Chronicle Access Form — Niatra
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> Toyhouse: https://toyhou.se/13260500.niatra
> Reference Image: https://toyhou.se/Inkspilldragonart/art#41185999
> Name: Niatra Nuru
> Alias: Niatra
> Gender: Female (She/Her)
> Orientation: Heterosexual
> Age: 313 years, (Born 9/21/2517)
> Species: Lefiká
> Height: 17ft 4in
> Affiliation: East, Radicalized Tucruit; Virtue of Fortitude
> Aura Level: Average
> Magic Type: Sard Geoshift
> Occupation: Rich Noble with too much time on her hands. She inherited her mother’s ownership of several chain companies that she profits off of but rarely has to do anything for.
> Native Location:
Center of the Rich District of Capital City, Tucruitora.
> Residence: Same Rich District, her mother’s mansion.
> Personality:
In public, Niatra is a well respected figure who used to be more liked, but now has few friends. She is bitter, vindictive, cold-hearted, dislikes hybrids and non-Lefikás (especially Taroots, who she deems abominations that were never meant to exist in the first place), looks down on anyone who isn’t Tucruit, is a hypocrite, unnecessarily lavish, and is otherwise distasteful to be around if you aren’t one of the few groups of Ptithians she doesn’t despise. She is a religious fanatic coming from a long line of stone-cold Tucruit radicals who hold harshly to most of the laws. She can be charismatic when she tries to be; but ever since the massacre of her family, she rarely attempts to save face anymore around anyone with lower social status than her.
Niatra is also frighteningly resilient mentally, tearing off her own leg for the sake of making the story of the massacre more realistic. Not much scares her, and pain doesn’t seem to stop her if her heart is set on something.
She’s deeply insecure because of her geoshift leg replacing her real one, as well as confrontational if anyone mentions it, the morning of the massacre, or anything being wrong with Kehpri. She has a deep set and never ending paranoia, considering everyone around her except her son to possibly be out to expose her secrets. Her anxiety is always high, especially when she is separated from her son, and that anxiety tends to cause her to lash out.
Her main redeeming characteristic is her deep and fierce love for her son Kehpri; she would do anything for him, and aggressively protects him from seeing any wrongs in the world or having any misfortune fall upon him. Meldr’uno help anyone who DARES hurt her baby! She also understands the concept of fairness, and will not harass or berate someone she’s paying to do a job even if she doesn’t like them, and won't cheat them out of money. She also highly-values education, and donates large amounts of money to schools.
> Relationships:
Kehpri Nuru-- Niatra’s beloved only son, who fittingly has the Virtue of Kindness. A sweet little guy. He was born at night, which wouldn’t have mattered if his family was less religious. After her family wouldn’t budge on killing him or excommunicating them both, Niatra killed all three, then lied and claimed he was born that morning, so nobody (alive) knows the wiser. Ever since the moment he was born, she was absorbed completely in loving him, knowing she would do anything to keep him happy and safe. He is her everything; she’d destroy the world for his sake. Although she tries to spoil him, he doesn’t share her same bigotry, and is very accepting, helpful, kind, and sharing with others. Part of her is frustrated that he isn’t as strongly attached to the values as her, but the other part of her has begun to doubt her own viewpoints on the world. She’s a less bitter person to be around when Kehpri is with her. He brings out her rare soft side, and helps soothe her views of the world. That being said, she’s a complete mamma bear who has and will threKehpri the lives of anyone who even looks at Kehpri the wrong way.
Nubia Nuru-- Niatra’s mother, who had the Virtue of Diligence. She was hard to please, unnecessarily callous, and ruthlessly disciplined her daughters to an almost militaristic degree. She taught Niatra at a young age that she is nothing without her religion, and that all others are scum that must be annihilated; and that if she dare question that, she must be too. She valued appearances above all else; the trait rubbing off on Niatra, and Niatra did everything in her power to please her mother. She was the one who told Niatra to either talks her sister Zahra into killing her Nightborn daughter, to do it herself, or Nubia wouldn’t hesitate to make a spectacle of getting both of them excommunicated from the extremists and thrown out of her will. When Kehpri was born and Nubia expected Niatra to kill him, she was shocked when her otherwise faithful daughter turned on her. She was the hardest to kill as she was as big as Niatra and more experienced, but her older bones were what slipped up and gave Niatra the chance to end her life.
