Character Name: Nina Zenik
Age and Birthday: 24 years old, July 24th. Leo sun, aquarius moon, Gemini rising
Major/Position at the Little Palace: Nina is already proficient in languages and now is studying Health Science.
Political Status: Ravkan citizen, unwilling member of the second army.
Grisha Order: Corporalki, Heartrender
Faceclaim: Danielle Galligan
3 Positive Traits: loyal, brave, charming
3 Negative Traits: stubborn, sassy, impatient
Biography:
History:
Life in an orphanage is not nice, especially when you are a constant victim of bullying. How much one can take before things start to happen? Things that scared people but made her feel safe and empowered. All she had to do was close her fist and it would stop. Nina may not know what was going on, but the people in the orphanage did and before she knew it, she was moving to the Little Palace.
Before the Ravkan civil war, Nina attended school at the Little Palace before all of the children were evacuated to Keramzin. She was forced to cut her lessons short to start her training with the Second Army.
While on a mission with Zoya Nazyalensky, Nina – who was always liked to walk through the thin line of bravery and stupidity - wandered into a camp of Fjerdan drüskelle. She pretended to be a lost Kaelish girl, but the drüskelle saw right through her. Nina was taken to a ship with other captured Grisha. She was caged and experienced grueling treatment and bullying at the hands of the drüskelle guards, who included Jarl Brum. Everyone was rude to her, but only one of them showed her an ounce of humanity: Matthias Helvar.
When the storm hit the ship and Nina managed to free herself and the other grisha, she never realized that what came right after would shape the course of her life forever.
Matthias Helvar.
That big brute.
So full of prejudices and brainwashed by the herd of druskelle morons. He was everything she hated in men. And he was a druskelle. He and his lot liked to murder grisha. But the line between love and hate was too damn thin.
In retrospective, Nina was sure that she started loving Matthias way earlier than she admitted it to herself. She did things for that druskelle that she would’ve never done to any other. Like betraying her own people.
When things are going great, that’s when one should expect the blow. And Nina was not expecting it, so when she saw her fellow grisha in that tabern, she panicked. She would then spend the following days thinking about the fact that she never hesitated. Between her people and Matthias, she chose the druskelle.
But that choice had consequences.
Current Circumstances:
After a year in Ketterdam trying to get Matthias out of Hellgate, Nina found the way. Selling her soul to the devil was actually a very adecuate metaphor when she and Kaz Brekker struck a deal. Her main goal was to get Matthias out of prision and now here they were.
Being back in Ravka, most precisely in the Little Palace seemed so surreal. Nina actually had the best memories of her teenage years, but now everything seemed so different and wrong. It didn’t take long for Nina to see right through the Darkling and his intentions.
Apart from trying to find a way to change Matthias’ status and free him, Nina is studying Healing Sciences. She decided it was importat to expand her knowledge on the human body and, besides, a healer was always a useful asset.
When it comes to Ravka’s current political situation, Nina returned as some sort of a hero, someone who survived the Fjerdans and someone worthy of respect and plenty of privileges. However, can’t say she agrees with the Darkling nor what he’s doing. She thinks he brings the worst in grisha, giving their enemies exactly what they expect from them. In that sense, Nina can be a bit naïve. What she hopes for the grisha is their total freedom and for them to not hide nor be afraid of being who they are.
However, Nina knows better than to voice out her thoughts, which is actually very hard for someone who seems unable to shut up. The more time she spends in Ravka, the less certain she is of wanting to be there. There’s so much going on inside her head that everything is a mess. However, the one thing that she’s certain about is that she needs to free Matthias and help him out of Ravka.
