Yagi Ja: Character Profile
Yagi Ja is a secondary character in the Shelasverse, particularly found in JARHS and the protagonist of a planned short work. She is a Zederi-human hybrid.
Yagi Ja is considered a psychic by the Shelas Institute system for classifying powers - possessing strong abilities of long-term prophetic precognition, but also very weak telepathy.
Yagi Ja was born in Benin City, in the Kingdom of Benin in 1602. A noble daughter, she lived in a spacious complex like any other noble family in Benin City, with her household planning to offer her as a lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother. Yagi Ja's mother was from the Isles of Shelas, and gave her a Shenalienlan name. Yagi Ja's unusual appearance, with her stark white hair interserped with an unnatural red, made her a point of interest in social circles. However, Yagi Ja was never appointed to her position. Her mother would observe her having psychic episodes, where she would speak of things yet to come in riddles. Her mother suspected the Oba, the supreme divine ruler of the Kingdom of Benin, would not take kindly to her episodes, especially if they happened inside the palace.
Yagi Ja and her mother ran away to a group in Portugal of people like them - people whose magic had driven them away from their homes and societies, who didn't understand what was happening. For Yagi Ja, it was all meant to be. They departed from Portugal on a ship headed for the Isles of Shelas and loaded up with supplies, to start a new life there in the open, uninhabited wilderness. Very few people lived on Shelas then, and the small tribes who did were dying out. Their peaceful settlement was constructed, and nobles and peasants alike got to farming, learning their new lifestyle.
When Yagi Ja grew up, she became someone of authority in their little city. She suggested that they send out small groups of people (2-3) across the seas to both North America, and to Europe and Africa, to find others like them. She and a friend did a few such tours throughout their life, once even going so far as Asia, and they would collect whatever people would come with them. Her friend began to grow old, but Yagi Ja did not. She remained as young and healthy as she had been at twenty years old when she was eighty.
Over time, this secret, silent society grew. They were also joined by native tribe members and friends and family. Generations passed and Yagi Ja aged slowly, far more slowly than others. She still went on her missions, including one where she found her beloved polished stick, a length of fine well-tended hardwood with a waterproof varnish. In the 1800s, the Shelas Institute was formed, pretending that its members were researchers who had not lived there for generations but had instead recently moved to the Isles, and no one challenged them on their claims to it. There was a broad public belief that the Isles of Shelas were somehow dangerous, and no one was willing to risk their life for whatever might or might not be there.
While generations passed, Yagi Ja recorded her prophecies and lived as the constant matriarch and member of the council which oversaw the Institute. While her previous colleagues were long dead, they lived on in their various descendants. Yagi Ja had her own descendents, too, plenty of them. She liked to stand in the lakes between the buildings of the Institute and watch tiny fishes swim back and forth in the shallows, as they did when one stood still.
Yagi Ja has stark white hair and wrinkled ebony skin. The bright flame-red curls of her youth sprinkled among the white coils have been lost to age. She stands relatively strong despite appearing to be perhaps eighty - she is small of frame but healthy. She likes to wear pretty dresses embroidered with red flowers, and occasionally the clothes she remembers from her youth.
Yagi Ja's Role in the Story
Yagi Ja's own story is an integral part of the Shelasverse, but she also offers prophecies and mentorship to the main cast of JARHS.