Zahra Nuru-- Niatra’s younger sister, who had the virtue of Chastity. They were often competitive with one another, vying for their mother’s approval. When Zahra realized Niatra would always be favored by Nubia, she went into a short-lived rebellious phase. Niatra managed to talk her into coming back home and back to the religion, but she was a bit too late. Ironically, Zahra was pregnant and wasn’t sure who the father was. Her cub was Nightborn, and she wanted to leave the Tucruit religion once and for all instead of killing her. Nubia didn’t approve of this, and so Niatra, wanting to “save” her sister, tried to convince her to stay and that it was natural to care for even abominations when they’re first born, but that the feeling would pass and she’d regret leaving her family. Niatra was able to convince Zahra to let her kill the cub. They grew closer after this through Zahra’s grief. Despite Niatra later growing to distrust her due to suspicions of her having an affair with Niatra’s husband Sadiki, Zahra was the one to come in to try to talk Niatra into the same thing when Kehpri was born, as by this time, she’d become fully devoted to the Tucruit religion again. In Niatra’s state of protective mania, she ended up killing her sister; which was the catalyst for the rest of the massacre. She feels the most guilt over her sister’s death, knowing she caused it by dragging her back into a religion she wanted to leave, and for not being able to put herself through the trial she put Zahra through.
Sadiki Nuru-Hanbal-- Niatra’s late husband. Sadiki was very gentle and kind-hearted and generous, earning the virtue of Charity. He too came from a noble family with strong ties to extreme Tucruit ideologies as the only son of an elderly mother. She passed away, leaving him her fortune, which he shared with his wife. Niatra met Sadiki at her debut party, and ended up getting betrothed to him due to wanting her own family. She liked him quite a bit, enjoying his company as he made her laugh and smile. While pregnant, Niatra became suspicious that Sadiki was having an affair with Zahra, but never had proof other than a funny feeling. When Kehpri was born, after she killed Zahra, Niatra’s next target was Sadiki due to how much smaller and weaker he was than her, because she knew he too would want her to kill Kehpri; and that he would report her for the murder of Zahra.
Maye -- The adolescent who Niatra hired as help around the house, who has the Virtue of Humility. Niatra took her in because she despises housework, and is too wary to buy an automaton due to the story she fabricated and not wanting to raise suspicion. Maye has Crumbling; which is what killed her father, and her young mother gave her up to an orphanage due to her inability to take proper care of her, so when Niatra met her advertising her house cleaning skills, she took pity on her and brought her into her home. Niatra likes Maye due to her ability to stroke her ego and her general helpfulness around the home, as well as the fact that she befriended Kehpri despite his general inability to make friends often. Niatra pays her well and gives her lodging. She’s starting to get anxious about Maye’s crumbling, searching for doctors and treatments in secret in the hopes that she can help the adolescent, despite knowing deep down inside that there’s nothing she could do. At the very least, she’s been able to offer Maye her old prosthetic foot for the one that had crumbled away.
> Backstory:
Niatra was the eldest of two daughters of a rich noble. Her father died soon before the birth of her sister, so she doesn’t remember much of him, nor did she develop much of an attachment to him. Her family, going under the family name of Nuru, was well known for being extremists of Tucruit faith and tradition. Her mother was not particularly nurturing, and oftentimes would leave her and her sister in the care of Automaton servants; particularly a “Home Defense” modelp.
Throughout her childhood, she learned that life is a series of competitions; with other cities, other religions, other species, others in her wealth bracket, her own family, and even herself. Who could do what better, improve the most, hold the best poise, uphold the most laws of Tucruit to the T as possible, smile best, spar best, speak best, read best, win, win, the list went on. Her mother, Nubia, made it very clear that anything other than perfection and winning was completely unacceptable and unforgivable. This sparked an almost crazed competitive nature in Niatra, who would do everything in her power to win the favor of everyone around her; especially Nubia.
