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OOC INFO;

NAME: Ana
AGE: 31
CONTACT: cuddlebug, Ana#1461 on discord, PM to this journal
CHARACTERS IN GAME: York

IC INFO;

CHARACTER NAME: Matthias Helvar
AGE: 18
CANON: Six of Crows
CANON POINT: post-novel

HISTORY: Matthias' wiki sucks so here we go!

Matthias was born in Fjerda, a northern country covered in ice known for their hostility towards Grisha, or people with magical abilities. He likely had a normal childhood but when his family was killed by Grisha he was taken in by the druskelle commander Jarl Brum, a man who gave him a purpose: hunting Grisha in the name of his homeland. Matthias takes to this life with everything in him and becomes a druskelle himself -- a witch hunter. They believe, and so did Matthias after his indoctrination, that Grisha are unnatural, abominations with powers they should not have, who need to be captured for the safety of all. These are the principles he was following when he captured a Grisha named Nina Zenik, a Ravkan Corporalki (one whose power is control over the human body) who later saved his life when the ship they were on -- his druskelle ship, carrying the Grisha prisoners back to Fjerda for trial -- was wrecked in a storm. Nina had escaped her cage thanks to the handle of a metal cup Matthias had given her to drink with, and by chance she came across him in the water and used her magic to keep them alive despite the cold as Matthias swam to shore. They reached land in the middle of nowhere and had to face the long journey back to civilization with just one another. Despite their differences, the fact that Matthias was at this point only the witch hunter who captured Nina and she was to him a treacherous witch he shouldn't trust, they helped each other survive and grew slowly fond of one another along the way. By the end of their journey, Matthias swore to help Nina find her way home, not to a Fjerdan prison.

Unfortunately for them both, in the city they found themselves there were undercover Grisha there who recognized both Nina as one of their own and Matthias as a druskelle. To save him from being killed by her compatriots, when Matthias was trying to buy them safe passage at the harbor Nina went to a Kerch trader and reported Matthias as a slaver, knowing their laws meant he'd be imprisoned. She didn't realize that they'd throw him in Hellgate, a notoriously terrible prison, and not allow her to recant her testimony. What could she say, anyway, without revealing the undercover Ravkan Grisha? Without betraying her own country? She stayed in Ketterdam where they docked, where Hellgate is, for a year trying to free him to no avail. Matthias knew nothing of this, or the truth -- all he knew was that he was protecting Nina, had come to both like and trust her, and she turned him in under false charges.

Matthias' year in Hellgate was horrific indeed. To gain privileges the prisoners there are made to fight in gladiatorial combat. If they slayed the beasts, they got better living conditions and food. And so Matthias fought, all the while growing angrier and angrier, haunted by dreams of Nina and his conflicted emotions regarding her. Revenge, or longing for the woman he thought he knew, who betrayed him? When we first meet Matthias in the narrative, he's being broken out of Hellgate by Kaz Brekker's crew, including Nina. He tries to murder her on sight. Perhaps he would have stood more of a chance if he hadn't just been in the arena, but likely not. They aren't freeing him, though, it's more accurate to say he's been captured again, out of one prison and into a contract of sorts. If he helps Kaz and the others break into the Ice Court, the heart of Fjerda, to appropriate a prisoner by the name of Bo Yul-Bayur, Kaz will find him pardoned so he can return to life as a druskelle. It just means betraying his country and all he believes first... and working with Nina again. Matthias takes the deal, and reluctantly helps the crew draw up plans to infiltrate his homeland.

The heist only goes about 25% as planned at any given moment. Bo Yul-Bayur is the creator of a drug called jurda parem, a lethally addictive substance that amplifies the abilities of Grisha to almost godlike power... everyone wants it, and by extension, him. From the moment they try to leave things are going sideways, with a rival Barrel boss having heard that Kaz was going after a big score and blowing up what he believes to be the crew's ship. Kaz anticipated this and the real ship was in a different location on the docks, but it foreshadows the entire mission -- the crew scrambling to adapt to surprises or worst case scenarios when things don't go as planned. When they get to Fjerda they are attacked again, this time by Grisha sent by the Shu government for Yul-Bayur. Although they are victorious it is many of the crew's first time seeing parem in action, and Nina recognizes one of the Grisha they've killed. Matthias helps her bury him, an act against Fjerdan beliefs, and they talk about her betrayal. Upon learning the truth of it, Matthias agrees to help Nina kill Bo Yul-Bayur when they find him, rather than "save" him and bring him back to Ketterdam. Jurda parem is simply too dangerous to exist, for everyone.

