Konstantin Chernov

**Konstantin Chernov** is a student at the Etheran Academy, who previously attended Institute of Buyan before being expelled. He is the latest host of Koschei the Deathless, an evil deity from the Slavic Pantheon and a member of the Core Four. He is one of the main protagonists of Young Gods.

 Biography

### Early Life

Konstantin Chernov, affectionately nicknamed Kostya, was born in Siberia on a farm near the Ural mountains. He lived a quiet, modest life and got along well with his family. He enjoyed being a farmer and caring for the animals as well as playing games with his younger sister. Kostya had a higher intelligence than the rest of the children that he went to school but this never ostracized him from the others. In fact, they all looked up to him and treated him as a leader. Everyone told him he was going to go far and get out of their small town to do great things. They would have no idea how true that would end up being, even if it wasn't at all what they had in mind.

A sudden chill woke Kostya up in the middle of an incredibly warm summer night. When he opened up his eyes, he saw a pale blue orb hovering over his chest and realized that the chill wasn't something that was just passing over him. He felt incredibly cold, a feeling he would become accustomed to over the next few years. No one would just jump to the conclusion that the orb floating over him was their soul but that's exactly what Kostya thought. It was an innate knowledge within him. He reached forward and held it in his hand, surprised at first that it felt so tangible. His first instinct was to try to press it back into his chest but it resisted, just like a tangible object would. This was Kostya's Awakening and the first step to becoming Koschei the Deathless, an immortal god who was best known for being an evil sorcerer and kidnapping women.

Since that didn't work, Kostya took the next logical step and decided to hide his soul until he figured out what to do with it. With a cool head, he didn't panic and just went right back to sleep once his soul was in a secure place. The next morning he even briefly considered that it had all been a dream but the soul was exactly where he'd left it. That same morning, a man walked across their farm as Kostya was helping his father feed the animals. The atmosphere turned hostile as soon as the man introduced himself as Chernobog. It didn't improve when Chernobog explained why he was paying the Chernov family a visit.

Being told by the literal devil of Slavic mythology that your son was the latest host for the reincarnated Koschei the Deathless would ruin anyone's night and needless to say it ruined the Chernov family's entire lives. They just couldn't look at Kostya the same way again and grew to fear him which was something he just didn't understand. Sure, Koschei the Deathless was a villain in many stories throughout all of their childhoods but he wasn't a villain in his family's story, was he? He'd done nothing wrong. He was still the same person he'd been before the accident.

But that's not what his father believed. One night while Kostya was asleep, his father entered his bedroom with an ax to kill his son. He would have been successful to if Kostya hadn't healed due to his immortality. The only way for his father to have actually killed him would have been to destroy his soul, but his father hadn't known that. Kostya was never the same after that incident. How could he be? His father tried to murder him, thinking that it would be in their family's best interest. He believed that he lost his son and the boy standing before him now was just a demon possessing him. Belobog appeared almost immediately to remove Kostya from his family now that he had been endangered by them. He took Kostya in as his own, giving him a place to live on Buyan which was home to the Slavic deities. Belobog even taught him how to seal his soul inside of an object and instructed for him to find a safe place for it. Kostya wondered if his family's reaction may have been different if it had been Belobog to visit him upon his Awakening instead of Chernobog but it didn't make sense to dwell on the what if's.

## Appearance

For someone with immortality, Kash has always looked like he is on the verge of death. His skin is paper white and his bones appear to jet out from beneath it with his veins clearly visible. He has high cheekbones with sunken cheeks and baggy, red-rimmed eyes. He has straight eyebrows with a sharp nose. His lips are thin and cracked and when he speaks, his sharp canines are clearly visible. His voice is deep and monotone with a rough quality that sounds strangled from disuse. His dirty blonde hair is cut short and neatly combed.

Neither nor tall nor short, Kash stands at 5'8" but is on the skinny side. He is narrow and scrawny, looking as though he is emaciated but it is just a side-effect of being Deathless. He walks hunched over, usually with his hands in his pockets or clutching the straps of his messenger bag which he is rarely seen without. His apparel is very plain and simple, wearing dark solid colors. He prefers collared shirts and slightly over-sized pullovers with ill-fitting dark jeans. His one good pair of shoes are his black Oxfords.

## Personality

Before Kash's awakening, he was a bright and optimistic young boy who believed that the sky was the limit for him. He'd always been the brightest student in the class and everyone often told him that he was going to go and achieve great things which made him feel incredibly proud yet humble enough to not act like he was better than anyone else. He was friendly and kind, often lending a hand to those in need of it. But after his Awakening, Kash became an entirely different person. It was less the Awakening itself and more his family ostracizing him before his father's attempt to murder him.

It's difficult to imagine Kash being any other way than the way he currently presents himself: cold, uncaring, calculating, and distant.