Kanggani

**Kanggani** is one of the characters of The Forest Children verse. She is a recurring character who first appeared during the gang's visit to Girindra Wardhana's house.

## Life

### Below

Kanggani is a lower caste Chyerti below Prince Seere's domain. She spends her time Below before the First War of Angels occured, where she fell in love with a chyerti below the command of Marquise Leraje, Yael. Yael returned her love.

Kanggani did not participate in the First War. In contrary to other chyertis who invested Wyviri Al Ram, the world where chyerti are free to roam, Kanggani and Yael fled to various other worlds, including Leben Al Kar, the world where magic live with technology. Eventually, they were found by Seere and was forced to come back Below.

As a punishment for not participating on the First War - and also for not abiding to the Tyrk Ish, the Court ruled for both Kanggani and Yael to lose their wings and for them not to be allowed to return Below for three thousand lights. The punishment was enforced by Seere herself.

### The Second War of Angels

After being forced to live on Wyviri Al Ram, Kanggani and Yael searched for Sébastien Michaëlis, a chyerti who had been banished to Wyviri Al Ram since the 13th century by the rulings of the Court. They found him at Avignon, France and lived with him while he wrote *Histoire admirable de la possession d'une penitente* with Francois Doncieux, a human being that he had a contract with.

After the book was finished, Sébastien informed about the culture of Nusantara and how they could find refugee there. To do that, Kanggani and Yael went to Netherlands and followed a trading ship to Malacca, impersonating two soldiers who they killed and ate their life essence in order to cover it up.

In Malacca, with their existing powers, they influenced the locals and Dutchmen alike to think that they were permanent, rich resident there. Kanggani lived as Helene Van Wyck, "wife" to Jan van Wyck. They lived peacefully for a few centuries, shifting their forms every 50 years to avoid recognition.

On early 21st century, a Court was called again. As Kanggani and Yael was disconnected from chyerti's affairs, they had been the last chyerti to know about the battle on the Pacific Sea that had occured after none of the chyerti had confessed to stealing Archaengel Michael's sword of light. Seere commanded them to join the battles. Both are bound by contract to comply, so they went with Seere to fight on New York, United States.

At the third and last battle on Paris that left the city in ruins, Kanggani and Yael was separated during the heat to the battle. After killing one of the angels, Kanggani went to search and help Yael, only for her to see Shamsiel cutting Yael in two. Kanggani, fueled by anger, went to attack Shamsiel but was preceded by Leraje, who cut Shamsiel's wings permanently with a sword of light while spitting the words "*she was my own, you dickhead*".

### Apostate

Out of grief and hatred, Kanggani left Wyviri Al Ram. But because of the war, her powers are nearly moribund. She fell between the worlds and lived in the darkness for centuries, where she spent her days in mourning.

During her stay in Leben Al Kar, she had left her real name "Kanggani" (she had lived as a witch scholar in Ancient Egypt) as a spell. The spell was passed down to generation and generation, from literature to word-of-mouth, until it had arrived to the knowledge of Krisna Wardhana and Theresia Widagdo, who decoded the spell. Krisna had been the one who summoned her and dragged her to Leben Al Kar. Kanggani refused to service him at first, but instead of banishing her back to the gap between the worlds, Krisna had asked for her life story, while Theresia lost her interest after finding out she was a lower-caste chyerti.

Krisna promised her that he would only use her powers to protect people he hold dear. Kanggani finally complied and gave into him. He then tied her down to a tree in his backyard and severed the contract between him and Kanggani, tying her to the tree permanently.

### Life with the Wardhana

Three years after summoning her, Krisna married Nurmala Wardhana, a Nillmagi woman, and introduced her to Kanggani. Kanggani warmed up to Nurmala quickly, because the goodness of her heart, and the fact that she reminded her constantly of Yael. Nurmala treated Kanggani like her own child, even after her real child, Girindra Wardhana was born. Around Nurmala, Kanggani assumed the form of a small girl with dark skin, something different than her usually older forms. She helped Nurmala take care of Girindra, even when Nurmala couldn't interfere with the affairs of Girindra and Krisna, Kanggani had been the one caring for Girindra.

