Neida Kampf

Neida Kampf is a persona for the being Sera, and a Janitor working under Lei Carter. She lived in the mining district of Phobos and struggles to reconcile her hopes for her career with the grim realities of the job. She moved into a room in the Authentic Tavern after River Cobalt-Sioux learned that Arno Stern had survived his murder.

## Appearance

Neida is relatively small and has thick eyebrows and mussy dark hair. She is typically exhausted and looks it.

## History

Sera was created by Triade on Phobos fifty or so years before the birth of the first Consul. Both were contacted by the Higher Being together and worked together to identify the features of the song she played for them. After she was visited by a future version of Arno Stern, Sera diverted from Triade's vision, deciding that the Higher Being was a liar intent on destroying the present timeline. She then founded HelixCorp in order to amass her own bureaucratic and economic power in order to counteract Triade's actions.

At some point during her centuries-long career at HelixCorp, Sera left the company in the hands of delegates, took on the name Neida Kampf and joined the Janitors in order to locate historical persons and events linked to the Higher Being's prophecies.

At some point, Neida began working alongside River Cobalt-Sioux in order to identify the Pattern in the timeline. The two of them discovered a resonance in Prague in the year 1598, and travelled there to try and learn more. River took matters into their own hands, and killed Arno Stern as a precaution. Neida was dismayed once she realised the person River had killed was Arno, and thus knocked River out, and brought the two of them back to present-day Phobos. She discarded River in an alleyway, and revived Arno.

Following these events, Neida was able to identify the Thief from the prophecy that Arno was supposed to kill. She travelled back to 1569, and stole the Thief when they were still just a one year old infant, taking them to Year 268 in Phobos. She paid off some members of the homeless community in the Tsovaworks to raise the child in anonymity, so as to keep him off Triade's radar. That child eventually would become Vox Tempest.

## In-game appearances

Since the beginning of the game:

* Arno met with Neida at the Slurry to discuss the practicalities his travelling back in time for the 1880 train job. Neida assured him that there would be structural risk for him to travel in time again.
* Neida and Lei Carter were the Janitors on hand to open the Snow Door when Anek Allegro's troops and the four members of the Nova were transported back to the Transcontinental Rail Line.
* Arno visited Neida at home before heading to the Тоска Weapons Expo to tell her what had happened on the train. He was concerned that individuals appeared to be able to access the time line without approval by the proper powers. Neida told him that the system was poorly run and frequently used too casually by the Protectonists, and that he was better off looking after himself than trying to fix its problems. She seemed ignorant of Lyanna Tusk's arrest.
* Following his escape from River Cobalt-Sioux at the Oblaka Tower, Arno called Neida and told her to leave her house immediately and go to Authentic Tavern to be safe.
* Neida came to Authentic Tavern along with her cat and all her belongings. Arno paid for a room for her, insisting that she stayed where he could 'protect' her.
* Neida called Galen Hinge to come to Authentic Tavern on a house call, in order to give aid to the seriously injured Arno.
* As of the explosion at the Oblaka Tower, Neida moved into Authentic Tavern at Arno's behest so that he could better project her from River Cobalt-Sioux.
* After Arno stayed out all night partying at Maelstrom with Kaz Konnor, Neida called him into her room once he returned, having been worried since he had not come home. Arno told her about Kaz hiring The Nova to go to Sagi, prompting Neida to inquire whether Vox Tempest would be going. After some teasing regarding Vox's vanity, Neida told Arno he had to keep Vox safe.
* Before leaving for Sagi, Arno and Neida spoke about the Time Traitor's stealing of Lei Carter's ship and travelled back to Lei's past. The two of them discussed the complexities of her job at length, including whether time travellers from the future were there among them.
* Upon returning from Sagi, Arno sought out Neida in her room at the Tavern to tell her he was back and suggested that they go to the opera together at some stage. Neida was surprised to learn Arno held lifetime passes for the opera. Arno admitted he had been working alongside Vox and some others recently doing freelance work and picked up the membership from a job.
	+ Arno also asked Neida whether she could send him back in time again to glimpse the cabin in the snow he had first seen on his trip to 1880. Neida asked if he had heard any music or anyone speaking to him, as sometimes this happened on trips. Although Arno hadn't heard anything, Neida assured him she thought these were individual memories that somehow got 'stuck' in the time travel process. She agreed to look into the matter for him.
* Neida finally met Vox Tempest when she accompanied Arno to Maelstrom's reopening party. She wore a formal veil to the event and was starstruck by Miracle Belle's performance.
* Neida arranged for the Nova to travel back to Prague in 2018 in order to track the Time Traitor and resolve a glitch in the timeline. On this trip, Arno Stern discovered the resonance around his own death and Neida confessed she had saved him that night on his own instructions.
* Neida and Arno shared a kiss on Mercy Night but went no further at her request.
* On Intrepid Day, Neida shared with the Nova the story of her life as Sera, and what she understood of their lives as part of the Higher Being's prophecy.

## Trivia

* She is a fan of Miracle Belle.
* Neida's cat is named Julia, apparently after the first empress of Rome, but actually after the Julia set of fractals.