This also applied to adopting Nubia’s extremist ideologies of the world instantly and without question. She was taught that lefikás are the superior species, Tucruit was the only proper religion, hybrids were abominations, and that love was a fairytale made up by poor Ptithians to make them feel better about themselves. Niatra took her mother’s word as law, echoing these views even as a cub to the point that she wouldn’t even affiliate herself with children of different species or religions by speaking to them.
At age ten, she received her eye decal as the Virtue of Fortitude due to her resilient and strong nature. She didn’t even flinch during the ceremony; considering it an honor, and pain to be just an excuse for those born weak to stay weak.
In school, Niatra always made sure to earn high marks, study well, and absorb as much knowledge as she could. She considers knowledge to be power; a value instilled for generations of her family. As was Nuru tradition, Niatra pursued an intermediary education, and later attended Haboob College for Political Science. She was an exemplary student; though often arrogant.
She was the shining golden star in her mother’s eyes, and easily the favorite as the eldest daughter. This caused a rift between herself and her sister Zahra. No matter how hard Zahra tried, she could never take the spotlight like Niatra. Niatra was never easy on her either, and wouldn’t let up or lessen her abilities for her sister’s sake. She considered letting up to be more of a disservice than a kindness, and their mother’s desire for zero mistakes was enough pressure for Niatra to not even consider letting Zahra beat her at anything. This rift, and the unrelenting pressure of striving for perfection ended up being enough to drive Zahra into a rebellious phase.
When it was Zahra’s turn to go to Haboob College, Niatra was the only one at home with her mother; who started badgering her about finding a husband to produce female children to carry on the Nuru legacy. They set up a debut party, where Niatra met the son of another rich Noble, Sadiki Hanbal. He was funny, sweet, and more importantly, his family was close to Niatra’s in terms of wealth and respectability. They were arranged to be married, and although not in love, Niatra enjoyed his company enough to be happy that he was who she was married to. He moved into Nubia’s mansion with Niatra, and for a while, life was good.
However, at college, Zahra ended up accidentally getting pregnant, not even knowing who the father was. To save the family reputation, Nubia, Niatra, Sadiki and Zahra concocted a scheme to hide Zahra’s pregnancy as long as possible. When she started to show, she would take a leave of sickness, and Nubia, who had made several donations to the college in the past, demanded the college send Zahra’s coursework home so she could complete it and send it back. She was hidden away in the mansion, but meanwhile, Niatra began wearing more obscuring clothing to hide her stomach in public. The hope was that after the cub was born, Niatra would pass it off as her own with her husband, whilst Zahra would go back to school, earn a degree, and come back to being a model Tucruit member.
Unfortunately, the cub ended up being Nightborn, which only complicated the family’s sticky situation. Nubia made it very clear to Niatra that the cub was to be killed; either by her talking Zahra into doing it, or doing it herself. Niatra argued that Zahra should be the one solely responsible for her mistake, but Nubia told Niatra she would publicly call both of them out and get them excommunicated, or at the very least, smear their names in the mud. She told Niatra that it was her responsibility as the eldest sister to keep her family on the right path by any means necessary, and that by letting Zahra leave the religion for the “abomination” cub would be turning her back on her little sister’s wellbeing.
Now determined to “save” Zahra, Niatra was the one to enter her room and have a heart to heart conversation for the first time in their lives. She told Zahra that all mothers are overcome with a protective instinct, even when their child is an abomination, and that it was natural to hesitate and feel despair at first, but that Meldr’uno would bless her for her loyalty. After coaxing Zahra into handing over the cub, Niatra was able to convince Zahra that killing her was the right thing to do by telling Zahra that it was healthy and natural to grieve the cub, but that the feeling would pass. Zahra could not bring herself to kill the cub, so Niatra did it for her.
Niatra didn’t consider what she’d done to be wrong in any way; and even considered it doing Zahra a kindness. This strengthened the sisters’ bond, as Niatra became softer and more understanding to her little sister, and they’d outgrown their competitiveness.
Over the next several years, Zahra recovered from the tragedy and graduated college. The family was able to completely hide the event, keep their reputation high, and continue on without problem.