When Krisna brought Theresia with a newly-made chyerti named Erlangga, Kanggani became curious of him, especially after he showed no knowledge about the Second War. But before she could discover what had been going on, Theresia died on Lawang Sewu. After this incident, Kanggani helped distract Krisna, whose aura became overwhelmingly dark, while Nurmala discreetly sent Girindra to live with her relatives in Jakarta.

Since Girindra's absence, the relationship between Krisna and Nurmala turned for the worse. He would occasionally hit her while he lose consciousness. Kanggani impersonated her forms constantly to protect her. But one night, three years after Nurmala sent Girindra to Jakarta, a dark curse had followed Krisna back home, but had unaffected him because he was used to Lawang Sewu's environment. Instead, it had affected Nurmala severely. This curse also went under Kanggani's awareness because it had stuck on Krisna's body. Not two months after it had stuck to Nurmala, Nurmala's health detoriated. She died a week after. Krisna became cold and ignored her constantly after that happened.

Girindra came home to live on Semarang permanently after Nurmala's death. Kanggani was happy to find someone she could talk to again, and spent her days watching over Girindra. She had helped when Girindra created Ramayana out of spite to his father. He succeeded. Girindra also stopped helping his father do the rituals. In result of that, his father died four years after because of heart failure.

Since then, Kanggani focused on helping and caring for Girindra, even though moreoften, it was him who cared for her.

## Appearance

Kanggani take many forms because of her shapeshifting abilities, but she almost always appear in the form of a thin Javanese woman - or girl, depending on the 'age' she wanted herself to look - with a dark olive skin and a long, silky and straight hair. Her eyes shifts between blue, light grey, and brown, depending on the time of day it was. Her favorite form is always usually tall, even for her age she's aiming for.

She's also always seen with a bored or a confused look and only looked excited when she's playing with Antariksa's gadgets or scaring people that walked in front of Wardhana's house. She has a weird taste in fashion. From *qipao* to high-end batik dresses to *seifuku*, she's always experimenting and changing her clothes.

Her real form cannot be seen with human's eyes. She did not have sharp teeth or wings, as chyerti usually do. This is possibly because it is possible that she is a *made-chyerti* like Erlangga. Only Theresia Widagdo and Erlangga this far had noted that her form is a child-like humanoid with scaly blue skin, long, braided purple hair, shining white eyes and one horn portruding from the center of her forehead.

She also often take form of a black cat with shining green eyes who barks as a way of communication.

## Personality

Despite her age and her long human exposure on Wyviri Al Ram, Kanggani acts like a small child. She sulks and gets annoyed easily, and would often give people who annoyed her a silent treatment and would make their stay on Wardhana's residence hell.

The technology on Wyviri Al Ram also was held back by twenty years compared to Leben Al Kar's advanced technology; making her stance on Leben Al Kar's technology to either be a) confused or b) fascinated, especially because the Wardhana's family do not usually spend money on it.

Kanggani is shown to be mischievous. She messes with people who passed by the street of Wardhana's residence, and was often mentioned to be eating 'criminals' or 'passing wild animals' to maintain her powers. Despite that, she doesn't seem to favor blood, and instead likes eating sweet foods, pork and beef and even alcohol.

## Relationships

### Krisna Wardhana

Being saved by Krisna Wardhana from the darkness of between-worlds gave Kanggani attachment to Krisna. While the nature of her relationship of Kanggani with the rest of Wardhanas are familial, Kanggani's relationship with Krisna had a romantic edge to it. She seemed like she admired him, even justifying his abusive conducts to Giri and Nurmala. After Nurmala's death, Kanggani often shapeshift into Nurmala in other to comfort Krisna.

### Nurmala Wardhana

Often treated like a daughter/small child by Nurmala, Kanggani spent most of her days entertaining her, even sometimes playing house. It is clear that Kanggani loves her very much despite her almost-romantic attachment to Krisna. However, she did hide a few things from Nurmala, like the fact that Arimbi Adiratna is Krisna and Theresia's daughter and of their affairs.

### Girindra Wardhana

Giri and Kanggani was raised as siblings, although their ages differ by far. Both treated each other like they were each other's little siblings despite their age. They have a good relationship. Kanggani often seemed protective towards Giri, almost to the point of mother-like. During their later years, the roles were flipped. Giri often treated Kanggani like a little child, which she helped by turning into a younger version of the face she usually wear whenever she sulks or wants something that Giri would not allow in the house.