Question about making a quest.

[Dave987]

In Visual Basic (yes, I know....) you are able to define things as things.
For example

Dim Akheva as String
Akheva = 1
Sub End

Is there something like this in PERL, allowing you to define something as something?
I would have thought it would be something like
sub EVENT_SAY{

"Akheva" = 1
etc. = etc.

if($text =~ /hail/i){
quest ..... etc. etc.}
}