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!

Mild spoilers:  some backstory elements from The Nyverian Curse

As the first rayshan we meet in my book, The Nyverian Curse, Scrap carries the responsibility of introducing his race to the readers. A hard task, considering that he isn’t an ordinary one at all, but the sole rayshan alive with Adler’s syndrome. Unusually colourless for a rayshan, incapable of magic, and incapable of benefiting from the effects of the Colosgerus tree, Scrap embraced his mortality and seeks to make the most of it. His name was deliberately ironic: Aiken means ‘oaken’, or from the oak tree, which is associated with longevity, age-old wisdom, and strength—all qualities that Scrap lacks. ‘Ra’, of course, comes from the Egyptian god of the sun, and is suggestive of immortality, which he also lacks.

Being one of the earliest conceived characters, Scrap is one of those that had the luxury of evolving over a decade of writing. The inspiration for his personality came from one of my close friends, a mousy smartass who was at times selfish but had a moral compass that functioned well enough.

At first, the character was one that actually got along quite well with the Dakusin, particularly Taivas Robane. They both shared an interest in knowledge, a strong sense of loyalty, and the thirst for adventure. It was fascinating therefore, when as the years went by I started to see the relationship between the characters evolve and mature (and by the way, I love it when that happens; I’ll be saying it over and over again that the characters really do come alive, and start growing all on their own without me having anything to do with it!).

Scrap’s loyalty shifted to apply only to a single person, Gia, who never judged him for anything less than his talents and achievements. His thirst for adventure was eclipsed by his desire for self-preservation, which stemmed from the nature of his disease. His desire to surmount his disease and prove himself to his peers, while admirable at first, also started to inflate his ego the more accomplished he got. This would start to rub Taivas the wrong way, and soon a coarser relationship developed between those two, which was all the more entertaining. 

As I write this, I realize with a smirk that although Scrap is one of the youngest characters in the book, especially by rayshan standards, he remains one of the oldest and consistent creations in the story. Perhaps ‘Aiken’ isn’t such an ironic name after all.