Name: Devika
Stage: Prentice
Race: Matori
Gender: Female
3 Base Traits: Troubled | Loving | Energetic
Personality: Devika has yet to come to terms with quite a few things: the loss of her parents, living in a secluded village for most of her life, and above all, her fear of water. Seeing others with their parents might cause her to become sad or visiting a new place might make her giddy with excitement while having to be near water might make her a nervous wreck. Some of these she might eventually get over and she might develop new fears and new troubles. One thing is for sure, Devi has a long memory and things stick with her for quite some time.
Although she misses her parents, that never stopped her from developing deep bonds with both her suspicious Grandmother and her only brother. She loves them both dearly and is not afraid to show her affection for them. She can be fairly affectionate with those she loves and might not always realize if it makes them uncomfortable. They're family! What does it matter?
Devi has a lot of energy, perhaps it comes from growing up in one small village for most of her life. This little matori never seems to run out of energy and can be seen doing things right up until she goes to bed....if she goes to bed. She's prone to working her way through the night on one project or another! Unfortunately, sometimes that makes her sleep all the way through a day if she's found herself awake for more than one night in a row.
History:Devika and her brother were born towards the end of the Oban war. While things were reaching a conclusion there still were calls for help. This call reached all the way through the area and sought out two Matori. This couple had lived further inland and had lived freely by evading the Obans for some time. Yet they were not immune from the dangers of slavery – in fact Devika’s mother had lived as a slave for several years before running away with her own mother, Orkai. Both women had slipped away during a party, where their master’s defense had lowered and it was easy enough to slip out with cloaks in the flurry of guests coming and going from the manor, and had continued running through the deserts of Oba until finally arriving in Matori. There in Matori they were led to find a sanctuary hidden deep in the jungles.
This sanctuary was a place created by a few refugee Matori who had escaped slavery themselves. Decades ago there had been a village in between Sald and Arota which had existed with a small community of fishers. But when Obans began to raid Baun and other villages the Matori there grew fearful. Those that ran away from Baun had told stories that warned of slavers coming further and further into their islands. The decision then was settled – the village would relocate in a place that was seemingly inhospitable.
Fishermen, all strong swimmers, took to the coast and cliffs. They explored many paths and ways that could lead to potential homes. Eventually they found an opening beneath a waterfall. This opening would lead to a series of caverns and would cut a path, through the underground, that would eventually emerge further inland. This area would slowly be cleared out by those bold enough to venture into the caves and the jungle beyond. Structures were built around what was already there, ruins from others who perhaps had once years ago lived in the jungle before moving back out towards the shore, and slowly as a few years passed families were brought into the hidden village. It was here that the Matori thrived away from the eyes of slavers while leaving ways for those that could to find this place, a sanctuary to offer protection for runaway slaves and those who did not dare risk becoming slaves in the first place. As years passed rumors simply became of the village and many forgot about it save as a hopeful story to tell younglings at night.
Orkai had been born in that sanctuary and it had been by her own folly that she had been caught as an apprentice. The Matori woman had ventured out and away with a few other bold friends that swam through the passages and came out along the beach. They had been tired of living without seeing the great Ocean and had dared to go against their parents by venturing out. What they had not expected was for a band of slavers to be coming up that shore the same day. Out of all four apprentices only one had managed to not be seen. It was his fate to go back to the village and spread the sad news that three of his friends had been taken by the Obans.
Orkai then was branded as slave and knowing the danger to her family kept her mouth closed about her true home. Not that the slavers wished to question them – all they cared about was getting paid for catching some young and fine specimens. Years passed and Orkai grew – she was treated well by her master who admired her beauty and her cooking. Her master, however, lost his gentle tone when she refused him and then came out that she was pregnant with another slave’s child. Not one to kill a child, especially one that could be raised to help out around the house in the future, the Oban man instead just lowered Orkai’s rank and kept her to the kitchens. No longer was she brought around to serve guests and to be offered food from the higher tables.
As her daughter, Mika, was born the woman decided that she could not bear to leave her child in slavery – especially when she knew that they had a home back in the jungles. A place that her child could be free of the Obans. So when the youngling was old enough Orkai took the chance at a grand banquet to slip some strong herbs in the food. While the crowds were lax she slipped herself and her daughter out of the manor and ran.
While others may have only imagined finding the hidden village, Orkai knew it as her destination. She had saved gold and had smugglers help smuggle both her and her child back up the coast and towards where she knew the familiar paths. Soon enough they would arrive at the caves and Orkai would carry her child through the maze of tunnels and into Artale.
