Merchant

— Merchant, *Temptation Stairway*

**Merchant** is a minor character that appears in *Temptation Stairway*. Like their name suggests, they are a merchant who sells treats.

## Appearance

Merchant appears to be a humanoid in a black skintight suit. They don three red masks, two of which are on their hands. These masks have yellow-colored mouths, noses, cheeks, and eyeholes while also sporting black facial hair. They also don a magenta and yellow-striped cloak that goes over their shoulders.

Before taking on their true appearance, they appear as a humanoid figure atop a unicycle. The figure has tan skin with a purple body and blue eyes, lacking any other facial features. They have a round head and body with skinny limbs that constantly juggle the Merchant's masks. The unicycle they ride has a brown seat with what appears to be a footrest or singular pedal.

## Trivia

* Merchant speaks Spanish with Mexican slang.
* Merchant is the third *ENA* character to have their name be a job, the other ones being Auctioneer, Keeper, and The Shepherd.
* After Ena gets the Turrón and the screen pops up, it is possible to hear Sr. Pelo laughing.
* As stated in a Twitch stream by Joel Guerra, the Merchant was originally going to speak English. However, it was later decided that they would speak Spanish and Joel contacted Sr. Pelo to voice the character due to his voice, to which the latter gladly agreed.
* The Merchant reappears in a promotional video for *Dream BBQ* Fangamer merchandise, in which Sr. Pelo reprises their role as the character and they are now depicted as a 3D model with chroma-keyed arms.

### Cultural references and inspirations

* The figure juggling the Merchant's masks before the character materializes is based on the 1986 Juggler demo for the Commodore Amiga line of computers. This demo showed off the ability to render raytraced, 3D imagery on the 16-bit computer, specifically in the software Sculpt 3D.
* The masks that the Merchant dons resemble Peruvian Waq'ollos, balaclavas/masks worn during the Qhapaq Q'olla dance from Paucartambo. Specific features, most notably the mustache, look like they're from a Waq'ollo, having a black, red, and yellow color scheme (though Waq'ollos are usually white) with a black mustache and eyebrows, red face, and yellow rings around the eyes and mouth. The Qhapaq Q'olla is also a character representing a merchant.
* The cloak Merchant wears appears to be an aguayo, a carrying cloth used in traditional communities in the Andes that is commonly used to carry small children and other items on the wearer's back.
* Merchant's overall appearance resembles the costumes in the play *The Neutral Mask On The Surface Of Skin*, in which performers wear black suits that cover their entire bodies and wear masks on both their faces and hands.
* The dances that Ena, Merchant, and The Shepherd do upon obtaining the Turrón are references to the music video for the Talking Heads song "Once in a Lifetime".
* Merchant's style of advertising in the video *New ENA Merch from Fangamer* strongly resembles the turrón ads starred by various characters from the Mexican show *El Chavo del Ocho*.

## Gallery

The Merchant before they reveal their true appearance.The Merchant in the *Dream BBQ* Fangamer merch video.
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://twitter.com/\_SrPelo\_/status/1362143915923628032
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6NEO6oshNM
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpt\_3D