Zephyr Navine

**Zephyr Alexis Navine**, also known by her rank **Stripe**, is a soldier from the future who takes the place of **Amalia True** in the year 1896. A Touched woman whose turn allows her to see glimpses of the future, Zephyr is responsible for the St. Romaulda's Orphanage and searching for more of the Touched.

## Biography

### Origins

Zephyr was born in the 21th century, in the South coast of Canada. She was married in a triad for three years and never told her name to her husband and wife. She left them to work for the Planetary Defense Coalition as the Stripe of the pride Forty-First Ground, out of Edinburgh. It was believed that no one got out of Edinburgh, but she was among the three who did. Although, the other two died on the walk down. At some point, she received a scar on her face during battle.

In the 22nd century, outside a Galanthi project station containing the last of the alien species on the planet, twenty enemy soldiers from FreeLife attacked Stripe. Surrounded, she consumed three glazers to slow down her heart rate, which allowed her to "play possum" and hide from the heat reader. An hour later, a pride of PDC soldiers parachuted, and the remaining FreeLife marauders surround them. Stripe opened her eyes, killed the attackers, and puked the glazers. The PDC infiltrated the science station with one of their captives, Major Greenbone of FreeLife, who explained that they were tracking the source of the spatial anomaly, the same as PDC.

Crescent, the leader of this pride, said that their Stripe had gotten taken down, so they could use someone with her set of skills. Knitter took Stripe to the sickbay to get her regulated. Stripe kept asking for pheen, but Knitter refused and asked for her PitSid level. Stripe replied that she was "too high to make Crescent, too high to go home." She also admitted that she had flashbacks. Stripe then questioned the legitimacy of their mission to find the Galanthi and how they were fighting over a side post in the middle of nothing because they saw a portal. Knitter and Stripe then noticed a shelf with artifacts from the late Victorian era.

The unit discovered a garden, from which Stripe ate a tomato. Through a door in the back, she found a shaft, where down below seemed to be a dark bottomless pit. Hanging above were the bloody corpses of the science team. They entered another secret door and, inside, they found the Galanthi hovering above through a dome of fat glass. Stripe warned them not to shoot, as bullets would only bounce back. The Galanthi's blue translucent tentacles approached them, so they fired anyway. The bullets ricocheted and hit Stripe. She briefly had a flashback of being attacked and drowned in a small pool of water.

By the time Stripe came to, the unit had moved to the main room. Stripe realized that FreeLife hung the dead science teams' bloody bodies over the Galanthi as a means of torture, as the Galanthi had bonded with them. Major Greenbone then revealed that he called for a full incursion the moment FreeLife met resistance, as did the PDC, meaning full engagement between the two sides would commence soon. The Major then suggested that killing the Galanthi and close the portal would tell the world the war was over, saving many lives, including theirs.

When Knitter noticed her team considering this idea, she bribed Stripe with pheen and asked for her help. She told her that Command thought the murdered team had been helping the Galanthi to build a stable portal so reinforcements would come through it. She believed that the twenty Galanthi had been scouts, and more would mean they'd turn the tide. Knitter believed that this would not win the war, but the world, making it livable again with the Galanthi's power to end floods, famine, and terra-storms. Stripe argued that change was too scary even for the people who fought for it, which was why FreeLife always won and owned history. Knitter then revealed that she had been born and raised FreeLife, but she hoped for a better world, so she asked the same from Stripe.

Suddenly, Knitter and Stripe heard gunshots. They followed the noise and found one of the Boots laying on a poodle of blood. In the main room, Major had killed the second Boot, shot Byner, and had Crescent at gunpoint. He told them that the only way for them to live was to get rid of the Galanthi. Byner then revealed that the Galanthi was already leaving, not bringing reinforcements; the rift was stable because it went the other way. Major did not believe them. Stripe shot him, and Crescent held him at gunpoint. Knitter begged the Galanthi not to leave them, and Byner said that it got enough power to get up to the portal.

Knitter looked at Stripe and said that she was right; it was always going to end this way. The first Boot, who had been playing possum, then appeared and shot Knitter. Stripe shot him back and went to Knitter. Stripe attempted to console her and said that the Galanthi wasn't leaving them; it was going back for help. Knitter began to tell Stripe her name, which started with an "H," then passed away. Stripe made her way back to the garden and sat in the back corner. She drank two cans of hazardous waste. In her final moments, the Galanthi passed through her and flew away.

