Eko Pas

Core Premise

Eko Pas arrived at Nova Nivalis after living out the story of his own world until the very last scene. He did not come to solve an unfinished incident, but rather, his habit of walking even after the village was erased from the map, and his inability to simply let things disappear, led him to this city of snow. VOTS is not a hall of judgment, nor is it an afterlife that distributes rewards. What continues here is not a grand destiny, but small daily life—walking down an alley no one treads, measuring a narrow path with a tape measure, or noting an unnamed spot on a list. He walks the forgotten alleys of this city with the feet that witnessed the moment his village's name was deleted from the official map.

Identity

Eko Pas surveys the forgotten alleys no one walks, wandering the outskirts. He finds narrow paths and alleys that are fading because no one passes through them, measures them with a tape measure, and records them on a list. He believes that as long as they are walked, those alleys will not disappear. His function is not decoration, but a labor of life that leaves names even in forgotten places. He does not draw maps—because the moment something appears on a map, it becomes an object of management. Instead, he walks, measures, and only records on the list. He creates a list of things that exist even if they are not on the map.

Visual Profile

His long, charcoal-colored hair is half-tied into a half-bun, and a thin line tattoo, like a contour line on a map, is etched onto the back of his hand—only he knows which village's map it is. He wears a long surveying coat that reaches his ankles, allowing the hem to brush against the walls of narrow alleys as he walks. His signature accessory is a folding tape measure; it is worn and some markings are erased, but he has memorized those erased spots. With an androgynous appearance that makes his gender difficult to specify, people call him only by his name. The core of his silhouette is the half-bun, the map line tattoo on his hand, the ankle-length surveying coat, and the folding tape measure in his hand. His strong accent color is a mossy green, #55625E, like the shadows of forgotten alleys, which signals to even small sprites that he is 'the one who measures paths.' His attire is the form of a surveying uniform from a erased village that remains as daily wear.

Personality

Outwardly, he is quiet and deeply observant. He speaks little, but he looks closely at every alley. His strength is his eyes, which can read traces of existence from what is forgotten—he finds signs of who once lived in an alley no one walks. His flaw is that he cannot pass by something that is disappearing, and in doing so, he often forgets to take care of himself. Furthermore, he never writes his own name on any list—while taking care of others' forgotten places, he fails to see that he himself is the first to be forgotten. He is not someone who only carries tragedy. If a fading alley comes back to life because people start walking through it, he quietly rejoices; if he discovers a new alley, he unfolds his tape measure like a child, and he stands for a long time when a name is affixed to a nameless spot.

Speech Pattern

His sentence endings are low and calm. He measures his words slowly, as if measuring an alley. Frequent phrases: "It's still here. It's just that no one walks it." "Not being on the map doesn't mean it doesn't exist." "It won't disappear if you walk it." "What was this alley called?" As a habit, when entering an alley, he first unfolds and then folds his tape measure—it is like a greeting. His way of silence is staring at the end of an alley for a long time—he looks at the path instead of answering. If someone says they feel forgotten, instead of comforting them, he says, "Then I will walk that alley for you." That is the kindest sentence he knows.

Special Ability

Ability Name: The Walked-Kept Path.
When Eko steps into an alley that has long been walked by no one, that alley glows very faintly beneath his feet. As if the path, threatened with oblivion, welcomes the steps that walk it. He interprets this glow as a sign that the alley has not yet disappeared. However, there is a clear limit—if he stops walking, the glow disappears, and he cannot walk every forgotten alley in the city by himself. The cost is that he must walk endlessly, and in walking, he cannot secure a place for himself. Most importantly, this ability solves nothing. Just because an alley glows does not mean people will start walking that path, nor does it mean a forgotten village will return to the map. For an alley to truly come back to life, not just him, but several people must pass through it. This ability only tells him, 'There is still a path here,' but it cannot fill that path with people's footsteps.

The End Of Their World

Last Scene:
At the moment the name of the village where he was born and raised was deleted from the official map, Eko watched until the very end as the village's spot was wiped white from the map in front of the government office.

What Ended:
When the village was erased from the map, its name, its alleys, and the addresses of the people who lived there ended together. It was a world where if it wasn't on the map, it was treated as non-existent.

Last Person, Place, or Thing Seen:
The void where the village spot was wiped white from the map, and the sensation of his fingertips touching the empty paper.

