Hi, I got a weird question. I always thought you had wonderful insights regarding Nia, especially about her relationship with faith and bodily autonomy (or lack thereof). I’m writing a book series and one of the main characters has Nia as her inspirations/references. I was wondering if you had more insights regarding this aspect of Nia because my character’s arc also centers around faith and bodily autonomy. One of your posts actually gave me the idea to have this character also be referred to as a “lamb”, much like Nia is 😊
haha thank you, i'm glad you like my ideas on nia! also sorry it took me forever to get to this ask 😭 i wanted to make it Really Good then got scared that i wasn't and stopped working on it. conquering that fear 2day
i think nia is an interesting case because she reflects how, despite how so many people are wronged the people in power within religious institutions, the faith can still mean so much to them, so much so that they will reinterpret the meanings and create new theology. this is reflected in christian liberation theology - many historical anti-colonial movements also had an ecclesiastical factor, particularly in ex-iberian colonies, where they reinterpreted the story of christ as aligned with the oppressed peoples instead of the typical theology espoused by colonial leaders. i see the parallels in nia with how she works to reform the temple of light and the religion of the light itself. she was raised in the temple, and with the temple still such a strong societal force, she chooses to stay and help in the way that she knows she can. it's also affected her as a person and it's tied to who she is. after three books, she is still "the priestess".
a little bit of a spoiler - in b3, nia says that ever since she found the truth about nifara and how she actually is, she's felt "closer to the light, to whatever the light truly is." i feel like that's symbolic of how nia's arc has played so far: she started out as a rule-abiding fellow, following the temple without hesitation, then she grew and had her faith tested, had her worth questioned by the temple and its teachings, and she found a better, more nuanced understanding of the world and of herself in the process. and that process allowed her to lead a newer understanding of the light away from nifara's leadership. she's still a priestess of the light, but a priestess who rejects the imperialist and oppressive foundations of nifara's light and who forges her own theology of it.
as for autonomy - this question was brought up as early as b1, where she's faced with the draining qualities of the light. then it's questioned again in b2 with her feeling frustrated that she's constantly babied and fussed over by the rest of the group. she's inexperienced compared to the rest of them, yes, but at some point it can feel condescending and overbearing and that's what she hates. her body's been used by the temple, then violated and used by the dreadlord, then she hides the fact that she goes shadow from the rest of group because of exactly the overbearing reaction she expected from the rest of the group. out of everyone in the group, it's nia who knows bodily exploitation the most, and yet some of their immediate reactions was to still police her use of magic after she had become more informed of the nature of magic. this has become rambly lol but her story of bodily autonomy is directly linked to finding the nature of magic, which is also tied to her understanding of her religion. a newer understanding of her religion, a new religion of the light in and of itself -> a newer understanding of her body and her bodily autonomy.
side note: aside from nia, valax's story in particular is very much tied to the idea of bodily autonomy, perhaps even more than nia with how overtly a theme it is wrt her transformations. they're quite similar!
i feel like a lot of this is Rambly Stuff so feel free to send in another ask/reply for anything in specifics; i love nia a lot <3