There Mika would grow up and fall in love with a boy named Yoah. They were two similar spirits who adored each other and just wished for a simple life – a free life. Mika had unfortunately inherited her mother’s love for the ocean and against the woman’s best wishes both lovers ventured back out into Matori to live. Thankfully they managed to go further out towards Besaji and lived simply in their own little hut by the ocean. While the fear of the Obans was still present both had taken precautions by not being exactly near a village, but by also hiding their home within the cliffs. Anyone looking for slaves would have to search hard for the small hidden hut by the sea. Here they lived freely and even began to raise their two young ones, Devika and Kaimana.
Their desire for freedom, however, was dangerous as they believed all Matori should live freely. So when they heard about the Oban war it was no surprise that both Mika, a trident wielding warrior, and Yoah, a healer, would venture out to help with the cause. Both felt that it was their duty to help out their kind and hearing about how the rest of Tendaji was warring against Oba inspired them. If foreigners could fight for the Matori why couldn’t they? If the foreigners won wouldn’t having the aid of Matori make them more indebted towards them? They could then have a stronger plea for their freedom.
But they could not simply abandon their children, nor would they take them to a war. Rather than living them with strangers the couple decided to venture back towards the jungle where Mika’s mother lived. The grandmother of the younglings would become their guardian because they knew that despite her anger the woman loved her family deeply. She would never deny their younglings a home. Since time was of the essence the family opted for the water way into the village (taking the cavern would have taken days of twists and turns, something that Mika and Yoah were not confident with doing) and climbing through the jungle would have been even harsher on the younglings along with taking too long as well.
When Devika had first been told that the family was leaving the only home she and her brother had ever known, she was fearful. But, after being told that they were going to see their grandmother and a mysterious place hidden in the forest, her excitement grew. That excitement quickly faltered as she clung to her mother, mouth and eyes pinched shut for as long as possible as they swam through the channel to the sanctuary. It wasn't long enough though. Thankfully her father knew what to do, he cleared the water from her lungs using physical and magical means. It would manifest itself as a fear for likely the rest of her life. Her brother would try to compensate for her, and she loved and appreciated him for that and would depend on him, perhaps too much sometimes.
From there on they met their grandmother who after some harsh words with their parents, a lot of yelling behind the closed doors and then tears, took them in. Their parents kissed them and promised that they would be back soon to take the children back to their simple home again. They just had to fight for the betterment of the world first, they claimed.Each word sunk into Devika's memory, she would never forget their last conversation.
The poor girl never gave up hope even as days passed, then weeks, and eventually months even turned into years. Likely somewhere deep down inside she came to the realization that her brother had too, but she'd never actually admit that to herself. Perhaps it was irrational for her to hold on to that hope, but she HAD to, she couldn't give up on the chance that their parents might come back again. She knew it made Kai worry, and often she found herself worrying about Kai worrying about her. Things always had a way of working themselves out though.
Meanwhile the freedom of the Matori meant change in the village. Fishing was taken back up and families left the jungles to start setting up new homes. These homes grew into its own village that began to secretly trade with those who stayed in the jungle. Crops and fish were passed through the tunnels and the paths became more well-known to families who took to walking through the main paths with goods for back home. It was here that the siblings began to venture out towards as even their grandmother couldn’t’ stop them from staying with close friends and others who had spent years watching them in the hidden village.
It was bitter sweet knowing that they could live freely by the ocean again. It wasn't something that Devika was too excited about, all that water around all the time. It made Kaimana happy though, so she just tried to stay on the beach and closer inshore. She and her brother would both help take supplies and belongings back to the hidden city, though admittedly she would take any other route than the water one.
This included their grandmother who still did not trust the Obans. She had grown tired and preferred living in the shade of the great trees. So while she allowed Devika and Kaimana to venture out as they were ready the woman opted to stay. She would continue to plant her garden and harvest herbs here for her people. Many of the elderly actually agreed to stay here while those that had mastered farming and had some livestock stayed under the promise that trade would flourish between both the hidden village and those along the shoreline.
Both Devika and Kaimana each got something they wanted; the siblings could have their own small hut along the shore while anytime they needed they could go back to stay with their grandmother in the jungles. At least three times a week Devi would visit her Grandmother with Kaimana transport things she might need to her and take things to the shore village for her. Being able to see her Grandmother so often makes her okay with living on the shoreline with her brother, close to so much water. She knows it makes her brother happy so she does what she can to deal with it.
Devika hopes that one day she will be able to find her parents, get over her fear of water, and figure out just what she wants to do with her life. For now though, she's content enough to spend time with her brother and grandmother, that is until she gets the chance to visit new places. This girl has been contained for long enough! Just as long as there's no water.
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