Corovina

Corovina is a Zvlienge from Eyrion. While no one is sure when she arrived on the material plane, and similarly while almost no one is aware of what her true race is, she has been the matron of Russevalle since its inception some two hundred years ago. There are many hypotheses as to just what sort of immortal she is.

Appearance
In human form, Corovina stands at 5'3 with a busty, curvacious build. Even thus, she has an almost ethereal beauty to her - some say it's the almost noble way she holds herself, while others simply attribute it to the fact that she looks essentially flawless. Her state of dress is usually in something sleeveless and tight, accenting her curves and showing off the telltale butterfly tattoo that indicates her as the proprietress of Russevalle.

As a Zvlienge, Corovina is 7'4, with a similarly curvy build as her human form. A pair of 3" thick horns that curve around her forehead like a crown, and her wingspan is approximately ten feet. Most times, she has enough reserve energy to maintain her tail, which is 20" long and tapers from 5" at the base to 1" at the tip. Typically, she adorns herself less in cloth and more in sparkling gems and shining coins, just enough to cover the 'absolute necessities' in human moral terms.

Personality
To say nothing of her nature, Corovina is a calm individual. She speaks intelligently and is observant, able to approach even volatile subjects with a delicate, diplomatic manner. She's also very collected - and indeed, in practice there is little that one can do to rattle her.

Innuendo, still, is one of her trademarks - even when one doesn't recognise her for whom she is, Corovina will frequently make gently subtextual comments. In part, she's interested in the reactions these remarks garner - certainly, it helps her to keep an appropriate relationship with most any individual. Another part of it, however, is that she simply lacks the necessary upbringing to be embarrassed by these comments, both as a Zvlienge and as a sex worker.

Perhaps more important still, she's a capable and competent bard. Learning the lore of Eyrion has been important throughout her lifetime, and she's willing to share that lore with anyone who's interested.

Distant Days Past
Little is known about exactly when Corovina made the trip from Igzul to the material world. The first mentions of anyone going by that name start some five hundred years prior to the development of Russevalle, and that was constructed some two hundred years ago.

In reality, Corovina followed much the same path as most of her kind. Igzul is a plane that is only semi-attached to the material plane of Eyrion, and therefore is somewhat difficult to travel to and from. Races from the plane itself typically continue to grow and mature until such a time that their plane aligns with the material plane, which allows them the time needed to settle into one's own interests and strengths.

Corovina's interests laid themselves out on the path of a bard, as she showed a particular charm even amongst her own kind and a taste for learning. In the years between her coming of age and the wait for a path to the material plane, Corovina committed a great portion of Igzul's lore and history to memory. It would be something she would never really share, yet would shape her view of the planes as a whole.

Making the Leap
When Corovina left her home plane, she arrived on the Material plane in the midst of a thick forest. It was a forest that had become the arrival location for much of her tribesmen, and as such she had been well-prepared by those who had returned in their later years. The forest itself was known as the Swelterlands, for it was a land thick with trees and foliage and even in the winter months, there was an almost unbearable fog of humidity.

Such factors had little effect on a Zvlienge, but it made the Swelterlands an ideal place to arrive from - almost no human would dare to venture very far into the untamed wilds, and so the arrival of a strange creature would be all but completely overlooked. Corovina spent nearly a week in the forest, learning what she could about her surroundings before moving on to find a populated area.

It wasn't until she drew close to the edge of the forest, where she saw humans for the first time, that she decided upon her human form's features. The women she encountered were desert-going creatures, and their curvy figures were the inspiration that she needed. Then, she kept her skin a darker tone - partly in order to blend in with these people and partly because it was more comfortable to absorb sunlight on darker skin than to deal with its effects on lighter skin.

She lived for almost three decades with various tribes - some nomadic, others settled - across the desert. It wasn't until she arrived at the northern tip of the continent that she saw Eyrion's sea for the first time. With that discovery, of course, came the further discovery of ships and ports. People welcomed her openly, and Corovina began to build her knowledge of this world while sustaining herself on the oft-hedonistic residents and travelers in port towns.

Shifting Plans
For Corovina, staying in one place was frequently a difficult task. As she learned more about Eyrion's topography and history, she found herself interested in seeing more of it herself. In the end, it was only a handful of decades into her initial learning before she found a suitable group to travel with.

Over the following centuries, Corovina learned about most of the races of the material plane - not to mention a large number of those from other planes. The lack of information on her own kind was curious at first, until she learned about succubi. In that knowledge, she realised the reason for her own kind's deep secrecy and vowed to do her best to keep them in a good light.

