Pavlina

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Pavlina is a quest-exclusive NPC who first appears in the World Quest Series Hesperides of Love and Hate.

Profile

As a Snegurochka, Pavlina had the innate ability to wield elemental Cryo power.^[1]

Appearance

(To be added)

Story

Pavlina was a Snegovik alchemist who had lived for at least 500 years, prior to the cataclysm. Pavlina first encountered Aksinya at a banquet the Snegurochka Duchess was hosting.^[4] The Belyi Tsar later tasked her, along with Koshchei, Alvis and Aksinya to "seek the stairway leading to the vacant seat in the court of the stars", a plan that had roots in the information he had gleaned from Hyperborea.^[5]

She thus became a member of the Hvergelmir research institute, and had a dedicated laboratory at the Pale Crown Palace, where she had also owned a cat named Lara. At some point, she had to return to the House of Hesperides to handle some business and entrusted Koshchei to feed her, leaving a note telling him that Lara had to be fed from her bowl and warned him that she would find out who was responsible if Lara had been neglected or someone had alchemized parts of another animal onto her.

Alongside Larisa, Pavlina was a contender for the position of Duchess of the Snegurochka. Both were on equal footing in Prime Ice artisanry, but Larisa surpassed her in ceremony and etiquette. When Pavlina, who vied with Larisa for the position, asked Larisa whether she lived for love alone, Larisa answered that to her the greatest misfortune in the world is to love no one at all. As the Snegovik ancestor, Yalyane Morevna, decreed that the Grand Duchess must have a soul, Larisa brought a human man to the mansion to marry him. Many praised him as handsome and thought the two well matched. Only Pavlina found him vulgar and resented the pairing.^[6]

In the end, Larisa's bethrothed became spooked and abandoned the ritual midway, resulting in her death. Pavlina raced to the heart of the storm, but Larisa's body had grown fragile and dissolved into snow-foam amongst the wind. Pavlina later swore upon the sword Larisa left behind that her own wedding to Ikhor would succeed. She also used Larisa's fate to justify sacrificing the power within him to give her kin souls.^[7]

Aksinya's creation, the Eye of Graeae, realized what would happen if Aksinya's plan was successful, and he managed to convince the trio to betray Aksinya, shoving her into the Shadow Realm. The Eye of Graeae was later shattered into three different segments, with one of these transforming into Ikhor. Pavlina would initiate numerous "wedding rituals" in order to fully form and acquire the fragmented power to give the people under her protection souls, as the Snegovik lacked them. These rituals had been initiated for an unknown amount of times that Pavlina eventually forgot that Ikhor had willingly helped her, shackling him for compliance. While the ritual commenced, Aksinya appeared and objected, to which Pavlina stated that she was not welcome and her tricks would only give her some time before the inevitable as another ritual was performed. In the next iteration, Pavlina took Ikhor's power and ascended to the Cloudborne Palace, where the Traveler and Aksinya fought and defeated her. In her dying breath, Pavlina asked Aksinya if she had fully thought out her own plan and if she had given "him" a choice, and she disappeared as the final ritual was completed, leaving behind a fragment of Graeae's power.^[8]

Quests and Events

World Quests

• Hesperides of Love and Hate
  • Through the Gates of Ivory
  • Procrustes' Iron Bed
  • Bell Ringing at Dusk
• A Great Heart Fettered by Slender Chains (as Cold Voice)
• Like a Labyrinth Imprisons Her Servants (as Cold Voice)

Hidden Exploration Objectives

• A Certain Noble's Relics

Gallery

Trivia

Etymology

• Pavlina (Cyrillized: Павлина) is the Slavic feminine version of the name "Paul", which has Latin and Jewish origins. The main contributor of the name is St. Paul, known in some Slavic countries as St. Pavel (Св. Павел); it and many other Christian-related names became popular due to the Christianisation of the Slavic people. The variation "Pavlina" (Павлина) is used manly in Czechia, Bulgaria, Poland and North Macedonia.

Other Languages

Change History

References