Cheval hails from Hakum Village, a reclusive enclave where Riders forge lifelong bonds with monsters. Beginning as a gentle, introspective soul, his demeanor fractures after a Blighted Nargacuga kills his mother, igniting a ruthless obsession to purge the Black Blight. Consumed by vengeance, he discards Monsties like Nargacuga and Great Baggi for perceived weakness and manipulates allies Mil and Hyoro as expendable pawns.

His bond with Rathi, a Rathian paralleling the protagonist’s kinship with Ratha, becomes strained under his callousness. When Rathi defies him mid-battle, their frayed connection forces introspection. They later reconcile, and Rathi undergoes a transformative Rite of Channeling, gaining frost-enhanced traits, a cerulean hue, and the Scorching Slice technique. Anime iterations expand his companions to include Velocidrome—his earliest partner—and a Nargacuga he initially abandons but later redeems by saving it from an Ebon Rider.

Clashing ideologically with the protagonist over vengeance versus kinship, Cheval’s hubris peaks when his artificially enhanced Versa Pietru mutates into the corrupted Makili Pietru. This failure, paired with witnessing his collateral damage, sparks remorse. Three years post-crisis, he returns humbled, guiding fledgling Riders with hard-won wisdom to avoid his past recklessness.

Visually, Cheval sports long crimson hair, piercing amber eyes, and a vibrant ensemble: a white shirt adorned with verdant motifs, a chest guard with a single shoulder plate, brown gloves, azure trousers, and boots reinforced by steel kneepads. His signature blue headband, later replaced by a battle-scarred variant, and his Azure Rathalos Blademaster armor—crafted from a felled Blighted wyvern—emblematize his warrior ethos.

A crimson-and-ebony Kinship Stone mirrors his inner turmoil. His arc embodies the struggle between grief and redemption, evolving from a Knight Templar fixated on destruction to a mentor championing accountability, reforging broken bonds through tempered resolve.