Propaganda

Hazel McCallah (The Unexplored Places: Ruin's Gate):

definitely a lesbian

has terrible horrible visions of Doom

occasionally gets possessed by a supernatural force that makes her better at fighting demons and also makes smoke pour out of her eyes

described as "if Charlize Theron in Mad Max didn't have a celebrity skincare routine"

fights with a fucking sick axe with a red stone head

wears an old flight suit but with the arms tied around her waist like a classic hot scifi lesbian

died and came back wrong!!!!!!!!

her link to the world of the living is the motherless 12 year old girl she rescued from a mine collapse and taught how to ride a horse and who loves her sooooo much

almost got turned into a centaur made of plant and bone one time

has a horse named Freddie

can engage a small gang on equal footing

Kiki Cethin (The Room Where It Happened: Elder County and Foxfire):

Do y'all need some big, strong, tanned arms to hold you? Do you need to see a woman twice your size throw a scumbag on his ass? What if she could turn into a massive werewolf and hulk out of her shirt?

Then you want Kiki Cethin! She's incredibly soft hearted, stubborn, determined, and has a gruff exterior that tricks people into thinking she isn't as nice as she is. She went through hell trying to find her missing little brother.

She's in a weird emotional thing with her friend Cecily

She's the pack leader and union rep of a werewolf pack

SHE'S TRANS!

she's so strong

She gets emotional when she holds babies

Kiki can tear a car to pieces with her bare paws

Art of Kiki Cethin by @lotsadeer.

Additional propaganda below the cut:

Hazel McCallah (The Unexplored Places: Ruin's Gate):

Middle aged woman who now uses her fighting skills to defend people.

Rescues a girl without a mother and gets so absorbed in teaching this girl how to ride a horse she misses a job.

Probably a lesbian.

Died and came back wrong. :)

Made me cry.

No but seriously if you want a Cowboy With A Hard Past Who Wants To Get Home To His Family But After Decades Realizes He Has A New Community He Wants To Stay For but with a woman, Hazel delivers in spades.

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Sexiest Podcast Character 2026 — Round 1

Who is sexier?

Saint Genevieve St. Cloud

Hazel McCallah

Voting ended onJun 4

Propaganda

Saint Genevieve St. Cloud (Eidolon Playtest: EDM)

Her power is to control her possessions. Yes, that includes people.

Genevieve St Cloud was Once a corporate executive on the lunar colony Luna-1 she was terminated from her position and joined the rag tag anti-corporate resistance known as the Glitch Mob for revenge. Then things got weird, she awakened her Eidolon giving her powers to give life to inanimate objects she owns (by putting a virtual dog leash that says “Mine” on it), made a virtual copy of her consciousness, got murdered by her teammates and the virtual copy, had her consciousness violently cannibalized by the copy before it could be uploaded into a new clone body.

Now a gestalt entity composed of the original Genevieve and her digital copy has taken the clone body.

Hazel McCallah (The Unexplored Places: Ruin's Gate):

Middle aged woman who now uses her fighting skills to defend people.

Rescues a girl without a mother and gets so absorbed in teaching this girl how to ride a horse she misses a job.

Probably a lesbian.

Died and came back wrong. :)

Made me cry.

No but seriously if you want a Cowboy With A Hard Past Who Wants To Get Home To His Family But After Decades Realizes He Has A New Community He Wants To Stay For but with a woman, Hazel delivers in spades.

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Bonus Poll: Characters Mod Wanted Desperately To Put In The Unscripted Bracket But Room Ran Out

Who is sexier?

Dyre Ode

Hazel McCallah

Voting ended onJun 4, 2025

Propaganda

Dyre Owed (Friends at the Table: Sangfielle):

Ancient. Gave away his bones centuries ago to protect peoples across the land. Is now not only collecting their own bones, but acquiring others. Very tall. Wears a different mask every time the party encounters him. They believe in revolution.

Mod's 2023 pick but there were already 4 Sangfielle characters submitted.

Hazel McCallah (The Unexplored Places: Ruin's Gate):

Middle aged fighter. She's had a hard past and a hard present. Left her family and her planet as a child to work. Performed in fighting rings. Joined a gang. Left the gang. Now she protects a town at the edge of settlement. Finds a girl with no mother and teaches her how to ride a horse.

Mod's 2024 pick but once we moved Midst over to the Unscripted Bracket and filled in last year's honorary mentions there was no room.

[slowmo-cowboy]

I think I'm Fundementally Changed as a person following Ruin's Gate episode 37: The High Ground...