Mild spoilers: backstory elements and twists from The Nyverian Curse

It’s pronounced ‘Ice-tis’. I know that the spelling doesn’t encourage the correct pronunciation, but I just got too used to it. The name comes from Eis, which means ice cream in German, and Istas, a word of Native American origin meaning snow. It is meant to reflect her innocent, playful personality. In the context of the fictional world of Imeria, her name means ‘from Istas’, which is a month of winter, and also the time she was born (both in the story and in real life).

The youngest of the characters that travel with the Dakusin, Eistas, affectionately nicknamed ‘Ice’, was a favourite among fans of the story-in-writing. Unlike some of the others in the team, Ice went through a series of changes as a character. She was the first to be designed without a template in mind (that is, she wasn’t based of a person or character that we knew of), and as such was a character that we were getting to know on the go.

Her backstory also went through a series of changes. The very first idea for the character was that she was a reverse-werewolf, that is to say a wolf that turned human in the full moon. From there, she turned into someone who could shapeshift at will, but this power was bestowed to her by a forest spirit that intended for her to use it to protect the forest. Eventually, djinns became part of the story, and the first djinn to materialize was Jazz, who took the place of the forest spirit as the one who bestowed her the power to turn into a wolf. The djinn and Eistas then became a demoniac, the fusion of two spirits in a single body. Jazz is the balance Eistas needs: knowledgeable, smooth, classy, quiet, and just an outright cool cat.

Unlike other characters whose personalities were inspired from real people, fictional characters, etc, Eistas’ personality was closely associated to music. My friend got me hooked on nightcore around the same time we were working on her character. The personality that flowed out of some of those songs just seeped into her, turning her into what she is today. It is likely why she is so good at singing too, don’t you think?

In case you’re wondering about the songs, here are a couple that inspired her voice, style, and personality:

• Mega Unity’s Nightcore version of Halestorm’s cover of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance.
• ForTune’s Nightcore version of Popular monster by Falling in Reverse.
• GIANTS by True Damage

In the context of the story, her musical style is a mix of her own untamed personality and Jazz’ taste for classy hip-hop. I dream for her to one day take the stage with her friends behind her and rock some jams for an audience. Eistas was hella fun to discover as a writer, and I hope that you will all find her to be just as fun to read about!