 Warning!!! This page contains numerous spoilers. Read on at your own risk! |
Minya is one of the five godspawn survivors the Mesarthim massacre known as the Carnage.
Appearance[]
Minya, as a godspawn, has cool, blue skin. While she may look like the youngest, she's actually the oldest. She is trapped in the body of a six year old, despite being twenty-one years old. She has short black hair and black nettle-shell eyes. Her voice is that of a child's, "bell-bright and sweet as icing sugar." Minya is grubby, round-faced, and stick-limbed. She has thin, short legs. Her eyes are big and glossy, minus the innocence of childhood. She's always unwashed.
She hasn't changed since the massacre, but after the events of Muse of Nightmares, she begins to grow once more.
Personality[]
Minya is abusive and controlling. She's perverse, capricious, and obstinate. She's emotionally and mentally abused the other godspawn all their lives by using her tantrums, powers, and guilting them into making them do whatever she wants and tormenting them whenever they defy her. She is sadistic and wants to destroy all the humans of Weep. Her animus towards humans burns brighter than the other godspawn's because she is the only one who remembers the Carnage. Minya has poured so much of her soul into her ghosts that she has become less of a person and more of a purpose. Minya enjoys toying with the ghosts under her control by letting them think they can resist her and then smothering them with her control.
However, Minya was heavily traumatized by the massacre of the Carnage. She is wracked with guilt for not being able to save more of the godspawn. Furthermore, due to her frozen aging she's stuck feeling the same emotions she felt that day. Minya uses the guilt she feels to keep her hatred fired up. She also has a "festering bitterness" at her core because she didn't inherit her father's power. While not heir to Skathis in gift, she is certainly heir to him in cruelty.
Minya is completely focused on taking revenge against the humans of Weep, and her every move is dominated by this desire, no matter the cost. Minya is overly focused on the past, which molded her entire perspective. She refuses to believe that things can change. She is determined to protect herself and the other godspawn. Minya can be creative while coming up with ways to fight and protect themselves. She has multiple plans that could work and she feels that she sees the bigger picture better than any of the others. She's always been grim. Minya is like a wild creature, furtive and barging. She completely lacks empathy. She's invulnerable to praise, reason, or shame and thus can't be coaxed or persuaded. She's cunning, ungovernable, flawlessly selfish, resentful, and sly. She is never obliging and the others avoid arguing with her.
Background[]
Minya has the ability to control ghosts by tethering the dead to herself. She makes the ghosts call her "mistress." She fishes spirits from the air and binds them to her service. Spirits last a few days between death and evanescence, unless Minya catches and keeps them. They are made solid by her binding. She controls the ghosts even in her sleep. Her power over them is entire. Her control of ghosts is so complete, that the only thing they can control is their eyes. They can't even form facial expressions if she doesn't let them.
Minya and the other godspawn, as well as the ghosts Minya controls, have been living in the citadel for the past fifteen years. She takes over her father Skathis's rooms. During the Carnage, Minya had tried to go back for more babies after saving Sarai, Ruby, Feral, and Sparrow. She was halfway back to the nursery when she heard the screaming start. She become frozen by her fear, and ended up suffering through listening to all thirty of the babies being murdered. Minya is wracked by guilt at not being able to save more, and for being frozen while the remaining babies in the nursery were slaughtered.
Plot[]
Strange the Dreamer[]
After the arrival of Lazlo Strange and the other outsiders in Weep, Minya shows the other godspawn the massive number of ghosts she has kept hidden and imprisoned in the heart of the citadel for the last fifteen years. She tells the others that her plan is to arm the ghosts with knives and force them to protect them from any invading humans.
In anger at Sarai for not using her gift to kill Eril-Fane, Minya forces Great Ellen to weaken Sarai's lull so that she is plagued by nightmares. Sarai refuses to do Minya's twisted will ever again. So, the two find themselves at a standoff.
Muse of Nightmares[]
...
Relationships[]
Sarai[]
Minya and Sarai have a very complicated and contentious relationship. Minya gave Sarai her name, "Muse of Nightmares," and the purpose that went with it. She made Sarai what she was. She became the weapon Minya wanted her to be and punished humans in their dreams. Every morning Minya would ask Sarai if she had made someone cry or scream.
However, ever since Sarai stoped blindly doing everything Minya tells her to do, Minya has viewed her combatively, with spite, frustration, and venom. Sarai feels indebted to Minya because she saved her life during the Carnage. Sarai's changing feelings towards the humans are viewed as a threat by Minya because they challenge a basic tenant of their lives, that the humans are their enemy and the humans view them as the enemy. Minya becomes furious with Sarai's resistance towards her. She tells Sarai she's too weak and soft. She says the most hurtful thing she can when she says she wishes she had saved a different baby. Sarai is incredibly hurt by Minya's words.
Memorable Quotes[]
Strange the Dreamer[]
- "They were all I could carry. They were all I could carry..."[1] - Minya's mantra
- "When your enemy is coming, you don't gather clouds. You gather knives."[2] - Minya to the other godspawn
References[]
- ↑ Strange the Dreamer: Chapter 31, pg. 266
- ↑ Strange the Dreamer: Chapter 35, pg. 295