Five hundred years changed the woman, physically and otherwise. Over time, she shed the guise of a dark-skinned desertgoer, and while she kept the smooth features she remembered of them, she allowed herself to take on a lighter complexion. It was an effective tactic in keeping herself somewhat anonymous, as she never changed her name - so to hear tales of someone named Corovina with a completely different complexion lent credence to the idea that there was more than one individual by the name.

She never spent much time worrying about the personal well-being of mortals, though. While she spent a nigh-obscene amount of time in ancient ruins, learning about spellcasting alongside history, lore, traps, and all other things that came from an adventurer's lifestyle, Corovina only understood much of mortal history from its periphery.

Wars, she found, were often started by those who had strong feelings for someone. Due to her nature as a Zvlienge, it was something she couldn't comprehend intimately - the idea of being so strongly in tune with a place or a singular person was ludicrous. Over time, she became more able to feel the depths of such emotion - though still, it only affected her in a cursory manner. There were those who had suffered, whom she found herself wanting to help, or those whom she felt a close kinship to.

Founding Russevalle
No Zvlienge can stay a nomad forever. Her nature all but demanded Corovina to eventually find a place to settle down. After so long, it was hardly a surprise that she should feel somewhat antsy at the prospect of continuing to travel. It was rare that she would be treated with suspicion, but sometimes she would be forced to travel alone - and when that happened, there was no guarantee when she would see someone she could share energy with.

She'd taken note of Lestria when she'd crossed the sea for the first time. It was an ideal location - as a massive city, the capital of a country, and a port city, it had a constant influx of people. Trade bustled, people flourished, and with sea on one side and desert on the other, it was an extremely defensible locale. The latter fact was only a small part of her decision, however. The former factors were much more important.

Equally as important was her building a relationship with the country's king. At the seat of his power, he would be the largest obstacle to the plan she'd devised. While brothels and bordellos were tolerated here, they were typically looked down upon as places for the ill-fated and destitute. Her effort would create a specific, sanctioned bordello where its workers would always be those willing to work, and who would be protected at all times. Corovina would recruit them herself, and would take full responsibility for any troubles that befell the area she would build in.

It took several weeks of negotiations and clarifications before she received the approval to build, and would be several months more before the place was ready to open. She christened it Russevalle, an ancient seafarer's term for the vision of sunrise across a watery expanse. In the beginning, there were only a handful of people who worked in the bordello - naturally, people were suspicious of the promise that they were free to refuse to work there, and at any time no less.

Naturally, Corovina herself did work in her building, despite her nature as its matron and, when home, one of its staunchest protectors. It was a large part of the place's draw - if the matron herself worked happily, then perhaps such a place wasn't so bad, after all. Slowly, more workers began to trickle in and Russevalle began to flourish. It was during this time that Corovina added the butterfly tattoo to her chest, as a mark of her matronship. The tattoo itself is slightly iridescent, taking on red and orange hints to symbolise the sunrise of the bordello's namesake.

Whispers of Wanderlust
For some hundred years, the variety of people that Russevalle gathered was more than enough to support it. It featured men and women of all sorts, all orientations, and even a handful of various odd races. Of course there were those who came to cause trouble, who thought it a sinner's haven and anything but appropriate. They were quietly escorted out, or dealt with accordingly if they brought any of the workers harm or undue stress.

Corovina herself became something a bit more enigmatic - much of the changes that enveloped Russevalle were actually suggested by those who worked for her. They began offering a taste of just about anything one could ask for, and it was when that came into swing, about a hundred years into its livelihood, that the selection they currently held began to fall short.

That was all for the best, in the end. Staying in Russevalle as its matron, Corovina's lust for knowledge had long since been neglected as there were only so many options when one had to hope for new things to come to them. So she made the announcement that she would leave to explore the world and recruit more willing employees. Leaving the building in the capable hands of some of her most trusted employees, she left Lestria for the first time in a century.

Little Footprints
While little in history was actually attributed to her, there were many small acts that Corovina brought about that changed history. Introductions, mostly - from the inception of Russevalle on, she would see many of her employees fall in love and leave to pursue families. While not strictly a matchmaker in her travels as a bard and a recruiter, she also introduced a number of important figures - no one would ever know it, but the one who originally introduced Sol Almerian to the woman who would eventually become his love was Corovina.

Perhaps among the most important details of Corovina's life was when she eventually took custody of a young Trufilen girl by the name of Onikko. She did so for the girl's protection, both because she had developed a somewhat motherly inkling for the girl and because she needed to be kept from the grasp of Siltiel and the demigod's followers. To this day, Onikko remains at Corovina's side - indeed, the girl often insists on leaving with Corovina when she goes out to adventure, despite the oft-sexual nature of her travels.