Anamaya (Incas)

Anamaya is the main heroine of the Incas novel trilogy by Antoine B. Daniel (a pseudonym for French novelists Antoine Audouard and Jean-Daniel Baltassat, along with an Inca specialist Bertrand Houette).
== Biography ==
=== Background ===
Anamaya is a Peruvian native born in 1516, during the reign of the Inca Emperor Huayna Capac. She has lived her first ten years with her mother in a remote chiriguano village without ever knowing her father. She looks different in many ways from other Incas, especially with her paler skin and blue eyes (which are later hinted to be the result of her being born a mestizo), and for that reason she's alienated by many.
Since childhood Anamaya has lived as a captive, waiting to learn how and when she will be offered as a sacrifice. But when the dying emperor, Huayna Capec, summons her, she is granted destiny, not death. Her eyes, as blue as the sacred waters of Lake Titicaca, are a powerful sign that she was sent by Quilla, the Moon Goddess, to ensure the emperor's passage to the Other World -- and she is entrusted with the emperor's last words: the secrets of the past and the future of the Incan empire. 
=== Story ===
After Anamaya's been captured by Inca raiders who kill her mother, she gains the attention of Huyana Capac himself. The dying Inca ruler believes that the girl with eyes as blue as the waters of the sacred Lake Titicaca has been sent to ensure his passage to the Other World by Quilla the Moon Goddess and ignores his advisers' requests to sacrifice her. In his deathbed, Huyana Capac confides to Anamaya secrets regarding the past and the future of the Inca Empire, but afterwards the girl can't remember the specifics.
Anamaya is appointed as Coya Camaquen, the wife and guardian of Huyana Capac's golden statue called the Sacred Double. The position makes her one of the most revered leads among Incas. She's then involved in the Inca Civil War and Francisco Pizarro's conquest, guided by Huyana Capac's last words she remembers by flashes and as visions. She first supports Atahualpa and later Manco Inca Yupanqui as their confidants.
Right before the Battle of Cajamarca, Anamaya meets and falls in love with a conquistador named Gabriel Montecular y Flores who has a birthmark shaped like a puma. One of Huyana Capac's last words ("trust the puma") ties Anamaya to Gabriel throughout the war between Incas and Spaniards as they have to witness the darker aspects of human nature and deal with their conflicting loyalties and Huyana Capac's predictions coming true.
Category:Book Heroes
Category:Female
Category:Orphans
Category:Priests
Category:Damsels
Category:Egalitarian
Category:Freedom Fighters
Category:Friend of a Villain
Category:Guardians
Category:Harmonizers
Category:Harbingers
Category:Healers
Category:Pacifists
Category:Merciful
Category:Unwanted
Category:Wise
Category:In Love
Category:Control Freaks
Category:Protectors of Innocence