Things progress, with many bumps along the way. The crew infiltrates a prison and escapes it, largely thanks to Jesper's hidden abilities as a Grisha Fabrikator (one whose power is to manipulate matter, in this case metalworking) and Inej's skill climbing an incinerator shaft to secure a rope for them to get to the roof. The group splits up and Matthias is left with Kaz to lead him into the Court over a secret druskelle ice bridge. They make their way across and steal druskelle uniforms, a venture during which Matthias is given the opportunity to kill Kaz and doesn't. His allegiances are shifting and that's only proven a short while later at the party, when he spots his old commander, Jarl Brum. Again, he could betray them all in service of his country, especially Nina, who he knows Brum recognizes despite her disguise. But he's changed, and when speaking to his commander realizes this. He no longer thinks of Grisha as inhuman monsters but rather just people like all others, filled with the potential for good or evil, and Brum's disgust makes him ashamed of his own responses. Matthias acts as if he's betraying the others, telling Brum the plan and playing along until Nina is thrown in a cell, then he turns instead on his old commander. As he chokes Brum out he tells the man he's wrong about Nina, then places him in another cell with the following parting words: “The life you live, the hate you feel -- it’s poison. I can drink it no longer.” He frees Nina, swearing to protect her until death, and together they make their way to the lab to kill Bo Yul-Bayur.

Except, in another snag, Bo Yul-Bayur is already dead. The prisoner is his fifteen year old son Kuwei, a Grisha himself with some knowledge of the chemistry to make jurda parem. Matthias and Nina can't bring themselves to kill him and so proceed with the mission mostly as Kaz planned -- they take Kuwei with them and blow up the lab and regroup with Kaz, who has another way out for them all down a waterfall. It's a close call but the crew reunites and makes a break for their ship, only to be confronted by a considerable number of Fjerdan soldiers. They're almost certainly doomed except that Kuwei has some parem, which Nina takes. Her abilities dramatically amplified by the drug, she subdues all of them and is ready to kill them but Matthias begs for the druskelles' lives. Even after one shot him in the chest and he was saved only by Nina's parem-altered powers, even knowing they would show him no such mercy, he convinces Nina to let them live in shame with the hope they could be taught Grisha are not evil, just as he was taught. The crew escapes and makes their way back to Ketterdam, Nina soon suffering horrific withdrawal from the jurda parem. It's possible for her to fight the addictive qualities now but if she takes another dose she's as good as dead, and it's a struggle. Matthias does not leave her side until they make port and go to turn Kuwei over to Van Eck, the merchant who hired them for this heist. Of course, he double crosses them, but Kaz had one last trick up his sleeve. Before she fell ill he had Nina tailor Wylan to look like Kuwei, and refuses to tell Van Eck the Shu's true location. Enraged, Van Eck kidnaps Inej and gives the crew seven days to turn over the real Kuwei, before he begins to torture her.

Matthias' canon point is just post-novel, with Inej and Nina's futures uncertain and a deadline hanging over all their heads.

PERSONALITY: Matthias Helvar was an upstanding soldier. As a druskelle he embodied the beliefs of the Fjerdan people, and was incredibly strict with himself. A druskelle must be strong and impassive and not give in to temptation if they are to protect their homeland from Grisha -- Matthias was all of these things, or so he thought. In truth, his kindness betrayed even his indoctrination. He was meant to hate Grisha, to think that they were unnatural monsters that used their magic only for evil deeds, but he still showed his prisoners small kindnesses. Little did he know when he gave Nina Zenik a metal cup and water that it would be her salvation, and in turn she would be his.

Matthias did not want his opinion of Grisha to be changed. He didn't want to meet one and be rescued and charmed by her, to question everything he was ever taught and his own judgment as well as those of his people. Hating Grisha was everything he was groomed to be and so he was cranky and stubborn at Nina at first, refusing to open up to her or even share their names. It was just survival at that point -- he was disturbed by her abilities but needed them to live, literally, and his will to survive even if it meant trusting a Grisha was what cracked the door for Nina. But it is worth noting that Matthias was never a cruel person, never took joy in condemning others or sought to hurt them. So when he was no longer her jailer he was just himself, a conflicted boy who had taken the word of authority that he was now questioning. Nina, so alive and so bright, made him question everything he'd believed in. Made him willing to go against his teachings and save her in return because as she said to him, she is a human being. Not a monster, just a person with all the potential of good and evil that we all have.