Niatra ended up pregnant, much to her own joy. She’d wanted to be a mother and to carry on the family legacy. This joy was soon undercut by paranoia and distrust when she started noticing little things between Sadiki and Zahra. Stolen glances, inside jokes with soft giggles, hands brushing together… It seemed to Niatra that Sadiki spent more time with her sister than herself. Though she didn’t have any real proof, Niatra became suspicious of an affair brewing between her husband and her own sister.
This all came to a head one night far into her pregnancy when she caught Zahra kissing Sadiki on the cheek. At this point, the rage she’d been suppressing for appearances’ sake exploded. She confronted Sadiki about it, unable to get a straight answer out of him other than telling her their marriage is loveless and it wouldn’t matter whether or not he actually did it because she had made up her mind to believe he had. The distress sent her into labor weeks early.
Both she and the cub survived the birth, but one major problem overshadowed all others: the sky was still dark by the time he was born.
Niatra’s mental state quickly downspiraled as she tried to rationalize why and how she of all Ptithians had had a Nightborn child. She couldn’t comprehend why it would be her; she’d been nothing short of perfect her entire life! In fact, in her mind, it was everyone around her who broke the Tucruit laws, and it was their faults she’d gone into labor early, and that if they hadn’t poisoned the vicinity with their actions, her cub would’ve been born in daylight, and therefore wouldn’t be a REAL Nightborn.
Zahra was the one to come in and repeat the speech Niatra had given her all those years ago. When Niatra refused to hand over Kehpri, claiming that he wasn’t truly Nightborn, that she was the only true Tucruit in the family, and that Zahra and Sadiki were the real monsters. Zahra tried to forcefully take Kehpri, telling Niatra she’d thank her later. This led to an argument between the sisters where Niatra screamed and demanded her son back, Zahra told her the only way she could have him alive would be to leave the family and become excommunicated from the radicalized Tucruit faith; otherwise, she’d just have to kill the cub and move on.
Neither of these were an option to Niatra. She went into a manic protective state, tearing her cub away from Zahra when she had her back turned and grabbing her by the throat. Due to the fact that Niatra had caught Zahra off guard, and the fact that Niatra was the larger and stronger of the two, the altercation was short and one-sided. Niatra strangled Zahra, and ended up snapping her neck and killing her.
Niatra was in shock when she realized what she’d done, and frantically tried to figure out what to do next. She’d chosen her son; that much was certain, and she had to protect him at all costs. She couldn’t protect him in prison; her mother would likely just kill him anyways, because she didn’t understand. Nobody could know about the murder, and nobody could know about Kehpri’s early nighttime birth lest they “misunderstood” like Zahra had.
Blinded by hysteria and rage, Niatra hid her son, and her rampage officially began. She’d become dead set on massacring her family for the sake of her cub and to stay with the affiliation, considering it to be the “only way” in her radicalized mind. She went after Sadiki first, knowing he was weaker and smaller than her and didn’t stand a chance. She killed him in a similar manner to Zahra --choking him until she could twist his neck in a way to snap it-- but this time she had to pin him to the ground and look into his eyes. She felt nothing but boiling rage and heartache entwined when she saw the fear in those eyes… and then blankness.
When her mother caught her over Sadiki’s body, Nubia instantly understood what had happened
Instead of trying to escape or get a guard, Nubia’s pride took over, and she took it upon herself to end her daughter’s life.
The fight between the two mothers was much more violent than the first two; clawing, biting, and tearing at each other. One was set on destroying her child at all costs, the other was set on saving her own. Had Niatra been at full strength, she would’ve been able to overpower Nubia much sooner, but blood loss and fatigue from the birth were weighing on her. It took everything she had, and a chance slip up caused by Nubia’s aging bones, for Niatra to gain the upper hand in the fight.
After killing her mother, Niatra ran to check on Kehpri, seeing that he was okay and collapsing in tears. She realized she didn’t have time to absorb what she’d done, and quickly tried to think of a way to sweep the massacre under the rug. She remembered the Home Defense Automaton, which had been fashioned to look like a Lefiká, and ordered it to maim each of the bodies of her family members.
Deciding in her paranoia that leaving herself mostly unscathed would arouse suspicion, she steeled herself, ordered the Automaton to clamp down on her leg, and tore it off. She took her cub, gave the Automaton one final order to chase them outside, and turned on the theatrics.
