ELZA

Published by ENTIA on August 15, 2024August 15, 2024

NAME: Elza Gadar

BORN: 1051 AE, Zirkon

AFFILIATION: Empire

OCCUPATION: Pilot, Xenobiologist

FAMILY: Kai Gadar (Father), Inna Gadar (Mother)

Elza Gadar is the title character of the Universe of ELZA. Aside from her own comic series, Elza does also have guest appearance in the first volume of NADIA.

Childhood on Zirkon

Elza was born in an average Second Class family of shipbuilders, in the heart of the Imperial industrial world of Zirkon. Being the single licensed child in her family, Elza was supposed to follow in her parent’s steps and become a shipyard worker. Her life drastically changed, when interstellar war against Federation took a grim turn and forced the Imperial Monarch Igor Khan to declare an Empire-wide conscription. Elza’s parents were helpless to oppose the Imperial rule and got conscripted into the Imperial Navy along with 35% of all able bodied Zirkonian adults.

By that time, Elza was old enough to take care of herself, but losing beloved parents overnight was devastating for her. To cope with her grief, Elza used to take long walks on the abandoned streets of Zirkon. Without harboring illusions about her parents coming back from the war, Elza chose to build her own path in the Empire. She have strategically jumped on an opportunity to earn the First Class Citizenship by serving a for a Limmean Decade as a pilot for the Imperial Navy.

Elza wandering alone on the streets of Zirkon. Recent loss of her parents already seems like a distant dream for her, as all Elza thinks about in that moment is finding something to eat and somewhere safe to sleep.

Pilot in the Imperial Navy

It became a year of rigorous training followed by a year of long and tedious commercial flights. When she was eighteen, Elza’s ship of model Orca-LT got ambushed and shot down over the frozen planet of OGL-25. Elza survived the crash unharmed and even rescued her superior, Liubov Pyr, from alien Arachnids. Both of them were later picked up by an Imperial patrol.

Soon after her arrival to Limmea, Elza have spent a week in a famous high security jail called the Blind Mariner. Thereafter she was released and awarded the Imperial Distinction for Bravery together with a fast-tracked First Class Citizenship – unusual case for a mere crash survivor. This development allowed Elza to abandon the piloting career and pursue her academical aspirations in the University of Capitol.

Identities of the Commander of the patrol ship that saved Elza and fate of its crew were carefully redacted from the official incident report.

Elza managing her spaceship Agna under attack from an unknown adversary.

University of Capitol

The First Class Citizenship gave Elza a rite for free housing and high education. After some time exploring Limmea, Elza applied to study Xenobiology in the University of Capitol. That choice was dictated by Elza’s wondrous nature and her strong urge to dedicate her life to space exploration. Studies were exciting, but soon Elza began encountering problems with herself. Abandonment as a child and traumatic experience after her rescue from OGL-25 took a toll on Elza’s psyche.

Fortunately, during the last year in the University Elza grew close with another student, Nadia. Their initial attraction have blossomed into a passionate relationship, but this love appeared to be a short lived affair. Deep differences, unprocessed trauma and class-motivated grievances led the young couple to a painful separation on Elza’s graduation night. Heartbroken and alone, Elza chose to seek her future away from Limmea.

Elza presenting her research in the main hearing hall of the University of Capitol.

The New Beginnings Project

Before graduation, Elza was given a suggestion to become a caretaker for the New Beginnings Project based on the distant planet of Numa-5. At first, Elza have declined this offer, but breakup with Nadia made her to reconsider such opportunity to run away from everything that would remind her about the former lover. With her bags packed and no strings attached, Elza boarded the University-owned Iskra-M transport and allowed its pilot Dima Cheng to take her far away towards the life of solitude on Numa-5.

Elza drinking some hot Dark Brew on a balcony of an Imperial research facility.

Behind the Scenes

Elza is the first character in her Universe created by ENTIA Comics. Her appearance is inspired by a custom player model from ELITE: DANGEROUS and a short story about a stranded pilot that pre-ENTIA once wrote after an intense play session. Elza’s personality and the life story were inspired by ENTIA’s experiences and have some autobiographic elements in them.

While name “Elza” bares no hidden meaning to it – it was chosen pretty randomly, the surname “Gadar” has some deeper connotations to it: “gaddaar” ( गद्दार ) means “traitor” in Hindi – it is both a node to Elza’s destiny to be lost in life, betray and get betrayed, but it does also bare in-universe historical roots. Elza’s ancestors may have gotten this surname as a punishment for participating in the White Uprising against Unmesh Khan that followed after the Unification Wars on Limmea in 715 AE.

Calling the main character of a comic series for a “traitor” reflects the core philosophy behind all works by ENTIA Comics – happiness and harmony are not achievable without a long journey through pain, strife and betrayal of one’s past.