This is why Nina's apparent betrayal weighed so heavily on Matthias. His year in Hellgate was spent nursing a murderous rage, but still he was conflicted. He couldn't equate the actions to the person he thought Nina had been and questioned himself, his own judgment, falling back on his commander's teachings and telling himself she had to die. He still liked her but to have feelings for Nina was to suffer -- only in his dreams was it allowed. When awake, Matthias turned his energy into fuel for survival, ruthlessness in the arena. When he first sees Nina again he attempts to kill her, even telling Kaz he'd help them pull off the heist if he was permitted to kill Nina, so hot was his rage. But it wasn't complete. Part of him was still kind, still wanted to do the right thing, still wanted to believe that she was a person. On the ship even when he still believes she betrayed him, he thinks about bringing her coffee while she cares for Inej. He is still open to the possibility things weren't as they seemed and when the time comes that they're alone and Nina can explain, Matthias believes her and completely changes his attitude. He can once again trust his instincts. He can let himself feel something. And it seems like it's a relief to him that he doesn't have to believe that poison anymore, doesn't have to feel like it's his duty to hurt her.

Matthias, at his core, is more of a protector than a punisher. Even when he's still trying to figure out how to kill Nina and get his pardon and escape, he doesn't want to hurt any of the others. When Kaz asks the crew the best way to steal a man's wallet and they all jump to violence, he refuses to answer and simply tells them they're all horrible. He never wanted to kill people specifically as a druskelle, he wanted to protect the world from those he was taught were evil. While he's not the sharpest of the crew, he's still intelligent and observant, and has a remarkably strong will. Kaz comments that Matthias "stinks of decency" because ultimately he does what he believes is right by his internal moral code. For a time that was exclusively defined by his people's teachings but now it is informed by life experience. His decision to not kill Kaz is one such example -- he had a rifle and Kaz did not, and killing the other would almost certainly have guaranteed him a place back in the druskelle ranks. But besides dooming everyone, Matthias can't bring himself to harm someone he deems honorable, especially unarmed. Kaz has honored their deal so far so Matthias lowers the weapon and has to admit he wasn't sure what he'd do, for a moment there, but his loyalties obviously no longer lie with Fjerda even if he hasn't admitted it yet.

The moment when Matthias' sense of duty changes is when he crosses Jarl Brum to save Nina and complete the heist despite the possibility to return to his old life. He has always had a strong moral compass, but it was pointed the wrong way by the druskelle -- now that he understands Grisha aren't necessarily the enemy but people to be protected like everyone else, with the potential to be good like everyone else, he isn't willing to return to witch hunting. He'd rather remain with the crew and Nina, as he's come to care for all of them against the odds and believes they're the ones who are doing the right thing.

Although at the beginning of his story, Matthias is gruff and angry, by the end he's rediscovered his humor and warmth. Ultimately, Matthias' story is one of healing, of coming to terms with what you've experienced vs what you've been taught, and finding a way to keep living that you're happy with. He wants to atone for the wrongs he's committed, the people he's hurt, because at his heart Matthias has always been a good person. He is a protector, what's changed is simply the values and people he seeks to protect. The oath he took upon becoming a druskelle (I have been made to protect you. Only in death will I be kept from this oath.) he's now made to the woman he loves.

CANON POWERS: n/a, Matthias is a non-magical human.
OTHER: n/a

GAME INFO;

CRAU INFO: n/a
MAGIC ABILITY: Blessed Water - Matthias will essentially be a healer, using water to transfer his own magical energy to heal. He will also be able to "bless" the water to cure internal ailments such as stomachaches, or boil the blessed water to steam to help with a cold, etc. Since he's using his own energy and not redirecting the patient's energies ala water bending, he'll be limited in the scope of what he can heal. At first he'll be limited to small injuries just because he has no idea what he's doing but at max he will be able to only stabilize a life-threatening injury, heal two large wounds, four smaller wounds, or bless enough water to ease the suffering of six sick people per 24 hour period.
ANY WEAPONS/MAGICAL ITEMS?: n/a
ANY PETS?: n/a

SAMPLE;

LINKED SAMPLE: Acata TDM threads: Nina, Inej, Krolia, Killua, Astoria, Nina