She ran outside screaming for help, saying the Automaton had malfunctioned and killed her family.
Bystanders dismantled the Automaton and rushed Niatra and Kehpri to a doctor. Niatra barely survived her injuries, and could barely move for weeks. This dragged up a short lived sympathy in the public eye, one which would later turn to pity, and later, wariness. She claimed Kehpri had been born that morning, and nobody was suspicious of her story --or if they were, they weren’t brave enough to challenge her.
Over the years, recovery was extremely difficult for Niatra, both emotionally and physically. The regeneration of her leg was a slow process in which she had to use many prosthetics in the meantime. Her mind never recovered from the damage she’d inflicted, and though she spent all moments not spent hyper focusing on Kehpri trying to justify her actions that day, she knew deep down what she’d done was murder. She refused therapy for a long time due to the fact that “Nurus don’t get ‘help’”, and she didn’t want to damper her reputation by attending. She’d inherited the wealth and assets of both her mother and her husband, though that had been far from her intentions. She couldn’t stand the sight of Automatons anymore and sold all of them, partially because she was nervous others would grow suspicious if she kept them, and partially because of the trauma she refused to admit she’d self-inflicted from using one to maim her leg. She started caring less about appearances. Her usual charismatic demeanor bubbled away into the sourness she’s now known for. She lost many shallow friends, and the ones who stuck around only did so for status.
The one bright light in her life was Kehpri. He became her everything. She doted on him in every way and he could do no wrong in her eyes. Any time anyone dared say a mean thing about him, she would become viciously defensive. Her life revolved around her son; she spent the time of day he was at school anxiously waiting for the time to bring him home. She would have the beginnings of a panic attack if he was away from her for too long, fight or flight kicking in as she feared the worst happening without her being there to protect him. Because of this, she was an active member of the PTA, extracurriculars he enjoyed, and anything else that was a big part of his life in an attempt to stay close to him at all times. She spoiled Kehpri as often as possible, and tried to teach him the Nuru family way, but none of the extreme Tucruit values seemed to stick, much to her frustration. He was always as kind and amiable as could be, always generous, and though sometimes socially inept in some ways due to his hyper fixation on fens, was extremely empathetic and never looked down on others even when they were rude to him (which wouldn’t last long once their parents learned that Niatra was his mother, considering she’d barge into their place of work and threKehpri to financially ruin them and destroy their entire lives if they didn’t keep their kids from bullying Kehpri). When he was ten, Niatra chose the virtue of kindness for Kehpri, because she thought if any Tucruit deserved it, it was him. She became convinced that he was the singular good thing in the world, and that everyone else, including herself, were sinful and wretched and didn’t deserve anything good.
After a while, housework became a pain for Niatra, and she took to the streets to put up posters requesting help to hire. After interviewing around, she settled on Maye: a young Lefiká orphan, only two years older than her son, who had just been diagnosed with crumbling. She pitied the adolescent, and liked her quite a bit, and was glad that her son finally had someone his age to talk to. Niatra payed Maye well and gave her her own room, included her in family dinners and most activities. She also provided Maye with doctor’s appointments and gave her her old leg prosthetic when Maye’s foot crumbled away. Maye and Kehpri became good friends, and started going on adventures together, which caused Niatra anxiety from not being around him 24/7 to watch over him.
As Kehpri got older, he began to notice his mother’s bitterness towards the world, and asked around to find out why. He learned about the massacre (though not the real story), and sat Niatra down to tell her he was concerned that she had unaddressed emotional problems and needed therapy. She was against the idea at first, but her inability to disappoint Kehpri caused her to begrudgingly attend.
She is stubborn, but she is learning, and her views on the world are slowly shifting from the guidance of her son. She's still far from kind or accepting, but her cruelty and bias is diminished when Kehpri is near. She’s trying to learn to go out and do things on her own, develop her own hobbies having nothing to do with Kehpri, and otherwise live for herself, but can only take it a few steps at a time. Paranoia and guilt constantly eat at her, and she’s convinced that any day, her secret could be revealed and the life she’d worked so hard to preserve would crash away.