### Asylum

On Monday, August 3, 1896, the Galanthi flew over London and emitted a bright-colored exhaust. Some of these spores touched the baker Amalia True while she was drowning, placing Stripe in her body. She was rescued from the docks and taken to the Strohman's Asylum, where she had a rippling of being attacked with a knife. Stripe talked aloud about her suspicion that she was in a sim, making the Matron strike her and warn her to keep a civil tongue. Stripe hit the Matron back, before being taken by the orderlies and restrained to a bed. She awakened to find Sarah hovering over her, amused by Stripe's attack on the Matron. Stripe questioned why she wasn't dead. She began to struggle as she realized that she was not in her own body. Sarah held her close and comforted her as Stripe sobbed.

The following day, Stripe joined Sarah and Mrs. Hundley. Sarah claimed that she had seen the Lord presented as a great light. She described that He was shaped like a dragonfly and had come apart similar to snow or sparks, which Stripe suspected had been the Galanthi and its spores. Dr. Horatio Cousens, a physician at the asylum, approached Stripe and called her Amalia True, a name she began to take as her own. She then had a rippling in she was having sex with Horatio. During Amalia's checkup, she asked him if there'd been any talk about a light in the sky or anyone with any improvement in behavior since her arrival. Before he can answer, they hear a commotion coming from the lobby, where a patient was threatening the others with a blade. The patient slashed Amalia on the wrist before she disarmed her. Horatio then led her back into his office, where she revealed that she had seen this happen before it actually did. As he was checking the gash on her arm, which would normally require stitches, his hands began to glow. He hovered his hands over her wound and healed her within moments.

Amalia explained to Horatio that aliens from the future had come to Earth and given them powers. However, the spores didn't usually give random powers or affect everyone they hit, though she wasn't sure why this time was different. In the following months, Horatio brought her the newspaper when he found multiple reports of unexplained abilities, but they'd yet to come across anyone who was empathically enhanced to guide them. Horatio suspected that this was Amalia's mission, though she insisted that it wasn't, after having already spent a lifetime fighting only for it to make no difference.

Sarah talked with Stripe about a letter from her husband saying that she can return home soon, though she believed that God had a mission for them. They were joined by Dr. Edmund Hague, who believed that they might be among the Touched. He was looking for someone to do a special study with at his facility and wanted to spend a minute with each of them separately. Dr. Hague started with Amalia and asked her about her turn and the lights in the sky when she was admitted. In fear of being taken and failing her mission, Amalia feigned ignorance and said that she had been only humoring Sarah's delusions to make her feel more comfortable. Amalia then passed by Sarah and encouraged her to tell Dr. Hague everything she had seen, setting her up to be taken away.

Amalia took speech and etiquette lessons from Mrs. Hundley to pass as a proper English woman. At night, she would do push-ups by her bed to build her strength. Amalia then went before the asylum's review board, but her release was rejected after they uncovered a cache of weapons under her bed. Locked in a padded room, Amalia was visited by Miss Lavinia Bidlow, who asked her if she saw ahead of time that her release would be rejected. Lavinia suspected that Amalia could have been miles away a long time before if she truly wanted to escape, but she had no place to go. Because of this, Lavinia offered Amalia a board at her new orphanage for the Touched.

After having sex with Horatio in the orphanage's kitchen, Amalia told him that Miss Bidlow had directed her to take in as a ward an Irish girl who built things.

### The Orphanage

Three years later, Amalia has become responsible for Lavinia's charity in the St. Romaulda's Orphanage for the Touched. Amalia and Penance Adair often go after Touched women to offer a safer haven and training for their turns. One day, they meet the young Touched Myrtle Haplisch in her home and find that she's under attack. Amalia fights Myrtle's would-be abductors and encounters a group of masked men attempting to abduct her. With Penance's help, Amalia rescues Myrtle and they escape in the auto-carriage to the Orphanage. Amalia has a brief glimpse of being at the opera house, so she plans to go there.

