Dah Iawa

Dah Iawa is a member of the Rebellion.

Early life

Iawa was born in the heptarchate, in the early 9th century. Their parents were civil servants and scholars, and their older father, mother's sister, and youngest grandparent (Ton, a researcher into invariant technology who babysat Iawa as a child) were all Liozh. Iawa's family encouraged their early interest in philosophy.

Vidona Academy

In their teens, Iawa's philosophical studies led them to the conviction that if torturing heretics was truly in the public interest then they should logically be willing to personally torture heretics. They therefore went to the Vidona academy at age 17. At the Vidona academy, Iawa had no difficulty with the academic work but could not find common ground with their fellow students. In their third year, for the first time they were expected to watch a remembrance at very close range. They interrupted the ceremony, and would have been killed if a rift had not opened just in time.

In the Rebellion

When Iawa emerged from the rift, they met a team waiting at the other end, a site where many such unstable and transient rifts have terminated. Iawa immediately agreed to join the rebellion, and was just as immediately allocated to the newly-formed crew of the Wasp.

Appearance

Iawa's gender presentation and pronouns fluctuate from day to day, though they will rein this in at need. They are a burly, medium height, twenty year old womanform with olive skin, dark eyes, dark hair badly styled, and a perpetually worried or confused expression. They tend to speak slightly too loudly.

Signifier

Under the heptarchate calendar, Iawa's signifier is Tangled Web, implying someone of strong but not very coherent principles, favouring agility and complexity over certainty and clarity. A casual scrying under the hexarchate calendar, will show a stingray, but it will be very indistinct.

A deeper scry, under the heptarchate calendar, might show (in addition to the Tangled Web) more traces of stingray, and also some Web Balloon (meaning immaturity or adventurousness or traveling long distances.)

A surface scry (under either calendar) will also reveal Iawa's gender status at that moment. This shows up as colors: gold for the default they/them, purple for she/her, red for he/him.

Skills and abilities

Iawa can use the Liozh mirrorweight self-scrying technique. The results are often mixed and confusing, whether because they are technically not a member of the Liozh faction or because of their own inner confusion.

They are book-smart at the humanities, skilled at oration and bluffing, and verbally very quick and good at spotting flaws in reasoning (except their own.) They have a small amount of technical skill with invariant technology, from helping Ton Liozh with their research; otherwise their scientific/engineering/mathematical knowledge is poor. They are able-bodied, but have no training in running, lifting weights, or combat, and their hand-eye coordination is poor. Generally uncomfortable with violence, except if stopping torture.

They are familiar and comfortable with high faction cultural norms in the 9th century. In a text-only medium, or with extensive body mods, they could successfully pass as an Andan to someone who's never met one, or to a Rahal even to someone who has (but not to an actual Rahal.) Despite their immersion in Vidona culture, they are not able to successfully impersonate a Vidona, but would be able to spot who is or is not a Vidona. Their knowledge of the Kel and Shuos and Nirai, and of unaligned people outside their own social bubble is very limited.