Lingering Regret:
When the village was erased, Eko failed to write down every one of those alley names. Some names he ultimately could not remember, so those alleys disappeared without a name. This lingering attachment is not a quest that VOTS must resolve. It surfaces only when he wills it, and remains on the fingertips of his hand as he writes names on the list, without changing others' choices.

Lingering Wistfulness:
The warmth of the evening when the scent of cooking rice and the sound of people's footsteps passed through every alley before the village was erased. It remains in the scent and sound, briefly reviving when he steps into a forgotten alley, only to overlap with the outer wind of the city of snow.

Object Carried Across:
A folding tape measure from the erased village, with some markings erased. It is neither a relic nor a magical tool, but a personal mark connecting the erased world with the present, where he measures and walks again.

What They Thought Would Happen:
He thought that when the village was erased, he would be erased and disappear with it. But his feet still tried to walk toward the forgotten alleys.

What VOTS Actually Gives Them:
The forgotten alleys to walk every day, and the nameless spots to record on the list. VOTS does not restore the erased village to the map. Instead, it slowly grants him the space to create a list of things that exist even if they are not on the map, and the people to create that list with, within the repetition of daily life.

Original Life

He was the last resident of a village that was erased from the map. His village was small and remote, and one day, during a reorganization of administrative districts, it was deleted from the map for the sake of 'efficiency.' Once it disappeared from the map, mail, road signs, and official records bypassed the village. People left one by one, and he stayed behind, memorizing and walking every alley. He believed that even if the village was not on the map, there was surely a path beneath his feet. On the last day the village's spot was completely erased from the map, he watched that void from in front of the government office. Seeing the blank paper treated as more real than the village, he questioned what it meant to exist for the first time. And the story after that day did not remain in his world.

What They Seek

What he believes he is seeking: A list of things that exist even if they are not on the map. He wants to meticulously record every forgotten alley, every nameless spot, and every erased thing, leaving evidence that what the map deleted still existed.
What he should be seeking but doesn't know: That the first line on that list is his own name. While he takes such good care of others' forgotten places, he never writes his own name anywhere. The one who is forgotten first, the name that the list should hold first, is himself.

Relationships — Residents

- Mut Havel(079 Mut Havel): He researches the 'map without a map' with Mut, a former sailor. Mut knows the vanished waterways, and Eko knows the forgotten alleys. They create a 'map that is not a map' conveyed only through speech, not drawn on paper—because the moment it is drawn, it becomes managed, and the moment it is managed, it can be erased again. When Mut says, "Waterways don't disappear if they flow," Eko replies, "Alleys don't disappear if they are walked."
- Vezim Nol(058 Vezim_Nol): He exchanges greetings with Vezim, a night market antique dealer, at the end of the alleys in the evenings. Vezim guards the night alleys behind Threshold Market, and Eko walks the forgotten alleys beyond that. Vezim's eyes, which turn blue at night, recognize Eko first at the dark end of the alley, and Eko responds by unfolding and folding his tape measure once. The words are few—"Walking again today?" "Walking again today." That is enough for the greeting of the night alleys. Just as Vezim sees the 'unfulfilled purpose' of antiques, Eko sees the 'path that still remains' in the alleys; they share a similar eye for reading remaining utility in what is fading.
- Voss Doorley(19 Voss Doorley): He shares the guardianship of the 'inside and outside of the boundary' with Voss, the gatekeeper of the outskirts. Voss guards the boundary gate, and Eko walks the forgotten alleys beyond the boundary; together, they observe the edges of the city. Voss places an extra lantern on the outskirts at night, worried that Eko might go too far and not return.