On their way to the opera house, Amalia and Penance are confronted by Declan Orrun, the crime lord known as the Beggar King. Amalia publicly called him out and announced his dealings with the Touched, forcing him to address her personally. She suspects that the masked attackers have been tracking the Touched for some time. They're a danger to the Touched and to anyone known to be connected to them, which Amalia has made sure Declan was known far and wide to be, forcing him to help them. For a price of his choosing, Amalia needs the name of whoever is hunting the Touched and why. When Declan threatens her with a blade on her cheek, she says that this isn't her face.

Inside the theater, Amalia has a brief exchange with Lord Gilbert Massen regarding the Touched and their place in society. As they watch the opera, it comes to an abrupt end following the arrival of Maladie, Bonfire Annie, and Winemar Kroos. One of the performers, Mary Brighton, sings a song that affects only the Touched. Amalia recognizes Mary as the voice of the Galanthi, but Maladie captures Mary and flees. Amalia defeats the henchman and chases after Maladie, but she's overwhelmed by Maladie's and Bonfire's powerful turns and loses their trail.

Two days after, Inspector Frank Mundi leads a raid at the Orphanage in search of Maladie. Amalia then takes Désirée Blodgett, whose turn is to induce confessions, and confronts the inspector. This forces him to reveal that Mary is his ex-fiancé. With this information, Amalia decides to work alongside the inspector to save Mary and stop Maladie. Amalia has another rippling and learns of Maladie's location, recognizing it in a photo pinned on Mundi's map. She keeps this to herself but instructs Désirée to give the picture to the inspector when he inevitably comes looking for her.

Amalia arrives at the hideout and confronts Maladie, who attacks Amalia with a blade. Amalia dodges her attack and proceeds to beat her. Maladie stands up and talks about when they were friends until Amalia betrayed her. Amalia apologizes and claims that she didn't have a choice, she has a mission. Maladie then reveals that she has both Mary and Penance above them with nooses around their necks on the edge of platforms. Maladie hands Amalia a gun and tells her to shoot one to save the other. Instead, Amalia shoots herself and then Maladie in the shoulder. When Maladie attempts to kill Amalia, Bonfire Annie sends a fireball her way. Amalia is rescued by Inspector Mundi and taken to Dr. Cousens, who manages to heal her in time with his turn. Afterward, Amalia reveals to Penance that she's from a grim future and that the real Amalia True is dead. Penance says that they'll have to forge a new, brighter future and that her being Touched is a gift.

Days later, Amalia intercepts Bonfire Annie's raid of the Beggar King's shipment to offer her asylum at the Orphanage, but Annie declines her offer before fleeing. The following morning, Amalia has a short argumentative exchange with Horatio about her being his mistake he walked away from. She then meets with Mary, who shares suspects that Amalia is keeping secrets, which admittedly, she is.

Amalia learns that someone has been using her image to draw in the Touched, so she goes with Lucy to the address on the flyer. They encounter one of the masked men in the house and Amalia fights him. She removes his mask to discover that he's missing the lower half of his jaw, with electric cables inside the neck, and his head has undergone multiple surgeries and incisions. After killing the man, Amalia discovers a logbook on the table detailing all the Touched that they've abducted. Amalia requests Miss Bidlow to discover who owns the building.

On her way to the park to test out Mary's song and Penance's invention, Amalia flips through the logbook. While crossing a bridge, the carriage is struck with enough force to thrown Amalia into the river below. She looks around and spots Odium charging towards her, walking on the water. She tries to swim away but is forced to come up for air, during which time Odium strikes her. He then proceeds to attack Amalia from above with a thick hooked metal chain. She jumps on him and uses the chain to strangle Odium, holding him from underwater. Amalia leaves as he lays unconscious over the water. She arrives at the park and joins the others. They hear Mary singing until she is shot by Winemar Kroos. Amalia rushes over to Mary and holds her dead body. When Amalia returns to the Orphanage, she finds Bonfire Annie and dozens of other Touched who heard Mary's song.

During Mary's funeral, Amalia is drinking and fighting at a bar. She seduces a man and investigates Odium. Later, she has a rippling of herself talking to Lord Massen and, after listing the suspects of Mary's assassination, she goes to visit him in his estate. He claims to have no involvement in, but he suspects that Mary was killed not because she had enemies, but because she was a pure and blameless woman who was a symbol of hope for the Orphanage.

