Nadia

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

NAME: Nadia Datta

BORN: 327 ALU, Limmea

AFFILIATION: Empire

OCCUPATION: Security Specialist, Courier

FAMILY: Mishra Family (Adopted)

Nadia is the secondary protagonist of the ELZA comic series.

Life as an Orphan

Nadia was born in the Capitol on Limmea, but her biological parents are unknown. Shortly after her birth, Nadia was adopted by a small Noble house of Mishra. Being raised in a Noble family may be seen as a blessing by billions of Imperials, as it comes with perks like a privileged status, best education and access to most prestigious leisure.

For Nadia though it became a curse. Not immediately though. During the first ten years of her life Nadia could barely feel any difference between herself and her Noble stepbrothers. This comfort was provided mostly by Nadia’s adoptive father, Sahel Mishra. He surrounded little Nadia with seemingly more love and attention then he gave to his own sons. Such unusual affection did not sit well with his wife, Ishmeet.

Since Sahel was a prominent Commander in the Imperial Navy, he was frequently away on prolonged deployments. For Nadia it meant months or even years away from the only caring adult in her life. In total, during the first decade of Nadia’s life she have spent around six periods of Sahel being home with his family. Rest of the time she had to spend alone with her brothers under the insidious gaze of Ishmeet.

As a small girl Nadia have even made a calendar of her own with all known Sahel’s deployment and planned leaves mapped out in it. When her “dada” was returning home on a leave, she called it “summer” and when he went away to fight in the Grat War, she called it “winter”.

When Nadia was about to celebrate her eleventh birthday, terrible news have reached the Mishra family – Sahel was killed in action when his naval group got ambushed by the adversary. For Nadia it meant that “summer” will never come. She was able share the grief with Tanay and Aryan, but Ishmeet became impenetrable for her.

Soon, Nadia’s stepbrothers began gradually distancing themselves from her too. It is impossible to say if that was because of their mother’s attitude, or because they grew to realize that Nadia formally will never be able to become their equal. As an adopted child without any blood ties to a Noble family Nadia remained a First Class Citizen by her birth right – a class above most of Imperials outside Limmea, but also a class below everyone in her adoptive family.

Nadia grew to understand this unpleasant reality too. She did not want to accept this order of things though. Nadia’s rebellion against her social position being constrained by her inherited class has manifested in maniacal obsession with excellence. She was competing with everyone: her Noble classmates, her brothers, even Ishmeet felt threatened as Nadia tried to take command over the servants in their household.

This behavior resulted in endless tensions and frustration on all sides. Nadia did not give in though. While suffering from episodes of depressive loneliness, as even house servants were forbidden from having prolonged conversations with her, Nadia counted months until her 18th birthday. This anticipated day would make her free from a dependent status of a minor.

Ishmeet was looking forward to that day too, but for a different reason. On the day of reaching her adulthood, Nadia was once again met with a reminder that the reality can be much more cruel then any expectations. Betrayed by people who, despite all tensions, she still considered a family, Nadia fled for her life towards the Araszin Autonomy. She was naive to think that the Mishra family would let her go without the last goodby…

Behind the Scenes

Nadia was initially an experiment in character consistency, but was later added to the Legacy issue #1 of ELZA as a “filler” character. By the time when their first comic was made, ENTIA did not know how to efficiently combine two different characters in one scene, so despite being at the same facility on Numa-5, both Nadia and Elza had to be shown separately from each other. This technical/skill limitation led to a narrative explanation that Nadia and Elza avoid each other for some reason.

Later, in Legacy ELZA #2 it was explained that they were former lovers, and this is how the Elza’s Heartbreak story arc was created. As the story of ELZA grew and expanded, Nadia was given her own backstory where highlights are meant to be thoroughly shown in Nadia’s own graphic novel, NADIA BOOK 1.

Nadia’s visual design was intended to contrast with Elza’s appearance, but still build an organic couple together with her. Nadia’s backstory draws from multiple real-life sources, including ENTIA’s personal friendships and past relationships. Aside from lived experience, the story in NADIA BOOK 1 was inspired by a combination of the political situation in 2020’s Belarus (Act 1), movies Insomnia (2002), Casablanca (1942) (Act 2), and the horror movie Deep Rising (1998) (Act 3).

Nadia’s surname, Datta, means “gift” in Hindi. In the Empire’s naming convention, all adopted children of unknown parentage are assigned this surname by default—unless their foster family legally replaces it. This mirrors historical naming practices like the Italian surname Esposito, given to abandoned children.