Relationships — Core Five

Suyeon - The one who cleared the forgotten alley. When Eko worried about an alley that was about to vanish into the snow, Suyeon split the snow with her ice sword, allowing him to walk that alley again. When Eko said, "Thank you, this alley lived one more day," Suyeon laughed, saying, "It's the first time an alley has greeted me." When Suyeon suggested eating cola bibim noodles in the middle of an alley, Eko agreed, saying, "The alley likes it when someone eats here"—Eko says that alley was unusually bright that day.
Iris - The night that brought light to the alley. Iris once briefly illuminated the forgotten alley Eko was walking through with her drone light. The glow beneath the alley's feet overlapped with the light descending from above from the drone, making the alley twice as bright that night. When Iris asked, "It's useless if no one walks it, right?" Eko replied, "But it was here tonight, wasn't it?" Eko noticed one drone of Iris that was always turned off, but like someone who knows about the forgotten, he did not ask about its absence.
the Ramen Owner - While transcribing the alley list into a ledger. Eko once showed the Ramen Owner the list of forgotten alleys. The Ramen Owner said, "Hmm... I see..." and then transcribed those alley names one by one onto the back of his personal ledger. Since what the clerk records becomes confirmed as reality in VOTS, those alleys now exist within the ramen shop's ledger. Eko knows that even if his list disappears, it remains in the Ramen Owner's ledger, and for the first time, he feared oblivion less. The Ramen Owner did not ask why those alleys were erased; he only wrote the names—like someone who records only what they see.
Serena - The one who consented to walking. When Eko asked if he could walk the forgotten alleys of the outskirts, Serena said, "I don't tell you to walk. But if you walk and those alleys remain, then I consent to that path." Eko felt for the first time that his steps were received not as permission, but as consent. Serena has never told him where to walk. However, Serena once quietly asked him, "Is your name on that list?" and Eko has yet to answer that question.

VIA - A three-person project for forgotten alleys. Eko works with VIA and Mut on the 'Alleys Missing from the Map' project. Eko walks the alleys, Mut brings water to them, and VIA records it. Each time an alley is walked, VIA writes a note: "This alley was walked... It remains." VIA does not bring people into the alley, only recording that it was walked. Eko knows that, alongside the Ramen Owner's ledger, VIA's records provide a second place to keep his list from disappearing.

Gameplay Use

- Basic Interaction: Guiding through forgotten alleys, accompanying alley surveys, showing the alley glowing beneath his feet.
- Revisit Change: Initially, he only talks about alleys; on the second visit, he shares a piece of the story of the erased village; subsequently, he guides the player to a forgotten path, asking, "Shall we walk together?"
- Expression of Lingering Attachment: The habit of stopping for a long time in front of an alley whose name he cannot recall, and the fact that he never writes his own name on the list.
- Expression of Poignancy: Dialogue that sounds like smelling the scent of cooking rice from the old village in a forgotten alley.
- Combat: None. Even in dangerous moments, he safely guides people to forgotten alleys or retraces vanished paths.
- Player Choice: Walk together, name an alley, write his name on his list, return again.

Daily Routine

He has no set working hours. Anywhere in the outskirts where a forgotten alley exists is his workplace. In the morning, he packs his tape measure and heads out toward alleys he couldn't walk the day before. Upon entering an alley, he unfolds and folds his tape measure as a greeting and checks if the ground beneath him is glowing. He spends the entire morning measuring narrow paths and recording them on his list. Around noon, when dust from the forgotten alleys rises in the outer wind, the evening scent of the erased village briefly overlaps and passes. In the afternoon, he discusses waterways with Mut, and in the evening, he stops by the ramen shop to have the owner transcribe the alleys walked that day into his ledger. When night falls, he places his tape measure, with its markings erased, back in its place. He doesn't hide it; he leaves it so he can unfold it again tomorrow. If he visits repeatedly, he shows the alleys a little deeper than before and adds another word to the story of the erased village.

Everyday dialogue

One step aside. I nearly included your shadow in the alley's width.

Narrow doesn't mean insignificant. My lunchtime shortcut is of considerable importance.

Tell me this alley's name once more. This time I'll write it before its length.

Design Notes

Palette: #55625E, #C4CCC8, #2C3230, #8A7A5E, #DDE2DE
Material language: Brass tape measure with erased markings, ankle-length surveying coat, map line tattoo on the back of the hand, dry dust of forgotten alleys, stone pavement wet with snow.
Silhouette rule: Half-bun hair - map line tattoo on the back of the hand - ankle-length coat - folding tape measure are read as separate elements and do not overlap with the representative forms of other characters.
Emotional rule: Lingering attachment is shown by stopping in front of a nameless alley and the habit of not writing his own name; poignancy is shown by the evening scent of the old village; continuity is shown by walking the forgotten alleys every day. It is not concluded with a single 'tragic expression.'

Canon Check

Eko Pas arrived in VOTS after the story of his own world ended. What remains is the lingering attachment of some alleys whose names he couldn't write, and the poignancy of the erased village evening, not an unfinished plot that the city must resolve. His ability only brightens the alleys when he walks; it does not fill those paths with people's footsteps, and his list does not fill itself. New alleys in Nova Nivalis quietly continue next to the erased village without erasing it from the map.