Certain that Massen who ordered Mary's death, Amalia, Bonfire Annie, and Lucy break into Massen's warehouse to burn down his munitions factory. Inside with Lucy, Amalia exposes the crates filled with rocks rather than the explosives Lucy claimed. Amalia says that she put the pieces together and discovered that Lucy is a mole who has been working for Massen. Lucy insists that she didn't know they would kill Mary, but Massen claims that he can find a cure for her turn. Amalia claims that the world wasn't supposed to be like this and she got left behind. Amalia then pulls a gun and fires at Lucy, but she dodges. They begin to fight and Lucy attempts to flee, but she goes back for her elephant brooch on the ground. There, she stares down the barrel of Amalia's gun. Amalia decides to spare her life. Amalia tells Lucy she'll send her off on a boat, but not before Lucy tells her everything she knows about Massen, starting with the real munitions. Soon Lord Massen gets word that the real storage blew up.

Back at the Orphanage, Amalia learns from Primrose, Harriet, and Myrtle that there was a hidden message within Mary's last song. They translated it and discovered that someone was speaking through Mary and the message was directed specifically at Amalia. It called her "my lonely soldier" and asked to be found inside the city.

The next day, Amalia and Horatio have sex and discuss Maladie's forthcoming hanging and the precautions being taken. Afterward, she joins Penance to discuss their plans of drilling into the ground to find the Galanthi. When the time comes, however, Penance has instead devised a mission to rescue Maladie from public execution, one that Amalia is against. Su Ping, Horatio, Bonfire Annie, and Augie sides with Amalia on her mission to find the Galanthi. Although, Amalia sends Su Ping to protect Penance in her mission.

Amalia, Bonfire Annie, and Augie fight off the soldiers beneath the Royal Military Army base while Horatio continues to drill. Amalia then falls alone into a sinkhole. Equipped with oxygen and a bright light, she proceeds further into the tunnels on her own. Eventually, she finds the Galanthi trapped within the earth. Amalia is disgruntled with the creature, who has left with for so long without any form of guidance. She asks why it is hiding and what went wrong, questioning if it's her fault. Amalia remarks that the Galanthi should've brought Knitter or anyone else less broken than her. The Galanthi begins to shake, causing the tunnels to rumble as well. Amalia loses her footing and falls back off of the platform as she's having a rippling, memories of Amalia's past and future.

The Galanthi then appears to Amalia as Myrtle. She says: "Oh, Amalia. This is a long time from this little cave. This, I will need you to forget." When Amalia hits the ground, she sees the masked men charging towards her, so she locks herself inside a lift. The only thing between her and her attackers is a thin metal sliding door. One of the tunnel's diggers, Elisabetta Cassini, uses her levitation turn to aid Amalia and send the elevator up. Amalia makes her way to the surface to regroup with the others.

In the courtyard, Amalia awaits Penance's return. Penance arrives reveals that they didn't save Maladie, though Amalia assures her that it was the right call to at least try. She then tells Penance that she failed to find out who their enemy is, though she did find something out. Amalia decides that the time has come for her to tell the wards everything about Galanthi, the future, and the impending war. She then reveals her sacred name to Penance.

## Gallery

⮱ *The Zephyr Navine article has a photo gallery.*
## Behind the scenes

* She is portrayed by Laura Donnelly, Claudia Black, and the stunt double Helen Steinway Bailey.
* Her official description introduced: "The most reckless, impulsive, emotionally damaged hero of her time. A menace to stuffy Victorian society, she would die for the cause and kill for a drink."
* Zephyr represents The Moon in *The Nevers* Tarot, a card associated with intuition, deception, and insecurity.

## References

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 *The Nevers* — "True." HBO, May 16, 2021.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 *The Nevers* — "Touched." HBO, April 11, 2021.
3. ↑ *The Nevers* — "Ain't We Got Fun." Tubi, February 15, 2023.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 *The Nevers* — "Exposure." HBO, April 18, 2021.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 *The Nevers* — "Ignition." HBO, April 25, 2021.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 *The Nevers* — "Undertaking." HBO, May 2, 2021.
7. ↑ *The Nevers* — "Hanged." HBO, May 9, 2021.
8. ↑ James Hibberd, "Joss Whedon's HBO sci-fi drama The Nevers casts 12 actors." *EW.com*, July 30, 2019.
9. ↑ "The Moon." *The Tarot Guide*. Retrieved on October 2, 2022.