Like Marko, Saga’s main male lead character, Petrichor is from Wreath, Landfall’s satellite, and was a soldier in Wreath’s army and killed a number of Landfallians, or “filthy wings”, before an unknown incident led to being kicked out of the army. Marko and Alana’s four year old daughter Hazel (who shares each of her parents’ genetic attributes) and Marko’s mother Klara have also been detained in this same facility after being rescued frm a botched kidnaping. Hazel has been given some good news by a teacher and excitedly sets off to find her grandmother. A quartet of female detainees direct her to the showers where she encounters Petrichor. Hazel can’t help but notice Petrichor’s nudity and lets curiosity and a childhood lack of inhibitions finds Hazel asking questions about physical differences; first about Petrichor’s “outtie” navel and then asking “[…] are you a girl?” after noticing a “dad piece” to which the reply is: “I be Petrichor. And yes, in here [pointing to her temple’, I be girl.”
It becomes clear that Petrichor experiences widespread disapproval from other detainees when Hazel asks if the “dad piece” is why other Wreath families don’t invite to “poton sortoj”. Petrichor answers that everyone sees her as some “freak of man”, to which Hazel points out that the “wings” don’t see her as a man since they put her in the facility’s female section. Klara appears a moment later and in her native language scolds Hazel. The words may be unclear but Klara’s tone and body language sends a clear, disapproving message to both her grand daughter and the tall stanger, despite they’re being fellow citizens of Wreath. Years earlier Klara was upset that her son Marko had also fallen in love with Alanna, whose people are Wreath’s enemy, but she grudgingly accepted it for the sake of Hazel and Marko. Here Klara has no impetus to overcome her bigotry which allows writer Brian K Vaughn to write a number of interesting scenarios in which Klara might have to depend on Petrichor’s help.
Little is known about Wreath sexuality though from what’s been shown to us throughout the series a gender binary system can be assumed for now to be dominant. While Vaughn doesn’t explicitly use “transgender” in Petrichor’s dialog, it’s clear that she is. What isn’t yet known is how, or even if, Petrichor identifies sexually.
This bio will be updated as new appearances bring more information.
Petrichor debuts and is shown as transgender in Saga #31. All rights reserved Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples.